“Apple hasn’t officially confirmed plans to launch a smaller tablet, but the buzz is already building,” Lorraine Luk reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. That is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say.”
Luk reports, “The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Asian component suppliers have already started producing the smaller 7.85-inch tablet. Apple hasn’t confirmed when the new device will be available, but AllThingsD, a sister publication of The Wall Street Journal, reported last month that Apple plans to unveil the smaller tablet later this month… ‘It makes sense for market leader Apple to extend its dominance in tablets with a smaller tablet,’ said Capital Securities analyst Diana Wu.”
“Analysts say the challenge for Apple will be to price the smaller tablet attractively in order for it to succeed,” Luk reports. “Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire HD sells for $199 and Google 7-inch Nexus 7 sells for $199. ‘iPad mini will be a big hit if Apple prices it below $300,’ said RBS analyst Wanli Wang.”
Monday, October 8, 2012
Got Iphone? Love music? Have lots of money?
Here's how to spend those hard earned dollars.
It's been a year since the legendary guitar amp and speaker makers at Marshall Amplification made a splash in consumer audio with its Marshall Headphones spin-off (Zound / Urbanears). In commemorence of the amplification division's 50th anniversary, both have announced the Hanwell: Marshall's first speaker rig that's made for a counter-top instead of a festival stage.
The Hanwell's design essentially stems from that of a combo guitar amp / speaker, but you won't be able to plug in your guitar, however, as it's specifically made for pumping out the sounds of your music collection. Most anyone who plays guitar, or has seen the likes of Slash and Nigel Tufnel shredding it up, will immediately recognize the iconic Marshall design ethic down to its iconic plastic nameplate on the front grill and gold accents.
There's no major tech at play inside of the system, but with looks this cool it's not like it matters -- hopefully, the sound quality will match. Up top there's a familiar panel housing a 3.5mm input, power toggle and knobs for bass, treble and volume, while internally you'll find a duo of long-throw woofers and tweeters. The cab itself is made from wood and wrapped in black vinyl tolex like its bigger JCM siblings -- heck, it even comes with a coiled audio cable. There's no specific information beyond all of that such as pricing and availability -- especially whether "these go to 11" -- but you'll find a press release and close-up shots after the break.
Update: We've been informed that the Hanwell will be limited to a run of just 10,000 units -- expect this to be spendy when it's finally available.
It's been a year since the legendary guitar amp and speaker makers at Marshall Amplification made a splash in consumer audio with its Marshall Headphones spin-off (Zound / Urbanears). In commemorence of the amplification division's 50th anniversary, both have announced the Hanwell: Marshall's first speaker rig that's made for a counter-top instead of a festival stage.
The Hanwell's design essentially stems from that of a combo guitar amp / speaker, but you won't be able to plug in your guitar, however, as it's specifically made for pumping out the sounds of your music collection. Most anyone who plays guitar, or has seen the likes of Slash and Nigel Tufnel shredding it up, will immediately recognize the iconic Marshall design ethic down to its iconic plastic nameplate on the front grill and gold accents.
There's no major tech at play inside of the system, but with looks this cool it's not like it matters -- hopefully, the sound quality will match. Up top there's a familiar panel housing a 3.5mm input, power toggle and knobs for bass, treble and volume, while internally you'll find a duo of long-throw woofers and tweeters. The cab itself is made from wood and wrapped in black vinyl tolex like its bigger JCM siblings -- heck, it even comes with a coiled audio cable. There's no specific information beyond all of that such as pricing and availability -- especially whether "these go to 11" -- but you'll find a press release and close-up shots after the break.
Update: We've been informed that the Hanwell will be limited to a run of just 10,000 units -- expect this to be spendy when it's finally available.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
A few electric thoughts.
Electric cars 'pose environmental threat'
Of course they do...that's why manufacturers have to evolve production methods and materials, for a start. Totally electric vehicles that rely on recharge technology instead of self generated sources are going to be as big a hazard as internal combustion engines, just in different ways. Electricity has to be produced somewhere.
Modern Performance cars now have reached a zenith where their capabilities are not at all useful in our daily lives. They answer questions that few people now ask. The thought and design processes for creating truly efficient vehicles has to evolve before the creations do...
Electric cars 'pose environmental threat'
Electric car production creates much carbon emissions as well as toxic pollution.
Gloomy carmakers gather in Paris
Changing attitudes transform Ferrari
Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars, according to new research.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology study found greenhouse gas emissions rose dramatically if coal was used to produce the electricity.
Electric car factories also emitted more toxic waste than conventional car factories, their report in the Journal of Industrial Ecology said.
However, in some cases electric cars still made sense, the researchers said.
Big impact
The team looked at the life-cycle impact of conventional and electric vehicles.
In essence, they considered how the production, the use and the end-of-life dismantling of a car affects the environment, explained co-author Prof Anders Hammer Stromman.
"The production phase of electric vehicles proved substantially more environmentally intensive," the report said, comparing it to how petrol and diesel cars are made.
"The global warming potential from electric vehicle production is about twice that of conventional vehicles."
In addition, producing batteries and electric motors requires a lot of toxic minerals such as nickel, copper and aluminium.
Hence, the acidification impact is much greater than that of conventional car production.
"Across the other impacts considered in the analysis including potential for effects related to acid rain, airborne particulate matter, smog, human toxicity, ecosystem toxicity and depletion of fossil fuel and mineral resources, electric vehicles consistently perform worse or on par with modern internal combustion engine vehicles, despite virtually zero direct emissions during operation," according to Prof Stromman.
