Apple Features That Just Make it Better

I recently got an iPhone 6S Plus over the summer, and coming from Android (though I do love it in so many ways), everything just has a simplicity about it. Using the ecosystem as well is quite exciting as my plan is to next buy a Macbook Air and use all of the features that I find help me be more organized (the colors/tags just being one of the things). I’m glad there’s a thread for this, and though it’s not something that’s a “feature” of Apple, my co-workers actually believe I’m a nice human-being since I’m not “hate apple everything”, like most IT guys in the world.

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+1 for integration, I just got a call notification on my computer from my phone, and the ability to answer it on my computer.

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Apple have a tech preview version of Safari similar I assume to chrome beta maybe.

https://developer.apple.com/safari/download/

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similar but refined file association made file searching easier as selecting the color tab would bring all associated flagged files to display
you could do similar by typing the wildcard *. before the type ( example *.jpg) and search would display a list of all the files with .jpg extension
you could also search this way through dos, or terminal

I think my favorite was the voice control setup in the imac! coupled with peripheral controls and relays you could automate thing easily and run them with voice command

I use the colors occasionally as a quick visual indicator of project progress; i.e., incoming/active project yellow or orange, urgent red, completed green, etc. beyond that, I don’t really use them, save for maybe marking an instructional pdf on the desktop for family member’s new machine.

Expose (or ‘mission control’ or whatever), however, has been an absolute staple for me since I got a Mac with 10.4.

Messages integration is kickass; anything I can do to lessen the amount of typing I do on a phone is a good thing.

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App store vetting (combined with) -
OPTION to run only signed code for malware protection

  • Sensible defaults
  • Support for open standards (e.g., NAT-PMP, CUPS, etc.)
  • Filesystem tags (as above colour badges)
  • gestures
  • their trackpads
  • single menubar
  • standard command shortcuts
  • ability to define your own keyboard shortcuts across all apps
  • system state reliably saved and restored across reboots, OS upgrades, etc.
  • Alerts from background apps DO NOT FUCK WITH MY FOCUS and just bounce on the dock. I can not overstate how much better than windows this is
  • automator
  • extensibility of apps/automation via folder actions and scripts
  • intelligent switching between wired and wireless networks without breaking active downloads, etc. (e.g., plug in LAN cable, running wifi connections still work and switch across to wired)
  • airdrop across devices

edit:
i could go on all day. so many of these things you never discover until running it as a primary OS for weeks or months.

As an example of automation - a photographer friend had some sort of wireless card in his DSLR which would automatically upload photos to a folder on his mac where they were scaled and converted by a folder action and re-named with a date-stamp (or other details) automatically.

He clicks the shutter, all that shit just happens…

And the amazing thing: setting up folder actions like that is fucking EASY. no need to fuck with cron and a million different APIs because no apps are integrated with each other. nearly every apple app exposes interfaces to stuff like applescript and the automator automation library.

e.g.

People think macOS is just a pretty skin for UNIX. There is SO much more underneath than that. Which is why any long term mac user sees stuff like Ubuntu’s desktop and thinks it is a joke.

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More of the sort of stuff you can do with Applescript

BBedit is a popular third party mac text editor. You can drive it with code…

This whole “macOS is only for dumb people” type meme needs to die. The stuff you can do with automator, applescript, etc. is pretty neat. LOTS of mac applications expose their internal methods to Applescript/Javascript and/or automator.

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3D touch is just a amazing idea and im surprised apple is the only one doing anything even closely similar.

Face ID seems pretty good.

I really like the idea of the touch bar but i think it was too thin and out of the way to be useful.

one of the other favourite features of macs was the hardware interfaces were true plug and play you rarely ever had to download a driver for anything you just plugged it in and it worked.

TIL that Apple has free tech classes

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Interesting, sounds like a very limited tag system.
As someone who’s tried and failed to organize 50 projects, I’ve often longed for a comprehensive tag system. File names can only get you so far.

I’m not sure what it is capable of now, someone mentioned custom tags above.

If you’re looking for organizing files, Adobe Bridge was interesting a while ago, I don’t know how it developed or if it’s even included anymore.

I remember the days when they didn’t have copy paste at all.

You can create an arbitrary number of tags, rename the default tags, etc.

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geez at least im not the only old fart :rofl:
can you remember the command cls-8 ?
changed the display color to red on the tandy color computer
and

1 lprint hello a$$hole
2 then goto 1
run :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
watch someone freak when the printer wouldn’t stop

OK. AirPrint, I just found out this is a thing and my printer has it.

Its another “just workd™” from Apple. It just works. And it just works better than anything else it seems.

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I have 7 years old user iphone and 2 years macbook. Guys, I’m happy and do not know the troubles. Everything is minimized and convenient. I really like the fact that I forgot what a hangup is, viruses and system reinstallation every half a year.:grinning:

This is a feature every operating system needs to have! I want filesystems with tags, ideally something that works cross platform.

If it were not for Apples walled garden approach and anti 3rd party repair stance this would be a compelling reason for me to consider their OS. As of right now I have not seen this feature done quite right yet and I can get similar functionality with what I use currently.

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3D Touch, Continuity, and AirDrop are probably my top 3 favorite features that make living in the Apple ecosystem worth it. Getting a 2FA token over SMS (sigh) and having it automatically appear as a text suggestion over the field on whatever iOS/macOS device I’m currently using and being able to share files without having to jump through services or over a wire is absolute magic.

I want to put Siri Shortcuts here as well as I find the process of programming really simple applets that save time for simple tasks down to the smallest of things rather fun, but since Siri and Shortcuts stopped getting along a few weeks ago I can’t say it qualifies.

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i remember when i got my first digitizer pad and doing 3d house design. great piece of hardware!
kind of miss it in a way, it made tasks so easy for architectural drawings and blueprints