random thoughts……

CE Pro Says: Warning, Home Control Users: Don’t Update that Apple iOS September 16, 2010

I’m reprinting the text of the article and all the comments in this post so that there’s a correct record for it. EH Publishing decided to first rewrite the article and then remove all the previous comments. I’ve pieced this together from several emailed copies of the article that I sent to myself and snarfing text from my browser’s cache database – I’ve only applied slight formatting for easier reading (BTW, i HATE that WP keeps futzing with my formatting in the display). If anyone wants the originating HTML I can provide what I have as well. I’ll comment on it in the next post.

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Warning, Home Control Users: Don’t Update that Apple iOS

You can’t blame Apple fanboys for rushing to download the shiny new iOS 4.1

Who could resist the new multitasking, folders and playlist features, as well as Game Center, iTunes TV show rentals and iTunes Ping?

The trouble is, did those iOS lovers stop to think how 4.1 would affect their home control apps? My guess is that most of them did not take a deep breath and call their home automation expert before they pressed the DOWNLOAD button.

And, surprise! They may have been able to Ping their music-loving friends, but in the process they lost control of their home. Evidently, Steve Jobs didn’t give home automation developers a heads up on the new iOS.

“The problem I see is that Apple does not release any information on any of their changes, and just has a ‘buyer beware’ attitude to the developers,” says Jack Goldberg, principal of Westco Smart Homes, a home systems integration company with offices in Southern California and New York City.

Goldberg also presides over Home Automation Middle East, which markets the HAME Smarthome iPhone app for Vantage control systems, developing the app long before Vantage had one of its own – back in the iOS 3.1 days.

Like other app developers, HAME hit its first major snag when Apple released OS 4.0 for the iPhone 4. When HAME users upgraded to that version, after the programming, “the app just reverted back to the app icon page and did not work,” says Goldberg.

The HAME Smarthome 2.0 app for Vantage Infusion and QLink controllers “had to be a complete rework of the app, as Apple made some radical changes in the OS, and cancelled some of the methods of programming we had previously utilized,”

The re-programming took about a week, and then HAME had to submit the new app for OS 4.0 approval before it was available to customers.

Even Savant Feels the Pain

Goldberg is not just a small, isolated developer feeling the pain of Apple’s folly. Even Savant, which has a close relationship with Apple, must re-think its software with every Steve Jobs whim.

The company, whose whole-house control and entertainment system is tightly interwoven with Apple operating systems, sent a memo to dealers on Sept. 9, warning them to halt their customers’ upgrades to the new version (emphasis added):

As Apple and Savant continue to evolve their prospective products (separately….), platforms, applications and operating systems, we must maintain reliable interoperability between revisions, upgrades, and releases. In many cases this can be planned and timed with minimal user impact. In the cases of proprietary, market differentiating events, the ability to respond with a reliable solution requires time to evaluate test and respond.

Apple has announced the release of iOS 4.1. Savant is performing a full Engineering evaluation to assure that the quality and reliability of our iPhone Apps are optimized with this release. We had no advance opportunity to evaluate this release. As a result, we are discouraging customers from using their iPhones or iPod touch for ROSIE System control with iOS 4.1. Our strong recommendation is to NOT perform the upgrade until notified.

Savant will have the full details on its iOS 4.1 implementation at CEDIA Expo 2010.

Comments

Sorry, these developers aren’t paying attention. The iOS 4.0 developers kit was available MONTHS before the release so they had plenty of time to test.

Dot releases (such as 4.1) rarely change API behavior, so while testing it is obviously a good thing, it’s extremely unlikely that an app will break on that type of upgrade if you’re following the rules (and not using undocumented APIs).

It’s exactly this type of sloppy software development practices that got us where we are with Windows – developers are responsible for paying attention and doing the right thing for their customers – not Apple.

As an iOS developer, we have never had issues like this with our CommandFusion iViewer app.

As Jay says in his comment, there are pre-releases available to developers long before they reach consumers.

Sounds like some companies are not doing enough testing and/or not using best programming practices defined by Apple, then taking the easy route and blaming Apple for their problems.

Update, Crestron Electronics HQ users have nothing to worry about

I have just spoken with them and as as an apple partner they reviewed the api and were ready at release. Mobile pro (The Crestron app) is iOS4 compliant

Crestron seems to always be looking ahead and planing for everything before everyone else. Just my two cents.

http://www.vsys.us

I also dont buy this “we didn’t know”. AFAIK a registered iPhone developer got access to the first beta of 4.1 around JULY.

Even if this update indeed breaks poorly written apps, they could have informed their customers long before. If its broken with beta1, beta2 and beta3 and you still gamble what it will be with 4.1 release, then you dont understand software development.

Harald

Great story and catch Julie. I know everybody is in love with Apple. They are an awesome company but we, the CEDIA community, need to understand our business is a nice add on for them but if we really looked at the total revenue we are producing at the moment for Apple I think people would be surprised that it isn’t a major concern to their quarterly reports! The connection and relationship will take a while and I’m sure this won’t be the first time we all encounter and scramble on these issues.

dkippy: This is not Apple’s fault, it’s the developer’s. We developers get access to the pre-release iOS versions long before consumers do. Not Apple’s fault if some developers choose not to test and release a fix before the upgrade is released.

See above – Crestron’s and our CommandFusion app have not suffered because we test and fix before the end users even get a chance to upgrade their OS.

Ditto with our Indigo Touch app. In fact, Apple warned us a couple of months before 4.0 shipped that we had a problem with our app. There is just bad software development practices.