'Counterproductive' efforts
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
A battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel”
Dieter Zetsche
Chief executive, Daimler
With electric car production being so damaging to the environment, these cars have already polluted a great deal by the time they hit the road, the report says.
However, if the cars were then powered by electricity made from low-carbon electricity sources, they could nevertheless offer "the potential for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to tailpipe emissions" over time.
However, in regions where fossil fuels are the main sources of power, electric cars offer no benefits and may even cause more harm, the report said.
"It is counterproductive to promote electric vehicles in regions where electricity is primarily produced from lignite, coal or even heavy oil combustion."
European benefits
In Europe, where electricity is produced in a number of different ways, electric cars do offer environmental benefits when compared with cars with internal combustion engines, according to the study.
"Electric vehicles powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in their global warming potential relative to conventional diesel or petrol vehicles."
This is in line with calculations made by some carmakers.
Cars powered by electricity produced in coal power stations pollute more than petrol or diesel cars
"According to our results, a battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel," Daimler's chief executive Dieter Zetsche told the BBC.
Longer lives
The report pointed out that the longer an electric car in Europe stays mobile, the greater its "lead" over petrol and diesel engines.
"Assuming a vehicle lifetime of 200,000km exaggerates the global warming benefits of electric vehicles to 27-29% relative to petrol and 17-20% relative to diesel," it said.
"An assumption of 100,000km decreases the benefit of electric vehicles to 9-14% with respect to petrol vehicles and results in impacts indistinguishable from those of a diesel vehicle."
An electric car's longevity depends a great deal on how long its battery lasts, not least since it is very expensive to replace them.
Batteries are gradually getting better, which could result in electric cars being used for longer.
However, as petrol and diesel engines are also improving, the relationships between the different types of vehicles are not constant.
"A more significant reduction in global warming could potentially be achieved by increasing fuel efficiency or shifting from petrol to diesel," the report said.
"If you are considering purchasing an electric vehicle for its environmental benefits, first check your electricity source and second look closely at the warranty on the batteries," said Professor Stromman.
Those in power, meanwhile, should recognise "the many potential advantages of electric vehicles [which] should serve as a motivation for cleaning up regional electricity mixes".
Of course they do...that's why manufacturers have to evolve production methods and materials, for a start. Totally electric vehicles that rely on recharge technology instead of self generated sources are going to be as big a hazard as internal combustion engines, just in different ways. Electricity has to be produced somewhere.
Modern Performance cars now have reached a zenith where their capabilities are not at all useful in our daily lives. They answer questions that few people now ask. The thought and design processes for creating truly efficient vehicles has to evolve before the creations do...
Electric cars 'pose environmental threat'
Electric car production creates much carbon emissions as well as toxic pollution.
Gloomy carmakers gather in Paris
Changing attitudes transform Ferrari
Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars, according to new research.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology study found greenhouse gas emissions rose dramatically if coal was used to produce the electricity.
Electric car factories also emitted more toxic waste than conventional car factories, their report in the Journal of Industrial Ecology said.
However, in some cases electric cars still made sense, the researchers said.
Big impact
The team looked at the life-cycle impact of conventional and electric vehicles.
In essence, they considered how the production, the use and the end-of-life dismantling of a car affects the environment, explained co-author Prof Anders Hammer Stromman.
"The production phase of electric vehicles proved substantially more environmentally intensive," the report said, comparing it to how petrol and diesel cars are made.
"The global warming potential from electric vehicle production is about twice that of conventional vehicles."
In addition, producing batteries and electric motors requires a lot of toxic minerals such as nickel, copper and aluminium.
Hence, the acidification impact is much greater than that of conventional car production.
"Across the other impacts considered in the analysis including potential for effects related to acid rain, airborne particulate matter, smog, human toxicity, ecosystem toxicity and depletion of fossil fuel and mineral resources, electric vehicles consistently perform worse or on par with modern internal combustion engine vehicles, despite virtually zero direct emissions during operation," according to Prof Stromman.
'Counterproductive' efforts
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
A battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel”
Dieter Zetsche
Chief executive, Daimler
With electric car production being so damaging to the environment, these cars have already polluted a great deal by the time they hit the road, the report says.
However, if the cars were then powered by electricity made from low-carbon electricity sources, they could nevertheless offer "the potential for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to tailpipe emissions" over time.
However, in regions where fossil fuels are the main sources of power, electric cars offer no benefits and may even cause more harm, the report said.
"It is counterproductive to promote electric vehicles in regions where electricity is primarily produced from lignite, coal or even heavy oil combustion."
European benefits
In Europe, where electricity is produced in a number of different ways, electric cars do offer environmental benefits when compared with cars with internal combustion engines, according to the study.
"Electric vehicles powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in their global warming potential relative to conventional diesel or petrol vehicles."
This is in line with calculations made by some carmakers.
Cars powered by electricity produced in coal power stations pollute more than petrol or diesel cars
"According to our results, a battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel," Daimler's chief executive Dieter Zetsche told the BBC.
Longer lives
The report pointed out that the longer an electric car in Europe stays mobile, the greater its "lead" over petrol and diesel engines.
"Assuming a vehicle lifetime of 200,000km exaggerates the global warming benefits of electric vehicles to 27-29% relative to petrol and 17-20% relative to diesel," it said.
"An assumption of 100,000km decreases the benefit of electric vehicles to 9-14% with respect to petrol vehicles and results in impacts indistinguishable from those of a diesel vehicle."
An electric car's longevity depends a great deal on how long its battery lasts, not least since it is very expensive to replace them.
Batteries are gradually getting better, which could result in electric cars being used for longer.
However, as petrol and diesel engines are also improving, the relationships between the different types of vehicles are not constant.
