Dan’s Wall of the Insanely Useful

I love macs, mainly because they are easier and more fun to use then anything else out there. Apple’s attention to detail and design innovation clearly lead the entire PC industry- so much so that many companies scramble to copy most everything they do.

But that doesn’t mean Apple gets everything right. Apple’s status as a trend-setter is both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes they make design decisions that don’t make any sense, simply because they want to make themselves seem different or more advanced then everyone else. Take apple’s longtime reluctance to include a multi-button mouse with macs. After you’ve used it for a while, Right-click is obviously a excellent design improvement (what do you know, Microsoft did something right!) Yet apple for a long time refused to make mice with a second mouse button! Why would they ignore such an obvious improvement, especially when apple prides themselves in being so forward-thinking?

Even the best can be taken down by pride. In it’s push to be “different”, Apple sometimes sacrifices important usability improvements that others in the industry uncover. That needn’t be. Sir Issac Newton once said: “If I’ve seen further, it’s by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Apple may consider itself the giant and everyone else the ant, but this is a shortsighted viewpoint. Everyone contributes in some way- the real innovators recognize and improve upon the best that’s available to them. Thus, the holy grail for apple is staying innovative and imaginative, while still promoting function and usability.

Without recognizing the improvements of others, apple can’t I believe Apple can be just as “insanely great” and innovative in the industry without sacrificing function and usability. Indeed, combining form and function is the holy grail, taking Apple beyond the take oft-used critique of “impractical” and proving Apple can innovate at the heart of how people use their computers.

Here are some fixes apple could implement that would make Macs even more relevant in today’s complex and time-crunched world.

1. A brand new finder, which provides a simple and revolutionary way to manage files. It’s still way too hard in this day and age to manage all the files and media we have. It should be extremely easy to collect together files, move them, and see different areas of the hard drive at the same time. Spotlight and Smart Folders are a step in the right direction. But what the finder needs is dynamics and visualization. “Quick, Finder. How many mp3s do I have, where are they, and which ones aren’t in iTunes yet?” Why does it take anyone 5-10 to drill down into a folder to move something to another folder. How slow- especially b/c the mac has so many great zooming features like Expose. Use the zooming features to instantly show me anything organized by category from anywhere on the drive. (Quicksilver is REALLY a good model to start from, and also Leap. Both of these are killer apps apple should, ehem, steal a few ideas from.)
2. One of Leap’s best ideas is to offer new ways of quickly and efficiently organizing applications and files by different kinds of metadata (by applying keywords.) Apple needs to improve on Spotlight so that the user can organize how found items can be grouped with other found items.
3. Upon emptying the trash with an application, the Finder should ask: “Do you want to delete all user files and preferences associated with this application?” That, and the fact that most apps inare in .app packages, would make uninstallation easy. Also, Apple should force developers to use only app packages for all future mac apps, no exceptions. It’s annoying when mac software comes with an installer, apple should kill this practice unless they have a good way of making sure they offer uninstallers (standardize the install process like windows Add/Remove?)
4. Ask me after I install an app from an Internet dmg file to automatically dismount and delete the dmg. I install a lot of apps, and it sucks how you have to unmount the dmg and find and delete the dmg file after every single install (it’s even worse for app updates.)
5. Software Update should nag you (like windows) to install apple updates, or install them for you automatically. A basic defragmentation program should be included, along with options to schedule defragment sessions. Also, updating all your 3rd party software should be easy, so people actually do it. Buy out AppFresh and include it as part of the OS. (This app is the number one thing I install with all macs.)
6. BootCamp is great but I wish Apple would just buy Parallels and be done with it. Also, Apple should include good freeware apps on their computers, or make an effort to highlight really good 3rd party apps for the mac. (NOT accepting advertising money and putting cripple or trialware on macs like is often done in the windows world, I’m talking about exposing people to what they can do with a mac outside of the normal mac apps.)
7. Include a few left-out codecs to round-out Quicktime. I get tired of putting Perian and Flip4Mac on every new Mac I get. Just include them… macs should be able to play every type of media file by default.
8. I still hate the Dock, but I’m not sure how apple can fix it now that people have used it for a while and are familiar with it. Definately beef up the Dock so it’s more useful as a running-application manager.
9. Safari should come pre-loaded with some of the major mac websites out there today: MacFixit, MacUpdate/Versiontracker, Iusethis, Osxhints, etc.
10. iChat needs support for all other IM networks, and compatablity with Skype/video.

Some might be concerned that I advocate apple buy up or include 3rd party technologies. I’ve considered this carefully- what should be in the Mac OS are the base programs and functionality needed to manage applications and files. Also, include the things that every user needs, like codecs and capablity to handle popular networks.

I don’t think apple should just buy every good 3rd party app… 3rd parties are what give the mac platform it’s breath and variety. But before going “over the top” with wow-factors like Time Machine, apple needs to think a bit about how users work with Macs and provide features that enhance our daily lives. These are the things that make the mac something people will actually use, instead of just being wowed by some feature and then never using it again.