Note: I originally posted this over at my gaming site Macologist, but with MR having such an active forums, I wanted to see what would come of the same question here. Since the topics ranges from Apple's website to OS to their apps as well as 3rd party, I posted to this more general subforum.
The topic: As an Apple fanatic, what gripes do you have with the Apple/OS X experience?
Gripes can cover hardware, software (3rd party too), OS, services, etc., but these should be gripes that have potential solutions. I'm not looking for bugs or disagreements in decisions, but rather specific and fixable things that will help us better the experience and marketshare of the platform we all love.
* Spotlight begins searching with a beachball wait after I've only typed in 3 keystrokes-- it would be so much easier if it waited a second or two longer or required the enter key.
* Finder browser (in apps) sorting by date
* Finder windows in Column mode (or File Browsing Dialog boxes): Typing in OS 9 always brought you to the filename beginning with the typed character. However in OS X, it does so only for the second-to-right column, rather than the far-right column (unless you explicitly go in an click to highlight an item in the right column). Make it default to the rightmost column, or at least give us the option to set it like that, so we need only use letter typing & the enter key as in OS 9. (Again, ditto for file browser dialogs in applications.)
* Apple's website for Support--> Downloads is horrifically bad for Windows XP files. If you're a sysadmin needing to download the Windows version of Quicktime, iTunes, Airport Admin Utility, or Bonjour (Rendezvous), it is very difficult to find the file you want, and the search function is particularly idiotic in its results. Solution: A windows-downloads page. Hosting a Windows .sit expander utility would be nice too.
* The one-button mouse.* Come on already. I know Steve Jobs made a promise, but after jumping to Windows, anything is possible right? It should be a sign that even people who work at Apple reportedly use 3rd-party mice with two buttons, so it's time to throw in the towel! Impetus: Attracting "Switchers" from Windows is more important than ever, and you can bet this one issue will keep a significant percentage of potential switchers sitting on the fence.
Another solution: license Kensington's input devices and rebadge as Apple, both mice & trackballs.
* iChat AV: 1) Tabbed chats please. Safari does tabs, and so should iChat. See Adium.
* iChat Av:* 2) Fix the buddy list management already! The AIM client is a model of how buddies can be organized into collapsable groups. This is the main issue preventing me from using iChat, and surprise, it's a useability issue, something Apple is typically good at.
* iChat AV: 3) Throw in support of other protocols, particularly ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo, even Skype sort of like Adium does... be the Quicktime of IM!
* Windows Bonjour: I may be ignorant here, but a more complete Windows version of Bonjour would be nice.
* Sound: Automatically change Sound Input to external microphone, in response to plugging in a microphone. Music app power users will need other variations, but they can deal. The main concern is the average user who gets a headset mike to do Skype or other VoIP-- currently, they plug their heaset in, and VoIP doesn't work. Not good.
* Safari* 1) does not ship with Tabbed browsing pref. enabled by default. Don't we want to show users the easy contrast between Windows & its IE (currently w/out tabs) and Safari?
* iTunes (and iPods) 2) Better lossless format support. It should support FLAC and SHN at the very least, and TTA and APE ideally. This would help enormously with getting the community of legal concert "tapers" in sync with the world of Mac and iPods. After all Quicktime was originally positioned as the "do all' player, and iTunes should be no different, and it would help keep iPods more "hip" (and away for ipod cool factor backlash) than podcast support ever will.
* iTunes Music Store: Support bitrates greater than 128kbps. If it's not cost-effective, charge a premium. Probably the next noticeable level up is 192 or 225... and for the best, 320 is probably indistinguishable from uncompressed audio for most nonaudiophiles on nonaudiophile gear. Just try it yourself: an A-B comparison of 320kbps (or even 192) vs. 128 in an A-B comparison on an iPods with stock earbuds. I believe in this so much, it's worth a poll in itself.
* .Mac-- Fix it so it's worthwhile to buy. Right now, it's not. How to fix? Read this article.
