Apple could have told developers about this during WWDC, but didn't.
My guess is Apple decided to do this last minute, after they saw the number of iOS7-only apps that developers were submitting.
iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is actually an advantage of cloud distribution. What if you want to run an older version of Word but haven't bought it yet? It can be a pain to find an old copy to buy. Whereas Apple has all the old versions on their servers and can deliver the exact one that will run on your system.
Provided Apple (or whatever other provider) actually distributes the old versions. Somehow, that never seems to be the case.
What do you mean? The whole purpose of this new feature is that Apple is giving users older versions when they need them...
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#23No offense to anyone but I have a serious question: why are we hearing about this from a Mac blog rather than from Apple directly? This is quite an important change and to learn of it by scanning HN et al seems a tad ridiculous.
Apple will just add new features without press releases all the time.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#24This is basically Apple themselves showing they don't trust everybody will like iOS7.
This is Apple themselves recognizing that hardware that is too old to run iOS7 is still useful.
Nah, this is because of the new 64 processors.
There's still no mechanism that allows for 64 bit iOS7/32 bit iOS6 fat binaries, it's either 64 bits iOS7/32 bits iOS7, or iOS 6 only. Probably the first time that apps compiled for the latest and greatest can't run on old phones at all.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's something you've always had to worry about though. You can't force a user to upgrade, so your best bet is to handle those issues server-side.
> You can't force a user to upgrade Sure you can. Netflix will sometimes have to do this. The old software just isn't allowed to talk to the server anymore.
Which would be handling thins server side.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#26The next step is allow us to do maintenance upgrades to legacy versions. In many situations it is easier to maintain a legacy app, with a separate iOS7 code base. Unfortunately there is no way to do this without creating duplicate apps in the store. The alternative is a single code base that is very difficult to reason about the behavior due to tons of feature/version checking.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Provided Apple (or whatever other provider) actually distributes the old versions. Somehow, that never seems to be the case.
What do you mean? The whole purpose of this new feature is that Apple is giving users older versions when they need them...
Which is novel enough to be a news article.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#28It's a wonderful half-measure, but also serves to highlight a problem with cloud-based installs that I'm not optimistic will ever go away. When software was distributed physically, the consumer always had the freedom to use any version of an application they liked. Want to run a lightweight version of Word because you don't need all the latest features, or maybe you just hate the new UI? No problem. Did you like some…
This is actually an advantage of cloud distribution. What if you want to run an older version of Word but haven't bought it yet? It can be a pain to find an old copy to buy. Whereas Apple has all the old versions on their servers and can deliver the exact one that will run on your system.
Whereas Apple has all the old versions on their servers and can deliver the exact one that will run on your system.
"The one that will run on your system" is not necessarily "the one you want", though. It's still not in your hands.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is Apple themselves recognizing that hardware that is too old to run iOS7 is still useful.
Nah, this is because of the new 64 processors. There's still no mechanism that allows for 64 bit iOS7/32 bit iOS6 fat binaries, it's either 64 bits iOS7/32 bits iOS7, or iOS 6 only. Probably the first time that apps compiled for the latest and greatest can't run on old phones at all.
Pretty sure it has zero to do with 64-bit processors. iOS7 is still going to be running on old 32-bit chips.
Re: iOS App Store now allows legacy downloads to support older OSes
#30Happy to see this being codified - Spotify currently has an old version for <= iOS4 as a separate app, which is fantastic for my old iPod I have lying around. I was concerned that at some point Apple would forbid them from doing this, glad they went in the opposite direction.