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Setting the bozo bit on Apple

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Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#91

Post by AceJohnny2 »

hot_gril wrote: post #67
10000truths wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> .mp4 being associated with a video player seems reasonable, since it's almost always used for video. (I think the only difference between .mp4 and .m4a is the extension? It's just serving as a signal about which app should open it, really.) mp4 is a container format, all it does is wrap some codecs and add metadata. There's no requirement that it contain video. The smart thing to do would be to inspect the mp4 and…

File extensions alone decide how to open something. Inspecting the data takes time, and you might be opening many at once.

That's actually not true on macOS (Finder), which has a much more sophisticated^H^H abstruse system

https://eclecticlight.co/2022/12/24/how-does-macos-tell-the-...

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#92

Post by formerly_proven »

leipert wrote: post #80
orev wrote: post #75

My biggest issue right now is that the iOS Music app has been almost completely hobbled by Apple Music (the service). I just want an app I can use to play my existing media files, but it’s always pushing you to subscribe to the service. Especially annoying is that they have hidden the previously free access to streaming terrestrial radio stations (not the same thing as the Apple Radio subscription). You can only acce…

Most annoying for me: the need to be connected to the internet for a lot of views. I leave the apartment, enter the elevator, put headphones in my ears and literally cannot do anything in the Music App, because it thinks it is still connected to my WiFi. Why can’t the default views be offline first.

I kinda like random/automatic autoplay but because Apple Music only seems to buffer the next 0.002 seconds of music any interruption of network service tends to just ... stop playback. And when you manually start it again, it switches to a "random autoplay, but from downloaded songs only" mode and you have to futz around to get back to the "random autoplay from all music" mode by clearing the queue with that one-song playlist hack. Same problem when leaving the house, have to remember to manually disconnect from wifi to avoid playback being interrupted.

Also, why does it take five seconds to connect to the Airpods? Even Linux is quicker. Sometimes it seems to take even longer. These devices are mere nanoseconds apart!

It all just seems to be built on a "the network is very reliable" assumption - in a mobile device.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#93

Post by jchw »

I like this concept of a "bozo bit" and have to agree, the arbitrary difficulty of making Apple software do things slightly outside the happy path can border on insanity, like that "Malcom in the Middle" Fixing the Lightbulb clip/GIF that goes around from time to time.

I would like to extend this concept. I do not, in fact, have the bozo bit set for my Linux desktop setup. I do, however, have the "fields of broken glass" bit set. On Linux, the entire system is made up of disparate packages maintained by unrelated groups that communicate sparsely, whose work is tied together by another party that actually takes the job of fielding this to the end user. And thus you get funny problems like "Oops, package A was generating a config file for package B and the syntax subtlety changed in a backwards incompatible way and now printing is broken but only on Thursday." (Example scenario, but it's based on a real one. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cupsys/+bug/255161...)

I think that to be fair to everyone, all modern computing environments are extremely complicated and you are always going to have a lot of trade-offs. Still, if I had one complaint about Apple, it would be this: it genuinely feels needless sometimes. Sometimes I feel like Apple is it's own worst enemy, more of a threat to their business than any competitor.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#94

Post by nicky0 »

orev wrote: post #75

My biggest issue right now is that the iOS Music app has been almost completely hobbled by Apple Music (the service). I just want an app I can use to play my existing media files, but it’s always pushing you to subscribe to the service. Especially annoying is that they have hidden the previously free access to streaming terrestrial radio stations (not the same thing as the Apple Radio subscription). You can only acce…

I highly recommend the excellent Broadcasts[1] app for streaming radio.

1: https://apps.apple.com/app/broadcasts/id1469995354

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#95

Post by DonHopkins »

twobitshifter wrote: post #50
kruuuder wrote: post #17

> How can such basic functionality be this incredibly broken? That's what I'm thinking almost every day when working with Apple devices. There is so, so much basic stuff broken on both macOS and iOS. I truly miss the days where Apple devices were a reliable tool, even a source of inspiration.

I would say this is no longer basic functionality. Personal music collections were huge in the mp3 era, but today few people care about moving music between devices. Further if you think of the complexity involved, streaming is a more “basic” task, than navigating file formats, transfer protocols, DRM, disc storage, library metadata, and more.

Ironic that the iPod was all about using that basic functionality they've since removed and now pretend never existed. Many people LOVED that basic functionality.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#96

Post by smoldesu »

taylodl wrote: post #90
orev wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB3/USBC is coming in the next set of devices (thanks EU), so at least the speed issue will be resolved.

The EU did nothing. When Apple moved away from the 30 pin connector to the lightning connector they promised they'd keep it for a minimum of 10 years since so many people were howling about the change. That was 2014. Guess what? It looks like Apple will be adopting USB-C in 2024, thus fulfilling their 10 year promise. Meanwhile, since 2014, Apple has been adopting USB-C across their entire product line - except the i…

The EU is telling Apple that the iPhone may no longer use connectors that they license themselves. Apple can do whatever they want in 2024, but if they want to sell phones in Europe then the iPhone will ship with a more agreed-upon connection standard.

If Apple still wants to use a superior in-house technology, they can implement Thunderbolt on iPhone.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#97

Post by DonHopkins »

PaulHoule wrote: post #78
layer8 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s basic in the sense that it’s conceptually trivial from the user’s point of view and therefore should just work, and not break in non-intelligible ways, given that the functionality has been made available at all. Users shouldn’t have to carefully navigate their use cases based on what the majority use cases might be. A more general point is that software should establish a clear conceptual model of the things it…

Seems to me that I might want to play an audio file somebody sent me whether it is music or not.

Now it's all cast and no pod!

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#98

Post by Manfred »

afro88 wrote: post #86

I have some personally owned music, as well as music I've recorded myself, and I have never been able to get it to sync to my devices since Music came out. It just perpetually has the cloud icon next to it, and Music says it's syncing (I think, been a while). For the most recent time I tried, the music has been in this state for 2 months.

I believe the solution to these kinds of problems is deauthorizing Music, then signing out of ‘iTunes’, then signing in again, and then authorizing again. I'm sure there solution published somewhere on the internet.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#99

Post by techdragon »

stewx wrote: post #60

Apple's legendary "amazing UX" is really bad a lot of the time.

I’m aware I’m invoking the cliche here, but it’s my genuine honest opinion that it’s been going downhill since a Steve Jobs died.

There’s a famous quote from him about success and product focus, and it seems pretty obvious that first they tried using Ive as a product guy substitute (or put him forward as one), then they gave up entirely.

Steve used his own stuff and didn’t hesitate to demand it meet his quality expectations… but I genuinely can’t imagine Tim Cook deciding on a feature without a spreadsheet weighing pros and cons against surveys of user feedback statistics and the entire development time planned out Waterfall style… even if that’s just “these buttons suck and are confusing, use better ones”, he’d still in my little imagination scenario, be scrutinising the spreadsheet on an iPad and deciding that the fix isn’t valuable enough.

Re: Setting the bozo bit on Apple

#100

Post by matwood »

gaucheries wrote: post #73
dodorama wrote: post #37

I don’t think Music is really intended for this use case. Maybe look at third party apps that let you play local files like Vox Music Player. If you want to stick with Music you can always subscribe to iTunes Match that will sync your local files libraries seamlessly

> I don’t think Music is really intended for this use case. What do you think are the intended use cases of the operating system's proprietary audio-file-playing application?

You don't even need to open iTunes to play an audio file. Preview will do it just fine.
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