Apple Pushes Developers To iOS 7

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Chuong Nguyen reports that Apple is forcing developers to adopt iOS 7's visual UI for their apps, and has advised iOS developers that all apps submitted after February 1, 2014 must be optimized for iOS 7 and built using Xcode 5 ... 'It's likely that Apple is more anxious than ever for developers to update their apps to fit in visually and mechanically with iOS 7, as it's the largest change in the history of Apple's mobile software,' says Matthew Panzarino. 'iOS 7 introduced a much more complex physical language while stripping out many of the visual cues that developers had relied on to instruct users. For better or worse, this has created a new aesthetic that many un-updated apps did not reflect.' Most app developers have been building apps optimized towards iOS 7 since Apple's World Wide Developer Conference in June 2013. Apple has been on a push over the past couple of years to encourage developers to support the latest editions of its OS faster than ever. To do this, it's made a habit of pointing out the adoption rates of new versions of iOS, which are extremely high. Nearly every event mentions iOS 7 adoption, which now tops 76% of all iOS users, and Apple publishes current statistics. In order to optimize apps for the new operating system, they must be built with the latest version of Xcode 5 which includes 64-bit support and access to new features like backgrounding APIs."

Dear Users...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Compliance is Exciting and Mandatory! Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Re:Everybody happy with iOS7 jailbreak?

[ganjadude]

FTA

Devices that are compatible and are switched on to WiFi will automatically download the latest iOS build and install it without requiring user intervention, a forceful move done by Apple.

As someone who does not use apple products and havent since the power PC days ( ok I lie, I had an ipod classic for a short period of time) does this mean there is no way to turn off "automatic updates" in an Idevice? I would not be too happy if that were the case, If I am happy with the version I am running, I dont want apple saying too bad and forcing me into another version that will change all my settings / visual cues that I am used to and like

Re:Dear Users...

[CastrTroy]

Regardless, Apple seems to be better than everyone else in this regard. With Android tablets it's a mystery as to whether or not you'll get upgrades at all. Sure you have more luck with Nexus tablets over other Android models, but they don't really have that long of a track record with tablets, so it's really hard to tell. For Christmas this year I spent a lot of time researching tablets, and settled on the Surface2. Sure, mock me or call me an MS shill if you want, but it's the only tablet out there that's 10 inch, has expandable storage, and I can be reasonably assured that I'll get software updates on a regular basis. Oh, and you can run 2 apps at the same time with both on screen. The only downside is the lack of apps, but the selection is growing, and as far as I can tell, I can do all the tasks I need to do. Sure it's missing some specific applications, and specific games, but it has enough of both to get the job done. And for many tasks. It also appears to be well built, with quality hardware, something missing from many Android tablets.

Re:grr

[Anonymous Coward]

If you turn the motion off in iOS7 it is no slower than iOS6, and battery life has improved on my 4S.

http://tweaks.com/apple/65851/turn-off-ios-7-parallax-motion-backgrounds/

What is the story?

[Princeofcups]

Normal development cycle. What is the story here? That iOS 7 is successful?

Re:Dear Users...

[Bing Tsher E]

You apparently bought an off-brand. My "Galaxy Tab 2 7.0" (admittedly it's weird way they branded that thing) is several years old now, and Samsung pushed out a new and free Android update to it last week.

Next time buy Samsung.

Re:Everybody happy with iOS7 jailbreak?

[perpenso]

Grow up. Millions of happy iOS customers proved you wrong.

No. Many iOS users thought that iOS 7 was a step forward with respect to functionality and a step backward with respect to visual appearance. Skeumorphism may have been overdone but iOS 7 went too far in the opposite direction, too flat, gets rid of borders that made sense (buttons), icons that make no sense and look like a placeholder that never got replaced (game center), etc.

Its a strange day when people coming from the Linux world are doing a better job at UI design than Apple.

Re:What is the story?

[Anonymous Coward]

Normal development cycle. What is the story here? That iOS 7 is successful?

The story is that if anybody else was doing this it would indeed be a normal development cycle, if Microsoft and Apple do it it's an act of tyranny.

Re:Everybody happy with iOS7 jailbreak?

[MightyMartian]

Yup. My old iPhone 4, which was running perfectly fine with iOS 6 just crawls now. Safari is almost unusable. Other than email, about the most Internet I centric thing I use it for now is tethering to my Nexus 7. When my iPhone finally kicks it, I'm going with an Android phone, probably a Nexus 5. Then I don't need the evil that is called iTunes to copy to the phone, can access the file system and don't have to deal with Apple's ludicrous restrictions.