Today I felt it: the first twinge of darkness and deflation, when I wondered to myself, “What comes after the iPad?”
You see, for the past half decade, we have been treated to a nearly perpetual, unending cycle of anticipation of two revolutionary pieces of technology. Long before they were officially revealed to the public, the Apple Phone and Apple Tablet were mythical entities, anticipated with ferocious appetites by millions of people around the world. From gadget geeks to your average Apple fanboy to creatives, futurists, and technology lovers of all stripes, these past several years was an era when a better tomorrow was soon – oh so soon! – to become actual reality. This Age of Anticipation began with the iPod, which first whet our collective appetite. After sneaking onto the scene shortly after the bursting of our last prior moment of future-love (the dot-com bubble), the iPod slowly gathered steam, seeping its way, version by version, into society as it evolved from fringe player into a global cultural phenomenon, fundamentally changing the way we consume music, and the entire music industry along with it. The iPod’s titanic impact set the stage for the hope, expectations, and hype that Steve Jobs might unleash the magic of Apple upon the stale and stagnant phone industry. Anticipation intensified. Hearts beat more quickly. Message boards, gadget blogs, techno-pundits, and Apple junkies everywhere talked of the possibility. Thousands of fake and imagined renderings of the potential magic phone spread like viruses across the Internet. We were excited, we were exhilarated. We knew that somehow this phone would change the world for the better. We didn’t yet know how, exactly, but we knew to expect a lot. For years, the buzz built. The wait was long and frustrating, but then in the dead of winter in January 2007, Steve Jobs revealed to all of us the iPhone – a mobile internet device, the best iPod ever, and a phone. The Jesus Phone. All was right in the world. The design was revolutionary, paradigm shifting. If it didn’t quite upend the entire phone industry, it’s impact created a seismic shift in course. Naturally, the skeptics and critics complained about minutae like megapixels and missing 3G antennas, removable batteries and SDKs. But all that didn’t matter. We, the faithful, knew, and when the iPhone finally was released, lines lasted for months outside our temples of worship – the Apple Store. The hope and anticipation was, of course, not over yet. For the next iteration of the iPhone, we knew, would have more awesome capabilities, faster connection speed, and most of all, the promise of native apps, truly revolutionizing our world, enabling always-connected computing in ways beyond imagination. And lo, in the summer of 2008, the future arrived with the 3G and the App Store. The iPhone has, since it was first introduced, reigned over our world. New releases are covered on every national and local newscast, on the front page of the NYT and Newsweek. It earned Steve Jobs endless accolades, such as being hailed as CEO of the Decade. Together, iPhone and iPod created a multi-billion-dollar accessories industry. And every new remotely similar device from every competing company is always and without fail compared to them (usually negatively). As the iPhone cemented its supreme status in the world and in the hands of well over 50 million owners worldwide, our consciousness moved forward. The interface magic and technological brilliance of the iPhone, while still appreciated, no longer could hold our attention all the time. We needed a new object of desire. Many gadgets tried to stir up our emotions: Netbooks. Apple TV. Blu-Ray. Unibody Macs. Android. Pre. …Android. All interesting in some way, but none ever came close to actually exciting us. The CrunchPad, before it was stillborn as the JooJoo (!), actually managed to stir some emotions. But all along, we knew. We had no doubt that once again, the world would be gifted a miraculous new device that would in some way change our little blue planet. That Jobs’ precisely formulated recipe – with a beautiful, brilliant UI, magnificent industrial design, and leaps forward in connectivity – would combine once again and produce that elusive alchemy only he can seem to manifest. A new discussion began to bubble. Propelled forth by the monumental impact of the iPhone – an order of magnitude greater than that of the iPod – set the stage anew. We dreamt that Steve Jobs might once more unleash Apple’s magic upon us. Again, hope rose. Again, dreams of the future filled our minds. And once again, message boards, gadget blogs, techno-pundits, and Apple junkies everywhere talked of the possibility. Thousands of fake and imagined renderings of the potential magic tablet spread like viruses across the Internet. We knew that somehow this tablet would change the world for the better. We didn’t know how, yet, but we knew to expect a lot. For years, the buzz built. The wait was long and frustrating, but then in the dead of winter in January 2010, Steve Jobs, arbiter of what is right and correct, presented the world with his latest creation – the iPad. “The most important thing I have ever done,” he’d said about it. Something new, now, in our hands: