Er, that's mathematically impossible. 74% of all iOS devices ever sold aren't iOS 7 compatible.

You may have misunderstood me, but I was saying the 74% was converted devices out of all the possible total.

Or perhaps I misunderstood the original message, which I took to mean was the claim that the 74% figure was the percentage of all devices that could install iOS7. That is what I am pointing out is false, the 74% is all of the devices that can convert to iOS7 having done so.

The point is that the least Apple can do is allow you to continue what you were doing yesterday while you plan for a new OS.

Which they do. Only NEW code would have a UISwitch of a different size, and even then you could simply change the frame back in the xib or in code.

I think you are really talking about iOS7 changes, which did require some code changes. But I don't think it's fair to say that Apple must keep everything backwards compatible forever - and all of the UI changes I had to make were very tiny things and should not have been much effort.

I can understand dropping iOS 6 support to take advantage of some new features in iOS7.

But I don't see how you can make the claim that you can't support iOS6 on UI alone. If you use Auto Layout it will work just fine on iOS6 also. iOS6 non-translucent nav bars are just another possible configuration for the screen to resize to.

Other stats (like browsing or iOS application analytics) bear out the fact that the Apple figures are INSTALLED numbers. They are ADOPTION rates, not "possible to adopt" rates.

There is a 64-bit simulator for iOS that you run from XCode 5.

They just need to support the same things XCode 5 does (like 64 bit ARM). Most of them use XCode 5 under the hood for final builds I believe, so I'm not sure it's even an issue.

I am also an iOS developer, and have to say - what the hell are you talking about?

Out of about 20 different projects I have worked on since XCode 5 came out, NONE of them needed a re-write because of anything XCode 5 did. A few needed somewhat updated build settings. All of these projects existed long before XCode 5.

I think what you are talking about was the BETA version of XCode 5 automatically converting any XIB it opened to use AutoLayout. That was indeed quite horrible, fortunately it happened on only one of my projects. Apple fixed it around beta 5 or 6, and the production version of XCode does not do this.

So again, I don't see what you could possibly be doing that would require a code re-write just because you are moving to XCode 5. All of the same code still works. Hell, you can even keep your project files in the XCode 4 format for as long as you like!

The only way to prevent this is to target the application for the oldest IOS version you want to support at build time.

That's not at all true. You can easily support iOS6, while optimizing for iOS7 and just drop a few aspects that iOS6 cannot support.

The main difference is in adopting the newer approach to navigation that iOS7 brings. That would still work on iOS6, it just is somewhat different than the way developers used to do things.

Apple is not saying, do not support iOS6. They are just saying "make sure the UI is built for iOS7". It's not even that hard to do since iOS6 supports the more advanced layout engine that Apple wants you to use for iOS7.

I would say 90% of applications will still support iOS6 at least until iOS8 ships, then a year or so after that you amy see iOS6 support decline.

While constantly being bombarded to install them

On iOS you just get one alert, after that a badge on settings. How is that "bombarded"?

It's quite telling how users being NUDGED to upgrade (as in, developers can also support iOS6, they just need to make sure it's optimized for iOS7) is more of a problem to you than Android devices which can never be upgraded by design.

Which is worse, an Apple world where you are invited to use newer version of the OS, or an Android world where you are compelled to buy brand new devices to gain access to new features?

Seriously, what is the "trickery" that gets one to download and install this "Google Vx" application

Flashlight App.

Get yourself a pressure canner and a bunch of 1L jars. Take a weekend to learn how to use it properly. Then, go out and buy yourself a bunch of whole chickens, some potatoes, stewing beef, chicken and beef broth (or just make your own), carrots, celery, and onions. Ensure you have some salt and pepper and some common spices. Roast a few whole chickens, remove the meat, and stick them in jars (one each), top with water and a bit of salt, and put in the pressure canner for 90 mins (you can save the bones for broth). Put some raw beef cubes in the bottom of some other jars, with cubed potatoes, and chopped celery, carrot, and onions, until nearly full, and top with beef broth. Put in the pressure canner for 90 mins. Do the same with raw chicken instead of beef. The raw meat will cook completely within the jar during the pressure canning process, and comes out seriously tender and juicy.

A typical home pressure canner can do 7L of food at once. That can mean seven chickens, seven jars of stew, or seven jars of soup at your disposal, which only need heating, and which only have the ingredients you put in them.

The possibilities are huge, and not only do you get to select the ingredients, but the end result is completely shelf-stable (so long as you follow the directions correctly and verify the seals on your jars are solid). It's usually recommended you eat anything you can this way within a year, but I've heard of people who have ate canned items 5 - 10 years old that tasted just fine (you may lose some of the nutritional factors this way, mind you).

It's really pretty easy, and the US government Dept of Agriculture, as well as some other canning companies and organizations publish tested recipes online. So long as you take care of them the jars themselves last nearly forever, and only need their snap lids replaced, so you can reuse them to your hearts content.

I took up canning roughly a year ago for my family, and we currently have over 40L of food put away, including whole chickens (deboned), crab meat (I live by the ocean, and own some crab traps), vegetables, pasta sauce with meat, jams, jellies, whole fruits, soups, and stews. I'm planning on doing some chilli in the near future. It's so easy for even one of us to have a tasty, nutritious meal -- and considering I can raw pack the stews especially means I can easily make seven meals in about two hours time that are shelf-stable and which take just minutes to heat in the microwave.

I wish I had known what I know now about pressure canning when I was single. You can often buy food cheaper in bulk -- perhaps in quantities more than you'd typically be able to eat in a single week. You can control the sizes (as jars are available in a variety of sizes). Shelf-stability. Quick reheating. Nothing in the jar you don't put in there yourself. And if you plan ahead just a little bit, you can put up a lot of future meals in just a few hours.

Yaz

2. No recording of an orchestra is going to sound like sitting in the same room with an orchestra playing. Period. End of discussion.

3. There are PLENTY of instrumental bands that are doing just fine. Examples:
Animals as Leaders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCsWlOo9qgw
Explosions in the Sky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mqBMmhgsjM
And boodles of electronic music bands that have no interest in whether or not you dance to them, for example:
Boards of Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8ZBT-VHrA&list=PLZqsyBiYZFQ1SDoE-ulm6Qlpt7jetkEMH
among many others.

Then this howler:

Purely instrumental groups like Booker T and the MGs, as well as solo performers like Herbie Hancock or John McLaughlin, seem not to take the spotlight as they once did.

WTF? Booker T's bass player died last year. HE WAS 70 YEARS OLD. How many pop bands of any stripe are in the spotlight at age 70? Herbie Hancock is 73. John McLaughlin is 71. They Are Old People. What do you expect from them? Then this bit of cluelessness:

It is apparent that unless someone with a young fresh face is singing, today's producers will not attempt to seriously promote them.

It's not their producer's job to promote them. It is their PROMOTER'S job to promote them. That's why they're called PROMOTERS. The producer helps direct and manage the PRODUCTION of the record. Believe me - I know these things.

This article is basically flamebait.

gfxCardStatus is a Mac application that resides in the menu bar, and lets you choose a specific graphics card, and lets you know which one is in use even if you have automatic selection on.