Bye, Bye for now Apple, it has been fun!

[za9ra22]

I just cannot rely on it listing *every* document that I just saved. And if that works only 80%, it's useless.
Specially when you can't be sure *where* that file has just been saved that you need in another app.
Then the big search begins...

It isn't 80% accurate, it's 100 as far as I can tell. The apps showing are the last 10, and the documents listed correlate as far as I can tell too. And for documents, since it tracks only the name, it'll be wherever you did save it.

I can't be sure about the 'servers' because we have generic targets which work perfectly in the Finder and in Windows Explorer, but isn't specific enough in the 'recents' list to be sure which is which, but that's because our destination devices aren't given conventional nomenclature.

That said, I can't say I'd use this either, though in my case that's just because I haven't used it since MacOS 7.1. I don't actually have much use for the Apple menu at all.

 

[rin67630]

It isn't 80% accurate, it's 100 as far as I can tell.

If it were, I would not complain.

 

[za9ra22]

If it were, I would not complain.

Odd. I can only report what I'm seeing on my system. Certainly it can and does include non-Apple apps, and it is showing them in the correct order of use - except that Calendar is at the top, and shouldn't be.

Holding Sift/Command gives 'Show in Finder' for each too, so for documents, location can be tracked in place.

In any event it matters little to me since I don't use it and can't see why it would be in that location rather than the dock anyway.

ON edit: the 'servers' segment of recents also accurately tracks actual connections.

 

[millerj123]

I don't know the hardware since running Windows 10 I am guessing not super new and nowhere have I mentioned servers. This thread has been focused primarily on home computers and primarily laptops and mobile.

I knew a guy who was limping along his Windows 7 desktop just fine with no crashes or problems. It was just getting slow and he was having incompatibility issues. I helped him get a new desktop and he has not had a single issue and he is now using his desktop wirelessly!

Work environments with networks and work computers are a completely different subject. The success and stability of work environments requires a very proactive IT department and a short refresh cycle. The OS they are running is generally inconsequential as they will lock everything down and generally Windows/Linux is best for remote setup and allocation of many laptops or workstations in a short period of time.

Ah, just arguing to hear yourself. Carry on

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Want to bring back all the feels?

I started watching this last night ... and ended up watching the entire thing
(not sure how many times I've watched it over the years - several for sure)

This really brings it home on how much has changed and the feeling around the company that has been lost, in my view.

It's a tremendous way to spend 100 minutes.

You'll smile, laugh, remember...get nostalgic and wistful...These were some epic times
Man I miss it ... the excitement and energy of it all

Good point. I can't remember the last time I got excited for one of these. Apple evidently agrees with me as they quit doing them for most releases now. And remember the "one more thing..."

 

[za9ra22]

Good point. I can't remember the last time I got excited for one of these. Apple evidently agrees with me as they quit doing them for most releases now. And remember the "one more thing..."

It is really easy to pine for the old days, and Tiger was by far the best of the OSX releases - though if I recall at that point, Apple were charging $129.99 for OS releases. Oddly, few complaints.

Steve's '...one more thing' was consummate showmanship, and the way he commanded his audience and the sheer enthusiasm for the product meant that sometimes his performance was better than the stuff he was selling us on.

I don't know what he'd have thought of today's macOS, though he presided over the transition to this modern version, so he isn't entirely absolved, but if there's a place in California known for dumpster fires, he'd very likely have wanted to name it after that.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Good point. I can't remember the last time I got excited for one of these. Apple evidently agrees with me as they quit doing them for most releases now. And remember the "one more thing..."

The overproduced and pre-recorded "movie" they do now does zilch for me
It lost all its charm and serendipity by going that route (a hangover from the pandemic)

I can see why Tim prefers it, as he isn't nearly the in person presenter that Steve was
Some have a talent and a gift and energy for it

Steve had it
You could tell he simply enjoyed it and was so relaxed doing it

It's almost like Steve looked forward to presenting the work Apple had done ... as much as using what they'd actually done!

Tim is great at many things, but authentic and engaging presentation work isn't one of them

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple were charging $129.99 for OS releases. Oddly, few complaints.

