Dear John,

Please bring back the Apple way.

I use Apple products every day. They are the center of my tech world. That does not give them a free pass. I spend my hard earned money on products that help streamline my workflow, inspire new ideas and power the backbone of my business.

The problem is, the magic has been lost.

The seamless ecosystem “that just works” has been chipped away by rushed releases, broken promises and business choices that make the experience worse for the end users.

That does not mean that I don’t have hope. I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t expect greatness from Apple and the engineering teams that work in Cupertino.

This includes the new CEO.

I pick on iPadOS 26 a lot, I have a whole video about how it ruined the iPad experience. Largely due to bugs, but also design, which we will cover next.

In a recent video I showed my morning pages routine to write with the Apple Pencil inside of Apple Notes. This experience used to be world class.

Now?

It is a buggy mess.

The lines and grids don’t stay inside of my hand written passage, they appear below it, no matter what I do, except for turning them off.

The pencil menu in the top of Apple Notes glitches out unless I tap the pencil icon...before I start writing.

These are just two examples. I recently found a website that details all of the bugs that have been around for years that Apple has not fixed.

I’ve run into issues with Apple Notes search and more problems with their default applications, that I will cover in a few sections.

If I detailed out all of the issues that I’ve had, this newsletter would become a book, and complaining just for complaining’s sake won’t do anything.

My bottom line?

I want Apple to get back to software excellence. Fully finished, polished software, that “just works”.

Including the keyboard in iOS!

The Liquid Glass is widely hated on the internet.

I think it looks good but the implementation was poor. There are readability issues, the corner radius on windows on Mac is inexcusable and it seems like an attempt to be clever, rather than clear.

Generally the app designs and operating systems are “fine”.

“Fine” is not why I purchase Apple devices.

Apple used to have a loose internal rule, more like a guideline, for UI/UX design, that a user should be able to get what they need in three clicks or less. From anywhere.

Nearly everything I do now requires more than 3 clicks, or taps on the iPhone.

Things like setting a due date in Apple Reminders is far more complicated than it needs to be.

The control center is one of the few places where I notice this philosophy is still in action.

You can do the same with Apple Reminders.

The Mac is a worse offender than the mobile devices, but I want the team thinking about how they can actually simplify the UI/UX further, to make inputting data easier and actually getting work done more efficient instead of just tricking myself into thinking an action button shortcut is saving me time when it is the same amount of taps or clicks to accomplish the task.

I love the stock applications, Notes, Reminders, Calendar, Mail, Freeform and Journal.

These apps power my creative workflow but it feels like Apple has forgotten they exist.

At the very least they are not incentivized to make them great.

They are still the best free productivity options by a mile, but I want Apple taking on the behemoths of these categories and pushing not only new features but also quality of life improvements for those of us that use this software every day.

I have 972 notes in Apple Notes at the moment. I am a power user. I push Notes about as far as humanly possible and I wish it was better.

My favorite thing about Notes is that is links with reminders. Except on Mac for some reason you can’t just drag a Note into Reminders to create a linked reminder. This works on iPhone and iPad.

Here’s my wishlist:

It is my favorite note taking app, I write all my videos inside of it, but these are simple, quality of life updates, that would make my life and work easier.

I use Apple Reminders as a kanban board. It is almost like a Notion replacement for me.

Each card is linked to a note of something that I am actively working on.

I find it difficult to scheduled and reschedule tasks, i.e. back to the three click rule.

I almost need a power user app that combines Notes, Reminders and Calendar in one to be a true Notion competitor. I would pay money for this if included in Apple One or my Creator Studio subscription.

I understand these apps are marketed to a mass of people that are not me. Like pages, numbers and keynote, keeping a free version and adding features to a paid plan would be a place where I’d be happy to spend my money.

Why I’d rather pay this trillion dollar corporation over a VC backed startup like Notion, I can’t explain, but I’m fine with it.

Did Apple forget they made a journal app again?

