Following the success of OS X Snow Leopard for Macs in 2009, one of iOS 9’s standout ‘features’ will be a directed focus on stabilizing and optimizing the operating system. While stability is normally an expected component in Apple software rather than a marquee feature, the rapid pace of iOS releases and feature introductions has taken a toll on the operating system’s overall performance, recently leading to numerous complaints from long-time Apple users and regular customers alike…
Apple has delivered a major new release of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system each year since 2007, generally marketing major iOS changes as a reason to buy new devices. In 2013, Apple completely overhauled the iOS user interface at the same time as it added new features such as Touch ID and Control Center. iOS 8 in 2014 refined the UI design, added Health and Apple Pay, while laying the groundwork for the Apple Watch.
For 2015, iOS 9, which is codenamed Monarch, is going to include a collection of under-the-hood improvements. Sources tell us that iOS 9 engineers are putting a “huge” focus on fixing bugs, maintaining stability, and boosting performance for the new operating system, rather than solely focusing on delivering major new feature additions. Apple will also continue to make efforts to keep the size of the OS and updates manageable, especially for the many millions of iOS device owners with 16GB devices.
It’s unclear whether this might be accomplished by limiting iOS 9 support to relatively recent devices. If the iPhone 5c, original iPad mini, and fifth-generation iPod touch are discontinued by the end of 2015, all of Apple’s “currently available” iOS devices would be using 64-bit A7, A8, and A9 processors. This could simplify iOS development for both Apple and third-party app developers.
Like Snow Leopard, iOS 9 will be pitched with stability as a tentpole component, but under-the-hood enhancements will not be the only feature. Over the past few years, Apple has been working on several new iOS features, such as Transit and Indoor mapping modes, so we are still expecting exciting additions to be showcased on the WWDC 2015 stage as well.
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An iOS Snow Leopard would be absolutely amazing. To be honest, it feels like OS X could use another round of bug fixes and optimisations too.
I agree that optimizations are important. Then again, I have never has iOS 8 crash on me on any of my devices. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the reliability of iOS 8 is top notch on my iPhone 6, 5S and iPad.
Of course, optimizations are welcome. Putting more code closer to the metal takes time but the dividends can be enormous.
What is an iOS Snow Leopard? I’m guessing you meant OS-X. Are you still on Snow Leopard because of hardware limitations? I can’t remember how long ago Snow Leopard was released, but in all reality, there comes a point when hardware has advanced to the point that it is no longer feasible to continue supporting older software.
standard pull means an iOS update that accomplishes for the iOS what Snow Leopard did for Mac OS. Snow Leopard didn’t roll out a lot of flashy new features, but they beefed up the performance quite a bit over Leopard.
Snow Leopard was a much needed upgrade to OS X. Few new features but mostly bug fixes, code optimization, I believe PPC support was dropped… Basically, cleaning up the code, shrinking both RAM and HD footprint. It was a bit painful at first but eventually turned into The Example of what an OS should strive to become (kind of the exact opposite of Yosemite).
So an iOS Snow Leopard refers to a relatively dull, but badly needed cleaning and debugging of iOS.
IMHO OS X is also past due for another.
Snow Leopard was a release that was mostly just to lean-out and tighten up Leopard. There were only a few new features added and most of the revisions were bug fixes and streamlining of key components to make them faster. He’s saying that they should release a Snow Leopard-like update for iOS. In other words, iOS Snow Leopard.
No, by “iOS Snow Leopard” he means a primarily stability and groundwork-focused update with tons of refinements and few large additions, just like Snow Leopard was for OS X.
So expect no new major features? That sucks, I find iOS 8 for daily usage okay.
Skipping a year with no enhancement would be disappointing.
I expect there WILL be a few new features, but not the wide-ranging changes we have had in the last 2-3 years with the switch to iOS7, and additions of Extensions, Continuity etc.
But I think a focus on stability has to be a good thing next time around.