I would gladly return to paying for the software if it would mean we’d get much better software with fewer bugs and issues.

I also prefer a slightly longer release cycle

Reading about the seemingly endless Sonoma issues with every point release is almost painful.

People are trying to get work done and their USB hubs aren’t even working!

 

[jakey rolling]

The overproduced and pre-recorded "movie" they do now does zilch for me

Infomercial. It's called an infomercial.

 

[za9ra22]

I would gladly return to paying for the software if it would mean we’d get much better software with fewer bugs and issues.

I also prefer a slightly longer release cycle

Reading about the seemingly endless Sonoma issues with every point release is almost painful.

People are trying to get work done and their USB hubs aren’t even working!

Yes, pretty much totally agree.

I've never been keen on the frequency of new releases in recent times, and personally I don't think they've given us anything but grief. Well, that and instances of 'features' such as 'Focus', which is a complication designed to hide over-complication.

If we were to believe that once upon a time, Apple were good at what they did (and I believe they were), then their rucksack full of sticking plaster junk they dig into these days is a huge disappointment, and entirely out of their (historically excellent) character.

Apple have really never been that close to perfect and we know it. But they once stood for elegance, simplicity, and the sheer delight of a product well done. Now they give us macOS that is a mashup of ugly, complicated and poorly done 'might work if you're lucky'. For this they should be as ashamed as I am disappointed.

I will say one thing, where you may vehemently disagree: I brought home a 15-inch MacBook Air in midnight, and this is a thing of absolute beauty. A real Steve-would-have-loved-it thing. Thin, light, solid, tactile, totally functional, and not a single frill in sight. It does make the functional eyesore of Sonoma even worse.

 

[Technerd108]

Snapdragon X Elite

Snapdragon X Elite is the most powerful, intelligent, and efficient processor in its class for Windows. Featuring: built for AI, multi-day battery-life and more.

www.qualcomm.com

Looks pretty impressive. Can't wait to see what Windows laptops will be released with this chip. Very interesting!

 

[jakey rolling]

The vast majority of businesses don't use 'specialised business software', they use ordinary office productivity applications that are available on Mac (e.g. Microsoft Office).

"Available on Mac" having a pretty significant asterisk beside it. The single most critical MS Office Application used is Excel, and even to this day the Mac version is somewhat limited to its Windows counterpart. For very small operations that need little more than an accounting package and a simple no-add-ins spreadsheet, you are right - MS Office and and Quickbooks Online probably works quite well and will run on a Mac.

Once businesses get into the "M" in "SMB" area, Mac Office really starts to show its limitations. Many of the required add-ins to do certain types of analyses (such as @risk for Monte Carlo simulations) are not available for the Mac version of Excel. Other Office applications such as MS Project or Visio are not available for Mac at all (unless you want to use the Web versions of those apps, which are VERY feature-limited). Tools that tie into ERP and CRM systems for certain types of reporting (particularly report development, such as Solver designer, SSRS Report Builder, PowerBI Desktop). Businesses of this size also tend to outgrow their accounting software, so QBO is no longer feasible.

What is also driving significant change is the move to web based / SaaS tooling. This change isn't always retrospective so legacy applications continue to be a requirement for some businesses and that often drives their choice of Operating System, however, as new products come to the market they are increasingly cross platform either by virtue of using a cross platform development framework such as Qt or because they are web based.

Again, with a huge asterisk in some cases. Yes, most web-based applications will work well on a Mac or on a PC or on a Linux box (heck, they'll even run on Haiku or ArcaOS nowadays). However, there are often supporting applications that work with those systems that are either Windows only or rely on Windows networking technologies to provide a fully supported experience.

