And It Just Hurts: Apple Employees Are Walking Into Walls

Apple’s new spaceship campus that opened last year is one beautiful HQ. But the new campus apparently has a big problem.

The campus is almost entirely made out of glass panes, including the workspaces (“pods”) inside the building which are surrounded by glass panes. And that apparently resulted in some Apple employees bumping into these glass panes, reports Bloomberg.

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The glass panes aren’t easily noticeable, especially to employees who are glued to their iPhone. Apple employees even went as far as sticking up post-it notes on these panes to help make them easily identifiable, but the design-conscious hardware maker later removed them as it was deteriorating the look of the building.

I’d imagine bumping into these glass panes hurt quite a lot, although it’s not clear if Apple will be taking any actions to better protect employees. For now, don’t text and walk, Apple employees.

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Conversation 45 comments

  • davidblouin

    16 February, 2018 - 6:00 pm

    <p>|0|</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      16 February, 2018 - 10:03 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246293"><em>In reply to davidblouin:</em></a></blockquote><p>TIE Fighter?</p><p><br></p><p>Looks like a TIE Fighter to me. Close up formation. [Twists thing on control stick]</p><p>|o| (o) |o|</p>

      • davidblouin

        20 February, 2018 - 1:34 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#246334"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></blockquote><p>lol </p>

  • cseafous

    Premium Member
    16 February, 2018 - 6:03 pm

    <p>Getting Apple to admit to a mistake is like beating your head against a wall. And… have a great weekend everybody!</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      16 February, 2018 - 10:02 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246294"><em>In reply to cseafous:</em></a></blockquote><p>No clue why this got two downvotes. It's funny.</p>

      • cseafous

        Premium Member
        19 February, 2018 - 10:04 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#246333"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></blockquote><p>Thanks! They're just mad I said it first. I have no kids so all the internet must bear the brunt of my dad jokes.</p>

  • tbsteph

    16 February, 2018 - 6:13 pm

    <p>If you are dumb enough to walk while "glued" to your phone the consequences are well earned.</p><p> </p>

  • skane2600

    16 February, 2018 - 6:23 pm

    • Angusmatheson

      17 February, 2018 - 10:11 am

      <blockquote><em>I do not think they have Always been form over function. I know I just wrote a novel of a post, but I will say again. I think the soul of apple is to focus on one part of function – easy and simplicity of use. That lead to believing that form was important in a way other computer manufacturers did not in the past. I worry now that you are right – that good – meaning beautiful to look at – is currently winning over easy and simplicity of use at Apple. Maybe that is change forever, or maybe they will change their focus again. Apple has lost it way before, and found its way back. Before Jobs had to come back, but when he came back he was amazed how many good people were still there. (When he got that great quote when someone explained that the people there bleed the six color of their logo). I hope Apple can focus again on making simplicity and ease of use a focus. There are lots of people making things more functional and also much more complicated – outsmart TVs, android smart phones, windows 10 which has both a tablet and a desktop UI and can do both, Amazon and Netflix and Apple Music – where truly everything can be found </em> in dizzying options. Getting more is good and I’m glad they are puhing to expand our abilities – but I think we also need some balance. Someone, in the past it has been apple, who say lets make something (like a PC (Mac OS X), or a MP3 player (iPod) or a PDA (iPhone) that someone can easily use and brought those devices from the realm of the hard core user to the regular people – not by focusing on design and often taking functions out of the devices – but on simplicity of use.<em> </em><a href="#246298"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • skane2600

        17 February, 2018 - 12:12 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#246413"><em>In reply to Angusmatheson:</em></a></blockquote><p>It perhaps has gotten worse in recent years but the problem has really been there ever since Woz was no longer in the loop. Jobs insisted that the original Mac not have a fan which led to a lot of component failures in early Mac models.</p>

  • JerryH

    Premium Member
    16 February, 2018 - 6:43 pm

    <p>Are you kidding? It is a revenue generator. I imagine a certain percentage (maybe 5%) of those people hitting the wall drop their phone. And we all know what happens to iPhones when you drop them. Sales!</p>

  • warren

    16 February, 2018 - 6:49 pm

    <p>So what you're saying is, Apple employees show same amount of care for their own personal safety, as they do for their operating system's security.</p>

  • Lloyd

    16 February, 2018 - 6:52 pm

    <p>I can't describe the feeling I had reading this article, and how much it made me smile.</p><p><br></p>

  • Darekmeridian

    16 February, 2018 - 7:07 pm

    <p>Finally they will have a use for those white apple logo stickers they normally include with Apple products.</p><p><br></p>

