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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

#371

Post by least »

jjice wrote: post #282

I use MacOS for work - I think it's a fine OS. Biggest thing for me is that it's UNIX based. I wouldn't use a MacBook myself though. They certainly are damn fine machines for the price (M1), but I really don't like MacOS having a bunch of stuff I don't need, like Garage Band. I know Windows has a ton of bloat as well, and MacOS's bloat is more useful, generally speaking. It's not for most people, but any popular user…

The major Desktop Environments have their own software suites that you'd reasonably call bloat (especially KDE Plasma), and then distributions frequently by default come installed with even more bloat.

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

#372

Post by Slartie »

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.

If there only were any other podcast apps out there, maintained by independent, non-apple developers...

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

#373

Post by tailspin2019 »

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…

Same for me. Notifications on macOS weren’t great before but they are way worse now.

Before they were an annoyance; but now they’re just utterly baffling to me. I have no idea what I’m supposed to click half the time and they seem to come back randomly for me too.

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

#374

Post by [deleted] »

azinman2 wrote: post #256
sneak wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting updated security signatures AKA phoning-home to Apple what apps you launch in realtime, in an unencrypted manner visible to your ISP/hotel/government too. It also connects to all of that crap even if you have LS off, analytics off, iCloud/FaceTime/iMessage/AppStore off, et c. Press F8 and your serial number gets transmitted to Apple.

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

[deleted]

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

#375

Post by js2 »

The bugs in the Apple ecosystem drive me batty. Even in the latest version of iOS, when my phone changes between night and day mode, Safari only updates the background color of the URL bar but not the text, leaving me with white text on a white background. I can only fix it by force quitting Safari, and the problem doesn’t occur when I manually toggle between modes. Yay.

But you know, I installed Windows 10 via bootcamp recently and even simple stuff like mapping caps lock to control requires either changing a registry setting or installing power tools. Also, the ads. Similarly, I can’t stand the UI of Android TV compared to tvOS.

So as much as I find Apple products infuriating a times, the alternatives are even worse.

So I stick with Apple. But its products no longer bring me joy. They are just another slightly less shitty tech product I put up with.

There’s a slogan for you: less shitty than the other guys.

Sigh.

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

#376

Post by oasisbob »

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.

I'm still trying to figure out how to tell Podcasts not to play episodes I've heard before.

Play #27 of Show, then #26, and after playing #26, it will automatically choose to go on with #27 again.

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

#377

Post by datavirtue »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #304
yosito wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why there are redesigns over and over and over Because they aren't building UIs to be useful for pleasant for users anymore. Once these data-driven companies have enough users locked in, they begin optimizing the user interface to manipulate user behavior for profit. They shift from helping you do what you want to manipulating you into doing what they want you to do. It's actually gotten so bad that open source sof…

Spotify is an ever-evolving trash fire. It's become very difficult or impossible to get it to display a list of albums created by a given artist, and then play album X. "Oh no" Spotify says. "I think what you really want to do is play and then a whole bunch of random songs by other artists you've never heard of, right? That's what I'm going to do for you." I realize it's still actually possible to get Spotify to do w…

My wife has been complaining about the random feature playing the same songs over and over again. It's been about ten years now. I stopped using the trash fire because of it.

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

#378

Post by PostThisTooFast »

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…

My favorite is how the (idiotically hidden-in-the-first-place) X often gets its state reversed, so it DISappears when you roll over the notification, instead of the opposite... making the thing impossible to dismiss until you jostle it out of its backward state.

And if you have multiple notifications, there's no option to dismiss the top one to see what the others are... you have to dismiss them ALL.

Fucking retarded.

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

#379

Post by datavirtue »

tomc1985 wrote: post #318
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…

> who wants to work on the broken things? So much of whats wrong with modern SWE right here in this sentence

I LOVE fixing bugs and improving existing software...hence, everyone thinks I'm a douche and I never get to do what I love.

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

#380

Post by PostThisTooFast »

philg_jr wrote: post #259
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…

As a new iOS user, this is the #1 thing that makes me want to sell my 12 Mini and go back to vanilla Android. Notifications are a total mess in iOS.

Here's perhaps the oldest, most embarrassing, and dogshit-stupid defect of the iPhone:

NO NOTIFICATIONS OF MISSED CALLS.

Seriously... WTF. You can have the thing alert you up to 10 times for missed TEXTS, but NOT CALLS. "Messages" and "Phone" have almost exactly the same UI in Settings, too; but the one for Phone is missing the entire section for notifications.

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