There is nothing slimy about this. Apple doesn't now, and has never on the past, allowed ANY developer to add an OS level feature to iOS. Build apps all day long, but the OS is out of the question. I don't know why this is so hard to comprehend. People that want to add 'features' have to go around Apple via side loading or jailbreaking. Neither of which is a good idea for the majority.
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Developers Behind F.lux Call on Apple to Allow F.lux App for iOS Devices
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There is nothing slimy about this. Apple doesn't now, and has never on the past, allowed ANY developer to add an OS level feature to iOS. Build apps all day long, but the OS is out of the question. I don't know why this is so hard to comprehend. People that want to add 'features' have to go around Apple via side loading or jailbreaking. Neither of which is a good idea for the majority.
Why pay when you can have it for free. It's a common practice nowadays, just like welfare. Free foods, medical and housing or loot the entire store. I know it's off topic, but my point is if they can get away they'll do it and maybe pay the fine later.
I should also add—I think what Apple should have done in this instance (and every other instance where they "rip off" features from devs) is that they should invite them to the campus and work with them to add those features into the appropriate OSs. They can mention the parnerships in their keynotes (e.g., "We worked with the fine people behind f.lux to add a great new feature...") and it becomes a win-win situation.
Apple gets the features they want, the devs get their work recognized and optimized for the OS, and nobody steals off of anybody else.
Apple gets the features they want, the devs get their work recognized and optimized for the OS, and nobody steals off of anybody else.
How about Apple just buys f.lux and lets them do all the science sleepy stuff they want to night shift mode. I think in this situation everyone wins. But its too good to be a true thing 
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Exactly what I'm thinking!
This isn't something exclusive to Apple. It's something EVERY SINGLE COMPANY in every single industry does, no matter the size. Small companies take features from bigger ones and implement it in their products. Google takes things from others. Everyone takes stuff from everyone.
There's nothing wrong with this. It means more features and better implementation for all of us. Why do so many think that's bad? Is it a horrid thing that others started copying Henry Ford's mass assembly lines and now we have multiple choices in cars because they can now be produced by more than 1 company?
What I would love to know is why that is the case with iOS. I can install f.lux just fine on my Mac with no adverse effects (granted, it's outside the App Store). I can even do run similar apps on Android, but iOS...nah. Too risky.
Most advanced operating system my ass.
Most advanced operating system my ass.
And what's wrong with that look?
Nothing is wrong, if now something looks weird in yellow or the feature eats up more energy than necessary, Apple can fix it's own system feature instead of dealing with a third party developer.
Because they say so. Someone has to set a minimum requirement.
Do you "need to buy" everything you "have the money" for?
I have to disagree. Independent developers tend to overthink features and drown their users in unnecessary preferences. Perfectionism doesn't always lead to the best result. Overall it is better to reduce options and make it just work for the average user. We're not so unique snowflakes.
It's unimportant who was first. Apple won't allow this kind of system-wide access f.lux needs to work. They didn't in the past and they won't in the future. Open letters don't matter.
Your behavior is wrong and disgusting. Apple owes you nothing.
Must be a problem with your Mac, Alfred is running fine on all my Macs. And so does f.lux.
My advice is, ignore the f.lux people and make your customers happy.
I don't follow?
No people don't need to stop crapping on the ability to overwhelmingly customize the **** out of anything. It's a stupid idea which makes horrible software.
It's hardly planned obsolescence, if a device continues to work as it did when you bought it.
Because iOS is a mobile OS with much tighter battery constraints and lower CPU performance than a desktop OS, like OS X. If there wasn't a huge difference, Apple wouldn't have created two different OSes in the first place.
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How about Apple just buys f.lux and lets them do all the science sleepy stuff they want to night shift mode. I think in this situation everyone wins. But its too good to be a true thing
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Exactly what I'm thinking!
What would they be buying? All of the science was not done by F.lux. It was countless researchers, doctors, scientists, etc and is all public domain. They are all listed on their website. All F.lux has done implement that research into an OS extension that they give away for free. They don't have squat for IP, and their pending patents are dubious at best. It doesn't take a rocket scientist adjust display calibration. I'd wager Apple probably has some of the best display folks on he planet.
The problem is not doing stuff in the background. Apps can upload stuff in the background but they have a time limit, apps can play music in the background but it won't affect the sounds of the game you are playing because the foreground app will always override any background sound if it wants to play sounds.
The problem is doing things in the background constantly (which the user does not notice like he or she would do with music playing) and that affect the output of other apps (ie, how colours are displayed).
Sure, but to give third-party apps access to Night Shift, Apple first has to create Night Shift (which it is doing with iOS 9.3). And at that point, you would have a third-party app offering a different UI for a system setting, which is generally a bit of a hack (like, eg, third-party apps being allowed to change the display resolution on OS X). And there is a big difference between read and write access (location, photos, address book are largely read access only, eg, while you can add photos you cannot delete photos via third-party apps). Getting read access to data is quite different than altering the (screen) output of other apps.
Sure, those might be good ideas, but can you give me one precedent where a third-party app is allowed to change system settings on iOS?
And there is the simple rule that what you do in one app should never break how things work in another app. That is the foundation for the general populace being able to install anything they want without having to fear anything happening outside the (besides using resources like bandwith, disk space or energy).
That could be a good idea but I don't think that is what f.lux wants. If they wanted this, they could have plainly said so.
Sorry, that is a side-effect of reality. You simply cannot prevent OS makers from adding features. That's like disallowing companies to fire people, that is not how a market economy works.
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Reducing blue light spectrum was not an original idea developed by f.lux.
Sorry this was a feature not a product. And not something invented by f.lux. They had to know that at some point Apple would make this a system level feature.
It's another case of Apple behaving consistently and logically: enforcing their walled garden because if they wouldn't enforce it, it wouldn't be a walled garden, wouldn't it? If Apple wants to ensure that no app can negatively influence the behaviour of other apps (or the OS itself), which is a fundamental premise of the App Store concept, than it cannot allow apps that have the potential to do exactly that.
People have a choice between iOS and Android if they don't like this App Store principle. Wishing that Apple makes iOS behave exactly like Android, is a rather pointless exercise.
No, but it was f.lux developers who first integrated that tech into OS X and tried do so on iOS. Cut the crap.
Are you on Apple's payroll?
I'm pretty sure Sherlock was an Apple feature that ultimately gave way to Spotlight. Was there a third-party predecessor that Apple stole the idea and the name from?
But then does Apple need to buy any other company that makes anything that is similar to what they make? They make Pages and Numbers and Keynote so should they have to buy Microsoft because they have Office? They make a PDF viewer so should they need to buy Adobe that has Actobat? They make a text editor or a media player so should they buy other companies that make similar software?
And someone created a word processor application first at some point, but that doesn't mean that others couldn't create their own, right?
Stalinism a system-wide thing, and because of that, Stalin wants control of it. I don't see what's wrong with that?
This is not the first or last time. Do you remember wher Dashboard came from?
No. Your looking at it too narrow minded. The guys over at F.lux seem to really have a passion for this. They really get it, and the Mac app is far better than the iOS Night Shift. So I feel that if Apple bought F.lux they would be able to make Night Shift absolute outstanding for both iOS and Mac in a way that Apple themselves just never will.
Nothing is wrong with that, because Stalin has control of it, everything works as Stalin intended it and customers get the true experience. If you don't like Stalinism, buy something else. But if you like it, Stalin made sure you'll get the most Stalin out of your Stalinism. As you should, since that is what you wanted.