Apple: Please stop "improving" iPads and operating systems

The BBQ Pit
#1

This is a companion thread to my earlier one about Yahoo Mail. Today I traded up from an iPad 2 to a 4, and got the new IOS. My first reaction has been to hurl it against a wall.

I realize it’s necessary to plug security holes, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why they find it necessary to make pointless cosmetic changes that add nothing and only annoy folks like me. Some examples:

Podcast App: Changed from black background to blinding white. I liked it black, and that’s just me. But why?! What does this improve? Also, when playing a podcast in the earlier version I could swipe anywhere on the screen and return to the list page. Now you can’t do that, you have to hit a small button in the upper corner. Again, why?!?!

Safari: Moved the bookmarks from the left side of the page to the right. Accomplishes nothing except necessitating retraining me to go to the other side. What did that improve? Why make a pointless change like that? At least they could have given me some control over where it appears.

Double Click: When you double click the home button (or swipe up from the bottom) you got a list of active programs and could close them by touching them. Now the appearance is different, and instead of touching them you have to swipe up vertically. I had to Google that to figure it out. Again, for the love of a goat-felching god, WHY?!?!?! What’s the point of a change like that?

Brightness: This one really kills me. Using the same double click or swipe-up maneuver, you could quickly get the brightness and volume controls. You still can, except the screen now dims a bit in the new version. Which means when you manipulate the brightness, you don’t find out what it’s really going to look like until you return to normal operation and the screen un-dims. Wasn’t there a goddam engineer in the room to point out how fucking stupid that is when they made this apparently oh-so-urgent change?

I’m so sick of this crap. There are many who sneer at this sort of complaining, calling it a “first world problem”. Well, fuck them. If Apple can go to the trouble of making all these changes, they can at least serve a fucking purpose. I really wish this aspect of computer culture would go away. I’m fine with changes that accomplish something, but can we get the fuck away from this change-for-the-sake-of-change paradigm?

#2

Yes, this is pretty much the way I feel about iOS 7. For the few marginal benefits, all of the needless fundamental changes made to the interface only served to make the interface more difficult to use. Change for the sake of improvement is good, but change of the sake of changing things to wipe out he old regime is just obnoxious.

And Jony Ive can go stick his head in a pig.

Stranger

#3

Not even remotely happy that the Calendar app is blinding white.

Give me back my textures and colors. Monochrome simple graphics are so last century.

#4

If it ain’t broke, fix it until it is.

#5

If there aren’t constant pointless changes, consumers will begin to suspect the product is outdated, or at least dimwitted Apple management and/or software engineers desperate to justify their existences believe so.

You think the Google homepage features different images and cartoons on a daily basis for entertainment purposes?

#6

So you traded up from a product you liked to one you’re not happy with, because of minor things you could have discovered by trying the new one out first?

#7

Old one got broken. Believe me, I’d much rather have kept it. And really, I don’t care much at all for the iPad, or Apple in general, but I need it for work (there’s a program that doesn’t operate on any other system). Given the choice for purely personal use, I might have tried an Android product.

#8

I’m in the same boat with iOS 7. I dragged my feet on upgrading from 6 and finally decided to bite the bullet when the recent security scare meant either living with a security flaw or upgrading. (Because the security fix for iOS 6 was only being issued for older devices that can’t use iOS 7 at all. For a newer device, it was 7 or nothing.)

Life goes on, I suppose, but it’s NOT an improvement.

#9

I agree. We haven’t upgraded to the latest version of any Apple product or OS. I think our iTunes is about 6 behind. We’re going to stick with it until Apple no longer supports it.

Of course, we can’t use Find My Phone because it’s not supported in the older versions. So I guess we just have to be sure not to lose the phones!

And it’s not just Apple - don’t get me started on Windows 8…

#10

Security flaw? Damn. I’ve had iOS7 on my relatively new iPad waiting in the wings for months now. This means I’ll finally have to let it through? :stuck_out_tongue:

#11

Well, it makes a refreshing change from “OMGWindoze8!”

#12

Don’t get me started on the new desktop OS10.9, “Maverick.” There isn’t one change that isn’t a change for the worse. I’m seriously considering going back to OS10.8, if I can.

#13

On a related note, is there any act more futile than clicking on the “Do not ever remind me of this update again” button?

#14

The podcast app is only getting better and better.

Huh. I never noticed that, even though I adjust my brightness at night and every morning. You’re right. It is frustrating to have to guess what level I want. Bah, iOS.

#15

I hate the podcast app on my iPhone 5. I wish I could go back to the setup in which podcasts were part of the music app and could be managed in iTunes. But they’ve taken away that option.

iTunes acts like it’s uploading podcasts to the iPhone but those a uploads are nowhere to be found. You have to re-download every episode from the cloud in the podcast app.

Even then half the time there’s a download error – rendering it forever undownloadable – or every already downloaded episode becomes “unavailable” for unstated reasons and the only solution is to clear everything out and start over.

#16

I wish they would have left ITunes alone.

It was fucking brilliant and so easy to use. Then they kept upgrading and turned it into a mess.

#17

We have always been at war with EastIOS!

#18

Hm. My podcasts download automatically from the cloud whenever I’m connected to WiFi, foregoing the iTunes process altogether. I can also access back episodes that way, and stream whatever isn’t downloaded via the cell network.

#19

In case you haven’t heard, here’s a quick link that talks about the flaw, a problem in the implementation of SSL: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/02/22/major-security-flaw-hits-ios-iphone-and-ipad-users-need-to-update-to-ios-706-immediately/

Apparently, it also exists in the Desktop Mac OS X.

#20

I had an iPhone 4 until January. I had stayed on ios5 long after 6 came out, because I had read that it wasn’t super uncommon for iPhone 4’s to experience worse battery life, etc after updating to ios6. But then, more and more apps started requiring ios6, so I upgraded. I knew NO ONE who liked the awful podcast app and I had a big backlog of episodes in Music already (so I could listen to them in Music, but any new podcasts would need to be acquired through the new app).

Earlier ios updates had always pushed the new system apps with the os itself (like the stupid gameroom), but it didn’t do that with podcasts.

So I’m making my way through my existing episodes and when I’m almost finished, they release ios7. I’m NOT updating to 7, because the 4 is the very oldest supported model and is single core (4s+ have dual core) and a fuckload of people have had horror stories with their 4 and ios7, even with the stripped down effects.

But hey, I finish my episodes. Now I HAVE to get the podcast app. Go to the app store, tap “install” and — get a message saying the latest version requires ios7 so I can’t install the app!!

I even ask on apple’s support boards and yeah, they confirm - there is no way to get an earlier version of A SYSTEM APP once the newest ios is out if you hadn’t gotten it earlier.

WHAT THE FUCK SENSE DOES THAT MAKE?