Jony Ive

Apple wins 26 patents, including multitouch and more

Ed Sutherland ∙ January 22, 2013

Apple was granted more than two dozen patents today, including technology for multitouch sensors dating back to 2007, when the original iPhone debuted. Also approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Apple patents covering the iOS magnifying loupe, noise-cancellation and even product packaging.

The multitouch patent, which covers the layout of screen sensors in the first iPhone, as well as future touch devices, follows a broad patent granted earlier this year covering a wide range of potential uses for multitouch, including aircraft instruments. For some time, Apple and its chief rival Samsung have fought over patents, culminating in a $1 billion victory for Apple, which charged the South Korean company infringed upon technology owned by the iPhone maker...

Apple awarded design patent for original iPhone by Jobs and Ive

Cody Lee ∙ December 18, 2012

In a world where the company with the biggest and baddest IP portfolio reigns king, Apple is superior. It's proven this on a number of occasions, most recently by winning a settlement of over $1 billion from Samsung in a northern California trial.

Today, it adds another interesting patent to the stack. The US Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the Cupertino company a patent for the design of the original iPhone, released in 2007, and created in part by Steve Jobs and Jony Ive...

Former Apple designer Loren Brichter talks about Jony Ive’s new role

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Loren Brichter is a designer and developer with quite an impressive track record. He's created popular apps like Tweetie and Letterpress. And he was also a member of the original iPhone team at Apple.

So needless to say, when Brichter talks, people listen. And he recently sat down with the folks at GigaOM and gave his thoughts on a few things, including Apple's shakeup, and Jony Ive's new role...

Apple awarded significant iPad design patent

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Yesterday afternoon, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple 29 new patents. Two of them are design-related — one covers retail packaging, and the other covers the iPad's exterior design.

The latter patent is fairly significant, in that it covers the look of Apple's popular tablet. You know how a lot of people said that Apple shouldn't be allowed to patent a rectangle with rounded edges? Well it just did...

Apple’s software problems go deeper than skeuomorphism

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

Though it took a lot of people by surprise, the overall feeling on Scott Forstall leaving Apple is mostly positive. The long-time SVP has been painted as extremely difficult to work with, and the leading advocate for the controversial skeuomorphic elements in iOS.

Forstall's duties will be split up among several executives, with all Human Interface stuff, for both hardware and software, now rolling up to Jony Ives. A lot of folks think Ive's talent for aesthetics will transfer over to software and give iOS a much needed makeover.

But are rich Corinthian leathers and dark linen backgrounds Apple's biggest problems in software?

Jony Ive expected to ditch reality for greater minimalism

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Do you love that linen-like background when logging into your iOS or Mac device? Well, it could be the most visible fatality as minimalism overtakes realism and design chief Jonathan Ive takes the reigns once held by iOS honcho Scott Forstall. That noise you hear is the splintering of the Jobs era and Cook era at Apple.

Forstall, who headed iOS development, was also the chief cheerleader of the late Steve Jobs. Jobs loved what design geeks term skeuomorphism, a Greek word meaning a tool's shape. In computer design, placing realistic objects - such as linen on a screen or ebooks stored in a wooden bookshelf - are used to lend a sense of assurance, like seeing a familiar face among a crowd of strangers.

But with Jobs gone, voices within the Cupertino, California firm which simply hated this sort of design gained volume. A particularly vehement enemy of Forstall's design philosophy: Industrial design guru Jony Ive...

Shake ups and shufflings: some thoughts on the new Apple

Sébastien Page ∙ October 30, 2012

If there's one thing that really came as a surprise this month, it's certainly not the iPad mini, or any other product announcement, but the executives shake up and shuffling at Apple. SVP of Retail John Browett is gone, and that's a good thing, and really, hardly a surprise. The biggest surprise was that he was hired in the first place. The real bombshell in yesterday's abrupt announcement is the departure of SVP of iOS Software, Scott Forstall.

Although it was the biggest kick, Apple's press release also told us that Ive would now be in charge of Human Interface (aka everything design), iOS and OS X groups are now one, Maps and Siri are now part of the Internet Services unit, and Mansfield will lead the new Technologies group.

Now that we've gathered a little more information about the news and that I've had time to really soak it in, I'd like to share my thoughts on the situation, and what it all means for the new Apple...

Apple nearly shelved the iPhone because it wasn’t good enough

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 31, 2012

Despite producing multiple iPhone prototypes (here, here and here) leading up to its blockbuster 2007 release, the company's brain trust nearly shelved the project because it didn't believe the device was up to Apple's exacting standards of what a mobile phone should be, Cupertino's vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive revealed in an interview.

One of the issues that had the team consider axing the iPhone involved the device's touchscreen accidentally initiating a phone call when put against one's ear. Apple later solved this by equipping the iPhone with a proximity sensor which automatically turns off the display to prevent spray input from your face...

Jony Ive on Apple’s design and business principles

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

"Apple's goal is not to make money, but to make good products", is the key quote from Wired's exclusive one-on-one with Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design. The article touches upon several interesting topics dealing with Apple's design acumen, its business philosophy and some of the inner processes that guide decision-making at the world's most-valued public corporation.

It's timely, too. Today, Apple and Samsung have started duking it out in a mega-trial in the U.S. over who copied whom. A bunch of pre-trial briefs have already offered a unique glimpse into Apple's jealously guarded design process by revealing numerous device prototypes, from the octagonal iPhone to the Sony-inspired design to the 'Purple' 2005 thing.

Interestingly, the company's vice presidents Scott Forstall (iOS chief) and Phil Schiller (marketing boss) will both testify in the U.S. trial, but not Ive...