Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG

#31

Post by dilap » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 12:44 AM UTC

dilap wrote: post #30

mrshoe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point is actually orthogonal to the OP's. The OP was claiming that Apple's architecture is flawed and that once they realize the error of their ways, battery life will improve dramatically. That's just not true. Your point is that the public SDK limits 3rd party developers from doing some stuff that Apple can do with the private SDK. That is, of course, absolutely true. Letting the public SDK (or at least parts…

Yeah, OP's claims about battery life are manifestly silly. The HN headline makes it sound like the article is making claims about the Watch in general, but it isn't, just that one dev's app. I understand and take your point about public APIs lagging behind private ones, but in this case it's not that the public SDK is lagging, it's a totally different beast . The fundamental execution model is the same as watchos 1 -…

Actually, thinking about it, they are doing something akin to the iPhone model -- initially iPhone development was supposed to be done as html+js web apps, and devs revolted, and then we got a real SDK.

WatchKit is the html+js of WatchOS development. OK, not that bad, but the situation is analogous.

Re: Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG

#32

Post by lionet » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 1:41 AM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #18

DannyBee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except he provides no evidence this is true, and in fact, it's almost certainly 100% not true ;-) Hint: the power draw on these watches is not from drawing. On phones, with powerful CPU's, the display is usually 10x the draw of the CPU (depends on the CPU). On a watch, what do you think that ratio is?

I have this weird feeling his statement might have been a joke, rather than to be taken literally as an engineering calculation. Nawh, I'm probably wrong.

Today I learned that even HN trolls may not always understand a concept of trolling.

It was indeed a joke.

(author).

Re: Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG

#33

Post by lionet » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 4:26 AM UTC

jfaat wrote: post #23

mynegation wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a hosted blogging service and author has no power over what they do with the flash

The author has power over their choice of blogging platform though

I recognize an expert when a careful choice of tools that he uses allows him to experience crashes when visiting random websites.

Re: Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG

#34

Post by lionet » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 4:28 AM UTC

i_s wrote: post #15

> Constants are defined via let, and variable are allowed to vary through a var. Though constants are lame, as only the binding itself is constant and you can change everything inside them as usual. That is at best misleading, as it is not true for collections. From the Swift docs: > If you create an array, a set, or a dictionary, and assign it to a variable , the collection that is created will be mutable. This mean…

You are correct. But in FP, we understand immutability differently, so it becomes very painful to watch structural equivalence of the following variables:

class Foo { var x = 0 }

let a = [Foo(), Foo(), Foo()]

var b = a

a[0].x = 1

var c = b // [0].x == 1 ;(

let d = a // [0].x == 1 ;(

Re: Apple Watch is encoding each frame as PNG

#35

Post by mrshoe » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:43 AM UTC

dilap wrote: post #31

dilap wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, OP's claims about battery life are manifestly silly. The HN headline makes it sound like the article is making claims about the Watch in general, but it isn't, just that one dev's app. I understand and take your point about public APIs lagging behind private ones, but in this case it's not that the public SDK is lagging, it's a totally different beast . The fundamental execution model is the same as watchos 1 -…

Actually, thinking about it, they are doing something akin to the iPhone model -- initially iPhone development was supposed to be done as html+js web apps, and devs revolted, and then we got a real SDK. WatchKit is the html+js of WatchOS development. OK, not that bad, but the situation is analogous.

I was going to reply to you and say the same thing: it's extremely similar to the initial iPhone 3rd party developer story, and for the same reasons. Apple is pretty predictable, really.

I know how WatchKit works, I was in on some of those meetings... Trust me, everyone at Apple had the same concerns you expressed and they still do. It will get better over time.

Also note that some built-in Apple apps do use WatchKit.

And I would still argue that allowing 3rd party code to run on the watch instead of in an extension on the phone would be just another example of an internal-only feature being opened up to the public. It's the same pattern. I realize that's a significant "feature", but so was the switch from html+js to native apps on the phone. And those significant advances go through the same decision process as smaller ones: do we feel comfortable opening up this feature to 3rd parties? what are the risks? have we used it enough internally to feel confident? has it iterated enough internally that we consider it stable enough to release (because it's hard to change after release)? etc.