* MSN Messenger*: keep this on par with the Windows version-- believe me this is one big reason why many potential Switchers have not switched! Now, I know this is a MS product, but now that MS is probably terrified that OS X could be released for all x86 machines (should the Mac hardware line fail and disappear), Apple has more leverage than ever to push Microsoft into improving the release schedule of its Macintosh "Mactopia" division. While making requests to MS, tell them to add in a WordPerfect converter into Mac MS Word, which will greatly help Switchers.
* Dashboard Calculator: All it does is +-X/? We don't need an RPN scientific calculator, but at least make the default dashboard calculator as competent as the cheapo $10 Casio. Apple should just convert the calculator in /Applications to a widget, because it has a nice Scientific option that would cover most functions.
* Garageband: In notation mode, a melody line will easily traverse from treble to bass back to treble clefs, making the notation (with all those extra rests) just a mess. Add an option to use ledger-lines or limit to one clef) please.
* Garageband: built in MIDI export please
* Airport Base Station 1) Port Forwarding: WTH it only supports 20 entries? Are you joking Apple? I may need a dozen entries for one machine on a LAN, not to mention all the machines on a LAN. This sounds like a software limitation, so let's get this fixed ASAP for all current and legacy Airport Base Stations. This is really unbelievable. NetGear, here I come.
* Airport Base Station 2) Add more ethernet ports. Why only one? One is the loneliest number. (BTW Yes, we appreciate that USB port, but Apple: would you get your 3rd party printer vendors to add in better utility support for printers hooked to the ABS/AEBS USB port, rather than directly to the computer? Arg.)
* ABS Admin: A display to show traffic (in/out) as well as a list of what computers are connected (so you can easily look for leechers).
(note: items with a second asterix "*" are of particular interest to potential Switchers, and can only help Apple hardware sales)
Whew! That's all for now. The frustrating thing is that these can all be fixed.
Do you have some more? I bet you do.
Let's open this can of worms.
A list with a brief explanation of each point is ideal.
Let's see what good can come of Mac evangelists putting their heads together to help improve what we love.
The topic: As an Apple fanatic, what gripes do you have with the Apple/OS X experience?
Gripes can cover hardware, software (3rd party too), OS, services, etc., but these should be gripes that have potential solutions. I'm not looking for bugs or disagreements in decisions, but rather specific and fixable things that will help us better the experience and marketshare of the platform we all love.
* Spotlight begins searching with a beachball wait after I've only typed in 3 keystrokes-- it would be so much easier if it waited a second or two longer or required the enter key.
* Finder browser (in apps) sorting by date
* Finder windows in Column mode (or File Browsing Dialog boxes): Typing in OS 9 always brought you to the filename beginning with the typed character. However in OS X, it does so only for the second-to-right column, rather than the far-right column (unless you explicitly go in an click to highlight an item in the right column). Make it default to the rightmost column, or at least give us the option to set it like that, so we need only use letter typing & the enter key as in OS 9. (Again, ditto for file browser dialogs in applications.)
* Apple's website for Support--> Downloads is horrifically bad for Windows XP files. If you're a sysadmin needing to download the Windows version of Quicktime, iTunes, Airport Admin Utility, or Bonjour (Rendezvous), it is very difficult to find the file you want, and the search function is particularly idiotic in its results. Solution: A windows-downloads page. Hosting a Windows .sit expander utility would be nice too.
* The one-button mouse.* Come on already. I know Steve Jobs made a promise, but after jumping to Windows, anything is possible right? It should be a sign that even people who work at Apple reportedly use 3rd-party mice with two buttons, so it's time to throw in the towel! Impetus: Attracting "Switchers" from Windows is more important than ever, and you can bet this one issue will keep a significant percentage of potential switchers sitting on the fence.
Another solution: license Kensington's input devices and rebadge as Apple, both mice & trackballs.
* iChat AV: 1) Tabbed chats please. Safari does tabs, and so should iChat. See Adium.
