Poll: Which iApp is in most need of an update

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Which iApp is in most need of an update (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=333)

[evolu]

iPhoto needs work for sure, with iCal a close second...

I guess address book is not an iApp, but it could also use more work.

Although the last update did improve both iCal and Address Book, I only use them for iSync. I still prefer Now Contact & Now Up to Date.

[punter]

all i really need is iphoto to allow folders within folders... and possibly not open the whole library on start up. it takes forever!!

[whfsdude]

Yeah iPhoto in its current form well just plain sucks.

It's slow as hell and at this point i'd rather just store/sort my photos by the finder

[Dahl]

Long thread on this topic here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?threadid=50174

[Sunrunner]

I agree with the iPhoto option. It and iCal are the only iApps that I dont really use. Those apps are in need of some good updates to make them cooler and more usefull.:cool:

[Nermal]

I only use iTunes and iPhoto, but I think iPhoto needs some more features. Lots of people find iPhoto slow, I don't, but I don't really have that many photos (239 at the moment).

iTunes could do with a couple of new features, like song linking and cover art downloads. These have both been mentioned in the other thread. the ability to play videos would be good too :)

[billyboy]

Id bump up iTunes a few notches and get the Windows version back in the limelight for Christmas. After that iPhoto slickness needs to be vamped up.

[Kyle]

Before they update any of those, AppleWorks needs some serious attention.

[MattG]

iDVD

Make encoding faster, plus make support for 2-hour long DVDs. Variable rate compression?

[Centris 650]

Originally posted by MattG
iDVD

Make encoding faster, plus make support for 2-hour long DVDs. Variable rate compression?

I agree! However, i voted for iCal though I agree iPhoto needs some work. iCal just isn't where it needs to be. It's a nice program and I use it a good bit I don't think it's quite where it needs to be.

[Wonder Boy]

iPhoto could use some speed enhancements. its so slow.

[jkojima]

I'm of the exact same opinion of Centris 650. I voted for iCal because it's not quite there yet, though I can't put my finger on the exact changes necessary. UI could use some tweaking I guess, since the drawer metaphor likes to eat up valuable screen real-estate. That, and if you restore your calendars from a backup (such as when I did a clean install of Panther), the colour codes are not necessarily the same.

That iPhoto has a commanding lead in this pole surprises me, but upon reflection makes sense. I use the program only infrequently, so I don't have any major gripes, but everything people have outlined here I agree with as annoyances. In fact, likely part of the reason I don't use it as often as I could are the usability and performance issues.

[trebblekicked]

Originally posted by MattG
iDVD

Make encoding faster, plus make support for 2-hour long DVDs. Variable rate compression?

i agree as well. good themes, but slow, buggy and generally annoying (at least my experience)

[Malic]

iCal needs to have the "Make iCal suck less" bug fixed. It's much better than before but it's still slothish on a G3/500. This shouldn't be a big number crunching app that needs tons of CPU!

[rolnif]

iPhoto for sure. They need to learn from Photo Album.

[achmafooma]

Originally posted by Kyle
Before they update any of those, AppleWorks needs some serious attention.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AppleWorks is so frustrating to me. I love the app., I really do, but I feel like I've stepped backwards to Mac OS 8 when I use it!

I think it's a great program on features. If they laid it out more logically and seriously improved MS Office interoperability and fixed a few long-standing bugs, I think AppleWorks would be great.

But, since the discussion is really about the iApps ;-) I agree with what seems to be most of the other people on here, iPhoto is in dire need of an update.

iCal and iMovie are tied, in my book, for second. All three of these apps are okay on features, but are so SLUGGISH that they're annoying to use.

Final Cut Pro is a lot snappier than iMovie. Microsoft Office is a lot snappier than iPhoto. Palm Desktop is a lot snappier than iCal. I can't fathom why the more complex applications are so much speedier than the iApps, which are--on the surface anyway--supposed to be simpler, smaller, and more function-specific.

Interface responsiveness (and application start time) need to be improved drastically in all three of these apps. That should be the first priority in any updates. Addition of new features should be secondary to making these programs SNAPPY :-)

[IndyGopher]

I think iPhoto probably needs more actual work done on it, but I don't use it anyway, I voted for iCal, which seems like it really ought to be something I could use continuously, but just doesn't seem intuitive to me. More often I wind up with a Sticky Note than an iCal entry. Hmm.. being able to drop a sticky onto iCal.. that could be cool..

