A Non-Troll Report on the Irrelevance of ML

[the8thark]

I will comment on all the points listed by the OP.

1 - Accessibility
Not needed by most people agreed. But for those who do needed they would be so thankful to have it. I know people who are poor of sight or hearing who use Macs and love these improvements. Great improvements I think.

2 - AirPlay Mirroring
An evolution we all saw coming and very well needed.

3 - Auto Save
This was done very well in Lion. Just a small minority decided to hate it. So it seems Apple is trying to cater to this vocal minority here. That's good. I did like the prompt to save on quitting an app.

4 - Built-in Sharing
I probably won't ever use it. But some people will. A little meh for me. But I'm sure someone will get a use out of it.

5 - Calendar
Hopefully they integrate calendar properly with our other devices through iCloud. If so a bug plus to me.

6 - Contacts
I have not had groups, would be nice I guess but I don't have tons of contacts that I need to group them. A little list does me fine, but for those with tons of contacts it would be useful.

7 - Dashboard
Never used iOS that much but on the OS X side being able to right click a widget and have it removed or moved around the screen would streamline the process of widget management a lot. If ML does not include this I'll be surely letting Apple know about it.

8 - Dictation
The visually impaired would love this feature. I'm all for making OS X more accessible to everyone in the community. Props to Apple for doing this.

9 - Dictionary
Why should I have to google up words for their meaning. I should have the dictionary totally integrated into the OS. And it looks like ML is doing this. Very well done.

10 - Facebook
I dunno whether to smile or cringe at this one. I think the principle of bringing people together facebook does well. But the interface used to do so is terrible. Mark Z needs to take a leaf out of OS X or iOS and make facebook fit into our lives. I should not have to change how I do things just for facebook. So I have very mixed feelings about this one.

11 - Features for China
The original poster does not get it with this point.
1 billion potential Apple customers. Apple's biggest market. The place most Apple products are made. In Chinese Foxconn factories. So it's wise not to piss off the people in your biggest potential market. And with how strict the Chinese government is these days it's best to try and stay on their side too.
If you are CHinese good. If you're not, then think of it as keeping Apple the most valuable company in the world, so good for you too.

12 - Finder
The base finder itself, and the arrow cursor itself was such an innovation in 1984 or whenever it was invented by Apple. It's stayed in roughly the same format it's always been till this very day. No other company has really bettered the finder. And Apple sees no need to really revolutionise it. As it still works very well. And in part I agree. But on the other hand Apple needs to take a stand and say we are revolutionising it. Tough choice to make. Leave it as is and people are happy cause it's the part of OS X that most people are familiar with. CHange it up and make it all new and a lot of people will go wtf. But if the change is done well everyone could learn the new finder and be happy with it. Maybe.

13 - Game Center
Macs are not known as gaming machines. They can game well but this will help the iOS crowd have some familiarity when they game on OS X.

14 - Gatekeeper
Great. Apple = walled garden. But that is old news, we all know this. And bringing it to OS X, I'm sure 95% of OS X users won't even know the difference. And I'm sure the 5% who do care will have the option to turn it off. Well hopefully.

15 - iCloud
Tweaks are good. better then no tweaks right?

16 - Launchpad
You should have commented more. For people new to OS X search would be great. And cause I don't there is a way to move an app from one launchpad page to another, a search would be good if you have many launchpad pages. In saying this I never use launchpad. But if it was fixed up I just might.

17 - Mac App Store
An update to an App you can only get with the OS. For those with very good internet, auto downloading app updates would be very nice.

18 - Mail
VIPs - useless, we already have email flags.
Notifications - Great to be able to get rid of growl
Inline search, good.

19 - Messages
I can message iOS devices from my Mac now? Two thumbs up for this. Since many of my friends have iOS devices I won't have to pay for smsing them anymore.

20 - Notes
Needs copy and paste to be useful.

21 - Notification Center
great. I can finally rid myself of growl.

22 - Photo Booth
The first App every new to Mac person uses. A great way to show off Macs to people. Updates here though seemingly insignificant actually do have some use.

23 - Power Nap
I will never use it. But for those who will, they'll love it,

24 - Preview
Nice I guess.

