Apple VP Greg Joswiak Apologizes for iOS 8.0.1 Bug, Points to Software Distribution as Cause

[iBug2]

Apple is using doublespeak to make it look like the problem wasn't with them. And looking at the posts on this forum, it worked.

Apple's software distribution is Apple's software distribution. Looking at these posts I only see one poster trying to mix things up, and failing.

 

[ShadyCreek]

Gosh this all a little bit hard to swallow. Especially when 8.1 still isn't right, and yet no mention of this. Basic safari browsing is so bad in iOS8.

 

[dtich]

Sometimes the excuses Apple come up with convict them even more. How do you distribute Software to millions of people without further testing it first?

This reckless approach developed a new mentality among iOS users, no one wants to update their iDevice first without reading forums and checking reviews, it didn't used to be like that before iOS 7/8.

reckless? yeah... reckless?? that's apple alright. oooh, boy, they're soooo RECKLESS. i've never seen such a reckless company. when will they ever learn?.......


lol. whatever.

 

[Patriot24]

He didn't make excuses. He explained what happened and took responsibility for it.

People are out for blood. Logic doesn't apply.

 

[Krevnik]

I am left to wonder how a distribution error causes iOS 8 to constantly drop connectivity to both headsets, cellular, and wifi, leaving the iPhone ALMOST as functional AS A WALKIE TALKIE.

LOOKS like garbage, WORKS like garbage, IS... someone else's problem? I think not.

This is something I suspected when the glitch came to surface. The OTA updates are diffs, not full firmware. If you produce a bad diff somehow, you get something you didn't expect as a result. In this case, the ability to talk to the wireless chips was crippled.

And so distribution can certainly be an issue here, is Apple's fault, but would be harder to catch in testing. Especially if they got to the point where they simply assumed their distribution system worked as expected. Since they've been using it since iOS 5.0, I'm not surprised they'd lapse here and assume that it'd "just work" 3 years later.

It also explains why people who updated using the ipsw of 8.0.1 weren't affected.

I wouldn't take Joswiak's comments as "It wasn't our fault", but rather "We didn't catch this because it wasn't the firmware itself that was broken."

EDIT: Note that the 1.1 update way back in the day was also a diff, and if you used a baseband SIM unlock that patched the baseband to accept any SIM, the 1.1 diff would knock out your cellular radio like 8.0.1 did, only worse. Apple switched to full ipsws for years because of that one just to avoid bricking jailbroken devices going forward.

 

[nutjob]

According to Joswiak, Apple's goal isn't to sell the most iPhones, but to provide a better experience.

Wait what?

Dear Joswiak it's not aprils fools yet.

October 28 is Apple fools day. Apple was just trying to be funny today, and the succeeded!

 

[Ed217]

It almost sounds like 8.0.1 was intended for iPhone 5S and earlier, and a distribution issue made it available for 6/6+. I believe that the 6/6+ devices were the ones affected. Maybe they originally planned 8.0.1 for earlier devices and 8.0.2 for all.

Either way you add it up, its a dumb error for Apple to make. They should not try to explain it away and just take ownership for the blunder.

 

[Tubamajuba]

"There wasn't a problem with the software, it's just that the software was wrong."

If a contractor gave that excuse, you'd sack them on the spot, but Apple apologists will be tripping all over themselves to say how it's not Apple's fault, even though they're responsible for every step. I'm surprised Apple didn't blame their users, they do usually.

You can't make this stuff up.

The only person tripping over themselves is you. You, posting on this Apple forum, doing your best to make Apple look bad. Why don't you take a second to ask yourself why you're even here? Posting 2010-era comments like "You're downloading it wrong" shows that you're only here to fling mud around. Nobody is saying that iOS 8.0.1 was not Apple's fault. Nobody.

Apple is using doublespeak to make it look like the problem wasn't with them. And looking at the posts on this forum, it worked.

Again, what on earth are you reading? Nobody is blaming anybody but Apple. Will you please stop making stuff up?

Wow, a lot of know-it-alls here in these comments who think they know more than Apple itself. Why do you find it hard to believe that 8.0.1 was fine, and it was the over-the-air update or update scripts that caused the issue? In fact this can easily be verified by looking at the 8.0.1 as distributed via iTunes or the developer portal. Either way, it was Apple's fault, so nobody is passing the blame here, they are just giving us more details about what went wrong, which is awesome if you ask me, because normally they are much less transparent. So don't be such cynical dick-heads.

