Did Apple eventually arrive in the children's section?

[mgmueller]

What I mean by that:
My once beloved MacBook Air with the 2 last updates (Maverick and now Yosemite) became more and more of a children's toy than a tool of daily business.
And unfortunately, same seems to be true for my iPad.

Just some examples:

In the email client on Yosemite, the email you write blocks the entire front. I can't go back to the rest of my emails: Meaning: I can't open, let's say, 3 emails at once and copy from one to the other. A simple feature I have to do dozens of times every single day.
Not to mention more complicated tasks, such as generating CI conform email signatures and the likes.

Another example:
On Mac, I'm in app/program X, for example the DVD player.
I decrease the Window and in the background in parallel want to read some emails.
I can't simply click on the email I'd like to activate.
No. I have to click the email program first and then the respective email.
May not seem crucial, but actually in daily business is a PITA. If you do such actions 50+ times per day and each time need an additional mouse click... And even worse: If I have to activate the email client first, my other program (DVD player in this example) moves to the background.
Such simple tasks could be done a year ago on my MacBook Air and can be done in Windows for 10+ years.

My general impression:
Apple overdoes it.
Once they had been admired for their intuitive user interface.
But for some time now, the opposite seems to be true:
Before: Let's make a complicated task simple to use.
Now: Let's forget about the complicated task altogether and dumb it down.
At least they are consistent about that approach and even make the appearance of icons and stuff more "child-friendly".

Am I the only one with this impression?

Don't get me wrong: I still stick to Apple and still want to love their products. But it seems to be more difficult with each generation of products.
This especially seems obvious, when comparing to "professional" products, for example iPhone 6 to BlackBerry Passport or MacBook Air to Surface Pro 3...

[pwalker8]

Not sure what you are doing wrong, but when I write an email, the Apple email client simply opens a new window. It certainly doesn't block the entire front. It's pretty easy to open up 3 emails have them all on the screen at the same time and copy and paste from each.

I'm afraid that I don't understand what your second complaint is. If it's that you first have to click in a window to give it focus before you can interact with it, Windows acts the same way.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

...I'm afraid that I don't understand what your second complaint is. If it's that you first have to click in a window to give it focus before you can interact with it, Windows acts the same way.

On Windows -and before the update on MacBook Air- I can hover over a Windows, in this example the email client. I don't have to "activate" it, I still can remain in the other program. I just hover over the other Window and then can (could) scroll through the emails. And then I simply would click the email I want to have.
Now I can't hover anymore. The other program is active and wherever I place my mousepointer doesn't matter. I have to click the mail client and then scroll through the list.
No hovering at all anymore.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Not sure what you are doing wrong, but when I write an email, the Apple email client simply opens a new window. It certainly doesn't block the entire front. It's pretty easy to open up 3 emails have them all on the screen at the same time and copy and paste from each.

I'm afraid that I don't understand what your second complaint is. If it's that you first have to click in a window to give it focus before you can interact with it, Windows acts the same way.

The new window for writing the email doesn't block the entire screen.
I still see the email client in the background.
But I can't click into it or hover over it.
I have to finish writing the email or save it as a draft.
But I can't pause in writing the email, click through other emails, copy some content and go back to the original email again.
I often enough have to forward an email and copy additional content from 2 or 3 different sources. Meaning, I need 3 or 4 source emails to generate a new one. Now I actually have to save the new email as draft 2 or 3 times and copy from the others to clipboard and then into the new email. Totally inefficient, but I'm not doing anything different than before the update.
I have this with every update now: Some features simply disappear and I can't use this email client for work any longer.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Not sure what you are doing wrong, but when I write an email, the Apple email client simply opens a new window...

Are you on Yosemite? I only have this since the update to Yosemite.

[Jessica Lares]

I see what you mean. I wonder if it's fixable with a simple Terminal command?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

I see what you mean. I wonder if it's fixable with a simple Terminal command?

I've updated both with Mavericks and with Yosemite.
I probably at some stage should have started from scratch.
I can't imagine, it's actually supposed to be that way.
But sometimes with Apple I really start to wonder. They more and more seem to focus on a target in the age around 15 and mostly into games...

[Dylrob]

I'm running Yosemite, but I don't seem to have any of the issues you've listed. I can scroll through and even "right click" background apps just fine. I can click on windows without having to activate the app. And I can bring the main mail client window to focus without having to close my draft window.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

I'm running Yosemite, but I don't seem to have any of the issues you've listed. I can scroll background apps just fine. I can click on windows without having to activate the app. And I can bring the main mail client window to focus without having to close my draft window.

That's what I would expect to happen.
I fear, I have to make a clean install from scratch then.
Shouldn't be necessary though, and that's what I came to dislike about my Apple products in the last 12 months or so...

[Dylrob]

Well, maybe look around in your settings first? Could be that you accidentally changed something... though I'm not sure what setting would do this. (maybe something to do with accessibility? *shrugs*)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Are you on Yosemite? I only have this since the update to Yosemite.

Yep, I updated to Yosemite some time ago.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

On Windows -and before the update on MacBook Air- I can hover over a Windows, in this example the email client. I don't have to "activate" it, I still can remain in the other program. I just hover over the other Window and then can (could) scroll through the emails. And then I simply would click the email I want to have.
Now I can't hover anymore. The other program is active and wherever I place my mousepointer doesn't matter. I have to click the mail client and then scroll through the list.
No hovering at all anymore.

Odd, this was always one of the features I admired in linux that frustrated me about Windows (at least, once I noticed it elsewhere ).

IME, On WinXP and Win7, whichever window currently has focus gets scrolled, no matter which window is hovered over. (One click will focus+do_action, though.)

In fact, I just googled the issue, and got a page full of links to Windows apps that promise to "bring this mac feature to Windows".

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Odd, this was always one of the features I admired in linux that frustrated me about Windows (at least, once I noticed it elsewhere ).

IME, On WinXP and Win7, whichever window currently has focus gets scrolled, no matter which window is hovered over. (One click will focus+do_action, though.)

In fact, I just googled the issue, and got a page full of links to Windows apps that promise to "bring this mac feature to Windows".

In the meantime I've found part of a solution on my MacBook Air.
It has something to do with the fullscreen mode.
In Yosemite, when going to fullscreen, the menu bar disappears. In this mode I cannot switch to another Window. When only briefly switching from fullscreen to Window mode, my "problem" remains. If I switch to another app and then back, suddenly it's working.
No real solution, but at least an angle where to start at.

[Dylrob]

Ah yes... Yosemite consolidated Mountain Lion's full screen and the classic Mac OS maximize options into a single button. If you want to use the older functionality, hold down Option when you click it.

Now the menu bar can still be accessed in full screen mode by moving the cursor all the way up to the top of the screen. You can also quickly switch between desktops and full screen applications in multiple ways:

• With three or four finger swipes* left and right on the trackpad.
• By using Mission Control (F3 or three/four finger swipe* up)
• With the app switcher (Command+tab)
• Or through the Dock (which can be accessed by dragging the cursor "past" the side where it is located)

*The number of fingers used depends on how your trackpad is configured in System Preferences. When using a Magic Mouse, two fingers swipes are used for switching applications and a gentle two finger double-tap brings up Mission Control.

It is true that only one window can be shown at the same time in full screen mode; hence why some programs behave a little differently in this mode. (eg. The composition screen in Mail comes up as a pop-up rather than a separate window)

[Larla]

For Windows, I have long used the Katmouse utility. It allows scrolling with the mouse wheel of whichever window the mouse is hovering over (whether the window is the active window or not).

Works nicely.