Family Sharing is not for everyone #apple #familysharing

Not to be confused with Steam Family Sharing which is apparently for no one.

 

 

Apple’s Family Sharing is a cool little service that lets you share purchases with family members.  If you don’t mind the 6 member limit, you can have a nice little sharing circle just like preschools have sometimes.

 

There is one problem with it.  And I have searched the Internet for a really long time, and no site has picked up on it.

 

All the family members defer to the Family Organizer in order to buy things.

…

That didn’t sound right;

 

All family members have to use the Family Organizer’s bank account.

…that sounded worse;

 

All family members have to use the Family Organizer’s money…oh fuck it.

 

That’s right:  ALL FAMILY MEMBERS ARE RESTRICTED TO THE FAMILY ORGANIZER’S BANK ACCOUNT AND CAN SUCK THE FAMILY ORGANIZER DRY FASTER THAN HE CAN SAY “OOPS”.

 

Unless you have a minor (a person under 13).  Then the minor has to ask permission.  Also, Apple recommends to pick the most reliable person.  Yes…pick the most reliable and honest person and suck them dry.  Thanks M.A. Larson—I mean Apple—I mean Kevin Lynch.

My theory of why everything went to shit #apple #applefail #ios

Well…this is awkward.

 

So, I need to have a talk with you guys.  Everything was kind of not handled, yeah?  From Bendgate (or the iPhone 6 Pluses bending and breaking), to iOS 8.0.1 not…being tested with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus?  Yes.  Really.

 

This theory…may be hard to take depending on how you think of things.

 

I’m going to step through this as slowly as I can so that you guys understand this.

 

——

 

Remember when I talked about the Maps issue?  Apple fired Scott at that point.  But they also fired another person from the Maps team…who actually appears to be more crucial then Apple thought he was.  Josh Williams.

And by fired I mean Apple moved Josh from iOS Maps Quality Assurance to General iOS Quality Assurance.

 

Josh suddenly had to handle so many more things than just “make sure Maps works”.  He had to make sure every single thing on iOS works, including Handoff, which includes the Mac software team.

 

Remember, Tim Cook is a stickler for collaboration.  He feels that every single team, be it iOS, Mac, or Apple Watch, should band together as one to make products people love and use every day.

 

So poor Josh, having to move from Maps, which doesn’t always include the Mac team, to general iOS stuff, which almost always (at least now) includes the Mac team, means that he has to manage basically two teams.  Now here’s the rub:  Since everyone is interacting with everyone, because that’s the very definition of collaborating:  Surprise!  I lied!  Everyone has to manage every single team.

 

Now, let’s think about what this means.

 

——

 

Currently, there are 4 real teams (that we know about):  iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Macintosh.  I don’t know what happened to the iPod team.

 

It looks like Tim Cook is wanting every device to talk to one another, and become one big hub for your data.  (YES.  APPLE COLLECTS DATA.  EVERYONE ELSE DOES TOO.  SHUSH UP.)  Tim Cook also wants the devices to embrace the user.  Yes, Steve Jobs did too, but Tim is way more lenient about how he does it.  He wants the user to have many more choices than what Apple has been offering before.  So, he made the system more open.  He introduced custom keyboards, he introduced Notification widgets.  Think of what this means for Apple’s teams:  the iPhone and iPad teams now have to deal with an entirely new category of possible viruses and code sections that can break, and two entirely new app environments.  Handoff requires the Mac and iOS teams to make a unified system to communicate full app states to each other.  The Watch introduces an entirely new team that has to make new innovations and create everything from scratch.

 

This is taxing for any company.  But Apple will get through it, right?  They only release products when they’re ready, correct?

 

Wrong.  I give you: iOS 8.0.1, the iPhone 6 Plus, and…Apple Watch.

——

I’m going to start with the iPhone 6 Plus, because, well, that phone should have worked, right?

