Tag: apple

So Apple’s Gonna Hitch Its Wagon to…

Siri? Really. I mean, I’m pretty invested in most things Apple, and I generally watch their announcements with a sense of reverent excitement. But even as an admitted Apple devotee, I know- and you know- that Siri is, well, awful. I have to assume Apple knows this too, at least to some extent.

From Ars Technica:

Under Apple Intelligence, Siri gets a big boost with a new logo and on-screen design, a new ability to understand more nuanced requests, and the ability to answer questions about the system state or take actions on the user’s behalf.

That’s really neat, except, in its current form, Siri cannot do anything well. 75% of my interactions with Siri involve either (a) me yelling at her to please shut the f*#k up when she randomly starts talking or (b) screaming at her to never, ever just randomly start playing music (this happens at least 3 times a week and really drives me nuts). Alexa is bad, but sort of functional (though the inability to control what shows on your Alexa device is close to a deal-stopper); Siri is just one hot mess. The fact that, by design, it often interacts- usually unsuccessfully- with its equally dysfunctional mate, Apple Home, ensures that the Siri experience…does not “just work.” Or work period.

Siri is the most un-Apple thing in the world. So I’m pretty skeptical of expanding it into more of a go-to feature across my devices. Here’s hoping ChatGPT can save the day.

I’ll believe it when I don’t hear it.

A Happy Day for Mac Lovers

All of this Mac and Apple display news today made me so happy, I wondered if perhaps it was a belated April Fool’s Day prank.  Thankfully not.

Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them.

I’m a devoted MacBook Pro user, but Apple’s commitment to Mac Pros, and the software that runs them, is fantastic news for all Mac users.  And I’ve long felt that the Mac Mini is an under appreciated gem, so I’m delighted it will remain in the lineup.

There are good times ahead for Apple.

All About the New Apple File System

 

“Once APFS becomes available, Apple plans to make the process of switching to the new file system incredibly simple. You won’t need to back up your data and start again with a fresh OS install, thank God. Instead, there will be an option to seamlessly transition all your devices without losing any of your files.”

Cult of Mac (who I still haven’t completely forgiven for this).

appleclassicApple (and those of us who rely on its products) needs a new, modern, uniform file system.  No, it’s not some sexy new feature.  But it is integral to the efficiency and future of the devices we use.  All we can ask is that the transition is as painless as possible.  So far, it looks like it will be.

macOS Sierra’s Best Feature

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That no one is talking about.

I’m pretty excited about Sierra the forthcoming new and renamed macOS.  I installed the developer preview on my MacBook Pro.  It’s my primary machine, so that was a stupid thing to do, and I don’t recommend it.

Citrix, a company guaranteed to be behind the curve on protocol deprecations, has not released a public beta of its Citrix Receiver, so I had to install El Capitan on a USB stick to boot into when connecting to my office.  My ScanSnap scanner software doesn’t work.  But otherwise, things are remarkably stable for the first (of many) beta versions.

9 to 5 Mac has a good hands-on video with many of the new features.

But the best feature, however, is that at long last…

Zoom levels in Safari are sticky!!!  This will, at long last, allow me to switch from Chrome to Safari.  I’m very happy about that, because there are many advantages to working within the Apple environment.

New Apple Gear Coming Soon

Those who have been conscious today know that Apple announced a bunch of new and updated products this morning.  Updated iPhones, a bigger iPad, an updated iPad Mini, some new Apple watch bands, and a new Apple TV.  You can get all the details elsewhere, so here are my thoughts on the new stuff.

New iPhones

I like the better camera, and I think 3D Touch (think of it as a right-click for an iOS device) will be useful at some point.  I’m not sure Live Photos is more than a gimmick, but it might be.  Faster chips and graphics would be nice, but I don’t use my iPhone for much that taxes it.

I know I always say this and then change my mind, but I don’t feel a compelling need to upgrade from my 6+ to the new model.

iPad Pro

I am all about bigger screens.  I have a 27″ iMac and a 15″ MacBook Pro.  I think a larger iPad makes a lot of sense, but the whole time I kept thinking I was watching Apple invent the Microsoft Surface, a tablet I once stupidly bought on impulse and sold a few weeks later.  Adding to the confusion was the fact that the best part of the demo, and one of the coolest things overall, was the Microsoft Office apps.  The new iPad has an optional stylus (something I never thought I’d see) and a magnetic keyboard/cover combination.  Crazy.