I completely agree... but do you think anybody that spends time posting on forums about a brand they don't like really cares about facts? They have to spin everything around to make Apple look bad, as if it subconsciously justifies their obnoxious pessimism.

I don't particularly like Samsung. You'll never see me on a Samsung forum for any reason. It would be a huge waste of time for me to poke sticks in the eyes of people that just want to take part in a community where they can discuss a common interest. I wholeheartedly believe in letting people enjoy what they want to enjoy, even when I don't share in their enthusiasm.

I'll never understand why people around here just won't let Apple fans enjoy Apple.

 

[Swift]

Uh-oh... you know what that means.

It means a 24K Gold Watch will sell for a lot of money.

I think Apple might be making the "too many SKUs" mistake.

 

[Mtmspa]

When is the last time you heard an apology from Google or Microsoft?

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Gosh this all a little bit hard to swallow. Especially when 8.1 still isn't right, and yet no mention of this. Basic safari browsing is so bad in iOS8.

8.1 is fine for me. Must be user error.

 

[captain kaos]

BS on the reason for the 8.0.1 mess.

 

[Northgrove]

once again blaming others instead of taking ownership of it.

Last I checked, Apple were fully responsible for the distribution of their iOS updates.

I assume they're just avoiding some tech talk here and what may have happened is that they picked an unstable build for distribution. It's not uncommon for companies of this size to work on numerous branches at once. Could also be that the iPhone 6's got a build that didn't match their hardware. Who knows. It would make sense anyway, since QA should obviously have caught a major bug like this. If the QA had tested another build than that was chosen, that would potentially be catastrophic and explain a lot.

In either case, of course Apple was at fault here and they aren't saying they weren't...

 

[princered]

Removing the electronics capsule from the band, inserting it into the charging fixture, plugging it in, removing it from the charger, figuring which end to insert first into the rubber band, then trying to align the tiny titties in the band to fasten it (UGH!). All this to count my steps and see if I slept overnight? After two weeks of screwing around with it, I tossed it in the garbage.

I have much higher hopes for the Apple Watch. Biggest feature for me is monitoring heart rate during aerobic exercise without having to wear a chest band.

Oh wow.. idk which one you had but all i had to do was take it off and connect the charger.. That sounds horrible.. They just announced three new fitbits two of which will also have heart rate monitoring. Those two won't release until early next year though.. I'm looking forward to the apple watch also! I hope it has some features with fitness that the fitbit app has.

 

[nutjob]

once again blaming others instead of taking ownership of it.

Apple: "You're blaming us wrong."

 

[rsocal]

This is something I suspected when the glitch came to surface. The OTA updates are diffs, not full firmware. If you produce a bad diff somehow, you get something you didn't expect as a result. In this case, the ability to talk to the wireless chips was crippled.

And so distribution can certainly be an issue here, is Apple's fault, but would be harder to catch in testing. Especially if they got to the point where they simply assumed their distribution system worked as expected. Since they've been using it since iOS 5.0, I'm not surprised they'd lapse here and assume that it'd "just work" 3 years later.

It also explains why people who updated using the ipsw of 8.0.1 weren't affected.

I wouldn't take Joswiak's comments as "It wasn't our fault", but rather "We didn't catch this because it wasn't the firmware itself that was broken."

EDIT: Note that the 1.1 update way back in the day was also a diff, and if you used a baseband SIM unlock that patched the baseband to accept any SIM, the 1.1 diff would knock out your cellular radio like 8.0.1 did, only worse. Apple switched to full ipsws for years because of that one just to avoid bricking jailbroken devices going forward.

This is very accurate!

I took it as you did, he didn't say, "it's not our fault"?

I took it as, it wasn't the actual software, it's how we distributed it.

I've had a developers account a few years now, and it was clearly the OTA that had the glitch. I updated to 8.0.1 over ipsws simply because you have to, the first iteration update is not available OTA for developers in beta. Subsequent updates can be done OTA.

