Apple Nag

I’ve used your products primarily since March 1, 1984 when I bought my first original Macintosh and ImageWriter printer. I was proud to be a Mac owner because it was so superior to the alternatives.

In the subsequent years leading up to the present time I became a Mac bigot. Everything else was not only not good, it was trash and I wondered how anyone could use that crapola.

Then Macs started going downhill with quality problems in the hardware and software. Macs just sucked less. I stopped doing unpaid sales and evangelizing for you and kept pretty quiet. When people asked me what kind of computer to get, I would no longer say, “Get a Mac”, I’d say, “What do you want to use a computer for?” I often told them to buy a PC.

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Hey Apple, check out this posting by the publishers of 1Password for Mac, and 1Password and 1Password Pro for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Note the candor? Have you considered being as upfront about your own products? You rarely admit mistakes, and then only grudgingly when you’re caught with your pants down.

1Password was one of those applications that when I first heard of it, I didn’t really see the need for it. Eventually, I heard enough about it to check it out. Then I tried the demo. Then I bought it. Now I praise it and can’t live without it.

Hey, I’m the Apple Nag for a good reason. Almost everything you folks at Apple make that I’ve bought seems to be flea infested with UI inconsistencies that drive me crazy. Partially, it’s the “aura” I have resulting in even finely crafted software breaking, but your stuff is too flaky to qualify for supernatural phenomena excuses.

Lately, I’ve had all kinds of weird Leopard security issues. I’m thinking it’s time for an archive and install in the faint hope it will cure this insanity. I feel like I’m using Windows.

In the months that I’ve used Agile’s 1Password for the Mac and the corresponding app for my iPod Touch, I’m trying to think if I’ve ever experienced problems with it. Next to the OS, security software has to be the most rock solid software on your computer. Even backup software comes third. Leopard is a sickly cat that should crawl into the bush and die leaving Snow Leopard to rule. Fortunately, 1Password has never failed me.

So here’s the lessons you can learn from a small company. Be open and honest with your customers. Don’t be afraid to talk about the future. Don’t design software, craft it. Be self-deprecating, just a bit. Admit mistakes and make them right. Release bug fixes in a timely manner. Respond in a public forum to the concerns of your users.

Have you noticed that Agile has done a vastly superior job explaining why they’re now charging for their iPhone/Touch products than you’ve ever explained about your iPod Touch OS upgrade fees?

Did I upgrade to 1Password Pro even though I own the older free 1Password for my Touch? Did I trust them to come through with the extra features I’m paying a little bit for now that they’ll deliver sometime in the future. Of course! The app costs half of what I paid for an unsatisfactory lunch today, and it’s something that will stay with me even longer than the gas my lunch gave me.

As for trust? Well, I hate to say it guys, but I trust Agile more than Apple.

All this time I’ve been nagging you for not listening to your customers. But I had an epiphany on my walk in the park with the dogs that caused me to change my mind. Yes, your quality is still poor and arguably getting worse, but it’s just what (most) of your customers want. It’s “good enough”.

Once upon a time, your customer base was composed of people who were looking for high quality hardware and software, and most of the time you delivered. That was the differentiator. If you didn’t have that you would have vanished into oblivion years ago.

But now you’re catering to the young people who don’t know what quality is because they’ve never experienced it. And on the rare occasions that they do see quality, they shrug their shoulders and mumble, “whatever.”

I’ve seen my daughter watching a DVD on her MacBook Pro listening to the audio through those tinny speakers while she’s sitting in front of our 40″ widescreen LCD TV with a Surround Sound system! When I ask why she’s not using the TV, she says, “this is fine, dad” in that “don’t bug me” tone.

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Was it all the way back in 2002 that you guys first starting talking about the Digital Hub. That’s seven, count ‘em, years ago. When do you think we’ll see it come to fruition?

You have made steps, for sure, because we’ve got Macs, iPods, iPhones, Apple TV, and a monitor or two. That covers desktop and mobile computing.