"A more significant reduction in global warming could potentially be achieved by increasing fuel efficiency or shifting from petrol to diesel," the report said.
"If you are considering purchasing an electric vehicle for its environmental benefits, first check your electricity source and second look closely at the warranty on the batteries," said Professor Stromman.
Those in power, meanwhile, should recognise "the many potential advantages of electric vehicles [which] should serve as a motivation for cleaning up regional electricity mixes".
What makes good design? Ask Sir Jon Ives.
Sir Jonathan Ive, Jony to his friends, is arguably one of the world’s most influential Londoners. The 45-year-old was born in Chingford — and went to the same school as David Beckham. He met his wife, Heather Pegg, while in secondary school. They married in 1987, have twin sons and now live in San Francisco.
As Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, he is the driving force behind the firm’s products, from the Mac computer to the iPod, iPhone and, most recently the iPad. He spoke exclusively to the Evening Standard at the firm’s Cupertino headquarters.
Q: You recently received a Knighthood for services to design - was that a proud moment?
A: I was absolutely thrilled, and at the same time completely humbled. I am very aware that I’m the product of growing up in England, and the tradition of designing and making, of England industrialising first. The emphasis and value on ideas and original thinking is an innate part of British culture, and in many ways, that describes the traditions of design.
Q: Is London still an important city for design?
A: I left London in 1992, but I’m there 3-4 times a year, and love visiting. It’s a very important city, and makes a significant contribution to design, to creating something new where previously something didn’t exist.
Q: How does London differ from Silicon Valley?
A: The proximity of different creative industries and London is remarkable, and is in many ways unique. I think that has led to a very different feel to Silicon Valley.
Q: Why did you decide to move to California?
A: What I enjoy about being here is there is a remarkable optimism, and an attitude to try out and explore ideas without the fear of failure. There is a very simple and practical sense that a couple of people have an idea and decide to form a company to do it. I like that very practical and straightforward approach.
There’s not a sense of looking to generate money, its about having an idea and doing it - I think that characterises this area and its focus.
Q: What makes design different at Apple?
A: We struggle with the right words to describe the design process at Apple, but it is very much about designing and prototyping and making. When you separate those, I think the final result suffers. If something is going to be better, it is new, and if it’s new you are confronting problems and challenges you don’t have references for. To solve and address those requires a remarkable focus. There’s a sense of being inquisitive and optimistic, and you don’t see those in combination very often.
Q: How does a new product come about at Apple?
A: What I love about the creative process, and this may sound naive, but it is this idea that one day there is no idea, and no solution, but then the next day there is an idea. I find that incredibly exciting and conceptually actually remarkable.
The nature of having ideas and creativity is incredibly inspiring. There is an idea which is solitary, fragile and tentative and doesn’t have form.
What we’ve found here is that it then becomes a conversation, although remains very fragile.
When you see the most dramatic shift is when you transition from an abstract idea to a slightly more material conversation. But when you made a 3D model, however crude, you bring form to a nebulous idea, and everything changes - the entire process shifts. It galvanises and brings focus from a broad group of people. It’s a remarkable process.
Q: What makes a great designer?
A: It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong. You have that wonderful fascination with the what if questions, but you also need absolute focus and a keen insight into the context and what is important - that is really terribly important. Its about contradictions you have to navigate.
Q: What are your goals when setting out to build a new product?
A: Our goals are very simple - to design and make better products. If we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it.
Q: Why has Apple’s competition struggled to do that?
A: That’s quite unusual, most of our competitors are interesting in doing something different, or want to appear new - I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. This requires real discipline, and that’s what drives us - a sincere, genuine appetite to do something that is better. Committees just don’t work, and it’s not about price, schedule or a bizarre marketing goal to appear different - they are corporate goals with scant regard for people who use the product.
Q: When did you first become aware of the importance of designers?
A: First time I was aware of this sense of the group of people who made something was when I first used a Mac - I’d gone through college in the 80s using a computer and had a horrid experience. Then I discovered the mac, it was such a dramatic moment and I remember it so clearly - there was a real sense of the people who made it.
Q: When you are coming up with product ideas such as the iPod, do you try to solve a problem?
A: There are different approaches - sometimes things can irritate you so you become aware of a problem, which is a very pragmatic approach and the least challenging.
What is more difficult is when you are intrigued by an opportunity. That, I think, really exercises the skills of a designer. It’s not a problem you’re aware of, nobody has articulated a need. But you start asking questions, what if we do this, combine it with that, would that be useful? This creates opportunities that could replace entire categories of device, rather than tactically responding to an individual problem. That’s the real challenge, and that’s what is exciting.
Q: Has that led to new products within Apple?
A: Examples are products like the iPhone, iPod and iPad. That fanatical attention to detail and coming across a problem and being determined to solve it is critically important - that defines your minute by minute, day by day experience.
Q: How do you know consumers will want your products?
A: We don’t do focus groups - that is the job of the designer. It’s unfair to ask people who don’t have a sense of the opportunities of tomorrow from the context of today to design.
Q: Your team of designers is very small - is that the key to its success?
A: The way we work at Apple is that the complexity of these products really makes it critical to work collaboratively, with different areas of expertise. I think that’s one of the things about my job I enjoy the most. I work with silicon designers, electronic and mechanical engineers, and I think you would struggle to determine who does what when we get together. We’re located together, we share the same goal, have exactly the same preoccupation with making great products.
One of the other things that enables this is that we’ve been doing this together for many years - there is a collective confidence when you are facing a seemingly insurmoutable challenge, and there were multiple times on the iPhone or ipad where we have to think ‘will this work’ we simply didn’t have points of reference.
