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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

#431

Post by Turing_Machine »

gcanyon wrote: post #239
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…

For me the issue is notifications that appear, then disappear, and I can’t find them again, or what they refer to. If it’s important enough to do a notification, it’s important enough to keep in a notification log that I can go through chronologically, search, group, sort, etc. I will high five the person who tells me how that feature exists and I’ve just missed it.

> I will high five the person who tells me how that feature exists and I’ve just missed it.

Yeah, same here.

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

#432

Post by climb_stealth »

memco wrote: post #242
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.

> 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) This bit me and I've not fully recovered yet. I had some stuff backed up manually, but some stuff I just trusted to the time machine backups. Now that some of the backups are unrecoverable I only have easy access to the stuff I backed up manually. I'm interested in trying CCC,…

My condolences. It is an absolute nightmare trying to find any documentation for dealing with time machine issues. I ran into that once and will never do it again if I can avoid it.

I have been super happy with CCC. I use it to back up my Macbooks to my NAS. Sometimes wired, sometimes wireless. And yes, it doesn't break when it gets interrupted. And their documentation is amazing. All the use cases and error cases are documented with solutions and everything.

I think I had two or three recoveries so far and have been happy with it. Even when it didn't work for some reason their documentation had workarounds.

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

#433

Post by SkyPuncher »

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…

I know it's minor, but managing virtual desktops is infuriating. There after I take the two steps necessary to manage virtual desktops (swipe four fingers up and move the mouse to the top of the screen). There are exactly 4 actions I want to take:

* Select a desktop (even this is questionable as an action) * Re-arrange a desktop * Add a desktop * Remove a desktop

----

Nearly all of the time, I want to remove a desktop because I have too many of them.

I would expect a sane UI where the X button is always shown _and_ deleting a desktop results in a new X in the exact same spot (so I can quickly close multiple desktops).

Instead, I have to hover to reveal the x, click it. Everything then shifts to a magic new location where I have to repeat hover, find X, click it.

Drives me up the wall.

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

#434

Post by ericd »

dkersten wrote: post #406
ericd wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you're not someone who would describe themselves as a "gamer"? EDIT: (I don't mean this in a mean way, just to say that people who care a lot about being able to play specific games probably still won't be satisfied without a Windows box).

I play plenty of games and have a Steam library of ~400 or so games. I haven't had a Windows install in a few years. The only issues I've had with Windows games on Linux, using Proton on Steam, is that it doesn't work in Wayland (but every game I've tried works fine under X, of course I do check ProtonDB.com before buying games that don't have official Linux support).

Oh nice, I clearly need to read up on Proton, there’re some Windows-only games I’ve been missing.

Would you say it’d satisfy for twitch shooters?

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

#435

Post by marderfarker2 »

Philadelphia wrote: post #285
jjice wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something so many big companies do, and I hate it. Every 6 months it seems Spotify has to change their UI and make it harder to find what I want. Just make a decent UI and stick to it. I don't understand why there are redesigns over and over and over. My assumption is that it keeps people employed, even if they aren't necessarily needed. It at least takes away from more important issues being taken care of.

Twitter has been so bad with this lately. It feels like the app is different in some irritating and pointless way every time I open it.

This is why I only browse twitter from my notifications panel.

Twitter is great when it serves its purpose of being a 140 char log of people that matter.

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

#436

Post by nixpulvis »

saagarjha wrote: post #423
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.

It's also kinda a pile of garbage. But so is everything else... (actually in many ways it was a lot better than some others, but that's beside the point here). Part of my job at Apple was simply to cache and organize things locally for our team in a way that made sense to us.

Every team is going to want to do this differently. Find good abstractions that are generic enough to let people do with them as they please. Don't force your model down my throat, I'll probably just gag it up and come after you instead.

The issues at Apple stem from the top. Replacing Radar alone solves nothing.

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

#437

Post by WalterBright »

1123581321 wrote: post #338
WalterBright wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I tried this many times, it scrolls the whole screen down but does not select the emails.

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

#438

Post by chrisweekly »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #431
gcanyon wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the issue is notifications that appear, then disappear, and I can’t find them again, or what they refer to. If it’s important enough to do a notification, it’s important enough to keep in a notification log that I can go through chronologically, search, group, sort, etc. I will high five the person who tells me how that feature exists and I’ve just missed it.

> I will high five the person who tells me how that feature exists and I’ve just missed it. Yeah, same here.

I'm probably missing context (skimmed comments quickly on phone after a long day), but just in case it helps: on iOS, swipe straight down from the very top to access Notification Center. IME, on iOS, it's a reliable way to access them.

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

#439

Post by WalterBright »

acdha wrote: post #357
WalterBright wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can drag down with two fingers held apart to select the messages. I use that fairly often, especially with search results. It's still not as fast as having a select-all button but does give you a chance to notice that not all of the messages are the same.

It doesn't work when I try it. It just scrolls the screen.

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

#440

Post by acdha »

WalterBright wrote: post #439
acdha wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can drag down with two fingers held apart to select the messages. I use that fairly often, especially with search results. It's still not as fast as having a select-all button but does give you a chance to notice that not all of the messages are the same.

It doesn't work when I try it. It just scrolls the screen.

It might be the tap-then-drag delay — I've been using this process for a few years so I know it works but I haven't seen it documented anywhere by Apple so I'm probably using different terminology.

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/12/02/two-finger-tap-ipho...

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