I think stability and optimization would be a huge enhancement. The most needed one in fact.
I couldn’t agree more, but that’s what 8.3 and 8.4 are for. Not an entire cycle from 9.0 – 9.5.
Snow Leopard was a similar release, and they had plenty of new features. I just wouldn’t expect 150+ like usual.
I think you need to reread the article.
Imagine getting an extra 3 to 4 hours of battery… If they optimize correctly, then they could extend battery life, or prevent every tab in Safari from reloading every time you switch tabs. Not to mention, by tweaking animations alone they can make the device appear or feel faster.
You could do it yourself by going though settings.app and doing battery optimisations yourself.
You could solve everything you mentioned in that post Today.
I love this kind of comment, because it shows exactly the problem Apple faces each and every year.
The main feature of the OS upgrade is “under the hood improvements” because the company is in the grip of feeling it must provide something flashy, epic, and new every year. In the meantime, fundamentals go the wayside and user experience is undermined.
Core Apple fans understand prioritizing flash isn’t important (no pun intended, Flash™), but user experience is. It’s why we’ve loved Apple, and this principle will always keep us coming back for more of the same: the same reliability, the same quality interface, the same “it just works”.
As above, there will always be a contingent demanding something sexy and new when what we need is old and reliable: thoughtfulness, planning, and the wisdom to no better. Apple rides itself on the many things it chooses to say “no” to in order to focus on the fundamentals of simplicity and design. Jobs could throw around the adjective “magical” because of this focus because that’s how the result felt.
We all want Apple to retain its magic. Get back to basics, Apple. That’s the best “enhancement” you have going for you.
* know better, not “no better”, obviously.
(Can we get a EDIT option up in here? :P )
I love user experience too and I agree on users that may not know what’s best for them (eg Bigger screens! or Quad core iPhones!!).
But when I use my phone, I know what to expect and I make adjustments. I don’t expect my phone to run for days, so I make battery optimisations. People complaining about Safari tabs refreshing clearly don’t understand this logic. They expect the iPhone to come with 32gbs of ram just for caching the webpage. I’ve used iOS long enough to know when to expect a tab refresh. And I wouldn’t call that a bug, more of a feature, could it be improved? sure. Should we spend an entire major release for it? Probably not.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the classic interface and old times. Look at 10.10 Finder, it’s still aqua going on and you know it. But things are moving quick nowadays, people saying we should slow down and do background enhancements is just like old folks sticking with the iPod classic saying we don’t need a new one.
I know Apple products (hardware & software) used to be more sturdy and fire-wires don’t break like lightning cables, but I don’t think any true Apple supporter would cheer for a major release of OS improvement and optimisation.
@Michael Wai – “but I don’t think any true Apple supporter would cheer for a major release of OS improvement and optimisation.”
Why not? Any “true” Apple fan would realise that Apple *aren’t* perfect and do sometimes mess up or even just need a spring clean.
I think that iOS would do well to move away from yearly major releases, but that seems to just be the way it is. If we just keep getting major feature release after major feature release, there’s not much time for cleaning up and optimising the operating system on a whole. I’d rather at least one major release was dedicated to that. Ideally, it’d happen more frequently than once every 8 or so years…
As mentioned above, there will almost certainly be some new features, and (more importantly) more APIs for developers to use.
But the real enhancement would come with additional stability, a lower storage footprint, and all-round better performance.
And what real features does iOS even need to add? Both iOS and Android are mature operating systems now, where there’s not much room for genuine feature addition.
You said it’s possible to fix Safari tabs refreshing today…. so how is it done? Because they used to work fine in iOS 7, and I’d say the single most important “new feature” for iOS 9 would be to fix Safari again.
Awesome!
Way to go Apple
Can Apple fix bugs without adding more bugs? (Real question)
can anyone, in 100%?…
yes (real answer)
I think you should try Microsoft Windows and Google Android before complaining.
