Apple has had a Bluetooth software issues in ios 17 and 18 that makes both 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max randomly disconnect Bluetooth and all sorts of weird issues. They waited over a year to finally address it in 18.3, then proceeded to break Bluetooth now where it just all together disconnects over and over.
Apple has gone WAY down hill.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
> Apple has gone WAY down hill.
There's just so much low hanging fruit and I don't get it. Worse, it seems to be not just limited to Apple. There's just so many infurating things that I do not understand how they exist. How are you an Apple dev and not pissed off by this stuff? As just a simple example, why is my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook constantly telling me that my airpods have connected? I'm actively listening to music on my phone and have been doing so for the last 30 minutes! Fucking hire me, because I will do the meme. Problem is, I'm not sure when I'd quit because there's so many. Will there ever be the sigh of relief?
I know you guys are lurking. There's similar low hanging bullshit annoyances on so much software, so someone that is working on one of these things, please let me know. Google Maps? Search? Calendars? Email? Browsers? iPhones? Androids? AirPods? Pixel Buds? Name your team, and I'm sure I got a complaint for you. If not, I'm sure someone can. You all are killing my productivity.
latexr 32 days ago [-]
I believe a major source of Apple’s software decline to be the self-imposed yearly deadlines which started after Steve Jobs. Prior to that, new macOS releases came out whenever they were ready. Maybe they were buggy, but by the end of each cycle they were fairly solid.
Compare to now, where they announce major features (Apple Intelligence), keep them in beta for over half a year, then have even less time than that before the next WWDC where they are expected to announce new stuff.
It’s bananas and unsustainable. There’s no time to do anything properly. No wonder everything is falling apart.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
I think you're right. It seems all Apple is trying to innovate by is making things thinner. No real risk taking or seeking to make game changes. No iPod, no iPhone, nothing. I mean the god damn iPad doesn't even have a good native note taking App. I can just imagine Jobs going "founders mode" on someone because you can't zoom in.
But I really have to be clear, this isn't just an Apple issue. Windows is getting worse too. Google too.
I believe a big part of this is that all these systems are becoming more closed off. They make it harder for people to play around with and "hack". Taking power away from the user. I think the truth is that things are so complicated, that if you don't let the end user make fixes, debug, and write new things, then your product can only decline. Besides, you cannot know what people are going to use the thing for. The goal is to build an environment, not a product.
manmal 32 days ago [-]
AFAIK the engineers are aware of all this, they just aren’t allowed to work on things that haven’t been prioritized and blessed. Since there is no bug database that can be read outside Apple, we can‘t +1 the most annoying ones. Instead, they rely on manual (semi-automated?) deduplication of the bug reports. Bugs also need to somewhat fit into the „theme of the year“ to get prioritized.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
> the engineers are aware of all this, they just aren’t allowed to work on things that haven’t been prioritized and blessed
I accept this answer, but this is honestly a more concerning problem. And I ask, at what point should engineers rebel and be "radical fixers"?
finnthehuman 32 days ago [-]
Gumption was branded "cowboy coding," then dragged out back and shot.
I like where you're coming from, but micromanagement is still the flavor of the times.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
Then I hereby submit my vote in favor of revolt. I mean hey, they think they can replace us with AI coders and want to get rid of us anyways. But if we are just yes men and don't take pride in our work, then are we that different?
manmal 32 days ago [-]
I guess they‘d rather get promoted or at least not fired :/
godelski 31 days ago [-]
This appears to represent a failure within the company. It means the employees are more loyal to managers than they are to the product. Which means your management is failing at their jobs. I suspect for similar reasons, turtles all the way up. But I'm not sure it's surprising as C Suite execs value quarterly earnings over product. But the latter is supposed to drive the former
walterbell 32 days ago [-]
> Since there is no bug database that can be read outside Apple, we can‘t +1 the most annoying ones.
Some Apple Radar bugs are tracked publicly on OpenRadar, but there's no (yet?) voting mechanism:
> Bugs also need to somewhat fit into the „theme of the year“ to get prioritized.
User-defined themes for Apple bug annotation could be ranked by annoyance and compared to annual themes.
engcoach 32 days ago [-]
This is true, and all downstream from ex-MS narcs and assholes taking over. They don't know or care what makes a good product, and are only skilled at looking good to other midwits.
harrall 32 days ago [-]
Don’t work for Apple but some bugs just take a lot of work to identify.
I work on a well trafficked consumer product and even though I have a full latitude to fix bugs at my job, I will wait weeks for the right report to come in to make it easily reproducible. I will pull the ticket out of backlog and it will take only an hour to fix it rather than frustrating me and wasting an entire day tracing a bug only to fail at reproducing it anyway. It’s constant triage.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
> to make it easily reproducible
What I'm calling "low hanging fruit" I mean "impossible to miss if you use the product." Of course, tracing a bug is much trickier and often hard to actually predict the difficulty of solving. But it's also worth noting that the harder it is to trace a very noticeable bug often correlates with larger issues in the programming, i.e. tech debt.
achierius 32 days ago [-]
Tbf a lot of things "just work" on some devices, for some people's workflows -- even if it's happening every day for you, it might not be happening on the machines the engineers are living on. This can be because of different workflows, or habits, or particular combinations of versions/configurations (e.g. iPhone sku <A> with OS version <B>, laptop with SKU <C>, carplay with software version <D>, ...).
godelski 32 days ago [-]
The big benefit of Apple is that they control the full stack. So you're suggesting I what, reformat my machine? Are we really at a place where the suggestions are akin to what we'd suggest noobs do on linux 10 years ago?
Give me power to debug. Give me power to write my own solutions.
And we're talking about a notification... We're also talking about a pair of headphones that can't be connected to multiple devices at the same time for some reason. I can't see this as anything but a self-imposed problem. You could connect up to 7 devices at the same time and that would be a great way to provide the seamless experience. It is the same ecosystem, the phone and laptop can easily communicate and be aware that I have spotify open on both and that I'm writing on my laptop. But no, the problem gets harder because of the issues. I play music from my phone because if I walk away from my computer, I can keep playing music through my headphones. Where's the magic? And the only reason I have spotify open on my laptop is so that if I press the god damn play button I don't end up opening Apple Music (a product I have never intentionally used nor even passed the first time use screen), jumping from my workspace.
Users shouldn't need these defensive patterns when you have the capacity for such integration.
achierius 24 days ago [-]
I'm not suggesting that, I'm just explaining why these bugs happen despite all the testing that goes into it, on top of everyone at Apple living on Apple devices by default. I don't really have a solution, I work in the browser, not the part of the OS that handles HID &c. What I do wouldn't work for you: I do just reformat my device quite often, but that's because I work with new hardware / custom OS builds & thus often get in a borked state that would never show up on a customer's device -- and it's only possible because I have access to internal development tools and all that.
