It is all-too-common these days in the blogosphere and on cable TV news outlets to take a story and just blow it out of proportion. Way out of proportion. A modest misstep or incident becomes a major catastrophe, one that might impact millions of people. But, while I suppose people are impacted when an Apple product has a problem, it doesn’t rise to the level of threatening your life, right?

Well, I suppose some might suggest that getting wrong directions in Maps for iOS could lead you astray, perhaps putting you into an unsafe neighborhood where you could be in danger. I suppose. But Maps is getting better, and it would be foolish to believe that Google Maps is necessarily perfect. I’ve seen far too many instances where it’s anything but, such as a recent meeting with a colleague at a small Phoenix restaurant for breakfast. I used Google Maps and got to the right place. He used it and ended up on the other side of the street, wondering what happened.

With OS X Mavericks, I’ve seen criticisms that Apple Mail is troublesome, particularly in the way that Gmail is handled. There has already been a fix, a Mail for Mavericks update, but not everyone is satisfied. There are also other Mail glitches, such as the continued inability to accurately record the number of unread messages. All right, this is a pretty minor issue. Gmail isn’t, but part of the problem is the non-standard way in which Google handles IMAP, but it’s still Apple’s fault for breaking a system that used to work pretty well. Regardless, you’d expect that most of the problems will be fixed in forthcoming maintenance updates.

So it’s not a show stopper. The real serious issue is the possibility that some people who own a Western Digital external drive are in danger of losing data. But that seems to happen if you are using the company’s own driver utilities, rather than just letting Apple handle things. So if you stop using those apps, you are probably all right, and I gather Western Digital and Apple are working on a fix. This unfortunate situation, however, isn’t unique. Earlier OS X releases have had problems with storage devices, and they are usually fixed pretty quickly. No reason to freakout. Just be careful about any new release and look out for glitches of this sort.

After all, nobody forces you to upgrade.

Yet another freakout is all about iWork. Apple’s crime was to remove some key advanced features, such as the ability to customize toolbars, insert objects in headers and footers, some AppleScript support, not to mention mail merge. This was considered to be a fatal offense by some, and it was only exacerbated by Apple’s decision not to announce the changes in advance. They finally released a support document that explained the reasoning, with the promise that some 18 of the lost features would be restored within the next six months, and additional features would be added going forward.

Now Apple’s excuse was the need to rebuild the apps as 64-bit, and provide file compatibility across all supported platforms, including OS X, iOS and iCloud. The choice would be to just hold off, or release a somewhat crippled version now and flesh it out over time. Apple chose the latter, and that’s exactly what happened a few years back with major overhauls of iMovie and later Final Cut Pro X. But installations of the new versions didn’t delete the old versions in any case.

To be fair, Apple didn’t bother to explain to video editors that the new Final Cut Pro X lost some mission critical features. Had they done so, fewer creative professionals would have abandoned Apple for Adobe Premiere or Avid. It didn’t help that sales of the previous version, Final Cut Pro 7, were halted for a time. But none of this prevented anyone from using an older version until Apple fixed the new version, and they appear to have gone a long way towards enhancing the app for customers who are still around.

The failure of Maps for iOS to be perfect from Day One also received a tremendous amount of criticism. Apple apologized, but the troublesome update left a bad stench for some iPhone and iPad users, the media ran with the story and, for the most part, never rechecked the app’s progress. More to the point, even Consumer Reports, no friend of Apple by any means, compared Maps for iOS and Google Maps and found them quite comparable in delivering accurate directions.

Yet Apple hasn’t fared so well with online services. iCloud still has a ways to go. The iCloud Keychain feature that debuted with OS X Mavericks, and was added to iOS in version 7.0.3, is essentially unusable on my iPhone and iPad. I don’t think Apple would have held off a major OS release to make these features perfect, and it does work OK on my Mac. Since the iPhone and iPad are from different product generations, I would be surprised if others haven’t encountered the same or similar problems of wrong usernames and passwords being dropped into a login screen, and the serious performance issues that can slow down the system big time. Disabling iCloud Keychain from the iPhone and iPad fix the slowdowns, but I grant that maybe only a small number are impacted, and I’ll just wait to see how Apple improves the service.

None of this, however, is reason for the constant freakouts about Apple’s alleged loss of direction. Every generation of an Apple product, hardware or software, has arrived with bugs. The same is true for other tech companies. I’d like to see Apple do better, but any suggestion that it’s the end of the world for the company is just absurd.