 

In fact, it does work.  It works beautifully in every way.  It has a great camera, it runs very fast, Metal makes games look console-level, and everything is great (except Reachability, but OKAY FINE).  The only thing Apple didn’t seem to catch (and therefore Jony didn’t catch…somehow…) is that if you put the phone in your back pocket (assuming you can get it in there in the first place), and sit down, the radial pressure caused by your rounded buttock can bend the phone around its lengthwise axis, and, oddly, the material that the phone is made out of is not springy enough to bend itself back into place, so when you do take the phone out of your pocket, you will find that the phone is permanently bent around the middle.  Come the hell on, Apple!  Even I figured that out, and I don’t have an iPhone 6 Plus!

———

Now, for iOS 8.0.1.

 

This may rub some Apple fans the wrong way if they somehow have never heard of it.  And I am sorry.

 

So, iOS 8 apparently still had some problems with carrier signals and Safari and a few other things.  So, predictably, Apple released iOS 8.0.1, which was meant to fix those issues.  And it did…for every iPhone except the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.  For those two iPhones only, iOS 8.0.1 completely destroyed them.  The iPhones started not being able to connect to cell towers at all, some iPhones said the Wi-Fi was fine but couldn’t connect, Touch ID completely broke.  It got so bad, that Apple literally had to take down the 8.0.1 update file from the update servers.  Then it released iOS 8.0.2, which was supposed to fix iOS 8.0.1, and also the problems that iOS 8.0.1 was supposed to fix in the first place.  But iOS 8.0.2 bricked my phone.  But then I got it working.  Why.

 

This isn’t making a lot of sense to you right now, but I got one more thing that will hint at the answer, and then I’ll tell you the answer.

———

Finally, the Apple Watch.  It is unfinished.

 

Yeah, Apple actually announced a product they weren’t done with yet.  It makes sense if you look at the home screen.  The home screen is composed of circular app icons, that shrink near the edges and gives you kind of a bubbly feeling when you move it around.  It seems to me like the Apple Watch they showed was only rectangular because that was the shape they were using in development, because that’s the shape all their other products are.  When the Apple Watch is released, it might be actually circular, and maybe the apps will be a little more cleaned up (the Photos app needs a lot of love though, right now it has none).

 

———

 

If you haven’t figured it out yet, here’s the answer:  Apple is doing way too much at once.

 

But not in terms of products, in terms of functionality.  Apple’s teams are stretched way too thin trying to cover Handoff, custom keyboards, and widgets, and Apple Watch, and OS X Yosemite, and whatever else they’re doing in secret.

 

This doesn’t mean the quality will drop.  No, I believe that Apple employees are so used to not doing ANYTHING until they’re sure they have a good idea, that they’ll just keep doing that even if the situation is dire and things are tense.

 

But little things will be skipped.  Not testing the iPhone 6’s rigidity height wise, for example.  Or not testing iOS 8.0.1 on the new phones (even though I think both of those problems are COMPLETE BULLSHIT…for a company, they’re the little things).

 

And now I have someone to blame!  Kevin Lynch!

Watch Analysis #applewatch #apple #iwatch

I am really confused.

 

Who built the hardware again?  No I’m serious, that question is a valid one to me.

Take a look at the Digital Crown.  First of all, it’s not digital, it’s physical.  Second…it’s too small for anything!  When I first saw it I thought “Eh, you might not be able to twist the thing while it’s on your wrist, but I’ll just treat it like a computer mouse’s scroll wheel.”…well, then I took a massive amount of screenshots from the Apple ad depicting all the watch’s features…and I noticed the Digital Crown was way too small for even a mouse’s scroll wheel.  You have to be very precise to be able to turn the damn thing.  Sure it looks good in all the ads…but everything looks good in all the ads.

 

Keep in mind, that last thought is part of a huge theory I’m developing about Apple’s new and “improved” strategy for its product cycles.

 

SO…there is a massive amount of things we have to go over in order to understand everything about this watch.  And by the time you reach the end, at least some of you will have decided that the Watch is nothing but a big pile of poop.

——

The Boot Screen

Yes, I’m starting with the boot screen.  “But…why are you talking about the boot screen?”  You ask.  “Isn’t it just the same old white Apple logo?”

