Apple Apologizes About FaceTime Bug, Software Update With Fix Delayed Until Next Week

[citysnaps]

Stop apologising and do some basic freaking testing and QA before rolling out (delayed) promised features. Every week there's a different bug, "gate" or whatnot.

Seriously? Maybe cut back on the drama and try to understand all of the internal, beta, and public testing that was performed without the bug surfacing.

A serious bug was reported and dealt with. In accordance with Apple's procedures.

Not understanding the above causes your post to appear juvenile.

 

[apolloa]

Not good enough Apple, not by a long long long long long long way...

People are getting VERY sick and tired of all these endless ‘bugs’, they have been worst then ever over the last few years.

No excuse, the blame MUST lie squarely at the feet of Cook and the entire board. It is THERE jobs to run the company and they are utterly drastically failing in the software quality department.

Software Apple ALONE makes, software designed to EXCLUSIVELY run in spples devices it’s solely designed.

Increasing prices exponentially, making billions and billions and billions in profits every quarter, using loopholes and tax hauvens to avoid paying your taxes correctly, it’s disgusting, but then to consistently provide shocking bugs that you have no excuse for does push the limits.

No doubt it’ll cost a few sales, and hopefully share price as that seems to be ALL the board understands and cares about these days..

And it’s about God damn time people on here stopped making endless excuses for Apple and its bugs..

:rant over:

 

[ryanwarsaw]

Yes, like adding poop emoji heads and crappy overlays on 32 people. Priorities.

Completely agree. It isn't as if these poop emojis are a step into AR. I bet Apple just rests on their laurels and make no further moves into the AR field. Poop emojis are the final product in this area of heavy growth.

 

[Scooz]

Off-topic: From a technical point of view I wonder how observer-oriented coding patterns and CallKit integration might have helped that bug to build up, btw.

Microsoft had huge problems with possible exploits ever since they included comfortable programming interfaces.

It’s just too tempting to prefer comfortable feature-resulting coding over added security checks and tight state mangement.

Just compare Forstall’s face expressions
to Federighi’s... Though I don’t know
if that alone actually helped.

 

[citysnaps]

delayed till when next week?

You'd rather Apple release an update that might still have issues?

 

[apolloa]

Sorry we were caught.

Again......

 

[jarman92]

Sure. Now that you are forced to acknowledge and correct your mistake, you're sorry.

Why don't you listen to your customers and developers when they warn you deep in the beta cycle about bugs and problems?

Why does it take public humiliation and ridicule to get you to fix your sh*t, Apple?

Probably because they have hundreds of millions of users and likely BILLIONS of bug reports, the vast majority of which are stupid and/or duplicates and/or wrong. No company can possibly check every single report from any random user instantly. Can people start using their heads here?
[doublepost=1549035844][/doublepost]

Am I the only person in the world who thinks the process to even get to this bug is asinine and outside of the normal use case of the average person? In what scenario does one find themselves thinking "oh, the other party isn't answering, maybe I should just FaceTime myself?"

Yes, it's a problem that something like this could be exploited to spy on someone, but without the publicity how many people would have ever tried this in their lifetime, let alone the week it was a problem?

I thought so too, but then I read somewhere that you if you added two people—A and B—to a call, then A could hear B (or vice versa) while the call was ringing. Not sure if that was accurate though.

 

[1369281]

Apple did everything right in this situation, in my opinion.

 

[jarman92]

Not a great look, tbh. But at least this strongly suggests that Apple didn't know about the bug previously and that they weren't trying to hide it. Not that I thought that was the case anyway.

 

[stevie grant]

Meanwhile, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc are boldly and obviously stealing EVERYTHING from you and nobody bats an eye.

Google and Facebook invade your privacy every day in more insidious ways than you can imagine but THIS is what gets people up in arms? Give me a break.

I don't remember the leaders of those companies getting on a soap box and proclaiming to be all about security and privacy. Perhaps you could provide a link, or maybe just not make ignorant comments?

 

[triptolemus]

Why don't you listen to your customers and developers when they warn you deep in the beta cycle about bugs and problems?

Is there evidence to support the assertion that Apple knew about this bug and did nothing about it?

Or are you just generalizing?

 

[Shanghaichica]

I think the timescale for the fix is reasonable. A lot better than you would get from other companies.

