Modern processing machines (AFCS) capture both a visible and UV image of the mailpiece, so it's fundamentally changing the image processing software to have it look for the barcode on the UV side if it can't find one on visible. The downstream DBCS sorters already read secondary barcodes that are applied by the AFCS which happen to be in UV ink.
Further, USPS benefits from the same idea to hide a barcode for marketing (junk) mail. When combined with a handwriting-like typeface, it makes letters look personal and gets people to open them more. Same psychology where mailers apply a bulk-rate stamp instead of using a permit imprint.
It's a very Steve Jobs/Apple case where it sounds like a minor detail that requires crazy advances, but under the covers, it's very technically feasible, and importantly, can exploit economies of scale.
I appreciate it SO MUCH. I remember on the 7 or 8 when it happened how totally blown away I was.
Now there’s less visual/symbol spam in my daily view of an object I (and billions of others) use constantly. This stuff is way more important than people think.
Honestly only dumbasses wouldn't appreciate these small things that accumulate to a big difference, just instinctively downvoting from bumache just because it's Apple
I remember the moronic Samesung ads that made fun of the iPhone 4 or 5 for moving the headphone jack to the bottom of the phone.. not realizing that it made it easier for people it put in their pockets while letting a headphone or charging cable go straight up.
The magnetic chargers for Apple Watch also do not have lights. Neither do the USB-C cables for iPads and AirPods. I assume the newest AirPod cases still have charging lights though.
Since we lost the on-MacBook charging lights (RIP).*
Apple Watch: set watch on charger or tap watch screen to check status. Same for iPhone. Tap AirPods case to see charging light as well.
*Guess I’ve survived without this, but it was a bummer my first Mac without it.
Ooh, “Your Apple Watch is fully charged.” notification on iPhone, that’s nice too. (Can sometimes just charge while showering/etc. and not think about it though.)
Minimalism is difficult and expensive to achieve. Some people consider that effort worthwhile.
https://www.theknot.com/content/hand-cancel-wedding-invitati...
If you're one of those people I could absolutely imagine you'd care about a visible barcode on an envelope. They kind of have to be premium products because if they’re blah then people will just use evites, which are better in a bunch of functional ways. The product relies on its differentiators.
"When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."
That's typical executive lack of awareness of the skills and roles of the little people charged with fulfilling their grand vision.
We are talking about fundamentally unreasonable people who make literally insane products. Some called them insanely great.
We don’t want reasonable choices. We want change.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
(It breaks my heart that most in Apple management these days are quite thoroughly sane.)
As for the design details, the proof is in the pudding. If they sold well then the person with this idea understood the vapidness of his customers to the point of contempt. But I am reminded of how things like design evolve from being there to solve a problem to over time becoming the problem itself that needs solving and the actual focus. But I don't think this is a good way to deal with things.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-did-van-hale...
As an aside, I did think the M&Ms story was just a band being a diva until I heard them explain it like this. It's actually brilliant.
We can of course disagree, there's no harm in that.
Isn’t there variance in how long a venue’s contractual obligations will take to fulfill? One weekend someone needs you to spend X hours coordinating on sound and lighting, the next weekend it’s .5X hours? (Correct me if I’m wrong here if someone knows.) If they get the M&Ms right and they triaged appropriately, seems like a little indicator they scheduled enough people to work long enough to make it through the whole rider.
No cop out here with “oh just tell them you’re ignoring it”, treating the whole doc as a serious thing to get through or they can find another venue that will.
Edit: apparently to even deal with Van Halen you’d have to deal with not three 18-wheelers of gear, max, but three times as many! So you’d need way more hours I bet. Also an alternative that might rub some less the wrong way: some redditor (or liar) claims they’d put something really dumb mistake in their riders and good venues would essentially bring it up first thing.
I used to work as a developer at creative agencies and saw this all the time. There were developers who had a hard time believing that they should implement designs to the pixel because they thought a bit of padding didn’t matter so long as they got the important items right. They were almost always the ones who ended up missing important details (copy, working forms, performant databases etc.)
This whole exercise sounds like a minimalist circlejerk that was only possible in a ZIRP environment.
This isn't about the Apple Card. It's about an iOS app called "Cards" which lets you physically mail personal cards straight from your iPhone.
Why did interest rates matter to Apple, a company famously averse to extended or significant borrowing?
Reminder that Jobs is not a good role model. A lot of his decisions were erratic and based on what might as well have been undiagnosed BPD.
That’s what makes Apple different than other tech companies. They have an extreme attention to detail that extends even to their packaging.
And it was often for details that didn't matter. Like the exact shape of the curve of the plastic housing of some long-forgotten iMac. People just want computers that work and that don't look like total crap, they don't even notice the corner radius or whether the motherboard (excuse me, "logic board") is aesthetically pleasing according to the genius that took one class on calligraphy at Reed College.