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Apple changed the strategy for iOS 17 later in its development process to add several new features, suggesting that the update may be more significant than previously thought, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

iOS-17-on-Phone-Feature.jpg

In January, Gurman said that iOS 17 could be a less significant update than iPhone updates in previous years due to the company's intense focus on its long-awaited mixed-reality headset. Writing in his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that a change of strategy during the update's development process has added several new features:
When Apple set out to develop iOS 17, the initial thinking was to call it a tuneup release — one focused more on fixing bugs and improving performance than adding new features (not unlike the approach the company took with Snow Leopard on Mac OS X back in 2009). The hope was to avoid the problems of iOS 16, an ambitious update that suffered from missed deadlines and a buggy start. But later in the development process, the strategy changed. The iOS 17 release is now expected to boast several "nice to have" features, even if it lacks a tentpole improvement like last year's revamped lock screen. The goal of the software, codenamed "Dawn," is to check off several of users' most requested features.
As with previous iPhone software updates, iOS 17 is expected to be previewed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June ahead of launching in the fall. The update could offer a range of enhancements and new features, such as a next-generation CarPlay experience, changes to Siri, support for sideloading and alternate app stores, support for Apple's mixed-reality headset, and more.

Article Link: Gurman: iOS 17 to Provide Several 'Most Requested Features'
 
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daanodinot

macrumors 6502
Mar 26, 2015
362
858
Maybe I will finally be able to put my icons where I would like. Lol

Found this 2009 column about talking about it:
Instead of copying the highly-flexible Mac Desktop, Springboard inadvertently ended up copying the Windows 95 Desktop, with icons auto-positioning themselves ever-upward, ever-leftward.

Users should be able to place icons anywhere they want with intervening spaces as they wish. Such spaces act as big cues to let people know if they have hit the right page or not. They give differing pages an instantly-recognizable “look.” Forcing every page to look much like every other page, as the current scheme does, increases error and slows users down.

Still 100% true. Hopefully, this year is the year.
 

jmgregory1

macrumors 68030
It really seems like the Apple and the tech industry has hit a wall. We have devices that are more powerful than needed, and can do so many things that we don’t even have some must-have or highly desired capability that we can look forward to. Some of that may simply be we all don’t know what we’re missing until someone shows us, but like others have commented, there are plenty of iterative fixes Apple should address. One thing that annoys me on a daily basis is how I’ll check my phone for emails, reading them as they come in and I’ll get notifications of emails I’ve already read pop up. That’s sloppy that iOS can’t recognize that I’m in Mail and don’t need Mail notifications.
 

PsykX

macrumors 68020
Sep 16, 2006
2,348
3,080
The Snow Leopard bug-fixing and fine-tuning Mac OS X upgrade was incredible. I would always welcome another type of release like that.
Ahhhh the good old times !
I hope macOS gets this treatment another time too. It's becoming just another Windows now.

As an indie dev myself, if you have too many bugs to begin with, you'll have a really hard time to debug your stuff because those many bugs might interact with each other.
 

prime17569

macrumors regular
May 26, 2021
192
489
Wondering if the same strategy will apply to macOS 14. The System Settings app could use some improvement; for example, there is still no way to set a login item to be hidden from the interface (AppleScript is required). Plus, the inconsistent wording around the system could be fixed: some Apple apps still reference "Preferences" instead of "Settings", and the option in Finder to set a wallpaper from an image still says "Set Desktop Picture" instead of "Set Wallpaper" (System Settings calls it a wallpaper now), among other things. In addition, VoiceOver and other accessibility features need major bug fixes (I have seen reports of people having major issues with that in Ventura).
 
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