Apple Nag

Here are my observations after using Snow Leopard for a while:

Better: It does seem faster in areas such as networking. But that may be because I was having so much trouble with Leopard networking, that anything is better.

Bug: There’s a bug in Mail where Smart Mailboxes always sort by Subject. I can change it, but the next time I relaunch Mail, it’s back sorting by Subject again. Extremely annoying. [Update: With some judicious editing of a .plist file, I managed to make it so that it always sorts by date. Better, but needs to be fixed.]

Feature: I do like the new white text on black background menus in the dock. I shouldn’t though, because they’re different than the menu bar. I prefer consistency to cuteness, so maybe Apple should try this look in other menus.

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Here is a very sad posting on your discussion forums about the iTunes 8.1 and 8.1.1 updates breaking the 2G Shuffle. It seems that your internal developers are treating their own tech support folks like mushrooms — keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em manure.

The poster contacted two different support techs who gave pretty much the same message. They’d never heard of the the 2G Shuffle problems and required the poster to run through some silly steps to arrive at the conclusion we already know — iTunes 8.1 made a total mess of the 2G Shuffle.

Surely, the iTunes manager, once aware of the 2G Shuffle problems, would immediately inform tech support so that customers and tech support wouldn’t have to waste their time chasing known issues. So why didn’t this happen?

This can mean one of several things; incompetence, design intent, or … ?

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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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If you have a second generation Shuffle, do not upgrade to iTunes 8.1!

The Sync contextual menu is now missing when you right-click the device so there is no way to sync now between iTunes and the 2G Shuffle.

When I play a podcast on iTunes that is also on the Shuffle, the play position does remain synced when I eject, play on the Shuffle, and redock. But, when the podcast is completed either on another iPod, iTunes or simply by marking the podcast as Not New, this information is no longer synced to the Shuffle.
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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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When looking back over my ownership of my second generation iPod Shuffle, I’m shocked at how much trouble it’s given me, and, equally shocked that I still use it.

I’ve marveled at how the simplest device you make can also be one of the most troublesome. The number of discussion threads is startling. But, there’s hope.
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