Is the particular problem what you were saying about headphones not connecting to multiple devices at once? If so, I admit that's a different kind of issue -- rather than the lack of functionality slipping through testing, it was probably just never included as part of the PoR in the first place. I.e. at some point the designers, or the engineers, or whomever, decided that it wasn't worth building. Despite the level of integration that is indeed possible, you still have to make tradeoffs -- security, performance, timelines, etc.
emchammer 32 days ago [-]
It's funny that this thread comes up now. I just lost a ton of work in Logic Pro, years of recordings on one particular track, because of what seems to be an interface issue. I thought that it was crystal clear that I was deleting something in the window that was in the foreground with a highlight around it. It turns out that it's something in the background that got deleted because of reasons. There's no file rollback in iCloud.
These kind of things are really frustrating when it seems like they should be caught with human usability tests. It's easy to throw blame around, and I think Apple does a lot of good work, it just seems like for value of the company they could slow down the pace of iPhone and macOS releases and make them more substantive.
latexr 32 days ago [-]
> Don’t work for Apple but some bugs just take a lot of work to identify.
On the other hand, I have reported to them security issues which would take literally one line to fix and literal typos and errors/omissions in the documentation which are all still present after years.
mpalfrey 32 days ago [-]
I always say if I can reproduce a bug, I can fix it.
Hardest thing is reproducing a bug reliably.
achierius 32 days ago [-]
What've you got for the browser?
I personally probably won't be very helpful for whatever it is -- I work with the compiler team, so nothing visible -- but I'm happy to +1 your issue during the next feature review cycle or &c
mostlysimilar 31 days ago [-]
Please tell someone I'm tired of my wallpaper reverting to the default animated one when I disconnect my external monitor with the lid closed. Further data point: I use the solid color background feature.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
Firefox. I'm pretty disappointed that I can't have a real Firefox on my phone. This is my first iPhone and I forgot what it was like to be assaulted by ads lol
But you got me, I don't have any complaints about the compiler. I haven't been writing much C these days so you're safe ;) Tbh I think the thing I'm most frustrated about is that it becomes harder for me to fix things myself. Taking power away from the user is not a security feature.
I have a more important feature request. Fix the god damn iPhone keyboard settings. Auto capitalization should capitalize a stand alone i, but we can all recognize an iPhone user because of this. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use swipe but also not randomly have it modify the previous word I typed (autocorrect is off). Pressing back space then deletes two words. Not once has this feature been helpful, it's a hindrance that happens at least once an hour. And if I move my cursor back to a misspelled word, click the accepted correction, please don't split the word at my cursor, just correct the whole word...
I know I might be "holding it wrong" but man has this been unintuitive.
yuters 31 days ago [-]
It's really incredible that I have such a better experience pairing my new airpods to an old machine running ubuntu than a recent macbook. When using my macbook, the airpods just randomly disconnect and start glitching with static noise and I have to pair them again. On linux, there is no random disconnect and the sound clarity feels way better.
cookiengineer 32 days ago [-]
Did I hear someone is ready to switch to Linux?
Come to the dark side, we got lots of freedom here.
godelski 32 days ago [-]
I'm predominately a linux user. My main machine is and I have quite a few. I'm not quite sure why you're down voted, because it is mostly as usable these days as anything else. Arguably it is more easier. Though I find the rough points are more due to hostility from Microsoft. But hey, at least on Linux I can find a way to do whatever I want, and that's how computers should be.
cookiengineer 31 days ago [-]
I switched to Linux as my main environment because both Windows and MacOSX were getting ridiculously cluttery. So many notifications that were unblockable, demanded my immediate attention, and distracted me from what I was actually doing. Be it some weird blocking popups of shitty background services or constant repetitive notifications that should not be notifications when they were the expected behavior.
In the last years this aspect has gotten much worse in my opinion. I know Linux has its rough edges, but once configured for your own workflow, it will keep working the same way without any distractions. And the LTS variants of distributions are almost maintenance free these days, if that's your concern.
I see operating systems usage as an investment and commitment. And I'd rather commit to an open source distro where I can in the worst case fix my own problems with it rather than betting on a platform that eventually has to be enshittified with ads because no amount of money will be enough for its investors.
People complain mostly about Windows 11 right now, but guess what will happen once MacOS reaches market dominance? Microsoft is just a couple years ahead in the shareholder cycle, and they were at their peek arguably the best software providers before the enshittification process started.
GeekyBear 32 days ago [-]
Bluetooth in general is (and has been) broken forever.
Look at the comments on Google rewriting their Android Bluetooth stack for the fourth time.
> I know the guy that heads up the team that did this work -- he and I spent 2+ years fighting Broadcom's old, god-awful bluetooth code. Our whole team used to play what-if games about replacing the thing while massive code dumps came in from vendors, making the task ever larger.
> I had to write a service on the RPI and the only way to reliably connect was to restart bluetooth before every attempt.
Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking.
It is said to start shipping this spring.
> Apple is switching over to a new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip that it designed in-house starting in 2025, reports Bloomberg. The combined Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip will replace components from Broadcom
> "Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking."
This has more to do with do with Apple wishing to pay less for WiFi/Bluetooth chips than wanting to fix bugs. They've gradually been replacing more and more silicon with their own designs for years, and tomorrow we'll likely see the next step: the debut of Apple's 5G radio chip.
Personally I have no issues at all with Bluetooth on my iPhone 13. It seems rock solid to me and never disconnects unexpectedly. (I do have some long-standing, annoying but relatively minor, issues with Bluetooth audio on macOS though).
GeekyBear 32 days ago [-]
The 2025 iPhone SE is said to be the first shipping device for both the new Bluetooth/WiFi chip and the 5G modem.
Cost is certainly a factor, but it doesn't take a lot of searching to find people designing and building devices saying that the existing third party hardware and firmware implementations for Bluetooth are problematic.
I don't think the Android/Pixel guys were daydreaming about ditching Broadcom for no reason.
I seem to remember discussions the Google Glass people posted here about their own issues with keeping a stable Bluetooth connection with the available third party Bluetooth chipsets.
walterbell 32 days ago [-]
We'll know soon whether 2025 iPhone SE 4 basebands get pwned as routinely as existing iPhones.
iwontberude 32 days ago [-]
Adjacent: didn’t the founder of Ubiquity pitch this concept to Apple and failed which is why he left to found his own business?
liveoneggs 32 days ago [-]
> Apple has gone WAY down hill.
I need a place to rant about my recent apple frustrations. :)
I recently got a new laptop - I can airdrop to it once or twice before the notification to accept the airdrop stops showing up until reboot. Just that flow is broken, other notifications continue to work.
I got an apple watch for my kid as an "upgrade" - software is a complete mess, connectivity issues abound, it's less reliable than the gizmo watch it replaced.