25 - QuickTime X
Will it be able to play Midi files now? Because quicktime 7 in Lion plays them all buggy like. Otherwise it'll be jsut as good as on Lion.

26 - I am getting tired of typing, so see 21 above - rating: 0/2
OP is getting lazy.

27 - "Password Autofill"?
I am against this. It opens up the Mac to security risks. Sure with autofill it stops keylogging software but if someone uses your Mac on your account they can use things cause of the auto passwords. Makes it all the more important to have multiple user accounts set up if anyone else is to use your Mac. More hassle then necessary but a must I guess.

28 - Security
ML to Lion is like SL to Leo. They are evolution not revolution. Very good improvements there. 95% of users won't even realise this is happening. And the other 5% can deal with it however they want to.

29 - System
Nice fixes here, I agree with you about the 2nd monitor issue, that needs a fix though.

30 - TextEdit
I use that little app all the time so improvements here are very welcome.

31 - Time Machine
Multiple locations instead of one location after another? If this saves time backing up then sure. If not then I dunno.

32 - Twitter
I hate twitter. I dislike using it. For many many reasons. Pointless garbage in my mind. If I was Apple I'd somehow buy it and pay out everyone there and disband the company.
But some people like twitter I guess and would be happy here.

Now YOU do the math and tell me who is trolling.
The OP is trolling? Sounds like it.
Sure OS X Mountain Lion does not have many many revolutionary at every turn. But it is a solid release fixing up many things. And for roughly $20 you can't go wrong. For that price it is so so worth it.

 

[dlmart2]

I'm going to have to agree with the OP on this. After the 'newness' wears off.. and it does wear off pretty quickly.. say an hour, all we have is a few polished up 'fixes' and what they call 'features' are just 'meh'. ost of which probably should have already been included in iOS and are just now being ported to the desktop.

 

[maflynn]

Apple lays foundation and then they build features upon that foundation. Mountain Lion is clean up and polish to features that largely already existed.

Give it time. Be patient Padawan.

That mantra has been uttered since Snow Leopard, so far we keep seeing foundations (snow leopard's foundations, Lions, and not ML).

 

[andybrown44]

Integration of iMessage is something I'm really looking forward to, especially once Apple IDs are properly linked to phone numbers.

----------

ML is definitely evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but I really don't want any software company to fundamentally alter their products at each new release. Lots of small changes lead to some quite big changes over time.

There will always be people stuck in the past averse to change, I know plenty of people who don't want to switch from Windows XP because "it works how they want it to".

 

[Krazy Bill]

20 - Notes
Needs copy and paste to be useful.

My copy of DP4 has copy/paste in the notes app. Are you telling me the GM removed this?

Now YOU do the math and tell me who is trolling.
The OP is trolling? Sounds like it.

You just did the same thing the OP did. Why does that make him a troll and not you?

Apple has been playing safe for too long in my opinion. I'll be sticking with Snow Leopard because it has all the features I need - I tried Lion but it was noticeably slower and reduced my battery life.

Surely those of you still clinging to SL have realized that one day you'll have to adapt? It's quite clear the things we dislike in OSX are not going away and OSX 10.9 will not magically revert to the days of old.

The bigger picture for me is not whether I'll upgrade to ML... it's whether I'll even stay with the OSX platform. That's quite the conundrum considering I'm a fan of Apple's hardware and customer service.

 

[AdeFowler]

1 - Accessibility - irrelevant for me and most persons out there, including those with special needs - other than 14 additional Braille keyboards and some additional VoiceOver commands, not much to report - rating: 0/2

Stopped reading there.

I’m glad you have no need for improved Accessibility features. I have cerebral palsy and can’t wait to try the new dictation feature. If it works, £13.99 will be a small price to pay.

 

[C.G.B. Spender]

Those who don't know me in this forum have been accusing me of behaving like a troll due to my harsh criticism of the soon-to-be-launched ML. Unfortunately, these people ignore that probably over 95% of my thousands of posts have always been rabidly pro-Apple.

Moreover, I have converted more than 15 people over the last 5 years to Mac - and none of them are ever going back to the sad world of Windows.

