
Against Minimalism - marinintim
https://bullshit.ist/against-minimalism-1be2c4abadbf
======
al2o3cr
" They took out the headphone jack, like tech journalists rumored for years
and years, and are now selling you a $9 dongle or forcing you to get Bluetooth
earbuds,"

Perhaps as a followup, bullshit.ist could do an article on the difference
between "selling an adapter" and "including one in the box" and the sloppy
journalistic malpractice that is deliberately confusing the two for the sake
of whining...

~~~
electic
The issue is not that they got rid of the headphone jack. The issue is they
went with a solution that is not industry standard. In the past, when they got
rid of something it was either in decline (e.g. floppy) or something industry
standard was taking off (e.g. SSD).

The wired headphones are not industry standard. That leaves you buying
expensive bluetooth headphones. For me it s a big problem, because sometimes I
unplug my headphones from my phone then plug it into my laptop or into another
device. Now we have no solid industry accepted wired headphone connection
socket. That is a shame.

The real truth here is Apple makes solid revenue of dongles, wires, docks, and
now headphones. By creating their own walled ecosystem for headphones, they
gain more revenue. If this wasn't the case, they would have a regular old USB
jack at the bottom of the phone. They don't.

~~~
strictnein
Exactly. "Courage" would have been abandoning lightning and becoming more open
with a USB-C port.

~~~
twiceaday
My phone aside, none of my sound sources or speakers take either Lighting or
USB-C. I would be in wired dongle hell either way. But all of my devices take
bluetooth and I already use it for everything but my headphones...

------
ff10
I understand this is a rant. But the writer comes over as a desperate bully
who can't stand the fact that his childhood future fantasies didn't come true.
I like cyberpunk. I like the aesthetic. But it's not how the future looks
like. There's more to the future than what people envisioned in Gattaca on the
one hand, and Blade Runner, on the other.

~~~
CPLX
I guess. I just read it as a reasonably understandable cry out in the
wilderness for someone else to make products that are as awesome and well
engineered as Apple but don't follow the same minimalist "clean" aesthetic
that everything seems to be converging on. Basically a cry out for someone to
put some art (or art of a different style) into everyday objects.

~~~
the_other
Y'see, I don't think the writer "really" cares what the devices look like. I
think the article attempts to hide a very serious, terrified, heart-felt
objection to the f __*ing horror of the Western military-industrial complex '
relentless pseudo-enslavement of those it claims to protect from those it
funds/equips to attack them, in some drivel about 80s futurism and design
aesthetic. For that, I find it rather clever. That you (and several others
commenting here) missed its point suggests it did its intended job quite well
(as I see it).

~~~
forgottenpass
_I think the article attempts to hide a very serious, terrified, heart-felt
objection to the f-ing horror of the Western military-industrial complex '
relentless pseudo-enslavement_

I sorta skimmed over that bit because it seemed like a throwaway remark. It's
not actually thinking about how and why the material consumption culture
exists, just a statement about one of the purposes it serves him. So I didn't
give it a second thought.

Is there anything particularly special about militarism that means people are
looking to fill the void in their souls should choose consumer products
designed to broadcast an identity? Could such consumption exist without the
military dystopia the author paints? Is there another frantic activity that
could distract us from the dystopia he posits we use tech as an escape from?

Or am I a just a philistine that can't appreciate why jumping on a 2-year
upgrade train for more computing power in a network bound device is the
perfectly remedy? Crafted exactly to distract me from the horrors of
contemplating the intractable problems in the Middle East. Has product
evolution found existential answers that climbing a mountain at daybreak never
possibly could?

------
johncolanduoni
> Unlike the blank oppressiveness of modern tech aesthetics, it was this
> brilliantly anti-minimalist statement that said “let’s make it obnoxious,
> and before you can put it away, you have to slide down the earpiece like
> you’re reloading a freakin gun,” and it even had all the ringtones that were
> used by the characters in the movie, because why not go all-out?

Alright, I personally like more minimalist aesthetics, but I'll hear you out.

> The truth is that we live in ridiculous times, where our reality is fiction
> manufactured to forward the interests of an elite few, much like the fiction
> that has largely become the reality of our shared world. The dystopia we
> were promised by Gibson, Scott, Dick, and so on has come to fruition: wealth
> disparity turning poverty into a death sentence, neverending war in faraway
> lands killing millions as the “Leader of the Free World” arms tyrants to the
> teeth, and an inevitable destruction of human civilization as we know it are
> the cornerstones of our modern reality.