There’s iLife and MobileMe to tie the hardware together giving us personal web site creation, photos, home movies, the ability to burn DVDs (those old fossils), and to share content with our family, friends, and the world on the Internet.

iTunes is a big part of the integration for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and syncing to the other devices like iPods and Apple TV. In many ways, the features are targeted at making you more money than what’s best for your customers (don’t get me started on the 2G Shuffle and iTunes 8.1 fiasco).

It sure looks like you’ve got a hub strategy. Yet, you don’t promote the hub concept anymore. Is that because it would handcuff you into implementing features that would be detrimental to maximizing your profit margin?

Let’s talk about the rough edges and one huge group of people you’ve left out — family.

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It’s been a few days since I was last motivated to nag you about the latest flaw in your various products. Oh, I’m still experiencing things I’ve previously blogged about, including some new minor things like my iPod Touch failing to connect and sync this morning. That’s the first time it did that so it wasn’t worthy of a separate post.

I’m just wondering if I’ve reached the state of saturation that I don’t even see the problems anymore, or I’m getting senile.

But, I was wondering about something. Remember that whole digital hub thing Steve was talking about — how many MacWorld keynotes ago? When do you think you’ll get around to implementing it? Now that’s worthy of a special post.

If you don’t know what Stockholm Syndrome is, you’ll need to read up on it to fully understand this post. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Back now? Fascinating read, wasn’t it? Perhaps I should have titled this post the Cupertino Syndrome. That’s not an original idea when applied to you, though. You’ve heard it before.

At least one well-known tech personality has called anyone who was underwhelmed by your March 17th iPhone 3.0 lovefest “haters.” Wow. How bad does that guy have the Syndrome? Just because we’re not in awe of your announcement he blindly calls us haters, never having met us; never having heard or read about our other comments.

Not a problem. I’ll still call it as I see it, and if you read a lot of reviews by high-profile tech sites, they’ll be more in agreement with me.

Your iPhone 3.0 announcement is underwhelming due to your success. Bizarre, right? The more successful you are in the market, the more flack you get for missing features. Uh, you’re not surprised by that, are you? So please excuse me if I don’t drool over stuff I’ve had in other products for years. Sometimes, many years.

A press event for this feature set? Only you guys can get away with that stunt. That’s not an insult, that’s respect for your marketing folks. Now those guys are awesome.

Let’s have a look at some of the features in the order I think are important.
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As happens to me far too often, a random neuron fired and got me wondering … what does Jonathan Ive think about all those ugly iPod cases that cover his beautiful designs?

Do a Google image search for ipod case or ipod sleeve. But be warned! Don’t do this on a full stomach.

Even the laptops have all kinds of bizarre covers.

 

The poor guy puts his heart and soul into creating fascinating industrial designs only to have people wander around the planet polluting the photons with tasteless crud.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, just like a sharp stick.

The last couple of postings were pretty depressing, so let’s see if I can pick things up a bit.

Although I’ve had to roll-back to iTunes 8.0 to restore syncing capability for the second generation Shuffle that was removed in 8.1, I did get some time to play before the pain.
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In attempting to rollback to iTunes 8.0.2 due to the iTunes 8.1 update breaking the 2nd generation Shuffle syncing (details), I decided to document the horrible procedure you put us through due to your constantly updating the iTunes library in incompatible ways.

I launched the 8.0 installer but it would not install over the 8.1 version. Why don’t you allow that? We’ll find out in a sec.
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I’m cursing all you guys at Apple who came out with a new Shuffle before I could complete my voluminous postings on the old Shuffle. “He who hesitates is lost.”

As my car dealer said when I bought a new car with a manual transmission, “This is a great anti-theft feature because most people, including most thieves, can’t drive a stick so they just move on to the next car.”

Given how complex you’ve made this new controller, anyone who doesn’t have the manual for this baby won’t be able to figure out how to operate it. Word will get around that the new Shuffle is too complicated to use and thieves and customers will just move on to the next iPod.
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