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iOS 11 reviewed

arstechnica.com

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Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#271

Post by npunt »

romwell wrote: post #261
scarface74 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you realize how many security vulnerabilities have been found in Windows caused by supporting legacy apps? I have some 32 bit apps that already don't work with newer versions of iOS.

Do you realize that "legacy apps" are much more important to people who use them than the hardware that it runs on? Apple is a hardware company, and its need reason to push it. But what I do with hardware is run applications , and the applications matter more to me than the shiny (or not) box they run on, insofar as the box has the hardware to provide the UX that makes the software usable. I am not talking in abstrac…

Looks like everyday looper added 64 bit support in an update last week, fyi.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#272

Post by npunt »

0x0 wrote: post #89
scarface74 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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). The latest processor doesn't support 32 bit code. All 64 bit phones can support the latest OS. Why should Apple waste time, resources, and space on the device to support 32 bit code?

They could offer 32bit app support as an optional download, just like how 32bit Windows 10 still offers the 16bit NTVDM and MS-DOS support as an optional install on demand. Really sucks to lose 32bit support for legacy apps that used to work, especially when it might be a companion app for hardware/equipment that cost much more than the iPhone X (like your car).

We're in a different era than before. Software is more likely to be internet connected and needs to be seen as an ongoing service to be maintained rather than a one-off program. This applies to simple things like recompiling for 64 bit support (a rather low bar), as well as more important things like security updates as new vulnerabilities are found. In addition, mobile UX has really evolved in the first decade of iPhones and mobile apps are in large part defined by their UX, as they're first and foremost consumer oriented (rather than more backend utilities). All these factors drive the need for mobile apps to stay relatively current, and those who can't cross that rather low bar tend to be a niche within a niche.

That said, to your point I'm sure most people who have been on iOS for a while have that one app that seems to be abandoned that they love, myself included. I'm glad 32b is going away as it really does clean up the App Store and gains some efficiency, but I'm annoyed the developer has given up on the app I like.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#273

Post by npunt »

toast0 wrote: post #259
tammer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They could have built a nice ui for that, like cough windows phone. Turn wifi off now, but turn it back on in 1/4/8 hours/when I ask for it/when I get to a 'favorite place'. This was great when wifi at work mostly worked, but had bad days (turn it off until I probably left, maybe it'll work tomorrow). It's much less convenient on Android, because there's a good chance I'll forget to turn it on when I get home.

Humans aren't that good at estimating time related to future actions, so building a UI that asks them to do so isn't a very good UI. Sure power users might appreciate it but it's quite a bit of cognitive load and still error prone. Much better to just leave it a toggle.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#274

Post by scarface74 »

romwell wrote: post #261
scarface74 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you realize how many security vulnerabilities have been found in Windows caused by supporting legacy apps? I have some 32 bit apps that already don't work with newer versions of iOS.

Do you realize that "legacy apps" are much more important to people who use them than the hardware that it runs on? Apple is a hardware company, and its need reason to push it. But what I do with hardware is run applications , and the applications matter more to me than the shiny (or not) box they run on, insofar as the box has the hardware to provide the UX that makes the software usable. I am not talking in abstrac…

Do you realize that "legacy apps" are much more important to people who use them than the hardware that it runs on

Seeing that Apple is the most valuable company in the world and they have a long history of abandoning legacy software (Apple //e, 68K, PPC, and soon 32 bit x86) and moving customers with them, that statement doesn't jibe with the reality on the ground.

What are the chances that people won't upgrade their iOS devices because they want to run an abandoned 32 bit app?

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#275

Post by discreditable »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #232
discreditable wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems unfortunate that photos shared from iOS will be subject to an extra step of lossy compression in order to go to JPG.

HEIC and HEVC are both lossless, so there shouldn't be an extra step of lossy compression.

They may have lossless modes but I'd bet money iOS is not using them. The file size would be huge even compared to JPEG.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#276

Post by qqg3 »

developer2 wrote: post #90
darthbanane wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like they’re trying to educate me as a user that switching wifi off to save battery is not super smart. It’s true, the difference is minuscule at best (20-30 minutes of battery life) but maybe I want to micromanage to get these 20 minutes. Or because I am concerned about privacy. My take is that if you want to “educate” users on how best to use a feature you must leave them the freedom to do it wrong (depend…

Turning off Wifi is not something anyone - whether average or intermediate user - should be needing to do on a frequent basis. Airplane mode already takes care of the primary use case, namely disabling all radios. Someone intending to disable Wifi "temporarily" and then forgetting to re-enable it may wind up paying hundreds of dollars for cellular data. That goes against the "it just works" mentality, which is "Wifi…

You realize lots of people these days have unlimited data and don't about overage charges because they don't get them.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#277

Post by walterbell »

kccqzy wrote: post #247
walterbell wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always-on VPN is possible on non-Supervised devices? Would appreciate a pointer to the relevant XML tags. Is it selectable, e.g. can you have multiple VPN profiles and then toggle (in Settings) which profile is Always-On?

If I remember correctly you just specify the OnDemandRules key and make its value an empty array. Yes I have multiple VPN profiles and all of them allows me to specify in Settings whether to "connect on demand."

Thanks!

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#278

Post by dspillett »

dingaling wrote: post #128
developer2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning off Wifi is not something anyone - whether average or intermediate user - should be needing to do on a frequent basis. Airplane mode already takes care of the primary use case, namely disabling all radios. Someone intending to disable Wifi "temporarily" and then forgetting to re-enable it may wind up paying hundreds of dollars for cellular data. That goes against the "it just works" mentality, which is "Wifi…

> There's no real reason outside of developer testing to ever disable Wifi. When I go for a ramble or cycle in the countryside there's no point having Wifi enabled for four or five hours with no APs within several kilometres, so I disable it. Likewise I disable Bluetooth and GPS when not needed. Being a 'good RF citizen'.

> Being a 'good RF citizen'.

And saving battery power by not having extra radio equipment polling for connection apportunities. Win win.

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#279

Post by mrks_ »

saagarjha wrote: post #206
mrks_ wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think iMessage is the worst offender for most (at least it is for me). Every video or photo I receive eats up space until I remove it or it gets removed in 1 year. Also, the base model only came with 16 GB for a long time, which I imagine most people didn't upgrade.

Messages on iCloud might be useful for you when it comes out, then :)

Yeah, that's one of my most anticipated features from this release, to be honest. And ARKit :)

Re: iOS 11 reviewed

#280

Post by gigatexal »

smitherfield wrote: post #239
gigatexal wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one think that that's great. It helps encourage people to upgrade but it also makes things a lot easier to support. It's not friendly to the poor though. If you bought an older all aluminium macbook say in college and due to it being built like a tank you use it for 5+ years and it goes out of support what then if you're not making enough free cash to dole out on a 3k macbook?

I am admittedly pretty solidly middle-class, but I've never had a non-Apple computer last anywhere near 5+ years, so I'd say they were still getting a pretty decent deal relatively speaking. But in any case Macs and iDevices are different; Macs tend to stay backwards-compatible for quite a while longer. 32-bit apps still work fine and will as long as Macs are on Intel processors. Even Carbon[1] apps still work (compi…

Next year my mid 2013 MacBook Pro will be 5 years old and the thing still smokes most lesser PC laptops. The battery still has more than 50% of the charging cycles left and it all runs really well. I figure I’d keep it until it died which could be another 5 years.
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