Developers Behind F.lux Call on Apple to Allow F.lux App for iOS Devices

[teknishn]

They're buying the people who actually care enough to implement it.

F.lux is a hobby of a husband and wife since 2009. No company is listed although I'm sure they have an LLC for the tax breaks, they make no money beyond recently added donations option, they have other real jobs outside of this hobby, they have no valid patents, and last... There is another open source (GPL) program called Redshift that does the exact same thing and came out in 2009.

So I'll ask again, what is there to buy?

 

[The Doctor11]

F.lux is a hobby of a husband and wife since 2009. No company is listed although I'm sure they have an LLC for the tax breaks, they make no money beyond recently added donations option, they have other real jobs outside of this hobby, they have no valid patents, and last... There is another open source (GPL) program called Redshift that does the exact same thing and came out in 2009.

So I'll ask again, what is there to buy?

The two people who will care enough to make the cool features for it.

 

[C DM]

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.

They can certainly do that, and it might be good, but it doesn't really relate to Apple being able to implement similar functionality on their own and doesn't really mean that their implementation will be bad.
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The two people who will care enough to make the cool features for it.

Just as there are some cool people that worked on Word Perfect or some other apps that Apple and other companies also worked on and crested their versions of. It doesn't really mean that they should buy them or it's somehow bad if they don't.

 

[alvindarkness]

Everybody complains how slow older devices are on the latest OS. And that is while Apple is already cutting some features that are performance hogs from the OS these older devices get. So what is planned obsolescence: Offering features (including general OS versions) that slow devices down or cutting features (that would otherwise slow devices down). It seems, whatever Apple does on this front they get blamed.

Except F.lux works without issues on my iPhone 5 and iPad mini, both of which wont be supported by Apple. If the people who make the darn OS cant implement it as well as F.lux, as to not have a performance issue, then they have serious problems. I dont think thats the case. I think the obvious answer is - they simply dont want to. It's all part of planned obsolesence.

 

[teknishn]

The two people who will care enough to make the cool features for it.

You can buy people? Offer them jobs in exchange for the source code? Apple already has some of the best display engineers in the world. iOS is about simplicity not overly complex features. I've got both and I can tell you Night Shift works great. The only thing I like better in F.lux is the gradual ramp up to the sundown calibration, but there is nothing revolutionary about that either. I'm sure Apple will add that in due time.

 

[Gudi]

They must be doing something right if Apple copied them...

Something, not everything. The letter makes them crybabies.

„Today we call on Apple to allow us to release f.lux on iOS, to open up access to the features announced this week, and to support our goal of furthering research in sleep and chronobiology.“

**** you and your goals, **** the features announced this week. Only because Apple itself implements a feature, doesn't mean everybody and his mother must be allowed to do the same. You've been denied in the App Store before, now be a big girl and accept your rejection. Don't call on us, we won't call you!

 

[C DM]

Except F.lux works without issues on my iPhone 5 and iPad mini, both of which wont be supported by Apple. If the people who make the darn OS cant implement it as well as F.lux, as to not have a performance issue, then they have serious problems. I dont think thats the case. I think the obvious answer is - they simply dont want to. It's all part of planned obsolesence.

It was likely simply developed with 64-bit libraries/frameworks (similar to content blocking in that sense) that's basically it.

 

[manu chao]

It was likely simply developed with 64-bit libraries/frameworks (similar to content blocking in that sense) that's basically it.

Agreed (whether that coincides with performance limits is impossible to say). You could call this obsolescence by 'laziness' but overall, given how far back devices are still supported by the current OS, I'd say Apple does a pretty good job at providing new features to older devices.

 

[Gudi]

I think the obvious answer is - they simply dont want to. It's all part of planned obsolescence.

It's all part of you having a sense of entitlement.

It was likely developed with 64-bit libraries/frameworks (similar to content blocking) that's basically it.

And if it's not that, Geekbench gives enough reasons to exclude less than half as fast devices.

iPad mini 1 (A5) = 259 / 488
iPhone 5 (A6) = 707 / 1269

iPad mini 2 (A7) 1374 / 2473
iPhone 5s (A7) = 1392 / 2505

 

[manu chao]

Stalinism a system-wide thing, and because of that, Stalin wants control of it. I don't see what's wrong with that?

Apple does allow third-party apps for a lot of things. Stalinism doesn't allow much of anything to outside the system, from private enterprise, over political parties, NGOs, etc..

 

[btrach144]

Lol Apple doesn't want any competition. Talk about a monopoly!

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I refer everyone to the 1984 Apple commercial to define what Apple has become.

 

[allenvanhellen]

That warchest money is for questionable brand asset acquisitions like Beats, instead of being used with a modicum of integrity to pay original creators for intellectual property, that's later to be implemented as a 'revolutionary innovative feature'.

Oh, Apple stole code? Or did they steal the concept of varying white light temperatures throughout the day?

 

[alvindarkness]

It's all part of you having a sense of entitlement.
And if it's not that, Geekbench gives enough reasons to exclude less than half as fast devices.

iPad mini 1 (A5) = 259 / 488
iPhone 5 (A6) = 707 / 1269

iPad mini 2 (A7) 1374 / 2473
iPhone 5s (A7) = 1392 / 2505

Geekbench provides nothing. How many cpu cycles do you think it takes change screen temp? and how often would it need to be triggered? Every few minutes to provide a gradual decline?

I think only developing for 64bit OS's explanation is far more reasonable, although not entirely explanatory as to why devloping it for 32bit versions of iOS wouldve been that taxing on Apples large resources. Again, F.lux works perfectly well on old devices.

