The problem with AppleInsider, and D.E. Dilger's thesis, is that he/they are trying to predict the future by gazing in a rear view mirror. Apple doesn't get to be as mediocre as Microsoft because Apple supposedly aspires for greatness. Yet that is the comparison I hear day after day on AI.
Apple needs an internal shakeup, it's time to stop being predictable. Let's bring back the showmanship and insanely great products! Do one thing out of the box. Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign you're still breathing!
Despite what many people believe, and despite them sometimes describing themselves as a "software" company, Apple actually has a long history of "okay" or mediocre software. I can't think of much they have made that really knocks it out of the park except for the base OS and the developer tools. The actual user software Apple has made has been uniformly "meh" or has been bought from others.
For instance iTunes is actually what made the iPod special in it's day and it's competitors had noticeably clunky alternatives, but Apple didn't make iTunes, they bought it from another developer. What they've added to it over the years arguably makes it worse than it originally was. iWork apps were created only to spite Office and the very second they got good enough to be viable alternatives all development practically ceased. iWork was made to sell more hardware. Apple isn't really interested in making a good suite of Office apps and they certainly aren't interested in making anything better. They just need a "good enough" competitor and that's it.
Quicktime probably comes closest to software that Apple made that is "stellar" but again, it was only made in response to Microsoft's attempt to dominate the media format wars, and has (again) dropped off in quality significantly now it isn't needed to sell hardware anymore.
IMO Apple doesn't actually make great or fantastic software. It makes "good enough" software that is actually kind of patchy in terms of quality and they never stand behind it either. You can never tell if Apple really is serious about a software or service or whether it's just something that will disappear next year when the hardware and market priorities change. You can't really *rely* on Apple's software.
My take is that the software is a strategic for Apple; the magic behind their hardware. Hardware designers have long understood that, unlike other products (such as chairs or power tools), the physical design of a computing device is only at best, 50% of the experience of using that product. so Apple uses software to make their hardware special.
Another way to say this is that I think software is a means to an end, not the end. Take Safari: Apple dumped its pursuit of Safari on Windows after it had achieved its goals: promoting HTML5/CSS3 in a time when Web sites focused on IE6 + Flash... those days over. Even if Chrome adoption far outshines Safari on Windows, it doesn't matter because Apple got what it wanted: momentum behind HTML5. Apple's goal wasn't to dominate the browser market. It was to make sure the Web wasn't exclusive to one company.
Look at how WebKit changed the game: Microsft used to get websites to display "Beat Viewed In Internet Explorer" badges. Now they can't stop bragging about how IE10 is so standards compliant, even calling Mobile Safari the "IE6 of mobile browsers" (because it lags in HTML5 standards adoption).
Every year we go through the same old thing. The anal-ists say Apple will fail and Apple makes them look like what they really are, stupid idiots! There is no such thing as magic, only hard work. People at Apple are always hard at work making products that people love to use. Anal-ists don't understand that you can't make products like that on a snap of your fingers just because they want to see something new at a certain time to make there bank accounts grow faster.
There more to it then hard work, though. Ideas, creativity, inspiration, belief, collaboration, management, leadership, direction, talent, deal making, energy, momentum, marketing, brand power, mind share, and the most important of all; the reason why you're doing what you do.
I think you have just defined [the reasons for] human existence!
I disagree. While Steve Jobs didn't believe in smaller screens, the rest of Apple--Eddy Cue in particular--thought it was a good idea, good enough that they got the rest of the company behind it. Critics said the same, but I wouldn't interpret events as "Apple listened to critics." No, I think Apple listened to their customers. Several years ago, a friend of mine got the new iPad 2 for his wife, who wanted to carry it in her purse but it was too large to fit, so she returned it. That concern never crossed my mind as a man, but I realized this was not an atypical scenario.
Eh, what a crock of horse-shit. Somehow, 've managed to "get work done" using the iWork suite, and have created and edited thousands of documents on it, including presentations, and made $$ from doing so. So have millions of others. What exactly is pages or keynote missing in order to get your magical "work done"? Microsoft office is also available for Mac if thats what you're comparing it to. I haven't met anyone who "can't get work done" using their mac, and the people I know who use one do more work on it than anyone I know that uses a PC.
Really? Just because you can create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation doesn't make iWork as powerful as MS Office. I installed Office for Mac the first day I got my MBP because you just plain need it in the academic and office world.
Here's a review of Numbers, which is the most critical in any work environment (word processing and presentations are about showing data rather than working with it):
Step 1: Bring all the Mobile apps to the Desktop -- allow any/all iOS apps to rurn on the desktop -- Maps, Siri, Proloquo2go... whatever.
