I am focusing on the negative below. There are numerous features I need and use daily that only Apple has. But old features I counted on are getting worse in many cases, and new problems introduced are rarely remediated. I'm not buying gear from another vendor instead, but I am unhappy that I used to have a better experience, and Apple is not at all focused on returning some excellent features that used to simply work. This would not be that hard for Apple to improve tremendously in most cases, but as the years pass this is not improving.
Macbook Pro 15":
- I just waited for about two minutes for Touch ID to engage, occasionally pressing the unlabelled button, hoping and waiting... I just ended up typing in my password. The iOS type processor was on, the touch screen was lit, and had an escape key, but no active touch ID. This happens often, every day. It just isn't reliable.
- I use a keyboard cover. This does make my screen a mess, but has kept my laptop working after the initial replacement due to keyboard problems.
- The ports on my LG 5K display, sold to me by Apple, are back to not working reliably. For example, I have to reseat the ethernet usb-c adapter. There seemed some times of reliability at some point in prior OS/firmware versions, but not for many many months.
- Security is one of Apple's hallmark features. I have heard nothing from Apple about thunderbolt vulnerabilities. Apple has had more embarrassing security problems that worry us all - such as with facetime, and administrative access.
- I had an at-boot issue where my computer partially went through the initial setup process and added icons to my dock. It took multiple support calls and escalations to get through to someone who was finally able to easily help by having me delete a few plist files, permanently fixing the problem.
iPhone 7 with Apple Smart Battery Case, and Airpods:
- Whenever I have a problem with an iPhone, I am "threatened" with possibly needing to set up my device as new, and not from a backup. Recovering from a wiped iPhone takes long enough, but this process is exceedingly painful. I have acquiesced in a couple of cases in the more distant past, and it did not help. "Geniuses" tell me that it may be necessary due to a data problem. The sandboxing and protection of the iPhone is clearly not good enough if this could ever be necessary. I absolutely refuse to go through this after two previous problems that only proved it unnecessary.
- My speakerphone capabilities (with and without smart case) have not been working - people could not hear me.
- For months, my airpods, working absolutely perfectly for listening to music and podcasts, had problems in other areas.
- Often, Siri could not hear me after activating. Then Siri would act on things I said afterward, after I thought Siri would no longer would be listening and after I was waiting for many seconds.
- Also, my first couple of seconds talking every time I spoke on phone calls were muffled and inaudible. I tried re-pairing, resetting the airpods, and checked the firmware version on them - nothing helped. I tried finding a path to getting a Genius Bar appointment. after tens of minutes, I gave up. Eventually, I went to a Genius Bar to make an appointment, and was seen the same day. They said that they did a factory reset. This seemed to fix both my speakerphone and my airpods' functionality. I have no idea why or how that could be. I have another co-worker with this airpod problem.
- I really wish the help I had in the store might have been had in the first 10 minutes of my chat with Apple, without driving in. That would have been a vastly superior experience.
- Music
- I do not use "Apple Music" the subscription service, and seem to have successfully stopped that from showing up, for now, in the interface.
- I do use iTunes match. I have had music I downloaded recently show as no longer downloaded. This is quite inconvenient to me at those times when I cannot get internet access.
- When I get into Music, I have choices. Those choices include "Library" and "radio" and "search". I do not use Radio. I with I could just be in "library" as was the case before all of these new services.
- I do not like the change made some time ago to put shuffle and repeat below the fold - I have to scroll down to find them. It is more work, and not immediately visible or obvious to newer users. My visible choices are download, airplay, and "..." - those are a better choice for below the fold.
- I have chosen a song by searching, and I am playing it. I select it, and see the album art. How can I get to the album itself? I just learned - touch "..." and then click on the album art from there (where there is an arrow...). But not from the song with album art. From there, touching the album art, doing a hard press - none of it does anything.
- How about Lyrics? If available, they are even farther below the fold, underneath shuffle and repeat.
- The simplicity and utility in the interface from quite some years ago is not returning.
- I do really like that the iTunes/music store is indeed a separate thing.
- I have a couple CDs that are 1 hour per song or more. I still cannot have them as songs I own in Music. Why is that still the case in modern times? I have had to make them into audiobooks as the only way to listen to them.
- We cannot update music info in this app; mistakes in music names may be correctable elsewhere...
- Album art does not always propagate correctly.
- It is not always clear why some songs in one album show up as different albums.
