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Wasn’t iOS 14 supposed to be under going a more careful QC process?

J

jrdatrackstar1223

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 31, 2017
219
101
Brownsburg, IN
www.bloomberg.com

Inside Apple’s iPhone Software Shakeup After Buggy iOS 13 Debut

Software chief Federighi is overhauling development and testing of iOS 14 to make it easier to spot problems early.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

Was this supposed to be in effect? From my experience, it seems many of the same quality control issues still exists and iOS 14 isn’t really any better than 13 in terms of software quality. Granted, I think ANYTHING is better than 13 was, but toward the end of it all it seemed ok.

The iMessage keyboard freeze, WiFi and Bluetooth issues, (heck, even typing in this forum), are things that should be working first as the core experience before even widgets. These are things that should’ve been caught during testing aren’t just one-offs that could be fixed with a hard reset and backup restore (their support team’s favorite go-to solution). As a software engineer myself, I understand you can’t catch everything and that a lot bugs are just there as a part of software, but a lot of these things shouldn’t be included with their releases while they’re focusing on “new emoji”. These are issues that just shouldn’t happen as part of the core experience, whether it be new devices or legacy ones. In my experience, iOS 14 has nearly been iOS 13 with widgets, with no integration testing. Do we expect perfection? No, but we do expect software to continue to improve and not get worse from update to update with basic things we use our phone for. Technical or not, everyone uses WiFi and iMessage....

I know this forum represents a small subset of users who are technical and may not be the voice for the iOS user base as a whole, but I have still been very disappointed with Apple lately and it seems they have really lost their way with software that no longer “just works”. Many of the issues I see posted are similar ones my wife faces and she is the least technical person on the planet.
 
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I’m one with none of the issues the OP cites save one and that being the annoying pop up for a few days. If he is as he says a software engineer, he would understand completely that nothing was lost in the process by adding a few new emoji. The vast majority of iPhone users are the non technical and non users or readers of this forum and just want a device that works. This device certainly does that, as well as what no one would have believed possible when we were all worried about the year 2K bug.
 
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teeshot44 said:
I’m one with none of the issues the OP cites save one and that being the annoying pop up for a few days. If he is as he says a software engineer, he would understand completely that nothing was lost in the process by adding a few new emoji. The vast majority of iPhone users are the non technical and non users or readers of this forum and just want a device that works. This device certainly does that, as well as what no one would have believed possible when we were all worried about the year 2K bug.
Click to expand...

Wow is it that serious? Yes, I’m a software engineer and one who works with a company that ensures we have thorough QA testing from both devs and a designated testing team. If you don’t have issues great, no need to get sensitive and you don’t have to post.

I didn’t say there was anything wrong with releasing emoji and other non techie features (if you would’ve read the whole thing you’d see that I said I understand this forum only represents a small subset of iOS users). I said it’s a problem when those features are worked on at the expense of developer time that should be devoted to bugs that are given through feedback app.

Again, if you read the whole post you’d see I mentioned my wife (a non-technical person) experiencing the same issues as I with a totally different device.

Thanks...
 
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jrdatrackstar1223 said:
Wow is it that serious? Yes, I’m a software engineer and one who works with a company that ensures we have thorough QA testing from both devs and a designated testing team. If you don’t have issues great, no need to get sensitive and you don’t have to post.

Thanks...
Click to expand...
if the issues you're having aren't universal, it's not simply an issue of QC. there are so many variables (the hardware, the other apps we run, settings). issues everyone has need to be addressed immediately; the rest need to be sorted out. and (as you well know), there's never a 'finite' point, where everything is perfect... for everyone.
 
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fisherking said:
if the issues you're having aren't universal, it's not simply an issue of QC. there are so many variables (the hardware, the other apps we run, settings). issues everyone has need to be addressed immediately; the rest need to be sorted out. and (as you well know), there's never a 'finite' point, where everything is perfect... for everyone.
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I totally agree, which is why I said there are always going to be bugs that slip through. However, basic things that should always be tested with any release should reveal bugs (using iMessage for at least a week will surely reveal the freezing bug while typing). Based on the number of iOS devices being used on a wide variety of devices (I’m on an 8 for example), there will always be different configurations of things that result in different experiences (battery life, lagging and background processes, etc). I’m not talking about things that will vary from person to person based on usage patterns or apps.

