It used to be that we managed to develop, prototype, localize, test in geos all over the planet and get product approved for distribution – even do a major processor change when the company's internal communication depended on AppleLink at modem dialup speeds. I doubt things were less secretive back then.
Bunch of whiners now if you ask me.
I agree with you that things were secretive “back then”. But you are overlooking one huge difference - “back then” they did not have to work daily on the next group of iPhone models to meet a yearly introduction to keep Wall Street happy. That’s the world that Apple finds itself in today. Apparently it’s very important that new phones be released every year. Having the workforce at home is not helping that schedule.
Some employees have found it difficult to use Apple's own consumer platforms, like FaceTime or iMessage, because they weren't designed for enterprise uses.
Let's hope Apple catches the opportunity to turn FaceTime and iMessage from toys into real applications.
Really bad choice of words, particularly "toys" Yes, both products are marginal for Enterprise use. Apple are likely to be content with the performance of both products for the non-enterprise use-cases (much bigger market) they are designed for. No doubt, the whole CORVID-19 pandemic will expose shortcomings in a multitude of areas that some entrepreneurs will pick up on and make themselves very wealthy with a solution .. necessity IS the mother of invention.
Some employees have found it difficult to use Apple's own consumer platforms, like FaceTime or iMessage, because they weren't designed for enterprise uses.
Let's hope Apple catches the opportunity to turn FaceTime and iMessage from toys into real applications.
So now any app that isn’t designed for enterprise is a “toy”? Yeah no.
Some people here have the same type of reaction the Chinese had with the COVID-19 outbreak; ban, block, suppress and eradicate any criticism or discussion of missing functionality, performance or interoperability experienced for the holy Apple products.
Fact is, Apple have largely forgotten there is something called Enterprise or even small business out there, and excluded them from their testing and use cases. Unless it fits precisely in their shrinking and increasingly locked down ecosystem, shut it or cut it out.
1) You really think Apple's ecosystem is shrinking? A year ago it was reported that Apple's installed based for iPhone had tipped 1.4 billion.
Yes the ecosystem is shrinking in reach.. it used to be that the Mac was more or less the most versatile, in many ways most open and desirable client, desktop, portable, small server there was. Now it is an increasingly overpriced locked down, glued down, soldered down, thermal throttling display item for the special interest and woke.
You’re pretty ignorant of Apple’s over forty year history. They’re a consumer company, always have been. Their products target consumer markets. Like these people from the Apple II days:
...Normal consumers (aka “normals”) are not DIY tinkerers or hobbyists. They simply do not care about glued or soldered components, if the end result is more reliable. Since the first Macintosh prototypes, Jobs kept it locked down. Read it and weep:
As for your woke comment, that’s just an incredibly stupid thing to say. Jobs always championed liberal arts and equal civil rights. Triggering angry white males was not something they were too concerned about.
“One employee said if a hardware component breaks on the factory line, the company is asking manufacturers to send photos to engineers in the U.S. to assess the problem, since there are often no Apple staff on-site to troubleshoot the issue. The employee described the photos as grainy, adding that they were never quite as clear as engineers needed them to be.”
Oh, come on! One employee? REALLY?? That is the extent of the “source” for this slam on Apple?
Get real. The latest iPhone, which I GUARANTEE you will be made available to someone in a position of trust in that operation, can take a great close-up picture, or even a slow-motion movie, if required.
This is about the lamest excuse for pounding on Apple that I have ever heard – and that’s saying something!
And here’s my pet peeve for the day. Bloggers are still using the term iMessage. You see it all the time. THERE IS NO SUCH APP AS IMESSAGE ANY MORE. For several macOs iterations now it’s been renamed to just ‘Messages’. Why would a blog writer, especially one employed by AppleInsider, still be calling it iMessage? We’re in Catalina and iOS 13.4 now. Get with the correct name.
They referred to it as a platform, which is not incorrect. The foundation of Messages is still iMessage. /sadtrombone for you
All this Covid-19 situation of staying at home and working at home, makes me think that apple has a long way to improve it’s software and services. For a better remote collaboration between workers at home and also between families or groups. It would be great to have has well a good conference call software for the Apple Tv.