???

~~~
Roboprog
What don't you understand? A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but do you _not_ see the
empire around you?

~~~
johncolanduoni
I'm not pointing out anything about the truth (or falsity) of those
statements. What I don't understand is why that paragraph ended up in a rant
about minamalist aesthetics. Is the author trying to implicate some sort of
conspiracy in the design of devices?

~~~
Bartweiss
Somewhat? I don't think he's positing _conspiracy_ , but this certainly seems
to be about a larger breakdown than some shitty earbuds.

The piece repeatedly admits that all of the old movie tech he's lauding is
still bulky and impractical and terrible. It certainly doesn't seem to be
endorsing _Blade Runner_ and _The Matrix_ as actual, human-friendly design. So
what I got from it was an indictment of _blankness_ more than _minimalism_.
The feeling, broadly, that something is terribly wrong and that this is
reflected in enforced-aesthetic devices as well as larger society.

------
seibelj
Regardless of whether the rant is good or not, I agree that the "airpods" make
you look like a huge dork, just as google glass did. I expect the SV tech
types to wear them around as a badge of honor, but I doubt the urban
fashionistas are going to embrace it.

~~~
jp555
Exactly what people said about those first yellow Sony Walkman headphones.

~~~
seibelj
And the same argument was made about google glass! It will take time to see if
the airpods win, but my gut says 'nope'.

~~~
jp555
Glass's utility was too small to overcome the initial awkwardness & etiquette
adjustment. When it comes to AR I think Magic Leap is going to offer enough
utility to overcome these problems.

With those first perceived-as-awkward sony headphones, the utility of personal
music everywhere was _very_ high.

------
davexunit
The victim of minimalism I mourn the most: phones with physical keyboards. On-
screen keyboards suck and no, I don't want to talk to my phone instead. I was
so much more efficient on my LG Rumor dumbphone back in ~2008.

The thing that bothers me about on-screen keyboards and speech rec is that
they are imprecise, statistical replacements for a precise, tactile device.
It's hard to type on touch screen keyboards because there is no texture and
tactile feedback so we rely on autocorrect to guess what we're trying to say,
and speech rec is just a statistical system by its very nature. I rely on the
computer to _guess_ what I want when my fingers know _exactly_ what needs to
be done.

~~~
digi_owl
Not sure how much that is minimalism in design and how much is relentless cost
cutting. One SKU that can be sold globally thanks to all inputs being
implemented in software is much cheaper than 30+ SKUs for smaller regional
differences.

Heck, these days you can't get a pure Norwegian, Danish or Swedish keyboard.
They are all "nordic", meaning they have 3 different letters printed on the
same keycap on a couple of keys.

~~~
davexunit
>Not sure how much that is minimalism in design and how much is relentless
cost cutting.

Perhaps some of column A, some of column B. On the minimalism axis, you could
never have a super thin phone if it had a slide-out keyboard on it. I'm OK
with that trade-off, but the market isn't, apparently.

~~~
digi_owl
The market as a whole will begrudgingly accept what is being offered them, as
going without in this day and age is not an option.

------
dpweb
Just the fetishism about these devices is striking. "Our devices should be
making a statement about who we are and what we do".

Thousand dollar phones with $100 month services. $159 earbuds. Think we are
all in the matrix.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
My local anecdata: most people I know have 3rd party headphones if they
actually listen to music. The people that use the in-the-box headphones from
Apple tend to be the forever-on-a-call types. I struggle to see people buying
these at this price point since there are plenty of bluetooth earbuds that are
equal quality to Apple^, sub-$50, and won't instantly disappear in the couch.
At Apple's price-point, you can already get a high-quality bluetooth
earbud/mic from Audio-Technica. I would guess you'll have Beyerdynamic, AKG,
Shure, and Senheiser all pop out a similar pair soon enough (Some may consider
themselves 'above' bluetooth, though). I really don't understand their
pricing. I could understand it if the equivalent Beats were $30 cheaper so
they could create some tier pricing, however they are pretty much the same
price.

^ Assuming they continue their trend of mediocre sound quality.

~~~
ktRolster
And if you have high-end headphones plugged into an ipod, you might want an
external amp anyway.

