Apple Store app updated for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
The Apple Store app, one of the few first-party iOS apps left untouched when iOS 8 launched last month, was finally updated on Wednesday when Apple added support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple Store version 3.0 (left) compared to version 3.0.1.
Apple Store version 3.0.1 is a minor update to the direct iOS portal to Apple's online storefront, but it comes with graphical improvements important to new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users.
As seen in the screenshots above, the new Apple Store update is now fully compatible with the larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays found in Apple's new iPhone 6 lineup. Prior to today's release, the app leaned on iOS 8's upscaling feature to upsize fonts and other graphical assets not native to the higher resolution screens.
In addition to iPhone 6 support, Apple Store version 3.0.1 contains an unnamed iOS compatibility update.
When Apple released iOS 8 in September, the new mobile operating system came with updates to the company's selection of first-party apps, including Safari, Messages and the iWork suite, among others. The Apple Store app was noticeably left out of the refresh process.
The latest Apple Store app version is a free 25MB download from the iOS App Store.
Apple Store version 3.0 (left) compared to version 3.0.1.
Apple Store version 3.0.1 is a minor update to the direct iOS portal to Apple's online storefront, but it comes with graphical improvements important to new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users.
As seen in the screenshots above, the new Apple Store update is now fully compatible with the larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays found in Apple's new iPhone 6 lineup. Prior to today's release, the app leaned on iOS 8's upscaling feature to upsize fonts and other graphical assets not native to the higher resolution screens.
In addition to iPhone 6 support, Apple Store version 3.0.1 contains an unnamed iOS compatibility update.
When Apple released iOS 8 in September, the new mobile operating system came with updates to the company's selection of first-party apps, including Safari, Messages and the iWork suite, among others. The Apple Store app was noticeably left out of the refresh process.
The latest Apple Store app version is a free 25MB download from the iOS App Store.
Comments
MacRumors has a thread up about users having Bluetooth issues and not being able to pair with their vehicles. I've had similar issues when I connect to my Bluetooth speaker where I have to manually flip the connection from dock connector to the speaker. And Safari is just a hot mess. I have issues with selecting text, copy/paste, sometimes the keyboard freezes and Safari crashes, just not a good experience at all. And then of course issues with WiFi and the whole update that took away people's cellular connectivity and Touch ID. These are the kind of things that drive down customer sat in a hurry.
Perhaps Apple has bitten off more than it can chew with the iOS 7 redesign and iOS 8 feature updates. They really need to spend time fixing the quality of their software. Right now iOS software doesn't ship when it's ready it ships when new iPhones are released. Gruber argues that Apple should decouple major OS releases from new hardware announcements. Whatever they do I sincerely hope we do not get iOS 9 and instead Apple spends time polishing iOS 8 into the quality software it should be.
http://rustyshelf.org/2014/10/01/it-just-works/
[quote]Tim Cook keeps telling us that “Only Apple” could do the amazing things it does. I just wish that Apple would slow down their breakneck pace and spend the time required to build stable software that their hardware so desperately needs. The yearly release cycles of OS X, iOS, iPhone & iPad are resulting in too many things seeing the light of day that aren’t finished yet. Perhaps the world wouldn’t let them, perhaps the expectations are now too high, but I’d kill for Snow iOS 8 and Snow Yosemite next year. I’m fairly confident I’m not alone in that feeling.[/quote]
Wifi on my iPhone 6 has been buggy, sometimes it just won't connect period (and locks cellular into 1X on Verizon) and I have to reboot. Working out the kinks would be nice, 7.1.2 was also extremely buggy for most people I knew.
I have wifi issues too where I either have to close out of Safari, toggle wifi off and on or in some cases reboot my device. And just as I was typing this my keyboard froze and Safari crashed.
Part of me is angry at Scott Forstall (and Steve Jobs) for allowing iOS to fall far enough behind the competition that Craig Federighi and team are scrambling to catch up. And anyone who says it wasn't behind....go watch WWDC 2013 and 2014 again and see the huge positive reaction from developers in the audience. I'm already using the 1password extension which is freaking awesome. Pretty much everything Apple has attempted to do in the last two years will ultimately be for the better. The ideas are great, the execution not so much. Is it just an issue of Apple moving too fast or is it a resource problem? I have no doubt the software engineers are working nights and weekends on this stuff. Is there just not enough of them?
So for 6 months us users have to live with buggy software? If that's the case then I wish Apple would let me downgrade back to the last version of iOS 7 and then I would know in the future to wait 6 months before installing new software.
I think they're moving too fast. Last year they had to focus on a UI redesign (I hated the skeumorphism, it was tacky) as well as redoing everything to run with a 64-bit OS, this year they had to redo the OS to support two new resolutions as well as make significant structural changes, implement ApplePay, HealthKit, HomeKit, and their shipdate is tied to hardware, not when it's actually ready. As I've said elsewhere lets work on maybe an 8.1 and 8.5 before we just jump to 9.0. And next year, don't force the iPhone 6S to launch with the latest version of iOS if it's not ready.
It would also help change the fact that the only time we get goodness out of Apple is September and October. Because that's pretty much the only time we get anything anymore, and it's annoying.
I agree. If software isn't ready it shouldn't ship with new phones. The only thing that maybe should ship is something specific to the new phone like if there are Touch ID changes or updates to the camera app.
