Queen honors iPod designer

The chief designer of Apple's digital music player was named in the Queen's Honours List.

The story "Queen honors iPod designer" published December 31, 2005 at 1:10 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[assman]

ha wow..

the queen of england awards a tech company designer the 'star of gold' (not real name.. but might as well be).

well i bet if the chief designer happened to be american, he wouldn't get any english award..

anyway, England REALLY needs to get with the times. enough with the empires and chivalry and queens and princesses and all that crap. comon, get with the times! MODERN TIMES!

..ok sorry for the lame rant.

[macnut222]

Increase you knowledge

"well i bet if the chief designer happened to be american, he
wouldn't get any english award.."

Even if Jon Ive were American, he would have been eligible for
this honour. Of note, Her Majesty has honoured several
Americans - Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg and Rudi Giuliani come
to mind. Each of them receiving higher honours than the British-
born Jon Ive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3428673.stm

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page489.asp

[Kel_Solaar]

Aggreed.

So should Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Its all outdated. The king and queen hold no power, so its really a big black hole draining the peoples taxes.

Sure its nice, but so is a president and congress. (which I prefer.)

[macnut222]

To cnet: Headline innacuracy?

I think the title should read: "Queen honors iPod designer".

To have the title only read "...iPod designer" does a great
injustice to Jon Ive's work. As you article does mention, he was
the head designer behind the three revisions of the iMac, iBook,
PowerBook, Power Mac, Power Mac G4 Cube, Mac mini, Apple
Displays as well as the five generations of "full-sized" iPod, iPod
mini, iPod nano and iPod shuffle (probably some of the
accessories as well).

I know that the title and article are straight from Reuters, but I
still feel it's not a fair reflection of Ive's career at Apple.

[KsprayDad]

Fanboys

Is there any way to email this story directly to all Steve Jobs Fanboys so they will stop insisting that HE INVENTED the iPod!

[Joe Blow]

Umm ... "Design" Is a Lonnnng Way from Engineering ...

I'll admit that I need to do some in-depth research, but if I understand this guy's job title, he's an artiste or, at most, an industrial engineer, not a number-crunching, code-breathing hardware or software engineer. Companies like Tangerine (that Ives worked for) and Frog Design mostly do the eye candy parts of products, and then toss it over a wall to the real engineers who actually do the really hard stuff. I'm not saying folks like Ives don't do or contribute anything to the wild success of products like the iPod, but there's a huge difference between carving blocks of foam into cute shapes that are nearly impossible to make into real products, and the process of actually making them into real products. The very hardest part of the overall design process may be the manufacturability portion, where you take the hardware "breadboard" and software designs that are done in parallel with the product's look-and-feel design, and then figure out how to cram all that stuff into a box that is physically too small, doesn't have enough air circulation, requires too much power, and otherwise requires severe bending of the time-space continuum and the laws of physics as we understand them - and then rinse and repeat upwards of hundreds of millions of times in factories where the workers can't even understand how to use the products they make, much less afford them. Look-and-feel design is what I believe Ives used to do - and he's now probably mostly a manager who gives the nod to designs that the young upstarts of the next generation are coming up with, critiquing and adding/changing details as the process proceeds.

As for the design process for the magical "innards" that perform all of the functionality, almost no one develops the most complex products on actual breadboard anymore - it's all done via CAD software, simulations, emulators, and a whole bunch of other virtual tools. Apple was one of the first, if not the first, to develop an entire personal computer running in a simulation on a supercomputer - it was probably one of the first PowerPC desktop machines, but it may have even been the Apple ///.

Before the entire look-and-feel design community descends on my head en masse, I'm not dissing them at all, I'm just pointing out that there's a lot more to any product's success than some wispy lines on a sketchpad and carved foam blocks that outline sexy curves and user interface screen shots. Some poor slob still has to "Make it so" as Captain Jean Luc Picard would say (see, I told you I was a real geek). Where are the knighthoods for the guys and gals who do all of that work? It certainly isn't the CTO or VP of Engineering in any company, much less the Chief Designer or CEO. I'm no fan of the way Jobs abuses people, since he couldn't design his way out of paper bag with an in-circuit emulator, a compiler, or a Crayola. However, he does seem to do OK as Chief Marketing Officer and Final Arbiter of Choices Others Work Their Butts Off Designing And Then Present To His Heinieness For Approval.