The iPad just got a calculator last year.
I am randomly not allowed to delete some photos from my phone. I have no idea what this is about.
Argonaut998 31 days ago [-]
I switched to an iPhone for the first time in 2022 with the 14 Pro. I got it on the release day and immediately there was a glaring visual bug when running a timer on their “Dynamic Island” (a huge flop). Ever since then I’ve encountered so many bugs that I can’t believe that this is the famed Apple. It’s the buggiest phone I’ve ever owned. Even now there is a bug on timers when the screen freezes and I can’t scroll through the timers, or start a new one. Constant bugs on their default apps that are SIMPLISTIC (or should be). How is there a bug on timers when it’s existed for 15 years? It also deleted all my of my locally saved notes when I bought a Mac and signed into iCloud. Completely unacceptable.
The mail app is so bad that even their anti-competitive design policies can’t salvage it (reading an email on one device will show the email as unread until the app is opened). It’s just embarrassing for the so-called “premium” company.
bigfatkitten 28 days ago [-]
Even if Apple does everything right, there will be problems.
One major problem with Bluetooth is that the spec is so complex that it is unlikely that any device you try to interoperate with implements the relevant parts correctly.
To compound that, most implementations in use came from half arsed SDKs that silicon vendors rushed out the door 5 or 10 years ago, and the devices have no update capability so they are never getting fixed.
stevenwoo 32 days ago [-]
I have that problem with SE and sometimes use apple wired headphones with my SE and lately there’s a cycle of use phone with headphones, put down phone, do something else, come back and unlock phone and somehow it does not think there are headphones connected, I can’t push them in any more either when this happens.
pjmlp 32 days ago [-]
Those of us old enough to remeber Mac OS classic, know Apple hasn't always been top quality, regardless of the quality expectations of their price points.
r00fus 32 days ago [-]
Neither I nor my family have this issue. We're all on iOS18.3 - what kind of issues are you seeing?
LeoPanthera 32 days ago [-]
> Apple has had a Bluetooth software issues in ios 17 and 18
Can you link to some documentation about this bug?
nothercastle 32 days ago [-]
Idk about docs but my home pod has had terrible static since iOS 18
LeoPanthera 32 days ago [-]
As far as I know the HomePod static problem is caused by failing capacitors. It's a hardware problem, not software.
SoftTalker 32 days ago [-]
Bluetooth has sucked since it was introduced. I've never had a Bluetooth anything that worked well and reliably.
We need a total rethink on close-range wireless communication for accessory devices. Preferably something patented with an expensive license so fly-by-night chinese hardware shops can't dump their garbage on the market using that protocol.
jwr 32 days ago [-]
That kind of generalizing isn't helpful and isn't true, either. I am sorry you didn't have a "Bluetooth anything" that worked reliably. I did. In fact, everything that I own that uses Bluetooth works very well.
There are two important things about Bluetooth.
1. There are actually two kinds of Bluetooth. The "traditional" mostly connection-oriented Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). They share very little with each other, except for the marketing name. BLE works way better in practice. Many people still remember their old headsets that used Bluetooth and that took ages to connect to their phones and associate those with the "Bluetooth experience".
2. Bluetooth is complex. Many manufacturers get it wrong. But the problem is not with Bluetooth. You could invent a different set of protocols, and if they were to do everything that Bluetooth does, they would get very complex as well, and we would have the same problem, except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol.
ryandrake 32 days ago [-]
> Many manufacturers get it wrong. But the problem is not with Bluetooth.
To the end user, this is kind of a distinction without a difference. The end user doesn't care whether it's Bluetooth, The Standard that's bad or Bluetooth, the Implementation. He just knows that when he has to use Bluetooth, he's probably going to have problems.
I've worked with BLE implementation developers and I've heard the stack described as a "Layer cake of sorrow." There are major problems with it, and by "It" I mean the entire bag containing the specification, all the various implementations, and the hardware ecosystem. All of these things combined define Bluetooth in people's minds.
darkerside 32 days ago [-]
HN is traditionally the kind of place where unpacking that nuance is rewarded, not dismissed
thfuran 32 days ago [-]
But saying that Bluetooth is fine, it's just that every implementation is broken is a bit ridiculous. Sure, there's some value in distinguishing between irreconcilable issues with the standard and implementation bugs, but if those bugs are ubiquitous, the protocol as a whole is broken.
ryandrake 32 days ago [-]
Yes, it's useful for technical folks to understand the real difference, but I'm saying the end user doesn't care.
hedora 32 days ago [-]
But if the spec as a whole is bad, all layers of the spec are bad, the implementations are all bad, and the user experience is bad, then in what way can Bluetooth be described as anything but bad?
jwr 31 days ago [-]
> if the spec as a whole is bad, all layers of the spec are bad,
This discussion is intriguing. I wonder how many people commenting on "the spec" have actually read any part of "the spec" in question (I have).
And since we're posting anecdata: I can't think of a single problem I've had with a Bluetooth device in recent years, and I use a lot of Bluetooth devices. So this kind of generalizing doesn't help.
As a counterpoint, every embedded device that uses Wi-Fi promises a world of pain. The bizarre pairing procedures, connecting to temporary access points, entering passwords — it's all a combination of pain, timeouts, problems, and resets. But that doesn't lead me to state that "wifi is bad, the spec as a whole is bad, all layers of the spec are bad, the implementations are all bad".
scarfaceneo 32 days ago [-]
Yes, but if we’re discussing solutions, maybe it would be relevant to understand where the problem stems from
catlikesshrimp 32 days ago [-]
Sometimes it is the hardware, sometime it is the software.
Two xiaomi phone models with different BT issues: One couldn't connect to two chipolos, the other loses wifi stability when connected to A2DP (ping raises, connection stutters and as the BT devices get closer, connection is lost randomly) Samsung phone: no issues [detected so far]
Then I have some Sennheiser headphones that I can get stuck and need to be physically turned on / off when it loses connection due to distance and there are other phones nearby (I roam around the house without the phone. I know that's partially on me)
I remember the time there was for windows a "BlueSoleil" BT stack besides the "Broadcomm" stack. Blue soleil was more stable, supported more profiles (pan, a2dp, etc) on more devices.
And, all those BT security issues over time? It makes me feel BT protocol cockroaches always come back.
Apple has no excuse since they control both hardware and software. They are dropping the ball.
zimpenfish 32 days ago [-]
> Apple has no excuse since they control both hardware and software.
They don't control the Bluetooth hardware though - that's still Broadcom AFAIK (at least in this 2021 Macbook M1 Pro and my 2023 M3 Max.) They might be writing the driver (I don't know if they are or if they're just interfacing with a Broadcom shim) but that doesn't necessarily help if the hardware is shonky balls.
