<story><title>If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter</title><url>https://www.macworld.com/article/551393/apple-software-problems-regions-memories-bugs.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mixmastamyk</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t get me started on the new iOS podcast app.  I used to know how to use it.  Now I need to click five times at random to get anywhere, and still don&amp;#x27;t understand where I am.  All the views look similar, but different.  I just want to hear the oldest first and see if episodes are downloaded, that&amp;#x27;s it.  Cue… &amp;quot;you had one job!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Yes, been about six months.</text></item><item><author>noneeeed</author><text>The current UX of notifications is &lt;i&gt;terrible&lt;/i&gt;. After months of using it I still don&amp;#x27;t understand the mental model. A notification comes up, I hover and wait for the cross to appear and click it. But then some time later I unlock my machine or something happens and apparantly all my notifications are still there for some reason and I have to clear them again, only this time they are in groups and I have to clear multiple groups.&lt;p&gt;Somehow Apple took a UX flow that was &lt;i&gt;fine&lt;/i&gt; and made something that regularly makes me feel stupid because I don&amp;#x27;t understand what I&amp;#x27;m supposed to do to make it behave in a way that makes sense.&lt;p&gt;Notifications are such a simple thing, but they somehow made them complex.</text></item><item><author>makecheck</author><text>While this article focused primarily on things being left unmaintained, etc. there is also a huge problem with things being touched &lt;i&gt;for no reason&lt;/i&gt; and making them &lt;i&gt;worse&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;When handed what must be a mountain of bugs and unfinished items, why the &lt;i&gt;hell&lt;/i&gt; did they prioritize things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs, for instance?  They’re in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps, not creating huge new ones.&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a prioritization problem at the very least.  Which I get, on some level who wants to work on the broken things?  But if they threw some money at this they could fix it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>josephg</author><text>Try Overcast. It’s one of the best pieces of software on my iPhone. Simple, well thought through and reliable. And the speed controls are the best I’ve seen in any program.&lt;p&gt;It’s the sort of software apple makes when they’re at their best. Much better than the built in podcast app.</text></comment>
<story><title>If Apple keeps letting its software slip, the next big thing won’t matter</title><url>https://www.macworld.com/article/551393/apple-software-problems-regions-memories-bugs.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mixmastamyk</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t get me started on the new iOS podcast app.  I used to know how to use it.  Now I need to click five times at random to get anywhere, and still don&amp;#x27;t understand where I am.  All the views look similar, but different.  I just want to hear the oldest first and see if episodes are downloaded, that&amp;#x27;s it.  Cue… &amp;quot;you had one job!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Yes, been about six months.</text></item><item><author>noneeeed</author><text>The current UX of notifications is &lt;i&gt;terrible&lt;/i&gt;. After months of using it I still don&amp;#x27;t understand the mental model. A notification comes up, I hover and wait for the cross to appear and click it. But then some time later I unlock my machine or something happens and apparantly all my notifications are still there for some reason and I have to clear them again, only this time they are in groups and I have to clear multiple groups.&lt;p&gt;Somehow Apple took a UX flow that was &lt;i&gt;fine&lt;/i&gt; and made something that regularly makes me feel stupid because I don&amp;#x27;t understand what I&amp;#x27;m supposed to do to make it behave in a way that makes sense.&lt;p&gt;Notifications are such a simple thing, but they somehow made them complex.</text></item><item><author>makecheck</author><text>While this article focused primarily on things being left unmaintained, etc. there is also a huge problem with things being touched &lt;i&gt;for no reason&lt;/i&gt; and making them &lt;i&gt;worse&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;When handed what must be a mountain of bugs and unfinished items, why the &lt;i&gt;hell&lt;/i&gt; did they prioritize things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs, for instance?  They’re in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps, not creating huge new ones.&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a prioritization problem at the very least.  Which I get, on some level who wants to work on the broken things?  But if they threw some money at this they could fix it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oasisbob</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m still trying to figure out how to tell Podcasts not to play episodes I&amp;#x27;ve heard before.&lt;p&gt;Play #27 of Show, then #26, and after playing #26, it will automatically choose to go on with #27 again.</text></comment>