This week: A new report details why Jony Ive is departing Apple, and it paints a troubling picture. Plus, Leander tells us about the “fiddle factor,” the unique quality that made Jony Ive our time’s greatest designer. This episode supported by Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. CultCloth will keep your iPhone X, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean, and for a limited time use code CULTCAST at checkout to score a free CleanCloth with any order at CultCloth.co. On the show this week @erfon / @lkahney This week's stories Jony Ive’s absence from Apple caused iPhone X headaches A new report from the WSJ paints a bleak picture of Jony’s Ive’s departure, saying he’s been drifting away from the company for years, and it’s because they increasingly are not taking design seriously. Tim Cook slams alleged rift with Jony Ive as ‘absurd’ Why Apple will miss Jony Ive’s fabulous ‘fiddle factor’ The fiddle factor cuts to the heart of Jony Ive’s design genius. In a career spanning 30 years, no designer has been more successful at making computers friendly and approachable, largely by adding tactile elements to his designs. As a design student back in the 1980s, a teenage Jony Ive spent a semester with a design agency in London, the Roberts Weaver Group. One of his first projects was designing a new pen for Japan’s Zebra Co. Ltd., a pen-maker based in Tokyo.