on the contrary ...

Actually, I think it *is* good if he forwards them. He wouldn't do that if he didn't care about it being fixed, would he?

Of course, if you were the one responsible for creating the PoS then things might be a tad different

I did!

The conversation went on for 30 mins, I mentioned most of what you just said and a whole lot more. Hopefully they pay some heed though!

Group hug please

I'm glad to see you're taking the first step to recovery by admitting you read El 'Reg.

Doubtful that it'll make much difference (I am an optimist generally though), I've stated before that I love my iPod Nano but the software is crap, i've been using iTunes for quite a while and it's always sucked badly under Windows, why on earth an app to sync an MP3 player needs to install a service is beyond me, surely just allowing Windows to associate the iPod with iTunes should be good enough?

Yes, what of iPhoto?

In daily use here managing a collection of close of 10,000 images and other files. Fully integrated with every other app (including Adobe CS3) that is used daily here producing all sorts of training and promotional material.

If you are having trouble with it, I suggest you make sure your updates are done and you have plenty of RAM. Also you may be using it incorrectly - I have many clients who insist on moving images out of iphoto to other locations by rummaging around in folders just so they can do something with an image. Completely unnecessary. Everything is done from the iPhoto window (or though the library browsers in other App).

I haven't had a single issue with iPhoto since version 8 (iLife 09) came out. (Apart from a few face recognition errors.)

I know this will probably be flagged as fanboy defence - but I use this app day in day out every day. and 'it just works1' I have other DAM software that I have spent money one - large amounts in some cases - but iPhoto works better than they do.

Obviously a Mac fan, but also blinkered

That's like saying who care's about Audi, BMW etc cars that work. Everything should work regardless of the manufacture or platform. If you don't care about it, intend for it to work or are intentionally making it bad to convince people towards a particular brand, hardware, OS etc then what's the point in even developing it.

I believe it's done badly on purpose, but surely this drives people away from their products, it does for me as I don't trust them for that reason only.

@ Atlas Shrugged

I own players from Apple, Philips, LG, Samsung, Sony -- plus three or four nasty Sigmatel chipped Chinese horrors.

I think I'd know if Sony had pulled any fast ones -- though I was careful NOT to install any of the software on their CD -- in fact kept it in the wrapper just in case !

The reason Sony are now okay to buy is that they've realised that everyone hates Sonic Stage, their terrible proprietary system which stifled sales of the earlier Sony players.

@sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

I can tell you worse about Sony -- like the Korean friend living in London bought a Sony camera, needed a Korean language manual -- not allowed to download from Sony Korea because camera not bought there.

Yesterday, at car boot sale, for 50p I bought a Sony camera memory stick 256meg -- in original pack but as old as the hills. Features "Magic Gate" which seems to be some sort of DRM nonsense. The blurb makes it sound like an advantage -- how we all laughed.

But seriously, have a look at their players.

Sony has decided to try to wrench back a share of the portable music market. Obviously, the first thing to do was to attack Apple's weakness (iTunes) -- by sparing users any need to load software in order to use the new Sony players. The screens are great, the battery life exceptional and there's a proper volume control.

Is Sony Korea a special case for downloads?

"not allowed to download from Sony Korea because camera not bought there"

Odd, because I've downloaded product manuals from other overseas Sony sites without any issues - they've never even asked if I owned the product in question, let alone where I didn't buy it from.

@ChrisC

Apparently Sony have a problem with Koreans buying in neighbouring countries to get round Korea's rather "structured" retail system.

The department stores are owned by the familiar industrial giants (Hyundai etc) and presumably they protect Sony's margins in a manner that makes Hong Kong, Singapore etc seem temptingly cheap.

Huh?

But you can have your Firefox and VLC on Mac OS X too...

Suggestions

Seamonkey (also use for email) >> Firefox >> Safari

Graphic Converter >> Picasa >> iPhoto

Basically, ignore the iApps for sanity's sake.

iTunes is hostile and crap on macs as well, but back 5 versions was pretty good. Sad, really.

If you do support...

I'd go with the iApps etc any day, simply because they are stable, provide good performance, and are easy to come to grips with. I know that if I put them in the hands of friends and family, I will rarely be called out to help.

Conversely, I've bitterly regretted putting tools like VLC in the hands of average computer users. I've only resorted to that because the video from a friend's obscure camcorder wouldn't play back in Quicktime, but had calls for help almost every 10 minutes. VLC is a very powerful tool, but with a skeletal UI and a tad unpredictable too, i.e. something will work in one version and not the next. I've also wasted a lot of time discovering that something would only work if you tweaked an obscure variable deep in the bowels of VLC's settings.

GraphicConverter is fantastic for, well, converting graphics, but I don't see the connection with iPhoto. The beauty of iPhoto is that even my youngest children can take snapshots of their toys, plug the camera into the Mac, drop into iMovie, upload for friends/family, and everything just works. Without exception, I've shown them the bare bones of the process and they've repeated it by themselves from that moment on. Same with the other iApps (including iTunes). They just work, which keeps everyone happy (and consequently me too).

The great thing about the Mac is that you have all this choice. If simple, consistent, and reliable is what you need, it's all there out of the box. But if you want all the other tools, the Unix command line, or even the ability to use Windows, it's all there too.

Have you tried...

...taping a penny to the top of the Powerbook?

Used to keep the old Garrard from skipping.

Closed culture

I wish Microsoft has a bug tracker for Windows too, but...

bug tracker for Windows?

Who's got a server farm big enough to store that many bug reports?