Q: Is it easy to get sidetracked by tiny details on a project?
A: When you’re trying to solve a problem on a new product type, you become completely focused on problems that seem a number of steps removed from the main product. That problem solving can appear a little abstract, and it is easy to lose sight of the product. I think that is where having years and years of experience gives you that confidence that if you keep pushing, you’ll get there.
Q: Can this obsession with detail get out of control?
A: It’s incredibly time consuming, you can spent months and months and months on a tiny detail - but unless you solve that tiny problem, you can’t solve this other, fundamental product.
You often feel there is no sense these can be solved, but you have faith. This is why these innovations are so hard - there are no points of reference.
Q: How do you know you’ve succeeded?
A :It’s a very strange thing for a designer to say, but one of the things that really irritates me in products is when I’m aware of designers wagging their tails in my face.
Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object. For instance, the iPhoto app we created for the new iPad, it completely consumes you and you forget you are using an iPad.
Q: What are the biggest challenges in constantly innovating?
A: For as long as we’ve been doing this, I am still surprised how difficult it is to do this, but you know exactly when you’re there - it can be the smallest shift, and suddenly transforms the object, without any contrivance.
Some of the problem solving in the iPad is really quite remarkable, there is this danger you want to communicate this to people. I think that is a fantastic irony, how oblivious people are to the acrobatics we’ve performed to solve a problem - but that’s our job, and I think people know there is tremendous care behind the finished product.
Q: Do consumers really care about good design?
A: One of the things we’ve really learnt over the last 20 years is that while people would often struggle to articulate why they like something - as consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed. It’s one of the thing we’ve found really encouraging.
Q: Users have become incredibly attached, almost obsessively so, to Apple’s products - why is this?
A: It sound so obvious, but I remember being shocked to use a Mac, and somehow have this sense I was having a keen awareness of the people and values of those who made it.
I think that people’s emotional connection to our products is that they sense our care, and the amount of work that has gone into creating it.
As Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, he is the driving force behind the firm’s products, from the Mac computer to the iPod, iPhone and, most recently the iPad. He spoke exclusively to the Evening Standard at the firm’s Cupertino headquarters.
Q: You recently received a Knighthood for services to design - was that a proud moment?
A: I was absolutely thrilled, and at the same time completely humbled. I am very aware that I’m the product of growing up in England, and the tradition of designing and making, of England industrialising first. The emphasis and value on ideas and original thinking is an innate part of British culture, and in many ways, that describes the traditions of design.
Q: Is London still an important city for design?
A: I left London in 1992, but I’m there 3-4 times a year, and love visiting. It’s a very important city, and makes a significant contribution to design, to creating something new where previously something didn’t exist.
Q: How does London differ from Silicon Valley?
A: The proximity of different creative industries and London is remarkable, and is in many ways unique. I think that has led to a very different feel to Silicon Valley.
Q: Why did you decide to move to California?
A: What I enjoy about being here is there is a remarkable optimism, and an attitude to try out and explore ideas without the fear of failure. There is a very simple and practical sense that a couple of people have an idea and decide to form a company to do it. I like that very practical and straightforward approach.
There’s not a sense of looking to generate money, its about having an idea and doing it - I think that characterises this area and its focus.
Q: What makes design different at Apple?
A: We struggle with the right words to describe the design process at Apple, but it is very much about designing and prototyping and making. When you separate those, I think the final result suffers. If something is going to be better, it is new, and if it’s new you are confronting problems and challenges you don’t have references for. To solve and address those requires a remarkable focus. There’s a sense of being inquisitive and optimistic, and you don’t see those in combination very often.
Q: How does a new product come about at Apple?
A: What I love about the creative process, and this may sound naive, but it is this idea that one day there is no idea, and no solution, but then the next day there is an idea. I find that incredibly exciting and conceptually actually remarkable.
The nature of having ideas and creativity is incredibly inspiring. There is an idea which is solitary, fragile and tentative and doesn’t have form.
What we’ve found here is that it then becomes a conversation, although remains very fragile.
When you see the most dramatic shift is when you transition from an abstract idea to a slightly more material conversation. But when you made a 3D model, however crude, you bring form to a nebulous idea, and everything changes - the entire process shifts. It galvanises and brings focus from a broad group of people. It’s a remarkable process.
Q: What makes a great designer?
A: It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong. You have that wonderful fascination with the what if questions, but you also need absolute focus and a keen insight into the context and what is important - that is really terribly important. Its about contradictions you have to navigate.
Q: What are your goals when setting out to build a new product?
A: Our goals are very simple - to design and make better products. If we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it.
Q: Why has Apple’s competition struggled to do that?
A: That’s quite unusual, most of our competitors are interesting in doing something different, or want to appear new - I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. This requires real discipline, and that’s what drives us - a sincere, genuine appetite to do something that is better. Committees just don’t work, and it’s not about price, schedule or a bizarre marketing goal to appear different - they are corporate goals with scant regard for people who use the product.
Q: When did you first become aware of the importance of designers?
A: First time I was aware of this sense of the group of people who made something was when I first used a Mac - I’d gone through college in the 80s using a computer and had a horrid experience. Then I discovered the mac, it was such a dramatic moment and I remember it so clearly - there was a real sense of the people who made it.
Q: When you are coming up with product ideas such as the iPod, do you try to solve a problem?
A: There are different approaches - sometimes things can irritate you so you become aware of a problem, which is a very pragmatic approach and the least challenging.
