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Apple's Software Quality Crisis

eliseomartelli.it

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Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#631

Post by jbverschoor »

sohrob wrote: post #224

I really hope someone high up the chain at Apple reads this post because it's only the tip of the iceberg in describing the myriad of things wrong with Apple's software experience lately. For a company so flush with cash and resources, it boggles the mind how they could let things get this bad.

Feedback doesn’t work so I stopped reporting them. Bugs take about a decade to be fixed and they’re introducing them in a faster pace.

It sends as if nobody at Apple is either a power user or an “abuser” (like many old people who have 50+ email windows open on their iPad because the ui is not very good for them anymore)

I’d love to work at some for a year and only fix bugs and performance issues. It’s very rewarding work imo.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#632

Post by mrWiz »

jorvi wrote: post #460
trogdor wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago, I filed a Feedback Assistant bug report regarding an issue I was experiencing in Final Cut. In response, I was contacted by Final Cut developers who worked with me to replicate the issue and then shipped a fix. Just one anecdote, but some reports definitely get looked at.

I had the same happen for a bug that would toggle off "Do not create a new Apple Ad Identifier Code" (or whatever it was called). It meant that even if you explicitly opted out of Apple's Ad tracking, you would get opted back in with almost every iOS update. I assume this would have landed them in hot waters with EU privacy regulators, so they were very keen to replicate the bug and then have me check if it no longer…

Do you know how to reliably replicate the iOS screenshot bug? It occasionally happens to me but I haven't been able to decipher a pattern.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#633

Post by jbverschoor »

abhaynayar wrote: post #569

Yea, I used to use Apple Notes for everything until their recent big update where it became very jittery. (even on an iPhone). The web-version of Apple Notes always sucked. I am using Notion now, and even though that is kinda janky on an iPhone, it is still better than Apple's own notes, and of course, their web-version is much much much better than Apple's.

Try noteplan

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#634

Post by instagraham »

>But if software quality continues to decline, this value proposition becomes increasingly difficult to defend.

If software quality keeps declining, this proposition isn’t just difficult to defend — it’s indefensible and an insult to consumers. Apple has lagged behind Android for a decade, and its software now fails at tasks Symbian OS handled effortlessly.

I've dealt with clunky software all my life, but Apple is the first ecosystem where things are outright unfixable. "It just works" — until it doesn’t, and then you’re out of options.

A few examples of Apple's atrocious software design:

- Rather than universal "open with" controls, iOS forces you to open files with a random selection of apps. Want to edit an image in Snapseed? Too bad, Photos won’t let you. But it will let you use it to "find products on Amazon". I get that this is up to the app developers - but a simpler solution would've been global "Open With" functionality.

- Call recordings over 20 minutes freeze the Notes app, making them impossible to move. No fix for months.

- Changing a wallpaper takes nearly six steps.

- The Home Screen follows non-Euclidean geometry whenever you try to move an icon

- The Settings app search is useless: searching "Camera" shows privacy settings, not the Camera app settings (which aren’t in the Camera app, because of course they aren’t).

- Probably a dozen other niggles you just learn to "live with" on a $1000 phone (and which people with a $200 Android don't even have to think about)

No company has as much contempt for its users as Apple, both from their design philosophy of keeping as much control away from users as possible, and the pricing strategy that pretends like this shitfest is a premium experience. But the users are also to blame - they create the cult that enables this.

On most forums, complaining about Apple just gets you a "why did you buy it then lol" response from users - and absolute silence from Apple.

In a better world, this company would be boycotted by consumers. This forces it to reset and try harder.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#635

Post by epaga »

Here's what I find most puzzling about these things: Apple does amazingly helpful WWDC sessions on how to profile and improve your code, how to prioritize performance...but when it comes to their own apps, it's like they forget everything they know?

Messages on Mac is one of my biggest annoyances. How do you make one of the most used messaging tools and have the keyboard lag so badly while typing - sometimes even skipping typed letters? It's a complete mystery to me.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#636

Post by KempyKolibri »

kazinator wrote: post #417

My work Macbook sometimes drops random characters from the lock screen password input. You hit a key and a black dot does not appear; the password is consequently rejected. It's not exactly this: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/458099/macos-lock-... The system is not lagging at all. It's not this: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/08/29/mac-wont-accept-correct-l... It's a bit like this, but only for the system p…

Oh my god, I just thought my typing accuracy mysteriously dropped off at the Lock Screen.

My password is long enough that it’s not clear whether a new dot has appeared, but I get frequent rejections.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#637

Post by punnerud »

I have been reporting several bugs through the Feedback app you get access to when you are part of the beta program. There is to many menus and no search option to find the right “department” to report to, so I have almost stopped giving feedback on bugs.

I guess the fixes have to start there first.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#638

Post by arkh »

legitster wrote: post #204
packetlost wrote: post #12

I think it has more to do with a gradual industry-wide race to the bottom in terms of quality. Reliability, attention to detail, correctness occupy a tiny fraction of the "budget" compared to security, slopping out features, and beating competition to market. I suspect that startup culture being the crucible where a large portion of engineers learned their chops and the massive amount of new blood in the industry who…

> a gradual industry-wide race to the bottom in terms of quality I'm going to disagree. This is a false nostalgia. 15 years ago the market for consumer laptops that were not MacBooks straight up sucked. If you walk into a Best Buy today, almost any laptop you buy is going to blow any laptop from back then out of the water in terms of build quality. And credit where it's due, in no small part it came from playing catc…

> build quality

Tell that to Dell and their shit trackpads and prone to death battery charging circuits. And the joy of soldered RAM so you cannot upgrade can't be overstated enough.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#639

Post by echoangle »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #630
echoangle wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is true, but still smacks of victim-blaming.

Oh, I am not saying that apple should be able to brick your device if you log in with a throwaway account, I was just wondering why one would bother doing it.

Re: Apple's Software Quality Crisis

#640

Post by _w1tm »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #630
echoangle wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is true, but still smacks of victim-blaming.

Maybe it does but the poster was still engaging in behavior similar to someone who has stolen the phone. That said, Apple should add some controls that prevent legitimate users from triggering security checks by accident.
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