
Apple in 2017: Report Card - mpweiher
https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/01/apple-in-2017-the-six-colors-report-card/
======
S_A_P
This seems pretty fair. I think that most of the big 4 tech companies are
batting about a b/c grade in most areas. Ive an iMac pro and Im pretty happy
with it, I skipped a macbook pro update to go with the iMac pro as my home
computer. I am aware of most of the complaints about it, but for what I
do(write code, play music) its pretty much the perfect machine. Hopefully they
will continue improving the mac lineup and cater more to their pro users on
the other form factors as well. The iPhone 8 was a good upgrade for me. I dont
want to use my face to unlock the phone and I like the home button, so the
iPhoneX isnt for me. The iPhone 8plus has proven to be a great incremental
improvement from the 6plus I used previously. Apple did, however have a pretty
weak year in software, I would call that a d to d-. Lots of bad bugs were
released, and I think most people noticed a palpable decrease in code from
apple in the past year or two. They have somewhat redeemed themselves with
Logic 10.4, as it is a really really really good update.

~~~
jrs95
macOS has just been killing me recently. XCode as well. Builds lock up my Mac
for almost an hour without resources even being utilized according to top or
Activity Monitor. If the software reliability of the Mac hadn’t declined so
sharply in the past couple years (in my experience at least) I would have
bought an iMac Pro as well.

~~~
S_A_P
I can relate. Luckily for me most of the code I write is .net so I’m not
messing with Xcode for anything other than hobby projects.

------
aphextron
This seems to confirm my suspicions about Apple's software quality: it has
fallen off a cliff over the past 2 years. I'm not sure what's even happening.
iOS used to "just work", and now I have daily crashes and freezes on a brand
new phone. I literally cannot use Snapchat and Tinder at the same time - it
causes them both to crash. Turning off wifi and bluetooth no longer actually
turns them off, and so I have lost all control over my own device's power
usage.

I have been a faithful iOS user since the 3G, and yet the SE I just bought
will probably be my last iPhone. Everything since iOS 8 has just been a
travesty. Can anyone explain this?

~~~
Klonoar
I find this to be one of those things in life where people with negative
experiences are just significantly louder than people with positive ones. It's
like hunting for an apartment - you're only going to find bad reviews, because
when something works as expected people don't usually feel the need to praise
it.

I've had a generally rock solid experience with iOS11 so far (and I have a 6+
with a degraded battery to boot - things still operate fine, never needed to
reinstall fresh or anything).

I _will_ say that Tinder has a huge issue in their app, where whatever the
hell they're doing in the background balloons out of control and seems to
cause some kind of memory pressure on the device. I don't use Snapchat so I
can't comment if it's the same issue there, but on my phone it's Tinder-
specific: literally no other app has this issue, but the simple act of opening
Tinder and swiping through a few will cause the device to go crazy and
silently kill other apps in the background for some reason.

I originally thought this was just my 6+ (i.e, maybe the degraded battery or
something), but I've tried it on some development devices I have and it
exhibits the same thing for me. My best guess is that the crowd that uses
Tinder is willing to ignore that kind of issue because... well, it's Tinder,
people are on there for a reason.

Re: wifi/bluetooth, I actually vastly prefer the way it is now. It took some
getting used to but it just makes more sense.

Of course, your mileage and experiences may vary, so what do I know.

~~~
raquo
Well it can go either way. I'm fed up with misguided developments in both
hardware and software of smartphones – both Apple and Androids – and have lost
all excitement I used to have about that. Same goes for some of my family.

I am not loud about that because I don't care anymore because none of the
devices on the market suit my needs, and I gave up on that ever changing.

I think my case is more common than any loud opinions out there.

~~~
madeofpalk
> [I] have lost all excitement I used to have about that. Same goes for some
> of my family.

I actually think this is a part of the problem. We watched essentially a
completely new product category invented in front of our eyes and watched it
mature. The lowest hanging fruit were picked _years_ ago (by 2012, in
fact![1]). Android caught up to iPhone in a very serious way. What's left to
do?

I feel like both platforms are in a state where they're 'innovating' just for
the sake of it, for marketing, because people still expect the giant leaps
that we had in the earlier years. Everyone knows this (Apple made a whole ad
about 'not much has changed'[2]).

[1]:
[https://daringfireball.net/2012/05/ios_low_hanging_fruit](https://daringfireball.net/2012/05/ios_low_hanging_fruit)

[2]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwQjHZp9I6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwQjHZp9I6w)

~~~
hrktb
I still think a awful lot of things are left to do that are not moonshots.

Phones physically break a lot. There should be better ways than rubber cases
or glued rings to help people not drop the gigantic phones we have now.

Wearable integration is limited and uninspired. Aside from bulky watches and
bracelets nothing got attention.

Bluetooth connectivity still seems like a dumpster fire, things like airpod
are coming, but it’s far from a solved problem in my opinion.

In the same vain communication among devices owned by the smae person is still
primitive. We now have computers, phones, tablets, speaking cylinders, NAS and
media serveds and short of buying every single one of them from the same
company they won’t speak together.

~~~
madeofpalk
> Wearable integration is limited and uninspired. Aside from bulky watches and
> bracelets nothing got attention.

I actually think this is a symptom of the same problem. 'Wearables' were/are
an attempt at creating a next 'iPhone' \- new device category to get big wows
for every year. Unfortunately, the market need wasnt/isnt really there for it,
apart from some fitness accessories.

------
nkkollaw
I had been using Apple phones and computers since 2008, and in the last few
years everything got so crappy that I'm using XFCE4 on a Chinese Thinker i35,
and I couldn't be happier. I can use the extra money to take my girlfriend on
a trip.

