Tag Archives: tim cook

Clever 3D-printed case lets you attach an AirTag tracking device to your Apple TV Remote

Posted on by

I’ve often felt like Apple‘s multiple product departments work separately, with a minimal informational exchange. How else would you explain the fact that in the same event, Apple announces the AirTags that expand on the company’s massive FindMy network, and also announces a new Apple TV with a redesigned remote… that can’t be tracked.

A major problem with the Apple TV remote up until now was (apart from its stunningly bad UX) that it was a ridiculously thin gadget that often got lost by slipping in between cushions or just sitting somewhere inside a magazine. The sleekness of the Apple TV remote wasn’t a feature, it was a flaw, and people were constantly complaining about losing their remote and never being able to find it… so when Apple redesigned their remote, many were expecting the 2 trillion-dollar company to address this problem too. However, all Apple managed to do was redesign the remote’s controls by bringing an iPod-style jog-dial on it.

For the thousands of people who don’t see themselves buying a new remote just so that they can face the same old problems, Etsy-maker PrintSpired Designs has a neat workaround – a 3D printed case that not only gives the old Apple TV remote some volume and thickness but also allows you to slip an AirTag in so you can track your remote when it inevitably gets misplaced.

Click Here to Buy Now – $12.99

It’s worth noting that even with the case on, the remote isn’t that thick. The case measures 14mm in height, which is about as thick as 2 iPhones stacked together. The printed case doesn’t weigh much either (given that it’s printed with support structures which basically makes it hollow on the inside), so it’s still comfortable to use. The case makes enough space for one AirTag to fit right into its design, and when the remote sits in place, it still lets you access its charging port.

The remote-case itself is available on PrintSpiredDesigns’ Etsy store for $12.99. However, if you’ve got access to a 3D Printer, you can download the STL file for $1.99 and print your own. I’d prefer buying the case though because they come in color options, including even one printed from glow-in-the-dark filament!!

Designer: PrintSpiredDesigns

Click Here to Buy Now – $12.99

Unusual Apple iPhone 13 M1 render finally ditches the notch… for a bump.

Posted on by




Whoever says ‘beauty comes from within’ makes a rather compelling case for this iPhone 13 concept, because it surely is, well… unconventional on the outside. Marking a clear departure from Apple’s old style of iPhones, this concept by Antonio De Rosa ushers in a new age for a new iPhone – the M1 iPhone. The ‘beauty on the inside’ for this concept is surely its M1 chip, which has definitely made a massive splash with the rest of Apple’s high-end consumer electronics… while the design change in question is in the very product’s silhouette. Unlike every previous iPhone, which has had a rounded rectangle shape from the get-go, the iPhone 13 comes with an outward notch that houses its front-facing camera.

This is probably the most unusual camera bump I’ve ever come across because for once, it isn’t on the back of the phone… it’s on the top. Marking a rather clear deviation from the design trend of the iPhones before it, the iPhone 13 concept tries to do things differently by breaking the mold and probably questioning those self-evident rules of smartphone design. The video which De Rosa put together for his concept highlights the beauty in ‘strangeness’ by looking to nature, which is filled with strange things too. His reinterpretation of the iPhone brings about the same feeling as you would get seeing an unusual animal or plant. It makes you curious, makes you question it, and makes you give it your 100% undivided attention.

That isn’t to say that I completely approve of this design direction. I like it, but I’m not sure if my reasons for liking it are based on logic or on sheer emotion. It’s clearly ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking – literally too… and maybe that’s enough to make people really like this concept. It isn’t conforming, it isn’t a sheep. It’s unique and has character, standing out against a sea of smartphones that look absolutely identical when viewed from the front. No matter how you cut it, the iPhone 13 looks unique – from the front, the back, and even the sides.

The bump serves a practical purpose too. For once, the modern iPhone doesn’t have a notch. The iPhone 13 comes with a complete screen, as all the cameras and sensors that enable FaceID sit on top, within that tiny 3-4 millimeter bump. Looking beyond it, however, the phone comes with speakers on the top as well as the bottom. The camera bump shifts slightly upward too, ensuring it’s perfectly aligned with the raised edge, thanks to the bump. Lastly, the conceptual phone flexes its muscles with its greatest feature yet, the Apple-made M1 chip.

