[num1]

I'm not a designer, so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. But @Aen, you sound like an idiot to me.

On grids. A grid is a fantastic idea for a newspaper, or even for an iPad, where you have large elements which need to all be aligned. However, your eyes are not trained to jump around in pretty pixel increments, your eyes jump to what they want to look at. In other words, fuck "rhythm." When horizontally aligning elements, I am completely for snapping to a grid of sorts, it makes your UI "just look nicer." When aligning vertically, against things that don't exist, you win nothing. (Well, you do win something, but it's something you didn't touch upon, more on that later)

On grid size. By making a "grid" of 4x4 pixels, all you have done is decrease the resolution of the display. Only an OCD programmer would get excited by a declaration that all pixel offsets must be even. In programming, whenever you sit down and design a framework that is too flexible, you have designed a framework which isn't useful. If you complain about "rhythm," you certainly can't suggest a 4px grid, it has no noticeable rhythm.

On why your design looks nicer. I'll say it, a few of your "fixed" screens do look nicer. This is because you have introduced more padding, in the form of 2px increases, to every element. Anybody can make something look nicer by removing information. Of course your examples will look great compared to the real thing, negative space tends to do that. I want you to compare the number of visual elements on either the Likables screens you posted, with the number of visual elements on the playlist view.

[gfodor]

You'll notice that if you replace the word "rhythm" in the OP with "grid" the whole thing sounds a lot less sexy and hence a lot less interesting.

[aen]

I'd say fuck rhythm too if I'm not a designer. But I am and it's my job to look at things others don't look at. You can look at a 4-pixel rhythm as 8-pixel, 16-pixel or 32-pixel. 4 is just the lowest basic unit.

Maybe I'm wrong but right or wrong isn't the point. Making people think and talk about something is.

[num1]

"I hope once Lik­ables and Denso goes live they will be proof for the production-worthiness of the 4-pixel rhythm. I also hope that Apple will see this and per­haps recon­sider the visual pro­por­tions of UI in future iOS versions." doesn't match what you just said ;)

What I'm saying is that "You can look at a 4-pixel rhythm as 8-pixel, 16-pixel or 32-pixel. 4 is just the lowest basic unit" doesn't improve upon our situation. The lowest basic unit is called a pixel. Grids make everything look consistent; but when the only requirement is that you snap to 4-pixels, things aren't going to look consistent, because you have far too much flexibility.