iOS 9 to Focus Heavily on Stability and Optimization

[Antares]

Yay!

But my main concern is they don't change much and people aren't going to upgrade...

If true, what we really need to worry about and be prepared for are the complaints that a subset of people are certainly going to make….that Apple made little changes in iOS9 and it all looks the same while “Android is doing this and this” and “iOS can’t do this this and this.”

 

[JGRE]

Thumbs up for Apple, now do the same with the next release of OSX as well.

 

[iMcLovin]

Nice way of saying we are out of ideas for the moment But, nonetheless, a bugfree and optimized OS is always welcomed. Apple is way ahead of the competition on that department all ready both on mobile and desktop OS's

 

[tevion5]

Snow Leopard seems to benefit from rose colored glasses.

My MacBook Pro came with Snow Leopard and I loved it then. I did not like Lion at all, and Mountain Lion was only a bit of an improvement.

Mavericks was super. Performance focused and smart. And Yosemite, I have found to have increased the graphics performance of my Mac's Intel HD3000. Animations are smoother everywhere. Better dare I say than they were in Snow Leopard.

 

[Col4bin]

End of year would not be early enough to cut those three devices from iOS 9. Assuming Apple sticks to their pattern of supporting current products, they would have to be discontinued prior to the unveiling of iOS 9, presumably at WWDC 2015. You’ll recall Apple dropped the 4th gen iPod touch just prior to unveiling iOS 7, replacing it with a no-camera 5th gen model. Similar moves might happen for both the 5th gen iPod touch and 1st gen iPad mini, less likely for the iPhone 5c.

Drop support for iPad2/iPhone4. (Too many recently sold iPhone4S models being sold in emerging global markets to make this a contender, too.)

 

[Michael Goff]

Nice way of saying we are out of ideas for the moment But, nonetheless, a bugfree and optimized OS is always welcomed. Apple is way ahead of the competition on that department all ready both on mobile and desktop OS's

Optimizations don't appear out of thin air, you have to have an idea about how to do it. >_>;

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Good. iOS7 & 8 were badly disorganized, unstable, resource-hungry disasters.


If there's one new "feature", I hope it's a setting to un-Ive the UI. If I wanted an OS that looked like android on lsd, I'd use android. and take a load of lsd.

 

[Glassed Silver]

HALLELUYAH!

We need another Snow Leopard type of release, both on the Mac and on iOS.

Too bad it'd be good for one year only.
OS X 10.12 and iOS 10 would just go back to the old paradigm of features over stability.
Annual cycle for the win! /s

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Col4bin]

iOS 9 - doing in 2015 what we should've done in 2014, which Android did in 2012. C'mon guys... it's 2015 and we can't even watch a YouTube video and surf the internet unless we use two iPads. I've been a big Apple fan for a long time but this stuff is a joke.

Shhhh, don't want to make iOS too complicated that it alienates Apple's "less-than-bright" or 65+ consumer demo.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

I'll go out and say I hate this and think its terrible. Release the software right the first time, and this isn't an issue. Don't introduce new features until they're done. While it is true that Apple isn't charging for it, they charged for Snow Leopard when MS had Service Packs. I don't want a Service Pack iOS "Upgrade" as I want an actual upgrade and bring the darn bug fixes WHEN YOU FIX THEM. This should be normal, routine maintenance. While the end result may be good, the truth is, this shouldn't have to wait many months, or be the main feature in itself.

If you want the yearly release cycle like you have, this just isn't going to happen. There isn't time to add tons of new features (200+ each update so far) and then take them an optimize them as much as possible and still make that yearly release.

Remember too that while they try to get these new operating systems out to as many as possible to test before release, not everyone reports back and helps with the bug fixes. I'd be surprised if 5% of the developers that download the betas bother to report any issues unless it directly affects their own programs. From there Apple has to prioritize and fix the biggest issues first. Then they have to fix everything they can within the short time they have. We're talking just 3 or so months between betas and release for a major OS. That's a huge undertaking.

So on top of the above you want them to then take them back, optimize them all and then fix any additional release bugs? Not going to happen in the 3 months they have. That's why instead if they want to do a fully optimized OS they have to release, fix the bugs they can, take it back later and do the optimization, release new betas and work through the bugs there and then release as they're doing in this case.

While your way would be more idea, it's just not doable in real life. If it were, everyone would do it. As it stands, no one is.

 

[macduke]

I loved Snow Leopard. If they make an iOS version, I may get an iPhone 6S and never upgrade it, lol. For what I need, iOS on iPhone is mostly feature complete anyway.