- Books
- Is this an app for me to use for my content, or to buy things? The buttons on the bottom are mostly for buying. 5 buttons, 4 for selling content.
- "Reading Now" - shows recent books I have read/listened to, but also seconds for buying books
- Library - ok this is my content
- Book Store - self explanatory - buying books
- Audiobooks - less self-explanatory - only for buying books
- Search - seems to be mostly about sales, but also has a complex relationship to my content also.
- Where is my content? This is not at all self-consistent or easy for someone new to Apple to understand:
- Super loud and away from it so I go back hyper navigate back to start making shut up crazyBooks I acquired outside of apple - in icloud files under my Apple ID.
- Books I bought from Apple. Are they under icloud files? Where are they? I'm not sure.
- Audiobooks - those I own and did not buy from Apple are sync'ed from my iTunes server.
- No sort by genre for my book content. But I can search by genre while buying books. There is a clear focus on selling.
- Audiobook navigation:
- I most often listen to audiobooks in this app, much more than I read books. Audiobook navigation is poor at best. To get to audiobooks, I touch Library, then collections, then audiobooks
- Sorting: by recent, title, author, or manually
- still no genre search
- no reverse search - for example not recent books first
- It is very easy to get back out of audiobooks on my phone. Then I have to click through the sequence again
- If I navigate away from an audiobook I am listening to, it is no longer on the screen. I have no audio navigation tools at that point - pause/stop. Users can read a book while listening to an audiobook. But users cannot switch apps to go shut up an audiobook while doing so.
- I'm looking for another app to use to sync and listen to audiobooks.
- TV app
- Buttons for main navigation:
- Watch Now
- This is just not compatible with nearly any service I use and is a waste of space. If only it worked with my home iTunes server...
- Sports - clearly a lot of work went into this. Which services does it work with? It is unclear.
- Library - really what I want to get to - my content
- Store - how many different stores does Apple need on my phone?
- Search - has no clear way to search only for content I own, and clearly gives access to content I do not own.
- Where is my content?
- If I bought it from iTunes or an associated service, it just shows under Library.
- If I synced it from iTunes, it is under Library
- Otherwise, nothing. No use of iCloud files here.
- iTunes server content even from the same wifi network - it just does not work on iPads/iPhones. Why bother having/showing a long broken feature?
- I buried this app; no longer relevant or useful. I finally gave up and moved to Plex.
- Photos
- I use iCloud photo library.
- Thus, I cannot see or manage my Photo Stream. I can contribute to the Photo Stream some my family still uses on my Apple ID. but not see it. This is so strange.
- What do I want:
- access to photo stream for all family members, including to capture all taken photos, if desired.
- the ability to have limited access to the family shared photo library, such that some devices/users cannot remove photos from the family photo library.
Apple TV
- One partial-rant: I plug an Apple TV into a modern TV via HDMI and it controls the volume. It is glorious. I move the Apple TV to another TV, and the same thing. I love this simple use of HDMI to program the Apple TV remote to the correct infrared codes for volume control of the TV. I wish I could control the volume wirelessly through the Apple TV wireless connection, however.
- My Apple TV 3rd generation has to be rebooted frequently. Sometimes the remote (well charged) won't work at all without rebooting the Apple TV.
- The TV app is still completely worthless to me. My cable provider is not playing ball.
- Search - I can search the big players (Netflix/Amazon Prime) but still my iTunes server content cannot be searched by "main search" But if I navigate into my server and it's content, I can search and then use voice search. It is confusing to have different search contexts, and sad not to have them integrated into something central, like, say the TV app.
- I care about my iTunes server. Apple clearly does not.
- Playlist navigation used to be perfect and amazing. Now it is odd - there is no sense of showing and navigating seasons.
- TV show navigation outside of playlists:
- There is no concept of - "I'm in the middle of these 3 shows". This means I must navigate through seasons and through episodes in those seasons.
- Sometimes watched/unwatched is not recorded or reported successfully, meaning I have to remember where I was to get back to it.
- These problems are problems Apple could solve. They just are not having any focus on this area.
- The remote is strongly problematic. It is too tiny, easily lost, and without using the
I used to count on Apple, and their brand meant a focus on simplicity, just working, and constant navigation improvement and better ease-of-use over time. The focus on additional service revenue over meeting existing customer needs is getting Apple sales, but tarnishing the brand.
