iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#61

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:21 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #45

I still target 5.1 because it does 90% of what 7 does but still works on first gen iPads. Apple has a tendency to only implement software features on their newest OS instead of back porting to earlier versions, because it sells more devices. It's unleet for developers to encourage this. I think a reasonable prime directive for API developers is that if hardware can do something then software shouldn't be prevented fr…

I wish other developers would adopt such a considerate attitude. Alas, my personal experience is that many simply abandon users who dare to have a device more than a couple of years old. My worst personal experience being an app that became obsolete, only to be replaced by an app that doesn't support my version of iOS.

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#62

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:23 PM UTC

ableal wrote: post #6

berzniz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's a great feature. One open issue is that from time to time a breaking change to our API is needed and a force-upgrade is forced on the app users. We try to avoid it, but it happens. The next time this happens, it's really goodbye iOS 6 users.

This year, Apple's "12 Days of Gifts" app only runs on iOS7. I don't know if that was intentional, but it seems likely.

Yeah, that was the ultimate kick in the teeth from Apple for all us pre-iOS7-ers - 'sorry, you don't even get our free stuff anymore, luddites'

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#63

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:26 PM UTC

craigching wrote: post #39

rsynnott wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it depends on your needs, but really I have yet to see an app made with any of them which isn't an unpleasant user experience.

http://theweathertron.com/ Done with (IIRC) PhoneGap, AngularJS and ClojureScript. The actual utility as a weather app is debatable (I like it), but the UI is beautiful and responsive, especially considering it's PhoneGap!

"Requires iOS 6.0 or later" - ARGH!

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#64

Post by beagle3 » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:36 PM UTC

rys wrote: post #57

beagle3 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I started developing tomorrow, and have no 5.1 device, how can I do QA? I have an iPhone 4 that was never upgraded, but I can either keep it as is or upgrade to 7 Apple is making it really hard to support a version that you didn't target from day 1. And it is hard to target older versions from day one

If you're serious enough to want to target 5.1, you'd get a device that supports it. They're pretty trivial to come by at bargain prices.

Of course that's true. If you are serious enough, you can develop for any device. The question is, does it make sense from any perspective?

Realistically speaking, it's going to cost me a $1,000-$10,000 more to develop for 5.1 rather than develop just for 7 (extra device, extra design, extra testing time, potentially extra development time). If you didn't originally develop for 5.1 and it doesn't cost you as much, you are not serious (or severely underestimate your costs).

I'm not developing apps for iOS, but I'm not sure if I started tomorrow, and released (say) in two months, that it would be financially justified to target 5.1

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#65

Post by beagle3 » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:39 PM UTC

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #61

zackmorris wrote: post #45

I still target 5.1 because it does 90% of what 7 does but still works on first gen iPads. Apple has a tendency to only implement software features on their newest OS instead of back porting to earlier versions, because it sells more devices. It's unleet for developers to encourage this. I think a reasonable prime directive for API developers is that if hardware can do something then software shouldn't be prevented fr…

I wish other developers would adopt such a considerate attitude. Alas, my personal experience is that many simply abandon users who dare to have a device more than a couple of years old. My worst personal experience being an app that became obsolete, only to be replaced by an app that doesn't support my version of iOS.

Obsoleting an app is a problem, but -- at least in the PC space -- people who do not upgrade from e.g. XP to Win7 are unlikely to pay for new apps - so, if you care about getting paid, there's no point in supporting XP home users (enterprise is different, and I do not wish to go into that).

Does anyone here know if that's also true for iOS devices? I'm quite sure that the big app spenders would be the people who continuously upgrade. There might still be a significant population who does not upgrade to make financial sense for still targeting 5.1 with new apps. I don't know, but my guess would be "not so much".

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#66

Post by beggi » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 9:41 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #45

I still target 5.1 because it does 90% of what 7 does but still works on first gen iPads. Apple has a tendency to only implement software features on their newest OS instead of back porting to earlier versions, because it sells more devices. It's unleet for developers to encourage this. I think a reasonable prime directive for API developers is that if hardware can do something then software shouldn't be prevented fr…

I saw somewhere that Apple doesn't allow new apps to target less than iOS 7. Is that correct?

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#67

Post by cpr » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 10:07 PM UTC

beggi wrote: post #66

zackmorris wrote: post #45

I still target 5.1 because it does 90% of what 7 does but still works on first gen iPads. Apple has a tendency to only implement software features on their newest OS instead of back porting to earlier versions, because it sells more devices. It's unleet for developers to encourage this. I think a reasonable prime directive for API developers is that if hardware can do something then software shouldn't be prevented fr…

I saw somewhere that Apple doesn't allow new apps to target less than iOS 7. Is that correct?

No, Apple requires apps to target at least iOS7, and as far back as is practical.

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#68

Post by brianpgordon » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 10:19 PM UTC

alexobenauer wrote: post #8

Interesting - I did not know about the new receding keyboard functionality. For those curious, you can simply set a boolean on any UIScrollView or subclass to make the keyboard recede like in the Messages app.

What is a receding keyboard? Your comment is like

    /** 
     * Recedes keyboard.
     */
    void recedeKeyboard() {

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#69

Post by xsmasher » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 10:49 PM UTC

beggi wrote: post #66

zackmorris wrote: post #45

I still target 5.1 because it does 90% of what 7 does but still works on first gen iPads. Apple has a tendency to only implement software features on their newest OS instead of back porting to earlier versions, because it sells more devices. It's unleet for developers to encourage this. I think a reasonable prime directive for API developers is that if hardware can do something then software shouldn't be prevented fr…

I saw somewhere that Apple doesn't allow new apps to target less than iOS 7. Is that correct?

Depends what you mean by "target". You can specify the whatever minimum OS version you want for an app.

You have probably heard something like "[After Feb 1] new apps [...] must be built with the latest version of Xcode 5 and must be optimized for iOS 7."

That only means you must use the latest dev kit and satisfy some other requirements. It does not mean that you need to disable support for older OSes.

Re: iOS 7 only is the only sane thing to do

#70

Post by cmelbye » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 10:50 PM UTC

brianpgordon wrote: post #68

alexobenauer wrote: post #8

Interesting - I did not know about the new receding keyboard functionality. For those curious, you can simply set a boolean on any UIScrollView or subclass to make the keyboard recede like in the Messages app.

What is a receding keyboard? Your comment is like /** * Recedes keyboard. */ void recedeKeyboard() {

Except he explains that it works like it does in the Messages app. If you're not familiar, the keyboard in Messages slides down/recedes when you start scrolling through past messages so that it's not in the way and you can see more content. Give it a try if you have an iOS device, it's a very useful interaction.