------
teekert
I know how I want my tech to look, with f-ing screws so I can open stuff up. I
want my tech's look to follow function and I find repairability and
expandability to be important functions. I get the feeling the author feels
the same.

~~~
davexunit
I think we need to see more people making their own hardware to make a
statement against mainstream technology. The "open source hardware" movement
is a good start. I'm a software guy, but I've recently begun learning more
about electronics for this purpose.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
> I've recently begun learning more about electronics for this purpose.

Out of curiosity, where did you start? Any recommendations? The extent of my
hardware is custom PC and raspberry pi. I'd love to mess with more than just
plug and play.

~~~
davexunit
I got one of those Arduino starter kits that comes with a bunch of jumper
wires, LEDs, resistors, push buttons, etc. (there's tons of kits, check
adafruit.com for some) and learned enough to make an LED blink and went from
there. Arduino makes it easy to get your feet wet and you can get more
sophisticated once you're comfortable with the basics. Being a software
person, the next step I took was ditching the Arduino IDE and writing my
firmware in C using avr-gcc to compiler and avrdude to flash. I have an
interest in custom USB input devices (game controllers and keyboards) so I've
also starting using the LUFA[0] library which is very satisfying once you get
it to work (pressing a push button on a breadboard and seeing a character
typed on your computer for the first time is great!) So far I've focused on
digital circuits, but I'd like to make an amplifier or something to learn more
about analog circuitry. As you can see, I'm not too far past the starting line
but I feel like I've learned a lot thus far. It's definitely a satisfying
hobby.

I'm still in search of good textbooks on the topic (SICP is to CS as ____ is
to EE? Recommendations anyone?) but I've gotten some value out of "Make:
Electronics"[1] as a non-academic, beginners guide.

I hope this helps!

[0]
[http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php](http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php)

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-
Pl...](https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-
Platt/dp/0596153740)

~~~
lloyd-christmas
Thanks a bunch, that's very helpful.

------
thomasmarriott
'It's really simple. We come up with a product. We try to tell everybody about
it. Customer tell us by how they vote with their wallets whether we're on
track or not. If enough of them say 'yes,' we get to come to work tomorrow.' —
SJ

~~~
deong
That's a model that works a lot better when you're a relative nobody than when
you're the biggest company in the world. The reality is that people will buy
whatever Apple sells them, within reason. They're not going to come out with
an iPhone that's so bad that no one will buy it. That doesn't mean the
customer has voted that that particular iPhone was exactly what they wanted.
Success hides problems.

~~~
JadeNB
But surely the lesson from Microsoft is that Apple won't stay forever the
biggest company in the world if they _keep_ making products people don't want.
On the other hand, if they keep making products that they think people want
and we think they don't, and if they keep being successful, then maybe it's we
the pundits, rather than Apple the company or its satisfied customers (which
is not all of them!), who are wrong?

(I say this as someone who would like his phone to have a headphone jack, and
doesn't personally want a new iPhone—and, on a more personal note (I'm a
several-generations-out-of-date Android user not much affected by current
iPhone trends), who hates the direction of macOS and wishes it were possible
to live in the land of Snow Leopard forever—but also has reluctantly to
concede that Apple has a better track record than I do for predicting and
shaping the tech marketplace.)

~~~
deong
Well, Microsoft's primary products are still completely dominant in the
markets they're in. Windows and Office are still the 800-pound gorillas
(though of course mac OS has narrowed the gap). What happened to Microsoft is
more that everyone shifted to a new market (mobile) that they weren't prepared
for or strong in.

Eventually, sure. If they made poor decisions for a long enough period of
time, their customers would probably go elsewhere. But what I'm talking about
here are the odd one-off poor decisions here and there. It may be true that
90% of Apple's customers really want a headphone jack. If that were true, I'd
say removing it was a poor move, even if that entire 90% collectively goes,
"Well shit. I guess I'll have to live with this overpriced and clunky wireless
crap." No product is perfect. You can make a good product worse and still have
people say, "Well, it's still good enough I guess."

------
throwanem
> Our devices should be making a statement about who we are and what we do

No. That's for us to do. Not to buy.

~~~
jalfresi
Exactly. It is my understanding that minimalism is an effort to blend into the
background, to become a blank slate, so that our own personalities, tastes etc
can live in the foreground. It's an effort to not share the stage with you,
the owner.

All those other examples the author shows are SCREAMING for attention. They
demand the limelight. and like all things that scream for attention, soon they
will get none.

And on top of that, items like that have to have SOME aesthetic, which means
they become fashionable, which means they have a "shelf life" of
acceptability. No one wants to be seen dead with one of those god-awful matrix
phones, yet an iPhone 4 still looks relevant today...

