How to Avoid iOS Battery Drain

My pal Greg Scown passed this along. Written by a former Apple Genius:

During this testing, Facebook kept jumping up on the process list even though I wasn't using it. So I tried disabling Location Services  and Background App Refresh  for Facebook, and you'll never guess what happened: my battery percentage increased. It jumped from 12% to 17%. Crazy. I've never seen that happen before on an iPhone. The iPod touch exhibits this behavior, to my memory, although I haven't tested it in a while. For the iPhone, the battery percentage is usually pretty consistent.

I have confirmed this behavior on multiple iPhones with the same result: percentage points actually increase after disabling these background functions of Facebook.

Bad, Facebook, bad.

Various things on the list I knew, but I definitely learned a lot reading this.

Warner Archive Instant Now on iPad

At long last, you can get Warner Archive's streaming channel on iPad. Sign up here for a free two-week trial, then go get the app. It's been available on Roku, and having the account allows access on either device. The library is continually growing, and includes loads of things in HD that aren't yet on Blu-ray. The app is Airplay-capable for AppleTV users.

Culture On Demand: Deep Focus UI

I'm not a "tech blogger", but as with any time Apple does much of anything now, their keynote yesterday has some direct implications on the world of content consumption and discovery.

 "Flat" design expectations are now out the window. The look of the new iOS UI is all about not just depth, but layers of focus. With this fundamentally shifted visual paradigm, we're seeing the next big step in how Apple handles UI on product categories, both current and those they've yet to introduce: some theoretical (a watch, a larger iPhone), and evolving hobbies (TV).

The most famous cinematic example of deep focus is Citizen Kane , a movie that was not shot in 3D, but which achieves a perception of multi-layered depth. Cinematographer Greg Toland achieved simultaneous focus across the fore-, mid-, and background through very precise placement of objects in the frame, staging, and lighting.

The same principles apply to iOS 7 and, to a lesser extent, what I've seen of OS X Mavericks. Like the most basic tenets of stage magic, the new "look" is just as much about the window dressing as it is the structure of where the audience's eyes are being directed.

My kneejerk feeling about the Human Interface overhaul is that it's an exciting and interesting change that opens up a lot of possibilities. There are features and design cues in Apple's HI that are found in both Android and Windows Phone, but they're among the best parts of both. Things like awful icons and visual details that need smoothing out will eventually get fixed. 

Most importantly, a shift this big makes me confident that when Apple overhauls the AppleTV interface, it will change things as fundamentally as their mobile and desktop UI experiences have. 

Let's not forget that the current AppleTV runs on a custom version of iOS.

Gone from iOS are faux-3D design choices that look as fake as styrofoam boulders on Star Trek sets. The new iOS and OS X feel and look as different from their predecessors as the newer JJ Abrams Trek looks as compared to the most refined version of the original canon. In general terms, the new stuff is the epitome of modern design: big (but simple), bold (but subtle), and sleek.

Replacing the old are thin layers stacked in precise levels of depth. On Apple TV, I'm only starting to think about how this might specifically be employed, but overlaid layers of live content are interesting, including configurable, cross-platform notifications. Think of weather, stocks, and other apps as widgets that are as configurable in layers as you choose. The same actionable push notifications in Mavericks could be linked to your TV.

iCloud Keychain exists not just to solve having to enter the same fleet of passwords on your computer and phone, but certainly to also cover AppleTV at some point. Entering TV channel app passwords is one of the biggest problems for set-top boxes. Instead of re-entering them all, your AppleID will become your single sign-on for all of your content subscriptions.

I'm excited about modern, fresh, and near-futuristic design flourishes in TV apps, but I'm more interested in voice search tied to content. Think of what Siri already does on top of what was announced yesterday (improved function and quantity of indexed databases). Siri already knows who I mean when I ask about "John Malkovich" or "Jean-Pierre Jeunet". Wikipedia, Bing, and some version of IMDb that isn't owned by Amazon (which they're already using) are the tip of that iceberg.

I'm most enthused by the idea of Apple forcing a unified interface that pushes content vendors to index their content in a way that is user-friendly and leans toward driving discoverability.

As a Roku user, I'm never shy when complaining about how clunky and slow all of their apps are. The recently-introduced cross-"app", system-wide search is a fantastic improvement, but it does not go far enough. Individual app experiences are still awful. If Apple moves in the direction it looks like they're telegraphing, Roku is on the verge of being blown completely out of the water.

Note that they did not show iOS 7 for the iPad, nor is an iPad beta available yet. That may be indicative of the larger-screen interface working differently, due to the alternate usage pattern of a larger device as it relates to the expanding types of baked-in service logins (Facebook, LinkedIn, others). The larger-screen iPhone that many assume is in the works would be a part of this "bigger-screen" implementation of Apple's new Human Interface philosophy. 

