Welcome to our Weekend Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed this week in a handy summary. We call it “apple breakfast” because we think it goes great with a morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s great if you want to read it during lunch or dinner as well.

Committee design

Former Apple chief designer Sir Jonathan Ive made headlines this week after announcing he designed a red nose for this year’s Comic Relief charity event in the UK. If that sounds like a flop to the man behind some of the most iconic products of this century, take a look at the awful noses Comic Relief has sold in the past. It was an emergency commission.

However, Quince’s extra-curricular activities are likely to leave seasoned Apple watchers feeling “what could have been.” Officially, his tenure as head of the Cupertino design studio ended in 2019, and the consultancy arrangement continued until last year, but it is generally believed that his involvement in day-to-day design work was significantly reduced when he was given the title of chief designer. in 2015. It’s hard not to imagine the direction certain Apple products might have taken over the past few years if the best of Chingford still had their hand on the wheel.

Would Ive, obsessed with details, accept Apple Pencil support in the 10th generation iPad, for example? In the absence of a dominant voice – Tim Cook does not appear to be the type to influence design decisions, while Ive’s successor, Evans Hankey, does not have the same influence – it can be assumed that the decision was reached through committee. One team member will advocate for USB-C implementation; the other will insist on a budget design without space for a magnetic charging connector; and a third explained why the Apple Pencil 3 option was not feasible. While each individual contribution made sense on its own, the result was a farcical key and many unimpressed reviewers.

What I brought to Apple was a consistent personal vision. This, of course, does not mean that Apple Watch design has always been perfect; there were many mistakes. More broadly, his arch-minimalism may have been a disappointment to those who wanted more physical controls, and it’s suspected that his departure was a big factor in the Apple Watch finally getting the much-appreciated extra button and Mac Studio being front-facing. ports. But having a strong personality at the head of the design team meant Apple was better prepared to take risks and more likely to create products with their own cultural imprint. The Action button is nice, but that’s what almost any tech company would do.

Perhaps Apple is no longer a company that focuses on individuals or thinking differently. We also received news this week that Ive’s successor will not be replaced, with a core group of 20 designers instead reporting directly to the COO, who is not new to design and likely has his own ideas. If committee development has been the de facto approach for the past four years, it is now official.

Committees don’t usually make mistakes—it takes a strong leader to really mess things up—but they have a flair for unsatisfactory compromises. Or for refusing to make any decisive choice at all, which is perhaps why we’ve seen so many similar iPhones and iPads over the past few years, so many Macs with innovative components and compelling designs. It remains to be seen which of these categories, caution or compromise, will apply to the key launches we expect this year and into 2024. Can Apple finally make a foldable device when it knows foldable devices mean higher price tags, new designs? , and the risk of physical failures? And is the upcoming augmented reality headset a set of compromises? I hope not.

Foundry

Trending: the main news of the week

Apple’s financial results are out and down follows up: iPhone crashesThe iPad takes off and the huge quarter is too small.

Forget new HomePodApple needs a really smart assistant.

A former employee said that Facebook applications can purposefully drain your iPhone battery.

HomePod 2 a good speaker that was supposed to be a killer soundbar.

Even with M2 ProMac games are just as bad as ever.

Samsung Galaxy S23 phones are so boring that Apple has nothing to steal.

If you rely on Apple to to do workyou better go alone.

According to NLRB, Apple’s promise punish leaks violates the rights of workers.

rumor mill

foldable iPad will be the Apple Watch Ultra among tablets, according to Macalope.

A respected analyst “positively” Apple will release a foldable iPad next year.

Everyone will want to buy an iPhone 15 Ultra this fall. Here what features does it not have?

Apple Watch Ultra Rumor has it that it will get the next generation microLED display.

Here’s everything we’ve heard about Apple Watch Series 9.

Podcast of the week

The rumor mill is spreading speculation about just about every product in Apple’s lineup, so we thought we’d take a look at some of them at the show.

You can watch every episode of the Macworld podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own website.

Software updates, bugs and issues

Security researchers have warned of a new Google malware scam that could infect your Mac.

This is where we finished this week. If you would like to receive regular news updates, subscribe to our newsletters. You can also follow us on twitter or on Facebook to discuss the latest Apple news. See you next Saturday, enjoy the rest of the weekend and stay Eppley.