After having it take forever to come to the iPad and Mac, it still only has basic functionality.

It is a solid app, but it needs simple updates, like lines and grids for handwriting and the interface is not inspiring enough to get me to open it every day.

I want to be able to share journals or link them with Apple Notes. I would like tagging support. Because of these shortfalls I use a daily notes shortcut in Apple Notes to journal every morning and jot things down throughout the day.

Journal honestly could be incorporated inside of Apple Notes with a calendar view like Obsidian or Craft provide.

Again it is a good app, but has room to become a great app with more support.

I used Fantastical for the longest time.

The fact that I no longer pay for a calendar subscription is a testament to the updates that Apple has made over the years.

I need the ability to time block Reminders on the Calendar. Simple enough, Apps like Todoist and TickTick let you do this. I would like Apple to be taking inspiration from the category leaders and driving the competition to be better all around. As consumers we all win in that scenario.

I would like Apple to make calendar sets easier to navigate and a built-in calendar openings thing like many other calendars offer now. Sure there are free alternatives out there, but my entire life is now in Apple Calendar, sometimes by way of Google Calendar, but I prefer to use Apple’s client everywhere.

Ultimately I want John to take the hardware and software integration seriously.

That is still Apple’s moat.

It is being rapidly degraded through court actions, EU rulings and outside companies trying to chip away at the armor of the walled garden.

I used to hate the term walled garden.

As an outsider, I hated that Apple was not open, but once I was in the ecosystem it all made sense.

I don’t want Apple to lose what little magic it has left.

Apple is tight lipped about everything.

I recently started looking at Twitter again, the Notion team and many other developers are highly active on social media.

They are teasing features, talking with users, hosting events and building a community.

Apple is like a black box.

I have a bunch of things that I would like to see changed and I have no idea if anyone has read my feature requests, there is no feature roadmap and I can’t see what the team is actively working on.

It is time for Apple to come out of the stone ages.

A solution might be to designate specific team members or roles as customer advocates.

Like Renee Ritchie is the Creator Liaison at YouTube. There is a name and a face to that specific portion of the brand.

We need that from Apple, specifically for software.

You will notice I do not mention hardware anywhere here, which is both a testament to Mr. Ternus, and at the same time, making me nervous about the apparent divide between the people designing the hardware and the people making the software to run on them.

Either way, having people to engage with those of us who rely on their devices and services every day would be a net positive for the tech community.

Right now Apple’s brand needs more voices from within the company and less media trained, boring corporate nonsense, that we all despise.

I’m not saying give away company secrets and leak everything, but Final Cut Pro is a great example.

Prior to Creator Studio, I was convinced there was only one person working on Final Cut Pro, given how infrequently updates would come and how far behind the app had fallen to competitors like Davinci Resolve and even Premier Pro(I can’t believe I just said this).

It is possible to be incredibly opinionated about design and product, while still listening to the community and providing updates about what is coming next, outside of a yearly developer conference or pre-recorded product announcement.

Speaking of pre-recorded events...

Let’s get back to live event shall we?

Google has done this recently and it is the premier way as consumers to defend ourselves against vaporware.

Given the state of Siri and Apple Intelligence 2 years after the demo, that we now know, did not exist and was not working, we should all want in-person events back.

Heck I’d like to get invited to one someday!

Live events have a way of feeling more authentic. There’s a chance for blunders, people can mis-speak, presentations and demos won’t be fully polished.

They don’t need to be.

Along the lines of transparency, many developers now publish a high level kanban board of “planned”, “in progress”, “done”. Some go so far as to let their users vote on specific features, which is helpful if you are paying for a piece of software, you get to inform the direction of the product as you see fit.

You are along for the journey!

Software will always be ever evolving and I’d rather not rely on “news” (aka rumor sites blindly reposting Gurman).

Apple has a chance to silence the critics by sharing what is going on in Cupertino, (maybe it isn’t all rotten).

I might be the oddball that goes in and submits feedback requests for the apps that I use.

