{ "version": "https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1.1", "title": "Ilya Birman’s Blog: posts tagged Mac", "_rss_description": "Ilya Birman’s blog on design, cities, music, and life", "_rss_language": "en", "_itunes_email": "ilyabirman@ilyabirman.net", "_itunes_categories_xml": "<\/itunes:category>\r\n<\/itunes:category>\r\n\r\n", "_itunes_image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic-square@2x.jpg?1573933764", "_itunes_explicit": "no", "home_page_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/mac\/", "feed_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/mac\/json\/", "icon": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764", "authors": [ { "name": "Ilya Birman", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/", "avatar": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764" } ], "items": [ { "id": "383", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/apple-future-hope\/", "title": "Hoping for a brighter future at Apple", "content_html": "

The internet is celebrating the news that Alan Dye, Apple’s head of design, is leaving.<\/p>\n

Alan has been the face of Apple’s interface decline in recent years. There was a time when the core principles of good interface design were easiest to explain using Apple as the example. Now Apple mostly serves to show how not<\/i> to do it. Dye ended up with enormous power despite minimal competence: he simply doesn’t understand what makes an interface good; he lacks the education and isn’t even aware of it. Looks and surface-level effects completely defeated depth and thoughtfulness, and things still work only thanks to the extraordinary foundation laid long ago. Dye neither understood nor respected that foundation.<\/p>\n

Steve Lemay is taking over. I hadn’t heard the name before, but he has been an interface designer at Apple since 1999, so there’s no doubt he actually understands what the job of an interface designer is. And judging by the reaction, the designers inside Apple can’t believe their luck and seem genuinely hopeful. Maybe he’s someone for whom “design is how it works” isn’t just nice-sounding words. And only a couple of weeks ago there was another rumor that this year Apple will focus on polishing and refinement rather than new features.<\/p>\n

I very much hope Apple is headed for a revival. Maybe window sizes will once again be chosen so that elements actually fit instead of triggering a three-pixel scroll bar. Maybe we’ll get back the wonderful world where elements and their labels aren’t pushed as far apart as possible. Maybe animations will once again work to explain spatial relationships or bringing joy, instead of being accidental artifacts of implementation.<\/p>\n

One more thing I hope for: Apple once led the world in making drag-and-drop a truly comfortable gesture. On Windows, it was basically unusable — if you dragged a file, nothing else worked until you finished. On the Mac, while “holding” a file with the mouse, you could scroll windows with the wheel to drop the file where you needed, and you could even hit space bar to activate an element under the cursor while the mouse button was already pressed. Today these things work only sometimes, in the places where Apple hasn’t yet broken them. Maybe Apple will suddenly remember the implications of Fitts’s law, and we’ll once again be able to drag files to the very edge of the screen to drop them into the Dock, instead of having to aim at the icon.<\/p>\n

When Steve Jobs introduced Quick Look about twenty years ago, he explained that PDF parsing was built deep into the system, so even complex PDFs opened instantly, like ordinary image files. Today on the Mac, not only PDFs — even a regular JPEG takes noticeable time to appear. Just open a folder full of JPEGs and press the down arrow key to move through them. On the old Mac, the JPEGs would flicker past your eyes as they changed. Today, the Mac waits until you release the key, and only then lazily draws the JPEG you stopped on.<\/p>\n

You simply have to not know how good things can be — how good they were<\/i> — to believe that today’s Mac is good. The only reason to tolerate this misery is that everything else is even worse. If only that stopped being the only reason. Please.<\/p>\n", "summary": "The internet is celebrating the news that Alan Dye, Apple’s head of design, is leaving", "date_published": "2025-12-06T11:20:47+03:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-06T11:20:34+03:00", "tags": [ "Apple", "design", "interface", "Mac" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sat, 06 Dec 2025 11:20:47 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "383", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } }, { "id": "381", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/type-to-search-finder-mixed\/", "title": "When you type to search in Finder, files and folders are mixed together", "content_html": "

In Norton Commander, as well as in Windows Explorer it’s always been the norm that folders go first, then files. On Mac, it used to be different: files and folders were always mixed together based on the selected sort order.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Apple finally gave in and added a proper sorting option to Finder: folders now appear first, files below.<\/p>\n

In Norton Commander, as well as in Windows Explorer, and even in Finder, you’ve always been able to select a file in a list just by typing its name. I’m always surprised when people scroll through giant file lists looking with their eyes, instead of just typing a couple of letters.<\/p>\n

