Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
But why did it take them this long to see their method was bad ?

Because testing costs time and money and with their current method, all testing was done by paying customers. Microsoft and the other big IT companies are using the exact same "method" of software development, so they all got away with it for a while.
 
But why did it take them this long to see their method was bad ?
Because the larger the company/organization/government gets the more bureaucratic it gets, and thus the less effective it becomes over time. And yet so many want larger of these entities thinking it will solve someone's problems...
 
Tim Cook’s decision to get rid of Scott Forstall was shortsight and stupid. Better collaboration my ass.

They really need some new blood driving software even if it’s bringing back a former leader.

Besides bugs there are some usability issues like for example in making Photos app more similar between iOS and Catalina why in people under a person flip the show more button from one side to the other between them and not include a menu near top in Catalina like in iOS to check for additional items & other actions instead of having to scroll to bottom of pictures of a person. I use both and find myself going to wrong place a lot.

With Apple TV+ instead of having true profiles in TVOS with their forcing ratings to be set by device if I lock out a rating of a TV+ show I am watching the show disappears in TV app. I click on + icon and only stuff below rating appears. I understand & agree with not advertising stuff that is rated something i have locked (still would be fixed with true passcoded profiles with their own ratings), but At least with Movie app and I think the older TV show app I can still see items with these locked ratings under purchases & then play them after just entering my passcode in those apps to unlock just the specific show I want to watch (which automatically relocks if stop watching). It’s ridiculous that I have to go into settings and unlock and lock ratings for entire device to both use Apple TV app and TV+ even with my own profile to also have some ratings restricted for a family room TV device. They also could have allowed Up Next to show whatever is being watched in linked apps including TV+ regardless of ratings and just enforce needing passcode to actually watch them just like older Movie and TV show apps.

Those are just the 2 that aggravated me again last night. Many more usability or consistency issue head scratchers both using within same system or type of device or using a similar app/feature across different Apple systems & devices. Not all are horribly bad issues, but just seem to lack some common sense or lack of teamwork across departments. I have submitted them in past or during betas.
 
Last edited:
Because testing costs time and money and with their current method, all testing was done by paying customers. Microsoft and the other big IT companies are using the exact same "method" of software development, so they all got away with it for a while.
Regardless of flaws in the process, this is too broad a statement. Yes, developer and public betas are very important, to get the software onto a wide variety of machines and use cases (public betas are often grabbed by folks who have no business doing so, but that's another story.) But if you look at the build numbers, you can usually see that at least several have gone by since the last release. I don't think it's fair to jump to the conclusion that the user base finds all the bugs, and there is "no" internal testing.
 
Can we return Catalina? Embarrassing release.
Agreed. Ironically it turned my trash can Pro into a more stable beast AND turned my stable iMac into a POS. I cannot even shut it down. Maybe Redmond can share some QA secrets.
 
Just stop with the huge yearly updates. Just add features when there ready. Maybe announce a year long roadmap of features, but slowly add them over a year, instead of trying to rush everything for September. Also, put macOS back on a 18 to 30 month upgrade cycle

So much yes from me on moving back to an 18 to 30 month upgrade cycle. I've hated it ever since they went yearly. It feels like I have to constantly upgrade my OS. I still haven't moved to Catalina, and probably won't for a good while yet. I might skip it all together (so long as my mid 2012 15" cMBP remains supported in the next release). The newer OS's lately have barely brought any new features I really care about. Most of the features they did bring I never use, and this time some of my apps I still use are getting axed because of 32-bit support.
 
You would think that Apple would have a robust process improvement program in place that makes this kind of thing unnecessary and redundant. Or is this a symptom of a passionless employee pool where everyone just does as they're told without taking ownership of quality?

Or young, unseasoned employees, ignorant of relevant IT principles , with no older mentors left on the staff they could admire and from whom they could learn.
 
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.
Apple has all types of customers on the spectrum from IT-savvy users who do complex work that requires reliable robustness on all levels of platform to the iOS-only user satisfied with consuming what the internet has to offer. I would love to know what age group, as related to customer type, Apple is focused on. It certainly isn't mine, being an old retired-IT fogey myself, who bought into the Apple ecosystem in 2010, and is willfully staying stuck on OS Sierra and iOS 10.
 
iOS 5 was ****.
iOS 6 was good.
iOS 7 was ****.
iOS 8 was sorta good.
iOS 9 was complete ****.
iOS 10 was excellent.
iOS 11 was a buggy cluster****.
iOS 12 was the best iOS I've ever seen.
iOS 13 is ****.

See a pattern here?
 
Tim Cook’s decision to get rid of Scott Forstall was shortsight and stupid. Better collaboration my ass.

Actually, if you knew ANYONE at Apple at that time, you would know about the party that was thrown when he was shown the door! The real problem was who took over also thought they were infused with Steve's DNA... HE WASEN'T! and Apple has been in a slow but steady decline ever since!

What Apple really really needs to do is learn from is own institutional history; bring back the "Human Interface Guidelines", talk to Guy Kawasaki and reread " The Macintosh Way", ask Scott Knaster, Bill Adkisson, Bruce "tog" Tognazzini & Dr. Donald Norman about how we used to write software and more importantly TEST it!

These are the people Apple needs to "bring back" not the egocentric Forstall who thought he had Steve's insight but really didn't. But again Jonathan Ive didn't do to good a job ether (IMHO)
 
iOS 5 was ****.
iOS 6 was good.
iOS 7 was ****.
iOS 8 was sorta good.
iOS 9 was complete ****.
iOS 10 was excellent.
iOS 11 was a buggy cluster****.
iOS 12 was the best iOS I've ever seen.
iOS 13 is ****.

See a pattern here?

8 and 9 are the wrong way round. 8 was very buggy and 9 was the optimisation update like 12 was for 11.
 
Actually, if you knew ANYONE at Apple at that time, you would know about the party that was thrown when he was shown the door! The real problem was who took over also thought they were infused with Steve's DNA... HE WASEN'T! and Apple has been in a slow but steady decline ever since!

What Apple really really needs to do is learn from is own institutional history; bring back the "Human Interface Guidelines", talk to Guy Kawasaki and reread " The Macintosh Way", ask Scott Knaster, Bill Adkisson, Bruce "tog" Tognazzini & Dr. Donald Norman about how we used to write software and more importantly TEST it!

These are the people Apple needs to "bring back" not the egocentric Forstall who thought he had Steve's insight but really didn't. But again Jonathan Ive didn't do to good a job ether (IMHO)
You make some good points. Learning from the past is common sense but it seems to escape some individuals in key positions.
 
I’m sure iOS 13 has been rough for certain people. It’s been ok for me. Nothing too bad.

It’s just that we pay premium prices for the phone and it seems lately that every other year is full of some big bugs. Then they fix it with the next iteration. Email for lots of people for example. Maybe 2 year cycles.

Always happy to see Apple try to improve. Keep it up
 
Disagree. The exit of people such as Ive shows things are and will be different going forward. Usability of products is already improving.
That’s pure conjecture. Also Ive is not gone yet. He’s still listed on Apple’s leadership page. He was at the September event posing for photos with Cook.

10406502dg.jpg
 
iOS 13? What about Mojave and Catalina. Disasters.

I'm very content with an incredibly stable for months installation of High Sierra on a 2009 Mac Pro with Metal Graphics & firmware upgrade (40gb memory & 3TB+ storage) that never ever crashes.

Should I even consider Mojave or Catalina on such a machine? A new Mac Pro is not an option for most Mac Pro users like me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dysamoria
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.