I only use Apple products because Windows and because Google. Saving a friend’s Windows laptop over the past few weeks and having a husband who uses Android and Chrome, I like knowing how minor my complaints are in comparison.
SideCar
I can wirelessly send my video to my iPad buuuut the sound doesn’t come out of the iPad speakers.
I can instantly use Mac keyboard and trackpad to operate the iPad buuuut moving the cursor back to the Mac momentarily stutters on the way back. From time to time, the cursor randomly leaps onto the iPad screen, too.
Cleaning
I need the Mac to be off, as in off-off, so I can vacuum crap out from under the keys buuuuut touching any key restarts the Mac. Spilling liquid on the keyboard is also a constant terror: this thing just doesn’t actually shut down-down.
Almost 2 years ago, the vomit-inducing woke uni I was at demanded that everyone add a digital signature to their out-going emails. Since then, most my emails tell me of a fault. Hours of research over many different days has proven useless.
The snarky condescension of the Apple ‘help’ pages assume that people are stupid and deserve to be stomped out of existence, as IF there would ever be a problem with an Apple product, peasant.
I use SideCar to send emails on iPad.
Keyboards
A nice segue, I had to buy an English keyboard for iPad; my other keyboards are Japanese. Annoyingly, the layout is not quite the same and the Mac defaults to the iPad layout. The keyboard I’m typing on is not what comes out on the screen. The keyboard I’m typing on ought to be what I expect to see.
USB See
Not the usability of the technology which I absolutely love, but the lack of a nice bevelled edge which would guide the plug into the socket with greater ease and far fewer scratches. Sir Ive, send your ex-team a snarky email, please, via your iPad.
More on Keyboards
This M1 MacBook Air keyboard is the loveliest I have ever used. Perfect size and tactility, acoustics and reverb. The Smart Keyboard Folio for the iPad is one of the worst. Some people like those clacky, grunchy things from the 1960s dressed up as gaming keyboards, but not me. The Folio is waterproof buuuut is clacky and resistive, thin acoustics and kinaesthetically unpleasant.
App-dates
Some apps update, some can be updated, some work by witchcraft giving no way to update even when they insist on having an update before the app can be used. The App store sometimes provides an ‘update’ button but inconsistently.
Wallpaper
Used to be straight forward and easy to use buuuut now the format has been changed from in the menu. Still the same from Photos, alleviating my tenuous grasp on sanity. Adding complexity and removing usability is the opposite of why I love Apple.
Lost Love
I loved watching the people responsible for their divisions pop up on stage and effuse their passion for their calling buuuut over the past few years, and with COVID, Apple Events have become nauseating parades of people who memorised their lines well and took direction from the Presentation Manager: ‘And emphasise this word here, yes, and now turn to camera 2 there, good.’
CGI is like make-up or gender transitioning: at its best when it goes unnoticed. Every event over the past few years has been green screen where life has imitated the uncanny valley. I call this a farce. The excitement of new tech being introduced last took place in 2020 with Johny Srouji. I knew right away that Apple Silicon would to destroy Intel and AMD tech.
Rough Weather
The wokers are running through western culture like climate disasters, causing a lot of damage for no appreciable gain. Foisting expectations on people simply to satisfy an identity deficit is putting the cart before the horse. The core issues of education and bigotry need to be addressed, not this bandaid on a severed head.
Until recently, I was impressed with Apple’s growth as a company and its navigation of ethics as a capitalist enterprise. However, over the past 5 years, the passion and identity of the company has become diluted. The spectacle has taken precedence over the substance.
Leadership
I’m curious as to who may be the next leader of Apple. None of the younger hoards paraded at events have inspired anything in me but vague irritation, mostly at wondering how they got the job. No reasons are apparent. To illustrate this point, watch Craig Frederighi waltz and swish through his presentation. I know he is a leader.
In any case, I hope the next leader is chosen through meritocracy rather than woke nepotism. Making the products attractive requires attractive propositions. I love my Apple gear and I want Apple to continue leading in user experience.
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