Developers Frustrated at Apple for Just One Day's Notice To Submit Apps Ahead of iOS 14 Release Today (mashable.com) 31
While developers have had access to beta versions of the software updates since June, many were caught off guard by Apple's much shorter notice of the final releases. By comparison, Apple started accepting apps built for iOS 13 on September 10 last year, over one week before the software update was released on September 19. From a story yesterday: "I think a lot of developers won't be sleeping tonight or will instead just give up and opt to release [their app] when they want to, instead of alongside the new OS," said iOS developer Shihab Mehboob in a message. "Apple has seemingly out of the blue decided to surprise developers with no real warning or care." [...] "Without advance warning like this, nothing is ready," a developer at High Caffeine Content, Steve Troughton-Smith, told me. "Developers aren't ready, the App Store is't ready, and everybody is rushing to react instead of having the chance to finish their apps properly." Steve ran through the normal iOS release process with me. Apple usually gives third-party app developers a heads up of about a week before the official public release of a new iOS. The company puts out a "Golden Master" copy of the new iOS and Xcode developer tool before the latest operating system is officially released to the public. This gives iPhone app developers the time they need to make sure the apps they've been building for the beta releases of the new iOS actually work on the final version. Sometimes there are critical bugs that are only revealed or could only be fixed at this point in the process.
The extra time can also be used to add new features for any new devices announced at the Apple Event. Apple's approval process for apps also takes some time, so developers have that week to make sure they submit in time to guarantee their work will be in the App Store for the iOS release. "Gone are the hopes of being on the store by the time users install the new iOS 14 and are looking for new apps. Gone is the chance to get some last-minute fixes into your existing apps to make sure they don't stop working outright by the time users get to upgrade their OS," explained Steve. "There are some developers who have spent all summer working on something new, using the latest technologies, hoping to be there on day one and participate in the excitement (and press coverage) of the new iOS," he continued. "For many of them, they'll be incredibly upset to have it end like this instead of a triumphant launch, and it can dramatically decrease the amount of coverage or sales they receive."
The extra time can also be used to add new features for any new devices announced at the Apple Event. Apple's approval process for apps also takes some time, so developers have that week to make sure they submit in time to guarantee their work will be in the App Store for the iOS release. "Gone are the hopes of being on the store by the time users install the new iOS 14 and are looking for new apps. Gone is the chance to get some last-minute fixes into your existing apps to make sure they don't stop working outright by the time users get to upgrade their OS," explained Steve. "There are some developers who have spent all summer working on something new, using the latest technologies, hoping to be there on day one and participate in the excitement (and press coverage) of the new iOS," he continued. "For many of them, they'll be incredibly upset to have it end like this instead of a triumphant launch, and it can dramatically decrease the amount of coverage or sales they receive."
Sigh (Score:1)
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Hey, when God calls you don't put him on hold.
Another aspect that makes this very sudden... (Score:5, Insightful)
The one day notice is pretty short, but one aspect that makes it even really shorter than it seems, is they just released the final version of Xcode 12 yesterday (which you need to do a release build with iOS 14 features) - after not having released a new beta since the 25th of September!
That means not only a very limited time to test and get an update out, but also using a newly updated tool that could very well have new bugs you have not run into yet...
Now it is true that devs could have found simple errors during the beta phase of iOS 14 and released updates so that aspect is probably OK, but if you were using any new iOS 14 features it's a bit concerning, expect bugs for the first week or two.
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I'm still not sure why they need to rush anything really? Are people really clamoring for an iOS update?
Yes, didn't seem like it needed to be quick... (Score:1)
I'm still not sure why they need to rush anything really? Are people really clamoring for an iOS update?
The thing is, anyone that wanted to run IOS 14 badly was already doing so, as it was in public beta...
They also didn't need to release iOS 14 today for the new watches, as they are out this Friday.
So they could have (as was tradition from past OS updates) released the iOS 14 update on Friday.
It's not that big a deal in the larger scheme of things, just like I said you may want to wait a week or so to upda
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Are people really clamoring for an iOS update?
This is the iOS update that supposedly "fixes the home screen" (although it's unclear if it actually fixes what people hate about the home screen, namely that everything is aligned in left-right, top-down order), so yes. People have been clamoring for Apple to fix the home screen for years, and this is the iOS version that finally ... well, updates it. I've still yet to find out if it lets you move icons anywhere on the grid and every screenshot they've shown has the home screen full of icons.
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This is the iOS update that supposedly "fixes the home screen"
This is news to me, I've never really had an issue with the home screen. But maybe I am just oblivious to issues people have regarding the home screen!
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I've still yet to find out if it lets you move icons anywhere on the grid and every screenshot they've shown has the home screen full of icons.
It does not.
You also can't have the widgets anywhere. They must be completely on the left, completely on the right, or take up the whole width.
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" ... after not having released a new beta since the 25th of September!"
Today is Sept 15.
Already gotten one warning from an app... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've already gotten one push notification from an app that read "DO NOT INSTALL iOS 14" with an explanation that the app crashes on startup under the release version of iOS 14 and that they will be pushing a fix as soon as Apple lets them, but it may be a few weeks until that happens.
A few weeks?? (Score:2)
they will be pushing a fix as soon as Apple lets them, but it may be a few weeks until that happens.
That seems really crazy given that they could submit a crash update today (even yesterday), and that Apple has generally been taking hours to approve an application update. Especially if in the update notes you explain it's a crash fix...