Yes and no. Usually, you ‘correct’ mistakes in the current code… and possible input others.
But if you add a bunch of features, a lot of new code, the probability of inputing new bugs is greater.
Given the number of devices with which Apple’s software needs to be compatible, and given the fact that many times, 3rd party software is the culprit, do you really believe that there is anyway in the world for ANY company to test every permutation of the environments their software is installed on. I don’t know how long you’ve been using Apple hardware, but I’ve been with them since 1993, and believe me, the grousing that goes on about their current OSs is somewhat petty compared to some of the issues that we fought with back in “good old days”. ; ) Still even back then there was nowhere near the complaining that went on and still goes on in regards to Windows.
I’m not making excuses for Apple, but as someone whose been working with computers since the early 60s (Jeez, what a Geez, eh), the growth in stability in general is a relatively major miracle!
End of year would not be early enough to cut those three devices from iOS 9. Assuming Apple sticks to their pattern of supporting current products, they would have to be discontinued prior to the unveiling of iOS 9, presumably at WWDC 2015. You’ll recall Apple dropped the 4th gen iPod touch just prior to unveiling iOS 7, replacing it with a no-camera 5th gen model. Similar moves might happen for both the 5th gen iPod touch and 1st gen iPad mini, less likely for the iPhone 5c.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
A lame response would be that they should put way more effort in releasing bug-free software in the first place. While I understand this is hardly achievable, I do think they are merely testing new features and major iOS releases on freshly installed devices. I sincerely hope they’ll also test new software on upgrades, as I’m still seeing bugs ‘from back in the day’. And installing as new and simply dragging in all apps and data manually would be the same as restoring from backup. Things like SMS history get lost.
PLEASE, do the same first for the Mac OS (finder cough cough) and Numbers.
What’s wrong with finder?
It constantly resets to the default window size. We should be able to permanently adjust the dimensions of the window to our liking.
So you want to see Yosemite, revealed once more, in 10.11?
No, he wants something akin to Snow Yosemite.
Hard to believe we are nearly at iOS 10. Time flies.. I, like many, would welcome a simpler iOS 9 with better performance and polish. While I doubt it will be feature-less, I imagine they will focus on improving existing apps, improved Music (with Beats integration) improved Maps, etc.
I’ve been expecting this for a few months now and it goes along with all we’ve been hearing. This is definitely a good sign. There’s been some great advancements in iOS, but it’s critical that it also works as fluidly and stable as users expect.
Oh, really!? #CaptainObviousStrikesBackHere
There has to be a special layer of irony reserved for the fact that Yosemite just had a kernel panic while loading this article.
nice
Kernel faults happens mainly because of hardware or drivers fails. It’s highly unlikely that mere webpage load is responsible for such failure.
I’ve been on OSX since the beginning and have never had a kernel panic.
In place of Intel’s tic-roc approach, we’ll see a tic-tic-tic-toc approach: three iOSes with features focus and one with stability focus.
(On the other hand, ‘tic-tic-tic-toc’ is a more musical rhythm… maybe it was suggested by Beats! )
There are some fewer but annoying bugs introduced with iOS 8 e OS X Yosemite, indeed. Oh, boy! But some of the new technologies introduced with these operating systems, has positioned Apple far ahead of the competition.
Now the development team must follow the natural course of stabilization and refinement. Something similar happened with Snow Leopard, that despite of the marketing that it did not came with new features, actually SL also brought several innovations.
To me it seems obvious that such a thing should happen with iOS and OS X 9 10:11.
Sounds good to me. Could you please do the same with OS X, Apple? We could do with a “Snow Yosemite”.
This is the right strategy.
This update will benefit users of older hardware that desperately need the performance boost, but for the iPhone 6, iOS 8 runs quite well. Hopefully we’ll see some more features sprinkled in as well or it may turn out to be a less eventful WWDC than years past; with the exception of a possible Apple TV service/Beats Streaming service/Apple TV hardware upgrade? Still definitely looking forward to June for new apple “stuff”.
