Apple gets a lot of criticism -- some of it well-deserved, much of it not -- from the least likely source: its customer and fan base. It's not that odd (except to outsiders) that Apple's harshest critics are often its most loyal customers; we live with this hardware and software -- we sometimes craft our livelihoods, hobbies, and even social lives out of these products. We know the strengths and weaknesses of it in real-world detail, rather than some made-up bit of broad codswallop from some other-platform troll. So moving beyond the nitpicks, we got to wondering -- what would the
MacNN staff, many of which have followed the company since nearly its inception,
actually fix if we had the chance to run Apple for a day?
Editor Charles Martin would ... fix iTunes
I'm actually pretty happy about most of things Apple has done in the past few years (let's just say the "post-Steve" period). I'm realistic about little bugs and minor quibbles, though I acknowledge there's been a few genuine "whoops!" moments that have alarmed or inconvenienced users (but, that said, if you think back hard enough you'll remember that these sorts of fubars have actually happened right through the history of the company). Some of the things I thought might flop have turned out to be big hits with the users (like the ultra-thin MacBooks, yes even with one USB port) and even Photos (which I thought was a disaster on the scale of iMovie '07) has turned out to be just fine (for former iPhoto users -- sorry, Aperture people).
There is, however, still a glaring issue of a rare foot put completely wrong that I would fix up (or at least start to fix up) if Apple were mine to control, and that's iTunes. I'm not talking specifically about iTunes 12 and it's famous
mangled libraries here -- I'm talking about a problem that has been building for much longer, and I'm gonna have to use the "b" word for this. It's time to admit it: iTunes has become bloatware. I say that as someone who loves (really, seriously,
loves) the Apple Music subscription service, loves the iTunes Stores, loves the podcasts, and of course the local music library.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg of what iTunes can do, and it's just too much. While I certainly agree with critics who say the Music App on iOS's most recent design is
a bit of a disaster, and while I think that app should get cleaned up as well, my "fix" for iTunes is much less about the design of things and much more about the Swiss-Army-knife everything-under-one-roof platform iTunes on the Mac has become.
On iOS, Apple has avoided most of these problems by splitting "iTunes" up into several apps: there's an App Store app, there's an iTunes (Store) app, there's a Podcast app, there's an iTunes U app, and then there's Music. This is, I think, what should happen to iTunes on the Mac, though maybe the "split" would work a bit differently. Two things I think should happen immediately: Apple Music (the subscription service) should be its own app, and the syncing engine for iOS and iCloud should also be split off into it's own app. We got a taste of this when iBooks
became it's own app on the Mac, so I say "don't stop there -- keep going!"
I want an Apple-created, first-class Podcasts app, and Audiobooks handled within iBooks. I want iTunes (and the Music app in iOS) to be primarily about my local music/video library/libraries again, and to automatically grab lyrics to songs. I want local syncing with devices and iCloud to be integrated into the OS itself. And a separate iTunes U app for OS X, while you're at it. Use the method you came up with for iOS as a model, and make iTunes live up to its name of being primarily about tunes, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades, and master of none. That's what I'd do. Oh, and a new Mac Pro. Just those two things. Okay, three things: Pizza and Beer Thursdays at the Apple Stores. Really, now I'm done.
Managing Editor Mike Wuerthele would ... implement some checks and balances
At first glance, this parable may not seem related, but bear with me for a minute. Just a hair over 53 years ago, the USS
Thresher (SSN 593), the crown jewel of the US Navy submarine fleet, put out to sea, after two very successful years by all measures, and six months in the shipyard. On April 9, 1963, the boat set out to sea. The next day, the boat sunk 220 miles east of Cape Cod, MA, with the loss of all hands in 8400 feet of water. It stands as one of only two US nuclear submarine disasters, both of which took place about 50 years ago.
In the wake of the
Thresher disaster, the US Navy launched the SUBSAFE program, a quality assurance program that remains peerless to this day. In the first 50 years of the submarine program, the US Navy lost 16 submarines to non-combat situations, such as metal fatigue, poor maintenance, or material substitution in the shipyard -- the leading theory of the loss of the
Thresher.
In the ensuing 50 years since then, only one submarine, the USS
Scorpion was lost. It took the loss of the jewel of the submarine fleet, and the lead vessel in the class, for the Navy to implement this program, which radically changed how maintenance was done, materials were sourced, and how the boats were constructed. In fact, after the space shuttle
Columbia was lost, NASA implemented a similar program, which it also uses to this day. In case you were wondering, since the US Navy launched SUBSAFE, the former Soviet fleet lost seven subs and a handful of surface vessels to non-combat reasons, mostly from maintenance issues. North Korea is struggling with this right now. As far as we know, neither nation has a similar program to SUBSAFE.
This ends the history lesson for the US submarine fleet. However, Apple has yet to acknowledge a
Thresher-scale moment. It clearly feels that nothing sufficiently bad has happened to the company recently to force a radical change in how the company develops its software or hardware -- but I disagree. I'm not saying that Apple is careless, or is removing features from software out of spite, but as its grown, its attention to detail -- another phrase common in the submarine fleet -- has seemingly lapsed in software, as recently shown in the various problems with
the iOS 9.3 implementation, and the
bricking of older devices from two different root causes, the genesis and subsequent execution of
DiscoveryD, the frightful Apple Music launch, and the audio issues that OS X 10.11 induced in professional equipment for the first few weeks.
