Does companies not BETA test anymore?

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BTR

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#154637 3-Nov-2014 12:04

The two main companies I am talking about are Apple and Samsung.

This morning I have wasted so much time trying to install some app's on some iPads. It turns out iOS 8 has a bug which means trying to download apps or even updates from the device doesn't work. This doesn't affect all devices as my iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 updated and download app's fine. I suspect its a wireless bug as my iPad won't update using wireless but will with 3G and there has been numerous reports of wireless issues and iOS8 posted on the net.

After my Apple episode I gave up and decided to setup my Tab3 which has mostly sat in a drawer, the firmware is out of date and it won't update from the device, no problem I say i'll update it using Kies. My only problem is the download gets to 26% before the software crashes and quits.

No these are two pieces of software from "Tech giants" and surely you would think they would test this stuff before rolling it out. The iOS problem has existing since version 8.0 was released and even though 8.0.1, 8.0.2 and 8.1 have been released its still not fixed. With the Samsung issue I am not sure how long thats been going on but surely they would test this before releasing the software???

It seems like we pay for a premium product only to get flaky software....

ilovemusic

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#1167550 3-Nov-2014 12:34

beta testing is done by the early adopter.

gzt

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#1167570 3-Nov-2014 12:53

Does companies not BETA test anymore?

Lol. Yes. Did you see it before it came out of beta? ; ).

Is your ios device still under support? you should try the official support for the story.

matisyahu

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#1168123 4-Nov-2014 03:19

The problem is with beta testing is that bugs aren't always reproducible because it is very much a situation of a specific setup rather than a just a generic 'does not work' regardless of the configuration. Wifi and Yosemite are a good example where some praise the Wifi performance/stability whilst others decry that it has gone backwards - issues can range from the router to whether one does a clan install or an upgrade. Then add on top of that new wifi and cellular chipset, possibility of issues between the telecommunications infrastructure and firmware/drivers. Many moving parts, many variables and many chances of things going wrong.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

kiwitrc

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#1168129 4-Nov-2014 06:05

Do companies not Beta test anymore?

They do but getting every possible machination sorted is a big ask.

timmmay

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#1168135 4-Nov-2014 07:07

Apple always claim their tight control of hardware lets them integrate well, avoid issues, and give a better experience to their customers...

alasta

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#1168174 4-Nov-2014 08:33

timmmay: Apple always claim their tight control of hardware lets them integrate well, avoid issues, and give a better experience to their customers...

It does, but this makes them lazy and complacent which is why iOS has so many problems. OS X isn't quite as bad, but I have been surprised at some of the problems I've had with Aperture which is perhaps why it's being discontinued.

I'm astounded at how buggy Microsoft Excel is - there are glaringly obvious problems that have existed for several generations but clearly the people who design and test these products don't actually use them on a day-to-day basis. Stability of both Excel and Access is very poor.

The other thing that grinds my gears is iOS app developers who push out updates that completely break apps that were working perfectly fine up to that point. The recent mess with the 3 News app is a perfect example.

I think consumers need to be more forthright when it comes to throwing the CGA at software products that are not fit for purpose.

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timmmay

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#1168178 4-Nov-2014 08:42

For years every time I try to make a "currency" in Excel it made it a floating point number instead. I had to do it twice for it to work. They seem to have fixed it in Excel 2007, the version I use (haven't seen any reason to update yet).

ckc

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#1168352 4-Nov-2014 11:43

alasta:

I'm astounded at how buggy Microsoft Excel is - there are glaringly obvious problems that have existed for several generations but clearly the people who design and test these products don't actually use them on a day-to-day basis. Stability of both Excel and Access is very poor.

I use Excel?Libre Calc on a daily basis. In MS's defence, they fix lots of things on a regular basis, but not all the bugs are to do with the applications themselves. They're often to do with background applications. Also, the reason that some things just haven't been fixed is an underlying issue with fixing them that might break other things - critically, fixing some bugs could break VBA in the application. But then, VBA is also buggy.

There's a huge list of workarounds that get used, but most bugs have either been fixed with updates to the application suite, or with updates to background or companion applications. It's usually the latter that means that bugs persist.