Jul
10
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 356. Lion due out this week? More of the same in iPhone 5 rumors. iOS and iTunes more HD’ified. Another OS X Mail “conversations” trick. Nerdtacular 2011, the interviews with Veronica Belmont, Mike Schramm (TUAW), and Tom Merritt.
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Hi, love the podcast, long time listener.
Just some reasons I will not be going further with Apple into a 10.7 system or the newer FCP X video software (not just because its missing a lot of features and a hurried release)….
We have seen apps like iMovie and iPhoto beta test the approach of integrating the output media into closed environments, and now Apple is telling everyone with 10.7.x and further that they are doing away with the standard human interface and going that way with the desktop OS in all aspects.
This is unacceptable.
If I create a document in Pages or any other program, I do not want it ’embedded’ into it without any recourse to be opened using the “Open With…” contextual menu option. Yes I know about ‘show package contents’ and have had to manually pull photos out of my deeply convoluted iPhoto libraries before; this is not the simple, tranquil ‘Apple Way’ we have come to know since 1984, nor does it leave me with a good taste in the mouth given the horrible hassle it is to take this approach. I cant fathom the anger I will feel un-embedding docs. from a corrupted app in the future.
The way they are now forcing/telling/’leading’ the way into the future is very inhuman-interface-like, discarding the well known ‘file folder’ system. I believe when you try changing society by tinkering with sensible, known interfaces in this way, you will isolate whatever concept you are trying to have society adopt and dissolve into insignificance. In other words they’ve always had a hit on their hands, having a visual system you see on the screen that is familiar, analogous and comfortable as the physical one where they go to work at the office.
There is a reason my GP runs a Mac AND has a file cabinet system, each individually coded file folders for each patient. Its because it works and is simple for even the untrained, high school non-graduate. Unless Apple decides to go into every office around the world and match the physical reality to their artificial one, they will be doomed.
The idea that an app can be corrupted or deleted, taking with it every document made by it along with its demise (akin to the iOS model of app/preference/file deletions) does not appeal to me in any way. Nor does a manner of organization that lacks the human reality I can expect when walking into any business that has a file cabinet. The iOS is a totally different monster to anything on any desk under any other platform and should continue to live that way, not be melded into the desktop OS over the next two years. It works very well for the ultra portables, I dont think it would work well the other way around.
I also am now disloyal to Apple’s high and mighty approach to ‘telling’ video editing professionals how they will be working from now on. iMovie (after the HD version) showed this in spades; and the reaction was mostly from non professionals. Adopting the same ugly, non traditional, illogical interface of iMovie for the new FCP X tells me Apple’s ego has eclipsed the HI guidelines and needs to be brought into check. If Apple and Jobs believes they have the right to tell editors the timeline view and interface is forever dead, he will find the high end and pro editors happily walking to Avid and Adobe for their workflow. Perhaps the pro video editing hardware market will see a resurgence after all.
I could parallel the above queer Apple moves to the discarding of disc based OS distribution, but I think you get my point. (SOME THINGS would work handily with the Apple Store wired-only method, but OS’s should always be disc based, I believe). I dont know if its the medical therapy Jobs is taking, plain senility setting in, or just several bad moves over the last 14 months, but I am shaken as to Apple’s ‘direction’, if you can call it that.
Mike Schramm’s comment about iOS 5 being the “swansong” or completion of iOS misses one key area which Apple could still improve dramatically. The phone!
In the last 4 months I have been using my iPhone 4 as a work phone. This means when I am on call I need to leave the phone running, but I turn off all data connections so I don’t get noisy notifications during the night. What I need is the equivalent to “profiles” on the Nokia candybar phones. “General”, “Meeting”, “Silence”, “Loud” etc. profiles should allow me to quickly configure my phone for different circumstances.
Is that not why so many people who jailbreak swear by SBSettings? That only goes so far as to make the individual settings more accessible. Fancy having such a powerful computer with such a basic phone built in.