Thread

1. danpalmer · 1790989621 · focus · HN ↗

   This is exactly the sort of software that was hard to prioritise before LLMs, and trivial to build with LLMs.

   There's nothing interesting going on here, and I don't mean that as a criticism. There's a clear schema, no particularly clever UX needed, you can build almost all of this out of standard UI components, and the problem is well defined.

   The only challenge is the actual time input for coding, and that's mostly gone today.

   1. latexr · 1790995086 · focus · HN ↗

      Apple is a multi-trillion dollar corporation. They spent billions on a doomed car project which never saw the light of day. They release unfinished software on an unsustainable schedule. Their software quality has been declining for over a decade. Their design is lacklustre now and issues go unaddressed indefinitely. They are shoving ads everywhere.

      The last thing they need is more things to get distracted with. They don’t need LLMs, they need to care and focus on making good products.

      1. Barbing · 1791002946 · focus · HN ↗

         > They release unfinished software on an unsustainable schedule.

         Help us, John Ternus.

         1. latexr · 1791017635 · focus · HN ↗

            Unlikely. They have locked themselves into OS versions tied to numbers corresponding to the year. If anything, they are likely to double-down on it.

            1. flohofwoe · 1791018189 · focus · HN ↗

               The current macOS version is 27.2 (e.g. it's not like they can only do one release per year now with the new version scheme).

               1. latexr · 1791021293 · focus · HN ↗

                  I kindly ask that you attempt to steel man the argument before replying. Obviously that’s not the argument, they also made point releases before. Major release numbers means focusing on major new features, which obviously means less focus on fixing what’s already there and more stuff to be buggy.

                  1. wahnfrieden · 1791039227 · focus · HN ↗

                     Their last major release focused heavily on bug fixes and performance and adding new features required leadership override to permit as priority

                     1. Barbing · 1791072436 · focus · HN ↗

                        They had a whole year (well I suppose quite a bit less) and I still have multiple bugs from iOS 26? Including a temporary show stopper? Gah! Maybe a reformat… actually a few, macOS iOS iPadOS.

                        1. wahnfrieden · 1791082683 · focus · HN ↗

                           Claim was that they don’t focus on bugs and quality for major point releases. Well they did. And then you claim they didn’t fix everything - well yes they didn’t. Snow Leopard also left major issues.

                           1. Barbing · 1791096942 · focus · HN ↗

                              Bet a reformat is in order anyway considering - wasn’t disagreeing with your description of their intent, though AI Siri & Shortcuts must’ve taken a bit of oxygen.
            2. nikanj · 1791020706 · focus · HN ↗

               Hopefully, the difference between releasing 27.3 and 28.0 is just one variable in some build config

               1. latexr · 1791021448 · focus · HN ↗

                  It’s not. Every year they spend a whole week talking about new additions to their operating systems (WWDC) and then a whole summer feeding builds to developers. They’re not going to stop doing that any time soon. If big number increases, they’ll have to announce something.

                  1. goalieca · 1791023057 · focus · HN ↗

                     Apple is sales driven.

                     1. latexr · 1791024108 · focus · HN ↗

                        What’s your point? That’s not a secret, nor is it in dispute.
                     2. nikanj · 1791025770 · focus · HN ↗

                        All successful projects are. "We'll make more of the thing that the market wants" is a pretty reasonable strategy.
                     3. newsclues · 1791033184 · focus · HN ↗

                        Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" sold a lotta systems without major features added.

                        Apple could alternate annual releases with performance/security focus and features. Need to figure a cadence of changing the UI that fits in with that cycle.

                        1. wahnfrieden · 1791039270 · focus · HN ↗

                           27 was literally another Snow Leopard

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