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OT: Jony Ive leaving Apple

edited June 2019 in Other

As a designer, this was siginificant news for me this morning. It was the Jobs-Ive 'partnership' which paired daring breakaway innovation with ultra-high aesthetic standards and made Apple such a divergent in the tech industry.

Now both are gone it seems that the operational side of the company is fully in charge. To hammer that home, both remaining design leads now report into the COO of Apple, instead of a CDO.

To me that indicates a strategic desicion towards becoming a services-dominant company where hardware becomes secondary. I suppose that's a sign of the times, but it also marks the end of an era I found really exciting and inspiring.

Services (as convenient as they may be in our lives) just don't evoke the same emotional resonance with me as a beautiful object that brings magical new possibilities, like the first iPhones did.

On a positive note: I hope this marks the beginning of a more sustainable era where our products remain useful for much longer, since the value for Apple's shareholders is selling the services instead of annual hardware refresh cycles.

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Comments

  • sobering take. particularly the reporting scenario.

  • @syrupcore said:
    sobering take. particularly the reporting scenario.

    Indeed, bean-counting is the greatest creativity killer in the world.

  • I'm looking forward to new devices with longer battery-life now that the absurd 'remove as much as possible to piss off customers' era is coming to an end, maybe we'll see start to see devices run a week between charges now that the 'lets make everything as thin as possible' dude is off the team...

    Let's start the countdown for the return of the 3.5mm jack to our iOS/iPadOS devices...

    'IT as a Service'(meaning both hardware and software) is nothing new and maybe that is the direction Apple is heading and trying to shove it up our throats and some will swallow it since they love to have new 'stuff' all the time with the 'replace for free when new hardware becomes availble' plan :)

    Ie. pay something like $99/Month per device with all Apple services (Apple and 'partner'(Adobe, MS etc.) software, music & media) included. So for an iPhone, iPad & Computer that would be $299 per month).

    But who an I to tell what's happening I'm more for function over form :D
    (I'd love to have an iPhone 8XL that lats for 3-4 days even if it would mean 1,5-2mm extra girth).

  • @Samu said:
    I'm looking forward to new devices with longer battery-life now that the absurd 'remove as much as possible to piss off customers' era is coming to an end, maybe we'll see start to see devices run a week between charges now that the 'lets make everything as thin as possible' dude is off the team...

    Oh, no...you won't get rid of him so easy:

    Sir Jonathan is setting up his own new venture, a creative business called LoveFrom, with Apple as its first client.

    https://ft.com/content/947e557a-98a8-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229

  • @brambos said:
    As a designer, this was siginificant news for me this morning. It was the Jobs-Ive 'partnership' which paired daring breakaway innovation with ultra-high aesthetic standards and made Apple such a divergent in the tech industry.

    Now both are gone it seems that the operational side of the company is fully in charge. To hammer that home, both remaining design leads now report into the COO of Apple, instead of a CDO.

    To me that indicates a strategic desicion towards becoming a services-dominant company where hardware becomes secondary. I suppose that's a sign of the times, but it also marks the end of an era I found really exciting and inspiring.

    Services (as convenient as they may be in our lives) just don't evoke the same emotional resonance with me as a beautiful object that brings magical new possibilities, like the first iPhones did.

    On a positive note: I hope this marks the beginning of a more sustainable era where our products remain useful for much longer, since the value for Apple's shareholders is selling the services instead of annual hardware refresh cycles.

    He's just setting up his own company to make more money, though that close connection he currently has will be lost.

    Be interesting to hear if/how this affects the ARM stuff. I'm currently chewing over buying an iMac, but all this talk of ARM based Macs in a years time is putting me off.

  • @MonzoPro said:

    @brambos said:
    As a designer, this was siginificant news for me this morning. It was the Jobs-Ive 'partnership' which paired daring breakaway innovation with ultra-high aesthetic standards and made Apple such a divergent in the tech industry.

    Now both are gone it seems that the operational side of the company is fully in charge. To hammer that home, both remaining design leads now report into the COO of Apple, instead of a CDO.

    To me that indicates a strategic desicion towards becoming a services-dominant company where hardware becomes secondary. I suppose that's a sign of the times, but it also marks the end of an era I found really exciting and inspiring.

    Services (as convenient as they may be in our lives) just don't evoke the same emotional resonance with me as a beautiful object that brings magical new possibilities, like the first iPhones did.

    On a positive note: I hope this marks the beginning of a more sustainable era where our products remain useful for much longer, since the value for Apple's shareholders is selling the services instead of annual hardware refresh cycles.

