4 ms·

The other commenter makes good points re: the cognitive cost of switching platforms, but let me give you another point of view: the Apple ecosystem is, actually

The other commenter makes good points re: the cognitive cost of switching platforms, but let me give you another point of view: the Apple ecosystem is, actually, shockingly good. My Apple Watch unlocks all of my Macs. When I join a new WiFi network on my iPhone, those credentials are immediately available to my iPad. When my iPhone rings, it pauses video playing on my Apple TV until I ignore the call. To send a link from my iPad to a friend on WhatsApp, I can copy the link on my iPad and paste it into WhatsApp on my iPhone - automatically. I can use my iPhone as a remote camera to insert a photo into a Notes document on my Mac with one action. The list goes on. Yes, there are absolutely problems and Apple has made some dumb choices (I don't mind the butterfly keyboards but I hate the razor-sharp palmrests...), but overall it's incredibly cohesive in a way that I feel lots of people don't really grasp.

barrystaes 8y ago
> When my iPhone rings, it pauses video playing on my Apple TV until I ignore the call. To send a link from my iPad to a friend on WhatsApp, I can copy the link on my iPad and paste it into WhatsApp on my iPhone - automatically. I get what you appreciate, but its not for everyone. I like my tools smart but still 100% predictive by me. Like one device erasing the clipboard of another device.
- culturestate 8y ago
  > I get what you appreciate, but its not for everyone I know you didn't mean it this way, but for illustrative purposes this is precisely the kind of reasoning people use to downplay the value of an ecosystem, whether it's Apple or Google or (eventually, I assume) Samsung. "I don't want this, therefore it's not a valuable thing." Of course no product will be (or should be) the be-all, end-all solution for everyone in the world. The fact that it isn't shouldn't be a mark against it or against the people who choose it, though. Come to think of it, this is applicable to a huge number of products and strategies in our industry.
threeseed 8y ago
Let me add a few more: 1) SMS/iMessages synced across all devices and able to send from any of the devices e.g. Mac or non-4G iPad. 2) 2FA codes received on your iPhone are automatically populated in Safari text fields on your Mac. 3) Safari window opened on an iPhone will appear as an icon on the Mac so you can easily pick up where you left off. Works for a number of other apps as well. And in every direction. 4) AirDrop is really great for quick, adhoc file transfers.
- Nextgrid 8y ago
  The built-in messaging platform (iMessage & FaceTime) is brilliant. Microsoft shoud've done the same since they bought Skype (and back then Skype was actually good software) but instead they decided to turn it to garbage.
  - threeseed 8y ago
    I don't understand how Microsoft or Google managed to screw up messaging so bad. It is a level of utter incompetence (especially from Google) that surely is unrivalled. I mean what Apple has implemented really isn't all that complex.
    - Nextgrid 8y ago
      Google is somewhat understandable, they don't really want to be in that business (also their corporate culture encourages short-lived projects). But Microsoft? Why the hell did they even buy Skype? Same story with LinkedIn - the entire product is garbage now.
      - komali2 8y ago
        I mean, LinkedIn was always bad, but what changes were you talking about? I can't recall noticing anything different on the site in nearly a decade. Only thing I can think of is the ability to accept all invited.
        8y ago
simongr3dal 8y ago
That palm rest corner is razor sharp even compared to earlier MBP designs, and it finally made me get a silicone palm/lower arm rest. It is probably the best purchase I’ve made the last few years, I’m so happy with it every single day and it just makes working with laptops such a joy. Make sure to get an extra wide one, mine is something like 70cm wide and I can keep my mouse and laptop a good distance apart and have the silicone support under both my arms.
- mrybczyn 8y ago
  Wait what? You're using a palm rest, therefore the laptop is on you desk. And you don't have a real keyboard and mouse plugged into it?
  - simongr3dal 8y ago
    I use a separate mouse when I’m at my own desk, but not when I’m in a classroom or something like that. My desk isn’t really deep enough for both a laptop, a keyboard, and my arms to fit comfortably on it.
caddytodaddy 8y ago
The use case was server side data analysis. If it’s important work the researcher should get the much much more powerful server and run Linux like most sane people do. Who cares if your server can pair with your Apple Watch or use WhatsApp.
- culturestate 8y ago
  For all we know, the researcher could've also mistaken their real RAM requirements and 64GB would give them equal performance. I'd rather walk them through the options and then let them make the decision that they're most comfortable with, rather than mandating something that they don't want and which might make them less efficient as a result.
  - marmaduke 8y ago
    The research project in question will use as much RAM as is available, and we already have 128gb machines available, and access to larger. Why, for just running some MATLAB scripts through SSH would you need to stay with the Apple ecosystem for that?
    - culturestate 8y ago
      I have no idea. Could be some OS X package oddity, or maybe they just like to AirDrop stuff to themselves? In any case, I suspect if you do a little discovery with that person - what specific problem are you trying to solve by staying with a Mac? - you'll find the answer. You might even be able to convince them to change their order if you find it's something that can be easily worked around in a way they hadn't thought of. As someone who has been on the researcher's side of this conversation, I can tell you that I'm always happy to discuss my reasoning with someone in your position who's genuinely trying to help me. On the flip side, I get very annoyed when they're just being obstinate because they disagree with my choice on spec (and this is an endemic problem in corporate purchasing orgs.)
      - marmaduke 8y ago
marmaduke 8y ago
I’m sure you’ve enumerated a number of “user stories” of PMs in Apple but none of that should apply to a public sector research project involving computationally intensive data analysis. This guy needs a dual socket Xeon with tons of ram and none of the BS
- culturestate 8y ago
  I get what you're saying, but...if more people in tech thought of themselves as PMs (whose primary job, sidetracked though it may be in some places, is to develop a sense of empathy for their customers...) we'd all be in a better place.
geophile 8y ago
But on the other hand, iCloud is shit. The rules for what photos sync where, and which ones are safe to delete from my phone are puzzling, to say the least. Music syncing rarely goes smoothly because some tracks, for some unknown reason, can't be copied due to DRM. Podcast management is a nightmare, partially because the app is so badly designed, but that is compounded by podcasts not being on the device you want them to be on. (I have gotten into situations where I can't download a podcast because the app thinks it shouldn't or doesn't need to or who the hell knows.) Family sharing is a joke. Very difficult to know who can see what, (which has led to mild embarrassment at times).