[SilentPanda]

I voted for iTunes. The reason being is that that is a program I use more than any of the other ones. An iPhoto update would be nice I suppose. Currently I don't have too terribly many photos (probably 500-750) and it seems to load fairly slow. So fixing that up would be nice. I know there are hacks around it (iTunes Librarian or something like that) but I'd rather have it "just work".

[bennetsaysargh]

i think iPhoto is in the biggest need of an update. it's slow.

i think if you could use folders within folder that would be great because i dont like how it's currently set up. if it was set up like the way that i wan it, it would be finder like navigation. you can have the main photo library, but not taking long to load because you don't load all of the pictures. then you can choose (in the sidebar) with finder like navigation what genre, date, or an album that you want. albums within albums would be great because i have pictures of my family, and my friends, and when they all load together, they're all mixed in with each other. that is what i want the most.

[wordmunger]

I have over 1,000 photos, and I don't find iPhoto to be annoyingly slow, given what it's doing--and I'm on a Ti400. I still voted for iPhoto for revision--speeding it up would make it even better, and nested folders sound great. The feature that I'm constantly opening Photoshop or GIMP for is rotate, to straighten crooked photos.

In fact, I could see Apple improving on this implementation over Photoshop by offering a "straighten" feature with a graphic interface and a preview option (Though I'm working in Photoshop 5, so perhaps that's been improved by now).

[phgreer]

I would say iPhoto too. When I first started using it I thought it was kind of neat until I needed to use photos for other non- .Mac projects like customer websites, etc and then I discovered iPhoto created all these folders all over the place that I didn't need or could have done better. It doesn't look as great but I now use "Graphic Converter" as my default photo app for opening and organizing files.

I also use another app called image rodeo to create image galleries for websites. If iPhoto made the default way of storing photos different, allowed uploading to other websites and ability to custom create gallery templates then it would be a good thing.

[gunb0y]

what about ichat? i really miss having a profile

[arnette]

Originally posted by wordmunger
I have over 1,000 photos, and I don't find iPhoto to be annoyingly slow, given what it's doing--and I'm on a Ti400. I still voted for iPhoto for revision--speeding it up would make it even better, and nested folders sound great. The feature that I'm constantly opening Photoshop or GIMP for is rotate, to straighten crooked photos.


amen, brotha. That's an excellent suggestion. Some sort of automatic leveling function, NOT opening to the main library on boot up, and maybe a general speed increase. It's not bad on my 900 ibook, but it's not snappy either.

[macFanDave]

a calendar for system maintenance that can ensure the tasks get executed no matter what the sleep status of the machine. Instead of the cheesy inflexible schedule option in Energy Saver, one could easily schedule complex patterns of awake times, sleep times and power off/on times on an iCal calendar. For example, I'd like my Mac to wake up at 6:45 am every weekday, go back to sleep at 8:30, wake up at 7:00 pm go back to sleep when I am finished and wake up a 3:15 am to do the "daily" script and go back to sleep when it finishes.

Backups can be scheduled to be performed interactively. I don't leave my external FireWire drive on because the enclosure is extremely noisy (much worse than the G5 on a bad day!). Now, if I could say remind me to back up every Tuesday, it would load up Carbon Copy Cloner and say "Dave, fire up the FW drive and tell me when you're ready."

It is amazing and depressing that the built-in cron jobs for maintenance do not run if the computer is asleep (I know I can run anacron to run them later, but I don't want yet another process going on just to do that.) I've not seen any third-party app that can deal with sleep, thus I assume that the ability to fiddle with sleep is a deep dark Apple secret that no ordinary developers can work with and evidently, no one outside the Energy Saver panel group can either.

Also, if iCal could work around sleep problems, it could work as an awesome alarm clock.

[achmafooma]

Originally posted by gunb0y
what about ichat? i really miss having a profile
Ah yes, I hadn't thought of iChat. The AIM functions could really be improved (but I think the reason iChat is so limited with AIM is that AIM itself has advertising, so AOL makes some money of of it. There's an incentive to not let a product like iChat have full functionality).

Somebody else mentioned Stickies. First, I would like a major stickies bug fixed (incorrect placement of minimized stickies when restarting the app.). Then, I would like it to sync with Palm notes/memo through iSync.

