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M7. What's up with that?

E

ekiro

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2013
136
0
Seems like a useless thing thrown in that marketing presentation Apple treated us with not too long ago.

I haven't used it. Feels useless. Not sure what I am suppose to do with this processor.

I guess it's something 'forward thinking' to complement that new iBand-iWatch they are working on.
 
I did. And it's not the reason I bought the 5s. So far it's not done anything for me. It's dead weight inside my phone. Unbelievable. Imagine the drag.

Is there someone I can send my phone to have it yanked out?? Like yanking out a bad tooth.
 
ekiro said:
I did. And it's not the reason I bought the 5s. So far it's not done anything for me. It's dead weight inside my phone. Unbelievable. Imagine the drag.

Is there someone I can send my phone to have it yanked out?? Like yanking out a bad tooth.
Click to expand...

ill happily smash it with a sledge for you. i wish we could have this thread M7'd too while we were at it.
 
dictoresno said:
ill happily smash it with a sledge for you. i wish we could have this thread M7'd too while we were at it.
Click to expand...

Nope it's a legit argument.

I bet majority of 5s owners never even think about this m7 coprocessor. Nor use me apps that take advantage of it. I believe it's
Specifically designed for the smartwatch.
 
do you know when you are using your CPU and GPU? No, it's a processor, it's deigned to work in the background. It's not something you have to "do anything with"
 
Active and competitive people may find it useful. It probably will not be groundbreaking like many of apples other technologies, but they should try it.
 
ekiro said:
Nope it's a legit argument.
Click to expand...

Actually, unless you've completely turned off location services, the M7 is pretty much in constant use.

I bet majority of 5s owners never even think about this m7 coprocessor.
Click to expand...

I bet the majority of iPhone users haven't really thought about the A7 processor either, or the A6. A5 and A4 that came before it. That doesn't make them any less useful or important.

Ultimately, the purpose of the M7 is pretty typical of all coprocessors that exist: offload certain types of resource-intensive tasks from the CPU. This isn't something the end-user is going to directly feel, but it's more useful for developers to know about and exploit.

I believe it's
Specifically designed for the smartwatch.
Click to expand...

Not sure how the M7 inside the phone would be of any use to the smart watch If you want the watch to process movement, you put the M7 on the watch itself.
 
DanTSX said:
Active and competitive people may find it useful. It probably will not be groundbreaking like many of apples other technologies, but they should try it.
Click to expand...

Plain observation: I don't see the benefit of it. I'm sure if May help if you have it strapped to your arm. But **** that.

Can't wait to see what's next...
 
ekiro said:
Plain observation: I don't see the benefit of it. I'm sure if May help if you have it strapped to your arm. But **** that.

Can't wait to see what's next...
Click to expand...

One way it helps is that if you're not moving around at all it will poll for cell sites less, using less battery. If you look it up, there were many other benefits listed, aside from the obvious fitness applications it promotes.
 
ekiro said:
Seems like a useless thing thrown in that marketing presentation Apple treated us with not too long ago.

I haven't used it. Feels useless. Not sure what I am suppose to do with this processor.

I guess it's something 'forward thinking' to complement that new iBand-iWatch they are working on.
Click to expand...

And that is because you are not using the apps that can make use of M7 yet. I use Pedometer ++ and Argus daily and it make use of M7.

M7 is a first step for motion based application. Passport is an app that make use location as an input for the apps to work. Apple has a patent filed that will make use of the M7 to detect that a user is change from driving to moving and change the map accordingly. Or organize the contact list base on the location of where he is (work or home). You can imagine a 5s used as WII type of motion based controller. Whether the M7 is successful or not depend on the App designer's imagination. For my money, it beat NFC as an investment for future apps. If we don't see any useful apps coming out by next year, then M7 fails. If we see useful apps, we will be singing the praise for Apple genius of including a motion processor.
 
why do people keep saying M7 needs apps to take advantage of???

NO IT DOESN'T...

The OS uses the M7 to detect whether you are sitting still, moving, walking, driving, to determine how often it should update things like GPS.

In fact, the M7 is ALWAYS collecting accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope data. It does not need an app to work, it is always working. It's low power consumption and efficiency means that the A7 doesn't have to worry about these tasks which improves battery life while giving you the benefits of not having to turn gps on and off all of the time for example.

If you want to use an app that takes advantage of M7, it no longer has to be launched and told to start collecting the data on your run. The M7 automatically is logging all of that data and keeps it on record for 7 days for other apps to access without consuming resources of the A7 and wasting battery life.
 
ekiro said:
Nope it's a legit argument.