 

[citysnaps]

Probably because they have hundreds of millions of users and likely BILLIONS of bug reports, the vast majority of which are stupid and/or duplicates and/or wrong. No company can possibly check every single report from any random user instantly. Can people start using their heads here?

Sadly, that will never happen. Engaging in over-the-top dramatic juvenile antics is the only way some can get attention, providing a tiny blip of power that is otherwise lacking in their lives.

 

[recoil80]

I'd imagine that everybody in Apple are breathing down the neck of that lone single poor engineer trying to resolve the bug.

I'm confident that specific bug has already been fixed, probably the very day it was discovered but before releasing an update they want to make sure they don't have similar bugs in FaceTime triggered by some other "random" action.
That's why I'm fine with them waiting next week to release the update. The bug is no longer exploitable and it affects only group FaceTime so they better take the time to release something really stable.

 

[cmaier]

I can't fault Apple unless we get informed of the number of bug reports received weekly. I am certain there is a lot of noise, as in a lot of non-bug reports, complaints and other nonsense to filter through.

iOS and all of the software that runs on it is beyond complex, in fact more complex than we could ever imagine. Teams of testers could work 24x7 and they won't catch every bug. This seems like it would have been easy to catch, but that is looking backward. QC at large companies is rigorous, but stuff still gets through. When software went from local computer only to being networked the complexity increased as did the risk, but nothing like the move to computers (phones) connected to the Internet 24x7. The risk went from near zero (basically viruses only) to severe since the devices can be attacked in real time 24x7 with severe consequences then flaws are found.

This was a non-issue that was hardly serious on any level. Had it gone on for months then maybe. What Google and FaceBook do is much more sinister.

The mother of the boy who turned this in said she was worried about the government since it uses iPhones. She has nothing to worry about as the government is never running a new version of any software product on day 1 or even day 100 and in many cases day 300 (unless there are serious flaws). They are slow to move as they have their own vetting and roll out system. Same for any large company for company issued phones.

It’s apples job to create a bug reporting system that enables them to understand when a real serious bug is out there. The fact that they make average citizens use radar is absolutely apples own fault.

 

[Scooz]

Seriously? Maybe cut back on the drama and try to understand all of the internal, beta, and public testing that was performed without the bug surfacing.

A serious bug was reported and dealt with. In accordance with Apple's procedures.

Not understanding the above causes your post to appear juvenile.

Throwing “drama” and “juvenile” doesn’t seem to be the right way to have a constructive conversation

 

[bayelrey80]

They did, Group Facetime was released in developed and public weeks before official release. Either everybody missed it or some other update "broke" Group Facetime along the way
[doublepost=1549036723][/doublepost]

It’s apples job to create a bug reporting system that enables them to understand when a real serious bug is out there. The fact that they make average citizens use radar is absolutely apples own fault.

They DO have a big reporting system and they didn't subject average citizens to anything. The feature was released on developer and public beta WEEKS before official release and TWO more updates were issued after Group Facetime was released. NOBODY caught the bug unless something else broke Group Facetime after the fact

 

[macintoshmac]

Am I the only person in the world who thinks the process to even get to this bug is asinine and outside of the normal use case of the average person? In what scenario does one find themselves thinking "oh, the other party isn't answering, maybe I should just FaceTime myself?"

Yes, it's a problem that something like this could be exploited to spy on someone, but without the publicity how many people would have ever tried this in their lifetime, let alone the week it was a problem?

Which is why I feel the lawsuits coming are just soulless money-grabs.

 

[cmaier]

They did, Group Facetime was released in developed and public weeks before official release. Either everybody missed it or some other update "broke" Group Facetime along the way
[doublepost=1549036723][/doublepost]
They DO have a big reporting system and they didn't subject average citizens to anything. The feature was released on developer and public beta WEEKS before official release and TWO more updates were issued after Group Facetime was released. NOBODY caught the bug unless something else broke Group Facetime after the fact

The people who found the bug weren’t developers. They told apple about the bug and apple told them to go file a radar.

What are you even talking about?

 

[bayelrey80]

I don't remember the leaders of those companies getting on a soap box and proclaiming to be all about security and privacy. Perhaps you could provide a link, or maybe just not make ignorant comments?

That wasn't his claim. While Apple had a feature that was broken, Google and especially Facebook, are far more insidious with how they run certain aspects of their businesses. And we aren't talking about just privacy. You may not like Apple but Facebook has proven to NOT be trusted and Google has just recently started to clean up its act now that its foot has been held to the fire.