So what's the problem with my criticism now? The problem is that, in my view, Apple no longer strives to innovate and/or devote the necessary resources for the development of a great OS X desktop experience. Instead, they have decided to take the easy path and simply integrate a bunch of iOS fluff, in total contradiction to the TRUE innovativeness that has put Apple back in the game since 1997.

Worse: most of the pro-ML comments in here tend to state that "no further innovation is expected" since OS X (or Windows) is so "mature". Well, do you remember how cell phones and music players were before the iPhone and iPod? I do. Do you also remember when Bill Gates said that no one would ever need more than 640KB of RAM in their home computers? I also do.

The genius of SJ was exactly to think OUTSIDE the box of mediocrity and come up with totally unexpected steps which, when taken together, would mean sheer innovation instead of continuity. However, the Apple of today has apparently abandoned this track (at least as far as OS X is concerned), focusing instead on doing more of the same. Whether it is a 3D desktop, a totally new file system, a mindblowing Finder interface, new input methods, new metaphors, NONE of these are realized in ML.

But to make such accusations is also an easy way of being termed a "troll". So I have decided to go through each and every one of the 200 "new" features (or chapters containing them) to justify my current state of opposition against ML. This message is, thus, directed at those who don't feel exactly excited about Apple's new release - let's see what we can find out (categorized in terms of innovativeness/usefulness -> both on a scale of 0 to 5, respectively):

1 - Accessibility - irrelevant for me and most persons out there, including those with special needs - other than 14 additional Braille keyboards and some additional VoiceOver commands, not much to report - rating: 0/2

2 - AirPlay Mirroring - everyone saw this one coming, probably one of the few truly welcome additions to OS X, even though Audio Support has been there for AGES now - rating: 0/4

3 - Auto Save - "Prompt to save when closing a document"? "Save As" Really? How is this even worth mentioning? The only good thing is that it brings back some requested functionality - rating: 0/1

4 - Built-in Sharing - This mostly annoying feature already existed before for some services and is just being extended. NOTHING else to report - rating: 0/2

5 - Calendar - "Search suggestions"? "Sidebar"? "Notifications"??? Are you joking? I had this with Leopard already! - rating: 0/1

6 - Contacts - "Groups column"? I've had Groups for AGES now! "Share button"? Gimme a break - rating: 0/1

7 - Dashboard - the ONLY notable thing here is the possibility to create widget folders à la iOS, something which may be useful to those having a gazillion widgets on their large screens - rating: 1/2

8 - Dictation - another relatively useful feature (depending on your proficiency of a handful of languages, of course), even though it's just another iOS thing brought over - rating: 1/3

9 - Dictionary - "Swipe between pages"? "New dictionaries" for definitions? - not even worth mentioning, but well... - rating: 0/1

10 - Facebook - yep, Mark Sugarloaf's FB is now part and parcel of OS X. No innovation, just annoying built-in sign-in and sharing tools - rating: 0/2 (for those FB lovers)

11 - Features for China - I am not Chinese, so I couldn't care less. This is the first time a SINGLE country is mentioned as a set of features for OS X. So we have two ratings, one for non-Chinese and another for Chinese users: 0/0 and 0/4

12 - Finder - the poor Finder doesn't get much love, now does it? "Inline progress", "Easy encryption", "Customizable sidebar"? "Tap to Quick Look" has been there since forever with the free MagicPrefs! Advice to Apple: Just buy Pathfinder or TotalFinder and pretend they are your creations - rating: 0/1

13 - Game Center - more iOS fluff, although gamers may like the fairly innovative cross-platform multiplayer support, the only thing worth mentioning here - rating: 2/2

14 - Gatekeeper - just more of the walled garden approach, with increasingly less flexibility as far as your apps are concerned. But increased security is good anyway - rating: 1/3

15 - iCloud - ALL of the features announced there already exist in one form or another. ML just brings a few tweaks here and there. And for those cloud haters, this means absolutely nothing, NADA - rating 0/3 (for cloud users)

16 - Launchpad - "Search"? I do not need to comment further, do I? rating: 0/0

17 - Mac App Store - this is NOT an OS feature, it's an update to an app by itself - "Swipe between pages" and "Automatic downloads" are somehow useful - rating: 0/2