I use my iPad every day, but much more for consumption than creation.  If I did a lot of work on an iPad, I would almost certainly buy an iPad Pro.

iPad Mini

The updated specs for the littlest iPad seemed like a tossed-in afterthought.  I have an older iPad Mini that I rarely use, so I don’t need another one.

Apple Watch Accessories

I don’t know anything about Hermes, and I buy my clothes at sports and farm supply stores.  So I literally couldn’t care less about designer watch bands and exclusive watch faces.  Apple seems to be marketing the high-end Apple Watches as a way for insecure rich people to show the rest of us how awesome they think they are.  In sum, zzzzzzzz.

I am interested in the updated watchOS, however, because without native apps, my Apple Watch continues to be more about potential features than actual working features.  I am sold on the Apple Watch, but it is very much a work in progress.

New Apple TV

newappletv

Now, the best part.  I had high hopes for the new Apple TV, and Apple mostly satisfied me.  I’m not a big gamer, so the gaming angle is lost on me.  I like the idea of other apps on the Apple TV.  I was happy to see a new unified search, but it badly needs to search more than just iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, HBO and Showtime.  Hopefully it will as other content providers create apps, but I’m a little concerned there aren’t more sources out of the box (do those sources have new Apple TV apps already?).  For the Apple TV to work as my only streaming device, it needs Amazon Prime, and the major broadcast and cable networks.  I’m still hoping Apple can pull the rabbit out of the hat with a cord-cutting content package before I’m too old to care.

I’ll definitely buy one- and probably two- Apple TVs on launch day.

Macs

They talked about Macs (my very favorite Apple product) for exactly zero seconds today.  Bummer.

Stay tuned for more as I dive into these new products and updates.

I Give Up: Apple Music Has Beaten Me

I tried to be diplomatic.

After a few more hours wrestling with Apple Music’s needlessly confusing layout and incomprehensible import and organization processes, and wasting even more of my time trying to create some semblance of order to my music, I gave up and am now officially done.  The indisputable fact is that the one and only reason to suffer Apple Music’s torturous interface is because it was made by Apple. Imagine just for a second if Microsoft or any other company had foisted this chaos on us.  Mac users would be having a field day crapping all over it.

In fact, many are, but the Apple-love deep within our DNA causes a lot of us to step back, put our heads down and keep trying.  After all, Apple made this.  It’s on all our Macs.  We get 3 months free.  It will get better.

And maybe it will.  I’m going to resist the temptation to wonder if tossing this confusing, disjointed mess upon us is a sign of larger problems at Apple.  I’m going to focus on how much I love my MacBook Pro and my iMac.  I’m going to assume all the display and touch issues with my iPhone 6+ are anomalies shared by the two people beside me with similar issues when I last visited the Genius Bar.  I’m going to keep on loving Apple, because that’s what I do.

But I am done with Apple Music, at least for the foreseeable future.  There were endless straws, any of which could have broken the camel’s back. But here’s the very last one.  A perfectly confusing, and unhelpful pop-up message, after I tried for the fifth time to import a playlist.

click for a larger view
click for a larger view

Perfectly confusing. Completely unhelpful. If I, a huge Apple fan who has been writing on tech since the 90’s, have no idea what this means, or how to fix it, or what the difference is between iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match and/or a buffalo fart, then I’m reasonably sure the typical user doesn’t either.  I want someone to do a feature-length documentary on how this message was written and who thought it was sufficient.   If it takes longer than a few seconds to figure out how to successfully import songs into your music app, your music app is not ready for public consumption.

I’m done.  I give up.  I’ve been beaten.

CarPlay Will Be a Requirement for My Next Vehicle

applecarplay

“The big question is, are the auto companies are willing to partner with Apple in this way?”

via Understanding Apple’s Car Strategy | Re/code.

I drive a 7-year-old Toyota Tundra.  I like it.  When my 14-year-old turns 16, she will likely inherit this truck and I’ll get a new one.  When that happens, there are two guarantees.  One, it will be another pickup truck.  Two, it will have Apple CarPlay.