How likely is it that we would get RAM compression on iOS? I don't have an understanding of how it works at a lower level. Does it require a lot of processing power? That would make an iPhone 6S with 2GB of RAM 3GB, which would be pretty freaking fantastic.

I wish that iOS upgrades went like this:

Cycle 1: 50% design, 25% features, 25% performance
Cycle 2: 50% features, 25% design, 25% performance
Cycle 3: 50% performance, 25% design, 25% features

I could also argue that services could be added to this cycle, because they generally need a lot of help. A four year complete cycle seems kinda long though, so you might include that with features. I think we're to the point where most new features will be service-based anyway.

This three year full cycle would help keep things fresh (design), useful (features) and running well (performance). Each cycle they would give more focus to one of the three areas to thoroughly address areas that need it the most.

Generally with software, the more feature bloat you have, the better you have to design the system to accommodate the extra features to make it less confusing. Adding features can also lower performance, so having a cycle structured like this makes sense. In practice I understand that it won't always work out that way, but it would be a better guide to follow than what they're doing now, which is to completely overhaul design one year, add a ton of features the next, and then fix all the bugs the year after that. Because meanwhile the buggy system gets really annoying to deal with, and when you do a complete design overhaul people get pissy. If they had more gradually shifted towards flat design then people would have more easily accepted it. I don't get the all-in or all-out approach that they take. I know iOS 7 added features, but both iOS 7 and iOS 8 releases were buggier than the last. Then there's things like iCloud Photos that needs some help. I think just refining their process would make things better over time.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

Hopefully they make it so that you don't have to go to settings so frequently. I came back to iOS from Android and that is one of the number one things that I miss about Android. Are you listening to music and want to see your cloud collection? Leave the app, go to settings, change the settings for music, then go back to the app. I find that annoying and inefficient and that is how most of the apps that I use on iOS seem to work. Also, make it so that control center can do more than turn a few settings on and off. At the very least make it so that I can get to settings from there.

How about the ability to clear all notifications from the notification center with one button press? Or the ability to clear all apps with one button press in the app switcher?

Another few that will never happen: Let me place apps where I want on the home screen. Don't require the icons to begin in the upper left corner. I peronally think that app icons make more sense on the bottom. On Android I typically had apps down on the dock, and then another row immediately above the dock. I also wish that apps could be hidden someplace without needing tons of home screen pages. Those features won''t be added.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Drop support for iPad2/iPhone4. (Too many recently sold iPhone4S models being sold in emerging global markets to make this a contender, too.)

No way. I know quite a few people who've fairly recently bought a new iPad 2 (because apple thought it was a good idea to keep selling these underpowered outdated things), who've had them completely crippled by their surprise update to iOS8. I can't tell you how much ranting and raving I've been on the receiving end of, having been the one recommending Apple products to everyone I know. Apple's got some major fixing of their reputation to do after iOS 7&8.

 

[DLambe]

Let's Hope They Also Fix OS X Issues . . .

. . . maybe get rid of all the Applecore Rot while they are at it ?


I can dream, can't I ????

 

[DoctorKrabs]

Snow Leopard and iOS 6 were releases like this.

It will probably be more along the lines of iOS 6 with mostly small enhancements and some notable but not groundbreaking features, which I want.

I want them to refresh the UI to look more like OS X Yosemite with some shadows and mild skeuomorphs. Then I may be able to actually find a decent looking wallpaper.

I actually pulled up a screenshot from iOS 6 up on an iPhone 6, and it looks amazing. iOS 7 and 8 neglect the quality of the Retina display, especially the Retina HD screens that have very deep blacks. iOS 6 on the iPhone 6 screen made it feel more like I was holding something "magical" again because of the curved glass and amazing colors and detail.

Yosemite has this, and I never look back at old versions of OS X and wish it still looked that way or try to downgrade (even though it's actually possible).

I get more bored with the current design os iOS every day.

 

[MallardDuck]

Hopefully they'll do the same thing with OSX 10.11.

These last two releases are the most unstable, buggy OS releases from Apple in many many years.

 

[Paddle1]

I am particularly curious to see what will eventually happen to the iPhone 5S. It has a beastly 64-bit processor and benchmarks put it virtually on par with the iPhone 6. The 6 only scores a tiny bit higher, as opposed to the usual doubling of speed, and thats with extra screen real estate to manage, so I'd wager the performance is pretty similar.

Therefore, if there ever comes a day where the 6 IS supported by iOS 10 or 11, and the 5S is not, we can almost certainly call BS on Apple's intentional lack of support for perfectly working devices. There is little reason why both devices would not end support at the same time.

----------



I beg to differ.

Well the 4s and 5 appeared on par with iOS 6 but there's actually quite a difference.

