Inside Apple’s perfectionism machine

Lance Ulanoff, writing for Mashable, from his long form interviews with Apple VP of Sales and Marketing Phil Schiller and VP of Mac and iPad Engineering John Ternus:

The little strip of black along the two back edges of the MacBook’s twin speakers could easily have been mistaken for a bit of shielding or a vibration dampener. Except, that’s not what it is.

Some like to call it the “Speaktenna.” The black strip along the back edge of the MacBook speakers is a never-before-tried combination of speakers and antennas for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s a fairly ingenious bit of space-saving technology that teardown artists ignored.

But that’s not really the story. It’s about what “speaktenna” represents: the Apple way of conceiving, designing and building its products.

Chock full of examples, quotes, images and anecdotes, this is another great read, worth making time for.