Apple WWDC: OS X is dead, long live macOS Apple has rolled out its plans for updating all four of its major operating systems. The 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco saw Apple showcase updates for iOS, OS X (now macOS), watchOS and tvOS. All four of the updates are being made available to developers today, with general release builds due to …
I don't use Apple Cloud services for any of my Mac Computers. My iPhone gets backed up to my Macbook Pro.
Just like my Linux servers in that respect.
All of them get backed up to my NAS box that runs... Linux.
So what's your beef with Vendor Cloud services?
'an "SOS" function that automatically places an emergency call and sends medical ID information (such as allergies or health conditions) when the side button is held down.'
Luckily the emergency services wont have to deal with nuisance calls, because no on has ever accidentally held in a watch button.
Don't worry - this is configured when you first pair the watch and there are three choices for where the emergency call is sent:
1. To Twitter - 'OMG I so need validation #itsallaboutmeagain'.
2. To your nearest Starbucks - 'I will like literally die without a skinny Paleo frappé-latte now!'
3. To your nearest man-groomer - 'Dude - man-bun fail incoming and my brotox is super-wearing off fo' sho'!'
In addition, when the emergency button is held down, the phone's camera takes a couple of selfies and uploads them to your Instagram account because even on a bad day, you are one special snowflake, and the world needs reminding of that regularly.
I don't think I've ever not called it MacOS and I'm going to stick with it. I seem to remember them dropping that soubriquet a few years ago and nobody cared.
Wonder how long they'll try and force through the small letters: macOs, tvOs, watchOS only make sense in the echo chamber of the nonventor* strategy boutique.
Note to "journalists": there is no need to try and ape branding when writing copy; branding is always a combination of typeface and style and usually with requirements not to use the style in copy but to assert the trademark.
*I'm sure I've seen this before but just in case I'm claiming it as my commentmark™
10.6.0 was a dog. I don't think they fixed some of the most serious bugs until 10.6.2 but it was then, indeed, pretty stable.
Mind you, I'd have to say that all of the subsequent releases have been stable: I've probably had about 10 system crashes in 10 years. But it's the random stupid bugs (Bluetooth, USB, graphics, etc.) in each new release that are so annoying.
You want change for change's sake?
One of the nice things about OS X (originally called Mac OS X) is that it doesn't force change upon users, like Windows has done over the same period. Ideas from touch-based OSs - such as multi-touch gestures on Apple trackpads - have been added to OS X, but they never stopped the user from doing things the way they already had been. Heck, unlike Office in Windows, Apple still let users use menus, if that is what they want to.
Oh, there was some Mac news that wasn't in their keynote: a new file system called APFS, still in Beta.
(For the record, I mainly use Windows - familiarity breeds contempt, I guess. I have administered a few Macs though, and found them to be pretty civilised. It could be that I haven't used OSX enough to discover any massive annoyances)
You want change for change's sake?
Oh heavens, no, I wasn't suggested they turn into Microsoft. I use a *lot* of Apple gear and products by choice, and all I run in the way of services is either on Linux of FreeBSD.
I probably expressed myself wrong as a result of a bit or irritation after hearing Yet Another Presentation Where They Declare Themselves Very Excited. They must sell a lot of Prozac over there if people get excited that quickly, but for me the very utterance of that word is a prompt to find something more exciting interesting to do like watching paint dry or count the number of fibers in a toothbrush. People who utter that word are either lying or have had such a limited exposure to the English language that even the concept of a thesaurus is foreign to them.
One of the nice things about OS X (originally called Mac OS X) is that it doesn't force change upon users, like Windows has done over the same period.
.. which is also why I've stuck with LibreOffice and made the the corporate standard (although I would really like to have a very strong, 4 by 4 supported word with the flaming f*ckwit who made "paste as raw text" impossible to select without a menu choice which prevents it from being a key re-assignment).
I'm all in agreement with evolution of the existing products, and I like some of the tweaks although you will *never* sell me on Siri. However, there hasn't really been anything in the way of REvolution.
The only thing coming close to that is the Swift playgrounds idea, as they carry the same sort of seeds that made the PSION Organiser II so loved many years ago - OPL allowed you to do so much more with the device that it spawned its own ecosystem (I should know, I got a support/update request late 2014 for some freeware I'd written during that era :) ). The very idea of having an in-device programming ability is cool, which is why I subscribed to the beta for the very first time.
I remember the days I used to be primed for these events. Never even knew this one was happening.
Mind you apart from a couple of old ipods in the cars I have nothing to do with Apple any more so that probably explains it.
They have gone from something special to just another tech company churning out mass produced junk.
I have a 1st gen ipod touch in mint condition and it's a work of art. The current one is pale in comparison. How times have changed.
re ....especially for the Apple coders who ponied up $1599 apiece for tickets they could purchase only if they won a lottery drawing.
At least the majority who never make a profit from coding do something a lot more productive than entering the state lottery.
Bless them.
I used and bought a string of macs from the late 1980s until the "classic" Macbook 5300c. Nice screen (for the time) aside, it was hard to work out which was worse - the hardware or the OS. Was it more irritating when crashing (which it did all the time), or when working as intended? The latter I think. Why would an operating system make you wait for a file copy to complete, unless it was written by a fool?
I did wonder if the sad-mac icon would eventually end up burned on the screen. Finally, after the umpteenth wasted evening, I took off my rose-tinted spectacles for the first time and my days as an apple geek were over.
Thanks to ITunes, it's been very easy to resist the temptation to fall into Apple's path again, and it made me wonder whether ITunes was written by the people who used to develop MacOS before it was booted.
I think so.
That's a bit unkind - I stuck with Apple until into the G3 Powerbooks and their portables were generally better than the competition. My G3 suffered serious abuse in many thousands of miles of travel without a fault - and then the motherboard died when it was relegated to visitor use, clearly in a hissy fit. Also, the eMac did a splendid job of holding down tables.
What was horrible was macOS from 8.6 to 9.2 inclusive; it was so obviously being held together with string and paperclips. I guess the assumption is that anybody who used it extensively is no longer in a position to influence purchasing decisions.
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