NSFW is a weekly op-ed column in which I talk about whatever's on my mind. Sometimes it'll have something to do with the technology we cover here on iMore; sometimes it'll be whatever pops into my head. Your questions, comments and observations are welcome.
The fallout from last week's #GamerGate pillorying of Brianna Wu continues into this week. On Monday I shared my thoughts with you, and regretfully (if sadly predictably), a few folks in the comments declared that I was a "social justice warrior" for daring to suggest that we can disagree about things without resorting to threats of rape and murder. Like that's a bad thing.
If that's the case, then I wear the badge proudly.
Within hours of Yosemite's release, I witnessed the collective gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair of Mac users who unwisely downloaded it right away, installed it over their existing Mavericks (or older OS X partitions) and promptly ran into problems.
All I have to say is I told you so.
Upgrading takes some time, takes some planning and needs to be approached soberly. And you should always anticipate some issues when you do something as major as replacing your Mac's entire operating system with something new. Yosemite has been thoroughly publicly tested but that doesn't mean it's free of problems or free of negative interactions with third-party software.
Maybe this never would have happened if Steve Jobs was still around. But guess what? Steve's gone. Get over it already.
One thing I will agree with critics on, though: Apple did a really lousy job of articulating ahead of time what Macs will and won't support Handoff features, which are one of the hallmark features of Yosemite. Now, though? They've spelled it out. On their How To Upgrade page for Yosemite, they give a specific list of Mac models that support the new Handoff, Instant Hotspot and cross-platform AirDrop functions.
Of all the stupid things I've read about the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, the absolute stupidest has to be complaining about the names. Heaven forbid Apple simply iterate their product names to make them easier to differentiate. Maybe this never would have happened if Steve Jobs was still around. But guess what? Steve's gone. Get over it already.
Last year when the iPad Air came out, I skipped it because it was missing Touch ID. Touch ID was a total game changer for me when I bought my iPhone 5S, and I wanted it everywhere. I even want it on my Mac. Hell, I want it on my car, on my front door, on my fridge.
The iPad Air 2 is sexier than ever, but it's only iteratively sexier than the iPad Air was. Apple has an iterative product development cycle for its iOS products, where we go alternate years with moderate improvements in between major redesigns.
As someone who sells these things on the weekend, it's been really easy to differentiate between the iPad Air and the Retina iPad mini — the only real difference, I explain, is the size of the screen. Both systems have the same chip (the iPad Air's is a bit faster, but it's not something that's a major differentiator for most customers), have the same abilities and so on.
This year complicates things significantly, because Apple's moving the new products in alongside existing ones, and the iPad product line certainly looks very complicated: iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2, iPad mini. iPad Air 2 gets a processor upgrade while the iPad mini 2 doesn't, but both get Touch ID. So many iPads to choose from.
Choice is good. Too much choice, though, can cause confusion. I don't think we're at the Bad Old Apple days of the Performa 635 yet, but let's not head that way again, mmmkay Apple?
Now that Apple's October event is out of the way, we're probably done with new Apple hardware announcements until the Apple Watch ships sometime in the new year. But with Apple Pay and iOS 8.1 headed out on Monday, Yosemite and iOS 8 interoperability to explore, new iMacs and Mac minis and new iPads to play with, we've got a lot to ground to cover. I'm already neck deep in stuff to write about and can't wait to bring it to you. Thanks for reading!