Well, no.  I’m actually only 99.95% convinced of this myself, but it was in the ads, and it looks like a possible boot screen to me, so here it is:

IMG_0198

 

 

Yes, that is what I THINK the boot screen will be.  First off there is way too much on the screen especially if you’re not expecting it and it’s your first time booting up the watch.  Second, take a look at all the text in that boot screen.

From the top:

“38MM CASE ・316L STAINLESS STEEL ・SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL・CERAMIC BACK”

 

Ummm…we don’t need to know this.  Also, it’s cluttered.  Also, this is what it looks like in German (via Google Translate, I corrected formatting):

“38MM GEHÄUSE AUS · 316L EDELSTAHL  ·  SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL · KERAMIK ZURÜCK”

 

It’s slightly longer.  Fit that in, Apple.  I hate this boot screen.

 

——

The Home Screen

So since the boot screen was so cluttered, what do you think the Home Screen will look like?  Well, it’s the first time you will interact with the watch, so it should be easy to navigate, yeah?  Well:

IMG_0173

 

 

Yes, that’s the Home Screen.  It looks really cluttered, as in if you have fat fingers, you’re kind of SOL.  Also, that is 27 apps on that screen alone.  I counted.  And that is the first, undoctored screen.  The Digital Crown was not used to zoom out.  Wanna know what happens when you zoom out?  Because you can zoom out.  And this happens:

IMG_0179

That is 50 apps.  I swear, I counted this too.  And that’s not even the total amount of apps on the watch.  Wanna know the total number?  64.  I didn’t count this one, my dad told me that someone else counted every single app that they showed, and the number was 64.  Sixty-four total apps on the stock version of the Watch.  You feeling okay, Apple?

 

——

The Photos App

Because it’s a thing:

IMG_0178

 

That is all.  Please storm Apple Campus at your leisure.

 

I’m done.  I’m just done.

 

But there is one thing that interests me.  It’s that thing I termed IntiTalk in my last post:

IMG_0186

I would really like this, actually.

But it has a few problems.

 

Yes, it’s an entirely new and intimate/interesting way to communicate, but…does it only work on the Watch?  Because if it does…what if you don’t have an Watch?  Where does the message go?  I mean, I guess the Taptic Engine signals can cue the iPhone’s vibrator into action, and the images you send each other can be iMessage images on the iPhone…but that’s a little clunky.  Is there a hidden screen in iOS 8 that mimics an Watch’s screen when this sort of message is received [god dammit, I keep typing “iWatch”]?

There are things Apple needs to say.  Like, a lot of things.  Like, battery life.

 

I don’t know if any of you noticed, but do you remember Apple talking about the Watch’s battery life?  I don’t.  The only place I heard about it was from a news article about some person getting the information through an Apple employee during the demo after the keynote:  About a day.

 

I saw that coming.  The Watch does so much shit that it’s surprising it doesn’t get really really hot.  Or maybe it does, I don’t know!

 

What am I going to do with you, Apple…what is going on?  What happened?  Did Jony lose half his brain?  Did Jony get trapped in his white box of a design studio?  Did Tim Cook fail to imitate Steve?

 

That’s one thing everyone needs to stop yelling about.  Tim Cook will not be able to imitate Steve.  Did anyone read the part in Tim’s history when Steve Jobs, as he was dying, basically said “Don’t ever start thinking about what I would have done.  I have seen too many companies freeze up and stop moving forward because all they could think about was what their predecessor would have done.”

 

So this is the new world order.  I hope you guys like this.  I’ll get used to it.

I will also make it even worse, so if you’re already crying, stop reading now.

 

——

Apple hired someone who used to work with Flash at Adobe

NOW GO CRY IN A CORNER

 

I swear, I didn’t make this up.  Apple hired Kevin Lynch, former CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Adobe for its Watch Software division.  Tim Cook is pulling out all the stops, forget this thing.

 

That is all I will say.

 

 

 

WOW

The Apple Keynote #applewatch #iphone6 #applefail

This was a big keynote.  And not just because Apple unveiled the Watch.  But also because of the huge fail that was the derpy livestream and the stupid Chinese translator woman thing whatever.

 

I’m going to be talking about all of these things at once in this post.  I don’t care if this makes the post awkward to read.  Shut up.