barrystaes 8y ago

> When my iPhone rings, it pauses video playing on my Apple TV until I ignore the call. To send a link from my iPad to a friend on WhatsApp, I can copy the link on my iPad and paste it into WhatsApp on my iPhone - automatically. I get what you appreciate, but its not for everyone. I like my tools smart but still 100% predictive by me. Like one device erasing the clipboard of another device.

culturestate 8y ago
> I get what you appreciate, but its not for everyone I know you didn't mean it this way, but for illustrative purposes this is precisely the kind of reasoning people use to downplay the value of an ecosystem, whether it's Apple or Google or (eventually, I assume) Samsung. "I don't want this, therefore it's not a valuable thing." Of course no product will be (or should be) the be-all, end-all solution for everyone in the world. The fact that it isn't shouldn't be a mark against it or against the people who choose it, though. Come to think of it, this is applicable to a huge number of products and strategies in our industry.

threeseed 8y ago

Let me add a few more: 1) SMS/iMessages synced across all devices and able to send from any of the devices e.g. Mac or non-4G iPad. 2) 2FA codes received on your iPhone are automatically populated in Safari text fields on your Mac. 3) Safari window opened on an iPhone will appear as an icon on the Mac so you can easily pick up where you left off. Works for a number of other apps as well. And in every direction. 4) AirDrop is really great for quick, adhoc file transfers.