Dalewyn 32 days ago [-]
The moral is: If everyone hates Bluetooth, the problem aren't the haters.
Personally, my experience with Bluetooth has been mixed. It certainly works, but audio quality is bad for headphones, latency is bad for mice and keyboards, sometimes the connection requires an intervention from the Norse pantheon, and so on.
thenthenthen 32 days ago [-]
Mac and bluetooth… surely a mixed experience. Most issues seem to boil down to my devices connecting to my Macbook while it is “ASLEEP” (aka lid closed). Somehow the Macbook is very eager to take over/overpower any other device (phone, other computer) to claim my BT headphones. This can be fixed in the terminal or with the Bluesnooze app [0]
That's going a little too far. If you're using bluetooth headphones, and you enable a microphone anywhere, you'll stop receiving sound from everything else on your computer.
Boldened15 32 days ago [-]
All Bluetooth technology is licensed, no? Then it's still the fault of Bluetooth if not only is their protocol so difficult for many or most manufacturers to get right, and their qualification process doesn't enforce correctness.
But yeah I mean Bluetooth sucks, everyone has had the experience of trying to connect to a device repeatedly that keeps trying to autoconnect to some other random device that was used before. My usual interaction with Bluetooth is to always enter pairing mode and just be done with it, but hardly feels futuristic to manually hold down a button press every time you want to use a device.
> except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol
Isn't the usual way this problem is solved that the big players (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) come together and create a consortium for a new technology? So you get widespread support in all new devices and within 5-10 years most people are using it over the old one. If a better protocol is possible I don't think this would be the bottleneck.
Aren't like all of the Bluetooths alternative wireless protocols to themselves?
It's not like you can use a Bluetooth classic device to connect to Bluetooth low energy.
Then there's also like Zigbee and etc; I don't think the world is hurting for wireless protocols. Everybody has their own new standard that'll be able to replace the rest lol.
6SixTy 32 days ago [-]
Difference is that Zigbee etc aren't vying for the same place that StarFlash/Nearlink,etc is for Bluetooth
CharlesW 32 days ago [-]
> Apple has had a Bluetooth software issues in ios 17 and 18 that makes both 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max randomly disconnect Bluetooth and all sorts of weird issues.
My iPhone 16 Pro Max Bluetooth has been rock solid with everything I've used it with. Your comment is a good reminder that (1) it's impossible for vendors to test with all possible devices, and (2) at Apple scale there will never not be some customers who experience problems. I recommend reporting it if you haven't — I had glitchy audio with an earlier phone and an older Honda Odyssey's Bluetooth connection, and a few months after my report a subsequent OS update fixed it. (Correlation, not causation, I understand.)
judge2020 32 days ago [-]
Also note their hardware isn’t 100% good. They tested an old iPhone 16 I had and the NFC sensor out of all thing was broken (I had massive issues with wallet not adding cards). It’s worth going into an Apple Store to have them diagnose it.
wrboyce 31 days ago [-]
I’m pretty sure they can run the diagnostics remotely, much more convenient than going into a store!
greyface- 32 days ago [-]
I associate this sort of disrespectful crapware auto-opt-in behavior with Windows, not macOS. Times are changing.
JKCalhoun 32 days ago [-]
Full disclosure: I retired from Apple several years ago — but I'm going to call it a bug.
But I don't say that with any joy. I find the OS(es) to be getting buggier and buggier and I am saddened by that.
userbinator 32 days ago [-]
Apple was never shy about telling users what they can and cannot do. The only difference is perception.
GeekyBear 32 days ago [-]
Office 365 just opted users into AI features without prompting, and started charging an additional monthly premium for the "privilege".
That certainly raises the bar.
saratogacx 31 days ago [-]
It gets better. Once you opt-out and get the "classic" plan, you are stuck with the AI features until the next billing cycle. They pulled this stunt at month 2 of my sub so I've got these AI "credits" I don't want and can't get rid of until November.
WhyNotHugo 31 days ago [-]
iOS also has ads now, thought they're called "Siri suggestions".
The most notable one I saw was a recommendation to download the KFC widget on my iOS home screen. As someone who's never been to KFC, and never used either their website or app, this "suggestion" is indistinguishable from an ad.
Apparently this is triggered due to being "in close proximity" of a KFC (e.g.: due to walking through a mall).
You can disable these ads, but they're enabled by default.
AnonC 32 days ago [-]
It seems like Apple wants to push Apple Intelligence (with all its flaws) to all the devices it has deemed worthy of using it. The increase in this kind of user hostile behavior and dark patterns aren’t going to help the company.
Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though.
lapcat 32 days ago [-]
> Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though.
I'm not special, just loud. If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.
dstroot 32 days ago [-]
>”If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.“
Take my upvote. Love it.
walterbell 32 days ago [-]
improving the user experience of its products and services
Bounty program for inspecfluencers whose independent publications lead to product improvements?
In theory, employee QA and customer bugs/radars serve the same function, minus transparency on the reasons for action or inaction.
If each annoying bug was a tradeable financial instrument, then annoyance could be quantified and fixes incentivized.
khana 32 days ago [-]
[dead]
zombiwoof 32 days ago [-]
Does it come with a forced installed U2 album?
simondotau 32 days ago [-]
But think of the thousands of U2 fans who were delighted
adolph 32 days ago [-]
in skeuomophic brushed metal held the wrong way
simondotau 32 days ago [-]
Fifteen years ago, Apple launched Mac OS X Snow Leopard, proudly proclaiming "zero new features", because refining existing features was sufficient.
Ten years ago, Apple was proud about the caution with which they loaded up on features. Apple needs to remind itself why it said this.
I worked in an institutional IT Dept during this initial roll-out, and it bricked entire labs (wifi & printing, primarily).
Silver lining: greater opportunities after this "last job in tech."
teruakohatu 32 days ago [-]
Has anyone found a good use for Apple Intelligence?
I am knee-deep in LLMs all day, but I have disabled it on my devices. It just didn't seem useful. I tried the image generator once and the output was borderline offensive (I won't derail this thread by going into why).
smcleod 32 days ago [-]
IMO the only good feature in it is the notification summaries, they're pretty accurate and useful.
Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad.
latexr 32 days ago [-]
> the notification summaries, they're pretty accurate and useful.
Siri doesn’t use Apple Intelligence. It is 10+ year-old technology that does not do learning. We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri.
Reason077 32 days ago [-]
> "We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri."
Really, they should have started with Siri, the moment LLMs became a thing. Not try to graft battery-draining AI assistants into existing apps in often-not-very-useful ways!