And it's not like they haven't done that before, the iPad launched with 3.2 because 4 wasn't ready.
There aren't that many things that need to be added to iOS at this point, they might as well focus on bug fixes for a little while.
Proof? iOS 4 (because it was iPhone OS before that) hadn’t even been shown yet.
Apple will shore up the codebase and do some refactoring. We just have to be patient. I would like Apple to launch features when they are ready. Maybe have a 8.1.2 and an 8.1.3 etc on a faster cycle. That way small bugs don't have to wait so long in between to be addressed.
Oh, NM, I just realized I'm holding it wrong. There! That fixed it!????
Well, okay, iOS 4 was announced five days after the iPad shipped. Given that 3.2 was a special iPad only version, my point kinda still stands. Especially since they didn't just dump 4.0 on the iPad, they waited until fall with 4.2.1.
John Gruber linked to a piece by Russell Ivanovic who argues that Apple needs to slow down their software releases so they can spend time building software that "just works".
http://rustyshelf.org/2014/10/01/it-just-works/
Please let's stop with the intellectual dishonesty that lets us pretend that there was a time in Apple's existence where everything "just worked", and using that lie to mock the current Apple (and Tim Cook). I've been using Apple products for a while, and I don't ever recall this mythical time- there has ALWAYS been bugs, and I don't feel like today they are more numerous or serious- the opposite, actually. There's such an exponentially greater # of people using Apple products, and along with the internet and social media, as well as click-whoring, there's alot more bitching, drama, and sensationalism which magnifies everything. Just look at "bendgate" as an example.
Software will never "just work" 100% of the time, and it never will. Let's stop pretending it did under Steve Jobs. It certainly didn't, even though OSX and iOS don't do 10% of what they do now.
Apologies if my post gave that impression. That was not my intention. And believe me I hate the constant references to Steve as if any perceived deficiency wouldn't have happened on his watch. Plenty of mistakes happened on his watch. But I think the larger point is Apple needs to slow down and focus on polishing current software. I honestly feel iOS 8 wasn't ready to ship but Apple felt they had to ship it with the new iPhones. Look how quickly we got a software update and even that was buggy and had to be pulled and replaced. Personally I would like to see software updates decoupled from hardware releases. Ship the software when it's ready regardless of when new hardware drops.
My apologies then if I misunderstood. It's just so many make that false, mocking "what happened to it just works?", statement, as if that was ever the case, Steve Jobs or not.
I completely agree that shipping new software with hardware isn't ideal, from a development point of view. Not even close. What I find pretty miraculous is that Apple can actually pull if off, as it seems like such a herculean effort of cooordination. It's one thing to coordinate a massive hardware launch that sells 10+ millions of an extremely complex and finely manufactured device in a weekend. Imaging those phones with a major software/services update at the same time is on another level. Companies like Samsung (or any other Android OEM) don't have to worry about this- they just throw their extra shit on whatever version of Android is shipping.
However, I can't see Apple changing their strategy anytime soon. They love to make a big, coordinated splash with their new products. Decoupling the launches would severely affect this kind of anticipation- not to mention that new software is often built to take advantage of new hardware features, and they both complement each other. At least syncing the launches ensures they stay to a strict development time table, and keeps them on schedule. Personally, I'd be down for a "snow leopard" type update to iOS next year. iOS8 introduced so many new fundamental changes (extensions, etc) and API hooks (healthkit, homekit, etc), service changes (iCloud drive, etc), that we're bound to see some issues. From here on out it should be smoother sailing.
And 6 months after that, we start this all over again with iOS 9.
I have wifi issues too where I either have to close out of Safari, toggle wifi off and on or in some cases reboot my device. And just as I was typing this my keyboard froze and Safari crashed.
Part of me is angry at Scott Forstall (and Steve Jobs) for allowing iOS to fall far enough behind the competition that Craig Federighi and team are scrambling to catch up. And anyone who says it wasn't behind....go watch WWDC 2013 and 2014 again and see the huge positive reaction from developers in the audience. I'm already using the 1password extension which is freaking awesome. Pretty much everything Apple has attempted to do in the last two years will ultimately be for the better. The ideas are great, the execution not so much. Is it just an issue of Apple moving too fast or is it a resource problem? I have no doubt the software engineers are working nights and weekends on this stuff. Is there just not enough of them?
Not only current releases of IOS, but the formers had many bugs too (I started using Apple products at 2008 with original iPhone, so don't know how things were before that). But this isn't limited to IOS or even to Apple as a whole. Every other OS (mobile-desktop) has had the same issues more or less. Hell, everything there is out in the world has some problems and nothing works flawlessly, humans can't make perfect things.
Important to me is that using Apple products, you encounter less problems (e.g. bugs) than you would do on other products.
I've got a similar problem on my iPad Air too, hopefully they'll solve it soon!
No! No iOS 9 until iOS 8 is mostly bug free. What major new features does iOS need at this point? I can think of maybe two things - split screen multitasking for the iPad (especially if Apple releases a larger iPad) and allowing people to choose default apps for things like mail, Internet browser, maps, etc. The first I think will happen, the second probably not.
iOS won't be bug-free until v.10. How do I know that? An analyst told me.