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Apple Reportedly Overhauling Its Software Development Process Following Buggy Release of iOS 13
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I agree with almost everything, except for one. What’s wrong with the T2? Its a security chip, that makes it harder to hack and steal your computer.
This could go either way in relation to quality.
Feature flagging requires substantial investments of time and resources to manage well on an org level, and also be dependable.
Certainly doesn’t hurt to try out, as the current strategy may not be yielding their desired results.
Some of many questions I’d ask if I was their QA Engineer:
How well will flagging itself be tested? Are flags only set locally on the device; modified in the IDE, or does it make an API call to see which flags are set? Can automation be reliably used with it?
Can QA really count on it to turn off /on every change in the OS related to a feature?
Do code for shared components revert back to the stable, production version when a flag is disabled?
Will modifying the flag for new changes to lower level shared components in the OS also modify the flag for all new features that depend on them?
Will a specific team be created to manage the feature flag architecture in macOS, iOS, etc? Where do I send Bug reports?
Will the infrastructure to support flagging be shipped in production and release candidate builds, or ripped out “root and branch?”
I read the article and from the sound of it, it’s only going to affect nightly development builds; the release candidate and production branches don’t seem to have it implemented from the sound of it.
How well will the release candidate be tested when flagging support is removed? Ideally they should be a little more discerning.
Flagging is common in software development. My guess is that it was probably implemented on an ad-hoc basis by each internal team. With so much overlap in Apple’s OS and apps, technical debt became unmanageable. This is when organizations coalesce around a unified strategy.
There are 1 million ways to do it, and lots of opinions on how to do it right.
Indeed, it’s not a trivial task.
Feature flagging requires substantial investments of time and resources to manage well on an org level, and also be dependable.
Certainly doesn’t hurt to try out, as the current strategy may not be yielding their desired results.
Some of many questions I’d ask if I was their QA Engineer:
How well will flagging itself be tested? Are flags only set locally on the device; modified in the IDE, or does it make an API call to see which flags are set? Can automation be reliably used with it?
Can QA really count on it to turn off /on every change in the OS related to a feature?
Do code for shared components revert back to the stable, production version when a flag is disabled?
Will modifying the flag for new changes to lower level shared components in the OS also modify the flag for all new features that depend on them?
Will a specific team be created to manage the feature flag architecture in macOS, iOS, etc? Where do I send Bug reports?
Will the infrastructure to support flagging be shipped in production and release candidate builds, or ripped out “root and branch?”
I read the article and from the sound of it, it’s only going to affect nightly development builds; the release candidate and production branches don’t seem to have it implemented from the sound of it.
How well will the release candidate be tested when flagging support is removed? Ideally they should be a little more discerning.
Flagging is common in software development. My guess is that it was probably implemented on an ad-hoc basis by each internal team. With so much overlap in Apple’s OS and apps, technical debt became unmanageable. This is when organizations coalesce around a unified strategy.
There are 1 million ways to do it, and lots of opinions on how to do it right.
Indeed, it’s not a trivial task.
More like 5 years. The last update I remember actually changing much was Yosemite
Step one in fixing any problem is to acknowledge you have one. We’ll see how well this goes but if it were me I’d do anyway with scheduled yearly version updates. Release version updates when they are ready for release instead of having a list of new features that will be in the new release with a scheduled release date.
Apple should have a product roadmap updated throughout the year with the features Apple intends to release when, and only when, they are ready. There shouldn’t be deadlines for new features. There should be timelines that can change if a team doesn’t believe a feature is ready yet.
Apple should have a product roadmap updated throughout the year with the features Apple intends to release when, and only when, they are ready. There shouldn’t be deadlines for new features. There should be timelines that can change if a team doesn’t believe a feature is ready yet.
The people running Apple are increasingly separated from the problems of their customers. This has led to a delayed feedback loop and weird direction.
Do you think Tim "iPad is a real computer" Cook even types on a Mac?
Do you think additional expansion is a priority to Phil "Courage is removing ports" Schiller?
Do you think Eddy Cue has common workflows where he's waiting on his device or thermally constrained?
Etc.
Additionally:
- Success hides problems.
- Cash is their main form of user feedback.
- Boomer exec team lacks direction ("we're a services company").
- Large institutional inertia.
