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Apple removing developer access to UDIDs in iOS 5?

By , Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 5:47 pm
9

Apple removing developer access to UDIDs in iOS 5?

Time was a developer could call the UDID (unique device identifier) for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and do with it what they would, from beneficial things like keeping your data allocated to you, to evil things like tracking you and your behavior for advertising and giggles. Now with iOS 5 beta 6 Apple aims to make it no longer so.

Deprecated in iOS 5.0

uniqueIdentifier

An alphanumeric string unique to each device based on various hardware details. (read-only) (Deprecated in iOS 5.0. Instead, create a unique identifier specific to your app.)

While deprecation doesn't mean removal now, it does mean removal in the future. Which means devs will ultimately have to find a way around it, though according to TechCrunch some reckon Apple might not cotton to their own rules when it comes to first party services like Game Center and iAd:

“I guarantee Apple will not stop using UDID,” predicts one mobile industry CEO. If Apple does continue to use UDID for itself but denies it to developers that would be an “extremely lopsided change.”

For those concerned about end user privacy, this change will no doubt be welcome. For those who care more about convenience, it could cause some frustration. If the language makes it into the final release, that is.

[TechChrunch]

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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  1. Dev says:

    Good...get rid of it.

    It will be fascinating to see if Apple stops using it as well. To use it after denying competing developers (and ad networks) that access is the sort of thing that eventually invites the regulators to sniff around.

    • Dev says:

      Also, "deprecated" usually means "may be removed in the future" not "removed now."

      I expect this is Apple warning developers to start using something else, but that it will continue to work and be supported for another revision or 4

  2. Jerry says:

    YESS!!! now beejive won't be able to block users

  3. Anonymous says:

    That's a cunning hat!

  4. person287 says:

    There's a guide on TUAW (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/08/19/dev-juice-help-me-generate-unique-identifiers/) about how you can do it. I'm not sure how similar it is because I'm not a developer, but maybe it'll also help someone who is :)

  5. Anonymous says:

    I just p a i d $21.87 for an i P a d 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://bit.ly/SHoPBid

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