Stuff I really, really hate
I'm 'Mister Apple'. Mr. Mac. Mr. iOS. A tech writer, a 'help desk' for friends and family. But that doesn't mean I give everything my favorite fruit company does a pass. There's stuff in my 'digital life' that drives me bonkers. Some of it is from Apple, some is just the internet in general. Time to vent...
iOS is a major nag. I'm tired of being asked for my password at inconvenient times. Hey Apple, it's me on this phone. It has fingerprint recognition. I know you've had some security issues in the past, but fix it on your end. Don't visit this hell on your users. At times I feel I am living in a Bosch painting. Relent. Reduce. Now i"m using iOS 8 beta 4 and it has it's own set of nags, like letting me know a particular app is location aware. I answer OK, and it asks me about several other apps. Ask me once, and then go away forever.
Control Center: I don't hate it, but I'm getting there. It could be so much more than it is. Half the things on it I will never use. How about some customization here? Let me use it as an app launcher, or get me access to system preferences I want to toggle often. If you were holding out hope for this in iOS 8 you will get no joy. They changed the transparency. Big deal.
Apple has been good about not filling Macs or iOS devices with crapware. But on iOS it does provide some of its own. If you don't want Game Center or Stocks or Newsstand or any other Apple App you are out of luck. Yes, I can hide them in a folder, but I want them off my phone. Gone. Deleted. Vaporized.
OS X: I've been watching that 'pinwheel' or 'spinning pizza of death' for more than a decade. Surely there is some trick to eliminating this torture. We use computers to save time. But OS X often gets into a brain freeze when I try to open a folder or switch to another website. I know that resources like RAM are limited, but you can fix this. Try harder.
On the web there is another set of frustrations, not caused by Apple. Sometimes I share a web page with someone using that site's built-in sharing buttons. Often, these sites pre-compose the email for me. "Here's a really worthwhile article from the Manure Journal that I thought you would like to read." The problem is, I don't think it was worthwhile. I found it a travesty, inaccurate, and worthy only of ridicule. So give me a blank email form and let me add my own message. Easy.
Forced video playback: I hate this. You are looking at a web page and suddenly you hear voices. You have to scroll around and find what the offending video is. Safari Team -- just give me a button that prevents videos that I haven't clicked on from running. I know people like to advertise, but completely aggravating a potential customer is no way to start a relationship. I don't want to be sitting in a public place and have my laptop start talking about erectile dysfunction or anything else. I need a 'no video option' as soon as possible, maybe even yesterday.
Those are some of the major gripes from my list. You likely have some of your own, so feel free to chime in by adding your comments, or you can argue about mine.