Over recent months, there have been several published reports claiming that Apple is testing a larger iPad. The very latest claim comes from an alleged “first-tier display supplier,” indicating displays are currently being built ahead of a launch date expected in early 2014. On the surface at least, that would appear to be credible, although the precise source isn’t named.

It is true that a lot of early information about future Apple products does leak from the supply chain. This is the sort of thing that, as Apple expands the roster of component makers and assemblers, can’t be stopped. It’s just going to happen, and, based on the comments during Apple’s most recent media event, in October, it’s clear the company’s bigwigs understand the situation and are going to have to live with it. Clamping down on a supplier with loose lips may impact the production process. It’s not as if, for example, Apple can, of a sudden, shift production of a critical component, such as a processor, to another vendor without months or years of preparation.

But if Apple is going to release a larger iPad early next year, and one presumes that would be March or April, wouldn’t it be a little early to produce displays in any volume now? The key is that, if true, we really don’t know how many displays are being built. It may well be that Apple is simply testing different form factors for the iPad, and hasn’t yet made a decision about whether to go ahead.

Consider that it has been reported from time to time that Apple was building TV sets. Now maybe some of the so-called industry analysts or supply chain sources were making things up, but just as likely they knew about prototypes being assembled by some contract makers. So it’s possible the stories are partly true; something is being built, but we don’t know when or if that something will be released.

But we all know that there hasn’t been any announcement that Apple is getting into the TV business. The Apple TV set top box was last updated in 2012 to support 1080p video, but the rest of the updates have been on the software side. More and more channels are becoming available. Not quite at the Roku level, but still delivering a decent range of content to folks who just want to rent a movie, or who are hoping to cut the cable cord forever.

There are stories that Apple wants to set up a subscription TV service, but the entertainment companies are playing hard ball. There’s the perception that the music industry caved a little too easily when Apple originally made the iTunes deals for the iPod. Supposedly Apple resisted multiple-tier pricing originally. But that’s not true now. Besides, the music companies have agreed to allow DRM-free tracks, which means they aren’t protected and you can use them anywhere.

None of that is true, however, for movies. If you rent, once you click Play, you have 24 hours to finish watching the movie, or you pay yet again. So if something comes up and you can’t finish a movie on time, too bad. I don’t see where the movie companies make customers feel warm and fuzzy about them when they have to rent a movie a second time due to circumstances beyond their control. It hardly makes sense, and it’s not as if someone who is given, say, a week to watch a rented movie after it’s started will somehow engage in a rip off. But you can see the sort of obstacles Apple faces should they want to bring logic to TV content distribution.

Now with the iPad, things might have changed with the lighter iPad Air and the fact that the iPad mini is not quite as plentiful yet at resellers, but last year people seemed to prefer the smaller model. The 9.7-inch iPad Air appears to be the ideal size, so is there a need for a larger model?

For most, maybe not. But more and more people are considering an iPad as a potential laptop replacement. You can add a keyboard if you do a lot of typing, though that sort of setup is quite awkward unless the keyboard is embedded in the cover.

Yet I can see where creative people might find value in a 12.9-inch iPad, for digital art, audio and video editing, to consider some of the possibilities. The larger form factor may be enough to convince Apple of the need to offer the ability to open multiple windows as well. Can you imagine a 13-inch MacBook Air limited to using a single app and a single document at a time? Maybe the iPad Pro would be a convertible of some sort, which married a traditional Mac note-book, but that form factor has gone nowhere in PC land.

But the rumored iPad Pro may not necessarily be a mass market product. I expect the potential to be more limited, though people who are on the fence about switching from personal computer to iPad might find this form factor to be a worthy compromise if it suits their workflows.

Nothing appears to be set in stone at this point, even if the stories are true that Apple is building those larger displays. But if the supply chain chatter speeds up in the next few months, perhaps there might be something to the story. Never assume anything with Apple, though.

So a popular online publication has posted an article with an astounding revelation, that the fingerprint sensor that debuted on the iPhone 5s, known as Touch ID, isn’t quite perfect. Rather, it’s an “epic fail.” It doesn’t work for everyone, implying that maybe Apple is cheating its customers by not delivering absolute perfection.

The article in question which, because of the publication’s lack of respect for facts, doesn’t deserve a link, includes anecdotal reports from people who just cannot get Touch ID to work reliably. They report no success, or intermittent success, and it’s also reported that an unknown number of iPhone 5s owners have complained about the feature’s alleged lapses in Apple’s support site.

