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The article describes the issues I had with discoverability very well: As a European I always refused to pay the insane prices for apple products there. When I

by jlg23 11y ago

The article describes the issues I had with discoverability very well: As a European I always refused to pay the insane prices for apple products there. When I finally needed a mp3-player to survive daily commutes in public transport, I got an ipod touch. Without any printed documentation, I had to ask experienced apple users how to perform certain actions.

oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
This is why, for me, the iPod ('classic') remains one of the greatest products Apple created. They managed to get so much of it right, almost uniquely. Hardware and software working very well together. Of course, it had a very specific function, which makes the task much easier, but I just wish they could follow it up with something remotely approaching as nice an experience.
- jcranmer 11y ago
  I've been wanting to replace my iPod Nanos for a few years now (they're 10 years old already, and the batteries are starting to go), but everything nowadays is touch-screen, and so completely unusable for me. Why? With that tactile single click-wheel, it was very easy for me to put the iPod in my pocket and not look at it for the entire flight, even when I wanted to skip the next song or replay or pause.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    I know! Similarly, what I've been pining for are smart watches with several tactile buttons that can be used as input for apps. I've been waiting on programmable generic buttons for AGES. Having a display would be icing on the cake.
  - semi-extrinsic 11y ago
    FYI there is a big market for non-touch music players if you know where to look. Over at HeadFi [1] you can find a large amount of reviews and discussion of players from iRiver, Sandisk, Sony, together with more niche brands like Fiio and HiFiMAN. [1] http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/digital-audio-flac-mp3-players http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/digital-audio-flac-...
- unfamiliar 11y ago
  Imo all they have to do to get the new music app to work is to copy-paste the old iPod user interface into the Music app and add a decent search field. I don't know why that's such a hard challenge for them.
mcintyre1994 11y ago
As a new Macbook user this year one of my favorite examples of this is screenshots. On Windows I've always had a prt scrn keyboard button, Macbooks forego that. As of windows 7 I think, there was a program to screenshot a portion of the screen or a specific window, Apple don't have one of those. All the screenshot commands (screen, window, portion) are behind a 3 key keyboard shortcut that I have to look up all the time. Edit: Csydas, I got a HN notify with a reply from you, it's a shame you deleted it - you brought up good points and I agree with you. If you were down voted before deleting it wasn't me.
- grishas 11y ago
  Mac OS X has always shipped with a screenshot utility called "Grab". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab_%28software%29
  - mcintyre1994 11y ago
    Ha you're right, thankyou! In my defence, the first Google hit for OSX screenshot is this Apple page [0] that doesn't even mention that utility - and "screenshot" in Spotlight doesn't suggest Grab. It's in the "Other" folder of Launchpad which I don't think I've ever opened. But really, thanks - this is really helpful :)
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- marssaxman 11y ago
  Wow. Context is everything. It's been the same 3-key shortcut since 1984, so I never have to think about it. The command-shift-number pattern was used for a good handful of common system-wide functions on the classic Mac OS, so it was just a matter of remembering which digit corresponded to which action. They were basically function keys, since the original keyboards didn't have physical function keys.
  - dpkonofa 11y ago

by jlg23 11y ago

oneeyedpigeon 11y ago

This is why, for me, the iPod ('classic') remains one of the greatest products Apple created. They managed to get so much of it right, almost uniquely. Hardware and software working very well together. Of course, it had a very specific function, which makes the task much easier, but I just wish they could follow it up with something remotely approaching as nice an experience.

jcranmer 11y ago
I've been wanting to replace my iPod Nanos for a few years now (they're 10 years old already, and the batteries are starting to go), but everything nowadays is touch-screen, and so completely unusable for me. Why? With that tactile single click-wheel, it was very easy for me to put the iPod in my pocket and not look at it for the entire flight, even when I wanted to skip the next song or replay or pause.
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  I know! Similarly, what I've been pining for are smart watches with several tactile buttons that can be used as input for apps. I've been waiting on programmable generic buttons for AGES. Having a display would be icing on the cake.
- semi-extrinsic 11y ago
  FYI there is a big market for non-touch music players if you know where to look. Over at HeadFi [1] you can find a large amount of reviews and discussion of players from iRiver, Sandisk, Sony, together with more niche brands like Fiio and HiFiMAN. [1] http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/digital-audio-flac-mp3-players http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/digital-audio-flac-...
unfamiliar 11y ago
Imo all they have to do to get the new music app to work is to copy-paste the old iPod user interface into the Music app and add a decent search field. I don't know why that's such a hard challenge for them.

mcintyre1994 11y ago

As a new Macbook user this year one of my favorite examples of this is screenshots. On Windows I've always had a prt scrn keyboard button, Macbooks forego that. As of windows 7 I think, there was a program to screenshot a portion of the screen or a specific window, Apple don't have one of those. All the screenshot commands (screen, window, portion) are behind a 3 key keyboard shortcut that I have to look up all the time. Edit: Csydas, I got a HN notify with a reply from you, it's a shame you deleted it - you brought up good points and I agree with you. If you were down voted before deleting it wasn't me.

grishas 11y ago
Mac OS X has always shipped with a screenshot utility called "Grab". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab_%28software%29
- mcintyre1994 11y ago
  Ha you're right, thankyou! In my defence, the first Google hit for OSX screenshot is this Apple page [0] that doesn't even mention that utility - and "screenshot" in Spotlight doesn't suggest Grab. It's in the "Other" folder of Launchpad which I don't think I've ever opened. But really, thanks - this is really helpful :)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
marssaxman 11y ago
Wow. Context is everything. It's been the same 3-key shortcut since 1984, so I never have to think about it. The command-shift-number pattern was used for a good handful of common system-wide functions on the classic Mac OS, so it was just a matter of remembering which digit corresponded to which action. They were basically function keys, since the original keyboards didn't have physical function keys.
- dpkonofa 11y ago