Slashdot Mirror
Appocalypse Now - How iOS11 Will Kill Some Of Your Favourite iPhone Apps (independent.ie)
Ronan Price, writing for Independent: The app-ocalypse is coming and almost no one knows it. Apologies for the dreadful pun but, in about six to eight weeks' time, hundreds of thousands of older apps for iPhone and iPad will cease to work when Apple updates its iOS software to version 11. Businesses and consumers who rely on these elderly apps and update to iOS11 without knowing the consequences face a rude awakening. Their difficulty ranges from mere inconvenience that a useful app no longer functions to the complete loss of valuable data buried in a piece of obsolete software. Apple began signalling two years ago that it was signing the death warrant for older apps when it moved iOS to 64-bit software - essentially a more secure, faster and technologically advanced version that replaced the previous 32-bit code. First, Apple encouraged developers to rewrite their apps to 64-bit status but continued to allow 32-bit apps to function. Then it began to warn developers and customers that future iOS updates would experience compatibility issues. You may have seen -- and ignored -- the messages when launching apps in the last year telling you "App X needs up to be updated, the developer needs to update it to improve its compatibility." Finally, just this June, Apple confirmed that iOS11 would put the kibosh on 32-bit forever when it's released into the wild in late September. The announcement came and went with little fanfare from the public's perspective.
You don't have to rewrite shit.
You just have to update the SDK and compile. Done. It's not even fucking hard to do. These old apps are not supported or developed by anyone, that is to say they're unsupported by their developers. Get over it.
yeah what is wrong with people not replacing perfectly functional devices every couple of years for marginal improvements? they totally deserve to have their purchased apps bricked. this is what happens when you don't follow the Benevolent Corp upgrade cycle. serves them right, the damn fools!
Seriously, given the summary clearly Apple did everything they would reasonably be expected to do to 'warn' developers & consumers. I'm no Apple fan but what would anyone suggest they do otherwise? And there's an option I presume to not accept the upgrade & not run in to the issue. Potentially the complete lack of 'public fanfare' actually means 'no one cares' & this isn't going to actually affect anyone whether its their 'favorite' LoL Cat video app or whatever.
Sensationalizing this via using terms like 'kill' is well 'over kill' :-)
And, with iOS 4.3, you only have about 50 known remotely exploitable vulnerabilities, so it's probably completely safe to use, as long as the WiFi is disabled.
...Making this another excellent example of why essential updates for security should be provided separately from updates that change (or break or remove) functionality.
This is not the first time Apple has played this game: iOS7 had a similar kind of effect on users and the app ecosystem about four years ago, for example. Dumping responsibility for "keeping up" on developers who wrote working apps and users who already paid for them is hardly reasonable. Nor is artificially limiting the life of expensive devices through software hacks.
I suspect the time is fast approaching when we will need laws to protect the buyers of "platform" software that is essential to the functioning of a device. Too many vendors are now abusing their control over the related software and/or copyright and related laws to force in changes that are not in their customers' interests after the sale.
In many contexts we mandate certain minimum standards for purchased products and require by law that the vendor makes good any defects for a reasonable period afterwards. Despite frequent and sometimes serious bugs in software, developers have mostly had an easy ride on that one in the past, partly because a culture evolved that you released security updates free of charge to customers later. If the developers in the age of always-online, "evergreen" software are no longer going to do that without attaching strings, perhaps they no longer deserve so much special treatment under the law when their products don't work properly either.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.