Nick asked the question in his iPhone feed, so I thought I'd start a forum entry to see how people feel about having the iPhone app as iOS5 only.

I don't have an understanding about what benefits iOS5 will bring to the app, but I think that anything that makes it work better and smoother can only be a good thing. Using the latest features should make the app better and also a bit more 'future-proof' than if it is developed for an OS already over a year old.

Although iOS5 has only been out a few days, the app won't be ready for some time still and so, by the time it is released, the OS will be a lot more common than it is now and may even be a couple of sub-versions older as well.

What are other people's thoughts? Are there any solid reasons why this shouldn't be made iOS5+ only?

As long as it runs on the iPod touch I will be happy.

I have a 3rd gen iPod Touch and I already upgraded to iOS5. I think it's only the really really old products that aren't capable of an upgrade, so I don't think an exclusive app would be much of a problem.

ipad, ipad2, ipod, iphone all are updated to ios5, no problem with me. the question is does it make any differences?

iPhone 3GS and later, all iPad, and iPod Touch 3rd generation and later can upgrade to iOS 5.

Someone on Twitter mentioned:

"there are probably a lot of folks in Asia on iOS 4 with jailbroken or unlocked phones that may not be upgrading soon"

Is jailbreaking that common, and does it make upgrading iOS versions a hassle or what?

Jailbreaking has become quite common, I suppose. It shouldn't make upgrading too much of a hassle, though, since one can usually jailbreak newer iOS versions shortly after they are released.

iOS 5 would work for all of my devices

Wont work on my 2g ipod touch, but since the ios4 upgrade it's been pretty slow anyway. Since this code is partially coming by way of flash import (I think?), then the chance of it running well was low to begin with.

Jailbreaking is pretty common for those that have travelled internationally (i.e. many expats living in China and using a iPhone), but the newest OS is typically jailbroken within a few weeks.

No problem for me at all.

Make an android app instead!
Android is DA FUTURE!
ALL HAIL ANDROID!

As long as this app works on my iPhone 4, so much the better. Is the upgrade iOS5 now available, is it free?
And how does one go about getting an upgrade?
How do I get to become an alpha tester?

Byzanti, there's no Flash code--it's all rewritten from scratch in Objective-C. So everything is as fast as can be, but it's still a demanding app in terms of memory, CPU, graphics, disk, and network performance, so I don't think we could provide a good experience for iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G devices.

menglelan, iOS 5 is free. You just update iTunes and then it'll offer to update your device, or you can have it check for updates manually.

As I understand, iOS 5 adds some functionality which would be welcomed, like better memory management, which would lead to a more stable running program.

Not sure if it makes a big difference with compiling it for iOS 4 though, ensuring compatibility with older / jailbroken devices.
Guess it simply needs to be tested.

@ Nick : If you still need some alpha / beta testers with a design background, count me in . . .

I have an iPad2 with a stylus and iOS5. I can't wait for the app to come out!! You price it at however much you want, I'll buy it. 谢谢

michaji, design feedback is indeed in high demand right now. I'll put you on the list.

>>>Did my Skritter reviews on my phone while eating lunch on the porch. Hit no bugs today. I can't wait to get this into some more hands soon! <<<<

You WHAT!?!? Now how about into our lunchtime hands too!?!?

Soon! Soon! I still have some big bugs to track down, so I'm just keeping the tester pool very small right now so as to not duplicate bug reports.

I know you have worked so hard on this, all of us with iPhones in hands will THANK you endlessly!

When do you expect a skritter app out for iPad? If there is one, I'd be happy to renew my subscription and pay for the app. how do you become part of the tester pool?

We don't have a release date for the app yet, but we are planning to have an iPad layout for the app when it launches.

The tester pool is getting full; I'll add you to it, but then I'm going to have to start being picky about who else to add.

Awesome, thank you! How does the tester pool work?

Is the tester pool the same people who volunteered for being alpha tester in the earlier iphone app thread?

You said everyone who replied would be on your list, but is that the same thing?

