Can a restrict my app to iPhone 3GS/iPhone 4? - iphone

I have an app which runs excellently on an iPhone 4, and comfortably on a 3GS. Is it possible to target only the 3GS/4 and not the 3G? The 3G just freaks out when I run it, all sorts of graphical glitches, crashing, low fps etc, I don't even want 3G users to see the app on the store. I can't really 'tone down' the app to use less memory/power for the 3G, it would remove the main purpose of the app.
The only way I have come up with is to adding multitasking as a requirement for the app in the info.plist, but this seems a little hacky.
Also, is this likely to get me in trouble as far as submission goes?

Add "armv7" to the required device capabilities of your app's info.plist. Only the 3GS and newer use that CPU architecture. An app requiring armv7 won't even install on a 3G and other older armv6 devices.

Looks like this has been addressed previously, you can determine the version and perform an appropriate action based on that.
Link to thread

Related

Restrict iPhone/iPad App to iPhone 4 and higher only?

I am looking to make my app so that it only works on iPhone4 or higher, and not the 3GS.
How can I do this? Is it done via setting the Architectures setting to Standard Armv7/Armv7s
And Valid architectures to Armv7 & Armv7s?
Or do I need to look at deployment target? And set it to a certain iOS version?
Thanks in advance!
Deployment target is only going to allow you to target a specific iOS version and a 3GS can run iOS6. If you're truly looking to restrict older devices from running your app you're likely going to have to do some checks for device model within the AppDelegate and restrict functionality.
A caveat to this is that your app will likely not be permitted in the App Store. What feature(s) are you trying to leverage that a 3GS doesn't support?
Unfortunately you can target the iOS version not the device! You can try to build for iOS 6.0+ and it'll isolate some older devices like iPad1. I'm not sure what iOS version will go up to on 3GS, it'll be phased out soon, though with upcoming iOS releases. I know iOS 6 will work on 3GS but iPad1 won't
You can detect the device, and restrict it via code, but through Apple and iTunes, there is no device centric restrictions, only OS.

Allowing univeral iOS build to run on iPad1 but not iPod touch 3G

As far as I can tell, there aren't any "performance" criteria that you can specify to exclude specific iOS devices via info.plist.
Is it possible, via info.plist, to allow a universal app to run on iPad1, but not on iPhone 3GS/3G? Right now I use the gyroscope requirement (which my app does make use of), as a crutch to support only iPhone 4+ and iPad 2+.
To be absolutely clear, I want to make the app AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD in the App Store on iPad1, but not on iPhone 3GS. This question is not about runtime query of the device from code.
Is my best/only option to create multiple binaries, and remove the gyroscope build from the iPad build (typically called the "HD" build) but leave it there for iPhone/iPod touch?
Look at this question:
Determine device (iPhone, iPod Touch) with iPhone SDK
It goes over determination of different iOS devices. So, you can explicitly support (or not support) some specific model.
Requiring armv7 will drop out everything <3gs, but still includes ipad1. That's the closest I see.
The short answer seems to be "no".
On the up-side, iPad1 only has 256Mb memory, so you need to make your app fit in 256Mb anyway, so it should work on the 3GS. The difference in CPU speed is significant though.

How to declare an iPhone app which has to run in the background?

Hey,
I wrote an iPhone app which needs to run in the background. I did set up the properties in my info plist according to running in the background. The problem is that the app store lists iPhone 3G as well as "compatible device".
Is it possible to set up my info plist to get rid of the iPhone 3G in the app store?
I found one solution by adding 'opengles-2' to UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities - but it doesnt seem like the best way to do it?!
Thanks!
You can't discriminate directly on actual device types (3G versus iPhone 4 etc.), but as you note things in UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities may imply certain devices. However, there's a more direct route, read on...
If you require multitasking compatible devices, that would be any device running iOS4 or higher. There's a setting in your XCode project's build settings that allows you to set the minimum required iOS for your app to run -- "iOS Deployment Target". Set this to "iOS4" and your app will only be available to multitasking enabled iDevices (which includes iPad with iOS4 or higher, btw). -- no, not enough, see comments below and Jules' link.

Prevent iPhone app to run on iPad

I'm shipping two binaries; one for iPhone/iTouch and the other for iPad. It's the same application.
Will Apple ensure that the user will never receive an iPhone version of the app on the iPad? If YES, then I don't have anything to worry about, but if not then I do have a problem.
The reason I ask is the iPhone application will simply not work correctly on the iPad because the server knows it's an iPad and will deliver the iPad HD content to it and the iPhone cannot handle that. I would rather not hack my application to send the server a fake device type if running the iPhone app on the iPad in order to receive the correct resources.
Suggestions?
I've been looking for this for a while because I couldn't prevent the iPhone app to load on the iPad. Searched a bit to understand why this was happening, followed #hotpaw2 instructions and found this on the official apple store rules:
UPDATE:
2.4.1 To ensure people get the most out of your app, iPhone apps should run on iPad whenever possible. We encourage you to consider
building universal apps so customers can use them on all of their
devices. Learn more about Universal apps.
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
The SDK and/or App store rules prohibit you from preventing an iPhone app from running on an iPad in 1X or 2X zoom mode, unless there are other requirements listed in the app plist. Apple's app review is known to test iPhone-only app submissions (unless there are other requirements) on an iPad, and reject the app if it doesn't run properly.
Other requirements (as listed under UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in the app's plist) might include your app requiring telephone capabilities (or healthkit, etc.), which might help you temporarily, but still won't prevent the app from running on some hypothetical future iPad product that includes telephony capabilities (and/or healthkit, etc.).
Actually you can.
Add telephony to UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities in your plist file.
But i really not recommend it and maybe you could get rejected because of gratuitously using this property.
I think you should handle that there are iPad versions and iPhone versions on iPads, use the second one as an iPhone.
Also don't forget that retina iPads will use upscaled applications at retina resolution while none retina ones use the standard resolution. And this behavior can tweaked using jailbreak tweaks like RetinaPad and FullForce.
In the plist settings, add Application requires iPhone environment and set the boolean to YES

Can I restrict my iPhone app from being used by iPhone3G's?

My iphone app doesn't run well on the iPhone 3G. Can I make it so users with these models can't download the app? If so, what does a 3G user see when they search for my app in the app store?
Does it appear in the store at all for them? If it does, when are they notified that they can't download the app?
I recommend you use the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key in your info.plist. This lets you tell the App Store exactly which capabilities you require instead of which device you require.
If your app "doesn't run well" on a 3G I'll guess it is because of performance and therefore you'd want to require a newer processor. Look into setting arm7 as one of your required device capabilities.
For more info look here:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/General/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/iPhoneOSKeys.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009252-SW3
Make it run better. Or if it's not completely unusable, just let them use it anyway. People with old devices expect them to be a bit slow.
According to the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (which links to the iOS Application Programming Guide), you can't prohibit certain devices. You can, however, require certain features which are only present on new devices:
armv7 is what I'd recommend (older devices are armv6)
magnetometer, because older devices don't have one. Apple might look at you funny if your app doesn't actually use the compass though.
opengles-2, because older devices only support 1.1. Apple might look at you funny too.
auto-focus-camera, except the iPad and all the iPod Touches don't have one. Probably not what you want.
iPhone 3GS uses iOS 6.1.x so if your app support iOS 7+ it will not be able to install on iPhone 3GS, this is the best possible way to avoid download on that device.