If I was King for a Day, Apple would get its SUBSAFE program, primarily for software implementation. Apple's hardware is notably solid, generally more so than competitors. So, for now, I'd leave that mostly alone, with perhaps a light patina of quality assurance training brushed over the engineers in hardware. I do think, though, that the OS development teams need a refresher in what's at stake, and a bit more oversight from independent reviewers within Apple.
Oh, and I'd really like the slab-side Aluminum Mac Pro back too. Just with modern conveniences, like Thunderbolt 3. Given Apple's modern market, though, that's selfish, and just for me and a scant few others. So, if I only get one thing, though, Apple SUBSAFE-level quality assurance is it.
Staff Writer William Gallagher would ... hammer on Siri and Mail
Maybe I'm easily pleased, or maybe I'm just not power-mad enough, but Apple doesn't seem to need a lot of fixing to me. There are things I'd like to see, but then there are also products they make right now that are of no interest to me. I wouldn't go in there and cancel the Mac mini, the way Steve Jobs did with Newton. Nor will I go insane if they don't update the Mac Pro, as Mike and Charles want to do. Still, there are things that would be my first question on taking over.
For instance, I'd want to know what's going on with
Siri on the Mac. The clear and obvious target that we are again rumored to see in OS XI San Diego, or whatever they end up calling it, is Siri for OS X. I would use this so much that my throat would object. Plus, in as far as anyone outside Apple can judge these things, adding Siri to the Mac seems like an easy thing to do. They've got Siri, they've got the Mac, let's play our game.
Only, while I would use it excessively, and right now I am very much a fan of Siri, it is still the case that she has her good and her bad days. There are days I can't get a word right out of it, and then there are other days when it is fantastic. Please make it fantastic all the time. Sort that out. While you're at it, Siri in the home would be rather good: I'm starting to feel the pull of Amazon's Echo, but it doesn't work in the UK, seemingly.
There's another quick-fix or presumably quick fix: I would like Apple to beef up Mail in exactly one single way. Give Mail the sharing abilities of iOS 9. I just want to be able to chuck emails, or portions of emails, straight into a project in
OmniFocus.
OmniFocus is of course an app, and the fact that we even use the word is surely down to Apple. When I were a lad, it was "software" or "programs" and maybe "applications" if you were hip, now there isn't a person on the planet who hasn't heard the word app. Given that, the thing that would make me twitch as new CEO of Apple is why the App Store is in such a state. It hasn't scaled to match the number of apps, and maybe it never will. But I hope they're trying.
Staff Writer Malcolm Owen would ... improve the scheduling of product launches
There's barely anything I can say about Apple's business practices that I would want to change, in the event I suddenly became temporary ruler of the Apple universe. Sure, I could say the company needs to lower the cost of some of its products to expand its customer base. I could even mandate for a ceasefire in attacking Android and Windows during events announcing new products. My selection for what to change, however, is more straightforward: sort out its product update schedule.
As someone writing about technology, I tend to see patterns in releases -- with companies refreshing their products on a vaguely regular schedule. You know that Samsung's going to announce a new Galaxy S smartphone in the spring, and the new Note will be launched half a year later. Brand new high-resolution and super-sized televisions will almost certainly be revealed for the first time during January. With Apple, it's slightly different.
Of all its products, the update schedule for the iPhone is pretty much set in stone. Since 2012, new iPhones were launched every September, just like clockwork. This year, Apple has already upset the timing slightly by shipping the iPhone SE, though it feels highly likely that the main iPhone launches will, as usual, be shown off in September. If you want the newest iPhone, you'd expect to wait until September before you think about upgrading, as that's the given pattern; but the same can't be said for other products.
Why can't Apple have this sort of regularity for its other devices? In 2015, Macbook range alterations took place in March, April, and May, while in 2014 they occurred in April and July, and in 2013 there were launches in February, June, and October. The desktop-bound Macs are seemingly better, with an update for April or May, as well as one in October each year. The iPad collection generally have their announcements in the latter half of the year, with relatively few exceptions, putting it somewhere between the Macs and iPhone in terms of launch reliability.
The worst product to suffer from unusual launch strategies is the Mac Pro. The most recent "launch" in the range was in December 2013, with previous launches taking place in June 2012, August 2010, March 2009, January 2008, and August 2006. If I was in the market for a Mac Pro, the long period of time since the last update makes me think a new Mac Pro is around the corner, so I'd save my money. But then again, it may be an even longer wait, as there's barely any suggestion there is another refresh coming soon, so it may be worth simply buying one of the current generation and hope Apple doesn't burn me with a new model shortly after I hand over my cash.
Regularity of releases would be a nice thing to have for all involved. Not just for journalists and bloggers waiting for the latest event to take place, and spending their time wildly speculating on what could be around the corner, but also to those who desperately want to throw money at Apple for a new device, but don't know if "now" is the right time.