Apple's Decision to Delay Some New Features and Focus on Software Quality Extends to Mac

[Saturn1217]

Good. None of the new Mac features are ever actually MAC features anyway. They are usually ecosystem tie in features which I am personally not interested in.

I'd love if they stopped yearly releases for macOS. I feel like yearly releases create this need to change things for the sake of change to justify the new version number.

I imagine apple developers are breathing a sigh of relief.

 

[Black Magic]

My home screen works fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Between more polish and performance vs. a new home screen, many would probably choose the former.

You have no idea what the features or advances are so you don't want them? You don't want progress you are happy with the same old stagnant OS for years? The world needs less of you.....

 

[Lone Deranger]

It is even worse than that. The feature changes that did generate a lot of press where when things were removed.

The three two examples where (1) when Apple dropped Aperture. This made me and every other user of their pro apps think twice about depending on Apple. and (2) the new Pages app that gutted features from their word processor. It made a lot of peole go out and get Word. And BTW Word for Mac is very good. Better than Word on the PC.

(3) Buying Nothing Real and killing Shake. Thereby forcing an entire industry (Visual Effects/Post Production) to rethink and re-finance a large part of their software pipeline. Thanks Apple!

 

[prndrgst88888888]

Mac OS is barely above "Maintenance" mode status as it is. The annual updates show that Apple have lost interest in applying innovative new functionality.

The days of Apple adding new exciting features to Mac OS are long gone.

[doublepost=1517376543][/doublepost]

Agreed. I would rather have something delayed to make the software experience better for the user, as that is the most important aspect long term.

Apple needs a CEO. Whoever they find should have the balls to dismiss the underlings (Start with Ives) and hire people with vision. Their products have become downright disrespectful of their loyal followers. The rest of us... Why do we keep coming back to these clowns? They couldn’t care less about us.

 

[nihil0]

They should also fix those small UI nuances which never work:

1. Size of ANY window is never remembered
2. Size of columns in Powerful Column View is never remembered
3. Ability to maximize ANY window fullscreen (and not according to the content size) by holding option+green button
4. Ability to uninstall ALL app files like CleanMyMac does and not let system bloated with preference files etc. I've had one system instaled since 2014, because of many applications I use I don't want to do fresh install when new macOS version is out but that means all useless files are still there.

 

[groove-agent]

I admire their recent commitment to speed and reliability, although really this should have been the focus from the start. In order to do this they have to delay features? They haven't exactly been very productive with Mac updates and there hasn't been any *must have or game changing* MacOS features lately. So I ask: what on earth have they been doing the last 5 years? Focusing on the new Apple campus?

How such a rich company can be so unproductive is a mystery. I remember reading years ago on MR how they shuffled all their staff around, and were pulling different people off different products to focus on certain projects. I think this may have created an almost unmanageable juggling act. The iPhone, Mac, and services need to progress at a steady pace SIMULTANEOUSLY. Ideally they need to release something new every year to keep things fresh, or at least a speed bump rather than neglecting products several years at a time. For shame Apple, there is no excuse.

Apple's lack of productivity is disappointing. I'm sad to say I couldn't hold out for Apple any longer and bought a Dell XPS 15 as my main productivity machine. As a matter of fact, last 3 computers I have purchased have been PCs when I used to be the biggest Mac advocate. Even though buying PCs makes the most sense, it just feels wrong.

 

[atikalz]

I do not understand why an OS needs any features at all. It just needs to start a computer and then you can manually add Apps that bring you the features you need/want. I’m sure most people don’t even know 5% of the features MacOS has, so it’s pointless to add even more.
[doublepost=1517347486][/doublepost]

No they are not. A faster, more stable and saver OS is a must. Features are subjective and thus not mandatory.

With features i dont mean apps, i mean a better ux.
A faster, more stable and saver OS is mandatory.
But if that is the only goal, there would be no more progress in user experience design.

 

[vmistery]

Hopefully they can spend some of that cash backporting security fixes to older versions of ios (9 and above) as there are still huge numbers in use. We still have an iPad 2 for example that we use for taking notes and reading recipies from in the kitchen, (we bought a newer iPad for heavy duty tasks but would still like to keep the older one too).

 

[MacBH928]

Fixing bugs is great, I wish Apple would go back to the days where they cared about the software and rational ease of use. The current MacOS is more or less the same OS X Jobs introduced back in 2002. Just shows you how impressive it was for the time.

If all Tim cares about is iphones and emojis, maybe they can spin Macintosh in its own subsidiary company and let a CEO who actually cares about Mac hardware and software to run the company. 1 CEO to manage watches, iphones, tablets, OS, computers, cloud services, and recently audio and video entertainment might be just too much for Tim.