 

——

The huge fail

What the fuck happened here?  Did Apple not even realize what would happen if the entire Internet started screaming about Apple unveiling the first shit-ton of innovation since Steve Jobs died?  I mean wow, the servers acted like crap!  And the only reason for this was that everyone was watching!  And unless you live under a rock in Antartica and are not human, you’ll understand how fandoms act in general.  Just look at the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM) fandom!  I should know!  I’m part of it!

So I actually have some science about what actually happened.  So sit down and let me explain.

There is a main server which the video is initially streamed to.  That main server then streams the video to a bunch of other servers, that are in turn connected to switch boxes.  Whenever a client computer requests a video stream, it connects to a switch box.  That switch box then reroutes that client to one of the secondary servers, and that secondary server begins streaming the video to the client.

So here’s the problem:  Every single person on Earth was streaming.  So the secondary servers were barely keeping up.  In fact they were SO overburdened, that they couldn’t even request the stream from the main server correctly.  So what would happen is one of the secondary servers might be so strained that it will actually introduce a massive delay in the video stream.  So the client computer might be doing okay until its secondary server freezes from too many requests.  Then the computer user refreshes his browser.  So the client reconnects to the switch box, which connects the client to a different secondary server.  The issue here is that other secondary server had been so strained from before, that it is actually playing a piece of the stream from 3 minutes or more ago.

And that is just bad.  Taking a leaf from The Apple Byte: “That is a Bad Apple! *really realistic screaming noise and a picture of an evil apple*”

 

Now the Chinese translator.  I actually don’t hate her anymore.  I’ve figured that it was just a simple mistake of crossed wires.  Her audio track probably got on the English-language audio track by total accident.

But if it wasn’t an accident, then I have to ask…WHY.  It doesn’t seem like Apple to have two different language tracks running at the same time without even majorly ducking the English track (ducking meaning lowering the volume of).

In fact even if it WAS an accident, then…HOW?  How did Apple miss that detail?  It’s known for securing details so that everything just works!

Someone told me it was Apple reaching out to China.  And to that I say go home and sit in the corner.  It was just bad execution.

 

——

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Bigger screens Apple?  Getting cold feet are we, Apple?  Designing an entirely new feature called Reachability that very awkwardly slides the entire screen downward just so you can reach the top of the interface with one hand?

Yeah…they’re cheating by forcing innovation just for the sake of catching up with the competition.  Hey, at least Reachability will prevent some of the tech support calls calling out Apple for making devices harder to use.

The first time I saw the screen slide downward, I thought “split screen!”  But nope.  It literally is just so your one hand can do things all on its own.  Because smaller is better…oh wait.

Some new camera stuff made it in as well.  Cool.  The iPhone is getting even farther into being not a phone but an iEverything.

And Apple Pay (Pay).  I love it.  Your credit card is now diamonds (or at least it will be in October). Do-do-doo-doo-doo-do-do-do.

——

The Watch

Holy hell.  Jony has really plastered his name all over this one.  It looks like it would be an absolute joy to use.  Especially with the gaddamn-ly cute smiley faces.  Who the hell could hate those guys??

cutesmileyLOOK AT HIM!  Isn’t he the cutest? (Screenshot directly from Apple’s Keynote)

 

It’s also jam-packed with everything including the kitchen sink (and you could make an app for that).  Er, sorry, I should of said:  It’s jam-packed with everything including the entire solar system.  Yes…you can view the current position of every single planet in the solar system, on a screen that’s smaller than your iPhone 3G.  Why?  When would you use this on a daily basis?  I dunno…but it’s cool.

 

Now for the new form of communication…hmmmmmm.  This will be very interesting.

They didn’t actually give it a name, so for the moment I’ll refer to it as IntiTalk (intimate talking).

 

With IntiTalk you can tap to another person on the Watch screen.  Just activate IntiTalk by pressing the Contacts button (because that’s all the side button does apparently), then tapping on the contacts picture of the person you want to talk to, then tap on the screen or draw something, and the other person’s Watch will alert them and recreate the taps or drawing.  You can also send other people your heartbeat by placing two fingers on the IntiTalk interface.  Sending other people your heartbeat…do any hospitals want to jump on the Apple bus yet?  I can’t tell.