I love Stickies, but they're useless because I use my PalmOS handheld for the same function and they don't sync. I end up running Palm Desktop for notes, which is rigged to only sync the notes and to only show me the notes when I start it up. Stickies could be a wonderful alternative.

[Brock]

I voted iDVD, although I guess it doesn't matter since I'm switching to DVD Studio Pro. My problem with the iApps is that they are hogs. When I am using iDVD or iMovie or iPhoto, i can't do ten other things at once which i am used to (1 ghz G4 ti-book). So, I say, make it possible to burn a DVD in the background, and actually be able to work without lag.

iTunes is the least in need of an update (on the mac side), its flawless. The PC side sucks, i got friends to download it, and they hate is it because it crashes, etc.

[wdlove]

I voted with the majority for iPhoto. It is used by many, hasn't had an update is quite awhile.

[greenstork]

While it's not a traditional iApp, Font book is dead slow on my relatively fast dual 1 GHz.

[Bunzi2k4]

i have no preferance... i use ical and itunes... everynow and then i'll use iphoto but i don't use it enough to really care.

[bennetsaysargh]

iChat does need an update. i really wish that iChat had profiles, moving icons, maybe a little better grouping, even though i hate the idea of segregation people into groups, i hate them all equally;)

[~Shard~]

iPhoto is way overdue for an update. I've heard a lot of other complaints of it being slow, not dealing with nested folders very well, etc., so I'm thinking an update would benefit a lot of people. Plus, when was the last iPhoto update anyway?

[bensisko]

Originally posted by achmafooma
Final Cut Pro is a lot snappier than iMovie. Microsoft Office is a lot snappier than iPhoto. Palm Desktop is a lot snappier than iCal.

How on EARTH do you compare iPhoto and Office in this sense?? Your other comparisons make sense, but Office to iPhoto?? It's more like Photoshop -> iPhoto...


Anyway, iPhoto needs SOMETHING so that my 4700 picture library doesn't bog down my machine to a crawl when I want it open. My temporary solution was to create a photo-editing profile in Panther (okay, so mostly I just wanted to see the cube spin... =) and copy JUST those pictures I need to work on into the blank iPhoto account (then edit with Photoshop). I LOVE iPhoto except for the speed. Otherwise, it's a perfect app.

Although it would be nice to be able to create a different library for groups of pics then, as someone said earlier, set which default library I want.... OR JUST IMPROVE THE SPEED!!!!

[Ja Di ksw]

I voted for iPhoto, because it is so horribly slow, but I wanted to vote for the missing iChat. No profile, no away message popping up, people's names staying on for awhile after they log off, no moving icons, c'mon apple! I really don't want to use AIM (last time I dl'ed it my com immediately went to hell, though it was probably unrelated, I still hate AIM), and the other programs are no good

[rogueimage]

Originally posted by macFanDave
Also, if iCal could work around sleep problems, it could work as an awesome alarm clock.

I don't understand why no one else has mentioned this problem. Is this not a problem for anybody else? iCal is almost useless because it doesn't post alerts if the computer was asleep or off when they were supposed to happen, or if the event was scheduled on a previous day. Because of these flaws, iCal almost never alerts me to events. I've talked to my father about this, and he has the same problem. There seems to be a lengthy thread on it at Apple.com, as well.

Because of this flaw, I missed the deadline for getting a free copy of Final Cut Express in exchange for Adobe Premiere. I'm pissed at Apple for that one. What good is a calendar program that doesn't alert you to events you've scheduled?

[ITR 81]

All the iApps have updates coming except for say iChat AV which I think needs ones.

Almost all them need a speed boost.

I have still not experienced a slow down in iPhoto and I have 1,000+ photo as of now.

[robotrenegade]

I wish iPhoto worked better with Photoshop. Meaning that it would update it self when fixed in PS. Lift click a photo and have it open in PS.

[Mord]

appleworks 7please

[gopher]

iPhoto, needs to be able to search by photo title much like iTunes can search by music title. iPhoto needs much better memory management for large photo libraries, and the ability to export libraries whole that can later be imported into iPhoto again. I don't want to edit all my photo libraries at once.

iTunes, needs the ability paste into many songs at once the same field entry. Also with the iPod's Album and Composer field size limitation, the iTunes fields should reflect the field size of text that the iPod will accept.

iCal - To Dos should go to the iPod. Side drawer should work with lower resolution screens. Tighter integration with Addressbook, Mail needed.

iMovie - better memory management. For movies that become too large it slows down even at version 3.0.3.