18 - Mail - "VIPs" are like Google "stars"; irrelevant. "Inline search" may be useful. "Notifications" have been with us for years now through Growl and others - rating: 0/2 (for inline search)

19 - Messages - This is just iChat improved, with better iOS/OS X integration, nothing else. And I've heard the NASTY RAM/disk eating bug is still there - rating: 0/3 (for heavy cross-device messaging)

20 - Notes - It seems like this doesn't even have copy/paste enabled. Stickies on steroids and nothing more - rating: 0/1

21 - Notification Center - more iOS fluff/Growl-induced crap - may be useful to some, though - rating: 0/2

22 - Photo Booth - these "new" features are so ridiculous they are not even worth mentioning - rating: 0/0

23 - Power Nap - another one of the FEW true innovations in ML. Of extremely limited usefulness, though (only notebooks with flash storage) - rating 3/2

24 - Preview - Hardly innovative, but "Inline notes" and "insert page from scanner" may be useful to some - rating: 1/2

25 - QuickTime X - irrelevant, apart from slightly faster decoding for some - rating: 0/1

26 - I am getting tired of typing, so see 21 above - rating: 0/2

27 - "Password Autofill"? How is that possibly new? "Smart search" and "Tab view" and "DNT" are improvements, still. Sad to see that the main "innovation" in ML belongs to an autonomous browser - rating: 2/3

28 - Security - I thought "Kernel ASLR" was already in place, but still...more sandboxed apps are also welcome. Innovations? Close to ZERO - rating: 1/3

29 - System - apart from "improved scroll bars" and "drag and drop in screen sharing", NOTHING else needs to be elaborated upon. Not to mention that the "Go full screen on any display" is a pathetic non-fix of the full screen problem in Lion. Sadly, even Windows can do better than that. Don't believe me? Check this AI thread: http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/15...tain-lion-gm-go-full-screen-on-any-display/40 - rating: 1/2

30 - TextEdit - irrelevant improvements - rating: 0/0

31 - Time Machine - "Backup to multiple locations"? Sure, but this doesn't seem to mean multiple drives at the same time - rating: 1/2

32 - Twitter - irrelevant, to say the least - rating: 0/0

Now YOU do the math and tell me who is trolling.

Am I gonna buy it? Probably yes, just as I buy a $20 lunch every day here in Switzerland. Marginal improvements, perhaps a little more speed. Innovation? Excitement? Bragging rights? That "I love Apple" feeling? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Haven’t seen this kind of irrelevant whining in quite some time. Whining, more whining followed by more whining. Nothing about what innovation is or how to innovate, just crappy „critique“.


All in all rating: irrelevant.

 

[heisenberg123]

Haven’t seen this kind of irrelevant whining in quite some time. Whining, more whining followed by more whining. Nothing about what innovation is or how to innovate, just crappy „critique“.


All in all rating: irrelevant.

followed up by ill buy it on launch day


who writes a 200+ word rant on how crap a product is and follow it up by saying ill buy it the day its available?

 

[Aidoneus]

Those who don't know me in this forum have been accusing me of behaving like a troll due to my harsh criticism of the soon-to-be-launched ML. Unfortunately, these people ignore that probably over 95% of my thousands of posts have always been rabidly pro-Apple.

Moreover, I have converted more than 15 people over the last 5 years to Mac - and none of them are ever going back to the sad world of Windows.

So what's the problem with my criticism now? The problem is that, in my view, Apple no longer strives to innovate and/or devote the necessary resources for the development of a great OS X desktop experience. Instead, they have decided to take the easy path and simply integrate a bunch of iOS fluff, in total contradiction to the TRUE innovativeness that has put Apple back in the game since 1997.

Worse: most of the pro-ML comments in here tend to state that "no further innovation is expected" since OS X (or Windows) is so "mature". Well, do you remember how cell phones and music players were before the iPhone and iPod? I do. Do you also remember when Bill Gates said that no one would ever need more than 640KB of RAM in their home computers? I also do.

The genius of SJ was exactly to think OUTSIDE the box of mediocrity and come up with totally unexpected steps which, when taken together, would mean sheer innovation instead of continuity. However, the Apple of today has apparently abandoned this track (at least as far as OS X is concerned), focusing instead on doing more of the same. Whether it is a 3D desktop, a totally new file system, a mindblowing Finder interface, new input methods, new metaphors, NONE of these are realized in ML.

