iOS 7

Morrus said:

That'll happen again in a month or so.

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Not if I keep skipping app updates!

I really wish they'd treat mobile device OS like PC OS: something you choose to upgrade, or not, at cost. Yeah, it would play hell with the "walled garden" but as a consumer I don't like being forced into a product change that I didn't ask for.

Just to inject a bit of optimism: I've been using iOS 7 since June, and I'm very happy with it. To the point that I'm annoyed when I have to use a device that doesn't have it. (my iPad 1)

The one major problem i have with it is that it changed folders to contain 9 items on a page instead of 12 (but allows multiple pages, which is nice). The Today screen and control center are great, and I'm glad I no longer need a separate flashlight app. I can finally see exact times text messages were received. iTunes Radio is nice, but it's not a killer app. The new Safari and gestures are nice. The improved text APIs are exciting.

I also really like it. Took a couple of weeks to adjust, but I can't stand the idea of going back to iOS 6 now.

I hate it. Unfortunately, I let a friend talk me into updating. I had stopped updating quite a while ago (when they removed GoogleMaps). Now the functionality I used most is hardly usable anymore: the music player. I'd really wish I could go back. I spent several hours supported by a couple of articles to get the settings back to something reasonable but I still get frequent, annoying popups about services I've consciously disabled. Looks like I'm no longer in the target audience for iPhones. Like Bullgrit I really don't believe in sharing everything I do with the whole world.

Morrus said:

That'll happen again in a month or so.

Click to expand...

Yup we learned that trick with iOS3 -> 4 and the first gen iPod Touch. Apple required all the apps in the store to upgrade to support 4, and the iPod Touch couldn't run 4. So it was effectively barred from new apps or even existing apps that would have worked a short while before.

For Apple, it worked as a purge of unsupported, dead apps. But it also set up their treadmill of hardware upgrading.

At this point, the Touch can't use the iTunes store or app store, though we can apparently hook it up to the PC to transfer music. Since we had wiped it when my wife got her iPhone, that means its pretty much stuck to the stock apps and music.

My iPad 1 is stuck on iOS5. I won't be wiping it, but it's a dead end machine right now. Soon I expect to not be able to download apps anymore.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Not if I keep skipping app updates!

I really wish they'd treat mobile device OS like PC OS: something you choose to upgrade, or not, at cost. Yeah, it would play hell with the "walled garden" but as a consumer I don't like being forced into a product change that I didn't ask for.

Click to expand...

Ignoring the part where Apple's way is good for Apple's bank account, there are some pros to the current way.

iOS has the highest rate of current OS version adoption. This reduces the testing required to verify compatibility (once upon a time, I worked in QA, I know how to consider all the combinations/permutations that COULD be tested and probably SHOULD).

As a result, a software developer only needs to consider 3 models of iPhone, 3 models of iPad, 3 models of iPod Touch all running the new OS. They might do testing under the previous OS version, but there's little statistical need and they can force you to be current if you want to run the app.

that really reduces the test matrix down by cutting out the OS as a variable. In server software QA, you'd have to test multiple versions of the OS (at least current and one back, if not two) plus with or without service packs.

the less combination testing going on means more focus on functionality testing. Otherwise, to reduce time, the functionality tests are often spread across the combinations (meaning Function 12 was tested on Combination 50, but nowhere else). this gives reasonable spread of testing, but risks a compatibility issue sneaking through, because they can't run every test on every combination.

So the benefit being that assuming the app has a QA budget, the QA staff is more likely to do a better job, resulting in a better App. Which iOS apps do tend to be known for.

Apple has made a change. Now devices can download the latest version of the app which was supported on the device, if the latest version won't support it. Developers can disable certain versions (most common for apps which talk to a server which has also changed) but the majority of local apps should work.

Alan Shutko said:

Apple has made a change. Now devices can download the latest version of the app which was supported on the device, if the latest version won't support it. Developers can disable certain versions (most common for apps which talk to a server which has also changed) but the majority of local apps should work.

Click to expand...

It wasn't clear if that only applied to devices running iOS7 and above, or if it would cover older devices (like my iOS5 iPad1).

If the former, that's presently useless as everybody stuck on iOS6 or older is hearing about this new feature, but not getting the benefit.

If the latter, that's immediately useful to everybody stuck in End of Life oses or folks like Bullgrit who don't upgrade.

It's for all devices, and is currently alive for older devices. MacObserver has a screenshot with an older OS showing an app that requires iOS 5 or higher.

Janx said:

Task manager is harder to kill apps. I used to double-click the Home button, then hold my finger on an app until they squiggled, then clicked the X. Kinda lame, but it worked. Now, you're supposed to drag and fling the app. I can't get that to work. So I have a zillions apps running since I upgraded last week, because I can't figure out the new behavior that would probably be easier, if I could do it right.

Click to expand...

Did you get this to work? You just need to swipe up. Double-click on Home, then swipe up on the app (not the icon) for those you want to close. It's faster than iOS6, and works fine for me.