![]() I’m particularly curious if my instincts as a tech publisher are on target or if I need to adjust my beliefs to match the TidBITS readership.Īll this is by way of introducing something I’ve started in the Discourse software that powers TidBITS Talk and our article comments: “Do You Use It?” polls about Apple operating system features. Curiosity: We all have opinions about the utility of many Apple features but no way of knowing the extent to which others share them.Although I seldom cover features for which I have no use, I sometimes feel the need to call out unchecked marketing (see “ The Dark Side of Dark Mode,” ). To an extent, that applies on the negative side too. If we think some feature makes a real difference in our lives, we want to tell others about it. Evangelism: It’s entirely human to want to share.Social proof: When we lack the time or expertise to evaluate something for ourselves, we often fall back on social proof: “Are people like me using this feature?” It’s a shortcut, to be sure, but we all do it, and it’s not necessarily problematic as long as you don’t just accept the crowd’s opinion as the gospel truth.If you have time for all that, I’m impressed! Exploring new features is literally my job, and even I can’t find the time to examine everything Apple introduces.īut I can think of three reasons we might care about how heavily certain features are used: In an ideal world, you’d sit down with the complete list of features in each of Apple’s operating systems, give each one a whirl, and see if it solves a problem or otherwise improves your life. ![]() Why should you care? In theory, you shouldn’t. The closest we get is when Apple either lets a feature stagnate or removes it entirely-remember Dashboard and iDVD? Apple undoubtedly uses that information to allocate development and testing resources, but the company never shares such details with the world. I’m sure Apple has statistics on feature use because David Shayer once explained how seriously Apple takes user privacy when recording usage statistics (see “ Former Apple Engineer: Here’s Why I Trust Apple’s COVID-19 Notification Proposal,” ). But after the excitement of the eventual release wanes, how many people end up using those features in their everyday lives? Were they legitimate efforts to improve the user experience, or just some product manager’s idea being thrown against the wall to see if it sticks? ![]()
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