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iOS 11 reviewed

arstechnica.com

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Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#91

Post by 0x0 »

ohfouroneone wrote: post #15
masklinn wrote: post #4

> Practically speaking, do I need to be able to play phone games from 2009 on my 2017 iPhone? Not really. The problem is not that you can't play phone games from 2009 on your 2017 iPhone, tying 32b deprecation to a hardware revision would actually have been nice (regardless of the hardware still being able to run in 32b mode). But that's not what's happening, the problem is that you can't play phone games from 2009 o…

It's not that games from 2009 don't run, only games that haven't been updated since 2009 don't run. All a developer needs to do is recompile and push an update.

I think you have no experience with updating legacy iOS applications to modern SDKs. It is not just a matter of "recompile and push", it is:

* Ensuring your code still works now that CGFloat and ints change size (can easily trip up code, I've seen things fail subtly and then grow into huge errors with combinations of NSInteger and "-1" etc)

* Updating all UI to handle new behavior (yes, just linking with a new compiler will automatically opt-in to new behavior that might totally break interactions and taps)

* If your app is really old, rewrite all UI to not assume a 320px wide screen (this can be brutal)

* Handling new restrictions and requirements such as supporting IPv6-only network (fun if your app is used to configure an IoT device over IPv4 LAN), and Transport Security (fun if your app allows users to connect to random servers around the world)

* Handling new permission models for camera/gps/contacts/photo library/audio library access, including refactoring your code to deal with asynchronous results

* Updating all your graphic assets for @2x and @3x resolution as well as new app icon sizes (hope you still have those .PSD files, and hope your designer wasn't doing pixel-perfect painting for your bitmaps!)

* The original developer must still be in business, still pay the $100/year developer fee, and still have the source code and the talent to fix it.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#92

Post by smitherfield »

masklinn wrote: post #4

> Practically speaking, do I need to be able to play phone games from 2009 on my 2017 iPhone? Not really. The problem is not that you can't play phone games from 2009 on your 2017 iPhone, tying 32b deprecation to a hardware revision would actually have been nice (regardless of the hardware still being able to run in 32b mode). But that's not what's happening, the problem is that you can't play phone games from 2009 o…

The arbitrary removal of 32-bit app support could be thought of as a heuristic to clear away abandonware. Which, for obvious reasons (security), Apple would like to have as little of in its App Store as possible. It also lets them aggressively deprecate and remove legacy APIs going forward.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#93

Post by wingerlang »

CJefferson wrote: post #88
ohfouroneone wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that games from 2009 don't run, only games that haven't been updated since 2009 don't run. All a developer needs to do is recompile and push an update.

I made a game in 2009, it was quite popular, got a bunch of positive reviews, I gave it away for free. I had to keep giving Apple £100/year just to let people keep downloading the game for free. At some point I tried recompiling it for a newer iOS, and I get hundreds of message about depricated APIs that I had to change to get it accepted by Apple. Instead I let it drop. I can't even put a copy online for people to d…

Open source it? Or try to sell it.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#94

Post by misnome »

_ph_ wrote: post #23
ohfouroneone wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that games from 2009 don't run, only games that haven't been updated since 2009 don't run. All a developer needs to do is recompile and push an update.

I have a ton of apps no longer supported on iOS 11. They come in 2 main groups: - apps which were abandoned - apps which were replaced by a successor. In the absence of update fees, this is the easiest way to generate new revenue for continuous updates. I am happy to pay for app maintenance, but this scheme means, that there is no automatic data migration from the old to the new apps.

> apps which were replaced by a successor

Hello, Omnigraffle. I bought this on iPad, used this something like, three times before having a need to use it over a year later and "Sorry! There is a new version to buy and your version is no longer supported, or runs!". It wasn't cheap, as apps go.

Never, ever buying anything from Omni, ever again.

Edit: To add details, I bought this for £35 on iOS 7. When iOS 8 came around, it was discontinued, left to crash on open, and you had the "opportunity" to buy version 2 all over again.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#95

Post by lloeki »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #81
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the problem is that you can't play phone games from 2009 on your 2013~2016 iPhone Devil's advocate: you don't have to install iOS 11 on your four-year-old iPhone.

This, unfortunately, means no more security updates. So if someone finds a new exploit you are vulnerable. Plus the software update will keep nagging with its damn badge on the settings icon (that alone would drive me crazy enough to just do it).