And I second airfreshener's question, how is it going to work?

inkubus, yup, that's the same list.

I'm feeling pretty good about the stability of the app now, after some successful debugging recently, so I'm going to invite a few more testers today. The app is still very raw, so I'm not sending it to the whole tester list yet. I think I'm going to add people at random for now, or based on enthusiasm (since I do want a lot of feedback from each tester, not people who just want to practice), and then after a certain point I'll just send it out to everyone on my list.

And right now it's only running in iOS 4.3+ devices for Chinese, so I haven't sent any Japanese tester invites yet.

yay I got a test invite, this is going to be BETTER than any prize that skritter could have offered thanks Nick!

Just to add to the frenzy, I will admit that I've had the app for testing for just under 3 weeks.

The initial builds were very buggy and quite unstable, but in the last build, the app is feeling much more stable and it is real fun to use. Nick has done a great job so far, but there is still a lot more to do, there are a lot of features that aren't yet implemented and these will come in following versions.

I can already use the app to learn, even without all the features, and it gets me excited knowing what will be coming - this will be a great app! :)

Nick, out of interest, how big has the tester pool become and how many tester invites have gone out so far?

Tester pool is close enough to the limit of 100 that I'm being cautious with the remaining invites. I have about twelve testers on board now, with five of those starting today.

Oh! I just got an email from Apple saying iOS5 is now available for free download. What do you say Nick, should I kick iOS5 into my iPhone4 before I start testing?

Install the app on iOS 4, test for a bit, and then install iOS 5 and see if there are any differences--that would be very helpful for me.

Ah, too late, in my big hurry to be up to date like everyone else I went ahead and installed iOS 5 (which took forever because the Idiotic iTunes decided to start uploading every photo I've taken in my life NO NO NO NO!!!! BAD iTUNES!) then tested the app. It runs much more better than I thought it would, though the black background made it hard to use. Probably a white or off white background would be nice.

Thanks for the invite, Nick. Just renewed my subscription to skritter today. I look forward to trying out the new app and getting you some feedback. Also, I'm still on ios4 for the next little while if that's of any use to you.

Uh, wait a minute, what do I do when the button says "Study (awaiting sync)"...now it won't let me practice.

menglelan, let's do bug discussions via email (or the feedback button in the app itself). I may not have time tonight, but I can probably get you sorted out soon. You can try hitting "Reset All" and then the "Change User/Login" button to reset it.

Hey there nick, not sure how else to relay this to you but on here. I seem to be able to install the new skrit program alright, but now I can't open it at all. When I though the icon it goes to a black screen for a second and then the app quits and I'm back to my ios desktop(?). I've tried installing a few times now, both from the test flight website and from the iPad app, but I get the same result every time.

@airfreshener I have the same problem on an iPad, Nick told me this (you can email him at nick@skritter.com):

So, the crashes: all the crashes I'm seeing from you are due to trying to convert some problem character from traditional to simplified (to make sure it's simplified). I'm not sure which character it is, yet, so I haven't been able to reproduce it. In the last build, I tried to add some logging so that I could figure it out, but because of a misconfiguration, logging in that part of the project was turned off in the released build.

I'll send out a new build soon which will still crash for you, but when it does, I'll have the info I need to debug it further.

airfreshener, I think I also sent you an email from TestFlight--let me know if you can't find it, maybe in your junk or something. But yeah, you can email me directly if the TestFlight emails aren't working.

How does the app run on the different models? All perfectly smooth, or some a little slower than others? Particularly the Ipod 4g?

I think all the models that can run iOS 4.3+ run smoothly except right now for when I have it doing database access improperly, which causes some pauses here and there. That I can fix. I'm intentionally excluding the ones with the older processors (iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2G) so that performance will be good. The benefits of knowing exactly which devices will be running it: I can make sure they can all run it perfectly!

@Byzanti I've been using the app on an iPhone 3Gs and it works pretty well. My iPad (1st gen) definitely seems to be a little snappier moving to the next item being studied, but the drawing works fluidly on both.

Thanks for the info!

