Ken Kocienda, former principal software engineer at Apple, describes the internal debate over iOS 5 iPad multitasking gesture animations between iOS chief Scott Forstall and Steve Jobs.
Assertion Partly supported
Safari Was Three Times Faster Than Internet Explorer at Launch
“And eventually Safari, as when it was released, it was three times faster than MSIE at loading web pages.”
Insight
Touchscreen UI Software Must Interpret Intent Rather Than Literal Inputs
“Because you didn't get this tactile feedback, because you couldn't feel the edges of either keyboard keys, or any button, or anything in the user interface, is that the software had to be there working behind the scenes to give you what you meant, maybe differ…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Apple Omitted Copy and Paste From First iPhone Due to Time Constraints
“And so we knew that we wanted cut, copy, paste, but we knew that there was simply not going to be time for it. So we didn't spend any real development effort on it.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Steve Jobs Asked Individual Contributors Directly for Key Product Choices
“He doesn't ask, you know, Scott Forstall, who is, you know, he knows much better. He doesn't ask, you know, any of the other people in the room. He asks me, the individual contributor, you know, just coming in, but I'm the DRI. You see, that's the thing. He wa…”
Insight
Apple Insists on Controlling All Core User Experience Technology
“And so the, you know, the vision for Apple back then, and even still today, Is that Apple wants to be in control of what it considers to be critical technology. It's critical to its user experience.”
Insight
Preventing Code Speed Regressions Guarantees Software Performance Improves Over Time
“Ok team, if we check in code, and it doesn't make any speed regression, only two things can happen. Either the code will remain the same speed, or it'll get faster.”