WhenApp Cubby’sDavid Barnard witnessed theunveiling of iOS 5 this week at the Worldwide Developers Conference , his first mentation was to wonder at all the “ shiny new toys . ”
The 2d thought was a piece more sobering : Did it make sense to go back and vamp his elder iOS apps to incorporate the new technologies , which let in revamp notifications and messaging ? Or would it be better to apply those “ toys ” to new project ?
“ That ’s probably for everyone the most challenging thing , ” Barnard said . “ If we could allmagicallyrewrite our apps in two weeks and ship them iOS 5 - only , we ’d be ecstatic , but deciding when and how to integrate new features and technical school can be a very complex determination involve fiscal viability , technical viability , user espousal of iOS 5 , and so on . ”
On Tuesday , a day after Apple unveiled the previous translation of its wandering operating system of rules , developer were still sorting through the entailment . Some saw threats to their business , while some assure opportunities . And some — attend the introduction of iOS 5 as inextricable from Apple ’s newiCloudoffering — were simply ecstatic .
“ It is a system that will make your iPhone feel like another organ in a bigger resolution where push notifications are the vein , ” pronounce Kristian Luoma , foreland of product atWantlet , which mixes social networking and shopping opportunities . “ Imagine what the developer ecosystem will do ! ”
But Luoma , who comment by e - mail , take note that some services that have users shift document through the cloud , between nomadic machine and Macs , might be will behind .
“ Obviously quite a number of solutions will be deprecated as more integrated solution arrives , ” she said . “ Dropbox , a telephone number of photo - partake in apps and third - party cloud syncronization tools will recede their wow ” with the coming of iOS 5 and iCloud .
One of those service would appear to be OfficeDrop , which let users divvy up business document between their iPad and computer . But Prasad Thammineni , OfficeDrop ’s CEO , said he saw opportunity . Apple ’s raw service , he allege , is n’t necessarily oriented toward business - sized customer — but it could educate those customers about the advantages of cloud storage and expand his company ’s market .
“ It ’s going to cultivate consumer to say ‘ I require my data point to go where I go . ’ That will incite customers and small businesses to say they want to do their data the same style , ” Thammineni said . He added : “ So for us , we see this as a bountiful electropositive affair . ”
Other developers agreed . Smile Softwarefounder Greg Scown , whose fellowship produces the TextExpander app , visualise a similar chance .
“ Apple is bringing something call ‘ typing shortcut ’ to iOS , ” Scown say via e - chain armor . “ The details are under [ a nondisclosure agreement ] , but our experience is that when Apple adds a special basic functionality , it actually spur demand for our products when users require to go beyond what Apple has offered . In Snow Leopard , Text Substitution did n’t replace TextExpander — it made users more mindful of how powerful and useful TextExpander is . ”
Twitter integration : The Posterous blogging app already allows exploiter to place mental object to Twitter and other social medium sites , but CEO Sachin Agarwal — a former Apple White House — welcomes the tighter desegregation offered in the Modern Io . A “ exclusive polarity - on lets our drug user share their Posterous photo and ascertain their friends on Twitter even more easily , ” he say . “ This … is great news for all iOS developers as it greatly better the cold start experience . ”
Games : Acceleroto’sBryan Duke , who creates gaming apps for the iPhone and iPad , noted that turn - free-base gameplay is build into the new Io . “ We have a turn based biz that ’s been in maturation for a few months , ” Duke said . “ Not having to develop and manage our own server infrastructure is a substantial streamlining in game ontogenesis . I ’m happy to be able to keep out down my test server and move the game to Game Center in iOS 5 . ”
Pictures : Thammineni said OfficeDrop is often used by collective customers who take on - the - spot pictures of disbursal receipts and upload them to the fellowship ’s accounting department for immediate approving . The enhanced camera feature in iOS 5 will be a benefit . “ The image - enhancement functionality will make the picture you take better , ” he enjoin .
Over - the - air travel iOS updates : Babak Hedayati , chief executive officer of MobiLife , which make theMyTymzjournaling app , sound out many iPhone users never stop up their phone into a microcomputer — and thus never get iOS update . That makes it toilsome to dish old customer as the technology move forward . That should be less of a problem now that updates will occur wirelessly . “ If you go full - feature ( on a new iOS ) and you ’re on the leading bound , sometimes the newer app does n’t work with the older adaptation , ” he said . “ There ’s a group of iPhone users who hardly ever connect their phones to their personal computer or Macs—10 or 20 percent who just use it as a phone . ”
The novel updating system , he state , “ is really drop dead to make it good for app developers . ”
But App Cubby ’s Barnard , while still keeping his options open , suggested that the best part of Io 5 wo n’t be the ability to modernize old apps , but the power to make something entirely young .
“ With my existing apps , I do n’t see anything that I ’ll stress to comprise on day one , ” Barnard said . But “ I do see other chance , with all these Modern features . I may go out and build up a brand - raw app to take vantage . ”
James Thomson ofTLA Systems , Almighty of the PCalc calculator app , praise iOS 5 from both user and developer perspectives .
“ Many holes in the APIs are being occupy , and that will allow us to spell apps that are approaching the mogul of those on the Mac , ” Thomson say . “ As a user , I ’m just beaming to see that almost every major criticism I had of iOS appears to have been addressed . So I ca n’t hold off until it is relinquish . ”
[ Joel Mathis is a frequent contributor to Macworld . ]
update at 9:51 a.m. PT to correct and expand a quote .
