Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > My Cook-era Apple wish list

My Cook-era Apple wish list (Page 4)
Thread Tools
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 08:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
Realistically I fear for the Mac Pro. Got a feeling it might not last much longer.
Don't be daft. Proper people still need proper power and PCIe slots.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 08:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I don't think you can divine a definite trend other than that the Mac Pro has not been redesigned in a long time. Arguably, the target market for the Mac Pro couldn't give two shits. They appreciate beauty and solidity, but insofar as they buy tools, not fashion accessories.
Exactly. I buy a Mac Pro, I expect it to work for at least five years (I'm hoping for ten - I expect twenty out of the rest of my gear). The development cycle on Mac Pros is much longer because the buying cycle is much longer. And no, there ain't no competition.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 08:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
Sorry Athens the desktop market died while you were in the can. I'm working as a tech support rep for a Canadian ISP. I would say 4 out of 5 callers have laptops not desktops. When people can't get online we're always power cycling wireless routers. My default setting now is to assume someone has a laptop. If their router isn't working I ask them to hook it up directly to the computer and none of them ever complain because their computers are all mobile.
Umm... ...people who run and need Mac Pros are usually skilled enough not to have to phone their local ISP flowchart monkey to find out how to power cycle their router.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
boy8cookie
Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: I'll let you know when I get there...
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 09:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
Don't be daft. Proper people still need proper power and PCIe slots.
PCIe is available via thunderbolt. iMac is as powerful as Mac Pro.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 09:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
iMac is as powerful as Mac Pro.
No.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Waragainstsleep
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 12, 2011, 11:57 PM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
Don't be daft. Proper people still need proper power and PCIe slots.
Proper proper people need them to be 1U rack mounted but look what happened there.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
besson3c  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 12:10 AM
 
If Apple doesn't want to put a whole lot of R&D into the Mac Pro, why not just sell motherboards compatible with the Mac Pro case, include a gob of slots for RAM/PCI/drives, revise the board every once in a while to add more slots or support new stuff, and just let the pros that need 50 billion Ghz CPUs and 300 RAM slots go nuts?
     
Salty
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 01:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
Umm... ...people who run and need Mac Pros are usually skilled enough not to have to phone their local ISP flowchart monkey to find out how to power cycle their router.
Incidentally the complaint is that there may not be enough of the people who don't need to do that to keep the entire line alive.

Athens was saying that there's still lots of people buying desktops. Everyone else was pointing to the clearly recognized statistics that show that the desktop market is becoming more and more niche every day. Are you wanting to contract that statement, or are you just being a dick?
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 04:34 AM
 
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
PCIe is available via thunderbolt. iMac is as powerful as Mac Pro.
Wake me up when you find an eight-core or twelve-core iMac.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 05:22 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
Athens was saying that there's still lots of people buying desktops. Everyone else was pointing to the clearly recognized statistics that show that the desktop market is becoming more and more niche every day. Are you wanting to contract that statement, or are you just being a dick?
We're not on a Windows forum for your moronic "customers" - we're on a Mac forum. We've always been in a niche, no matter whether we use a desktop or laptop.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 05:25 AM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
Proper proper people need them to be 1U rack mounted but look what happened there.
Well, yer rack crowd were server people - and as far as I remember OS X server performance (e.g. SQL, etc.) was less than sparkling, so of course the server peeps are going to use a generic *nix rack box instead.

But just try running Digital Performer on a generic linux box and see how far you get.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Big Mac
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 06:22 AM
 
How dramatic would the hit to your productivity be if you were forced to go to Windows, Doofy?

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 06:24 AM
 
The other thing is that those XServes are ****ING LOUD.

I've actually seen a number of studios where the Mac Pro is right in the room; they're near silent.
     