To add, the argument that there are a small subset of techie users who would complain on this forum, the same could be said for users who wouldn’t even know how to file a complaint or use even the apple support chat to voice the issues they have (again, my wife as an example).
 
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I will also add that I am one who very much supports using Apple devices vs Android devices just based on their support alone. I am by no means saying this should be easy and they do keep devices updated for years well beyond their age (something that speaks to their commitment to their customers and the user experience). This is not iOS 13 by any means, but I am coming from the experience of myself and the experience of many I know.
 
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fisherking said:
if the issues you're having aren't universal, it's not simply an issue of QC. there are so many variables (the hardware, the other apps we run, settings)
Click to expand...
All of these variables are completely under Apple’s control. They build the hardware; they choose which hardware to support with new releases; they restrict third party apps to those which they vet and approve; they decide which settings to expose to end users. A large part of Apple’s mantra is the benefit of a controlled and curated ecosystem, but more often than not they choose to meet their own arbitrary marketing deadlines rather than focusing on software QC and the impact it has on their users - they are perfectly capable of releasing stable software (look at iOS 12), they are simply choosing not to.

It’s not unreasonable to expect the devices we pay thousands of dollars for to work reliably.
 
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I can understand the frustration. It's one thing for an Android OEM to have bugs as they have less control of the device (OS from Google, hardware drivers from each component makers, their own skin/customization, inexperience in software development, etc). But Apple pride themselves everytime by saying how tightly their software and hardware are. Thus it is funny to see seemingly silly bugs and general questionable qualities.

Imo it's time to stop this yearly number release cycle non-sense. It only pushes the engineers to do things that are more keynote-worthy instead of fine tuning the basics.
 
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teeshot44 said:
I’m one with none of the issues the OP cites save one and that being the annoying pop up for a few days. If he is as he says a software engineer, he would understand completely that nothing was lost in the process by adding a few new emoji. The vast majority of iPhone users are the non technical and non users or readers of this forum and just want a device that works. This device certainly does that, as well as what no one would have believed possible when we were all worried about the year 2K bug.
Click to expand...

Nothing was lost? If my team has a capacity of 20 workdays (for example) for a strict deadline and we chose to work on a similar feature we’d easily lose time that could be put towards defects etc. Then there’s all the QA time for that feature too. Nothing is free.
 
Ubuntu said:
Nothing was lost? If my team has a capacity of 20 workdays (for example) for a strict deadline and we chose to work on a similar feature we’d easily lose time that could be put towards defects etc. Then there’s all the QA time for that feature too. Nothing is free.
Click to expand...
And nothing is perfect no matter the size, dedication, time, experience or ultimate goal of any team. And more to the point, some people will never be satisfied with any product.
 
Matt T said:
All of these variables are completely under Apple’s control. They build the hardware; they choose which hardware to support with new releases; they restrict third party apps to those which they vet and approve; they decide which settings to expose to end users. A large part of Apple’s mantra is the benefit of a controlled and curated ecosystem, but more often than not they choose to meet their own arbitrary marketing deadlines rather than focusing on software QC and the impact it has on their users - they are perfectly capable of releasing stable software (look at iOS 12), they are simply choosing not to.

It’s not unreasonable to expect the devices we pay thousands of dollars for to work reliably.
Click to expand...
"they are simply choosing not to" ;)


yes, that's how it works. companies like apple make products, then sabotage your experience, because it's a good business practice.

you don't understand the difficulty in maintaining numerous hardware devices, 3rd-party software, variables in settings, carrier. etc. and that's ok.
 
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teeshot44 said:
And nothing is perfect no matter the size, dedication, time, experience or ultimate goal of any team. And more to the point, some people will never be satisfied with any product.
Click to expand...
True, but that doesn’t negate the point that a team dropping a feature can easily accommodate more time for polish and bug fixes.
 
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