>Skrillex uses Prime Loops! [1] Anyone with GarageBand can do that. I always say "Skrillex isn't Dubstep, it's 'Commercial Shit-step".
Which means absolutely nothing. Lots of very talented producers use loops and samples, and there's nothing wrong with that. As long as you use them creatively it says nothing about your skill as a musician or producer.
Yes, anyone with Garageband can use loops. But not everyone with Garageband can produce to a professional standard, or write a decent melody, or chord progression, or arrange a song, or create the perfect synth patch, or create something new-sounding etc.
I think what's wrong with the icons can be summed up by the following:
• Inconsistency
• Unnecessary complexity
I don't have much of a problem with the colours. The icons are only half the problem though. Both the text and icons do not stand out enough against the background, and the text and icons seem too close together. The homescreen just looks half finished.
I don't even think that unnecessary complexity is the issue. If the icons were consistently complex, it'd be fine!
You have a wildly varying base palette, a wild variety of light sources (that's what a gradient indicates, remember!), and a wild variety in complexity (contrast "phone" with "settings").
The net result is an icon package that feels haphazardly thrown-together by multiple teams of wildly variant skill levels who didn't communicate at all.
Even if all the icons looked like Passbook or Safari, it'd be better than the current setup, because it would at least be consistent.
This designer gets the weather icon correct - the gradient should go in the same direction as the sunrise & sunset - lighter at the horizon, darker above.
Logically, it should be a radial gradient with the light end centered on the sun and the dark end away from it. Ideally, all icons should look like they're lit from above for consistency (light end of gradient at top, dark at bottom). Having some buttons lit from above and some lit from below (or some bulging out and some carved inwards) looks terrible.
The camera icon should revert completely. The lens is the most imporant part of a camera - the camera body is a skeuomorphism. Other than that, I can live with most of the new icons (the redesign does some better - ie, Settings but others are too simplified).
They don't, it's an illusion because the background is a flat grey and some icons are darker than others.
It's consistent because every icon has a gradient, even if subtle - in contrast with the original, where some are flat and others have a 3D effect from the gradient, and some even have a gradient on the opposite direction making a complete mess of convex/concave illusion on the home screen.
It's also consistent because all icons have just the right amount of detail. Compare the safari, clock, compass, notes, reminders, newsstand and passbook icons.
Lastly, he modified the margins back to the original proportions, which are better balanced. Compare the iTunes and App Store icons.
It looks like the center is a separate zone entirely, so that the heat sink could gather dust, but there is little air flow over the actual components themselves. In other words you might be able to pull a Swiffer pad through the center fins, where you'd risk damaging things if you did that over a circuit board directly.
They could have at least added a little shadow or something, like they would usually. I don't know what they were thinking. I usually trust Apple with these design matters.
It's more like a spinning toothpaste lid. I wouldn't call that a button, even if it is round. And I can think of a lot of other round things which make no sense being called a button.
Which means absolutely nothing. Lots of very talented producers use loops and samples, and there's nothing wrong with that. As long as you use them creatively it says nothing about your skill as a musician or producer.
Yes, anyone with Garageband can use loops. But not everyone with Garageband can produce to a professional standard, or write a decent melody, or chord progression, or arrange a song, or create the perfect synth patch, or create something new-sounding etc.