Quick Takes: Apple Watch Apps Called 'Frustrating' to Develop, iOS 11 Jailbreak With Cydia, and More

[Altis]

You're a rare bird. Someone who considers all the possibilities all the time while driving. The vast majority of drivers have no idea what is going on in the head of the very best drivers, and the software is reflecting that. I'm over two million miles crash free. I've never had an incident. Nothing, after spending the majority of my driving time in the worst imaginably congested cities. I'd expect you're similar. I think the average self driving software is at about 100k per incident. For people like us, being forced to let a computer take over is mortifying.

I've driven for work for 7 years at a previous job, so I can relate with you (no incidents).

I do like the idea of forward-collision prevention tech on regular cars as I think that having an extra set of "eyes" to make sure you don't hit something.

The problem with driverless cars is getting them to "see" the world around them and interpret it correctly. There are endless variables and situations which it has to be able to distinguish and act upon, relying primarily on camera data which then has to be processed to figure out what it "sees".

It'll be a while before they can reliably drive around in the snow, for example, as it's difficult for them to figure out where the road is precisely.

 

[Eorlas]

You went head over heels to credit Saurik for his contributions to the jailbreak community, yet didn't credit Coolstar & co for creating Electra.

You also incorrectly attribute potential problems with Electra to a lack of updates from Saurik, and are unaware that Saurik has stated nothing he makes will be compatible with Electra. Electra is forked from open-sourced material by saurik and others, including some non-forked code.

Electra need not be "avoided because of problems" just because Saruik doesn't support it. Like other jailbreaks before it, it's still week 1 of release and thus has bugs to be worked out. However, for the majority of cases it is stable, and it is fully functioning with Cydia as a package manager.

The OP should be updated to reflect proper details.

 

[thekeyring]

For me, on the latest Watch, third party apps like Instagram were unusably slow. Goodness knows how bad they were on older watches.

A native WhatsApp that runs are smoothly as iMessages would be lovely.

I actually avoid the homesceeen and put the features I use in the dock. I don’t ever use Weather, and see little value in it unless it’s a Watch face complication, but Now Playing, Breathe etc are good.

 

[Eorlas]

Jailbreaking is so pointless.

This post is hilarious to me.

You should go on an easter egg hunt and find out how many iOS "features" started as "pointless" jailbreak tweaks. You should also go on an easter egg hunt and find out how many currently requested features for iOS are things you can have right now if you're jailbroken. And quite stable.

Actually, I'll list some here because this will be loads of fun:

Wi-Fi syncing. This one got scooped by Apple into the next software update pretty much right after it released.

Control Center. iOS 7 in Fall of 2013? Try SBSettings back in 2010

QuickReply. iOS 8 in '14? Hahaha try biteSMS in early 2009. It also had the ability to send messages from anywhere outside of the message app, not just reply. Not to mention a whole host of other features that Apple apparently has no idea how to implement.

Night Shift. This was f.lux for a long time before they cared to make this happen.

Notification Center? Intelliscreen.

Widgets? Had those first.

Task Switcher? Auxo.

Some things people want changed about iOS right now:

Incoming calls dominating the whole screen. CallBar solves that right now.

Individual app locking with biometrics. BioProtect does it.

Apple gets rid of the home button on the X to free up space, yet leaves the home bar as a permanent fixture without a toggle. No problem there if you're jailbroken.

Switch the default maps app. Can't, unless you're jailbroken.

Lazy dev hasn't updated their app to support new device res? Good guy jailbreak dev makes a tweak that forces all apps to fit anyway. (Side note, this doesn't work with CVS because they didn't even update the UI even for the iPhone 6. Lazy af.)

Break the 150mb download limit over data. We have an unrestrictor for that.

Declutter the lockscreen. Jailbreak solves that.

_________

You say jailbreaking is pointless, and I bet you think that stock iOS is "great." But please, PLEASE, tell me more about how "pointless" jailbreaking is when Apple will proudly tout new "features" to you every new *year* that were already available to jailbroken devices for so long. It takes Apple a full year's software cycle to "innovate" with "new" features that a jailbreak dev will make right now, and stable.

But no, that's "pointless." Hahahah, oh man. You're fun.

 

[L-Viz]

Apple Watch is dying.

 

[yegon]

When does Marco Arment not complain? ATP is barely listenable as all they do is spend 2 hours whining and complaining about things. I remember a year or two ago Casey Liss said their New Years resolution was to be less negative (based on listener feedback). Not sure how long that lasted. Every recent show I’ve listened to was whine, moan and complain.

