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Apple's Software Quality Crisis

eliseomartelli.it

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Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#231

Post by Someone1234 »

ohgr wrote: post #114
Someone1234 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPad 10th Gen doesn't even support the Apple Pencil Pro. Are they using any Apple Pencils at all?

Correct. Which is the point. The user complains that the problem is a software crisis when the software is fine on completely different hardware. That would suggest by elimination it's not a software problem, or is a software problem tied to particular hardware. (incidentally they mostly use USB-C apple pencils and some clone ones when they lose them and the parents don't want to buy a genuine replacement one)

It is a software problem when a pen is used; you aren't using a pen so it doesn't impact you.

I don't understand why you thought it was constructive to point out the difference between a "software problem Vs. a software problem only when the pen is used." The article was very clear on that point already, it isn't adding to the conversation.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#232

Post by danans »

inetknght wrote: post #175
danans wrote: post #95

> Feature prioritization over optimization: Engineering resources appear focused on new capabilities rather than fixing existing performance problems; People are keeping their phones longer they used to, which is obviously a problem for device makers. Therefore they must lean on new feature development too sell new phones. "Increased reliability and stability" is not a good consumer sales pitch

> "Increased reliability and stability" is not a good consumer sales pitch It is when Apple is claimed to be a quality boutique shop.

> claimed to be a quality boutique shop

Have they made that claim anytime in the last few decades?

Perhaps that's the vibe behind their marketing, but you'd have to be blind to their size, sales, and market value to believe it.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#233

Post by ttepasse »

hbn wrote: post #160
garyrob wrote: post #117

In the current MacOS release, if I type Time Machine in the System Settings search box, it shows what I was looking for: "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar". But if I click that, it shows the switch for the Keyboard Brightness menu bar control, and doesn't show anything about the Time Machine menu bar item!

Apple cannot figure out how to do a search in settings for the life of them. It's been broken on iOS basically since it was added. Do any googling about iOS settings search and you'll only find people talk about it to rant about how bad it is.

The absurd thing is that Apple pioneered searching settings in early MacOS. You type your query and a spotlight effect shined on the corresponding Preferences Panel for the selected candidate of your search results. Hence why Spotlight was called that originally.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#234

Post by sunshowers »

catlover76 wrote: post #108
diggan wrote: post #4

I drank the "creating products that prioritize user experience over feature checklists" kool-aid back in ~2013 sometime, and got myself a first Macbook when I worked at a software startup the first time. While it certainly gave a more "premium" impression in terms of hardware/UI/UX for the first few years, around 2016 I had to move back to Linux because the software experience and the user experience is just too poor…

> around 2016 I had to move back to Linux because the software experience and the user experience is just too poor, outright buggy and changes all the time. Honestly, I have difficulty believing someone could find these kinds of issues to be less of a problem on Linux than on Mac

I've been using KDE for around a year. It has a few bugs but overall it's much better in my experience than either Windows or macOS. KDE 6.2 and above have been really marvelous — I actually donated $100 (I think) to them because I was really happy with the work they were doing.

KDE actually has working focus stealing prevention!

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#235

Post by sunshowers »

skinkestek wrote: post #193

Did anyone mention that on AppleTV I now get ads on my home screen? ---- I am also using a Macbook for work and in addition to the fantastic battery life and the fact that it mostly "just works" I feel parts of the experience has significantly improved since last I used Mac, for example I can now remap ctrl and fn! On the other hand I still miss the consistency and ease of use of Windows XP, Gnome 2 or KDE Plasma. Th…

When my Shield started showing ads I installed another launcher—wish Apple were nearly as open.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#236

Post by mike_hearn »

capl wrote: post #34
diggan wrote: post #4

I drank the "creating products that prioritize user experience over feature checklists" kool-aid back in ~2013 sometime, and got myself a first Macbook when I worked at a software startup the first time. While it certainly gave a more "premium" impression in terms of hardware/UI/UX for the first few years, around 2016 I had to move back to Linux because the software experience and the user experience is just too poor…

Nothing wrong with the "creating products that prioritize user experience over features" - or more accurately what Jobs said: create products that start with the user experience and the user’s needs first and then work your way to the tech (as far as I remember) The opposite approach is starting with some tech and then trying to find a use for it, e.g. folding phones, second 1/2 screen on laptop, etc, instead of tryi…

Folding phones are great though. I love mine, absolutely worth the purchase price. It's like a portable mini tablet and great for reading.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#237

Post by frizlab »

schmidtleonard wrote: post #176
BobAliceInATree wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the most recent episode of ATP podcast, an anonymous person wrote in to say that when they worked at Apple until ~2013, there was effectively no QA team on macOS. Granted that was over a decade ago, and "no QA team" doesn't mean no testing, but given the numerous bugs in macOS today, and that they almost never get fixed, I'm not surprised. (FWIW, I do not experience this bug you mentioned)

If you look at the macOS feature history, it's pretty clear that the bulk of the team got shifted to iPhone in 2007 and never really recovered. The widely acknowledged Snow Leopard high water mark happened shortly after. To be fair, Apple can still pull off the occasional amazing feat of vertical integration -- HDR, APFS, keeping audio latency under control despite the relentless assault of apathy from all directions…

Snow leopard is fondly remembered but was buggy has hell when initially released. It got good, with time…

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#238

Post by jeroenhd »

markus_zhang wrote: post #66

I just don't understand why Apple UI designers hate scroll bars with such a passion. It's probably just me, but I feel that many apps on Apple follows the same pattern. For example checkout and compare the scroll bar experience on ChatGPT website (Chrome) between a Mac-book and a Windows laptop.

Apple's scroll bar allergy leads to some quite funny (to me, anyway) problems with major websites. Some companies seem to have their entire web dev + QA + management staff on Macbooks, because on any other desktop platform their websites are COVERED in useless scrollbars that scroll maybe one or two pixels. I've even seen scrollbars cover up half part of a company's logo.

All of that money spent on hyper expensive laptops, and people still end up with terribly ugly websites!

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#239

Post by jeroenhd »

lostlogin wrote: post #101
tempodox wrote: post #19

> For years, many of us have willingly paid the "Apple tax", the premium price for Apple products justified by superior user experience, design, and ecosystem integration. But if software quality continues to decline, this value proposition becomes increasingly difficult to defend. Just today I was thinking how the best hardware gets crippled by software that has become as shitty as Microsoft's. By now it has become…

> as shitty as Microsoft's. If I ever feel down on the Mac, I can go to a PC and try make a pdf or view one. Clunky AF. Mac software might be at a low-point, but it hasn’t burnt down yet.

I don't really get this criticism. If I want to make a PDF, I open up Word and save as PDF. To open it, I double click the file.

You can save anything you can print as a PDF since what, Windows 7? And the OS comes with a PDF reader since what, Windows 8?

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#240

Post by rafram »

flohofwoe wrote: post #143
drdo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this "Custom Color"? I clicked the "+" icon to open the color picker and did as described and I cannot reproduce this. Sequoia 15.3.1 (24D70)

Interesting, yeah. It doesn't happen when adding a new color to the "Colours" row at the bottom even though this happens with the same color selection UI widget. I see this Custom Colour thingie at the top-right corner of the Wallpaper section, above a "Show on all Spaces" checkbox and left of a fairly big representation of the current desktop background. After a bit of tinkering: this Custom Colour element is replac…

This is an incredibly tiny bug in a component that dates back to NeXT [1], but you should use Feedback Assistant and report to Apple.

[1]: http://euclid.psych.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/colorpick.html

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