“Apple has just released the final Golden Master build of iOS 6 to developers. Although a public version won’t be available for existing users until September 19th, developers can use the final version to test against iOS apps in preparation for the new iPhone 5.” Developers, get cracking. You don’t want your applications to show black bars on the iPhone 5, right?
“You don’t want your applications to show black bars on the iPhone 5”
Oh the problems of ‘fragmentation’ probably only exist when it is another platform.
You know, that’s exactly what I thought when I read about the letter boxing of apps on the iPhone 5. What does this mean for older devices? Will developers have to make separate UIs and if so, how long will we expect them to maintain the old ones? How different will the two UIs be? It’s certainly starting to look quite fragmented to me.
P.s. I’m an iPhone user myself. Just so you know that even some Apple users are growing a bit concerned.
Yep, surely Apple fanboys will come up with an explanation that it is not really fragmentation, rather “customization” or something similar.
Have they implemented widgets yet for their screens?
Edited 2012-09-13 10:24 UTC
For what end? I haven’t found any really useful Widget on my Nexus 7, bar the one that controls the wifi/location/bluetooth etc. The others just reduce my battery life by a sizeable chunk.
Ah valid point, I just have a calendar (Agenda Widget) and the power controls on my homescreen on a Senseless ICS ROM for the HOX. No other fancy widgets.
Edited 2012-09-13 11:50 UTC
“It’s not open vs closed. It’s _fragmented_ vs integrated”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTTSsB92L_s#t=13s
iOS 6 includes auto layout controls. No idea how they work, but that mitigates the issue. It still really puts me off buying another iPhone though. I’m sticking with the phone I have for the foreseeable future.
Not for games though, which are a big part of the iOS ecosystem.
Arguably, this is a good reason for a platform to have experienced more form factor diversification earlier on. That way the apps would have been more tolerant of variety from the get go instead of being subjected to compatibility hacks. This should not have been difficult to foresee.
But the games are generally written using the embedded version of OpenGL. I don’t see that as an issue. If the game was written to scale the graphics to a retina display, it should be possible to adjust for the additional real estate. NB: Possible not necessarily easy, nor something that would have been foreseen.
Not sure what the big deal is. Yes it’s fragmentation, but no where near the shit storm devs have to deal with on Android.
The conundrum for iOS developers:
1. Do nothing: Your app looks just like it did before, but doesn’t use the full screen.
2. Support the new screen: You app looks just as great on all iOS devices.
Oh noes! The horror devs are facing by this!
Edited 2012-09-13 16:14 UTC
I think you missed the OP’s implied point, which was not about the “horror devs are facing by this”, but rather that the original criticism of android’s multiple form factors from the pro-apple camp is now undermined by apple’s latest product.
If the situation were the opposite, apple fanboys would be howling at android for not being able to run their apps full screen.
On a more fundamental level though, I think apple deviating from it’s homogeneous one-size-fits-all approach is going to be a good thing for consumers.
Undermined? It’s undermined only in bizarro universe, maybe. Every new iPhone has come with new features not in past models. That’s also “fragmentation.” Are current apps going to not work on the iPhone5? If so, then it’s a big deal. If not, then you’re grasping at straws. Trying to equate the fragmentation seen in the Android dev space to this is laughable!
Edited 2012-09-13 17:26 UTC
I did not say it’s a big deal, quite the contrary it is not. Never the less, there were those who claimed that 3.5 inches would forever be the perfect size ( hey, the girth is more important, right?
).
Examples:
http://gizmodo.com/5847981/this-is-why-the-iphones-screen-will-alwa…
http://jeet.posterous.com/why-iphone-5-will-be-35-only
Say it with me: Undermined!
It was a very good size… I like to wear the phone in a case that holds it horizontal off my belt. Making the phone taller might make it more awkward. If it does, my 4 will probably move to a 4s instead of a 5, or I will take another look at android.
I am not sure I am sold on apple’s new mapping software for IOS6 either. It looks pretty… but it was lacking public transit/walking route options the last time I checked, and I need that for my travels. Most apps I use are on both platforms now and my music is DRM free. I have a handful of DRM’d videos, but I never watch them on my phone anyhow so switching would be mostly painless.
That’s right. Android’s fragmentation is only based on how powerful the SoC is… oh wait!
Please, it’s the same shit on any platform no matter what shape and form. Claiming otherwise is just plain stupid.
“Developers will be able to use iOS 6 to add Facebook functionality into existing apps using a newly introduced API.”
Integrating all my apps with facebook is just what I wanted (not really). You know all the apps are going to have facebook integration now just because they want to be on the bandwagon.
Does this mean I have a whole new wave of feed-spamming to look forward to?
Every time I think I couldn’t hate Facebook more, someone somewhere finds me a whole new reason.
Well as facebook was for me a recipient replacement for all the “spam”/”hey look at this mail”. I have no reason to hate it more or less.
Seriously. It’s bad enough every single website seems to be infested with that shit, now all the apps too? I wish we could excise that cancer called Facebook, but it seems to be the new reality tv for this generation.
Isn’t reality TV reality TV for this generation?