Oh man, that's the dreaded Google Gestapo at work again. For some reason that no one can explain, Google has set itself up as an arbiter of "safe" sites. One effect of this is it scares people away for the slightest detail, making honest sites fear for their very existence. There is no recourse as there is no contact info anywhere to get Google to yank the interception. You have to either comb every page of your site yourself or hire someone to do it.
This is such an evil practice and there's nothing we individuals or small webmasters can do against it. I had to shell out $200 earlier this year to have someone scour my site before Google would put its seal of approval on it again.
I can't for the life of me understand how such a cavalier and outrageous action can be arbitrarily taken by a private corporation against other entities without any recourse or means of Google showing evidence of why they're blocking a site. Google hides behind its shield of "Do not evil" yet puts the mark of the beast wherever it wants.
I find the gratuitous repeated use of the "f" word to add nothing to a discussion. It simply reflects poorly upon the one whose vocabulary is so restricted that he cannot express his views with more appropriate language.
John
+1 and I agree totally. Vulgarity adds nothing. Even the so-called euphemisms of frakking, fricking, freaking, etc. are no better and have no place here.
When using Spaces, I would still like the ability to set different background pictures for each Space.
I have a folder of Desktop pictures that cycle through every 15 minutes. When I started Spaces i noted that each of my four Desktops had a different image.
I have no idea how to change the individual Space wallpaper, and I think that needs to be added.
Ah, I think I remember that from a previous demo. Yeah, that should be fine.
The Magic Pad is expensive though and not bundled with the computers for free. If it would make it affordable, I think they should make a new keyboard/trackpad hybrid like this:
Keys can be shrunk to make typing distance the same. I'd like a wired version of this type of design. I don't like running out of battery power for something that never moves anywhere.
With it wired and merged with the keyboard, I'd expect the price to be far more reasonable.
Apple should not and must not make a keyboard with a trackpad permanently placed on the right hand side - unless they make a same priced version with the pad on the left.
I am quite happy with the pad and keyboard separate as I have them right now so that it can be configured to a users preferences.
Am I the only one who thinks that dumbing down a system for people who don't want to learn how to use their computer is bad? AppleInsider, stop sucking off Apple. There are no "complex key commands" for Spaces, it's ctrl+arrow keys. Apparently, because I still use a keyboard, I am no longer part of Apple's target audience. Similarly, there is absolutely nothing hard about "Macintosh HD --> Applications" to find all of my programs. The only problem with this is that OS X hides mounted disks on the desktop by default, which is idiotic anyway.
My 50 year old mother, who clicks and drags scroll bars because she doesn't know how to use a scroll wheel, can use Spotlight to find anything because it is literally that easy.
And finally, fuck gestures. Keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier, and require less movement.
No, my friend, you absolutely are NOT the only one that thinks this way, despite what others say. I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion. I find this whole dumbing down shocking. Why on earth would we want to hide/eliminate common UI elements (e.g. scroll bars, disclosure triangles, COLOR, etc) that people have been used to for YEARS? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. This is not Windows. The current Mac OS X UI is not bloated and complicated to use.
This dumbing down reminds me of Microsoft's genius UI move of late, namely to get rid of menus and replace them with "ribbons". I can't tell you how many people have asked me, "where is the menu"?. Oh, I'm sorry, Microsoft decided that was too complicated for you to understand, so they hid them. Now you have to hunt around and figure out where that common command used to be. How else can we "improve" the user experience for you? Geez.
With all due respect, you're utterly and completely clueless about how the majority of people use and interact with a computer, as well as their abilities and willingness to use and discover features. I deal with these people everyday, and those who use keyboard shortcuts are a minority. I know several people with macs who didnt even know about spotlight, nor where to find t
And yet supposedly these people, who can't even find something in the menu bar, are going to suddenly discover all the new dumbed down features like full screen view, scroll bars that aren't there, etc.? Give me a break. If they have no time or desire to learn some basics of how to use the computer they have chosen now, what makes you think they will be so different when the new Mac OS X comes out?
