Apple once again alerts iOS 8 app developers to upcoming 64-bit requirement

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2015
Apple on Monday posted a note to the News and Updates section of its Developer website reminding app makers that starting Feb. 1, all new iOS 8 software submitted to the App Store must include 64-bit support.




Today's reminder is the second such notice sent out to developers ahead of Apple's planned migration to a comprehensive 64-bit App Store. The company first announced 64-bit requirements for iOS 8 in October.

In a similar note posted last month, Apple made a distinction between new titles and app updates, saying 64-bit support would be required only for first-time submissions. Along with 64-bit code, newly submitted apps also need to be built using Apple's iOS 8 software development kit.

Developers looking to update existing apps have until June 1, 2015, to build in the same 64-bit and iOS 8 SDK support.

When the iPhone 5s debuted in 2013 carrying the A7 SoC, Apple became the first company to deliver 64-bit processing capabilities in a mainstream mobile device, a feature widely dismissed as unnecessary by the industry at large. After a brief period of denial, and a glib statement from Qualcomm, chipmakers modified their mobile hardware roadmaps to adjust to Apple's aggressive rollout.

According to some accounts, the A7 "set off panic" for chipmakers, partially fueled by pressure from OEMs reluctant to fall behind the innovation curve. For example, Apple's smartphone and tablet arch rival Samsung quickly pledged 64-bit support in future devices shortly after Apple's A7 announcement.

The latest iOS 8 SDK is available through Apple's Developer Portal as part of the recently updated Xcode 6.1.1.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    Good.

    Next up, Apple needs to ban any apps that can only be used by selling your soul—ie. having to register with an email and password.

    Is Cook a big advocate of IADS? I don't know. But I would prefer apps to use those if they have to rather than forcing users to set up accounts.
  • Reply 2 of 36

    Good. Can't wait to see continued performance increases from my iDevices.

  • Reply 3 of 36
    Good. Can't wait to see continued performance increases from my iDevices.

    Not sure why you need to be so impatient.

    June 1st is not that far away, grasshopper.
  • Reply 4 of 36
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post



    Good.



    Next up, Apple needs to ban any apps that can only be used by selling your soul—ie. having to register with an email and password.



    Is Cook a big advocate of IADS? I don't know. But I would prefer apps to use those if they have to rather than forcing users to set up accounts.



    What's the issue? I have a garbage account for these sort of app/newsletter signups.

     

    iAds is not a registration replacement. It is an advertising network designed to generate revenue for app developers who do not wish to charge for their apps.

     

    Unless Google, Apple does not generate a significant part of their company revenue from ad sales. Sure, if you're an iOS app developer and you want to use a mobile advertising platform to reimburse your development costs, Apple would like it if you chose iAds over the competition, but there's no requirement to do so.

     

    The app registration requirement is separate, something mandated by the app developer. Remember, the app developer does not get to see the name of who clicked on an ad or not, just the aggregate clickthrough number. At this point, I believe app developers don't see the Apple IDs of the people who downloaded their apps either.

     

    Frankly, I'd rather give an e-mail address for registration purposes instead of something like Facebook credentials. I don't use Facebook myself, so any app that requires Facebook for basic functionality is useless to me.

  • Reply 5 of 36
    mpantone wrote: »
    Good.


    Next up, Apple needs to ban any apps that can only be used by selling your soul—ie. having to register with an email and password.


    Is Cook a big advocate of IADS? I don't know. But I would prefer apps to use those if they have to rather than forcing users to set up accounts.


    What's the issue? I have a garbage account for these sort of app/newsletter signups.

    iAds is not a registration replacement. It is an advertising network designed to generate revenue for app developers who do not wish to charge for their apps.

    Unless Google, Apple does not generate a significant part of their company revenue from ad sales. Sure, if you're an iOS app developer and you want to use a mobile advertising platform to reimburse your development costs, Apple would like it if you chose iAds over the competition, but there's no requirement to do so.

    The app registration requirement is separate, something mandated by the app developer. Remember, the app developer does not get to see the name of who clicked on an ad or not, just the aggregate clickthrough number. At this point, I believe app developers don't see the Apple IDs of the people who downloaded their apps either.

