Do I want too much from Apple?

[stratokaster]

Apple’s real strength these days is, of course, iOS. I have an iPad Pro which I think is the best mobile computer I have ever had. Unfortunately, it does only about 80% of what I need it to do, so I have to rely on something else for the remaining 20%, but if it does something, it does it extremely well.

The best thing about iPad Pro is just how streamlined and optimised everything really is. And it has some pretty powerful apps too; tools such as Procreate, Affinity Photo, Lightroom CC (which works much faster than on any desktop I’ve seen) and LumaFusion which is an advanced video editor with features such as color LUTs and chroma keying (green screen) and what not - and it renders 4K video incredibly fast.

If only it was a bit more flexible... But then it wouldn’t be an iPad anymore.

[Muirium]

I’m an iPad Pro devotee as well. This slim wee portable + my Bluetoothed HHKB makes a magnificent mobile writing station, and a fine art tablet too. The battery life is unparalleled and the third party apps are solid, when you can find them.

But the software. Ugh. What bites is the iffy to downright absent keyboard shortcut support, the invasive sandboxing (preventing handy features like systemwide clipboard history), sharing things between apps in general, WTF filesystem!?, and the underlying uncertainty of background apps still being run when you’re not looking. Don’t even get me started on text selection. The iPad is where iOS meets up with desktop grade expectations, and it falls short. The iPad ain’t displacing the Mac at this rate. Indeed, as slow as MacOS development is these days, the iPad side of iOS is slower still. Most years see nothing. Honestly, the only new “features” I got from iOS 12 were spacebar cursor drag (welcome), Screen Time (broken) and moving the often needed Control Center up to the far top right edge of the display where it’s a pain to get to (not welcome!) because… iPhone X?

Damn it, I have to alter screen brightness a dozen or so times a day. (My eyes and Apple’s auto brightness curve have strongly different opinions.) Don’t make it difficult you dingdongs!

The hardware is pretty good. But I’m not an Apple user for the hardware. That I could always get elsewhere. But who makes a better operating system (and software ecosystem)? That’s the problem.

[vometia]

The hardware is pretty good. But I’m not an Apple user for the hardware. That I could always get elsewhere. But who makes a better operating system (and software ecosystem)? That’s the problem.

From a desktop perspective, I think Apple's edge has always been the user interface: it works well, it's pretty intuitive, and, y'know, pretty. What's going on in the background is often done better by other systems and is indeed why Apple did the right thing and used a sort of FreeBSD/Mach hybrid for OS/X's innards, but I think it's that "user experience" where others are always playing catch-up. Windows is... well, Windows, and for all the various Unixes have some really inventive interfaces, they're often a bit fiddly to both set up and use and tend to be incomplete. They're moved on enormously from where they were but I think they haven't progressed as much as they need to, nor as much as I'd expected (or at least hoped). If Apple stays ahead of the competition, which let's face it they've been doing for a good 35 years, I guess that's their main strength.

The phone thingy I know absolutely nothing about but from what little I've seen it looks better designed than Android, which is horrible to use and also has Google stealing all your precious things in the background.

[LeslieAnn]

Apple survived for a bit last time Jobs left, the difference this time is he left a 5 year plan for them to work off of and they are flush with cash, they can afford some mistakes and buy their way out of it. Besides, Macbooks are not their focus, they could sell off the entire division and it wouldn't make a large dent in their profits. I'm kind of surprised they haven't done it already.*

As for too big to fail, remember Nokia and Blackberry? How about Borders, Kmart or Sears? History id full of "too big to fails" failing.


*I did a quick search on the idea and it seems I'm far from alone in wondering if that could happen. Between Macs being relegated to second class at Apple, they take a lot of work to engineer and support and sales slipped 13% last quarter.

[chuckdee]

Apple’s real strength these days is, of course, iOS. I have an iPad Pro which I think is the best mobile computer I have ever had. Unfortunately, it does only about 80% of what I need it to do, so I have to rely on something else for the remaining 20%, but if it does something, it does it extremely well.

The best thing about iPad Pro is just how streamlined and optimised everything really is. And it has some pretty powerful apps too; tools such as Procreate, Affinity Photo, Lightroom CC (which works much faster than on any desktop I’ve seen) and LumaFusion which is an advanced video editor with features such as color LUTs and chroma keying (green screen) and what not - and it renders 4K video incredibly fast.