Tagbert 24 days ago [-]
Perhaps replacing Siri with an LLM within the resources of a phone is complicated and takes time to get right. I’m willing to wait to see where they go with this a while longer.
singularity2001 32 days ago [-]
Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad.
and any attempt to replace this crapware with something better is sabotaged by the App Store guardians
xyst 32 days ago [-]
> Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad
Always has been (c.2012)
hedora 32 days ago [-]
But hey, I bet the metrics are up this year!
You can no longer disable it without breaking CarPlay, and it’s started randomly activating when you press the power button on my phone when carplay is on.
My theory is that typing a GPS destination into my car dashboard at a stoplight is too dangerous, and typing it on a phone keyboard is also too dangerous, but unlocking the phone, frantically yelling “cancel” until you find the “STFU Siri” button on the steering wheel, dismissing random useless carplay displays and THEN typing the address into the phone is completely safe.
On a related note, they keep adding more distractions to the apple maps carplay screen. The other day, I was at an intersection, and the map rendered the sidewalks similarly to the road. It knew I was driving. Does it think using sidewalks as shortcuts is legal or something?
pjmlp 32 days ago [-]
Increasing Apple shares, which is probably seen as good use by those that own them, or have funds where they are part of.
addandsubtract 32 days ago [-]
I've only had marginal success even getting it to work. It doesn't work on non-english emails and when it does work, requires two outgoing requests. So much for being local.
cryptoegorophy 32 days ago [-]
Hey siri - ask ChatGPT. Super cool feature when you are driving and if you want to talk to ChatGPT about anything. Highly recommend
walterbell 32 days ago [-]
How does that compare to using ChatGPT voice mode directly?
briandear 32 days ago [-]
Does ChatGPT work with car play? How do you access voice mode without touching the device (as in while driving?)
the only annoying thing about it is that it consistently takes six seconds to start listening
xyst 32 days ago [-]
Why would anybody want to “talk to ChatGPT” while _driving_?
Tech addicts, fr
briandear 32 days ago [-]
“We’re passing the village of <some village> what can you tell me about it?”
Seems like an amazing tool for car trips.
xyst 31 days ago [-]
I’m more concerned about distracted drivers dealing with shitty connection and not paying attention to the road.
Also, not sure where you are located but in the USA the cellular providers are god damn awful out in the sticks and certain segments of the highway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the queries hang.
singularity2001 32 days ago [-]
unfortunately villages and people are on the very far end of the hallucination spectrum
fragmede 32 days ago [-]
Do you sit there like a robot and do nothing more than drive? No music, no radio, no podcasts, no phone calls; nothing?
For those of us who enjoy some form of entertainment while driving, sometimes those things mentioned don't hit right or you getting bored of them or you run out of episodes, especially on long drives. Talking with ChatGPT's just another form of (audio) entertainment. I can ask it about whatever and have it interactively teach me about eg double entry accounting. I can interrupt with the dumbest questions and never feel judged.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
filchermcurr 32 days ago [-]
Kind of off topic, but I don't think it necessarily makes one a robot. Some people enjoy quiet moments and spend time organizing their thoughts, imagining things, thinking through problems, or just enjoying a relatively calm and thoughtless period. I suppose you can think of it as just a different form of entertainment driven internally rather than externally.
I really appreciate any moment I can get where I'm not inundated with stimuli.
xyst 31 days ago [-]
Nope. I’m more concerned about distracted drivers. “Siri hands free” is far from a hands free experience. Doesn’t matter if it’s ChatGPT powering the queries.
fragmede 31 days ago [-]
then why not worry more about Reddit and TikTok, both of which I've seen drivers use?
singularity2001 32 days ago [-]
why would you talk to other passengers, just sit there and stare out of the window child
xyst 31 days ago [-]
Tell me you have never used “Siri hands free” without saying it directly…
Using Siri and an iPhone for “hands free” driving, whether it’s ChatGPT or w/e, it’s not very user friendly.
Ask it for basic shit such as directions to some restaurant, and it takes seconds to load and sometimes even asks you to unlock your phone. Even worse experience with cellular connection.
No more hands free experience. Now it’s a very real distraction from what you _should_ be doing - driving the fucking vehicle and don’t kill anybody or maim a pedestrian.
Sick and tired of you distracted shit heads using your phone instead of paying attention to the god damn road.
Don’t even get me started on Cruise/Waymo or the god damn drive share shitheads.
crenwick 32 days ago [-]
Website summaries are useful -- the only reason I keep the feature enabled at all.
fmajid 32 days ago [-]
That, and the constant shilling for their useless services like Apple News or Apple Fitness
soupfordummies 32 days ago [-]
Why are they pushing it so much?
hosteur 32 days ago [-]
Number of users AI users is someone's bonus target.
blackeyeblitzar 32 days ago [-]
I am very tired of the dark patterns used by all these monopolies. Windows pushing Edge. Apple trying to make me use Siri or subscribe to their game service. Google pushing Gemini. Enough is enough. We need new antitrust laws.
hx8 32 days ago [-]
Use their software less. The attention economy is important for tech companies. If their metrics decrease, they might respond to that signal. Additionally, if someone watches you use an alternative software then they might also be inspired to switch. Using bad software less sends a negative signal to the company and a positive signal for the alternatives that you support.
JumpCrisscross 32 days ago [-]
> Use their software less
Boycotts don't work if there isn't a substitute [1].
After repeated security compromise of iOS devices, tested GrapheneOS on Pixels. Better security, but user experience painful to the point of unusable, i.e. tasks could not be completed. Conclusion: GrapheneOS on Pixel phone+tablet (for secure workflows) and iOS/iPadOS for everything else.
blackeyeblitzar 32 days ago [-]
Even with substitutes, I think there are barriers. Bundling and the way these companies do pricing means substitutes are ineffective. Switching costs of different kinds exist. Network effects prevent substitutes from being truly competitive. And so on.
cryptoegorophy 32 days ago [-]
Use their software less is what I heard back in early 2000s from Linux users talk about Windows. It does not work.
Underphil 32 days ago [-]
It has worked for many of us. Every use-case is different.
briandear 32 days ago [-]
All these monopolies? Apple, Microsoft, and Google are competitors: ChromeOS, Windows, MacOS. Then you have the flavors of Linux.. I might be confused as to the new definition of monopoly.
onetokeoverthe 32 days ago [-]
edge is really bad. well named though.
laws? they only respect one thing.
JumpCrisscross 32 days ago [-]
> they only respect one thing
Violence? Do you mean violence?
You're implicitly complaining about creeping oligarchism, and your solution is to introduce violence? Because that will magically manifest against the oligarchs? Versus the way it's gone every time in history, for the most obvious of obvious reasons, from the top down?
onetokeoverthe 32 days ago [-]
vietnam won.
not because of violence but because of unity.
that's what totally broken...the lack of cohesion. divided and conquered.
your confrontational approach being another microscopic essentially invisible example.
as for apple. jobs died and apple died then too.
walterbell 32 days ago [-]
> divided and conquered
Humans are slowly learning how to respond to manufactured dissent and contagious division.
onetokeoverthe 32 days ago [-]
life = hope
dbtc 32 days ago [-]
Might be money, i.e. sales.
RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u 32 days ago [-]
Just like the blog author, I updated two Macs, and one got the setup wizard and thus AI got re-enabled, while the other did not. Maybe it's a bug, or maybe it's A/B testing... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
xyst 32 days ago [-]
This has been an issue for users since the debut of “apple intelligence”. Every single stupid minor or patch version re-enables it after updating.
Can’t wait for the next Apple lawsuit where I get $5 in compensation after 2-3 years of stalling it in courts.
wobfan 32 days ago [-]
Pro tip: set your display language to English (US) and Siri to English (UK), while leaving it obviously disabled (unless you want to use Siri, wtf?)
This way, Apple Intelligence can not run, because the display and Siri language need to be the same.
thisislife2 32 days ago [-]
Huh? can anybody else confirm this?
nedt 32 days ago [-]
Here in Europe we aren't even allowed to enable it. Not even as a beta tester.
EfficientDude 32 days ago [-]
MS also uses this trick all the time. Very dishonest practice, I don't think anybody can call it a bug in good faith.
tap-snap-or-nap 32 days ago [-]
Another of Stallman was right situation.
crossroadsguy 32 days ago [-]
Now I laugh in frustration whenever I see an “Apple bug” mentioned in of their products. Apple’s entire ecosystem is riddled with visible and invisible bugs which they leave around sometimes behind their completely opaque processes (assuming there are processes) or sometimes just out in front of the open. As a user you’d never know what is the status of a certain bug — whether someone even started working on that and whether someone even looked at it exactly once! You would know nothing! And this is about a bug report!
A problem you are facing? You will be made to backup your entire data and then wipe your devices (yes, I was made to do it for a Safari issue on Mac; they made me wipe out the iPhone as well - why? Of course same iCloud) and then it was not fixed and you got a “we will look into it”!
In this entire period — you’d have received EXACTLY ZERO emails with updates! They would never reply to you on email ever!! Never!! And would not provide or entertain an email ever!! Never!
You wanna record an Apple custom care call? Tough luck. You do that without informing them otherwise they’d refuse to even speak to you. Well, Apple records it and they will provide you a copy so yeah trust them!
The user hostility is so extreme that sometimes I end up pulling up my hair “how the fuck can anyone become FAN of such a company??? How? I mean you can be a user of such a company, but fan? Ffs!
Then I look at the OS and device market and see Android and Windows (no, I am not counting Linux!) and I realise where we have arrived.
Reason077 32 days ago [-]
It used to be the case that if you reported a bug though Apple's bug reporting system and it got accepted/acknowledged, you did actually get updates via email about the state of the bug. I'm not sure if it still works like that but it certainly did a few years ago. Also speaking about developer issues here, not sure if the "consumer" bug reporting system works the same way.
crossroadsguy 32 days ago [-]
No, I was writing as a consumer. I don't know how the dev side of things work (I am not one). For consumers it is completely closed off and evidently hostile.
pier25 32 days ago [-]
These PMs of AI features are going to ridiculous lengths to improve their KPIs /s
anna41517 31 days ago [-]
[flagged]
daft_pink 32 days ago [-]
I think for most people this is a snoozer as we literally purchase Apple products to use their software and update to get new features.
Apple has gone WAY down hill.
I know you guys are lurking. There's similar low hanging bullshit annoyances on so much software, so someone that is working on one of these things, please let me know. Google Maps? Search? Calendars? Email? Browsers? iPhones? Androids? AirPods? Pixel Buds? Name your team, and I'm sure I got a complaint for you. If not, I'm sure someone can. You all are killing my productivity.
Compare to now, where they announce major features (Apple Intelligence), keep them in beta for over half a year, then have even less time than that before the next WWDC where they are expected to announce new stuff.
It’s bananas and unsustainable. There’s no time to do anything properly. No wonder everything is falling apart.
But I really have to be clear, this isn't just an Apple issue. Windows is getting worse too. Google too.
I believe a big part of this is that all these systems are becoming more closed off. They make it harder for people to play around with and "hack". Taking power away from the user. I think the truth is that things are so complicated, that if you don't let the end user make fixes, debug, and write new things, then your product can only decline. Besides, you cannot know what people are going to use the thing for. The goal is to build an environment, not a product.
I like where you're coming from, but micromanagement is still the flavor of the times.
Some Apple Radar bugs are tracked publicly on OpenRadar, but there's no (yet?) voting mechanism:
https://openradar.appspot.com/
https://github.com/timburks/openradar/issues
> Bugs also need to somewhat fit into the „theme of the year“ to get prioritized.
User-defined themes for Apple bug annotation could be ranked by annoyance and compared to annual themes.
I work on a well trafficked consumer product and even though I have a full latitude to fix bugs at my job, I will wait weeks for the right report to come in to make it easily reproducible. I will pull the ticket out of backlog and it will take only an hour to fix it rather than frustrating me and wasting an entire day tracing a bug only to fail at reproducing it anyway. It’s constant triage.
Give me power to debug. Give me power to write my own solutions.
And we're talking about a notification... We're also talking about a pair of headphones that can't be connected to multiple devices at the same time for some reason. I can't see this as anything but a self-imposed problem. You could connect up to 7 devices at the same time and that would be a great way to provide the seamless experience. It is the same ecosystem, the phone and laptop can easily communicate and be aware that I have spotify open on both and that I'm writing on my laptop. But no, the problem gets harder because of the issues. I play music from my phone because if I walk away from my computer, I can keep playing music through my headphones. Where's the magic? And the only reason I have spotify open on my laptop is so that if I press the god damn play button I don't end up opening Apple Music (a product I have never intentionally used nor even passed the first time use screen), jumping from my workspace.
Users shouldn't need these defensive patterns when you have the capacity for such integration.
Is the particular problem what you were saying about headphones not connecting to multiple devices at once? If so, I admit that's a different kind of issue -- rather than the lack of functionality slipping through testing, it was probably just never included as part of the PoR in the first place. I.e. at some point the designers, or the engineers, or whomever, decided that it wasn't worth building. Despite the level of integration that is indeed possible, you still have to make tradeoffs -- security, performance, timelines, etc.
These kind of things are really frustrating when it seems like they should be caught with human usability tests. It's easy to throw blame around, and I think Apple does a lot of good work, it just seems like for value of the company they could slow down the pace of iPhone and macOS releases and make them more substantive.
On the other hand, I have reported to them security issues which would take literally one line to fix and literal typos and errors/omissions in the documentation which are all still present after years.
Hardest thing is reproducing a bug reliably.