Apple’s slated to debut the iPhone 13 in the fall of 2021, although an M1 iPhone is probably a distant dream for now (Rene Ritchie explains why). However, that’s never stopped concept creators like Antonio De Rosa from making their own concepts that embody what they themselves are looking for in future iPhones… and personally, I’m here for this upward camera bump! It’s probably practical design-wise, but my positive response to it is more reptilian than logical.

Designer: Antonio De Rosa

Here’s what the M1 iMac would look like if Apple ditched the white bezels and large chin for a 100% display

Posted on by

Needless to say, some people were quite annoyed with Apple’s latest M1 iMac design. Notably, YouTuber MKBHD found it outright ugly, mentioning that sure, it was slim… but those white bezels, that massive chin, and the lack of a black version made the iMac look too chirpy and playful. For a computer that was capable of incredible heavy-lifting, it didn’t quite look the part. Designer Virgile Arlaud decided to take that feedback and create his own iMac concept. Arlaud’s iMac Pro M1 concept addresses every single pain-point MKBHD had with Apple’s original design

Instead of opting for a radical overhaul, Arlaud’s iMac Pro M1 concept takes the classic iMac Pro design and gives it minor yet significant visual upgrades. The conceptual all-in-one computer sports the crowd-favorite wedge-shaped profile with that slightly bulbed back. However, it absolutely gets rid of the bezels and chin on the front, sporting a gloriously infinite edge-to-edge display that’s an absolute pleasure to look at. Sure, the M1 may be the highlight of this computer, but that screen is the icing on the cake. If the M1 works behind the scenes to give you a great computing experience, that 100% screen on the front amplifies it, surrounding the user in Apple’s incredible, unmatchable UX.

This design direction obviously has some major pros, along with a few small yet unavoidable cons. Firstly, the lack of a bezel gives the iMac Pro M1 no space for a webcam, which played a pretty important role in Apple’s own iMac. The webcam ran 1080p video and used the M1’s processing power to run ISP algorithms for an incredible video. One could argue that the presence of a webcam is a pretty trivial feature in the workhorse that is the iMac, and that an iPhone running face-time would make a pretty decent replacement. One wouldn’t be wrong.

The absence of a chin also means that the iMac Pro M1 concept would lose out on that speaker array found in the original 2021 iMac. The down-firing speakers would have to be replaced with back-firing ones, and I’m no expert, but there would definitely be a small loss in sound quality and clarity. That being said, there are quite a few innovations that allow the screen to act as a speaker… so while Arlaud’s concept doesn’t really illustrate where a speaker would sit, I’d like to believe that this concept has that feature.

What’s really nice about this iMac Pro M1 concept is that it takes an “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” approach to the computer’s overall design. There’s really no need for an all-in-one computer to be 11mm thick (we’re not carrying it around in our pockets), so that slightly bulbous back and the seamless wedge-shaped design really feels like a nice design format that doesn’t need an overhaul. It even sticks to its original inspiration – Dieter Rams’ LE1 speaker design for Braun! The M1 chip sits somewhere within the curved back of the iMac Pro, along with vents for cooling, a USB-C power input, and a whole host of ports on the back, including two USB-C and two Thunderbolt ports, a card-reader, and the old-favorite 3.5mm jack. Let’s also not forget that slick, pipe-shaped stand that’s definitely another hat-tip to the iconic Braun LE1 speaker!

Designer: Virgile Arlaud

Should Apple just build a bigger, better single-lens camera into the iPhone??

Posted on by

Instead of having 3 lenses coming together to give you computational portrait blurs, a larger lens and sensor would turn the iPhone into a DSLR killer.

To be honest, it’s not like DSLRs can really hold a candle to the iPhone. Yes, they’re better cameras, they’re more expensive, more versatile, more professional… but they aren’t as popular as the iPhone camera. According to studies, 1.43 trillion photos were taken in 2020 – 91% of which were through smartphones, and just 6% through digital cameras. Considering iPhones make up a significant chunk of all mobile phones, I’d call it game set match on the DSLR… so here’s my question. Why doesn’t Apple just make a bigger better camera that is popular but also a qualitative powerhouse?

“Camera bump? What’s that?”

This iPhone by Slovakian designer Laci Lacko shows us what a single-shooter large-lens iPhone would look like. Two years ago, a phone that looked like this would be considered downright repulsive, but after the kind of cameras we’ve been seeing on newer phones (especially that whopper camera module on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra), it doesn’t feel all that bad. It’s highly reminiscent of those slim point-and-shoot cameras we used back in the 2000s, but all in all, I don’t feel as repulsed today as I would have in 2018. The single lens on the iPhone would end up fulfilling the role of multiple lenses. It would be much better at generating authentic bokeh during portrait mode, and a larger sensor would mean much more light entering the camera, resulting in a greater dynamic range, and MUCH better low-light performance. The iPhone could easily do all this without any computational algorithms, allowing the iPhone’s image signal processing to work on other details.

