This Apple hating has to stop

I just came off this appalling diatribe by Dan Lyons.

Almost nobody, it seems, can manage a basic logical thought flow for all the rush of blood to the head around iPhone announcement time. Before making any kind of judgement, people really need to get over the idea that Apple owes them something.

What's that? They didn't innovate fast enough for your liking? They set such high standards in innovation and delightful design that you're feeling disappointed now? And that this is somehow newsworthy?

It's simply pointless looking at the Apple vs Samsung debate as a metric for judging comparative innovation. Patent laws are a joke, everybody knows that. Yes it's ridiculous that Apple can patent the round corners on their iOS icons. But Samsung are not without legal help. The laws are out there for any company to take advantage of. The battle you see is quite normal and very common in tech these days. You only have to look at Kodak, Motorola, etc.

Which brings me to my next point - just because you now know what the word innovation or interface means, does not mean you're allowed to use those words to generate clicks. And it does not mean that your idea of innovation (the bigger screened Samsung) is the correct idea of innovation.

Mr Lyons has no idea about the fundamentals of design. "Apple got where it was by taking bold risks. Now it has become a company that copies others and plays it safe." Well Mr Lyons they certainly took the risk of disappointing you.



When the iPhone 5 came out with more incremental but nonetheless noticeable improvements, personally, it tells me that they are EVEN MORE serious about making a good phone.

And more: "Today it's a Toyota Camry. Safe, reliable, boring. The car your mom drives. The car that's so popular that its maker doesn't dare mess with the formula." This is called unobtrusive design, among other good things. This is design. And is precisely what Steve would have wanted.

The iOS interface hasn't changed since 2007 because it's awesome. Just know this.

...Omega watches are great and all but you know those little hands on the face still just mostly go around in a circle. I'm wanting something a little more ENGAGING and INTUITIVE maybe, perhaps with a better INTERFACE. You know like maybe a fourth or fifth hand, or maybe just more diamond encrusting...?!

Fast food shitshow

My new thing at South African chain-type and quick service restaurants is to first see if there are more staff than customers at any given time. If there are, I leave immediately and make another plan.

There's something about having a manager, three sub-managers and ten waiters standing around looking as pathetic as ever - three to poke the credit card machine to get it to work, another three to welcome people into the place - you know the vibe.

Look inside a Nandos, it's a shitshow. Three customers wanting something fairly basic, and twelve staff completley spinning in the kitchen - with those operating the cash register always very upset with the sods deep-frying stuff in the back. Every single time... How are they not coping? Go somewhere with one or two staff and 15 customers and presto, shit gets done.

Human Resources!

Why does no-one understand these people? Are they in fact a species unto themselves? Why are they slow to communicate, why do they leave work early to "miss the traffic", or generally create some kind of progress blockage when you least need it?

I say this out of deep concern for people and business. The value-add tends to be tenuous and erratic, and I have have long been unable to get my head around how any one role could with such blinding consistency be the sore thumb of so many organisations and industries.

For me the problem comes in when, on one random day, you meet an HR person that really knows what they're doing. And I mean in every way knows why they are there and what value they are going to add that day to their company.

I'm writing this because I met one such HR person recently. (I'm not going to say where this happened to me because I just feel that would be unfair). And now, all of a sudden, I feel justified in my past judgements about every time I've met a rotten one. It really was quite an eye-opener. This one event seems to me all the confirmation I need that, while there are gems out there - and all kudos to them - the rest are largely not qualified to leave the house, much less hold down a job of their own or attempt to co-ordinate other people's work-lives for them.

How ironic that it's one of the very few pukka people jobs out there. I'm now even more bewildered than before.