What might be happening with the Weather app is a trade-off between memory usage and performance. My theory is that in iOS7 the graphics and animation for each location were loaded when the app launched while in iOS8 these are only loaded when the user changes to a different location. So in exchange for lower memory footprint you get a slight judder the first time you switch to a different location. Given that most of the time people are only looking at their current location and the judder is very slight I think that the tradeoff makes a lot of sense.
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Is iOS 8 bad coding or planned obsolescence?
- Thread starter Imory
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That would be comically bad though if that were the case. They realise that the amount of RAM is so constrained (low) that they're willing to lower the memory footprint in exchange for a smooth experience?
As far as memory usage goes it's a case of every little bit helps. Reducing the footprint of the Weather app alone is probably not going to make much difference even on a 512MB device, but when you combine it with many other similar memory optimisations it can make a real difference. When the downside is so small (a tiny judder on first location change) I can definitely see why they would make the change.
Another small point is that, according to the ex-apple employees, they never ever do any sort of planned obsolescence, or code anything to be slow on old hardware. They actually get quite angry when people even suggest that they do - so i'm going to believe them
Glad to hear that. As a software engineer myself, I know I'd want stuff to run on as much as possible.
I think iOS 7 has gone through too many changes in a year (design-wise, + change for the sake of change)
Same for iOS 8 (implementing Swift into this thing, along with all these thousand new APIs and the iCloud Drive was huge)
So yes, for these two releases, Apple would have needed much more time, but they're trying to follow the ferocious competition, which lowers their Quality Assurance.
I don't think this will happen with iOS 9 now that the big construction site is over. iOS 9 should be about new features, and not that much stuff will happen under-the-hood as opposed to these two previous releases.
As for iOS 8.1, it's crashed my phone completely 6 times so far. iOS 8 wasn't stable, but it didn't do that. I'm dying for 8.2 at this point...
Same for iOS 8 (implementing Swift into this thing, along with all these thousand new APIs and the iCloud Drive was huge)
So yes, for these two releases, Apple would have needed much more time, but they're trying to follow the ferocious competition, which lowers their Quality Assurance.
I don't think this will happen with iOS 9 now that the big construction site is over. iOS 9 should be about new features, and not that much stuff will happen under-the-hood as opposed to these two previous releases.
As for iOS 8.1, it's crashed my phone completely 6 times so far. iOS 8 wasn't stable, but it didn't do that. I'm dying for 8.2 at this point...
Definitely poor coding because the weather app lags even on the iPhone 6 and it's the latest iPhone.
However, it happens on the iPhone 6 so I see no reason how Apple could possibly justify that.
Exactly my point. It even lags on the iPhone 6 which is completely unacceptable. No, this is just terrible coding or an inexcusable way of increasing even more profit (by not giving more RAM).
You are making mountains out of molehills! Making the Weather app preload graphics on the 5s, 6 and 6+ only wouldn't be difficult to do but it would still take effort away from developing the rest of iOS and increase the number of testing scenarios. Given that iOS8 shipped with a good number of bugs and without some big features it's obvious that priority in the last few months wasn't on making very minor tweaks to the performance of the Weather app.
Attempting to paint this as Apple being either incompetent or malicious just doesn't make sense. It is far more likely that Apple has simply attempted to do too much in 7 and 8. To be honest, if the worse thing you can find is a tiny judder in the Weather app the Apple has done a pretty good job.
That's not the worst thing. It's one of many things. And honestly, it doesn't make much sense and frankly yours is nothing but a theory. Whether it is correct or not is something neither of us knows.
It doesn't matter what type of priorities they had, they released an incomplete OS which would be lambasted or laughed at if this weren't Apple. Apple lives by a motto that they deliver great products with great user experience and they've started to compromise on that.
So who's fault is it if they tried to accomplish too much? Surely they only have themselves to blame if they can't account for a solid experience or deliver enough RAM to their latest device. The weather app is just a great example which apparently has been affecting all devices. I mentioned the "recents" in the phone app but other than that I've left iOS 8 for now and run 7.1.2 on a 5.
This is no witch hunt by any means, but I'm also not going to make excuses where there are none.
The sad thing is that iOS is getting heavier and more bloated with each passing release while Android is getting faster and more efficient.
There will come a point where Android will pass iOS in this regard. In fact it's probably already happened with Android L.