If only it was a bit more flexible... But then it wouldn’t be an iPad anymore.

That's actually not the experience I had; since I've moved on from iOS, I've not regretted it. I think one of the reasons that there is such a perceived user experience is the fact that you're in a walled garden, where the experience is cherry picked before you ever get to use it. Outside of that, it can be bumpy, but you have much more power to do what you want to do (a lot of which resides in that 20% that you speak of)

[vometia]

As for too big to fail, remember Nokia and Blackberry? How about Borders, Kmart or Sears? History id full of "too big to fails" failing.

My new wireless telephone is a Nokia! But sadly just a generic Android system rather than their own interesting stuff, though there's a couple of branches that have been resurrected and look like they might have promise. But still, point made. Nokia is particularly sad given that they were pretty much sabotaged to try to guarantee Microsoft's rubbish mobile OS that they've been trying to push since the '90s.

I also remember Borders. I mostly remember Borders for the bloody awful mirrors they had in the toilets that made me look like I was a week dead. D:

[stratokaster]

But sadly just a generic Android system rather than their own interesting stuff

I think Nokia’s own stuff was horrible, and they were sabotaged from inside long before Stephen Elop was appointed CEO. Their biggest mistake was investing horrendous amounts of money in keeping the ancient and obsolete System 60 alive instead of pursuing rapid development of Maemo/Meego/whatever their “modern” Linux-based OS was called.

[stratokaster]

I'm waiting impatiently for Apple's October 30 event. They're supposed to release updated iMacs, Macbooks and possibly even Mac minis. But given their recent moves, I'm pretty sure there will be something that makes the new models unusable

[abrahamstechnology]

I wouldn't get caught dead using an iPad unless I got it for free, and jailbroke the heck out of it.

I don't hate the iPad itself as much as the stupid hype around it, seriously, PocketPCs and tablets existed long before.

[stratokaster]

PocketPCs and tablets existed long before.

Yes, and they were pretty useless

[Findecanor]

I don't hate the iPad itself as much as the stupid hype around it, seriously, PocketPCs and tablets existed long before.

Is there really that much hype around it in general? I think right now there might be a bit of speculation just because of the Oct 30 event where people suspect Apple to release an updated iPad.

BTW. The iPad originally came about because Steve Jobs had got angry at a Microsoft engineer he met at a party who had boasted about how good his Pocket PC was. Jobs thought the device with stylus on resistive screen was crap. Then the iPhone grew out of the iPad project and was released first ...

[abrahamstechnology]

I don't hate the iPad itself as much as the stupid hype around it, seriously, PocketPCs and tablets existed long before.

Is there really that much hype around it in general? I think right now there might be a bit of speculation just because of the Oct 30 event where people suspect Apple to release an updated iPad.

BTW. The iPad originally came about because Steve Jobs had got angry at a Microsoft engineer he met at a party who had boasted about how good his Pocket PC was. Jobs thought the device with stylus on resistive screen was crap. Then the iPhone grew out of the iPad project and was released first ...

Faster processors and better touchscreens would have inevitably come to PocketPCs.

[stratokaster]

Faster processors and better touchscreens would have inevitably come to PocketPCs.

PocketPCs and Windows Mobile failed not because the devices had bad hardware; the hardware was often better than what iPhone offered at the time.

They failed because the software was a stinky pile of useless crap, and Microsoft actually admitted it when they killed Windows Mobile and started working on Windows Phone, but it was too little too late.

I used Palm PDAs (Palm III, V, Vx and the original Tungsten) and later Windows Mobile devices (too many to list them here), and while they showed promise, they ultimately failed to fulfill it. So did Apple's Newton which actually arrived earlier than both Palm and PocketPC

Nobody claims that Apple invented touchscreens or PDAs or what not, they simply did it right and shaped the whole industry in the process.

[abrahamstechnology]

Faster processors and better touchscreens would have inevitably come to PocketPCs.

PocketPCs and Windows Mobile failed not because the devices had bad hardware; the hardware was often better than what iPhone offered at the time.

They failed because the software was a stinky pile of useless crap, and Microsoft actually admitted it when they killed Windows Mobile and started working on Windows Phone, but it was too little too late.