    Frankly, I'd rather give an e-mail address for registration purposes instead of something like Facebook credentials. I don't use Facebook myself, so any app that requires Facebook for basic functionality is useless to me.

    Oh sure. FaceBook signup is even worse.
  • Reply 6 of 36
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Good. Can't wait to see continued performance increases from my iDevices.

    Do you have some examples? How would I know if the app I'm using is better because of 64-bit? None of them really seem any different to me than they did on my iPhone 5.
  • Reply 7 of 36
    undedunded Posts: 43member
    Follow the leader, guys! I'm looking at you Tizen, Android, Windows
  • Reply 8 of 36
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    rogifan wrote: »
    Do you have some examples? How would I know if the app I'm using is better because of 64-bit? None of them really seem any different to me than they did on my iPhone 5.

    Uh, basically any video, audio, or photo editing app, for starters.
  • Reply 9 of 36
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Do you have some examples? How would I know if the app I'm using is better because of 64-bit? None of them really seem any different to me than they did on my iPhone 5.



    Video editing and more powerful photo/image/sound processing apps benefit from 64-bit as you are able to access large amounts of data very quickly.

     

    You have repeatedly shown your ignorance in the benefits of standalone native iOS apps, and apparently only use your iDevices to read websites in Safari.

     

    Just remember, for every person like you who does nothing but surf websites on browsers, there's someone else who is pushing the limits of their mobile device's hardware and software: taking HD video, processing and editing it, uploading gigabyte files to the cloud. Color paint. Live music performance.

     

    Now it is totally up to you to do what you want with your own gear, but your repeated forgetfulness over these explanations that we have pointed out time and time again is making responding to your inane inquiries a tiresome chore.

  • Reply 10 of 36
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mpantone View Post

     



    Video editing and more powerful photo/image/sound processing apps benefit from 64-bit as you are able to access large amounts of data very quickly.

     

    You have repeatedly shown your ignorance in the benefits of standalone native iOS apps, and apparently only use your iDevices to read websites in Safari.

     

    Just remember, for every person like you who does nothing but surf websites on browsers, there's someone else who is pushing the limits of their mobile device's hardware and software: taking HD video, processing and editing it, uploading gigabyte files to the cloud. Color paint. Live music performance.


    Intensive video or image processing would seem more enjoyable and efficient on a desktop with a nice 27 inch monitor. Having a fast processor doesn't necessarily make a 4 inch phone the right tool for the job.

  • Reply 11 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by d4NjvRzf View Post

     

    Intensive video or image processing would seem more enjoyable and efficient on a desktop with a nice 27 inch monitor. Having a fast processor doesn't necessarily make a 4 inch phone the right tool for the job.




    A 9.7" color accurate multitouch screen is pretty nice though.

  • Reply 12 of 36
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d4NjvRzf View Post

     

    Intensive video or image processing would seem more enjoyable and efficient on a desktop with a nice 27 inch monitor. Having a fast processor doesn't necessarily make a 4 inch phone the right tool for the job.




    The 64-bit mandate for iOS 8 encompasses all devices that run iOS 8, not just 4" phones.

     

    Yes, you would think that a 27" monitor attached to a desktop computer would be more enjoyable editing situation, but the fact of the matter remains that people have been using handsets and tablets for increasingly complex and sophisticated functions since their arrival.

     

    Even something as simple as recording, editing and posting a six-second video used to be something you'd shoot on a standalone video camera, take back to home/work, edit on a desktop system, and upload over broadband Internet. Today, people upload Vines on their smartphones within a minute.

     

    Whether it appeals to you is not the point. The point is that many others are using a wide variety of iOS devices for some sophisticated data processing despite the fact that these same people have access to more traditional work platforms.

     

    This point isn't lost on famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, who was asked a couple of years ago what was the best first camera for a beginner. Her choice was the iPhone.

  • Reply 13 of 36
    mpantone wrote: »

    Video editing and more powerful photo/image/sound processing apps benefit from 64-bit as you are able to access large amounts of data very quickly.