For someone who hasnt used his macpro for 4 months because of the ipad
Is there actually any BIG changes in lion other than these UI changes thats gonna make me go WOW i must upgrade right away? Or is this just a reason for apple to stop supporting my wifes iMac
Am i the only one who just sees a gray rectangle with an x in it instead of photos or a screen grab? I see everything else on this site. Did they pull the images?
The more i hear about Lion, the more i loathe it. All these years i have been tolerating their BS and adjusting but this just does it for me. Apple has officially lost its marbles. I have never hated an Apple OS release to date but this one so far completely ruins the mac experience for me. I am so freakin pissed.
Truly Apple you do not have even dull edge engineers. Taking stuff out that users want no mater how small a group is not innovation nor cutting edge engineering. You guys (Apple) have have all lost your freaking minds!!!!!! I never thought i'd ever hate on Apple. I thought hell would freeze over first but never say, never i guess.
I guess its time for the next Steve jobs and Wozniak to free us from the Big Blue Apple.
It is just killing me see Apple loose its way. They have completely forgotten who they are what they stood for and have lost all touch with reality.
Simplify, simplify, simplify. And then refine the hell out of it.
The highest goal of engineering and design.
This company keeps astounding me. They truly know their craft. Apple has been winning on nearly all product fronts by simplifying and then refining. It's brilliant. And it's making them ridiculous profit. Consumers have responded predictably: handing Apple record quarters.
The writing's on the wall: ever-growing complexity is out. A thing of the past that still has old dinosaurs like MS stymied. The merging of iOS and OS X will result in not only unprecedented simplicity and thoughtful design, bit also in an explosion of Mac sales. Just sit back and watch, folks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iLad
Am i the only one who just sees a gray rectangle with an x in it instead of photos or a screen grab? I see everything else on this site. Did they pull the images?
The more i hear about Lion, the more i loathe it. All these years i have been tolerating their BS and adjusting but this just does it for me. Apple has officially lost its marbles. I have never hated an Apple OS release to date but this one so far completely ruins the mac experience for me. I am so freakin pissed.
Truly Apple you do not have even dull edge engineers. Taking stuff out that users want no mater how small a group is not innovation nor cutting edge engineering. You guys (Apple) have have all lost your freaking minds!!!!!! I never thought i'd ever hate on Apple. I thought hell would freeze over first but never say, never i guess.
I guess its time for the next Steve jobs and Wozniak to free us from the Big Blue Apple.
It is just killing me see Apple loose its way. They have completely forgotten who they are what they stood for and have lost all touch with reality.
Sorry, but *you* seem to be out of touch. Apple is implementing the same philosophy they have with the iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iOS, etc. take that same simplify+refine strategy and put the power of a Mac processor behind it and you've struck gold. Apple is doing what they know best and you'll see consumers respond accordingly. That Exxon Mobil market cap target will be the much closer, that much faster.
Apple is really the only one that is in touch with market realities. And it shows, obviously.
I highly doubt that Apple put an NDA on the preview every developer can download. If they were that worried, they wouldn't have don the release.
Thats where you'd be wrong... from the release notes
Quote:
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE
Quote:
The software identified above is Apple Confidential Information and your use of such software is subject to the Apple Developer Connection Programs Terms and Conditions, including the Prototype License and Confidentiality Agreement attached thereto.
It may be a little off topic, but I just thought I would share my experience on a Windows PC as my macbook is not turned on, I just started surfing on the windows box today. The videos in this article do not seem to work on Firefox beta 11 and IE9 RC, both are HTML 5 compliant, they do work in Chrome. As like all Apple windows apps, Safari for Windows is non-standard slow bloated junk, I haven't tried it.
I appreciate the move away from flash, I really do, but perhaps some testing may be in order as many folks that I know view this website from work, which usually means Windows.
I too was going to complain about not being able to see the videos until flipping back over to Safari and reloading the pages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
@ AppleInsider,
Thank you for not requiring the Flash plug-in for watching videos.
I must say that this is a mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, I despise Flash. But I use FlashBlock, which is almost ideal in that I don't have to see any heavyweight animation or video come in unless I explicitly click on it.
It's actually more annoying to me to have the video auto-download without my explicit request.
