I’ve been what some may call an Apple Fanboy since watching Steve Jobs unveil the iPhone on my glitchy South African internet back in 2007. It was all so exciting for a kid who loved gadgets and technology — even though it would be another four years before I could own one. Since then I have religiously watched Apple announcements, skipping around the house as I sing to my wife that it’s Apple Day and getting excited no matter how mundane the updates are.
Every year, the tech world gathers for Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference or WWDC. Not to be confused with the very different WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) It’s a conference for developers to learn what Apple is up to next, and develop cool new applications of incredible value, or incredible time wasting capability.
My wife will kindly smile and nod as I ramble on about how this year Apple has finally made the iPad a computer, how it would be perfect for her next one because it’s super powerful, has a touchscreen, and can literally do anything she might ever need a computer to do… but then she’ll hand me a dirty diaper and ask if I can bath the dog.
We’re trying to keep our baby away from screens, but she does enjoy smacking my Apple Watch while I’m changing her. Maybe she’ll appreciate Apple’s beautiful new liquid glass display language, or that I can simply twist my wrist to silence a call. Unfortunately she’s preoccupied arguing with Paddington Bear about why he will not get into her mouth.
Perhaps you’ll be more excited about this news. Apple users should be excited. The Apple UX (User Experience) is the core reason many of us own iPhones in the first place. I have a Samsung Android phone for work. I hate every minute I have to use it. It’s clunky, unintuitive, and ugly. My iPhone is simple, beautiful and almost always just works - Siri excluded. This year, that experience is getting a fresh coat of liquid glass paint.
Jony Ive, Apple's former chief design officer when Apple created the iPhone, dreamt of a phone that "appears like a single sheet of glass". This new design language edges Apple closer to that aesthetic. Similar to Apple’s Dynamic Island, it feels like the designers are starting to have more fun with how users interact with the interface. It’s not just about being incredibly functional, it’s also a joy to use.
The media is always mixed on these big announcements. Not just from Apple, but from any of the people that make the devices we use every day. We’ve become so difficult to impress — expecting our gadgets to be all singing and dancing, while simultaneously demanding developers slow down before AI takes over the world.
We carry around phones that are cinema-grade cameras in our pockets, that can connect us to nearly all of human knowledge and culture in an instant. We can have a shopping order, full of things our baby will never use, arrive from the other side of the world to our doorstep with the touch of a finger. Technology is incredible.
I’m excited that Apple is focusing on some more fun stuff this year. It’s not just frivolous pretty colors, it’s core to how we experience the devices we interact with over 2600 times per day*.
So here I am left, an Apple Fanboy alone in a sea of noobs, unable to get anyone excited about my Apple Music Album Motion now gorgeously displayed on my iPhone lockscreen. But when that update drops in September, it’ll feel like opening a Christmas present — one that doesn’t make a dent in the budget.
*According to a 2016 study by research company Dscout