Big Mac
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 08:11 AM
 
Rack mounted systems are loud. That's standard.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
11011001
Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Up north
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 08:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
*both the iMac and Mac Mini have multi CPU options
iMacs and Mac Minis do not have multi-CPU options, they have multi-core options. Perhaps I should have said multi-processor, however, multi-CPU is perfectly valid as well. The nice thing about a dual-processor Mac Pro, is that it has two memory controllers. One for each processor. This gives it pretty fantastic memory bandwidth.
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
**8 RAM slots only help if they're filled, you can get up to 32GB of RAM in an iMac
You can get 96 GB in a Mac Pro. Though, anything more than 6 chips (the memory controllers, use three-channel memory) is going to degrade peak performance on things that require lots of memory bandwidth.
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
*** not sure how this helps development, elaborate?
You don't need to buy a new computer every year to have the latest graphics card. This requirement depends on what sort of development one is doing, and it opens the option for multi-monitor setups that are not possible (economically) on an iMac.
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
**** please tell me what multi monitor setup you're running that my iMac cannot.
Anything greater than 2 extra LCDs. A PCI Express Thunderbolt graphics card is a pretty silly proposition given the price, and limited bandwidth of thunderbolt. IMHO, one should get a Mac Pro at that price-point.
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
***** External enclosures are better choices for RAIDs, far and away. Then it no longer matters what it's connected to.
No argument there, hardware RAID is much better. We're running a $40,000 XSan, and hardware RAID in every Mac Pro. A four drive, internal, hardware, RAID is generally good enough for our Mac Pros. External enclosures are not necessary, given the XSan.

Can an iMac do fibre-channel? Not without dropping $1k on an expansion chassis, in which case, what's the point? Get a Mac Pro. To answer any questions, no, we don't use the XSan for builds. It's for consolidated, fast, storage.
Originally Posted by boy8cookie View Post
Point is, Mac Pro is outdated, depreciated and not worth the money. As of thunderbolt, the mac pro is obsolete.
Thunderbolt is pretty darn cool, but it does not turn an iMac into a Mac Pro.

If an iMac is good enough, then get an iMac! It's cheaper, it can do 3-monitor setups, it's pretty fast. However, there are people who need more, and I think some of those people are developers. I don't know if there are enough of us that Apple will continue supporting the Mac Pro. Apple doesn't seem to care about the content creators—look at the FCP disaster. My argument is based upon developers having business value for Apple. If Apple keeps developers happy, the App Store continues to be successful. Perhaps the majority of developers are satisfied with an iMac or Mac Book Pro, but not me. I though I shared a like-mind with other developers outside those I know in real-life, but apparently not.
( Last edited by 11011001; Nov 13, 2011 at 08:26 AM. )
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 09:23 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
How dramatic would the hit to your productivity be if you were forced to go to Windows, Doofy?
I'd probably lose 2+ hours per day.

Truth be told, if forced to use Windows I'd rather retire. I can hear the timing errors it throws into a mix (they're only couple milliseconds, but it all mounts up and I'm sensitive to timings), which is why I stand by age-old statement of "any musician who uses Windows instead of Mac is an idiot"... ...the preference is still Mac > Atari > sitting on the loo reading "Which Guitar" > having your toenails pulled out by the taxman > a slow lingering death > Windows.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Waragainstsleep
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 10:41 AM
 
Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
Can an iMac do fibre-channel? Not without dropping $1k on an expansion chassis, in which case, what's the point? Get a Mac Pro. To answer any questions, no, we don't use the XSan for builds. It's for consolidated, fast, storage.
Not strictly true:

Promise SANLink Thunderbolt to 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel Adapter - Apple Store (U.S.)

I thought these might be a little cheaper than this. Its still only $200 more than the card for the Mac Pro. $200 which you'd save over the Pro getting an iMac.

TB doesn't turn an iMac into a Mac Pro, but it doesn't have to. Sadly it might just make it close enough for Apple to ditch it.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
boy8cookie
Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: I'll let you know when I get there...
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 04:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
iMacs and Mac Minis do not have multi-CPU options, they have multi-core options. Perhaps I should have said multi-processor, however, multi-CPU is perfectly valid as well. The nice thing about a dual-processor Mac Pro, is that it has two memory controllers. One for each processor. This gives it pretty fantastic memory bandwidth.