But worse than that, it looks like I won't be able to see any video when I'm using Firefox. Sure, I can flip back to Safari now that I know what's happening, but it's a nuisance, and for my money, no real gain. Some things work better in FF, some in Safari, but if we're required to start choosing different browsers based on individual web sites, that's NOT a good thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdkennedy1
Either a million people are watching those videos or your server is running on an iBook. It shouldn't take 5 minutes to load a 30 second video.
Yeah, very slow for me as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archos
Firefox doesn't support HTML5 video using H.264. So scrape up some money and buy a real browser and leave free software to people who just play Tux Racer.
Thanks Mr. arbiter of all that's good and proper. What an ass, very glad you're not in charge of the world.
So if I happen to be on one of my Linux machines, I can't view this site now? Nice. If it actually helped something else along the way maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but there's no additional functionality provided, only reduced functionality.
Ok, some of these remarks has made me decide to come out of hibernation to spill my opinion into the digital land.
First for those that believe that this is dumbing the OS down and that is bad here is my reply and opinion. I have been with my wife for going on thirteen years now and since I meet her she has never been on a PC very much. The entire reason was that they are, by design, overly complicated. And then the issue with learning your OS, she has a full time job and we have kids, please tell me where that leaves the hours needed to learn the ins and outs of the OS she may use. So pretty much over the course of the next ten years I can count the number of times per month she sat behind our PC on one hand. That was until she decided she wanted an iPhone. To her the iPhone is what PC's should have been. It would take a large man with a large stick to get her iPhone away from her. She is on Facebook, she manages the bank account and about a hundred other things that she should have been able to easily do from out PC. So in that time I got feed up with MS and dumped everyone of their products and went Apple. Unfortunately she still wont sit behind the second brand new iMac I just bought her because even OSX is still too much for her to waste time to learn. If I could get the iOS on my iMac I would do it in a heart beat and then my lovely wife would not be going blind trying to stare at her iPhone screen for hours at a time. There are many stories that I have read where people in their eighties can operate a device, namely the iPad, which such ease and it reconnects them with the world through the digital window in their hands. I don't see my eighty year old grandmother learning the ins and outs of any current desktop OS. But have seen her with my iPad and she loves it. turn it on and select which app does what you want. Within that app are its files, no searching finder for what folder in the millions that you have stuffed that year old report that your boss now wants.
Now my second rant. Most IT people (not all) would love it if the OS's they manage were as complicated as they could possibly be. The reason...JOB SECURITY! My other opinion of most of these guys is that they are egg heads that cant see that their job requires them to know the ins and outs of the OS. This takes years to learn and once they are finished for some reason a very tiny switch in their brains trip and makes them think that all people are stupid if they cant reconfigure their network settings to access a VPN. They huff and puff and have to shut down World of Warcraft ( not a dig I am a fan too of RPG games) and DO THEIR JOBS!!! Well how would you feel if you went to the doctor and he complained that you were wasting his time because you couldn't do a heart bypass on your own? Think about it IT guys! iOS wont put you out of a job, instead it will give you the time to make your WoW character into a level 99 Grand mage...wouldn't that be cool...and get paid for it!
iOS is the future of computing for the average person that works 40 plus hours a week and are not in the tech industry, nor have the time to sacrifice learning ins and outs of their OS. I myself love my iPad and other iOS devices and am in the tech industry. They don't threaten me with their simplicity instead even I, one that loves to gaze at the underpinnings of an OS, am relieved that they allow me to do my job faster because of simplicity. I also welcome this to my desktop/laptop as long as I have control over what I do and don't want to use of that OS type. But for the rest of the world it will be revolutionary and connect even more people to knowledge, friends and family. The day when every person can use the computer is almost here. Now we will just have to wait and see how close Lion brings us to that point.
.................................................. .................................................. ...............///END OF RANT///.................................................. .................................................. .....................................
Thanks, great post. Wanted to type the same thing but couldn't be bothered. I think the problem is that people screaming 'dumbing down' have little first hand experience with people like your wife, who represent the majority of computer owners. They just can't wrap their minds around it, but fortunately Apple can, and has. And its wise for doing so, the proof is in the pudding, which is the ridiculous success it has had the past few years. I believe 'iosifiying' os x will help to increase mac sales exponentially. For those of you bitching, grow up and realize you're not the mainstream. Your terminal will still be available.
