And now for something completely different (compared to all of the negative Nancy news surrounding the iPhone 4). Jonathan Ive, chief designer at Apple, had a bit to say about the sleek design of the new iPhone 4 to Core77, a design magazine and resource blog. "A big part of the experience of a physical object has to do with the materials" he says in the interview. "[At Apple] we experiment with and explore materials, processing them, learning about the inherent properties of the material--and the process of transforming it from raw material to finished product; for example, understanding exactly how the processes of machining it or grinding it affect it. That understanding, that preoccupation with the materials and processes, is [very] essential to the way we work."
Ive also discusses some of the purported design flaws in the new iPhone 4. "Those three black splits are co-molded in, and then the band goes through more processes…So it's assembled first, the band, and then the final machining and grinding are performed, so the tolerances are extraordinary.... Whatever people's feelings are about the actual design of the product is of course subjective. But objectively I can say that the manufacturing tolerances are phenomenal. And we determined this, we designed it from the very beginning to meet those goals."
To read more of Ive's interview, head over to Core77, and let us know what you think about the iPhone 4 design in the comments below.
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