Developer Tips

How to install iOS 6 beta 4 despite "Unable to Check for Update" error

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012 a 10:42 am

After Apple released iOS 6 beta 4 yesterday, we started getting flooded with emails and tweets concerning an "Unable to Check for Update" error that was occurring when trying to install the new beta over-the-air (OTA). If you're a developer trying to install iOS 6 beta 4 and you keep getting that error, here's what you can do...

How to install beta Mac App Store apps and provisioning profiles

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Feb 4, 2012 a 1:51 am

Get in on a Mac App Store beta but not sure how to install the beta app? There are several apps that have iPhone and/or iPad versions as well as Mac versions these days, and if you're beta testing the iOS version, you might need to set up the Mac App Store version as well.

How to find your Mac UDID for Mac App store beta testing

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 a 10:24 pm

Trying to figure out just exactly how to find your Mac UDID so you can get in on an ad-hoc Mac App Store beta? Just like with iPhone and iPad, your Mac has a UDID (technically a Hardware UUID) that developers can use to send you app builds before they become publicly available. Luckily, it's easy to locate once you know where to look.

Daily Tip: How to do an iOS OTA update [developers]

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jul 22, 2011 a 11:19 pm

iOS 5 developer curious how to do an over-the-air (OTA) update to iOS 5 beta 4 for iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch? Yes, Apple finally pulled the big test switch in the cloud and you can go from beta 3 to beta 4 via a svelte, under 200mb, bit differential (delta) update-in-place rather than the usual beefy 700MB+ iTunes restore of updates past. We'll show you how, after the break!

Daily Tip: How to link directly to an App Store app update page

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jul 1, 2011 a 10:30 pm

If you're a developer wondering how to link users directly to the App Store update page for your app, you're in luck, Gabe has posted the URL format up on Stack Overflow.

Turns out the phobos links do still work and you can link directly to the update page using this URL format:

itms-apps://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareUpdate?id=[APPID]&mt=8

Of course replacing the [APPID] with your own app id, not including the brackets. This will link directly to the latest update for the app, instead of the main app page.

It should work on-device for an app with a waiting update. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes and if you have any other developer tips for us, send them in!

Daily Tip: How to enable iPad multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3

By Georgia, Friday, Mar 4, 2011 a 5:32 pm

Are you a developer interested in how to enable iPad multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3 so you can test them with your apps? They're not there by default but if you have the iOS 4.3 GM seed and Xcode, you can turn them on. We'll show you how after the break!

Beginner tip: How to restore your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad

By Allyson Kazmucha, Friday, Nov 5, 2010 a 2:20 pm

Curious how to restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when it's acting funny and nothing else will work? Need to install a beta or custom firmware? Whether you're experiencing freezes, crashes, or your iPhone or iPad is just doing other crazy things - a restore will fix most of your woes. Restores are also something developers need to know about to test beta firmware, and jailbreakers should become very familiar with, as sometimes it can make your phone a little less stable than it is stock.