I’m sure most or all of you understand that software is far from perfect, and that one release will begat many. Sometimes a new product will arrive with bug fix downloads already waiting. There was one, for example, for the 2013 iMac. The day it came out, there was already an update to fix a few things caught after the refreshed models went into production. For the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, you had version iOS 7.0.1 awaiting you at Apple’s servers. One of the fixes supposedly impacted Touch ID performance, so it was certainly important enough. It would be a disaster for Apple to roll out that key feature and have it work badly. It would be worse than the Maps fiasco last year.

Sure, if Samsung or another tech company released a product with features that barely worked, or didn’t work at all, and they do, well it’s just a gadget, and don’t take it seriously. If it happens with an Apple product, watch out!

Oh and by the way, iOS 7.0.1 was supplanted by version 7.0.2 within just a few days, and there’s now a published report of a 7.0.3 coming perhaps as early as next week. The ongoing fixes include various lock screen security issues, but you wonder if Apple may considering adding a way to reduce animation for those who allegedly have suffered from vertigo after playing with their new iPhones.

Understand that I’m just assuming that the complaints are genuine as described, although I wouldn’t presume to guess just how many people are impacted by such issues. Or even that app windows that jump out at you after tapping an icon are all or partly responsible. Maybe it’s the parallax effect, but it does seem that most of the stories on the subject aren’t terribly clear as to whether one or both trigger the unsavory side effects.

If you want to look at the bad side of the equation, you might suggest that Apple really needs to get these products perfect before they are released, but there are obvious marketing reasons why failing to meet a deadline is not a good idea. This doesn’t mean Apple should be releasing buggy gear, but if a simple software update, usually small in size, will clean up a few critical things by the time the new gadget is out, there’s probably little harm done.

Unless you’re a perfectionist.

Part of the problem is that, whatever the problems might be, they will seem to be worse than they really are. Apple must aspire to a higher standard than other tech companies, so their bug fixes are particularly important. Microsoft rolls out dozens of fixes, usually every week (the infamous “Patch Tuesday”) and few care, unless the fix only makes things worse. But that’s nothing unusual for Microsoft.

Now when it comes to Maps for iOS 6, the worst problems were so visual, it was extremely easy to demonstrate them with a photo or a YouTube video. How could you trust Apple when they released an inferior product that put you in the wrong place and didn’t even get locations correct? Sure, it was also true that Google Maps remains far from perfect, and it’s still curious how the media tends to ignore the beta label Google puts up when you first launch one of their navigation apps. If Google is warning you that you can’t trust the results, why should you expect better of Apple?

Since iOS 7 came out, with the promise of improvements in Maps, I haven’t heard much about how well it does. There’s no epidemic of reports of wrong directions, locations, and serious flaws in the 3D displays. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily perfect, but the emphasis is now on other issues, such as the potentially nasty effects of parallax and rampant animations, not to mention the thin typefaces on iOS 7, I expect Maps is working far better and it’s time to find another buggy Apple product to complain about.

Of course, we are still evidently a few weeks away from the release of OS X Mavericks, so you can’t say what early release bugs will be present on version 9.0. There will surely be some, but a lot of the chatter about the new OS is about the supposed lack of new features. Sure, there’s a lot going on there, particularly under the hood, but the look and the feel is not much different from Mountain Lion. Aside from the removal of skeuomorphism from such apps as Contacts and Calendar, it looks very much the same.

But that doesn’t mean Apple didn’t add 200 new features, although many of those features may rightly be considered minor enhancements. There was a heavy emphasis on productivity, and it’s quite possible some of the internal changes may make Macs run faster, or at least more efficiently. Mac portables are lightly to have somewhat better battery life too.

And, yes, there will be an OS 9.0.1 a few weeks after Mavericks arrives. What did you expect?

As I’ve said in previous columns, it seems that Apple can’t catch a break. Just when things seem to be going well, the media says it’s all bad news.

Take the announcement that Apple sold nine million 2013 iPhones the first three days they were on sale. No other mobile handset company has come close, but something must be wrong. In this case, a few suggested Apple was merely stuffing the channel, which is something other companies do all the time. But that doesn’t explain why you had difficulty getting an iPhone 5s. Sure, some were available on launch day, or perhaps for a short time the day after. But if you ordered one from Apple online the second they were available, you still had to wait one to three business days. Add the usual delivery time and you’d wait a week to 10 days for yours.

