Considering updates are now OTA, shouldn't Apple be updating phones more frequently?

I am a little surprised, yes

 

I agree.

However, despite Apple presenting themselves as an "innovator" it only applies to some areas of their business. By virtue of their closed & locked down Eco System, their primary addiction to proprietary wired connections is their expertise.

True wireless, not so much. There's going to be a prolonged period of transition as Apple comes up to speed with OTA. That's just how it is.

 

I get annoyed at companies that e-mail me too frequently.

No matter how easy and update is, it still takes longer to do than it does to erase an e-mail message.

So the bottom line is, no, I don't want to ask companies to pop up and interrupt my daily life even more than they currently do.

Ok, apparently I'm stupid, so can you please explain to me how the current 'wireless update' on the iPhone isn't actually a true wireless update?

 

I fail to realize HOW an update gets to us, has anything to do with how OFTEN it should get to us.

 

Your plan would really be a kick to the crotch of developers who would find they don't have the time to check their app against each and every update that's being rushed out.

Pretty soon they'll find themselves testing far more than they're actually working on their apps. Instead of testing 5.1 like they are now, you'd have them test several different OS's just to get to the same place.

I can't imagine that workflow being popular with any developers.

 

Being able to implement delta updates rather than pushing the entire OS every time has some quite significant advantages, just in terms of bandwidth alone.

I could certainly see it being a factor.

Phazer

 

Ok, I'm curious now.

Surely there are some developers here. I'm asking: When 5.0.1 came out did you all test your app against it or did you think "eh, it's just a 0.01. What could go wrong?"

 

I expected in general that we would've seen faster releases, at least for bugs.

 

You're right. In any software development -- a new version of an OS, be it a point release or full release *should* be tested to ensure that a "fix" didn't break something else. To think otherwise shows a complete lack of knowledge as it relates to OS development. Anyone that has truly been a software developer for awhile has been bitten by a "What could go wrong? It's only a small change."

I understand the sentiment, but the reality is that the method of deployment shouldn't speed up completing a quality update.

 

False dichotomy. Updates should come out as needed and as they're ready -- not based on some random forum user's whim regarding when they should come out. What makes you think that not having OTA was the bottleneck to begin with?

What are you basing this on? Forum posts? You can't rely on forum posts as any sort of statistical evidence. Keep your day job and leave analyzing statistics to the pros.

You've clearly never done any serious coding. Everything seems simple when you're blissfully ignorant.

 

Exactly. It takes Apple the same time to develop and test the updates as before.

All the OTA update system does is make it easier and faster for you to install. It doesn't make Apple's programmers fix bugs any faster, and it doesn't make Apple's testing process any faster. Those are what delays releases.

Yes, because fixing bugs is complicated, and tends to introduce new, worse bugs.

App developers are usually the first to notice when a new bug is introduced, which is why developers are given access to test builds before they are released.

 

How so exactly? method of delivery ≠ quicker coding, just as quicker coding ≠ quality code. I'm not sure if you're just confused about how delivery doesn't correlate to production and building, or you think that sending updates OTA is somehow different than people accessing it on the computer, but they are two different things.

 

How? Have you noticed how often (or rather, not-so-often) Apple pushes out updates for OS X? Macs have never been subject to the plug-into-another-computer requirement to do an update, and yet that doesn't translate into rapid-fire bug fix updates.

The delivery method isn't the issue here. It's Apple's philosophy. They don't want to push a bunch of middling little updates frequently because it can be annoying, and I tend to agree with that. Microsoft had the same issue before they introduced Patch Tuesday.

I can agree that they might sometimes stretch a bit long with their updates though. Like, it would've been nice to see a 5.0.2 with a second battery fix sooner, if anything to pacify those who are still having battery drain problems. But I don't want the other extreme either: I want my phone to work, not to be down for certain periods of the day while I'm forced to download the latest nightly build of iOS.