Can any experienced iOS developers please tell me if it is really 'that' hard to make an app iPod Touch compatible?
I mean, come on, you just alienate a ton of users without implementing iPod or iPad compatibility...
I mean, come on, you just alienate a ton of users without implementing iPod or iPad compatibility...
iPod touch is generally easier. It usually comes down to gracefully degrading features. Much care must also be taken to ensure that the app performs well on the iPod touch models which are often running much weaker hardware specs. The reality is that sometimes devs will only test on their personal iPhones and forget to test on older-gen iPod touches, so the iPod touch experience can sometimes be less than ideal.
The "nearby" and photo features seem pretty baked into the Android version. It just may not be worth the wait to condition those features and start the QA process for v.1
It’s just dumb.
Location Services will still work without a GPS, though the accuracy will be reduced since it's relying on WiFi APs.
G+ doesn't use the compass.
On G+ for Android, they allow you to call people from their profile page if a phone # is provided; I assume they have the same feature on the iOS version. Yes, it's an extra few lines of code to determine if the device is a phone and can make calls, but again: lack of this is just laziness.
The iPad is, of course, a different beast, and often calls for a very different UI. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if the G+ website works better in iPad Safari than a native app would, at this point.
But there's no excuse for no iPod Touch support.
Maybe someone will find an unofficial way of easily getting it onto the Touch ... that would make users who really know what they're doing happy, while also preventing the sort of people who are going to give it a 1-star rating when it doesn't work in the subway from installing it.
That doesn't really help things. If this was a conscious decision because they assume iPod touch users are mentally deficient, well then it just bit them in the ass. Apparently Google didn't realize that they could just download the app in iTunes to leave a bad review.
To date the Google+ app has seven reviews in the US app store. Five short five-star ones, two one-star reviews: one complaining about the lacking iOS5 Beta support (incredibly stupid but people apparently write stuff like that) and one complaining about the lacking support for iPod touches.
Excluding the iPod touch may make some sense for apps that fly under the radar – but for something that gets as much exposure as Google+? I doubt it.
In fact I tested the app using my android phones wifi hotspot feature and the iPods wifi based location access.
Long Answer: Depends on the features you're using. If you're reporting location, you can double your edge cases when you start to rely on skyhook to give you locations. Also, the lack of camera may be what's actually filtering you out (if you have an old one).
iPad is incredibly difficult to fill up with certain apps (there is a TON of screen there).
Most apps written for < iPhone 4s tends to work ok on my iPhone 2G (i.e. apps written for iPhone 3G or 3GS).