~~~
arca_vorago
XFCE really has improved over the last few years. After the Windows 10 debacle
I went completely gnu/linux and settled on Manjaro-XFCE as my daily driver...
and I am loving it, but I do remember XFCE back in the early 2000's, which at
the time drove me to KDE.

When I do harder work I tend to drop into awesome, but not everyone can handle
a tiling window manager.

~~~
kakarot
I always dipped between GNOME and KDE because XFCE and LDXE never impressed
me, but for the last half-decade of development or so XFCE seems to be doing
very well.

I've moved all of my systems over to it and couldn't be happier.

I would like to use a tiling WM for development but Sway (understandably)
still has a long way to go. Not really interested in awesome or i3 at this
point with Wayland on the horizon.

------
caio1982
I think iCloud cheated on its end of semester tests! It didn't deserve such
high grade... the only thing it can always do correctly is iPhone backups,
just that, like someone said there. It's slow, expensive and clumsy.

~~~
nkristoffersen
just a point from the other side. I use iCloud and it is quick, cheap, and
seamless. $9.99/mo for 2TB is a great deal. And the file/photo/video syncing
is painless and automatic.

~~~
giobox
iCloud photo library syncing is a mess, to put it politely. The number of
things you can do that accidentally trigger a full re-upload of your entire
photo library is a minefield. Don't get me started on photoanalysisd either...
Having re-uploads/photoanalysisd run repeatedly on large libraries is not fun.

[http://tidbits.com/article/17757](http://tidbits.com/article/17757)

Increasingly the Google Photos iOS/desktop uploader apps offers a
significantly more robust sync experience for me on my Apple devices.

The pricing is fine until you hit the 2TB cap (very easily done if you use
Family Sharing especially), at which point you are hosed. Even offering the
ability to pay $x per GB over this cap would be a lifeline. Again Google have
much better options for this. That the default free amount of storage hasn't
changed in years from 5GB for all your devices is arguably pretty mean in
2018.

------
pier25
Current Macbooks are not so great, but there has never been a better time to
get an iMac.

I don't know about Final Cut, but Logic has been getting constant and
significant updates. Today we received 10.4 which included new plugins and
features for free.

To be honest I'm starting to fall in love with the Mac again after a couple of
years of frustration. Hopefully this is only the beginning.

------
tptacek
It's hard to take a 4.0 on hardware reliability seriously when individual
specks of dust can still take your laptop out of commission for 5+ days while
Apple completes a $400 repair. The keyboard has to work, and it still doesn't.

~~~
Clubber
I haven't had this problem so bad it needed a repair. When stuff gets stuck
under a key, I just mash it a few times and it fixes itself. I should probably
used canned air, but I don't have any at the moment, and the mashing trick
works.

~~~
protomyth
That didn't work for my new MacBook Pro. I have a b key that either types 0
b's or 2 b's. Took it to the Apple store and they blew air under it which did
nothing. I now have to find time to send it in. I just am at a loss how they
could design something with such a poor feel and so fragile. I guess I should
be happy I use an external keyboard at work.

~~~
Clubber
Hopefully you just got a dud keyboard. My down arrow key went stiff earlier
today and I mashed it a while and it didn't help. Then I blew into the key
(from the side) with my mouth (still no compressed air) and that fixed it.

------
jacksmith21006
Long time Apple customer and 2017 was easily the worse year in over a decade.
Not only quality and throttlegate but faliure to release the HomePod for
Christmas and still not improving Siri.

------
ggm
touch bar: your armor turns to dust as a hoard of orcs appear from the walls.

------
chmaynard
> “I wear my Apple Watch about 23 hours each day and I love it,” wrote Dan
> Frakes.

Interesting. Apparently Dan has figured out how to recharge the woefully
inadequate battery while the watch is on his wrist.

~~~
taspeotis
My own experience with the Apple Watch battery life is that its just fine. It
could be longer, sure.

Wearing the watch for 23 hours a day is manageable if you are diligent about
when you charge it [1] and when you use flight mode [2]. Personally I do not
bother with this but if you were someone who valued sleep tracking via your
Apple Watch then you can find ways to make it work.

[1] [https://www.sleepwatchapp.com/charging-apple-watch-for-
sleep...](https://www.sleepwatchapp.com/charging-apple-watch-for-sleep/)

[2]
[https://pillow.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/1197217-...](https://pillow.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/1197217-does-
airplane-mode-affect-sleep-tracking-when-i-us)

~~~
neild
Apple Watch series 3, no cellular: Usually ~75% charge remaining after wearing
it for 16 hours. Maybe the cellular ones are a lot more power hungry, but I
could charge this one only every other day with no problems.

------
hajile
In the world of software, Apple should be getting a D or F. Their recent
security issues are perhaps the worst of any large corporation ever. When such
gaping security issues exist, it's simply not reasonable to presume other
areas of lesser importance are better maintained. Any person who has used OSX
over the years is well aware of the drastic drop in quality and corresponding
increase in issues. With such a limited amount of hardware there's no reason
for their hardware issues.

~~~
tabs_masterrace
That's just all the hyperbole Apple gets. Security is one of the biggest
strongpoints of Apple. Look at recent Meltdown/Spectre issue, macOS, iOS, tvOS
all got fixes deployed immediately, just press a button to install. Meanwhile
how many vulnerable Android phones and unpatched Linux boxes are out there.

Vulnerabilities come and go on every system, but Apples is actually very good
at mass deploying fixes to their whole product line very fast.

~~~
busterarm
People really don't understand just how many miles ahead iPhone security is
from Android. It's almost a joke, really.

~~~
c256
A few years ago, I was thinking about switching to an Android phone, to try
out android app development. I changed my mind when I read a serious article
titles something like “which anti-virus software packages should you run on
your android phone”.

