Everyone loves to talk about iOS. It's all we've been hearing about for months -- all those rumors about a flat design, some square icons, and probably something to do with Siri. And sure, iOS is kind of important, but it's OS X that deserves the bigger overhaul.
I don't know about you, but I've grown really frustrated with my iMac, MacBook Air and my MacBook Pro. These magical computers I use to make movies, write music, edit my 12-megapixel photographs, document every scrap of my life and create publications that can be read by millions of people -- they're not magical enough. I want them to do more. I want them to work better. I want them to not be broken.
These are the things that need fixing. Your move, Apple.
Mail has been a fractured heap of bones since Mountain Lion launched. Microsoft Exchange syncing is better than previous versions, but it's still not reliable. At its best, Mail is a client that can handle all of your email accounts in one convenient location. At its worst, it fails for no discernible reason. Sometimes the client will just stop loading emails. It never breaks when you're getting spam. But as soon as you're waiting on something important, Mail laughs and shuts down.
But don't just fix Mail. Make it better. With the rise of apps like Mailbox and Boxer, it's become clear that email is a horrible beast that's destroying the fabric of Internet and requires some next-level taming. The problem with these new email apps is that they only solve the problem on your smartphone. Many of us still use our actual computers to check and manage our email. In other words, true email management needs to be part of any software ecosystem that spans smartphone, tablet, desktop and web. Apple could ease the perceived horror of email.
But leave a "classic" view available for folks who get 10 emails a day. They don't need fancy rules and features.
iTunes
Break up the iTunes mega-beast. iTunes was once great. Now, not so much. The media manager is expected to handle music, apps, video, podcasts and all your iOS devices. That's too much for an app that originally just played all the music you stole from Napster. Save iTunes from itself. Break up the pieces into separate apps and give us a media player that won't spend 20 minutes trying to play an album then crashing.
iPhoto
iPhoto can handle RAW images. iPhoto can not handle RAW images well. The photo database chokes when presented with large images. Want to know why your Mac is running slow? See if iPhoto is running. If it is, shut it down. Problem solved. iPhoto needs some serious optimization.
I know you want people to update to Aperture for these "pro" features, like actually working with large photos. But more regular folks are buying cameras that shoot very large JPEG and RAW images, so they should be able to look at those photos without waiting five minutes for them to render.
AirDrop
This is the feature everyone used once and forgot all about. If you have to send someone a large file, it's actually pretty great. But the way it works is archaic. Both computers need to be on Wi-Fi, and they both have to have AirDrop open. So if you're on a Ethernet network, no dice. If you want to send a file to someone who doesn't have AirDrop open, that's a no-go. It's like Apple trained a world class athlete, then stuck a rock in their shoe and blind-folded them just before the big race.
Open AirDrop to Ethernet users, and give us the ability to have the service open in the background with a notification that Susie from the dev team wants to share an awesome video of cats playing pool.
App Uninstaller
Uninstalling an app is supposedly as easy as dragging the app to the trash. That's it, carry on with your life, that app is gone. But all the files associated with those apps? Yeah, they're still there. Not a big deal if its only a tiny user preference file tucked away in the Library folder. But if that app placed a bunch of gunk in your System Preferences and carried with it a stack of media files associated with the app, you're still losing a lot of precious space. With the MacBook Air and its tiny SSD, those little files add up quick. So stop laughing at Windows and its uninstaller tool. We need one just as badly they do.
Save As
Just add the "Save As" option back to Apple applications! "Duplicate" and "Rename" don't cut it. You tried something new, it didn't work. You don't even have to remove "Duplicate" and "Rename," just add "Save As."
Please.
Contacts
After a year, we all stopped searching for Address Book in Spotlight. You wanted the iOS and OS X apps to have the same name. I understand. But the fact that we still can't initiate an email, start a FaceTime call, or send an iMessage from the Contacts app is all sorts of ridiculous. The weird thing is, you can email Groups from Contacts. Got a group of golf buddies? A right-click on the group name will let you send them a bulk email about tee times. But if you want to email just one person while in Contacts, well, that's not allowed.
Update: I'm an idiot. You can send emails from the Contacts app by clicking on the email label. Just click on "Home," Work," or whatever you've labeled an email and a contextual menu will appear that offers email, Facetime and other ways to contact your friends, family, and co-worker.
Thanks Cliff
Spaces
All those desktops can get confusing. Most of that confusion can be fixed if you could name and arrange your Spaces. Instead of Desktop 2, you could name it Media, Social, or Browser. Frankly, anything that helps navigate multiple desktops would be great. The ability to open apps in those dedicated spaces by default would also be appreciated.
iCloud Storage (Or Just Add Integrated DropBox Support)
Where's that Pages document on your computer that you created on your iPhone? Well it's stored in the iCloud. But what if you just wanted to have the file available on your computer? Too bad, because Apple's iCloud syncing scheme is shrouded in mystery. Right now, you have items saved on your computer where you can find them, and you have items saved in iCloud. Maybe just have one folder with local and iCloud documents. Want to add something to the Apple servers while heading out the door without having to open one of Apple's iCloud apps? Just drop it in the iCloud folder in your documents folder and let it sync.
This would also solve the problem with TextEdit having iCloud support, but no iOS app.
Or Apple could just add native support for DropBox like it has with Twitter and Facebook. We're all using Dropbox instead of iCloud already. Might as well make it official.
There other things that Apple should implement or fix in OS X. In fact, I'm sure you have something that's been driving you up the wall since Mountain Lion launched. Go ahead and vent. We're all friends here. We just want to stop cursing at our screens.