What is more difficult is when you are intrigued by an opportunity. That, I think, really exercises the skills of a designer. It’s not a problem you’re aware of, nobody has articulated a need. But you start asking questions, what if we do this, combine it with that, would that be useful? This creates opportunities that could replace entire categories of device, rather than tactically responding to an individual problem. That’s the real challenge, and that’s what is exciting.
Q: Has that led to new products within Apple?
A: Examples are products like the iPhone, iPod and iPad. That fanatical attention to detail and coming across a problem and being determined to solve it is critically important - that defines your minute by minute, day by day experience.
Q: How do you know consumers will want your products?
A: We don’t do focus groups - that is the job of the designer. It’s unfair to ask people who don’t have a sense of the opportunities of tomorrow from the context of today to design.
Q: Your team of designers is very small - is that the key to its success?
A: The way we work at Apple is that the complexity of these products really makes it critical to work collaboratively, with different areas of expertise. I think that’s one of the things about my job I enjoy the most. I work with silicon designers, electronic and mechanical engineers, and I think you would struggle to determine who does what when we get together. We’re located together, we share the same goal, have exactly the same preoccupation with making great products.
One of the other things that enables this is that we’ve been doing this together for many years - there is a collective confidence when you are facing a seemingly insurmoutable challenge, and there were multiple times on the iPhone or ipad where we have to think ‘will this work’ we simply didn’t have points of reference.
Q: Is it easy to get sidetracked by tiny details on a project?
A: When you’re trying to solve a problem on a new product type, you become completely focused on problems that seem a number of steps removed from the main product. That problem solving can appear a little abstract, and it is easy to lose sight of the product. I think that is where having years and years of experience gives you that confidence that if you keep pushing, you’ll get there.
Q: Can this obsession with detail get out of control?
A: It’s incredibly time consuming, you can spent months and months and months on a tiny detail - but unless you solve that tiny problem, you can’t solve this other, fundamental product.
You often feel there is no sense these can be solved, but you have faith. This is why these innovations are so hard - there are no points of reference.
Q: How do you know you’ve succeeded?
A :It’s a very strange thing for a designer to say, but one of the things that really irritates me in products is when I’m aware of designers wagging their tails in my face.
Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object. For instance, the iPhoto app we created for the new iPad, it completely consumes you and you forget you are using an iPad.
Q: What are the biggest challenges in constantly innovating?
A: For as long as we’ve been doing this, I am still surprised how difficult it is to do this, but you know exactly when you’re there - it can be the smallest shift, and suddenly transforms the object, without any contrivance.
Some of the problem solving in the iPad is really quite remarkable, there is this danger you want to communicate this to people. I think that is a fantastic irony, how oblivious people are to the acrobatics we’ve performed to solve a problem - but that’s our job, and I think people know there is tremendous care behind the finished product.
Q: Do consumers really care about good design?
A: One of the things we’ve really learnt over the last 20 years is that while people would often struggle to articulate why they like something - as consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed. It’s one of the thing we’ve found really encouraging.
Q: Users have become incredibly attached, almost obsessively so, to Apple’s products - why is this?
A: It sound so obvious, but I remember being shocked to use a Mac, and somehow have this sense I was having a keen awareness of the people and values of those who made it.
I think that people’s emotional connection to our products is that they sense our care, and the amount of work that has gone into creating it.
Jobless market in U.S. drops to lowest level in four years.
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 7.8 percent in September and reached its lowest level since President Barack Obama took office, providing a boost to his re-election bid.
The Labor Department said on Friday that employers added 114,000 workers to their payrolls last month, a moderate number, but it said a combined 86,000 more jobs were created in the prior two months than it had previously thought.
Other aspects of the report also were strong. In particular, a separate survey of households found a big surge in hiring. That pushed the jobless rate down by 0.3 percentage point to its lowest level since January 2009.
"It's a good report. The picture is still not a great one, but it's not so bad given the unusual headwinds that we have been faced with," said Ray Stone, an economist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey.
Obama said the report showed the economy was making progress while his Republican challenger Mitt Romney said the labor market was not healing fast enough.
Businesses have been hesitant to hire out of concern the U.S. recovery could take a hit from a sharp tightening of the federal budget next year, any worsening of the debt crisis in Europe and a slowdown in the global economy.
So far this year, job gains have averaged 146,000 per month, compared with 153,000 per month in 2011.
Economists had expected the unemployment rate to rise to 8.2 percent in September. The drop last month came even as Americans returned to the labor force to resume the hunt for work. The workforce had shrunk in the prior two months.
The household survey, which can be very volatile month-to-month, showed employment increased 873,000 -- the first rise in three months and the biggest since June 1983. But two-thirds of those were Americans who took a part time job even though they wanted full-time work, a fact that took a bit of the shine off the report.
Economists generally pay the most attention to the job growth figures from the much larger survey of employers. Over time, the surveys track each other, although many economists say the household survey sometimes takes the lead when trends shift.
Taken together, economists said the report broadly signaled a healthier labor market. The employment-to-population ratio, or the proportion of the working-age population with a job, increased to its highest level since May 2010.
Stocks on Wall Street initially rose, with the Dow Jones industrial average touching its highest point in almost five years, but they later retreated to close little changed as investors took profits. The dollar hit a two-week high against the yen, while U.S. Treasury debt prices fell.
U.S. interest rate futures also slipped as traders bet an improving jobs market could lead the Federal Reserve to back off its monetary stimulus earlier than had been expected.
A Reuters poll of top bond dealers, however, showed expectations holding firm that the Fed would end up buying $600 billion under a new stimulus program announced last month.
SPIN DOCTORS
There now remains only one more employment report before the November 6 election, and that comes just four days before voters go to the polls.
