mpantone
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iOS 18.6 arrives with a Photos improvement and bug fixes
MplsP said:mpantone said:M68000 said:mpantone said:At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.
As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.
Apple's software QA has markedly and steadily declined over the years. Ten years ago, yes, I would install the newest release the same week it came out (September usually). But as their release quality noticeably worsened, I started delaying this to a point release. Over years, this just drifted to later point releases until a few years ago I just waited until the week of WWDC in June to date. For sure Apple would not be adding any features, it would all be bug fixes by the time they previewed the next gen OSes.
But now most of Apple's operating systems still have significant bugs in the x.5 releases. Hence, waiting until this year's x.6 releases. This ensures a smoother user experience since I simply don't see nine months worth of bugs (typically the most serious ones). I just don't have the interest/energy to deal with that garbage anymore. I will wait for the features when the software is fully baked: July or August.
Note that I have skipped some releases altogether like macOS Crapalina (I upgraded directly from Mojave to Big Sur sometime in the spring of 2021, six months after that latter's release).
Note that Apple themselves are aware that their software quality is going downhill. They even took a week pause in December 2023 to tackle bugs which delayed a point release. And yes, Siri with Apple Intelligence is another example of how Apple determined that a particular feature wasn't ready for primetime. They have also removed and reintroduced some features like AI-powered summary notifications.
Note that since Apple releases security patches for the previous two operating systems, my devices are still safe and well supported.
Note that I do the same thing with Windows. I'm running Windows 11 23H2 on several machines with one system upgraded to 24H2 in the past month. Redmond dogchow certainly isn't better than Cupertino dogchow.
Taking a chance with a macOS upgrade is easier because A.) you can do a test install on an external drive that you don't need, B.) it is easier to downgrade, especially if you have a TimeMachine backup. With iOS and iPadOS upgrades, there are fewer opportunities to revert to the previous software and eventually Apple will stop signing the older version.
I probably installed Crapalina 5-6 times on an external drive and each time I was left unimpressed. That's why I skipped over that dung heap. A couple of times I cloned my actual boot drive to an external device and then upgraded the latter to ensure I would have an experience that would duplicate an actual upgrade (i.e., not a new build). It didn't matter, Crapalina lived up to its nickname.
I don't have any iOS devices that I'm willing to sacrifice to the 2025 Software Hall of Shame. -
iPhone 17 may have been spotted in the wild
dewme said:mpantone said:dewme said:Wesley_Hilliard said:bobonet said:Wesley_Hilliard said:Stabitha_Christie said:I love a good rumor as much as the next person but can we not normalize this kind of behavior? While it isn't illegal to take someone's photo in public is still an invasion of privacy and promoting this kind of thing will only lead to more instances of this kind of thing.
To be able to wear a long sleeve shirt and a jacket outside in late July in the northern hemisphere ... I wish I could do that right now rather than suffering in the brutal heat and humidity. I suppose I could buy one of those jackets and take it with me into the beer cave at the local gas station and hang out for a few hours.
Any insights into the brand of the jacket? We are talking jackets here, aren't we?
I noticed the guy's clothes in the photo too and thought immediately "Well, this wasn't taken in Cupertino or the South Bay." Reading the article, it mentioned Union Square in San Francisco and thought "okay, that makes sense." San Francisco's weather in the summer months is notoriously cold (so much so that a famous quote has been erroneously attributed to Mark Twain) due to the marine layer which any SF Bay Area resident is familiar with.
Anyhow, Apple -- like all cellphone manufacturers -- needs to do some real-world testing of their devices. Note that they have done this for a long time. It's even more important today than it was when an iPhone prototype was accidentally left behind in a Redwood City beer hall in 2010. The cellular reception testing is more stringent, there are other technologies like satellite communications, GPS, etc. It's not just whether or not the device will get a wifi connection or latch onto the nearest cellular tower (Apple has long had some cellular transmitters on campus to test connectivity).
Does noise cancellation work during a call? Well, there's no way you can test that in the center of Apple Park where the closest person might be a sole passerby 20 meters away. Does it expose for fireworks correctly? How's the audio capturing the band's sound at some outdoor music festival?
You need to test these devices where they will be used. Ski slopes, on boat on the Bay, at the ballpark, in a nightclub, a hospital, schools, a mountain bike trail, the grocery store, stuck in 101 traffic, etc.
Because not everyone lives in their mom's basement.I’m just being silly, but I don’t see anything here that is any more revealing than what we’ve seen so far in other supposed leaks. We are so close to the actual reveal of the iPhone 17 series that I’m willing to wait for the real deal. I’m very confident that it be rectangular in shape, fairly slim, have a glass front, rounded corners, some camera bumps, and probably a few buttons on the edges. Whether those buttons are mechanical or capacitive is still up in the air. Glass back? Who knows what kind of sorcery Apple will pull off this year.
I predict the iPhone 17 will be very similar to the iPhone 16, with maybe better cameras, maybe a better screen, maybe with more Neural Engine performance, maybe slightly bigger. There will be at least one feature in the iPhone 17 family that won't be available to prior models (except maybe the iPhone 16 Pro). If we're lucky the iPhone 17 might get an extra hour of battery endurance. There might be a new color option.
