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People are slowly catching on to Craig Federighi's game and are getting tired of it. The clown can't code properly to save his life, nor can he teach others the same. Every os release is the same - .0 is plagued with bugs & glitches, then the patches come which typically address some slight issue(s) but introduce even more glitches. Scott Forstall got fired for far far less.

Federighi needs to be show the door & Apple needs to get off this yearly-os-release schedule.
Amen!

The yearly OS release schedule has been nothing but a disaster in terms of bugs. During this Tim Cook-as-CEO era, Scott Forstall was the best thing about Apple. Forstall built upon the foundation of the most important thing about the Mac when it was first released in 1984: the GUI, with skeuomorphic design being what made things so user-friendly. Cook is clueless about that, which is why he allowed that abomination known as "flat design" to destroy the industry-leading user-friendliness and beauty of OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.
 
There is only one thing I will admit is better with iOS 17 (specifically 17.3). My wife's 14 Pro wirelessly connects to CarPlay all the time now where is was literally 50% of the time with the latest iOS 16. The question I have will it continue to be 100% with iOS 17 when iOS 18 is released.

Also, a serious issue in iOS 17 with her 14 Pro. It does not have the ability to select Location "While Using the App" in Siri & Dictation, only the choice "Never" is available.

So no directions, weather, etc. from Siri while driving, which makes no sense since I have both choices on my 13 Mini under the same 17.3 version.
I just checked on my 14 Pro on 17 and I have the option. These type of small random bugs are a bit more plentiful these days. Resetting all settings will probably fix it (a hassle I know. Log out of iCloud first if you don’t wanna lose all of your WiFi passwords)
 
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I just checked on my 14 Pro on 17 and I have the option. These type of small random bugs are a bit more plentiful these days. Resetting all settings will probably fix it (a hassle I know. Log out of iCloud first if you don’t wanna lose all of your WiFi passwords)
If 17.4 doesn’t fix, I was afraid it would come to this. Thanks for the tip about logging out of iCloud.
 


iOS 17 is installed on 76 percent of iPhones released in the last four years, according to newly released iOS 17 adoption statistics provided today by Apple. This is the first time that Apple has given us iOS 17 installation numbers since the operating system was released last September.

iOS-17-Adoption-Feature.jpg

20 percent of iPhones released in the last four years are still running iOS 16, while four percent run an earlier operating system. Of all active iPhones, 66 percent are running iOS 17, 23 percent are running iOS 16, and 11 percent are running an earlier version of iOS.

Apple also shared iPadOS installation numbers. 61 percent of iPads introduced in the last four years have iPadOS 17 installed, while 29 percent have iPadOS 16, and 10 percent are running an earlier version of iPadOS.

Among all active iPads, 53 percent have iPadOS 17, 29 percent have iPadOS 16, and 18 percent run an earlier version of the iPadOS software.

Around this time last year, 81 percent of all iPhones introduced in the last four years had iOS 16 installed, so iOS 17 adoption has been slower. Only 53 percent of iPads were running iPadOS 16 in February 2023, however, so the pace of iPadOS 17 adoption has been faster than iPadOS 16 adoption.

iOS 17 was first released in September, and Apple has released three major updates so far. A fourth major update, iOS 17.4, is set to come out in March.

Article Link: iOS 17 Adoption is Slower Than iOS 16 Adoption
Just installed it last week. Curser placement is Buggy and battery life is worse on my iPhone 16. The only reason I upgraded because Apple stopped providing security updates for iOS 16.
 
I hate updating iOS all the time, because the worst thing in IOS that you can not go back if something is broken! On a Mac I wipe the disk and install whatever I want, even the first MacOS the Mac came with. From an disk image this is done very fast.
And even if you decide to go back in the short time window where it is possible to downgrade IOS one iteration, the restore takes very long because apps are installed from the app store and not from a local backup.
So on IOS I only update ONCE to the next IOS in Autumn before the next major version comes out. I would even wait longer, but then I am forced to upgrade to the actual version and not the one before...
 
