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Apple Will Soon Require iOS Developers To Use 64-Bit code
The iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus now all support 64-bit apps and Apple wants developers to take full advantage
The A7 chipset was the first Apple processor to bring about 64-bit support for apps and Apple has been keen to push the features to consumers. Starting from February 2015 Apple will require all its developers to create their apps in a 64-bit architecture as well as the 32-bit architecture.
The iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are all capable of running 64-bit apps as long as iOS 8 is running on the device. There are still Apple products running a 32-bit CPU architecture such as the iPhone 5 and below so it’s unlikely Apple will make developers work on 64-bit only apps for at least another year and possibly even further down the line.
Apple stated on its website, “Starting February 1, 2015, new iOS apps uploaded to the App Store must include 64-bit support and be built with the iOS 8 SDK, included in Xcode 6 or later.
“To enable 64-bit in your project, we recommend using the default Xcode build setting of “Standard architectures” to build a single binary with both 32-bit and 64-bit code.”
Google is also heading toward 64-bit app support with the launch of Android 5.0 Lollipop. The new operating system will be launching on the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 and will continue to roll out to a variety of different handsets over the next couple of months.
The update brings with it 64-bit app support for devices that have the in-built processing power. Google has yet to comment on when developers will be required to create 64-bit versions of apps.
Apple has just launched the latest version of its operating system, if you’ve got a compatible device you’ll be able to download iOS 8.1 right now.
James Peckham
13:57, 21 Oct 2014