I work with one such system (which also happens to be one of the fastest growing SMB ERPs in the world today) - Dynamics 365 Business Central. Anyone can access and use 365BC from any supported web browser, including on a Mac or Linux system. Accessing any part of the ERP works the same for any user using a supported browser (Safari, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Omni - they all work quite well as far as I've seen). HOWEVER, there are some capabilities that require Windows (some are trivial, some not so much):
1) Active Directory SSO. Not a big deal, you just have to re-authenticate when you log in from a non-Domain-joined computer.
2) Open in Excel: This one is actually pretty huge. Most areas of the ERP that have bulk-updatable areas (think Customers, Vendors, Items, Transactions, Journals) have the ability to be opened as a table in Excel for mass updating or for ad-hoc reporting or data integrations. This only works with Excel in Windows because it is not just a simple spreadsheet with data - it is a fully-authenticated interactive session between Excel and the ERP system.
3) Modifying external report layouts: This is more an administrative tool, but still only works on Windows machines - most reports (think invoice layouts, purchase order layouts, etc - that are transmitted as .PDFs or printed) are maintained using a tool called Report Builder.

 

[jakey rolling]

Want to bring back all the feels?

Re-watched part of the G3 Blue-and-White intro. The "Door". That was peak Apple design (well, tied with the G4 iMac).

 

[Technerd108]

Report: New anti-glare and scratch-resistant display coming to iPhone 17

Macworld You may recall the Galaxy S24 Ultra, released in January, was the first major smartphone to feature Corning’s new “Gorilla Armor” display coating, which greatly improves scratch resistance and takes a big leap forward in reducing glare. At the time, we noted that Apple should...

www.msn.com

Another first for Samsung that will be coming to iPhone. This along with the pill cut out, app drawer, Google Gemini, and iPhone's transition into Android is almost complete. Lol.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Report: New anti-glare and scratch-resistant display coming to iPhone 17

Macworld You may recall the Galaxy S24 Ultra, released in January, was the first major smartphone to feature Corning’s new “Gorilla Armor” display coating, which greatly improves scratch resistance and takes a big leap forward in reducing glare. At the time, we noted that Apple should...

www.msn.com

Another first for Samsung that will be coming to iPhone. This along with the pill cut out, app drawer, Google Gemini, and iPhone's transition into Android is almost complete. Lol.

Yes but when they add it to the iphone it becomes revolutionary and we think you are going to love it.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Re-watched part of the G3 Blue-and-White intro. The "Door". That was peak Apple design (well, tied with the G4 iMac).

Thanks for the reminder, that will be my viewing for tonight

 

[iHorseHead]

I'm thinking the same. Apple is horrible, macOS is horrible, Windows is better, Siri is horrible, Google Assistant and Alexa are better. Hardware is too expensive. My Mac constantly crashes again and I'm tired of it. My work PC has never crashed on me during those 5 years. Windows 10 is very stable and nice. At least the Enterprise version. Most Android phones have better battery life too.
I'd have to pay $500-$1000 extra for 16GB of RAM in my country and for that money I can get a PC laptop with 64GB of RAM already…

 

[mielie]

"Available on Mac" having a pretty significant asterisk beside it. The single most critical MS Office Application used is Excel, and even to this day the Mac version is somewhat limited to its Windows counterpart. For very small operations that need little more than an accounting package and a simple no-add-ins spreadsheet, you are right - MS Office and and Quickbooks Online probably works quite well and will run on a Mac.

Once businesses get into the "M" in "SMB" area, Mac Office really starts to show its limitations. Many of the required add-ins to do certain types of analyses (such as @risk for Monte Carlo simulations) are not available for the Mac version of Excel. Other Office applications such as MS Project or Visio are not available for Mac at all (unless you want to use the Web versions of those apps, which are VERY feature-limited). Tools that tie into ERP and CRM systems for certain types of reporting (particularly report development, such as Solver designer, SSRS Report Builder, PowerBI Desktop). Businesses of this size also tend to outgrow their accounting software, so QBO is no longer feasible.


Again, with a huge asterisk in some cases. Yes, most web-based applications will work well on a Mac or on a PC or on a Linux box (heck, they'll even run on Haiku or ArcaOS nowadays). However, there are often supporting applications that work with those systems that are either Windows only or rely on Windows networking technologies to provide a fully supported experience.