The TV is a hell of a larger screen. 

More on all of this soon, after I play with both iOS 7 and Mavericks. I have more reading to do on all the game system stuff from yesterday too. 

Nintendo Wants to Siphon Smartphone Games

On the heels of my forwarding the idea that Nintendo should be making their own phones in this piece about Nintendo, The Japan Times reports that Big N is doing the opposite:

Nintendo Co. is trying to modify its game consoles so customers can use smartphone applications on them as it searches for a way to return to profitability, company sources said.

The game console and software maker has offered professional-use conversion software to application developers so they can produce smartphone games that can be played on Wii U, a struggling home video game console that helped widen the firm’s operating loss in fiscal 2012.

The way this reads implies that they are trying to create iOS and Android middleware that will make it easy for those developers to port existing games to Wii U. That doesn't change the fact that people will be more likely to carry those games around on their non-Nintendo smartphones.

Nintendo hopes smartphone software will help spur console sales, which will in turn lead to an increase in popular game titles for them, the sources said.

They will have to massively simplify their interface, and make the long-needed move of unifying the Virtual Console for both the Wii U and the 3DS, with Apple-like redownloading. The biggest problem facing Nintendo is that, like Toho Co., they are a 100-year-old company run by 100-year-old men. They will look at backward solutions like this instead of proper overhaul tactics. Even when things are broken, the solutions do not go far enough to properly correct their course. They still view themselves internally as a Japanese company that happens to have a "foreign" audience, instead of a global company based in Japan.

Nintendo will also focus on developing new software on its own, the sources said.

The entire contents of the story read like a controlled leak designed to shape this story as "Nintendo on the upswing". The software they should be focusing on is their own Android fork ("NintendOS"?) to go with their own phone hardware.

"Goodbye Circus Circus"

Here's a rundown on where things are at in the lead-up to WWDC for iOS 7 according to All Things D. The de-skeumorphication of iOS is something I heartily welcome if it cleans up the interface and (possibly) improves performance by reducing the unnecessary animation, graphics, and other things that make my iPhone drain battery like there's no tomorrow.

Apple Bans a Secondary Storefront from iOS

The AppGratis story is three days old, but bears re-examination in light of the "Saga Saga":

Over this past weekend, Apple pulled AppGratis from the App Store, explaining on Monday that the app discovery software violated two App Store regulations in particular: one banning apps that promote other apps in a manner similar to the App Store, and another forbidding apps using push notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.

As the piece goes on to say, that the app was approved mutliple times and then suddenly got yanked is interesting, to say the least.

The behavior they're objecting to is technically the sort of thing that apps like ComiXology and other content storefronts could engage in as part of their core business. Some do. Many games actively engage in push notification behaviors like those described. If you want to read it a certain way, many in-app purchases could make that inventory considered a secondary storefront, whether in games or other apps.

This case makes you wonder whether Apple even gives content providers the level of attention or responsiveness they need to keep publishing, and instead pay more attention to what needs to be shut down (for their needs) like this.

Apple Bans SAGA #12 from iOS, Or: No Gay Sex Please, We're Apple

The issue has been refused from in-app sale on "inappropriate content" grounds from all iOS apps: ComiXology, the Image Comics app, everything...except for iBooks. That's odd, and smells anti-competitive, since Apple sells an enormous pile of radically more graphic content in iBooks and iTunes.

This enraged tweet from Merlin Mann is a good indicator of where the fan base is at the moment. God, if he were a superhero he would kick some bureaucratic ass and quick.

iOS wasn't properly scaled from the outset to transform into its present state as an impossibly broad content delivery machine. Steve Jobs originally and forcefully pushed for only web apps in iOS (or was that spin?). With native apps and content, Apple becomes the judge, jury, and censor regarding acceptable content. As far ahead as they think in some areas, they actively ignore a lot until its a big enough problem to matter, to infuriating effect. If you don't make noise, they won't feel compelled to act. Send some emails to the not-hard-to-find executive team's inboxes if you don't like this. They do listen, but if there's no noise to be heard...

Have you not read Saga and think comics are a lousy place to find sci-fi? Be warned: the book is for adult eyes, and earlier issues are more graphic than the two measly panels that caused this little fracas. Listen to Merlin and I talk about the first six or so issues between ourselves and take some calls from some muy interesante listeners on The Comic Shack. Go ahead and subscribe. The show is back very, very soon.

I'm stuck on this Merlin-as-a-superhero thing, God knows why. I think there's something there. Hm.

Update on 2013-04-10 22:08 by Moises Chiullan

See this update on the story, complete with more analysis.