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Apple's Newest iPhone X Ad Captures an Embarrassing iOS 11 Bug (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the you-had-one-job dept.

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge: If you blink during Apple's latest iPhone ad, you might miss a weird little animation bug. It's right at the end of a slickly produced commercial, where the text from an iMessage escapes the animated bubble it's supposed to stay inside. It's a minor issue and easy to brush off, but the fact it's captured in such a high profile ad just further highlights Apple's many bugs in iOS 11. 9to5Mac writer Benjamin Mayo spotted the bug in Apple's latest ad, and he's clearly surprised "that this was signed off for the commercial," especially as he highlighted it months ago and has filed a bug report with Apple.

36 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Least Significant Bug Ever by darkain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is an odd day on Slashdot when the most minor of UI bugs, so insignificant that if you didnt already know about it that you wouldnt even see it, makes the front page. I'm all for taking on companies that refuse to fix really annoying shit. But the slide of the bubble around the text slightly animating differently than the text itself for a fraction of a second only upon loading!? That's it..? REALLY?

    1. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by jawtheshark · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Not only that: it's an animation bug... animation! Seriously. That's one of the most minor bugs you can have.

      I'm also pretty sure normal people didn't notice. I most certainly didn't.

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    2. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It’s interesting to note, but I agree that it’s of little significance. Moreover, while it looks odd, I can’t say with 100% certainty that it’s a bug at all (though if I had to bet, I’d bet it was), given that it allows the eye to start processing the text before the animation completes, which may have been an intentional decision. There are numerous examples of companies intentionally making odd choices of exactly that sort in order to enhance usability, even if it comes at the cost of what looks correct when you go through it frame by frame or pixel by pixel.

    3. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And even if they did, most people would assume it was a post-production error - filming screens "live" is almost impossible and it's all practically chroma-keyed during post production. Especially under big bright studio lighting used for professional productions. (Under dimmer conditions like people might use for YouTube videos, a bright screen can be readable).

      Or even if it was a real screen that was filmed, everyone assumes it's playing a carefully controlled video - thus any animation error is just an animation error when they constructed the video that was playing and not an actual capture of a real session.

    4. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by tacarat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pedantic nitpicking has always been frowned upon here.

      --
      "Common sense will be the death of us all"
    5. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the most minor of UI bugs, so insignificant

      To the end user, yes. To a company that used to pride itself on its own excellence, displaying the bug proudly in an expensive and otherwise carefully produced advert the bug is not only significant, it's a sign of a completely changing culture shift in Apple.

      We used to not have these kind of bugs. The UI was the most polished part of the whole OS. Now not only do we have what seems like an endless stream of them, but they will proudly advertise them. THAT is newsworthy.

      If this was the Apple of old, someone would be trying to find a new job right now.

    6. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      It was one person's job to create that animation, and they just didn't care enough to get it right. It was another person's job to make sure that the animation had been done correctly, and that person didn't care enough to have this rectified. This is a bug you can see, and they didn't care enough. Would you like to imagine how they treat the code where you can't immediately see the bugs?

    7. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Mr0bvious · · Score: 2

      I totally agree.

      I'm at the polar opposite of an Apple fan, but as far as "bug" goes, that's ranks just below zero.

      --
      Never happened. True story.
    8. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Or maybe Slashdot wants us to watch an ad... "When the sage points at the moon, the fool looks at his finger"

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    9. Re: Least Significant Bug Ever by Mr0bvious · · Score: 1

      It's a feature more than a bug.

      --
      Never happened. True story.
    10. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Slashdot needs to keep the Apple hate up.
      Because well... these people who hate Apple has a competitors product and they like it. And they feel that Apple’s success will somehow diminish their own products value.
      The iPhone X is the most expensive mainline phone out there. But other products are not that far away in price that are similar. So other people are spending a bit more money on something that we are not using and they seem to like it too, seems to outrage us.
      Over the past 10 years with the iPhone. The problems reported are rather minor the biggest news was on how poorly Apple responded to the minor problems.
      Your holding it wrong.
      Don’t sit on it.
      Courage.
      But overall the actual problem was minor. Even in iOS 11 which was rushed out to meet its 10 year anniversary had minor problems compared to what we have seen in Windows in the past. No major hacks or bricking or rampid spyware hitting the product.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    11. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      But some posters enjoy it :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    12. Re: Least Significant Bug Ever by shm · · Score: 1

      It's Steve Jobs' legacy. The stories of his attention to detail have made people think that this is the kind of thing he would have stopped and prevented from release.

    13. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      Imagine Slashdot as a Beowulf cluster of pedantic nitpickers!

    14. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by tsa · · Score: 1

      But there aren't any other bugs in iOS!

      --

      -- Cheers!

    15. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Pieroxy · · Score: 2

      I'm going to have to cite Anubis IV in the post he made just above yours:

      It’s interesting to note, but I agree that it’s of little significance. Moreover, while it looks odd, I can’t say with 100% certainty that it’s a bug at all (though if I had to bet, I’d bet it was), given that it allows the eye to start processing the text before the animation completes, which may have been an intentional decision. There are numerous examples of companies intentionally making odd choices of exactly that sort in order to enhance usability, even if it comes at the cost of what looks correct when you go through it frame by frame or pixel by pixel.

      I am indeed not sure this is a bug. It may be more subtle. But don't let that slow down your rage against Apple.

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!
    16. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      most people look away when their iProduct doesn't function well...

      So how do they unlock them? :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    17. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by antdude · · Score: 2

      It's a comestic bug. As long as it doesn't cause major issues, it will be use as is or fixed later if ever. I used to test these visual stuff like this for Cisco, Symantec, etc.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    18. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Btw, I don't have rage against companies. I have rage against products, policies, and individual shit some people do. Leave the rage against companies to the fanbois.