You know the iPhone 3G has the same specs as the original, but only the 3G got iOS 4, likely because it's "newer". The 3G was the device that really suffered because iOS 4 ran really badly on it while the original was fine with iOS 3. I think Apple feels "obligated" to support iOS devices for a certain amount of time, even if it runs badly.

 

[Rodster]

No way. I know quite a few people who've fairly recently bought a new iPad 2 (because apple thought it was a good idea to keep selling these underpowered outdated things), who've had them completely crippled by their surprise update to iOS8. I can't tell you how much ranting and raving I've been on the receiving end of, having been the one recommending Apple products to everyone I know. Apple's got some major fixing of their reputation to do after iOS 7&8.

It makes me hopeful that iOS 9 will show up on the iPad 2/3 since the iPad Mini is still being sold. Last year there was a debate that certain A5 devices would be dropped. It turned out to be false. I'm hoping that Apple does clean up iOS 9 and vastly improved the performance of the A5 devices.

My iPad 2 is currently on iOS 7 lockdown because I don't want to take a performance hit.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

If you want the yearly release cycle like you have, this just isn't going to happen. There isn't time to add tons of new features (200+ each update so far) and then take them an optimize them as much as possible and still make that yearly release.

Remember too that while they try to get these new operating systems out to as many as possible to test before release, not everyone reports back and helps with the bug fixes. I'd be surprised if 5% of the developers that download the betas bother to report any issues unless it directly affects their own programs. From there Apple has to prioritize and fix the biggest issues first. Then they have to fix everything they can within the short time they have. We're talking just 3 or so months between betas and release for a major OS. That's a huge undertaking.

So on top of the above you want them to then take them back, optimize them all and then fix any additional release bugs? Not going to happen in the 3 months they have. That's why instead if they want to do a fully optimized OS they have to release, fix the bugs they can, take it back later and do the optimization, release new betas and work through the bugs there and then release as they're doing in this case.

While your way would be more idea, it's just not doable in real life. If it were, everyone would do it. As it stands, no one is.

If they separated their core apps from the OS they could move faster on the OS. Make apps like Safari be updated as apps through the store instead as patched with the OS.

 

[kemal]

Wy make us wait for a entire new release if it is going to be bug fixes and such. C'mob Apple, you have a bug fix, release it!

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

4 and 8 GB would work fine but are still from yesteryear just as 16 GB is today

a 500 GB computer hard drive is certainly not the equivilant to a 16 GB chip on an iphone. an os upgrade alone requires a well over third of the space.

i dont recall receiving anything from apple informing me about how much space would be needed for upgrades, the sms database possibly ballooning or cache from apps being hard to get rid of but obviously you did.

Here is a novel idea, if 16GB doesn't work for your lifestyle, then use your god given free will to purchase a larger model.

 

[i4m]

and the reason Apple can't do this now is what again???

too many fanboys pretending everything is fine.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Basically, what this article means is iOS will all be ported in Swift.

What difference does it make? They could have a billion people in china manually do calculations if it meant my phone was faster. Couldn't care less how Apple does it.

 

[cjc2104]

This is all good stuff, but seriously Apple needs to start differentiating the iPhone OS and iPad OS. I love my iPad Air 2, but some serious functionality is missing like split screen multitasking. I hate how there isn't a customizable dashboard/widget screen either. There is so much real estate not being leveraged by Apple on the iPad, maybe this will help slumping iPad sales!

 

[technosix]

Release the software right the first time, and this isn't an issue. Don't introduce new features until they're done. While it is true that Apple isn't charging for it, they charged for Snow Leopard when MS had Service Packs. I don't want a Service Pack iOS "Upgrade" as I want an actual upgrade and bring the darn bug fixes WHEN YOU FIX THEM. This should be normal, routine maintenance. While the end result may be good, the truth is, this shouldn't have to wait many months, or be the main feature in itself.

Kudos!

Your post is right on the mark.

It's time for Apple to show us that they care about making software "that just works". More than capable and never hesitant to charge the highest prices in the industry for their devices, Apple owes it _to themselves _ to prove they're up to the task.

Why themselves? Simple really, it'll restore the foundation that they built their reputation on. It's normal for all new software to have some little bugs, but nothing as significant as we've experienced in the last couple of years.

Releasing overly buggy software also goes against their "it's all about the experience" bragging point.

Long overdue, Apple has a great opportunity to actually use their expertise and deep resources to deliver products that match the hype they're never hesitant to include in TV Commercials and every single public event like WWDC and others.

Apple can do it easily, I know they can...

----------

too many fanboys pretending everything is fine.

Very... Very well said!