It will probably cost more due to "current market conditions" (which largely covers the wonderful tariffs from our lovely current administration). -
iPhone 17 may have been spotted in the wild
dewme said:Wesley_Hilliard said:bobonet said:Wesley_Hilliard said:Stabitha_Christie said:I love a good rumor as much as the next person but can we not normalize this kind of behavior? While it isn't illegal to take someone's photo in public is still an invasion of privacy and promoting this kind of thing will only lead to more instances of this kind of thing.
To be able to wear a long sleeve shirt and a jacket outside in late July in the northern hemisphere ... I wish I could do that right now rather than suffering in the brutal heat and humidity. I suppose I could buy one of those jackets and take it with me into the beer cave at the local gas station and hang out for a few hours.
Any insights into the brand of the jacket? We are talking jackets here, aren't we?
I noticed the guy's clothes in the photo too and thought immediately "Well, this wasn't taken in Cupertino or the South Bay." Reading the article, it mentioned Union Square in San Francisco and thought "okay, that makes sense." San Francisco's weather in the summer months is notoriously cold (so much so that a famous quote has been erroneously attributed to Mark Twain) due to the marine layer which any SF Bay Area resident is familiar with.
Anyhow, Apple -- like all cellphone manufacturers -- needs to do some real-world testing of their devices. Note that they have done this for a long time. It's even more important today than it was when an iPhone prototype was accidentally left behind in a Redwood City beer hall in 2010. The cellular reception testing is more stringent, there are other technologies like satellite communications, GPS, etc. It's not just whether or not the device will get a wifi connection or latch onto the nearest cellular tower (Apple has long had some cellular transmitters on campus to test connectivity).
Does noise cancellation work during a call? Well, there's no way you can test that in the center of Apple Park where the closest person might be a sole passerby 20 meters away. Does it expose for fireworks correctly? How's the audio capturing the band's sound at some outdoor music festival?
You need to test these devices where they will be used. Ski slopes, on boat on the Bay, at the ballpark, in a nightclub, a hospital, schools, a mountain bike trail, the grocery store, stuck in 101 traffic, etc.
Because not everyone lives in their mom's basement. -
iOS 18.6 arrives with a Photos improvement and bug fixes
williamlondon said:M68000 said:mpantone said:At last it looks like I'll finally be upgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 18 in the next few days. Same with migrating from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 as well as macOS Sonoma to macOS Sequoia.
As usual I will wait until at least June 2026 to install iOS 26/iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe.
But I know such things are beyond the comprehension of some people online.
And I spend less time dealing with software bugs overall than someone who upgrades the day the new release comes out. And remember that an unstable operating system always results in more instability from third-party applications. So it's not just dealing with OS bugs.
Note that your typical corporate IT department will also wait out new releases before rolling out to users. At my last corporate job, the IT department skipped Windows 8 completely and upgraded users from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in due time (once the latter was probably 1.5-2 years old). Heck, even Patch Tuesday updates were installed remotely on the following weekend after IT staff tested the patches themselves on a variety of test systems. Deferring software upgrades is not ridiculous at all. They are a standard M.O. in the enterprise world. In the same way, no sane webmaster is going to install the Linux kernel released this morning on a production box.
Hell, at my former corporate job, the IT department issued iPhones to some employees. Again, they would test out the new iOS software before letting it loose on employees. Same as PC operating systems.
Today's phones have A LOT of personal information: banking, medical, legal, family, location, account passwords, schedules, et cetera ad nauseam. It's not in my best interest to install a super buggy brand-new OS with all that sensitive data on the device.
Anyone who thinks what I am doing is ridiculous knows nothing about software in the 2020s. Especially for a phone which has more personal data than anything you have owned in your life. -
Apple's AI brain drain continues as fourth researcher goes to Meta
California is an at-will employment state. Both employers and employees are free to terminate their relationship. Employers just say "Position X has been eliminated." Employees say "Leaving to explore other opportunities" or "for personal reasons." Also, non-compete clauses in employment contracts are effectively unenforceable in the state of California.
At least here in California loyalty to a company is not a contractual obligation. It is an at-will sentiment that like work relationships can be terminated at any time.
Silicon Valley is built by people who left their previous employers to build something better. Shockley Labs begat Fairchild Semiconductor which begat Intel which begat hundreds of semiconductor startups.
There's a fair amount of talent flow between the big companies: Apple, Google, Meta, HP, Cisco, Yahoo, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, etc. let alone the number of people moving about the smaller ships and startups. Having a 30 year career at a single company in Silicon Valley is a rarity.
On top of that AI is a nascent industry, really just getting started. No one was really talking about it in the pandemic (people were still more fixated on cryptocurrency mining). It's really just within the past three years that AI has moved to the forefront of tech discussion topics. It's not surprising that these top-tier AI engineers are jumping ship to haul in more dollars. Someday soon they might be replaced by someone vastly cheaper using some AI clusters to do 3x to 5x more work.
As always (not just AI and not just high tech) the best and brightest are usually the first to leave. They can see the writing on the wall, they have more opportunities than others.