They Called Apple's Jony Ive Batty for his Thoughts About the iPhone

Jony Ive, perhaps more than anyone not named Steve Jobs, helped kick off the smartphone era as we know it with the launch of the iPhone.

CNN:  Apple's Jony Ive: Some people 'misuse' iPhones

Jony Ive is one of Apple's Big Dawgs and right up there with Steve Jobs.  Probably no-one else in the world knows so much about the iPhone or had so much to do with designing them so it surprised people when he had the following to say about them.

When asked to assess how the iPhone has changed the world, Apple's design guru offered a sober assessment.

"Like any tool, you can see there's wonderful use and then there's misuse," Ive, now Apple's chief design officer, said on stage at the New Yorker TechFest on Friday.

Pressed for what he considers a "misuse" of the iPhone, Ive replied: "Perhaps, constant use."

At Apple (AAPL, Tech30) events, Ive typically talks up the materials and process that go into creating the company's shiny gadgets. But the brief exchange acknowledges a dark side of these products: screen addiction and a detachment from the world around you.

- CNN

Zen Yogi:  what a crashing failure to have your product overused and in heavy demand (snort)

In some ways he's right when we can look any direction to see people tap, tap, tapping on their iPhones as they search for Nirvana or some such.


Ive has a crafty answer to the problem he sees and, what do you know, that means an Apple product.

In response to a question about whether he personally checks his email constantly, Ive said: "With my new [Apple] watch, I tend to not."

- CNN

Zen Yogi:  that doesn't really solve the problem so much as goes around it but it probably won't go far around compulsive texting

Why not, Yogi?

Zen Yogi:  just as with endless phone calls and nonstop texting while in public, they serve as shields against an unknown but possibly hostile vibe from the world.

Maybe that's just their paranoia and they need to deal with that.

Zen Yogi:  they are dealing with it, my non-furry friend, since they didn't invent the paranoia and news, etc gleefully promotes that paranoia at every turn

Fair enough, Yogi.  There are many solutions to news-generated paranoia which we may deem better but they, whomever they may be, have chosen this one and it seems to work for them.  It's logical to withdraw from a world gone mad in which they hear people talking about humanity but don't mean it so they will create some real humanity of their own.

I saw it with the Pilgrimages in which no-one had anything in particular to say about rubbish from the news but there was humanity and love unfolding all around.

Zen Yogi:  the best way to find humanity is to make some yourself?

That works every time, Yogi.