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Apple Investigating Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra Microphone Issues

Yeah my second S8 has had this bug - microphone simply didn't work for Siri. Rebooting the watch seems to have fixed it for now.

Second S8 - the first one came with a strap one side of which which didn't lock into the body (it just kept sliding). Apple Store asked me to return the whole Watch and take a new one rather than just change the strap. New body seems to have a slightly non-flush side button, but don't think I can face going to change it again.

Don't get me started on the eSIM problems with setting up my iPhone 14 Pro.

Who says Apple's QC is getting worse...:rolleyes:
 
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john9876 said:
Yeah my second S8 has had this bug - microphone simply didn't work for Siri. Rebooting the watch seems to have fixed it for now.

Second S8 - the first one came with a strap one side of which which didn't lock into the body (it just kept sliding). Apple Store asked me to return the whole Watch and take a new one rather than just change the strap. New body seems to have a slightly non-flush side button, but don't think I can face going to change it again.

Don't get me started on the eSIM problems with setting up my iPhone 14 Pro.

Who says Apple's QC is getting worse...:rolleyes:
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Actually I had that problem with my first Ultra. The strap slid a few mil each way on one side. They thought it was down to the strap but I wasn't prepared to take the risk on an £850 device so I just exchanged it within the 14 day period. They were probably right though. I'm just fussy. We're early adopters. There are bound to be early stage issues. In the UK the phones have an eSIM and a normal sim. I was advised by the phone company to just use the normal SIM. eSIM aren't as ubiquitous in europe.
 
nonns said:
Actually I had that problem with my first Ultra. The strap slid a few mil each way on one side. They thought it was down to the strap but I wasn't prepared to take the risk on an £850 device so I just exchanged it within the 14 day period. They were probably right though. I'm just fussy. We're early adopters. There are bound to be early stage issues. In the UK the phones have an eSIM and a normal sim. I was advised by the phone company to just use the normal SIM. eSIM aren't as ubiquitous in europe.
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My first strap didn't lock at all - I noticed it first when I glanced at my new Watch on my wrist and the strap was hanging 2/3 of the way off :eek: It was definitely the strap - it looked fine visually but other straps worked fine with the Watch and the strap didn't lock on other Watches.

Yeah I'm in the UK too. If you're with EE they support eSIM Quick Transfer (the other UK networks don't yet) so iOS now pesters you to switch to an eSIM whenever you set up a new iPhone. You have to decline it several times to avoid switching. In my case the switch to eSIM disabled 5G and WiFi Calling, had to go to a store to have it switched back to a physical SIM card and then erase and restore the phone to get those features back :rolleyes:
 
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john9876 said:
My first strap didn't lock at all - I noticed it first when I glanced at my new Watch on my wrist and the strap was hanging 2/3 of the way off :eek: It was definitely the strap - it looked fine visually but other straps worked fine with the Watch and the strap didn't lock on other Watches.

Yeah I'm in the UK too. If you're with EE they support eSIM Quick Transfer (the other UK networks don't yet) so iOS now pesters you to switch to an eSIM whenever you set up a new iPhone. You have to decline it several times to avoid switching. In my case the switch to eSIM disabled 5G and WiFi Calling, had to go to a store to have it switched back to a physical SIM card and then erase and restore the phone to get those features back :rolleyes:
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It was ee who told me to stick with the sim.
 
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BGPL said:
Apple:
Designed in someone's house in California, in between rounds of CoD.
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Looks like I've started a movement here on Macrumors. Finally, people have come to realize that WFH does not work for a company like Apple, and for most companies.

Seems like more and more Macrumors posters are finally seeing what I saw years ago.

Prior to covid, only the most disciplined and valued members of the workforce were allowed to work from home. After, covid, everyone got to work from home. What could go wrong?
 
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I work harder with less distractions later and I'm definitely more productive from home. Meetings are those I have to have rather than meetings for meetings sake. I think some office time is till necessary for team bonding but otherwise nah.
 
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nonns said:
I work harder with less distractions later and I'm definitely more productive from home. Meetings are those I have to have rather than meetings for meetings sake. I think some office time is till necessary for team bonding but otherwise nah.
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What do you do for work?
 
I’ve had to swap out several AWs over the years because the mic just stops working and you have to speak into it from about 4 inches.
 
Sciomar said:
It’s not completely unfounded, not every home worker is top tier. We have remote workers and their productivity has absolutely gone down, and is documented to hopefully make way for a more eager candidate.
As many issues as Apple is having come to light with these recent releases, it is apparent there is a productivity/quality drop somewhere.
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Productivity may have gone down, but another parallel consideration ought to be made: in pre-pandemic times, were workers doing a lot of over time work, having less balanced work-life styles? It seems quite possible.

