The Internet is filled with wish lists of things Apple fans would like to see announced next week at WWDC. New things. New capabilities. New all round. The majority of those wishes are the same and focus ahead. Nothing wrong with that. We’re always advancing. Or so we’re told.
Perhaps I’m stuck in the past, but I’d rather see Apple devote time to correcting some longstanding issues that bug me. Many of these issues are part of the glue that holds Apple’s ecosystem together, or what Apple calls iCloud and I call the unnamed operating system, iCloudOS. So, I’ve compiled a list of things I’d like Apple to fix, repair, or at least pay some real attention to.
Chances are better than good that you won’t hear much about any of this next week or in the weeks that follow. Many of these issues have existed for a few years now and seem to be such a low priority that Apple must be content to let them exist. Quite a bit of this could be considered small in comparison to the bigger challenges brought on by adding new features that bring new complexity. But one of the reasons so many prefer Apple’s way of doing things is the attention to detail in both design and practical matters. When it’s good it’s great and often magical. When Apple loses focus and doesn’t pay attention it can be like watching a magician pull a dead rabbit out of a hat.
For me these issues are rough enough and present enough inconsistency to diminish that attention to detail. The longer they are ignored or put off the more they point to glaring weaknesses in Apple’s process and I think we get farther away from that “magical” or “it just works” lore.
It’s apparent that not enough others feel the same or have the same experiences to pressure Apple into devoting the resources necessary to address these annoyances. That’s not a surprise. New always takes precedence in a market driven by delivering something new each year. And AI is the big new thing this year and Apple has assigned all hands on deck to ready what most expect to be the newly christened Apple Intelligence ship to sail.
Yes, we’ll hear quite a bit about AI. I’m also sure we’ll hear about things like emoji, flashy Messages and other novelties that show well in demos. Many of those I consider trivial or “meh” features that will be forgotten shortly after all of the reviews are written. Though the money I spend on Apple products is a small drop in Apple’s buckets of cash, I’d much rather see it spent putting resources into fixes for these annoyances. The list below certainly isn’t a complete one, but these are the things I’d love to see Apple address.
Continue reading “WWDC 2024: Things I’d Like To See”
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