But to make such accusations is also an easy way of being termed a "troll". So I have decided to go through each and every one of the 200 "new" features (or chapters containing them) to justify my current state of opposition against ML. This message is, thus, directed at those who don't feel exactly excited about Apple's new release - let's see what we can find out (categorized in terms of innovativeness/usefulness -> both on a scale of 0 to 5, respectively):

1 - Accessibility - irrelevant for me and most persons out there, including those with special needs - other than 14 additional Braille keyboards and some additional VoiceOver commands, not much to report - rating: 0/2

2 - AirPlay Mirroring - everyone saw this one coming, probably one of the few truly welcome additions to OS X, even though Audio Support has been there for AGES now - rating: 0/4

3 - Auto Save - "Prompt to save when closing a document"? "Save As" Really? How is this even worth mentioning? The only good thing is that it brings back some requested functionality - rating: 0/1

4 - Built-in Sharing - This mostly annoying feature already existed before for some services and is just being extended. NOTHING else to report - rating: 0/2

5 - Calendar - "Search suggestions"? "Sidebar"? "Notifications"??? Are you joking? I had this with Leopard already! - rating: 0/1

6 - Contacts - "Groups column"? I've had Groups for AGES now! "Share button"? Gimme a break - rating: 0/1

7 - Dashboard - the ONLY notable thing here is the possibility to create widget folders à la iOS, something which may be useful to those having a gazillion widgets on their large screens - rating: 1/2

8 - Dictation - another relatively useful feature (depending on your proficiency of a handful of languages, of course), even though it's just another iOS thing brought over - rating: 1/3

9 - Dictionary - "Swipe between pages"? "New dictionaries" for definitions? - not even worth mentioning, but well... - rating: 0/1

10 - Facebook - yep, Mark Sugarloaf's FB is now part and parcel of OS X. No innovation, just annoying built-in sign-in and sharing tools - rating: 0/2 (for those FB lovers)

11 - Features for China - I am not Chinese, so I couldn't care less. This is the first time a SINGLE country is mentioned as a set of features for OS X. So we have two ratings, one for non-Chinese and another for Chinese users: 0/0 and 0/4

12 - Finder - the poor Finder doesn't get much love, now does it? "Inline progress", "Easy encryption", "Customizable sidebar"? "Tap to Quick Look" has been there since forever with the free MagicPrefs! Advice to Apple: Just buy Pathfinder or TotalFinder and pretend they are your creations - rating: 0/1

13 - Game Center - more iOS fluff, although gamers may like the fairly innovative cross-platform multiplayer support, the only thing worth mentioning here - rating: 2/2

14 - Gatekeeper - just more of the walled garden approach, with increasingly less flexibility as far as your apps are concerned. But increased security is good anyway - rating: 1/3

15 - iCloud - ALL of the features announced there already exist in one form or another. ML just brings a few tweaks here and there. And for those cloud haters, this means absolutely nothing, NADA - rating 0/3 (for cloud users)

16 - Launchpad - "Search"? I do not need to comment further, do I? rating: 0/0

17 - Mac App Store - this is NOT an OS feature, it's an update to an app by itself - "Swipe between pages" and "Automatic downloads" are somehow useful - rating: 0/2

18 - Mail - "VIPs" are like Google "stars"; irrelevant. "Inline search" may be useful. "Notifications" have been with us for years now through Growl and others - rating: 0/2 (for inline search)

19 - Messages - This is just iChat improved, with better iOS/OS X integration, nothing else. And I've heard the NASTY RAM/disk eating bug is still there - rating: 0/3 (for heavy cross-device messaging)

20 - Notes - It seems like this doesn't even have copy/paste enabled. Stickies on steroids and nothing more - rating: 0/1

21 - Notification Center - more iOS fluff/Growl-induced crap - may be useful to some, though - rating: 0/2

22 - Photo Booth - these "new" features are so ridiculous they are not even worth mentioning - rating: 0/0

23 - Power Nap - another one of the FEW true innovations in ML. Of extremely limited usefulness, though (only notebooks with flash storage) - rating 3/2