The lens, at least on this concept, is a 35mm shooter with an aperture of f1.4. That massive aperture would allow large amounts of light to hit the camera sensor, creating incredible low light performance and great bokeh, but at the same time, the phone’s ability to regulate the aperture would also give it the ability to shoot crisp photos too, keeping everything in focus. The biggest disadvantage of having just one lens on the camera is that you’d sacrifice the wide and ultrawide shooting abilities that the current iPhones have… perhaps the only reason Apple (or no other company, for that matter) is putting all its eggs in just one basket, uh, camera. That being said, Xiaomi is reportedly working on a camera with a liquid lens (similar to the human eye) that can change in shape, allowing it to go from telephoto to macro, or even to ultrawide. This technology would essentially make extra camera lenses redundant, as the liquid lens camera would easily be able to be a jack of all trades.

It’s still fun to conjure up these possibilities – I personally believe concepts help shape future innovations and even public demand. Whether there’s public demand for a single large-lens camera on an iPhone is still yet to be determined. That being said, let me leave you with this mysterious patent for an SLR-style large-lens camera system filed by Apple.

Designer: Laci Lacko

The 2021 iPad Pro is now easily the most powerful tablet in the world

Posted on by




It’s funny how there’s absolutely no argument when it comes to comparing tablet PCs. Sure, with laptops, desktops, phones, and even smartwatches, there’s a healthy competition between rival companies and a spirit of one-upmanship that helps products get better with time… but in a strange way, that doesn’t exist in the tablet market at all, because there’s clearly only one superior tablet, and its only real competition at this point of time, is itself.

Every year, Apple is tasked with the difficult job of making better versions of its cutting-edge products. With the iPad, it feels like a pointless endeavor after a certain moment, because as iPads get better and better, their older versions don’t get worse… they just stay good (because even after 2-3 years, they don’t really have any serious market competition). Now, with the M1 chip finally making its debut in the iPad Pro, the iPad is easily the most powerful tablet in the world. Some would say it’s even more powerful than most laptops.

Nothing much changes on the form front. The iPad Pro’s design is in a place where it doesn’t need to refine its exterior design. Apple’s team calls it a magical piece of glass, because that’s what holding it in your hand feels like. It’s ridiculously slim, has an absolutely incredible screen, capable cameras, and now even sports a Thunderbolt-ready USB 4.0 port. It has magnets that let it snap to a keyboard case, has a LiDAR sensor for 3D scanning, an Apple Pencil for sketching, designing, and note-keeping. The most logical next step was to bring Apple’s silicon architecture to its internals…

Continuing its tradition, the iPad Pro comes in two sizes. However, just like the larger iPhone 12 Pro Max has a measurably better screen and camera system than the 12 Pro, the larger iPad Pro comes equipped with a screen that’s much better… XDR-level better. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display that’s comparable to the Pro XDR display that Apple debuted with their ‘cheesegrater’ Mac. It sports a dizzying 5.6 million pixels with 1600 nits of peak brightness, a mind-numbing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and extreme dynamic range. That allows your pro-level workflow to seamlessly be carried from your desktop to your iPad with no perceivable loss in quality as you view it on the screen… and if you think your iPad can’t handle that workflow, that’s where the M1 comes in.

The M1 really unleashes the tablet’s potential, giving it incredible storage, transfer, and read/write abilities… or as Apple calls it, the most powerful chip on an iPad. The M1, apart from being a productive beast, also allows the iPad to have 5G capabilities, and even up to 2 Terabytes of storage… let’s see Microsoft’s Surface match that!

The M1 significantly empowers your workflow, allowing you to work on CPU or GPU-intensive tasks with absolute ease, and even letting you work with incredibly heavy files and run processes like video editing, green-screen, and the kind of work you’d normally do on a laptop. Plug your keyboard case in and the iPad even becomes a makeshift laptop.

Things just get better on the AR front with the iPad. The M1 chip allows the sensor and the AR algorithms to really get to work, crunching numbers, and realistically rendering out your virtual files in the 3D space around you. A rather cool sneak preview below also shows how Procreate’s v5.2 runs on the iPad, and users will be delighted to know that it now supports sketching directly on 3D models!

