So I just off the phone with tech support and the situation has concerned me enough that I wanted to put a shout out to folks who might be dealing with similar circumstances. As It concerns more than just my immediate issue, Im not sure the best way to present the problem Im seeing.
Ill state the crux of the matter first, and then details after:
In a nutshell, the problem is that apple has updated many apps to only work with the latest version of iOS. Even paid apps, such as iMovie. People not on iOS 6 can no longer use the iCloud service as stated namely, one cannot wipe their device (or have it wiped) and restore properly from iCloud. I have tested this over the past two days on a number of devices and finally had the situation verified by apple tech support.
Brief rundown of the problem details:
I manage 10 ipad 2 tablets in a small-scale circulation program at a university library. I use a Mac Mini Server and Apple Configurator to push apps out to our iPads. For paid apps, we purchase volume licenses. From time to time, I DL the latest updates to our iPad apps in iTunes, and then turn around and drop those into the Configurator profiles that are pushed out to the iPads.
After iOS 6 was released, I got all the latest updates to our iPad apps (but have not yet updated the iPads to iOS 6). All of my attempts to rebuild the 5.1.1 devices yesterday failed. The error said that the apps couldnt be installed. After some testing, I realized that the app that was causing everything to fail was iMovie. I had one device here that IS iOS6, so I was able to confirm that iMovie and all the other updated apps install fine on iOS6 devices, but not iOS5.1.1. Two days ago, they installed just fine. Yesterday they did not.
I contact apple tech support and they were able to confirm that, iMovie is now just an iOS 6 app. If you have the old versions stored on your harddrive, you can still push those out to your devices. If not, the app that you paid for is no longer viable on your non iOS6 device.
SO
I guess I want to get a feeling from people. Is this acceptable? Yes, I know I can update the devices to iOS6. For now. But if patterns repeat a year from now, iOS7 may not be available for the iPad 2, just as iOS 6 is not available for the 1st gen iPad right now. This suggests that a year from now, people will no longer be able to wipe their iPad 2 clean and rebuild it via icloud AT ALL. It seems to me that the Apples practice of not allowing latest version available to my device as a download option and instead opting for latest version only is really going to bite some people down the line.
My contact with tech support resulted in the following paraphrased solution. Update to iOS6. Unless you cant. If not, contact customer support and see if they want to issue refunds for your software licenses that you can no longer use.
Thoughts?
Ill state the crux of the matter first, and then details after:
In a nutshell, the problem is that apple has updated many apps to only work with the latest version of iOS. Even paid apps, such as iMovie. People not on iOS 6 can no longer use the iCloud service as stated namely, one cannot wipe their device (or have it wiped) and restore properly from iCloud. I have tested this over the past two days on a number of devices and finally had the situation verified by apple tech support.
Brief rundown of the problem details:
I manage 10 ipad 2 tablets in a small-scale circulation program at a university library. I use a Mac Mini Server and Apple Configurator to push apps out to our iPads. For paid apps, we purchase volume licenses. From time to time, I DL the latest updates to our iPad apps in iTunes, and then turn around and drop those into the Configurator profiles that are pushed out to the iPads.
After iOS 6 was released, I got all the latest updates to our iPad apps (but have not yet updated the iPads to iOS 6). All of my attempts to rebuild the 5.1.1 devices yesterday failed. The error said that the apps couldnt be installed. After some testing, I realized that the app that was causing everything to fail was iMovie. I had one device here that IS iOS6, so I was able to confirm that iMovie and all the other updated apps install fine on iOS6 devices, but not iOS5.1.1. Two days ago, they installed just fine. Yesterday they did not.
I contact apple tech support and they were able to confirm that, iMovie is now just an iOS 6 app. If you have the old versions stored on your harddrive, you can still push those out to your devices. If not, the app that you paid for is no longer viable on your non iOS6 device.
SO
I guess I want to get a feeling from people. Is this acceptable? Yes, I know I can update the devices to iOS6. For now. But if patterns repeat a year from now, iOS7 may not be available for the iPad 2, just as iOS 6 is not available for the 1st gen iPad right now. This suggests that a year from now, people will no longer be able to wipe their iPad 2 clean and rebuild it via icloud AT ALL. It seems to me that the Apples practice of not allowing latest version available to my device as a download option and instead opting for latest version only is really going to bite some people down the line.
My contact with tech support resulted in the following paraphrased solution. Update to iOS6. Unless you cant. If not, contact customer support and see if they want to issue refunds for your software licenses that you can no longer use.
Thoughts?
