Please. Fix. That.

Mobile Safari: The broken file upload field

FIXED: File upload support (for images, video only) is available as of iOS 6. It lets you either select an existing photo or video, or you can choose to take one right then. Hopefully, iOS will eventually support selection of other file types, but this is good enough to be considered fixed in my book.

Mobile Safari has never allowed you to select a file to upload to a web site. That's broken. Here's how it looks today (under iOS 4.3.1, on iPad):

The button is grayed out, suggesting that the function could work if only you knew some secret incantation.

I know iPhone and iPad don't have a traditional file system where the user can browse for documents that are stored on it. But at the very least, such a button should let you select from your photo/video library.

But eventually, it should be possible to select from any document that a user creates on their iPhone or iPad. A file upload field should specify a list of document types that it can accept. HTML5 includes an "accept" attribute for this very purpose (although I'm not sure how well it is supported yet). For Mobile Safari, this information could help identify the files that are appropriate to pick from. iOS applications can register the document types that they produce. Safari could then allow the user to select the application, then the file within that application that they want to upload.

Another way to do this is to use a UI similar to the Spotlight search interface on iOS. Basically, you would simply search for the document you want. Any resulting matches would be displayed and grouped by application.

I'm hopeful that we're near to some solution to this particular problem. In previous versions of iOS, this field has been completely hidden. So I'm at least hopeful that since it's now visible but disabled we're inching toward a functional file upload feature.

iPhone App Store: "iTunes Store" heading

Update: Fixed as of iOS 5 — this now says "Info".

Ran into this little bug last night as I was updating some of my iPhone apps:

This heading is shown when you are viewing the description of a specific application's updates. I don't know why it says "iTunes Store" instead of "App Store". You don't have a view like this on iPad — all change descriptions are shown on the Updates tab, which simply has the heading "Updates".

Yes, it's a small, small thing. But now that I've seen it, it bugs me every time I update an app.

Observed on iOS 4.3.

iTunes 10.2: Accessing iTunes Store...

UPDATE: This issue appears to be fixed as of iTunes 10.4.

This little window keeps popping up whenever I access iTunes:

It appears to be a recent development as of iTunes 10.2.x (I'm currently using "10.2.1 (1)" according to the About iTunes dialog). It shows up after launching iTunes (even if I'm not viewing the "iTunes Store" part of the iTunes Experience™). Afterwards, it can periodically pop up without warning.

Here's a short video demonstrating just how annoying this window can be. I'm signed out here, but the same behavior occurs when signed in. Just trying to search the store for an artist or album will cause the window to show up after each individual keypress:

 

Some suggest that it's because my computer is not authorized via the Store → Authorize This Computer menu command (or if your computer already is authorized, de-authorize it, then re-authorize). Sadly, my work laptop is not authorized and cannot be. I've hit my 5 computer limit at home and can't authorize  my work laptop. Fortunately, since all of my music is not protected, it plays without needing authorization.

So, I'm stuck with it for the time being. It's pretty annoying, especially since when the window pops up, it stops me from using iTunes at all. Surely, whatever it is doing can be done behind-the-scenes in a way that doesn't disrupt use of iTunes itself.

Come on Apple, let's fix that.

Apr. 18, 2011: Still affects 10.2.2 (12).

Mac OS X Software Update: Installing 6 items

UPDATE: Fixed! As of Mac OS X 10.8, Software Update is no more and has been replaced with the App Store which doesn't have this particular flaw.

If I've learned one thing in 25 years of computing, it's that you can't trust a progress bar when installing software. I appreciate the complexity around that problem. But this needs to be fixed:

As you can see here, the installation is all but finished, but the dialog is still showing that it is installing 6 items. Instead, it should be indicating the number of items that are left to install, updating the display as it goes.

What's particularly frustrating about this is that the Finder gets this right. When you are copying or deleting files, the Finder displays a progress bar but also displays a count of the files that are left to be processed. As files are being copied or deleted, that number ticks down to zero. Why Software Update doesn't repeat that pattern puzzles me. There's no chance I'm going to trust that progress bar, so it should least indicate the number of packages left to install.