Stuff about Macs you hate

maximum12

I'm an exclusively Mac user home and work since 2010 and this is the Mac forum so we're generally fans but let's call it as it is, they're not perfect. What pisses you off about Macs?

For me;

1) Air play: it's ****e and just doesn't work without stuttering or some bug with the sound not playing on TV. It's been around 3-4 years and they haven't fixed it.

2) Air drop: Like WTAF. It worked once.

3) Wifi: too much weird non-replicable behaviour to mention plus using bluetooth murders my signal on the MacBook pro.

4) Office crashing: Yes I know it's an MS product and they probably deliberately make it ****e but now that Macs are mainstream this is a problem for many users.

5) Itunes: this is where ****e Apple developers are sent.

whiterebel

Airdrop. iPhone and Mac Mini 2 feet apart, airdrop switched on, same network - Neither one could see the other.
Bluetooth - Hit and miss.
WiFi- can be very hit and miss.
Copying on/off NAS devices. Chronically slow.
General software problems - Can't see other Macs on the network. Couldn't connect yesterday, to transfer files, but could share screen??
iTunes - Never got the hate for it. I do now.

Apple seem to have completely lost their focus now. Their "strategy" with OSX and in particular the MacBook pro seems really badly thought out.
My favourite ever Mac was my 233MHz Powerbook "Wallstreet". An inch thick, polycarbonate casing, so many connections built in, or you could put in an extra battery or floppy drive in the removable CD drive bay. You could buy a docking station. Great for the office or on the road. Colossal machine.

Oafley Jones

whiterebel wrote: »

Apple seem to have completely lost their focus now. Their "strategy" with OSX and in particular the MacBook pro seems really badly thought out.
My favourite ever Mac was my 233MHz Powerbook "Wallstreet". An inch thick, polycarbonate casing, so many connections built in, or you could put in an extra battery or floppy drive in the removable CD drive bay. You could buy a docking station. Great for the office or on the road. Colossal machine.

Totally off topic, but when you mentioned "wallstreet" it took me right back to my first ever summer job in Apple. I was a die hard PC guy back the and even I could appreciate how good they were. Just watched their unveiling with Jobs and Schiller; I'd forgotten how expensive laptops were back then - $4600 dollars for the high end machine. That must be pushing 7,000 when you account for inflation! Makes the new MBP seem like a bargain. If only I bought those (discounted) shares they kept pushing on us.

whiterebel

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Totally off topic, but when you mentioned "wallstreet" it took me right back to my first ever summer job in Apple. I was a die hard PC guy back the and even I could appreciate how good they were. Just watched their unveiling with Jobs and Schiller; I'd forgotten how expensive laptops were back then - $4600 dollars for the high end machine. That must be pushing 7,000 when you account for inflation! Makes the new MBP seem like a bargain. If only I bought those (discounted) shares they kept pushing on us.

I think my Wallstreet was about IR£1100 brand new? I certainly wouldn't have been paying 4 grand.

Sad Professor

whiterebel wrote: »

My favourite ever Mac was my 233MHz Powerbook "Wallstreet". An inch thick, polycarbonate casing, so many connections built in, or you could put in an extra battery or floppy drive in the removable CD drive bay. You could buy a docking station. Great for the office or on the road. Colossal machine.

On the subject of favourite Macs, I always loved the 12-inch aluminium Powerbook G4. Beautiful prosumer machine and perfect size. My biggest case of buyer's remorse was getting an iBook G4 instead, which I found very cheap. I came so close to sending it back and getting the Powerbook instead. I regretted it even more after the Powerbook was replaced with the Macbook.

But to honour the negativity of the topic, my least favourite Mac, which I thankfully never owned, was the 14-inch iBook. Despite having a larger screen, Apple was too cheap to boost the resolution, so it was the same as the 12-inch only with bigger pixels. Anytime I see someone idolising Steve Jobs I think of this cheap, ugly piece of plastic crap that he shovelled out.

Sad Professor

maximum12 wrote: »

1) Air play: it's ****e and just doesn't work without stuttering or some bug with the sound not playing on TV. It's been around 3-4 years and they haven't fixed it.

Yeah, it's awful. I have an Airplay speaker and it's a pain to use. It used to work perfectly but since iOS 8 or 9 it disconnects the second I pause and I have to restart to connect again.

4) Office crashing: Yes I know it's an MS product and they probably deliberately make it ****e but now that Macs are mainstream this is a problem for many users.

I still think Office is much better than it used to be. MS software is actually useable these days, which wasn't always the case. I laugh at the idea that millions of office workers once used Windows 95/98 to do work when all it were good for was playing Solitaire, and even you'd have to restart several times a day. Someone should make a comedy about it.

5) Itunes: this is where ****e Apple developers are sent.

Yeah, while I don't think it's quite as bad as is sometimes made out, iTunes needs to go. I reckon they are working on a replacement a la Photos. Hopefully it's not too far away.

