4 ms·

> They pulled off a major hardware transition without big hiccups This is easy to do when you eschew any and all commitment to backwards compatibility. Every m

> They pulled off a major hardware transition without big hiccups This is easy to do when you eschew any and all commitment to backwards compatibility. Every major OS update has introduced breaking changes and I gotta be honest, everyone except the most diehard of Mac fans is getting pretty sick and tired of routinely re-purchasing software, not to mention Apple breaking their own applications. Example: obsoleting iTunes by force and coding hooks so it refuses to run without patching the app. (For those wondering, Apple coded a version check into the Mac version of iTunes so that it refuses to launch if the OS is "too new.") Ignore the fact that Apple Music is a shitty replacement that didn't replace all the features of iTunes (like removing the XML library sync, which a ton of third-party apps relied on, breaking them all in one move), but dont't let that stand in the way of progress. Show me one person that has never been affected by Apple breaking apps, and I'll show you ten people with Avid or Pro Tools rigs who "never update the OS" as a general policy. It's 2022 and I'm still waiting for official EOL/support dates published by Apple. Everyone from Microsoft to FreeBSD does this. Saying "well they traditionally support N-2" or whatever doesn't cut it. People need hard dates so they can plan adequately. Apple's commitment in this area is like depending on your stoner friend to follow through on a promise.

cjmb 4y ago
I rarely see this sentiment since the entire Tech class has moved to Spotify subscription streaming as their music platform of choice (slight hyperbole, only slight). But as one of the 12 remaining iTunes app users out there, I am shocked at how terrible the software has become. The 2005 version of iTunes that ran on my PowerPC macbook was strictly better than the app that I have installed today on my Windows 10 gaming PC. The 2008 iPhone iTunes app was better than the "Music" app on my iPhone today -- when I open my phone in airplane mode on a flight to listen to music, it bricks itself for 10 seconds trying to get wifi connection and prompt me to pay them for their crappy music streaming service. There is no way to disable that self-bricking advertisement. I suspect that the average Apple employee uses Spotify to listen to music and doesn't have a large personal collection of songs not available for streaming on common platforms. The lack of dogfooding shows through.
- assttoasstmgr 4y ago
  Funny you mention that. I recently accepted their offer for a free 3 months, mainly out of exasperation of constantly seeing the interstitial every time I launched the app. The UX of Apple Music is downright horrible. It proceeded to completely hose my existing music library. I could no longer access songs I had purchased in the iCloud Library, and it threw up a dialog stating I need to sync every Apple device I own with Apple Music to be able to stream music from their service. I was on a trip at the time, so good luck with that. Tons of embarrassing UI glitches, like widgets overlaid on top of others rendering them unclickable. Did Apple fire all their QA staff?
- peterburkimsher 4y ago
  As another point of anecdata: I still use iTunes 10.6.3 on Mac OS 10.13 for this reason. It's also modded with coloured icons. I still use an iPhone 4S with USB sync, and iPod 5.5G video. The laptop (2014 Retina 15") has a 4 TB Sabrent SSD upgrade inside, using an M.2 adaptor. The iPod has a 128GB Kingspec SSD. It's an intentional choice to lag behind, which will probably happen until the Digital Hub model makes a comeback. Privacy is easy to control when it syncs over USB. I actually downgraded the library from iTunes 10.7 to 10.6.3 so that I might be able to use it on an OQO Model 2, Mac OS 10.5 Hackintosh, or PowerPC. For now though, I still just keep it going on the Retina: the beautiful screen, weight/ports balance, and repairability still make that the best model of Mac IMHO. When Apple brings replaceable SSDs to the M1 though, I may well consider leaping forward. Ideally with a 3.5" phone again too.
- zerkten 4y ago
  Lack of dogfooding is part of it, but I have to wonder how many product managers they've brought in to convert their player to a cloud music service? Changes like requiring you to sync all your devices with Apple Music are part of many changes to try and make the transition. It's a big one because a player is very different from a service (historically something Apple have been bad at), but they've had a lot of time. Apple have been able to get this far because going "all in" is accepted by Apple customers more than those on other platforms.

cjmb 4y ago

I rarely see this sentiment since the entire Tech class has moved to Spotify subscription streaming as their music platform of choice (slight hyperbole, only slight). But as one of the 12 remaining iTunes app users out there, I am shocked at how terrible the software has become. The 2005 version of iTunes that ran on my PowerPC macbook was strictly better than the app that I have installed today on my Windows 10 gaming PC. The 2008 iPhone iTunes app was better than the "Music" app on my iPhone today -- when I open my phone in airplane mode on a flight to listen to music, it bricks itself for 10 seconds trying to get wifi connection and prompt me to pay them for their crappy music streaming service. There is no way to disable that self-bricking advertisement. I suspect that the average Apple employee uses Spotify to listen to music and doesn't have a large personal collection of songs not available for streaming on common platforms. The lack of dogfooding shows through.

assttoasstmgr 4y ago
Funny you mention that. I recently accepted their offer for a free 3 months, mainly out of exasperation of constantly seeing the interstitial every time I launched the app. The UX of Apple Music is downright horrible. It proceeded to completely hose my existing music library. I could no longer access songs I had purchased in the iCloud Library, and it threw up a dialog stating I need to sync every Apple device I own with Apple Music to be able to stream music from their service. I was on a trip at the time, so good luck with that. Tons of embarrassing UI glitches, like widgets overlaid on top of others rendering them unclickable. Did Apple fire all their QA staff?
peterburkimsher 4y ago
As another point of anecdata: I still use iTunes 10.6.3 on Mac OS 10.13 for this reason. It's also modded with coloured icons. I still use an iPhone 4S with USB sync, and iPod 5.5G video. The laptop (2014 Retina 15") has a 4 TB Sabrent SSD upgrade inside, using an M.2 adaptor. The iPod has a 128GB Kingspec SSD. It's an intentional choice to lag behind, which will probably happen until the Digital Hub model makes a comeback. Privacy is easy to control when it syncs over USB. I actually downgraded the library from iTunes 10.7 to 10.6.3 so that I might be able to use it on an OQO Model 2, Mac OS 10.5 Hackintosh, or PowerPC. For now though, I still just keep it going on the Retina: the beautiful screen, weight/ports balance, and repairability still make that the best model of Mac IMHO. When Apple brings replaceable SSDs to the M1 though, I may well consider leaping forward. Ideally with a 3.5" phone again too.
zerkten 4y ago
Lack of dogfooding is part of it, but I have to wonder how many product managers they've brought in to convert their player to a cloud music service? Changes like requiring you to sync all your devices with Apple Music are part of many changes to try and make the transition. It's a big one because a player is very different from a service (historically something Apple have been bad at), but they've had a lot of time. Apple have been able to get this far because going "all in" is accepted by Apple customers more than those on other platforms.