iTunes

Why is it that when my iPod synchronises with iTunes on OS X, the iTunes window insists on jumping to the front?
OnWinXP, I have iTunes minimised to the tray, so it doesn't even take up space on the taskbar, and remains tucked away during iPod syncing, so I can keeping doing whatever without interruption.

In OS X, not only does iTunes take up space in the dock when running (like almost every other program), but if you plug in an iPod or iPad, well of course you must want to watch your device synchronise. Because you, poor user, can only do one thing at a time, can't you. Apple understands this. So you want to synchronise youir iPod, here is your iTunes window showing you the synchronisation. What? You wanted to keep typing that email while the synchronisation happens? Now, now, just take some time to switch back to the email...yes, you will have to do it every time...no, I can't just quietly synchronise in the background...why? well...um...because you should change your Windoze ways!

VLC

The Video Lan Client, or VLC for short, is one of those essential apps that I install on any new machine, and carry with me as a portable app. It will play just about any video, image or audio file you can throw at it; and it's easy to use, realtively lightweight and does just work.
It's open source and cross platform, so you would think it would be the same across all platforms, at least in the major UI aspects.
BUT...for some unexplainable reason there is a very useful item missing from the OS X version of VLC. See if you can spot what is missing

Here is the VLC in OS X

 Here is VLC in Windows XP (strange that the frame wasn't captured - that is a weird thing in XP I guess)

And here is VLC in Ubuntu Linux

So the first thing you notice is the host of extra buttons available in the non-OS X versions; not surprising given the apparent Apple philosophy of less is more. But that's OK, I don't often use those options, and when I need to I don't mind tracking up to the menu bar to access them. But what is annoying is the run time, or absence of it. In the non-OS X apps, I can easily see that I am about 24 minutes in to a 1 hour 35 minute film; I know I've got about 1 hour 10 left to go.
In the OS X version, I have only a vague idea how long is left to go by doing some mental guestimation. Trust me, knwoing the length of the video is pretty darn useful to know, especially if I've got 2 hours free, I don't want to start watching a 2hour 20 min movie.
Just inexplicable.

Closing Apps

When I close an app, I expect to, y'know, close...stop functioning, stop using resources. If I wanted to keep it running, I would minimize it, but when I click close in OS X, it doesn't exactly close...it basically becomes a background process, sucking resource while not actually doing much. This isn't so much of an issue in these days of 4GB RAM computers, where you basically have resources to waste, but now my dock starts to fill up with all these "sleeping" apps, and when people use "saving screen space" as an excuse for not having borders on windows, you've got to question this apparent wasteful use of space.

I guess it just bugs me that the close button should be truthfully called sleep.

Resizing windows

What is with this window resizing thing...why on earth is the only way to resize is to grab a tiny piece of the bottom right corner of a window OR use the + icon in the opposite corner. Either way, I find myself tracking the mouse across a large screen to just resize the window...there are so many ways this is a UI fail.

Why is this a huge pain in the rear....
First, obviously I will be having more travel with the mouse to get to a place where I can resize. Often I just want to resize the width or the height, not both, so in other OSs I can go to the closest edge and drag. In OS X I have to travel to that (often) far off corner, and if it is near the bottom/right edge of the screen, I first have to travel to the top of the window to move it up/left then travel back to the corner to resize.
This has been the subject of a number of threads in OS X forums; one thread had the response was:

"Yes it's a bit annoying at first but I just got used to it after a while. It's a trade-off for not having window borders."
Excuse me, trade-off for not having borders...To be honest those extra 10 pixels that I get in OS X are not a trade off for this...

Another response was...
"It's because the windows in OS X don't have borders like they do in Windows. Look (if you are on OS X) at the sides of your browser window. Do you see any borders that could be dragged to be resized (other than perhaps the top)? Because I don't."
Which of course misses the point that you don't need visible borders to have an area that activates the functionality...iTunes in Windows anyone? No borders there either, but I can resize from any corner or side.

here's a use case, I have a window open; i have got the width just right (more or less means the window isn't displaying what I want); so now I just want to change the height of the window without changing the width. OS X does not allow this; by using the corner grab I am automatically changing both dimensions.

This is a case where it seems style has triumphed over utility; and just saying OS X is different from Windows does not explain or excuse the fact that this is really useful UI functionality that is absent in OS X.

The Beginning

The first computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81...1K RAM (which I upgraded to 16K with the optional plug-in box), no storage, 2 colours display (black and white), programs loaded through normal cassette tapes; then I moved up to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with an amazing 48K RAM and sporting a display of 16 colours. That was a long time ago.

Since then, I have been a long term Windows user. I started with Windows 3.1 and moved through Win 3.11 for workgroups, Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, Vista, and finally Win 7. In the past few years I have also used various flavours of Linux - Mandriva, PuppyLinux and Ubuntu. I have even used operating systems from command line only, such as AIX, and the fore-runners of GUI OSs like GEM.

But I am not a computer specialist, programmer, developer or other kind of computer whizz/geek/nerd (delete based on your prejudice); these are just the tools I use for work and play. I'm not a computer professional, but a professional that uses computers.
Some tools are good for some things, others are better; I just want the one that makes my life easier.

But you'll see an absence of Apple; I've never used an Apple computer OS, unless you count iOS, which I don't. See, I like Apple products; I still have my first Apple product, a 3rd-gen iPod (20GB), even though the battery doesn't hold charge anymore; I did have a 4GB iPod Mini, but sold it on eBay when I upgraded to a 3rd-gen 8GB iPod Nano. I also have a 3rd-gen 4GB iPod Nano, and (here's the iOS part) I have an iPad and an iPad2.

But I have never used and real Mac OS...until now. iMacs were on sale...and for years I had heard about how easy Macs are to use, how everything just works, how they are so much better than Windows...and now I had 2 iPads and 3 iPods, I couldn't resist. So now I have a 21.5" iMac, 3.2GHz Intel core i3, 4GB Ram, 1TB HDD, runnning OS X 10.6 (they call it Snow Leopard, but it's just another release, but I guess if you give a cool name, it becomes cool).


I wanted to log my experience of using this magical and revolutionary technology that is (so I've been told) so much better than Windows.