iOS 9 space-saving “app slicing” disabled for now, will return in future update

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/ios-9s-space-saving-app-slicing-disabled-for-now-will-return-in-future-update/

by cpeterso • 11 years ago

72 33 11 years ago

tobias3• 11 years ago

So, if I enable bitcode it just doubles the size of my binaries currently?

simonh2• 11 years ago

It (roughly) doubles the size of the app bundle you upload to Apple. They then compile that down to create normal sized binaries, which are what are actually downloaded to the device.

Bear in mind the source->bitcode->binary process (I'm simplifying here) was previously all performed by LLVM on your computer anyway. It's just that now the final bitcode->binary step is done by Apple, to allow device-specific optimizations of the binary for the devices that are downloading it without you having to do all those device specific optimized builds yourself.

ksk3• 11 years ago

Do you know what the performance increase is of these optimized builds?

kalleboo2• 11 years ago

Interesting that iCloud backups actually upload the apps from your device rather than just noting "you had XXX app version XXX" and redownloading it from the App Store on restore.

m_eiman• 11 years ago

When restoring a device all apps are downloaded from the App Store, and if there's one app that's no longer available there it's not getting restored. So it's not simply "upload it all to iCloud backup"; maybe there's some kind of lookup-by-hash of something that fails when the hashed info is sliced or some such.

TazeTSchnitzel• 11 years ago

Well, it's what iTunes has always done.

lpsz• 11 years ago

Updating iOS via iTunes (for beta installs, restores, etc.) has the quirk of syncing apps to iTunes, and then syncing them back to the phone. This seems like a legacy annoying thing to me: why can't it just transparently re-download them? In fact, the new iOS 9 upgrade has the "delete and then re-download apps" feature for those with insufficient space for upgrade. Not to mention, there's the "purchased" tab on your device. So, this is possible!

Going further, even the prompt to "delete and then re-download apps due to insufficient space for OS upgrade" seems unnecessary, as if revealing an unimportant implementation detail. Why can't it just automatically do the right thing? I won't mind if the app is missing from my iPhone for a couple of minutes. If the reason is bandwidth, perhaps it could say "we'll do this on wi-fi only."

Similarly, I wish purchased iTunes media started working the "streaming" way, too. I don't want the TV show to take up Gbs of disk space, don't particularly care for the physical file present on my disk. Could still have an opt-in "use offline" option for those who need it.

Or are these all issues to appease people who want to feel like they "own" content (apps, media, etc.)?

tammer• 11 years ago

I think this is a great forward-thinking feature of iOS. Some apps I have are no longer available via the app store. The only way I can retain access to them is via local copies.

ikeboy• 11 years ago

Half the time while watching Apple keynotes, I'm going "wait, it didn't do that already? Why the hell not?"

CodeWriter23• 11 years ago

Makes sense to me, in the case of a user who doesn't want the latest update to a particular app.

untog2• 11 years ago

But "you had XXX app version XXX" would cover that, no?

venomsnake• 11 years ago

I have an even better space saving feature for iOS devices - quadruple the storage. The flash storage prices have always been the biggest ripoff of iOS. And the increases of storage on the devices have not kept with the way the capacity have increased and prices have gone down.

rsl72• 11 years ago

Too bad. This was going to make the 16G iPhone actually viable.

caio1982• 11 years ago

I'm running the latest iOS released this week on my 4G iPhone 4S, 1.7G still free. Granted, I don't store videos/photos (long term) that much.

omni• 11 years ago

The storage problems are exacerbated for the newer phones, largely because the cameras keep taking higher resolution pictures.

rsl72• 11 years ago

so apparently you had enough space to do the OS upgrade? good to know. But still, apps will be much smaller with app thinning.

iOS 9 space-saving “app slicing” disabled for now, will return in future update

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