This is just a question I'm asking out of curiosity. I'm not endorsing or advising anything, but from a purely technical standpoint, does Apple gain anything from having lots of non-dev testers? Obviously there are quite a few out there, and I just wonder if any good data comes in, since these people aren't going to be sending in any actual bug reports. For instance, do you think the automatic diagnostic reports do much good, as far as testing the OS and identifying problems goes?
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Non-dev testers...
- Thread starter Silvereel
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They don't really gain much at all since those folks don't have access to filing actual bug reports.
All they really do is make a muck in the retail stores trying to get phones fixed over dying batteries etc. And annoy developers posting reviews that apps are crap cause they haven't been updated for iOS 7
Utter nonsense. Based on a biased, narrow minded opinion. Or show us proof of your "dying batteries" theory. Go on, I dare you...
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syd430
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They can gauge their reaction on public forums, giving them something broader to work with than just developers and bug reports. It definitely helps to get get an overall perception from a user base that resembles the general public a lot closer than developers that are usually more focused on technical nuisances.
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When this topic comes up, people always focus upon the minority of users who really don't appreciate what a Beta is all about. Those that complain everywhere including iTunes Store reviews when their favourite app is not working.
There is a big difference between complaining and highlighting a problem and most, I believe, do the latter.
Apple could lock out non-developers if they wanted to very easily.
The fact that they have always allowed users with access to a little technical know how to install the Betas is not an accident.
Although the most in depth and valuable info will come from employees and developers, the later Betas are tested by the nominated close family of Apple Employees as a way of judging usability etc with fresh eyes.
Apple employees can be too close to the process to see everything and as you would expect, most of a developer's main focus is providing the best experience of their apps on iOS 7.
The invited Apple employee family members and non-developers with access have no motivation other than to ensure the OS works better and introduces new, useful features that enhance the overall ownership of an iDevice.
Although not their main source of info, Apple will have a small number of people tasked with monitoring popular Apple specific forums like this and an element of the feedback from here will definitely prove valuable.
There is a big difference between complaining and highlighting a problem and most, I believe, do the latter.
Apple could lock out non-developers if they wanted to very easily.
The fact that they have always allowed users with access to a little technical know how to install the Betas is not an accident.
Although the most in depth and valuable info will come from employees and developers, the later Betas are tested by the nominated close family of Apple Employees as a way of judging usability etc with fresh eyes.
Apple employees can be too close to the process to see everything and as you would expect, most of a developer's main focus is providing the best experience of their apps on iOS 7.
The invited Apple employee family members and non-developers with access have no motivation other than to ensure the OS works better and introduces new, useful features that enhance the overall ownership of an iDevice.
Although not their main source of info, Apple will have a small number of people tasked with monitoring popular Apple specific forums like this and an element of the feedback from here will definitely prove valuable.
Actually he's not far wrong.
Why do you think Apple has instigated a new policy with iOS 7 - if you have a fault, and you cannot restore to iOS 6, you wait until iOS 7 has launched before getting service.
Bug reports that are submitted by non-developers will 99% of the time be irrelevant. Apple doesn't want to know that spotify crashes, or that an icon isn't lined up properly - they want to know that NSString.encodeWithCoder returns null when you supply a non-UTF8 string, or that NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains returns the wrong value. The beta is released to devs for API testing only - nothing more.
This illustrates my point perfectly.
Of course specific technical feedback like this is vital to Apple, but so is information on the wider "user experience" of iOS 7.
"This new feature change means I now have to do two steps instead of one to access the same info" etc
That's where some non-developers can prove useful.
But those sort of things are not bugs. They are design flaws in the users opinion.
This is true, but a Beta test is not just about finding bugs. It's also about functionality/usability.
Look at the calendar app, for example. When first introduced on iOS 7 Beta there was no "at a glance" dots to quickly see which days were busy. This has now been changed, presumably from feedback from all parties, including the non-developers.
It hasn't gone far enough yet, in my opinion, as there is still no pane showing only the appointments booked in day view - but that's another story.
I see good point. I notice that Apple use the bug report for feature requests / enhancements too - so it's not a far stretch to think that they listen to user experience through it, too.
As has been said before - if Apple wanted to lock out non devs they could. Installing IOS 7 on a non registered IOS device is a well known simple process that Apple could easily block. Look at a lot of the aesthetic changes that have been made through the various betas. If Apple were only interested in Dev feedback on broken APIs at the moment, why would they be making these visual changes that just happen to mirror what is being posted in these forums by many people? Apple clearly are monitoring feedback from the community and making suitable changes off the back of that. Free feedback - they would be mad to ignore it!
This isn't a beta test. It's a developer preview.
Apple has their own internal usability testing.
Maybe from a marketing point of view they have x amount of people boasting how good iOS 7 is!
However i do agree with some of the above comments, i'm not a dev, but using iOS7, i understand that it's in Beta and my phone may crash, apps may not work etc. Hence why i don't complain about it!
Those that don't understand this really shouldn't have an iPhone never mind a Dev account!
However i do agree with some of the above comments, i'm not a dev, but using iOS7, i understand that it's in Beta and my phone may crash, apps may not work etc. Hence why i don't complain about it!
Those that don't understand this really shouldn't have an iPhone never mind a Dev account!
well, i am not a paid dev but i got iOS7 and i file bug reports all the time and apple is actually thanking me via email so BITE ME
plus imo the "regular ppl" are the real testers as devs may overlook some simple things easily. its like asking some math genius for a simple 3rd grade answer which he may not even be able to answer cuz its just too easy for him by now. u know what im mean
plus imo the "regular ppl" are the real testers as devs may overlook some simple things easily. its like asking some math genius for a simple 3rd grade answer which he may not even be able to answer cuz its just too easy for him by now. u know what im mean
I am a non-dev and while I haven't reported any bugs or anything, I still think Apple get my diagnostic reports. And I'm sure they will help out in some way. I mean, they can't complain at getting more data!
I don't have a developer account, but I'm running the beta. I have no intentions on going into the store for any issues, as I have yet to have a major issue so far, surprisingly just one crash in beta 4 that rebooted just fine. I don't post reviews on applications, nor would I ever post a review on an app that wasn't built for iOS7. Some people are idiots, but I'm doing no harm in running the beta.
Obviously though, internal testing isn't always enough, otherwise Apple wouldn't be making usability changes throughout the beta (or even after general release).
On an unrelated note, how are all of you non-devs submitting bug reports? How does that work for you, and how technical are your reports?
Heh good analogy. Just wondering, how do you file the bug reports if youre not a registered developer?