I had no problems with 8.0.1, that does not mean their wasn't a problem, clearly there was. I just, never heard Apple deny there was a problem and, as soon as they realized there was, they pulled it and gave a fix for the people that had problems.

Then Apple released 8.0.2 ASAP to fix it. So tell me where Apple was not transparent or where Apple denied the problem, or blamed it on someone else???

 

[Krevnik]

I really can't believe we are talking about 8.0.1.

Did his comment ever say, "it's not our fault"?

I took it as, it wasn't the actual software, it's how we distributed it.

I got a developers account a few years ago and it was clearly the OTA that had the glitch. I updated to 8.0.1 over ipsws simply because you have to, the first iteration update is not available OTA for developers in beta. Subsequent updates can be done OTA, until the

Not sure why I was quoted?

 

[ksuyen]

what do you think it means?

What do you think he thinks it means?

 

[C DM]

Apple is using doublespeak to make it look like the problem wasn't with them. And looking at the posts on this forum, it worked.

No, it seems like he simply provided more details as to where the problem was. In no part of that did that make the issue any smaller or lighter, simply additional information. And he apologized for the issue.

Seems like there is no double-speak, just a bunch of misinterpretations and/or people reading their biases into something that was actually not what they seem to make it out to be.

 

[ksuyen]

Come on guys, the poor guy apologized, and the damaged though done was not that huge, and they fixed it in no time, and all is good. Why beating the dead horse? As someone said, when was the last time Google or Microsoft apologized?

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Apple is using doublespeak to make it look like the problem wasn't with them. And looking at the posts on this forum, it worked.

No, it seems like he simply provided more details as to where the problem was. In no part of that did that make the issue any smaller or lighter, simply additional information. And he apologized for the issue.

Seems like there is no double-speak, just a bunch of misinterpretations and/or people reading their biases into something that was actually not what they seem to make it out to be.

This. C DM is right. nutjob being nuts was just making issue out of non issue.

 

[C DM]

once again blaming others instead of taking ownership of it.

Once again not actually reading and/or understanding what was in the article before posting something on the parts of many.

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It almost sounds like 8.0.1 was intended for iPhone 5S and earlier, and a distribution issue made it available for 6/6+. I believe that the 6/6+ devices were the ones affected. Maybe they originally planned 8.0.1 for earlier devices and 8.0.2 for all.

Either way you add it up, its a dumb error for Apple to make. They should not try to explain it away and just take ownership for the blunder.

Why not provide some more information about it and take ownership and apologize for it? Which is exactly what happened.

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Apple: "You're blaming us wrong."

Some people certainly seem to be.

 

[X-X]

Greg Joswiak...

...the guy who said the iPhone is definatly gonna be a BIG flop because it doesn't do flash and Apple is stupid because they don't support it.


Why did Apple hire this idiot?

 

[Robert.Walter]

Someone needs to clue-in Jos to the fact that even 8.1 has big stability issues on the 6, the ipad 3 and mini 1, and severe issues with near crippling usability on the 4s (for instance safari locking up or when using safari no way to answer incoming calls as the control card is sometimes not displayed.). Lots of heat out of the back during use; fast battery drain; failure of the wireless to switch seamlessly betw 3G and WiFi; still failure of Bluetooth to uniformly properly pair to bluetooth headsets (works for outgoing fails for incoming.)

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Greg Joswiak...

...the guy who said the iPhone is definatly gonna be a BIG flop because it doesn't do flash and Apple is stupid because they don't support it.


Why did Apple hire this idiot?

He was towing the Adobe company line until he jumped ship...

 

[princered]

Well

What do you think he thinks it means?

what do you think I think he thinks it means?

 

[rsocal]

Not sure why I was quoted?

I'm very sorry, I clicked yours by accident please read my edit!!!

 

[snebes]

It means a 24K Gold Watch will sell for a lot of money.

I think Apple might be making the "too many SKUs" mistake.

There are going to be, what, 3 "watch" skus? I think they learned from their mistakes with the 5c. How many different bands are there? So far, there appear to be about a dozen. I assume all of them can be interchangeable between at least the non-gold models. The don't have "too many skus".

The "edition", I can only assume, will only work with a gold band (or the band in included). Can't imagine Apple would want someone putting on one the the rubber bands with it.