One big thing I want is to have the phone register inputs while transitions are going on. The transitions are nice, but I’d like fluid quick performance much more. For example, hitting the home button from an app and immediately trying to swipe to a different page results in missed input.
Another good example would be the multitasking interface. I find a lot of my swipes and taps in there go unnoticed. I think apple could do a great job of implementing this, especially if they incorporate the physics used in the messages app. Even if an animation isn’t completely done, objects should still be able to be manipulated. They could make it soo slick and smooth
I’m still waiting for Apple to bring in the split screen. That will be a big feature that some people keep forgetting. And I want in iOS 9 for Apple to finally add a weather and calculator app for the iPads. The transit and indoor mapping will be great if they can get it to work with a lot of the under the hood upgrades they make.
I really hope they put multi-user support on the iPad. Perhaps different people using it can log in using Touch ID
I don’t think they like the idea of a family sharing one. However, this would boost corporate sales.
I hate version numbers already. Internet Explorer is at 11, but Opera is at 27, Firefox is at 35, and Google Chrome is all the way at 40. Windows is skipping 9, OS X can’t seem to count to XI, yet Linux is still at 3. Office for Mac is stuck at 2011, Windows is at 2013, and their next version is 365. iOS’s at 8, but Android’s at Lollipop.
I need a drink.
You need two drinks. Linux isn’t an operating system, it’s a kernel. And you’d better believe that operating systems built on top of Kernel version 3.x are not themselves at version 3. Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, etc.
lol. do you want to start a Google doc for this list? Would be fun to see.
“OS X can’t seem to count to XI”
It’s because OS X is the brand, not a decimal number.
That’s… Nevermind.
Yeah? And what was the predecessor to OSX? (please don’t say Rhapsody)
I hope they iron out iTunes. In nonage that piece iof crap is piece of crap.
None wants incompatibility with coping images from iphone to any OS and many want vice versa, which presently iPhone doesn’t allow.
but I wanted tio post because I am long time user, and one machine back (now Im on new 5s iphone 64GB , 6 was too big for my dermatoscope), I got the bug that creates undeletable shortcut in shortcuts and after that, ALL machines connected to my iCloud account stop for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. Messaging and lot of things have become a CATASTROPHE!
Pror to that, I did a lot of my essays on ipad while travelling. Now it hangs, or crashes 2/3 times…AWFUL.
(latest ipad2, 5s iphone etc…)
improve apple, and solve the errors lot of people have.
Do you have Apple Care? Did you buy the phone used? Have you called Apple Support?
You don’t get to blame Apple for your problems if you haven’t tried to fix them. It sounds like you are having a unique case of problems, which can probably be fixed with a phone call.
Not everyone is have a CATASTROPHE! … and you don’t need to either.
Good news for Apple fans!
I thing this is the best decision of Apple for coming with new OS with full stability
Remember when Steve so adamantly rejected the idea or running Flash in an iOS browser because of performance concerns? Some middle manager who is not “doing what Steve would have done” probably allowed iOS7 to run on iPhone 4 or iOS8 and iPhone 5 which are both notoriously slow performers. There is no excuse such as the “rapid pace” of development since competitors are so far behind. Apple is finally taking the time to think about UX the way Steve did. It’s about time. Don’t let it happen again.
For those reading this article: the iOS teams and OS X teams are under the same boss. If the next iOS release is focused on stability/bug squashing, you can safely assume the same thing is going on with OS X 10.11.
Additionally: given that Mark fails to cite any source for this information, you can also assume that it’s either idle speculation on his part (made up) or that he forgot to include any evidence of why he thinks this.
Looks like you missed the article’s tag: “Feature” This means it’s an editorial, an opinion-based article and the author gets to write basically anything he likes. An author can also simply quote his own words, reference to another article written by the same author. I don’t think Mark forgot anything.
