OS 4.0, broken apps, and a cautionary tale

Tomorrow sees the Moscone Center in San Francisco open its doors to this years WWDC, where Apple in will announce the release of version 4.0 of the iPhone OS, and unveil details of the next generation iPhone, which is rumored to include..

• Front-facing video chat camera
• 5 Megapixel camera
• 5x Digital Zoom
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display (possibly 960x640)

...all of which will help take iPhoneography to the next level.

In addition to the new iPhone running OS 4.0, we will see Apple announce the release of the OS 4.0 upgrade for the rest of us (well those of us with an iPhone 3G or 3GS), however if the upgrade from OS 2.x to 3.0 is anything to go by, then upgrade to 4.0 with caution.

For those of you that have been following this blog long enough, then you will remember the painful experience last June when the upgrade from OS 2.x to OS 3.0 broke many apps, both photo and none photo.  Now whilst this was mainly down to the farcical AppStore approval process, whereby apps running under OS 2.x and using unapproved API's had been approved, but the updates to make them work with OS 3.0 were not.  This left many of us with OS 2.x apps that no longer worked, with Apple blaming the developers and the developers blaming Apple, but none of this helped us.

On August 15th 2009, I revealed that I had been in communication with Apple's Phil Schiller (Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing) and Phil Shoemaker (Director of Application Technology), and that Apple had been listening to us, and that they would be addressing the broken app issues with the release of OS 3.1, which they did, and it did, but it still left many of us without some of our favourite apps for a couple of months.

Now hopefully Apple and the app developers have learnt from last years fiasco, and we will not see the same, or similar issue arise this year, but my advise is upgrade to OS 4.0 with caution, and just like last year I will be running a post listing apps that work, and those that don't.

Comments

[Leandro]

Thanks for the advice. I'll be waiting for that post.

[John]

I have been using 4.0 since its release and at first there were a few apps that did not work. As 4.0 has been updated the number of problems has decreased. Using 4 beta 3 at the moment and all of the apps I use daily work - Camerabag, PS Mobile, Best Camera, Live FX, Picture Show, Hipstamatic, SwankoLab, Film Lab and AutoStitch. Hopefully there will be a lot less problems this time.

[scw]

I haven't used OS4 since beta 1 but I had filter effect blotching glitches (looking like incorrectly spread ink leaving blotches) from OS4 using Swankolab, CAMERAtan, Camerabag among others I forget.

So I hope that those issues have been fixed or I will stay with OS3 since I reverted back after such a poor first impression using my zillion photo apps.

*Note to developers: Get your apps updated & ready for OS4 or they might become victim to poor reviews from consumers who don't understand why.

SCW

[Renzo Verleysen]

I'm hoping for the best when it comes to my Phix apps, I haven't been able to test anything as it would require a full iPhone SDK upgrade on my only macbook.

I'll guess I'll have to update them as soon as a final version of iPhone SDK 4.0 pops-out.

Apple always with their compatibility issues. :( And to think that one of the 3 core values of a good OS is backward compatibility.

[Tomba]

Hey, i updated to iOS 4 GM,

I tested (opened, made one shot and/or processing, quick check on laptopscreen)
- 7.0 MPX
- Vint BW
- Andigraf
- OX Camera
- Spica
- Squarecam
- Pictureshow
- CrossProcess
- ShakeitPhoto
- PhotoForge
- Photogene
- PerfectlyClr
- iDOF
- Juxtaposer
- Pro HDR
- Photo FX
- AutoStich
- Camera+
- Pure Carbon
- Camertan
- Live FX
- Camerabag (Helga, Colorcross, Lolo, Magazine, Instant, Silver, Mono, 1962, 1974, Cinema)
- Backgroundz
- iFlashready
- Plastic Bullet
- Film Lab
- Format126

As mentioned from SCW with an earlier version i can confirm
- Hipstamatic (with Blackkeys Supergrain) made blue blotches into B&W Image
- Swankolab (with The Blackout Formula) made blue blotches into B&W Image
It looks like the developer has an issue there. So i cant use this two until an update is available.

Camerabag in my test has no problem. At least with the tested filters i use and wrote above.

Sorry then i stopped to "test" the rest of the my bag. If you want to know if other apps are working feel free to ask. In summery backward compatibilty seams to be much better than with Version 3.0. The only Apps i found crashing were Appminer and PandoraBox. All other things run equal or better than with 3.1.3

Heavy Hipstamativ or Swankolab user should wait until an update of this apps are available. All others can update 21th of july.

[Tomba]

@Renzo
yes, Monophix 2.0 is working too

[Darren Stephens]

I'm running the final Gold Master, and have not encountered any problems so far.. I really love the new IOS4

[Tomba]

@Darren
be careful. I am using GM also.

In the meantime i detected some problems with PictureShow too.
Blotches in some cases. more green than blues.