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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

#471

Post by antifa »

Apofis wrote: post #355
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.

They're running A/B tests... You like variant A, the majority picked variant B. Otherwise, someone new was hired and needed a project.

Nobody liked A or B, just some weird engagement metric chose B.

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

#472

Post by firstplacelast »

mojuba wrote: post #96

Apple's new Music app absolutely ruined my entire local music collection one day, when updating from macOS 11.4 to 11.5 (I think). My music collection traveled with me from OS update to OS update for about 13 years with no problem. And now pretty much everything is broken, some files can not be played even though they are on disk, half of the album covers are gone, syncing with the phone gives a ton of errors. What h…

This is so upsetting to me, especially considering that my intro to the Apple ecosystem ~15 years ago was an iPod and how glorious that thing was.

Listening to my own local library has been a continually worse experience over the last 2 years. Not to mention, I use wired headphones with a lightning adapter 70% of the time, which somehow causes even more issues. Disconnects. Will refuse to play unless I unplug/replug or restart my phone altogether, increasing/decreasing the sound now has occasional lag that can take upwards of 5 seconds (and you have to unplug or restart to fix).

If I thought I had a shot of whatever job is in charge of this, I’d apply in a heart-beat just to fix all of this for my own needs.

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

#473

Post by gcanyon »

least wrote: post #301
gcanyon wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most people do not want to deal with giving permission to each and every one of these services. It’s far worse than just annoying: if people have to give permission to a bunch of things they don’t understand, they will absolutely give permission to something they shouldn’t. You want the user to make a few decisions as possible, and every single one should be an actual decision: where the user knows what the options…

I think this is a bit of an odd take, given that the alternative is that the computer just silently allows you to download content from anywhere. I don't think this makes someone any more susceptible to malware than they already were. Little Snitch is the sort of software that the average person wouldn't install, anyway. I understand the point, though. Going to just about any major website you will be pummeled with p…

> the computer just silently allows you to download content from anywhere

How many times have you been asked to approve a download? How many of those times have you said "no"?

If the answer is "hundreds" and "zero," what's the point? If the answer "hundreds" and "ten just in the past week," then that's exactly the point, and it serves a valuable purpose.

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

#474

Post by gcanyon »

asteiger wrote: post #451
Turing_Machine wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks --- I did know about that. For whatever reason, though, that doesn't appear to reliably bring back all notifications, only some of them. While I definitely could be wrong, I'm just about 100% certain that I've had notifications come and go that aren't to be found in the Notification Center afterward.

In the notifications settings/preferences, on a per-app basis, you can set whether notifications are displayed to allow banners, badges, and sounds. And you can turn on/off whether the notification posts to the lock screen, or stay in the notification center (swipe down on iOS, click the clock in the menu bar on OSX)

I'll have to look into this, but my experience has been that Notification Center: doesn't display everything; loses things on a whim; gives no way of recovering things, or displaying all things.

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

#475

Post by spurgu »

It's all about the shiny.

I haven't been in the Mac ecosystem for that long (since 2015), but what I've noticed is that Apple, like most software companies, tend to accentuate the new and fancy features.

I would personally love a release that simply fixes/stabilizes/improves old existing issues, with zero new things. Optimally a combination of both, but I'd settle for solidifying the base.

I guess that kind of talk is not popular in the board room.

And I'm far from the target customer, not really using any of Apple's software. I like it as an Ubuntu-like platform where everything is supported.

I don't care about upgrades to their internal tools which I don't use anyways (Mail/Maps/Safari/whatever). But I presume to be a minority as well, so this is just a rant. I've seen zero reason to upgrade to Monterey, just as I have with the previous releases, and only running Big Sur[0] now because I bought an M1 which is fucking awesome.

[0] Which was a huge letdown in terms of various changes that seemed to be changes just for the sake of changes.

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

#476

Post by gnicholas »

neilpanchal wrote: post #420
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…

Facepalm . I noticed that too and ranted about it: https://neil.computer/notes/apple-ux-ui-is-regressing/

You’ve nailed it. I upgraded from Mojave to Monterey, so I didn’t know when this change kicked in (or if there had been multiple iterations that made the new process more intuitive for users who had upgraded each year).

The only thing I’ve learned about dealing with these new notification types is that you can hover over them and swipe left to right to dismiss them. Unfortunately the notification will reappear sometimes. It seems like this happens for calendar notifications but not Messages notifications.

Anyone else have tips for how to deal with this? In ready to turn off notifications completely, which is unfortunate because I like to have calendar notifications (but only once).

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

#477

Post by WalterBright »

redler wrote: post #457
WalterBright wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That didn't work, either :-( The whole screen just scrolls.

What works for me is to not attempt to time it at all. Simply place two fingers directly on a message. Leave them there. Wait a second, then start sliding down. The message list should immediately shift to the right, exposing selection "circles" at the left edge of each message. As you continue sliding downward, each circle you "pass" will become selected. You can continue holding as you reach the bottom of the scree…

I put two fingers on a message. The message shades slightly. I slide down. The shading goes away, and the screen slides down. It does not slide right, it does not collect $200.

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

#478

Post by WalterBright »

1123581321 wrote: post #449
WalterBright wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Are you tapping and swiping down on the unchecked circles on the left? It scrolls the screen down if you swipe on the preview of the emails, but not the circles you see after you tap Edit int he upper right.

I tried that, too. It just scrolls the screen down, whether in the Edit mode or not.

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

#479

Post by okareaman »

pseudalopex wrote: post #221
okareaman wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Windows 11 is that last desktop machine UI we'll see for awhile from Microsoft as they intend to refine and improve this one and stop irritating people with changes. I'm happy finding work arounds for things that don't work for me. For example, I can no longer read the time from the task bar from a distance, so I have a browser tab loaded with a time service that I like better. https://www.clocktab.com/

> I believe Windows 11 is that last desktop machine UI we'll see for awhile from Microsoft as they intend to refine and improve this one and stop irritating people with changes. Wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be that?

Yes, I believe that was their intent, but they said it too soon. 10 still had a lot of ugly artifacts that appear to be cleaned up in 11. Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm right. I think it's what they should do.

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

#480

Post by ebeip90 »

etempleton wrote: post #429

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…

Right click on the dock → Turn hiding on

I also prefer: ... → Position on screen → Left

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