The iPad Pro still retains its last year’s camera module on the back, albeit with better computational photography thanks to the M1 chip. The camera on the front, however, sports an ultrawide-angle lens that captures more within the frame. Apple even showcased Center Stage, their new feature that uses machine learning to have that ultrawide camera zoom in on subjects and follow them around as they move, panning the camera while the iPad stays stationary.

The iPad’s biggest competition is itself. It’s now reached a stage where it’s difficult to think of what Apple could do next, apart from refining and making its internals better… however, this M1 is a monumental leap for the tablet and really leaves the other tablet manufacturers biting the dust. The iPad Pro ships in two sizes, the 11-inch, and the 12.9-inch. It starts at $799, is available in silver and space-grey (no colors for this one), and with that powerful internal architecture, 5G capabilities, up to 2 Terabytes of storage, 16 Gb RAM, an onboard LiDAR sensor, and support for the Apple Pencil, the 2021 iPad Pro really leaves little for skeptics to grumble over. All hail the most powerful tablet ever built!

Designer: Apple

The 2021 iPad Pro is now easily the most powerful tablet in the world

Posted on by




It’s funny how there’s absolutely no argument when it comes to comparing tablet PCs. Sure, with laptops, desktops, phones, and even smartwatches, there’s a healthy competition between rival companies and a spirit of one-upmanship that helps products get better with time… but in a strange way, that doesn’t exist in the tablet market at all, because there’s clearly only one superior tablet, and its only real competition at this point of time, is itself.

Every year, Apple is tasked with the difficult job of making better versions of its cutting-edge products. With the iPad, it feels like a pointless endeavor after a certain moment, because as iPads get better and better, their older versions don’t get worse… they just stay good (because even after 2-3 years, they don’t really have any serious market competition). Now, with the M1 chip finally making its debut in the iPad Pro, the iPad is easily the most powerful tablet in the world. Some would say it’s even more powerful than most laptops.

Nothing much changes on the form front. The iPad Pro’s design is in a place where it doesn’t need to refine its exterior design. Apple’s team calls it a magical piece of glass, because that’s what holding it in your hand feels like. It’s ridiculously slim, has an absolutely incredible screen, capable cameras, and now even sports a Thunderbolt-ready USB 4.0 port. It has magnets that let it snap to a keyboard case, has a LiDAR sensor for 3D scanning, an Apple Pencil for sketching, designing, and note-keeping. The most logical next step was to bring Apple’s silicon architecture to its internals…

Continuing its tradition, the iPad Pro comes in two sizes. However, just like the larger iPhone 12 Pro Max has a measurably better screen and camera system than the 12 Pro, the larger iPad Pro comes equipped with a screen that’s much better… XDR-level better. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display that’s comparable to the Pro XDR display that Apple debuted with their ‘cheesegrater’ Mac. It sports a dizzying 5.6 million pixels with 1600 nits of peak brightness, a mind-numbing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and extreme dynamic range. That allows your pro-level workflow to seamlessly be carried from your desktop to your iPad with no perceivable loss in quality as you view it on the screen… and if you think your iPad can’t handle that workflow, that’s where the M1 comes in.

The M1 really unleashes the tablet’s potential, giving it incredible storage, transfer, and read/write abilities… or as Apple calls it, the most powerful chip on an iPad. The M1, apart from being a productive beast, also allows the iPad to have 5G capabilities, and even up to 2 Terabytes of storage… let’s see Microsoft’s Surface match that!

The M1 significantly empowers your workflow, allowing you to work on CPU or GPU-intensive tasks with absolute ease, and even letting you work with incredibly heavy files and run processes like video editing, green-screen, and the kind of work you’d normally do on a laptop. Plug your keyboard case in and the iPad even becomes a makeshift laptop.

Things just get better on the AR front with the iPad. The M1 chip allows the sensor and the AR algorithms to really get to work, crunching numbers, and realistically rendering out your virtual files in the 3D space around you. A rather cool sneak preview below also shows how Procreate’s v5.2 runs on the iPad, and users will be delighted to know that it now supports sketching directly on 3D models!

The iPad Pro still retains its last year’s camera module on the back, albeit with better computational photography thanks to the M1 chip. The camera on the front, however, sports an ultrawide-angle lens that captures more within the frame. Apple even showcased Center Stage, their new feature that uses machine learning to have that ultrawide camera zoom in on subjects and follow them around as they move, panning the camera while the iPad stays stationary.

