Apple Handcuffs Web Apps On iPhone Home Screen 298
SF Polack writes "On Apple's iOS 4.3, HTML5 and JavaScript apps are running significantly slower when they're run from the iPhone or iPad home screen rather than Safari, and the OS is hindering the performance of these apps in other ways. The end result is that it's harder for web apps to compete with native iOS app sold through the App Store, where Apple takes a 30 per cent of sales."
I smell troll bait (Score:3, Insightful)
Two explanations... (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that Web-based apps are typically free, I'm a bit skeptical about #1. But guess which explanation made the headline?
Re:Uh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly, How many people ACTUALLY use their phones to make calls today ? Most people I see use them for playing games and sending out text messages and that's about it.
"Sadly?" What's sad about it? Some us who always hated talking on the phone and would be happy if phones became obsolete (although they won't of course). I also hated faxes, you're not sad about them are you?
Anyway, if the increasingly inaccurate "phone" designation really annoys you, just pretend they're mutated calculators.
Apple == 1990s Microsoft? (Score:-1, Insightful)
>>>After Jobs said in public Apple was committed to supporting HTML5?
I'm not touching this.
Saying anything about Apple or Steve Jobs is a sure way to get modded -1.
(pops popcorn) I'll just watch.
Sensationalist Link Bait (Score:5, Insightful)
It's unclear whether these are accidental bugs or issues consciously introduced by Apple.
So, they have no idea whether or not it's actually malicious, but they've decided to run with the story using an inflammatory headline anyway.
According to Apple developers posting to the web, the speed issue has been discussed in the company's developer support forums, and one developer – the same unnamed developer quoted above – confirms with The Reg that multiple bugs have been filed on the issue.
Developers are using proper channels to report what's most likely a bug and this is most likely a non-story as of the next minor update, but they've still decided to run with it anyway.
Apple isn't degrading the speed of home screen web apps. It's boosting the speed of web apps in the browser. But in the long run, the effect is the same. And if this is a bug, Apple has yet to fix it.
So, in fact, Apple hasn't intentionally hobbled anything, it's just that they haven't sped them up, possibly due to a bug, yet they're still going to run this story.
This developer reiterates that if Apple didn't specifically introduce these problems in iOS, it's aware of them now. And he says that the Mobile Safari team has indicated the issues will not be fixed.
You'd think that such damning evidence would be posted, but it isn't. Complete hearsay, but they've decided to run the story, inflammatory headline and all, regardless.
Re:Uh. (Score:3, Insightful)
They are not phones.
They are high end PDAs that include telephony as a feature, and you can choose to or not to use that feature.
There, does that make you happy? :-)
People like them. They're very powerful and can do a lot and industry leaders have been talking about "convergence" technologies for about 25 years but only now has it become reality.
Re:Uh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Hahahahaha. Oh wow.
"Stop pretending it is a world-changing piece of technology because it isn't."
How is it (or rather smart phones in general) not? It's at least as world changing as the internet itself.
Being able to access nearly any piece of human knowledge whether I'm standing in line at the grocery store or out camping in the woods is pretty fucking amazing to me.