iOS 7 icon grid on physical products

With iOS 7, Jony Ive designed an icon grid that was meant to give developers some guidance on how to proportion their icons so they would look “harmonious” on the new iOS 7 homescreen. As you can see above, though, Jony Ive has been using a similar mental grid to design Apple’s physical products for a long time. As Reddit user Kepano notes, however, Ive has probably not used this grid as a precise guide to design in the past.

“In my opinion as an industrial designer this image suggests that there are some intuitive similarities between all of Ive’s designs but that the iOS 7 icon grid is probably the first time he’s defined those proportions so strictly. The fact that certain shapes match so closely (e.g. the width of the donut shape on the iPod) is probably not a coincidence but a matter of taste. What the image doesn’t show is that these products have radically different dimensions which is why the corner radii are very different from one another.”

Alternate iOS 7 icons spotted on Apple's website

This is kind of interesting. New versions of some of the stock app icons in iOS 7 have been spotted on Apple’s website. The reason for the changes is not yet known, but the app icons have received the blunt of the criticism thus far regarding Apple’s new mobile OS.

Some of the new icons are starkly different than the ones seen in the first developer beta of iOS 7, while others appear to only feature subtle differences. And it’s not clear if this was a mistake on Apple’s part, or these will be the new app icons in iOS going forward…

iPod Touch new Disney ticketing system

One of the largest, and my favorite, theme parks in the world, Walt Disney World, has begun rolling out the My Magic + system. Eventually this will completely replace the use of tickets with RFID wristbands, but until then they're using iPod Touches as a quick ticketing system. They scan your card with their iPod and in you are. Disney says that this is in a trial stage, so it's unknown whether it will be rolled out on a larger scale.

"The new ticketing system means that a full family with two strollers and two adults can now go through at the same time — something that was impossible before.

Disney has plans to continue to roll out its iPod touch-driven ticketing system at other Central Florida parks, and potentially at its other destinations around the world."

Disney World is the most visited entertainment resort, and it's in Orlando, Florida.

iPad Mini may kill iPod Touch

According to several analysts Apple will most likely discontinue their line of iPod Touches due to the iPad Mini.

Lack of iPod Touch ambient light sensor explained

A reader of iDownload Blog claims to have emailed Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller. He claims to have gotten a response from Schiller!

iPod Touch 5G lacks ambient light sensor

"What is an ambient light sensor?" you may ask yourself. It is a barely noticeable sensor on the front of Apple devices allowing the brightness of the screen to auto-adjust. It pulls in the light from your surroundings. It then uses that to determine what the brightness of your screen should be. The iPod Touch 5G noticeably dropped the sensor. Nobody is sure why Apple made that decision. Jeff from iDownloadBlog was the first to comment on this. Why do you think they dropped it? Let me know what you guys think in the comments section!