The worst part is that Apple won't care. They just sold a bazillion iPhones in the last few weeks and many more people will be switching to iOS in the coming weeks.
There will come a point where Android will pass iOS in this regard. In fact it's probably already happened with Android L.
The worst part is that Apple won't care. They just sold a bazillion iPhones in the last few weeks and many more people will be switching to iOS in the coming weeks.
I actually never noticed the lag in the Weather app until now. To be fair, the rest of the app seems to move along at a nice 60 FPS. That said, it's still weird.
You really want to see inexplicable lag? Open Safari on an iPad and tap on the address bar. Then scroll through the top sites list. It lags, even on an iPad Air 2.
You really want to see inexplicable lag? Open Safari on an iPad and tap on the address bar. Then scroll through the top sites list. It lags, even on an iPad Air 2.
I can't agree. Bloated implies useless "stuff". What apple added was core functionality setting them up for the future. Chip manufacturers are producing small chips with less heat, memory is less expensive allowing more functionality in software.
IOS 8.1 runs quickly on my 5S. Android may be faster, but it's a moot point. There's not much of a difference between extremely fast and instant.
There is an extremely simple fix to this problem - allow users to downgrade to older software. It allows a trial period on older devices without the irreversible consequences. Every other major software I can think of has the option, but Apple has taken it away on iOS. Even OSX has the option to downgrade available.
A) Final Answer!
Even newer phones run like crap on iOS 8, so it's probably the fact that it's not completely stable like 7.1.2. Remember iOS 7 before? Same situation. I'm sure it'll get to a decent stage eventually. But the question is: when?
Even newer phones run like crap on iOS 8, so it's probably the fact that it's not completely stable like 7.1.2. Remember iOS 7 before? Same situation. I'm sure it'll get to a decent stage eventually. But the question is: when?
I guess you are.
Funnily enough it sort of feels like that. Then again I haven't used pure Android for a while so I can't really make a comment on it.
Yeah.
I actually never noticed the lag in the Weather app until now. To be fair, the rest of the app seems to move along at a nice 60 FPS. That said, it's still weird.
You really want to see inexplicable lag? Open Safari on an iPad and tap on the address bar. Then scroll through the top sites list. It lags, even on an iPad Air 2.
It is weird. Unfortunately I don't use an iPad so I can't check that, but I've heard of that problem.
While choice is never bad, that still wouldn't really solve this issue. I would rather see them taking their time on delivering a solid experience. Your idea could create fragmentation in the long run.
And that is to me completely unacceptable. If you pay over 700 for a premium phone, then you should be getting a premium experience. The release of iOS 8 has been nothing short of terrible. Is it fair to ask customers to wait for something they should have received when they bought the phone?
It might make sense to go to a 2-yr cycle for major iOS changes, maybe when the S phones are introduced. Then do a point update for the next new phone in the series. That means no major hardware and software changes at the same time.
Offer public betas to get the software more fully debugged and better optimized. Yosemite is a model to follow.
Give the option to downgrade to the last major stable release. This removes the problem of slowing down older hardware. Don't like the new OS? Downgrade.
By the end of an OS cycle, it's always pretty good and pretty well debugged. The thing is to reduce the time until a new OS is debugged and so lengthen the time a user has using a solid OS vs a buggy/laggy one.
I want my stuff to "just work" again.
Offer public betas to get the software more fully debugged and better optimized. Yosemite is a model to follow.
Give the option to downgrade to the last major stable release. This removes the problem of slowing down older hardware. Don't like the new OS? Downgrade.
By the end of an OS cycle, it's always pretty good and pretty well debugged. The thing is to reduce the time until a new OS is debugged and so lengthen the time a user has using a solid OS vs a buggy/laggy one.
I want my stuff to "just work" again.
I do agree with you. It's pretty disappointing to see that they make fun of Android software optimization and other platforms yet Apple's own platform is buggy and terrible until later in the year when they push out updates. iOS 8 is pretty terrible. Think it's the worst update in terms of stability and I've been with Apple since iOS 4.
It has been this bad. An iphone 3G was unusable when iOS 4 came out, after only 2 years, while my 4S is still going great(well not for everyone) after 3 years.
I was in that 3G/iOS4 boat which is exactly why I'm holding out updating my 4s. It's doing just fine on 7.1.2.
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