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Sharkus · 04-29-2012, 09:01 PM

v5.5 is indeed coming soon. The backup info is there primarily to ensure those on devices that don't support iOS 4.3 can have a copy of the app. If for whatever reason they delete the Kobo app, they won't be able to get it back unless they have a backup of it, as the store only shows the very latest version of the app. We thought it prudent of offer information on how to backup / restore the app prior to v.5.5 being released.

There are actually some features in the current app (v5.4.1) and previous versions that have been disabled on certain devices. As for why these things are disabled, two main reasons;
1) performance. The older devices that run the pre iOS 4.3 may not be able to run the new features with adequate performance, therefore leading to a poor user experience, so those features are disabled.

2) Some programatic functions that are used for new features may only be available in newer iOS versions, and therefore the new iOS version is required.

There is also a case that at some point you do have to stop supporting older versions of hardware and software, one reason being is that the development process becomes lengthier the more hardware and software configurations you have, for example, the following would need to be tested on;
iPod Touch 2G
iPod Touch 3G
iPod Touch 4G
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
iPad
iPad 2
The New iPad / iPad 3 / iPad (whatever you want to call it!)

One could say that some of the lower iPod / iPhone devices are similar specifications so it lessens the number of devices, but it's still a fair few, plus throw in different iOS versions, even if it's only 4.2.1, 4.3.5, 5.0, 5.1 that's still a fair chunk of work for dev and QA to deal with, and we don't have infinite resources to do this testing.

Another factor is that there isn't an easy way to simply say "Let's not support anything below the hardware spec of an iPhone 3G", oh, drop arm6 support you say, well, would be nice if you could do that, but alas Apple doesn't allow it. Try submitting an app that had arm6 support and now only has arm7. You cannot do it, you get an error which basically translates to "It would be a bad user experience to remove support for devices you had previously supported".

One way round this is to up the minimum iOS version required, and that is where iOS 4.3 comes into play, lower spec devices cannot run it, so there is the way to limit support.

04-29-2012, 09:01 PM	#4
Sharkus Evangelist Posts: 444 Karma: 2269648 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo: Original, WiFi, Touch, Aura, Aura H20, MiniGloHD ;) iOS app	v5.5 is indeed coming soon. The backup info is there primarily to ensure those on devices that don't support iOS 4.3 can have a copy of the app. If for whatever reason they delete the Kobo app, they won't be able to get it back unless they have a backup of it, as the store only shows the very latest version of the app. We thought it prudent of offer information on how to backup / restore the app prior to v.5.5 being released. There are actually some features in the current app (v5.4.1) and previous versions that have been disabled on certain devices. As for why these things are disabled, two main reasons; 1) performance. The older devices that run the pre iOS 4.3 may not be able to run the new features with adequate performance, therefore leading to a poor user experience, so those features are disabled. 2) Some programatic functions that are used for new features may only be available in newer iOS versions, and therefore the new iOS version is required. There is also a case that at some point you do have to stop supporting older versions of hardware and software, one reason being is that the development process becomes lengthier the more hardware and software configurations you have, for example, the following would need to be tested on; iPod Touch 2G iPod Touch 3G iPod Touch 4G iPhone 3G iPhone 3GS iPhone 4 iPhone 4S iPad iPad 2 The New iPad / iPad 3 / iPad (whatever you want to call it!) One could say that some of the lower iPod / iPhone devices are similar specifications so it lessens the number of devices, but it's still a fair few, plus throw in different iOS versions, even if it's only 4.2.1, 4.3.5, 5.0, 5.1 that's still a fair chunk of work for dev and QA to deal with, and we don't have infinite resources to do this testing. Another factor is that there isn't an easy way to simply say "Let's not support anything below the hardware spec of an iPhone 3G", oh, drop arm6 support you say, well, would be nice if you could do that, but alas Apple doesn't allow it. Try submitting an app that had arm6 support and now only has arm7. You cannot do it, you get an error which basically translates to "It would be a bad user experience to remove support for devices you had previously supported". One way round this is to up the minimum iOS version required, and that is where iOS 4.3 comes into play, lower spec devices cannot run it, so there is the way to limit support.