You can get 96 GB in a Mac Pro. Though, anything more than 6 chips (the memory controllers, use three-channel memory) is going to degrade peak performance on things that require lots of memory bandwidth.
I doubt there are serious benefits to performance when it comes to app development past 32 GB of RAM, whether you're using an iMac or a Mac Pro.

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
You don't need to buy a new computer every year to have the latest graphics card. This requirement depends on what sort of development one is doing, and it opens the option for multi-monitor setups that are not possible (economically) on an iMac.
You don't need the latest graphics card for app development, that was kind of my point. If you're saying anything about being "economical" then why are you buying a Mac Pro? or a Mac at all?

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
Anything greater than 2 extra LCDs. A PCI Express Thunderbolt graphics card is a pretty silly proposition given the price, and limited bandwidth of thunderbolt. IMHO, one should get a Mac Pro at that price-point.
You can connect up to 6 TB displays to an iMac, giving you a total of 7 displays. Not sure what performance is like but I'm sure that you don't need 7 displays to develop an app that's going to run at 1024x768.

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
No argument there, hardware RAID is much better. We're running a $40,000 XSan, and hardware RAID in every Mac Pro. A four drive, internal, hardware, RAID is generally good enough for our Mac Pros. External enclosures are not necessary, given the XSan.
The Xsan is an external RAID. What is the point of the hardware RAID in your Mac Pro? Performance? An SSD covers that much better than a 4 drive RAID. I wouldn't want to RAID 0 my boot drive either... I could see RAID 10 maybe, but I rather have two SSDs.

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
Can an iMac do fibre-channel? Not without dropping $1k on an expansion chassis, in which case, what's the point? Get a Mac Pro. To answer any questions, no, we don't use the XSan for builds. It's for consolidated, fast, storage.
Can a Mac Pro do fiber-channel? Not without dropping $600-1000 on a Fiber Channel card.

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
Thunderbolt is pretty darn cool, but it does not turn an iMac into a Mac Pro.
It doesn't turn it into a Mac Pro, but it comes close enough to where Apple will not refresh the Mac Pro.

Originally Posted by 11011001 View Post
If an iMac is good enough, then get an iMac! It's cheaper, it can do 3-monitor setups, it's pretty fast. However, there are people who need more, and I think some of those people are developers. I don't know if there are enough of us that Apple will continue supporting the Mac Pro. Apple doesn't seem to care about the content creators—look at the FCP disaster. My argument is based upon developers having business value for Apple. If Apple keeps developers happy, the App Store continues to be successful. Perhaps the majority of developers are satisfied with an iMac or Mac Book Pro, but not me. I though I shared a like-mind with other developers outside those I know in real-life, but apparently not.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Mac Pro. I just understand that Apple is probably not going to refresh it because of thunderbolt.
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 05:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Rack mounted systems are loud. That's standard.
No.

Rack-mounted SERVER systems are loud.

There's plenty of near-silent rack-mounted computers. A colleague had one (custom-built) in his studio until it died a second time within three years and he threw it out and replaced it with an octa-core Mac Pro.
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 13, 2011, 05:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
I'd probably lose 2+ hours per day.

Truth be told, if forced to use Windows I'd rather retire. I can hear the timing errors it throws into a mix (they're only couple milliseconds, but it all mounts up and I'm sensitive to timings)
*sigh*

Logic does this, as well.

Set it to low-latency mode and it sounds different.

I really like the sound of Logic Pro 8< (the rewritten audio engine removed most of that "Logic film" you could always hear in mixes), but effects phasing by varying offsets, even if it's just a couple of samples, is really inexcusable in 2011. On a Mac. Using in-house software.

(It's usually not dramatic, so I'm still sticking with Logic unless Apple completely ****s up their priorities somewhere down the line.)
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 14, 2011, 02:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
*sigh*

Logic does this, as well.
Don't *sigh* at me!

I know Logic does that too - that's why I only use it for basic structuring.
Like I said all along, Logic is a toy. Try DP if you can stomach MotU ignoring you.