* iChat Av:* 2) Fix the buddy list management already! The AIM client is a model of how buddies can be organized into collapsable groups. This is the main issue preventing me from using iChat, and surprise, it's a useability issue, something Apple is typically good at.
* iChat AV: 3) Throw in support of other protocols, particularly ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo, even Skype sort of like Adium does... be the Quicktime of IM!
* Windows Bonjour: I may be ignorant here, but a more complete Windows version of Bonjour would be nice.
* Sound: Automatically change Sound Input to external microphone, in response to plugging in a microphone. Music app power users will need other variations, but they can deal. The main concern is the average user who gets a headset mike to do Skype or other VoIP-- currently, they plug their heaset in, and VoIP doesn't work. Not good.
* Safari* 1) does not ship with Tabbed browsing pref. enabled by default. Don't we want to show users the easy contrast between Windows & its IE (currently w/out tabs) and Safari?
* iTunes (and iPods) 2) Better lossless format support. It should support FLAC and SHN at the very least, and TTA and APE ideally. This would help enormously with getting the community of legal concert "tapers" in sync with the world of Mac and iPods. After all Quicktime was originally positioned as the "do all' player, and iTunes should be no different, and it would help keep iPods more "hip" (and away for ipod cool factor backlash) than podcast support ever will.
* iTunes Music Store: Support bitrates greater than 128kbps. If it's not cost-effective, charge a premium. Probably the next noticeable level up is 192 or 225... and for the best, 320 is probably indistinguishable from uncompressed audio for most nonaudiophiles on nonaudiophile gear. Just try it yourself: an A-B comparison of 320kbps (or even 192) vs. 128 in an A-B comparison on an iPods with stock earbuds. I believe in this so much, it's worth a poll in itself.
* .Mac-- Fix it so it's worthwhile to buy. Right now, it's not. How to fix? Read this article.
* MSN Messenger*: keep this on par with the Windows version-- believe me this is one big reason why many potential Switchers have not switched! Now, I know this is a MS product, but now that MS is probably terrified that OS X could be released for all x86 machines (should the Mac hardware line fail and disappear), Apple has more leverage than ever to push Microsoft into improving the release schedule of its Macintosh "Mactopia" division. While making requests to MS, tell them to add in a WordPerfect converter into Mac MS Word, which will greatly help Switchers.
* Dashboard Calculator: All it does is +-X/? We don't need an RPN scientific calculator, but at least make the default dashboard calculator as competent as the cheapo $10 Casio. Apple should just convert the calculator in /Applications to a widget, because it has a nice Scientific option that would cover most functions.
* Garageband: In notation mode, a melody line will easily traverse from treble to bass back to treble clefs, making the notation (with all those extra rests) just a mess. Add an option to use ledger-lines or limit to one clef) please.
* Garageband: built in MIDI export please
* Airport Base Station 1) Port Forwarding: WTH it only supports 20 entries? Are you joking Apple? I may need a dozen entries for one machine on a LAN, not to mention all the machines on a LAN. This sounds like a software limitation, so let's get this fixed ASAP for all current and legacy Airport Base Stations. This is really unbelievable. NetGear, here I come.
* Airport Base Station 2) Add more ethernet ports. Why only one? One is the loneliest number. (BTW Yes, we appreciate that USB port, but Apple: would you get your 3rd party printer vendors to add in better utility support for printers hooked to the ABS/AEBS USB port, rather than directly to the computer? Arg.)
* ABS Admin: A display to show traffic (in/out) as well as a list of what computers are connected (so you can easily look for leechers).
(note: items with a second asterix "*" are of particular interest to potential Switchers, and can only help Apple hardware sales)
Whew! That's all for now. The frustrating thing is that these can all be fixed.
Do you have some more? I bet you do.
Let's open this can of worms.
A list with a brief explanation of each point is ideal.
Let's see what good can come of Mac evangelists putting their heads together to help improve what we love.