I have a game that is quite CPU intensive. It works well on all devices (from iPhone4+) but it's very laggy on iPod 4th generation.
I'd like to release it on the appstore, and make sure that iPod4 users cannot download it, as they will probably be very disapointed.
The only solution I can think of so far, is to make the app iOS7 only, as iPod4 cannot upgrade to iOS7, but I'd like to avoid that.
Do you have any other solution?
Thanks.
Related
I am building an iOS application for public release, and I would like to develop it against iOS 4, as I see from the instapaper stats from November that iOS 5 has a 48% market share, which is good, but my app will probably not be used by these early adopters, and it's probably not going to be enough to force them to upgrade.
The issue is that I only have an iPhone 4S, which shipped with iOS 5. I have been unable to find an iOS build for my 4S, which upon reflection makes sense. Nontheless, I'd like to know if there is some sort of unofficial build for the 4S or some way to make the iPhone 4 version work on the 4S.
I'm pretty sure that the answer is going to end up being "Buy a 3GS/iPod touch for development". Would that necessarily be worth it or should I just tough it out? I'm pretty sure that most iOS 4 users will upgrade eventually. Does anyone have any stats on how long it took iOS 3 users to move on?
I would still suggest getting a used iPhone 3GS. Even if you are able to install iOS 4 on the 4S you still wouldn't be able to do any performance testing, but it's highly likely that someone who still uses iOS 4 has a 3GS.
For your first cut testing, you can use the simulator which, will allow you to test for iOS 4.3
Ideally you need to get hold of the appropriate devices to test your app. You say you're supporting iOS 4, but do you mean 4.2 or 4.3? If 4.2 then you'll be supporting iPhone 3G, if 4.3 then 3GS upwards.
There are testing services out there, just search "iPhone testing services". I've never used them myself, so can't vouch for any of them, but the cost may be less than investing in actual devices.
I kept a 3G and 3GS for testing, but to be honest, even though my main app supports 4.2, I rarely do any testing for older OS versions outside the simulator. I gave the 3GS to my father on condition he tested for me when asked… but of course I had to upgrade it to iOS 5 for him, so it's of little practical value, apart from testing at different screen res.
I would suggest you develop your app with minimum version 4.0 (or other) set. Then you test that on your iOS 5 iphone. I did it with my apps and it works great.
You can test on the lower version simulator or for final testing you could borrow a friend's device or similar.
As I understand (and believe), the compiler would stop you if you included features that are not 4.0 (or the set version) compatible.
Buying lower iOS is not worth it. If you can you should borrow it. In the simulator you can also make the iOS version to lower version to test. Also you can try ad hoc distribution to check how your app performs on other ios before releasing on appstore
i've been developing an ipad app for quite some time now, all the previous versions run perfectly on both the simulator and the Ipad, but the newest version which is a major revamp of the app, runs super smooth on the ipad but has a lot of issues on the simulator (images not appearing, etc)
Is this a bad sign? Should i wait to make it work on both before submitting?
Thanks!
I would suggest that you be sure to test it on both versions of iPad and as many OS versions as you can. Be sure that you are running the same OS on both simulator and iPad (As I see in the comments that you say you are). Just to rule out any problems with using code that is incompatable with older OS's.
In general though, if your app is running fine on the hardware you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I would be much more concerned if it was the other way around.
It is almost always bad when an app does something you did not expect or design it to do. If you designed the app to run on both the Simulator and the iPad, and it doesn't run on one, there is possibly something seriously wrong with your design that could do other unknown things during app review, or worse, on many app user's devices (leading to lots of 1-star ratings).
Therefore you should figure out why something is going wrong, and preferably fix it (or at least understand what's happening well enough to determine how it will behave on your customer's iPads).
Some other suggestions:
make sure that both device and simulator are using the same internet connection
uninstall your app from simulator and device, and run clean on your project, and then do a fresh install
Do I need to buy Iphone to develop Iphone applications on MacBook Pro? Or is Iphone SDK for the job?
Thanks.
Technically no, but obviously it would be handy.
Xcode provides an iPhone simulator that can handle most testing (but without support for accelerometer or microphone).
All in all, if you plan on doing iPhone development seriously - get an iPhone.
Technically you could use the emulator with the SDK but you really want some raw devices to test on due to subtle differences.
The iPod touch does a great job for testing apps on a real device. Its performances are very closed to the iPhone and it is much cheaper.
Technically no, unless you building apps related to accelerometer, microphone, sms or auto calling applications. The SDK comes with the iPhone simulator which is more than handy
You can use the Xcode iPhone simulator as well as the iPad simulator to test your code, all of which is free. The only issue will be accessing certain filemanagement which cannot be debugged on a simulator. However, you must have a computer running on Mac OS X and a valid Apple ID to download Xcode. Finally, in order to submit Apps into the App Store, you must buy a $100 developer's license with Apple.
Hope that help! And iPhone development is a ton of fun :)
Thommy
I highly recommend to get the device you're developing for. Since some issues will only will only come up by really using your app as intended.
The touchscreen and it's behavior for example can't really be testet in the simulator. If you want to do more than the next "Fart App" you should invest the money in at least one actuel iOS device.
I will speak from personal experience with a financial prespective
Can you afford it or is the short term compensation from the work going to cover the cost? The latest models are pretty expensive, so I would suggest looking for good deals on models that are a couple of years old. When I say short term, I mean 3 years or less. Because after that, there is a good chance that you are going to need to buy a newer model to take advantage of the SDK features available at that time.