I bet majority of 5s owners never even think about this m7 coprocessor. Nor use me apps that take advantage of it. I believe it's
Specifically designed for the smartwatch.
Click to expand...

I literally use it every day to track how many steps ive walked throughout the day.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
why do people keep saying M7 needs apps to take advantage of???

NO IT DOESN'T...

The OS uses the M7 to detect whether you are sitting still, moving, walking, driving, to determine how often it should update things like GPS.

In fact, the M7 is ALWAYS collecting accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope data. It does not need an app to work, it is always working. It's low power consumption and efficiency means that the A7 doesn't have to worry about these tasks which improves battery life while giving you the benefits of not having to turn gps on and off all of the time for example.

If you want to use an app that takes advantage of M7, it no longer has to be launched and told to start collecting the data on your run. The M7 automatically is logging all of that data and keeps it on record for 7 days for other apps to access without consuming resources of the A7 and wasting battery life.
Click to expand...

So it's always working without my permission or awareness?
What if I don't want it tracking me one bit?
Sounds like a way for the NSA to track your every move.
 
ekiro said:
So it's always working without my permission or awareness?
What if I don't want it tracking me one bit?
Sounds like a way for the NSA to track your every move.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's exactly it! Apple has teamed up with the NSA - Apple's the newest government contractor. We should all be afraid - be very afraid.

Or, just turn it off.
 
It's simple really.

Get a screwdriver that can open your iPhone 5S. Pull off the shielding and use a flat head screwdriver to click out the M7 chip.

Sorted! Takes about 5 minutes.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
why do people keep saying M7 needs apps to take advantage of???

NO IT DOESN'T...

The OS uses the M7 to detect whether you are sitting still, moving, walking, driving, to determine how often it should update things like GPS.

In fact, the M7 is ALWAYS collecting accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope data. It does not need an app to work, it is always working. It's low power consumption and efficiency means that the A7 doesn't have to worry about these tasks which improves battery life while giving you the benefits of not having to turn gps on and off all of the time for example.

If you want to use an app that takes advantage of M7, it no longer has to be launched and told to start collecting the data on your run. The M7 automatically is logging all of that data and keeps it on record for 7 days for other apps to access without consuming resources of the A7 and wasting battery life.
Click to expand...

This is a good summary of what's going on. Realize that up until this point every app out there that was interested in motion data had to actively monitor it. Now all of those apps need to be refactored to be more passive, only requesting the data when they actually need it. Depending on how the app was written, that could be a major undertaking.

Also, think about all the apps that utilize GPS. Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, they can all go into a quiet mode if the phone hasn't moved for some time. They couldn't do this before because GPS isn't accurate enough to actually determined that you've stayed in the same spot. Because of minor variations in GPS signals, they can't tell if you just moved two feet or if that change was just noise. Now they can check the data from the M7 to see if you are actually moving. If you aren't then they don't need to keep the GPS active.

Finally, consider that the Nike Moves app that Apple touted still isn't even out yet. I've heard it will be sometime around November 1st, but that's just a rumor as far as I know.
 
ekiro said:
So it's always working without my permission or awareness?
What if I don't want it tracking me one bit?
Sounds like a way for the NSA to track your every move.
Click to expand...

No more so then the GPS. Turn location services off if you don't care for that information to be collected.

If the NSA wants to find you, they will find you simple as that.
 
CEmajr said:
I agree. Just open up your iPhone and take it out. Then try and see how well it works without it.
Click to expand...

To this i would recommend making a high quality video of the entire process, including your reactions before and after.
 
ekiro said:
So it's always working without my permission or awareness?
What if I don't want it tracking me one bit?
Sounds like a way for the NSA to track your every move.
Click to expand...

Dude. Put the phone in microwave: Set to "Baked Potato": Press START.

The NSA has a video up online right now of your "Apartment"...

Elmo pajamas? Seriously?!?

Ditch the phone before it gets worse and go back to Android. At least they know how to build a plastic phone that doesn't compromise the criminal lifestyle!
 
ekiro said:
Nope it's a legit argument.

I bet majority of 5s owners never even think about this m7 coprocessor. Nor use me apps that take advantage of it.
Click to expand...

It's a chip. It has functionality. Its functionality is enabled and accessed through a new API in iOS 7. The new API in iOS 7 is for programmers. Programmers will have creative ideas. They will write new apps with the new API in iOS 7. It's called creativity, and it takes time.
 
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