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Apple's Software Quality Crisis

eliseomartelli.it

341–350 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#341
post #164
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A side effect of employing tens of thousands of full time people that do product development is that matter how good your product currently is, there is an entire organizational hierarchy that has to justify its existence. The result is that every great product keeps picking up parasitic features and functionality. Intended to add value, but paradoxically removing overall value. There is a fine line between staying a…

Oh, there is a gazillion of bugs and broken fundamentals to justify the existence of those thousands for a long while!

One doesn't get credit at a tech company for fixing a bug, but for introducing a Process that would prevent all such bugs forever. Or at least until the promotion goes through.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#342

As someone forced to use a Windows laptop for work with the new job, I've stopped complaining about my Mac. It's so much worse on the other side of the fence... Working on Windows makes me appreciate the Mac ecosystem so, so, so very much.

I know the feeling. I'm forced to use a Mac laptop for work, and it's really made me appreciate Linux.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#343

Here's my personal canary in the coal mine that something must be fundamentally broken in Apple's software development process: - on a recent macOS version, right click on the desktop, select 'change wallpaper' => the new settings panel opens - click on 'Custom Color' - now hold and drag around the 'color cursor' in the color selection circle for a few seconds - stop dragging and notice how the color cursor continues…

To pile on, though can't repo on demand, sometime in January, Airplay between Mac and AppleTV just started randomly disconnecting.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#344

As someone forced to use a Windows laptop for work with the new job, I've stopped complaining about my Mac. It's so much worse on the other side of the fence... Working on Windows makes me appreciate the Mac ecosystem so, so, so very much.

Compare the median sale price of a Windows laptop vs Mac. The qualify bar should be significantly higher for anything with an Apple logo on it just to justify the price tag.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#345

Here's my personal canary in the coal mine that something must be fundamentally broken in Apple's software development process: - on a recent macOS version, right click on the desktop, select 'change wallpaper' => the new settings panel opens - click on 'Custom Color' - now hold and drag around the 'color cursor' in the color selection circle for a few seconds - stop dragging and notice how the color cursor continues…

Cannot reproduce (15.3.1 on me3max)

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean ok, the old one was already a bit overloaded and unwieldy, so a redesign was probably overdue and Ill give them the benefit of the doubt here but WTF is with the 1-2 second delay when switching between the menus in there? Are they doing web requests upon opening every settings page or what? This is real amateur hour.

They appear to be launching each settings screen as a separate app and retaining it until Settings is quit. How many resources this requires, or how much this contributes to the lag, I don't know, but... Open Activity Monitor, and type in System Settings into the search. Then open the Settings app and press the down arrow key through all of the menus. You'll notice that each one of them appears as their own line item…

That’s not too different than the old app, but instead of .app bundles, the UIs and stuff were bundled in .prefPane bundles.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That may be unlikely. Mark Gurman reported recently for Bloomberg News that “people within Apple’s AI division now believe that a true modernized, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 at best in 2027.”

That sounds prudent. There's no reason for them to continue this embarrassment of cramming the product full of worse-than-useless "AI" features. Wait until you can separate the good from the bad from the ugly and choose to just do it good.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It basically is an Electron app; most of the UI is server-driven. It's just not HTML and js. News, Books, and TV are all similar.

Just curious, why did they decide to use Electron instead of native? After all those are Apple MacOS software.

It's not electron, but it is a WebKit view (HTML based)

So is the App store on all platforms AFAICT.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#349

As someone forced to use a Windows laptop for work with the new job, I've stopped complaining about my Mac. It's so much worse on the other side of the fence... Working on Windows makes me appreciate the Mac ecosystem so, so, so very much.

I just spin up a ubuntu server vm and use it as my dev machine. VScode remote is pretty solid these days.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#350
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

podcast app is the worst, I can never find what I'm looking for

> I can never find what I'm looking for Overcast might be the app for you. No affiliation, I just like it.

I've used Downcast forever. No complaints. No idea how it compares to Overcast.
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