    You have repeatedly shown your ignorance in the benefits of standalone native iOS apps, and apparently only use your iDevices to read websites in Safari.

    Just remember, for every person like you who does nothing but surf websites on browsers, there's someone else who is pushing the limits of their mobile device's hardware and software: taking HD video, processing and editing it, uploading gigabyte files to the cloud. Color paint. Live music performance.

    Now it is totally up to you to do what you want with your own gear, but your repeated forgetfulness over these explanations that we have pointed out time and time again is making responding to your inane inquiries a tiresome chore.
    I actually wouldn't even waste my time answering Rogifan anymore. After his last ignorance tirade in a recent Ai thread about Samsung aping Touch ID, and on other sites, he's proven what he is, and he's not worth the effort.
  • Reply 14 of 36
    rogifan wrote: »
    Do you have some examples? How would I know if the app I'm using is better because of 64-bit? None of them really seem any different to me than they did on my iPhone 5.

    Every single thing you do. If all your Apps support 64bit then it improves overall performance as iOS doesn't need to load libraries for both (when you have both a 32bit AND 64bit App running). You can run a system monitor App and see which Apps are 32bit and which are 64bit under the list of processes. It's less efficient to run a mix of both on a system.

    64bit will realistically only benefit a small number of Apps. You don't need 64bit performance for e-mail, Facebook or countless other Apps. That's not the point. For those Apps that can utilize the extra performance it's welcome. Better to make a device that's more powerful than what you need so it's at least capable of doing advanced functions than some hobbled device that can't ever take you to new levels in terms of what it can do.
  • Reply 15 of 36
    mpantone wrote: »

    Video editing and more powerful photo/image/sound processing apps benefit from 64-bit as you are able to access large amounts of data very quickly.

    You have repeatedly shown your ignorance in the benefits of standalone native iOS apps, and apparently only use your iDevices to read websites in Safari.

    Just remember, for every person like you who does nothing but surf websites on browsers, there's someone else who is pushing the limits of their mobile device's hardware and software: taking HD video, processing and editing it, uploading gigabyte files to the cloud. Color paint. Live music performance.

    Now it is totally up to you to do what you want with your own gear, but your repeated forgetfulness over these explanations that we have pointed out time and time again is making responding to your inane inquiries a tiresome chore.

    magman1979 wrote: »
    I actually wouldn't even waste my time answering Rogifan anymore. After his last ignorance tirade in a recent Ai thread about Samsung aping Touch ID, and on other sites, he's proven what he is, and he's not worth the effort.

    Little harsh, you think?
  • Reply 16 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post



    Good.



    Next up, Apple needs to ban any apps that can only be used by selling your soul—ie. having to register with an email and password.



    Is Cook a big advocate of IADS? I don't know. But I would prefer apps to use those if they have to rather than forcing users to set up accounts.



    Ridiculous idea. As someone else said, just set up a junk email account. I have a few social app in the store that require an email address, we never spam you or sell your data.

  • Reply 17 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    After a brief period of denial, and a glib statement from Qualcomm, chipmakers modified their mobile hardware roadmaps to adjust to Apple's aggressive rollout.

     

     

    Chipmakers couldn't have been in too big a rush to deliver a me too product. We are at 16 months since the iPhone 5s was announced and 64-bit competition is finally starting to trickle out.

  • Reply 18 of 36
    Will all these new 64-bit apps and updates be compatible with non-64-bit devices that still run iOS 8(iPod Touch 5th generation, iPad 2, 3, 4, first generation iPad mini, iPhone 4s, 5)? As in will they be allowed to download them let alone use them? Or will it be like iPhone 4 users who want to download an app that requires iOS 8 but that has an older version that supports iOS 7, which the iPhone 4 can download?
  • Reply 19 of 36

    OT, but has Stanford put out its lessons for development on iOS8? The last I saw was iOS5 I think.

  • Reply 20 of 36
    OT, but has Stanford put out its lessons for development on iOS8? The last I saw was iOS5 I think.

    There was an iOS 7 course - CS193P Fall 2013 by Stanford (https://itun.es/de/gCOUR) - but I've seen nothing for iOS 8 or Swift from them so far.
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