My Apple Beefs

If you know me, you know I love Apple. After years of being blinded by the window, seeing the iPhone made me switch, and so far, I haven't looked back. Windows 7 won't change that either. It's not even close. Having said that (sorry Larry David), I do have some Apple beefs:

• Lack of Mail features and Slow Mail Updates
  We all know that Snow Leopard was not a feature upgrade, but was mainly for under-the-hood changes to help future iterations of OS X. One area where I was hoping Apple would make a major exception is in the Mail application. Mail is an integral part of everyone's daily computer use and having an application that cannot easily compete with Microsoft's paid offering is unacceptable. Features such as previewing mail vertically and being able to send email at a set time should have been added a long time ago. I understand that Exchange throughout Mail, Address Book, and Calendar was a huge new feature, but to all of us not using Exchange, that upgrade is meaningless. Apple needs to either have a business centric mail as part of iWork or consider updating Mail more regularly and not just with each OS upgrade. Mail is just too important.
  
  
• iPhone/MobileMe OTA sync with Notes/Tasks
  For $99/year, it is very odd that Apple does not allow iPhone users to sync over the air with Notes and Tasks. You can sync notes locally, but there is no way to sync tasks at all. Why is this? It seems like Apple is adding these feature check marks in each version of the iPhone, with an entire strategy organizing strategy. This should have been done a long time ago, especially for a paid service.
  
  
• Installing & Uninstalling
  Another area where Microsoft shines slightly brighter is the installation and uninstallation of programs. Yes, you can just drag and drop a program in Applications, but which ones? Some have you install, some have you drag and drop, and some even install in your preferences pane and not in the applications folder. There should be one consistent way of adding and removing programs. Additionally, once you have decided to delete a program, you don't know with 100% confidence if there is an uninstaller (take Adobe for example) or if you can drag and drop the program into the Trash. It's even worse with Preference Pane programs. Even if you can drag the program into the Trash, it still leaves items behind in your personal or system wide library. There are 3rd party utilities like AppZapper, but there should be a built-in program to delete the remnants that programs leave behind. Apple is about simplicity and consistency, but there is nothing consistent about the process of adding and removing programs.
  
  
• Monitors not updated? LED monitor $899?
  The monitor issue is very frustrating. Apple's Cinema Displays have not been updated in 4 years. Last year, Apple added the 24" LED monitor to its lineup. Even at that time, the $899 price tag was ridiculous, and now with 22" LED monitors going in the 200s, Apple's monitor is seriously overpriced. You can argue the built-in iSight and speakers, but there is nothing in this monitor that justifies its $899 price. At first, this monitor was designed for the MacBook Pro family with the mini display ports. However, now that there are adapters and Mac Pro's with display port built-in, Apple still ships the monitor with a short cable. Did you just buy a $900 monitor and have your $3,000 computer under your desk? Too bad, you're stuck with your old monitor since your cable is too short. Apple should immediately drop the price of this monitor and ship it with regular length cables so that Mac Pro users, (the big money spenders) can at least use their top of the line monitor.
  
  
• Magic Mouse
  At first, the Magic Mouse seemed like a big step back for Apple. Yes, it had a cool touch technology. Yes, it looked sleek, but it was missing a key feature that even the terrible Mighty Mouse (now call the Apple Mouse) had. You could squeeze the mouse and go into Expose or you could push down on the entire mouse and go to Dashboard. These features are no longer present (by default) in the Magic Mouse. Expose is a vital part of navigating in OX X. I really hope (and, like 4 finger gesture on older MacBook Pros), I think Apple will add this feature in a future update. My hope is that a deadline to get the software out before the iMac's were introduced was the culprit. How about a 3 finger swipe down for Expose and a 3 finger swipe up for Desktop view?
  
  
• Screen Sharing App
  An application I often use locally and through MobileMe is Screen Sharing. The app launches and works fine, but the problem is the terrible feature set. There isn't a true full screen mode, I cannot drag and drop between the computers, and copying and pasting is not seamless. To make matters worse, the hidden features were removed in Snow Leopard. When not on the local network, Screen Sharing will not replace LogMeIn anytime soon, but I wish it could. Having the ability to use a screen sharing program with at least some power user features would be very helpful. Also, how about an iPhone app for MobileMe users, much like LogMeIn Ignition? I'll pay for it. Note: purchasing Apple Remote Desktop is not an alternative.
  

As a bonus, for those of you that want to use Camino as your main browser, I can recommend it, but with a large caveat. The program has a major memory leak (at least for me) and can cause the system to use over 1 gigabyte of memory while in use. You will notice slowness in your browsing and if you want to watch Flash videos… Good Luck.

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