 

[Bacillus]

Good to learn they are finally focusing once again on quality. I have been noticing for the past year or two that their software quality has diminished.

To play devil advocate though, can’t a company the size of Apple, hire more software engineers to do more than just fix bugs for a year? Obviously I get you can’t introduce significant new features, and huge changes and focus on bug fixing, but surely it’s possible for them to allow free movement of app icons on the home screen, and maybe truly live wallpapers on the lock and home screen, as well as fixing the bugs? That’s all I really want, a tiny bit of customisation.

Maybe it’s time for:

- Releasing iOS, macOS updates, and other software when ready instead of on a fixed schedule? (As others have said)

- Separating iOS core apps from iOS itself (much like Google has done with Android)

That would possibly solve a lot of the issues since it’d strike a balance between new features/updates and quality.

I think one Apple problem is that the skill level of their rank and file software writers is no match for management's rapid production schedules for delivering a never-ending list of new features. Hopefully, this shift in attitude will improve future updates.

Congrats, Tim's hardware pipeline just became integrated with a software pipeline - so tightly.
If they can't implement elementary things like darkmode or airplay2 while Tim wants to be your doctor, music supplier, fitness coach, health advisor, home engineer, car infortainment provider, camera specialist, self-steering car designer, you could easily say the head became split from its body.

 

[Mildredop]

I am bummed the homescreen isn’t being updated. It’s past due for a refresh

The iPhone homescreen?

I agree. As the iPhone has got bigger, that enormous wall of apps looks so busy and messy. And the fact you can only populate the screen from the top left is ridiculous - it's the furthest from your thumb, so you have to fill the screen to get your most used apps towards the bottom.

 

[aonez]

Just missing Snow Leopard era.

 

[jgbr]

About time, they could have avoided this whole mess by not rushing OSX out of the door every year and treating it like an iOS update. More stable and secure software please with alternating years. Don't see MS releasing one every year do you. OSX is not iOS as much as some want!

 

[chucker23n1]

You have no idea what the features or advances are so you don't want them? You don't want progress you are happy with the same old stagnant OS for years? The world needs less of you.....

That’s not at all what I said. The overwhelming consensus is that Apple needs to put a little more effort in quality, which automatically implies fewer resources spent on features. And I’m fine with that. There’s absolutely features I wish were there (setting default apps on iOS comes to mind), but the must-haves are pretty much all covered by now.
[doublepost=1517390095][/doublepost]

Don't see MS releasing one every year do you.

No. You see MS releasing one twice a year.

 

[Bacillus]

The iPhone homescreen?
I agree. As the iPhone has got bigger, that enormous wall of apps looks so busy and messy. And the fact you can only populate the screen from the top left is ridiculous - it's the furthest from your thumb, so you have to fill the screen to get your most used apps towards the bottom.

This is what became suggested close to zillion times to feedback@apple.com (which seems to contain a digital shredder that must drive ddos-attackers insane)

 

[jgbr]

Its still Windows 10, with incremental large updates, something apple could follow instead of this yearly mess.

There has to be a better way then the current way.

 

[chucker23n1]

It’s still Mac OS X, with incremental large updates.

There is no difference.

 

[jgbr]

It’s still Mac OS X, with incremental large updates.

There is no difference.

Im sure some would argue that its hard been stellar upgrades between MacOS versions. Windows has had some major overhauls as part of Windows 10.

I'm merely stating its about time they did a code review and got some bugs out and consider changing this yearly OS release.

 

[michaelsviews]

You have no idea what the features or advances are so you don't want them? You don't want progress you are happy with the same old stagnant OS for years? The world needs less of you.....

And you do? Kind of a harsh reply isn't it? Some people are happy with what hardware and software to include OS they have and refuse to upgrade because it "Just works" for them

 

[g.a.papavasileiou]

I admire their recent commitment to speed and reliability, although really this should have been the focus from the start. In order to do this they have to delay features? They haven't exactly been very productive with Mac updates and there hasn't been any *must have or game changing* MacOS features lately. So I ask: what on earth have they been doing the last 5 years? Focusing on the new Apple campus?

How such a rich company can be so unproductive is a mystery. I remember reading years ago on MR how they shuffled all their staff around, and were pulling different people off different products to focus on certain projects. I think this may have created an almost unmanageable juggling act. The iPhone, Mac, and services need to progress at a steady pace SIMULTANEOUSLY. Ideally they need to release something new every year to keep things fresh, or at least a speed bump rather than neglecting products several years at a time. For shame Apple, there is no excuse.

