Apple: The Bad and the Ugly. And Some Good
Apple does some good things. Boot Camp for example. Everyone’s talking about Boot Camp. If I had been writing last week, I too would have been writing about it. In fact I was last Thursday. But I lost that piece. That event lead me to this article
I had been scratching together pieces for this article for a few weeks as the blinders have come off, and I had been noticing lately all the things that Apple and its products don’t do so well.
This came to a head last Friday when my hard disk passed away. I spent the next four days getting my system back to close to what it was. Fortunately I did have backups. Not perfect ones though as I hadn’t done a full backup for two weeks, but I had backed up my critical data the day before. I also learned some lessons about how I should have been doing things (mind you, things with 20 years experience, I already knew and should have been doing.)
In the recovery process, I discovered some things that displeased me to say the least. On top of other recent experiences of little and big grievances I have with Apple’s way, it is time to write about it.
The Bad
- Apple’s Backup application does not verify the integrity of backups after they are completed. (I know some people don’t like Backup, but I had found it to be the most reliable solution - too many others I tested aborted the backup when they found open files.) The restore function also needs to be able to skip corrupted backup files and give more options on handling replacement of existing files. But I have been kicked in the pants by a lesson I already knew… Check your backups. Do a test restore. Regularly. With Apple’s Backup, you can also show the package contents of the backup file, then drill down to the Contents and in there, open the Backup.sparsimage file. If it fails to open, do a new full backup - even if the failure was in an incremental backup. It would be appreciated greatly if Apple included an option to test a backup file - at least for readability.
- Backward compatibility of OS X extends only until last week. Ok, maybe to Panther and occasionally to Jaguar. One reason I’ve continually upgraded with each iteration of OS X, is to ensure that all applications will run on my OS. Have a look through the Apple store and see how many applications need Panther or later. For example, the minimum OS requirements for various applications on the Apple Store are: iLife - 10.3.9; iWork 10.3.9; MS Office 10.2.8; The Print Shop - 10.2; Photoshop Elements - 10.3; Final Cut Studio - 10.4.4; The Sims 2 - 10.3.8; Quicken 2006 - 10.2.8; Toast 7 - 10.3.9; Logic Express - 10.4.3; Logic Pro - 10.4.3; QuickTime 7 - 10.3.9. Now notice the pattern? Apple is the worst offender. If you want to use Apple’s software, you must upgrade to the latest OS. That last one, Quicktime, is interesting. If you want to run it on a Mac, you’ve got to have an OS released just two years ago. Yet the Windows version will run on the six year old Windows 2000. So it’s all well and good that Apple keeps updating OS X, but at least on Windows, most software will run on OSes more than two or three years old.
- Finder’s copy doesn’t merge folders. When you copy a folder in Finder, it treats the folder as a single entity, rather than looking at each file within the folder. If you want to merge folders you either have to copy the files for each folder individually; or use XCode’s FileMerge utility (which also lets you merge folders); or find a utility online that will do it - though most will cost you money. I tested this on a Windows computer and XP does merge folders. So if a clapped out system from way back in 2001 can do it, why can’t OS X Tiger from 2005? For the zealots who believe Apple’s is the only way, maybe OS X (being sooo user friendly…) could provide a prompt asking if you want to merge or replace.
- Again on backward compatibility, iPod users suffer. If you want new features, you buy a new iPod. Apple doesn’t seem to have any interest in providing new features for older iPods. Case in point: Volume limiting. Surely this is a simple firmware upgrade. Even if it doesn’t work the same way as on 5G iPods. 5G iPods have the security function built in so they can be password protected but is that hardware dependent? It shouldn’t be. The same functionality could easily be offered to owners of older iPods. But no, Apple wants you to buy a new one. So everyone is going around saying how great of Apple to introduce Volume Limiting, but there’s half-a-gazillion iPod owners that won’t get that function. There’s possibly more teenagers frying their ears with older iPods than newer ones. Thanks for your kindness Apple.
- We’re all well aware of how Apple is monopolizing it’s share of the MP3 player and music downloads markets, but it monopolizes its computer market just as much. Whether it’s by forcing upgrades, charging for incremental upgrades, not allowing OS X to run on PCs or not licensing FairPlay, Apple does frustrate with it’s “My way or the highway” attitude.
