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You think all developers should have already updated their apps to work with the latest iOS beta release, quite literally the day they (and all the non-tech-sav

by jbri 13y ago

You think all developers should have already updated their apps to work with the latest iOS beta release, quite literally the day they (and all the non-tech-savvy people who have been conditioned by Gmail et al. to think of "Beta" as "Latest and greatest") get their hands on that version of the OS for the first time?

deong 13y ago
No, but nor do I think that people are getting slammed with one-star reviews the day that the first beta goes out. I can think of a few niche reasons why you would wait until iOS 7 is released before you release a fixed version of your app, but for the vast majority of people, I think they ought to be working on getting a version that runs within a few weeks of seeing a beta OS version that crashes their app.
- aetch 13y ago
  The beta OS has many bugs that exist in the OS itself. Considering that OS goes through multiple betas before release and numerous bugs are fixed each time, it's short-sighted to try to fix your app to work perfectly on every beta release. Just imagine if we had all fixed our apps for iOS 7 beta 1 - oh the fun! Also, while adding a catchall preventing beta OSes from reviewing is good, I have seen other posts advocating mentioning the iOS 7 is no compatible in the description of the app. This is worst advice ever. Those who are not developers who are using the beta cannot be reasoned with and it is their own fault for having an unstable OS. Mentioning iOS 7 will further annoy them [that the app doesn't work on iOS 7] and confuse legitimate users about the availability of iOS 7.
  - deong 13y ago
    Yes, but it's not like every new beta release crashes your app in 25 completely new ways. Most apps run just fine in the beta as is. The more likely case is that it's a very small number of issues that you can work around or fix once and be done with. I still think that the bigger issue is this: if so many of your users are doing this that it's a problem, then fix the problem. If you want to complain about "lusers" in the bar later in the evening, you have my sympathy. But if this is a real problem for you, then it's an even bigger problem for your users, and just calling them unreasonable doesn't help either of you. It might be their fault, but they're still your customers and they still can't run your app. The 1-star reviews are not your biggest problem at that point.
briandear 13y ago
The problem with that approach (the immediate update) is that you're chasing a moving target. Fixing an app for a beta OS is actually kind of dumb from a cost-benefit analysis. Because what might be "fixed" in beta 1 might be broken again in beta 5 as the OS itself is necessarily changing. My strategy is to fix obvious issues early (for example UI components) and then revisit in later betas and making final fixes at gold master. I don't care if some beta users have issues because everyone has issues on a beta. Even some of Apple's own apps are still having issues (for example, the iBooks dictionary,) so it's pointless to chase bugs in a beta until the OS itself is closer to final stability.
- deong 13y ago
  I have no problem with that approach, but the cost-benefit analysis needs to take into account the likelihood that some huge percentage of your user-base can't run the app. If 50% of my users get a crash at start-up, I'm going to try to make that go away. If no one is really having the problem, then it's silly to ask for Apple to block potentially legitimate feedback. If loads of people are having the problem, then the cost-benefit analysis ought to look very different.

by jbri 13y ago

deong 13y ago

No, but nor do I think that people are getting slammed with one-star reviews the day that the first beta goes out. I can think of a few niche reasons why you would wait until iOS 7 is released before you release a fixed version of your app, but for the vast majority of people, I think they ought to be working on getting a version that runs within a few weeks of seeing a beta OS version that crashes their app.

aetch 13y ago
The beta OS has many bugs that exist in the OS itself. Considering that OS goes through multiple betas before release and numerous bugs are fixed each time, it's short-sighted to try to fix your app to work perfectly on every beta release. Just imagine if we had all fixed our apps for iOS 7 beta 1 - oh the fun! Also, while adding a catchall preventing beta OSes from reviewing is good, I have seen other posts advocating mentioning the iOS 7 is no compatible in the description of the app. This is worst advice ever. Those who are not developers who are using the beta cannot be reasoned with and it is their own fault for having an unstable OS. Mentioning iOS 7 will further annoy them [that the app doesn't work on iOS 7] and confuse legitimate users about the availability of iOS 7.
- deong 13y ago
  Yes, but it's not like every new beta release crashes your app in 25 completely new ways. Most apps run just fine in the beta as is. The more likely case is that it's a very small number of issues that you can work around or fix once and be done with. I still think that the bigger issue is this: if so many of your users are doing this that it's a problem, then fix the problem. If you want to complain about "lusers" in the bar later in the evening, you have my sympathy. But if this is a real problem for you, then it's an even bigger problem for your users, and just calling them unreasonable doesn't help either of you. It might be their fault, but they're still your customers and they still can't run your app. The 1-star reviews are not your biggest problem at that point.

briandear 13y ago

The problem with that approach (the immediate update) is that you're chasing a moving target. Fixing an app for a beta OS is actually kind of dumb from a cost-benefit analysis. Because what might be "fixed" in beta 1 might be broken again in beta 5 as the OS itself is necessarily changing. My strategy is to fix obvious issues early (for example UI components) and then revisit in later betas and making final fixes at gold master. I don't care if some beta users have issues because everyone has issues on a beta. Even some of Apple's own apps are still having issues (for example, the iBooks dictionary,) so it's pointless to chase bugs in a beta until the OS itself is closer to final stability.

deong 13y ago
I have no problem with that approach, but the cost-benefit analysis needs to take into account the likelihood that some huge percentage of your user-base can't run the app. If 50% of my users get a crash at start-up, I'm going to try to make that go away. If no one is really having the problem, then it's silly to ask for Apple to block potentially legitimate feedback. If loads of people are having the problem, then the cost-benefit analysis ought to look very different.