  • prjman

    16 February, 2018 - 7:25 pm

    <p>Maybe they should install more Windows. Sorry – couldn't resist.</p><p><br></p>

    • seapea

      18 February, 2018 - 6:34 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246309"><em>In reply to prjman:</em></a></blockquote><p>That was great, Paul should give you Premium for free.</p>

  • glenn8878

    16 February, 2018 - 8:10 pm

    <p>They prevent birds crashing into glass panes with bird shadow decals. Maybe they should add iPhone shadow decals. </p>

  • bharris

    16 February, 2018 - 9:00 pm

    <p>I'm thinking the IPhone currently in development will support collision detection because we all have become so brain dead that we now need a mechanism to keep us from walking into walls….</p>

  • Ugur

    17 February, 2018 - 1:12 am

    <p>I imagine the same will happen as with the other issue that happened at one of the Apple stores (they had made a flat roof in a design form factor where giant ice pickles would form under it, forming a lethal risk when walking under them so the walkway below it had to be closed down with warning signs), Apple will initially refuse to address it properly, insisting on their design decision but then get forced to it by the government or some employee suing them or it coming to something really severe like someone getting seriously injured by breaking one of the glass walls accidentally.</p><p><br></p><p>I bought many, many Apple devices over the years, but yeah, this is just yet another sign how for most things they do meanwhile they are either profit over function or form over function or both these days.</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">That after the mac pro trashcan which was a complete design form/profit over function non starter from day one and basically all mac laptops since the last good 2015 model being form/profit over function.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then Apple acted like listening and wanting to turn it around on the macs again, what do they release then? </span></p><p>An iMac "pro" which is zero user serviceable and zero user upgrade-able and on top still is built so much form over function that they made it so thin that it basically always after working very short timespan under full load has to throttle down the fancy specs internals very quickly so that they run at non pro at all specs settings.</p><p>Like come on..</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>And now the homepod, a speaker which dictates which audio sources one can use it with and that can't be used on soft surface, nor on wood surface, so you have to put it on glass, metal or plastic.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Like, come on, it is getting to a bit ridiculous levels meanwhile =( =)</p>

    • Angusmatheson

      17 February, 2018 - 9:59 am

      <p><em>I have used Apple devices since my Apple IIe high school and Mac SE in college. What I think about today’s Apple – I believe in the old days they wanted computers to be easy to use, and found that well designed things did that. Now the design people are in charge and they choose better aesthetic design and preceived innovation (Shillers quote before the Mac Pro about innovation is demonstrative) over ease of use. Now this is a new age – and complexity has increased from the days they made OS X and a Mac to put it on. They need, I think, to focus on usability. They problems they have with the MacBook Pro 2016 keyboard is a great example. Their old keyboard in the air and the MacBook Pro were amazing. To make it thinner (a design and innovation goal) they put in a worse keyboard which worsens the user experience. Wanting to innovate created a more interesting but ultimately doomed Mac Pro. I do not own a HomePod – I however see it as a good sign. It doesn’t do everything but what it does – air play 1 and Apple Music it does simply and well. I don’t know how I feel about Siri. Siri clearly does not work well – however, I think for web services like Siri working on it in a lab until it is perfect like an iPhone doesn’nt work well – you have to release it and work on it as it is used. II hope that is happening with Siri – all I know is that it is improving very slowly. However, I think Siri is the future and at least although they have blown their lead – Apple still is in the natural language computing game – better than microsoft can say about mobile and blackberry and Nokia can say about smar phones. I just hope that apple can focus on making things work well, and not so much on being pretty or innovative. Glass is a terrible ting to make a wall out of – although i’m Sure it is gorgeous and i’m Sure it is very innovative. I hope Apple in the future innovates and designs in ways to make devices and services that make it easier to use computers (in all their various forms – watches, cloud, desktops, phones and more that we can only dream of now). That is the Apple that Jobs and Woz started over 40 years ago with the Apple I. </em><a href="#246363"><em>In reply to Ugur:</em></a></p><p><br></p>

      • Ugur

        18 February, 2018 - 5:06 am

        <blockquote><a href="#246399"><em>In reply to Angusmatheson:</em></a><em> Exactly, you nailed the situation and it's exactly my thoughts, too.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Some argue like as if Apple hadn't changed for the worse and was always like this blabla.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>but that's not true.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>It's exactly as you said, a few years ago, at the prime which lead to the biggest Apple brand hype (and deservedly so back then), Apple did focus on simplicity and reduced design, too, but with the main goal of more intuitive easier to use usability.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>It was usability over clutter.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Best example: The UI/UX of the first ihone/iPad.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>The main reason those devices succeeded (besides great onboard apps and app store) was that they were massively improved in intuitive usability compared to most previous devices of this type.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Sadly Apple seems to have lost track of that, too.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Now, and for some years now, especially already most visible in the mac lineup, it is exactly as you say, design/look/sleekness focussed (and maximum profit margin aims) wins at Apple pretty much everytime there now in the mac line over usability.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>And that is just not cool at all.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>And yes,the same is the case now with their buildings there obviously, too.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>It would be SO simple to just add a strip line of blurry milky glass look in eye sight height so people notice there's the glass wall, such a usability improvement (and actual danger reduction), but no, it has to be all fancy and look fully transparent (even if that is a usability reduction to dangerous levels)..</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