"We are moving forward," Obama said as he plead his case during a campaign rally in a Washington suburb. "After losing about 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, our businesses have now added 5.2 million new jobs over the past 2-1/2 years."
"This country has come too far to turn back now."
Despite the progress, the economy is still about 4.5 million jobs short of where it stood when the 2007-09 recession started and Romney sought to remind voters that the labor market was still far from healthy.
"There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month and the unemployment rate, you know, this year has come down very, very slowly," Romney told a large crowd of supporters in Abingdon, Virginia. "The reason it has come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work."
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed Romney narrowing the gap with Obama to only two points since Wednesday's presidential debate, but analysts said Obama was due to get a lift from the jobs numbers.
"Good economic news is good political news. President Obama needed that after the debate and it gives him numerical evidence that his policies are working," said Julian Zelizer of Princeton University.
The surprise drop in the jobless rate led former General Electric CEO Jack Welch to suggest in a tweet that the numbers had somehow been doctored. "These Chicago guys will do anything," he said in a reference to Obama's campaign operation. Welch is a Reuters columnist.
Alan Krueger, a top economic adviser to Obama, said it was irresponsible to question the credibility of the numbers. "That's a ludicrous comment. No serious person believes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates its statistics," he told Reuters Insider television.
Economists and the BLS also dismissed the conspiracy theory.
FED LIKELY TO KEEP FOOT ON THE GAS
Persistently poor labor market conditions led the Fed in September to announce a plan to buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities each month until it sees a sustained turnaround in employment.
Despite the brighter signs on the jobs market, analysts said the central bank is unlikely to back off its stimulus anytime soon. After its last meeting, it said it planned to keep policy easy for "a considerable time" even after the recovery strengthened.
"This will be welcome news for the Fed, but given that the unemployment rate remains well above levels deemed consistent with full employment, their policy stance is unlikely to change," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.
The Fed's ultra-easy stance has started to free up credit. A report from the Fed showed consumer credit rebounded strongly in August after posting its first decline in nearly a year in July.
Easier credit is supporting retail sales and home construction. Retail employment rose by 9,400, while construction added 5,000 jobs.
There we also gains in transportation and warehousing jobs, which increased 17,100. Financial services employment increased 13,000, and education and health payrolls surged 49,000.
Government payrolls rose 10,000 after increasing 45,000 in August. The gains last month largely reflected state and local government teaching jobs.
However, temporary help jobs, which are often seen as a harbinger of permanent hiring, fell 2,000, and manufacturing payrolls dropped 16,000, a second straight monthly decline. Job losses in the computer and electronics and the transportation sectors led the manufacturing decline.
Average hourly earnings rose 7 cents last month, the largest increase since June, which could support consumer spending, and the length of the average work week also increased slightly, another sign of strength.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Andy Sullivan in Washington, Mark Felsenthal in Fairfax, Virginia and Steve Holland in Abingdon, Virginia; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Andrea Ricci and Andrew Hay)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 7.8 percent in September and reached its lowest level since President Barack Obama took office, providing a boost to his re-election bid.
The Labor Department said on Friday that employers added 114,000 workers to their payrolls last month, a moderate number, but it said a combined 86,000 more jobs were created in the prior two months than it had previously thought.
Other aspects of the report also were strong. In particular, a separate survey of households found a big surge in hiring. That pushed the jobless rate down by 0.3 percentage point to its lowest level since January 2009.
"It's a good report. The picture is still not a great one, but it's not so bad given the unusual headwinds that we have been faced with," said Ray Stone, an economist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey.
Obama said the report showed the economy was making progress while his Republican challenger Mitt Romney said the labor market was not healing fast enough.
Businesses have been hesitant to hire out of concern the U.S. recovery could take a hit from a sharp tightening of the federal budget next year, any worsening of the debt crisis in Europe and a slowdown in the global economy.
So far this year, job gains have averaged 146,000 per month, compared with 153,000 per month in 2011.
Economists had expected the unemployment rate to rise to 8.2 percent in September. The drop last month came even as Americans returned to the labor force to resume the hunt for work. The workforce had shrunk in the prior two months.
The household survey, which can be very volatile month-to-month, showed employment increased 873,000 -- the first rise in three months and the biggest since June 1983. But two-thirds of those were Americans who took a part time job even though they wanted full-time work, a fact that took a bit of the shine off the report.
Economists generally pay the most attention to the job growth figures from the much larger survey of employers. Over time, the surveys track each other, although many economists say the household survey sometimes takes the lead when trends shift.
Taken together, economists said the report broadly signaled a healthier labor market. The employment-to-population ratio, or the proportion of the working-age population with a job, increased to its highest level since May 2010.
Stocks on Wall Street initially rose, with the Dow Jones industrial average touching its highest point in almost five years, but they later retreated to close little changed as investors took profits. The dollar hit a two-week high against the yen, while U.S. Treasury debt prices fell.
U.S. interest rate futures also slipped as traders bet an improving jobs market could lead the Federal Reserve to back off its monetary stimulus earlier than had been expected.
A Reuters poll of top bond dealers, however, showed expectations holding firm that the Fed would end up buying $600 billion under a new stimulus program announced last month.
SPIN DOCTORS
There now remains only one more employment report before the November 6 election, and that comes just four days before voters go to the polls.
"We are moving forward," Obama said as he plead his case during a campaign rally in a Washington suburb. "After losing about 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, our businesses have now added 5.2 million new jobs over the past 2-1/2 years."
"This country has come too far to turn back now."
Despite the progress, the economy is still about 4.5 million jobs short of where it stood when the 2007-09 recession started and Romney sought to remind voters that the labor market was still far from healthy.
