• This forum is for posting news stories or links from rumor sites. When you start a thread, please include a link to the site you're referencing.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM TO ASK "WHAT IF?" TYPE QUESTIONS.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE YOUR MAC OR SOFTWARE.

    This is a NEWS and RUMORS forum as the name implies. If your thread is neither of those things, then please find the appropriate forum to ask your question.

    If you don't have a link to a news story, do not post the thread here.

    If you don't follow these rules, then your post may be deleted.

Ex Apple engineer claims Steve Jobs rejected new Apple TV UI 5 years ago

Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
9,571
Reaction score
25
Points
48
Ex Apple engineer claims Steve Jobs rejected new Apple TV UI 5 years ago

The grid of icons featured in the new Apple TV user interface was rejected five years ago by company co-founder Steve Jobs, a former Apple TV engineer claims.
mf.gif



a2t.img

Read more
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
I for one do not doubt this in the least. I see Tim Cook changing a lot of things that I don't believe Jobs would have been ok with. Some of the changes i am very much against. Unfortunately this time Jobs can't come back and save Apple if they mess it up.
 
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
3,494
Reaction score
204
Points
63
Location
Going Galt...
Your Mac's Specs
MacBookAir5,2:10.13.6-iMac18,3:10.13.6-iPhone9,3:11.4.1
Wouldn't shock me. The new interface sucks.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
1,428
Reaction score
39
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Black MacBook 2.2GHz C2D, 4GB Ram - iMac G4 700MHz, 512MB Ram
I for one do not doubt this in the least. I see Tim Cook changing a lot of things that I don't believe Jobs would have been ok with. Some of the changes i am very much against. Unfortunately this time Jobs can't come back and save Apple if they mess it up.

Agreed. I don't trust Tim Cook, to me he needs to prove that he can be a successful CEO and an asset to Apple as a whole.

So far, he hasn't.
 
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Location
Oak Harbor, WA
Your Mac's Specs
15" Macbook Pro 2.53 Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3,
I think when Tim Cook took over, he had to prove that he could run Apple without the "What would Steve do?" constantly hounding him. I'm under the impression that he fears this and wants to make sure that he isn't labeled as just another Steve Jobs clone either. Unfortunately, I think he is making some bad decisions so as not to be labeled. He is going to be remembered, but only as the guy that turned Apple around to the wrong direction!
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,229
Reaction score
75
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
2.6GHz Core i7 15" MacBook Pro - 8GB DDR3 SDRAM - 750GB 7200 RPM HDD - GeForce 650M GT 1GB VRAM
Wouldn't shock me. The new interface sucks.
Agreed. It feels like lately Apple has decided that since the iPhone/iPad sell well, it means they have to mimic the UI on everything they do, even when it makes no sense to do so.
Agreed. I don't trust Tim Cook, to me he needs to prove that he can be a successful CEO and an asset to Apple as a whole.

So far, he hasn't.
That's a bit harsh. As COO, he did more for the company than almost anyone else that wasn't Steve Jobs, including the streamlining of the supply chain that led to Apple's ability to price the iPad as aggressively as it did. Whether someone whose job focused on the relatively uncreative and efficiency-centric task of getting the company to run as smoothly as possible is the best candidate for CEO is up for debate, though.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
9,962
Reaction score
1,235
Points
113
Location
The Republic of Neptune
Your Mac's Specs
2019 iMac 27"; 2020 M1 MacBook Air; macOS up-to-date... always.
Agreed, I don't believe in Tim Cook either. I love the Apple products and have great expectations on the new products, but it turns out to be great disappointment.:\

What exactly do you find to be a "great disappointment"? As it is, there's nothing out now that Jobs wouldn't have been directly involved in before he passed away. The new iPad wasn't designed and prototyped overnight, and anyone who actually finds that to be disappointing in the first place is a complete nitwit who can't grasp how amazing the engineering had to be to get a device out with the combination of screen resolution, battery life, and performance that it offers.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
1,428
Reaction score
39
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Black MacBook 2.2GHz C2D, 4GB Ram - iMac G4 700MHz, 512MB Ram
That's a bit harsh. As COO, he did more for the company than almost anyone else that wasn't Steve Jobs, including the streamlining of the supply chain that led to Apple's ability to price the iPad as aggressively as it did. Whether someone whose job focused on the relatively uncreative and efficiency-centric task of getting the company to run as smoothly as possible is the best candidate for CEO is up for debate, though.

It may be a bit harsh, but Tim Cook was hand chosen by Steve Jobs to be his replacement, to be the man to take charge and not allow the company to go into a downward spiral, because this time, Steve won't be able to come back and save it like he did in the 90's.

I personally believe Steve was the backbone of Apple, the driving force that made it create such amazing and innovative products. When he died, I had a fear that the company would die with him, I was hoping Time Cook would come through as "The next Steve" so to speak, to become another driving force behind Apple. However, with all of the changes that have been going on, I'm not reassured at all. With Apple supposedly axing the MBP line in April, and this new Apple TV interface being approved when Steve flat out rejected it years ago, I don't know what Apple's future will be like.

This is the first time I've ever seen long time Apple users say a product flat out "sucks". Sure, there have been criticisms in the past, little issues and dislikes, but some people flat out hate the changes that are happening. That's not good.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
9,962
Reaction score
1,235
Points
113
Location
The Republic of Neptune
Your Mac's Specs
2019 iMac 27"; 2020 M1 MacBook Air; macOS up-to-date... always.
I personally believe Steve was the backbone of Apple, the driving force that made it create such amazing and innovative products. When he died, I had a fear that the company would die with him, I was hoping Time Cook would come through as "The next Steve" so to speak, to become another driving force behind Apple. However, with all of the changes that have been going on, I'm not reassured at all. With Apple supposedly axing the MBP line in April, and this new Apple TV interface being approved when Steve flat out rejected it years ago, I don't know what Apple's future will be like.