I personally probably won't be very helpful for whatever it is -- I work with the compiler team, so nothing visible -- but I'm happy to +1 your issue during the next feature review cycle or &c
But you got me, I don't have any complaints about the compiler. I haven't been writing much C these days so you're safe ;) Tbh I think the thing I'm most frustrated about is that it becomes harder for me to fix things myself. Taking power away from the user is not a security feature.
Can I also make a feature request? Can we get someone to add regex to the calendar to de-dupe events? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42708707
Edit:
I have a more important feature request. Fix the god damn iPhone keyboard settings. Auto capitalization should capitalize a stand alone i, but we can all recognize an iPhone user because of this. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use swipe but also not randomly have it modify the previous word I typed (autocorrect is off). Pressing back space then deletes two words. Not once has this feature been helpful, it's a hindrance that happens at least once an hour. And if I move my cursor back to a misspelled word, click the accepted correction, please don't split the word at my cursor, just correct the whole word...
I know I might be "holding it wrong" but man has this been unintuitive.
Come to the dark side, we got lots of freedom here.
In the last years this aspect has gotten much worse in my opinion. I know Linux has its rough edges, but once configured for your own workflow, it will keep working the same way without any distractions. And the LTS variants of distributions are almost maintenance free these days, if that's your concern.
I see operating systems usage as an investment and commitment. And I'd rather commit to an open source distro where I can in the worst case fix my own problems with it rather than betting on a platform that eventually has to be enshittified with ads because no amount of money will be enough for its investors.
People complain mostly about Windows 11 right now, but guess what will happen once MacOS reaches market dominance? Microsoft is just a couple years ahead in the shareholder cycle, and they were at their peek arguably the best software providers before the enshittification process started.
Look at the comments on Google rewriting their Android Bluetooth stack for the fourth time.
> I know the guy that heads up the team that did this work -- he and I spent 2+ years fighting Broadcom's old, god-awful bluetooth code. Our whole team used to play what-if games about replacing the thing while massive code dumps came in from vendors, making the task ever larger.
> I had to write a service on the RPI and the only way to reliably connect was to restart bluetooth before every attempt.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981
Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking.
It is said to start shipping this spring.
> Apple is switching over to a new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip that it designed in-house starting in 2025, reports Bloomberg. The combined Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip will replace components from Broadcom
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/12/12/apple-custom-bluetooth-...
This has more to do with do with Apple wishing to pay less for WiFi/Bluetooth chips than wanting to fix bugs. They've gradually been replacing more and more silicon with their own designs for years, and tomorrow we'll likely see the next step: the debut of Apple's 5G radio chip.
Personally I have no issues at all with Bluetooth on my iPhone 13. It seems rock solid to me and never disconnects unexpectedly. (I do have some long-standing, annoying but relatively minor, issues with Bluetooth audio on macOS though).
Cost is certainly a factor, but it doesn't take a lot of searching to find people designing and building devices saying that the existing third party hardware and firmware implementations for Bluetooth are problematic.
I don't think the Android/Pixel guys were daydreaming about ditching Broadcom for no reason.
I seem to remember discussions the Google Glass people posted here about their own issues with keeping a stable Bluetooth connection with the available third party Bluetooth chipsets.
I need a place to rant about my recent apple frustrations. :)
I recently got a new laptop - I can airdrop to it once or twice before the notification to accept the airdrop stops showing up until reboot. Just that flow is broken, other notifications continue to work.
I got an apple watch for my kid as an "upgrade" - software is a complete mess, connectivity issues abound, it's less reliable than the gizmo watch it replaced.
The iPad just got a calculator last year.
I am randomly not allowed to delete some photos from my phone. I have no idea what this is about.
The mail app is so bad that even their anti-competitive design policies can’t salvage it (reading an email on one device will show the email as unread until the app is opened). It’s just embarrassing for the so-called “premium” company.
One major problem with Bluetooth is that the spec is so complex that it is unlikely that any device you try to interoperate with implements the relevant parts correctly.
To compound that, most implementations in use came from half arsed SDKs that silicon vendors rushed out the door 5 or 10 years ago, and the devices have no update capability so they are never getting fixed.
Can you link to some documentation about this bug?
We need a total rethink on close-range wireless communication for accessory devices. Preferably something patented with an expensive license so fly-by-night chinese hardware shops can't dump their garbage on the market using that protocol.
There are two important things about Bluetooth.
1. There are actually two kinds of Bluetooth. The "traditional" mostly connection-oriented Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). They share very little with each other, except for the marketing name. BLE works way better in practice. Many people still remember their old headsets that used Bluetooth and that took ages to connect to their phones and associate those with the "Bluetooth experience".
2. Bluetooth is complex. Many manufacturers get it wrong. But the problem is not with Bluetooth. You could invent a different set of protocols, and if they were to do everything that Bluetooth does, they would get very complex as well, and we would have the same problem, except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol.
To the end user, this is kind of a distinction without a difference. The end user doesn't care whether it's Bluetooth, The Standard that's bad or Bluetooth, the Implementation. He just knows that when he has to use Bluetooth, he's probably going to have problems.
I've worked with BLE implementation developers and I've heard the stack described as a "Layer cake of sorrow." There are major problems with it, and by "It" I mean the entire bag containing the specification, all the various implementations, and the hardware ecosystem. All of these things combined define Bluetooth in people's minds.
This discussion is intriguing. I wonder how many people commenting on "the spec" have actually read any part of "the spec" in question (I have).
And since we're posting anecdata: I can't think of a single problem I've had with a Bluetooth device in recent years, and I use a lot of Bluetooth devices. So this kind of generalizing doesn't help.
As a counterpoint, every embedded device that uses Wi-Fi promises a world of pain. The bizarre pairing procedures, connecting to temporary access points, entering passwords — it's all a combination of pain, timeouts, problems, and resets. But that doesn't lead me to state that "wifi is bad, the spec as a whole is bad, all layers of the spec are bad, the implementations are all bad".
Two xiaomi phone models with different BT issues: One couldn't connect to two chipolos, the other loses wifi stability when connected to A2DP (ping raises, connection stutters and as the BT devices get closer, connection is lost randomly) Samsung phone: no issues [detected so far]
Then I have some Sennheiser headphones that I can get stuck and need to be physically turned on / off when it loses connection due to distance and there are other phones nearby (I roam around the house without the phone. I know that's partially on me)
I remember the time there was for windows a "BlueSoleil" BT stack besides the "Broadcomm" stack. Blue soleil was more stable, supported more profiles (pan, a2dp, etc) on more devices.
And, all those BT security issues over time? It makes me feel BT protocol cockroaches always come back.
Apple has no excuse since they control both hardware and software. They are dropping the ball.