~~~
xaa
Apply this logic to clothes. If we all wore the same minimalistic clothes, it
would allow our individuality to shine through more because the clothes
wouldn't "distract" from our personalities?

It's possible, I suppose, but there's something frankly terrifying about
everyone looking the same. It's a staple of dystopian fiction, and I think one
of the authors' points is that we get the same effect, albeit smaller, when
everyone's devices look the same.

~~~
throwanem
Actually, I spent a couple of years in precisely such an environment. While I
can't say with certainty that there's causation to account for the most
interesting and worthy people I knew in any school being those at the one
which enforced a uniform policy, I certainly can say that it wasn't terrifying
to see, or to participate in.

Such a policy existing in society at large, whether de facto or de jure, would
of course be a different matter entirely. But I don't know that it is
reasonable to argue that this is the case with devices, either. While there
are certainly places to be found where uniformity of style in personal
electronics is the norm, my experience suggests that they are actually quite
rare, and hardly approaching any degree of prevalence that would make this a
reasonable concern. Perhaps it would simply do the author good to get out
more.

------
wccrawford
I hadn't seen these before this article, and while I agree that they aren't
super stylish, I don't think _any_ headphones are stylish. They're always
_something_ in or on your ear and often with a lame cord hanging from it. And
they all look as dumb as each other.

So I don't really see the point of ranting about _these_ ones.

The author even points out that there's a point for their shape and size, so
it's not some dumb design decision. Form was guided by function. (And I'm
betting they stay in better by being longer like that, and not just centering
over the ear, but that's a guess.)

~~~
Bartweiss
I got the strong feeling that the the headphone complaint here was just a
topical tie-in, or at best a final straw provoking the article.

It's not a piece that's asking for functional products (obviously: who wants
antennas back?), so it seems like a larger indictment of the aesthetic sense
regardless of how specific headphones look.

------
justsaysmthng
Some of you might disagree, but there's this thing happening right now with
the younger generation: they don't seem to worship technology like we do.

Which is to say, for them - it's not something 'wow cool', it just is.

My 6-year old is fascinated by bugs and trees a lot more than she is by her
iPad. I mean, the iPad she just uses. A lot. Like the lightbulb.

But she's quite neutral about all the things that we care about - the cool
minimalistic design, the powerful chip inside it, the version of the OS.

Like it should be.

As a programmer, I feel very strongly about my machines, but in the grand
scheme of things - especially in the time dimension - our gadgets are just
tools which we use to achieve stuff, which are always getting worse as time
passes.

~~~
spdionis
Now this sounds more like the future, where devices are all standard and
common.

I don't really care about the brand of my lightbulb. I also barely care about
the brand of my fridge. Maybe in 30 years a phone will be just a phone, not an
Android phone, or an iphone.

~~~
kaybe
At the same time, many people still care greatly about the brand of their car.

------
overgard
I like minimalism, but I think we desperately need some competing aesthetics.
Everyone has copied apple to such an extent that it's getting boring. I don't
really agree with his notion of garish video game phones, but I think
something like the old-school Thinkpads is an awesome aesthetic that got kind
of lost. Like, a device that is very industrial and practical, it's not trying
hard to be ugly, but they don't hide the screws either. Something like that.
Basically a device that instead of trying to be a hermetically sealed box of
magic, is super comfortable with its own device-ness. Something that looks
like you could open it, if you knew what you were doing.

~~~
davexunit
I _love_ the old Thinkpad design. Not everyone agrees, of course, but I think
it's stylish while still being rugged and functional. And I prefer dark, matte
colors to brushed aluminum.

~~~
miend
I'll admit that I went with a Thinkpad T430 over a Macbook Pro partially for
this reason (I was also planning to run Linux on either, and I could get all-
Intel on the Thinkpad). I still personalize it, but it's refreshing being even
just one differing aesthetic at work. I've never known where to begin, but for
years I've been cataloguing aesthetic & functional features I want in my
"perfect laptop" and "perfect OS" which I doubt I'll ever get to see.