I used Palm PDAs (Palm III, V, Vx and the original Tungsten) and later Windows Mobile devices (too many to list them here), and while they showed promise, they ultimately failed to fulfill it. So did Apple's Newton which actually arrived earlier than both Palm and PocketPC

Nobody claims that Apple invented touchscreens or PDAs or what not, they simply did it right and shaped the whole industry in the process.

I don't understand how iOS could be any better, it's a locked-down feature phone OS.

[stratokaster]

I don't understand how iOS could be any better, it's a locked-down feature phone OS.

Well, it's pretty clear that you have never used it, at least not any recent version (and by "recent" I mean "from 2012 or later").

[adhoc]

iOS 12 has been good to me so far, after disastrous iOS 11. 10 was also great.

To OP, you want sensible features from a company that requires you to grep bitrate with terminal. I’ve given up on OSX a long time ago.

[LeslieAnn]

I don't understand how iOS could be any better, it's a locked-down feature phone OS.

IOS more or less was designed as a stripped down desktop os with a phone, compare that to Android which could better be described as router firmware, with a phone.

I hate IOS (locked down and the UI), but at least base OS is well done, the same can't really be said for Android. I've built and supported over a dozen roms, the way Android is built and updated is kind of a joke. I use it, but Android has to be one of the dumbest modern OS out there.

[stratokaster]

iOS 12 has been good to me so far, after disastrous iOS 11. 10 was also great.

To OP, you want sensible features from a company that requires you to grep bitrate with terminal. I’ve given up on OSX a long time ago.

Bitrate? You mean for your wireless connections? It's easily accessible from the UI.

[adhoc]

iOS 12 has been good to me so far, after disastrous iOS 11. 10 was also great.

To OP, you want sensible features from a company that requires you to grep bitrate with terminal. I’ve given up on OSX a long time ago.

Bitrate? You mean for your wireless connections? It's easily accessible from the UI.

Audio

[stratokaster]

Great, now they've ruined MacBook Air, too. Just amazing. It seems next year I won't have an Apple laptop for the first time since 2004, which is pretty crazy if I think about it.

[Findecanor]

MacBook Air is the only laptop that should have got that keyboard in the first place.

[Hypersphere]

The IT department in my building recently issued an alert about the flaky keyboards on recent Macbooks. Fortunately, my MBA is an older model with a fairly good keyboard for a laptop. However, I seldom use it; I prefer to do my computing at a desk using PC workstations and separate mechanical keyboards whose keys have 3.5 - 4.0 mm travel.

[stratokaster]

Interestingly enough, I know people who have never had any issues with butterfly keyboards. My wife is using a 12” MacBook and it’s working flawlessly for her. And she uses it a lot, probably more than I use my MBP.

[davkol]

Faster processors and better touchscreens would have inevitably come to PocketPCs.

PocketPCs and Windows Mobile failed not because the devices had bad hardware; the hardware was often better than what iPhone offered at the time.

They failed because the software was a stinky pile of useless crap, and Microsoft actually admitted it when they killed Windows Mobile and started working on Windows Phone, but it was too little too late.

I used Palm PDAs (Palm III, V, Vx and the original Tungsten) and later Windows Mobile devices (too many to list them here), and while they showed promise, they ultimately failed to fulfill it. So did Apple's Newton which actually arrived earlier than both Palm and PocketPC

Nobody claims that Apple invented touchscreens or PDAs or what not, they simply did it right and shaped the whole industry in the process.

I used a "tablet" before it was cool. (Nokia N800 Internet Tablet) It ran Linux too, including user-accessible busybox and root. (Maemo) I still have it, because there are very few portable devices that can accept two SDHC cards, among other things.

[stratokaster]

In the end, I decided to keep my current laptop, which is still covered for keyboard repairs until the end of 2020.

I also bought a new Mac mini which is a really solid product in my opinion and probably the most compelling desktop they have released over the last 7 years. I got the 6-core option with 16GB RAM and 512GB of flash storage, which should last for a long time. The best thing about this micro desktop is that it's partially upgradable: I can install up to 64GB of RAM, and it's possible to connect a powerful GPU to one of its Thunderbolt3 ports. I'm also looking into Thunderbolt3 storage options.