Good lord, could we stop with annual updates?

You can add features and fix bugs in existing versions

Stop this endless annual tail chasing

By the time they get things ironed out each year they release a whole new dump of bugs and issues with a "new" version.

I wish they did, but they simply can’t. The new software is designed mainly for the new iphones to be released in the fall. To stop the annual software updates they’d need to also stop the annual hardware updates, and for apple one year without releasing new iphones means giving up a ton of money worth of iphone sales. They just won’t do it.

Btw this statistic is incomplete and inaccurate: iOS 17 support goes back all the way to the iphone XS, which is 5 years old, yet the authors of the article only consider from the iphone 11 onwards.
 


iOS 17 is installed on 76 percent of iPhones released in the last four years, according to newly released iOS 17 adoption statistics provided today by Apple. This is the first time that Apple has given us iOS 17 installation numbers since the operating system was released last September.

iOS-17-Adoption-Feature.jpg

20 percent of iPhones released in the last four years are still running iOS 16, while four percent run an earlier operating system. Of all active iPhones, 66 percent are running iOS 17, 23 percent are running iOS 16, and 11 percent are running an earlier version of iOS.

Apple also shared iPadOS installation numbers. 61 percent of iPads introduced in the last four years have iPadOS 17 installed, while 29 percent have iPadOS 16, and 10 percent are running an earlier version of iPadOS.

Among all active iPads, 53 percent have iPadOS 17, 29 percent have iPadOS 16, and 18 percent run an earlier version of the iPadOS software.

Around this time last year, 81 percent of all iPhones introduced in the last four years had iOS 16 installed, so iOS 17 adoption has been slower. Only 53 percent of iPads were running iPadOS 16 in February 2023, however, so the pace of iPadOS 17 adoption has been faster than iPadOS 16 adoption.

iOS 17 was first released in September, and Apple has released three major updates so far. A fourth major update, iOS 17.4, is set to come out in March.

Article Link: iOS 17 Adoption is Slower Than iOS 16 Adoption

Question is: why are they only considering devices released in the last four years in their analysis? Apple seems to forget that iOS 17 support goes back much further than that, all the way back to the 5 year old iphone XS and the 6 year old 10.5” ipad pro. Their statistic is inaccurate and incomplete.
 
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I hate updating iOS all the time, because the worst thing in IOS that you can not go back if something is broken! On a Mac I wipe the disk and install whatever I want, even the first MacOS the Mac came with. From an disk image this is done very fast.
And even if you decide to go back in the short time window where it is possible to downgrade IOS one iteration, the restore takes very long because apps are installed from the app store and not from a local backup.
So on IOS I only update ONCE to the next IOS in Autumn before the next major version comes out. I would even wait longer, but then I am forced to upgrade to the actual version and not the one before...

I just let my phone auto-update when it some algorithm decides it's time. It's usually a week or two after it's released, so the bugs (if any) are known.
 
No, mostly likely because there are 250 million more devices than there were the last time this was measured.

Every year Macrumors writes stories like this, with absolutely no sense of context. As the installed base of devices grows the percentage of devices that upgrade quickly (or at all) will decrease. It's simple math. Macrumors tries to paint it as there being a "reason" for it, like a conscious reason. There isn't. It's just what happens when the installed base grows, and this particular one grows by almost unimaginable numbers every year.

Edit: Allow me to clarify for the downvote brigade...each year, the number of users who update to the latest OS goes up, as the market grows with new users. However, the only statistic Macrumors focuses on is the percentage of total users that upgrade. This percentage can go down, while the number of users who update still goes up. There exists such a thing as statistically relevant data, and this one that Macrumors cites every year is not one of them.
I think what you are saying is we need to come up with some good arguments to shoot the messenger and the several million people who haven't upgraded yet, while throwing a little shade with comments like "downvote brigade" for good measure. If they still don't agree with you after all that, well that's their fault.
 