The iPad’s biggest competition is itself. It’s now reached a stage where it’s difficult to think of what Apple could do next, apart from refining and making its internals better… however, this M1 is a monumental leap for the tablet and really leaves the other tablet manufacturers biting the dust. The iPad Pro ships in two sizes, the 11-inch, and the 12.9-inch. It starts at $799, is available in silver and space-grey (no colors for this one), and with that powerful internal architecture, 5G capabilities, up to 2 Terabytes of storage, 16 Gb RAM, an onboard LiDAR sensor, and support for the Apple Pencil, the 2021 iPad Pro really leaves little for skeptics to grumble over. All hail the most powerful tablet ever built!

Designer: Apple

The 2021 iPad Pro is now easily the most powerful tablet in the world

Posted on by




It’s funny how there’s absolutely no argument when it comes to comparing tablet PCs. Sure, with laptops, desktops, phones, and even smartwatches, there’s a healthy competition between rival companies and a spirit of one-upmanship that helps products get better with time… but in a strange way, that doesn’t exist in the tablet market at all, because there’s clearly only one superior tablet, and its only real competition at this point of time, is itself.

Every year, Apple is tasked with the difficult job of making better versions of its cutting-edge products. With the iPad, it feels like a pointless endeavor after a certain moment, because as iPads get better and better, their older versions don’t get worse… they just stay good (because even after 2-3 years, they don’t really have any serious market competition). Now, with the M1 chip finally making its debut in the iPad Pro, the iPad is easily the most powerful tablet in the world. Some would say it’s even more powerful than most laptops.

Nothing much changes on the form front. The iPad Pro’s design is in a place where it doesn’t need to refine its exterior design. Apple’s team calls it a magical piece of glass, because that’s what holding it in your hand feels like. It’s ridiculously slim, has an absolutely incredible screen, capable cameras, and now even sports a Thunderbolt-ready USB 4.0 port. It has magnets that let it snap to a keyboard case, has a LiDAR sensor for 3D scanning, an Apple Pencil for sketching, designing, and note-keeping. The most logical next step was to bring Apple’s silicon architecture to its internals…

Continuing its tradition, the iPad Pro comes in two sizes. However, just like the larger iPhone 12 Pro Max has a measurably better screen and camera system than the 12 Pro, the larger iPad Pro comes equipped with a screen that’s much better… XDR-level better. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display that’s comparable to the Pro XDR display that Apple debuted with their ‘cheesegrater’ Mac. It sports a dizzying 5.6 million pixels with 1600 nits of peak brightness, a mind-numbing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and extreme dynamic range. That allows your pro-level workflow to seamlessly be carried from your desktop to your iPad with no perceivable loss in quality as you view it on the screen… and if you think your iPad can’t handle that workflow, that’s where the M1 comes in.

The M1 really unleashes the tablet’s potential, giving it incredible storage, transfer, and read/write abilities… or as Apple calls it, the most powerful chip on an iPad. The M1, apart from being a productive beast, also allows the iPad to have 5G capabilities, and even up to 2 Terabytes of storage… let’s see Microsoft’s Surface match that!

The M1 significantly empowers your workflow, allowing you to work on CPU or GPU-intensive tasks with absolute ease, and even letting you work with incredibly heavy files and run processes like video editing, green-screen, and the kind of work you’d normally do on a laptop. Plug your keyboard case in and the iPad even becomes a makeshift laptop.

Things just get better on the AR front with the iPad. The M1 chip allows the sensor and the AR algorithms to really get to work, crunching numbers, and realistically rendering out your virtual files in the 3D space around you. A rather cool sneak preview below also shows how Procreate’s v5.2 runs on the iPad, and users will be delighted to know that it now supports sketching directly on 3D models!

The iPad Pro still retains its last year’s camera module on the back, albeit with better computational photography thanks to the M1 chip. The camera on the front, however, sports an ultrawide-angle lens that captures more within the frame. Apple even showcased Center Stage, their new feature that uses machine learning to have that ultrawide camera zoom in on subjects and follow them around as they move, panning the camera while the iPad stays stationary.