        • Greg Green

          20 February, 2018 - 4:24 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#246612"><em>In reply to Ugur:</em></a></blockquote><p>I agree with your points. My iPad is far more annoying than it was a few years ago, all due to software changes. Things I don’t want to do are easier to do inadvertently and things I want to do are harder to do.</p><p><br></p><p>My wife bought an iMac a few years ago, our first apple PC, and it’s beautiful but also annoying with all the connections hidden from view and use. Apparently a blister on the side holding the usb connections would be too unsightly so they put them all in the back. Fortunately it’s just a home PC for us but as a work PC where I’d be plugging in various peripherals or usb sticks it’d be immensely annoying.</p><p><br></p><p>On the plus side their os updates are much better than Microsoft’s, but they seem to be requiring more updates lately.</p>

    • seapea

      18 February, 2018 - 6:36 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246363"><em>In reply to Ugur:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yet , somehow, someway Apple just keeps on making more money in profits. Their design and ethos are obviously appealing to a great many people. And MSFT is trying to follow Apple in this.</p>

      • Ugur

        19 February, 2018 - 4:05 am

        <blockquote><a href="#246803"><em>In reply to seapea:</em></a></blockquote><p>The iPhone is still pretty good overall and is the one device that leads to most of their profit.</p><p>So that explains a very large portion of their profits.</p><p>Another very large part of it comes from built up brand recognition and value, that is not that quickly destroyed, even after delivering largely disappointing macs for a good long while now, it takes time to sink in and on top get to a level where most of the people would not buy yet another Apple device easily anymore after having been (mostly) happy with them for a good long while.</p><p>While that is the case, they also employ max profit per device maximization strategies for a few years now.</p><p>Make no mistake, it is not all done for just wanting thingsw to be thinner and really thinking that all ports which obviously still lots of people use and would have use for for at least 2-4 years are suddenly not needed anymore.</p><p>No, that is a very obvious easy way to maximize the profit.</p><p>You make the battery smaller, remove all ports, make the keyboard and trackpad cheaper and with less moving parts, too, there you go, with each such thing you reduce the material and production costs that much more while on top you charge more for the thing..</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>This all works out great to the tune of ever growing profits until, well, a large enough percentage of your audience gets fed up to the degree where they don't buy your stuff anymore.</p><p><br></p><p>Apple is riding that very thin lane in a balance act where they do excellent, as in being the most profitable company, but also have to ever do better and better financially each year, else their stock would plummet, and that gets more and more challenging in reasonable ways each year.</p><p><br></p><p>It is very obvious to me seeming that they have for a while already now run out of reasonable options to further maximize that profit each year and meanwhile have to rely to quite unreasonable/user hostile tactics on more and more ends.</p><p><br></p><p>As such i also think it is a bubble that has to burst in a big way if no sense making counter measures are applied soon.</p><p><br></p><p>Yes, it is interesting that way, when it is about a stocks traded company, the demise can actually be closer the more profitable you were in the past and hence the more profitable you are expected to be in the future than that already, which at some level becomes implausible to achieve.</p><p><br></p><p>Then you could either each time have a new blockbuster on iPhone level ready (unlikely) or privatize the company or yeah, try to squeeze out that much more profit out of each part until at some point the stagnation and quality decrease after slowly becoming more noticeable each year then suddenly tanks even the biggest behemoth.</p><p><br></p><p>See Nokia, Blackberry etc etc.</p><p><br></p><p>I still buy iPhones for dev, but the last Macbook pro i could buy and feel like buying a good total package was from 2015. Can't buy the newer ones and feel good about it since they are worse in several major aspects.</p><p>Now my sister wanted to buy a small Macbook to not have to carry around her bigger 2013 Macbook Pro and i can't recommend her any of the newer small macbooks, because again, they are considerably worse on many ends.</p><p><br></p><p>If all one wants for a laptop is thin and light, not care about shorter battery life, worse keyboard, worse trackpad, weak cpu and gpu for the price level etc etc and prefers macOS over Windows, sure, still a purchase one can do, but yeah, one can't while being well informed count it as reasonably good total package anymore.</p><p><br></p><p>Likewise for the iMac "pro" i can't see that as pro machine with it's ridiculous form over function design where it is so thin that it has to throttle down all parts massively very quickly (how in the world does that make sense for a desktop all in one screen).</p><p>So yeah..if you still think it's all great, go ahead, buy it onwards. From where i stand there are quite a lot of longtime mac users not happy at all with what Apple is offering regarding macs for a good long while.</p>

