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Apple’s 2016 in review

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Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#281

Post by grzm »

Lio wrote: post #276
new299 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a UNIX-like system loving dev... I always found macs (running MacOS) a bit frustrating for dev work. It's nice that you have a familiar command structure to work with, but installing software from homebrew/whatever else was always a nightmare. They were nice laptops... but it seems inefficient. So I maintain 2 laptop. A macbook which I basically use for Skype and office work (and use about twice a month), and a ch…

Each to their own I suppose. I personally don't find homebrew to be a nightmare at all but that is of course anecdotal. You are mistaken if you think that Apple never intended the Mac to be used for general purpose Unix development though, they used to advertise it for that purpose on the science section of their website, before it was removed. https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-drops-science-...

Apple used to prominently promote its Unix heritage. For example, here's an article from MacWorld in 2001.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1001970/21osx-unix.html

And an advertisement:

"Sends other UNIX boxes to /dev/null"

http://www.mackungfu.org/vintage-os-x-ad-emphasises-unix-pow...

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#282

Post by lsadam0 »

simonh wrote: post #253
yoz-y wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I would like to know is how we got here - that some NEED 32GB of RAM in a laptop. Scouring the web for some time shows me that in 2015 it was quite hard to get a non-gaming laptop with 32GB of ram. Now, there are quite a lot of voices that cry that it is some bare minimum. To me it seems that more people now prefer laptops to desktops and it is annoying to sacrifice performance for portability. The lack of…

Actually replying to lsadam0 but can't for some reason > If the 2016 kept the same thickness but offered 32gb, I would have been happy. That's not possible with the current chip offerings from Intel though. The Intel CPUs that fit the MBP form factor and other features APple needs only go up to 16 GB RAM. If you doubt this is a pain point for Apple, note that Apple standardized on 16GB RAM out of the box. I'm sure th…

Thanks, I did not know that.

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#283

Post by wklauss »

patsplat wrote: post #41

Somehow despite leading the charge Apple has missed the boat on voice.

Unlikely. Volume of voice input for Siri probably is still orders of magnitude larger than those Alexa or Google Home handle. It also does so internationally and multilanguage. Once you start looking closely advantage is not really that big. Google, Alexa and Cortana also mishandle queries and they might excel at some tasks but fall short in others. Still a lot of room to improve for everyone, Apple included, but I would argue they are all in a very similar situation.

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#284

Post by [deleted] »

ams6110 wrote: post #10
panic wrote: post #5

How do they fix this? They need to do more talking — and even more listening — with their users. Engage with the influencers. Sit down and find out what their developers need that the current products don’t offer. Find out what is making their users unhappy. Asking people what they want will give you predictable results: complaints about any kind of change and positive feedback about shiny-looking features that demo…

Henry Ford: "If I asked people what they want, they'd say 'faster horses'"

[deleted]

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#286

Post by chaostheory »

> Defining products by the spreadsheet: A big percentage of complaints over the new MacBook Pro devices is that they ignore the needs of the “power” user. The problem? This group is fairly small and have needs living well towards the end of the bell curve.

The problem with ignoring this niche is because these users are either developers or big influencers. They help with the ongoing success of the App Store as well as with free marketing.

This is also a big reason why Apple needs to release either an iMac without a screen or a more affordable Mac Pro. The Mac Mini has never really cut it for anything but personal use.

For the 1st time in years, I'm thinking of switching back to Windows since Docker makes development easier now. I'll still get a cheap Mac for personal stuff like Photos, but it'll just be relegated for that.

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#287

Post by yabatopia »

ams6110 wrote: post #10
panic wrote: post #5

How do they fix this? They need to do more talking — and even more listening — with their users. Engage with the influencers. Sit down and find out what their developers need that the current products don’t offer. Find out what is making their users unhappy. Asking people what they want will give you predictable results: complaints about any kind of change and positive feedback about shiny-looking features that demo…

Henry Ford: "If I asked people what they want, they'd say 'faster horses'"

I'd rather have a faster horse than a skinny, old horse with a touch bar.

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#288

Post by Chathamization »

raverbashing wrote: post #173
visakanv wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What Apple needed was another person like Steve, but unfortunately, by letting Steve select that person, they ended up with someone completely unlike Steve. Paul Graham wrote about this back in 2012: "I was talking recently to someone who knew Apple well, and I asked him if the people now running the company would be able to keep creating new things the way Apple had under Steve Jobs. His answer was simply "no." I…

It's hard. Also, there wouldn't have been Steve Jobs without that crazy and convoluted history. Getting fired from the company, then founding a new one then getting brought back? People focus too much on the 'nasty' side of jobs, but it's easy to be nasty, and a lot of people do that, what's hard is having the other aspects that might be more subtle in his biography (or most likely I read it somewhere else), the grou…

> When they took the floppy disks from the Macs I assume people were more than happy to see they go.

There were a lot of complaints, even more than you're seeing now.[1][2] At the time it was still the main way people transferred files.

[1]http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB901747560996300000 [2]http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/11/business/fi-48540

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#289

Post by zimpenfish »

chaostheory wrote: post #286

> Defining products by the spreadsheet: A big percentage of complaints over the new MacBook Pro devices is that they ignore the needs of the “power” user. The problem? This group is fairly small and have needs living well towards the end of the bell curve. The problem with ignoring this niche is because these users are either developers or big influencers. They help with the ongoing success of the App Store as well a…

Developers, yes. Big influencers to other developers? Yes.

But big influencers to Joe Q Common Public? No. They will buy what meets their (generally meagre) needs from someone they trust.

Re: Apple’s 2016 in review

#290

Post by ktRolster »

WildUtah wrote: post #153
ktRolster wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The day Apple makes a power cord that doesn't have a cable sheath with the consistency and durability of silly putty is the day I will recognize them as back on track. That's a really strange thing, because it's such a well-understood problem and the solution is known. I don't know why Apple makes such lousy power cables, even if they messed up a decade ago, you'd think they'd have fixed it by now.

Jony Ive considers standard strain relief cones to be unattractive and prohibits Apple from shipping them.

Well figure out a way to make them attractive! That's kind of the job of a designer, you don't get to redesign the appearance of an airplane to remove the wings because you don't like how they look.
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