Overall Reaction to MacWorld

[Koelling]

[selfishbastard] I didn't get anything I wanted and lost something I truly loved, @mac [/selfishbastard]


So except for that little whine, it was an average conference. I'm still pissed about my email, but I'll get over it. The things offered will be a good spring board to new and cool things to come.

[xaqintosh]

[salsa]

I originally put this response into the wrong forum thread:

There were lots of things I liked from the Expo: I look forward to the junk mail filtering (& wonder, will the revised Mail finally be rid of the annoying false messages warning you about damaging your mailbox if you open it?), the improved Address book, the ability to rate songs & organize them in amazing ways in iTunes3. The synchronization to BlueTooth cellular phones sounds amazing, although not important to me, as I don't own a cellular & don't plan to. The automatic back-up between home & work computers sounds pretty amazing too, although I would have to see how programmable that is, & since I will be a student in Fall, I won't be forking out the $100 per year.

Overall, some pretty impressive technologies. Too bad I already bought my SuperDrive iMac a few months ago... if I knew a 17" monitor with improved graphics card was on the way, I would have waited!

Rather disappointed that many things people have been complaining about with OS X have not been addressed:
FONTS: No app to let you view the data fork fonts (you have to view within an opened app such as AppleWorks), & still, no native app to view the other fonts. (I've downloaded freeware X Font Info, but surely it should come native). And, font mgm't programs for OS X such as Suitcase & FontReserve -- the only ones written for OS X -- have certain problems with the many font folders in OS X & the fact that OS X allows two fonts to be open at same time... I would like to see Jaguar deal with this in as transparent a manner as Rendezvous works.

I would have also like to have seen more usability improvements for OS X itself, although I am glad that Sherlock & its web searches have been separated from Finder level searches, & it is very nice that Search will be integrated right within Finder windows. (one of those "why didn't I think of that?" kind of things). But... besides spring-loaded folders, I would dearly love to have seen a return of windowshades. I ABSOLUTELY HATE all my files being minimized to the dock, & having to maximize them again. Huge timewaster. (and yes, I know all about shorcuts like option - control on the icon on Dock to bring Finder apps to the forefront). I would still like to see trashcan moved off the dock. I think that apps which are opened need a better differentiation than a tiny triangle, some actual physically different space than unopened apps -- why cannot small icons of all opened apps go on the top menu bar, for instance, or be separated by another bar on dock? -- and (while there are freeware & shareware apps which do this), I would like to see greater customizability of the dock. I don't like how the "hide the dock" works -- annoying, it pops up when you do not want it to -- and I would rather have an option to have a small thing appear which is always on the screen, which you click to expand (much like -- God, what was that called in OS 9? oh, yeah, the control strip). And I find that changing a filename in the Finder is not as fluid, & has more of a Windows feel than a Mac feel. Takes a second to click in before you can change it. And there should definitely be better instructions regarding pre-binding & also the special tasks used to clean up the system in the wee hours of the morning, with specific options to suit different users -- many users like me don't have the computer on 24 / 7 and I only found out about these cleaning utilities accidentally on a forum. So yeah, I've downloaded MacJanitor and can now do these tasks at my convenience... but I am willing to bet lots of users don't look at these forums & don't have a clue that these tasks need to be done. That, in my mind, is a usability problem, because it is not transparent or doesn't work transparently for the many unknowing users who shut off their computers after use.

Now, this might be controversial, but I wonder how many other users are like me? By that, I mean that they are either the only user of that computer, or, if others use it, they don't need to configure a whole other set of apps & fonts for it -- just perhaps Internet preferences. In that case, a lot of the special separate users folders are overkill & even make for a more confusing system. I wouldn't mind seeing Apple develop two different versions of OS X: one a simpler, single user version, & the other a multiple user version. Just an idea...

Now, my reaction in brief: while I was impressed with some of the new technologies, almost none of them benefit me, in particular. They would seem to benefit either businesses with lots of Macs & externals, or people with lots & lots of digital devices, multi computers at home, etc. I am disappointed that there were almost no OSX usability issues addressed. It seemed just adding on impressive new technologies, without improving substantially the OS X interface & way it works, itself. Disappointed.

[xaqintosh]

I disagree with taking the trash out of the dock. the dock is its rightful home, and if you set the dock to be pinned to the "end" then the trash is always in the same spot.

[Tigger]

All I want is a Powermac that really kicks butts, for a price that is reasonable.
The prices now are not, I think.

I want a 533MHz Front side bus.
I want 1066 RDRAM.
I want a G4 with, say 1.5GHz (Here I am trying to be realistic )
I want UT 2003 shipped with it.
I want a cheese helmet.

[Tigger]

Hell, forget what I said.

I don't want to be realistic.
I want a G5 5GHz.
And a Nacho hat.

[xaqintosh]

I want one too!

(especially the nacho hat )