24 - Preview - Hardly innovative, but "Inline notes" and "insert page from scanner" may be useful to some - rating: 1/2

25 - QuickTime X - irrelevant, apart from slightly faster decoding for some - rating: 0/1

26 - I am getting tired of typing, so see 21 above - rating: 0/2

27 - "Password Autofill"? How is that possibly new? "Smart search" and "Tab view" and "DNT" are improvements, still. Sad to see that the main "innovation" in ML belongs to an autonomous browser - rating: 2/3

28 - Security - I thought "Kernel ASLR" was already in place, but still...more sandboxed apps are also welcome. Innovations? Close to ZERO - rating: 1/3

29 - System - apart from "improved scroll bars" and "drag and drop in screen sharing", NOTHING else needs to be elaborated upon. Not to mention that the "Go full screen on any display" is a pathetic non-fix of the full screen problem in Lion. Sadly, even Windows can do better than that. Don't believe me? Check this AI thread: http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/15...tain-lion-gm-go-full-screen-on-any-display/40 - rating: 1/2

30 - TextEdit - irrelevant improvements - rating: 0/0

31 - Time Machine - "Backup to multiple locations"? Sure, but this doesn't seem to mean multiple drives at the same time - rating: 1/2

32 - Twitter - irrelevant, to say the least - rating: 0/0

Now YOU do the math and tell me who is trolling.

Am I gonna buy it? Probably yes, just as I buy a $20 lunch every day here in Switzerland. Marginal improvements, perhaps a little more speed. Innovation? Excitement? Bragging rights? That "I love Apple" feeling? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Mountain Lion is an A+ update.

 

[xav8tor]

I love it when people UNABLE or UNWILLING to read the whole message get all sentimental about a specific statement.

If you had taken a second to understand what I meant, you would see that I have included even "those with special needs" in my comment, JUST to mean that the ML accessibility additions were marginal (a number of additional Braille keyboards and little else), to say the least; and NOT to mean that accessibility as such is useless - I would NEVER make such a crazy absolute statement.

So before making idiotic comments, try to read the whole message and understand its context...whether you have special needs or not.

Please tell me you are not actually an attorney.

 

[talmy]

I meant for the app's operating files, what it needs to run. I did not mean user created files. There is no need to have a program's files scattered about making a mess of things, and it really irks me when a program (looking at you iTunes) decides to create it's own file structure in MY home directory.

Mac App Store applications are self-contained (for program files) and are sandboxed as far as folders they can use without user intervention (this allowed so they can access user's data files anywhere explicitly). This includes the locations used for autosave (which has changed for ML).

Take for example Pages, or Numbers, or Coda or "Insert any file editing program here". If your working on say a website your going to have multiple different programs to edit your files. One for PHP, maybe a different editor for JavaScript, and most certainly a different program for images.

Absolutely!

Maybe they choose to keep track of your files in the app's sandbox'ed directory to keep track of revisions, for example GIMP would store it's XCF files in it's sandbox with autosave (if it were a native app), but then you hit that export button (why have Duplicate, or Save As?) and save the copy to your project that you are keeping elsewhere. iOS has sandboxing, but it also completely lacks user storage space and expandable storage. I don't think that is something we will ever see on OS X.

Versions, however, are saved using an Sqlite database shared among all applications. Apple's guidelines state that "Export" saves the document in a format other than normal, which is what your are saying. If you continue editing, you are editing the original. "Save as" (returning in ML) is for saving a copy in its current state and format. If you continue editing, you are editing the copy. If you do a "Duplicate" you have windows for both the original and the copy, so you can save (and name) the copy and continue editing the original. So all three are distinctive.

----------

My copy of DP4 has copy/paste in the notes app. Are you telling me the GM removed this?

It most certainly does have copy/paste (as well as drag/drop).

The OP said it was "Stickies on steroids" and gave it a low score. While I still like stickies (for the color coding, mainly, and I hate the skeuomorphism of Notes) the real steroid here is the synchronization among devices.

 

[the8thark]

My copy of DP4 has copy/paste in the notes app. Are you telling me the GM removed this?

I've only used on like DP 1-2 at a friends place. He's a dev. I am not. I have no idea about the GM.