Does anyone honestly believe Apple held back the iPhone 5s rather than rush them into the hands of millions of waiting customers? What about Apple’s modified earnings guidance which they, in an unprecedented move, filed before the S.E.C.? It was reported that earnings would be on the high side, and they can’t earn more money unless they sell more product.

And that’s before we get to the alleged corporate scandals. No, I’m not referring to the stock backdating issue involving shares issued to Steve Jobs that occurred in 2006. It didn’t hurt anyone’s ability to buy a new Mac or iPod — there were no iPhones or iPads back then — but it was an issue that the S.E.C. investigated, although probably one no more serious than what other companies do. It was hardly a scandal as scandals go.

What was perceived by some overeager pundits as a real scandal at the time was AntennaGate, involving the 2010 iPhone 4 (which is still being sold in a few countries, by the way). Seems that some users complained that they got disconnects when holding the thing in a certain way. Steve Jobs didn’t help matters when he said, “don’t do that,” which sort of echoes that old vaudeville joke. In any case, this is was sort of thing that filled up YouTube videos at the time, and caused some bad press, so Jobs had to call a press conference to explain how Apple had a $100 million antenna test lab at corporate headquarters. You can’t break the laws of physics, he said, but if you still had problems, Apple was happy to send you a free bumper case to protect the phone. And eliminate the problem.

It didn’t matter that pretty much every other mobile handset on the market had a similar issue when held in a certain way. Sometimes the product manuals mentioned it, or maybe there was a warning label in the dangerous spot. Consumer Reports didn’t help matters by ignoring this nasty fact and damning the iPhone 4 with a refusal to recommend. However, it’s not as if sales were hurt.

But maybe Jobs should have held his tongue — or his keyboard — and this is the sort of thing that Tim Cook would simply never do. His moods appear much more centered.

Since then, Apple has revised the antenna scheme to something similar to the diversity antenna used in cars these days. You have multiple antennas, and the one that gets the best signal is favored. So you didn’t hear complaints about reception so much in an iPhone 4S or later, unless you were in one of your wireless carrier’s dead spots.

In 2012, Apple stumbled into yet another scandal, the infamous Mapgate. Apple wanted to dump Google from as many iOS services as possible, and they clearly invested a bundle in building Maps for iOS 6. But it should have been labeled a beta, since it was extremely ragged at the start. Wrong locations, wrong directions, and bad 3D pictures with melting bridges or statues. Regardless, Cook made his apologies, fired the offending executives, and things have supposedly gotten much better since then.

But Apple still hasn’t quite lived down the mapping issues, even though Google Maps isn’t exactly perfect.

This year’s presumed scandal is MotionGate. So some people, apparently susceptible to vertigo, are complaining that iOS 7’s parallax effect and other animations may make some people dizzy. Now I don’t know if this is a real problem or not, so I’ll let the physicians have their due.

Certainly there is a partial fix in the iOS 7 General>Accessibility settings. You can switch on the Reduce Motion option, which minimizes parallax and other special effects. You can also stop using dynamic wallpapers, which eliminates that element of the problem entirely.

Now maybe these fixes aren’t enough. Maybe Apple has to have more options to totally switch off any animated effect. I’m not prepared to say, since I don’t find any of these activities to be at all intrusive, and I suspect most of you would agree. But if even a few percent of the population suffers ill effects, and if the current workarounds aren’t good enough, Apple ought to consider a more thorough fix.

I do not, however, think it’s worth a major scandal. But this is Apple, and the rules are different.

Welcome to the world of WackyGate. You just knew that people would find something wrong about iOS 7 other than fonts that are too thin. And, by the way, there’s an Accessibility option that makes the fonts bolder, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I was setting up a test unit, a 32GB silver iPhone 5S, I read reports from that some people have complained of motion sickness, evidently the result of that parallax 3D effect when you use the standard or “dynamic” wallpaper background. Of course, it’s a trivial matter to change the wallpaper, and you can also reduce the motion effects in the iOS General>Accessibility settings. But that’s way too logical.

In any case, every time I set up a new iPhone, I am reminded of how easy it is, particularly when you already have a backup of an older model. Last week, for example, when I set up an iPhone 5c that my wife will be using during this extended review period, I used my last backup as the template. After that, it took just a short while to adjust Mail for her default address and her signature. I also configured alert settings to fit her needs, changed the wallpaper to a color and design she preferred, and that was it.

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No doubt any list of the five or ten worst or best of something-or-other is apt to attract attention. It’s not just on the David Letterman show; tech writers have eagerly embraced this gimmick. There are the ten worst or best apps, smartphones — you get the picture.

