Apple Reportedly Overhauling Its Software Development Process Following Buggy Release of iOS 13

[atoqir]

They should make iOS more layered so they they just have to add new drivers for new devices.

The only reason they are in this mess every two years is because they insist on setting two dates in stone: WWDC and the release date of the new phone. This must be very hard and frustrating to work with for the development team.

They should let quality control decide when an update is ready, not the marketing department.

 

[HiVolt]

Didn't they already do that after buggy iOS 11?
How quickly organizations forget.

Maybe they're taking the Microsoft approach. One release good, next one bad, good, bad, good, bad.

 

[MJA74]

I’m still waiting to update my iPX worry about lags which happened to me once on previous iPhone.

 

[now i see it]

Why now? Because they're sick & tired of eating their own dog food too. It gives me great pleasure to think that every big wig executive over there has to eat the same garbage as the rest of us

 

[Rogifan]

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

BS. With iOS 6 one of the highlighted features on stage was Siri providing sports scores. Come on. iOS was falling behind the competition big time. iOS is way better feature wise than what it was when Forstall was running the show. Federighi is the one moving the platform forward and keeping it competitive with Android.

 

[TonyC28]

How about next year instead of adding a full X.0 release that builds on top of already buggy iOS 13 we just have iOS 13.X to keep improving it?

 

[kazmac]

Good, now what about macOS too?

 

[benshive]

It looks like I'm just alone here but I really have no major issues with bugs in iOS 13. There are a few minor ones I find here and there but I've been using iOS 13 since the first developer beta on my iPhone and iPad and even then didn't run into anything bad.

 

[Jim Higgins]

But why did it take them this long to see their method was bad ?

Tim Apple

 

[Rogifan]

Without those huge yearly updates.. There won’t be any WWDC to allow not only developers, but non-developers upcomimg features. Apple enjoys the spectacle of it all... and so do we.

And they don‘t rush.. sometimes Apple withhold features until they are ready. For example, the Deep Fusion for the iPhone 11 Pro.. it was released in 13.2 firmware. We are humans.. we make errors, I‘m all for these minor updates if it helps in the long run.

Apple could easily use WWDC to announce a road map of features coming over the next year. And then make sure the ones tied to new hardware are ready to ship on day one. Ones that aren’t and aren’t ready can wait and be shipped in point updates.

 

[bookofxero]

Without those huge yearly updates.. There won’t be any WWDC to allow not only developers, but non-developers upcomimg features. Apple enjoys the spectacle of it all... and so do we.

And they don‘t rush.. sometimes Apple withhold features until they are ready. For example, the Deep Fusion for the iPhone 11 Pro.. it was released in 13.2 firmware. We are humans.. we make errors, I‘m all for these minor updates if it helps in the long run.

If they follow an Agile framework, they can simultaneously announce their major initiatives for the next year while maintaining flexibility to deliver customer value on a frequent and regular basis. Instead, it sounds like they are sticking with very old and inefficient waterfall methodologies. There is a time, place, and use for both.

 

[darkcompass]

still waiting on promises made for ios13 like icloud folder share.

 

[BXRich]

I've heard Apple created this new software development method and they're calling it Agile by Apple and instead of one big release with a waterfall development process they will have iterative releases as pieces are completed - I'm sure every software company out there will rip it off or say that it was around long before Apple did it but once again Apple will prove to be a market leader

/sarcasm /fanboybeliefs

 

[44267547]

It looks like I'm just alone here but I really have no major issues with bugs in iOS 13. There are a few minor ones I find here and there but I've been using iOS 13 since the first developer beta on my iPhone and iPad and even then didn't run into anything bad.

You’re not alone. I’ve never had any issues with iOS 13 whatsoever, but I usually wait for the more _major_ upgrades versus every incremental upgrade that they have been releasing as of late. Either way, I’m not directly affected by any issues with iOS 13, as I think it’s introduced a lot of welcomed improvements and stabilization.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Everyone should load Apple Maps inside iOS and macOS. What an update.
[automerge]1574346691[/automerge]

still waiting on promises made for ios13 like icloud folder share.

That has always been Spring 2020.

 

[Bob1985]

I like the idea, but they also need to overhaul their stress testing (aka randoms testing). They need to have automated virtual users trying all sorts of crazy things with apps (not just with the kernel or one app). Initially, they can catch the low-hanging fruit: kernel panics and app crashes. Then they should look at data loss and data corruption. Finally, screen corruption.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I like the idea, but they also need to overhaul their stress testing (aka randoms testing). They need to have automated virtual users trying all sorts of crazy things with apps (not just with the kernel or one app). Initially, they can catch the low-hanging fruit: kernel panics and app crashes. Then they should look at data loss and data corruption. Finally, screen corruption.

They are.

 

[CHA05 R31GN5]

I've heard Apple created this new software development method and they're calling it Agile by Apple and instead of one big release with a waterfall development process they will have iterative releases as pieces are completed - I'm sure every software company out there will rip it off or say that it was around long before Apple did it but once again Apple will prove to be a market leader

/sarcasm /fanboybeliefs

Yep. Common practice for as long as I've ever worked with Unix derivatives since the '80-90's.

 

[shanson27]

ios 14 boring home screen

 

[centauratlas]

They need to fix buggy photo syncing in Catalina. Photos etc no longer syncs albums that are inside folders. They had the same issue a few macOS releases ago, and it is back.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

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

Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. Maybe the atmosphere was bad. Maybe staff couldn't be happy and creative there. There's a reason when someone leaves a company.
Don't dwell on something that you can't control. Move on with life.

 

[guzhogi]

I'd like to see Apple continue putting out bug fix releases, though I'd like to see Apple delay any major updates until 2021. Clean up the code so it's not buggy, make it more clean & efficient, and then put in new features.

Honest question to developers: what's SwiftUI like? Easier/harder, better/worse than UIKit & AppKit? If SwiftUI's easier & better, I'd like to see Apple also port more of the OS & App code to Swift.

 

[smulji]

They're just reactionary is all. They didn't make any move until after there was a massive outcry about it. If they start doing these things beforehand and stave off any issues/outcry, then we can call it a culture shift

Regardless of when it happened, it's still a cultural shift.

 

[Attirex]

Some thorn-in-my side Catalina bugs I've encountered on my 2014 Mini:

1. Can't resize columns in Mail (POP account).
2. Can't recover a deleted email in Mail using the Undo command.
3. Sometimes can't drag an email to saved folders.
4. Can't drag a Safari favicon to the desktop.
5. YouTube videos pause every nine seconds in Safari. This does not happen in FF.
6. After installing, Catalina deleted my saved sticky notes. Luckily, I was able to pry open the relevant legacy DB file and copy the text. It then proceeded to delete them several times after that.
7. After deselecting the "Reopen windows" option for a restart, noted it is re-selected during subsequent restarts.

Everyone on MR forums: Then why the #$%# are you complaining about it here? Report to Apple, you dumb #$%.

Me: Maybe I will.

 

[User 6502]

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

No thanks, I’d rather have frequent massive updates, and I find already appalling that in the last few years there were very few new features in the ‘big’ yearly update. Who prefers stability don’t have to install them and can wait until they’re stable enough for his needs.