Oh and as for the sense of entitlement, far from. I would have continued to use F.lux either way, as I wouldve continued to jailbreak either way. I commented on their lack of support for "older" devices like the iPhone 5 (which is still a very capable phone), as it to me it sends an obvious message from Apple to its customers.

Some people think that its perfectly acceptable to upgrade your phone every year, or biyearly. Apple has instilled a sense of it as being normal. As a consumer, I will decide where and how I spend my money. A lot of my decisions are made based on previous experiences, and how I perceive the moral behaviour of a company to be. It is why I dont use any google services, and dont use a microsoft OS.

Radeongate has left me feeling that Apple are a bunch of arseholes that couldnt care less about its customers - deciding to only repair their flawed laptop after a class action law suit was building steam. Apple, to me, is slowly slipping into a similar hole as the others, and I am slowly moving toward linux. Nothing to do with entitlement. It has to do with observation and making decisions based on those obsevations - irrespective of how they may be perceived by others.

 

[iRock1]

Research has suggested that bright light exposure (especially the blue wavelength) at night can interrupt the circadian rhythm, causing sleep problems and other harmful effects on the immune system.

Do you know what else messes up with your circadian rhytm and sleep? Using a frikking phone while lying on your bed when you should be trying to sleep.

 

[felt.]

I feel bad for developers s who's work becomes worthless because "its a feature not a product" ...let's go steal some more great ideas!

 

[Robert.Walter]

I don't know why they call it sherlocking but that's what apples doing to flux.

 

[usarioclave]

Stalinism a system-wide thing, and because of that, Stalin wants control of it. I don't see what's wrong with that?

Luckily you can leave the Apple gulag, if you don't like it. And if you think it's a gulag you never were in a gulag.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Some people think that its perfectly acceptable to upgrade your phone every year, or biyearly. Apple has instilled a sense of it as being normal. As a consumer, I will decide where and how I spend my money.

Every single company that markets cell phones, be it the carriers or the manufacturers themselves, operates on the assumption that one to two years is an adequate lifecycle for a phone. Apple is no different, and has actually been recognized for providing software updates long after other contemporary phones have been abandoned.

So yes, you decide where and how you spend your money. If you choose to not spend money on faster, newer technology, you will be left behind at some point, whether it's a feature here and there or simply the end of support. That's the way it's going to be, at least until the rate of smartphone performance increases begins to level off.

 

[JimmyHook]

Hopefully Apple takes as many good ideas as they can. That's called growth. You take good ideas (that aren't patented) when you see them, and get rid of bad ideas. This is good. Thanks f.lux for making Apple aware of our needs.
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Why doesn't Apple buy these guys out and bring them on board?

Why? They have what they need. And this is better anyway.

 

[alvindarkness]

Every single company that markets cell phones, be it the carriers or the manufacturers themselves, operates on the assumption that one to two years is an adequate lifecycle for a phone. Apple is no different, and has actually been recognized for providing software updates long after other contemporary phones have been abandoned.

So yes, you decide where and how you spend your money. If you choose to not spend money on faster, newer technology, you will be left behind at some point, whether it's a feature here and there or simply the end of support. That's the way it's going to be, at least until the rate of smartphone performance increases begins to level off.

Fair enough.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Fair enough.

If it gives you any hope, imagine Windows XP, released in 2001, installed on an off-the-shelf PC built in 1997. Not a pretty thought. Now imagine Windows 10 running on a PC built in 2012. You don't have to "imagine" much at all, as Windows 10 runs extremely well on just about any machine built in that year. Eventually, the same phenomenon will happen in the smartphone industry. The laws of physics will catch up with silicon manufacturers, and performance improvements will be minimal year-to-year. Until the next big breakthrough, whatever that may be...

 

[alvindarkness]

If it gives you any hope, imagine Windows XP, released in 2001, installed on an off-the-shelf PC built in 1997. Not a pretty thought. Now imagine Windows 10 running on a PC built in 2012. You don't have to "imagine" much at all, as Windows 10 runs extremely well on just about any machine built in that year. Eventually, the same phenomenon will happen in the smartphone industry. The laws of physics will catch up with silicon manufacturers, and performance improvements will be minimal year-to-year. Until the next big breakthrough, whatever that may be...

The difference here is that you can choose what operating system to install on that hardware. I still use some core2 laptops that run exceptionally well on linux. In the iOS model, you can upgrade the OS, but arent allowed to downgrade, by the time you realise youve made 2 steps foward only to progress 5 steps back, you are stuck. Apple has complete control over what features they choose to implement and not, in order to make you perceive an old device as being "stuck behind" - when it is perfectly capable, especially if security updates are still being provided.

But your points are well taken, its not like things are much better on the other side of the fence. I'm glad that I dont rely on iOS that much, nor on any other smart devices. OSX is where I focus most of my Apple energy, and at least that isnt too much of an overtly walled garden yet.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Sure, but only to the relatively small customer base who knows what f.lux is. To the general populace, they will be heralded for creating this feature.

They should be heralded since the code they use will be 100% their own and implemented, tested and supported. A third party product used from a jail broken device lost its voice the moment they jail broke the device.

They either aren't good and networking and wanted to sell the idea to Apple or truly are too dense for words to think a system-wide functionality would be allowed because they think its cool.

Only Apple will ever develop system-wide features. That was a given day 1. Don't like it then go somewhere else.

You won't because no other platform will make you money like iOS. Stop complaining and create something intelligent and interesting at the user space for people to buy.

Can't do that? Too bad.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Don't like it then go somewhere else.

Pride goeth before a fall.