While it may not make sense for some apps, it does for about 80% of them.
I would say more like 10% of them and 9% of those have a desktop app
For the non-techie user, I think the percentage is much higher.
Yes many Mobile apps have Desktop apps too -- but often these are server or support apps. And, where "so-called" equivalent Mobile and Desktop apps exist -- they may be equivalent in function but, rarely are equivalent in UX.
And I totally disagree that such a forcing together Metro Style is good for anyone. Or that it would blow anyone away.
It is not forcing anything on anyone... least of all Metro Style.
It's a matter of familiarity -- I already use all these apps on my Mobile devices -- why not on my Desktop devices?
I think you are coming at this from the wrong perspective -- You/we are computer veterans who, recently, have had our world enhanced by Mobile devices.
In the next several years, billions of people willl experience their first real encounter with any computer -- and that encounter will be with a Mobile device. Later, many of these people will grow their needs and enhance that experience with use of a Desktop device. And I am not just talking about the population of emerging countries -- Grandma and Grandpa fit this description.
Why not make the transition among Mobile and Desktop devices as easy, comfortable and familiar as possible -- like putting an automatic transmission, comfortable seats, and an air conditioner on the truck.
Step 2: Make it so most/any of these mobile/desktop apps can run on the web and AppleTV.
You an already. It's called AirPlay.
Few apps are appropriate for the TV mode on their own so you would need a controller anyway. That is your device.
AirPlay is a good start -- but it is terribly inefficient --- a bandwidth hog. Why transmit A/V content at all? You could have the A/V content reside (or be cross loaded) on both devices -- then only the changes such as 3D co-ordinates, scene#, effect#, etc., need be exchanged among devices -- at a much, much lower overhead.
Despite what many people believe, and despite them sometimes describing themselves as a "software" company, Apple actually has a long history of "okay" or mediocre software. I can't think of much they have made that really knocks it out of the park except for the base OS and the developer tools. The actual user software Apple has made has been uniformly "meh" or has been bought from others.
For instance iTunes is actually what made the iPod special in it's day and it's competitors had noticeably clunky alternatives, but Apple didn't make iTunes, they bought it from another developer. What they've added to it over the years arguably makes it worse than it originally was. iWork apps were created only to spite Office and the very second they got good enough to be viable alternatives all development practically ceased. iWork was made to sell more hardware. Apple isn't really interested in making a good suite of Office apps and they certainly aren't interested in making anything better. They just need a "good enough" competitor and that's it.
Quicktime probably comes closest to software that Apple made that is "stellar" but again, it was only made in response to Microsoft's attempt to dominate the media format wars, and has (again) dropped off in quality significantly now it isn't needed to sell hardware anymore.
IMO Apple doesn't actually make great or fantastic software. It makes "good enough" software that is actually kind of patchy in terms of quality and they never stand behind it either. You can never tell if Apple really is serious about a software or service or whether it's just something that will disappear next year when the hardware and market priorities change. You can't really *rely* on Apple's software.
You've hit the nail on the head. Apple makes great software only so that it can sell hardware. It has forsaken iWork. Why don't they recognize that if they would make iWork better in functionality than Office they would cause a huge shift in office productivity and grab a much larger share of the enterprise market? They already are grabbing the tablet market and phone markets from that sector. It would behoove them to make a killer office suite so that businesses would just make the switch in total. Apple just needs to have an awesome iWork for the iPads. When iPad users grasp how much better it is than Office they'll buy more Macs. Simple.
OSX is way better than any Windows product but just adding fluffy desktop apps to it isn't making it a better OS. OSX is becoming bloated. Apple should do what Bodhi Linux does. The Bodhi Linux OS comes with the bare minimum of applications and has a software repository for adding programs. By doing this nobody has anything on their system that they personally didn't request or need. This makes their systems faster.
IOS doesn't have a file system yet? This was one of the original complaints when it came out and it still hasn't been addressed. Give people what they want Apple.
The 64 GB iPod Touch costs $399! Can you believe that?
Where is a codec that captures the full sonic reproduction of an analog recording? It doesn't exist. If Apple made such a codec they could have another layer of iTunes and people who really care about sonic purity would repurchase their entire libraries just to have beautiful full sounding music. Apple would make another fortune with this. The files would be twenty times larger than current files but so what. Disc drives are now big enough to handle them, especially with RAID systems and Drobos. There will be another music revolution when such a codec comes into existence.
