Paul Goldberger from Vanity Fair writes about the collaboration between Jony Ive and Marc Newson, who’ve put together an assortment of 40 items to auction off for Bono’s Product (Red) anti-HIV campaign.

Two one-of-a-kind pieces—a metal desk and a special Leica camera—were designed by Ive and Newson in collaboration, specially for the auction. Several others, like a customized Steinway grand piano and a Georg Jensen silver pitcher, are variations on existing objects that Ive and Newson both liked and got the manufacturers to agree to tweak for the sale, generally by adding something red. (The Steinway appears to be entirely white, but when you lift its lid, the underside turns out to be painted an intense, brilliant red, while the pitcher has a red enameled interior.) A few other items, such as a circa-1990 Russian cosmonaut’s space suit and a sketch for one of Elvis Presley’s stage costumes from 1970, are objects Ive and Newson found and decided that they liked well enough to include in the auction as is.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Marc Newson.

Unlike art, Newson said, “design is not inherently valuable. How would we generate revenue?” In the end, he said, “we decided just to put together things that we love.”

David Sparks:

As the analogy goes, the desktop PCs are the trucks and the emerging classes of tablets and pocket computing devices, such as iPhones, are the cars. When he made the analogy, it made a lot of sense to me but I felt like it was still something pretty distant into the future. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Looking at my new iPhone, it has a 64 bit processor and is more powerful than anything I could’ve imagined just a few years ago. Moreover, software developers are getting smarter about ways to implement these touch devices in a way that’s quick, efficient, and just better than a traditional PC.

For geeks and professionals, there are still many tasks an iOS device isn’t good at. And yet, when you think about the fact that just three years ago stuff like this, this, or this didn’t exist, I do believe, like David, that Jobs was absolutely right in his prediction.

How do you quantify delight?

Terrific piece by John Gruber. The last sentence is key in my opinion – to “keep delighting customers” is crucial.

On a practical level, it’s why, when things like crashes or reboots happen on an iOS device, I think Apple should take them seriously, and quickly.

PetaPixel:

Admittedly, there’s only so much you can alter a Leica M, but now the company has finally released press images of the Ive-designed shooter, and as you might expect, it could be described as “unapologetically simple.”

Jokes aside, the camera basically looks like what you would expect an Apple-Leica hybrid might look like. The aluminum design is to be expected, but apparently it actually took some serious time to get right. According to Leica, the camera you see below is the result of 561 models and nearly 1000 prototype parts made over the course of an 85-day design marathon.

From Leica’s official Google+ account:

Leica Camera is pleased to present The Leica M for (RED), designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson. The camera, based off the Leica M, will be auctioned off at Southeby’s on November 23rd 2013 to raise money for The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

From a design standpoint, it features a laser machined aluminum body and an anodized aluminum outer shell. A total of 561 models and nearly 1000 prototype parts were made during the 85 days it took to create of this unique, one of a kind camera.