The Ugly
If I was really cynical about Apple trying to screw more money out of its customers, I would have put the backward compatibility issues under “The Ugly.” It was border line… But I still have a couple of uglies.
- Apple is a technology company right? Do you reckon it knows anything about software development? Database development? Sales systems? Do you reckon that just maybe, it could link its sales and warranty systems? You see, the hinge broke on my PowerBook that came with a free three-year Apple Protection Plan warranty. Apple won’t honor the warranty unless I, yes I, me, this person typing, can prove that it came with the APP! Excuse me?! In 2003 when I purchased it, Apple had a promotion on whereby purchasers of Macs, who were in government or education, received a free three year APP. This included me. Now wouldn’t you expect that each system sold would have been tagged on Apple’s database as having that deal? No way - Apple doesn’t want you to be able to claim your warranty unless you can prove it. Possibly the reseller may have screwed up by not listing the APP on the invoice, but Apple should still know about that deal and my Mac being bought on it. If I give my serial number, Apple should know everything about the purchase of my machine. Zero for Apple’s customer service.
- Right at this point in time, I’d find it hard to recommend anyone to buy an iPod because of this and the next point. I bought a 30GB iPod Photo last year to use for backups and to allow me to move data between computers - kind of like a souped up USB key. That’d be fine if I only wanted to transport files between Macs but a Mac formatted iPod will not work on a Windows PC without the iPod being reformatted. And the thing is, to reformat your iPod to work with Windows, you have to use a Windows computer. And then God only knows what will happen next time you plug your iPod into your Mac.
- From my testing, it appears that iPods carry their iTunes configuration on them. So you can’t change an iPod’s settings without plugging it into your computer. But when you do, it kicks in with its settings. As I found out to my horror, with auto-syncing of iPhoto, it will wipe your photos from your iPod if you plug into a different computer. No questions asked. No prompts. When, like me, you use the “Full Resolution” option so your iPod is your primary backup, and your secondary backup has already failed, how do you think you feel? Very ill to say the least. Dear Apple, No application should ever wipe files without first warning the user and giving them the option to abort. I was on the verge of paying for SubRosaSoft’s FileSalavage or its Sibling, iPodSalvage, until I discovered a third backup of my iPhoto library. You can’t have too many backups! I’ll go into this more when I review Backup.
The Good
Regardless of the disaster that befell me, and the subsequent horror stories, there have been some things I’ve really appreciated about Apple.
- Despite some failed backups meaning a much more manual restore process, .Mac’s Backup is a good tool. You just have to test those backup’s regularly. I’ll explain in a later article how to get around a failed incremental backup.
- Sync (in .Mac in System Preferences) is an excellent and simple way to backup and restore your bookmarks, calendars, contacts, keychains and mail settings. If you’ve got .Mac, you should use it as it’s even easier than using Backup for these items. Also for this reason, I will probably switch to using Keychain for saving registration numbers, etc, even though it can be a little cumbersome to use at times.
- Firewire boot is a Godsend. Fortunately, I had a couple of months ago installed OS X on my external hard drive. So when my internal died on Friday, I simply booted from the external - which I am still operating from. Apple does make a lot of things easy, and this is one of them.
I will post a review of Apple’s Backup in the near future and go into more detail about my experience and about better backup practices, but if any developers of backup solutions are reading this and believe they’ve got a better product, feel free to contact me by email at chrish at this site’s domain.
So those are my issues, but maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one who’s experienced the bad to ugly side of Apple and Macs…
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Comments
Your disapproval of the Os requirements of most apps is puzzling, you make it sound like such an ordeal to upgrade from one iteration of X to another, it’s a simple download and it’s free! There’s no hassle for high OS requirements, as long as you have any copy of X, you shouldn’t be complaining.
What’s your deal about the iPod and the Volume Limiting? All you have to do is turn down the volume yourself! That shouldn’t be a problem! This is just anothr baseless argument. Apple probably only made it for the newer iPods because thats what the case was about… why go further with software that you never intended to release anyway, they only did it to appease the moron who filed that lawsuit, who probably had a newer iPod.
