Neglected Pure Connect speaker app silenced in iOS 11's war on 32-bit

Re: Evidently never heard of escrow...

I would expect that they have the source code but just because you've got the source doesn't mean that building a 64-bit version is something you can do overnight.

I'd have to upvote Microsoft at this point for maintaining 32-bit compatibility with their 64-bit operating system and therefore completely avoiding this problem.

Re: Evidently never heard of escrow...

I would expect nothing less from any programmer whom I might hire to work for me, than the complete and richly commented Source Code and build instructions. Nor would I insult any client of mine by offering them less. In fact, they have a right to my dead-end development versions if they really want them; someone else might be able to get something working that I could not. I'm not afraid to show my working out.

It's good for stories like this to come out. People should not stand for software-defined landfill incidents, and need to know that they are entirely preventable. Remotely damaging other people's bought and paid for property, while it is under guarantee, is at worst cyberterrorism (if the equipment damaged is deemed to be a computer) and at best old-fashioned vandalism. Intellectual property should always be of subordinate concern to tangible property, and for fairness' sake would-be asset-strippers need to be aware of this.

Re: They can't get the code for their own app?

Ever tried to exhume orphaned code from escrow? It's often not as easy as just doing a pull from GitHub[1], and even when it is, if you outsourced the development in the first place it's very likely you don't have the skills to do anything useful with it and didn't have the skills to audit it before it was deposited (minified/obfuscated code still compiles just fine and that's as far as people like NCC ever go).

The real issue in almost all these cases is companies outsourcing for skills instead of time. Outsourcing is safe only when you have all the necessary skills on the payroll, but insufficient time/staff to do all the work yourself. When you outsource entire competencies you have no way of effectively managing the project/risks and sooner or later end up playing Russian Roulette.

[1] Why are the developers out of business? If there is a receiver involved and there is any question that payment shenanigans were a factor then the escrow can be locked up for years.

Re: Commentards obviosly know more than mere mortals

The still-on-sale iPhone 6 has the full... 1 GB

Re: Commentards obviosly know more than mere mortals

2GB in the 8, 3GB in the 8 plus and X. Some may scoff and say "if it isn't more than 4GB they don't need 64 bit" but I/O is mapped to a 1GB or 2GB segment in the typical IOMMU (I don't know how much address space I/O takes on Apple's SoCs) and then you also need a separate mapped area for firmware. It is quite possible even a 2GB iPhone uses a larger than 32 bit address space, though if they REALLY wanted to I'm sure they could cram everything into a single 4GB area.

Anyway, the advantage of 64 bit on ARM is not dependent on needing a 4GB address space, but rather its far cleaner API. Dropping 32 bit support allowed Apple to drop two 32 bit APIs in the A11 CPU which would simplify the design and verification. They could have chosen to continue to support 32 bit apps via software translation, but they've been requiring 64 bit builds for two years now, so I think Apple figured this wouldn't have come as a surprise to any iOS devs. Unfortunately it does come as a surprise for companies who have outsourced their development and thus don't keep informed of Apple's future direction.

Re: Commentards obviosly know more than mere mortals

Presumably if they still had the source they'd have managed to get someone in, recompile, and upload to the App Store.

They've only had about four years to do that.

Re: Do we have grounds to believe the 8 and X can even run 32-bit code?

Actually, we know for a fact the A11 is incapable of running 32 bit code, and iOS 11 does not support it (i.e. no 32 bit libraries)

Obviously Apple did that by choice, but it hardly came as a surprise to any devs since as you say Apple has been selling 64 bit phones for four years, has not sold any 32 bit phones for two years, and has been requiring all App Store submissions to include a 64 bit build for two years (Pure's latest version must have just missed the deadline)

The people who bought Pure products got screwed by a shitty company, but that shitty company was not Apple. What did Pure plan to do if iOS 11 or the iPhone X had been incompatible with their app in some way? They couldn't keep using an app from 2015 indefinitely even if Apple was still supporting 32 bit apps, eventually something would break. I guess Pure doesn't care, they already got their money.

Re: Whenever you depend on an app...

I totally agree. I have audio streaming hi-fi from several manufacturers (NovaFidelity, Pioneer, QED) that all have crummy manufacturer-branded Android and iOS apps, but I wouldn't have bought any of them if using the apps was a requirement. Instead I made sure that they all have a web interface and use DLNA, for the exact reason that I don't want them to become expensive door stops when someone somewhere makes a limiting decision outside of my control. It's common sense, surely?

That's one possible solution, but speakers that require an app to function are fatally flawed, IMHO. What's next, someone going to sell a car that can only be unlocked and started with an app?

Re: Twats.

I checked a couple months ago when I found out 32 bit apps wouldn't work, and I found a few. Apps I hadn't used for years, and had no problem deleting (I should probably clean up the rest of the apps I don't use, but I always think "well maybe I might need this someday...")

Re: Twats.

Shows how many of the staff either use their app, have an iPhone or both?

