Has software you use ever treated you like this?
All you want … is something that works … "please fix!"
According to this post on MacRumors, Apple listened to Windows users and changed the way Apple’s Auto update works so that it’s more clear that Safari isn’t an update — it’s a new application.
You’ll recall my complaint though included the fact that Apple was "pre-selecting" Safari for download, rather than requiring me to make that decision.
They may have changed the UI to better indicate that Safari wasn’t an update, but Safari remains checked for automatic download. Lame, lame, lame Apple. Try try again.
Oh, and one more rant — Apple: We don’t need another web browser for Windows.
From a document on the exp-platform at Microsoft (download here).
Most of the changes in the upgrade were positive, but the coupon code was the critical one: people started to think twice about whether they were paying too much because there are discount coupons out there that they do not have. By removing the discount code from the new version (B), conversion-rate increased 6.5% relative to the old version (A).
Coupon code fields often make me think I’m not getting the best deal I could be when I encounter them as part of the check-out process on a web site. (I hate it when someone in a retail business asks me, "Do you have any coupons today" and I answer no — as I’m sure that I must be one of the 3 lame customers of the day who do not have a coupon ….").
Geesh — one company dies and industry pundits (here for example) are declaring that the mobile web is finally dead.
What? Although my phone finally supports 3G in those areas of the country that have 3G service — I’d hardly say that my Windows Mobile 6 phone web browsing experience is anything but barely adequate. I was never bothered by AT&T EDGE speeds — mainly because the web pages rendered so poorly as to be barely useable. I don’t fault web sites for not considering my use to be a prime candidate for optimization and development. It’s a lot of work just to make a web page work on the various full-sized browsers such as IE, Firefox, and Safari. Then, they must consider the actual frequency of mobile users — near 0.1% I’m sure before deciding to create an optimized mobile web version.
Amazon has a mobile site though — and it’s perfect for my needs. Fast, simple, and renders perfectly. The other day in a local store, I did some price comparison’s with Amazon to verify that I should buy some of the stuff locally and wait to buy a few items when I got home from Amazon (I didn’t feel the need to try to buy something from Amazon while in a physical store).
I frequently use mobile versions of news (CNN, MSNBC), weather (weather.com), and Google Reader.
Why do we still need mobile then?
I hear people talking about the ideal experience that is available on the iPhone/iPod touch for browsing the web. I’m using a beta of SkyFire which attempts to emulate some of the experience of the iPhone browser on my WM6 phone. It’s not bad — but what I really don’t care for is all the zooming in and out and panning. It’s slow and sloppy. I’m disappointed when I need to use it. It’s solving a problem that we ideally shouldn’t have to deal with.
I’d be skeptical that you’d ever find a piece of PC/Mac software that emulated that zooming and panning experience on your monitor/LCD and enjoy it (imagine if your current web browser worked that way). (And no, mapping software doesn’t count!) Instead, you’d want something optimized for the computer and display. Lots of the better web designers and web sites get this and create optimized web sites for phones (I’ve seen mention of quite a few for the iPhone for example). I for one, hope they continue and don’t declare mobile web to be dead. For most applications, it’s a reasonable experience that is zero-install and "good enough." It also targets the most phones — whereas doing custom development for the various phone platforms takes time, effort, etc.
Do you have a data plan? Do you use your mobile phone’s web browser? What are your thoughts?
I’ve complained (and so have many others) about the Apple Software Update functionality — especially now that it suggests that I update software I never had installed (Safari)!
On Vista (and XP is probably similar), there’s a scheduled task that runs once a week to look for updates.
To stop that from occurring, click the start/windows logo button, and type "TASK" into the search box.
Select Task Scheduler. (You may need to provide an administrator password or just click continue acknowledging that you’re about to make system changes).
Expand the Task Scheduler library node and then click the Apple node.
You should see on the right side an entry named, AppleSoftwareUpdate.
Click that entry and either right click and select Disable, or click the item and select the Disable option in the Action list on the right side of the Task Scheduler.
Although XP’s task scheduler has a very different user interface, the concept is identical, and you should be able to find and disable the AppleSoftwareUpdater in a similar manner.
Here’s hoping that this stops the annoying "Install Safari" now option.
Note that you should occasionally check for updates manually in ITunes if you disable this functionality. It’s available in the Help menu (Check for Updates).
QuickTime checks for updates (according to the documentation and settings), only when the application is running (brilliant!).
Or, if you’re not comfortable with completely disabling the auto update feature, you can change the frequency of update checks using the task scheduler. Instead of disabling the task as shown above, decrease it’s frequency. Don’t disable it as suggested above, instead, right click on the AppleSoftwareUpate line, and select properties.
Click the Triggers Tab, then select the first trigger (in my example, it’s labeled Weekly) and click the Edit button:
This shows the details of the weekly trigger. In the screen shot above, I’ve changed it from weekly to once a month (on the last day). I’d recommend you leave the advanced settings as is and just modify the frequency to whatever you’d like. Once a month is reasonable — then you’ll only be annoyed by this update once a month rather than once a week.
If you’re paranoid about security, you’ll probably just need to accept the fact that Apple’s update for this is obnoxious and maybe if enough people complain — Apple will realize the error of their ways and provide a way to ignore new Apple Software that you don’t want to install.