      Anubis's comment makes sense for a company that produces prides itself presenting the users information with as little latency as possible. If this is the case here it both deviates from the past UI developments coming out of Apple, and is also completely at odds with creating some shitty animation in the first place.

      But whatever, believe what you want to believe. Doesn't change the fact that "ugly" animations is either a bug or a major deviation of past examples of Apple developments.

    19. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Tsolias · · Score: 1

      an easy one
      http://www.scmp.com/news/china...

    20. Re: Least Significant Bug Ever by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Came for "not a bug, it's a feature". Wasn't disappointed.

    21. Re: Least Significant Bug Ever by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Ha, point taken, though to be fair, I did couch it by saying that I think it’s a bug.

    22. Re:Least Significant Bug Ever by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      it's an animation bug... animation! Seriously. That's one of the most minor bugs you can have.

      Mr. Bunny would like to have a word with you about that.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
  2. At least as important is this by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 1

    "Where R U?" is the most asked question on the super expensive iPhone.

  3. Apple used to be the best by mveloso · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Apple's attention to detail was so good that they figured out the non-linear intensity needed to simulate breathing for their sleep lights.

    https://patents.google.com/pat...

    Now they can't even get a fucking animation to work properly.

    1. Re:Apple used to be the best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      False. Revisionist history. Apple has made many mistakes over several decades and several of them were while Jobs was running things. You can look them up if you choose. It is a classic bit of human psychology to ignore past mistakes - which makes you average and ordinary I'm afraid.

      Apple is a large corporation subject to the whims of politics and mistakes of design, engineering and manufacturing. They just happen to be far more profitable than most. Maybe you should have looked up the facts before posting and making yourself appear the fool.

    2. Re:Apple used to be the best by mr.dreadful · · Score: 1

      You're not wrong, but you're deliberately overlooking Apple's reputation for getting the details right, which did used to mean something. You should consider what point you are making before posting and sounding like an ass.

    3. Re:Apple used to be the best by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why are you instantly interpreting this as a bug? It may very well be a feature. People have been complaining that animations hamper usability. I see this animation "glitch" as a clever way of making the text appear instantly and then wrapping the background around it through an animation. This way you get the animation and the instant text that helps usability.

      And talk about being subtle. I did watch this segment of the video 3 times before giving up and reading what the glitch was.

      This animation is fine by me.

      The poor handling of the animations in the calculator was news. This is just barinless Apple bashing.

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!
  4. It is a bad bug fix for a class 3 error. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1, Troll
    That delay is NOT the bug, but it is a BUG FIX

    There is another bug where if you type too fast the taps dont register correctly. It made rounds a few months before. If you tap the numbers in the calculator too fast you will get random results. Basically if you hit the next number in your input before the animation on the previous tap fully diappears, the tap does not register. Random digits dropped from your input to the calculator. A serious bug if there is one, given how much people have come to trust the calculator.

    In our company we will classify this as a "Class 3 Error: An experienced user might trust the wrong answer" and report it to regulators of air safety, nuclear power commission and a dozen such agencies. Class 3 is worse than "crash, no answer" and "answer so wrong far out in the la-la land".

    The fix they came up with, it looks like, is to adjust the timings of the animation, instead of buffering taps during animation, like a type ahead buffer of the keyboards.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  5. People are worried about a display bug by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    But apparently they’re not concerned how supposedly super-secure and super-accurate Face ID was letting this young woman open up all sorts of stuff she shouldn’t have access to?

    (Note to the humorless: this was a joke)

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. ad itself by jemmyw · · Score: 1

    What about the rest of the ad? It's just plain weird. I wouldn't watch that and think its going anything to do with the iPhone. And if I did make an association it'd be a negative one.

    I don't watch TV so I haven't had much exposure to ads in the last 15 years. Is this normal?

  7. It's not a bug, it's a "feature." by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

    The problem is that Apple is no longer throttling the processor because everyone complained about that.

    I know you guys aren't very tech savvy here, so I will give you a short and simplified explanation: So the non-throttled processor is pushing out the text message soooooooo fast that the graphics chip can't keep up. Thus the animation lags behind the text. See? Simple. If things were being throttled (properly), it all would have been OK.

    So really, you have all done this to yourselves and it's your fault and not Apple's. You should have just bought a new iPhone, like Apple wanted!

    Also, this commercial helped me understand why all the millennial that work for me expect their work to just do itself when they just look at it. I have never understood why they had that expectation before.

  8. Yet again, #@$%ing stupid animations in the way by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    Just STOP animating bloody things unless it's skippable, seamless, extremely fast, low on resource usage and SPECIFICALLY actually helpful in some way.

    (Example, tutorial, an arrow boucing towards a start button or something)

    Remember Windows 95 (or was it 98?) click start, go to programs and the list of programs slide out 400 bloody miliseconds later. Great the first time, AWFUL the 9,000'th time.

    STOP ANIMATING NEEDLESSLY

    LABEL YOUR FUCKING ICONS WITH TEXT

    USING COLOURS IS NOT A BAD THING TO DIFFERENTIATE ICONS

    PUTTING BORDERS ON BUTTONS IS NOT A BAD THING

    Argh

    Round up 98% of UI people and grind them into pig feed.

  9. Don't Blink by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    Donâ(TM)t blink. Donâ(TM)t even blink. Blink and youâ(TM)re dead.

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  10. When the retarded speak, don't listen by mveloso · · Score: 1

    It's people like you who are dragging apple into the hole of mediocrity.

    1. Re:When the retarded speak, don't listen by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Care to elaborate ?

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!