Detecting whether or not the UIVisualEffectView is available and supports the UIBlurEffect

UIDevice+DetectBlur.h

//
//  UIDevice+DetectBlur.h
//  BlurTest
//
//  Created by Morten Ditlevsen on 28/01/15.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Mojo Apps. All rights reserved.
//
 
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
 
@interface UIDevice (DetectBlur)
-(BOOL) isBlurAvailable;
@end

UIDevice+DetectBlur.m

 //
//  UIDevice+DetectBlur.m
//  BlurTest
//
//  Created by Morten Ditlevsen on 28/01/15.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Mojo Apps. All rights reserved.
//
 
#import "UIDevice+DetectBlur.h"
#include <sys/sysctl.h>
 
#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
@interface UIDevice()
- (long long)_graphicsQuality;
@end
#endif
 
 
@implementation UIDevice (DetectBlur)
 
-(BOOL) isBlurAvailable {
    // Blur is not available pre-iOS 8
    if ([self osMajorVersion] < 8) {
        return FALSE;
    }
 
    // Check for 'reduce transparency'. This function only exists on iOS 8
    // but we already checked that we are at least on iOS 8
    if (UIAccessibilityIsReduceTransparencyEnabled()) {
        return FALSE;
    }
 
    // Thanks to Daniel Martin on Stackoverflow
    if (![self blurSupported]) {
        return FALSE;
    }
 
#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR
    // Ask the private API - safe enough to do on a simulator build
    // again, many thanks to the following post on Stackoverflow
    // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27878769/check-if-device-supports-blur
    if ([[UIDevice currentDevice] _graphicsQuality] != 100) {
        return FALSE;
    }
#endif
 
    // Blur is available and enabled!
    return TRUE;
}
 
// Attribution: Daniel Martin
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27878769/check-if-device-supports-blur
-(BOOL) blurSupported {
    NSSet *unsupportedDevices = [NSSet setWithObjects:  @"iPad",
                                                        @"iPad1,1",
                                                        @"iPhone1,1",
                                                        @"iPhone1,2",
                                                        @"iPhone2,1",
                                                        @"iPhone3,1",
                                                        @"iPhone3,2",
                                                        @"iPhone3,3",
                                                        @"iPod1,1",
                                                        @"iPod2,1",
                                                        @"iPod2,2",
                                                        @"iPod3,1",
                                                        @"iPod4,1",
                                                        @"iPad2,1",
                                                        @"iPad2,2",
                                                        @"iPad2,3",
                                                        @"iPad2,4",
                                                        @"iPad3,1",
                                                        @"iPad3,2",
                                                        @"iPad3,3", nil];
    if ([unsupportedDevices containsObject: [[UIDevice currentDevice] platform]]) {
        // Device with poor graphics, blur not supported
        return NO;
    } else {
        // Blur supported
        return YES;
    }
}
 
-(int) osMajorVersion {
    NSArray *vComp = [[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
    return [vComp[0] intValue];
}
 
 
// The code below is from the UIDevice-Hardware category by the great Erica Sadun
 
/*
 Erica Sadun, http://ericasadun.com
 iPhone Developer's Cookbook, 6.x Edition
 BSD License, Use at your own risk
 */
 
#pragma mark sysctlbyname utils
- (NSString *) getSysInfoByName:(char *)typeSpecifier
{
    size_t size;
    sysctlbyname(typeSpecifier, NULL, &size, NULL, 0);
 
    char *answer = malloc(size);
    sysctlbyname(typeSpecifier, answer, &size, NULL, 0);
 
    NSString *results = [NSString stringWithCString:answer encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
 
    free(answer);
    return results;
}
 
- (NSString *) platform
{
    return [self getSysInfoByName:"hw.machine"];
}
 
@end

Thnx alot, I made a swift version here