Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 234 posts

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#101

Post by andrewmcwatters »

saagarjha wrote: post #40
staunch wrote: post #10

What originally made the iPhone unique and powerful was that it included a full blown web browser, in the form of the Safari app. Steve Jobs announced the iPhone as a "Phone," "iPod," and "Internet Communicator." The name "Internet Communicator" indicates how different it is from the other two apps. The Phone and iPod functionality are really a subset of the Internet Communicator. And because the future is open web t…

Interestingly, Steve Jobs's vision for apps on iOS was essentially PWAs. He was forced to back down after developer found their way around these restrictions (i.e. jailbroke) and realized they could write much higher quality, faster, and more efficient apps natively.

Could you elaborate on this?

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#102

Post by ryanwaggoner »

RandomTisk wrote: post #95
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #12

This is sorely needed. Every iOS update has introduced bugs and UX gremlins that have been dragging Apple's software quality through the mud. Chief among them is Apple Music, since it is a huge part of Apple's service initiative. - Their latest update now wastes space to tell me it isn't playing anything! - Often times just refuses to work. No error, no graceful recover. Just silence. https://imgur.com/a/VrO1Y - Aird…

I don't encounter many bugs, but I'm considering getting android because Apple's feature/UX choices are beyond insane today. There are two features they're missing, that I feel should have been one of the first few added. 1. You can't view a list of chapters in iTunes, like in Audiobooks from say, Audible. Awful. I mean, I hate to be unkind, but are they seriously this inept to not include a chapter list that you can…

The problem here is that the “top 2 features that should have been in place from day 1 and represent an insane usability gap” are different for every user. So if they try and add all the weird corner case niche features, it’ll be the standard unopinionated bloatware that most software is.

FWIW, I’ve never played an audiobook in iTunes (Audible), and I hadn’t ever noticed the screen locking during calls thing. TouchID is so fast that it never bothers me, I guess.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#103

Post by cm2187 »

dkonofalski wrote: post #43
cm2187 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next update will bring a revolutionary new feature, an original invention by Apple, a courageous leap forward. It will bring STEREO playback to its homepods!

The HomePod already plays stereo.

Not that I am aware of:

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/23/apple-homepod-no-mutli-r...

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#104

Post by jkulubya »

csomar wrote: post #74
toyg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all the issues were fixed in the last update Eh, no. I have playlists I made years ago. I click on them, crash. Probably some of the items are not available in Music, as they were from my personal iTunes library, but do I care? Nope. It just ensures I will never pay for this sub-standard service.

To be honest, I'm not sure why you think your experience is the truth out there. I have found that when it comes to Apple hardware/software, the experience can differ greatly from a person to another by cheer luck. For example, I had no wifi issues with my MBP Late 2014. However, I remember lots of people raged about my particular edition's Wifi. It just happened that my particular laptop was fine while a significant…

I have found that when it comes to Apple hardware/software, the experience can differ greatly from a person to another by cheer luck.

Isn’t this the crux of the issue? You spend big money on an iPhone/Mac and you’re left crossing your fingers as to whether it will work.

My I-devices have worked flawlessly to date, but I understand the frustration.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#105

Post by fbdjskajxb »

epistasis wrote: post #99
abalone wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking: Engineer Thinks PM is a Bozo. Film at 11. It's not really context. The real problem here is the premise that "Apple has software quality issues" is taken as a given, without support. Sinofsky makes the point that Apple is operating a such a huge, unfathomable scale and depth -- and this is coming from one of Microsoft's top guys in its heyday -- that even rare bugs that affect 0.01% of users translate into…

It funny, while rare bugs are part of the problem, fundamental design is a problem that confronts me much more. The epidemic spread of animations that reduce functionality and responsiveness are pretty unforgivable. This is something that affects all users that try to interact with their phones, and I'm getting pretty sick of modal switches between "accepts touch input" and "doesn't accept input" when there are no vi…

In the settings under Accessibility there is “Reduce Motion”, which takes away most of the animations.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#106

Post by chime »

tempodox wrote: post #56

I'll hold my praises until I see how this actually works out. Xcode behaves more like a roulette wheel with every update and by now, even Terminal crashes on me every time I use it. It has gotten to the point where I consciously avoid using Apple apps because It Just Doesn't Work. Thank the gods of FOSS for iTerm2.

After one of the recent updates, if I use a keyboard shortcut to switch to a tab while the mouse is over the Terminal window, it starts to rapidly cycle between tabs and will not stop until I move the mouse away. You can try to reproduce this by opening two tabs in Terminal, moving the mouse over it, then pressing Cmd+Shift+] for more than a few tens of ms.

This has interrupted my workflow enough that I started to look for alternatives to Terminal.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#107

Post by jrs95 »

hyperrail wrote: post #24
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given what he pushed for with Windows 8, and killing WP 7 alongside XNA, I am not so sure.

Steven Sinofsky wasn't in charge of Windows Phone when that division decided to have no device upgrade path from WP7 to WP8 (or, for that matter, no upgrade path _or_ application compatibility from WP6.5 to WP7.0). The person in charge of Windows Phone then was Terry Myerson, who had an entirely different reporting chain to Steve Ballmer from Sinofsky's. Myerson was later promoted to run R&D for all Microsoft operati…

The death of XNA is pretty disappointing, if they'd invested more in that then Microsoft could have basically made Unity.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#109

Post by Someone1234 »

PakG1 wrote: post #93
abalone wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking: Engineer Thinks PM is a Bozo. Film at 11. It's not really context. The real problem here is the premise that "Apple has software quality issues" is taken as a given, without support. Sinofsky makes the point that Apple is operating a such a huge, unfathomable scale and depth -- and this is coming from one of Microsoft's top guys in its heyday -- that even rare bugs that affect 0.01% of users translate into…

If you're not receiving criticism, you don't matter.

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses" - Bjarne Stroustrup

I've found that quote to apply to everything. Familiarity breads contempt, even just from boredom, or wanting to shift blame for the monotony of the task you're using the tool for.

For example I think Excel is a great piece of software, but I know someone who spends all day every day in it doing dull but important spreadsheets. They're what I consider an Excel expert. But they hate Excel because every little minor issue is magnified for them because they spend all day every day in it.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#110

Post by dpark »

toyg wrote: post #72
dingo_bat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Microsoft has a code quality problem at all. On the contrary I'm hard pressed to point at any recent Microsoft software and say it's bug ridden or low quality or badly designed. From iOS to Android to Windows, Microsoft software is excellent.

> badly designed Teams. Whoever thought a Slack clone needed threads, should never work in a UX team ever again.

> Whoever thought a Slack clone needed threads

Slack has threads that are (in my biased opinion[1]) way worse than Teams threading. I used to use Slack and currently use Teams. They each have their pros and cons but Slack threading was terrible.

[1] Microsoft employee

Post reply on HN