F.lux, developers of the app that makes your display adapt to the time of day, has issued a statement following Apple's unveiling of Night Shift.
Although available for jailbroken iPhones, f.lux was rejected from the App Store and after users started sideloading the app, Apple told them to shut down their iOS version.
Now that Apple has unveiled Night Shift, essentially their own version of f.lux, the reasoning behind the company's opposition to the app is now clear.
In its response, F.lux said that it's proud to be "original innovators and leaders in this area" and called on Apple to allow their app on the App Store.
Today we call on Apple to allow us to release f.lux on iOS, to open up access to the features announced this week, and to support our goal of furthering research in sleep and chronobiology. As we continue to innovate and improve upon our ideas, we remain hopeful that we will have the opportunity to offer our best, new work to everyone who wants it.
Considering Apple's objections to f.lux in the past, it seems unlikely they will now let the app in; however, you can follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates. You can also sign this petition to allow f.lux on iOS.
Better? You dont get the point here. If Apple keeps stealing apps/idea from JB community and have their platform limited-accessible by apps, one fay there will be no JB community remaining which means no further source for Apple to steal innovative functions from.
Like some things some of us here are doing, but think about how differently Apple would do it. Multitasking was implemented differently compared to others and I'm sure this is no exception.
If you just want to surf on internet and want to dim the screen extra I can really recomend "Night Web Browser by Alex" for iPhone and iPad. I use it to watch Youtube, Facebook etc in bed. Works great but it's only a night web browser.
Getting actually pretty fed up with apple and their crap. First the rumored drop of the head phone jack and now ripping off anther company? ITS BS if apple continues down this path it will determine me switching away from iOS as my daily driver.
Just because apple makes its own version of flux that may work differently just like multitasking (which is understandable because of the ram needed) and just because of getting the headphone jack means nothing. If you don't like it, just keep the phone you have that you're happy with, also the 5e and 6c is supposed to be coming soon with a jack possibly. There's a reason these models come just like iPhones in s models and sizes.
Agree but that's never been Apples tone when it comes to the intimately valuable resource for I ovation they have in the jailbreak community. Virtually every enhancements do new feature ever released in iOS was a jailbreak tweak/app long before it was implemented to iOS. Some examples; multitasking- exact copy of one of the ways it was done on jailbreak. Copy/paste- exact copy of how it was done in jailbreak. Funny enough, nearly two years before iOS had it and a year and a half before Steve Jobs said iOS would never get copy and paste because there was no reasonably user friendly way to implement it. The way it is now, with the magnifying glass... A straight ripoff of a jailbreak.
Steve also said they wouldn't do larger screen and next you're going to tell me it's copied when nothing but size came out of it! Rol your eyes at me, but I assure it's not copied. That ties in with multitasking which was different when apple finally made their version of multitasking compared to jailbreak. There's also a magnify glass in zoom control. Try claiming that a copy. As for copy and paste, show me a comparison so I can see for myself.
For this functionality to be provided by an app, it needs to keep running in the background, which is bad for battery life. It also needs to break the security principle of sandboxing by having a background app modify display properties and thus 'interfering with' the foreground application display.
On every count, as a developer, this company should have been aware that it would be rejected by Apple, and hence submitting it to have it rejected has to have been a political move to gain publicity.
To enable an app to do this properly requires the OS to implement specific APIs, and as soon as you've done that, you've effectively implemented the functionality in the OS itself, which means an app then has to provide some significant additional functionality before Apple would allow it in the store (as merely replicating existing functions is another reason Apple rejects apps).
It is also disingenuous of f.lux to imply they invented this idea when research into this topic has been on going for many years by academics with many published papers. So Apple are as able to draw on that research to implement recommendations as f.lux, and their implication that Apple have copied them directly rather than drawing on the primary research is more publicity/marketing FUD.
I'm not even going to read any further than the first few sentences of your comment. Yes your right f. Lux would be running in the back ground but what do you think the Night Shift process would be doing? Oh that's right running in the back ground. F. Lux runs in the background with jail broken iPhones also and have zero impact on battery
i get understand that, but apple wants their things to be running in background, and not just any third party apps, and also they can't just allows one app to do that and not others. third party apps are suppose to be sandboxed, and apple really takes their time to make api easy as possible and make it available to devs eventually.
There's a difference between OS services and applications running in the background. Sure, when you jailbreak you effectively throw away the fundamental security model of iOS which prevents any 3rd party applications running as services and applications such as f.lux can take advantage of that to run efficiently in the background.
That's not the topic under discussion however.
F.lux was rejected from the app store because as an application, it could only run in the background by spoofing being a media application or similar, and the OS doesn't run those applications efficiently in the same way as services would. There is no framework in iOS for applications to act as background services efficiently. Therefore, the developers knew what they were trying to do would be rejected by Apple (unless they are idiots, which I doubt), so submitting it to have it rejected would be a deliberate decision to gain publicity etc.
The ONLY way something like this could be done in iOS officially is by Apple either adding a way for 3rd party applications to register as services (unlikely, as that's a whole can of security and performance worms which would be anathema to everything Apple have done to date), OR for them to add services which perform the same functions. Sure, they could then surface those services via a published API which 3rd party apps could call, but all they'd be providing then is an alternative front end to whatever settings Apple have already created, so what would be the point?
Apple claimed F.lux was disallowed due to them using private APIs. Nothing would have changed even if Apple released their own app. Only Apple is allowed to use private APIs.
As i see Apple really checks itsef most time whats the right thing to do. Apple should let them in this time. Thats the good thing to do. But the app uses too deep technology. The system is too close. And its a closed system. Both parties hurt. But a system's vulnerability is more and more important, it seems a rather complicated decision.
I never had a single problem with maps and it's always accurate and I've used it on the go without data (only if you start to route before you leave and only relies on location).
I've always had problems with apples map instead of google maps or waze, Apple maps wanted me to drive through someone's barn yard once, and also took me into a neighborhood dead end when it was supposed to be taking me to target... Failed me multiple times and will never use it again.
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