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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

#92

Please enable per-app VPNs via Apple Configurator, i.e. without an enterprise MDM. This will allow separation of work and personal VPNs. Please allow auto-connect VPN profiles to be associated with a whitelist of SSIDs, so that insecure networks (e.g. coffee shop) will auto-connect to a VPN. Finally, please add a Control Center button to reconnect the default VPN profile.

It's not perfect, but I think that's what network location is meant to be used for. Check out: How to use network locations on your Mac [0].

I wish you could trigger more preferences automatically based on location or other factors. For example: I only want to enable certain sharing features when I'm at home.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202480

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

#93
post #67

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...

Breaking: Engineer Thinks PM is a Bozo. Film at 11. It's not really context. The real problem here is the premise that "Apple has software quality issues" is taken as a given, without support. Sinofsky makes the point that Apple is operating a such a huge, unfathomable scale and depth -- and this is coming from one of Microsoft's top guys in its heyday -- that even rare bugs that affect 0.01% of users translate into…

If you're not receiving criticism, you don't matter.

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

#94
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a slightly different perspective (I worked on iOS 7 - 11). One of the things about Apple that's different to many of the other tech conglomerates is that engineering teams are given huge freedom to work the way they want (for better and for worse). Because engineering is so fragmented you should always take what one person says about the process with a pinch of salt. So that means there are hundreds of source…

plain emailed diffs? this isn't LKML

There have existed teams at every company I have ever worked for who argue that this is the Very Best Way (tm) to develop code. It allows for the True Gatekeepers to keep their hold over the perceived software quality and quickly routs any sort of outside interest from modifying the project in any way the True Gatekeepers don't desire. In entirely broken organizations this is an effective way to allow 2-3 good developers to produce software in spite of the culture. In any organization beyond entirely broken, this prohibits a team from scaling beyond 2-3 key core members and tends to allow that small group to become the BOFH, maintaining a reign of terror over all non-blessed developers, regardless of seniority or title, who dare contribute to the product. In some senses this is the Linus "benevolent dictatorship," but in most, it's a despotic system that collapses as soon as one of the core contributors moves on or retires.

In my experience most attempts to move these sorts of teams towards real revision control and development practice lead to an extinction event in which they practice every form of hazing possible to maintain control, requiring careful management. Think extreme code-format nitpicking (combined with a lack of automated tooling or a styleguide that would let "others" get it right), followed by appeals to whichever authority maintained their team, outright hostility, and eventually ultimatum or holding the code hostage.

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

#95

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…

I don't encounter many bugs, but I'm considering getting android because Apple's feature/UX choices are beyond insane today. There are two features they're missing, that I feel should have been one of the first few added.

1. You can't view a list of chapters in iTunes, like in Audiobooks from say, Audible. Awful. I mean, I hate to be unkind, but are they seriously this inept to not include a chapter list that you can view and jump to? 2. You can't keep the screen on while on a call, like say a conference call, where you might want to remain muted until you want to speak. Awful x100,000,000.

My next phone I'll take a long look at Android.

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

#96
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> badly designed Teams. Whoever thought a Slack clone needed threads, should never work in a UX team ever again.

Not being searchable is my biggest complaint. Just quicker to ask again sometimes.

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

#97

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...

This sounds to me so close to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4dCJJFuMsE (Steve Jobs on process vs content)

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

#98
post #74
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all the issues were fixed in the last update Eh, no. I have playlists I made years ago. I click on them, crash. Probably some of the items are not available in Music, as they were from my personal iTunes library, but do I care? Nope. It just ensures I will never pay for this sub-standard service.

To be honest, I'm not sure why you think your experience is the truth out there. I have found that when it comes to Apple hardware/software, the experience can differ greatly from a person to another by cheer luck. For example, I had no wifi issues with my MBP Late 2014. However, I remember lots of people raged about my particular edition's Wifi. It just happened that my particular laptop was fine while a significant…

Are you calling me a lier? That’s not very nice of you.

I have two different iPhones (6s and 7) and an iPad Pro, all of them behaving in the same identical way with respect to these playlists, which used to be fine in pre-Music iTunes. I don’t care if I’m the only person in the world experiencing this bug, but I can assure you that I do see it consistently. Being an extremely light user of the app, I expect there will be lots and lots of heavier users out there with much worse tales to tell.

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

#99
post #67

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...

Breaking: Engineer Thinks PM is a Bozo. Film at 11. It's not really context. The real problem here is the premise that "Apple has software quality issues" is taken as a given, without support. Sinofsky makes the point that Apple is operating a such a huge, unfathomable scale and depth -- and this is coming from one of Microsoft's top guys in its heyday -- that even rare bugs that affect 0.01% of users translate into…

It funny, while rare bugs are part of the problem, fundamental design is a problem that confronts me much more. The epidemic spread of animations that reduce functionality and responsiveness are pretty unforgivable. This is something that affects all users that try to interact with their phones, and I'm getting pretty sick of modal switches between "accepts touch input" and "doesn't accept input" when there are no visual indicators of the modality of the current moment. Oh how I long for the old iPhone 4 and it's greater responsiveness and more fluid UX.

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

#100

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.

Honestly, this sounds like the kind of niche feature that leads to bloatware. I can’t imagine hardly anyone would use this often, and really hope they don’t add it.

This would not be necessary if search weren’t awful, but as is they need to do one or the other. The inability to look for multiple instances of a word in a single conversation is insane.
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