If I could put into as few words as possible, I still want some (initial)
cleanliness in my aesthetic, but I don't want my devices to evoke _safety_ and
_invitation_ \-- I want them to look capable and daring. I want them to say
"I'm a weapon against your obstacles. I will help you achieve whatever it is
you do -- faster, better, more completely." My intuition tells me, however,
that this might not be well received by a market, even if I knew how to cause
such a thing.

Of course I'm a big fan of the cyberpunk aesthetic(s) as well. I would
occasionally feel a dull sadness that the world doesn't seem to be turning out
to be nearly as colorful as I'd hoped for as a kid, that when it comes to
everyday objects, the world had apparently just "given up" and accepted a fate
of bland uniformity. There is little market for deviant design.

------
forgottenpass
There are some interesting ideas in here, but the argument could be stronger
and more clear. A writer has to be at the top of their game if they're going
after something as many people have a soft spot for as Apple.

------
woah
This is moronic. I'm not even going to get into the stupidity of the author's
argument, but since modern devices have been paired down into the minimum
combination of processor and screen, the author could conceivably buy a case
with all the idiotic cyberpunk dongles he wants. The fact that nobody sells
such a monstrosity speaks for itself.

~~~
ixtli
Yeah I basically agree. There's some good arguments to be made against Apple's
decision making process but this is basically how the media responds whenever
they change anything? So maybe this article is actually just really deep
satire?

------
android521
Oh, god. I am glad that he is a writer, not a designer.

------
Roboprog
Perhaps closely related:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture)

------
Waterluvian
Is there a better term or is minimalism just stolen from the art movement?

It's confused me for so long because this isn't minimalism in the art sense.
But I'm not sure of a better label for it.

~~~
jalfresi
It's more minimalism in the architectural sense.

------
mtrn
As a footnote: My first impression of Airpods was: Of course! These are not
smaller earbuds, they are an iteration towards implants or patches or
invisible computing devices in general. From that perspective they seem make
more sense: Condition the user to a world with less wires, where machines get
real dialog systems. The outrage over the earbuds comes from people comparing
things to the past, not the future.

------
cclements
"You have an entire generation of what looks like cheap plastic toys with
screens on them when we were promised a future with risk, innovation, the
fantasies of Trek and Inspector Gadget laid out in front of us"

Er? Current Apple devices have a distinctly TNG Federation feel to them to me.
Now borg on the other hand...

I got excited starting this article when he mentioned cyberpunk I thought he
was going to make a much more interesting point than "I wish tech looked like
what I think is cooler". Instead, I really would have enjoyed a discussion
about what kind of things may be possible if we dropped the constraints of
minimalism. Ideas about what amazing functionality and experiences technology
could deliver for those whom don't mind their technology not being as
invisible as possible and instead being more, well, large clunky cyberpunky. I
would have enjoyed this specifically because with my limited imagination I
can't think of a whole lot of additional /exciting/ functionality such an
unbounding would enable.

~~~
Bartweiss
This article does feel like a missed opportunity. I hate the minimal design
trend for a lot of reasons, but they aren't the ones listed.

I grimace every time another HN article explains that menus are evil,
minimalism is great, and every product should do one thing well. Because in
practice, that means downloading 50 apps where 10 would do. It means calendars
that don't communicate with alarm clocks, because mobile apps are 'minimal' in
an environment where cross-app integration is completely impossible. It means
that because no one did _my_ "one thing well", there isn't even a way to do
that one thing poorly.

There's a missing discussion about power-user tools, and what non-minimal
products should look like. There are places where we should embrace
flexibility, and choose good design and clear menus over removing features.
This wasn't that discussion.

------
moosey
While I refuse to have the things I own to communicate say something about who
I am and what I do, I do think that there is a fine line between doing
something brave and bad in design.

Standard earbuds don't fit in my ears very well, cause headaches and are
constantly falling out. The image of the pen charging and pointing directly at
your crotch or chest while using the device is, to say the least, non-optimal.

It seems to me that the past Apple, perfect aesthetic with great functionality
(even as a non-user of Apple products, except for a macbook supplied by my
company for work purposes, I must admit this is true) is slowly losing it's
way in an attempt to constantly prove that they are moving in some forward
direction. Whether or not forward means over a cliff has yet to be seen, but I
won't suggest that there is a false dichotomy between absolute success and
absolute failure either. I think that this step will lose them further market
share, but they'll still make a ton of money.

------
carsongross
As appears to be the case with all design & aesthetic concepts, minimalism
taken to a logical extreme becomes self-defeating and ridiculous. This is why
the ideological fads and throw-it-all-out anti-historical rhetoric that sweep
the various design professions with depressing regularity are so damaging.

Flat UI, I'm looking, in silent disgust, at you.