 

[69Mustang]

Meanwhile, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc are boldly and obviously stealing EVERYTHING from you and nobody bats an eye.

Both these quotes are essentially saying...

Google and Facebook invade your privacy every day in more insidious ways than you can imagine but THIS is what gets people up in arms? Give me a break.

OMG! OMG! Somebody else is doing something else so look somewhere else instead of at the thing we're discussing... maybe they'll talk about the other thing and not this.
We have several threads where people are rightfully up in arms about Google and Facebook. But trying to create outrage against Google and Facebook in a thread about Apple's issue smacks of desperation and deflection. Look over there everybody! See the other thing, not this one.

Why I have no idea. Apple had an issue. Acknowledged the issue. Is in the process of fixing the issue for the public. Thanked those responsible for bringing it to their attention and apologized for everyone for the inconvenience. Committed to improving their process for issues like this. That's what they should have done. That's what they did. No one needs to look elsewhere.

 

[fatalpuls3]

Stop apologising and do some basic freaking testing and QA before rolling out (delayed) promised features. Every week there's a different bug, "gate" or whatnot.

I am a QA Engineer within the POS and mobile software field. The statement you make is based on a process in which it appears you do not understand, sorry you made a comment that is not backed by any fact. Also the other comments about this recreate, it is way out of the normal use case and could not have been recreated during ad-hoc testing. Its all dependent on the tester. It also doesn't matter that a young kid found it or not. These issues are why I got into the field of Software QA however that still doesn't mean I would have caught this bug. Again this would have been done in more exploratory testing and dependent if the person thought to their self to add their own self into the group facetime call. I applaud apple at their recourse to rectify the situation while a fix was being worked on. This should not lower anyones trust in their security practices.

To the comment of "meanwhile google, facebook, etc are selling and handing out data" exactly. thank you sir

 

[bayelrey80]

Not good enough Apple, not by a long long long long long long way...

People are getting VERY sick and tired of all these endless ‘bugs’, they have been worst then ever over the last few years.

No excuse, the blame MUST lie squarely at the feet of Cook and the entire board. It is THERE jobs to run the company and they are utterly drastically failing in the software quality department.

Software Apple ALONE makes, software designed to EXCLUSIVELY run in spples devices it’s solely designed.

Increasing prices exponentially, making billions and billions and billions in profits every quarter, using loopholes and tax hauvens to avoid paying your taxes correctly, it’s disgusting, but then to consistently provide shocking bugs that you have no excuse for does push the limits.

No doubt it’ll cost a few sales, and hopefully share price as that seems to be ALL the board understands and cares about these days..

And it’s about God damn time people on here stopped making endless excuses for Apple and its bugs..

:rant over:

OK awesome ... FYI, EVERY TECH COMPANY HAS BUGS AND SOME MORE SERIOUS THAN OTHERS. Apple makes their own software and supports billions of devices in the wild. They have an extensive beta program that AT LEAST HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people are a part of. The bug slipped through the cracks so they fixed it. We aren't talking about Google+ or Facebook which leaked tens of millions of people's data, election tampering, how about Google releasing a $800-1000 phone that couldn't save photos, batteries overheated, memory issues, bad audio quality and horrid voice call quality. But you know, it's GOOGLE!! How could they ever have a social media platform that leaked used data or release buggy products???

Bugs are a part of the game sir. It's how the company responds when a bug surfaces is what matters the most. We all don't want the issues, but overall, Apple has addressed it swiftly and making sure it's fixed the right way. Appreciate that

 

[otternonsense]

Completely agree. It isn't as if these poop emojis are a step into AR. I bet Apple just rests on their laurels and make no further moves into the AR field. Poop emojis are the final product in this area of heavy growth.

Sure, they're making great moves, like e.g. four adults stacking virtual legos on their iPads while standing in front of an empty table or an arrogant twirp dropping virtual furniture in front of a monument before asking to herself "what's a computer".

Kidding aside, no, clearly poop Animoji's are not the endgame of AR, but getting the basics right before adding gimmicks might be a good idea.

 

[bayelrey80]

The people who found the bug weren’t developers. They told apple about the bug and apple told them to go file a radar.

What are you even talking about?

Sorry, had an issue on the site. Let me clarify: Group Facetime was released on developer AND public beta WEEKS before its release. Since then, 2 more iOS updates were released. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people tested the feature and only RECENTLY did it surface. Is that better?