I also provide feedback directly to engineering, the perks of being an engineer and having at least one friend inside the mothership.

Take the lid off the box and let the people who love your products in to what’s next!

While Tim Cook has done an excellent job leading Apple to an insane valuation, upgrading the supply chain, navigating tough economic situations, the product lineup has become incredibly confusing.

Especially as a tech enthusiast. If I am confused, I can only imagine the general public is as well.

The MacBook Neo is a great product.

But, it threw a $599 wrench into the Apple line-up by being a well built, affordable laptop, running full MacOS.

The iPad is now much harder to recommend, just based on price, let alone the fact that it is kneecapped by the monstrosity that is iPad OS 26.

For the price of an iPad Air, Magic Keyboard and Pencil Pro you could almost get 2 MacBook Neos or a MacBook Air on sale.

I’ve been using the iPad Pro for writing lately, but I can’t help but think about how expensive of a devices it is, with the power of the M4 chip, being kneecapped by the iPadOS operating system.

All while the base iPad exits, as does the mini, the iPad lineup is about as confusing as it gets, especially if what you really want is a laptop.

The iPad is not alone anymore though.

The base model iPhone 17 was the most compelling phone in the lineup this year. Biggest value for the price.

The slightly more expensive Air compromised on too many key features, specifically battery life and the camera, to be compelling at the $999 starting price. I still want one though.

The design of the 17 Pro doesn’t feel as good in the hand compared to my 16 Pro and had no wow factor that would have convinced me to buy regardless of the fact that I didn’t need it.

iPhone 17 starts at $799
iPhone Air starts at $999
iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1099

What is another $300 when it only costs $46/month?

The hallmark of Apple in recent years has been making the base models competitive pricing and feature set compelling enough for most users.

If you needed more power or wanted to upgrade in any way, the value quickly erodes and you’d be left wondering how you ended up with a MacBook Pro when you originally went into the store to look at a MacBook Air...not speaking from personal experience or anything.

The product overlap makes the pricing ladder worse. The strategy is clear, but annoying, as someone who likes the brand.

At the same time, the value of Apple products in recent years has proven to not come at a price premium. I do not believe in the Apple Tax.

When I look at the $599 MacBook Neo, compared to my $1200 Dell work laptop, the build quality alone will leave you scratching your head wondering if Dell tried to intentionally make the laptop as bad as possible.

They definitely succeeded in making it feel as cheap as possible. Severe backlight bleed on the display and massive keyboard flex were the first two things I noticed on the machine.

Thickness and battery life are noticeably worse and the overall build quality is just trash. There is no chance in hell I would pick this up in a store and say “yeah I’ll spend double the money on this piece of shit, instead of getting the Neo”.

This of course, is before you even factor in the performance of Apple Silicon and MacOS up against the slog that is trying to use windows on a budget or mid-tier device.

I actually think the Pricing ladder is starting to disappear a bit and that is a good thing for consumers.

I’ve been walked up it in the past and I’m sure I will again when I spec out my next Mac with more memory and storage, but generally I’m happy with the hardware that I get and I don’t feel like Apple pulled a fast one on me when I do choose to upgrade storage or processor in order to get the spec I want.

The performance of Mac since the M1 has been mind boggling and the windows side seems to still be playing catch up, or in outright denial that at $600 MacBook could in any way be a good device to use daily.

I am still very much pro Apple. I use nearly all their devices, except for the extremely expensive Vision Pro headset, I’ve owned or currently own nearly everything that they make.

The integration between iPhone, the Watch, the Mac, is all top notch relative to the rest of the industry, but over the years I have noticed something slowly creeping into the lineup.

It is hard to pinpoint, is it working too fast, a lack of care, engineers spread too thin?

Anyone’s guess is as good as mine, but as Apple achieved record breaking sales, launching many new products, the software and hardware has started to stagnate.

I won’t go so far as saying their tech is boring, but it also doesn’t necessarily “just work” anymore either.

The little details are important.