Is iOS 6 the most bug-riddled yet?

Nothing is perfect and anyone that has ever tried programming will know how hard it is to make software completely bug free. However, the number of problems with iOS 6 is worrying and problem after problem keeps cropping up. When will it end?

The first problem and one that everyone will be aware of unless they have been shipwrecked on a desert island without communications for the last two weeks is that Apple's Maps app has lots of flaws. I am a bit sympathetic here and mapping the world is a huge undertaking. There are 197 million square miles in the world and 58 million square miles of land. How on earth do you test a map that big? It's impossible. There's only one way and that is to crowd source it. Put it in the hands of millions of people and let them explore. That's what happened when Apple launched iOS 6. The problem is that Apple claimed that its maps app was the best in the world on its website (the wording of which has now been changed) and it clearly wasn't. The company should really have put a beta label on it with a feedback button to report problems. People would have been less critical and more understanding.

Some people have had problems with the Wi-Fi and connections are poor or sometimes not available at all. It depends on the Wi-Fi connection and some networks are fine and while others weren't. Perhaps it is the router - I've heard Netgear mentioned.

Some people reported that an iPhone would connect to a Wi-Fi network, but no data was transmitted. Another problem is that some people on certain mobile networks found that when their iPhone 5 is connected to Wi-Fi the data sent over Wi-Fi is being clocked up on their mobile data allowance. Wi-Fi data is free and this should not happen. You could potentially use gigabytes on Wi-Fi thinking it is free and then be hit by a huge bill from your mobile service provider. That's a scary thought. Bug fixes have been released for Wi-Fi problems - see Verizon users go here.

Some people have reported that the battery life is unusually short. This has affected iPhone 4 and 5 users, so it is not likely to be the hardware, but something in iOS. The suspicion is that an app is running in the background or that GPS is switching on and not switching off when you have finished with an app. (Double tap the home button, quit all apps, or reset the phone.)

Upgrading the operating system on any device or computer is always a risky process and in a few cases there have been a few glitches. People have reported that their music has disappeared. A purple halo effect on some photos has been reported and lines across the onscreen keyboard have been seen. I've seen this elsewhere too and the video driver seems a bit buggy.

I dont' think the screen is quite as responsive on the iPhone 5 as the iPhone 4 too. I've occasionally had to tap twice on something or I've mistyped a letter, which I didn't used to do on my iPhone 4.

None of this has put off buyers and millions of iPhone 5s have been sold already. Millions of people have upgraded older phones to iOS 6 too. The iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are definitely better than previous versions even with the bugs, but it is a case of two steps forward and one step backward. Overall progress has been made, but it's not perfect.