You just did the same thing the OP did. Why does that make him a troll and not you?

It makes us both trolls I guess. But it's all fun.

 

[50548]

Please tell me you are not actually an attorney.

Of course I am, and obviously I did NOT mean "unable" in a special needs context.

I meant UNABLE as in "reacting blindly and in a rabidly sentimental way after reading one statement out of context".

If this is not clear enough for you, I do not know what can be. No one in his sane mind would state that accessibility per se is irrelevant (I also have special needs people in my own family, genius).

My critique was that Apple could have done MUCH more than adding a few more Braille keyboards in a major OS X update (and the rating reflects that: ZERO innovation, limited ADDED usefulness to those in need). They have always been at the forefront of accessibility features since the early 80s.

But then, when someone with bad eyesight (coming from Windows) asks me to maximize UI elements and I tell him he can't do it in a general way on OS X, what the hell is one supposed to think?

That "Launchpad launcher" is more important? So chill out and make informed comments instead of reacting as an animal.

As for my point on SSDs: I got this information from a developer in the Apple Support Forums - third-party SSDs are NOT supported by PowerNap (whether this is true or if a hack can solve it, I have no idea as I don't even have a notebook).

 

[Paradoxally]

followed up by ill buy it on launch day


who writes a 200+ word rant on how crap a product is and follow it up by saying ill buy it the day its available?

Talking is easy, doing so is harder. But you, OP, are what we in western culture call a hypocrite. If you don't like it, you don't buy it. If you like it, you buy it...I mean what's the difficulty here?

Don't teeter around on both sides of the fence. Make a statement and stick with it, even if it's as blunt as 'mountain lion is irrelevant, I'm sticking with snow leopard, bye' than a 3000 word post as to how terrible Mountain Lion is, until reading 'oh, but I'll buy it'...literally just no words for that statement.

I was very critical of Lion but I ACTUALLY sent feedback to Apple in the hopes that some of the 'problems' would get fixed (like tons of other people did) - and one of them did, Exposé like windows in MC. I suggest you submit that 'rant' to Apple and if one of their employees reads your everlasting non-constructive post, then they are well and truly blessed with the gift of patience.

 

[mrjayviper]

Will be getting ML once it's released but my MBP will be seeing win8 once it's out!

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I'm buying ML because it fixes the mistakes of Lion. The fact that I have to spend $20 to fix Apple's mistakes, when I have a copy of SL that - if it wasn't artificially limited - would work just fine, is obnoxious.

And that's my word of the day for Apple: Obnoxious.

 

[Patriot24]

Apple has clearly moved to the "tick, tock" model for both hardware and software.

Mountain Lion is decidedly a "tock". 10.9 will hopefully be the "tick".

 

[xav8tor]

Of course I am, and obviously I did NOT mean "unable" in a special needs context.

I meant UNABLE as in "reacting blindly and in a rabidly sentimental way after reading one statement out of context".

If this is not clear enough for you, I do not know what can be. No one in his sane mind would state that accessibility per se is irrelevant (I also have special needs people in my own family, genius).

Thanks for calling me a genius. Despite stellar performance in law school and litigation, in all modesty, I don't think I'm nearly that smart. However, I am reasonably certain that, if you presented the passage I quoted in a US court, and argued your position in just about any context, you'd have a chance of somewhere between a slim and none convincing a judge/jury that the plain meaning of your words conveys anything other than callous indifference to the needs or opinions of others.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Thanks for calling me a genius. Despite stellar performance in law school and litigation, in all modesty, I don't think I'm nearly that smart. However, I am reasonably certain that, if you presented the passage I quoted in a US court, and argued your position in just about any context, you'd have a chance of somewhere between a slim and none convincing a judge/jury that the plain meaning of your words convey anything other than callous indifference to the needs or opinions of others.

I'm pretty sure I agree with BRLawyer on this one. The fact is, accessibility options are useless to 99% of the general public, and aren't worth anything for the majority of people.

For you to ignore an entire post based off of your disagreement with the first bullet point shows your ignorance. If a lawyer in a courtroom provides a piece of evidence that doesn't hold, does that immediately invalidate the entire argument, or just that single point of the argument?