I work with one such system (which also happens to be one of the fastest growing SMB ERPs in the world today) - Dynamics 365 Business Central. Anyone can access and use 365BC from any supported web browser, including on a Mac or Linux system. Accessing any part of the ERP works the same for any user using a supported browser (Safari, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Omni - they all work quite well as far as I've seen). HOWEVER, there are some capabilities that require Windows (some are trivial, some not so much):
1) Active Directory SSO. Not a big deal, you just have to re-authenticate when you log in from a non-Domain-joined computer.
2) Open in Excel: This one is actually pretty huge. Most areas of the ERP that have bulk-updatable areas (think Customers, Vendors, Items, Transactions, Journals) have the ability to be opened as a table in Excel for mass updating or for ad-hoc reporting or data integrations. This only works with Excel in Windows because it is not just a simple spreadsheet with data - it is a fully-authenticated interactive session between Excel and the ERP system.
3) Modifying external report layouts: This is more an administrative tool, but still only works on Windows machines - most reports (think invoice layouts, purchase order layouts, etc - that are transmitted as .PDFs or printed) are maintained using a tool called Report Builder.

Again, the trends are that Windows marketshare is slowly reducing and Linux/Mac is slowly increasing. Its easy to point at features that are only available on Windows and conclude that Windows is the only choice for Business (But really I think the OP was really referring to personal use, but anyway), the fact is, a few years ago something like 365BC from Microsoft would only run on Windows, now the majority of features are available on Mac and Linux.

As an aside, Microsoft Active Directory SSO is available on Mac, you just need to make sure your company is using Azure AD. Works well for me, although I personally don't use 365BC because its not relevant to my work (but a quick google shows that it should work fine).

 

[wanha]

I completely agree with the overall sentiment of the post - Apple's products are great (not perfect), but their business tactics have become more and more draconian over time, particularly over the past 10 years.

They're shameful, ugly, and I wish they would change.

That said, I would challenge you to look at any other major tech company closely and see significantly more benign behavior.

Microsoft has gone with a more open approach in recent years, but that was only because its hand was forced when their mobile OSs failed to gain any traction in the market whatsoever.

And let's not even get started on Google, Meta, and Amazon.

Anywhere you look, it's pure corporate greed and squeezing more money anywhere they can.

So for me and my family, Apple's product quality and pro privacy stance (again, not an absolute value but in comparison to its competitors) mean that we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[JustinePaula]

Maybe someone can explain a mystery, what I have noticed is that there are so many apps for the ipad/iphone/Android, that are not available for the mac/win10/11, apps for banking or streaming, here in South Africa, we have this really dreadful streaming/satellite broadcaster called Multichoice, they have a streaming app for the phone, but not for ipads/macs/Win10...

Same with banking, loads of apps for iphone/Android phones, zero for win10/11/MacOS...I am really confused as to why? Is building apps for laptops that impossible? I am sure there is a way to build in some sort of 2FA API into the Mac OS/Win10/11 OS versions of the apps?

But the Siri/Win10/11 version, not sure about the Win1x what that is called, but the Siri is stupid useless, It has no idea where my laptop is located, even though the crappy location is set for the correct town, So I ask.. "When is the next Sharks home game.." The sharks being a local rugby team.. Siri tells me about some hockey team.. Hockey, not the grass type, but ice.. Ice here.. I wish. 45C right now

Apple used to be mature in the way it operated, Tim takes over, and well he turned Apple into an immature pathetic shell of a company, ruthless in shedding Apps, then taking 13 yrs to get FCP into some sort of useful app, but left it rife with bugs that really should have been excised out 7 years ago...

The whole Build to Order/Post Purchase upgrade debate, discussed to death, Apple will never revert back to Post Purchase, BTO is here for at least the next 25 years, if Apple survives that long..

We will buy what is for sale, 8/16/more than 16GB RAM, Apple will continue to sell what they feel the market wants, we can moan, we can feedback, post outrage on forums, at the end of the day, we still buy, and make a plan, and sit in silent rage at the incompetence of a lump of coal getting millions a day, that you know is just not really doing their best.. I really feel for the engineers, the folks that come in day in, day out, that just know as they feel what we feel, they hear the comments, but are forced to do what the corporation does.. Or be unemployed, I feel for them, my heart hurts for them, and they cannot do/say anything, that feeling of dread, of knowing you cannot make it better, company policy prevents..