I’m not the least bit interested in an Apple car.  It would be some super-expensive luxury model for rich folks, and I’m a truck guy.  But I am very interested in inserting the Apple ecosystem into my vehicle.  If Toyota sticks to this idiotic decision, I guess this one will be my last Toyota.

Car makers need to stop trying to hack together their own system, and treat CarPlay as a selling point.  Few will buy a new vehicle just to get CarPlay, but I imagine CarPlay will be a distinguishing factor for a lot of people comparing similar cars and trucks.

Why I May Ditch My Apple Watch

incomplewatchapps

I don’t know that the Apple Watch is a flop.  I don’t know that it’s not a flop.  It’s probably somewhere in between.  I know that I’ve never noticed another one in the wild.  Maybe that’s because, like me, other early adopters prefer to use theirs inconspicuously.

But clearly, there are questions about whether the Apple Watch is ready for prime time.

For one, the apps continue to load too slowly to be useful.

IMG_0047

Yet I find the complications and notifications to be extremely useful.  When they work.

applewatchfail

And there’s both the rub and the reason I am considering throwing in the towel and relegating my Apple Watch to the drawer of shame, where I keep other things I bought and didn’t or couldn’t use.  There’s an Android tablet in there, and that early Samsung pre-tablet but handheld computer thing.  And my Instacube.

While I can do without the apps that never load, what I can’t do without is the information that’s supposed to appear on the watch face.  The complications.  In my case, these include the temperature and the sunrise and sunset times.  These two (of my five total) complications rarely appear on my watch.

This madness began not long after I received my watch.  A complete iPhone wipe and DFU restore solved the problem, for a little while.  Now it’s back.  Like Sharknado, but not as fun.

In fact, it sucks.  It should not be this hard.  It should just work.  But it doesn’t.  So far, the Apple Watch experience seems more like building a radio with some kit you bought from the back of a comic book than a traditional Apple experience.

I’m in wait and see mode.  Maybe an update will fix this issue, which is clearly a failure on the part of the watch and iPhone to reliably communicate with each other.  Maybe if I get to the end of my patience, I’ll make a desperate stab at the watchOS 2 beta.

Or maybe I’ll just go back to a bare wrist and a Fitbit One.

The 3rd and 4th Biggest Apple Watch Buzz Kills

applewatch

I’ve already described the two biggest buzz kills.  Now it’s time for numbers 3 and 4, plus a bonus.

notemperature

Several of my complications, including the native Apple Weather app one, work sporadically.  The temperature, which is supposed to be at the lower left, appears maybe half the time.  The sunrise/sunset, which appears at the lower right, does a little better.  The best thing about the watch is the ability to quickly get information by glancing at your wrist.  When two of the six items don’t appear, that’s a problem.

incomplewatchapps

It’s a good thing, ironically speaking, that third-party apps don’t really work on the Apple Watch, since around a third of my app icons are permanently stuck in incomplete, installation-in-progress mode.  Sure, you can remove them and reinstall them via the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.  And if that doesn’t work, you can reset your Apple Watch and start over.  But that is a needless and frustrating time-sink.

Whatever happened to “it just works?”

appleitjustworks

Oh, and a bonus.  Sometimes the Apple Watch will simply disconnect from your nearby iPhone and refuse to re-pair. Usually, turning Bluetooth on and off a time or ten on your iPhone will fix the problem.  This happened to me in Austin the other day.  It took much effort and trial and error to force these supposedly and mandatorily complimentary devices to begin speaking again.

Need even more?  Lately, I’ve noticed that the text and email notifications on my watch (the most useful thing about the Apple Watch in my semi-humble opinion) lag behind the notifications on my iPhone, sometimes by 15 minutes or so.

I like my Apple Watch.  I really do, even though it drives me nuts at times.  And, yes, I know this is a version 1 product.  But I’ve bought a lot of those from Apple over the years.  This time it seems like more of a public beta.  Great promise, but very rough around the edges.

P.S. Yes, I have considered that my iPhone has a Bluetooth or other connectivity issue.  I’m hoping if we don’t drown in the next day or two (more flooding expected here in south Texas) a trip to the local Apple Store might fix some or all of this.  Having said that, I know that many others have experienced some of the issues described above.