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How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

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

#121

Post by pjmlp »

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…

Thanks for the clarification.

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

#122

Post by closeparen »

cwyers wrote: post #117
closeparen wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds professional to need permission to spend time on something? I typically associate professionalism with the model where you’re accountable to the functionality, impact, quality, and health of your components, with an EM supporting your negotiations around scope and timelines, and letting you budget your own time.

I mean, nothing in the quote suggests that programmers can't submit items to Radar, that they can't lobby for them to be assigned a high priority, etc. Pretty much every software project beyond a certain scale uses an issue tracker of some sort.

If you need to lobby for permission to work on something broadly within the scope of what you're paid to work on, you aren't being treated like a professional.

An issue tracker is a communication tool for use in the context of a largely self-directed activity. The only role at my company where your day-to-day activity is dictated to you by the tickets on your screen is customer support.

On my team, if you're only working the asks handed down from above and not proactively taking initiative to make things better, you're barely pulling your weight.

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

#123

Post by closeparen »

jorblumesea wrote: post #119
throwaway7187 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfect time for the ol' throwaway... I'm a former iOS EPM (not speaking for Apple, obviously, since I don't work there anymore), and although the Reddit commenter got the atmosphere of constant crisis right, he/she is misplacing the blame and misunderstanding the power dynamic. EPMs at Apple essentially have zero power over engineers' workload. They take the list of stuff the engineering managers said they want to g…

I think the craziest thing about this comment is how juxtaposed it is to the original one. How you could have such divergent opinions on org structure or team dynamic is mind blowing.

The fundamental unit of team dynamics is what, maybe 8 engineers? Companies like Apple have thousands.

Even working somewhere, sure, you'll know what the adjacent teams in your org are like, and maybe you'll meet some internal transfers, but the truth is you have no idea what life is like for the thousands you'll never meet. There might be broad strokes that differentiate the company from its peers, but only the vaguest outline is going to be universally or even mostly true.

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

#124

Post by mosselman »

I Just opened the website on my phone and was greeted with some auto playing video. How much of my monthly data that costs? No idea, but it is probably more than I cared for. How much of it did I watch and hear? Nothing seeing as I am on the bus. Not so strange as I am on a _mobile_ phone. I wouldn’t even watch it on desktop let alone now. Bad practice

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

#125

Post by s73v3r_ »

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…

Android does the same thing regarding screen on during calls.

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

#127

Post by staunch »

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.

That's an imprecise version of the history but what does it have to do with modern iPhones?

Many people said GUIs were too inefficient to be worthwhile on early PCs. Then PCs got more powerful and no one says that any longer.

The iPhone 8 is orders of magnitude more powerful than early versions. The world has changed and those old arguments no longer make sense.

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

#128

Post by staunch »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #33
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…

That’s definitely not what made the iPhone unique. It was one benefit, but hardly the only one, or even the main one. You hope that open technologies are the future, but it remains to be seen. Regardless, a rapid shift to PWAs is not at all in Apple’s interest, and I highly doubt they’re going to do that. They want all the best apps, developers, and customers to be concentrated on iOS. That’s how things are now (I’m…

You think Apple needs lock-in to keep customers but it doesn't. That's how Microsoft operates.

Apple should move to PWAs because they're better technology than native apps. Users and developers would prefer PWAs if they were well implemented, which is all Apple needs to know.

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

#129

Post by aetherspawn »

mrkstu wrote: post #8
walterbell wrote: post #3

Please enable per-app VPNs via Apple Configurator, i.e. without an enterprise MDM. This will allow separation of work and personal VPNs. Please allow auto-connect VPN profiles to be associated with a whitelist of SSIDs, so that insecure networks (e.g. coffee shop) will auto-connect to a VPN. Finally, please add a Control Center button to reconnect the default VPN profile.

Agreed on all of those. Additionally make re-connecting an iPad to an iPhone sharing a connection automatic (optionally) if no known wifi networks are available.

For those of us with personal data limits, that could be annoying. I did that once, forgot to disconnect and it used like 2gb (of monthly 8gb) performing sync “over WiFi”. And Apple cares about this problem you can tell because the WiFi off button now only lasts 24hr before automatically turning back on (to avoid data waste).

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

#130

Post by mschuster91 »

danielrhodes wrote: post #120
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.

Outlook for Mac crashes every time I try to create an appointment. I have to use a combination of the Office 365 and the desktop version because they don’t have overlapping features. I am perhaps prone to hyperbole, but it’s amateur hour in Redmond.

I have to use OWA (outlook exchange webapp) for search because MS decided to use Spotlight for search - which I have disabled as it is a massive CPU, battery and RAM hog.
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