It's the Holiday Season, and over the years I have happily spent a lot of my XMAS money with our favorite fruit named company. My love affair with Apple products goes back to the venerated Apple II. I do have a couple of PC laptops in the house, and of course I can also run Vista on VMWare Fusion, but I'm pretty much a Mac guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.

Nevertheless, I'd like to find some gifts from Apple under my tree this year. They are not big deals, but would be greatly appreciated. So Kris Kringle, if you're listening, pass these on to Mr. Jobs and friends.

• How about some documentation? I know Steve thinks books are dead, but in the old days Apple documentation was really first rate. Remember that old MacWrite manual? Apple, I know you are in the electronics business, but reading help files on a laptop screen that covers up the application I am trying to learn is a bit of a pain.
• When you release an update to an iPod, iPhone or OS X how about telling me what the update really does. I know you have gotten better at this, but why should people have to guess all the features and fixes that you have put in? Just own up to it and trust your customers.
• Find another partner in addition to AT&T for the iPhone. My phone is a great product that is significantly damaged by an inferior, unreliable network. To me, "more bars in more places" means I'm looking for bars to find a stiff drink so I can recover from my frustration with dropped calls, poor signal strength, and sporadic 3G coverage.
  
• A lot of your products get really warm. My MacBook Pro can be a sizzler on my lap. My Mac Pro keeps my office pretty warm, and I don't need those high temperatures since I'm in Arizona. Don't get me started on the Apple TV. I do think it is a great product, but I'm thinking I could make a fondue on that top surface. There is no fan in the Apple TV and when I put it in standby to spin down the hard drive it wakes up by itself paying no attention to my command. If I want to be ignored, I can walk into any Home Depot. (Update: Some users say the Apple TV does have a fan. I regret the error. It's still too darned hot!)
  

OK. it's not a big list, but it's a list just the same. What's on yours? And to all, a good night!

This has been bothering me since I upgraded to iTunes 7, and I finally laid hands on a copy of v6 to confirm: in v7, Apple seems to be pushing the new MiniStore they introduced in v6.0.2, as in: they don't make turning it off nearly as obvious anymore. Maybe they didn't like the fact that they were subsequently forced into asking permission to run the store, because in v7, there is no 'click down here to toggle me on/off' button. iTunes 7 is pictured above, while a shot of v6's button is below.



Yes, users can toggle this store under the View menu in iTunes 7, but the point is they removed the instructional piece, as well as any obvious, visible UI for toggling the store. A missing button might not be a big deal to the typical iTunes-familiar user, but there are plenty others out there who don't bother to go hunting for things like this when they get moved (remember what happened when Microsoft re-arranged the Start menu for Windows XP? Riots, mass panic and a severe shortage of duct tape), and they relegate themselves to complaining about how [insert explicative and optional insult] Apple is for doing this.

C'mon Apple, we know you love your store (and we're pretty keen on it ourselves), but you don't need to pull UI tricks like this on your users. Besides, there's plenty of toolbar space down there for everybody; especially for a button that used to live there to begin with.

This is more of a public service announcement and reminder than anything, inspired by TUAW reader Jer's comment on my .Mac syncing UI silliness post. Jer asked whether we were submitting feedback to Apple concerning gripes like the one I blogged, and the answer is 'most definitely yes.' This brief dialog inspired me to take the opportunity to urge all Mac users everywhere to do the same.

If you have a complaint, a feature request, or maybe you just found a bug in Mac OS X, or another piece of Apple's software, apple.com/feedback is a great place to go and tell them about it. Most of Apple's apps are categorized there, and it's a simple process for submitting your comment. While I don't believe it's in their policy to reply to anything submitted there, you can rest assured that it's one of the best places Apple uses to collect the information they use to keep tabs on how we like their software, especially when it comes to creating all those official bug reports you'll find sprinkled throughout their support and knowledgebase articles (besides, who wants to take bets that their engineers have TUAW in their newsreader?).

So remember boys and girls, when it comes to feature requests, UI gripes and bug squashing: ask not what Apple can do for you... but submit some feedback so the world's best operating system can get even better.

One of Unsanity's programmers by the name of Rosyna has posted a really interesting commentary on the new MacBook Pros titled Lost in Translation, focusing on some significant issues that need to be addressed. I recommend you check it out, as it raises questions on a number of issues that Steve Jobs seemed to have glazed over in his keynote.

On the flip side though, I couldn't help posting this without offering a response to some of the issues. While I am neither a programmer nor an Apple Engineer, I think I can add a few interesting ideas to the discussion.