The iPad’s biggest competition is itself. It’s now reached a stage where it’s difficult to think of what Apple could do next, apart from refining and making its internals better… however, this M1 is a monumental leap for the tablet and really leaves the other tablet manufacturers biting the dust. The iPad Pro ships in two sizes, the 11-inch, and the 12.9-inch. It starts at $799, is available in silver and space-grey (no colors for this one), and with that powerful internal architecture, 5G capabilities, up to 2 Terabytes of storage, 16 Gb RAM, an onboard LiDAR sensor, and support for the Apple Pencil, the 2021 iPad Pro really leaves little for skeptics to grumble over. All hail the most powerful tablet ever built!

Designer: Apple

Apple’s new M1 iMacs show how powerful desktop workstations can still have sex appeal

Posted on by




This year’s first Apple event was just bursting with color, part of which can be attributed to Apple’s latest iMac series, revamped to look absolutely fabulous in their 7 different colors, and that drop-dead sleek avatar that leaves little to be desired.

While this article addresses what the new iMac is capable of, it’s also a testament to how beautiful the device’s design is. Harking back to its G3 days, the 2021 iMacs bring colors back into the mix, with seven deliciously appealing hues to choose from (including the white variant). The iMacs are built to be stunningly thin, at just 11mm in thickness, sport Apple’s flagship M1 chip on the inside, and are redesigned to look and feel so sexy, they make me actually consider switching over to the other side… and at a starting price of $1299, it sort of feels worth it.

What instantly stands out is the iMac’s deceptively sleek design. At 11mm, it’s about as thick as the first iPhone that launched in 2007, showing how far we’ve come in the past decade. Now, this 11mm thick beauty houses some of the most capable computing tech in the world, and it’s powered by Apple’s M1 chip. Fun fact, as pointed out by MKBHD, the iMac actually shifts the 3.5mm headphone jack to the side instead of the back, because it isn’t thick enough to have the jack travel all the way in!

It’s debatable whether a white bezel and a large pastel-colored chin is actually pleasing to the eye, but I personally love this new avatar. Just like the creatives that use it, the iMac is a combination of professional and playful, serious and fun. The device comes in 7 colors, using the same anodized aluminum body seen in the iPods from ages ago, although those materials and technologies have definitely come a long way. On the front, the iMac comes outfitted with a 1080p camera which leverages the M1 chip’s ability to run incredibly powerful ISP (Image Signal Processing) algorithms to make sure the lighting’s always great, the exposure’s perfect, and your face looks good on video, all the time, every time.

Within that large chin lies the iMac’s sound system. Now, there isn’t much you could fit into an 11-millimeter chassis, but Apple’s engineering team manages to squeeze in a lot. It uses not one, but two subwoofer units (facing in opposite directions so they cancel out any physical vibrations) on each side of the display, along with a single tweeter on either side, resulting in a 6-driver setup that creates a massive soundscape, tuned to support Dolby Atmos.

My personal favorite feature is the redesigned charging apparatus. The 2021 iMac brings the magnetic charging connector back, which satisfyingly snaps right into its port. The iMacs themselves only sport Thunderbolt ports on the back (and a 3.5mm jack on the side), leaving a vacancy for the traditional ethernet cable. To make up for this, Apple redesigned the charger block to have its own ethernet port that supplies power as well as internet to your iMac. This incredibly genius move means one less port on your iMac, while also helping reduce the chaos of cables on your table… all while retaining functionality!

With the redesigned iMac also comes a slew of redesigned accessories, including the Magic Keyboard, which, apart from also coming in color variants (to match your machine), also have a dedicated emoji button, and the option between a lock button on the top right, or a TouchID key that lets you unlock your iMac, approve of file transfers, app-installs, and even of payments! Along with the keyboard, the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad get color makeovers too.

The new iMacs start at a pretty modest price of $1299, and come with an 8-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and that mammoth M1 chip. While some may debate that their new colored avatar makes them look slightly like a toy, to them I say, grab the white iMac and quit whining. With these new colored computers, Apple is really showing how design can delight with computing power as well as CMF. As a pretty harsh Apple critic myself, I can’t help but constantly ogle at these colorful Macintoshes… and while the M1’s performance really speaks for itself, this delightfully vibrant design has enough sex appeal to push Windows users over the fence and have them taking a closer look at these Mac machines!

Designer: Apple

If Apple Arcade had its own gaming controller, I’d want it to look as minimal as this

Posted on by

Sleek, with minimal details, and controls that are as baffling as the AppleTV Remote yet equally appealing. This may be Designer Hannes Geipel’s version of a Microsoft Surface Gaming Controller, but it definitely has a very strong Apple-esque vibe to it.