Learning all the keyboard shortcuts would be a heck of a lot easier if they would just give you a little operating manuel for reference. Otherwise you basically have to at least meet the minimum nerd quota to be on this site macrumors, etc to find a thread that pops up with everyones favorite keyboard shortcuts. I know someone will say something like "just hit cmd shft ky" and it takes you to the menu of keyboard shortcuts", which, to me, proves my point.
Am I the only one who thinks that dumbing down a system for people who don't want to learn how to use their computer is bad? AppleInsider, stop sucking off Apple. There are no "complex key commands" for Spaces, it's ctrl+arrow keys. Apparently, because I still use a keyboard, I am no longer part of Apple's target audience. Similarly, there is absolutely nothing hard about "Macintosh HD --> Applications" to find all of my programs. The only problem with this is that OS X hides mounted disks on the desktop by default, which is idiotic anyway.
My 50 year old mother, who clicks and drags scroll bars because she doesn't know how to use a scroll wheel, can use Spotlight to find anything because it is literally that easy.
Also, I bought a MacBook Pro with a 17" display for a reason. Making things like iTunes, iCal, and Mail be full-screen apps is fucking stupid, and a waste of the 2.3 million pixels on my screen. I love Apple, but they need to get it together,
And finally, fuck gestures. Keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier, and require less movement.
I agree but would have said it differently. I don't want an iPhone, I want a Mac.
Comments
@ AppleInsider,
Thank you for not requiring the Flash plug-in for watching videos.
I second that!
Worrying. [about the Google interception warning]
Oh man, that's the dreaded Google Gestapo at work again. For some reason that no one can explain, Google has set itself up as an arbiter of "safe" sites. One effect of this is it scares people away for the slightest detail, making honest sites fear for their very existence. There is no recourse as there is no contact info anywhere to get Google to yank the interception. You have to either comb every page of your site yourself or hire someone to do it.
This is such an evil practice and there's nothing we individuals or small webmasters can do against it. I had to shell out $200 earlier this year to have someone scour my site before Google would put its seal of approval on it again.
I can't for the life of me understand how such a cavalier and outrageous action can be arbitrarily taken by a private corporation against other entities without any recourse or means of Google showing evidence of why they're blocking a site. Google hides behind its shield of "Do not evil" yet puts the mark of the beast wherever it wants.
Thanks, melgross.
I find the gratuitous repeated use of the "f" word to add nothing to a discussion. It simply reflects poorly upon the one whose vocabulary is so restricted that he cannot express his views with more appropriate language.
John
+1 and I agree totally. Vulgarity adds nothing. Even the so-called euphemisms of frakking, fricking, freaking, etc. are no better and have no place here.
When using Spaces, I would still like the ability to set different background pictures for each Space.
I have a folder of Desktop pictures that cycle through every 15 minutes. When I started Spaces i noted that each of my four Desktops had a different image.
I have no idea how to change the individual Space wallpaper, and I think that needs to be added.
We'll see when time comes, otherwise ...
Hard to know for sure until we get behind the wheel
Or mouse, trackpad, keyboard, et al ...
.
Now, why don't 6 or 8 of you just take JakeTheRock out back
And beat the chit out of 'em ...
Chill Dudes - and Dudettes ...
He's just voicing his thoughts, and presents some valid points
Which were perhaps more 'diplomatically' described by charlituna's System 7 reference
.
Is one thing to 'add improvements' to the OS as we go - and I've been going since 1.0 ...
Is another to 'take away things' from the OS as we go - even for the sake of 'new features'
Seems to me, imho - everything that was already in a previous OS should remain
If you like the 'new stuff' and want to use that exclusively - fine, go for it
But if you want to use 10.7 in some type of 10.4 fashion - that too should be possible, dig ?
AND - we should also be able to 'invent' our own magically unique combination of the two
And the 'interface' should never get in the way, never
.
My running example of this is "Finder Search Results Window Display Options"
To kick that po' dead horse again - what we had in 10.1 to 10.4 went away in 10.5+
Look for yourself, the 'check boxes' are still there, but some are 'grayed out'
(yes, can go to Terminal and 'adjust' - but, please, the Terminal?)
