What We Want From Apple

Apple announced a lot at WWDC and I think most of it is good news. However there is still a lot left unsaid and there is plenty more they could do. 

Like a lot of people, my first reaction to iOS 7 is that it looks ugly and a lot like Windows Phone but after watching some hands on videos, I'm going to have to wait until I see it in the flesh to really make that call. The thing that really struck me were the bright colours and the adage, "cheap and cheerful" immediately popped into my head. They way the background moves in relation to the icons, as you move the device around, is super pretty but this is going to be using extra clock cycles on your cpu and gpu. So is all that translucency. What we really want here is the battery saving performance from Mavericks. In theory all of that stuff sounded great but there was no mention of such things for iOS.

Sticking with iOS 7, I would agree that most of these new features are just catching up to their competitors but I think they are going just a tiny bit further in most regards. New ways to search the app store is something that is very much needed right now and I can't think of any app store at the moment, that I would say has great app finding functionality. Most of the other functions they have taken the best of both Android and Windows and cobbled them together, which is a good thing, well until they get sued. I sincerely hope that they have thought out the automatic update feature and stolen the "only on wifi" setting from android, whilst ensuring we get unobtrusive notes on what was changed.

The final point about iOS that I want to make is, nobody wants Apple Maps in their car. If Apple wants people to be interested in Apple Maps, they have to cram it full of data like Google Maps. You can type almost utter nonsense into Google Maps and it will find the damn thing you are looking for. Apple Maps doesn't even know half of the abbreviations for street types like Pde, typing in such a thing will blow it's mind! If they want people to take it seriously they need to work away in the background, doing the boring data collection and minor tweaks that Apple infamously hate to do. Connecting your device to your car was probably Apple's biggest new feature this launch and it is kind of disappointing, that said, I am sure they are holding something back for the 5S due out later this year.

Now onto the Mac stuff. Let's get the most important thing out of the way, Mavericks is a crap name. I think Apple should move onto small cats and call it Ocelot. There is plenty of room for them to move with these names and they could even finish on Sea Cat.

Okay so now that is out of the way, onto the serious stuff. I actually really like Mavericks and I think it will be the one to update to from Lion. So this is my first issue, can we go straight from Lion to Mavericks? Mountain Lion didn't interest me at all and I think a lot of people felt the same, so I hope this is an easy process. One that doesn't involve purchasing Mountain Lion or doing a clean install. The changes to power and RAM usage sound great, though we'll have to wait to see independent tests. Better integration with iOS devices sounds good to me too but I am more excited about finally getting iBooks. There is a lot of exclusive content such as Games Workshops rulebooks available for iBooks that otherwise required an iPad. Hopefully you'll be able to get them on the Mac too.

This just leaves the MacPro. It's an interesting design and if it works as they say it does and it is priced decently, I think it will sell well but there is one problem. It isn't really expandable. You've got six whole Thunderbolt 2 plugs out the back but what are you going to plug into them? A hard drive? Fine, whatever, what we really want is a new GPU. Apple or a third party need to get GPU's that run through Thunderbolt (preferably Thunderbolt 1 so I can upgrade mine). Yes, you can do that right now but it isn't guaranteed to work. Add to this that everything is so expensive for Thunderbolt, even simple hubs, and you make this option even less desirable. But what's even worse is that Apple themselves don't really support Thunderbolt either. The latest Time Capsule as no Thunderbolt port and this is a device that is supposed to be about quick backups. 

As usual Apple try to get you with the reality distortion field and for the most part it has worked but with just a few simple improvements, they could make the whole experience enjoyable, even for cynics like me.