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It Just Works

danielandrews.com

141–150 of 192 posts

Re: It Just Works

#141
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

spotify is pretty crappy (experiences on android): * they broke google maps for about 3 months. Originally, when google maps needed to give audio directions, music would pause. It worked. Some moron decided, instead, to make the audio keep playing but make it quieter while google maps was giving audio directions. What he or she actually did is to mute google maps. This persisted for 3 months while assholes there made…

1/ never had that problem

2/ this is the single best feature of spotify vs the others, I love plugin my android smartphone in my audio system, and to control the music from my ipad, computer. The problem you talk about never happens to me, it shows a popup about if I want to continue here, but only if I go into the app.

3/ I had no problem with that, but it would be better if it uploaded the music to listen on other devices, this is the major pain point about spotify.

4/ what ? only if you ask some playlist to be synchronized it download them and then stop, or are you talking about the fact that it shows the currently playing song on others devices, just swipe out the app, but I am not sure it consume a lot.

5/ I didn't had a lot of problem with the android app

Re: It Just Works

#142

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.

Because maybe we value our time a little more than our "geek-cred".... While I agree with 90% of the OP's points the base OS is still ROCK SOLID compared to ANY linux desktop distro. I have been slowly migrating away from OSX's core apps but I won't even dream of leaving the OS anytime soon. I've got better things to do then rebuild my entire desktop environment every few months when a graphics driver pukes or similar. OSX may have bugs but the bugs created by tons of linux packages interacting are FAR worse.

Also I care what my DE (Desktop environment) looks like, there are a couple of nice looking Linux DE's but they normally work for only around 70% of apps so you have a couple that stick out like sore thumbs. On OSX this only happens for things like some Java apps and even then they still look fine if a little out of place.

Re: It Just Works

#143

Do you rely on Time Machine? Drop to the shell right now and try "tmutil compare -n" to see which files are not making it onto your backups. For me, Time Machine randomly ignores certain files, for no discernible reason. Files that have sat on my disk literally for years will never get backed up. It's happened to me on two different Macs, and I've lost data because of it.

I ran into the same issue. After a restore from my time machine backup, I discovered that some files where missing (with no apparent pattern). Fortunately, I had a non time machine backup, but pheew that was a close one...

Re: It Just Works

#144
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't use any Apple software on my rMBP except for the OS... and even there improper handling of Bluetooth and WiFi are unacceptable. I went with another macbook because I love the touchpad, and like an all-metal case. That said, I paid through the nose for something with an OS update that's simply unreliable. It will be the last Apple product I buy for a long time, and TBH, if Ubuntu comes out with a good e…

Just sell it and buy some laptop that you can use Linux on. Why "suffer"?

Part of it is most of the linux friendly laptops I don't like... There's a few points.. one, I like a larger touchpad, with whole-pad clicking... other than the chromebooks, and my logitech htpc keyboard I haven't seen this (I also don't like the region based right-click)... The touchpad is a huge issue for me.

Second, I REALLY don't like either the Fn button being in the corner (muscle memory), or anything obstructing the right shift (again muscle memory). As it is, I hate most laptop keyboards.

Third is the display, I actually really like the retina display itself, and it allows for scaling VMs very nicely. Probably the closest in terms of hardware to MBP would be some of the Asus and Acer ultrabooks, which I'm not entirely opposed to, but then it's still hit and miss on hardware support.

What I would love would be for Ubuntu, or someone much more familiar with their installers to create an installer that would just detect that it's apple hardware, and make it all just work... that would include bluetooth, wifi, proper touchpad drivers/configured in the box.

I really like my rMBP hardware wise... but going to something with different headaches won't exactly be better.

Re: It Just Works

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What really gets me is that some scrappy start-up tried to launch a service like that in the 00's and got totally burned by the labels because it was not 'fair use' but now google does it it is ok.

I think you're thinking of my.mp3.com. They bought a bunch of CDs, ripped them, customers used a desktop application to "fingerprint" a CD they had that would grant them access to the mp3s the company created. They lost in the court because by ripping the CDs they bought, they were offering a service based on copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holders. While the opportunities for abuse with…

That may very well be the one. I'm a bit hazy on the details because this happened right at the moment camarades.com took off and I had a lot on my plate at the time.

Re: It Just Works

#146
post #72
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to look far for the evidence. For any issue you can normally find several huge forum posts on the apple support forums (with no helpful responses from Apple).

All software has bugs. Apple software has a giant audience and the Internet can magnify an issue that affects a small number of users to make it seem as though it's a giant problem. If a problem affects 5,000 users it's easy for it to appear as if it's a huge issue when it in fact is affecting a tiny % of the user base. Not that bugs should be ignored, but an active forum posting is not evidence that there is a major…

Could definitely be a factor. Then again, there are plenty of people who don't post on those forums (like myself).

I recently got a new MacBook Pro after my previous 6yo machine was stolen. Would love to say that I was shocked at the bugs I've run into, but I was fairly well prewarned. Things like internet dropouts caused by the DNS issue. I was told it would be a problem, and it was. But people had been complaining about it for ages. Seems unlikely to be just a few users experiencing it.

I know I'm just another single datapoint but, after hacking on macs most of my waking hours since 2004, I too feel the basic quality is really slipping.

Cloud services are something else altogether. I've been saying for years that Apple can't be trusted to handle data and syncing. Now they're pushing deeper into it things are getting messy. My best friend and I frequently have this conversation as he jumps into their services but he's also lost faith. A message he recently sent me:

"Apple syncing is so fucked man. After the first round of Photos craziness where I lost tons of albums (thankfully no photos), for some insane reason, I’ve just lost a ton more. Any albums from 2012, 2013 and 2004 are totally gone. Head in hands shit."

And this from someone who until recently would try to fight their corner.

Re: It Just Works

#147
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,…

Thats a great Microsoft analogy there! Spot on

Re: It Just Works

#148
post #72
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to look far for the evidence. For any issue you can normally find several huge forum posts on the apple support forums (with no helpful responses from Apple).

All software has bugs. Apple software has a giant audience and the Internet can magnify an issue that affects a small number of users to make it seem as though it's a giant problem. If a problem affects 5,000 users it's easy for it to appear as if it's a huge issue when it in fact is affecting a tiny % of the user base. Not that bugs should be ignored, but an active forum posting is not evidence that there is a major…

Dude, there are Bluetooth mice that are incompatible with current versions of OS X.

Let that sink in.

Apple screwed up their Bluetooth stack so badly that it is incompatible with a mouse. Something which has been in the Bluetooth standard forever. Something which is solely dependent upon their software because they use the same chip as everybody else.

That is beyond a bug. That's contempt for the end user.

Re: It Just Works

#149

I'm frustrated with Apple when it comes to services. Don't misunderstand me: I love their hardware. I love OS X. It's the best computing experience since my C64 days. But when it comes to services I tend to avoid them as much as I can. Latest example: Apple music. I was a little annoyed by Spotify's continuously disappearing music tracks so I was eager to try out iTunes Music. But the problems started when I tried to…

That's strange I'm Dutch, living in Germany and don't have these issues with my Dutch Visa card. You do know you can change your country/App Store country? I can even hop between country store and use different visas per store.
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