Notes from a Blue Chair: Apple’s iOS5 & Beware Mme la Guillotine

So every now and then Apple upgrades its operating system. This is a good thing, right? Right!

But it can wreak havoc on apps and programs that were built prior to the new system release. And that’s just what happened with Beware Madame la Guillotine.

For this first-time developer, the event came as an unexpected shock, creating a de-stabilizing ripple effect throughout my organization from marketing plans to future development projects to current user experience. I had already alpha-tested and beta-tested my app to the point of operational perfection. I should be able to trust it to run as designed from now on, right?

No. Evidently not. (I must've been sleeping through that lesson back in app developer school.)

But fortunately my development team at SmartyShortz LLC was well aware of technology's fickle nature prior to our initiation of the Time Traveler Tours project. And thanks to them, we are SO on top of it. The disease has been identified and the appropriate medicine administered. The patient is on the mend and will be released from hospital soon.

So, the crisis now over, I'm happy to fill you in on all the gory details…

Four days after the release of iOS5, a lovely librarian in the heart of Massachusetts informed us that Charlotte’s app, while working just great on her personal iPad, would crash mysteriously on the six iPads available for student use whenever the “menu” button was engaged.

“What iOS are you running?” we asked. Her personal device had not yet been upgraded, but all the library devices were now running iOS5.

Now I had not yet updated my iPhone at the time I received the news, but my translation partner had. So we tested it on her phone. And sure enough, Beware Madame la Guillotine continued to run swimmingly on my device, but under iOS5 it would, indeed, crash with a mere touch of the “menu” button.

Fortunately, one of my contract agreements with SmartyShortz was take out an insurance policy in the form of a pre-paid “maintenance bucket”. I questioned this at first, way back when we were first negotiating the terms of our contract. What did it cover? Where was the line between “maintenance” and other updates? What would be taken care of by insurance and what would require further payment?

My guys were very patient with me as I agonized over this decision, but ultimately I was convinced that this seemingly abstract fee for unforeseen “repairs” would be of value to me one day. And it turns out already to have been money well spent. Because thanks to this maintenance bucket, my team at SmartyShortz put my app before all other projects – including our upcoming bilingual release – to update Beware Mme la Guillotine for iOS5.

It’s now fixed. But the AppVenture continues as the new-and-improved version of Charlotte's app now needs to be re-approved by Apple.  Which means that it must join the by now very, very, very long queue of other apps that also had to be tweaked for Apple’s new operating system.

Cross your fingers that the journey to re-release will be short lived. And know that if you’re having any issues with the app when you press menu button, you’re not alone. Also know that relief is on the way!

P.S. I’d give it about a week. 

Now time for me to get back to the tasks I was neck-deep in before all this excitement went down: mastering of the French audio and marketing. If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been visible in cyberspace this past week, you now know why. It’ll be nice to be back.



Image:

Clip Art courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.