[TomSmithMacEd]

No one is saying iMovie!! I was furious when I paid my 1200+ bucks for my eMac and iMovie is just slow slow slow. I cannot do anything on it! It is the only thing I'm mad at my Mac for. Other then that I love the sucker.

Get iMovie 3 as fast as iMovie 2 was. Then I'll be one happy customer.

[robotrenegade]

Originally posted by gopher
iCal - To Dos should go to the iPod. Side drawer should work with lower resolution screens. Tighter integration with Addressbook, Mail needed.

To Dos do show up on the iPod.

[robotrenegade]

Originally posted by TomSmithMacEd
No one is saying iMovie!! I was furious when I paid my 1200+ bucks for my eMac and iMovie is just slow slow slow. I cannot do anything on it! It is the only thing I'm mad at my Mac for. Other then that I love the sucker.

Get iMovie 3 as fast as iMovie 2 was. Then I'll be one happy customer.

Maybe if you got more memory it would run faster. It runs fine on both of my computers.

[achmafooma]

Originally posted by bensisko
How on EARTH do you compare iPhoto and Office in this sense?? Your other comparisons make sense, but Office to iPhoto?? It's more like Photoshop -> iPhoto...
LoL - I was hoping nobody would notice! I didn't say Photoshop because Photoshop isn't much faster than iPhoto ;-) at least if you take start-time into account.

My point though had little to do with application similarity, it had to do with depth as compared to speed... so I hoped people would just go with it! You ruined it!

Haaha. All I'm saying is that Office does a lot more stuff than iPhoto, if either should be slower it should be Office.

It was a stretch, I know.

Originally posted by robotrenegade
Maybe if you got more memory it [iMovie] would run faster. It runs fine on both of my computers.
Slow as a sloth on my 733mhz G4 with 640mb of RAM. Slow as a dead sloth swimming in superglue on my poor little 500mhz G3 iBook.

I can forgive it though, because I don't use it :-) I have FCP 4 for video work (which is nice and speedy). iPhoto and iCal get used all the time on my machines, and I long for speed improvements.

[AppleMatt]

Originally posted by robotrenegade
Maybe if you got more memory it would run faster. It runs fine on both of my computers.

The original poster was correct, iMovie 2 is much much faster than iMovie 3.

Originally posted by gopher
iTunes, needs the ability paste into many songs at once the same field entry.

Select all the songs you want to edit, choose "get info" in the context menu, dismiss the warning...tada!

AppleMatt

[aethier]

Well iDVD could use some more themes, and animated themes, instead of the crappy still ones.

also now that i have reached the limits of iMovie, and cannot afford finalcutexpress, i think they should add more features

aethier

[cunnin61]

Originally posted by Kyle
Before they update any of those, AppleWorks needs some serious attention.

I agree wholeheartedly.

[jap4n]

I'd like to see WMA and Ogg Vorbis support.

Unlikely that it will happen though!!!!!!

[nagromme]

a) subfolders!!!

b) an easy way to remove selected (or all) unmodified backups to save HD space

c) like iTunes, iCal, and Address Book, a simpler no-brainer way to share a common library across multiple accounts (some read-only)

[edenwaith]

Originally posted by Kyle
Before they update any of those, AppleWorks needs some serious attention.

The biggest app(s) which needs to be updated is AppleWorks. It hasn't had a significant update in what...three years?

Word processing needs better support for text wrap around images and tables. I had to use MS Word to write most of my thesis because AW didn't handle text wrap around figures very well. Also, the scroll wheel has never worked under the OS X version of AppleWorks for some reason.

The only major feature I'd like to be added to the spreadsheet is the ability to save as an HTML page. Great feature for those people who need to post grades on the web.

The Paint and Draw programs could be combined into one killer image manipulation and drawing program. Perhaps not on the scale of Photoshop, but something that can work well without going to the extreme.

The Presentation and Database applications have other high-quality equivalents in Filemaker and Keynote.

However, I noticed that Filemaker does not show up on Apple's Software page. Did Filemaker spin off into a separate division?

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Kyle
Before they update any of those, AppleWorks needs some serious attention.

:seconded:

Where is my 'its not an iApp... but it needs to become one' option?

Applleee woorrkkss neeedddss ann upppddattte!'

I like working w/ it... but since so many people use word... I have to also... make a kick ass word processor.

