What's with this? My sense of legal issues suggests that this is borderline if not for sure criminal business practice. The reason the game won't work is stated by iTunes as 'requires features that don't work on your current version of the OS, please upgrade'. Games that this applies to includes all 3 downloads I have PAID FOR (with no 'works on 3.0 only' disclaimer!!!) since the upgrade was released (Stardefence, forget the other two just now). Now, this would be all fine and dandy if two things were true: 1) that the game actually does require OS 3.0 for some reason other than being coded as such (aka for no real reason); and 2) if the upgrade they aggressively push you to buy was free. Long story short, they are trying to chump you for the $10, which if it's so crucial (they make the old OS seem like it is defective), absolutely shouldn't cost money. And if it's simply cosmopolitan, there should be no reason you 'have' to upgrade it. Simple logic. And this Apple knows, that they couldn't create a situation where you directly have to upgrade (i.e. can't even sync anymore w/out it), so they've forced developers into coding so as to run on 3.0 only in order to indirectly force you to upgrade. And that's just sketchy. At the very least I think I'm entitled to a full refund of the money I spent on apps/games that don't work on my version that they fail to disclaim will only work on the new 3.0 OS. Their approach is hoping that the consumer is like "oh well, I guess I better fork over the $ for that upgrade or I won't be able to dload anything anymore". I have no reason to spend $10 for an upgrade that offers pretty much nothing in terms of any new features that appeal to me. And when we're talking firmware upgrades, charging $10 is astronomical (or really charging anything is)!!!
Ooh, now my sarcasm senses are tingling. But yeah, seriously. Name 3 other firmware updates that cost $10. I like my touch and all, but the best analogy for Apple really is a vaccum and consumers' money is the dust. It's not the 'huge, huge price' that's astronomical. It's charging $10 for a frieking firmware update that does little, and then setting up a system of entrapment for users by forcing people indirectly to ante up for the 'optional' update. Derr
Why should I be forced into paying $10 for nothing. You sound like the guy in high school pushing coke: 'everyone's done it, just up-nose already'.
If you don't want to pay for 3.0, don't upgrade. If apps you've purchased have updates available which require 3.0, don't update them. If you downloaded updates for your existing apps which require 3.0, you will find all previous versions of those apps inside of the "Mobile Applications" directory inside of wherever you keep your iTunes library. Seems pretty simple to me.
Where the hell did you go to high school, Beverly Hills in the 80s? You aren't forced into anything. I'm just saying that much as your sarcasm radar was going off, this thread is making my whining radar go off. Get the update or don't.
Ok, thanks, that is useful info. I don't think it helps me for the cases I've run into though. Two examples: for Star Defence, I just downloaded it when it went on sale/had an upgrade (to 1.3, which is 3.0 only), so I don't have previous versions to retro back to (not a download then update). Another example is the Oregon Trail free edition, also 3.0 only. As this version was released as 3.0 only there is no other version to go back to to make work on pre-3.0. So the problem still stands: any new releases are being made 3.0-only for no real reason other than to force you to buy OS 3.0, and if you hadn't already bought a previous version you flat-out can't play them. (True?).
The 3.0 firmware adds all kinds of neat toys for developers to use. Making an application developed for the 3.0 firmware work in 2.1.1 involves additional development time and workarounds to make sure these 3.0 tricks degrade gracefully for the few people who are still raging against the 3.0 machine. Since the $10 seems to be such a huge issue, just think of all the money you will be saving by not buying apps in the future once everything goes 3.0!
Not quite. Apple isn't forcing any devs to make games 3.0 only. Some do it to take advantage of newer features. Some do it because they want to lessen their test cycle, so they don't have to test on 2.x and 3.x. And some do it just because it's the default, and don't know any better. And many of us are still releasing games that are compatible all the way back to 2.0, to catch the largest number of customers. Think of it this way: OS 2.0 was the Nintendo GameCube. OS 3.0 is the Wii. You own the GameCube, so you can still play all games made for that platform. If you want to play Wii games AND GameCube games, buy a Wii.