As for your warranty, there are dozens of other buisnesses that require you produce a copy of your warranty, Apple isn’t the only company that does that. Besides, the majoirty of people do hold on to the warranties and reciepts for just an occasion as yours. It’s a failsafe, you be stupid not to do so.
Also, about your complaints regarding formatting from Mac to PC, that old news, It’s the exact same with my Powerbook 165c, I tried to transfer files from a floppy to a Pc, and it formatted the floppy. those problems are evident, sure there should be a fix for it being such an old problem, but still it’s nothing new.
I think you went a little far with your “Bad and Ugly,” there are dozens of more “Goods” to Apple than you give them credit for.
I dont know about you but i’ve always gotten a prompt about photos and music syncing to my ipod when i plug it into another mac.
Some good points, but:
1. Blame the Intel transition for some of the 10.3.8-or-later requirements. Apple only went back so far when they cleaned up the libraries for running Universal. But in general, it’s hard to blame Apple too much for innovating quickly. Just because Microsoft hasn’t released an OS update in 4 years doesn’t mean they provide support further back out of altruism.
2. Backup sucks. Any bad words you have to say are probably understated.
3. Apple is a business. They tried being the feel-good hippy company and almost went down the tubes. They make new products for you to buy (or not), but you can’t expect what you bought yesterday is going to continue to get new features for free forever.
4. I always get a “do you want to sync to this computer?” prompt when docking to a new machine, but I agree the warning is not stern enough. If you’re using your iPod for backup, DO NOT auto-sync.
5. While Macs can read Windows-formatted iPods, things sometimes seem a little glitchier. Instead, I formatted my iPod Mac, then use XPlay from MediaFour to mount it on my Windows machine at work.
I recently had to pay Apple $50 to go from FCP version 5.0.4 to version 5.1. Since the new version of FCP is Universal, they are not updating the PPC version any longer without pay the extra fee.
But backwards compatibility has never been Apple’s strong suit. So these kinds of frustrations come with the brand.
Finder’s copy doesn’t merge folders.
This is SOOOOOOOOOO annoying.
Honestly, you are using the iPod for something that the software wasn’t designed to accomodate. You are on your own at that point, right. Put another way: if you live on the tweaker’s edge, you can’t complain about your lumps.
I am not enthused about Apple’s rapid development pace, but then again, no-one *forced me* to have the latest, greatest software. If you want to have it, then you will pay a price for it. If you live on the bleeding edge, don’t complain about your lumps.
Your comments about Apple monopolizing “it’s share” of the Mp3 don’t make sense. You can’t monopolize a “share” of anything, because doing so means that you’re not a monopoly!
Why would you expect a “move” command to be a “merge” command? Huh? Move means “replace”, not “merge”. It really sounds like you’re trying to blame the manufacturer for your own fault. Even OS 9 behaves this way.
I agree that Apple should have their databases synched to tell them everything they need to know about a particular product. But those databases are only as good as the communication with the vendors and/or resellers. If you get a bum reseller, then there goes that knowledge.
I do agree that the Backup should verify its backup. An invalid backup is no backup at all, I think.
Wow, so many complaints, so many of them baseless. So let’s start with the obvious:
1. *Every* version of the Macintosh OS has had the same behavior with regard to copying folders. The only complaints I’ve ever heard about this behavior have come from people who cut their teeth on Windoze. Sorry you didn’t know that. As I recall, there’s a prompt that you ignored or did not understand. This has come up regularly from switchers over the last few years. I’m sorry you had difficulty with it. I’m at a loss to understand why those of us who remember System 6 should have to change to suit you.
2. I can’t think of any consumer company that doesn’t require you, the consumer, to provide proof that your product is still under warranty when you submit a repair request. I’m not going to claim that there isn’t one out there that goes that extra mile; I’m just pointing out that I can’t think of any company that helps you deprive them of income. Apple regularly scores at the top of all consumer surveys with regard to customer service. YMMV.
3. WRT the iPod: When Nissan came out with side impact airbags, I didn’t expect them to retrofit my car with them. While Daevrojn may not be fluent, his point stands - dude, turn down the volume.