Nextgrid 8y ago
The built-in messaging platform (iMessage & FaceTime) is brilliant. Microsoft shoud've done the same since they bought Skype (and back then Skype was actually good software) but instead they decided to turn it to garbage.
- threeseed 8y ago
  I don't understand how Microsoft or Google managed to screw up messaging so bad. It is a level of utter incompetence (especially from Google) that surely is unrivalled. I mean what Apple has implemented really isn't all that complex.
  - Nextgrid 8y ago
    Google is somewhat understandable, they don't really want to be in that business (also their corporate culture encourages short-lived projects). But Microsoft? Why the hell did they even buy Skype? Same story with LinkedIn - the entire product is garbage now.
    - komali2 8y ago
      I mean, LinkedIn was always bad, but what changes were you talking about? I can't recall noticing anything different on the site in nearly a decade. Only thing I can think of is the ability to accept all invited.
      - 8y ago

simongr3dal 8y ago

That palm rest corner is razor sharp even compared to earlier MBP designs, and it finally made me get a silicone palm/lower arm rest. It is probably the best purchase I’ve made the last few years, I’m so happy with it every single day and it just makes working with laptops such a joy. Make sure to get an extra wide one, mine is something like 70cm wide and I can keep my mouse and laptop a good distance apart and have the silicone support under both my arms.

mrybczyn 8y ago
Wait what? You're using a palm rest, therefore the laptop is on you desk. And you don't have a real keyboard and mouse plugged into it?
- simongr3dal 8y ago
  I use a separate mouse when I’m at my own desk, but not when I’m in a classroom or something like that. My desk isn’t really deep enough for both a laptop, a keyboard, and my arms to fit comfortably on it.

caddytodaddy 8y ago

The use case was server side data analysis. If it’s important work the researcher should get the much much more powerful server and run Linux like most sane people do. Who cares if your server can pair with your Apple Watch or use WhatsApp.

culturestate 8y ago
For all we know, the researcher could've also mistaken their real RAM requirements and 64GB would give them equal performance. I'd rather walk them through the options and then let them make the decision that they're most comfortable with, rather than mandating something that they don't want and which might make them less efficient as a result.
- marmaduke 8y ago
  The research project in question will use as much RAM as is available, and we already have 128gb machines available, and access to larger. Why, for just running some MATLAB scripts through SSH would you need to stay with the Apple ecosystem for that?
  - culturestate 8y ago
    I have no idea. Could be some OS X package oddity, or maybe they just like to AirDrop stuff to themselves? In any case, I suspect if you do a little discovery with that person - what specific problem are you trying to solve by staying with a Mac? - you'll find the answer. You might even be able to convince them to change their order if you find it's something that can be easily worked around in a way they hadn't thought of. As someone who has been on the researcher's side of this conversation, I can tell you that I'm always happy to discuss my reasoning with someone in your position who's genuinely trying to help me. On the flip side, I get very annoyed when they're just being obstinate because they disagree with my choice on spec (and this is an endemic problem in corporate purchasing orgs.)
    - marmaduke 8y ago

marmaduke 8y ago

I’m sure you’ve enumerated a number of “user stories” of PMs in Apple but none of that should apply to a public sector research project involving computationally intensive data analysis. This guy needs a dual socket Xeon with tons of ram and none of the BS

culturestate 8y ago
I get what you're saying, but...if more people in tech thought of themselves as PMs (whose primary job, sidetracked though it may be in some places, is to develop a sense of empathy for their customers...) we'd all be in a better place.

geophile 8y ago

But on the other hand, iCloud is shit. The rules for what photos sync where, and which ones are safe to delete from my phone are puzzling, to say the least. Music syncing rarely goes smoothly because some tracks, for some unknown reason, can't be copied due to DRM. Podcast management is a nightmare, partially because the app is so badly designed, but that is compounded by podcasts not being on the device you want them to be on. (I have gotten into situations where I can't download a podcast because the app thinks it shouldn't or doesn't need to or who the hell knows.) Family sharing is a joke. Very difficult to know who can see what, (which has led to mild embarrassment at times).