The disappearing iPhone app trick
Interesting news to report: today I had the good fortune of watching an app get removed from my iPhone during sync, much like what happened to Terry White when he lost Netshare (http://terrywhite.com/techblog/?p=753).
I know what you're thinking, "how is that 'good fortune'? Doesn't it suck to lose an app?" Usually so, but because Terry shared his experience, I had the clarity of mind to correct the problem and confirm the disappearing app trick is, as I suspected, a problem of timing.
The app in my case is Simplify Media (http://www.simplifymedia.com/index.html), a tool for streaming your iTunes library to your iPhone or iPod touch. It is free only to the first 100,000 customers (as I shared on Rambles (http://sumocats.blogspot.com/2008/08/stream-itunes-to-your-iphone.html)), so I downloaded it straight to my iPhone. As soon as it was done, I synced my iPhone to my tablet and eventually saw the message "Removing 'Simplify'".
When the sync finished, there was no sign of Simplify Media on my iPhone or in iTunes. Not in the application folder either. It was gone, just like what happened to terry. I got screwed, right?
Actually, no. The core of the problem seems to be if you don't sync all apps, iTunes will remove apps that aren't on the list of selections. When you download an app straight to the iPhone, it doesn't get added to that list if iTunes hasn't already gotten the update from your store account. Thus, in my case, since I'd grabbed the app seconds earlier, there was no way it could be on my iTunes list, so it got removed.
However, where as Terry lost Netshare after it was pulled from the store, I had the SM download page on my iPhone after the sync. So I re-downloaded SM, connected my tablet to the Internet (via Netshare, ironically), updated my iTunes account, then re-synced. No problems this time. Simplify Media is now on both my tablet and iPhone.
"Hold on, Sumocat. It's good you didn't lose the app, but where's this 'good fortune' come in?"
Well, I reasoned Terry's predicament was the result of a timing glitch, and today's adventure supports that. Obviously still not great, but a glitch can be fixed, and it's preferable to the "invasive removal" so many feared. No conspiracy here. Just a glitch.
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Labels: mobile tech, software testing
The disappearing iPhone app trick
posted by Sumocat at 8/14/2008 07:54:00 PM
1 Comments:
oh my god. this is the most irritating format ever. i cannot read this font.
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Anonymous, at 12/26/2009 07:39:00 PM
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