The document is pretty huge, so they didn’t just whip it up in response. I think it was posted but not linked-to by anything.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Says Third-Party Apps Can Take Full Advantage of ProMotion With Plist Entry, Core Animation Bug Fix Coming [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If Apple didn’t want this PR problem, they could easily have coordinated one metaphorical hand with the other and released documentation for developers at literally any point between last Tuesday and yesterday. In that case, this question would likely never have come up.
To be clear, I criticize Apple often, but I was careful with the initial report not to attribute to malice that which could be adequately explained by incompetence.
Last edited:
I would argue that the ‘big thing’ was not ProMotion. It was the new camera system and its features. The only feature we aren’t getting with the cameras right now is ProRes which I would argue 99% of people will never use or notice, that’s truly a feature mostly catered for the small minority of iPhone users who want access to massive original file sizes.
I think there is too much unwarranted vitriol in regards to Apple mostly, but this ProMotion thing. It’s obviously being addressed and isn’t a ‘problem’. People need to relax.
Since they haven’t been in the office for over a year and a half, I expect to see more and more of this. I don’t care what anyone claims, 95% of workers are not well suited to be independent workers. It sounds good, but there are too many distractions at home and thats if you’re living alone with no kids or spouse.
Promotion isn’t really made for gaming, anyway. The way it works is the display refresh is decoupled from the screen refresh rate as seen by the code, so even if you think you’re rendering at 120 fps you may or may not be displaying 120 fps (and probably won’t be in most circumstances).
This is classic, first everyone loses their **** and then after apple explains it’s still not enough..
now it’s “they should have told devs earlier”
jeez people.
now it’s “they should have told devs earlier”
jeez people.
But how am i going to go an extra few days without a visually-imperceptible difference in scrolling in a few of my third-party apps?
Classic. Don’t bring up the one thing that can tear down my argument even if it’s the truth. So sad you are with your precious Samsung stanboy nonsense. And no, no video camera on any of your beloved Samsung devices can hold a candle to iPhone video. Hell a 2 year old iPhone pumps out better video than the 21 Ultra. I should know, I had one. Got beat my my old iPhone 8.
And of all the things you mentioned I only care about USB-C. Absurd the iPhone doesn’t have it.
So yeah, please, let’s stop. It doesn’t beat the 21 Ultra in everything, but in video and night mode, it’s a whitewash. Period. It’s absolutely a “Pro” camera system is most facets of the word. Even reviews point that out among its shortcomings overall. At least be real and own it.
And the funny thing is the iPhone 13 Pro actually beats it at its own game in 3x zoom and up to 5x zoom. 10x there’s no doubt, that’s all 21 Ultra
And I currently have a Fold 3 so don’t even go where you think you wanna go. And yes, the video is less than any iPhone of the last few years.
Android OEM’s, for whatever reason, can’t nail rock-solid video cameras. It’s just fact. I don’t know why it is. Hopefully the Pixel 6’s change that because I’m interested in it.
Last edited:
"It just works", This is something that should be taken care of by the OS, not needing app devs needing a hack
Camera refinements have been pretty standard the last few years. ProMotion on the other hand is Apple's way of "catching up", but should "do it right" rather than "do it first". It was not a "oh, by the way"-thing during the event either. So, why did they not release this info developers straight after the event so they could start working on their apps? One would think it's not something that should be easily missed.
Why is it absurd? USB-C is inferior in multiple ways to Lightning. It’s larger, less durable, less waterproof, and there’s not even one consistent set of features for it. You can plug a USB-C cable into identical looking ports and get different capabilities.
USB-C’s main advantage over lightning is data transfer speed, which is not one exactly a priority for what is primarily a charging port on iPhones. The majority of data transfer on iPhones is via wifi or cellular anyway.
What actual problems does USB solve over Lightning that makes it absurd not to have it?
It’s not a hack. Please understand what you are talking about before criticizing it.
Also, USB-C is massively confusing to customers. Does a monitor with USB work on the phone? Thumb drive? External SSD? Is it Thunderbolt? What USB version does it support?
There are a few devices I have that use USB-C that my iPad Pro cannot recognize. USB-C is pretty much everything which does lead to confusion. At least Lightning eliminates this.
Could be they also saw real issues with testing with 3rd party apps so they disabled it by default until most devs could actually test that it worked right before enabling it and held it back until the phones shipped.
Essentially they want developers to put some thought into how they use it. If they just turn it on without thinking about it, it can actually cause glitches. Apple provided us guidance for what frame rates are appropriate for what situations, and methods of setting desired frame rates (which are not guaranteed - the system will adjust based on power conditions, CPU load, and other factors). The app doesn’t have to know the actual screen rendering rate, because it‘s decoupled from the app, so it works quite differently than other high framerate setups.
I don’t think iPad pro’s proMotion is the same kind of variable refresh rate, right? That might require more testing, so they leave it as something the developer can enable once they confirm it works right.
It’s similar, but because battery is more important on the iPhone they made some additional tweaks for it. In most cases, iPad code will work fine on the iPhone, but it isn’t always the best choice - on an iphone the developer is encouraged to think carefully about whether and where to request different frame rates, and to keep in mind that you may be better off at 60fps with no stuttering caused by the phone deciding to reduce battery loading, vs. 120fps with stuttering.
Okay, so (1) if I'm on Safari browsing macrumors.com or forums macrumors.com then I am getting the 120Hz refresh rate when I scroll up and down the page, right? It appears to my sense of sight that it does feel noticeably smoother.
Also, (2) what are some websites that check and show you your screen refresh rates?
I don't like that https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate site because it keeps telling me I'm at 60Hz even when I scroll up and down through it. I know there were others.
EDIT: 120Hz is definitely on for scrolling websites on Safari. I turned Low Power Mode on, which I know limits the refresh rate to 60Hz, and scrolled. The difference is extremely noticeable.
Also, (2) what are some websites that check and show you your screen refresh rates?
I don't like that https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate site because it keeps telling me I'm at 60Hz even when I scroll up and down through it. I know there were others.
EDIT: 120Hz is definitely on for scrolling websites on Safari. I turned Low Power Mode on, which I know limits the refresh rate to 60Hz, and scrolled. The difference is extremely noticeable.
Last edited:
Yes sometimes I just want a pretty display at the expense of destroying my battery. D: Honestly it doesn't affect battery all that much, I had an Android phone with 120 Hz on all the time and coming back to the iPhone has laggy. It made the Android OS feel like butter. It didn't, however, make Android suck any less, so I went back to iPhone, but have been missing the fast refresh ever since.
You also don’t get a setting to always run the CPU at full speed. Pointing this out by iOS 15 seems a little quaint to me.
You need to try 120Hz on other devices to get a baseline. For me on iPad Pro M1 120Hz feels like 60Hz and enabling limit frame rate feels like <60Hz.
TestUFO is actually excellent for seeing the difference. The key is the higher the Hz the clearer the image maintains as it moves across the screen.
https://www.testufo.com/framerates#count=3&background=stars&pps=960
On my devices...
120Hz Samsung OLED > 120Hz LG OLED
120Hz LG OLED is almost equal to 165Hz LCD gaming laptop
60Hz Any OLED > 60 Hz iPad Pro M1 using Chrome (Safari limits to 30Hz)
Yeah apple specifically made that statement, It helps with battery life. constantly running at 120hz is wasteful.