 

There’s so much shit packed into this thing that I don’t know what to go after next.  Maps?  Passbook?  Fitness?

Maps has an interface.  Like, a map interface.  You can see a map on the freaking tiny screen.  Apple is destined to push computers until even technology itself can’t keep up and Apple has to move to stem cells and organic components.  Then humanity won’t be able to keep up and they will lock Apple in jail for life.

 

The Option-Shift-KWatch–oops, I mean the Watch will also become your personal fitness trainer.  It will annoy you for days and days to go out and exercise while you yell at it to shut up and throw Cheeto bags at it.

 

Wow apple.  IntiTalk (Antitank??  Really autocorrect?!?  What even is that?), goofy smiley faces, the fact that you actually went with the smallest screen in the world, the soloar system on your wrist…

 

I only have one thing to say:

 

 

 

 

 

#freejonyive

 

I’m kidding.  I honestly think Jony has finally adjusted to software.  Jony’s great for Apple.  Apple needs Jony.

Automated Snippet of Apple Keynote From Launch Center

[Post by Launch Center Pro for iPhone]

I want to share with you a snippet of things having to do with Apple Keynote.

And the snippet is:
I think everything wasn’t thought through. Or it was last minute. I’ll make a proper post about it later if I can.

That is all. Have a nice day.

(The only reason I didn’t use Twitter for this is because this way it’s posted everywhere in exactly the same way because I’m lazy.)

What the fuck just happened #applewatch #wtf #apple

[WARNING:  Major swearing ahead]

 

Um.

 

I don’t even.  You can view the entire solar system on your watch, complete with 3D animated emoji with editable widgets and heartbeat readings while an Asian lady constantly prattles on and your livestream goes down the toilet.

 

That was the most incredible and awkward thing I have ever seen.

 

Oh my fucking god…*runs away laughing and beats Tim Cook over the head with a spork*

 

…and now I can’t lead in to anything.  So ABRUPT SHIFT.

 

The iWatch.  Or I guess we’re supposed to call it the Apple Watch…or Watch.

 

—AHHHH–*crash*

 

Sorry, what?  Oh yeah.

 

It has a clock, yes…but it also has the solar system.  You can literally see the current position of EACH OF THE PLANETS.

LET ME SAY THAT LOUDER:
YOU CAN VIEW THE CURRENT POSITION OF EVERY SINGLE PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM ON YOUR WATCH. WHY

As you can tell, I can’t even process this correctly.  This entire livestream.  The Asian lady.

The…

The…

The Asian lady needs to get a life.  Seriously.  Don’t make an Apple Keynote harder to hear to get more fans, because that won’t get you more fans.

 

You will notice they got rid of her halfway through.  Um, WHY THE FUCK DID YOU GET HER JUST TO GET RID OF HER????

 

And the GOD FUCKING SERVER OVERLOADS.  This is the best keynote Apple could ever stream because it contains a completely new product, and the damn servers fucked it up!!  I finally had to go over to twit.com, and Dad even had to suggest it to me because I didn’t even know it existed!  And even Twit had issues!  Not with their side, but with the Apple livestream itself!

 

Twitter exploded!  Apple fans died of shock!  Steve Jobs’s ghost took over the world in a fit of rage!  Watch critics’s heads exploded!  There was blood, ghosts and anarchy everywhere!
THIS WAS THE WORST.  AND THE BEST.  AND THE MOST AWKWARD.  KEYNOTE.  OF. ALL. TIME.

What I expect from Sept. 9th’s Keynote #apple #iphone6 #iwatch

Hey you guys. Hey guys: A wearable is coming out.

 

Yeah, you’ll soon be able to bling out with Apple merch and pimp your swag…sorry.

 

 

Anyway, what actually is happening tomorrow?

A keynote.  What kind of keynote?  An iPhone 6 keynote.  The iPhone 6 is going to be thinner and faster and sleeker and shinier and sexier and…other things…….yeah.

