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App Developer Diary Part 1: Game On

Written on June 26, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 10 people have commented

This is the first installment of one journalist’s diary designing a game. It is a genuine, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to develop an app, from conception to release, for Apple’s iPhone.
This isn’t your regular developer diary. There’ll be no talk of code and classes, no discussion of the intricacy of integers or vileness [...]

Weekly App Store Picks: June 13, 2009

Written on June 13, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 5 people have commented

Your head might be spinning from the torrent of Apple happenings at WWDC this week, but fear not, I’ve got the cure: fresh picks from the App Store.
It’s been an exciting week for TheAppleBlog, with our correspondents posting live from WWDC in San Jose; we’ve been covering the event from all angles. Before we look [...]

New iPhone Icons Uncovered in SDK Beta 5

Written on May 26, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

While they may not reveal revolutionary changes, some graphic elements found deep in the iPhone SDK beta 5 do add to the mounting pile of evidence indicating Apple is indeed planning an iPhone hardware update in the near future. The images in question are icons associated with “iPhone2,1″, which is internal Apple code for the [...]

Media Production on a Budget: Adobe Creative Suite Alternatives

Written on April 09, 2009 by Nick Santilli and 21 people have commented

OS X has long been labeled the platform for “creatives,” though in recent years it’s finally becoming known for more than that. Adobe’s Creative Suite is generally regarded as the crown-jewel of digital design, and they’re priced to match.
So what if you’re a cash-strapped creative who wants to find some alternatives to Adobe’s popular suite [...]

Weekly App Store Roundup: Feb, 14th. 2009

Written on February 14, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 6 people have commented

Get your spoon and prepare to swallow a whole tub of awesome because we’ve got the freshest picks from the App Store to stuff in your mouth.
Before we get in to the latest releases, I’ve got a couple of interesting picks from the week’s Apple news.
First big thing, file sharing has been activated for MobileMe. [...]

The Apple Experience

Written on November 03, 2008 by Clayton Lai and 67 people have commented

Maybe it is because I am a recent switcher that I notice details long-time Mac owners may take for granted, details that are so minute yet so useful and so quintessentially ‘human’. The level of attention painstakingly paid to the many small details found on every Apple product is a testament to Apple’s design philosophy, [...]

Adobe set to announce CS4 later this month

Written on September 03, 2008 by Josh Pigford and 1 person has commented

Yesterday it was announced that Adobe will be announcing (gotta love announcements announcing announcements) Creative Suite 4 on September 23rd.
Adobe will be holding a special little event online showing all of the upcoming features of CS4 (which is rumored to be released as early as this Fall).
For those hip to trying out beta products, you [...]

2008 Apple Design Awards

Written on June 12, 2008 by Jethro Jones and 2 people have commented

It is that time of year again. Time to drool over the best designed apps for Macs and iPhones. Absent from this year’s list, Delicious Library 2, which won Best Leopard App last year. Let us know if you use any of these apps. My favorite thing about these awards is that you get introduced [...]

Want to design the future of Apple’s Pro Apps?

Written on February 07, 2008 by Eddie Hargreaves and 2 people have commented

Do you possess a relentless attention to detail, a gifted eye for aesthetics and the ability to quickly grasp and distill highly complex matters? Then you just may be qualified to design future versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion and Soundtrack Pro!
Apple always has job openings, but it’s a bit rarer that they post one at [...]

Apple’s New Look

Written on December 17, 2007 by Arvin Dang and 12 people have commented

Apple certainly did “Think Different” when they began using the white body iMacs. Soon it transcended across all Apple products and accessories. Is a new trend coming? One away from the white light?
From the launch of the iPhone it became clear that Apple was reinventing their look. All previous artist renderings referred to Apple’s classic [...]

MSN Admits Zune is Ugly

Written on October 12, 2007 by Todd Baur and 27 people have commented

I saw a post on the homepage of MSN today for the top design disasters of the tech world. Guess what made the list? Our friend the brown Zune. Good to see Microsoft has some humor in itself, even if it is a stretch from one of their affiliate companies.

Apple.com Redesign Emulates OS Functionality

Written on September 08, 2007 by Nick Santilli and 10 people have commented

If you don’t know that Apple thinks-through every minute detail of the things they do, you haven’t been a fan long enough. Take a long look at the hardware, the software, and the retail stores and your appreciation for the level of thought Apple puts into every thing they do should grow immensely. [...]

Shiny Things

Written on August 08, 2007 by Stephanie Guertin and 3 people have commented

There was a mention on TUAW the other day of a version of the System Preferences icon made to look like the one from Leopard. Being both excited about Leopard and and very fond of changing my system icons, I took a look – and was very pleasantly surprised.

The icon is quite nice, and [...]

Oh, it’s like an iPhone for your house

Written on August 07, 2007 by Iyaz Akhtar and 15 people have commented

“Oh, it looks like an iPhone.”  That was my wife’s opinion when she took a look at the brand new iMac.  I thought the black bezel looked out of place on a Mac.  I didn’t understand the thought behind the design.  When my wife mentioned the iMac’s similarity to the iPhone, I thought she hit [...]

Apple announces new keyboard…and officially makes the wireless version lame

Written on August 07, 2007 by Josh Pigford and 34 people have commented

Today Apple announced a brand new shiny keyboard. It’s sculpted out of beautiful aluminum is freakishly thing.
But with all the hype they managed to leave out some major differences in the wired vs. wireless versions.

The top keyboard in that image is the wired and the bottom is the wireless/bluetooth version.
Yes, those are to scale.
No, the [...]

Usability – Leopard Dock and iTunes

Written on June 25, 2007 by Jason Terhorst and 9 people have commented

In school, when working on UI development and web applications, I focused greatly on users and how they would interact with the application to accomplish tasks as part of a larger workflow. One of the key things that we have to try to focus on when designing interfaces is to come to a mental model [...]

New TAB Live

Written on June 18, 2007 by Josh Pigford and 43 people have commented

Well we launched the brand-spankin’ new TAB this evening. The transition was relatively flawless…which is always a plus.
I’ll have a full writeup in the morning about new features and what not, so look for that.
In the meantime, if you notice any bugs/browser quirks/etc, please either post them here or contact us.
There is still quite a [...]

Apple Design Awards 2007 Announced

Written on June 12, 2007 by Nick Santilli and 3 people have commented

Glenn Wolsey points out that the Design Awards have been named for WWDC 2007. You can see them by category, here.
A quick rundown:
Delicious Library 2 goes home with the Best Leopard Application award – can’t wait to get a look at that piece of software, eh?
Coda takes the Best User Experience award – [...]