Safari is so bad it's surreal really, we want to use it almost desperately, we reported issues weekly until we gave up, media controls & timeline in youtube and other media sites are off when hovering, you hover they disappear, you move the mouse out and they come back, reverse behavior.
The scrolling issue has been present since the very beginning of cata betas it's unbelievable they haven't fixed it by now. The rendering engine feels ancient really, any other browser wipes it off in terms of performance. The extensions ecosystem is hilarious. Up till last version you couldn't even communicate via Google meet, they finally made it happen almost 2020 and its bugged as heck.
The STP version while being beta, carries tons of critical bugs every single version too, which makes it useless to even try new features.
Maps should have never been created. I really don’t understand this need for software domination. Google Maps is a pinnacle app. Office is a pinnacle suite of apps. Photoshop is a pinnacle app. Apple should create world class platforms for folks to develop world class apps. They need to stop trying to be everything and focus on their core.
Apple Maps to me is better than Google maps... for the way I use it. What is Apples' core and how far does that circle extend?
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I would argue based on their success they are not as separated from the problems of their customers as you believe they are. Not to say they are perfect, but they do not seem to be this huge disconnected conglomerate picture you are painting them as. In fact, they seem to move with stealth at a good clip, in spite of their size.
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My issues with Mojave and Catalina aren't to do with stability, but a plethora of design, UI, and functionality issues. Not neccessarily broken, just poorly implemented changes; some which have been improved in Catalina.
One main thing is they removed quick zoom (Option key) for Quick Look in Mojave. Something I use all the time. The rotation direction key should have been the Command key.
With Catalina, a huge thing is I've noticed mouse accelleration curves are different which don't feel right, and I'm not prepared to attempt to get used to it. I can't begin understand why they would have changed this.
The window borders affecting dark mode/Spotify are an eyesore.
For now, I will continue to use macOS Sierra 10.12.6 with a view of switching to PC/Windows permanently if things don't improve. Which is very disappointing, because I want to pick up the new 16" MacBook Pro but I know I'll be stuck with Catalina.
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I would rather spend a day having to roll back a driver than having to get the mainboard fixed though. They are both pretty stable but everyone is going to run into a quirk now and than. I just despise people who say Windows is less stable because 1) they probably havent actually used it in years or 2) installed so much crapware that their system gets destroyed and broken. 2) could be said about both OS's so saying one is more stable is poppycock.
But my point is... some features are withheld for the next iteration and some features are for .1, .2, etc releases. We are all armchair CEOs voicing our opinions, but there are plenty of features or tweaks that we want added to iOS/iPadOS... and I'm sure Apple has them on the roadmap.
This year saw a branch off of iOS with iPadOS, but give Apple some time... last year saw a performance increase for iOS 12, and there wasn't a peep from critics. As long as Apple is releasing updates to fix issues within iOS 13, what's the problem? As I've said previously... if Apple was to wait until iOS 14 to address iOS 13 concerns... then all in agreement that it needs to be a change in Apple approach.
Alot of people (myself included) were having kernel panics with the 2018 15" MBP. IIRC that was the 1st MBP with a T2 chip.
Almost agree with you except Windows NT and Windows 2000, which XP is based off of, unlike 3.1, 95, 98 and ME, were really really stable but were really only used in the enterprise and drivers werent written for it so it couldn't really be used by consumers. XP was literally windows 2000 with a fresh coat of paint and consumer features so companies HAD to make drivers since that was where everyone was going.
Also to say OS X started off stable is reaching a little. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed OS X the most I ever did back then but it wasn't until 10.1 came out they even started shipping Mac's with OS X as the primary OS. 10.0 was missing so many features and was actually a little unstable that apple still has OS 9 as the main OS and you had to boot into OS X when you wanted to use it and at the time it was kinda hard to use OS X has the main driver because guess what? Didn't even come with a DVD player. Had to boot into OS 9 just to watch a DVD. Andboy could it slow down when it came to anything UI based animations because it was not optimized at all. 10.1 which Apple gave out free, which then was not common fixed a lot of it. 10.2 was when it really stabilized but even then it was crazy because Apple had like 3 different GUI's going on at the time, Aqua, brushed metal and metal and were so inconsistent. I remember where they would ship updates that the open close minimize buttons werent aligned at all or spaced out right. So Apple even struggled back at the beginning. No one is perfect and now both are for the most part mature and it seems both have a problem with QA testing now.