An Apple TV app? Using what camera?
You can mirror your screen from your Mac/iPhone/iPad to the ATV.
This sounds like a bunch of whining from a few employees who aren't used to dealing with special or demanding circumstances.
The current situation has meant changes for how most people work across many industries. Deal with it.
Complaining about a slow internet connection and one "source" shares their connection with 4 others?
They work for Apple, can't they afford their own connection? They should get their own connection instead of whining about it. They should have multiple internet connections, home cable, fiber, LTE.
This really just sounds like a bunch of whining in the article. This is only a temporary situation, deal with it, get the job done, don't anonymously whine and run to the media because certain people can't handle a temporary challenge.
There’s some perfectly reasonably complaints here - particularly with regards to prototype testing. And AppleInsider probably searched people out rather than the reverse to explain some issues pertaining to Apple.
“One employee said if a hardware component breaks on the factory line, the company is asking manufacturers to send photos to engineers in the U.S. to assess the problem, since there are often no Apple staff on-site to troubleshoot the issue. The employee described the photos as grainy, adding that they were never quite as clear as engineers needed them to be.”
Oh, come on! One employee? REALLY?? That is the extent of the “source” for this slam on Apple?
Get real. The latest iPhone, which I GUARANTEE you will be made available to someone in a position of trust in that operation, can take a great close-up picture, or even a slow-motion movie, if required.
This is about the lamest excuse for pounding on Apple that I have ever heard – and that’s saying something!
Why do people get so upset about a piece which has some factual information about Apple employees who have to work from home. Surely it’s obvious that Apple is going to have problems, in particular as a hardware company, with the new arrangement. Where’s the “criticism” of Apple here? There’s a room in the new Apple campus which is an anechoic chamber, not being able to use that is clearly a loss. Other labs have similar issues (the hardware design labs have all kinds of prototype machinery). Software guys aren’t really affected.
Someone said that there are 1.4B iPhones out there, that’s active devices including macs, iPads, iPods, homepods, iPhones, apple TVs, and I think even AirPods.
It used to be that we managed to develop, prototype, localize, test in geos all over the planet and get product approved for distribution – even do a major processor change when the company's internal communication depended on AppleLink at modem dialup speeds. I doubt things were less secretive back then.
Bunch of whiners now if you ask me.
I agree with you that things were secretive “back then”. But you are overlooking one huge difference - “back then” they did not have to work daily on the next group of iPhone models to meet a yearly introduction to keep Wall Street happy. That’s the world that Apple finds itself in today. Apparently it’s very important that new phones be released every year. Having the workforce at home is not helping that schedule.
I'd say that Apple itself have painted it into the corner that is the breathtaking pace of delivering yearly major revisions of macOS and iOS. There is absolutely no reason why it has to be like this, as they could still deliver hardware performance updates and incrementally add features to existing operating system versions that would satisfy the market.
The Macintosh Plus in combination with LaserWriter spawned and created whole new industries.
Excel for Macintosh OS propelled Apple into businesses and EDU at a time when Microsoft's spreadsheet offering on their own operating system was focused on "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run".
Apple always had a Server version since the Macintosh Plus with 40 MB HD combo days, until Timmy killed it off in the most pathetic manner ever, and threw thousands of small businesses out of their portfolio.
Mac OS X on Intel made Macs the device for programmers, security professionals, consultants and IT administrators, forcing the Mac into corporate IT, and spearheaded the acceptance of the iPhone in business.
The Apple II created the basis for Apple's once strong position in EDU. In medical and pharmaceutical industries it was widely used in laboratories, and later the Macintosh in medical imaging.
All this Covid-19 situation of staying at home and working at home, makes me think that apple has a long way to improve it’s software and services. For a better remote collaboration between workers at home and also between families or groups. It would be great to have has well a good conference call software for the Apple Tv.
An Apple TV app? Using what camera?
You can mirror your screen from your Mac/iPhone/iPad to the ATV.
I know I can mirror, but that’s not so user friendly. Mainly because of you iDevice camera location. If you have iPad or Mac on a table, and tv at front people will see you watching in the wrong direction. We could use instead a 3rd party camera like Logitech or other.
