Brilliantly Bad Networking

While exploring some of the new parts of iOS 6 I came across the Developer section in Settings, which features a brilliant new Network Link Conditioner. This feature allows you to control the incoming and outgoing network bandwidth, packet loss and connection delay, as well as a specific DNS delay. So, right from the device you can choose one of the predefined profiles, or create your own, and simulate various network conditions while testing your app.

What this means is that it just got a lot easier for everyone to test how their app behaves in bad network conditions, even when you’re working in a place with fast Wifi and cellular coverage.

One of the really nice features of iOS software compared to desktop software in general has been that iOS software usually handles poor networks much more smoothly, which is really noticeable if you ever try using a laptop on a train while connected via a cellular network. So I hope that this new feature of iOS 6 means that network resilience becomes even more common in iOS apps.