I for one would be quite happy for Apple to stop adding new features for a while and instead focus on ironing out bugs and glitches. I recently jumped from a 7 Plus to an Xs Max and now my the volume of the lock click sound is tied to the volume of media, rather than the volume of the ringer. Sounds like a trivial issues yes, but it's actually really annoying as I often playback media quite loud and such I end having the world's loudest lock click sound. Yes I can just turn off the lock click sound, but (a) I prefer having the audio confirmation that my phone is actually locked, and (b) I shouldn't have to. Apple support thread below:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250764992
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250764992
Early on there were a large number of issues related to the T2 chip... issues mostly involved the 2018 MBP, but there were some reports of issues with the 2018 Mac mini, as well.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/disturbing-t2-failures.2192496/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/t2-bridgeos-ipsw.2193647/
The fact that I haven’t upgraded to Catalina yet and I’m a die hard upgraded/user says a lot about the lack of trust I have in major updates from Apple...
I won’t even install Catalina on a nonessential mac
I won’t even install Catalina on a nonessential mac
Agree with this. This is one big weakness of iOS imo.
On Android, despite not having the latest Android version, I can still download the latest Chrome and Gmail app. Google even put the SMS app on the play store. It’s one scenario where Android biggest weakness (lack of updates from OEMs) has forced Google to split up non essential apps from the core OS, which is imo is the better way.
I suspect that the issue is that they’re still using the Steve Jobs marketing/pr playbook where revealing secret products at a big event (WWDC and the September iPhone events) can garner hundreds of millions of dollars of free PR and advertising.
Also, they want to drive huge amounts of upgrades so that devs have an incentive to build to the latest tech.
However, it only works if there’s several marquee features.
I think that Apple can still have its cake and eat it - it can still hype the latest features at WWDC but have more of a staged rollout of them from September onwards. I’m not an app developer but maybe they would appreciate not having to sacrifice their summers trying to get ready for the latest iOS.
i think if iOS 14 has a revamp of springboard (put your icons and widgets where you want!) an app UI refresh (putting toolbars at the bottom the of screen, where our thumbs tend to rest on the iPhone...) plus refining features introd in 13 such as dark dark mode & non user facing framework improvements, that will surely be enough to get people excited. Oh plus full mouse support for iPadOS...
Apple has lost vision.
Just be honest and admit it, so you can get it back.
They should always--ALWAYS--be focused on Steve Jobs' vision of Apple. When it came to the OS, he was trying to make a streamlined OS that avoided problems of complexity to provide speed and convenience. It has become Windows 2 in many ways.
Get back to the basics. Cut features that are gimmicks and disused. And start with the heart: a search engine of the computer that actually works. Spotlight doesn't even work properly since maybe 2012 (it doesn't find needed files with the word provided and provides too much information on files that have no relation to the search word).
Apple should be all about connecting the complexity of the computer to the absolute neophyte. It should make computing easier and faster, and eliminate the big hassles of computing to provide a better experience and give Apple their famed niche corner of the market.
Just be honest and admit it, so you can get it back.
They should always--ALWAYS--be focused on Steve Jobs' vision of Apple. When it came to the OS, he was trying to make a streamlined OS that avoided problems of complexity to provide speed and convenience. It has become Windows 2 in many ways.
Get back to the basics. Cut features that are gimmicks and disused. And start with the heart: a search engine of the computer that actually works. Spotlight doesn't even work properly since maybe 2012 (it doesn't find needed files with the word provided and provides too much information on files that have no relation to the search word).
Apple should be all about connecting the complexity of the computer to the absolute neophyte. It should make computing easier and faster, and eliminate the big hassles of computing to provide a better experience and give Apple their famed niche corner of the market.
Good. iOS 13 and Catalina have been train wreck releases for me. The stablity and reliability of iOS 12 and Mojave is just not there. The number of strange issues I’ve had is crazy.
At least, if you install Catalina and it is problematic, you can go back to Mojave (or whatever macOS you had been running); I never have understood why, if you 'upgrade' to a version of iOS and it's a problem, there is a very small window to go back but only to the immediately previous version. Why, if iOS 13 has proven a nightmare, even now, aren't we allowed to revert to 12?
FYI, currently, I haven't had any issues myself on any of my iOS devices with any of the flavors of iOS 13, but I have in the past.