        • seapea

          20 February, 2018 - 6:09 am

          <blockquote><a href="#246871"><em>In reply to Ugur:</em></a></blockquote><p>hmm, interesting – being thin to cut costs and not to make a fashion statement. Wonder what the break even point is to cover the increased engineering costs. </p>

  • dontbe evil

    17 February, 2018 - 7:21 am

    <p>bahauhauahuahau</p>

  • Angusmatheson

    17 February, 2018 - 10:15 am

    <p>Every year, at least once, I walk into my sliding glass door which I think is opens but is not. As a child, 40 years ago, I would often run full tilt into my childhood sliding glass door. I suspect I am not the only one. This is clearly a well known problem – someone should have solved it, or at least been aware of it at apple campus.</p>

    • SvenJ

      17 February, 2018 - 12:30 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246414"><em>In reply to Angusmatheson:</em></a> I'm with you. I have a 3" scar on my knee where I ran through a sliding glass door that had just been cleaned. Yes through, not into. This was a long time ago, before tempered glass. Point is, even if you aren't head down in a phone, it is easy to not see a clean glass pane that has no visible breakups. </blockquote><p><br></p>

    • seapea

      18 February, 2018 - 6:32 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246414"><em>In reply to Angusmatheson:</em></a></blockquote><p>You didn't have the translucent butterfly on the sliding door?</p>

  • AnOldAmigaUser

    Premium Member
    17 February, 2018 - 10:35 am

    <p>Not the ones working at the genius bar…</p>

  • Waethorn

    17 February, 2018 - 3:18 pm

    <p>Forget penguins. The Apple mascot should be a lemming.</p>

    • seapea

      18 February, 2018 - 6:32 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246493"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>???</p>

  • SenorGravy

    17 February, 2018 - 3:45 pm

    <p>I imagine as Apple Managers were pulling the stickie notes off the glass, they were telling the employees "The Glass is okay. You're just walking wrong".</p>

  • Jim_MAY

    17 February, 2018 - 5:47 pm

    <p>Headlines: Apples New Beautiful Building is Unfriendly.</p><p>Keep your eyes forward cause breaking the nose hurts!</p>

  • Daekar

    17 February, 2018 - 6:55 pm

    <p>So… Did anyone else see this coming as soon as they saw the renders? Because it's a no brainer. </p>

  • mrdrwest

    17 February, 2018 - 8:19 pm

    <p>You said, "…it's not clear if Apple will be taking action…", but the glass obviously is, LOL.</p>

  • Winner

    18 February, 2018 - 12:46 am

    <p>It Just Doesn't Work</p>

  • Davor Radman

    18 February, 2018 - 6:11 am

    <p>So Apple has definitely fallen far down, when it comes to design? Form over function.</p>

    • seapea

      18 February, 2018 - 6:31 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#246615"><em>In reply to Markiz von Schnitzel:</em></a></blockquote><p>More that they didn't understand how myopic iPhone users are.</p><p>As for a fix, an object sensor app that beeps when within a foot of a wall ?</p>

  • ben55124

    Premium Member
    18 February, 2018 - 9:07 am

    <p>And others are upset that they can't throw rocks. </p>

  • Peter C. Laudati

    Premium Member
    18 February, 2018 - 6:32 pm

    <p>I guess they're just not used to Windows!</p>

    • jrswarr

      Premium Member
      19 February, 2018 - 5:36 am

      <blockquote><a href="#246800"><em>In reply to Jrzyshr:</em></a> That's so bad its good….</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • BigM72

    19 February, 2018 - 7:44 am

    <p>You're walking wrong. (you're holding it wrong)</p>

  • sportflier

    20 February, 2018 - 12:52 pm

    <p>Apple on walking: you're not doing it right.</p>

  • Richard Forss

    21 February, 2018 - 6:47 am

    <p>In most European countries, it is a legal health and safety requirement to have marks on the glass at a defined height to indicate the presence of a glass wall. Usually a row of small 2 cm squares, or a solid line.</p><p><br></p><p>Clearly this is not a requirement in the US – maybe it should be.</p>

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