The Maccouch

Apple Music has some pretty interfaces, but at least in terms of setting up playlists, it is absolutely abysmal. Just flat out awful and near unusable.

I really wanted Apple Music to win me over, but it only made me realize how nice of an app Spotify has both on desktop and on iOS.

UPDATE: Yes, this post is a bit overdramatic and focuses only on making playlists. Yes, there are lots of things that Apple Music probably does well. I just wanted to make my own playlists, and I became very annoyed with how poorly Apple Music currently supports that. A more appropriate title, maybe, would be “Apple Music was a Usability Nightmare for me,” because I ran into issues and roadblocks every step of the way. As Apple makes updates to the iOS app and iTunes, I will definitely check the updates out. Right now, however, it’s not worth my time to go through tedious clicks over and over just to get to the same point that I’m already at with Spotify.

CezaryWojcik.com

Yep. Pretty much on this update is a freaking mess to use or discover. I’ve given up on Connect obviously, it was as bad if not more than Ping and as equally as useless, and there’s no way in hell I’ll subscribe to this mess in 3 months time. In fact what I’ll find out is how to rid iTunes interface of all of this mess menus and just go back to “my music and my playlists”. And much probably, just like I’be been going with Apple’s Mail, try to find a third party alternative that just works and it’s simple. You know, things Apple used to be!

It’s probably the fourth time I’ve done this and i still can’t continue… random artists i don’t even know or remember who they are, no way to listen to their music, no pictographically icons or images so that I might recognise them. It’s resorted to a list of artists that I recognise and that I don’t dislike that much. And I still can’t continue.

Seriously. Ask me: “name 6 artists you like or listen frequently” and I’ll have no problems writing them down for you. What the hell are these nonsensical bubbles for? They’re a pain in the ass, ineffective and annoying as hell. If you can’t figure out from my iTunes playlist who I listen more, then just allow me to write them down. This is just retarded.

… sigh again. I don’t like nor want to follow anyone on this page. Now what? What’s up with the f***ing interface design Apple?

In case I wasn’t perfectly clear on the last post, and because I’m trying to listen to Beats 1, for the second time, THERE. IS. NO. MONOCULTURE. WORLDWIDE.

I assumed this wasn’t required to explain to a large corporation as Apple but apparently it is. Beats 1 is just a online radio. That’s it. There’s nothing innovating or particularly brilliant here. In fact there isn’t even nothing particularly useful here! What you listen in New York or Los Angeles is not the same to what someone listens in Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Bombai, Luanda, Cape Town, Brasilia or Lima…

I fail to see why Apple is actually wasting its resources here, instead of leaving this to a plethora of third parties and partners, regionally relevant and interesting. It’s not like Apple doesn’t have a plethora of issues to fix, if there’s enough resources to waste on crap like this, I expect no more basic low level bugs, usability short-comes and crappy own-offerings such as iCloud Drive and the current version of iWorks.

Seriously Apple. FOCUS THE FUCK ON. Stop spreading your efforts in a ton of things that never work reliably or even work at all. Focus on a core, make it bullet proof, and leave the rest for third parties to build on. Get your shit together.

While they haven’t fix the Home Sharing issues, they seemed to have decided that I would be interested in following these artists. It’s amazing how Cupertino has become small minded, presumptuous and unware that there might be more than the Top Ten list on iTunes sales… And how instead of asking me to select a bunch of artists to start following they automatically added me these… don’t even know how to call them… I don’t listen to a single one. Apart from Robbie Williams which has a very nice Jazz CD. His only CD that I listen.

I was already shocked at the “monoculture” scream that they actually intended to launch with Beats 1 and 2 and 3. It was amazing to me how a company like Apple couldn’t understand that not everyone in the world listens or even cares, to the anglo-saxon focused music that they listen to. It’s now even more amazing how they don’t understand that polluting a product launch with a set of an undesired defaults it’s worst that not having defaults at all.

Sigh… If this is our best offer in the field of Computers and Operating Systems, it’s a cry of help for the others.

“Home Sharing” on iTunes between an iOS and OS X device was spotty at best. So, with this new release of iOS 8.4 and OS X 10.10.4, where the dreaded DiscoveryD was finally put to rest, what does Apple do to fix this spotty working? Eliminates the feature completely obviously.

Oh Apple… I don’t know if I’m more disappointed or angry at your utter incompetence lately. Seems like Microsoft’s Marketing Department took over the reins at Cupertino, with its very specific touch of “geniality”…

"featuritis" -> the random believe that you just need to keep adding "features", despite very few of them working consistently and reliably.

— Philip (@maccouch) June 30, 2015

Apple’s latest “sickness”.

It’s broken because it depends heavily on Discoveryd. And as we all know Discoveryd is a mess, and I have to terminate it at least once every two days. Or more. So, although I would love to use my ipad while listening music from my Mac multi-gigabyte library, I can’t. It never works reliably. Or works at all.

A fact that has been ignored by both Apple executives as Apple’s focused media, is that the concept of free yearly updates on OS X has drawbacks and hidden costs.

One of them, and the most egregious for me, is that now, if I was to follow each year update to the launch date, I would be without most of my needed/dependable software on time, as new versions and compatibility have to be checked and fixed, and rarely released in time. And I would be in need to purchase the new “updated” version of said software because developers have to eat and if “stability and bug fixes for a launched software” can be done with minimal resources living on the initial and steady number of sales, now most developers will have to test their software against the new OS, the “improved” or deprecated APIs/libraries/functionality, fix it, and launch the software again.

So, if you’re actually heavily invested in OS X productivity software, the new “yearly free updates” now implies to either stop using old software or keep paying the treadmill license for continuous updates of new software. You’re effectively in a worse condition if you depend on your Mac to work than you would be before the yearly update policy took in.

This has to stop. It’s insane. It could be done on iOS ’cause iOS apps are made from the start to be limited and work within the sandbox container, but OS X apps are different and can’t be turned equivalent without destroying the general utility and all-purpose function of the Mac. Most Mac apps are a complex, elaborated piece of software, their developers can’t be expected to keep drastically checking and updating it every year without additional funds. And so, again, they’re actually more expensive to use and less reliable to do so.

Apple, yearly updates to your computer OS are. a. very. bad. idea. Stop it. Please.