Apple's lack of productivity is disappointing. I'm sad to say I couldn't hold out for Apple any longer and bought a Dell XPS 15 as my main productivity machine. As a matter of fact, last 3 computers I have purchased have been PCs when I used to be the biggest Mac advocate. Even though buying PCs makes the most sense, it just feels wrong.

When a company gets THAT BIG like Apple, tends to become really sluggish and hard to manage. That's where the problem has its root, and in my opinion that is the main reason that big companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google can't innovate and buy smaller companies like Nest/Shazam etc. They can't afford to innovate and take big gambles with their products.

The richest and biggest a company gets, the more unproductive it gets.

 

[Stella]

Those are welcome of course. The new file system is gimped, doesn't work with fusion drives.

The external GPU support is again good - but at the end of the day, its due to to Apple's ****** GPUs found inside its laptops. Adding an external GPU isn't cheap either, but thats not particularly relevant to this.

What features would I like to see? Apple keep on saying how innovative they are, so lets see them put words into action! Any features I did suggest here would be dismissed. How about for starters: adding the ability for Siri to close applications? Not innovative, but quality of life feature. Metal still isn't being used much, after several years of being introduced.

The trouble with a mature product like MacOS is that maybe there just aren’t that many cool new features left to add?

Thats due to lack of creativity / innovation.

Some of OSX core apps have been barely touched or updated in years. Some of those could be updated. Automator, for example. Dashboard was left to rot with little to no updates, no wonder it became unused by the majority of the user base. Now, disabled, by default.

I don’t think that’s fair to say. High Sierra brought a new file system. That’s hardly trivial. There’s also support for external GPUs, another far from trivial feature.

Every new version of MacOS has brought a wealth of new features, technologies, and APIs. Not all of that translates into visible new OS features, though. It takes time for third party apps to be updated, or written, to take advantage of what’s new. Metal is a newer MacOS technology. Were there obvious new Metal-related OS features when it was introduced? No. But now we have a variety of apps that use it to do what they do, and Metal makes those new apps possible.

I’m curious what features you’d like to see? The trouble with a mature product like MacOS is that maybe there just aren’t that many cool new features left to add?

Personally I’d like to see a tag cloud style interface for browsing tagged documents. But I can’t think of much that I feeling is lacking in the MacOS experience.

[doublepost=1517406377][/doublepost]Apple have proven themselves to be extremely unreliable in supporting its 'Pro' apps. Better off going with a competitor because at least they won't be so wrapped up in secrecy / is the product still alive?

It is even worse than that. The feature changes that did generate a lot of press where when things were removed.

The three two examples where (1) when Apple dropped Aperture. This made me and every other user of their pro apps think twice about depending on Apple. and (2) the new Pages app that gutted features from their word processor. It made a lot of peole go out and get Word. And BTW Word for Mac is very good. Better than Word on the PC.

 

[Val-kyrie]

Nice to see Apple going back to what they used to do, make stable software and hardware. I want this for both platforms, but especially macOS. Stay tuned.

Let's wait and see if Apple will deliver.

I don’t think that’s fair to say. High Sierra brought a new file system. That’s hardly trivial. There’s also support for external GPUs, another far from trivial feature.

Every new version of MacOS has brought a wealth of new features, technologies, and APIs. Not all of that translates into visible new OS features, though. It takes time for third party apps to be updated, or written, to take advantage of what’s new. Metal is a newer MacOS technology. Were there obvious new Metal-related OS features when it was introduced? No. But now we have a variety of apps that use it to do what they do, and Metal makes those new apps possible.

I’m curious what features you’d like to see? The trouble with a mature product like MacOS is that maybe there just aren’t that many cool new features left to add?

Personally I’d like to see a tag cloud style interface for browsing tagged documents. But I can’t think of much that I feeling is lacking in the MacOS experience.

I have heard very little about Apple's eGPU support. Weren't they supposed to release an enclosure? Who is even using an eGPU supported by macOS?

 

[jonnysods]

They should go back to the 18 month-ish cycle of operating system releases. There is this yearly pressure to release stuff but they are just reaching for ideas and not backfilling with patches. Never seen an OS as unstable as High Sierra, and I've been using OSX since Tiger.

 

[kazmac]

Let's wait and see if Apple will deliver.

Indeed. It will be both wonderful and interesting if they deliver on this.

 

[Inkling]

Lets hope Apple also adds features for power users. They have been neglected for far too long with Apple has focused on green witch emoticons and the like. In particular, macOS needs to adapt a standard Unix tool, GREP, give it a friendly UI, and allow it to become a feature of all text apps. Make search & replace tools easy to add from outside sources and easy to share between apps.

The tools are open source, so all Apple would need to do is add the UI.