The problem with AppleInsider, and D.E. Dilger's thesis, is that he/they are trying to predict the future by gazing in a rear view mirror. Apple doesn't get to be as mediocre as Microsoft because Apple supposedly aspires for greatness. Yet that is the comparison I hear day after day on AI.
Apple needs an internal shakeup, it's time to stop being predictable. Let's bring back the showmanship and insanely great products! Do one thing out of the box. Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign you're still breathing!
"Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign . . . "
Has it not occurred to you that they are still developing the technology that must be in place before they can produce—not "release"—the iPad mini? That it's not a matter of them needing an internal shakeup, but a matter of Sharp or AU Optronics or whoever getting their production of the necessary screens ramped up in the millions that will be needed?
People get all needy and emotional over something they only dimly understand, if at all. Apple's products are on the edge of what's possible technologically, without compromising usability, in fact they must always be advancing usability. It takes time. They can spend over a billion, as they did with Sharp, and you may not see the results for years.
"Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign . . . "
Has it not occurred to you that they are still developing the technology that must be in place before they can produce—not "release"—the iPad mini? That it's not a matter of them needing an internal shakeup, but a matter of Sharp or AU Optronics or whoever getting their production of the necessary screens ramped up in the millions that will be needed?
People get all needy and emotional over something they only dimly understand, if at all. Apple's products are on the edge of what's possible technologically, without compromising usability, in fact they must always be advancing usability. It takes time. They can spend over a billion, as they did with Sharp, and you may not see the results for years.
You say that Apple is still developing the technology and then go on to say that it's actually Sharp or other manufacturers developing the technology haha. Freudian slip.
"And had Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia's Symbian not all degenerated into terrible products people had no love for just at the moment Apple was ready to release iPhone, the company's major success in entering the mobile market might never have happened."
This line is complete fiction. The iPhone sucked the wind out of all those companies sails.
Every company kind of falls short when it comes to productivity. Let's see, what do most people want to use computers for... (Work?). Why do people still use Windows?... (for Microsoft Office!) Why do people still use Microsoft Office... (to Work!) Should Apple invest more time in iWork??? Well, I'm shocked that Apple has so many "geniuses" working for them and they can't figure this simple problem out. Do the vast majority of people want to shell out all that money to mess with photos and videos? I don't think so. Apple does the best in hardware. It's time to focus on the software. Give us something that completely blows Microsoft Office out of the water, and you will have your marketshare, more phones sold, and overtake the entire computer industry. It's that simple. But it's something that's been completely overlooked. It's something all those Harvard and MIT grads at Apple can't wrap their massive brains around.
Eh, what a crock of horse-shit. Somehow, 've managed to "get work done" using the iWork suite, and have created and edited thousands of documents on it, including presentations, and made $$ from doing so. So have millions of others. What exactly is pages or keynote missing in order to get your magical "work done"? Microsoft office is also available for Mac if thats what you're comparing it to. I haven't met anyone who "can't get work done" using their mac, and the people I know who use one do more work on it than anyone I know that uses a PC.
It's people that believe Apple can do no wrong and that there is no room for improvement hinder development, progress, innovation, etc. If we lived in your world, we'd still be working on Apple IIc's.
IOS doesn't have a file system yet? This was one of the original complaints when it came out and it still hasn't been addressed. Give people what they want Apple.
No. Apple gives what people need.
The 64 GB iPod Touch costs $399! Can you believe that?
Not sure what you mean. You want it to be cheaper, or expected it to cost more, with all its high tech and well designed hardware and software?
Where is a codec that captures the full sonic reproduction of an analog recording? It doesn't exist. If Apple made such a codec they could have another layer of iTunes and people who really care about sonic purity would repurchase their entire libraries just to have beautiful full sounding music. Apple would make another fortune with this. The files would be twenty times larger than current files but so what. Disc drives are now big enough to handle them, especially with RAID systems and Drobos. There will be another music revolution when such a codec comes into existence.
Not sure what you're getting at, but it looks like you wish for 'a richer sound experience'. But how will this work if the majority listens to music on their iOS device, with the included cheap headphones or self procured $300 ones? If these files are 20 times as large iDevices would be filled rather rapidly, no?
Yes, for home use we are still in the HDD area, but I sure hope Apple is going to kill it like they have done so many times in the past. All for the better, I say.
Comments
Apple needs an internal shakeup, it's time to stop being predictable. Let's bring back the showmanship and insanely great products! Do one thing out of the box. Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign you're still breathing!
My take is that the software is a strategic for Apple; the magic behind their hardware. Hardware designers have long understood that, unlike other products (such as chairs or power tools), the physical design of a computing device is only at best, 50% of the experience of using that product. so Apple uses software to make their hardware special.
