[Macworld]

Post your comments for The Mac at 25: Interface design here

[Luis_Alejandro]

quote:
"After all, not every interface innovation comes from Cupertino..."
Just the usefull ones?

[jmincey]

When I saw the headline of this article, "The Mac at 25: Interface Design," I had hopes for something more than a compilation of miscellaneous patent filings. Perhaps some analysis of how the UI has evolved over the last twenty five years and whether this points to how it may yet evolve in the next five to ten?
Patents may or may not be an indication of that, but I just expected more of an article on this topic than a cursory visit to the web site of the patent office.
Jeff Mincey

[amtanner]

Hopefully after 25 years, Apple will do the right thing and kill the mouse this year. It is old school. The glass multi-touch track pad is far superior. Here's to the new desktops with new keyboards that include a multi-touch trackpad. The 80's called. They want their technology back.

[MacOldHand]

Based on a single data point of my individual experience, the idea that the mouse as we know it is dead might hold some water. When I bought my MacBook Pro last year I also bought Apple's wireless mouse to go with it. The trackpad is so much faster, more natural and easy to use that I never bother with the mouse. It's not even a case of using the mouse for a few key tasks... I really never use it for anything.

[robogobo]

how about they make all their current wonders work correctly before moving on to the next big (broken) gem? I'm so tired of wonderful promises that cause headaches and endless maintenance. That and some tighter backward compatibility would be nice.

[JScott]

"giving iTunes the ability to use your Mac to broadcast all of its stored tunes to your iPod or iPhone wirelessly"
I know its been covered but you can do this now with your iPhone and Simplify Media, its free.
www.simplifymedia.com

[Wondercow]

robogobo said:

how about they make all their current wonders work correctly before moving on to the next big (broken) gem? I'm so tired of wonderful promises that cause headaches and endless maintenance. That and some tighter backward compatibility would be nice.

I think you've mistaken this website for Windowsworld.com.

[robogobo]

Wondercow said:

I think you've mistaken this website for Windowsworld.com.

yeah I know, but really, Apple's track record is looking more and more like Windows, and more like the rest of the tech world in general. Things are released well before they're ready, and the early adopters are the testers. R&D is too far ahead of QC, and often the problems never get fixed. The chances of having problems are lower if you're buying all new hardware and software, which is why Apple can say it "just works". Sure, but most of us are trying to integrate the new into the old, and Apple is holding out on us to push us into buying more new. Just an example, try using Airtunes on an older Airport Express with iTunes 8. Or syncing MobileMe with new and older machines. If you upgrade one piece, you really have to upgrade all. That's not right. And I was one of the unlucky ones with a bad lower memory slot in my Powerbook, outside of warranty and outside of the recall serial number range. I was stuck with that for years. Now I have an ACD with bad color shift and they refuse to replace or fix it. I spend too much money with them to be a tester.

[MtnBiker]

I'm not sure it's interface, but location awareness would be nice.
I'm on a trip going back and forth between my laptop and iPhone and miss the location awareness of the iPhone while on the Mac.

[beeble42]

robogo, air tunes does work fine with the old express for literally thousands of people. With iTunes 8. For Windows or Mac. Ever considered that you might have an interference issue.
As for Mobile Me, I have a Mac Pro and PB G4 at home as well as two iMac's at work (new intel and old G5) and they all sync my ical, address book, mail and idisk just fine.

[pixelpeer]

jmincey said:

When I saw the headline of this article, "The Mac at 25: Interface Design," I had hopes for something more than a compilation of miscellaneous patent filings. Perhaps some analysis of how the UI has evolved over the last twenty five years and whether this points to how it may yet evolve in the next five to ten?

Patents may or may not be an indication of that, but I just expected more of an article on this topic than a cursory visit to the web site of the patent office.

You said it, I completely agree. Pretty lame article. It's more like an introduction to the article that was never written. Pales in comparison to the coverage Ars Technica or Appleinsider or some other sites would give such a vast topic. Am I noticing a trend here at Macworld: more and more breadth at the expense of depth? Hopefully this is more of an aberration than a trend.

[XMattingly]

amtanner said:

Hopefully after 25 years, Apple will do the right thing and kill the mouse this year.

Yeah, and do what - eliminate usefulness for everyone who uses a desktop and a full-sized keyboard? The track pad is extraordinarily well designed and I think it does have a slight edge over the mouse for navigation, but for fine tuned work - such as using a pen tool in a vector drawing program, it's a no-go.

Age of technology does not correlate to its usefulness. Should auto makers ditch the steering wheel, because it's been around for a century?

[robogobo]

beeble42 said:

robogo, air tunes does work fine with the old express for literally thousands of people. With iTunes 8. For Windows or Mac. Ever considered that you might have an interference issue.

As for Mobile Me, I have a Mac Pro and PB G4 at home as well as two iMac's at work (new intel and old G5) and they all sync my ical, address book, mail and idisk just fine.

ok, but it's not working for literally thousands as well. Just peruse the boards and you'll see a plenty. I can't count how many times I've had to reset MobileMe sync. And regarding airtunes, it was never a problem before iTunes 8, and now it is. The base station is only 10 feet away so I doubt sudden interference. But see it's just like this with Apple: if I and a million other people complain about something being wrong, and it involves old hardware, they'll point to a few guys like you who aren't having problems and say there is no problem.