Apple is not "supposedly" axing the MBP line. A manufacturing partner is claiming that Apple is about to roll out a 15" MBA and is SPECULATING that doing so would kill demand for the 15" MBP. Not that APPLE will kill it outright… MARKET DEMAND would shift away from it and force Apple to kill it down the road. Again… they are SPECULATING! Apple didn't kill the 13" MBP just because they brought out a 13" MBA. When are you guys going to stop taking random rumors and speculation by 3rd parties as godsend?

This is the first time I've ever seen long time Apple users say a product flat out "sucks". Sure, there have been criticisms in the past, little issues and dislikes, but some people flat out hate the changes that are happening. That's not good.

Not I. A lot of people got their undies all twisted when Apple introduced the unibody 13" MBP without firewire. You'd think the world had come to an end, even though the 13" white MacBook still had firewire and was still available for sale as a budget option. Interestingly, no one seemed to care when firewire eventually dropped of the white MB. There's more examples, but anywho… the new ATV interface doesn't particularly bother me, and quite frankly Jobs has been known to change his mind about his past decisions. Heck… the iPhone would have had Intel hardware over ARM if one of his executives hadn't threatened to resign if he went with Intel.

Actually I wouldn't say that the ATV's new interface doesn't bother me so much as there are other elements to the ATV's UI that do bother me that really need fixing. Just for starters… needing iTunes open just to stream something from my media library is ridiculous. I'd rather have a persistent server or something running in the background. And scrolling through large lists of media is pretty painful. At the least, TV shows shouldn't have each season listed separately at the root level. And so on and so on…

EDIT: by the way… you should read this clarification about that engineer's comments regarding Jobs' rejection of the UI:
New Apple TV Uses Designs "Tossed Out 5 Years Ago" by Steve Jobs

Update: In a comment, Michael Margolis clarified the UI and the elements Steve Jobs took issue with:

The new UI shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. There is a clear effort at Apple to make everything match the look and feel of their popular iOS products – starting with Lion and increasing momentum with Mountain Lion.

To be clear – he didn’t like the original grid. This was before the iPhone was popular and before the iPad even existed.

Given that the iPad is far more successful than the AppleTV, migrating the AppleTV to look more like the iPad was probably a very smart move – even if some of the users of the old UI don’t prefer the new one.

Jobs passed away barely 4 months ago. I rather doubt Cook immediately took to making snap decisions to start changing things. More likely than not, the new ATV UI was already under revision with Jobs' full involvement.
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,229
Reaction score
75
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
2.6GHz Core i7 15" MacBook Pro - 8GB DDR3 SDRAM - 750GB 7200 RPM HDD - GeForce 650M GT 1GB VRAM
It may be a bit harsh, but Tim Cook was hand chosen by Steve Jobs to be his replacement, to be the man to take charge and not allow the company to go into a downward spiral, because this time, Steve won't be able to come back and save it like he did in the 90's.

I personally believe Steve was the backbone of Apple, the driving force that made it create such amazing and innovative products. When he died, I had a fear that the company would die with him, I was hoping Time Cook would come through as "The next Steve" so to speak, to become another driving force behind Apple. However, with all of the changes that have been going on, I'm not reassured at all. With Apple supposedly axing the MBP line in April, and this new Apple TV interface being approved when Steve flat out rejected it years ago, I don't know what Apple's future will be like.

This is the first time I've ever seen long time Apple users say a product flat out "sucks". Sure, there have been criticisms in the past, little issues and dislikes, but some people flat out hate the changes that are happening. That's not good.

A) I was criticizing your assessment of Tim Cook not being an asset to the company when you'd be hard pressed to find anyone at the company that did more for it in the last decade other than Steve Jobs. He was the COO for quite some time, after all.

B) The new wave of MacBook Air dominance and iOS-ification in general are trends that started because Steve Jobs wanted it that way. Just about the only huge decision Apple has revealed recently that I would say was probably a result of Cook straying from Jobs' path was the decision to pay out dividends. I'm not even sure Jobs would hold the same opinion of the AppleTV UI today, since he said that before iOS-ification was a huge thing for Apple (though it does still suck).

C) You haven't followed Apple for very long if you honestly believe this is the first time people have said something of theirs flat-out sucks. MobileMe in particular was universally shunned as a terrible service that Apple should have been ashamed to charge money for, even by Steve Jobs himself. Large video editing studios that work on TV shows and the like similarly criticized Final Cut X. And if we want to get into products that people said flat-out sucked at first but then warmed up to, the list gets quite long and includes such marvels as the MacBook Air and the original iPod.
 
Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
4,695
Reaction score
73
Points
48
Location
houston texas
Your Mac's Specs
09 MBP 8GB ram 500GB HD OS 10.9 32B iPad 4 32GB iPhone 5 iOs7 2TB TC Apple TV3
My take on this everything that has happened or will happen with the product ,design and function was on the drawing board long before Steve passed away and for the next couple of years after that its anyones guess. If you read how long they play with a product before anyone gets access to
it I would not be surprised if there were completely new products that Steve had a hand in we have yet to know about and probably for the next 3 years he was famous for thinking ahead.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top