Also it seems very unlikely they would have just uncovered this iOS 14 crash now, as the beta has been out for a long time now and the final update is probably not the one t
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Some terms you're not familiar with as a layman: code paths, test coverage, regression testing, corner cases.
Seems like you aren't familiar with customer service, where sometimes a bad enough crash warrants going around all the process to get an emergency fix out.
This company apparently falls in the camp of believing in process over customers. I've not often seen that work out very well...
If the crash is really a corner case it hardly seems like they would send out a bulk notification to all users not to
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Anybody got a list of what apps are affected by the iOS 14 crashes? Seems like this is a cleaning of the house of things that the app store shouldn't have released.
What crashes??? (Score:1)
Anybody got a list of what apps are affected by the iOS 14 crashes?
The person you are responding to is talking about a single app that has an iOS 14 related crash, not a general set of crashes. I've been running the IOS 14 beta for quite a while now, I've not seen any general crashes. The worst thing was a few betas ago when the camera would fail to boot up when you swiped over from the lock screen, fixed a few betas ago...
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Also it seems very unlikely they would have just uncovered this iOS 14 crash now, as the beta has been out for a long time now and the final update is probably not the one that has led them to discover a crash.
From what they said, only the final release version of iOS 14 has the crash on startup. It wouldn't be the first time Apple has pulled something from the beta prior for the release, causing issues for people relying on the thing to be there.
I dunno, my iPhone is managed by IT, and only gets updates when IT pushes them, so I haven't been trying any of the iOS 14 betas. And given that Apple has a track record of not merging bug fixes from previous releases to the next release, anyone installing a x.0 version
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From what they said, only the final release version of iOS 14 has the crash on startup.
Not impossible I suppose, though Apple did release the last iOS 14 beta just last week and I would be surprised if the crash did not appear in that one at least... I don't think they made many changes from that last beta to the release.
Sounds suspicious (Score:2)
Sound suspicious, especially the wording "as soon as Apple lets them". I have developed for iOS among other things for quite a while and even years ago, when Apple reviews did take over a week, you could still message Apple if your update contained an important fix for something that deteriorated a user experience, and your review would go in within a day. 100% they would help if it was because of an iOS change. Currently, regular updates are reviewed in less than 24 hours, you don't even have to tell them
Re: Sounds suspicious (Score:1)
Same Apple Story... (Score:1)
I was doing some side IT work with a small company and had to setup a Sharp MFP on a MAC Mind you this is the big copier printer combo, not some little office printer. Well Sharp didn't have the driver for the new version of OS for the customer MacBook. Really? Don't you want all your major companies to have this stuff ahead of time. Not like Sharp wants to have their customers down, and how cool is it to upgrade our OS and find you can't print? It took 3 weeks to get the new driver.
I can't image what
Re: Same Apple Story... (Score:3)
I was doing some side IT work with a small company and had to setup a Sharp MFP on a MAC Mind you this is the big copier printer combo, not some little office printer. Well Sharp didn't have the driver for the new version of OS for the customer MacBook. Really? Don't you want all your major companies to have this stuff ahead of time. Not like Sharp wants to have their customers down, and how cool is it to upgrade our OS and find you can't print? It took 3 weeks to get the new driver.
I can't image what kind of pressure 1 day notice, especially for small, 1 person shows.
Your inappropriate capitalization of "Mac" is enough to tell me you have little to no Mac experience.
As a person that has been using Macs since they were called Lisa, I speak from experience when I tell you that Not having a driver (or driver update) available has been a constant source of annoyance for Mac users since the very beginning.
Guess what? That is in no way Apple's fault. Some companies are just better at Mac support than others. There is very little excuse for a company the size of Sharp to not b
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I stopped updating at Snow Leopard. Help me out here. Mac has printer drivers now? Did something happen to CUPS? No longer using PPD? I am confused.
But I have no sympathy for these whiny egotistical developers.
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I stopped updating at Snow Leopard. Help me out here. Mac has printer drivers now? Did something happen to CUPS? No longer using PPD? I am confused.
But I have no sympathy for these whiny egotistical developers.
AFAIK, Apple still owns and maintains CUPS. However, there are, and always have been, 3rd-party drivers for things not covered by a CUPS driver, or covered more completely by a vendor-supplied driver.
You wants the short (Score:1)
Not enough time? (Score:3, Insightful)
If, as a developer, your app isn’t ready for iOS 14, it is your own fault. The beta is going on for a while for a reason. You do have access to the beta code and you should have been testing it on the newer environment. It never is supposed to be a night and day change shift should you had done your homework. Bugs might show up if you use obscure or undocumented features, but anything not falling onto such categories, or a tremendous bad luck, it is again you being lazy.
I had all my apps ready in between iOS 14 Betas 2 and 3, and afterwards it was just a matter to recompile them and run my compatibility, validation and regression tests. It was iOS14 GM ready before I went to bed last night and it is already online for users to download.
Don’t blame Apple for what you could had done yourself.
Another anti-competitive move by Apple (Score:1)
EU forced Apple to use USB due to environmental issue with the waste of having multiple chargers instead of one that works for all.
Companies have been punished by EU for anti-competitive methods.
Why can't America start to act civilized and punish these malicious companies like EU? America protects companies. Citizens are second citizens, In EU the citizen is protected from many malicious attempts to rob people of their rights and force companies to follow the laws and be reasonable.
This move by Apple is a c