f.lux is a medical NECESSITY...Why won't Apple approve?

[Solomani]

flux will never be on a non JB'd iDevice. It uses system level APIs that are not available to any apps but Apple. The best you hope for is Apple to ad a feature like it within iOS. It's one of the reasons I'll be on the JB train for iOS7 if or when it comes.

Agreed. The better route would be to petition this to Apple as an "Accessibility" feature to be added to iOS …. those are the features for iOS/Macs that make things a bit easier for people with physical disabilities, poor eyesight, muscle weakness, carpal tunnel, etc etc etc.

The current approach… shouting at Apple "This is a GREAT Jailbreak-based app, Apple! We love it, so you better allow it or else!!!" …. is surely going to get the cold shoulder from Apple.

 

[Menneisyys2]

I very much doubt that you will notice any effect on battery life due to F.lux.

It's a tiny program, and does a single tiny task.

I only jailbreak and install f.lux, absolutely no other hacks, and I have never noticed a drop in battery life.

Indeed it has no adversary effect.

 

[Ann P]

Does this zap your battery? Curious. Got it a few days ago and wondering if it's the reason my iPad is draining fast.

 

[T5BRICK]

Does this zap your battery? Curious. Got it a few days ago and wondering if it's the reason my iPad is draining fast.

Here you go:

I very much doubt that you will notice any effect on battery life due to F.lux.

It's a tiny program, and does a single tiny task.

I only jailbreak and install f.lux, absolutely no other hacks, and I have never noticed a drop in battery life.

I agree. I jailbreak for the single purpose of installing F.lux, and I've never had an issue with battery life.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Does this zap your battery? Curious. Got it a few days ago and wondering if it's the reason my iPad is draining fast.

It doesn't. And this comes from somebody that knows every little secret of iOS, being a seasoned programmer (including both AppStore and JB'n apps) / hacker.

 

[BR3W]

Does this zap your battery? Curious. Got it a few days ago and wondering if it's the reason my iPad is draining fast.

the only way to test this question is back to back testing.

I feel that it did. Contrary to people saying how much they know about programming or experience with iOS or any other *opinion* on the matter the fact is that the program being "tiny" and doing a "tiny" task is irrelevant in terms of battery impact.

The fact is this program monitors device location and ambient light. Even without those features enabled it still constantly monitors and adjusts the time and display.

It will have a measurable impact on battery life. The amount is discoverable and until objective tests are conducted to ascertain the level of impact the correct answer is that no one knows for certain how much it will reduce your device's battery life.

 

[Menneisyys2]

the only way to test this question is back to back testing.

I feel that it did. Contrary to people saying how much they know about programming or experience with iOS or any other *opinion* on the matter the fact is that the program being "tiny" and doing a "tiny" task is irrelevant in terms of battery impact.

The fact is this program monitors device location and ambient light. Even without those features enabled it still constantly monitors and adjusts the time and display.

It will have a measurable impact on battery life. The amount is discoverable and until objective tests are conducted to ascertain the level of impact the correct answer is that no one knows for certain how much it will reduce your device's battery life.

Back in the iOS6 times, as with everything I test / review, I did measure the CPU usage of the tweak. At most, it consumed 2-3% CPU time. At most - most of the time it was between 0 and 1%. This doesn't really cause any major battery usage drops.

I'll quickly do the same under 7.1b2 on two of my JB'n devices.

 

[jayem1234]

Do you guys think it's worth it to wait for 7.1 to jailbreak? I too am thinking about jail breaking for the sole purpose of f.lux but haven't pulled the trigger just yet.

 

[Ann P]

Hmm.. will continue to monitor as I go.

Do you guys think it's worth it to wait for 7.1 to jailbreak? I too am thinking about jail breaking for the sole purpose of f.lux but haven't pulled the trigger just yet.

What if there's no jailbreak for 7.1? :O

 

[jayem1234]

Hmm.. will continue to monitor as I go.




What if there's no jailbreak for 7.1? :O

That's my issue

 

[Menneisyys2]

Do you guys think it's worth it to wait for 7.1 to jailbreak? I too am thinking about jail breaking for the sole purpose of f.lux but haven't pulled the trigger just yet.

Upgrade to 7.1b2 now if you have a dev license and apply the hack at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1688804/

This is, currently, the best solution.

