4 ms·

I'm sorry, but this "accurate in theory" junk needs to stop, it's this sort of meaningless reliance on inaccurate anecdotal accounts that allows the misinformat

by Gorbzel 15y ago

I'm sorry, but this "accurate in theory" junk needs to stop, it's this sort of meaningless reliance on inaccurate anecdotal accounts that allows the misinformation that the article talks about to spread. The article specifically points out that iOS doesn't allow apps to "abuse" background processing; you get 10 minutes and then the OS forces your app to standby. If an app uses the indefinite background processing for something other than what's permitted, then the app is rejected from the App Store, and they're very strict on this one. The Android/ICS model you talk about is exactly the kind of process management that Apple specifically avoided in iOS, and for good reason. IMO, that's the exact sort of thing that I'd never want to do on my smartphone. Your routine may keep you happy, but please don't respond to a well-researched and accurate article with the exact opposite of the truth; you're basically just plugging your ears and shouting "NUH-UH!" here.

ghshephard 15y ago
I can't argue with the theory presented in the article - and I read it very, very carefully. All I can do is present the reality, and demonstrate it conflicts with the theory. The reality is that certain apps on IOS can continue to run in the background - whether that's because they are polling the GPS radio, waiting for a VOIP connection, or something else - I don't know. All I know, (And I'm speaking here as an owner of the Original iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S who uses his iPhone multiple times, every waking hour) is that sometimes the iPhone gets hot, and the battery starts moving to 0 from a full charge in a matter of hours - when it does this, if I either (A) Reboot the iPhone or (B) shut down all of the apps listed in the "Recently used" task bar, then my iPhone is (1) No longer hot, and (2) experiences normal battery drain. I reference the Android/ICS model because at least in _that_ world (and remember - I'm a dedicated apple users) I could tell you which of the Apps was actually sucking my battery dry. If this were science, then it would be useful to collect a large number of observations that conflicted with accepted theory, to determine if (A) there was measurement error on the part of the observer - for example, perhaps I didn't wait 10 minutes after hitting the home button before waiting for the iPhone to cool down, or (B) There is a problem with the theory. My belief is that it's (C) The theory is accurate, it just doesn't recognize that Apps will sometimes run in the background using more CPU than the user is aware they are, or wants them to. I just wish I had a tool to tell me _which_ app it was - then I could just shut down that _single_ app, instead of my existing reboot/shut-them-all-down approach.
- msbarnett 15y ago
  > I can't argue with the theory presented in the article - and I read it very, very carefully. All I can do is present the reality, and demonstrate it conflicts with the theory. This article is not, repeat NOT, presenting "theory". This article describes the way iOS is actually built to work -- it is a factual description of all and only those behaviors that iOS engages in. It is a complete, and accurate, description of iOS's behavior because it is a recapitulation of the behaviors that iOS's designers built it to exhibit. The only contrast here is between the reality of the way iOS works (the article) and your misunderstandings of reality.
  - ghshephard 15y ago
    My understanding of reality is pretty straightforward - "Over the last 3-4 years, I normally get 36-48 hours of casual use out of my iPhone, or 24 hours of really aggressive use, but, for some reason, on some days, while my iPhone is at the home screen, it is really hot and the battery is draining to zero quickly. Shutting down all of the apps in the task bar, or, rebooting the iPhone, immediately fixes that." Couldn't we allow for the possibility of a bug in IOS that results in a deviation from the behavior explained in the article? Or, more likely, an application that is using IOS as designed, but in a way that results in extended background processing and CPU drain? The good news is that another contributor posted a link to "Instruments" - which should let me get a diagnostic trace off my iPhone and determine which of the apps is actually pulling down the battery. I then have the options of (A) figuring out if there is a pref in that App to cause it to stop using battery when backgrounded, (B) Contact the application writer and let them know they have a poorly behaving App, and (C) (most important for me) - Reduce the number of applications I need to shut down to just the misbehaving ones. Until then - count me in that category of users who believes (through experience) that the advice the Apple Geniuses are giving, that is, to terminate applications when you have an iPhone that is performing differently than when it is initially booted up, is good advice and is a real-world fix to this class of problem. (Though rebooting your iPhone accomplishes the same thing in my experience as well)
    - msbarnett 15y ago

by Gorbzel 15y ago

ghshephard 15y ago

I can't argue with the theory presented in the article - and I read it very, very carefully. All I can do is present the reality, and demonstrate it conflicts with the theory. The reality is that certain apps on IOS can continue to run in the background - whether that's because they are polling the GPS radio, waiting for a VOIP connection, or something else - I don't know. All I know, (And I'm speaking here as an owner of the Original iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S who uses his iPhone multiple times, every waking hour) is that sometimes the iPhone gets hot, and the battery starts moving to 0 from a full charge in a matter of hours - when it does this, if I either (A) Reboot the iPhone or (B) shut down all of the apps listed in the "Recently used" task bar, then my iPhone is (1) No longer hot, and (2) experiences normal battery drain. I reference the Android/ICS model because at least in _that_ world (and remember - I'm a dedicated apple users) I could tell you which of the Apps was actually sucking my battery dry. If this were science, then it would be useful to collect a large number of observations that conflicted with accepted theory, to determine if (A) there was measurement error on the part of the observer - for example, perhaps I didn't wait 10 minutes after hitting the home button before waiting for the iPhone to cool down, or (B) There is a problem with the theory. My belief is that it's (C) The theory is accurate, it just doesn't recognize that Apps will sometimes run in the background using more CPU than the user is aware they are, or wants them to. I just wish I had a tool to tell me _which_ app it was - then I could just shut down that _single_ app, instead of my existing reboot/shut-them-all-down approach.

msbarnett 15y ago
> I can't argue with the theory presented in the article - and I read it very, very carefully. All I can do is present the reality, and demonstrate it conflicts with the theory. This article is not, repeat NOT, presenting "theory". This article describes the way iOS is actually built to work -- it is a factual description of all and only those behaviors that iOS engages in. It is a complete, and accurate, description of iOS's behavior because it is a recapitulation of the behaviors that iOS's designers built it to exhibit. The only contrast here is between the reality of the way iOS works (the article) and your misunderstandings of reality.
- ghshephard 15y ago
  My understanding of reality is pretty straightforward - "Over the last 3-4 years, I normally get 36-48 hours of casual use out of my iPhone, or 24 hours of really aggressive use, but, for some reason, on some days, while my iPhone is at the home screen, it is really hot and the battery is draining to zero quickly. Shutting down all of the apps in the task bar, or, rebooting the iPhone, immediately fixes that." Couldn't we allow for the possibility of a bug in IOS that results in a deviation from the behavior explained in the article? Or, more likely, an application that is using IOS as designed, but in a way that results in extended background processing and CPU drain? The good news is that another contributor posted a link to "Instruments" - which should let me get a diagnostic trace off my iPhone and determine which of the apps is actually pulling down the battery. I then have the options of (A) figuring out if there is a pref in that App to cause it to stop using battery when backgrounded, (B) Contact the application writer and let them know they have a poorly behaving App, and (C) (most important for me) - Reduce the number of applications I need to shut down to just the misbehaving ones. Until then - count me in that category of users who believes (through experience) that the advice the Apple Geniuses are giving, that is, to terminate applications when you have an iPhone that is performing differently than when it is initially booted up, is good advice and is a real-world fix to this class of problem. (Though rebooting your iPhone accomplishes the same thing in my experience as well)
  - msbarnett 15y ago