I wrote an article about it earlier this year. Apple still doesn't mind using fake photos of their products. See for yourself, the upper image is what Apple is showing from this week as their MacBook Air previewing the new operating system. Below is a real MacBook Air. See the much smaller bezel above, with a strangely wide lower part. Dorky!

But this is all trivial compared to the real-world problems Mac users have to deal with today. Macs used to be reliable and the professionals' choice for decades. Because the company focuses on phones and tablets mainly today pro needs are neglected to a critical extent. Some of the most annoying and serious issues I run into on a daily basis are:

- Unreliable copying, my Macs are unable to perform a simple copy task, f.e. 20 GB of data from one external drive to another. This is critical because you’re potentially losing data.

- Apps are crashing much more often than they did before, the other day Photoshop crashed with multiple files I was working on, all was gone then.

- Yesterday the normal copy/paste command didn’t work anymore.

- After a reboot often three finger gestures don’t work as requested, so you need to un-click and re-click three finger gestures in the system preferences menu.

- With the latest firmware update switching to guest user, f.e. for private things, the display switches to a nasty blue tint and it won’t go away until you reboot into your own user profile, annoying!

- It’s pretty idiotic that you can’t upgrade RAM memory anymore. My main computer is on the edge with 16 GB, my mobile one with 8 GB of RAM is barely usable for big jobs involving a bunch of programs like Lightroom and Photoshop. Memory is soldered onto the logic boards these days, so at some pony you simply need to buy a new computer, much sooner than a couple of years ago. That’s probably how it’s supposed today, eh?!

- This morning for example system preferences wouldn't want to open. Preview didn't work and upload didn't work properly. I had to reboot.

- One physical thing that has changed for the bad is the MacSafe 2 power plug, it's TERRIBLE. It slips out of the laptop way too easy, you sometimes only have to grab the computer and it unplugs. It's also practically impossible to work with the laptop on your lap without somehow detaching the plug unintended. You really have to take an awkward position to prevent losing the power connection. Not really how a laptop should work, eh!?

- On my main laptop the sound (mids and trebles) only comes out of the right speaker. Apple tells me everything was fine.

- Open Photoshop and the computer takes ages to reboot after that, just as bad as the slowest Windows PC I had 10 years ago, even if you close it way earlier before you decide to power down.

There are much more issues, Lloyd Chambers has started a webpage that is frequently updated with the latest issues, it’s here http://macperformanceguide.com/AppleCoreRot-intro.html.

Ok, that’s it for now. Windows is probably still even worse ;-) …

Happy working!

KIKI