It Just Works • Hacker News Board

Re: It Just Works

#81

Post by volaski » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 5:48 PM UTC

hahainternet wrote: post #10

paulojreis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Loss of focus and feature creep. They've became an engineering company (as opposed to an "appliances" company, I guess). This, of course, IMO.

> Loss of focus and feature creep My point is though that I've heard this sentiment from Google customers, Microsoft customers etc. In fact to me it seems that I can only think of a few examples of software that seems to consistently improve in people's opinions. Is there something fundamentally broken in how we develop and produce software as an industry? Is there a reporting bias? It's probably a combination of bot…

I think the difference is Google or Microsoft never promised "it just works". Apple on the other hand used to "just work", at least before Steve Jobs passed. Nowadays the contrast is too huge that people notice it more. As an analogy, people just shrug when McDonald's releases another unhealthy (but affordable) menu, but if a chef who used to get New York Times 5 star reviews starts cooking shitty food and screwing his customers and not care much because he still gets lots of customers based on his existing reputation, then people start hating.

Re: It Just Works

#82

Post by swanson » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 5:51 PM UTC

planetjones wrote: post #6

It's really frustrating for me just how many bugs Apple software has. Let's look at a simple one - the icons on iOS safari for frequently visited websites. They "randomly" assign the wrong favicon e.g. I click the Facebook icon and it loads Hacker News. This has been present since iOS 8. Yesterday I pulled down the notification screen and it occupies only 50% of my screen. Cue another reboot of the iPhone. My iMac. U…

I think this is webkit thing - it happens in Chrome (on both desktop and mobile) for me pretty often.

Re: It Just Works

#83

Post by Sir_Cmpwn » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 5:53 PM UTC

I don't understand why the hacker scene these days is full of proud OSX users. What happened to the proud Linux hackers we've always had? They told me to use OSX at the job I recently started, and I only lasted a week before I told them I wanted to install Linux.

Re: It Just Works

#84

Post by plug » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 5:53 PM UTC

planetjones wrote: post #6

It's really frustrating for me just how many bugs Apple software has. Let's look at a simple one - the icons on iOS safari for frequently visited websites. They "randomly" assign the wrong favicon e.g. I click the Facebook icon and it loads Hacker News. This has been present since iOS 8. Yesterday I pulled down the notification screen and it occupies only 50% of my screen. Cue another reboot of the iPhone. My iMac. U…

"Very disappointing for a machine which isn't 3 years old". This really resonates with me, sitting at a similarly aged iMac that frequently displays bafflingly poor performance, displaying what I like to call the "psychedelic jelly-tot of death".

Sort of off-topic, but another thing that really frustrates me with Apple products is when something goes wrong with the hardware. I have a 3+ year old Macbook Air. The 't' key - specifically the little contact button under the key - stopped working consistently. Very frustrating when you start to realise just how much 't' shows up in the English language.

Anyway, I made some calls enquiring about how much a repair would cost: around €300. They just replace the entire aluminium top plate because it's impossible to replace a single contact button, and unfeasible to replace the whole keyboard array - this involves complete disassembly, and a bunch of other delicate steps, which look incredibly daunting.

I know that this is probably the trade-off for having such a small form factor, but between this, a defective SSD, a locked-in battery and periodically replacing chargers at €80 a pop, I am distinctly less enthusiastic about purchasing Apple products in the future.

Re: It Just Works

#85

Post by ohitsdom » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 5:59 PM UTC

geophile wrote: post #18

why-el wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iTunes is absolutely terrible. I did several updates for my girlfriend and friends, and none of them figured out iTunes. Most of them downgraded.

Spotify is a possible replacement (even without their streaming and music finding services), but I find that application quite buggy.

Spotify seems determined to force me to listen to albums on shuffle.

Re: It Just Works

#86

Post by JimmaDaRustla » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 6:00 PM UTC

As an Android, linux, and Windows user...I've been having the most outrageous time getting anything to work as expected with my girlfriend's iPhones. Issues, upon issues, upon issues of how services or software is expected to work...yet never having desired results.

A few days ago, I held her iPhone 6 for the first time since she got it a month or two ago. I felt like I was holding the greatest piece of mobile technology in existence, except I knew it ran iOS and only iOS.

Re: It Just Works

#87

Post by jsolson » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 6:09 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #44

etimberg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been liking Google Play Music so far.

My only issue with GM is the portability. I work out frequently, and lugging around a large smartphone isn't the best scenario for simply listening to music. I'm looking into getting a smaller MP3 player and putting my GM library on that to achieve the level of portability I need for my music.

You might consider an Android Wear device. I don't have personal experience with this (I mostly work out on a stationary bike with Netflix), but in theory you can copy up to 4GB of music to the watch and play it back via Bluetooth headphones without the need for a phone.

Re: It Just Works

#88

Post by cptskippy » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 6:09 PM UTC

drb311 wrote: post #11

"It just works" is a tricky promise to make good on. Microsoft never made this promise and nor does Google. As a Google fan I accept a certain amount of flakiness as part of the brand identity. It's always celebrated a quirky, rough feel. In some ways, Google is starting to get TOO slick. People expect Apple to be innovative and reliable; too push the boundaries without ever falling over them. It's hard to do either…

> As a Google fan I accept a certain amount of flakiness as part of the brand identity

I agree with you however I feel like they've been trying to shrug that off and grow up and that's left me a little underwhelmed.

I got two thirds of the way through that article and realized that the way he felt about Apple was how I felt about Google. They keep thrusting crap upon us that no one asked for, remove stuff we do like, or neglect things until people abandon them.

Meanwhile Microsoft has been dramatically stepping up it's game but everyone still looks at them like the Catholic Priest that molested them as a child.

Re: It Just Works

#89

Post by wehadfun » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 6:10 PM UTC

statenjason wrote: post #77

mkozlows wrote: post #48

It's certainly the case that OSX, at least, has gotten flaky as heck, but at the same time: What's the competition? While Apple was releasing Yosemite, Microsoft was going down the Windows 8 rabbit-hole, releasing the worst version of Windows since ME. And while desktop Linux has been getting better over time, I don't think anyone would say that it "Just Works" yet. The only desktop/laptop OS that actually does "Just…

I've suggested ChromeOS to family members that use facebook, email, and limited spreadsheets. Ultimately, I backtracked when they asked about printing. Telling them they have to buy a new printer that's Cloud Print compatible is a tough sell, especially if they've purchased one within the last year. I have found that Chrome Boxes are excellent machines for demoing web products at tradeshows. Cheap, relatively hardene…

Printing and I would say sharing files between computers are biggest gripes with Chromebook. No I dont want to share files using Google cloud always.

Re: It Just Works

#90

Post by geniium » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 6:12 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #83

I don't understand why the hacker scene these days is full of proud OSX users. What happened to the proud Linux hackers we've always had? They told me to use OSX at the job I recently started, and I only lasted a week before I told them I wanted to install Linux.

maybe a week isn't enough...