iOS 9.3 unstable - how is it possible?

[Johan]

After updating my iPhone 6S to iOS 9.3 Safari keeps freezing/crashing more often than not when I click links. I've read online that this is experienced by a lot of people on newer devices, including iPads.

My question to those in the software industry is how can this be possible? With Apple's very limited variability in devices running the software how could this not have been picked up in pre-release testing?

This is quasi relevant to Tesla seeing how they too keep pushing firmware updates to cars with some variation in hardware but still very controlled.

 

[LetsGoFast]

When you have an installed base of 100 million devices, you will find things happen in wide release that you didn't experience in beta test. Even if it only happens for .1% of your users, that is still 100,000 angry customers. Writing completely defect free code is very difficult and isn't something many people even aim for, except in communities like avionics and a few others.

The variability, FWIW, comes in terms of what you have installed on your phone, not the hardware. There are reports that it is related to browser extensions installed by certain apps, like booking.com

 

[jerry33]

When you have an installed base of 100 million devices, you will find things happen in wide release that you didn't experience in beta test. Even if it only happens for .1% of your users, that is still 100,000 angry customers. Writing completely defect free code is very difficult and isn't something many people even aim for, except in communities like avionics and a few others.

The variability, FWIW, comes in terms of what you have installed on your phone, not the hardware. There are reports that it is related to browser extensions installed by certain apps, like booking.com

Right. It's stable for me, but if it's a concern then don't upgrade for a week and check with MacRumors or some such site to see if there have been problems and how widespread they are.

 

[Johan]

Writing completely defect free code is very difficult and isn't something many people even aim for, except in communities like avionics and a few others.

In your opinion, wouldn't Tesla have to be one of these, when it comes to safety/drive system critical software? Not the media player obviously

 

[LetsGoFast]

In your opinion, wouldn't Tesla have to be one of these, when it comes to safety/drive system critical software? Not the media player obviously

In terms of the actual drive systems, they ought to be. My sense of the autopilot software is that they don't think so. A serious safety related software problem that resulted in injury could be catastrophic for their brand, which is something I'm sure they are well aware of. I assume they believe failing to release sophisticated features would be at least equally damaging and they have picked a degree of risk they are comfortable with.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

After updating my iPhone 6S to iOS 9.3 Safari keeps freezing/crashing more often than not when I click links. I've read online that this is experienced by a lot of people on newer devices, including iPads.

My question to those in the software industry is how can this be possible? With Apple's very limited variability in devices running the software how could this not have been picked up in pre-release testing?

This is quasi relevant to Tesla seeing how they too keep pushing firmware updates to cars with some variation in hardware but still very controlled.

It appears that there were 1 or more edge cases (probably related to a 3rd party app) that triggered something in iOS to fail.

This is possible because iOS has become increasingly complicated over the past few years. One factor I suspect is that iOS releases are timed to coincide with hardware launches. iOS 8 was released alongside iPhone 6, iOS 9 was released with iPhone 6S, and 9.3 released just before iPhone SE. Tying software releases to hardware releases may cause the software to be released before it is truly ready. The 8.0 and 9.0 releases of iOS were a bit sluggish and buggy when I first installed them, but they smoothed out considerably from the x.1 and onwards.

I think trying to sync major software releases with hardware releases is becoming untenable.

When you have an installed base of 100 million devices, you will find things happen in wide release that you didn't experience in beta test. Even if it only happens for .1% of your users, that is still 100,000 angry customers. Writing completely defect free code is very difficult and isn't something many people even aim for, except in communities like avionics and a few others.

The variability, FWIW, comes in terms of what you have installed on your phone, not the hardware. There are reports that it is related to browser extensions installed by certain apps, like booking.com

That's what Macrumors is reporting: Web Links Crashing Safari, Mail, Chrome, and Other Apps on iOS 9.3

Many long time Apple fans are losing patience with the company under Tim Cook's management. OS X has become bloated. iOS release quality is in question. Product design is not as inspiring as it used to be. Tim Cook is great at managing the staggering logistics of Apple, but the product is slipping.