But since Apple is almost always in the crosshairs, the chatter will be about what the iPhone, the iPad, or the iOS lacks to make it as complete or as good as, say, an Android gadget. Sometimes you can get bored over hearing the same old thing, but maybe it’s time to just put a few things in perspective. But not to bore you, I’ll just list five alleged iPhone shortcomings.

1. The Lack of Certain Features on the iOS, iPad, and iPhone

On the surface, this argument would appear to have merit. If you examine the feature set for the OS and the hardware, the Android-based competition seems to deliver a whole lot more. Part of the disparity is the fact that the gee-whiz features other companies tout often do not work as advertised, and sometimes don’t work at all. Consider, for example, that notorious Tilt to Scroll feature on the Samsung Galaxy S4. It sort of works for some, doesn’t work for others, and never for me. It’s largely a waste of time.

Now Apple doesn’t play the feature bloat game, never has. Apple VP Philip Schiller said the hardest part in designing a product is not to decide what features to add, but what to take out. But it is fair to say that some object to Apple’s choices, while others feel that Apple is losing out on sales because there’s no, for example, NFC on an iPhone or iPad. But there are arguments to be made over why a feature isn’t there. Sometimes it’s just a matter of waiting until it’s perfected before Apple embraces a technology.

2. The 64-bit A7 Processor is a Gimmick

The theory goes that you need at least 4GB of RAM for 64-bit bit to make a difference. But Apple has switched to a modern 64-bit ARM architecture that simply processes data in greater chunks. Apple claims performance on the iPhone 5s is up to twice as fast as the iPhone 5. Many tests confirm that claim and then some. As apps are updated, and Apple’s integrated approach simplifies the process, iPhone 5s users will seem more real world gains. In 2014, Android handset makers will be boasting about 64-bit, and the media won’t complain one bit.

3. The Four-Inch Screen is Too Small

This is a fair argument, but I agree with Apple that there are still trade-offs in larger sized. The AMOLED display used on the 5-inch Samsung Galaxy S4, for example, is seriously flawed. It washes out totally in sunlight, even at the highest brightness level. The Auto feature merely dims the screen, and, during my time with a Galaxy S3 and a Galaxy S4, I had to set a separate brightness level for indoor and in-car use. With current iPhones, Apple’s Auto-Brightness control actually works for me. Since setting up an iPhone 5c last Friday, I have seen no need to touch the setting even though I’ve taken the device with me to a number of different locations with different lighting levels. No, not perfect, but far better.

In saying that, I agree there is a demand for a larger iPhone display, and I expect Apple will probably meet that need before long, when they feel they can do it properly.

4. Fix the Poor Battery Life

Every time Apple releases a new iOS version, there are complaints that battery life has suffered. There are usually early maintenance updates to fix such issues. But the benchmarks published recently by Macworld, comparing several generations of iPhones and some Android smartphones, demonstrate that the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s do deliver battery life that’s equal or superior to Apple’s own claims. Your mileage may vary, and it’s always possible a badly-programmed app may consume too many resources. But that doesn’t mean battery life is inherently bad. What’s more, you may boost battery life by turning off services you may not need, such as Bluetooth. The “Background App Refresh” feature in iOS 7 (see Setting>General) might cause reduced battery life, and there’s no harm switching it off as a test.

My experience with the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 indicated that battery life was really all over the place, but neither were as good as the experiences I had with any recent iPhone. I even used apps that allowed me to kill all open apps with a tap or two in order to keep the system from bogging down. You can’t do that on an iPhone, but you shouldn’t have to under most circumstances. I also expect the improved multitasking management of iOS 7 will improve with use as it becomes accustomed to your work routine, and decides how and when app updates should be done to maximize battery life. Such a feature clearly has to be adaptive to work properly, and iOS 7 only arrived on September 18. We’re already at 7.0.2. with the latest bug fix release.

5. Touch ID Isn’t Perfect

But it’s better than nothing, which is what most people did to protect their iPhones before this easily-configured feature appeared. When you set up Apple’s fingerprint sensor, you also establish a four digit passcode as a backup. Yes, there are reports that hackers have already broken into an iPhone 5s with Touch ID enabled. The process isn’t casual, and requires time and dedication. No security measure can ever be considered foolproof, and that includes security software, but these methods make it that much harder for criminals to gain control of your device. As fingerprint sensors go, Touch ID raises the bar.

All right, that’s just five, but I think you get the picture. No mobile gadget is perfect, but Apple continues to get a bum rap.