An iOS 9 that focus solely on improving features already available would be amazing! I’ve secretly wished for Apple to focus on refining it’s current offering. I’ve hoped that they would buy out their top app developers for default apps like: Finish, Fantastical, Timeful, Mailbox and then integrate features from these apps.
Why can’t I have more than three different categories of calendars? No reason.
I’d also like to see Apple put tighter restrictions on developers regarding the use of new APIs. Twitter still won’t launch an Instagram link in the app! I can’t like or comment without signing in, and so I don’t. In order to update apps, developers should have to use certain new APIs – within reason, like not blocking a security patch over the issue.
While they’re at it can they redesign the share screen, and let users customize it from the Settings? It seems every time I finish moving the icons around in each app to my liking, the whole thing jumps back to default. No, I don’t want to start a slideshow of 1 photo. No, I don’t want to put a link to a photo on my phone in Pocket.
It would already be of great help if Apple used its grip on the App Store to force developers to use iOS (8) features; if they don’t they shouldn’t be allowed to release new versions of their app except bug fix releases.
Look at all camera and photo editing apps that don’t handle image metadata properly and don’t offer non-destructive editing instead of creating new copies.
Or all the messager apps – yes, i look at you Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp – that don’t support extensions to send link and photos and therefore don’t integrate well in iOS.
If these developers are too lazy and or dumb to use iOS’s features, make them or kick them from the App Store. This of course doesn’t help with other iOS 8 issues, but it would be first step to even bigger user satisfaction and a better all-round experience.
99% of all the software in the app store is garbage. Are you suggesting that Apple reduce its software library to 1% of what it is today? Never going to happen.
That’s not what i intended to suggest. Replace “make them or kick them from the App Store” with “lock them to their latest bug fix version but prevent them from adding new features unless they use iOS features when it makes perfect sense”
Finally, Apple is getting back to their roots of: “It just works.”
Let’s wait and see. From iOS’s current state it’s a looooooooong way to “it just works”.
very welcome, even if they keep refining until iOS12. I want the speed, the battery and the “it just works” back.
Transit and indoor mapping as app features, not OS features. It’s a shame to roll that kind of update into an OS release instead of just updating the Maps app.
You have got to be joking IOS8 is a shambles. This stupid wifi problem has got worse and worse with each update.
I want nothing else from Apple but this for 1015. Please make this happen!
Come back to the future Otto.
Lots of whinny beyotches on the net these days.
Well done Apple… You finally decide to stabilize iOS…not that it is leggy, considering the fact that I have an iPad Air…
Awesomely amazing.
I blame Apple’s greed for the space issue people are having with the 16gb devices. They should have dumped the 16gb option a long time ago and made the 32gb the entry point. If they did that they could have avoided that mess and it wouldn’t have cost them much.
Yeah. The space issue is also one of the increasing size of iOS installs. People were always still able to update iOS through iTunes. But 16GB doesn’t really make all that much sense nowadays.
Another way to put it: “Apple’s iOS 9 to have ‘huge’ stability and optimization focus after years of additional bugs”
My iPhone plus 6 jams up sometimes and I have to turn it off to work again. Is the phone crook ( not working). Or is the software crook. My first Apple phone. Love it, will never go back to Samsung and android cake menu rubbish plus skins!
give us custom launchers and icon packs!
Sou super a favor de Apple focar no capô do carro.
O OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) é até hoje na minha opinião o melhor sistema operacional que a empresa já produzio no que diz respeito à estabilidade. Em minhas mãos nunca travou, ou apreceu a bolinha colorida (computador pensando).
O iOS é conhecido por ter pouquíssimos bugs, mas sempre é bom revisitar e buscar melhorias na performance, tamanho ocupado em disco e etc…
I’d be satisfied if iOS 9 got no new features except the ability to share location data from an iPhone to nearby iPads and Macs. I can’t understand why something that important wasn’t included long ago.