"There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month and the unemployment rate, you know, this year has come down very, very slowly," Romney told a large crowd of supporters in Abingdon, Virginia. "The reason it has come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work."
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed Romney narrowing the gap with Obama to only two points since Wednesday's presidential debate, but analysts said Obama was due to get a lift from the jobs numbers.
"Good economic news is good political news. President Obama needed that after the debate and it gives him numerical evidence that his policies are working," said Julian Zelizer of Princeton University.
The surprise drop in the jobless rate led former General Electric CEO Jack Welch to suggest in a tweet that the numbers had somehow been doctored. "These Chicago guys will do anything," he said in a reference to Obama's campaign operation. Welch is a Reuters columnist.
Alan Krueger, a top economic adviser to Obama, said it was irresponsible to question the credibility of the numbers. "That's a ludicrous comment. No serious person believes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates its statistics," he told Reuters Insider television.
Economists and the BLS also dismissed the conspiracy theory.
FED LIKELY TO KEEP FOOT ON THE GAS
Persistently poor labor market conditions led the Fed in September to announce a plan to buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities each month until it sees a sustained turnaround in employment.
Despite the brighter signs on the jobs market, analysts said the central bank is unlikely to back off its stimulus anytime soon. After its last meeting, it said it planned to keep policy easy for "a considerable time" even after the recovery strengthened.
"This will be welcome news for the Fed, but given that the unemployment rate remains well above levels deemed consistent with full employment, their policy stance is unlikely to change," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.
The Fed's ultra-easy stance has started to free up credit. A report from the Fed showed consumer credit rebounded strongly in August after posting its first decline in nearly a year in July.
Easier credit is supporting retail sales and home construction. Retail employment rose by 9,400, while construction added 5,000 jobs.
There we also gains in transportation and warehousing jobs, which increased 17,100. Financial services employment increased 13,000, and education and health payrolls surged 49,000.
Government payrolls rose 10,000 after increasing 45,000 in August. The gains last month largely reflected state and local government teaching jobs.
However, temporary help jobs, which are often seen as a harbinger of permanent hiring, fell 2,000, and manufacturing payrolls dropped 16,000, a second straight monthly decline. Job losses in the computer and electronics and the transportation sectors led the manufacturing decline.
Average hourly earnings rose 7 cents last month, the largest increase since June, which could support consumer spending, and the length of the average work week also increased slightly, another sign of strength.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Andy Sullivan in Washington, Mark Felsenthal in Fairfax, Virginia and Steve Holland in Abingdon, Virginia; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Andrea Ricci and Andrew Hay)
Chocolate market shrinks in Europe.
Stressed snackers shun chocolate as Europe's crisis bites
By Sarah McFarlane
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's economic crisis is nibbling away at demand for chocolate, the affordable treat once thought of as recession proof.
Times are tough enough now that even the market for this modest luxury is struggling in Europe, analysts say.
"For the first part of the recession we thought chocolate would be recession proof, and then we said recession resistant, and now I think people are just getting ground down," said Marcia Mogelonsky, global food and drink analyst at Mintel.
"I have not seen this much of a slowing in the market in the time I've been watching it."
Market researchers Mintel said that while the global chocolate market value will be little changed on the year at $84.5 billion in 2012, Western Europe's chocolate market value is set to fall by around 5 percent.
"Chocolate usually does better than average fast moving consumer goods because chocolate is the archetype of cheap indulgence so it's the last thing people will drop," said Jean-Jacques Vandenheede, European director for retail insights at research firm Nielsen.
The firm recorded its first ever fall in volumes for the fast moving consumer goods sector - made up of low value items which sell quickly - in the second quarter of 2012 since it began monitoring it in 2007.
"If the economic outlook continues to be as sombre as it is now people are not going to rally, they are going to hunker down even more, and spend even less on food, even on chocolate," Mogelonsky said.
The firm estimates Western Europe's chocolate market value in 2012 will fall to around $30 billion, from $31.7 billion the previous year.
Europe and North America are the largest and most mature chocolate markets, which prohibits growth to an extent.
"You have to bear in mind the market is pretty mature so there's not much room for volume growth - regardless of the economic environment - in most Western European countries," said Lee Linthicum, global head of food research at Euromonitor International.
Portugal and Italy will see some of the sharpest falls in market value in Western Europe for 2012. Mintel forecast, at minus 11 percent and minus 7 percent respectively.
The world's largest chocolate products maker Barry Callebaut has said that during the first nine months of its fiscal year 2011/12, double-digit sales in the Americas, Asia and eastern Europe helped offset still sluggish demand in southern Europe.
Mintel data showed the bright spots for growth were in emerging markets in Asia including China, Indonesia and Vietnam, but these countries were starting from a low base.
China's market value was expected to increase by 16 percent in 2012 to $4.6 billion, while Vietnam was up 11 percent at $170 million and Indonesia was up 9 percent to $1.2 billion, according to Mintel figures.
The slowdown in chocolate demand has filtered through to the cocoa market, with cocoa futures on Liffe this week falling to their lowest level since July 25.
European cocoa traders said slowing chocolate demand and poor cocoa processing margins triggered the resale of cocoa beans by major processors last month.
Europe's second-quarter cocoa grind, an indicator of cocoa demand, recorded its sharpest quarterly fall of 17.8 percent from the same period last year, Brussels-based European Cocoa Association (ECA) data showed in July.
Third-quarter grinding data is due to be published by the ECA on October 11 with expectations for further slippage as some traders predicted a fall of up to 20 percent versus the same period last year.
