Really, Apple?
Simple functions you still haven’t added
So far reviewers love Apple’s release of OS 10 Mojave. I remain uncommitted. I’m clinging to my 2015 MacBook Pro because I hate the touch bar. Now that I think of it, Mojave reminds me of the software equivalent of the touch bar. Cool concept, but functionally useless.
Do I really need Dark Mode? The reviewers are pushing it like the Soviet party line. “Dark mode is easier on the eyes. Less eye strain.” Fortunately, the three apps I work with most (Ulysses, Photoshop and Illustrator) feature dark modes already.
At first I thought Stacks sounded useful. I can create stacks, which, on closer inspection, are nothing more than piles of paper on my desktop. It’s like putting all my loose documents under six paperweights. I still have to look under the paperweights. If I want to decide how to sort the documents (rather than by “date,” or “kind”) I have to tag them which creates an extra level of organization.
Using Stacks like putting all my loose documents under six paperweights. I still have to look under the paperweights.
Nor can I create stacks in folders. If I want to create a stack to contain documents from multiple folders, I create an alias of each document and stack that. Since the only files I save to the desktop are temporary items I intend to discard, it doesn’t matter whether I stack them before I drag them to the trash, or drag select and drag them to the trash.
If I were still teaching digital design I could use the video screen capture option to record actions, but I retired. I don’t scribble notes on screenshots, or files on the desktop. That’s right, I can mark up documents from the finder. Maybe if my Apple Pen worked on my MacBook monitor I’d be excited. But since Apple won’t release tablet-laptop hybrids, that won’t happen. So I’ll do that on my iPad.
In other words, more cosmetics, few mechanics.
Reviews say Mojave’s more fast and stable on 2015 Macs (but not 2012) than High Sierra, and the security is solid. But I have to wipe my hard drive to return to High Sierra if it’s a bust. So I’ll probably test it with boot camp and realize Apple hasn’t delivered any truly new products since we lost Steve Jobs.
In the meantime, I’m still waiting for
basic operational fixes that you think would be easy, but not to Apple.
I admit I’m not a programmer. My brother-in-law, who developed AI programs reminded me of this every time I developed an educational or online app. But I know enough about programming to know that if most of the components exist, the only reason a problem remains is cost and priority.
In every case, I’ve seen most of the components for the following fixes in the current operating system. In fact, most of the components have been around for years. I don’t intend to air a laundry list of complaints but Apple should have delivered the following two examples of functionality years ago.
Move To and Copy To command
Wouldn’t it be so much easier if I could select a file, or group of files, and use the “Move To” or “Copy To” command?
Why do we have to have two windows open to move one file to another folder?[1] I spend more time organizing files than working some days, especially when I need to move files in one location to different folders. For each new destination folder, the finder demands that I navigate to the main folder location and burrow down to the final location.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier if I could select a file, or group of files, and use the “Move To” or “Copy To” command? Then I would never need to leave that window. I could move the file just as though I were using the “Save As” file command in every program.[2]
I found two inexpensive apps with Copy To functionality.[3] However, the fewer apps I have running in the background, the smoother my Mac runs. So I prefer to avoid them. The Mac debuted in 1984. I owned a 128k mac. In 24 years the girl who smashed the barriers should have been able to smash the “use more windows” monopoly.
Create New Folder from “Save Bookmarks” in Safari
Does this sound similar to the “Copy To” request? It should because the two rely on similar interface components.
I hate a cluttered Bookmark bar as much as I hate a cluttered desktop. Safari allows you to sort bookmarks into folders, but only after you create them. To add a folder you need to open the “Edit Bookmarks” window, create a folder in the sidebar then drag the folder to its final location in the editing window.
Once the destination folder is in its proper place, you can move the bookmark. Can you say pain in the ass?
How about a “New Folder” command for bookmarks just like every other “save” operation in the Mac OS? Even iOS lets me create new bookmark folders on the fly. The process is clunky, but I can do it.
Am I being picky? I don’t think so. Because I know other readers would love other very basic finder and file functions that should have been implemented before OSX became Panther. Little tasks those users perform every day, that I don’t.
Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs. Steve was “that guy,” who showed up at our door with exactly the product we wanted (and which we couldn’t afford). Steve understood sexy. Cook is “that other guy.” He wants to be sexy, but shows up with gas station flowers and candy. The kind of gifts where many of us say, “How thoughtful” and then, like the task bar, we forget.
Steve was “that guy,” who showed up at our door with exactly the product we wanted (and which we couldn’t afford). Cook is “that other guy.” He wants to be sexy, but shows up with gas station flowers and candy.
Or else gifts that, like dark mode, have been around so long they’re only sexy because they finally arrived. Like Google finally promising fiberoptic cable to your neighborhood, a year after your cable company laid the lines.
I’ve been married more than thirty years. I learned early on that Carol appreciated sexy, but she wanted me to be dependable even more. I’ve been married to my Mac since 1986.[4] I don’t need sexy. I need it to perform simple tasks it should have learned at OS toilet training.
[1]: There are exceptions. Sometimes, when I move a file to a folder on the same level in column view, I can do it with a single window. If the target is nested in a second folder (or somewhere else), forget it.
[2]: Which is fine if I’m saving an open document to a new location. Frustrating if the document isn’t open.
[3]: I use the paid app QuickMoveFile ($2) because it works a hair better than the free app Handle Files.
[4]: 120K (just to have it) Plus, II, Iici, Quadra, 6600, half a dozen PowerBooks, four iPads, three iPhones and a StarMax, which I loved the most. I maxed the RAM on all of them. The StarMax was my last desktop. When my laptop outpoured her, I kept it portable.
Wry noir author Phillip T. Stephens wrote Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell, and the Indie Book Award winning Seeing Jesus. Follow him @stephens_pt.