And for OS X, Apple needs to realize that millions of us use our Macs for text, including what we’re doing now. The woefully underfunded Hunspell spelling checker built into OS X would be an embarrassment to a late 1980s word processor. Its vocabulary is that of a college sophomore. We’ve been debating American exceptionalism for years, and yet it doesn’t know that “exceptionalism” is a legitimate word. And the list of common words it doesn’t know is a long one. I know. I edit university-level books and what it doesn’t know is a disgrace.
OS X’s spell checker is also woefully ignorant of basic English rules. Words ending in -ly are never hyphenated, and yet it will blissfully treat them as legitimate. If you want an illustration, try quickly-go. That’s because OS X’s spell checker is so stupid, it treats any two correctly spelled words as if their hyphenated combination was also legitimate. That’s so stupid, it makes its spell checking abilities worthless. Lookups are also dreadful. Leaving out a single letter or transposing two will often leave it at a loss as to what the correct spelling is. Google’s search function has an amazing ability to figure out the correct spelling. Why can’t Apple’s spell checker either do the same or at least give us a “check spelling with Google” option.
Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and others who’ve been cheapskates, exploiting Hunspell while contributing little or nothing toward it, need to get off their backsides. They could start by acquiring for it a top-notch, professionally maintained dictionary with continual updates and better-than-sophomore-level vocabulary. They also needs a dictionary that distinguishes between legitimate hyphenated words and bosh like “quickly-go.” It should also know that usage changes, that e-mail, for instance, has been replaced by email.
i think that people saying that this kind of “Snow Leopard” updates to both iOS and OS X aren’t needed are simply not using the software enough to see all the bugs and hiccups in them. My iPhone 6 Plus 128 GB, is supposed to be the top-tier of the iphone offering and still i experience safari crashes daily, also everytime i change from portrait to landscape in any app i have to hope the app doesn’t crash. it’s embarrassing. Both iDevice and Macs are plenty of HW power to manage the OS features, so there’s clearly a SW problem going on.
It is also very fascinating how Apple keeps removing advanced features from OS X and at the same time adding lots of complication to iOS in order to find a middle ground to reach feature parity on the two ecosystem; but this behaviors just eliminates the need to have distinct OS environments.
The new Photos app on OS X has exactly the same features as the one on iOS, so why would i need to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a Mac if i can get the same thing done on an iDevice? One thing is UI and style coherence, but another is underpowering OS X in order to make iOS and OS X the same thing.
Let’s cross our fingers Or hold hands and start praying that they do that, we really need a more stable iOS and OS X, I want yet again start using my mobile & macs devices with more efficiently & stability
Good! This is desperately needed. The reliability of OS X and iOS has been disappointing over the past two years.
I hope this article is true, because this is exactly what iOS 9 needs to be. Feature set is great. Performance has taken a big hit, even on the newest fastest devices.
Google wifried and you will know what Apple has done to all of our decides
Wonder if this gives them some breathing room to push Swift through, beyond just sort some bugs?
Here’s a summary of the optimisations I’d like to see for Passbook, Passes and iBeacon technology:
1 – Adding a Pass to Passbook UI fixed
2 – Making the Pass reverse action more intuitive
3 – Extend the 2D Barcode scanner capabilities
4 – Slide to view Passbook pass improvements
5 – Spotlight / proactive search for Passbook passes
6 – Optional grouping of Passes
7 – 1D Barcode format supported
8 – Beacon ranging implemented for the Passbook app
9 – Allow Passbook transactions via BLE
10 – Better looking Passes on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6plus
11 – Searches leading to Passes not just apps
12 – TouchID authentication for (special) Passes
13 – Beacons taking priority over GPS locations
I provide more detail here https://blog.passkit.com/what-we-want-to-see-at-wwdc-mobile-wallet-and-more/