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

[69Mustang]

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

As a QA engineer, you thanking someone for deflection makes me give you the side eye. When you have an issue, is your response to start pointing at unrelated issues by another person, in another department, or outside company? FB and Google issues are separate and dealt with separately. Trying to shade them here is not a good look. Thanking someone for shading them is equally bad looking.

 

[outskirtsofinfinity]

I fully accept the apology. And I'm looking for a statement from the CEO along the lines of "The team responsible for the bug is no longer with the company." But I don't see it. This is weak leadership, Tim. You need to regain our confidence and trust.

 

[Glideslope]

I'm surprised they didn't blame Scott Forstall again.

Man do I miss Scott.

 

[mi7chy]

It's taking so long to patch since they're busy doing the PR spin against Google and Facebook to detract from the privacy breach. How about less privacy lip service and more QA?

 

[Unity451]

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'm sure they do "basic freaking testing and QA before rolling out" all products and features, but some things are nearly impossible to catch. Case in point... how long and how many people using facetime across the world did it take to catch this one. I think a better representation of them is how quickly and how they respond to a legitimate issue, not if they miss the mark of perfection. Nobody's perfect.

 

[jscooper22]

A cardinal sin at Apple is acknowledging anything is less than fantabously amazing at all times. When an issue is mentioned in the presence of an Apple employee without an easy way to explain out of it, you can literally watch them twitch like the robots on planet Mudd in that episode of Star Trek when Spock started talking gibberish.

 

[Ubuntu]

Nah only if you have a ****** codebase

That's ridiculous. Even if you have a pristine codebase (good luck getting all of your engineers to agree on that definition btw) the fact is more complicated features do open up multiple code paths, use cases and potential gaps that can be exploited. I'm not excusing Apple here as this is a seriously bad one (especially the second issue where pressing the side button shows the video...), I just think such a comment is misguided.

 

[mi7chy]

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.

Did Apple give you the option to opt-in to the FaceTime privacy breach and compensate you?

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[Ubuntu]

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.

Did you miss the news about Facebook & Google this week? Both stories are listed in this forum.

 

[macfacts]

You get what you pay for. Public beta testers don't get paid and aren't eligible for Apple's bug bounty.

 

[apolloa]

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.

You can claim that, but let’s not forget, Apple deliberately slowed down millions and millions of iPhones for over a year and didn’t tell a soul until it was caught red handed...
So please don’t paint Apple in a more trust worthy picture, because they are far from it!

 

[swingerofbirch]

Something tells me the Thomson family is getting a free credit for an iTunes music video!

 

[lunarworks]

This bug must be particularly tricky if they have to delay the fix until next week. You'd think it'd be a simple fix, but I guess not.

Such drama. And such an immature and juvenile response.

They'll take any excuse to rage against Apple's current leadership, honestly.

 

[stevie grant]

Google and especially Facebook, are far more insidious with how they run certain aspects of their businesses.

Source?

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.

Uh huh. Unlike Apple, who always does the right thing. Under penalty of the law or via public shaming.

 

[fhall1]

delayed till when next week?

Got a lot of important group FaceTimes scheduled between now and next week?

 

[Doctor Q]

Apple: "...as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug..."

The phrasing is a bit suspicious. I assume they are defending themselves against the complaint that they didn't pounce on the problem when it was first reported to them, and instead waited until it became widely known.

Does this mean that Apple engineers took days to figure out how to reproduce the bug before they could do anything about it?

 

[heov]

It's impossible to uncover all bugs in any software release no matter what company is involved. That's why releases continue to happen any why beta releases take place. If the bugs aren't found during the betas, you can't blame these companies for releasing a version they feel is ready.

Wait- I can't blame Apple?

I get bugs happen. I get they may have done some sort of official beta test. But I can CERTAINLY blame Apple. They provided a service and said it was secure. They didn't deliver. Simple as that.

If the company can't take the blame, stay out of the business.

Their reputation is hurt too.

 

[justperry]

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:

Your post is full of bugs, now go find them, acknowledge that a far more complex OS has some too.

 

[agsystems]

I fully accept the apology. And I'm looking for a statement from the CEO along the lines of "The team responsible for the bug is no longer with the company." But I don't see it. This is weak leadership, Tim. You need to regain our confidence and trust.

I hope you are joking - is that the culture you want to propagate in your company - trusted/long time employees are fired when they make a mistake - Apple its not the only employer in the valley.

 

[I7guy]

You can claim that, but let’s not forget, Apple deliberately slowed down millions and millions of iPhones for over a year and didn’t tell a soul until it was caught red handed...
So please don’t paint Apple in a more trust worthy picture, because they are far from it!

“Slowed down” as opposed to shut off, which android does due to lack of power management features?

 

[mi7chy]

I hope you are joking - is that the culture you want to propagate in your company - trusted/long time employees are fired when they make a mistake - Apple its not the only employer in the valley.

Tim Cook had no issue with using it as an excuse to rid of his biggest rival Scott Forstall.

 

[cmaier]

Apple: "...as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug..."

The phrasing is a bit suspicious. I assume they are defending themselves against the complaint that they didn't pounce on the problem when it was first reported to them, and instead waited until it became widely known.

Does this mean that Apple engineers took days to figure out how to reproduce the bug before they could do anything about it?

No. Reading it in the full context of the rest of the apology, they are saying that the bug report didn’t even get to the engineers, and they need to improve the process they use to escalate bug reports from the public.

 

[I7guy]

It's taking so long to patch since they're busy doing the PR spin against Google and Facebook to detract from the privacy breach. How about less privacy lip service and more QA?

Ah, “the apple with it’s 120,000 employees can only do one thing”. Emojis or write code. PR or fix bugs. Got it.
[doublepost=1549041360][/doublepost]

Tim Cook had no issue with using it as an excuse to rid of his biggest rival Scott Forstall.

Forstall deserved to be fired and Tim Cook as CEO didn’t need an excuse.

 

[timber]

Bugs happen all the time and then ideally they get sorted out.

The problem in this case was that it was shown that Apple's bug reporting and dealing with processes are flawed.

The main lesson from this case should be to improve that.

 

[Marcus PM]

Never used this bonus feature. Wish I had known about it before. I could have seen the inside of a purse, pocket, or most likely somebody's ceiling.