iOS 14 software quality control is appalling...

[leman]

I have been using iOS 14 for a couple of days now, and wow, I am really disappointed by Apple's software quality control these days.

Translate app: not only it looks like ***, it also lacks a basic functionality like language direction change. Widgets: apparently no way to change a widget size or ungroup stacked widgets — you have to remove the entire thing and add it again. Who signs the things off? Apple is doing some really cool stuff and the level things are top-notch, but these last software releases have an alarming lack of polish...

 

[C DM]

I have been using iOS 14 for a couple of days now, and wow, I am really disappointed by Apple's software quality control these days.

Translate app: not only it looks like ***, it also lacks a basic functionality like language direction change. Widgets: apparently no way to change a widget size or ungroup stacked widgets — you have to remove the entire thing and add it again. Who signs the things off? Apple is doing some really cool stuff and the level things are top-notch, but these last software releases have an alarming lack of polish...

At least some of the things there if not even most might very well not be related to quality control, but potentially product/business/marketing wants and needs.

 

[Hakiroto]

I have been using iOS 14 for a couple of days now, and wow, I am really disappointed by Apple's software quality control these days.

Translate app: not only it looks like ***, it also lacks a basic functionality like language direction change. Widgets: apparently no way to change a widget size or ungroup stacked widgets — you have to remove the entire thing and add it again. Who signs the things off? Apple is doing some really cool stuff and the level things are top-notch, but these last software releases have an alarming lack of polish...

As a software engineer myself, all I can say is that the things you mentioned shouldn't necessarily block a 1.0 (or 14.0, in this case) release. They'll likely be refined in an upcoming release and I'm sure Apple have already addressed many of those things. It seems like widgets are a pretty common place for people to see bugs (I've noticed a few friends and family members mentioning stacking them). For the first version, though, I don't think they're too bad or that they're an indication that Apple's testing is appalling.

Don't get me wrong, though; I'm not trying to say that iOS 14.0 is perfect. I've seen a bunch of weird things as well and, I guess, I'd also love things like the Translate app to have more polish but it works right now and I'm sure it'll improve over time. Unfortunately, even for a company like Apple, writing software is hard and bugs are to be expected.

 

[leman]

As a software engineer myself, all I can say is that the things you mentioned shouldn't necessarily block a 1.0 (or 14.0, in this case) release. They'll likely be refined in an upcoming release and I'm sure Apple have already addressed many of those things. It seems like widgets are a pretty common place for people to see bugs (I've noticed a few friends and family members mentioning stacking them). For the first version, though, I don't think they're too bad or that they're an indication that Apple's testing is appalling.

I don't disagree with you (being a dev myself I know that one needs to prioritize) — my point is that these are very obvious gaps in usability. I don't want to be one of these people who go "everything was better earlier", but this is a stark contrast on usability- and perfection-focused Apple just few years ago. And it's not just the UI aspects — look at the Metal shading language specification for example. It looks like a shoddy word document, no hyperlinks, no way to find information...

In the past they had Jobs who was sticking his nose everywhere and telling people to make things better. It seems like there is nobody at Apple now who would fulfill this role. It seems to me that they need a person or group like that — perfectionists with high level of clearance who would pester the teams to polish their products.

 

[Abazigal]

In the past they had Jobs who was sticking his nose everywhere and telling people to make things better. It seems like there is nobody at Apple now who would fulfill this role. It seems to me that they need a person or group like that — perfectionists with high level of clearance who would pester the teams to polish their products.

Or maybe it’s simply because the Apple of yesteryear was still small enough for Steve Jobs to micromanage at such a level? Not to mention that one of the trade offs was that new features were literally being released at a snail’s pace.

Given the scale at which Apple operates today, I won’t be surprised if such a practice is simply no longer sustainable.

 

[Ansath]

apparently no way to change a widget size

It is in the beta notes that this isn’t working, so that means it is coming.

 

[VSMacOne]

OP has valid complaints, but 14.0 is just the beginning. I fully expect more customization options to be added to the Widgets and other new features they released.

 

[leman]

Or maybe it’s simply because the Apple of yesteryear was still small enough for Steve Jobs to micromanage at such a level? Not to mention that one of the trade offs was that new features were literally being released at a snail’s pace.

Given the scale at which Apple operates today, I won’t be surprised if such a practice is simply no longer sustainable.

I completely agree with you that it's not feasible to have a single person do all these things. But I don't see why having a team of "nit-pickers" wouldn't be doable. Three motivated perfectionists from different backgrounds (one arts, one tech, one social science/journalism), operating as group with equal privileges, should be able to cover all the software that Apple writes from the usability perspective, while catching a lot of things while they are still in design stage.

 

[Deliro]

Not really a QC issue. It’s more of a user experience issue. Again I’ve been saying this for awhile, the laser focus of Jobs, and a few other key folks that left Apple, on user experience is eroding. Cook has taken this company into a bottom line increased margins outfit. Cutting corners where possible.

Evidence of this is in their software, hardware, retail packaging, and services. You have to pay attention to the details to see it and the majority of people don’t.

So back to the OPs point yeah some of the offerings in iOS is sloppy and not well thought out.

The way Apple has dramatically increased internal management layers the past few years often times muddles a singular vision and creates bureaucracy. Who leads this vision now? And it’s more than Cook sounds bites that start with “here at Apple” that sound neat and that look good on a mission statement poster in the office.

 

[teeshot44]

Not really a QC issue. It’s more of a user experience issue. Again I’ve been saying this for awhile, the laser focus of Jobs, and a few other key folks that left Apple, on user experience is eroding. Cook has taken this company into a bottom line increased margins outfit. Cutting corners where possible.

Evidence of this is in their software, hardware, retail packaging, and services. You have to pay attention to the details to see it and the majority of people don’t.

So back to the OPs point yeah some of the offerings in iOS is sloppy and not well thought out.

The way Apple has dramatically increased internal management layers the past few years often times muddles a singular vision and creates bureaucracy. Who leads this vision now? And it’s more than Cook sounds bites that start with “here at Apple” that sound neat and that look good on a mission statement poster in the office.

The #1 reason that any company is in existence is to make money for other people Period ! And Cook increasing the bottom line as you say is doing that as he is paid to do.

 

[Abazigal]

I completely agree with you that it's not feasible to have a single person do all these things. But I don't see why having a team of "nit-pickers" wouldn't be doable. Three motivated perfectionists from different backgrounds (one arts, one tech, one social science/journalism), operating as group with equal privileges, should be able to cover all the software that Apple writes from the usability perspective, while catching a lot of things while they are still in design stage.

There’s a bug with the UI of control centre in the iPad that I have been flagging since the early public beta days, and it’s still there.

At some point, I do wonder how much of the issues we are seeing isn’t so much that Apple lacks a QC team, and more that they are aware of these bugs, but simply haven’t gotten round to fixing them, because of how much is on their plate these days.

 

[mpavilion]

I just can't believe you can't rearrange homescreens. My 2nd home screen is full of folders; and while it's nice to turn it off altogether (leaving a new, clean page with only a few widgets as page #2), I would much prefer to move it to position #3 -- so I can still quickly access it when I need to. Rearranging homescreens has been basic in Android since forever, and seems like a natural thing to be able to do when you're managing them.

 

[Marlon DLTH :)]

iOS 14 software quality control is much better than on iOS 13.

Look at the Photos app on iOS 13...