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Comment by korale | Hacker News Reader

Apple needs a major change in the way they do software overall. AI is one concrete manifestation of their issues but it runs much deeper. They still produce great hardware but it's held back by their software. Would love to see them rethink the entire stack from the OS APIs and SDKs, dev tools, WatchOS, to features like extensibility, Shortcuts, and of course, how they leverage AI. At this point, they should probably retire the name Siri and introduce their next gen AI under a new name. They also need to really step up their approach to testing and software quality across the board.

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There’s no easy answer here, starting from scratch and rethinking everything carries a very high risk of disaster.

They just need to start giving a shit. Care about bugs for once. The whole software org needs to take the time to go through their (clearly) enormous backlog of bugs, and shore up what they have.

The problem isn’t the architecture or vision or rethinking their stack, it’s that what they have is barely holding together under its own weight. They need to do the unsexy work of going through and shoring it up.

As for Siri, just give the job to OpenAI. Let them write the new thing, they’ll probably be done in a month.

Agree that they can't start from scratch. But they could acknowledge their shortcomings wrt to software and start moving things in the right direction. I had never seen so many complaints about software quality at Apple than the last release of MacOS with their networking issues and many other.

They are in a decent position where they already set expectations that they will deprecate and retire old stuff on a regular basis compared to Microsoft which is trying to preserve backwards compatibility forever.

Giving it to OpenAI won't solve their problem with Siri (although some of that expertise could help). Part of it has to be engineered into their platform with better extensibility while also preserving privacy, security, etc. And that work could also enable their platform APIs, Shortcuts and such to have access to a much more powerful set of things.

Maybe the problem is how the goal and objectives are set up which results in maligned incentives - "innovating" for the sake of innovation instead of fixing existing problem. The first results in nice power point presentations, the second doesn't.

People keep talking in this thread about iOS / macOS being bug-ridden messes. I have to wonder if this is from users still on Intel chips.

My work MacBook with a now 3+ year old M1 Max? Rock solid. Rarely run into any problems at all. My iPhone? Also rock solid. Rarely run into any problems.

My Intel-based MacBook? Buggy mess. Like Apple has left the Intel side of the house to die on the roadside. As someone who still uses that at the time expensive device, I find this annoying. But I understand why they’re not investing resources into Intel bug fixing.

It's not processor dependent. The OS is just buggy. Actually the only thing that is processor dependent is dtrace failing on Apple silicon and not fixed for years.

Other bugs are very generic. I get focus bugs, password input box broken on lockscreen, search just not working in settings app, xcode crashing if I even look at it wrong, and lots more...

Did you see the part where I said macOS on my M1-based laptop is great?

Yes, that's why I'm saying - no, they're not better and I do see issues on Apple silicon. You got lucky so far.

For years now. I guess I’ve had a good run.

Why would my mother care about dtrace?

Agreed.

Crazy, given that they are so good at marketing, that they haven't thought about retiring the name Siri, a name which now, has connotations of being an inept and unskilled assistant.

Maybe for the next one they need to do a 180, and give the AI a name seems like she would be on top of everything and runs a tight ship and conveys that old school cold, calculating, no nonsense image.

Like Frau Farbissina or Geraldine or Gertrude.

I would trust a Geraldine with my books.

Kinda like how they use Afred or Jeeves for butlers.

Really? Software is currently why I prefer Apple products. I prefer iOS to Android and I prefer macOS to Windows.

There is always room for improvement, but I never got the feeling they need to drastically change things or start fresh. They just need to squash some of the big bugs IMO.

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