(Reporting by Sarah McFarlane; Editing by Veronica Brown and William Hardy)
By Sarah McFarlane
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's economic crisis is nibbling away at demand for chocolate, the affordable treat once thought of as recession proof.
Times are tough enough now that even the market for this modest luxury is struggling in Europe, analysts say.
"For the first part of the recession we thought chocolate would be recession proof, and then we said recession resistant, and now I think people are just getting ground down," said Marcia Mogelonsky, global food and drink analyst at Mintel.
"I have not seen this much of a slowing in the market in the time I've been watching it."
Market researchers Mintel said that while the global chocolate market value will be little changed on the year at $84.5 billion in 2012, Western Europe's chocolate market value is set to fall by around 5 percent.
"Chocolate usually does better than average fast moving consumer goods because chocolate is the archetype of cheap indulgence so it's the last thing people will drop," said Jean-Jacques Vandenheede, European director for retail insights at research firm Nielsen.
The firm recorded its first ever fall in volumes for the fast moving consumer goods sector - made up of low value items which sell quickly - in the second quarter of 2012 since it began monitoring it in 2007.
"If the economic outlook continues to be as sombre as it is now people are not going to rally, they are going to hunker down even more, and spend even less on food, even on chocolate," Mogelonsky said.
The firm estimates Western Europe's chocolate market value in 2012 will fall to around $30 billion, from $31.7 billion the previous year.
Europe and North America are the largest and most mature chocolate markets, which prohibits growth to an extent.
"You have to bear in mind the market is pretty mature so there's not much room for volume growth - regardless of the economic environment - in most Western European countries," said Lee Linthicum, global head of food research at Euromonitor International.
Portugal and Italy will see some of the sharpest falls in market value in Western Europe for 2012. Mintel forecast, at minus 11 percent and minus 7 percent respectively.
The world's largest chocolate products maker Barry Callebaut has said that during the first nine months of its fiscal year 2011/12, double-digit sales in the Americas, Asia and eastern Europe helped offset still sluggish demand in southern Europe.
Mintel data showed the bright spots for growth were in emerging markets in Asia including China, Indonesia and Vietnam, but these countries were starting from a low base.
China's market value was expected to increase by 16 percent in 2012 to $4.6 billion, while Vietnam was up 11 percent at $170 million and Indonesia was up 9 percent to $1.2 billion, according to Mintel figures.
The slowdown in chocolate demand has filtered through to the cocoa market, with cocoa futures on Liffe this week falling to their lowest level since July 25.
European cocoa traders said slowing chocolate demand and poor cocoa processing margins triggered the resale of cocoa beans by major processors last month.
Europe's second-quarter cocoa grind, an indicator of cocoa demand, recorded its sharpest quarterly fall of 17.8 percent from the same period last year, Brussels-based European Cocoa Association (ECA) data showed in July.
Third-quarter grinding data is due to be published by the ECA on October 11 with expectations for further slippage as some traders predicted a fall of up to 20 percent versus the same period last year.
(Reporting by Sarah McFarlane; Editing by Veronica Brown and William Hardy)
New lower priced, entry level Range Rover Evoque.
Land Rover has introduced a new entry-level Range Rover Evoque for the US with fewer toys and a lower price tag.
It’s quite hard to believe that the USA has taken to the Range Rover Evoque considering their love for full size SUVs and their general feeling of unease about the reliability of Land Rover’s products.
But take to the Evoque they have, although perhaps not quite in the numbers Land Rover would like. So Land Rover has decided it’s time to make the Evoque a bit cheaper on the other side of the Pond by re-jigging their model range and delivering a new entry-level model.
What that means is that the Evoque that was the ‘Pure’ now becomes the Evoque Pure Plus and Land Rover has delivered a new Evoque Pure without leather seats and with the lovely panoramic roof – so much a part of the Evoque’s cabin ambience – removed and replaced by a lump of aluminium.
That simple tactic reduces the entry price of the Evoque to $42k, closer to the starting point of competition like the BMW X3 xDrive28i (the US Evoque only comes with the 2.0 Si4 engine). The shame is that it takes away a lot of the cabin ambience and probably makes the interior feel smaller – surely the last thing you’d want in a compact SUV in the States?
Wouldn’t it have been a better idea to give the Americans a front wheel drive Range Rover Evoque instead as an entry-level model? At the moment all US Evoques are 4×4, so would it really matter, when the Evoque is being bought as a style statement by city dwellers, if there was a FWD option too?
It’s quite hard to believe that the USA has taken to the Range Rover Evoque considering their love for full size SUVs and their general feeling of unease about the reliability of Land Rover’s products.
But take to the Evoque they have, although perhaps not quite in the numbers Land Rover would like. So Land Rover has decided it’s time to make the Evoque a bit cheaper on the other side of the Pond by re-jigging their model range and delivering a new entry-level model.
What that means is that the Evoque that was the ‘Pure’ now becomes the Evoque Pure Plus and Land Rover has delivered a new Evoque Pure without leather seats and with the lovely panoramic roof – so much a part of the Evoque’s cabin ambience – removed and replaced by a lump of aluminium.
That simple tactic reduces the entry price of the Evoque to $42k, closer to the starting point of competition like the BMW X3 xDrive28i (the US Evoque only comes with the 2.0 Si4 engine). The shame is that it takes away a lot of the cabin ambience and probably makes the interior feel smaller – surely the last thing you’d want in a compact SUV in the States?
Wouldn’t it have been a better idea to give the Americans a front wheel drive Range Rover Evoque instead as an entry-level model? At the moment all US Evoques are 4×4, so would it really matter, when the Evoque is being bought as a style statement by city dwellers, if there was a FWD option too?
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