But to be honest, I'm more excited about my new Space Gray trackpad which I ordered together with the Mac mini

[Excelso]

Interestingly enough, I know people who have never had any issues with butterfly keyboards. My wife is using a 12” MacBook and it’s working flawlessly for her. And she uses it a lot, probably more than I use my MBP.

I do have 4 Apple BT keyboards broken waiting I find time to repair any of them. One per year and I'm not a "heavy user" with them (I use my wired keyboards ten or 20 times more).

[Excelso]

In the end, I decided to keep my current laptop, which is still covered for keyboard repairs until the end of 2020.

I also bought a new Mac mini which is a really solid product in my opinion and probably the most compelling desktop they have released over the last 7 years. I got the 6-core option with 16GB RAM and 512GB of flash storage, which should last for a long time. The best thing about this micro desktop is that it's partially upgradable: I can install up to 64GB of RAM, and it's possible to connect a powerful GPU to one of its Thunderbolt3 ports. I'm also looking into Thunderbolt3 storage options.

But to be honest, I'm more excited about my new Space Gray trackpad which I ordered together with the Mac mini

Minis were a thing in the past. I own a couple. But now the market is full of so many better... unless you really nedd MacOS.

[stratokaster]

Holy thread necro Batman!

I'm happy to report that I'm in the process of disentangling myself from Apple's ecosystem.

I was thinking about it for a long while. Apple's software quality has gone to shit; not only that, but their stance towards users is increasingly hostile. These days macOS users are not even true masters of their own home folders. Does Apple really thinks that implementing stupid kludges like TCC on top of Unix permissions is a good idea? The mind boggles...

However, I'm a lazy guy and I would have probably used my Apple computers long into the future, if not for the sad fact that they both died, and for the same reason: internal SSD failure. My MBP is from the last generation with a replaceable SSD, so I naturally bought another one on eBay and the symptoms are exactly the same: kernel panic any time the system tries to write something to the SSD. Which means that something on the motherboard is probably dead as well. At least it can boot from an external drive.

But the Mac mini is totally dead since the SSD is soldered to the motherboard and the T2 chip firmware resides on the internal SSD. No SSD = no boot from any device.

Obviously, I'm not going to buy another computer from a company that thinks that soldering an expendable component to the motherboard is a good idea.

In any case, about 2 years ago I discovered Emacs and now the top 5 of my most used applications looks like this:

- Firefox
- Emacs
- Kicad
- IntelliJ Idea
- Terminal

At least 3 applications on this list actually work better on Linux than on macOS.

Screw proprietary components. Long live glorious commodity hardware.

[qukezy]

Holy thread necro Batman!

I'm happy to report that I'm in the process of disentangling myself from Apple's ecosystem.

I was thinking about it for a long while. Apple's software quality has gone to shit; not only that, but their stance towards users is increasingly hostile. These days macOS users are not even true masters of their own home folders. Does Apple really thinks that implementing stupid kludges like TCC on top of Unix permissions is a good idea? The mind boggles...

However, I'm a lazy guy and I would have probably used my Apple computers long into the future, if not for the sad fact that they both died, and for the same reason: internal SSD failure. My MBP is from the last generation with a replaceable SSD, so I naturally bought another one on eBay and the symptoms are exactly the same: kernel panic any time the system tries to write something to the SSD. Which means that something on the motherboard is probably dead as well. At least it can boot from an external drive.

But the Mac mini is totally dead since the SSD is soldered to the motherboard and the T2 chip firmware resides on the internal SSD. No SSD = no boot from any device.

Obviously, I'm not going to buy another computer from a company that thinks that soldering an expendable component to the motherboard is a good idea.

In any case, about 2 years ago I discovered Emacs and now the top 5 of my most used applications looks like this:

- Firefox
- Emacs
- Kicad
- IntelliJ Idea
- Terminal

At least 3 applications on this list actually work better on Linux than on macOS.

Screw proprietary components. Long live glorious commodity hardware.

I dream to switch to Apple products fully, whereas others consider their hardware a trah and do the opposite. The world is weird.

[Bjerrk]

Holy thread necro Batman!

I'm happy to report that I'm in the process of disentangling myself from Apple's ecosystem.

I was thinking about it for a long while. Apple's software quality has gone to shit; not only that, but their stance towards users is increasingly hostile.

Congratulations, dude! Sounds like you made a sensible well-reasoned move.