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Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

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Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#41

Post by afro88 »

fidotron wrote: post #10

Apple has had a decline in software quality since around the Intel transition. Prior to that OS X had become really very respectable, but during it lots of typical things started happening, like suspend not quite working sometimes, and external display support going to hell. It doesn't seem like they ever recovered. It's hard to admit now, but at one point I even liked XCode, but again, that was before they iTunesd i…

I literally went the opposite. I switched to OSX soon after the Intel transition and loved it, after a decade in Windows land. I honestly just much prefer the look and feel of Apple products and software. I find them more enjoyable to use, consistent, more intelligently thought out and much less hassle.

I also used to hate Xcode 3 but as of Xcode 5 I've really grown to like it.

You're my bizarro opposite. I bet you hate the colour blue ;)

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#43

Post by rbritton »

jdp23 wrote: post #24
rayiner wrote: post #12

My iPhone 6+ has shown more bugs in 2 weeks than the three iPhones I had prior to that (the original, 3G, and 4). Has hard locked at least half a dozen times, particularly when receiving calls.

Similarly, Safari frequently locks up or crashes on my iPad -- behavior that started with 8.0.0 and has continued through 8.0.2. I rarely remember this happening in the past.

I can crash my entire iPad every time I try to start a slideshow while connected via AirPlay in one of my apps (Portfolio). From the technical side of things all it does is load a full resolution image into a CALayer instance and fade it in, which has worked on every previous iOS version but for some reason crashes the entire device on iOS 8.

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#44

Post by stock_toaster »

tolmasky wrote: post #37

I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…

> Couple this with the stark reality that Apple has simply run out of ideas in terms of software

I dunno. Continuity seemed to me to be novel and useful when it was presented. Healthkit is new, and not really "just a refinement".

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#45

Post by virtue3 »

smackfu wrote: post #35

Apple said: "iOS 8 includes over 4,000 new APIs that let you add amazing new features and capabilities to your apps" Maybe not a good thing.

it's like an author advertising word count... weeee...

More APIs == more bugs, more nastiness under the hood and a rats nest of keeping track of the OS.

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#46

Post by mark2456 »

tolmasky wrote: post #37

I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…

>It feels that as soon as version N is out, they are scrambling to make version N+1.

>Couple this with the stark reality that Apple has simply run out of ideas in terms of software.

Either they are out of ideas or they don't have time to implement but you cannot have it both ways.

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#47

Post by georgemcbay »

Yes, but in my experience this is an industry-wide problem not specific to Apple.

I know I'm getting a bit old so there's surely some amount of 'get off my lawn, kids' going on here, but I kind of expect new software to mostly suck these days for many reasons but with the 'webification of everything' (in terms of pervasive use of JavaScript, throwing out all the old UI frameworks and replacing them with web DOMs or web DOM like systems, replacing graphics systems with WebGL/Canvas, etc) being a primary cause.

(awaiting the downvotes...)

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#48

Post by tolmasky »

stock_toaster wrote: post #44
tolmasky wrote: post #37

I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…

> Couple this with the stark reality that Apple has simply run out of ideas in terms of software I dunno. Continuity seemed to me to be novel and useful when it was presented. Healthkit is new, and not really "just a refinement".

Continuity is really interesting since it really highlights just how far we've gotten from the original promise of seamless integration between Apple products. For starters, its taken years to get to this feature (with incredibly confusing pitstops in the middle, such as the existence of a feature called Airdrop on Mac AND iPhone that didn't work between them....).

All in all though, continuity is another disappointment to me. We are still stuck in app-land. Handover is app-to-app. So when I'm listening to a podcast in Safari, I won't be able to handover to Overcast on my phone. I actually have to wait for marco arment to write a desktop podcast player, and worse, I have to use it, to get this basic functionality. Again, an aggressive misunderstanding of what it means to have true continuity: reading the same data on two devices, not using the same app on both. But Apple thinks wallet first, and "App" is their ecosystem's bread and butter, and so this way it will stay.

This is particularly depressing since I remember, 10 years ago, having (what I believe to be) much more impressive interconnectivity between my Mac and my Nokia phone through Saling clicker. When someone called me, my music would pause. I could control my mac with a really cool remote. Instead, we seem to be living in a parody of that world where now if someone calls me 10 devices in my house go off since Apple "connected" them all together to ring simultaneously, its maddening.

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#49

Post by legulere »

dmix wrote: post #7

Apple's OSX design work seems stagnant as well. I find Gnome since version 3.12 (yes Gnome) looks better than Yosemite. I use Yosemite at work every day and find it's a step down from Mavericks. Most of the improvements seem to be to apps I never use (Maps, Safari). The new dark top bar is embarrassingly ugly compared to Gnome dark theme. The icons look childish and half-baked. Gnome's design in minimal, clean, and f…

Yes Gnome is the best thing you can get under Linux, but lots of stuff like the scrolling behaviour and smoothness still isn't on par with what OS X offers.

Re: Is Apple experiencing a problematic decline in software quality?

#50

Post by mattparcher »

derefr wrote: post #38
rayiner wrote: post #12

My iPhone 6+ has shown more bugs in 2 weeks than the three iPhones I had prior to that (the original, 3G, and 4). Has hard locked at least half a dozen times, particularly when receiving calls.

Oh man, the crazy bugs I've seen in iOS 8 on my 5S. Last week I had an alarm go off, unlocked my screen, and it kept going. And going. Disabling the alarm in the Clock app did nothing. Re-locking and re-unlocking the screen did nothing. In the end, I had to just power the device off.

Thank you for the confirmation — I have had the same bug with the alarm sound several times now. What I found is that I could stop it only by opening the Clock app, and selecting a new alarm sound (e.g., by editing an alarm), triggering it to play that sound instead, which I could then easily stop.
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