Sensible Defaults

As developers, we hear over and over again about the importance of sensible defaults..

I can't say I find the iTunes 9 welcome screen terribly useful, but this is probably the first time I've ever seen software with the correct default setting for "Show this window when $APP starts". (The correct answer, btw, is NO.)

Maybe they finally learned something from all the backlash around Quicktime auto-starting on Windows?

Pre-Order

flickr uploadr

Ah yes, on the subject of usability:



Does anyone else think the options should be "Stay here" and "Go to Flickr & Exit" ? I always end up hitting one of the two buttons, then ⌘+Q to quit uploadr.

Drive me crazy, will you?

I'm a dock-on-the-left guy.
I might adore using OSX, but for some crazy reason, whenever I launch gvim, this happens:

I have no idea why this is the only app on my system that doesn't respect the dock's position when placing its window on startup. If anyone knows how to fix it... please post!

And yes, I know this is a small thing to complain about. I have Windows XP at work, and OSX with a copy of gvim that randomly bounces around the screen every 60 seconds would still be more pleasant to use.

Spotlight Effectiveness

What happens when you hit ⌘+space, then type "digi"?

And how effective is this "Top Hit"?


You'd think there would be some sort of frequency counter kicking in after the first hundred times I manually arrowed-down to the right result, to train whatever rule determines the Top Hit.

An icon can offend my aesthetic sensibilites

Using Mac OS X is, generally speaking, a visually pleasing experience. People (including, on several occasions, me) can go on and quibble about inconsistent use of brushed metal, or unpredictable applicability of click-through, but by and large the visuals (even for 3rd-party apps) are nice, consistent, unsurprising.

I've just realized how little it takes for the whole feeling of polish and friendliness to come crashing down.

There's something jarring in the above image. Can you spot it? Here, let me zoom in:

Oh my. 

They just had to put an ® symbol RIGHT IN THE GODDAMN ICON? Think of how heartbroken the designer who drew the short straw had to be feeling after being forced to do this. So much work, so many iterations of the design, only to have it ruined at the last second when a lawyer reminded him that it wasn't enough to point out that the Adobe Reader logo was a registered trademark in the About screens and the documentation, you should remind people whenever they look at the icon too! Outstanding.