 

[rin67630]

Maybe someone can explain a mystery, what I have noticed is that there are so many apps for the ipad/iphone/Android, that are not available for the mac/win10/11, apps for banking or streaming...

Yes, smartphones rules now. The traditional desktop computer/laptop is on its decline. Artificial intelligence is filling the vacuum left by increasing human stupidity. Humanity will forget writing/reading and TikTok will be teached in high schools. You will have to believe any lie from the dictators they have once voted for. We are ready for the next 500 years middle-age V2.0.

 

[iHorseHead]

So for me and my family, Apple's product quality and pro privacy stance

Any sources to that? I've read different things and even that Windows is more secure than a Mac nowadays and now that many Android manufacturers are offering +5 years of support I'm thinking about switching too tbh

 

[za9ra22]

Any sources to that? I've read different things and even that Windows is more secure than a Mac nowadays and now that many Android manufacturers are offering +5 years of support I'm thinking about switching too tbh

The fact that Windows still gains patches every month, many of the security related, suggests they're still trailing in vulnerabilities.

The problem with Android is not the devices (often excellent to superb) and not even with Android (which I don't like much personally, but is generally highly operable), it's the lack of reliably curated and moderated sources for apps and solutions, and the highly fragmented market. This makes it easy to exploit the platform, and much harder to secure it.

Ultimately though, the weakest part of the security of any device is the user of it. You can secure macOS very tightly, for example, but if the user clicks 'yes' to a scammer, they're still done for. The most effective and widely used attack vectors today are about socially engineering users to cooperate with attacks.

 

[JustinePaula]

That is exactly where M/soft and Apple have made a mistake, it is not a huge leap of design to have 2 grades of devices, Enterprise and Consumer, with Enterprise, you have the T chip or whatever it is called, that is controlling security for thumbnail scans, face id, etc, in the consumer this is not as effective...

With Enterprise, it is what it says on the tin, you have a licence from Apple/Msoft etc that allows system administrators that have been vetted by Apple/Msoft access to the code at a deeper level to control access to devices owned/leased by the enterprise..

This would allow for replacing parts, internally to the enterprise, you send them your faulty laptop, and in a day or 2, it is repaired, parts that need replacing can be "authorized" via the Enterprise licence via a dedicated secure system from Apple/Msoft etc..

For consumers, you would have to take the device to the istore, pay a $99 access fee, the device is repaired, or the device repaired by a licenced 3rd party that has paid to be on the authorization system in countries that lack Valid Apple/Msoft Offical Presence..

The issues can be solved, it creates jobs, it makes the brands better, saves on e-waste, I would love so much to re-activate my ipad with some version of linux, so I have a calendar/ basic video editing app, VLC video player, instead of it sitting rotting.. I just don't know enough about linux, and that what is on the utube is so confusing..

 

[jakey rolling]

a few years ago something like 365BC from Microsoft would only run on Windows, now the majority of features are available on Mac and Linux.

The D365BC client was always web-based and could always run on any supported browser. The back-end server itself is Windows and SQL Server, however. It can still be run on-premise, but most new implementations are being done using the cloud version which is hosted from Azure data centres.

Dynamics NAV (its predecessor) was desktop-based and could only run on Windows, but that was back before the 2009 version when Microsoft started development on BC.

As an aside, Microsoft Active Directory SSO is available on Mac, you just need to make sure your company is using Azure AD. Works well for me, although I personally don't use 365BC because its not relevant to my work (but a quick google shows that it should work fine).

That is something I wasn't aware of (I don't work on the AD side of things) but that's good.

I do agree that the cloud version of most of those tools will eventually reach feature-parity with their desktop counterparts. Microsoft is certainly making that push and a lot of what they are coming out with in the O365 space as a whole is pretty interesting, at which time you are right, there really won't be much difference between running those apps on Windows or Mac.