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Incredible. The best remote iPhone tool out there. With more useful features, a shiny new website and an update to the server application, this iPhone app is better than ever.

via Daring Fireball.

I ask the same question as Gruber does — why did they move the play/pause button from the center? To me, this seems like a really bad idea.

It’s the most important button of them all. Of course the play/pause/enter/accept/okay button should be right where your fingertips are when you are navigating. How could this possibly be a bad idea?

Another Apple product comes to mind; the iPod. It’s got a rather famous scroll/navigation wheel — and in the middle of it there’s always been a play/pause button…

But well, who cares. Moving on.

A thing that really strikes me is just how badly Apple seems to be wanting to move away from their previous design idioms and their older product lineups.

Remember how revolutionary the design of the iMac G5 felt? The looks of the original white MacBook? That era. The contemporary, fresh and beautiful white plastic.

Cute, yet hi-tech.

Clearly, Apple thought the old Remote belonged to that era (and I agree). So, they aluminized it and made it look a lot more like the new iPod nano.

So, no more cute white plastic. Today, it’s all about this meaner, sexier, more industrial design. Aluminum and glass. Anodized and glossy. Black plastic.

Think iPhone. Think the new iMac. Think the new MacBook Pro family. It’s all aluminum and black plastic. It’s industrial. It’s so refined.

But it’s not just about hardware. I think you can see this more aggressive design even in Apple’s own software.

Compare Snow Leopard with, say, Panther. (Although, lay aside all the cool aspects of Snow Leopard and the fact that it’s much faster, advanced and improved.)

The Dock has lost its light, transparent appearance in favor of a much darker one. Stacks has a really dark appearance (with small, black scroll bars).

Above it the menu bar lost its rounded corners and the blue apple is now black. The pinstripes… Well, you get it.

I’m not saying any of these things are bad things. I believe Apple is moving in the right direction. I consider Jonathan Ive to be one of the most talented designers in the world. I also think Apple is one of very few companies in the tech industry that really gets what design is all about.

But the cute and friendly is slowly disappearing. And this had absolutely nothing to do with the remote control. The new model is $19 by the way, and I didn’t really care for it at all.