CommandFusion: I never said this was Apples fault people. The responsibility falls on the developer to be up to date, up to speed and ahead of the curve for testing. PLEASE don’t misunderstand my comment was on the larger picture and we’re going to see a lot more of these issues with all these Apps people are going to be promoting. Apps are software and we all know how that can work depending on who is doing the development!

dkippy: Sorry for the misunderstanding. I agree with you on the “depending on who is doing the development” comment! Just look at some of the apps on the app store… wowee!

i am not having the issue with my control4 app  looks like they are right behind crestron in looking forward.

This goes to show that:

1. Savant is not any “closer to Apple” then anyone else in the business.

2. Relying on a company that has nothing to do with the CI Industry (Apple) to run our homes and businesses is dangerous at best.

3. Larger, more established companies like Crestron with a large development staff can get ahead of these things first, and has.

What happens when the next rev. of whatever comes out from Apple? They’ll be updating this stuff forever.

Don’t put your faith in a $500.00 consumer product to run your project!!!

We’ll be having this same conversation in a year when all the Android tablets are out.

Jeff: I dont think point 3 makes much difference. From what I’ve heard there is only a small team working on the Crestron app. But I can say our team at CommandFusion is quite small, yet leading the way in iOS control apps (our app has worked with Crestron systems since August 2008).  In the end it comes down to programming competence.

When the next revision comes out, we will update the app again. The app will continue to work on old and new devices and firmware revisions.

I have more faith in my iPad than I do in most dedicated touch panels

Can’t wait for the Android tablet rush.

Jeff: “Larger, more established companies like Crestron”? Sorry, that’s completely untrue – my company is tiny by comparison yet we had working versions for our apps out at launch at each of the iOS upgrades.

This has nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with the quality of the software provider – if they are *truly* dedicated to that aspect of their product they won’t get caught by updates that have been available to them well in advance of customer release.

It’s why (some of) the professionally installed systems and integrators are having such a hard time – they’re used to the relatively slow pace of innovation in this industry. It’s time for a switch from an embedded mindset to a more software and service-oriented approach.

“They’ll be updating this stuff forever.” Yes they will, and we should all be glad of that. Innovation is what will revive and grow this industry by giving customers even more reason to install home automation systems. $1000 dedicated touchscreens certainly didn’t do much to grow the industry.

CommandFusion – Oh my God how true. Some of the things I’ve seen on the Apple App Store and some other App type stores in our industry scare me! As they say just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. Such as consider yourself an App developer when you really aren’t. You guys get it!

TPControl has had no issues controling AMX

Guys, no one said the Savant app wouldn’t work with 4.1! They just wanted to fully vet the app before blessing an update. I haven’t heard of anyone that suffered glitches after updating.

@jeff Stringer: Relying on a company that has nothing to do with the CI Industry (Apple) to run our homes and businesses is dangerous at best.

Everyone has to rely on some kind of OS from someone who doesn’t care about the CI industry. Msoft and the collective Linux community don’t care.

My purpose in writing this article was to whine about Apple being such a closed architecture. It would be nice if developers (and installers!!) could dig in deep, lock down certain functions, tweak some others and take more ownership of their programs.

Julie: I don’t believe anyone said Savant’s app didn’t work on 4.1. Our point is that Apple has done all the right things in terms of developer communication about upcoming releases (yes, dot releases included). API additions are well documented and communicated well in advance of release to customers.  As far as I know, the only API deprecations have been to undocumented APIs that developers shouldn’t be using anyway – you take that chance when you use one (and even so you still get a lot of time to fix it before the next version breaks it).

If you’re going to complain about the “closed” nature of iOS, that’s fine – but attempting to blame Apple for some developers who clearly weren’t paying attention doesn’t support your argument. I’d love to hear details from other developers who have been “surprised” by any iOS API changes at the last minute before an iOS release – it’s never happened to us but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t – that would be a worthwhile article to read and chastise Apple over.

Developers DO own their programs – which was our point as well.

Julie, WTF?

You changed the story title and body text while keeping the comments from another article?

Talk about bending over for Savant when they obviosly called you out on this.

CEPro is such a joke. Poor journalism at best. This whole site/magazine is nothing more than a collection of advertisements for whomever is paying you that week!

Where’s the original article?

Julie, where did the original story go? These comments are for a different story.

Lame

@Jay Martin reg. slow pace of innovation

There is a little bit of truth in your statement but you omit to mention a HUGE side effect which is way more important than some glorious innovation pace.

Do you really think that a product which is trashed any re-invented about once every 12 months as a typical consumer product is and which is built to last about the same time frame has ANY qualification to be mounted into my brick wall to sit there for the next decade?

Sorry, guys, a few of you really have no clue what technology for buildings is all about.

And it seems many of you also never worked in the consumer products industry either and actually do know about the expected (and DESIGNED for!) life time.

I am NOT talking about mobile gimmicks on my coffee table ready to be thrown out any time but something which runs my building by being part of my building.

You guys crack me up.

http://steindls.blogspot.com

@Julie:

Do you really consider changing the title and the text a good idea? You lost a LOT of credibility by doing this.

HST

Posted by Harald Steindl on 09/16 at 02:03 AM

Do you really consider changing the title and the text a good idea?

Not particularly.

Harald: So, people want to get up and walk to their wall-mounted touch screens to control their homes? Not talking buildings here, we’re talking consumer homes.

Don’t think so. Get with it or get left behind. You crack me up.

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That’s the article. Unlike CEPro, I won’t moderate the comments…