 

But what’s this about a wearable?  A completely new product?  A thing that so many Apple fans are going to scrutinize VERRRRRY closely in order to determine if Apple still has Steve Job’s DNA inside of it?  A thing that fans are calling…the iWatch?

 

Yup.  A timepeice.  A clock.  Apple is making a clock.  But it won’t be just any clock.  You can wear it on your wrist, and if you can wear it on your wrist, you can track movement.  And if you can track movement, you can tie it in with another new app in iOS 8:  Health.  No, it’s not called Healthbook anymore, it’s just called Health.

 

So…what is this iWatch and how will it work?

 

The internet has no freaking clue.  And if the internet has no clue, then Apple is doing its job protecting its products.

 

Just watch:  The iWatch will come up on the projector screen.  It’s sexy curves and expertly machined metal exterior will wow the audience.  Jony Ive will get poetic about how great it is.  Tim Cook will rant on and on…

And then it will become clear that the iWatch does 2, maybe 3 things because of the damn screen size.  You’re welcome, now here’s an asprin.

 

 

As for the iPhone?

 

Well…it’s an iPhone.  Sorry to disappoint, but barring the addition of third-party keyboards which Android has, widgets which Android has, NFC which Android has, Android parts which Android has…it’s just going to be a new iPhone.  Combined with a Nike fuel band and $1,000,000 worth of hospital equipment (oh wait, what am I trying to say again?)

 

HA, just kidding.  Look below the surface you guys.  It helps.

 

On the software side, I’ll expect the Gold Master beta version of iOS 8 to come out after the keynote.  If you don’t know what a Gold Master version is, it’s the final beta version before the software goes public.

And if there isn’t a “One More Thing” at the end, the audience will explode with broken traditions.

 

Maybe the “One More Thing” will be the iWatch.

Maybe the “One More Thing” will be an actual TV set for Apple TV.

Maybe it will be a second completely new product.

Maybe

iOS 8 beta 5 #ios #apple #beta

…and the fun doesn’t stop with beta 1!  As it was with all betas, once you got in through some shenanigans, the system will allow you to continue even if the other betas are smarter than the first!

 

…or you can step out of the betas then step back in using an external UDID service like I did.

 

Anyway, what’s in this beta?  A new Tips app!  And what does it look like?

Well it’s pretty simple.  Just a few movies and pictures showing you how to do certain things.

 

There’s a few odd things though.  At least two of the movies actually have an audio track.  And the thing is, the movies aren’t supposed to have an audio track!  Take the Mail movie.  The movie shows that you can slide a mail entry to the side to expose some actions, and if you slide it all the way to the left, you can delete or archive it.  Now, if you put on headphones (because it only works with headphones for some reason), and turn the volume all the way up, you can hear something screeching (it sounds like a modern train slowing down or speeding up), then the sound stops and you can hear the hissing that most microphones have when there is no sound.

 

Another movie that has this is the Actionable Notifications movie.  This movie shows if you pull down on a push notification, you can expose a reply text field or buttons.  Now if you use the headphone trick, at the very beginning there is the sound of either something being put down gently on a wooden table or a button being pressed, a scooting sound, then nothing but hissing.

 

I found that extremely odd.  Especially since there really should not be a microphone active.  I’m assuming they screen recorded their iPads using a program, and that program also used any microphones attached.  Again, it is a beta, and some things are going to be a little weird until they finalize everything.

 

One thing I did notice is that Handoff doesn’t work.  It turns out I actually did get into the Yosemite Public Beta (legit this time), and I tried Handoff out, and…it didn’t work at all.  I tried it with Safari and Pages, and no matter how often I did it, neither device caused the other to do anything.

 

As I understand Handoff, the devices know when they are near each other, and create a local peer-to-peer network.  Then they use a specific library of functions to communicate the last used app and its state to each other (encrypted of course).

I’m thinking some of that isn’t working, and I don’t know enough to figure that out.

 

The other changes since the last time I talked about the beta, is a redesigned Control Center.  It now has filled in buttons instead of outlines.  Therefore it looks more finalized, some quirk of design that honestly I haven’t figured out yet.

