As Apple brings its products to perfection

Nothing in this world is not accidental. When it comes to Apple products, you can be sure that every detail here are great efforts of engineers and designers. About how the company brings its products to the ideal, we told Medium.

Earlier this year, Apple's developer team conjured in his secret lab working to re "rethink" the mouse. It will present, together with an updated line of the iMac, and it should look exactly the same as the previous Magic Mouse. But inside, everything will be different, if only because Apple decided to drop the alkaline batteries to lithium-ion batteries.

It seemed that everything was going fine. The new battery has been designed to perfectly fill the cavity inside the mouse. The antenna works great. But something was wrong.

Mouse sounded wrong.

Of course, when we say "rethink" in relation to Apple's products, we have in mind a lot of innovation, rather than creating an entirely new product. But these small details make use of gadgets much more comfortable and modern. The most notable innovation - 4K Retina-display 21.5-inch models and screens with a resolution of 5K in 27-inch computers. Also displays the new technology has been integrated, which displays more colors than ever before. And it has developed a second-generation line of accessories: wireless keyboard, trackpad, and mouse. Unlike their predecessors, these gadgets are equipped with lithium-ion battery integrated into the housing and charged through the Lightning-cable. Magic Trackpad 2 is also equipped with Force Touch - technology, first introduced in Apple Watch, and then integrated into the MacBook and the iPhone 6s. The price of the iMac, in spite of the improved performance, the tradition remains the same. And, as always, Apple was picky to detail. Fanatically picky.

The fact that the mouse is not sound, turned into a nightmare for developers and designers. The culprits turned out to be a strange sound small polycarbonate runners placed in the bottom of the mouse. Previously, the problem was not, in fact, these sliders are designed for a long time and methodically, they made perfect sound during operation. But now, when the battery type has been changed, the size and weight also become different. And the mouse became emit an unpleasant crunch at work. The company's engineers say, all the products emit a particular sound. But in the case of the mouse, it was an unpleasant, irritating noise, which should not be in the Apple gadgets.

There are many reasons why Apple is recognized as the most valuable company in the world. Tim Cook is engaged in that anticipates exactly what users expect innovation. Jonathan Ive is developing an iconic design for the products. All that makes this company, it becomes a standard. But developers lab visit gives us yet another reason to consider Apple the world's best.

"Nonideal" noise does not destroy the product. It is not even an official bug. But the company's engineers spent a lot of time trying to mouse glided perfectly, making the "right" sound. The importance of this part can not be measured in numbers.

Release of the first iMac - Apple is a kind of rebirth, a symbol of the new approach, implemented by the company. At that time, it was a critical need to create a desktop computer for the average user. Since then, the iMac is considered something of Apple soul. Therefore, the emergence of Retina-display in the new computers can be considered a continuation of this tradition. Of course, it was inevitable since, as the technology embodied in the iPhone, iPad and even Apple Watch. Engineers are very, very much wanted to Retina appeared in the iMac.

New screens are not simply been integrated into the iMac, but also modified in comparison with the previous models. Now, they display a wider color palette. If early screen displays 100% of the colors of the sRGB standard, the new work by P3 technology. This is a more contemporary palette, which is 25% wider than sRGB. The result - rich shades of the image, which previously could not achieve at Apple. But, after the right supplier of LEDs has been found, the process went quickly.

Another question is, how important is it for the user. If you just consider the pictures taken on the iPhone, or watching movies, it is unlikely that you will see a dramatic effect on the screen. P3 technology can be fully seen only when opening RAW-files from your camera or play a video in 4K resolution. So while it is obviously an advantage only for designers, artists, photographers - just for professionals.

There is another feature that we could see in the new iMac. This touch screen desktop computers - in fact, many companies such as Microsoft have already implemented it in their models. However, Apple strongly disagree with this trend and are not consciously integrate multi-touch in the iMac display. As Apple engineers think it is wrong in terms of ergonomics. iOS platform was originally developed as an operating system for touch screen. If we transfer this experience to the big screen, there is a lot of problems - in the small icons difficult to get a finger. Therefore, Apple decided to leave the worlds of computers and smart devices separated and do not mix their control mechanisms.

Therefore, the touch control is embodied in the line of accessories - the devices that are on the user's desk. Apple methodically taught their users gesture control, offering Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. Especially, the new line has improved: now you can recharge the batteries, the connection is automatic, and ergonomics has been improved. For example, the keyboard now has buttons optimized size, which makes typing perfectly accurate. Appearance is not only minimalist: the keyboard takes up little space on the desktop, it is tough, but comfortable, and more - it is easier than its predecessor.

Trackpad 2 changed even more. Its area increased by almost a third, to make use of multi-touch more comfortable. And he now supports the Force Touch - understands the power press. This, incidentally, is a good example of how to throw a "bridge" between gadgets and PCs, without confusing interfaces. Originally introduced for Apple Watch, the technology works well with iMac, but it does not mean to merge iOS and OS X. Two worlds exist separately - harmoniously, without overlapping each other.

Of course, we expect even more innovation. Already behind the doors of Apple secret lab work is underway on the next generation iMac. Improve the technical part, a lot of attention paid to detail. But how exactly - yet remains a mystery to us.