I would actually prefer they don’t add features in point updates and instead only fix bugs. Constant change is exhausting and tends to introduce new bugs.
I understand the concern, but if them spreading the feature work out over multiple releases gives them time to make the features more solid and with fewer bugs, I’m willing to take that compromise. In many previous OS releases, it seemed like apple was really stretched to get all of the features into the #.0 release that there were a lot of bugs. The last couple of years, and 17 in particular, have seemed less buggy out the door and they are able to squash most of the bugs by #.1.
 
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I was going to have iOS 17 naturally, but then, my iPhone and I wanted to adopt instead. ;)
 
I do not think Cook is the programmers' manager, the one doing unit tests and control quality, not the programmer himself.

The one thing he can do is enforce control quality, and fire those who don't enforce it enough.
Bit hard to enforce quality control when you know Apple under Tim's leadership has booked the date when the new feature you think is barely alpha is going to be shown to the public. At that point, everyone just patches the mess together as best they can, passes it and hopes they can fix what breaks later as a maintenance release. It's all crisis management at that point - including quality. So if you are in a firing mood, start with the marketing team and Tim. Both are driving the software development timeline, not the actual people who do the job.
 
Definitely some interesting takes in this thread!

While people can say that iOS 17 is buggier than previous versions, there is only anecdotal evidence backing that up - I've had very few issues, and no more than I've experienced in previous versions. I'm not aware of anyone I know having any serious issues either.

While Apple's release schedule is definitely too rigid these days, updates are what keep people engaged on the platform, and people still complain that there are not enough new features! While there are some questionable changes, most are indeed done for a reason, not "change for the sake of change". The Safari address bar moving to the bottom is the perfect example - many people raged about it, but it's a logical change that improves usability immensely, and also is better for accessibility.

I think the reason why app updates are tied to iOS updates is that functionality is tied to new features in iOS, and interoperability with other Apple OS's. Interoperability between devices is one of Apple's key advantages over other systems, and can't be understated.

All that being said, I think focus on a few key features and more bug-squashing should be a priority for Apple, but don't imagine it happening until it starts to hurt them financially. People keep buying their products, so they see that as validation for their current course of action.
 
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That’s reputation. People stay away from 17 because they had a lot of issues with 16.
Definitely some people stay away. Wonder what 76% means? Hundreds of millions? Billions? But I’m sure some people stay away. Not to mention there are more iPhones than last year.

It’s been my observation that MR members are more critical than those who are on the outside. Not to say iOS 17 is perfect in my eyes. But what glitches I’ve noticed doesn’t detract from the overall quality.
 
To stop the annual software updates they’d need to also stop the annual hardware updates

Not true!

They could stop with the numbering thing and proudly tout how "iPhone 15-18 works with iOS Palm Springs"

The tying things together is artificially done for marketing reasons
It need not actually be the way for any reason other than they have chosen to do so.
 
Good lord, could we stop with annual updates?

You can add features and fix bugs in existing versions

Stop this endless annual tail chasing

By the time they get things ironed out each year they release a whole new dump of bugs and issues with a "new" version.

Indeed, iOS and iPadOS need a Snow Leopard “tighten the screws” update.

snow-leopard-0-new-features.jpg
 
Not true!

They could stop with the numbering thing and proudly tout how "iPhone 15-18 works with iOS Palm Springs"

The tying things together is artificially done for marketing reasons
It need not actually be the way for any reason other than they have chosen to do so.
There are always new hardware changes in each new phone version so they will always need to push out some changes to support the new hardware. They call that 18.0 or they can call it 17.6 but it doesn’t remove the need for new code.

What they can do is to slow down the feature changes in each new annual version. That way they don’t have to put so many resources on new features and can spend more time on bugs and performance. To some extent that seems what they did with iOS 17 which both had fewer bugs and fewer large features than most new iOS versions. Of course then tons of people were complaining that it was a weak release without any “must have” features. There will be no winning on that front.
 
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