But within the circles of designers and technology executives outside Apple who obsess over the details of how products look and work, there has been a growing amount of grumbling in recent years that Apple's approach is starting to look dated.
I have a feeling, though, that whatever children will make of these altruistic glasses, they will become chic in circles of designers who, I bet, would be happy to pay for a pair that will, happily, be free to countless penniless children who really do need them.
Malini Murjani, who was born in Hong Kong and attended boarding school in England, is a regular in a downtown circle of artists and young designers.
Those who know him -- and it is a wide circle of acquaintance, encompassing architects, designers, artists, collectors, rock stars, hotel and restaurant owners and magazine writers with whom he maintains a nearly constant dialogue -- wouldn't call him a decorator, but that doesn't mean they have a better word at hand.
Howard and her husband were part of a circle of artists, writers and designers who were interested in visual images, in language and in the book arts.
A circle of powerful photographers, editors, and designers get bored of the flatness".
The exhibition celebrates a circle of artists, writers and set designers loosely associated with the Mir Iskusstva, or World of Art, movement, founded in 1898 under the leadership of the future ballet impresario Diaghilev.
Gene's exuberant clothes -- wildly colored suits and ties sporting enormous circles and stripes -- make him the spiritual godfather of designers like Jonathan Adler and Todd Oldham.
The architectural historian Megan Aldrich writes, "He founded no school ... had few adherents outside the circle of his practice ... and trained no further generation of designers".
