Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Pushes Back HomeKit Launch to August or September
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The optimistic way to view this (we shall see if it is the correct way...) is:
Apple are aware that they have some pretty damn serious problems in their network stacks. Whether it's dynamic naming (mDNS), raw WiFi (iOS devices randomly no longer sync with a mac, Macbooks randomly fail when moved from home network to work network and back), SMB (Finder randomly hangs --- and caches stale data) or Bluetooth (Apple keyboard/trackpad randomly disconnect).
This is reaching a crisis point. They have built their empire on "look ma, no wires" and "it just works", but every day you see someone (and people who are serious fans, not haters) exploding with rage at the lack of "just working" of the Apple ecosystem --- reboot every device you own twice a day is NOT an acceptable solution in 2015.
This is going to become beyond problematic into serious "I will sue you and your 200 billion dollars into the ground" territory if HomeKit fails to work properly --- if burglars can enter because a network fault that can be proved to be Apple's fault, or a smoke detector that didn't call the authorities, or whatever. And god knows, these problems WILL occur, and WILL be easy enough to prove given how riddled with bugs is the current networking infrastructure.
So, as I said, the hopeful way to view this is its Apple drawing a line in the sand, saying nothing will be released until it is ready, and it's not ready until the networking for the entire Apple ecosystem, from base station to discoveryd to Finder to WiFi sync can actually run unattended for months on end without weird random failures, undetected errors, and a constant need to reboot.
And if they can get everyone to buy an iPhone and get Apple Watch onto the arm of all of their customers, it should make it easier for the Terminators to track and destroy us.
If they launch on August 29th, you'll know you were right.
... It was announced as a feature of iOS 8... so at this rate it won't actually be here before ios 9 (or maybe 10)...
I clicked the up arrow a dozen times, but the vote only went up by 1. You're very right. Their ecosystem has problems at the root and plankton level, and they'd better get it straightened out. Things are just not working.
We said. I am hoping Apple stops this mad race to push out a new OS every year. Especially OS X.... We really do not need a new Mac OS every year. Take your time and fully bake your software before releasing it to the wild.
And if they can get everyone to buy an iPhone and get Apple Watch onto the arm of all of their customers, it should make it easier for the Terminators to track and destroy us.
If they launch on August 29th, you'll know you were right.
LOL!!! YEAH!!!!!
This stuff is hard to get right, and Apple isn't up to the task. A system like this has to be 100% reliable. Apple can't even get the Remote app to reliably work with the Apple TV. Sometimes the Apple TV chokes and needs to be powered down and rebooted. That's acceptable for a set top box but not when you want to turn the lights on.
If they can't get the simple interaction between an iPhone and an Apple TV on a WiFi network to be bulletproof, I'm not expecting great things for HomeKit.
If they can't get the simple interaction between an iPhone and an Apple TV on a WiFi network to be bulletproof, I'm not expecting great things for HomeKit.
For the last 5 years (at least) I've been hopping from one network to another, on one Apple device or another (Core 2 Duo MBP, i7 MBP, original iPhone, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5s, iPad 2), usually copying my old account from the old device to the new. I don't know what you're talking about. Sure, I've had the occasional hiccup in that time, but nothing like what you describe.
The mid 2011 15" MBP I'm using now has been running for just over 5 days (because I haven't bothered to shut it down) with no problems. I often leave it on longer because I don't like to wait the 20 seconds it takes to reboot and reload my apps. It's been on coffee shop networks, my work network, and my home network. I did need to reboot my cable router today, but you can't blame Apple for that! Even that's a rare event.
Uh.
EVERY time Apple is set to launch a service or product, rumors of delays creep up on the internet. Every. Single. Time.
Sounds a lot like Jim Kramer describing how to manipulate Apple stock prices with rumors:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/13/jon_stewart_exposes_apple_stock_manipulation
I'll wait for WWDC, thank you very much.
EVERY time Apple is set to launch a service or product, rumors of delays creep up on the internet. Every. Single. Time.
Sounds a lot like Jim Kramer describing how to manipulate Apple stock prices with rumors:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/13/jon_stewart_exposes_apple_stock_manipulation
I'll wait for WWDC, thank you very much.
Not that I'm disagreeing but a Time Capsule costs $299 where an Apple TV is $69. If you really want people to buy into the system, the cost is going to be a factor.
Money does not equal skill. You can't wave a magic wand made of billions of dollars and do anything. It still comes down to human skill.
----------
For me, the remote works too well.
My friend owns an Apple TV, and whenever we meet up there and watch something on the Apple TV, using the remote controls all our MacBooks at once. iTunes plays, the volume is unmated on all of them, etc.
Everybody and their brother has a home automation "hub", and I'm sure they are all ready to kowtow and let the big "A" have their hard-earned market shares. Stuff like this makes me question Tim Cook's competence. Does the man have a strategic bone in his body?
Apple fans did not do their company any favors when, throughout the 90s, they kept insisting that Apple did not need fancy technology like virtual memory, pre-emptive multitasking, and multi-core support. Likewise they do the company no favors by insisting that, because their systems (generally very simple limited systems) work fine, everyone else's systems also work fine.
I listed a number of specific problems:
- automatic naming and discovery is completely broken
- WiFi sync is frequently broken
- Finder frequently hangs when engaged in file sharing, and file sharing caches material inappropriately (ie there is either no cache invalidation protocol, or the protocol is broken)
- BT peripherals (eg Apple keyboard and trackpad) randomly disconnect and then (sometimes) reconnect.
- WiFi frequently "breaks" on macbooks that constantly move between different networks
I am not making these up. HOWEVER you may not see them if you do not engage in this behavior.
You will not see the naming problems if you do not have an Airport Base Station (I think. The problems seem ultimately to result from the Base Station's attempt to proxy for sleeping Apple devices).
You may not see the WiFi sync stuff if you don't have multiple iOS devices. (Or perhaps it's again dependent on having an Airport Base Station)
You will not see Finder hanging on file sharing transfers if you don't have multiple macs at home, or don't engage much in transferring material between them.
etc etc
I cannot speak to the last problem directly (ie I don't know exactly what "WiFi breaks" means insofar as I can't say exactly what breaks) because I don't engage in this particular pattern. But I DO know that it is real because I see it happen with my girlfriend's MacBook Air all the time. Probably every three days or so she'll get home and her internet connection will be slow to non-existent, so she'll just reboot.
As just one example of the fact that these are real issues, and that serious engineers have investigated them and found Apple wanting, I give you:
http://furbo.org/2015/05/05/discoveryd-cluster****/
(BTW I was a senior engineer at Apple for 10 years through the 90s to early 2000s, so I'd like to think I'm neither reflexively against the company, or incapable of figuring out small problems that are NOT the fault of broken Apple software.)
Nonsense. None of this was about third parties not being ready with HomeKit-compatible products; it is about Apple not anticipating the scope of a problem entirely within the scope of its own product. It should be clear to everyone at this point that Apple has major problems on the software side of its house.
HomeKit is one of those things that needs to work right out of the door. Lightbulbs are one thing but security and safety-oriented devices such as garage and door locks and smoke detectors need to work consistently.
yes -- how dare they not release a product that isn't ready!
man, some of you people...----------
works fine, here. is your phone broken?
Anything Apple makes can not become Skynet due to the closed minded operation/coding by Apple.
Skynet needs to be free to think for itself.
May be Samsung and Google has a good foundation for Skynet