 

It’s still lags for some reason, and sometimes I can get it to hang for more than 5 seconds.  It should really actually know when it’s hanging, and should kill the least important processes (although the reason it’s hanging is probably because it can’t get any instructions through…I wonder if Apple will be able to circumvent that).

 

Also another change that NO ONE has picked up on for some reason, is that the Videos app now actually displays something on the screen while the video is loading.  It displays the box art and the title, and also covers the rest of the screen with a blurred version of the box art (at least I think it’s supposed to be blurred…but I guess Apple deems the iPad 2 less powerful, so it only displays a really dim non-blurred image.  Apple is trying to keep the iPad 2 in the compatibility list, but I guess it’s a real stretch).

 

So the user experience continues to be incredibly laggy good, and the experience will continue to improve…I hope.

 

(Technically I should be on Beta 6 right now…but Apple has saved that version for the carriers.  AT&T has that version…not the developers.  Betas are weird.)

I have cracked Apple’s strange behavior #apple #mapsissues #ios7

(I don’t feel like trusting the internet on this, so there will be no links (except one).  Sorry!

I did do research on this, however, and I promise you’ll be able to find everything via Google.)

 

I decided to do homework after Apple had promised a lot of features with the Maps app in iOS 8, but did not deliver.

 

That alone is exceedingly strange for a company that promises on features and 1-ups every single thing it comes into contact with.  In fact it implies Apple’s going downhill, like there’s some sort of conflict going on inside Apple.

And there IS a conflict.  And it’s been going on for a really long time.  Since 2012 (hey, that’s a long time technology-wise!).

 

It all started with iOS 6’s Apple Maps.  Apple had dumped Google’s API and replaced it with its own implimentation.  And it was poorly done.  Labels and roads were in the wrong place, missing, or misnamed.  The terrain wasn’t built correctly in some places.  And it was just a total mess.

Then Tim Cook issued a public apology in the form of a letter written on Apple’s website apologizing for the horrible experience that Apple Maps had given users.  That angered Scott Forstall.

 

Scott Forstall joined Apple in 1997, after his last company, NeXT, got bought out by Apple.  He then became the software designer of the Macintosh and iOS families, and he reportedly “ran the iOS mobile software team like clockwork and was widely respected for his ability to perform under pressure”.

 

But he didn’t like apologizing and implying that Apple had issues.  So when Tim Cook put out that letter and asked Scott to sign it, Scott refused.  The letter went out anyway, and that caused Forstall to get angry, so on October 29, 2012, Apple issued a statement that Scott was going to leave Apple in 2013.

 

With Forstall out, Apple could finally move on with the interface because Forstall was apparently a total Stiff I guess (a term I made up describing someone who only believes in one thing).

Enter iOS 7, a technicolor exercise in eye-strain research!  Okay, not really.  Honestly I think this is what Apple was trying to do with its UIs in the first place, just that no one knew how to use a touchscreen phone at first and once Scott finalized his UI, he figured it was the ONLY UI that would work.  Damn Stiffs.

But before iOS 7 was released, Apple decided to try an experiment.  Since these happy bright colors tickled the designers in the right way, why not make a phone that did the same thing?  A colorful plastic exterior would fit in really nicely with the new color-oriented software, and colors make people happy.  Why else would you paint a room your favorite color?

So the iPhone 5c was born!  And almost immediately flopped as people actually realized it was made of plastic.  As in it wasn’t just some marketing ploy, calling it plastic to make it seem more lively, it was ACTUALLY made of plastic.

At least iOS 7 did better than the 5c…although people hated iOS 7 for almost the same reason.  iOS 7 looked as flimsy as the 5c, seemingly hastily pasted together with spit and prayers.  That and the 5c actually was just the 5 with a new paint job.  Honestly.

 

Notice I haven’t mentioned Jony Ive yet.  I couldn’t find any articles about his switch to software until April 9, 2014, after iOS 7 came out.  That was also when I found out that Jony didn’t like Greg Christie.

 

*searches for a Wikipedia article on him and sees that there is none*

Uh…he was also involved with the iOS user interface.  Yeah.  He was also ousted.