My hunch about why - 'something' in the Finder's Relational Database
Regarding the Search Results Window Options
Not compatible with the introduction of Spotlight and its operations
But that's just a guess
Or think of it this way - the new 'Bumpers and Tail Fins'
Affected something 'under the hood' (to stick with my car metaphor)
.
BUT - perhaps Best Example - and MANY have been byatching about for a while
iTunes - is starting to look and act like something from Microsoft
Let's hope OSX is not driving down the same Road to Bloat
Hauling extra stuff in the trunk, and pulling a U-Haul Trailer with a flat tire
And THAT - imho - is what charlituna and JakeTheRock were describing in their own way
.
Now, yes - others are very correct about iOS and the Future it represents
Use those elements in the GUI, no problem - lots of good stuff in there
But don't change - and damn sure don't remove - proven foundational structures from the past
.
Now, let me get off my 'soapbox' - and leave you with this
From Tony Hoar - one of the guys who invented it all ...
There are two ways of constructing a software design
One is to make it so simple there are obviously no deficiencies
The other is to make it so complicated there are no obvious deficiencies
The first is far more difficult
.
.
Ah, I think I remember that from a previous demo. Yeah, that should be fine.
The Magic Pad is expensive though and not bundled with the computers for free. If it would make it affordable, I think they should make a new keyboard/trackpad hybrid like this:
Keys can be shrunk to make typing distance the same. I'd like a wired version of this type of design. I don't like running out of battery power for something that never moves anywhere.
With it wired and merged with the keyboard, I'd expect the price to be far more reasonable.
Apple should not and must not make a keyboard with a trackpad permanently placed on the right hand side - unless they make a same priced version with the pad on the left.
I am quite happy with the pad and keyboard separate as I have them right now so that it can be configured to a users preferences.
Don't forget us lefties!
Am I the only one who thinks that dumbing down a system for people who don't want to learn how to use their computer is bad? AppleInsider, stop sucking off Apple. There are no "complex key commands" for Spaces, it's ctrl+arrow keys. Apparently, because I still use a keyboard, I am no longer part of Apple's target audience. Similarly, there is absolutely nothing hard about "Macintosh HD --> Applications" to find all of my programs. The only problem with this is that OS X hides mounted disks on the desktop by default, which is idiotic anyway.
My 50 year old mother, who clicks and drags scroll bars because she doesn't know how to use a scroll wheel, can use Spotlight to find anything because it is literally that easy.
And finally, fuck gestures. Keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier, and require less movement.
No, my friend, you absolutely are NOT the only one that thinks this way, despite what others say. I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion. I find this whole dumbing down shocking. Why on earth would we want to hide/eliminate common UI elements (e.g. scroll bars, disclosure triangles, COLOR, etc) that people have been used to for YEARS? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. This is not Windows. The current Mac OS X UI is not bloated and complicated to use.
This dumbing down reminds me of Microsoft's genius UI move of late, namely to get rid of menus and replace them with "ribbons". I can't tell you how many people have asked me, "where is the menu"?. Oh, I'm sorry, Microsoft decided that was too complicated for you to understand, so they hid them. Now you have to hunt around and figure out where that common command used to be. How else can we "improve" the user experience for you? Geez.
With all due respect, you're utterly and completely clueless about how the majority of people use and interact with a computer, as well as their abilities and willingness to use and discover features. I deal with these people everyday, and those who use keyboard shortcuts are a minority. I know several people with macs who didnt even know about spotlight, nor where to find t
And yet supposedly these people, who can't even find something in the menu bar, are going to suddenly discover all the new dumbed down features like full screen view, scroll bars that aren't there, etc.? Give me a break. If they have no time or desire to learn some basics of how to use the computer they have chosen now, what makes you think they will be so different when the new Mac OS X comes out?
Is there actually any BIG changes in lion other than these UI changes thats gonna make me go WOW i must upgrade right away? Or is this just a reason for apple to stop supporting my wifes iMac
The more i hear about Lion, the more i loathe it. All these years i have been tolerating their BS and adjusting but this just does it for me. Apple has officially lost its marbles. I have never hated an Apple OS release to date but this one so far completely ruins the mac experience for me. I am so freakin pissed.