I hope this is visible to everyone else when visiting the Star Defense page. Star Defense does use 3.0 specific features like push notifications regardless of whether or not you need that. Apple isn't forcing you to upgrade. The devs have moved on to use the latest and greatest APIs and hardware. If you don't need it, don't get it. And to say that 3.0 doesn't add anything is ridiculous.
As a dev who's released two 3.0 only apps so far, I thought I'd chime in at the risk of becoming flame bait. First thing. The reason we make the apps for 3.0 is because we can use the new features in 3.0. Flick Fishing uses the GameKit network play and the in-app purchases and the soon to be released update uses the new playlist functionality which Warpack Grunts also uses. There is a method to make this work without the new features under 2.2.1 but it's a major hassle, involves a lot of extra work and testing and doesn't actually make anything better. It only makes the games work for people who don't want to update. We'd rather focus our efforts on writing games for current systems. As for the issue of not mentioning they're 3.0 only. *ALL* apps have the minimum system requirement at the bottom of their app description. If you're going to stick with an old system you have to expect that you'll run into compatibility issues and should always check the app description. For the 2 apps you specifically complain about one of them was free. You haven't lost anything there, so just delete it and move on if you really are going to stick with last year's OS. The one thing we would like to see Apple improve (which we have bug reported and let them know about) is the problem of updates not being able to check what OS you're using as people tend to "Update All" when updating on their iPhone, so it's easy to miss the "Requires OS 3.0" part. As Hodapp mentioned though, there is at least a workaround for this in the meantime. Really though, it's well worth upgrading to OS3.0. More apps will become 3.0 only or have features that are only available to 3.0 users, it's got some funky new features and being the current version has ongoing support and updates which 2.2.1 won't. It's worth the $10 in itself, but when you also count all the extra features and games it enables, it's a no brainer.
Besides the obvious "cool new APIs to play with" factor, there's another thing non-developers probably don't realize: New versions of the SDK that support the new features of the new firmware create compiled code that only works on the firmware version they're designed for. When you install the SDK you get numerous versions of it covering the various, currently supported firmware versions as completely separate IDEs. Whatever version you compile your app with is the minimum base firmware version users will need to be running in order to run your app. Developers have a tendancy to want to keep on to the cutting edge to make the most use out of the latest firmware features in order to make their app better. As a result, they use the latest version of the SDK, which therefore creates compiled code that only runs on the latest firmware. In some cases the app developers are creating doesn't actually need the new features and could indeed be compiled under an older SDK version that runs on older firmware, but it's something some developers don't really think about because it may not be immediately obvious that they're restricting their audience to some degree when they do that. I've spoken to a number of such developers and several of them went back to recompile and resubmit a new binary compiled for older firmware versions.
No matter what anyone says I can't see a reason to pay $10 to update a slow and outdated 1st gen iPod touch. The new features are useless if you don't use it as a communications device (which I don't, I use it like as iPod that can play games and occasionally surf the internet) and I'm better off putting that money towards the 3rd gen touch that's most likely going to be announced any week now. I do expect many new games to be 3.0 only and have no problem with that, that's what happens. However I do take issue with existing apps and games that I paid for that make no effort to maintain compatibility during the transitional period. And I learned the hard way that if you update automatically through iTunes (instead of on the device) you lose the old version and gain one that can't be installed even if you synced. Developers should know that a small but still sizeable percentage of users aren't going to update right away with a $10 OS update comes out and they're only going to piss off their customers off if they don't make some effort to maintain compatibility for a while. Especially when the game came out only a month or so before the OS update and was sold as a 2.0 game (like Defender Chronicles, and I have a lot more to say about dealing with those guys about this but I'll try to keep from ranting.) At the very least they should make it possible to obtain prior versions for those who have to reinstall for whatever reason.
Yeah, thanks for missing the point completely. I said I expect new games to exclude me and that's fine. I'm arguing that there should be a transitional period with existing apps and that the compatible version should still be available.
Haven't we been in a transitional period since 3.0 was released? Your problem has already been answered by Zwilnik:
