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Seth Godin on the state of Apple's software

7 points by mgiannopoulos 10y ago

dbg31415 10y ago
Apple makes great hardware, no denying that. That's why my 3+ your-old laptop holds up with features I still can't find our windows laptop. But regardless of what's in store, or any commentary on the direction after Jobs, the last iOS and MacOS release go down in my mind as the buggiest Apple UX I've ever seen. Randomly my phone keyboard disappears, I can't delete messages from iChat until I toggle to another message or scroll down then up, my screen saver preferences were deleted, when I add a new virtual desktop it gets some random mountain instead of my chosen background, a lot of my apps didn't work / load on startup without being reinstalled... Does seem like maybe Apple has bitten off more complexity than it can chew. I'm not used to so many easily noticeable bugs in their software. They get a new QA guy? Ha. Side note: Apple 2FA is weird. Just weird. What I want is not to come up with a new notification type... and if they can fill a website based on my 2FA code... why can't it to that for iChat messages too? Or at least add a copy button to the notification when it sees a code come in.
pyrophane 10y ago
I just learned about Roon from this article, but I don't understand what makes it worth $120/year. It appears to be a music player with apps, good device streaming support, and a nice interface. I understand that a lot of software is moving towards higher priced subscription models, but I don't see the added value "service" that makes this worth such a high recurring fee.
hlfcoding 10y ago
Apple definitely seems to have a larger software surface area than hardware, where they tend to discontinue more frequently. Keep in mind the companies Godin compares it to are focused on web services and only have one user-facing product. It's an unfair comparison. Apple provides some of the best developer tools and APIs. An essential software suite that just works is what I'm looking for, and for the most part it's delivered.

7 points by mgiannopoulos 10y ago

Apple makes great hardware, no denying that. That's why my 3+ your-old laptop holds up with features I still can't find our windows laptop. But regardless of what's in store, or any commentary on the direction after Jobs, the last iOS and MacOS release go down in my mind as the buggiest Apple UX I've ever seen. Randomly my phone keyboard disappears, I can't delete messages from iChat until I toggle to another message or scroll down then up, my screen saver preferences were deleted, when I add a new virtual desktop it gets some random mountain instead of my chosen background, a lot of my apps didn't work / load on startup without being reinstalled... Does seem like maybe Apple has bitten off more complexity than it can chew. I'm not used to so many easily noticeable bugs in their software. They get a new QA guy? Ha. Side note: Apple 2FA is weird. Just weird. What I want is not to come up with a new notification type... and if they can fill a website based on my 2FA code... why can't it to that for iChat messages too? Or at least add a copy button to the notification when it sees a code come in.

pyrophane 10y ago

I just learned about Roon from this article, but I don't understand what makes it worth $120/year. It appears to be a music player with apps, good device streaming support, and a nice interface. I understand that a lot of software is moving towards higher priced subscription models, but I don't see the added value "service" that makes this worth such a high recurring fee.

hlfcoding 10y ago

Apple definitely seems to have a larger software surface area than hardware, where they tend to discontinue more frequently. Keep in mind the companies Godin compares it to are focused on web services and only have one user-facing product. It's an unfair comparison. Apple provides some of the best developer tools and APIs. An essential software suite that just works is what I'm looking for, and for the most part it's delivered.