the most recent issue wrote an article about the rolls royce wraith with the sub title bentley continental who? i have emailed a letter to the editor defending our car. i urge all to let road and track know how you feel

 

Regardless of what those blokes say i doubt the two cars are intended for the same buyer so no comparison is appropriate. Did they go on about the Liberace starry headliner? Nearly turned my stomach just hearing of it.

 

Agree with Dr D plus the Wraith seems to have awkward shaping on the top/rear third. Bentley did a great job at body styling and it seems to me Rolls tried to copy it... without pleasing visual results IMHO as compared to the Bentley Continental. The Rollers looks too 'heavy' visually. Of course to each their own and have looked at various modern Rollers and came away thinking I'm too young for them. Make of that what you will.

 

Every fine brand has their off days, and the Wraith example reminds me of the iOS abomination that Jony Ive has inflicted on Apple. He should have stuck to products - software and UI design is a totally different skillset.

The fastback RR is definitely an white elephant, clumsy and lacking in road presence from the rear. The shape doesn't fit the size. We have one in our small city, and the first time I saw it on the road I was not impressed. Most cars that look awkward in photos actually improve in the flesh, but this didn't for me.

Just reminds me how hard it is to get something right, like the universal success that Aston Martin enjoys. Even the CGT is not perfect, but enough is right about it for me to enjoy its lines.

Which reminds me, I wonder how the Bentley SUV is getting on?

 

What kind of problems are you having?

 

Aesthetics. The new iOS is a dreadful design that violates all known principles, with mismatching color schemes and typography, and awkward usability issues. I went to use my wife's iPhone with the new system and it was like being on an alien planet. I'm resisting the change on my own iPhone and Mac, but unless we, the downtrodden voiceless, rise up in one accord, we may never alter this doomed course of history. (And so on for 15 or more pages...)

The best design I have ever seen for phones or screens was on the Corning Glass of the future ad, and similar to that shown in Microsoft's vision of the future. Helvetica, two colors, intuitive, simple, elegant. Designed by designers, not engineers.

However, it's easy to criticise, and harder to improve anything yourself. I think of the countless millions of manhours that have gone into the Wraith... the hopes and expectations of those world class craftsmen and women charged with building the finest car on the planet. I really have no right to slam them, since I am a lover of all cars (except maybe the Trabant)

 

How long have you used the new iOS?

 

3 minutes. 2 minutes of that was staring with mouth open

 

It is natural for all of us to resist change. The new interface does seem to present things in a more subdued fashion. My theory is that battery life may have been a motivation for using lighter graphics in order for the new 64 bit models to have a decent battery life. I know I can go for 5 days without recharging and have 15 to 20% left over. Granted, I am not a heavy user of the iPhone but I still like this capability.

My wife and I own 13 different iPhones so we are pretty familiar with the progress Apple has made over the years. To me this is the best one yet. However my attitude may be colored by the fact that Apple stock has risen over $20 over the last two days. FYI - Income from Apple stock bought my GTC.

 

I've always liked to think I have been ahead of change - never resisting it. I bought a Mac when they were first introduced, so I've been a Mac-erite for a long time, writing Hypercard and doing graphics in Paint. When the Mac Plus came out in 1986, I immediately bought a bunch of them for the community newspaper I owned at the time. Turns out we were the first in the country to use digital layout, and it was several years before anyone copied us.

I started selling on the net in 1995 with my ebook "Ebook Secrets" which sold round a million copies over the years between me and many authorised rights owners. Again, I was the first commercial digital enterprise in my half of the world, selling straight from my Mac and dialup. Eek.

This afternoon I drove a loaner while my CGT was in for its first annual service. It was a 2 year-old Mercedes E-63, and I was disappointed. In almost every aspect except the rather nice acceleration and accompanying V8 AMG noise, the Bentley won hands down in every department. Even the little things... the CGT navigation map was superior in detail and operation, the ride was smoother on my 21's vs the E-63 19's, and the list goes on.

I don't resist change, except in one area where I'm sticking with the best - Bentley... for life (about 3-4 years, until the Next Big Thing

 

Hope for your sanity they all have different ringtones

 

You don't like the starry headliner? I sat in an RR that had one recently and it was quite nice. Useless, but nice.

 

OMG... LOL! What a fabulous intro...

 

Off topic...Ken...I fear Mac went MS/Bill Gates on us....

The other day someone said to me, "it looks like a third grader threw up on my iPad". My daughter is a third grader and she is even appalled with the latest incarnation of this iOS platform. She keeps asking me to take it back to the Apple store to have the previous iOS reinstalled. Again, this request is coming from a third grader!

 

The eyes of a child reveal more than we realise.