RSS iChat Tips Advertise

Mac Chick of The Month

Thank god they fixed the round “equals” button!

March 7, 2008 by Dr. Macenstein
Filed under: Opinion, design, iPhone

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Lest anyone think that Apple’s iPhone team was solely focused on the SDK today, faithful Macenstein reader Art Vandelay has noticed a few minor but I am sure VERY IMPORTANT differences between the home screen in iPhone 2 Beta and the current 1.1.4 we mortals are forced to run.

First up The Calculator icon

Apple has decided to make the “equals” button square, along with the rest of the buttons. The equals button in particular has been a big problem for Apple on the iPhone. As you can see in the iPhone’s guided tour video, the button started out as a round “division” symbol, and gray, like the other buttons. Apple then decided division is less important than “equals”, and made the button the current round, but orange equals button we see today. I’m not sure why it’s so important to get the calculator icon “just right” over there at Apple, but I like it the way it is now. Honestly, I think this is the first bad move Apple has made since the return of Steve Jobs.

The iTunes Store icon has changed

…and this might be the second mistake… The “down arrow” of version 1 of the iPhone software actually makes more sense, as the iTunes store is about so much more than music these days. I would have left it alone personally, you could get new iPhone users thinking that is what they press to hear their music. The “down arrow” may not have been fancy, but I understood it meant “download”.

The “Dock” now has lines?

We’re a little unsure of this, due to the quality of the screen grabs, but it looks like the dock now has lines instead of the mesh/dot pattern version 1 has. I’ll have to check this out in person to make a final judgment, but I like the mesh. Lines seem like we’re going back to the early versions of OS X’s dock.

Every time you submit our site, an Angel gets its wings.

Tags:

Comments

5 Comments on Thank god they fixed the round “equals” button!

Paul Walker on Fri, 7th Mar 2008 8:19 am

The larger photos on the slides show that the dock hasn’t changed.
I prefer the original (silver) calculator icon, and I’m not a fan of either iTunes store icon - but that’s what jailbreaking’s for, isn’t it?

Dave-O on Fri, 7th Mar 2008 10:11 am

They didn’t change the dock, it’s some interference pattern, later shots show a gray gradient (the mesh is a little too fine to make out in the online video). In case you haven’t heard, there’s a different application for the App Store. So the iTunes Wi-Fi store really is music only and eighth notes make a hell of a lot more sense (have you seen the iTunes icon?) than a down arrow.

Vinnie on Fri, 7th Mar 2008 10:13 am

I think they had to delineate between the music store and the app store. Hence one has a circle with the music notes and the other has the traditional app logo in a circle. I was taken aback by the new icon as well, but I think it makes sense and we will get used to it. Plus, you will not need to jailbreak when someone ports over the customizers to the iPhone and you can put whatever you like as the icon