Disagree.

I find a lot of their criticism valid and constructive. They clearly really like Apple products (especially John), as I do, but wish certain things were resolved or prioritised above others.

It's Rene Richie, Gruber and their ilk I cannot listen to or read. Good god, they are textbook Apple evangelists who defend and justify everything Apple.

Again for clarity, I really like and own lots of Apple stuff, but am not blind to some of their glaring faults and inadequacies.

 

[jbizzybeetle]

If all 4 cars are self-driving, they wouldn't even need to stop, as they will have all negotiated the intersection with each other well in advance, and adjust their speeds up or down slightly accordingly, so they all pass through the intersection safely.

If one of the cars is human-driven, then it wouldn't be any different than how it is today, but I imagine out of an abundance of caution the self-driving cars will let the reckless and unpredictable human go first, and then they'll go after in a perfectly synced manner.

I remain skeptical, but hopeful. After all, my iOS and MacOS -based devices don’t sync so reliably now. I wouldn’t put them on wheels at 55 mph in opposing lanes and expect stellar results.

 

[spazzcat]

Agree with the Apple Watch Apps being "baby" apps. I've said it from the beginning, it's the most fun in terms of development.. until you realize you are handcuffed big time! Way to much locked down on the Watch. I understand the health data but good grief refresh request data limits.. seriously? And still after all this time, no watch face store or ability to truly customize the design. If I want 5 apps on a face with a background at the same time, I should be able to do that on the latest watch due to the processing speed.. but no, still nothing. Apple needs to wake up.. loosen the reigns a bit and see where developers can help take the company into the future. At some point those developers.. myself included are going to leave and do great things for someone else. And I love Apple products but they are shooting themselves in the foot constantly with hardly any real changes to their OS's and the way they are built.

Its largely about battery life, as the hardware gets better, Apple will open up more and more APIs.

 

[The Phazer]

Do Google's "Flutter" apps basically work the same and almost look the same on iOS and Android? If yes, it could be one way Google is trying to get more iOS users on Android.

The Flutter framework contains iOS and Android dialogue boxes for example, so not really (which quite surprised me really). It seems Google's desire is to make it desirable to use and capture marketshare with it rather than try and entrench their platform.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

From the article:

Apple doesn’t feel WatchKit’s limitations. Since they’re not using it, it’s too easy for Apple’s developers and evangelists to forget or never know what’s possible, what isn’t, what’s easy, and what’s hard. The bugs and limitations I report to them are usually met with shock and surprise — they have no idea.

This is exactly what Microsoft was doing in the late 90's, and it turned out horribly for them, too.

 

[cfc]

It's Rene Richie, Gruber and their ilk I cannot listen to or read. Good god, they are textbook Apple evangelists who defend and justify everything Apple.

Actually part of Gruber's response to the article was "I half feel like Apple should just get rid of third-party WatchOS apps and be done with it". So in this situation he was very critical of Apple. And very wrong.

As a watch app developer I agree with a lot of what Marco says in terms of the restrictions of the frameworks, but I must admit that I don't find watchOS that buggy. Sure I have come across a few issues, but no more than I find in iOS 11, let alone when iOS was on version 4 like watchOS. Maybe I have just been lucky.

 

[alecc131]

I love Apple Watch — but I think four years in.... and still not having a capable sports scores app with a complication that actually works reliably. Bc of technical complexity (limitations). This says enough

 

[jclardy]

It’s not to get users on Android. It’s to improve the App situation on Android, which lags iOS significantly. They have the numbers, not the quality. Especially on tablets where Android is a joke.

I think it could be more forward thinking than that. As in Flutter will be the main way to build apps for their upcoming Fuchsia OS, and having devs with existing codebases mean that they can just tweak their UI's slightly (Or maybe even not at all, depending on how far it veers from Android.)

 

[Baymowe335]

This post is hilarious to me.

You should go on an easter egg hunt and find out how many iOS "features" started as "pointless" jailbreak tweaks. You should also go on an easter egg hunt and find out how many currently requested features for iOS are things you can have right now if you're jailbroken. And quite stable.

Actually, I'll list some here because this will be loads of fun:

Wi-Fi syncing. This one got scooped by Apple into the next software update pretty much right after it released.

Control Center. iOS 7 in Fall of 2013? Try SBSettings back in 2010

QuickReply. iOS 8 in '14? Hahaha try biteSMS in early 2009. It also had the ability to send messages from anywhere outside of the message app, not just reply. Not to mention a whole host of other features that Apple apparently has no idea how to implement.