Yes, I hail from the pocket-protector community with advanced engineering and science degrees, and am damned proud of it. However, I also got the highest grades in both the art elective courses I took at every level of school (every one that was offered) and engineering drawing (a lot more than just drafting, as physical and functional details have to be deconflicted). As an example of the products I've helped design are the TiVo (but, I'm just one person on core teams of about 30 people, and overall teams involving well over 100), and there is no one person that can be pointed to who designed whole TiVo products on their own.

So, I'm not all that impressed by people who would even accept this kind of "honor" without insisting that everyone involved also receive it. Oh, silly me, I forgot that this is the Age of the Cultivation of Persona and Ego (aka the Me Generation) and that Celebrities must be created on a continuing basis, lest The Media become bored without something new to publish every single second, 24/7. Never mind the fact that the people who used to receive this type of award were those who often sacrificed everything for the survival of their nation and freedom for humanity. You haven't lived until you've eaten the last slice of bread you're going to get for months because it needs to go to the troops on the front lines, which is the kind of thing earlier recipients of the CBE, etc., went through during the World Wars. Peace is nice, but rock stars and foam carvers do not true heroes make, I'm sorry to tell you.

How about limiting these honors to people who have actually accomplished something substantial for humankind while personally suffering at least somewhat, like engineers who climb into helicopters flown by Third World country pilots, so they can get construction going on water treatment plants and hospitals so that sick kids can be treated in war, drought, and famine afflicted areas in Africa and Asia, and massive earthquake-stricken places like Pakistan and Indonesia?

The engineering community needs something akin to the Nobel prizes (only the sciences and academic pursuits of Alfred Nobel's time are represented in the prizes named for him, which is way short of everything going on today in the 21st Century). Dean Kamen's new promotion of the old national science fairs that Westinghouse used to sponsor (yeah, I won a prize at one of those many, many years ago) is a step in the right direction, but there should be a ceremony that gets at least the exposure (and we can only wish for the ratings) that things like the Oscars (TM - gotta keep those lawyers happy, right?), Grammys (TM some more), and Peoples Choice Awards garner. Why would anyone in developed countries go into hard engineering nowadays, what with everything beyond a fast-food job not-so-gradually being outsourced to China and India, unless they just love it, and a little publicity couldn't hurt. If you think it's frustrating now the way things are designed by your neighbors, just wait until the guy/gal responsible for designing something backwards has never even driven a car, or used such an appliance, much less owned one.

Well, time to get back to work on some really vexing designs for more stuff that I hope someone finds useful, if not absolutely mandatory for daily sustenance (now you know where the Internet-enabled fridge-and-toaster-oven came from!). Yeah, I know, it's Sunday, and New Years Day to boot, and tomorrow is a federal holiday, too, but that's the kind of dedication required to do all of that nearly-impossible stuff that makes all those cool things feasible, for which the artistes are apparently getting all the credit.

Your mileage may vary, batteries not included, do not spindle, fold or mutilate, have a Happy New One, and All the Best,

Joe Blow

[Earl Benser]

What a tirade...

SUre, he's just an industrial designer, but anyone can box a product
in a crappy envelope. The final step in a great design is a great
package, and this guy comes up with them. Google Raymond
Lowey and see what a difference a great industrial designer can
make.

And then go park your high horse in a low barn.

[Mendz]

Duh?!

Ive is good and recognized for it. Period. What part of that is difficult to take? I sense unhappiness, frustration, sour-graping, bitterness and everything negative in your post. Maybe you need a different career that is more rewarding for you. Ever heard of Mary Kay? :D

[assman]

oh god.

i stopped reading after you incorrectly stated the obvious over and over again.

yes. he is not a coder. he is a designer. meaning he DESIGNS the product inside and out. it takes real skill to be good at it.

its not just making things look 'cutesy'. its dealing with efficiency, cost effectiveness, comfort, durability, manufacturability, and so on.

it also means designing software. not writing the code but deciding what needs to be done to get the most out of a product.

get a life.

[NeverFade]

ummm...

I don't think anyone thought that Steve came up with the iPod all by
himself there, guy. You'd have to be pretty ignorant to have that
thought.

[KsprayDad]

That is the point

That is kind of the point...
pointing out the ignorance of Fanboys and their ilk...perhaps you missed the point on that one.