The decrease in productivity could in part be a reflection of actually giving the time they're paid for rather than trying to squeeze in every moment to produce work. In other words, there is the possibility that what came out as productive in prior times is a reflection of overworking.
 
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nonns said:
Actually I had that problem with my first Ultra. The strap slid a few mil each way on one side. They thought it was down to the strap but I wasn't prepared to take the risk on an £850 device so I just exchanged it within the 14 day period. They were probably right though. I'm just fussy. We're early adopters. There are bound to be early stage issues. In the UK the phones have an eSIM and a normal sim. I was advised by the phone company to just use the normal SIM. eSIM aren't as ubiquitous in europe.
Click to expand...
Oh I hear you. When I got my iPad Pro with the Magic keyboard, I noticed the keyboard had an edge that did not sit flush with the iPad when closed. It was no big deal, but given that I paid a lot for the device and it is supposed to be flawless, I opted an exchange for the keyboard. Picky? Maybe. But the devices cost a lot of money.
 
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john9876 said:
Yeah my second S8 has had this bug - microphone simply didn't work for Siri. Rebooting the watch seems to have fixed it for now.

Second S8 - the first one came with a strap one side of which which didn't lock into the body (it just kept sliding). Apple Store asked me to return the whole Watch and take a new one rather than just change the strap. New body seems to have a slightly non-flush side button, but don't think I can face going to change it again.

Don't get me started on the eSIM problems with setting up my iPhone 14 Pro.

Who says Apple's QC is getting worse...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
So I've just tried a phone call and the microphone on my Watch 8 doesn't work for calls either. Other party can't hear anything (and no the mic wasn't muted). Not very impressed. If there's not a software fix soon I think it's getting returned.
 
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I'm glad stage manager is on older iPad Pros, even if it does seem useless without an external display. I don't want to have to suddenly learn how it use it from scratch when I do finally upgrade, because when I do upgrade I'll probably want to rely on it for productivity with Adobe's hopefully further developed design apps. And learning something new out of the blue is not very productive. So it's better to have some kind of access to it now than none.
 
Whathappened said:
Worked for the 7, iPhone 13 and and and.
So yes, working from home rules.
Click to expand...

Actually Apple tends to work on their products 2 years out so technically the 12 and 13 series were in preparation ahead of COVID and lockdowns.

The 14 series iPhone and 8 series watch are technically the first full pandemic and WFH products to hit the market.

So no, WFH ain’t working.
 
john9876 said:
So I've just tried a phone call and the microphone on my Watch 8 doesn't work for calls either. Other party can't hear anything (and no the mic wasn't muted). Not very impressed. If there's not a software fix soon I think it's getting returned.
Click to expand...

Curious, did you restore from a precious back up or did you set up your Watch as new?
 
t0rqx said:
The bloody Series 8 is basically a Series 6 in disguise. A trick they pulled on the Series 7 and also trying to implement on the iPhones.
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what is there to innovate even anymore? they can only make the watch thinner and make the battery last longer, other than that there is really not much you can put into a device this size that you wear on your wrist. don't expect anything else than small incremental improvements
 
Apple is terrible at programming. Too many bugs in every OS they release. They really need to fire a lot of managers and executives and get people in there who know what they are doing. This is what happens when a bean counter runs a company.
 
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I remember being in lockdown and the UK government said if you can work from home then do so. At the time I was working for a high surveillance camera company in production. All the R&D guys got to work from home. My productivity went down as we (the guys on the shop floor) had to do some their work as they were not in the office. Also any design issues (which was constant) took longer to sort out. The case of popping upstairs and plonking whatever did not work, on their desk to sort it out.

Then the boss goes and moans why it's taking longer to get things built!
 
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nonns said:
I have an ultra. I haven't had any issues with it at all. As to issues like this, it sounds like software. Why is anyone surprised that with a rollout schedule like Apple has on new products there are bugs appearing. Your software quality control can be superb and you still wont be able to test like you will see when you expose your brand new product to the big wide world in a mass real world trial when people are experiencing scenarios of events that you would have had no idea about.

I'm not whitewashing this and I'm definitely not an Apple fanboy. They get a lot wrong and much of their philosophy I don't like but one needs to be fair. I'd fall off my chair if we didn't have bugs and issues for at least 6-12 months into the release (on a declining basis). Its reality. The new stuff is more complex than the old and Apple has to learn too.
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It's because there are actually people out there believing there's no reason why there can't be 100.0% perfection 100.0% of the time with any endeavor involving humans developing complex hardware and software.

They've likely never worked in tech in any meaningful capacity.
 
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