What does optimisation actually mean?

[nj-morris]

So iOS 9 is focusing on stability and optimisation. This is what we've all heard. But I've been wondering what the actual meaning of that word is. At first I thought it meant that it was just making memory more manageable, and that sort of stuff. But then it could mean optimising each individual device to its needs. Optimising the iPads bigger screen. Optimising the 6 plus bigger screen. But what I think is most important is optimising the newer devices. It seems stupid how an iPad 2 from 2011 runs the same software as an iPad Air 2. What I've noticed is that don't add any new software features until they can add them to all the supported devices. We're paying loads of extra money for a device which is essentially the same, and the main differences only come in 2-4 years.

 

[FatPuppy]

Old devices get the latest updates because of the security reasons, apps require a particular OS version and Apple does not want a defragmented ecosystem like google. Also, you can't compare an ipad 2 with an ipad air 2, the ipad 2 might have almost all the features the air 2 has but that does not mean that the ipad 2 works as it should because it is slow. Also, optimization means a better RAM memory management, apps open faster, and the system is overall more fluid, smooth and less buggy.

 

[Michael Goff]

So iOS 9 is focusing on stability and optimisation. This is what we've all heard. But I've been wondering what the actual meaning of that word is. At first I thought it meant that it was just making memory more manageable, and that sort of stuff. But then it could mean optimising each individual device to its needs. Optimising the iPads bigger screen. Optimising the 6 plus bigger screen. But what I think is most important is optimising the newer devices. It seems stupid how an iPad 2 from 2011 runs the same software as an iPad Air 2. What I've noticed is that don't add any new software features until they can add them to all the supported devices. We're paying loads of extra money for a device which is essentially the same, and the main differences only come in 2-4 years.

No, they add some things to some generations and not to others. The iPad 2 cannot do everything an Air 2 can. It's like when iOS 7 had AirDrop for ... not the iPad 2. Does the iPad 2 have continuity features? I know the Air 2 does, but I'm not so sure about the 2.

 

[C DM]

That's assuming the rumors have much going for them to begin with. Furthermore that's also assuming that "optimization" is truly what will be referenced rather than the more typical "performance improvements" or something somewhat more specific along those lines.

 

[Altis]

That's assuming the rumors have much going for them to begin with. Furthermore that's also assuming that "optimization" is truly what will be referenced rather than the more typical "performance improvements" or something somewhat more specific along those lines.

This is a good point.

I think part of why we keep hearing about iOS 9 being big on "optimization" is because iOS is in need of optimization above all else.

Let's hope Apple does indeed focus on optimization, performance enhancement, and bug fixes for iOS 9... though they haven't really shown that to be the case these days.

 

[nj-morris]

This is a good point.

I think part of why we keep hearing about iOS 9 being big on "optimization" is because iOS is in need of optimization above all else.

Let's hope Apple does indeed focus on optimization, performance enhancement, and bug fixes for iOS 9... though they haven't really shown that to be the case these days.

I'd be bummed if it wasn't. Anyway I wouldn't see why the 5th gen iPod Touch and the original iPad Mini, with 512MB, are still on sale. iOS 8 can barely support 512MB, so if 9 continued that, Why would they still be selling a soon to be broken product?

 

[XTheLancerX]

I'd be bummed if it wasn't. Anyway I wouldn't see why the 5th gen iPod Touch and the original iPad Mini, with 512MB, are still on sale. iOS 8 can barely support 512MB, so if 9 continued that, Why would they still be selling a soon to be broken product?

Yeah I have no idea how iOS 8 runs on 512MB of RAM. My iPad mini 2 with 1GB of RAM is consistently at 90% or more RAM usage. Same for my iPhone 6.

Performance improvements really, really need to happen. My iPad mini 2 stutters a TON for a 1 year old device. I remember between A5 devices and A6 devices, there was hardly a noticeable difference in terms of OS performance. Everything ran perfectly smoothly on both, with maybe load times being a slight bit faster on A6 products, but still, UI performance was absolutely phenomenal on both. That still is pretty much the case between the newest iPhones, 5S vs 6, (UI stutters somewhat on both at times due to shoddy software, however) but on iPads, it IS NOT. I could make an enormous list of situations that make my iPad lag or drop frames, and it's just a year old. iPad Air 2 does not have this issue because Apple threw high specs at their problems rather than fixing them. My iPad is perfectly powerful enough to run the UI, but Apple's sloppy coding has made it a stuttery mess. And did I mention the huge waste of space with every iPad?

 

[chekz0414]

I've seen the iPad Air 2 be hit with Jetsam Events and they're caused by backboardd the same occurrence for my iPhone 6 Plus with 1GB of RAM

 

[XTheLancerX]

I've seen the iPad Air 2 be hit with Jetsam Events and they're caused by backboardd the same occurrence for my iPhone 6 Plus with 1GB of RAM

Oh boy I don't know what backboardd is but it seems like a bloated buggy mess. I remember back when my iPhone 6 got about 4 hours max of battery life on 8.0.x, it was absolutely filled with "Stacks+Backboardd" crashes. I still see backboardd and stacks crashes quite a bit, but not as much as before. CoreTime is also an issue. I feel with all these logs being written all the time, it's having a bad effect on battery life and RAM/CPU usage. Not sure if that's too much of a task, but still.

 

[Shirasaki]

Generally speaking, optimisation often means to let a product become better. If iOS 9 focus at optimisation, then it should be better than iOS 8. I don't know why, but apple stick at 1 GB of ram for a long time. Maybe, they want to add more ram to a single soc? We all may not be able to know.