Night Shift. This was f.lux for a long time before they cared to make this happen.

Notification Center? Intelliscreen.

Widgets? Had those first.

Task Switcher? Auxo.

Some things people want changed about iOS right now:

Incoming calls dominating the whole screen. CallBar solves that right now.

Individual app locking with biometrics. BioProtect does it.

Apple gets rid of the home button on the X to free up space, yet leaves the home bar as a permanent fixture without a toggle. No problem there if you're jailbroken.

Switch the default maps app. Can't, unless you're jailbroken.

Lazy dev hasn't updated their app to support new device res? Good guy jailbreak dev makes a tweak that forces all apps to fit anyway. (Side note, this doesn't work with CVS because they didn't even update the UI even for the iPhone 6. Lazy af.)

Break the 150mb download limit over data. We have an unrestrictor for that.

Declutter the lockscreen. Jailbreak solves that.

_________

You say jailbreaking is pointless, and I bet you think that stock iOS is "great." But please, PLEASE, tell me more about how "pointless" jailbreaking is when Apple will proudly tout new "features" to you every new *year* that were already available to jailbroken devices for so long. It takes Apple a full year's software cycle to "innovate" with "new" features that a jailbreak dev will make right now, and stable.

But no, that's "pointless." Hahahah, oh man. You're fun.

The actual act of doing the jailbreak is pointless because you have to run old versions of iOS to make it work. And don’t make it sound like every feature you’ve seen makes its way to iOS or that the jailbreak gave Apple every idea. You don’t know what they worked on putting in iOS.

 

[TwoBytes]

I'm willing to bet the dirty secret behind the Watch is that the hardware just isn't there to run apps without compromise. Even just the OS stutters on my S2; I can't imagine some poorly-optimized app running, sucking down battery and polling doubleclick.net every second. It's bad enough waiting on the Control Center or Siri to catch up with real time.

That said the lack of truly creative watch faces and/or proper face customization is just ridiculous. Why can't I pick arbitrary complications--why are there restrictions? Why can't I have a simple digital face with seconds? Are the seconds too CPU-intensive or too battery intensive, or did the one Apple Watch developer get pulled over to work on Animoji?

This is exactly it. It's bad enough we have 1-day battery, no sleep mode already.

 

[dewski]

Yeah, After my Series 1 watch, I decided not to do the apps on the watch. I always seem to have one or two apps that crash and reboots the watch, so I don't put apps on it. I just get notifications, ApplePay and phone calls on my Series 3 watch with cellular. Less of a headache, and I can always check apps on my phone.

Same. The watch is only good for notifications for my use. I deleted all apps and haven't really thought about them since. Still scared to use apple pay and look like a jerk.
[doublepost=1519916586][/doublepost]

Developers embrace Apple products, then once then find it difficult and leave.




True, but still, its the first hurdle you gotta overcome.. Self driving cars is a slow start. All these companies are digging their feet into this as well,, but its all just a ticker toy to play with....

Showing what stuff can do like at CES... That's how i imagine this, test driving, but i would only believe a product out when i see it with my own eyes and people are actually getting one as their next car.

That is still a long way off i think.

Agreed. I don't think autonomous driving will ever share the road with human drivers. I can see where they make autonomous lanes or roads, but the idea of a car dropping you off and heading somewhere else with literally no humans in the car is a little silly. I could see remote controlling the vehicle, but a human has to be in control of the car at all times.

 

[QuarterSwede]

This is exactly it. It's bad enough we have 1-day battery, no sleep mode already.

You do realize the Series 3 is quick, has over 2 day battery life, and has zero of these issues right?

 

[nt5672]

I can’t help but wonder what the self-driving experience will be like at a four-way stop where you’re engaged in a “you go ahead; oh me first? Oh, wait, you’re going now—but you’ve stopped again; I’ll wait; are you gonna go or am I?” scenario.

The driving laws explain which car has the right of way. So I would expect they just follow the law, which apparently some posters here have no clue about.

 

[deanthedev]

I think it could be more forward thinking than that. As in Flutter will be the main way to build apps for their upcoming Fuchsia OS, and having devs with existing codebases mean that they can just tweak their UI's slightly (Or maybe even not at all, depending on how far it veers from Android.)

That’s another possibility. However, do you really want to see Google treat their OSes like they do their messaging platforms? Always coming up with a new version without any clear direction? What happens to Android or Chrome when Fuchsia comes out? How does Treble play into this?