If your phone can't upgrade to 11 you may very well get security updates, this has been the case in the past. I don't know what's the situation is like when you can but won't update to a new major version.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#96

Post by arrty88 »

0x0 wrote: post #91
ohfouroneone wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that games from 2009 don't run, only games that haven't been updated since 2009 don't run. All a developer needs to do is recompile and push an update.

I think you have no experience with updating legacy iOS applications to modern SDKs. It is not just a matter of "recompile and push", it is: * Ensuring your code still works now that CGFloat and ints change size (can easily trip up code, I've seen things fail subtly and then grow into huge errors with combinations of NSInteger and "-1" etc) * Updating all UI to handle new behavior (yes, just linking with a new compil…

On top of all the technical details, you also have to abide by all the new AppStore policies to even get approved.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#97

Post by cjf101 »

0x0 wrote: post #91
ohfouroneone wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that games from 2009 don't run, only games that haven't been updated since 2009 don't run. All a developer needs to do is recompile and push an update.

I think you have no experience with updating legacy iOS applications to modern SDKs. It is not just a matter of "recompile and push", it is: * Ensuring your code still works now that CGFloat and ints change size (can easily trip up code, I've seen things fail subtly and then grow into huge errors with combinations of NSInteger and "-1" etc) * Updating all UI to handle new behavior (yes, just linking with a new compil…

And this is the relatively easy case of an app built using Apple technologies.

It can be much more difficult if you built a game using a cross platform game engine filled with binary 32bit libraries. If the engine is still around, you might be able to pay for a license for a newer version of the engine, but then you likely also need to deal with the SDK and format changes in the new engine as well as any iOS specific things you have.

Still, if software is your business and this software in particular makes you money, it's really not _that_ expensive to do.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#98

Post by jasonmp85 »

misnome wrote: post #94
_ph_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a ton of apps no longer supported on iOS 11. They come in 2 main groups: - apps which were abandoned - apps which were replaced by a successor. In the absence of update fees, this is the easiest way to generate new revenue for continuous updates. I am happy to pay for app maintenance, but this scheme means, that there is no automatic data migration from the old to the new apps.

> apps which were replaced by a successor Hello, Omnigraffle. I bought this on iPad, used this something like, three times before having a need to use it over a year later and "Sorry! There is a new version to buy and your version is no longer supported, or runs!". It wasn't cheap, as apps go. Never, ever buying anything from Omni, ever again. Edit: To add details, I bought this for £35 on iOS 7. When iOS 8 came arou…

They rightly don't want your "business".

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#99

Post by joshuas »

smitherfield wrote: post #92
masklinn wrote: post #4

> Practically speaking, do I need to be able to play phone games from 2009 on my 2017 iPhone? Not really. The problem is not that you can't play phone games from 2009 on your 2017 iPhone, tying 32b deprecation to a hardware revision would actually have been nice (regardless of the hardware still being able to run in 32b mode). But that's not what's happening, the problem is that you can't play phone games from 2009 o…

The arbitrary removal of 32-bit app support could be thought of as a heuristic to clear away abandonware. Which, for obvious reasons (security), Apple would like to have as little of in its App Store as possible. It also lets them aggressively deprecate and remove legacy APIs going forward.

You know. It just occurred due to me, due to your post, how convenient it must be to have every app using your APIs in one place like the app store.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#100

Post by addicted »

tammer wrote: post #18
darthbanane wrote: post #8

Review is not thorough. One huge change in the control center is that the wifi “toggle” doesn’t toggle wifi off anymore (wait what?). It just disconnects from the current network and doesn’t reconnect for a minute or so. If you don’t want to be tracked by wifi APs it seems you have to force touch settings into wifi and disable the adapter from there. Huge step backwards IMHO.

Eh it sounds to me that this is a great quick fix for the "I'm slightly too far from the AP to have bandwidth but I'm still maintaining a connection" problem I have almost daily. Will make an obscure security concern you've identified slightly more difficult to deal with. If you don't prefer trade offs like this, Apple likely isn't the best digital provider for you.

For me the more common case for switching off Wifi is that I'm gonna connect to a network that is slower than the cellular network.

And no, I'm not turning on the Apple "feature" where it drains out my cellular data limits even when I am connected to excellent Wifi at home.

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