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Author Topic: 15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X  (Read 5275 times)

Offline gunug

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« on: December 15, 2006, 10:02:04 AM »
Computerworld has an article about this:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...ticleId=9006104

How can you dislike an article that starts up:

QUOTE
Even though it's been out for more than 18 months now, Mac OS X 10.4, or Tiger, is a noticeably better operating system than XP or Vista. But it's not perfect.


But what's up with this:
QUOTE
15. No Date Display. For all their convenience features, one of the most obvious data points that neither the Mac nor Windows quite does properly is your basic readout of today's date. You probably already know today is Thursday or Friday. What you're more likely to be unsure of is whether today is December 7 or December 8. When you think about it, is there really any more obvious piece of information that people tend to forget than today's date? Isn't this an obvious thing a computer should display? We think so.


My XP machines just have the time unless you float the pointer over it and then it has the date.  I don't know but I'll bet there is a readily available setting for this.
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Offline Paddy

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2006, 10:35:55 AM »
Re: #15

Eh???

Clearly the author is unaware of this:

http://paulstamatiou.com/2006/06/11/how-to...-os-x-menu-bar/

I posted this here at TS on November 17 of this year....I guess I need to email them too?

I have the date and the time nicely displayed in my menu bar. No mousing and no additional software required. biggrin.gif
« Last Edit: December 17, 2006, 10:53:49 AM by Paddy »
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Offline bobw

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2006, 12:09:17 PM »
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Offline Paddy

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2006, 12:27:08 PM »
Is there an echo in here?? wink.gif

Edit: Bob - I've now fixed the link - don't know why it shortened itself like that...
« Last Edit: December 17, 2006, 10:55:08 AM by Paddy »
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Offline bobw

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2006, 12:38:18 PM »
Check your link, 404 error sad.gif
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Offline gunug

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2006, 12:39:08 PM »
Those are different links from where I sit; one gives a 404 and the other works!  I guess the guy is complaining about this date/time not being the default.

« Last Edit: December 15, 2006, 01:09:24 PM by gunug »
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2006, 12:45:25 PM »
I suspect, without even reading the linked article, that he is referring to the 'date' listed in a Finder window. Today's files will have only "Today" listed as the Creation/Modified/Last Opened 'date'. Ones that you created, modified or opened yesterday will show "Yesterday". It's not until the third day ago that they will actually show a 'normal' date format.

And if it's the date in the menu bar, what's so bad about the 'click on the date, stoopid' method? wallbash.gif dntknw.gif

Actually, I may have seen that site as long ago as last year, or a similar one. Each platform has people that like to compare methods, and shout about how they are inferior to their desired OS does it. And even each OSs fans have made suggestions about how much better they could be. In the end, the only people who get to make changes in the OS is His Steveness or Mr. Bill. Fortunately, there are countless third-party hacks/apps/plugins/pref panels that feed the need of those who want something different, whether they are actually better or not! smile.gif Long live shareware! clap.gif
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Offline gunug

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2006, 01:03:13 PM »
QUOTE
7. Inconsistent User Interface. Open iTunes, Safari and Mail. All three of these programs are Apple's own, and they're among the ones most likely to be used by Mac OS X users. So why do all three of them look different? Safari, like several other Apple-made apps such as the Finder and Address Book, uses a brushed-metal look. iTunes sports a flat gun-metal gray scheme and flat non-shiny scroll bars. Mail is somewhere in between: no brushed metal, lots of gun-metal gray, and the traditional shiny blue scroll bars. Apple is supposed to be the king of good UI, and in many areas, it is. But three widely used apps from the same company with a different look? Sometimes consistency isn't the hobgoblin of little minds.


It's not that it looks different that bothers me (not much anyway) but if it "works" differently that might tend to hack me off; not sure I could name an instance of that but I feel like I've run across them.

I also think the gig on printer setup is correct in a way because we have an accumulation of printer configuration methods with Bonjour, Appletalk, Windows Printing, IP Printing. . .but that's not the fault of the operating system.  Maybe a button that goes out and finds all the printers that can be found irregardless of the method used to find or attach to them.  MAGIC!
« Last Edit: December 16, 2006, 10:50:33 AM by Xairbusdriver »
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2006, 10:55:39 AM »
QUOTE
...different 'skins' on iTunes, Mail, Safari...
Different apps, different versions, different update times. Next! rolleyes.gif

One GUI that still bothers me is the single click to start a program on the Dock. Everywhere else, it's a double-click. I think it's because the Dock tries to be too much to too many. Fortunately, I use the Dock so little, it is not much of a problem. And if I used it more I probably could 'train my brain'. wallbash.gif
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Offline krissel

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2006, 03:28:46 AM »
QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Dec 15 2006, 01:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I suspect, without even reading the linked article, that he is referring to the 'date' listed in a Finder window. Today's files will have only "Today" listed as the Creation/Modified/Last Opened 'date'. Ones that you created, modified or opened yesterday will show "Yesterday". It's not until the third day ago that they will actually show a 'normal' date format.



Jim, you can get the actual date by doing the following.

Open the hard drive to a window.
Set window to List View.
Go to View /Show View Options in the Menu
At the bottom click OFF "Use relative dates"


Now all dates will be actual.  smile.gif
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Offline gunug

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #10 on: December 17, 2006, 04:32:42 AM »
krissel - It's that kind of arcane procedure that can lead to criticism like is found in the article.  It's not a "big deal" to someone who is more used to the OS X way of doing things but to a newbie it's confused!   smile.gif
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Offline krissel

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2006, 02:46:01 AM »
Since I prefer the "relative" dates, I actually don't find this a problem.

I don't think it's 'arcane' to go through a couple steps to change something system wide. huh.gif

It's a matter of taking a little time to learn the OS. For instance his assertion that you can't rename a file without several mouse steps is wrong (as many who replied to his article noted). I would bet anyone moving to Windows would find waaaay more aggravating annoyances. To me, if he could only find 15 things (and some aren't correct) then Apple is doing something pretty darn good.  yes.gif
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Offline gunug

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15 Things Apple needs to change to improve OS X
« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2006, 06:25:51 AM »
One of the XP aggravations that I've yet to see in OS X is when you have software that permanently changes the default file extension process by adding an extension to all of the files of certain types that are saved!  I've got one that puts "*.hsa" at the end of a number of media file types even after the program that uses that extension has been uninstalled.
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