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“Gravity is worth asking about”

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Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#61

Post by apothegm »

pixlmint wrote: post #58
matusp wrote: post #7

The minimalist approach is great until it isn't. You can cover 98% of use cases with a single button is a great motto, until you are in the other 2%. I often fail to find basic functionality in software today, because some smart product manager decided that nobody really needs it. For example, it is now often impossible to load all elements from a list and filter/sort it along basic properties.

this is a discussion we often have where I work, where we're debating removing a feature due to difficulties maintaining it and few people needing it. I usually fight to keep it, with the argument "we aren't doing it for the people that don't need it, but for the ones that do." But at the end of the day, I'm not the one who has to pay for it.

The adage that nobody uses more than 25% of MS Word’s features — but it’s a different 25% for each user.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#62

Post by layer8 »

Regarding stickers on PCs, once one PC manufacturer added a sticker for feature X, they would have an advantage in physical stores over the other manufacturer’s PC next to it, because consumers overwhelmed by the available choices would rather buy the PC with the indicated feature over the one that might not have it. If Macs were available from different manufacturers and displayed in stores side by side, I’m not sure that Apple could escape that mechanism.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#63

Post by anon48293 »

glimshe wrote: post #51

I really wanted to hear the opinion from Mac diehards about modern MacOS. I've used Windows for decades but bought a Mac M2 a while ago. I really like it so I'm not trying to say "Apple Bad". But I'm yet to see Apple's legendary simplicity, minimalism and attention to detail. I keep complaining about the fact Mac OS asks me whether I want to allow chrome to access the local network with every update. I tried to dig d…

With Apple, the stuff I want to do just works. I actually like the granularity in permissions, because I only give them out sparingly.

Having said that, the OS felt better a few years ago. I feel like they have less attention to detail and don’t care for Liquid Glass.

Still blazingly fast machines compared to my intel windows corporate workstation though.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#64

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

glimshe wrote: post #51

I really wanted to hear the opinion from Mac diehards about modern MacOS. I've used Windows for decades but bought a Mac M2 a while ago. I really like it so I'm not trying to say "Apple Bad". But I'm yet to see Apple's legendary simplicity, minimalism and attention to detail. I keep complaining about the fact Mac OS asks me whether I want to allow chrome to access the local network with every update. I tried to dig d…

I don't get asked about access for Chrome at every update.

I have bigger issues with the way a lot of MacOS apps are just poorly designed.

Like screen capture - I want to be able to save to my choice of destination folder after clicking. But instead you get a selection of preset choices, and the option to select a destination before you capture the file, which is unnaturally distracting.

Finder hasn't changed for decades. It should be possible to have source and destination trees visible in the same window, but it isn't.

Mac Mail has threaded conversations, which means some emails don't appear in searches.

App Store search was designed by cynics, idiots, or both. If you know the exact name of an app, search will probably show it but it probably won't be anywhere near the first hit.

Xcode - I can't even...

Meanwhile a lot of clever and useful features remain hidden or ignored. Automator and AppleScript would have been gamechangers if Apple had promoted them, but they were just left on a shelf to moulder.

I can't imagine ever swapping back to Windows, but these annoyances are an insult to the quality of the hardware, which is on another level.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#65

Post by markovs_gun »

pixelesque wrote: post #45
microtonal wrote: post #27

Even the 'own stickers' joke doesn't really apply anymore. I recently saw ads for Apple Fitness+ and Apple Intelligence in the system settings (!, I'll forgive the ads for Apple Care). Apple Creator Studio ads in the former iWork Apps (including abusing toolbar icons for it). Finally (luckily I haven't experienced it), ads for their F1 movie in Apple Wallet. It is gross and destroys what Apple stood for. Their introd…

The really annoying thing to me about the "Ads" in the system settings for various things like Apple Music, iCloud, Fitness, etc (other than the fact they're there in the first place) is that they appear after a bit of a delay (around 500 ms?), so other items I actually want have to slide down to make space as I'm about to click something. Old Apple would never have done that I don't think.

This is something that I find extremely annoying about pretty much everything on computers these days. I have noticed recently that play buttons on pretty much every music player do not work consistently and often show the wrong play/pause state (showing a pause button when there is nothing playing, showing play buttons when something is playing) and obviously that doesn't break any real functionality, but it's just annoying and shows a complete disregard for the quality of the user experience across the board. I honestly don't know of a single audio only app that has a play button that works properly.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#66

Post by vachina »

glimshe wrote: post #51

I really wanted to hear the opinion from Mac diehards about modern MacOS. I've used Windows for decades but bought a Mac M2 a while ago. I really like it so I'm not trying to say "Apple Bad". But I'm yet to see Apple's legendary simplicity, minimalism and attention to detail. I keep complaining about the fact Mac OS asks me whether I want to allow chrome to access the local network with every update. I tried to dig d…

> the progress bar actually made progress and stayed stuck at 80%.

> the problem was that a running WhatsApp app prevented the WhatsApp update process to finish.

Oh so that’s what it is. Thought it was a desync between UI state and software logic.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#67

Post by KoolKat23 »

glimshe wrote: post #51

I really wanted to hear the opinion from Mac diehards about modern MacOS. I've used Windows for decades but bought a Mac M2 a while ago. I really like it so I'm not trying to say "Apple Bad". But I'm yet to see Apple's legendary simplicity, minimalism and attention to detail. I keep complaining about the fact Mac OS asks me whether I want to allow chrome to access the local network with every update. I tried to dig d…

Don't get me started on the whole iCloud thing, and apple account sign in (although to be fair to them they've improved this it was way too onerous in the past).

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#68

Post by detourdog »

glimshe wrote: post #51

I really wanted to hear the opinion from Mac diehards about modern MacOS. I've used Windows for decades but bought a Mac M2 a while ago. I really like it so I'm not trying to say "Apple Bad". But I'm yet to see Apple's legendary simplicity, minimalism and attention to detail. I keep complaining about the fact Mac OS asks me whether I want to allow chrome to access the local network with every update. I tried to dig d…

Apple's days of simplicity out of the box are over. The simplicity is still in there somewhere. Through a combination of turning off a lot of features in settings and using a few defaults shell command it can be made simple.

Apple got complex due to dynamic workspaces that result in windows unexpectedly flying off screen or popping up as one mouses's around and the new security model which no longer trusts defaults to local applications trusting each other.

This security model is why each application needs to be granted local access. I believe Apple encourages all apps to stick to their own sandbox to the extent possible.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to give Image Events access to my local hard disk. My old applescripts using Image Events have broken due to the loss of access.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#69

Post by alexpotato »

I know that "Great Man" theory is considered debunked.

That being said, it seems a LOT of drops in quality trace back to some very senior person who cared about quality and put resources behind delivering quality and then either:

- stops caring

- leaves (retires, switches jobs or gets pushed out).

Jobs is the classic example of this but I'm sure if you are reading this then you have an example from your own career history.

Re: “Gravity is worth asking about”

#70

Post by vachina »

layer8 wrote: post #56
swiftcoder wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having the menu exist at all is already well onto the slippery slope - once upon a time the screenshots went directly into the photo library, without any interstitial at all... And at the time, everyone was perfectly fine with opening the photo library to access the options that are now in that menu

I disagree. It was annoying to always have to delete the screenshot photos that you really only wanted to have on the clipboard to paste somewhere, or only wanted to extract text out of. I was very pleasantly surprised when the new options were added, and I regularly make use of the different available choices. Instead, what I dislike is that you can’t keep the screenshot dialog open in the background. It would be fi…

That would turn it into an app, but on iOS there’s no way to draw UI elements on top of other apps.
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