Here, the Macworld team and Macworld readers share their thoughts on those rather useless and sometimes infuriating Apple features.
The Dashboard in OS X
Apple's Dashboard is a feature found on the Mac that lets you host widgets. Those widgets can be anything from a memo pad or a calculator to a weather widget or a simple game. Here at Macworld, it's the number one feature that the team and readers suggested should be ditched, as it's rarely used aside from an occasional check of the world clock or currency converter in our office.
That said, it's survived nine years since the days of OS X Tiger, so we suspect there must be some of you out there that use it. If you're one of those people, we want to hear from you! Let us know what you use the Dashboard for.
The Stocks app on iPhone
Another common suggestion is Apple's Stocks app. In fact, the stubborn Stocks app which Apple doesn't let you delete seems to really anger some of our team and readers.
"I've never used it and don’t know anyone who has," says Macworld's Production Editor Rob Woodcock. "If I did own any shares I'd use a more reliable service than Apple's app."
Macworld Associate Editor and Editor of Digital Arts says: "Stocks can take a hike."
"This has got to be the least used pre-installed (and non-deletable) iOS app by quite some margin," Neil continues. "It was likely only stuck on the first iPhone as a branding exercise, to hint to anyone who used their phone primarily for business that the iPhone’s just as right for them as a Crackberry (as people were calling them back then in a manner that seems baffling now, probably because being permanently tethered to your email via your phone is sadly now the norm rather than the exception). And once on the phone, no-one at Apple’s got round to removing it - possibly because someone high up at Cupertino likes to check Apple’s stock on it all day and no-one wants to upset them. Or because if they did remove it, it would lead to dumb Business Insider headlines along the lines of ‘Does Apple dropping the Stock app show it no longer cares about business users’ despite that anyone who trades stocks uses their own broker’s app and that pretty much every application or service that business relies on from Word to Salesforce has an iOS app.
"It’s telling that Apple didn’t bother putting it on the iPad, because even by the time the first Apple tablet was launched in 2010, the iPhone was as much a stereotypical businessperson’s accessory as a suit, a BMW or a casual disregard for common decency."
Neil hates Stocks so much that it currently sits in a folder on his final homescreen called Crap, which pretty much says it all.
"It's a home for apps I never use because I’ve replaced them with something better," says Neil. "Weather (with BBC Weather), Calendar and Reminders (Fantastical), Notes and Voice Memos (Evernote) Passbook (BA’s own app), iTunes Store (buying stuff on my Macbook Pro) and Game Center (having a life). Given the chance, I’d kick all of them off my phone, which would leave me more space to buy more music from you. Sound like a fair trade, Apple?"
Game Center in iOS and OS X
Here's another iOS and OS X feature that none of us actively use (though playing games often automatically uses some of its features) yet none of us can delete. Not only does the Game Centre now have a rather ugly icon on iOS, it's also a feature that none of our friends use, deeming it pretty much useless. I've never once been 'Challenged' in Game Centre or received a 'Request'. Have you?
It was a nice idea from Apple – socialising gaming in one central hub – but unfortunately it's largely unused.
The Dock on OS X
This one's a bit of a thought-provoker, as suggested by Macworld contributor Lou Hattersley.
"Apple should remove The Dock from Mac OS X," she says. "There's no need for apps to open and close anymore (Mac OS X should be able to manage apps as background processes like iOS does). Apple should instead throw its heart into making Launchpad work alongside Spotlight and Siri so you have quick access to all apps at all times."
Trash on OS X
Another good one from Lou is the idea that Apple should trash the Trash (sorry). Admitting that this isn't the easiest of tasks, Lou says: "I have no idea how this would work, but I'd like Apple to get rid of the Trash (and the whole concept of manually deleting files). It seems somewhat odd to have to manually manage files in this day and age."
"Instead, I think Mac OS X should intelligently know which files you are working on, which are important to you and those that aren't," she suggests. "The ones that aren't should be compressed, and archived, then eventually just trashed automatically."
Newsstand on iOS
Macworld's Online Editor David Price thinks Apple should ditch Newsstand, the iOS app that contains digital magazines and newspapers.
"At the risk of biting the hand that feeds (Macworld and many of its sister magazines sell popular digital editions through this service, among others), I’d nominate Newsstand as first against the wall come the operating system revolution," he says.
"It’s glitchy, crash-prone and unpredictable, sometimes behaving like an app and sometimes behaving like a folder. Once you’re inside, it bizarrely tries to stop you leaving, disabling the five-finger claw gesture, and requiring two taps of the Home button to get out of a magazine and back to the, er, Home screen. And even the icon is terrible, one of the few in iOS 7 that hasn’t improved with age."
"Perhaps most tellingly," David continues, "it’s simply not an essential for the average user; if Apple isn’t going to allow us to delete its own apps, then the least it can do is be selective about which apps it chooses as pre-installs. (Then again, perhaps we should be grateful we can hide Newsstand in a folder; pre-iOS 7, you couldn’t even do that.)"
"Really, I can’t see any reason why the app’s functions aren’t relegated to a sub-collection within iBooks - which, despite a similar interface, displays very few of Newsstand’s annoyances," he adds.
The Star Rating system in iTunes
Macworld contributor Nick Spence thinks the time has come for Apple to ditch the iTunes star rating system.
"I never understood the star rating system in iTunes," he says. "Unless you're sharing your iTunes with a teenage daughter with a love of boybands or you raid the iTunes Store while drunk, shouldn't all your tunes be top tunes - song that you either love or at the very least like?"
"It all seems very dated, a hangover from the days when everyone had an iPod, and really should have been phased out with the equally underwhelming iTunes Ping," Nick adds.
iOS 7 animations
Nick has also suggested that Apple should ditch some of those sickness-inducing animations that were introduced with iOS 7.
"Although there has been much criticism that iOS 7 has scarified usability for style with a minimalist redesign, I’ve grown to love this latest version of Apple’s iDevice software," he says. "That said, having read so many accounts of people feeling sick, having headaches or suffering vertigo using iOS7 due to Apple embracing dynamic animations and three-dimensional space, it might be time to junk these pretty but hardly essential animations. Despite a compromise found under Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion, Apple should offer users real choice here. The iPhone maker would be wise to add the ability to switch all animations off by default in the next iOS, which should appease a small, but significant minority of users."
