Automatic App Update is one of the new headline features in iOS 7. Part of me is thrilled, particularly as a developer - now, I’m less likely to wonder whether a customer is running the latest version of my software. Sure, that particular class of defects is still going to be something to consider, but now it’ll hopefully be less prevalent.

A snooty part of my personality, though, wondered how necessary it was. I mean, we get a badge and everything, and people who don’t pay attention to their home screen or don’t bother to update apps don’t deserve special privilege. Right?

Except, today, I spent all day bouncing between apps. Never touched Springboard once, and had a few things in the background that’d been updated - apps I actually use and enjoy, no less. Uh. Whoops.

This, if nothing else, is really a step in the same direction as a lack of task manager and some (basic on a traditional PC) features, like rich storage management controls. It advocates that users shouldn’t have to give any kind of a shit, and their stuff’ll just work, and be new, bright and shiny.

This, of course, begs the question about what happens when a developer, inevitably, ships the DO NOT UPDATE! update, but time’ll tell if Apple has something new for that particular issue. As far as I’m aware, a developer can issue a rollback for an update, but this is still problematic if you’re using Core Data and its handy, helpful automatic migration (I’ll spare you the boring details). In most apps, though, this’ll probably work out just fine.

All in all, I’m actually really looking forward to 7.