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If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

macworld.com

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Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#331

Post by laurent92 »

drewg123 wrote: post #287
noneeeed wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current UX of notifications is terrible . After months of using it I still don't understand the mental model. A notification comes up, I hover and wait for the cross to appear and click it. But then some time later I unlock my machine or something happens and apparantly all my notifications are still there for some reason and I have to clear them again, only this time they are in groups and I have to clear multip…

I wish there was some way to look at the last N notifications, see what apps generated them, etc. My biggest pet peeve right now is that my iPhone bongs when charging. Not when the charger is plugged or unplugged (its a different sound). It seems to happen when the charge passes 20% and then again when it passes 80%. But there is never a notification on screen, just a sound. Googling for this is impossible, since you…

At 20% iOS deactivates the powersaving mode, I think.

At 80% iOS notifies that it is charged enough, so you can unplug if you want to avoid supercharging it.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#332

Post by lostgame »

afandian wrote: post #60
irskep wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that none of that stuff is running in the background when you aren't using it. Maps doesn't take up a global menu slot. Apple Music doesn't open unless you explicitly open it (unless you happen to hit an Apple Music URL on the web). You can ignore it and it doesn't bother you. Whereas on Windows, bloatware tends to add a Start menu icon, tray icon, background process, startup item, etc. And Apple's…

I never found a way of disabling the automatic starting of iTunes when you press the play/pause button on the keyboard. How do I choose my own music player app? And my new Mac has things like (can't remember exactly) 'musiccreationd'. These count as 'startup items' to me.

I believe it’s just in System Preferences -> Keyboard, but may be mistaken.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#333

Post by sbuk »

krono wrote: post #139
SamuelAdams wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey so I’ll be getting my first MacBook Pro in a couple weeks, so I’m still learning the details about OS X. I’m coming from a windows / Linux background. I thought the OS shipped with its own firewall? Would you recommend using a third party firewall despite having its own?

The OS firewall can only block incoming traffic (but not Apple's I believe) and has almost no configuration options. Some popular third party solutions that are actually useful are Little Snitch [0], LuLu [1], and AdGuard [2]. [0] https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html [1] https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html [2] https://adguard.com/en/adguard-mac/overview.html

Mac OS comes with pf installed. This can block inbound and outbound traffic. There is a utility called Murus that manages this with a GUI, https://www.murusfirewall.com

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#334

Post by chris_wot »

sneak wrote: post #265
azinman2 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee you there are no unencrypted communications going to Apple.

Wanna bet? Apple still hasn't yet made good on their promise of encrypting OCSP (the making of which I would like to believe is my fault).

the making of which I would like to believe is my fault

How so?

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#335

Post by the_other »

egypturnash wrote: post #315
egypturnash wrote: post #102

I recently moved from Mojave to Big Sur and I sure am feeling this. My Wacom tablet keeps on not being recognized when I wake from sleep. Safari's constantly using a huge chunk of my CPU and typing stuff into a text box in it is often painfully slow. There's a bunch of little constant aggravations and really nothing that's improved my life beyond "the latest version of Illustrator wouldn't work on Mojave". Which I ha…

I dug around and found a fix for the "constantly eats all my CPU" issue: Turn on "compact" tab layout. Which then creates the problem that now I'm using the "compact" tab layout that everyone in the betas screamed bloody murder about until they added that switch, god this layout is really annoying if you have any extensions up in the toolbar and/or more than about four tabs. But at least I don't have to deal with usi…

The new Safari design looks 100x worse than the fake leather ever did. The UI team should be ashamed of themselves.