Even if you can afford it do you need it immediately? Are you soon going to be developing features that are completely dependent on hardware and impossible with a simulator ? If no please push the purchase further down the line, by which time you would have made some money (or not) and you can buy a newer model.
Having a latest device gives you the freedom to try out and build apps using the latest SDK features that Apple rolls out, so you can stay ahead in the game. On the flip side, it would be good for development only as long as at least one of the apps that you are developing for runs the highest version of iOS supported by the device at any particular time. For example I bought an iPhone 5S some years ago and now none of the apps I am working on run on iOS 12. So I have very little use for it. Ah I guess the vicious upgrade cycle gets developers too :(
I've registered/paid for the iPhone developer program, which allows me to test apps on a device. I have an old 3G that I would like to use. However, I'm interested in using the significant change notifications as well as it working in the background.
If I were to jailbreak to enable background processing and things like that, what issues could I have, and how likely are they to arise?
EDIT:
I actually do have an iPhone4, but I'm using it for my personal phone. I've heard that it's not to great of an idea to use your everyday phone as a development device. I've done a little more reading, looks like I could use Ad-Hoc distribution to test while avoiding the problems of using your primary phone as a development device. Seems like the only downside of this would be no debug info, other than logs.
iOS 4 has been hacked to allow home screen wallpapers and multitasking on iPhone 3G. (http://pixelatedgeek.com/2010/06/ios4-jailbreak-and-multitasking-now-available-for-iphone-3g/)
It seems to be running fine without any issues, probably not as fast as an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.
Just be careful if you use this as your main testing device and make sure you test on supported hardware before releasing. Personally, I'd use something that was 100% supported to be sure everything worked as expected. However, if you don't own a supported device this may not be possible.
Again, make sure you test on friends 3GS or 4 before releasing. I don't foresee any major issues, but testing features on hardware that isn't officially supported could cause problems.
Update: I've used my phone for development purposes before and haven't run into any earth shattering problems. If an issue comes up you can always restores your device.
If you are planning to target iOS4 you really, really really should spring for an iPhone4. You can understand how things will run on it, and also be able to see how the higher resolution display interacts with your app. I'm not sure running iOS4 on a hacked 3G will tell you much more than running in the simulator, and in fact because of the reduced memory may show some issues that just do not occur on real devices.
One other great option is a recent generation Touch. Although it doesn't give you the display to check against it is a good test platform for multitasking.
me and my friend develop iPad application (a lot of CoreGraphics stuff). But we can't find an agreement. I tell him that testing on device is essential, he tells me that testing on iPhone 3G/3GS will be enough (I have both devices). Can you tell me, probably we really can test our app on 3GS? The main thing is that interface will be iPad designed, so I even not sure how we'll do that...
UPDATED: It is iPad only software, UI is designed for 1024x768
For a high quality product, you have to test on the device. The performance of the iPad is different, and if you have any interaction which involves threading, that can lead to race conditions that you might not find on the iPhone (slower) or the simulator (too fast). I've also seen a number of students run into memory issues that they didn't find on simulator, but that they discover on device.
This doesn't mean you have to buy a device - you can either solicit a friend with an iPad to be a beta tester, or you can lurk in a Starbucks or Peet's. You'd be surprised how many people will bring in iPads, and how many of them are willing to try out a new application.
You can use the simulator, but that's not enough. It is essential that you test your app on an actual device, because the performance on the simulator is vastly different than the device.
If you don't have the money or the iPad isn't available where you are, then ask someone who has one to be a beta tester.
IMHO testing on the device is one of the first rules of developing for a mobile platform.
Apple strongly recommends you test on device before releasing. The iPad and the iPhone are running two different versions of the OS on two different hardwares. Some functions are not really emulated on the simulator. You're asking for trouble.
On the other hand, if you don't have an iPad and you need to ship, you can always roll the dice.
We've ended up having it fail on different devices. Being a small company (about 30 people), we have quite a few different iPhones floating around. Even though we have pretty much every version covered, we still don't cover all releases of the OS. We've caught several bugs internally but there still seem to be some that happen out in the wild that just require different hardware/software configurations. In short, test on as many as possible, but it is very unlikely that you will ever be able to test on all software/hardware combinations.
I'd recommend having the latest iPhone, one that is one or two generations old, and probably the same for the iPad (when it ends up having older hardware versions), but DEFINITELY have both one iPhone and one iPad (and maybe even an iPod touch).
Use the iPad simulator in the iPhone SDK 3.2.
While the performance level can vary, so it certainly would be best to test on the actual device, don't let it be a barrier. You can use the performance analysis tools in the SDK to find problems.
You might try a beta release anyway.
Not a must but highly recommended. I cannot imagine what is worse than someone reports a bug but you have no way to confirm it's true or false. The iPad is faster than 3Gs generally speaking. Of course, your partner may have a "time to market" concern. So, there is no fix answer to this question.
It can be done but is not recommended. I had a iPad app in the store on April 1 before the iPad was released on April 3. It had been tested on real iPhones and the iPad simulator in the SDK. I don't recommend it but there was no choice at the time.
If the performance is acceptable on an actual iPhone 3G, it should be fine on the iPad which has a faster CPU.
You can test your application on simulator. but it is not enough to upload your application on app store because some memory issues generated on device which cannot be produced on simulator. So, better to test your application at least once before uploading on app store. You have to also check your application under performance tools like "leaks".