 

[nt5672]

I have noticed that I cannot find a WiFi signal-strength diagnostic tool in the App Store, like the kind that I used to use on Android. Is this an iOS limitation?

Nope, Apple does not want to have to deal with people that have strong WiFi signals but still have connection problems. Apple is not the best at wireless code and antenna design so they just endeavor to make it less obvious when Apple's users allow them by not complaining.

BTW, in case some have not paid attention, the WiFi bars in the iOS status bar are not much more than feel good indicators. The bars have an Apple biased relationship to signal strength. Apple seems to do a lot of things based on the concept that Apple's users are ignorant. Note, that I did not say or mean 'dumb'. Kind of makes one feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

[ChrisCW11]

The problem with a jack of all trades platform like for Apple Watch (or any smart watch) is that while it does certain things very well, it just doesn't do everything well, and some things are just naive, so trying to make it a platform that could be used for anything like games or other content that just doesn't work on the wrist is stupid.

Apple should reign in on the expansiveness of what it allows to be accomplished on the Apple Watch and instead focus on making the development platform superlative for "wrist" like functions like health, GPS, notifications, TIME, etc.

I think what happens is some developer wants to port a game like Quake onto the Apple Watch and finds it hard to do because he is treating Apple Watch like a mini tablet rather then treating Apple Watch like a...watch, so in this respect I think most developers have to curb their expectations of what can be accomplished on the platform and instead focus on "watchy" like things.

However, if building apps that are intended to use the watch features is difficult to do or maintain, then Apple has more to improve with their development platform for it.

Apple wanted to keep the Apple Watch dev platform broad in intent to eventually boast about having a million apps on your wrist, but I think both Apple and watch app developer have woefully underestimated just how limiting the "wrist platform" is and we are starting to see the market adjust itself to the realistic expectations of a wearable tablet.

 

[panjandrum]

I have noticed that I cannot find a WiFi signal-strength diagnostic tool in the App Store, like the kind that I used to use on Android. Is this an iOS limitation?

It is (an absolutely absurd) Apple policy limitation of some sort. It's perfectly possible to install apps that do exactly this - if your iPhone is jailbroken...

 

[cfc]

I think that watch apps will improve greatly in the near future because more and more of us developers are writing apps that are intended specifically for the Watch. At the moment most watch apps are almost afterthoughts that provide a small subset of the features in an iPhone app. However that is changing as the device becomes more popular and it becomes viable to write an app purely for the Watch.

There are 30 to 40 million watch owners out there who are generally early-adopters and more likely to buy apps than most people, so that is a pretty large target market. The iPhone market is saturated with good apps but there is much less competition in the watch app market in terms of both quantity and quality. It makes sense for developers to write apps aimed purely at the Watch (despite the limitations of the API!).

My latest watch app comes with an iPhone app rather than the other way round. The iPhone app is purely used to support the Watch app. Hopefully more and more developers will start to prioritise the watch app over the iPhone, or at least treat them equally.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Same. The watch is only good for notifications for my use. I deleted all apps and haven't really thought about them since. Still scared to use apple pay and look like a jerk.

I don't understand your feeling about paying with your watch. I do it all the time and it is so superior to pulling out a wallet, swiping a card or putting it in a reader, signing, etc.

The comment that I get the most often, is "man, that is so cool." However, more and more places where I use it, they don't bat an eye and just hand me my receipt.

I do live in the US though, but I was in Poland last year and my host saw me go to use my watch, he said "I don't think that is going to work." But, I paid with my American credit card to a Polish grocery store with my Apple watch and it went as smooth as butter. He was blown away by it.

I have never gotten the vibe from anyone that they saw it as a negative.

 

[yegon]

Actually part of Gruber's response to the article was "I half feel like Apple should just get rid of third-party WatchOS apps and be done with it". So in this situation he was very critical of Apple. And very wrong.

Oh right. No fan of Gruber, but to be fair he is occasionally capable of some degree of constructive criticism of Apple amidst all the hand clapping. I shouldn’t lump him in totally with Richie, who is like an over eager puppy ready to swallow any scraps that Apple feed him, to keep himself on the “favoured” commentator list. Yuck.

As for Watch apps, the only 3rd party app I use (rarely) is, coincidentally, the Overcast one, and that’s hamstrung by the inability to change volume. Use it to change podcasts when I can’t get to my phone easily and haven’t queued them up well, and that’s rare.

I used to use apps/complications for water consumption and a couple of other things but gave them up long ago, far too often they didn’t refresh properly without prompting.