4 ms·

How are first party Apple apps so horrible on first party hardware? I don't use Music but I decided to check out Severance (great show) and the TV app was absol

How are first party Apple apps so horrible on first party hardware? I don't use Music but I decided to check out Severance (great show) and the TV app was absolutely horrible to use in every way. The player would only stream some really low resolution on my monitor so I tried downloading the episodes and the whole app lagged so badly every time I would queue something up or delete it. It even completely stopped streaming on my monitor because for some reason it thought my HDMI cable didn't support the HDCPI thing and after I put the laptop to sleep and woke it up, it magically started working again. So many other UX problems that I just couldn't put up with and cancelled my subscription after watching the show Like Xcode, so many of their first party apps on Mac are just badly made and awful to use

ushakov 4y ago
i think FaceTime is the worst macOS app ever made i’ve never seen an app that can crash or lock the whole operating system design-wise it looks completely out of place
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  FaceTime is the reason my whole extended family moved to Apple. There was no comparably reliable and easy to use video call app 10+ years ago.
  - munchler 4y ago
    Skype? Initial release in 2003. Purchased by Microsoft for a gazillion dollars in 2011.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      Tried it, the quality was terribly inconsistency and FaceTime’s use of phone number as AppleID and not needing username/password made it much easier to use.
- radicality 4y ago
  I think Home app tops it. Just try if you have any HomeKit enabled lights for example. I think it's some half-assed attempt at just running the iOS version on the Mac. It's just so hilariously bad - I just now tried it again and I still have no idea how do the most basic of things - change the brightness of a light. There is a slider which on iOS you would intuitively know what to do with, but on this Mac version I have no idea what the input is meant to be.
ravenstine 4y ago
Because Music is anything but "first party" from Apple's perspective. A lot of people seem to have the wrong idea about Apple's software, with the exception of macOS. The point of the software is to entice the customer with a complete ecosystem. Once they've sold you their laptop they've made their money. At that point, they're not that interested in putting resources towards things like Music when their hardware continues to sell quite well. I'm not advocating for that approach, but it is what it is.
- pschuegr 4y ago
  Exactly, Apple is a hardware company with software as a loss leader. Apple TV is pretty bad. I can't recall ever using it without a freeze or a crash. It's embarrassing for a company with the amount of money Apple has. This is the reason why I'm bought into the Google ecosystem. I would say that Google is the least bad at software of any of the major tech companies. I would probably use Chromebooks if I could get proper drivers for my beloved RME hardware.
- ninth_ant 4y ago
  You’re re-treading an old line of argument that doesn’t make sense anymore especially in this context. Apple has identified services as an area they went to grow. Music is an ongoing subscription service, with plenty of competition. If they want to retain or grow their paying subscribers Apple needs to improve their software with the same attention to quality they devote to hardware.
  - pschuegr 4y ago
    They need to improve their software to the point that the quality/price/convenience of Apple Music is more attractive than quality/price/convenience of the alternative. Since Apple Music is basically pre-installed and you get it as part of Apple One or whatever, there is a quality gap that they can accept and still grow the service. And they will, it's just basic economics. If anybody knows of a software company that uses their excess money to make the software better instead of beefing up their balance sheet, please, hook me up. That's where I want to work.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
Xcode seems very YMMV. I’ve been using it day in and day out for years now and it’s seldom irritating, particularly now that dependencies can be handled with Xcode alone thanks to Swift Package Manager (Cocoapods suuuucks). On average I find Android Studio and Visual Studio (the Windows IDE, not the editor) more consistently frustrating.

ushakov 4y ago

i think FaceTime is the worst macOS app ever made i’ve never seen an app that can crash or lock the whole operating system design-wise it looks completely out of place

lotsofpulp 4y ago
FaceTime is the reason my whole extended family moved to Apple. There was no comparably reliable and easy to use video call app 10+ years ago.
- munchler 4y ago
  Skype? Initial release in 2003. Purchased by Microsoft for a gazillion dollars in 2011.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    Tried it, the quality was terribly inconsistency and FaceTime’s use of phone number as AppleID and not needing username/password made it much easier to use.
radicality 4y ago
I think Home app tops it. Just try if you have any HomeKit enabled lights for example. I think it's some half-assed attempt at just running the iOS version on the Mac. It's just so hilariously bad - I just now tried it again and I still have no idea how do the most basic of things - change the brightness of a light. There is a slider which on iOS you would intuitively know what to do with, but on this Mac version I have no idea what the input is meant to be.

ravenstine 4y ago

Because Music is anything but "first party" from Apple's perspective. A lot of people seem to have the wrong idea about Apple's software, with the exception of macOS. The point of the software is to entice the customer with a complete ecosystem. Once they've sold you their laptop they've made their money. At that point, they're not that interested in putting resources towards things like Music when their hardware continues to sell quite well. I'm not advocating for that approach, but it is what it is.

pschuegr 4y ago
Exactly, Apple is a hardware company with software as a loss leader. Apple TV is pretty bad. I can't recall ever using it without a freeze or a crash. It's embarrassing for a company with the amount of money Apple has. This is the reason why I'm bought into the Google ecosystem. I would say that Google is the least bad at software of any of the major tech companies. I would probably use Chromebooks if I could get proper drivers for my beloved RME hardware.
ninth_ant 4y ago
You’re re-treading an old line of argument that doesn’t make sense anymore especially in this context. Apple has identified services as an area they went to grow. Music is an ongoing subscription service, with plenty of competition. If they want to retain or grow their paying subscribers Apple needs to improve their software with the same attention to quality they devote to hardware.
- pschuegr 4y ago
  They need to improve their software to the point that the quality/price/convenience of Apple Music is more attractive than quality/price/convenience of the alternative. Since Apple Music is basically pre-installed and you get it as part of Apple One or whatever, there is a quality gap that they can accept and still grow the service. And they will, it's just basic economics. If anybody knows of a software company that uses their excess money to make the software better instead of beefing up their balance sheet, please, hook me up. That's where I want to work.

kitsunesoba 4y ago

Xcode seems very YMMV. I’ve been using it day in and day out for years now and it’s seldom irritating, particularly now that dependencies can be handled with Xcode alone thanks to Swift Package Manager (Cocoapods suuuucks). On average I find Android Studio and Visual Studio (the Windows IDE, not the editor) more consistently frustrating.