Windows does it with everything though.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 14, 2011, 07:03 AM
 
Originally Posted by Doofy View Post
Don't *sigh* at me!
I wasn't sighing at you.

I was sighing at Apple.
     
Doofy
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vacation.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 14, 2011, 07:40 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I wasn't sighing at you.

I was sighing at Apple.
Aye.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
freudling
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 9, 2012, 11:24 PM
 
You know what I wish? For a Cookless Apple era.

Botched ML Release
Spotty marketing
No Retina product roll out, just one (rMBP)
Lots of little things like this: if you have a rMBP, look at the nav bar on this page, then look at it by clicking other pages like iPhone, etc. You'll see on the store, it's pixelated to hell. They forgot to update that:

http://store.apple.com/us
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2012, 03:45 AM
 
     
Salty
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2012, 09:34 PM
 
What I'd love to see:

Add in some options to make live easier for people who use Macs in different environments. My Thunderbolt monitor is great when I get home I plug in my MacBook to it and it automatically backs up by Time Machine I'm hooked up to all of my peripherals. Problem is every time I disconnect the thunderbolt cable I get an error telling me to eject the hard drive. Why? Why not give me the option to auto unmount after my backup is done, or maybe just come up with a good solution for it. Either way stop bugging me unnecessarily about it.

I'd love to see an xMac mini tower, doubt one will ever happen but it'd be nice.

One of the biggest things I'd love to see Apple stop doing is dicking around the people who are trying to make their stuff better. It seems they like hardware partners a lot more than software partners. Amazon had to pull the ability to buy a book with your amazon account because they didn't want to give Apple a 30% stake, that's actually reasonable. Instead they just made things harder for Amazon customers who owned iPads. Frankly for things where you're doing a sort of store front Apple should push for in app purchases but if the content is being stored on your own servers and all that sort of jazz they should really just drop the cut to 10% and make everyone happy. My guess is if anything that would be seen as a positive gesture and spur development.

Speaking as somebody who put something on the iBookstore. Apple REALLY needs to stop harassing their fans assuming that somebody else's product is going to be confused for their's just because it's on their devices and reminds people of their product. If I'm writing a novel and my character is listening to music it's going to be on their iPod and that doesn't say anything about Apple's brand aside from the fact that they're ubiquitous. They pay for product placement and they should stop being so annal about dumb stuff on their stores. (This goes for the App Store too.)

They should also REALLY look into having standard royalty free UI elements. In many cases third party developers emulate customer Apple interfaces while still choosing to slightly change their own because they don't want to incur Apple's wrath. Instead Apple should be working on creating a standard UI tool kit for things like + and - tool bar icons, new document, notes, whatever. Pretty well every UI graphic in all the iWork apps should be available to Apple developers with the understanding that they stay exclusively on Apple products.

I'd love to see Apple start playing hard ball with Adobe. IE get them to support Apple's UI conventions or start investing heavily in the guys behind Pixelmator. I don't care how many APIs they have to hand to those guys to continue to grow that app so that it works for everyone who's not proofing in a pro environment, but it's a worthwhile investment. It's consistently one of the highest ranking Mac apps and they are hopefully working on an iPad version.