~~~
strictnein
Exactly. Text that's actually a button, without anything that would signify it
as such, but it's like a fun game for you just to poke at your apps and see if
anything happens.

------
Touche
I just don't trust bluetooth connections that much. If I'm on a plane
listening to something I don't want the bluetooth connection to drop off and
then have my music/podcast blasting out of the phone speakers. With a
headphone jack I _know_ that what I am listening to is private to me.

~~~
dnh44
That doesn't happen with bluetooth headphones on an iPhone. If the connection
cuts out the music pauses. I doubt it's a problem on Android as it's trivial
to prevent that behaviour.

~~~
Touche
If the music pauses you don't necessarily know _why_ and might press Play,
which will then start playing from the device speakers.

This happens to me _all the time_ when I walk too far away from a bluetooth
speaker in my house. Or when I have paused playback for too long and it
automatically disconnects. Albeit this is on Android.

Unless there is a giant visible indicator that you are connected to the
bluetooth device, there is always going to be a level of uncertainty that is
bad, imo. You just can't beat a physical plug.

~~~
dnh44
I see what you mean, I suppose a physical plug is more or less 100%. However I
still think diligently written software can solve this.

The headphones I use say "connected" and "disconnected" so it's not happened
to me personally. iOS also has an indicator of what output it's going to use
right next to the play/pause on the lock screen.

Also to be honest I'm not that considerate a person and don't really care if I
accidentally disturb the people next to me for a few moments.

Regarding wires, I've got the opposite problem now to where I'm so used to
wireless headphones that if I used wired ones I'm liable to try and walk away
from the device without unplugging.

------
SG-
I kind of stopped reading after he said Apple is selling a $9 adapter when
it's including it. I guess you'd have to buy it if you lost it tho, but then
you'd likely lose your fancy headphones too.

~~~
lsiebert
The adapter included lets you listen to music. If you want to charge and
listen to music simultaneously though, like you can do out of the box with an
iphone 6, you need a $49 dock that isn't included afaik.
[http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62AM/A/iphone-
lightning...](http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62AM/A/iphone-lightning-
dock-black)

~~~
intoverflow2
The dock doesn't let you charge and listen to music simultaneously, the iPhone
headphones use lightning, the charger uses lightning, the dock has a single
lightning port like the phone.

To charge and listen to music simultaneously I need the dock AND a pair of
headphones with the "antiquated 100 year old so obsolete" headphone jack.

~~~
csydas
I don't really want to defend Apple's decision to remove the 3.5mm jack, but I
think if we're going to criticize the decision, it's better to just focus on
the fact that there really wasn't anything wrong with the jack for consumers
and lightning audio solutions don't provide consumers with many benefits. The
"charge and listen" argument has been brought up so many times that I'm not
sure the people saying it really think about the practicality of it.

What I mean is, how often is the scenario where you need to be charging the
phone AND listening to music a major need? Like, between iPods, iPhones, and
Android devices, for me it's almost always been a one or the other scenario.
The phone charges at night when I sleep, and it's music during the day. Or I
charge while at work where I use the computer for music. Charging tethers me
to an object that cannot shift with me (computer, wall, etc) and I rarely am
in a sitution where it's a necessity for me to be able to do both at once.

Truth is the only time I have ever wanted to charge and listen to music, I
just used a bluetooth headset while I was cooking in the kitchen.

Now, I understand the purpose behind the argument - it's not so much the
practicality as it is that user choice has been removed needlessly. But argue
that - this idea that a huge major feature was removed and it spites users is
ridiculous. Yes, so is Apple removing the 3.5mm audio jack, but I don't really
see the value in trumpeting an absurd scenario as a major reason you need to
have both ports.

I'm not all that invested in this since I likely can't afford a new iPhone
anyways - maybe once they're on the iphone 9 I can afford to be upset about
not having a 3.5 mm jack. But I would imagine Apple isn't making this decision
blind. I'm sure they have numbers to show that the majority of iDevice users
just use the provided headphones, and the 3.5mm dongle is pretty much a half-
assed solution for those outside of the majority. But I don't think that Apple
is really worried about the "obsoleteness" of the 3.5mm, and I'm gonna guess
they have the data to show their users aren't en masse worried about it
either.

~~~
alasdair_
> how often is the scenario where you need to be charging the phone AND
> listening to music a major need?

Anyone who works in an office is likely to want to do this.

