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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

#361

Post by mulmen »

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…

It's even better that in some cases (calendar invites?) you have to mouse over the notification "x" to see the dropdown to "accept" but if you move your mouse off the "x" then the dropdown disappears!

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

#362

Post by rytcio »

Skunkleton wrote: post #7
jamil7 wrote: post #3

Apple's software quality has certainly slipped. I'm not sure if I'm just getting old but I find software quality in general seems to have slipped. Or is it just because there's more software around?

I think that the slip in quality we are seeing is a result of increased complexity more than anything else.

Computers really are not doing much more today than they were in the early 2000s. Despite the massive increases in home computational power, the only thing that is really visibly improved is the graphical fidelity of video games. All other software is doing the same stuff it did 20 years ago...just worse.

Bad software is more due to needing to ship stuff ASAP for marketing, the board of directors, and for the investors. This decline in software can really be matched up with the increase of startup culture.

I would also argue that complexity is developers own doing, trying to strap every new fangled library, engine, tool, API ,buzzword of the day, etc. to their program...when there is zero reason to. Nothing about what modern software does is more complex than it was in the 2000s

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

#363

Post by drewg123 »

laurent92 wrote: post #331
drewg123 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, but do you know how can I disable these bings? Or even where to find them in the settings? This is what's impossible to google for...

They're incredibly annoying and prevent me from charging my phone when I sleep.

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

#364

Post by mewse »

mattlondon wrote: post #200
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…

Last time I got a fresh Mac, the bloatware all had an icon on the dock - so that is a combination of a start menu entry AND a tray icon.

Grab it with your mouse, drag it off the dock, done.

I guess I’m not really seeing what I’m supposed to be outraged about, here. Modifying the stuff in the dock on OSX isn’t difficult or unintuitive at all? Just grab the stuff you don’t want on there and drag it out, and grab the stuff you do want on there and drag it in? It’s just using the standard desktop metaphor and interface, and you’re in no danger of breaking fragile uninstall scripts like you would be if you manually removed a program’s entry from the start menu on Windows. It really isn’t comparable at all.

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

#365

Post by lotsofpulp »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #233
AlexandrB wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time Machine has been neglected for so long . The UI was never great for power users, but at least it worked. For a novice computer user it was a pretty good "set it and forget it" experience. In the last 3 years it has become so unreliable (every time it tries to backup it claims the backup is corrupted and needs to be re-created) that I've given up and switched to Carbon Copy Cloner.

Ever since they stopped building wireless routers, Apple has forgotten Time Machine in favor of pushing iCloud backups for separate services. But there’s still no good alternative to Apple’s old routers. I tried to buy a new router for gigabit internet last year, and the interfaces are so piss-poor and the performance so pathetic across the board that I ended up getting the last generation of Airport Extreme instead.…

The home networking scene is so bad. I had a Time Machine and and Airport Extreme, but it was not capable of PPPoE login to Centurylink's network, and I wanted to get rid of the Zyxel router that Centurylink provided.

I ended up getting a Linksys Velop MX8400C 2 pack from Costco for $230, since that was the lowest price I could find for something that did PPPoE login and could be hardwired together. I wanted the ability to do multiple VLANs via wireless like Meraki, but I could not find anything. Even the Meraki Go stuff does not do it.

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

#366

Post by smallerfish »

mattlondon wrote: post #215
BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this attitude. I spend countless hours trying to keep my wife's work computers working. Getting windows to connect to a printer is a frequent ordeal and fixes seem to always be ephemeral, things soon breaking again. Her Macs are not as bad but still have lots of hiccups. Meanwhile I've been on Ubuntu for more than a decade and as far as I can remember, for example, printing consists of printer just…

My work Linux laptop frequently (several times daily) breaks Bluetooth, breaks audio, does not wake from sleep, wakes from sleep but only shows the mouse pointer on a black screen, stops throttling the CPU down, resets the DHCP-specified DNS server to 0.0.0.0, sends stuff to printers that cause them to just spit out endless blank sheets of paper. The "solutions" to all of these are multi-step manual disasters... unin…

Sounds like a truly broken install. What's the maintenance history of the machine? Have you been patching it from third party repos? Why are you running Jack on a work computer anyway?

Back up your documents and do a fresh install. It'll take you an hour and you'll regain stability.

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

#367

Post by flatiron »

clarge1120 wrote: post #169
noir_lord wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put the boy on an old Dell Vostro running Fedora. Installation and updates took about 30 minutes. Updating the machine is a `sudo dnf update` and done. Though I did get in trouble when I shelled into his machine did and update and rebooted without checking he was using it first - killing his call to his (not)girlfriend in the process. He's just start secondary (high) school and they are using Google Classroom so al…

I am thinking of starting the young man with Ubuntu, rather than Windows or OSX. Since his (not) gf only uses iPhone tech, I won't be able to accidentally interrupt any calls.

Take a look at neon. Probably a good distribution for a kid. I still run my kids computers so they run arch.

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

#368

Post by [deleted] »

nixpulvis wrote: post #314

My favorite example of this was how, just after quitting my job on the iPhone hardware team, I needed to buy a new phone. So I went to the local Apple store back home in Colorado and got myself a shiny new iPhone X. It didn't take long for the winter to start rolling in and the outside temperature to start to drop. I suddenly began to notice that my fingers weren't registering on the touchscreen anymore, even with wa…

[deleted]

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

#369

Post by jmull »

I don’t see any particular reason to believe the premise: that Apple is letting its software slip.

Anecdotes are fine as a place to start or to tell the story, but don’t tell us anything about the general state of Apple software.

I can see why they do it, though. Apple Doom always gets a lot of clicks.

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

#370

Post by datavirtue »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #311
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…

Don't get me started on the new iOS podcast app. I used to know how to use it. Now I need to click five times at random to get anywhere, and still don't understand where I am. All the views look similar, but different. I just want to hear the oldest first and see if episodes are downloaded, that's it. Cue… "you had one job!" Yes, been about six months.

Hmmm....I was just cursing out Amazon Music for the same podcast flaws. These people.
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