----------

Hmm.. will continue to monitor as I go.

See above - it seems the hack I've linked to makes the JB'able 7.1b2 not expire. And it's way superior to 7.0.4.

 

[Gutwrench]

Agreed. The better route would be to petition this to Apple as an "Accessibility" feature to be added to iOS …. those are the features for iOS/Macs that make things a bit easier for people with physical disabilities, poor eyesight, muscle weakness, carpal tunnel, etc etc etc.

I agree. The medical NECESSITY angle is unconvincing in my opinion.

 

[C DM]

I agree. The medical NECESSITY angle is unconvincing in my opinion.

It seems we should already move beyond that particular aspect of it by this point in the thread.

 

[Gutwrench]

It seems we should already move beyond that particular aspect of it by this point in the thread.

Okay. What was the final ruling?

 

[hafr]

the only way to test this question is back to back testing.

I feel that it did. Contrary to people saying how much they know about programming or experience with iOS or any other *opinion* on the matter the fact is that the program being "tiny" and doing a "tiny" task is irrelevant in terms of battery impact.

The fact is this program monitors device location and ambient light. Even without those features enabled it still constantly monitors and adjusts the time and display.

It will have a measurable impact on battery life. The amount is discoverable and until objective tests are conducted to ascertain the level of impact the correct answer is that no one knows for certain how much it will reduce your device's battery life.

You've completely misunderstood what this app is and how it works.

You open the app once to let it get your location, it then uses a calendar in order for the service to know when the sun goes up and down in your location (i.e. when to activate/deactivate). If you change location, you need to open it again to let it get your new location or it will keep on using the previous sun calendar.

It doesn't measure ambient lighting, you enter what kind of hue you want during daylight hours, and what kind of hue you want during nighttime hours.

That's it. The service itself, keeping the blue out, requires no extra energy. And if keeping track of the time is a battery killer, I guess you would advice me to disable all my alarms, reminders etc.?

----------

Okay. What was the final ruling?

That it's beneficial for everyone due to biology, but some suffer more than others without it.

Saying "I don't need it" is not the same as "this does nothing for me". It does something for everyone, but not everyone needs it. Either way, not having this under Accessibility options is a disgrace, IMHO.

 

[T5BRICK]

The fact is this program monitors device location and ambient light. Even without those features enabled it still constantly monitors and adjusts the time and display.

It doesn't monitor ambient light, but iOS does by default. I've had location services disabled for F.lux and it functions just fine that way.

It only adjusts the display color temperature twice a day based on the time and date. This isn't exactly a resource heavy task.

Any impact on battery life is minimal.

 

[hafr]

It doesn't monitor ambient light, but iOS does by default. I've had location services disabled for F.lux and it functions just fine that way.

It only adjusts the display color temperature twice a day based on the time and date. This isn't exactly a resource heavy task.

Any impact on battery life is minimal.

Exactly. Basically what f.lux does is no more of a battery killer than having two alarms or reminders per day.

Who would claim having an alarm at 8 am and another at 5pm each day was a battery killer?

 

[BR3W]

It doesn't monitor ambient light, but iOS does by default. I've had location services disabled for F.lux and it functions just fine that way.

It only adjusts the display color temperature twice a day based on the time and date. This isn't exactly a resource heavy task.

Any impact on battery life is minimal.

I read through the patch notes after my post and the author has in fact fixed a number of the concerns I listed. In .984 the code was reworked to use the CPU up to 80% less than previous versions. The latest version, .987, puts the app to sleep when the screen is off.

--http://justgetflux.com/cydia/

Previous to those most recent updates (.986 was compatibility for iOS7) it exhibited the issues I posted and was a more significant draw on the battery.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Previous to those most recent updates (.986 was compatibility for iOS7) it exhibited the issues I posted and was a more significant draw on the battery.

We're speaking about 0.5...1% of reduced battery life - at most. Definitely not a problem.

FYI: a process running stale (at (2x) 100% CPU usage) could easily make the battery life half or even quarter of that of the original battery life, depending on the device (small-screen iPhone where this is much more evdident vs. iPad where it isn't). Compared to that, f.lux doesn't and has never caused any major battery strain.

 

[BR3W]

It would be more informative if the people responding with fabricated data would simply test the hypothesis objectively.

