Apple CEO Tim Cook at WWDC 2015
After initially holding back a new iOS 9 feature called App Thinning (or App Slicing) that allows developers to ship smaller apps to customers and download additional content as needed, Apple now says it has resolved the issue that caused the delay. Starting with the recently released iOS 9.0.2, users will have access to updated apps that take advantage of App Thinning. Apple also updated developers on a Game Center-related change and rolled out an improved way for finding content from Apple’s developer sessions.Apple first revealed that App Slicing would be unavailable shortly after iOS 9 initially launched. At the time, Apple pointed to a bug involving iCloud Backups where restored apps may not be fully recovered. A mention of the iCloud Backup bug even made its way into the iOS 9 on-boarding screens. Apple says it has since fixed the issue with iOS 9.0.2.
The issue affecting app slicing has been fixed, and device-specific versions of apps will be delivered when downloaded by users running iOS 9.0.2 or later.
Also news for developers, Apple says it has made WWDC content easily searchable now by enabling keyword search using session transcripts.
Now it’s easier to discover and share information presented in WWDC videos with our recent search update. You can search a keyword and find all the instances of it mentioned in the videos. Go straight to the time the keyword was mentioned in the video or easily share a link to it
The new search functionality takes on third-party services like asciiwwdc.com which had the same goal in mind. Apple’s new search tool can be found here for developers.
Finally, Apple has posted an update on Game Center sandboxing:
At WWDC 2015 we announced that the Game Center development sandbox environment would be turned off to simplify game development and beta testing. Starting today, the sandbox will no longer be available and all versions of iOS and OS X will automatically switch over to the production environment for development testing.
Specific details for each update can be found on developer.apple.com/news.
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It will be interesting to see whether this makes the 16GB models more viable.
I have a 16GB iPhone 6 and iOS 9 has already given me 1.2GB of extra space.
I’m a power user on a tight budget, so 16GB can be done without THAT much hassle. Nevertheless, I’m really excited for this to start kicking in.
I hear you. The iPhone 6S / 6S Plus 64GB is over my budget – I just can’t justify it. I’m really hoping this makes the 16GB model much less painful.
So you have lots of Apps? I dont see any reduction at the moment
Carriers will love this as another feature to keep their dara plans flowing
I have a 16G iPhone, but also have a management process for capacity. I don’t use my handset for a purse to carry photos and video, even though I create, edit and produce video from both my 16G iPhone 6 and iPad air2. I think it’s great Apple is doing things like App Thinning, the photo place holder reduction in bit weight using iCloud as a back haul. Apple can do things to make the iOS mobile computing experience more efficient. Like App thinning in the package retrieval and installation process from the AppStore….but they can’t make people take the pictures and movies out of their iPurse.
Will app thinning be “retroactive”? Meaning, will apps that are already installed on our phone be “thinned” automatically by removing the unneeded components for my device? Or do I have to remove & reinstall? Assuming the developer has implemented the feature. Which also raises the question about how it works as developers add these thinning features.
I have the same questions… Does anyone know?
Anyone have any idea how long this will take to roll out mainstream so we can see the benefits? I’m looking at upgrading my 5s to the 6s. Would love to know if I could still get the 16GB. 64GB is complete overkill. I really just need a 24GB phone.
Game Center is not working at all and apple gives little attention to games. iOS 9 just sucks and going back to iOS 8 is not an easy job for everybody.