~~~
astrostl
Modern phones can play audio for _days_ without recharging.

------
importantbrian
I think the author may have missed the point of the Matrix design aesthetic.
The heros of the movie all wear sleek minimalist monochrome outfits. With
similar sunglasses, and remember that the cool phone from that movie was
actually the Nokia 8110 not the one pictured there. The design of the Matrix
was almost a minimalist reaction to the bulky steampunkish aesthetic of the
90s. In many ways the Matrix ushered in the move towards minimalist design
that we have now.

~~~
hinkley
They switched phones in the sequels. He shows that phone as a reference to
Matrix Reloaded.

------
hinkley
> Our devices should be making a statement about who we are and what we do

No, fuck no.

You take as an example a movie based philosophically on the works of Jean
Baudrillard and almost three thousand years of eastern thought and what you
take away from it is that we should aspire to the opinion held by Jack in the
opening scenes of Fight Club.

You have learned nothing.

------
FussyZeus
Also that Samsung phone he likes so much looks like utter crap, and I promise
that spring mechanism isn't going to last a year.

There's a reason those designs aren't in the real world: every single moving
part is a new exciting point of failure, and our current devices with nearly
no moving parts fail enough.

~~~
intoverflow2
That's from the Matrix 2 right?

The Nokia 7110 which was inspired by the first film had the spring loaded
mouthpiece was a great phone.

(The phone in the actual film wasn't spring loaded IRL)

~~~
strictnein
I wanted that phone in the first movie so badly. That thing was great looking.

------
riebschlager
TM;DR (Too Medium, Didn't Read):

"Stuff doesn't look the way I want it too! I'm not sure how I want it to look,
maybe like the Matrix? But not like the Matrix. I dunno. GIVE ME MONEY ON
PATREON."

Oh, there is one really good quote that offsets the Medium-ness: "I want VR
applications that don’t seek to simply recreate ordinary videogames, but
instead drive the user into an existential crisis that challenges their
mortality."

~~~
omginternets
You forgot "political writer for hire" paired with terrible writing ("Point
being, is that Apple [...]" FFS) and a pretentious photo.

I usually stay away from personal attacks but this guy clearly likes to hear
himself talk, and clearly has a highly-inflated opinion of himelf. The result
is something that feels like equal parts scummy marketing and impoliteness.

I know I shouldn't be making a big deal out of this but the patreon bit really
ticked me off.

~~~
throwanem
I'm fine with the Patreon bit. What better précis of his efforts' market
value?

~~~
omginternets
>What better précis of his efforts' market value?

I don't think that's what it is. I think it's pandering thinly disguised as
gratitude and pedigree. Otherwise stated, I think he _wants_ us to believe
that the market values his work, but I don't believe it actually does. That's
the "scummy marketing" bit.

And to be clear this is all intuitive. I can't point to a single thing and say
"see? that's proof positive.", but the overall impression I'm left with is
very, very negative. Taken in the context of his shoddy writing and "fronting"
in the photograph, it suggests a kind of person I truly have trouble
appreciating.

I'd love to be wrong about this, though. The point is that the whole is
greater than the sum of it's parts, and my visceral reaction is quite strong
and quite negative. At the very least, this guy presents poorly, which is
problematic for someone in his line of work.

~~~
throwanem
Well, don't take me to suggest he meant it as what I describe it to be...

------
ktRolster
Author complains about minimalism, uses Medium to do it: a platform that
doesn't support footnotes, colored text, or really anything other than a
_minimal_ set of features.

------
atacrawl
_Our devices should be making a statement about who we are and what we do_

Should be? They already do! The author clearly understands very little about
marketing.

------
phantarch
Doesn't anyone else find it a small irony that the website this post is hosted
on is so clean, polished, and generally reflective of the very thing he's
railing against?

Maybe this should be hosted on a more 'rude' website. Or maybe the way tech
looks and feels is partly also dictated by ease of use and not just 'because
big brother said so'.

------
alex-yo
You don't have to use it. Really. I'm sure. I hope you feel better now :)

------
k3nx
Andriod's open. Design your phone, find an investor, and put it in production.
If folks agree with you you'll make money.

