Will iPhone OS4 make your life easier or harder as a lone app developer?

Question

I am interested to hear what people feel about the new iPhone OS4 release. It is obviously very exciting having access to all the new features, apparently (from apple.com) it has over 1500 new APIs.

My original thoughts were "Wow, this is awesome", and I suppose it is. I was just getting comfortable with OS 3.2 development though, and now there is a raft of additional stuff to learn in order to keep up with the pack. So I am feeling quite frustrated!

Do you think, when working as an individual app developer, having access to these additional features would improve your applications or just water down the quality?

I guess being giving the opportunity to improve applications and provide better features should be welcomed. I think frustration comes from struggling to keep up with the continuous changes, but thats the industry we are in I suppose!

Any thoughts/comments?

Answer 1

Don't let your lack of knowledge surrounding the SDK hold the rest of us back! :)

In all seriousness, you'll not be required to use most of the new APIs, but when you want to they'll be there.

Answer 2

Well just because the new API's are there does not mean you'll have to use them and everything you've learnt up until 3.1 still stands. The new API's do offer the ability to create some applications that before were not possible (background GPS updates, etc).

The quality of the application is down to the commitment of the developer and not the number of APIs. Just look at some of the awesome and downright terrible applications that all have been made using the current toolset!

Answer 3

Keeping up with the latest and greatest is a challenge with any technology, not just iPhone development. Embrace change, and use it as an opportunity to learn something new. That's an essential skill for any kind of programmer.

A good developer will only use the new features that make sense for a particular application, they won't try and cram a square peg into a round hole. I don't think there is much of a risk of hurting the end product.

When Java first came out, it had 200 classes. A single developer could realistically become familiar with everything. Today it has thousands of classes. Its impossible for even an Oracle/Sun engineer to be familiar with everything.

The key is the ability to quickly learn what you need, when you need it.

Answer 4

It will all depend on the cost to benefit ratio for you to keep up with the current APIs. I have spoken with a few people about blocks, which were introduced in 2.0, and it doesn't seem like they have a great deal of use. So you won't necessarily get a lot of use out of each of the new APIs or features. Your safest bet is to just subscribe to some solid bloggers and see what they think will work in your favor and then spend the time learning that.