It's a quantifiable issue. There is no need to make-up numbers to try and prove one's point. Test it...or don't test the question. But quit saying it's a non-issue when you don't actually know that to be true (and no, your *opinion* doesn't matter in this regard).

You can say that the battery drain doesn't bother you but that's as far as you can go with the data in the thread.


When I used f.lux the battery drain bothered me. Looking through the patch notes it's easy to see why that might have been the case: memory leaks, non-optimized code, and constantly running processes. Those issues seem to have been addressed by the latest version but I haven't personally tested it. I'm not about to jailbreak simply to test it and I wouldn't advise anyone to do so, either.

Clearly, according the author's own patch notes, battery drain *was* an issue for him.

 

[T5BRICK]

You can say that the battery drain doesn't bother you but that's as far as you can go with the data in the thread.

I've been using different versions of F.lux since the Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak was available for my iPhone 4S. Granted, I haven't used EVERY version since then, but the ones I have used haven't shown a measurable difference in battery life.

I'm not sure what was going on in your situation, but my experience has been very different from yours.

 

[Perth12]

I wouldn't say it was a medical necessity. If you suffer that badly you shouldn't be looking at screens before you go to bed. Simple as that.

f.lux hasn't even been admitted to the app store as it uses API's that aren't allowed in the app store, simple as. This is not Apple not letting the software in, it's that the software is doing things that are simply not possible via the app store method.

Human beings have been on the planet for a very very long time now, and we've been looking at computer screens since the late 80's with no problems. flux has been around for a couple of years. It's not a medical necessity.

Also, it's not even on Android, or Windows mobile.

If the brightness is preventing you from sleeping, and it is something you have consciously noticed then it must have a direct affect on your mental stability. Surely this can be classified as a medical condition?

 

[dontpannic]

If the brightness is preventing you from sleeping, and it is something you have consciously noticed then it must have a direct affect on your mental stability. Surely this can be classified as a medical condition?

I don't think you're seeing the point.

Brightness preventing you from sleeping and affecting your mental stability (??) may well be a recognised medical condition for which solutions already exist.

Flux isn't a medical necessity though. If you're having problems sleeping due to using your iPad before bed, and you go to your doctor, your doctor is going to tell you to put your iPad down, not install Flux onto it. That's as simple as it gets.

If Flux is a medical necessity as this post implies then the software should be available on ALL devices with LCD screens... televisions, alarm clocks, watches...

 

[hafr]

I don't think you're seeing the point.

...says the blind man.

Brightness preventing you from sleeping and affecting your mental stability (??) may well be a recognised medical condition for which solutions already exist.

Flux isn't a medical necessity though. If you're having problems sleeping due to using your iPad before bed, and you go to your doctor, your doctor is going to tell you to put your iPad down, not install Flux onto it. That's as simple as it gets.

If you would tell your doctor about f.lux, do you think he would say "that's not going to help"?

If you're having problems driving due to being very near sighted, do you think your doctor would tell you to stop driving?

If Flux is a medical necessity as this post implies then the software should be available on ALL devices with LCD screens... televisions, alarm clocks, watches...

I've got a very cheap LCD-TV and I still have the possibility to change the colours, hue, temperature and so on. I assume it's not an uncommon setting, why don't you check your TV(s) and see if you've got them as well?

I've also got f.lux installed on the computer I use during the evenings.

Do you really stare into your alarm clock? Do you really have a watch with a bright screen that you stare at for hours? Either you came up with pretty much the worst examples ever, or you're just not getting it.

--

I absolutely love how this makes people so aggressive, it's like the possibility of having f.lux implemented as an option is a personal insult to them. What makes this, that is beneficial to EVERYONE, such a terrible option? Why not go on a rampage about how accessibility options contains things only a very small minority would ever have the need for?

I don't need chemo, does that make it less of a medical necessity for those who do?

 

[X5-599]

I absolutely love how this makes people so aggressive, it's like the possibility of having f.lux implemented as an option is a personal insult to them. What makes this, that is beneficial to EVERYONE, such a terrible option?

Very simple:

I (and I guess others people) get VERY upset when someone's CONSTANTLY ranting on and on about how I NEED product X. How it's idiotic NOT to have product X. That I'm an idiot for not realizing that product X is THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD etc.

So, be happy about your product but for the love of everything that's good in the world: Stop trying to convert people!