Now to be fair, no security solution can be 100%. It is possible for someone to make a 3D cast of a fingerprint, and use that to activate the sensor. But that requires time and energy, and having access to someone’s fingerprint so that it can be dusted. Just remember how the crime scene investigators on the “CSI” TV show do it, and you’ll realize you can’t just take a snapshot of an iPhone’s Home button and get a usable image without some extra work.

Regardless, maybe it makes sense to just take a look at what Apple has done, which was accomplished as the result of buying a well-known Florida-based fingerprint technology company, AuthenTec, for $356 million. Certainly news of the transaction made it quite clear that some sort of fingerprint sensor would appear on a future Apple gadget, and the iPhone was ideal.

Now understand that fingerprint sensors have, up till now, not been terribly easy to use. Consider a recent HTC smartphone, the 5.9-inch One Max, in which the sensor was placed in the rear, below the camera. Talk about inconvenient. The few reviews I’ve read about the feature echo what I said, that this was a totally stupid design decision, though perhaps there are patents covering Apple’s version, which may make it difficult to use a Home button to detect a fingerprint. But I don’t claim to have all the ins and outs, other than to suggest that no company that spent more than 30 seconds doing user testing would do what HTC did.

In any case, Apple’s well-known approach is to take complicated technology and make it as simple as possible. Setting up Touch ID merely requires going to Settings>General>Touch ID and Passcode. From there you have to set up a passcode, first, before you do the fingerprint thing. Once the passcode and configured, there’s a Touch ID setup on the next screen, where you tap Add a Fingerprint and continue.

The setup process doesn’t require explanation. Just follow the screen prompts. You can configure up to five fingerprints, which can be your own, or a mixture of yours and those of members of your family. The more prints, the longer it takes for the sensor to work, but it’s about a second give or take in most cases. If you find that you’re not getting a good result, you may want to scan the same finger two or three times so that there are enough variations to improve accuracy. Your decision.

As you might expect, there are times when your fingerprint won’t be accurately sensed. Maybe you have dirty, greasy fingers, or used too much skin lotion. Regardless, Touch ID tries five times and, if it fails, you just enter your passcode. Remember the passcode? If you restart your iPhone, the passcode is always required. If no amount of setup succeeds, or if the results aren’t consistent after you scan a finger a few times, don’t fret. Use the passcode for now, and give Apple time to make it better. There’s no reason to get out of shape over technology that doesn’t work as advertised every single time.

But since this is Apple, the press just won’t give them a pass for imperfection. The magazine in question didn’t write an article about HTC’s miserable implementation of fingerprint sensing, what one reviewer called “an exercise in frustration.” No, it’s all about Apple not being finger perfect.

Of course, I can’t speak for anyone but me when it comes to Touch ID. I set it up as advertised, and found that it works most of the time, though sometimes I have to tap the Home button a couple of times to get a successful result. However, that slight annoyance is still quicker than entering the passcode. At the end of the day, if more iPhone users add this important security step just to try it out, that’s a great achievement.

Compare it to Time Machine, Apple’s OS X backup solution. I can go into the reasons why it’s not the perfect solution. There’s no disk clone feature, for example, where you can boot from another drive if something goes wrong with your Mac’s startup drive. But Time Machine is so convenient to set up that millions of Mac users who never backed up their files now do it routinely. So in that respect, Time Machine has been a huge success. If you want more granularity in the setup, or a true mirror or clone backup, there are third-party software solutions that’ll offer those features. At the end of the day, any backup solution is probably better than no backup solution.

The very same applies to Touch ID.

Recent numbers have to seem discouraging if you’re a fan of Apple. The percentage of people buying iPads is going down, with Android tablet sales going way up. Of course, the Surface is still evidently going nowhere, but doesn’t this still mean that Apple may be in trouble? After all, how can there be a huge app ecosystem for a product lineup that’s losing its luster?

The first question is whether those market share statistics are real, and, if so, what they really mean. Numbers can be used in all sorts of ways, and sometimes those ways are deceptive. So we have, for example, the fact that 81% of all smartphones run Android, with the remaining 19% divided among Apple, the falling BlackBerry brand, and other lesser contenders, such as Windows Phone.

On the surface, this doesn’t seem to auger well for Apple, but didn’t iPhone sales rise at a pretty good clip the last quarter? Didn’t Apple move nine million new iPhones the first week the 5s and 5c went on sale? So what’s going on here?

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