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Steve Jobs on Lack of Custom Wallpapers in iOS 4 for iPhone 3G

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Apr 12, 2001
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As has been widely discussed, while the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch are compatible with Apple's iOS 4 released yesterday, they do not support all of the features of the updating operating system. Multitasking has been the highest-profile feature unsupported by these older devices, but Apple has also noted (iPhone, iPod touch) three other unsupported features: Bluetooth keyboard support, home screen wallpapers, and data protection.

The inclusion of custom home screen wallpapers has been questioned by a number of users, as it does not initially appear that the feature should require particularly advanced hardware. Gizmodo reports that one user emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs to ask about the issue, and received a response noting that unsatisfactory performance of icon animations on top of the custom wallpapers was the reason for the omission.
The icon animation with backgrounds didn't perform well enough.
Click to expand...
Custom wallpapers have obviously been supported on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches for quite some time, so it is not obvious just how Apple's implementation differs, but it seems clear that Apple's implementation of custom wallpapers simply didn't reach the company's standards for performance during the development and testing process.

Article Link: Steve Jobs on Lack of Custom Wallpapers in iOS 4 for iPhone 3G
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/22/steve-jobs-on-lack-of-custom-wallpapers-in-ios-4-for-iphone-3g/
second. my first gen iPhone never had problem with custom icons animating on custom wallpapers, none of which Apple had seen before.

in fact, I'm pretty sure Steve just came up with that reason on the spot. He probably just wants you to buy a new iPhone.
 
For anyone who has jailbroken their phone (4.0) for JUST wallpapers (I turned off multi-tasking) he's 100% right.

Go ahead and try it. Your phone is much, much slower with a wallpaper enabled.

Everyone bitches about how "slow their 3g is" yet they want something that will make it slower. :rolleyes:

Of course, they could have found a way to make it more efficient if they really wanted to...
 
Why does he care about the performance of the 3G? Doesn't he want everyone to upgrade to the iPhone 4?
 
I was disappointed by the lack of custom background for my 3G but I'll get over it.
Everything else has got a bit slower with the new OS so I wouldn't be surprised if the icon animation did look shoddy.
 
iOS 4 (as well as 3.1 on the iPad) don't just drop a wallpaper behind, there's a large shadow that is drawn bottom to top over the wallpaper, as well as each icon has it's own dropshadow. In addition the wallpaper reflects into the dock.

In addition there are completely new animations for the homescreen.

Jailbroken wallpapers do not do it the same way. Obviously Apple could have just disabled the dropshadow + effects for the 3G but they chose to either enable or disable features that didn't work as intended rather than strip it down.
 
I actually noticed this a second ago when I realized that enabling the custom wallpaper is an option in the redsn0w beta that I'm using to jailbreak iOS4.0

(Dev Team outdid themselves. I thought I'd have to wait a while for the jailbreak but it's out within hours of the release of the OS)

But yeah, c'mon. really? The complex wallpaper and skin designs on winterboard run fine on the 3G. No way a jpeg in the background would strain the hardware. I bet it's just another "incentive" Apple is providing for 3G users to switch to iPhone 4.
 
Eh, I have a 3GS but still backgrounds aren't a major selling point for me. My 2G and 3G never had wallpapers.

Think of it this way: your 3G hasn't ever had wallpapers, and when you purchased it you were never told you would get wallpapers. Your device does no less now than it did the day you got it.
 
uhmm...
let's see - the JB tweak works well enough, but :apple:'s implementation doesn't.
Can it be that the problem is with :apple:'s programmers?

(coming to think about it, didn't :apple: blame Adobe for flash's bad performance on OSX while it works just fine on Windows? I'm starting to see a pattern here...)

"didn't perform well enough..."
bad :apple:!
 
I dunno, the new zoom-in / zoom-out animations are pretty smooth on my 3G. I can see how they would want to keep it as slick as it is...a
 
Jobs tells no lies

I jailbroke my iPhone 3G with the 4.0 GM using Redsnow. It allowed me to turn on the wallpaper feature, and indeed, it slowed down my phone. I think it has something to do with the folders. Swiping from page to page seemed to jostle quite a bit. Last night I restored my phone without the feature and it actually feels faster than 3.1.3 right now. I side with Steve.
 
While I was upgrading to iOS4 i knocked the cable out of my iPhone 3G. I swear I saw standard homescreen with only the Apple Apps, and the raindrops background for a split second.

When the restore finalized I got the same BS black as everybody.
 
Fuchal said:
iOS 4 (as well as 3.1 on the iPad) don't just drop a wallpaper behind, there's a large shadow that is drawn bottom to top over the wallpaper, as well as each icon has it's own dropshadow. In addition the wallpaper reflects into the dock.

In addition there are completely new animations for the homescreen.

Jailbroken wallpapers do not do it the same way. Obviously Apple could have just disabled the dropshadow + effects for the 3G but they chose to either enable or disable features that didn't work as intended rather than strip it down.
Click to expand...

Bingo. WinterBoard literally just replaces the black for a picture. The implementation on the 3GS does quite a bit more, such as the reflections, drop shadows aswell as the zoom when opening an app.
 
... it seems clear that Apple's implementation of custom wallpapers simply didn't reach the company's standards for performance during the development and testing process.
Click to expand...

Well, now... Given that ON THE WHOLE, the performance of the iPhone 3G after "upgrading" to iOS4 is woefully dragging along at a snail's pace, I would have to say that iOS4, IN GENERAL should not have been deemed as sufficient to "reach the company's standards for performance" -- it CERTAINLY does not meet MY standards.

I wish I could just go back to iPhone OS 3 to get my performance back up to where it belongs.
In effect the only thing I have gained by going to iOS 4 is compatibility with newer apps, but at the expense of a phone that is too painfully slow for me to tolerate for every day use.
 
Bull

This is all bull, this is due to the fact apple know most people with an iPhone 3g will be ready for upgrading so its all about the money.
 
3gs owner here. After messing around with custom background and folders, I noticed a couple icons (first calendar and then app store) disappeared. I could still use them, but they weren't there. So......
 
For those arguing that jailbreaking their iphone 3G before iOS 4 allowed them to have wallpapers on their homescreen just fine, fail to factor in that iOS 4 does more than previous iterations of iOS and there are things going on in the background that can't be perceived.

everyone claiming Apple is trying to slow down the performance of a 2 year old cellphone just so people can buy new phones is ridiculous. I'd like to see any 2 yr old android or any other phone still be supported with the latest software updates if at all.
 
talkingfuture said:
They aren't missing much, I find the screen a lot harder to read andd switched to the darkest wallpaper I could. Can't find an option for a plain black screen anywhere yet.
Click to expand...

You can just find an image of all black on Google, save it to your camera roll, and set it as your home screen wallpaper.
 
filpaul said:
While I was upgrading to iOS4 i knocked the cable out of my iPhone 3G. I swear I saw standard homescreen with only the Apple Apps, and the raindrops background for a split second.

When the restore finalized I got the same BS black as everybody.
Click to expand...

I got something similar, except I got the Compass app on my 2G Touch for like half a second.
 
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