It wouldn't have happened under Joni.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#336

Post by crooked-v »

noneeeed wrote: post #231
makecheck wrote: post #204

While this article focused primarily on things being left unmaintained, etc. there is also a huge problem with things being touched for no reason and making them worse . When handed what must be a mountain of bugs and unfinished items, why the hell did they prioritize things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs, for instance? They’re in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps…

The current UX of notifications is terrible . After months of using it I still don't understand the mental model. A notification comes up, I hover and wait for the cross to appear and click it. But then some time later I unlock my machine or something happens and apparantly all my notifications are still there for some reason and I have to clear them again, only this time they are in groups and I have to clear multip…

Also, while this isn't so much a macOS as an iOS thing, there are a huge number of apps that take advantage of wanting functional notifications turned on ("your food has arrived") to constantly spam the user with marketing notifications ("sign up for FoodPass, 50% off!").

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#337

Post by mixmastamyk »

irskep wrote: post #48
sabellito wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not defending windows here, but don't you find that macs come with bloatware as well? Safari, apple music, maps, etc - some of which you cannot uninstall as well.

The difference is that none of that stuff is running in the background when you aren't using it. Maps doesn't take up a global menu slot. Apple Music doesn't open unless you explicitly open it (unless you happen to hit an Apple Music URL on the web). You can ignore it and it doesn't bother you. Whereas on Windows, bloatware tends to add a Start menu icon, tray icon, background process, startup item, etc. And Apple's…

Little Snitch says otherwise.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#338

Post by 1123581321 »

WalterBright wrote: post #328
makecheck wrote: post #204

While this article focused primarily on things being left unmaintained, etc. there is also a huge problem with things being touched for no reason and making them worse . When handed what must be a mountain of bugs and unfinished items, why the hell did they prioritize things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs, for instance? They’re in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps…

I don't use my iphone for email because I get 200-300 emails per day, and there's no way to mass delete the inbox. I have to select-delete for every email.

In the Mail app, tap Edit, then select the empty checkbox to the left of the top email, then drag from the second email down to the bottom of the view (it'll autoscroll.) Then you can move or trash the emails all at once.

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#339

Post by dragonwriter »

jaywalk wrote: post #235
rchaud wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that the 2007 iPhone demo had showed AT&T reception at full strength? That was hardcoded for the purpose of the Keynote. I recall iPhones having iffy phone reception for at least the first couple of years.

Not AT&T, but Cingular. Although I believe that Cingular was gone by the time the iPhone actually launched.

> Although I believe that Cingular was gone by the time the iPhone actually launched.

It was “gone” in the sense that it was renamed “AT&T Mobility”. (Cingular Wireless bought AT&T Wireless before the iPhone deal, but its parent company [SBC] later bought AT&T, adopted the AT&T name, and rebranded Cingular as AT&T Mobility.)

Re: If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter

#340

Post by SavantIdiot »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #272
SavantIdiot wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you hate about Time Machine? I've used it since 2013. Every time I've bought a new MBP, I simply use time machine to restore and my new one looks exactly like my old one. Never had an issue. I find it far easier to use than Duplicity, Iron Mountain ConnectedBackup, or Carbonite, all of which I've used at other jobs. (All of those require fine-grained backup tweaking that requires a lot of diligence to check b…

The specific complaint was "the insane UI," if I read the comment correctly. Time Machine's UI is possibly the last holdover from Apple's peak sizzle-and-flash design days, the era of brushed metal and skeuomorph-all-the-things even when there isn't exactly a real-world analogue to emulate. To be fair, it's less insane in Monterey than it used to be. No wooshy space background, faster to launch, easier to scroll. But…

Ah that's fair. The "Space Rolodex" theme is a bit motion-sickness inducing.

I find that useful because I can navigate to a folder where it used to live, and then flip back until the file I was looking for appears.

Compared to the alternatives: Connected Backup and Carbonite require me to manually enter dates until I find the file, and for a while Carbonite would keep closing the folder tree requiring me to re-expand every branch each time the date changed. However, duplicity requires me to dump the entire log and grep, which is a power user solution one could argue.

I think duplicity wins here because I can grep for the filename. But barfing Mac Rolodex can be helpful if I don't know the filename.

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