A week before I have uploaded my iPhone app the zipped version size is 17.2MB, My app released today and it size turns out to be 20.2MB. Now its not possible to download that app through carrier network(since it crossed 20MB limit it needs WiFi). Why the size increased from 17.2 to 20.2MB?
The executable (ARM code) inside the app bundle is encrypted by Apple, which means that it no longer gets compressed in size when zipped up into an ipa file.
To estimate the actual ipa size, replace the executable with some /dev/rand of the same size before a test zip of the app bundle.
Pay attention to how large the app is before it is zipped. The zip file is not what goes to the app store, you need to look at your actual app file.
I just wrote a blog post on how exactly to check the maximum size of a binary here.
Short version:
Open the archive, find the executable, remove it, and add it's uncompressed size to the size of all the other files compressed to get the max size of the bundle after encryption and compression. Final size will be slightly smaller but no larger.
Related
So I have a huge app. It is full of features, most of which require a couple images, and all of which have to be saved as part of the binary file. I worked really hard before the release to get under the 20MB threshold, to make the app more accessible to users. My release binaryt was 18.1MB.
So now, with the new iPad and its retina display, what should I do about updating all of my images for this new display. If I did include an updated copy, I would be way over the 20MB limit. Currently, I store some image files on my sever, and download/cache them as the user needs them, but im hesitant to do this with major features because I'm concerned some users may not always have internet access. And without some of those images, the app is useless.
Is there any way I can have an iPhone only install the iPhone graphics, and visa versa?
Apple has since raised the limit for all devices to 50 MB due to the release of the new iPad. This should hopefully allow you to fit all of the pictures in your app bundle.
One approach to minimize the size of your files is by compressing your PNG files. This will only minimize the size, and the images will continue to work correctly.
The links provided below will help you find a crusher you desire.
PNG Crush
PNG Compressor
ImageOptim
I know there are a lot of posts about storing images on disk, both for Android and iPhone. What I would like to know is how to hide these files from user (disable access from both device itself and PC sd-card reader).
I want my app to download copyrighted images that should be only accessed using my application.
Android & iPhone,
multiple images (I'm guessing around 50-200, maybe more)
image size +/- 150-300 KB, various size but less than 1000x1000.
You can encrypt the downloaded bytes and then save it with any of your own format file extension. Then save it on your disk. While Reading Decrypt the data and use it accordingly.
This the only way i think to implement this. Hope it helps :)
SD cards are FAT formatted, i.e. all content is available to all. Your only real option is encryption. You can probably adapt the code here to encrypt and decrypt a file: http://www.androidsnippets.org/snippets/39/
Obviously you'd have your app generate a random key on first run, and store it in your preferences (which is private to your app on internal storage).
My application has a collection of around 1940 icons that are used throughout.
They're currently in ICO and new images provided to me come in ICO format too. I have noticed that they contain a 16x16 and 32x32 representation of each icon in one file.
Each file is roughly 4KB in filesize (as reported by finder, but ls reports that they vary from being ~1000 bytes to 5000 bytes)
A very small number of these icons only contain the 32x32 representation, and as a result are only around 700 bytes in size.
Currently I am bundling these icons with my application and they are inflating the size of the app a bit more than I would like.
Altogether, the images total just about 25.5MB. Xcode must do some kind of compression because the resulting app bundle is about 12.4MB. Compressing this further into a ZIP (as it would be when submitted to the App Store), results in a final file of 5.8MB.
I'm aware that the maximum limit for over the air App Store downloads has been raised to 20MB since the introduction of the iPad (I'm not sure if that extends to iPhone apps as well as iPad apps though, if not the limit would be 10MB).
My worry is that new icons are going to be added (sometimes up to 10 icons per week), and will continue to inflate the app bundle over time.
What is the best way to distribute these icons with my app?
Things I've tried and not had much success with:
Converting the icons from ICO to PNG:
I tried this in the hopes that the pngcrush utility would help out with the filesize. But it appears that it doesn't make much of a difference between a normal PNG and a crushed png (I believe it just optimises the image for display on the iPhone's GPU rather than compress it's size). Also in going from ICO to PNG actually increased the size of the icon file...
Zipping the images, and then uncompressing them on first run.
While this did reduce the overall image sizes, I found that the effort needed to unzip them, copy them to the documents folder and ensure that duplication doesn't happen on upgrades was too much hassle to be worth the benefit. Also, on original and 3G iPhones unzipping and copying around 25MB of images takes too long and creates a bad experience...
Things I've considered but not yet tried:
Instead of distributing the icons within the app bundle, host them online, and download each icon on demand (it depends on the user's data as to which icons will actually be displayed and when).
Issues with this is that bandwidth costs money, and image downloads will be bandwidth intensive. However, my app currently has a small userbase of around 5,500 users (of which I estimate around 1500 to be active based on Flurry stats), and I have a huge unused bandwidth allowance with my current hosting package.
So I'm open to thoughts on how to solve this tricky issue.
I did some research on MonoTouch for a client. MonoTouch has a minimum file size of 5.1mb because all the C# stuff. It doesn't seem to have affected apps store users willingness to download the MonoTouch based apps.
In my research I didn't see any evidence that end users pay much attention to app size when making purchasing decisions. A lot of apps are first downloaded to non-Mobiles via iTunes and the difference in download time between a 1mb and 5mb is barely noticeable. A lot of end users are only vaguely aware that apps even have a size.
My recommendation would be to try and prioritize the icons based on usage rate. Praeto's rule shows up in most data so you'll probably find that 20% of the icons get 80% of the use. Include that 20% most active icons in the app bundle and then download the rest.
I'm about to release my first app and I'd like for it to be able to be downloaded over 3g.
The binary is ~14MB, but when I compress it to a zip file it is just over 10MB. It's possible to cut out some content in order to squeeze it into 10MB, but I'm not sure if I have to cut out less than 1MB or ~4MB.
My question: When downloading an app from the App Store, does a compressed (zip) file get transferred to the device, or does the binary? Is the 10MB limit on the zip or the binary?
In practice, I have seen my apps at 9.8 mb require wifi. To be safe, I usually keep my zip file under 9mb
UPDATE: 2/27/10
Apple has recently updated this limit from 10MB to 20MB
It is the IPA file that is transferred to the user.
I read Apple lifted this limit to 20 MB.
In regards to iphone applications larger than 10mb not being able to be downloaded...
Does that apply to the compressed or uncompressed file size?
Thanks for any help
Compressed.
(Be careful with your 9.9MB app though)
I believe iPhone apps can be up to 2 GB. then 10 MB number refers to what apps can be downloaded on the cell network versus apps that can be downloaded over wifi or on iTunes on your computer.
The iPhone app Myst is much greater than 10 MB. Click here for link to story about app