Lots of sources pinpoint apple will add 2 GB ram to the iPhone 6s and/or 6s Plus. If it does, this would be better than before, though apple is often considered as a company not interested in simply integrating much more powerful components.

Maybe many of us have seen the hardware spec campaign between android companies, as well as PC companies. Better performance is really a huge benefit, however a good user experience is also really important.

 

[FSMBP]

Generally speaking, optimisation often means to let a product become better. If iOS 9 focus at optimisation, then it should be better than iOS 8. I don't know why, but apple stick at 1 GB of ram for a long time. Maybe, they want to add more ram to a single soc? We all may not be able to know.

Lots of sources pinpoint apple will add 2 GB ram to the iPhone 6s and/or 6s Plus. If it does, this would be better than before, though apple is often considered as a company not interested in simply integrating much more powerful components.

Maybe many of us have seen the hardware spec campaign between android companies, as well as PC companies. Better performance is really a huge benefit, however a good user experience is also really important.

I believe the last part goes hand-in-hand. If someone taps on the Safari Icon put it takes 2-3 seconds to launch, and it has choppy framerates while scrolling, it makes for poor user experience.

For example, I was using an iPad 3, and I was scrolling up a page & tapped on a link; however, it didn't seem to register my tap as I did it 'too fast' but then 3 seconds later, a separate tab opened up.

They really need to optimize the performance. I really like the direction Apple is going with features in iOS (Craig seems good at giving people what they want these past two version) but I miss the stability when Scott was in-charge.

 

[Coupz]

Yeah I have no idea how iOS 8 runs on 512MB of RAM. My iPad mini 2 with 1GB of RAM is consistently at 90% or more RAM usage. Same for my iPhone 6.

OS X and iOS have a memory management that is better then windows or android. Why do you need free ram? It's better to keep your memory as much filled as possible. That's also the reason to not close apps in background on iOS. You need more battery power in the end, because everything has to be reloaded from the many times slower storage.

I believe there is a page on apple support which describes better and more detailed about memory management in iOS. Search for it and read it please carefully.

 

[EdgardasB]

OS X and iOS have a memory management that is better then windows or android. Why do you need free ram? It's better to keep your memory as much filled as possible. That's also the reason to not close apps in background on iOS. You need more battery power in the end, because everything has to be reloaded from the many times slower storage.

I believe there is a page on apple support which describes better and more detailed about memory management in iOS. Search for it and read it please carefully.

Free RAM= Wasted RAM

However, talking about not closing apps, from practical use, I noticed that battery drains much faster with apps left on background (background refresh turned off)

 

[C DM]

OS X and iOS have a memory management that is better then windows or android. Why do you need free ram? It's better to keep your memory as much filled as possible. That's also the reason to not close apps in background on iOS. You need more battery power in the end, because everything has to be reloaded from the many times slower storage.

I believe there is a page on apple support which describes better and more detailed about memory management in iOS. Search for it and read it please carefully.

The problem there is when there isn't that much RAM a lot of loading and unloading can happen for people that use more than a few apps or do more than a few things within apps, so the state of apps doesn't get saved for long and that can be something that gets in the way of user experience for people that might frequently switch between more than a couple of apps or tabs within browsers.

 

[Coupz]

Well I never close apps and had only once a tab reload in Safari on my i6 since December.

Once I tried to close all apps and had less battery at the end of the day.

 

[Shirasaki]

I believe the last part goes hand-in-hand. If someone taps on the Safari Icon put it takes 2-3 seconds to launch, and it has choppy framerates while scrolling, it makes for poor user experience.

For example, I was using an iPad 3, and I was scrolling up a page & tapped on a link; however, it didn't seem to register my tap as I did it 'too fast' but then 3 seconds later, a separate tab opened up.

They really need to optimize the performance. I really like the direction Apple is going with features in iOS (Craig seems good at giving people what they want these past two version) but I miss the stability when Scott was in-charge.

I didn't use much of the iOS version earlier than 7. So I don't know how stable those versions of iOS were. But I do think from iOS 7, Apple iOS is not as stable as they claimed. Now I am using iOS 8.4 beta 3, stable enough but sometimes I still need to restart device to solve some tricky issues.

In my opinion, stable and features are not exclusive. I mean, that doesn't mean when we can use a stable system, we can rarely get new features. Hope this version becomes more stable.

 

[Beeplance]

Looks this way, but are we at a point in iOS history where we desire stability and optimisation more than new features in the upcoming iOS 9?

Maybe just one or two new features, and making the overall system smoother + crushing most of the major bugs would be enough for me... This much rumored 'Snow Leopard' style major update is keeping my hopes up!

Hopefully iOS 9 'improved performance, greater efficiency and reduction of its overall memory footprint' just like Snow Leopard #GoodEnoughForMe

 

[Shirasaki]

Looks this way, but are we at a point in iOS history where we desire stability and optimisation more than new features in the upcoming iOS 9?

Maybe just one or two new features, and making the overall system smoother + crushing most of the major bugs would be enough for me... This much rumored 'Snow Leopard' style major update is keeping my hopes up!

I bet everyone want to see new things when they release he next version of software. However stability is the number one priority when deploying software. Apple need to step slower than before, and wrap up things left behind. We do want to keep room clean and tidy right? And that is what apple should do. You know, each processor we are using might contain hidden hardware bugs. Those would affect our device, and our experience. Some random issues may belong to this.