A huge, brilliant, perfect, multi-touch screen; blazing speed; access to all the world’s media, hi-def video, and new horizons in gaming, design, and interaction now at our fingertips. And thus years of hope and anticipation – and the seeds of it trace as far back as the first Newton in 1993 – have now, finally come to a conclusion. (OK, OK. Yes, we do still have about two months to go before we can hold one in our own hands.) And that is it: No more miracle devices to long for. 10,000 songs in your pocket: check. Pocketable mobile communicator/Internet device: check. Magic tablet with limitless software potential: check. The only thing now ahead of us: feature updates, size variations, and perhaps one day really fast, truly ubiquitous WiFi. But unless nanotechnology really takes of soon, guess what: we’re in for a slow evolution over the next ten to twenty years. This astounding era of anticipation and hopes fulfilled is now in its final phase. I know I’ll be holding onto it tightly. Because I took a glimpse around the corner, looking for the next new hope down the road. And I saw … nothing. The Age of Anticipation is over. And, man, that is depressing.The Embarcadero today is one of the jewels of San Francisco. The recently rehabilitated Ferry Building – now full of 4-star restaurants, a premium food court, high-end law offices and the snazziest farmers market in the Bay Area – is the cornerstone of the rejuvenated waterfront. To the south, the Giants ballpark launched the rebirth of South Beach, and even further south Mission Bay is well into a long ascent into becoming a vibrant neighborhood. Just across from the Ferry Building, Justin Herman Plaza and the east end of Market Street throb with pedestrians – commuters, day-trippers, locals, and international tourists who bask in the sun and shadows of Financial District highrises, as they enjoy amazing views of the Bay Bridge. And to the north, the Embarcadero curves gently toward Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco’s most theme-park-like tourist center, with the appropriately novel F-line toting people in vintage streetcars from downtown to the waterfront.
But it wasn’t always such a wonderful place. Back in the 50s and 60s, the piers that line the Embarcadero and today house fancy eateries, avant-garde offices, and pristine wherehouses, were actual working docks. Ships would dock there. Dock workers and vagrants populated the area. Chic condos and hip diners did not exist. But a giant freeway did: The Embarcadero freeway – 70 feet tall and 50 feet wide – dominated the district, a massive physical barrier banding from the Bay Bridge to Broadway, blocking the light and burdening the neighborhood with backwater status. The freeway was ultimately torn down. Badly damaged by the epic 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, it’s fate was actually determined by the San Francisco board of supervisors. At the time, many people wanted the freeway to be repaired, and felt it should remain standing. But there was strong support for removing it and the earthquake damage was just the kick needed to accelerate that effort. Let’s face it, most San Franciscans rarely venture to this far eastern edge of the city. But whenever you do, the open sightlines and easy access to the waterfront are priceless treats that, in a slightly different world, we would never have known.A bird’s-eye view of the freeway, from it’s origin at the Bay Bridge to it’s conclusion just beyond Jackson Park.
A clear shot of the skyway racing past the Embarcadero tower to the left, towards Broadway where it turns west. 
This 1965 photo shows the first ramp, feeding into Washington Street, I believe. It is odd to see all the open space. 
In this 1981 view, take from just below Coit Tower, shows the double-decker section as it extened up Broadway towards North Beach. 
Here’s a neat little drive through the freeway. (The footage is from Koyaanisqatsi) And the first few moments of this BART construction film show the freeway’s scale very well.
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This is actually a couple of years old. But Tufte’s evaluations remain spot-on. He lauds the photo app’s absence of ‘computer administrative debris’, and I like his suggestion to make the Mobile Safari button bar partially transparent. In addition, his comments about the weather app being both beautiful and thin resonate with me. It really baffles me that now, 3 years after the iPhone was first revealed to the world, the weather app has yet to evolve. Why is there no way to find more detailed information?
Posts from my other sites:
eye forward | dissecting design
Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?
April 18, 2009 † Rick
Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.It’s not the tool, it’s the mechanic
February 2, 2009 † Rick
New York 2008 from Vicente Sahuc on VimeoThis video is a beautiful, mesmerizing piece of work. Objectively, it is little more than some candid, street footage (admittedly taken in Manhattan) spliced together and laced with a nice soundtrack. Tthose words technically do describe the video — which could easily instead have formed something banal and [...]
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