Speaking of an iPad version of Pixelmator. How bout a Bluetooth pressure sensitive pen for the iPad? That would in one fell swoop scare the pants off Wacom and force Adobe to start taking the iPad seriously or get killed by whoever does.
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2012, 09:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by iMOTOR View Post
Just bring back the XServe. The lack of a real server is a problem for me. If Apple could figure out a way for OpenDirectory serve as a domain controller for Win7 clients, that would be nice too.
Not going to happen, unfortunately. Apple has changed focus on getting Macs to integrate into Windows, Linux, and UNIX networks versus trying to reinvent the wheel with OS X Server. OS X Server is probably going to go away completely in a few years and be migrated into a set of extensions for Windows Server and Active Directory.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
freudling
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2012, 11:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
What I'd love to see:
Add in some options to make live easier for people who use Macs in different environments. My Thunderbolt monitor is great when I get home I plug in my MacBook to it and it automatically backs up by Time Machine I'm hooked up to all of my peripherals. Problem is every time I disconnect the thunderbolt cable I get an error telling me to eject the hard drive. Why? Why not give me the option to auto unmount after my backup is done, or maybe just come up with a good solution for it. Either way stop bugging me unnecessarily about it.
I'd love to see an xMac mini tower, doubt one will ever happen but it'd be nice.
One of the biggest things I'd love to see Apple stop doing is dicking around the people who are trying to make their stuff better. It seems they like hardware partners a lot more than software partners. Amazon had to pull the ability to buy a book with your amazon account because they didn't want to give Apple a 30% stake, that's actually reasonable. Instead they just made things harder for Amazon customers who owned iPads. Frankly for things where you're doing a sort of store front Apple should push for in app purchases but if the content is being stored on your own servers and all that sort of jazz they should really just drop the cut to 10% and make everyone happy. My guess is if anything that would be seen as a positive gesture and spur development.
Speaking as somebody who put something on the iBookstore. Apple REALLY needs to stop harassing their fans assuming that somebody else's product is going to be confused for their's just because it's on their devices and reminds people of their product. If I'm writing a novel and my character is listening to music it's going to be on their iPod and that doesn't say anything about Apple's brand aside from the fact that they're ubiquitous. They pay for product placement and they should stop being so annal about dumb stuff on their stores. (This goes for the App Store too.)
They should also REALLY look into having standard royalty free UI elements. In many cases third party developers emulate customer Apple interfaces while still choosing to slightly change their own because they don't want to incur Apple's wrath. Instead Apple should be working on creating a standard UI tool kit for things like + and - tool bar icons, new document, notes, whatever. Pretty well every UI graphic in all the iWork apps should be available to Apple developers with the understanding that they stay exclusively on Apple products.
I'd love to see Apple start playing hard ball with Adobe. IE get them to support Apple's UI conventions or start investing heavily in the guys behind Pixelmator. I don't care how many APIs they have to hand to those guys to continue to grow that app so that it works for everyone who's not proofing in a pro environment, but it's a worthwhile investment. It's consistently one of the highest ranking Mac apps and they are hopefully working on an iPad version.
Speaking of an iPad version of Pixelmator. How bout a Bluetooth pressure sensitive pen for the iPad? That would in one fell swoop scare the pants off Wacom and force Adobe to start taking the iPad seriously or get killed by whoever does.
This. And I've PM'd you.
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 12, 2012, 07:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
I'd love to see an xMac mini tower, doubt one will ever happen but it'd be nice.
Laptops are the future.™
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
One of the biggest things I'd love to see Apple stop doing is dicking around the people who are trying to make their stuff better. It seems they like hardware partners a lot more than software partners. Amazon had to pull the ability to buy a book with your amazon account because they didn't want to give Apple a 30% stake, that's actually reasonable.
That's a tough one since there are no established business models yet. There are a couple of problems with the App Store (e. g. lack of trials and lack of upgrades), and even though there are good reasons for changing the status quo, they would make the whole system more complicated and/or would have unforeseen consequences.

If you lower the cut of in-app purchases, I reckon many app vendors would simply create a cheap/free shell app and make the meat of the app an in-app purchase. And any special deals you negotiate makes it harder for smaller, more nimbler players to compete which are not in a position of leverage to get the same deals. And small app vendors are the reason why the iOS ecosystem exists as it does today.
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
They should also REALLY look into having standard royalty free UI elements. In many cases third party developers emulate customer Apple interfaces while still choosing to slightly change their own because they don't want to incur Apple's wrath. Instead Apple should be working on creating a standard UI tool kit for things like + and - tool bar icons, new document, notes, whatever. Pretty well every UI graphic in all the iWork apps should be available to Apple developers with the understanding that they stay exclusively on Apple products.
Huh? Apple has plenty of standard UI elements for iOS. No royalty necessary and Apple encourages developers to use them so that people have a good and consistent »platform experience«. Or are you referring to something else?
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
I'd love to see Apple start playing hard ball with Adobe. IE get them to support Apple's UI conventions or start investing heavily in the guys behind Pixelmator. I don't care how many APIs they have to hand to those guys to continue to grow that app so that it works for everyone who's not proofing in a pro environment, but it's a worthwhile investment. It's consistently one of the highest ranking Mac apps and they are hopefully working on an iPad version.
That's not going to happen, when it comes to desktop apps, Adobe will resist to the bitter end since they want to keep the core parts of their apps platform agnostic. By definition that means you're programming for the lowest common denominator. Also, Adobe has tried for a long time to resist the turn of time (e. g. by clinging to Flash) instead of recognizing where technology flows to and help go there faster. The best Apple can do IMHO is put competitive products on the market and support them well (e. g. Aperture's development has seemed to be on the back burner).
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
freudling
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2012, 12:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
What I'd love to see:

