Linked List: March 2, 2021

Tuesday, 2 March 2021

Amazon Tweaks Their New iOS App Icon ★

I know, opinions about app icons are like assholes — everyone has one and they generally stink. But Amazon’s previous iOS app icon was, objectively, terrible. For one thing, the only thing about it that branded it as Amazon’s was the word “Amazon”. When your icon is your name, you’ve probably got a problem. But the other problem was the shopping cart. The whole point of Amazon being an online store is that you don’t need a shopping cart. They’ve been stretching this metaphor for over two decades but it’s not a good one.

I love the idea of using a cardboard box as the icon. That’s the iconic real-world object we all associate with Amazon. Sure sometimes you’re just getting something boring like toothpaste or deodorant. But sometimes you get something great — like a new book you preordered a few months back and sort of forgot about. Sometimes a box from Amazon is fun. So hell yes, make the app icon a fun cardboard box.

My problem with the new icon isn’t that the tape looked like a Hitler mustache. (They could’ve solved that by just putting tape on both ends of the box — boxes need tape on the bottom too.) It’s that the ethos of utterly flat design robs the concept of fun. Look at how much better the MacOS standard installer package icon looks than Amazon’s new icon. Just for a boring installer. Amazon is doing the right thing by today’s design trend — it’s the trend that’s wrong, and designers need to start asserting otherwise.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king; in the land of militantly flat design, a little bit of depth will spark joy.

Apple Disabled Dustin Curtis’s iCloud, App Store, and Apple ID Accounts Over Rejected Chargeback ★

Dustin Curtis:

The next time I tried to use my Apple Card, it was declined. Strange. I checked the Wallet app, and the balance was below the limit. I remembered the Apple support representative mumbling about Apple Card, so I did some digging through my email to see if I could find a connection.

As it turns out, my bank account number changed in January, causing Apple Card autopay to fail. Then the Apple Store made a charge on the card. Less than fifteen days after that, my App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple ID accounts had all been disabled by Apple Card.

We all make bets on these ecosystems. Even if you host your own email at your own domain name (to name just one service) you’re probably not running the actual server. And even if you are running the actual server hosting your email, you’re still placing a bet on the service provider / data center hosting the server.

I’ve got a lot of my digital life bet on iCloud in this way. It doesn’t seem like there should even be a path on Apple’s side of things from “you missed a payment on your Apple Card” to “we’re locking you out of your Apple ID”. Apple shutting your Apple ID off shuts you off from a lot.

Update: Apple statement on what actually happened and under what circumstances they’ll lock your Apple ID if you owe them money.