They don't control the Bluetooth hardware though - that's still Broadcom AFAIK (at least in this 2021 Macbook M1 Pro and my 2023 M3 Max.) They might be writing the driver (I don't know if they are or if they're just interfacing with a Broadcom shim) but that doesn't necessarily help if the hardware is shonky balls.
Personally, my experience with Bluetooth has been mixed. It certainly works, but audio quality is bad for headphones, latency is bad for mice and keyboards, sometimes the connection requires an intervention from the Norse pantheon, and so on.
[0] https://github.com/odlp/bluesnooze
That's going a little too far. If you're using bluetooth headphones, and you enable a microphone anywhere, you'll stop receiving sound from everything else on your computer.
But yeah I mean Bluetooth sucks, everyone has had the experience of trying to connect to a device repeatedly that keeps trying to autoconnect to some other random device that was used before. My usual interaction with Bluetooth is to always enter pairing mode and just be done with it, but hardly feels futuristic to manually hold down a button press every time you want to use a device.
> except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol
Isn't the usual way this problem is solved that the big players (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) come together and create a consortium for a new technology? So you get widespread support in all new devices and within 5-10 years most people are using it over the old one. If a better protocol is possible I don't think this would be the bottleneck.
It's not like you can use a Bluetooth classic device to connect to Bluetooth low energy.
Then there's also like Zigbee and etc; I don't think the world is hurting for wireless protocols. Everybody has their own new standard that'll be able to replace the rest lol.
My iPhone 16 Pro Max Bluetooth has been rock solid with everything I've used it with. Your comment is a good reminder that (1) it's impossible for vendors to test with all possible devices, and (2) at Apple scale there will never not be some customers who experience problems. I recommend reporting it if you haven't — I had glitchy audio with an earlier phone and an older Honda Odyssey's Bluetooth connection, and a few months after my report a subsequent OS update fixed it. (Correlation, not causation, I understand.)
But I don't say that with any joy. I find the OS(es) to be getting buggier and buggier and I am saddened by that.
That certainly raises the bar.
The most notable one I saw was a recommendation to download the KFC widget on my iOS home screen. As someone who's never been to KFC, and never used either their website or app, this "suggestion" is indistinguishable from an ad.
Apparently this is triggered due to being "in close proximity" of a KFC (e.g.: due to walking through a mall).
You can disable these ads, but they're enabled by default.
Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though.
I'm not special, just loud. If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.
Take my upvote. Love it.
In theory, employee QA and customer bugs/radars serve the same function, minus transparency on the reasons for action or inaction.
If each annoying bug was a tradeable financial instrument, then annoyance could be quantified and fixes incentivized.
Ten years ago, Apple was proud about the caution with which they loaded up on features. Apple needs to remind itself why it said this.
https://vimeo.com/241783590
I worked in an institutional IT Dept during this initial roll-out, and it bricked entire labs (wifi & printing, primarily).
Silver lining: greater opportunities after this "last job in tech."
I am knee-deep in LLMs all day, but I have disabled it on my devices. It just didn't seem useful. I tried the image generator once and the output was borderline offensive (I won't derail this thread by going into why).
Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad.
Far from a popular opinion.
https://arstechnica.com/apple/2024/11/apple-intelligence-not...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cge93de21n0o
Really, they should have started with Siri, the moment LLMs became a thing. Not try to graft battery-draining AI assistants into existing apps in often-not-very-useful ways!
Always has been (c.2012)
You can no longer disable it without breaking CarPlay, and it’s started randomly activating when you press the power button on my phone when carplay is on.
My theory is that typing a GPS destination into my car dashboard at a stoplight is too dangerous, and typing it on a phone keyboard is also too dangerous, but unlocking the phone, frantically yelling “cancel” until you find the “STFU Siri” button on the steering wheel, dismissing random useless carplay displays and THEN typing the address into the phone is completely safe.
On a related note, they keep adding more distractions to the apple maps carplay screen. The other day, I was at an intersection, and the map rendered the sidewalks similarly to the road. It knew I was driving. Does it think using sidewalks as shortcuts is legal or something?
Tech addicts, fr
Seems like an amazing tool for car trips.
Also, not sure where you are located but in the USA the cellular providers are god damn awful out in the sticks and certain segments of the highway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the queries hang.
For those of us who enjoy some form of entertainment while driving, sometimes those things mentioned don't hit right or you getting bored of them or you run out of episodes, especially on long drives. Talking with ChatGPT's just another form of (audio) entertainment. I can ask it about whatever and have it interactively teach me about eg double entry accounting. I can interrupt with the dumbest questions and never feel judged.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I really appreciate any moment I can get where I'm not inundated with stimuli.
Using Siri and an iPhone for “hands free” driving, whether it’s ChatGPT or w/e, it’s not very user friendly.
Ask it for basic shit such as directions to some restaurant, and it takes seconds to load and sometimes even asks you to unlock your phone. Even worse experience with cellular connection.
No more hands free experience. Now it’s a very real distraction from what you _should_ be doing - driving the fucking vehicle and don’t kill anybody or maim a pedestrian.
Sick and tired of you distracted shit heads using your phone instead of paying attention to the god damn road.
Don’t even get me started on Cruise/Waymo or the god damn drive share shitheads.
Boycotts don't work if there isn't a substitute [1].
[1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/26841362
laws? they only respect one thing.
Violence? Do you mean violence?
You're implicitly complaining about creeping oligarchism, and your solution is to introduce violence? Because that will magically manifest against the oligarchs? Versus the way it's gone every time in history, for the most obvious of obvious reasons, from the top down?
not because of violence but because of unity.
that's what totally broken...the lack of cohesion. divided and conquered.
your confrontational approach being another microscopic essentially invisible example.
as for apple. jobs died and apple died then too.
Humans are slowly learning how to respond to manufactured dissent and contagious division.
Can’t wait for the next Apple lawsuit where I get $5 in compensation after 2-3 years of stalling it in courts.
This way, Apple Intelligence can not run, because the display and Siri language need to be the same.
A problem you are facing? You will be made to backup your entire data and then wipe your devices (yes, I was made to do it for a Safari issue on Mac; they made me wipe out the iPhone as well - why? Of course same iCloud) and then it was not fixed and you got a “we will look into it”!
In this entire period — you’d have received EXACTLY ZERO emails with updates! They would never reply to you on email ever!! Never!! And would not provide or entertain an email ever!! Never!
You wanna record an Apple custom care call? Tough luck. You do that without informing them otherwise they’d refuse to even speak to you. Well, Apple records it and they will provide you a copy so yeah trust them!
The user hostility is so extreme that sometimes I end up pulling up my hair “how the fuck can anyone become FAN of such a company??? How? I mean you can be a user of such a company, but fan? Ffs!
Then I look at the OS and device market and see Android and Windows (no, I am not counting Linux!) and I realise where we have arrived.