    He's just setting up his own company to make more money

    The chances of this being about money are roughly 0%.

  • @lasselu said:

    >

    So in practice, he was not so happy with his salary from Apple and will to sell his 'services' at even higher cost, say hello to $2000 iPhones ;)

  • @Samu said:

    @lasselu said:

    >

    So in practice, he was not so happy with his salary from Apple and will to sell his 'services' at even higher cost, say hello to $2000 iPhones ;)

    His leaving will have such an impact on Apple share value that he could have asked for any salary. I'm sure this is more about creative challenges (and perhaps being ready for something different after 30 years).

  • edited June 2019

    Jobs and Ive were the Lennon and McCartney of product design.

    Both incredible on their own but even greater together. I have taken a lot of pleasure from their work and am a little sad that it’s the end of an era.

    My biggest disappointment is that I will probably never get to enjoy a Jony Ive product again. He will almost certainly be designing things out of my stratosphere. But he has left a lasting legacy. Its quite incredible that Ive and Jobs brought such incredible attention to detail and high end design to consumer products within many people’s grasp. As somebody that enjoys great design, the best Apple products I’ve owned over the years have brought me a sense of satisfaction and even joy in owning and using them that I’ve not experienced from any other things I’ve owned.

    When I got my iPhone 5S I honestly think it was the nicest object I’ve ever owned.

    But it’s diminishing returns now. Apple have got so good at making nice things (apart from the shitty keyboard on my MacBook Pro!) that I’ve not had that same ‘wow!’ experience for a long time.

    Apple have lost Lennon and McCartney.

    But they’ll be fine. Just very different.

  • Don't think it will impact the way Apple is doing their business.

  • Oh. That's worst news since Jobs died. RIP Apple.

    it also marks the end of an era I found really exciting and inspiring.

    This !

  • edited June 2019

    Even before owning any Apple products I remember thinking that their presence was positive, that Jobs' obsession with making 'perfect' devices made all the other hardware companies try harder. Remember laptops in the 1990s? Horrible plastic boxes with shaky keys that fell off.

    I think the rot set in with the Apple Watch - with the introduction of the premium models - and later with the iPhone X. Previously anyone, or anyone who could pony up the grand or so, could own the best cellphone in the world. And if you owned an iPhone 4 or 5 you knew that Paris Hilton, Rupert Murdoch or whoever, owned exactly the same phone as you.

    From Apple's point of view making elite devices also meant that people stopped upgrading. There's just not $2000 worth of extra value in the modern flagship iPhones. I'm still on a 7. Had to go back to a 4s last year for a week or so, and it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I could quite happily stay with the 7, or go back to a 6 even for the next couple of years.

    Read a while ago that the current phase, the 'device' age, may be coming to a close. Next is ubiquitous computing - you don't own the computer, you are surrounded by it. Your car, house, office has enough smarts, and knows enough about you, to deliver all you get out of a phone without you having to carry anything.

  • Since Apple will be his biggest client, I’m not sure much will really change. Even without him, his design language will live on for many years to come, influencing future Apple products.

    Imo, They focused far too much on form at the expense of function anyway. which seems a trend that’s now in the early stages of being reversed. The new Mac Pro and iPad OS are some good signs that function is back en vogue.

  • Wow, that is troubling news to me. Others have pointed it all out very well already (the "Lennon and McCartney" comment)...

    I mean, since Jobs passed away, everybody could notice a decline in the coherence and vision in their software.

    Let's hope not the same happens with the still stellar hardware now...

  • I’ve read a few articles now where people are worried that Apple haven’t replaced Ive with another CDO.

    But Until they gave jony Ive the CDO title a few years ago (when he stopped his day to day duties and passed them on to Evans Hankey and Alan Dye) Apple didn’t actually have a CDO. That was always Steve Jobs.

    And Apple can’t replace Steve Jobs. Partly because they are no longer the ‘pirate’ upstarts rebelling against the mainstream.

    They are the mainstream.

    Tim Apple is better equipped to run this Apple, but the pirate apple was much more fun.

  • edited June 2019

    @klownshed said:
    I’ve read a few articles now where people are worried that Apple haven’t replaced Ive with another CDO.

    But Until they gave jony Ive the CDO title a few years ago (when he stopped his day to day duties and passed them on to Evans Hankey and Alan Dye) Apple didn’t actually have a CDO. That was always Steve Jobs.

