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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

#421

Post by baud147258 »

mattferderer wrote: post #175
slownews45 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deploy windows 10 pro. Loaded down with crap. What businesses want Xbox companion and xbox game bar running on all their work computers - seriously -> if you are on Microsoft search for xbox on your work computer. Does Candy Crush Saga still come on the business pro ISO installs? That used to make the office laugh - who is paying $200/machine to get candy crush saga pre-installed. In fact, the trick was they also h…

Every business should enable & demo Xbox Game bar. The video capture is awesome for helping debug things. Just record what's happening & send it over with your Help Desk ticket. It's free, easy to use & comes with Windows. Microsoft could & should also just load that as a stand alone tool like the snipping tool. But they haven't, so I encourage Xbox Game bar.

yeah, the xbox game bar was useful to do some video capture as a one-off.

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

#422

Post by saagarjha »

moralestapia wrote: post #33
freediver wrote: post #18

Yesterday I prepared a few years old Windows laptop for my daughter to use in school. It took me a few hours just to install updates, remove bloatware (my oh my, the amount is staggering!) and fix privacy settings. And this was for Windows 10 which I hear is a mild version of a mess that Windows 11 is. I was instantly reminded why I appreciate Apple software more.

Yeah that sucks, but on OSX side I have to restart my computer every week or so because of forced updates. Restarting really is a big deal for me as my workspace consists of several dozen open windows, some of them I have to login, navigate to a particular place, etc... also you lose your train of thought. It has gotten that bad for me, that I have to take screenshots before restarting every time, so I don't lose tra…

I get updates every two weeks, and I’m on the developer builds of macOS. There’s no way you’re getting weekly, mandatory macOS updates.

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

#423

Post by saagarjha »

aejnsn wrote: post #57

Apple needs to re-hash their ancient process for handling bugs and remove the entrenchment around Radar, internally and externally. Stop outsourcing your internal tools overseas and telling product engineers ‘it is like it is’. That clearly didn’t work with customers (re: MacBook feature reversals), it also doesn’t work with engineers. Allow engineers to scratch their own itch, and solve these complexity problems in…

Radar has a dedicated team with full-time, US-based Apple employees working on it.

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

#424

Post by 1123581321 »

aunty_helen wrote: post #77
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?

Get little snitch. This is a firewall that dosen't care what apple thinks is useful. There was some controversy in the previous year because apple tried to deprecate the firewall hooks and allow their junk passed the replacement they offered. I'm leaving apple for linux as we speak for two reasons, privacy and they can't help but mess with shit every time they release an update. The most recent, this week they releas…

Lulu is as good as Little Snitch and free. It's by Objective-See. https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html

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

#426

Post by 1123581321 »

afandian wrote: post #140
prewett wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're running a non-iTunes music app (including web pages, on newer versions of macOS), the play/pause button goes to whichever one last grabbed the audio. So if you start VLC (or whatever) first thing (or add it to the auto-start items), then the play/pause button will always go there.

It always worked as a pause/play for already playing media, my complaint was about its use as a launcher. Made muscle memory tricky as its behaviour depended on what was running at the time.

There's a great little utility called BetterTouchTool that will customize the default play button app. It can do a bunch of other little things, too. https://folivora.ai

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

#427

Post by ghaff »

josephg wrote: post #384
mixmastamyk wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Try Overcast. It’s one of the best pieces of software on my iPhone. Simple, well thought through and reliable. And the speed controls are the best I’ve seen in any program. It’s the sort of software apple makes when they’re at their best. Much better than the built in podcast app.

I like Overcast. Though neither it nor anything else really comes close to letting me play podcasts with some degree of reasonable selection when I'm driving. Maybe too difficult a problem and reflecting that voice assistants are pretty limited.

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

#428

Post by easton »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #365
vanilla_nut wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 abil…

Most people will just bridge mode the modem from the ISP to their router so that the router itself doesn't have to authenticate, which is probably why most home routers don't have PPPoE.

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

#429

Post by etempleton »

I find anything that involves the cloud with Apple is suspect to just not work without explanation, but overall I think iOS is pretty solid still. I just avoid their cloud services and use something else.

MacOS, on the other hand, I feel is increasingly a pain to use these days. It is not so much that the OS has gotten worse, but that there have been weird UX decisions along the way compared to Windows. I don’t like how MacOS manages windows or full-screen apps; I don’t really like the finder still; and I think the dock is a big waste of space on high resolution displays and never quite hides reliably the way I think it should when set to hide when not in use.

I should say, I loved the dock back in the OSX days, I just think The Windows taskbar is better these days.

It is a shame because I think Apple is at an all time high with their hardware design and build quality. Their laptops are second to none. The OS just feels like a chore to use half the time.

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

#430

Post by sj4nz »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #373
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…

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.

The notifications come back in just about the same way the Algorithm scrambles timelines on the social media apps--its just like they're trying to keep you engaged in using the phone.

Ideally, the notifications should have two very simple views: a linear list by time, a grouped-by-application list and the ability to mark and sweep them away.

Or maybe at the most, an archive all notifications sweep that you can re-open if you remember that you wanted to see an old notification.

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