How do other iOS developers handle it? I really don't want to rely on the iOS simulator.
Unfortunately for this strategy, Apple tend to drop support for several devices at once, so there's no device whose final version is iOS 14, for example. With that said, if you're desperate, you could get new-in-box old devices, assuming those devices can still be activated (not all can).
(Memes aside, keep old devices around and never update them. And while not useful to you something like Corellium can be useful to check things in a pinch.)
Biggest flaw of iOS in my experience, I have lost over $1000 in apps not operable due to iOS updates. The apps work fine on my older iOS version devices which have since died due to battery issues.
How long is a dinner or drinks supposed to last before you buy another one?
How long is your house supposed to last before you need to make repairs?
How long is gasoline supposed to last before you buy more?
Vacation? Movie tickets? Hotel rooms? Flights? Appliances? Clothes? Shoes? Furniture? Maybe ~10% of the things we buy can be “buy it for life” items.
It seems like a lot of people want more longevity out of software than simple physical objects.
Smartphones weren’t exactly mature 7-10 years ago and we all knew that. If it were me I’d just accept that I spent $1000 on software and got something out of it for the time being.
Life is full of things that are fleeting.
You can take a 20 year old+ copy of Windows software that shipped on a CD-ROM in a paper box and it'll probably work just fine on Windows 10, maybe it needs some compatibility setting checked or absolute worst case an XP or 2000 VM. Meanwhile what do you do with an 8 year old iOS app? Hunt down old devices on eBay that you hope you can get working?
Side note: I lived in an apartment in a 400 year old building once, and once lived in a shared house that was 300 years old (both cases were in Germany). Both buildings were renovated and had repairs several times and in a very good condition, and living in them was a great pleasure.
How long is a vinyl record that you bought supposed to last until the license expires and you have to buy it again?
How long is a wedding ring supposed to last until it needs to be replaced?
How long is my cast iron skillet supposed to work until it falls apart and I have to buy a new one?
One of the current issues with mobile development is that moore’s law has finished, so any update that hits performance is actually a step back. However, SWEs get paid based on deploys, so everyone has an incentive to get things in the final OS and slow down the phone.
Oh well
Isn't it worrying that the developer doesn't care enough to check out their code, compile and resubmit?
The vast majority of 10+ year old apps wouldn't compile with modern xcode, and even if they did they won't meet the stores requirements anymore.
For a small app with a small userbase, the maintainance cost isnt worth it.
I totally see the benefit of windows in these situations.
https://gs.statcounter.com/ios-version-market-share/all/unit...
How many users are actually on iOS 14 since every device that can run iOS 14 can run iOS 15?
The best you can do at the moment is to jailbreak and use futurerestore to go to slightly lower ios 16 beta versions
the Simulator has improved a lot over recent years I've found. We couldn't use it for ages as accessing metal would cause it to crash, I noticed late last year this no longer happens, making it a viable solution for us again.
I'm currently running one device on 14.8.1, other on 15.X and third on latest.