 

This is the beginning of Apple’s strange behavior.  Before Greg was ousted, but after iOS 7, OS X Mavericks became available.  And it didn’t look like iOS 7 at all.  In fact it looked more like Mountain Lion.  Even stranger, while the Keynote for Mavericks showed onscreen that Game Center had gotten rid of the casino-table skeuomorphism, the build of Mavericks that got released to the public still had the casino table!

And did anyone notice that iBooks basically looks the same between OS X Mavericks and the Public Beta of OS X Yosemite?  Maps has changed visually substantially, but iBooks looks almost exactly the same.

 

After Mavericks, iOS 8 was announced.  It had a whole slew of new features:  Controlling your house, seamlessly switching between devices, third-party keyboards, and transit directions in Maps.  All those features appeared in the betas…except for transit directions.  With no real explanation, as the betas rolled out, those new types of directions never came out (and I’ve looked firsthand!).

 

Now here we stand, Apple somewhat divided against itself, hiring companies left and right, trying to keep its cool.

 

A [company] divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half [Scott Forstall] and half [Jony Ive]. I do not expect [Apple] to be dissolved — I do not expect the [company] to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” – Abraham Lincoln

iOS 8 Beta 1 #apple #ios

This might be a thing.  But if Apple comes to me and says “Screw you you can’t talk about this”, then it won’t be a thing.  (And I still have a reason:  No money.  Oh, and Education.com is a dick.)

 

That’s right.  Apple forgot how to Security once again and allowed iOS 8 Beta 1 to be downloaded to literally everyone.

 

I suppose before I get into the real OS I should talk about how these betas are not secured.

 

Every developer beta SHOULD have a UDID check inside the file.  This means when you go to install a beta using iTunes, iTunes verifies with Apple if the device has an approved UDID.  UDID stands for Unique Device IDentifier, and it is used by Apple’s services to find the EXACT device that is using the service.

iOS 7 Beta 1 and iOS 8 Beta 1, for one reason or another, does not have this UDID check.  So when iTunes goes to install the beta, it doesn’t matter what UDID the device has, because the check wasn’t performed.  Now, Apple’s services could have detected that the check wasn’t being done at all, and denied the install, but for some reason it doesn’t.

 

So yes.  I have Beta 1 in my possession.  On my iPad, but not my iPhone.  Even though the 5S would be way better suited for iOS 8 than the iPad 2…betas are almost always terribly unstable, and I need my phone to be working.  I don’t use my iPad very much anyway.

On to the OS itself!

 

One of the first things I tried out was the new photo editing features.  And while laggy, they were awesome.  One thing though…for extremely dark photos, both the Light and Color sliders wouldn’t work at all.  I could slide them up and down, but the picture wouldn’t change, and the previews didn’t have any difference between them.  Whether this was due to the iPad 2 camera or the software I don’t know.

 

The photo search function worked well too.  I have no idea why it wasn’t in iOS 7…or 6.  Or 5.  Or any of them.

 

There is still no Weather app on the iPad.  I know it’s only Beta 1…but it really should’ve been in iOS 7.  Just my preference.

 

I’m not quite sure if Spotlight Search should use the internet or not.  If you forget to turn off Airplane mode, then you’ll have a hell of a time trying to figure out why Spotlight isn’t giving you Wikipedia entries (although I did find that it retains previous Wikipedia searches and info, so that’s good).

 

Handoff and Continuity obviously didn’t work because I had only one device running the beta.

 

No Siri though.  Sad Siri is sad for not catering to 1% more of the Apple fanbase.

 

Overall, the experience was incredibly laggy good.  The one thing the iPad was really bad at was splitting the keyboard in two.  For some reason it lagged MASSIVELY when trying to do that.

 

But my reaction to all these lags, omissions and general stupidness is a wholehearted MEH.  It’s the first beta.  It will be broken in some ways.  I don’t care.  Apple is just getting their feet under them with all these new things.  The problems will be fixed.

 

I’m not even supposed to have this anyway. (Unless Apple is cleverly actually opening the betas to everyone!  You must remember, Apple has already opened up the OS X Yosemite betas to the first one million people (I apparently didn’t make the cut)!)