{"id":46948,"date":"2025-03-04T15:19:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T20:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=46948"},"modified":"2025-03-04T15:19:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T20:19:35","slug":"premium-hardware-subpar-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/04\/premium-hardware-subpar-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium Hardware, Subpar Software"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eliseo Martelli<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>, Reddit<\/a>):<\/p>\n

As a long-time Apple user, I’ve always appreciated the integration of hardware and software, signature of the Apple ecosystem. However, recent experiences with my iPad Air 11\" M2 has left me questioning whether Apple has lost sight of what once made their products great.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

The performance issues don’t stop at sluggish response times. During these\nuse cases, my iPad overheated, making it uncomfortable to\nhold or even rest the palm on, raising concerns about potential long-term\nhardware damage.<\/p>

What made this particularly frustrating is that these aren’t third-party\napplications pushing the hardware to its limits. These are Apple’s own\napplications that should be theoretically<\/em> optimized for their hardware.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Since my original complaint, I’ve discovered\nnumerous<\/a> forum threads\nand social media discussions from iPad users experiencing similar issues. This\nsuggests a systemic problem rather than isolated incidents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Francisco Tolmasky<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is such a funny way of saying<\/p>\n

“The Apple Store’s first and only troubleshooting step for Apple Notes being slow on my iPad was to give me a brand new iPad, but Notes just overheated that iPad too, so we realized that Notes is just crap.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

yalok<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This has been going on for years. I used to do a lot of iOS development, and have an eye for bugs. Almost every Apple app\/service has been regressing in quality.<\/p>

Take basic functionality - a phone app (calling). After certain audio sessions use (calling via WhatsApp) I can’t make regular calls over cellular - the UI app immediately cancels the call. Only reboot helps.<\/p>

Or notes - for many years\/iOS versions, they lived with a bug where a text note may just become blank - and only restarting Notes app makes it visible again.<\/p>

Or AppStore - if an app has to be updated (I have auto updates off) - and I press Update - it gets downloaded, installed - and then AppStore is back to showing “Update” button! If you just go to the app, it’s a new version. But if you press that “Update”, it will redo update from scratch.<\/p>

Sometimes I’m so frustrated, and thinking of my options - it’s either move to Android, or go get hired at Apple with a mandate to fix bugs in various products… but knowing Apple secrecy culture\/silos, it’s not going to work, and requires change in their hiring process\/perf review\/QA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

RIPreason<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Chamath’s new iPhone bricks constantly and he has difficulty performing basic functions like calling his wife.<\/p>

In 2024, the way to get bugs fixed on an iPhone is to be a billionaire and rant about it in a top podcast.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

I disagree with Chamath about the problem. The problem is not due to a lack of testing, but a bloated culture infected with careerism and empire-building. And unfortunately, nobody climbs the ladder for shipping quality. You can’t point to quality like you can point to the useless new button they added, or the touchbar, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Dave B.<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Apple used to be a UX company. The entire foundation of the company was “How can man interact with machine to improve all our lives?” and that was done via intuitive software and clever hardware input mechanisms. Supply chain, marketing, and even engineering were all done in service of that goal.<\/p>\n

Today, that has utterly flipped.<\/p>\n

Design and UX feel like they’re just a department off to the side somewhere, while the crux of the company’s existence is “How can we build efficient supply chains and sell many SKUs via effective marketing?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n