[Sailfish]

I agree Apple works is sort of lame, underpowered and unprofessional.

iOffice Professional has a nice ring to it.

Instead Apple prefers to advertise and sell the M$ Office right on their web site and big window displays in the stores.

I serious believe Gates and Jobs talk to each other quite a bit, guess a platform war isn't in the plans for either of them.

Just give a excuse for the Chinese to move in.

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by achmafooma
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AppleWorks is so frustrating to me. I love the app., I really do, but I feel like I've stepped backwards to Mac OS 8 when I use it!

I think it's a great program on features. If they laid it out more logically and seriously improved MS Office interoperability and fixed a few long-standing bugs, I think AppleWorks would be great.



I have gotten so fed up with AppleWorks. They (relatively) recently updated it, and yet it still isn't properly compliant with OS X standards. As a basic example, I use scroll wheels all the time these days, and I whenever I use AppleWorks I run into the fact that I can twirl my scroll wheel all I want and nothing happens... Grrr!!

[ThomasJefferson]

for the iAps, iphoto needs work.

but apple works needs to be shot and put out of its misery. AW was adaquate for the basics at one time, but has been left behind. i rather think its deliberate AW would never be a significant moneymaker and the ms-office thing has been an ax over the head for the last few years.

i guess it will muddle along. the ever neglected one ...

[bennetsaysargh]

i never use appleworks because i think it's a little too simplistic to what i am used to.
i'm a machead, but appleworks sucks compared to MS Office. they teach us how to use ms office at school, on macs (os x), and i know how to use it a lot better.

iOffice should be a hell-of a lot better than MS Office if it wants to be a serious contender, including crossplatform standards and support for MS office file formats, like doc, ppt, and the other ones.

[Brock]

Originally posted by jap4n
I'd like to see WMA and Ogg Vorbis support.

Unlikely that it will happen though!!!!!!


You can download a .component file for quicktime that lets you listen to ogg in iTunes, I am listening to an ogg of "Strongbad Sings: And other type hits" right now!

I'm too lazy to post a link, so just go to versiontracker and search for ogg, you'll find it.

[DStaal]

Do what you want with the rest, just get iSync working again! 10.3 broke it so I can't sync my Palm anymore: this requires a fix, immediately, so that I can use the rest again.

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
i never use appleworks because i think it's a little too simplistic to what i am used to.
i'm a machead, but appleworks sucks compared to MS Office. they teach us how to use ms office at school, on macs (os x), and i know how to use it a lot better.

iOffice should be a hell-of a lot better than MS Office if it wants to be a serious contender, including crossplatform standards and support for MS office file formats, like doc, ppt, and the other ones.

PPT is already supported by what will be the presentation component of iOffice, if there will be an iOffice. I am, of course, speaking of Keynote...

[wordmunger]

Originally posted by DStaal
Do what you want with the rest, just get iSync working again! 10.3 broke it so I can't sync my Palm anymore: this requires a fix, immediately, so that I can use the rest again.

I agree, it sucked that 10.3 broke it. But in fact, all you need to do to fix it is to go to Apple's Web site and download iSync Palm Conduit 1.2 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120221)

But 10.3 should have come with this installed, or Software Update should have made it work.

[DStaal]

Originally posted by wordmunger
I agree, it sucked that 10.3 broke it. But in fact, all you need to do to fix it is to go to Apple's Web site and download iSync Palm Conduit 1.2 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120221)

But 10.3 should have come with this installed, or Software Update should have made it work.

Thanks all: It works! (Though the download link on the above page gets you iSync itself... Apple, work on site design.)

Oh, to bennetsaysargh, who says Apple needs doc and ppt reader/writers: Snowy_River already pointed out Keynote does the latter, and I'll point out TextEdit does the former (though not quite completely yet). What we need is an Excel compatible reader to complete the set.

As for my new vote... Hmm. The ones I use are iSync, iCal, and the occasional iPhoto. Of the three, iPhoto is the one that I always wish I could do more in.

[asgardn1]

iApps don't need much help in my view. Except for iChat. That needs to at least match the feature set of AIM itself preferably the Windows version. Even though video chat is nice.

What needs to happen is a mail app that can stand up to Entourage, DVD Studio Express, and Quicktime Pro to be included on all Macs.

[~Shard~]

iPhoto really needs updating - it's overdue. And I would like the ability to create subfolders as well - actually, the same goes for iTunes as well.