So imagine you open a folder in Finder, and in it you have:
\nimages\/<\/tt>
\nindex.php<\/tt><\/p>\n

You press the “i” key. Obviously, the highlight should jump to the images\/<\/tt> folder. But in reality, it jumps to index.php<\/tt>. Because even though Finder visually sorts folders to the top, deep down it still believes that index.php<\/tt> comes before images<\/tt>.<\/p>\n

Vibe coding had not been invented then, but the implementation quality of Apple software was already at that same level.<\/p>\n", "summary": "In Norton Commander, as well as in Windows Explorer it’s always been the norm that folders go first, then files", "date_published": "2025-08-06T17:44:33+03:00", "date_modified": "2025-08-06T17:44:24+03:00", "tags": [ "Apple", "bugs", "interface", "Mac" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:44:33 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "381", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } }, { "id": "376", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/noise-cancellation-mutes-keyboard-clicks\/", "title": "Noise cancellation on a Mac mutes keyboard clicks", "content_html": "

The Mac’s built-in noise cancellation suppresses keyboard clicks. It makes perfect sense, but there’s an annoying side effect. When you’re taking notes during a client call, it looks like you’re just reacting slowly or constantly zoning out. It’s hard to convince anyone you’re actually typing because they can’t hear a thing!<\/p>\n", "summary": "The Mac’s built-in noise cancellation suppresses keyboard clicks. It makes perfect sense, but there’s an annoying side effect", "date_published": "2025-04-03T23:59:33+03:00", "date_modified": "2025-04-03T23:59:31+03:00", "tags": [ "Mac", "observations" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 03 Apr 2025 23:59:33 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "376", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } }, { "id": "352", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/typing-password-over-button\/", "title": "Typing your password over a button", "content_html": "

Apple came up with this interface behavior that would seem strange before.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

When biometric authentication is available, the password input field is hidden. But if something goes wrong, you can still enter your password. However, you can start typing the password even before pressing the “Use Password...” button — any input will take the window to the next state.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

Apparently, the password interface is hidden initially for the sake of beauty, and also not to give people the false impression that the password must<\/i> be entered.<\/p>\n

The only annoying thing is that the two states of the window are of different heights, that is, when you start typing the password, the window gets bigger.<\/p>\n", "summary": "Apple came up with this interface behavior that would seem strange before", "date_published": "2023-04-15T13:26:26+03:00", "date_modified": "2023-04-15T13:26:23+03:00", "tags": [ "Apple", "interface", "Mac" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/ventura-password-1@2x.png", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sat, 15 Apr 2023 13:26:26 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "352", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/ventura-password-1@2x.png", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/ventura-password-2@2x.png" ] } }, { "id": "345", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/timezones-and-calendar\/", "title": "Using timezones in Calendar in remote teams", "content_html": "

Those who have remote colleagues and clients sometimes struggle with timezones and don’t know how to use Calendar.<\/p>\n

Here’s what you do. Turn on timezone support if it is off for some reason:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

When you add a meeting, specify its timezone (unless it’s the one you are in):<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

In the toolbar, select which timezone to display your calendar in and create events by default:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

To be honest, I have no idea how come this “timezone support” is an option and what happens when it’s off.<\/p>\n", "summary": "Those who have remote colleagues and clients sometimes struggle with timezones and don’t know how to use Calendar", "date_published": "2022-11-08T19:35:20+03:00", "date_modified": "2022-11-08T19:35:10+03:00", "tags": [ "Mac", "screenshots", "solution" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/timezones-1@2x.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Tue, 08 Nov 2022 19:35:20 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "345", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/timezones-1@2x.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/timezones-2@2x.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/timezones-3@2x.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "343", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/resizing-mac-windows\/", "title": "Resizing Mac Windows", "content_html": "

If you start dragging a window’s border, the window will start to resize horizontally or vertically in that direction. And with the Option key pressed, it will resize symmetrically in the opposite direction as well (like in Photoshop, yes).<\/p>\n

If you start dragging a window’s corner, the window will start to resize both horizontally and vertically in that direction. And with the Option key pressed, it will resize symmetrically in all directions.<\/p>\n

If you double click a window’s border, the window will grow from that side to the edge of the screen. If you double click a window’s corner, the window will grow to the corresponding corner of the screen.<\/p>\n

Therefore, to make a window cover the whole screen (but not go into the dumb full-screen mode), just alt-doubleclick any of the window’s corners.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/p>\n