    Yes, but ultimately it meant designers always reported to a creative-minded person, right up to the very top. Now they're reporting to a guy who knows how to run factories really efficiently.

  • iOS 7 showed us that pure designers are not gods. We have been recovering ever since

  • Now maybe Commodore can finally stage that big comeback. I’ll show myself out.

  • edited June 2019

    @brambos said:

    @klownshed said:
    I’ve read a few articles now where people are worried that Apple haven’t replaced Ive with another CDO.

    But Until they gave jony Ive the CDO title a few years ago (when he stopped his day to day duties and passed them on to Evans Hankey and Alan Dye) Apple didn’t actually have a CDO. That was always Steve Jobs.

    Yes, but ultimately it meant designers always reported to a creative-minded person, right up to the very top. Now they're reporting to a guy who knows how to run factories really efficiently.

    Exactly. I have made my point badly. Rather than being worried that Apple haven’t replaced Jony Ive, the worry is that they’ve not got a product guy at the top of the tree. The head of design at Apple should surely report directly to the CEO, not the COO.

    Jony Ive never reported to Tim Cook when Steve jobs was top dog.

    The design department have effectively been demoted. Before, Operations had to find a way to make what Jony Ives department designed. Now Operations are the design dpertments’ boss. :-/

  • @klownshed said:

    @brambos said:

    @klownshed said:
    I’ve read a few articles now where people are worried that Apple haven’t replaced Ive with another CDO.

    But Until they gave jony Ive the CDO title a few years ago (when he stopped his day to day duties and passed them on to Evans Hankey and Alan Dye) Apple didn’t actually have a CDO. That was always Steve Jobs.

    Yes, but ultimately it meant designers always reported to a creative-minded person, right up to the very top. Now they're reporting to a guy who knows how to run factories really efficiently.

    Exactly. I have made my point badly. Rather than being worried that Apple haven’t replaced Jony Ive, the worry is that they’ve not got a product guy at the top of the tree. The head of design at Apple should surely report directly to the CEO, not the COO.

    Jony Ive never reported to Tim Cook when Steve jobs was top dog.

    The design department have effectively been demoted. Before, Operations had to find a way to make what Jony Ives department designed. Now Operations are the design dpertments’ boss. :-/

    Jeff Williams maybe COO but his talents are way broader than that typical role, time will reveal.

  • Maybe he was a just little sore about all the cheese grater comments :tongue:

  • Yes every Apple mouse I've used since the mid-90s has been awful, with absolutely no exceptions. Form over function every single damn time 💩

    On the other hand the original iMac, and the G3 and cheese grater Power Macs were design classics.

  • @klownshed said:
    The design department have effectively been demoted. Before, Operations had to find a way to make what Jony Ives department designed. Now Operations are the design dpertments’ boss. :-/

    Yes, this. Sums it up nicely.

    They used to invent new manufacturing techniques to ensure designs could be realised without change or compromise. Not gonna happen when you have an operations guy making the calls.

  • @AudioGus said:
    Now maybe Commodore can finally stage that big comeback. I’ll show myself out.

    The new VIC 2020? The old ones still going strong in my SQ80

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • @brambos said:

    @MonzoPro said:

    @brambos said:
    As a designer, this was siginificant news for me this morning. It was the Jobs-Ive 'partnership' which paired daring breakaway innovation with ultra-high aesthetic standards and made Apple such a divergent in the tech industry.

    Now both are gone it seems that the operational side of the company is fully in charge. To hammer that home, both remaining design leads now report into the COO of Apple, instead of a CDO.

    To me that indicates a strategic desicion towards becoming a services-dominant company where hardware becomes secondary. I suppose that's a sign of the times, but it also marks the end of an era I found really exciting and inspiring.

    Services (as convenient as they may be in our lives) just don't evoke the same emotional resonance with me as a beautiful object that brings magical new possibilities, like the first iPhones did.

    On a positive note: I hope this marks the beginning of a more sustainable era where our products remain useful for much longer, since the value for Apple's shareholders is selling the services instead of annual hardware refresh cycles.

    He's just setting up his own company to make more money

    The chances of this being about money are roughly 0%.

    Exactly. It’s likely that he’s unhappy with the culture.

  • edited June 2019
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • @johnfromberkeley said:

    @brambos said:
    The chances of this being about money are roughly 0%.

    Exactly. It’s likely that he’s unhappy with the culture.

    Yes. Maybe the most troublesome bit. What would make a person leave a 50 kagillion dollars a year "do absolutely anything you want" job?

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