Macs - too easy for their own good?

Apple's OSX operating system proves too simple for some. Photo / Supplied

A few years ago - and I have recounted this story before - the ad sales guy for a magazine I used to run got his first Apple device. It was weird - there were lots of Apple users in the place, yet he insisted on walking around the whole company, showing each and every person his 'amazing' device.

When I laughed, he said "You know what? I keep trying to find harder ways to do everything."

It's still true. I had someone contact me last week who works almost exclusively on PCs. Somehow (she's technically very competent) she had ended up with the task of trying to print something on a Mac via a new printer the office had just bought.

She had spent two days fighting with it before contacting me in desperation. She had found the Mac disk in the printer box and struggled to install it. Usually you just double click the file called (something) Installer, or drag an expanded (decompressed) app to the Applications folder - but I got the impression she was looking for other methods. And despite what she did, she couldn't see that the printer was explicitly recognised.

I asked her to open System Preferences and have a look under Print & Scan, as OS X normally identifies any printer plugged in and pretty much sets it up for you.

She said that was strange, for sure enough, the printer model was listed.

So I asked if she'd actually tried choosing Print from the File Menu in the application she wanted to print from (or Command P, universally).

Red faced, she contacted me back. She hadn't tried that. It worked immediately. (And it probably would have two days before.)

Just this week, Airport Utility had an update. This is a free utility Apple puts on every Mac (it's in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder) so you can take control of the wireless built into your Mac to interface with Apple wireless devices like the AirPort Express, Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme.

I have an AirPort Extreme in my office and an AirPort Express in the lounge.

The Express does two things - it rebroadcasts and boosts the existing wireless network into the back half of the house, and it has a cable into the stereo which means any Mac on the wireless network can play its iTunes songs through the speakers. Actually, so can the iPad (wirelessly) as can any other iDevice in the network, as well as remote-control any available Mac iTunes' collection. It's a really cool feature Apple calls AirTunes.

In fact, many apps now - including GarageBand on the iPad - can now play this way through the house's main stereo, although it can lag a bit at times, and so can YouTube movies on the iPad (with no lag).

Anyway, I installed this AirPort Express update and it looked different. Simpler, more visual, and not the full quid if you're an aficionado of complex Wi-Fi setups.

Unless you click on the pictogram of the device, of course, and click the resulting Edit button. Then you're back in the wireless geek-land you know and (maybe) love.

Anyway, I'd heard that the update didn't support some older devices. My Extreme was there but the Express said it needed a firmware update. I applied that, and the device disappeared from the screen.

I tried to set it up and it didn't work, so I reset the Extreme and tried again. Nothing. I did some errands, grumbling that Apple was going to try and force me into getting a newer model of Express - although I had already seen online that you could get your old utility back if older devices became a problem with the new Version 6 of AirPort Utility.

Anyway, after about an hour or so, I tried again, booting up the new utility software. This time I got an immediate message saying did I want to use the Express to boost my existing network? Yes I did! And the software set it up. And it's working perfectly.

This was reiterated in the Biz Dojo story before this, which illustrates how Apple's 'hobby' device, the Apple TV box, has steadily been gaining ground, and not just as a program/film vendor but also as a networking device.

There's a review of it here, if you'd like to know more.

As the Biz Dojo's Nick Shewring said, "Apple empowers you as a novice to get the most out of it."

Of course, that can act as a smokescreen. Many PC users who switch to Mac come from an informed perspective, and they like to know where their files are.

I have met people furious at their iPads because they can't even begin to get into the file structure. Likewise, when you turn your brand new Mac on, sure, you can get going straight away, but by default, you can't even see the hard drive, and since you can't, the Dock along the bottom looks like the only applications you have.

As how otherwise would you know you have an Applications Folder with more offerings than show up in the Dock?

Of course, I get quite a lot of work showing people all this kind of stuff, but it grates with me that it's not clearer how it works. Personally, I also like knowing where my actual files are. This may not be essential knowledge to future legions of Apple fans, but it is to me, and every time Apple implements yet another bypass to this, I resent it.

Once upon a time, the OS Finder had two modes, the usual, and Simple.

I really wish this would come back! One could look like an iPad, and one could look like what it is - a serious and powerful operating system that still doesn't get viruses,

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com