Another way to say this is that I think software is a means to an end, not the end. Take Safari: Apple dumped its pursuit of Safari on Windows after it had achieved its goals: promoting HTML5/CSS3 in a time when Web sites focused on IE6 + Flash... those days over. Even if Chrome adoption far outshines Safari on Windows, it doesn't matter because Apple got what it wanted: momentum behind HTML5. Apple's goal wasn't to dominate the browser market. It was to make sure the Web wasn't exclusive to one company.
Look at how WebKit changed the game: Microsft used to get websites to display "Beat Viewed In Internet Explorer" badges. Now they can't stop bragging about how IE10 is so standards compliant, even calling Mobile Safari the "IE6 of mobile browsers" (because it lags in HTML5 standards adoption).
I think you have just defined [the reasons for] human existence!
I disagree. While Steve Jobs didn't believe in smaller screens, the rest of Apple--Eddy Cue in particular--thought it was a good idea, good enough that they got the rest of the company behind it. Critics said the same, but I wouldn't interpret events as "Apple listened to critics." No, I think Apple listened to their customers. Several years ago, a friend of mine got the new iPad 2 for his wife, who wanted to carry it in her purse but it was too large to fit, so she returned it. That concern never crossed my mind as a man, but I realized this was not an atypical scenario.
I'm really looking forward to WWDC (with an emphasis on the D). Less so the hooting from the fanboys and haters.
The hype around Apple brings out the worst in everyone.
Really? Just because you can create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation doesn't make iWork as powerful as MS Office. I installed Office for Mac the first day I got my MBP because you just plain need it in the academic and office world.
Here's a review of Numbers, which is the most critical in any work environment (word processing and presentations are about showing data rather than working with it):
http://www.macworld.com/article/1138426/numbers09.html
For the non-techie user, I think the percentage is much higher.
Yes many Mobile apps have Desktop apps too -- but often these are server or support apps. And, where "so-called" equivalent Mobile and Desktop apps exist -- they may be equivalent in function but, rarely are equivalent in UX.
It is not forcing anything on anyone... least of all Metro Style.
It's a matter of familiarity -- I already use all these apps on my Mobile devices -- why not on my Desktop devices?
I think you are coming at this from the wrong perspective -- You/we are computer veterans who, recently, have had our world enhanced by Mobile devices.
In the next several years, billions of people willl experience their first real encounter with any computer -- and that encounter will be with a Mobile device. Later, many of these people will grow their needs and enhance that experience with use of a Desktop device. And I am not just talking about the population of emerging countries -- Grandma and Grandpa fit this description.
Why not make the transition among Mobile and Desktop devices as easy, comfortable and familiar as possible -- like putting an automatic transmission, comfortable seats, and an air conditioner on the truck.
AirPlay is a good start -- but it is terribly inefficient --- a bandwidth hog. Why transmit A/V content at all? You could have the A/V content reside (or be cross loaded) on both devices -- then only the changes such as 3D co-ordinates, scene#, effect#, etc., need be exchanged among devices -- at a much, much lower overhead.
Consider multiplayer game...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
Despite what many people believe, and despite them sometimes describing themselves as a "software" company, Apple actually has a long history of "okay" or mediocre software. I can't think of much they have made that really knocks it out of the park except for the base OS and the developer tools. The actual user software Apple has made has been uniformly "meh" or has been bought from others.
For instance iTunes is actually what made the iPod special in it's day and it's competitors had noticeably clunky alternatives, but Apple didn't make iTunes, they bought it from another developer. What they've added to it over the years arguably makes it worse than it originally was. iWork apps were created only to spite Office and the very second they got good enough to be viable alternatives all development practically ceased. iWork was made to sell more hardware. Apple isn't really interested in making a good suite of Office apps and they certainly aren't interested in making anything better. They just need a "good enough" competitor and that's it.
Quicktime probably comes closest to software that Apple made that is "stellar" but again, it was only made in response to Microsoft's attempt to dominate the media format wars, and has (again) dropped off in quality significantly now it isn't needed to sell hardware anymore.
IMO Apple doesn't actually make great or fantastic software. It makes "good enough" software that is actually kind of patchy in terms of quality and they never stand behind it either. You can never tell if Apple really is serious about a software or service or whether it's just something that will disappear next year when the hardware and market priorities change. You can't really *rely* on Apple's software.