4. WRT iPod as a portable drive: Wow. For $300, you could have gotten a *lot* more storage capacity.
5. WRT Apple’s “my way or the highway” philosophy: Again, sorry, but that’s just the way they’ve always been. Jobs isn’t openly called an egomaniac for nothing. I mean, if you didn’t get that prior to switching…
6. And finally, one more word on backwards compatibility: it’s one of the reasons it’s called the “bleeding edge.” I’m still (fairly) happily running Panther. I’ll be happy waiting for the Intel switch to run its course.
But Apple’s not in the business of giving away products. They’re in the business of making you want to spend your hard-earned dollars, rubles, what have you, on their drool-worthy products. I owned a 5200. I learned. Hope you do, too.
“Again on backward compatibility, iPod users suffer. If you want new features, you buy a new iPod. Apple doesn’t seem to have any interest in providing new features for older iPods. Case in point: Volume limiting.”
Volume limiting is not a “feature”. It’s a safety measure. So it’s a shame they don’t offer it for older iPods. And no, “just turning down the volume” isn’t enough.
As for features, I guess I’m not the only one who submitted “user feedback” about compilations grouping to Apple. A few compilation disks can increase the number of artists in the library by hundreds. Scrolling through them on iPods is a pain, so I have to use smart playlists to keep them off my iPod. Is it a problem? Yes, it is. Would I have this problem with some other player (with folder-based UI)? No. Could they make “Group compilations” feature available for all iPods? Yes, and it wouldn’t cost them much. Did they do it? No, it’s for newer iPods only. Do they want to me to buy a new iPod? Yes, of course they do. Will I buy the new iPod? Hmmm… let me think… ;-]
“We’re all well aware of how Apple is monopolizing it’s share of the MP3 player and music downloads markets, but it monopolizes its computer market just as much.”
Big deal. Monopoly is a monopoly. There’s absolutely nothing new about it. If it wasn’t Apple it would be Microsoft. Would it be any better?
Aurora77:“Your comments about Apple monopolizing “it’s share” of the Mp3 don’t make sense. You can’t monopolize a “share” of anything, because doing so means that you’re not a monopoly!”
It’s a pretty stupid comment, because “monopolizing” means “turning into monopoly”. While Apple isn’t a monopoly yet (DAP market is closer to oligopoly), they are becoming a monopoly, and Fairplay lock-in definitely helps them.
And it’s really sad/funny how a Mac user gets no compassion from Mac-only users. This “don’t touch our perfect white iMacs and iPods with your unperfect greasy fingers” attitude is truly remarkable:
“Honestly, you are using the iPod for something that the software wasn’t designed to accomodate. You are on your own at that point, right. Put another way: if you live on the tweaker’s edge, you can’t complain about your lumps.”
I “feel your pain”, Chris! ;-]
Apple regularly scores at the top of all consumer surveys with regard to customer service.
One look at the drooling Mac-bots among the Apple fan base and it’s not hard to see why. It would be like taking a survey of Catholics and asking them what they think of Jesus.
Heck, you can’t even write an article on modest complaints about Apple without the zealous drones calling them “baseless” and refuting them point by point.
Ain’t it so, Beeb. I write a lot of articles that get a lot of positive feedback, which you’d think would allow me some leverage to write the occasional negative article, without it being torn to shreds.
Not so. But I do need to respond to some of the things said.
Why would you expect a “move” command to be a “merge” command?
Nope. I wrote “copy”.
Merging when copying is very useful for synchronizing folders - eg a folder on your HDD and your USB memory stick.
The abundance of file syncing utilities and even Apple providing one in XCode, indicates it is something people want - not only those with a Windows background.
Your disapproval of the Os requirements of most apps is puzzling, you make it sound like such an ordeal to upgrade from one iteration of X to another, it’s a simple download and it’s free! There’s no hassle for high OS requirements, as long as you have any copy of X, you shouldn’t be complaining.
No hassle at all. Except on the hip pocket. Those apps that require the latest iteration of OSX are forcing us to fork out for the new OS as well. It does have that feel of being a licence to print money…
What’s your deal about the iPod and the Volume Limiting? All you have to do is turn down the volume yourself! That shouldn’t be a problem! This is just anothr baseless argument.
Yes, I can and do limit the volume on my iPod, but do you expect me to follow my children with 4G (or earlier) iPods around all day long, turning the volume down?