Truly Apple you do not have even dull edge engineers. Taking stuff out that users want no mater how small a group is not innovation nor cutting edge engineering. You guys (Apple) have have all lost your freaking minds!!!!!! I never thought i'd ever hate on Apple. I thought hell would freeze over first but never say, never i guess.
I guess its time for the next Steve jobs and Wozniak to free us from the Big Blue Apple.
It is just killing me see Apple loose its way. They have completely forgotten who they are what they stood for and have lost all touch with reality.
Simplify, simplify, simplify. And then refine the hell out of it.
The highest goal of engineering and design.
This company keeps astounding me. They truly know their craft. Apple has been winning on nearly all product fronts by simplifying and then refining. It's brilliant. And it's making them ridiculous profit. Consumers have responded predictably: handing Apple record quarters.
The writing's on the wall: ever-growing complexity is out. A thing of the past that still has old dinosaurs like MS stymied. The merging of iOS and OS X will result in not only unprecedented simplicity and thoughtful design, bit also in an explosion of Mac sales. Just sit back and watch, folks.
Am i the only one who just sees a gray rectangle with an x in it instead of photos or a screen grab? I see everything else on this site. Did they pull the images?
The more i hear about Lion, the more i loathe it. All these years i have been tolerating their BS and adjusting but this just does it for me. Apple has officially lost its marbles. I have never hated an Apple OS release to date but this one so far completely ruins the mac experience for me. I am so freakin pissed.
Truly Apple you do not have even dull edge engineers. Taking stuff out that users want no mater how small a group is not innovation nor cutting edge engineering. You guys (Apple) have have all lost your freaking minds!!!!!! I never thought i'd ever hate on Apple. I thought hell would freeze over first but never say, never i guess.
I guess its time for the next Steve jobs and Wozniak to free us from the Big Blue Apple.
It is just killing me see Apple loose its way. They have completely forgotten who they are what they stood for and have lost all touch with reality.
Sorry, but *you* seem to be out of touch. Apple is implementing the same philosophy they have with the iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iOS, etc. take that same simplify+refine strategy and put the power of a Mac processor behind it and you've struck gold. Apple is doing what they know best and you'll see consumers respond accordingly. That Exxon Mobil market cap target will be the much closer, that much faster.
Apple is really the only one that is in touch with market realities. And it shows, obviously.
I highly doubt that Apple put an NDA on the preview every developer can download. If they were that worried, they wouldn't have don the release.
Thats where you'd be wrong... from the release notes
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE
The software identified above is Apple Confidential Information and your use of such software is subject to the Apple Developer Connection Programs Terms and Conditions, including the Prototype License and Confidentiality Agreement attached thereto.
I appreciate the move away from flash, I really do, but perhaps some testing may be in order as many folks that I know view this website from work, which usually means Windows.
@ AppleInsider,
Thank you for not requiring the Flash plug-in for watching videos.
I must say that this is a mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, I despise Flash. But I use FlashBlock, which is almost ideal in that I don't have to see any heavyweight animation or video come in unless I explicitly click on it.
It's actually more annoying to me to have the video auto-download without my explicit request.
But worse than that, it looks like I won't be able to see any video when I'm using Firefox. Sure, I can flip back to Safari now that I know what's happening, but it's a nuisance, and for my money, no real gain. Some things work better in FF, some in Safari, but if we're required to start choosing different browsers based on individual web sites, that's NOT a good thing.
Either a million people are watching those videos or your server is running on an iBook. It shouldn't take 5 minutes to load a 30 second video.
Yeah, very slow for me as well.
Firefox doesn't support HTML5 video using H.264. So scrape up some money and buy a real browser and leave free software to people who just play Tux Racer.
Thanks Mr. arbiter of all that's good and proper. What an ass, very glad you're not in charge of the world.
So if I happen to be on one of my Linux machines, I can't view this site now? Nice. If it actually helped something else along the way maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but there's no additional functionality provided, only reduced functionality.
Ok, some of these remarks has made me decide to come out of hibernation to spill my opinion into the digital land.