You've hit the nail on the head. Apple makes great software only so that it can sell hardware. It has forsaken iWork. Why don't they recognize that if they would make iWork better in functionality than Office they would cause a huge shift in office productivity and grab a much larger share of the enterprise market? They already are grabbing the tablet market and phone markets from that sector. It would behoove them to make a killer office suite so that businesses would just make the switch in total. Apple just needs to have an awesome iWork for the iPads. When iPad users grasp how much better it is than Office they'll buy more Macs. Simple.
OSX is way better than any Windows product but just adding fluffy desktop apps to it isn't making it a better OS. OSX is becoming bloated. Apple should do what Bodhi Linux does. The Bodhi Linux OS comes with the bare minimum of applications and has a software repository for adding programs. By doing this nobody has anything on their system that they personally didn't request or need. This makes their systems faster.
IOS doesn't have a file system yet? This was one of the original complaints when it came out and it still hasn't been addressed. Give people what they want Apple.
The 64 GB iPod Touch costs $399! Can you believe that?
Where is a codec that captures the full sonic reproduction of an analog recording? It doesn't exist. If Apple made such a codec they could have another layer of iTunes and people who really care about sonic purity would repurchase their entire libraries just to have beautiful full sounding music. Apple would make another fortune with this. The files would be twenty times larger than current files but so what. Disc drives are now big enough to handle them, especially with RAID systems and Drobos. There will be another music revolution when such a codec comes into existence.
"Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign . . . "
Has it not occurred to you that they are still developing the technology that must be in place before they can produce—not "release"—the iPad mini? That it's not a matter of them needing an internal shakeup, but a matter of Sharp or AU Optronics or whoever getting their production of the necessary screens ramped up in the millions that will be needed?
People get all needy and emotional over something they only dimly understand, if at all. Apple's products are on the edge of what's possible technologically, without compromising usability, in fact they must always be advancing usability. It takes time. They can spend over a billion, as they did with Sharp, and you may not see the results for years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
"Release the iPad Retina mini before the large iPad just to prove the media wrong. Please Apple, do one thing Apple-like. Give us a sign . . . "
Has it not occurred to you that they are still developing the technology that must be in place before they can produce—not "release"—the iPad mini? That it's not a matter of them needing an internal shakeup, but a matter of Sharp or AU Optronics or whoever getting their production of the necessary screens ramped up in the millions that will be needed?
People get all needy and emotional over something they only dimly understand, if at all. Apple's products are on the edge of what's possible technologically, without compromising usability, in fact they must always be advancing usability. It takes time. They can spend over a billion, as they did with Sharp, and you may not see the results for years.
You say that Apple is still developing the technology and then go on to say that it's actually Sharp or other manufacturers developing the technology haha. Freudian slip.
"And had Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia's Symbian not all degenerated into terrible products people had no love for just at the moment Apple was ready to release iPhone, the company's major success in entering the mobile market might never have happened."
This line is complete fiction. The iPhone sucked the wind out of all those companies sails.
Reality check please.
Apple does the best in hardware. It's time to focus on the software. Give us something that completely blows Microsoft Office out of the water, and you will have your marketshare, more phones sold, and overtake the entire computer industry. It's that simple. But it's something that's been completely overlooked. It's something all those Harvard and MIT grads at Apple can't wrap their massive brains around.
But the vast majority use Microsoft Office.
iWork is crippled. It is in no way even close to what you can do in Microsoft Office. Maybe you're just not a power user.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slurpy
Eh, what a crock of horse-shit. Somehow, 've managed to "get work done" using the iWork suite, and have created and edited thousands of documents on it, including presentations, and made $$ from doing so. So have millions of others. What exactly is pages or keynote missing in order to get your magical "work done"? Microsoft office is also available for Mac if thats what you're comparing it to. I haven't met anyone who "can't get work done" using their mac, and the people I know who use one do more work on it than anyone I know that uses a PC.
It's people that believe Apple can do no wrong and that there is no room for improvement hinder development, progress, innovation, etc. If we lived in your world, we'd still be working on Apple IIc's.
Originally Posted by daewalker
iWork is crippled. It is in no way even close to what you can do in Microsoft Office. Maybe you're just not a power user.
Yes, please go away now.
No. Apple gives what people need.
Not sure what you mean. You want it to be cheaper, or expected it to cost more, with all its high tech and well designed hardware and software?
Not sure what you're getting at, but it looks like you wish for 'a richer sound experience'. But how will this work if the majority listens to music on their iOS device, with the included cheap headphones or self procured $300 ones? If these files are 20 times as large iDevices would be filled rather rapidly, no?
Yes, for home use we are still in the HDD area, but I sure hope Apple is going to kill it like they have done so many times in the past. All for the better, I say.