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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

#41

Post by Klathmon »

bpyne wrote: post #35
askafriend wrote: post #7

This comment from a former employee on the iOS team provides some more context around the software quality issues. I think this is the more interesting point around which we should have this discussion. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/7x0eif/how_apple_pla...

Based on this comment, it sounds like engineers are more like line workers. "EMs at Apple are powerless to push back. Every engineer's performance is tied to the number of Radars fixed and closed. Every EM's performance is tied to their team's total Radars fixed and closed, so they have an incentive to keep everyone focused on the prize."

Always take comments like that with a grain of salt.

The people who feel they are being ignored or feel they aren't being used to their full potential are going to look for someone or something to blame.

I'm sure there is some amount of "higher number of fixes is better" going on (any larger company has it), but i've seen poor team members read into things like this way too much in order to justify why they aren't doing well in comparison to others.

It may be true that apple weighs stats like that too heavily, but we aren't going to get a good picture of how heavily they weigh them from a few anecdotes.

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

#43

Post by dkonofalski »

cm2187 wrote: post #30
heavymark wrote: post #13

This rumor has been around past few months, hoping it's true. Though while us technies in the minority would rather bug fixes than new features that don't apply for us, the general public would be very upset if iOS12 changes are all under the hood, as they would say Apple has fallen behind and people will insert common statements every years like they are finally considering switching etc. So while I hope the do fix…

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.

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

#44

Post by saagarjha »

freejulian wrote: post #15

They should start by getting rid of Swift and all their proprietary APIs. Xcode is a never ending exercise in frustration. Their storyboard UI builder is even worse. And API's are constantly being deprecated and "best development practices" constantly changing.

> They should start by getting rid of Swift and all their proprietary APIs.

Swift is open source, and parts of Foundation are as well. As for their UI design toolkit, you can't possibly expect them to match that of their competitors, right?

> API's are constantly being deprecated and "best development practices" constantly changing.

Believe it or not, but writing apps in a 32-bit C API (Carbon) may not be the best way to do it. Modernization is crucial to making your platform better.

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

#45

Post by dkonofalski »

randyrand wrote: post #19

If they just added the ability to jump to a given date in text messages, I'd be happy. That's a long overdue simple feature.

That seems a lot less useful than a functional search for messages. I hate the fact that I can only search for 1 instance of my search within a conversation. There's no way to go to a previous or next instance from the instance that the search feature already found. That sucks.

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

#46

Post by untog »

heavymark wrote: post #13

This rumor has been around past few months, hoping it's true. Though while us technies in the minority would rather bug fixes than new features that don't apply for us, the general public would be very upset if iOS12 changes are all under the hood, as they would say Apple has fallen behind and people will insert common statements every years like they are finally considering switching etc. So while I hope the do fix…

> So while I hope the do fix long standing small bugs, I think the average user would lose their mind if they do.

I really don't think they would. If you asked any person on the street what new features came with iOS 11 vs iOS 10 I really don't think they'd be able to tell you. It was a very minor upgrade, and no-one really seemed to care. A number of people I know try to avoid updating because they mostly associate it with a slower phone!

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

#47

Post by dingo_bat »

cm2187 wrote: post #26
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…

ITunes on windows has just become unusable to me. Right now when I open it it gets caught in an inifinite loop of login prompts, even if the credentials are correct. It has never been good but right now it is just utterly broken. And every new update brings new catastrophes to the point that I delay them as much as I can.

iTunes on windows and Apple music on Android made me cancel my subscription and switch to google play music. I was amused that Apple software was so bad across two different systems.

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

#48

Post by dingo_bat »

vxNsr wrote: post #5

>The company will continue to update its software annually, but internally engineers will have more discretion to push back features that aren't as polished to the following year. Let's hope Microsoft follows suit. I would much rather have a product that works the same way every time over one that can do 1000 things half the time. Hopefully this will also give them time to reconsider some of the more ill-conceived UX…

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.

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

#49

Post by thijsvandien »

pjmlp wrote: post #18
IBM wrote: post #11

Steven Sinofsky has a good Twitter thread about this [1]. He's one of the few people actually qualified to talk about managing platforms and operating systems at Apple's scale. [1] https://twitter.com/stevesi/status/963142502604779520

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

For all I know, Sinofsky was responsible for making Windows 7 a major success after the Vista fiasco.

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

#50

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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