Anyway that would not be top priority feature. For me what would be interesting from apple, is to see iWorks as a really cooperative platform, something like Microsoft Teams, and a better conference video call software, not as FaceTime, and more like zoom app. You can’t do cooperative work at home using Apple software at this moment. You can but is not as good as other competitors.
This sounds like a bunch of whining from a few employees who aren't used to dealing with special or demanding circumstances.
The current situation has meant changes for how most people work across many industries. Deal with it.
Complaining about a slow internet connection and one "source" shares their connection with 4 others?
They work for Apple, can't they afford their own connection? They should get their own connection instead of whining about it. They should have multiple internet connections, home cable, fiber, LTE.
This really just sounds like a bunch of whining in the article. This is only a temporary situation, deal with it, get the job done, don't anonymously whine and run to the media because certain people can't handle a temporary challenge.
To handle the challenges you have first to address them. But you somehow decided that it is whining. I wonder how you solve problems and challenges in you life. If at all. Or you just anonymously whine about other people’s business?
Some employees have found it difficult to use Apple's own consumer platforms, like FaceTime or iMessage, because they weren't designed for enterprise uses.
Let's hope Apple catches the opportunity to turn FaceTime and iMessage from toys into real applications.
Microsoft Teams, and Bluejeans work great on my work Mac. Of course, we're a relatively small company, have plenty of corporate bandwidth, and my home internet is pretty speedy, so I'm sure those make a difference.
Comments
You’re pretty ignorant of Apple’s over forty year history. They’re a consumer company, always have been. Their products target consumer markets. Like these people from the Apple II days:
...Normal consumers (aka “normals”) are not DIY tinkerers or hobbyists. They simply do not care about glued or soldered components, if the end result is more reliable. Since the first Macintosh prototypes, Jobs kept it locked down. Read it and weep:
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Diagnostic_Port.txt
As for thermal throttling, that’s what modern CPUs do. Even desktop chips from Intel:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000029868/processors/intel-core-processors.html
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/at-what-temperature-does-thermal-throttling-happends-intel-cpu.1804831/
As for your woke comment, that’s just an incredibly stupid thing to say. Jobs always championed liberal arts and equal civil rights. Triggering angry white males was not something they were too concerned about.
From the article (per ped30.com)
“One employee said if a hardware component breaks on the factory line, the company is asking manufacturers to send photos to engineers in the U.S. to assess the problem, since there are often no Apple staff on-site to troubleshoot the issue. The employee described the photos as grainy, adding that they were never quite as clear as engineers needed them to be.”
Oh, come on! One employee? REALLY?? That is the extent of the “source” for this slam on Apple?
Get real. The latest iPhone, which I GUARANTEE you will be made available to someone in a position of trust in that operation, can take a great close-up picture, or even a slow-motion movie, if required.
This is about the lamest excuse for pounding on Apple that I have ever heard – and that’s saying something!
An Apple TV app? Using what camera?
You can mirror your screen from your Mac/iPhone/iPad to the ATV.
Someone said that there are 1.4B iPhones out there, that’s active devices including macs, iPads, iPods, homepods, iPhones, apple TVs, and I think even AirPods.
Excel for Macintosh OS propelled Apple into businesses and EDU at a time when Microsoft's spreadsheet offering on their own operating system was focused on "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run".
Apple always had a Server version since the Macintosh Plus with 40 MB HD combo days, until Timmy killed it off in the most pathetic manner ever, and threw thousands of small businesses out of their portfolio.
Mac OS X on Intel made Macs the device for programmers, security professionals, consultants and IT administrators, forcing the Mac into corporate IT, and spearheaded the acceptance of the iPhone in business.
The Apple II created the basis for Apple's once strong position in EDU. In medical and pharmaceutical industries it was widely used in laboratories, and later the Macintosh in medical imaging.
Anyway that would not be top priority feature. For me what would be interesting from apple, is to see iWorks as a really cooperative platform, something like Microsoft Teams, and a better conference video call software, not as FaceTime, and more like zoom app. You can’t do cooperative work at home using Apple software at this moment. You can but is not as good as other competitors.