I'd love to see Apple start playing hard ball with Adobe. IE get them to support Apple's UI conventions or start investing heavily in the guys behind Pixelmator. I don't care how many APIs they have to hand to those guys to continue to grow that app so that it works for everyone who's not proofing in a pro environment, but it's a worthwhile investment. It's consistently one of the highest ranking Mac apps and they are hopefully working on an iPad version.
Why should Adobe follow Apple's UI conventions? Is there something you think needs to change with their UI?

For instance, Photoshop CS6? I think it's cool that they have so many features but are able to cram it all in in a unique interface. Mac Apps most of them all look the same and are boring.

Let me know your thoughts.
     
Spheric Harlot
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2012, 12:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
They should also REALLY look into having standard royalty free UI elements. In many cases third party developers emulate customer Apple interfaces while still choosing to slightly change their own because they don't want to incur Apple's wrath. Instead Apple should be working on creating a standard UI tool kit for things like + and - tool bar icons, new document, notes, whatever. Pretty well every UI graphic in all the iWork apps should be available to Apple developers with the understanding that they stay exclusively on Apple products.
Ah no. What you're seeing is exactly what Apple does NOT want.

Those apps you're seeing are the ones where app developers chose to focus on cross-platform development environments. There are libraries that emulate Apple's look and feel, but they're never *quite* right (scrolling, button selection latency are tell-tale signs). Apple's tools give developers all that for free.

Anecdotal background:
An acquaintance of mine is doing just that for a rather large mobile software. It turned out that it would have been a lot less work than separately optimizing the iOS version, which still doesn't feel right. (And apparently, Android is no less work than it would have been otherwise, either.)
     
Salty
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2012, 03:15 PM
 
Ahh I thought the rational behind apps like Scrivner having non standard icons was the result of people not wanting to get sued. If Apple's already doing that then I need to start giving more negative feedback to various groups haha.

Also Adobe does manage to pack a lot into their UIs but there's certain things they do that are very non-Mac like and kind of frustrating. For example the notion of having pallets all over the screen that then go away later is weird. I'm used to it and everything but it always feels strange.
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2012, 05:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
I'm used to it and everything but it always feels strange.
I don't think this is a sign of good UI design.

I get the impression that they're not willing to push the envelope on usability, e. g. one of the strongest reasons I prefer Aperture over Lightroom (despite the fact that v4 has an arguably superior RAW converter) is (1) that with Aperture I have the option of a »managed photos« and (2) vaults. I know that there are some situations when you want/need manual control of the location of the images, but I can have that with Aperture, too (on a per-file basis if I need be!).
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
freudling
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 16, 2012, 10:09 AM
 
Do people have issues with non-standard UIs? We're going to be taking the wraps off of a fairly big OS X program shortly and we spent some months developing the UI. We use our own UI elements and colors. I'm really excited about how fresh and clean it looks, a blend of something from Adobe CS6 and Apple's standard Aqua stuff.

I think Pixelmator is a great example of a non-standard UI that works for them, although it's a bit too black and dark for my liking.
     
freudling
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 16, 2012, 10:42 AM
 
Hello Tim Cook, you there? Anywhere to be found? Sitting in a bath house maybe?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3247315/apple-staffing-controversy-john-browett
     
 
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:51 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,