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Did Apple set developers up for failure?

by Brett Terpstra Jul 14th 2008 at 7:00AM

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, many of the applications from the App Store are crashing frequently. Basically, an app I want to launch opens a blank screen, pauses for a moment, and then drops me back to my home screen without so much as an apology. Worse, it may even reset the phone. I've found with most of them that a simple reboot will allow them to launch again, but that's getting old and doesn't always help. You're probably, like me, thinking that it's a shame that so many developers rushed so quickly to make the App Store deadline and ended up putting out unstable applications. According to the development community, though, it's not their fault ... it's Apple's.

Anonymous developer sources are reporting that they've been poring over crash logs and discovering that the reported crash has nothing to do with their application. There's a growing consensus that Apple has released a highly unstable "final" version of the 2.0 firmware. So, maybe it's more of a shame that Apple, who laid the groundwork for a multitude of useful and exciting applications, rushed development and failed to build a better foundation.

Personally, I haven't seen the crash logs, and I am -- legitimately, in my opinion -- accepting the word of veteran developers. I also can't speak for individual applications, there are some pretty shoddy offerings in the App Store which may have their own reasons for crashing (i.e. "I look like I was written by a Windows developer, I can't show my face!"). There are also several applications whose requisite servers were overloaded initially, but are getting back on their feet now. But for a lot of the random crashes, it has nothing to do with the app itself ... so, before you write that complaint email, check your tone ... you might be getting snarky with the wrong party.



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As I'm sure many of you have noticed, many of the applications from the App Store are crashing frequently. Basically, an app I want to...
 

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TC

Developers blaming their crashes on anyone other than themselves.. wow. this IS News!!!!! ahahaha seriously.. i mean really, since the dawn of app development, the blame game is always been there, and i would bet there is only a handful of developers who have EVER admitted that their issues were based on the fact that they rushed to market.

July 28 2008 at 1:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
josh

I've had a first gen iphone since the day it launched and never had much of a problem. When I upgraded to 2.0 I tested it for a couple days, noticed a couple crashes here and there no biggie. Recently i installed a number of apps i bought, at least 20-30, right off the bat i noticed a certain lag to native iphone apps such as sms, ipod, safari, etc. Most game apps i played crashed, certain social apps would not even load. Its not like im mad or anything but i do see that something is wrong here and im sure apple will fix it eventually. This is a widespread problem, no doubt, I have had at least 15 system crashes that needed restore, and if you backed up your iphone will a number of apps on it the restore time is in the hours, and the backup time can take at least 30 minutes at times. Its frustrating and my iphone has been down at least a week. Well anyways just my 2 cents, maybe there should be an app cap, so to speak, on how many you should put on your phone but even with a small number of apps, the same problems occur...

July 22 2008 at 3:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Taylor

I've been noticing a lot of issues with the 2.0 firmware. I've never owned an iPod/Touch/etc. before and got really psyched about the 3g iPhone. I already had to return one iPhone 8gb because I couldn't get it "fixed" after restoring, etc. I now have a 16gb white, so I'm happier with this, and at least I can answer phone calls and not miss them, now.

Before, however, I couldn't unlock the phone, turn it off, hang up on a phone call, applications failed, messages got deleted, the system was slow, etc.

I'm definitely under the impression that the 2.0 firmware has some issues in it. I'm looking forward to the fixes in it so that I can enjoy my iPhone without any hiccups. If the hiccups weren't there, it'd be a GREAT phone.

July 15 2008 at 9:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
robotplague

I got my phone on friday and I've had SO many issues with it. It's crashed at least 12 times since I've gotten it. I've had to restore it twice already. After the last restore things seem to be a lot better as it's only crashed once today. I kept my apps to a minimum, seems to be doing the trick. I'm also not jump from one app to another to another testing it all out.

July 14 2008 at 9:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bryan Law

I'm having the same crashy problems too, about 50% of the time they cause my iPod to reboot. How about some 2.1 or 2.0.1 firmware Apple? I can has stability?

July 14 2008 at 3:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Danny

My "virgin" iPod touch is working fine with 5A347 EXCEPT for Safari, which seems to crash every five minutes and then causes my music to skip. It's getting really annoying. No other problems, though, aside from some general slowness.

July 14 2008 at 2:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bshigenaka

Whether people want to admit it or not, this many people talking about instability is not a fluke; there is a problem.

I have had a few apps crash, but only got concerned enough to post here when I couldn't get SMS to work properly - the app hangs, then often crashes. One conversation went completely nuts, not allowing me to scroll properly and I couldn't send texts within the conversation.

It's offensive to see some people lose control to the point that they won't even allow those of us who love the company to bring some of these issues to light. Ad hominem attacks on people who state any negative opinions - even constructive ones - about Apple at best is a sign of immaturity and at worst is a sign of mental instability.

July 14 2008 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to bshigenaka's comment
Rob

Same problems here. Multiple app crashes - Twitterific, AIM, netnewswire, Scrabble all have crashed on me. Several times I had to reboot the phone. I'm also getting a lengthy backup procedure when I sync with iTunes. Ugh. My wife is laughing at me for upgrading to the new phone.

July 14 2008 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
min_t

Downloaded and installed 2.0 fw on 1st gen iphone. no apps installed yet, kept getting crashes. Did a full wipe and restore. No crashes. Downloaded and installed 12 apps, no crashes.

July 14 2008 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

I've been waiting for 2.0.1 since the first ten minutes of using 2.0. I've had my iPod touch reset once, and random app crashes occur fairly regularly.

July 14 2008 at 1:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
xyz3

Restore to the latest 2.0 software fixed crashes for me, and seemed to really speed up many apps. On the flip side, my maps: current location feature is now nowhere near as accurate as it once was! :/

July 14 2008 at 1:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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