Doodah7

Apple Mail is a very clunky piece of software which I actively dislike. The rigmarole to attach another email to a message, the useless way of using tabs...it is very un-apple like. I must investigate some alternatives really.

maximum12

tallpaul wrote: »

Apple Mail is a very clunky piece of software which I actively dislike. The rigmarole to attach another email to a message, the useless way of using tabs...it is very un-apple like. I must investigate some alternatives really.

Yeah had forgotten about Mail because I stopped using it and just use gmail in a browser now.

On my iPhone I use the Outlook app which is actually really good.

Re Office I'm on Office 2011 so maybe the newer version is better.

whiterebel

Sad Professor wrote: »

On the subject of favourite Macs, I always loved the 12-inch aluminium Powerbook G4. Beautiful prosumer machine and perfect size.

My one is still working away. Originally had the 867MHz which got way too hot on the bottom.. Apple changed it for the 1GHz which is still going strong as we speak. I think I got it 2003/2004. Weighs a tonne, though.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

ED E

maximum12 wrote: »

3) Wifi: too much weird non-replicable behaviour to mention plus using bluetooth murders my signal on the MacBook pro.

Shared radio, same on many many devices. Its basically switching between BT and WLAN operations really quickly, halving performance.

Can be a pain, but not an Apple problem.

Creamy Goodness

Creamy's AppleTV (2)

Mac App Store

Macbook (adorable) is just slightly underpowered for my needs

AirDrop

iMessage syncing between Mac and iOS (go away for a few days, return, watch your Mac shrug as it tries to update the conversations).

Launchpad only ever see it when I accidentally hit F3, serves no purpose.

5uspect

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yeah, it's awful. I have an Airplay speaker and it's a pain to use. It used to work perfectly but since iOS 8 or 9 it disconnects the second I pause and I have to restart to connect again.

My hardy old iPod touch running iOS 6 still airplays perfectly. It'll stay connected all day doing nothing if you let it. Dare to pause on a new device however...

dbagman

The apple logo

Sad Professor

5uspect wrote: »

My hardy old iPod touch running iOS 6 still airplays perfectly. It'll stay connected all day doing nothing if you let it. Dare to pause on a new device however...

Yeah, that's how it used to work for me, and still does with Macs, but my iOS devices disconnect within seconds of being paused or any kind of interruption.

Losty Dublin

whiterebel wrote: »

My one is still working away. Originally had the 867MHz which got way too hot on the bottom.. Apple changed it for the 1GHz which is still going strong as we speak. I think I got it 2003/2004. Weighs a tonne, though.

The 12" Powerbook was the canine genitals. I can't bring myself to throw mine out, that's how much I loved it.

My G5 iMac on the other hand, what a lemon!!!

whiterebel

OSI wrote: »

What protocol are you using? I find CIFS/SMB ridiculously slow, but that's just the standard for that protocol, if I use AFP or NFS over it I can get 4-500% speed increase.

Tried them all on 2 different NAS. Still terrible speeds.

The Black Oil

Some of the marketing and built in obsolescence. I get why it's done, but it still grates, sometimes.

jester77

Finder, surely they could do better

kc56

File Save As.. not allowing navigating through folders but only offering top level or 'recent' folders.....

Creamy Goodness

kc56 wrote: »

File Save As.. not allowing navigating through folders but only offering top level or 'recent' folders.....

kc56

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Thanks.
So obvious when your eye is drawn to 'Where'...

ZENER

whiterebel wrote: »

Tried them all on 2 different NAS. Still terrible speeds.

Have a look at some of these suggestions to improve it. I have a WD MyCloud device that was almost unusable from my Mac but would work perfectly from Windows in a VM on the Mac !?

Anyway it appears that the SMB stack in use currently is the culprit and downgrading it is the solution. I haven't tried it myself but those who have say they see a difference.

The issue is particularly noticeable when initially connecting to the NAS, file lists seem to take an age - even over a 1GB wired connection. Copying large files is fine but when it's lots of smaller files - for example a large photo library - it's painful.

If anyone tries it will you post back your milage ?

Ken

RoyalMarine

Heavy Mac user, and I have the following issues.

1. Unable to download older OS X versions from App Store.
OK, I know Apple dropped support for them, but at least leave them there for people to download if they want.

2. Sierra - GateKeeper. Yes, there's a terminal command to enable allow from anywhere, but to remove the feature is just a real slap.

3. Old network devices showing up in Finder even though they're physically shutdown / destroyed. I've pulled every plist file known to Apple and they still show up.. thankfully it's on a customer's Mac, and not mine..

4. Start copying files from a network share, and then try to navigate into other folders on the same share. Permissions issue....

5. Apple Thunderbolt displays. Really... Randomly disconnect for a second every now and again. Dual screen nightmare. Only seems to happen on my MacPro though..