Apple recently announced that in order to publish new apps and updates to the app store after January 31st, you must build against the iOS 7 SDK. This is no problem for Xamarin.iOS developers, since we’ve been shipping support for iOS 7 since day one.
Here are 7 good reasons to take the opportunity to fully iOS7-ify your app while you’re at it:
- Don’t let your app look stale. iOS 7 apps have a distinct look and feel and leverage a full-screen experience that focuses on content over chrome. Take a look at the iOS 7 User Interface Overview and iOS 6 & 7 Compatibility Tips.
- There are an abundance of great new APIs, ranging from new mapping APIs to speech synthesis, motion effects, and multi-tasking, just to name just a few. See the iOS 7 API Tour for more information.
- iOS 7 apps can connect to other nearby devices via the Multipeer Connectivity framework, as shown in the post Send the Monkey a Message with Multipeer Connectivity.
- Text capabilities are dramatically enhanced. The post Create Rich Text Features in iOS with Text Kit talks about this in greater detail.
- iBeacons bring device location support over Bluetooth Low Energy, enabling exciting new scenarios, such as indoor location a reality. See Apple Stores use iBeacons (and so can you!) for an example of using iBeacons in a commercial setting.
- Core Image has many great new filters including the ability to generate QR codes.
- Animation has made dramatic strides in iOS 7 both with new view and controller APIs, Sprite Kit for games, and the built-in physics engine of UIKitDynamics. The article Introduction to iOS 7 talks about many of the new animation features.
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