We're currently building an evaluation app and as such using the 3.4 Lite version of the framework, but I don't see an included sample app that uses a split view controller. I've followed the tutorial in the included PDF documentation and the result is, yes, a new root model item is presented in a popover. The behaviour appears to be that a new root model instance is not created in this example until the 'Done' button is pressed. If 'Cancel' is pressed, nothing is created. This seems to explain why a new instance isn't presented in the split view controller's detail view - that would require immediate creation of a new model instance (note that I'm referring to the data model here, not the tableview model).
We can certainly create a new root model instance manually and present it in the detail view if necessary - I'm wondering if this is necessary. I'm still working up a structure for a non-trivial app.
Most of the samples seem predicated on presenting modal edits usiing 'Done'/'Cancel' (which occurs by default based on the type of navigation bar menu selected?) .
This is, to my mind, unnecessary except in edge cases - the 'Done'/'Cancel' requires extra taps that quickly become a chore for the user.
I don't see anything that prevents creation of a completely non-modal flow, but am wondering if I'm either missing something, or the default behaviour has changed in version 4?