Nick, just FYI, my enthusiasm for this is boundless!

That's what I like to hear! ;)

The anticipation has been building for so long.... Can't wait! I fully expect the amount of time I can study will triple with the app! Checking everyday now...

I'm sure I read it somewhere and now I'm looking for confirmation ; will the ios version be usable offline as well (on iPhone/iPad)? If so, what are the limitations going to be compared to using it online ?

It will be usable offline for as long as you want, with intelligent, automatic syncing with the server and merging of changes. You won't be able to add new words while offline, and you probably won't be able to do things like manage lists and other miscellaneous things (since those will be implemented via mobile-friendly webpages inside the app). But yeah, we're focusing on making offline study really good.

Hi Nick,
to answer your question, yes in China there are a lot of jailbreaked devices as a lot of software is hacked and available for free in the alternative markets in China. I am not sure though this will be used by the majority of expats.
IOS5 can be hacked, but on some devices not as simple
www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/ios-5-jailbreak-status-update.html

Also iPad2 and the iPhone4S have a bootrom bug fixed that allowed previous jailbreaking attempts in a much easier way. This btw leads
so far every IOS had a bug enabling jailbreak so we can assume this will

Hi Nick,
to answer your question, yes in China there are a lot of jailbreaked devices as a lot of software is hacked and available for free in the alternative markets in China. I am not sure though this will be used by the majority of expats.
IOS5 can be hacked, but on some devices not as simple
www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/ios-5-jailbreak-status-update.html

Also iPad2 and the iPhone4S have a bootrom bug fixed that allowed previous jailbreaking attempts in a much easier way. This leads to the ability of cracking every IOS device up to iPhone4 within minutes laying open photos, passwords, messages and contacts. Only few elements were included in the keychain which is encrypted separately, But with the usual 4-6 digits cracking time ranges from minutes to maybe 2 days.
Rgds from BJ

Thanks for confirming there will be offline functionality. The restrictions you mentioned sound logical. For me it means no more excuses for having many reviews in the queue once the combination of iOS and offline is available on Skritter.

Just signed up for Skritter after reading this thread, and because of your integration with the Zhongwen dictionary I use in Chrome.

I have both an iPad 2 and iPhone 4 (the 4S isn't out in New Zealand yet), and I'd love to get in for some beta testing action. I've done plenty of testing before, for our own 'Usability' iPad app, Plecodict, and a bunch of others, and I'd appreciate it greatly if you had space for me.

My iPhone is Jailbroken which wouldn't have to take up one of your testing slot's if they are limited, but I'd love to play on my iPad as well...

Thanks a lot, keep up the great work,

Jake.

Hey Jake,

I haven't sent a build to a jailbroken device before--would I just send you an ipa?

Yeah, exactly.

I'd also recommend testflightapp.com as a great tool for distributing beta builds - I'm not sure if you've used it or not, but it's incredibly handy, and even gives you (what I consider) interesting information about whether people have installed a build, had a problem etc.

If you did have a spare testing spot though, I would love to play on my iPad as well ;-)

Thanks!

Jake.

I'm already using TestFlight--it's insanely useful. I just have to use up one of the testing slots to do it that way, is why I ask. I can add you on there when it comes time, and then switch you out using the jailbroken method later.

Hey Guys,

I absolutely can't wait for this! Is there any time frame yet on when the app will be ready? I'm debating whether I should buy a bamboo pad or wait for the app since i already have an ipad. Also if you need another beta tester, I'd love to get in on it.

Best,

Andrew

Hey Andrew. We don't have a release scheduled yet; we want to get very close before we announce that. There's still a lot of work to do. And, unfortunately, the test waiting list is totally full.

Hi Nick,

Have you considered adding a feature limited beta version of iSkritter to Cydia? You could circumvent Apple's tester limit that way and get yourself some free advertising.

There isn't really a tester limit, the restriction is monetary. It costs $99 per year per "developer" account. Works out to be about $1 per tester per year. You could theoretically have 1,000 testers, but it would cost $1000 per year.