Re: Apple fragmentation

Yawn. I suppose I should feed the obvious troll. But the thing is that Android is an excellent OS. Sure, it has its faults, but doesn’t everything?

iOS is an excellent OS too. It has different faults. But upgrading to 64 bit only is not one of them. Apple isn’t to blame, at least not in this instance, if developers dump a load of shit onto their customers and run for the hills failing to support the poor bloody user.

What you like isn’t necessarily what everyone else likes - which is fortunate, otherwise there’d be no competition, we’d all use the same devices and the same software, and the world would be a boring place.

Re: they just need to...

@Byz

Wow. Is that how you bill your clients? ;-)

I’ve always found 10 or 20 minutes to be sufficient - and that includes the time to boot, change compiler settings, build, commit to repository, upload to Apple and shut down the computer again. But mums that word - best not to let on to the clients how easy the conversion process to 64 bit actually is.

Re: they just need to...

Or, if they can't do that (which seems highly likely given the nature of the fiasco), they can just open source whatever they've got an wash their hands of the problem permanently after a few months. If they don't want to be in the software business (defined as not having developers on the payroll) then they should get out of it entirely and stop trying to subcontract/project manage things they don't understand.

Re: they just need to...

@AC

Excellent point. Thumbs up. But remember that we’re not talking about code changes - so extensive testing may not be required. Add half a day, depending on the complexity of the app.

Re: Awful App anyway - can stream directly from Spotify etc

Yes you can bluetooth to a single speaker and have it "Caskeid" to the others, but you need the Pure app to manage the multi-room aspect and enable/disable speakers, change audio settings etc. Also i used the built in digital radio app.

My current solution is have all speakers enabled for Caskeid and it play in every room in the house and then unplug from the mains the ones i don't want on. Pretty low-tech but saves me having to acquire (and keep charged!) an Android device

Here i was thinking buying from a "proper" company in the UK would mean better support than the cheaper ones on amazon from the far east.

Let's hope Pure pull their fingers out and provide a replacement app soon, and it's not total abandonware

Re: Sale of Goods Act

Not sure about that. Arguably it's limited to it's warranty. You bought it, the warranty expired. It stopped working. But they only said it would work for 12 months, anyway.

I don't buy that argument because it hasn't stopped working (it's fine) which is what warranties are there for, but did they actually agree to provide updates to any future OS? because you do - of course - have the option of using the older OS it was designed for if you want to. That may not be wise or convenient, but you do have it. Unless you've already rejected that option by upgrading to 11. But that's your choice.

Re: Sale of Goods Act

@Keith Oborn

And that is my principle objection to EVs. They’re no longer tools, the way cars used to be, they’re mere gadgets. Toys. Expensive gadgets, but gadgets none the less - and their lifespan is at the whim of the manufacturer. At some point the manufacturer will stop supplying software updates - and some unforeseen bug will render them all inoperable. When that happens, it’s buy a new car time.

Yesterday, as I was blasting down the road in my early 1960s GT car, I saw a Jensen Interceptor - about 10 years newer than my car, but still knocking on the door of 50 years old. A very creditable age. It happened to be following a Tesla Model X. The Jensen looked amazing - a really droolworthy car, and I’d have been envious of it were it not for the fact that my car had rolled out of the same factory and matches it in the glamour stakes. The Tesla? Well, it’s not for me. It’s a toy. A frippery by comparison. It isn’t serious - and I doubt that any Model Xs will still be on the road in 50 years time. The Jensens on the other hand? Government will have to legislate them off the road - because they’re not going to stop running for any other reason.

@tiggity

I had one of those speakers. A Bose. It was the work of five minutes to upgrade it to Bluetooth and a modern dock connector. It still sounds great.

I take your point though - some people don’t have the ability to make the necessary changes.

Re: Fault

@John Savard

Given the amount of extra work that would be required to support all that code whose only purpose is to run legacy code (and probably not very often at that), and the security nightmare that such a system would present, I am very grateful that support for this old software is being dropped.

Besides, if you're one of the few who really needs an old program (I count myself amongst that number, by the way, since I'm not prepared to drop several hundred quid on a new copy of one of my most useful development tools), I recommend either using an emulator or keeping an old computer hanging around for that purpose.

Re: Fault

It's hardly the fault of an OS/Platform developer that App developers don't have the revenant foresight or business models to take into account the glaringly obvious - hardware and software obsolescence.

Without innovation we'd all be stuck in the IBM dark ages. The reason zSystem 'upwards compatibility' is so prevalent is because the majority of the stuff that runs on it is produced by IBM and is therefore equally archaic and because people who bought into zSystem paid a massive premium to be provided with enterprise support.

A mobile OS, on the other hand, is designed to be low cost and flexible - so to blame the OS publisher/manufacturer for this is nonsensical.

Blame the shoddy purvayor of the speakers for not building a resilient business model that takes account of entirely predicable industry developments (well signposted in advance). Manufacturers such as Bose, Sonos, Ruark, Ultimate Ears, Revo, Goodmans, Yahama, Denon and many more don't seem to have suffered the same issues.

Re: Fault

Yup - the day you pay the same for disposable technology as you would for a an enterprise system (which probably has some huge contract document attached) then yeah sure