What were developers doing?

[sully54]

So in light of this maps debacle Apple is going through, one must ask, why didn't the developers and catch this at all?

I mean, iOS 6 has been out in beta form since WWDC in June. that means, developers has had 3 months to tell apple all the issues with maps. Apple would have likely listened (it wouldn't have been the first time apple has pulled a feature in the final release of an OS, or at least delayed its introduction).

isn't the whole point of the 3 months of beta so that devs can use the OS, test it, and report any issues to apple?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. not trying to place blame on developers here (ultimately, it's apple's product after all), I'm just a bit confused then with the role of those developers who had access to the beta.

 

[JS82712]

So in light of this maps debacle Apple is going through, one must ask, why didn't the developers and catch this at all?

I mean, iOS 6 has been out in beta form since WWDC in June. that means, developers has had 3 months to tell apple all the issues with maps. Apple would have likely listened (it wouldn't have been the first time apple has pulled a feature in the final release of an OS, or at least delayed its introduction).

isn't the whole point of the 3 months of beta so that devs can use the OS, test it, and report any issues to apple?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. not trying to place blame on developers here (ultimately, it's apple's product after all), I'm just a bit confused then with the role of those developers who had access to the beta.

Now that you've brought it up.....
the developers were either being lazy or just incompetent this year...
look at how many apps were ready for passbook at launch. /facepalm

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

I'm just a bit confused then with the role of those developers who had access to the beta.

The role is the developer is to test and make sure their applications work correctly, submit errors/issues/problems that effect their applications and to get their apps into the store.

Is not the developers main role to test all of Apples stuff unless it directly impacts their app or they feel like it.

Now if Apple opened up the program to say let everyone try the release candidate (at their own risk) then there would be a lot more people ripping it apart and reporting before a GM is put out.

But as it is you have to pay $99 and most people it not worth paying that just to test and report general bugs.

 

[NedBookPro]

Ditto...

I'd happily beta test it... but not for $99 a year.
That's a bit excessive when you consider that OS X itself is about $20


maybe they should have a separate beta tester stream at a lower cost perhaps, or even free. It certainly would be in their interest to do so.

.

 

[itickings]

So in light of this maps debacle Apple is going through, one must ask, why didn't the developers and catch this at all?

To be fair - many developers, bloggers as well as the community have all been expressing concern regarding the mapping data for a long while. The technical part is decent enough and somewhat tested, it just doesn't have good enough data to use, which Apple must have been aware of.

 

[Ubuntu]

So in light of this maps debacle Apple is going through, one must ask, why didn't the developers and catch this at all?

I mean, iOS 6 has been out in beta form since WWDC in June. that means, developers has had 3 months to tell apple all the issues with maps. Apple would have likely listened (it wouldn't have been the first time apple has pulled a feature in the final release of an OS, or at least delayed its introduction).

isn't the whole point of the 3 months of beta so that devs can use the OS, test it, and report any issues to apple?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. not trying to place blame on developers here (ultimately, it's apple's product after all), I'm just a bit confused then with the role of those developers who had access to the beta.

Well, you wouldn't have really heard of such complaints as we were bound by an NDA so we couldn't just express our anger at such issues. I frequently submitted bug reports (as a couple of my apps are maps-focused so I noticed many issues) and they seemed to have been ignored, but as I said, developers weren't really allowed to openly discuss the beta in the open internet - so I feel the issue was really with Apple. I'm saying this because of the list of bugs my colleagues and I compiled over the few months, many of which still seem to be present.

 

[cclloyd]

Well at least now that it is out the 6.0.1 update should be out soon enough fixing many many bugs in it since everyone gets to complain.

 

[WordMasterRice]

So in light of this maps debacle Apple is going through, one must ask, why didn't the developers and catch this at all?

I mean, iOS 6 has been out in beta form since WWDC in June. that means, developers has had 3 months to tell apple all the issues with maps. Apple would have likely listened (it wouldn't have been the first time apple has pulled a feature in the final release of an OS, or at least delayed its introduction).

isn't the whole point of the 3 months of beta so that devs can use the OS, test it, and report any issues to apple?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. not trying to place blame on developers here (ultimately, it's apple's product after all), I'm just a bit confused then with the role of those developers who had access to the beta.

Have you looked at the Maps thread in the iOS 6 section. It was started the day the first beta came out and most knowledgable devs knew that it would be terrible. Honestly anybody on these forums that were blindsided by maps only has themselves to blame. The thread had thousands of posts before the public release. Apple doesn't really listen to devs.

 

[kas23]

There's likely a problem when half of these "developers" are probably people who are gladly paying $99 just to have the next iOS a few months early.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Ditto...

I'd happily beta test it... but not for $99 a year.
That's a bit excessive when you consider that OS X itself is about $20


maybe they should have a separate beta tester stream at a lower cost perhaps, or even free. It certainly would be in their interest to do so.

.

Not exactly: $99 buys you into the developer program for iOS and another $99 into the same for OSX. Within this program you get beta version to test your own stuff.

The $20 are for general update of OSX while iOS is a free upgrade (when hardware still supported )

 

[8a22a]

I reported every error I found during the beta period and they still haven't fixed most of them.

 

[NedBookPro]

I reported every error I found during the beta period and they still haven't fixed most of them.

I think this is probably a big problem. I've seen a few people say this.

I've also submitted some feedback via the apple website (I'm not in the developer program). I know they can't reply to everyone, but one would hope that somebody reads and then considers problems that people submit.

 

[chriscl]

What were the Developers doing?

Do you mean the people who actually wrote Apple's Maps app?

If so, these guys/girls are probably mostly in the continental USA. If therefore, I'd say, from the number of US users posting and saying "well, Maps is fine for me" I'd say the Developers were doing their jobs, but maybe concentrating their testing on US locations.

Where they *don't* seem to have tested is most locations outside the US!

 

[NedBookPro]

Not exactly: $99 buys you into the developer program for iOS and another $99 into the same for OSX. Within this program you get beta version to test your own stuff.

The $20 are for general update of OSX while iOS is a free upgrade (when hardware still supported )

What I meant was that it would be good if there was a separate beta testing program for iOS itself outside of the developer environment.

$99 per year is a lot for non programmers to pay for that privilege which certainly would help apple.

Just an idea.

.

 

[mrapplegate]

I think the OP is confused, like PsyOpWarlord said above the role of the developer program is not to beta test for Apple but to test and get their OWN apps ready for iOS 6.

Along the ways, we report bugs to Apple and like others have said many go unanswered. It gets frustrating but you can only do so much, report, report, and pray it gets fixed at least by iOS 7

 

[8a22a]

I think this is probably a big problem. I've seen a few people say this.

I've also submitted some feedback via the apple website (I'm not in the developer program). I know they can't reply to everyone, but one would hope that somebody reads and then considers problems that people submit.

They need to allow us to edit them directly really, but I guess that would leave it open to sabotage.