The Surface Gaming Controller concept by Hannes Geipel boasts of a brilliantly simple form. With absolutely no frills, textures, accents, or color-separation, the Surface Gaming Controller has a clean look to it that is a major contrast to Microsoft’s own Xbox controller. The Surface Gaming Controller comes with a soft, satin finish, and sports two rather slick looking joypads with a metallic ring around them. The joypads lie perfectly in reach of your thumb, while two large X signs sit where you’d expect the D-pad and the XYAB buttons.

However, instead of the buttons, the controller opts for flaps, using the X-shaped cutouts to create triangular plastic flaps that bend inward when pressed. The flaps give a natural spring-like action, providing just the right amount of resistance as you press it… although whether this detail is better than your average button from a tactile standpoint is something that’s yet to be determined. On the aesthetic front, the X-shaped cutouts definitely set the controller apart visually! There are even a pair of triggers on the upper corners of the controller, although they sit flush against the surface and recess inwards when pressed.

All the details on the Surface Gaming Controller focus more on form than on function, resulting in a device that definitely looks good. I’d arguably compare this to the AppleTV Remote, which most consumers will agree is more visually pleasing than functionally useful. Then again, the Surface Game Controller is just a concept. It echoes the clean, no-nonsense design of Microsoft’s Surface Book and Surface Pro, comes with minimal backlighting for night-time gaming, and if you look carefully, you’ll even spot the Microsoft logo on the back!

Designer: Hannes Geipel

This iPhone case gives your smartphone the Apple Mac Pro ‘cheesegrater’ texture

Posted on by

“Never knock an idea until you actually try it.”

My opinion on the 2019 Mac Pro has aged pretty well, I’d say. Sure, my reaction (which came just moments after the design was released) may have been premature, and so were the memes that followed the debut of the ‘cheesegrater Mac’… but even now, 2 years down the line, it feels slightly cathartic to know that my opinion hasn’t really changed – the 2019 Mac Pro still looks visibly odd and sort of gets my skin crawling.

Recently though, the media discovered a patent for an iPhone that used the ‘cheesegrater’ texture for efficient cooling or thermal transmission, and let’s just say, people weren’t happy. Some even legitimately debunked it as an April Fool’s Prank from Apple. My thoughts on the matter weren’t any different – it sounds like a terrible idea, but I thought the best thing to do would be to really give Apple the benefit of the doubt and MAKE a cheesegrater iPhone just so I have something to visually judge it by.

Presenting, the ‘Cheesegrater’ Case for the iPhone 12 Pro. Made from a TPE bumper and a machined aluminum backplate, the case puts the familiar cheesegrater texture on the back of the iPhone to help it cool more efficiently (well at least in theory). In theory, it’s also perfectly suited to mince cloves of garlic or grate some Parmigiano Reggiano.

Now that we have a (sort of) clear vision of what the cheesegrater texture would look like on an iPhone, let’s objectively and subjectively judge this. For starters, it just looks like a really bad idea. Objectively speaking, a textured metal body would most certainly trap dirt, dust, pieces of lint, aside from also preventing the phone from wirelessly charging. The current textured metal plate is 1mm thick, and for any sort of texture, you’d need 3D depth which adds unnecessary thickness to the phone – something Apple probably won’t want to do. Subjectively speaking, the texture looks worse on the iPhone than on the Mac Pro (although it may also be my execution). Apple’s patent file states “the components of the electronic device may be designed to provide a unique and pleasing look and feel for a user”, a purpose that gets defeated when even Digital Trends calls it “Apple’s worst-ever design idea”. Moreover, at that scale, the texture could actually be used as a garlic press or a microplane for grating hard cheeses, which makes it difficult to take seriously when the texture is on a $1200 flagship smartphone. Let’s not even get into the ‘trypophobia’ angle.

My opinions aside, it seems like a weird idea for Apple to take such an extreme route for “enhanced levels of heat removal”. What exactly is the iPhone doing that it would even need desktop-grade heat removal? Is Apple going all-in on AR, or is it looking to put more powerful Apple-built silicone chips in their new iPhones? We’ll never really know. All we can say with a certain degree of confidence is that a ‘Cheesegrater’ iPhone isn’t really a great idea…

If you really want to make your own ‘Cheesegrater’ iPhone case, you can download the 3D files by clicking here.

Designer/Visualizer: Sarang Sheth