The IT Nerd

I’ve run Apple’s latest OS updates for both iOS and OS X and I’ve got further reactions about each. Let me start with OS X 10.10.4:

• I’ve noted that there are new Nvidia driver that come as part of this update. My testing indicates no performance improvements of note. Thus I have to assume that the only fix is a security related one as noted here.
• The update trashed about 60% of the albums in Photos. The photos were still there, but some of the albums were not. I had to spend an hour recreating them which was not cool. There was a fix in OS X10.10.4 to fix bugs in Photos. Thus I am wondering if I had one of those bugs and I didn’t know it.
• WiFi seems a hell of a lot less flaky. I’ve had some degree of stability since OS X 10.10.3, but 10.10.4 is the first version that I could call “normal”. It took Apple long enough to fix that.
• CPU usage is way down. I’m guessing that’s a side effect of using the rock solid “mDNSResponder” service that has been around since early versions of OS X and dumping the “discoveryd” service that they tried to introduce in OS X 10.10. The reason why I say that is that the latter was known for increasing CPU usage.

Now over to iOS 8.4. The big change was the Music app that now includes Apple Music. But I also note the following:

• WiFi is MUCH, MUCH BETTER in iOS 8.4. If you’ve had WiFi issues with your iDevice, this update may be the cure to what ills your iDevice.
• Bluetooth in my car seems to be much better as well. I can consistently connect via Bluetooth to the GTA Car Kits Pure Bluetooth device with only the occasional hiccup. Seeing as connecting to in car systems via Bluetooth has been a problem since iOS 8 appeared, this also may be the cure to another long standing issue.
• One thing I really like is that when connected to Bluetooth, you now have the option to change the device that music play through via a control that appears in the “now playing” screen of the Music app.
• It seems that U2’s Songs Of Innocence has made an appearance on my iPhone in the “Recently Added” section of my Music app despite the fact that I did not add it. Oddly enough, it is NOT in my library on my MacBook Pro. After doing some detective work, I’ve determined that it is in iCloud someplace as it disappears when I put the iPhone into airplane mode. So it’s good that it is not occupying space. Keep in mind that this is the same album that set off a bit of a firestorm last year when it was force fed to iDevices everywhere without the consent of their users.

Did you notice anything about either OS? Please post a comment and share your thoughts.

This entry was posted on July 3, 2015 at 7:06 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.