First for those that believe that this is dumbing the OS down and that is bad here is my reply and opinion. I have been with my wife for going on thirteen years now and since I meet her she has never been on a PC very much. The entire reason was that they are, by design, overly complicated. And then the issue with learning your OS, she has a full time job and we have kids, please tell me where that leaves the hours needed to learn the ins and outs of the OS she may use. So pretty much over the course of the next ten years I can count the number of times per month she sat behind our PC on one hand. That was until she decided she wanted an iPhone. To her the iPhone is what PC's should have been. It would take a large man with a large stick to get her iPhone away from her. She is on Facebook, she manages the bank account and about a hundred other things that she should have been able to easily do from out PC. So in that time I got feed up with MS and dumped everyone of their products and went Apple. Unfortunately she still wont sit behind the second brand new iMac I just bought her because even OSX is still too much for her to waste time to learn. If I could get the iOS on my iMac I would do it in a heart beat and then my lovely wife would not be going blind trying to stare at her iPhone screen for hours at a time. There are many stories that I have read where people in their eighties can operate a device, namely the iPad, which such ease and it reconnects them with the world through the digital window in their hands. I don't see my eighty year old grandmother learning the ins and outs of any current desktop OS. But have seen her with my iPad and she loves it. turn it on and select which app does what you want. Within that app are its files, no searching finder for what folder in the millions that you have stuffed that year old report that your boss now wants.
Now my second rant. Most IT people (not all) would love it if the OS's they manage were as complicated as they could possibly be. The reason...JOB SECURITY! My other opinion of most of these guys is that they are egg heads that cant see that their job requires them to know the ins and outs of the OS. This takes years to learn and once they are finished for some reason a very tiny switch in their brains trip and makes them think that all people are stupid if they cant reconfigure their network settings to access a VPN. They huff and puff and have to shut down World of Warcraft ( not a dig I am a fan too of RPG games) and DO THEIR JOBS!!! Well how would you feel if you went to the doctor and he complained that you were wasting his time because you couldn't do a heart bypass on your own? Think about it IT guys! iOS wont put you out of a job, instead it will give you the time to make your WoW character into a level 99 Grand mage...wouldn't that be cool...and get paid for it!
iOS is the future of computing for the average person that works 40 plus hours a week and are not in the tech industry, nor have the time to sacrifice learning ins and outs of their OS. I myself love my iPad and other iOS devices and am in the tech industry. They don't threaten me with their simplicity instead even I, one that loves to gaze at the underpinnings of an OS, am relieved that they allow me to do my job faster because of simplicity. I also welcome this to my desktop/laptop as long as I have control over what I do and don't want to use of that OS type. But for the rest of the world it will be revolutionary and connect even more people to knowledge, friends and family. The day when every person can use the computer is almost here. Now we will just have to wait and see how close Lion brings us to that point.
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Thanks, great post. Wanted to type the same thing but couldn't be bothered. I think the problem is that people screaming 'dumbing down' have little first hand experience with people like your wife, who represent the majority of computer owners. They just can't wrap their minds around it, but fortunately Apple can, and has. And its wise for doing so, the proof is in the pudding, which is the ridiculous success it has had the past few years. I believe 'iosifiying' os x will help to increase mac sales exponentially. For those of you bitching, grow up and realize you're not the mainstream. Your terminal will still be available.
Am I the only one who thinks that dumbing down a system for people who don't want to learn how to use their computer is bad? AppleInsider, stop sucking off Apple. There are no "complex key commands" for Spaces, it's ctrl+arrow keys. Apparently, because I still use a keyboard, I am no longer part of Apple's target audience. Similarly, there is absolutely nothing hard about "Macintosh HD --> Applications" to find all of my programs. The only problem with this is that OS X hides mounted disks on the desktop by default, which is idiotic anyway.
My 50 year old mother, who clicks and drags scroll bars because she doesn't know how to use a scroll wheel, can use Spotlight to find anything because it is literally that easy.
Also, I bought a MacBook Pro with a 17" display for a reason. Making things like iTunes, iCal, and Mail be full-screen apps is fucking stupid, and a waste of the 2.3 million pixels on my screen. I love Apple, but they need to get it together,
And finally, fuck gestures. Keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier, and require less movement.
I agree but would have said it differently. I don't want an iPhone, I want a Mac.