 

[xav8tor]

I'm pretty sure I agree with BRLawyer on this one. The fact is, accessibility options are useless to 99% of the general public, and aren't worth anything for the majority of people.

For you to ignore an entire post based off of your disagreement with the first bullet point shows your ignorance. If a lawyer in a courtroom provides a piece of evidence that doesn't hold, does that immediately invalidate the entire argument, or just that single point of the argument?

Although others ignored the rest of his post, I did not. I read every word. In fact, if you read my first response, you'll see that I generally agree that OS X is not moving in the right direction, whatever that may be.

Like the OP, you too miss the point. Accessibility features are vital...period. Even though 99% (a number out of thin air by the way) may not use them, you still benefit from their presence. If those with disabilities were not able to utilize computers, many would be underemployed, unable to use the Internet in their personal lives, etc., thereby increasing the burden on society in the form of taxes, additional public services, and so on.

In reality, "slightly" more, as in exponentially more, people benefit from accessibility features:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2004/feb04/02-02adultuserbenefitspr.aspx

I guess they don't know what they are talking about either.

For the TLDNR crowd:

"Overview
The accessibility market is global and it continues to grow. 57% of adult computer users could benefit from the use of accessible technology.
Research commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. shows:
17% were very likely to benefit
40% were likely to benefit
43% were not likely to benefit
Study Results
Over half of your customers may be impacted by this!"

BR...Your witness.

 

[Eidorian]

I dont agree with the OP at all but Powernap only works with the MBA gen 2 and newer and the rMBP.
Image

I was strongly under the impression that PowerNap was just Apple's buzzword for Intel's newer sleep services under Sandy/Ivy Bridge + Intel 7 Series chipset. The chipset being the important factor.

 

[TPadden]

Talking is easy, doing so is harder. But you, OP, are what we in western culture call a hypocrite. If you don't like it, you don't buy it. If you like it, you buy it...I mean what's the difficulty here? ......

A lot like saying: Time is money; if you don't like what he posted don't reply ......

 

[nuckinfutz]

I was strongly under the impression that PowerNap was just Apple's buzzword for Intel's newer sleep services under Sandy/Ivy Bridge + Intel 7 Series chipset. The chipset being the important factor.

Yup. Appears so

http://www.intel.com/support/services/smartconnect/sb/CS-033108.htm

 

[Eidorian]

Yup. Appears so

http://www.intel.com/support/services/smartconnect/sb/CS-033108.htm

Though given the Apple-branded SSD nonsense being tossed around, it makes you wonder why it is not mentioned for the other Intel 7 Series based hardware with BTO Apple SSDs...

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Although others ignored the rest of his post, I did not. I read every word. In fact, if you read my first response, you'll see that I generally agree that OS X is not moving in the right direction, whatever that may be.

Like the OP, you too miss the point. Accessibility features are vital...period. Even though 99% (a number out of thin air by the way) may not use them, you still benefit from their presence. If those with disabilities were not able to utilize computers, many would be underemployed, unable to use the Internet in their personal lives, etc., thereby increasing the burden on society in the form of taxes, additional public services, and so on.

In reality, "slightly" more, as in exponentially more, people benefit from accessibility features:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2004/feb04/02-02adultuserbenefitspr.aspx

I guess they don't know what they are talking about either.

For the TLDNR crowd:

"Overview
The accessibility market is global and it continues to grow. 57% of adult computer users could benefit from the use of accessible technology.
Research commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. shows:
17% were very likely to benefit
40% were likely to benefit
43% were not likely to benefit
Study Results
Over half of your customers may be impacted by this!"

BR...Your witness.

Like you said, I pulled the number 99% out of thin air. However, that doesn't invalidate my point. Additionally, I never said that accessibility was unimportant to everyone, rather I was agreeing with BRLawyer when he said that the improvements to accessibility weren't exciting. Not that all accessibility features were useless, but that the improvements weren't great.

So lets get rid of the straw man and focus on the point:

For you to ignore an entire post based off of your disagreement with the first bullet point shows your ignorance. If a lawyer in a courtroom provides a piece of evidence that doesn't hold, does that immediately invalidate the entire argument, or just that single point of the argument?