As for your warranty, there are dozens of other buisnesses that require you produce a copy of your warranty, Apple isn’t the only company that does that. Besides, the majoirty of people do hold on to the warranties and reciepts for just an occasion as yours. It’s a failsafe, you be stupid not to do so.
I guess I should have been clearer. I am a meticulous keeper of warrantees and receipts. But my Mac was provided with no APP documentation. At the time - and being new to Macs - I didn’t know it should, I assumed the 3 year warranty I was told it came with, meant exactly that. And so, all I would have to do would be provide proof of purchase, which I can. But that invoice doesn’t indicate APP either. So obviously the reseller thought 3 years meant 3 years.
Even without the APP documentation, Apple should be able to identify that my computer was bought under that deal and clear this up.
Honestly, you are using the iPod for something that the software wasn’t designed to accomodate. You are on your own at that point, right.
I’d be very surprised if i’m “on my own”. Also the Shuffle allows carrying apps between Windows and Macs, how hard would it be for Apple to provide an option to partition other iPods for dual filesystem access? Of course, if they did and even though it could be done through a firmware update, it wouldn’t be available to older iPods…
*Every* version of the Macintosh OS has had the same behavior with regard to copying folders. The only complaints I’ve ever heard about this behavior have come from people who cut their teeth on Windoze. Sorry you didn’t know that. As I recall, there’s a prompt that you ignored or did not understand. This has come up regularly from switchers over the last few years. I’m sorry you had difficulty with it. I’m at a loss to understand why those of us who remember System 6 should have to change to suit you.
Now aint that a great reason to not introduce a new feature? No wonder it took Apple 20 years to dump the one-button mouse.
Yes, I saw the warning prompt. I didn’t select “Replace All”. I did expect that every duplicate file (not just folders) would cause a similar prompt. But no, just a prompt for the topmost folder.
As I said, why not have a “Replace or Merge?” prompt in this situation? Would keep everyone happy.
WRT the iPod: When Nissan came out with side impact airbags, I didn’t expect them to retrofit my car with them. While Daevrojn may not be fluent, his point stands - dude, turn down the volume.
I didn’t ask for a hardware upgrade. Volume Limiting and Password Security should be achievable with a firmware update.
On my point about Apple monopolizing it’s 5% computer marketshare, I think that was totally lost on some folks. I was trying to emphasize that it doesn’t take a 95% marketshare, and that Apple are doing things even in their small Mac market that are dubious.
I guess though with so many users who see Apple’s as the only way, it’s no wonder Apple have been able to get away with it’s monopolistic practices.
referring to backup and files transfer, I ran into problems too when I had to transfer files from my old G4 at work to my new G5. I copied the folders to en external hard drive and then I copied them on the G5. The problem is that when I resumed work on my old projects, I didn’t have acces right to the files. I admit, i changed my username on the G5, but my files weren’t locked or anything on the G4. Oh well, I thought what the heck and started re-applying permissions to all the files and folders. But that didn’t work. It simply dind’t. I has to dwonload filebuddy and only then was I able to have acces to my own files. That was a lot of hassle for just being able to access my files.
I find it great that once you say anything remotely bad about an Apple, the entire community comes together to slam the hell out of the person who posts anything. Good going. SOLIDARITY!
Valid points taken, from both an Apple and Wintel user. Some of it was a bit gnit picky, but on the whole I agree.
Good going. SOLIDARITY!
You know who else had solidarity? Hitler.
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Joke.
Hey Chris. With 20 years experience I can’t believe you’d be using Apple Backup as your primary backup utility (AFAICT from your article). For the future you might consider a backup solution using SuperDuper! with sufficient external storage at the foundation, possibly in combination with other backup methods for redundancy and/or off-site storage.
Being able to primarily restore complete volumes makes it easier, faster, and more reliable to recover a system to a previous state (or close to it) than if you have to cobble it together from too many out-of-sync bits and pieces.
I’ve been using FoldersSynchronizer for years for backups. Excellent
SJK, I tried the trial version of SD but it wanted to wipe my destination drive - which I couldn’t let it do.
And yes I do have 20 years IT experience which at each employer has involved at times developing backup solutions and yes I do like Backup. I’ll write an article on it soon and explain why.