~~~
marcus_holmes
yeah, my next phone will be an Android again. I've tried both ecosystems, and
the iPhone world is just too locked-down and anal for me. Others will
undoubtedly disagree, and that's a good thing.

I'd be interested in how the costs work out for designing and manufacturing a
phone. Are we near the point yet where we can get them built cheaply to spec?
Are the parts commodity enough now that putting one together in the shed is
do-able?

------
gerardnll
woah woah woah!! relax buddy, take it easy, breathe in, breathe out.

Sales will tell how bad some decisions are.

------
thegreatestape
No one is forcing you to buy Apple products. If you want ugly, bulky
electronics, maybe you should check out Alienware? :)

------
corv
People paid for this rant?

~~~
k__
well, he doesn't have any clue, but he writes funny.

------
joe_momma
I agree, preach on dude!

------
xauronx
What an uninformed childish tantrum. "Like, nobody likes this! Nobody! Not a
single person thinks this is good"

How did this get linked here, let alone 100+ people who up-voted it?

------
reitanqild
And here I am, upvoting both the post and ... mostly the critical comments.

Guess I really enjoy you folks discussing :-]

Edit: seems I didn't make myself clear, I actually enjoy reading it and feel I
learn a lot from it.

------
imaperson
> You have an entire generation of what looks like cheap plastic toys with
> screens on them when we were promised a future with risk, innovation, the
> fantasies of Trek and Inspector Gadget laid out in front of us, and instead
> we’re left with… well, I can put a “TIME TO FUCK” .jpg as the background of
> this watch and use it to harass women wearing headphones

Some what off topic, but this isn't really a funny joke.

------
ebbv
I don't personally like the AirPods but a lot of people do. There's a number
of articles fawning over them.

This post is absolutely terrible. Inspector Gadget as a fantasy? Inspector
Gadget was a dork, that was part of his charm, there was nothing cool about
him.

~~~
bitwize
On the other hand, Penny was awesome, and she was probably what he was
referring to (with her videophone watch and that).

------
FussyZeus
I'm not exactly pleased with the decision regarding the jack, but this
misinformation has become a meme unto itself:

> They took out the headphone jack, like tech journalists rumored for years
> and years, and are now selling you a $9 dongle or forcing you to get
> Bluetooth earbuds, which are… bad, to anybody who cares about audio quality
> or battery life or actually use their phone to listen to music.

No, they didn't. You get a set of lightning earbuds with the phone, _and_ you
get the dongle for free. If your objective is to buy an iPhone and listen to
things with it, you do not need to buy shit other than the iPhone.

And if your argument is quality and you know ANYTHING about it, then you
already figured out that the dongle contains the same hardware that the phone
did prior to turn the digital signal into analog audio, and that the
headphones do more or less the same thing just packaged inside the buds
instead of being in the phone.

As if any real audiophile would use the stock Apple headphones anyway.

I have a really hard time taking journalists seriously when they make a
factual error in paragraph 1. Pressing on...

~~~
danieldk
_If your objective is to buy an iPhone and listen to things with it, you do
not need to buy shit other than the iPhone._

Except if you want to listen to things while charging the phone (which happens
when you are on the plane/train/...).

Other than that: fair point!

~~~
rb808
or you want to listen to things while charging the earbuds!

~~~
FussyZeus
That's my other beef: 5 hours of battery life on the Airpods, are you kidding
me? I was interested until they got to that dopey box you charge them in and
told us they only ran for 5 hours of listening. That's pathetic.

~~~
audunw
Honestly, 5 hours is quite impressive for such a small thing. And it certainly
goes beyond my need for casual use. Would anyone listening to music more than
5 hours in a stretch really use the airpods anyway?

Hopefully iPhone 7 will be forward compatible with Bluetooth 5, and will
really spark the market for good quality Bluetooth 5 headphones with longer
battery life.

Although the box is dopey, it's probably quite important to keep people from
loosing the airpods, and to make it easier and quicker to charge them. You
know that the box also contains a battery right? There's 24 hours of capacity
there.

~~~
Eridrus
I hadn't heard of Bluetooth 5 before, but this article says that it brings no
changes to headphones, unless you're suggesting BLE will be good enough for
headphones? [http://www.androidauthority.com/bluetooth-5-gary-
explains-70...](http://www.androidauthority.com/bluetooth-5-gary-
explains-703734/)

