Disappointing Lion

After using OS X Lion for over a week some things have reared their ugly heads and let out a growl so horrifying one can only imagine a Lion that is dying.

It is well documented that Apple has made significant improvements in security within the operating system that users will never see. These improvements are what makes me want to run Lion. Maybe less documented because it being personal preference are the UI changes that Apple has made within certain apps that have rendered them a royal PITA to use.

This actually started a couple years back with the big re-write of iMovie. What was once a simple, fast, and easy way to edit video has become a complicated non-intuitive pile of dog feces. Each time I have tried to use iMovie I become increasingly more frustrated and long for the iMovie of the good old days. Also, I am not a Final Cut user but from the sound of it the new Final Cut didn't strike a chord with the user base. Apple, are you listening? You were the king of consumer and pro video editing and your arrogance has led you to producing garbage to replace great products.

That unfortunately isn't the end of it for me. I only use iMovie occasionally, but I use iCal daily and the last update to iCal as part of Lion is the worst UI nightmare that I have ever been thrown into. I must mention that if I only had one calendar the new iCal would probably be fantastic, but I maintain at minimum 8 different calendars which in the past was a joy in iCal. Creating new events on the correct calendar (or even creating events in general) was quite simple and intuitive.

Now with the new iCal I am increasingly frustrated every time I create a calendar event. Despite selecting the calendar I want the event to exist on before creating the event, the event is created on the default calendar. Oh, and don't click on the calendar to hard or random events will be created without so much as a double click. Don't even get me started on the horrible performance, creating one event on the correct calendar takes an excruciatingly long time for somebody that's trying to make life more manageable.

The iCal changes aren't my only frustration with Lion, it's just the biggest. Apple made an omission in OS X that makes no sense. With a machine like the Mac Mini that is perfect for the home theater and the 27" iMac which can double as a TV in a small apartment (or dorm room) removing the Front Row application to encourage AppleTV sales seems childish. AppleTV albeit a fantastic product has always been niche. I love my AppleTV but some folks just need more from their Home Theater than what AppleTV can provide. Thankfully Plex, Boxee, XBMC and others are happy to fill that void.

This is my soap box and although my rant is most likely irrelevant my frustration attempting to create my weekly menu inside of iCal like I have done for well over a year led me to unload here.

Geek out...

Manipulating Apple iOS's use of Google Mail and Calendar Services

I use Google Calendar and Mail extensively. I also use an Apple iPod Touch and iPad extensively. This has created a conundrum for me up until now. Recently I had a light bulb moment, so I took the time to test a theory on how to get the best usability out of Google services on my i-Devices.

Initially I used Exchange account configuration in iOS to configure Gmail/Calendar. This led to problem #1.

Problem 1:

"She Said" and I use Google Calendar to organize our personal lives. With 4 children keeping track of where everybody is supposed to be and when can be a challenge. Each person in the family has a Google Calendar that "She Said" and I have read/write access to. The older two children have their own Gmail/Calendar accounts so they have read/write to their own calendar as well. Incidentally they also have iPod Touches.

When using Exchange account configuration for Google Calendar you can only sync the main calendar associated with the Google account. This made it rather difficult to keep track of our childrens'/spouse's schedule.

So, I switched to the Gmail account configuration in iOS which solved problem #1, but that led to problem #2.

Problem 2:

I like receiving push email with notifications. That is the point of having a mobile device after all, getting email in a timely manner. Unfortunately with the Gmail Account configuration it only uses pull mail, so I have to manually check for new email messages. This is rather disappointing.

I have been living with Problem #2 and not thinking of it as a big deal until recently I came up with a bright idea.

If you are familiar with iOS you will know that you can select which components of an account that you sync to a device. The typical options are Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. Here's when the light bulb came on.

Bright idea 1:

I almost feel like a schmuck now and a little surprised I didn't think of it sooner. I just needed to setup my Google Account twice, once as an Exchange account for Mail only, and once as a Gmail account for Calendar.

So this morning I put my theory to use. I removed mail from the existing Gmail configuration on my iPod Touch and added a new Exchange account for my Gmail for mail only. Thank you Apple for allowing multiple Exchange (activesync) accounts. (If I remember right that was new in iOS3.)

Result 1:

Success. I have my cake and I'm eating it too. I now have the whole family's calendars syncing to my i-Device AND I'm getting push mail for my Gmail account.

...it's great to be a geek.

Geek Said