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I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

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Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#231

Post by junon »

achandlerwhite wrote: post #202
alberth wrote: post #65

You know what also have huge app sizes, it's various iOS email app. Fastmail is the only email/calendar app with a reasonable size (just 20MB) [0]. - Gmail (397MB) [1] - Outlook (328MB) [2] - Hey (69MB) [3] - Protonmail (128MB) [4] [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fastmail-email-calendar/id9313... [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-by-google/id422689... [2] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-outlook/…

I've heard that some of them include their own network stack so that only they can track your data. I think that was in reference to Facebook's app originally but I wouldn't be surprised.

That would require raw socket access which would surprise me if it was allowed, as it's usually a superuser privilege on UNIX for good reason.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#232

Post by tyingq »

varenc wrote: post #218
tyingq wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised there would be that kind of integration between the United app and their on-board WiFi, which appears to be run by Panasonic. It sounds like you're saying the United app noticed your phone was rooted, and somehow it notified the on-board WiFi to block your ip/mac? Or am I not reading this right?

That's also how I read it, which astounds me. Would be technically impressive if it worked like that. And extra vindictive since even if they don't allow rooted devices to play DRM'd video, there's no good reason why they should also be prevented from buying in-flight internet. (one solution if that's really how it works: rotate your mac address, reconnect, and then never open up the United app again so it can't sque…

You could also wreak some havoc by banning the macs of other devices on the plane that want to use the WiFi...so I'm pretty skeptical this cross-service integration is really there.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#233

Post by [deleted] »

galad87 wrote: post #189
_3u10 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are very incorrect sir. I encourage you to strip the frameworks in your /System folder and then reboot your system. You can strip the main executable but stripping frameworks is a VERY VERY bad idea.

There is no framework to strip in the /System folder, everything is in the shared dylib cache since Big Sur.

[deleted]

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#234

Post by quacked »

digisign wrote: post #195
_fat_santa wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unrelated to their inflight entertainment, United pulled this stunt on me the other day. - Flight at 11AM, boarding at 10:20. - Show up at 10:25, boarding doors are closed. - "Didn't boarding start 5 minutes ago" - "Yeah we close the doors once 95% of people show up, sorry, you should show up when boarding starts" - "Yeah but didn't boarding start 5 minutes ago, how was I to know" - "You should have known, sorry"

United is famous for its customer service. I have a few good ones myself, but won't bore you.

If you think that airline customer service stories are boring, then I request that you do your best to bore me.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#236

Post by brianwawok »

blah_humbug wrote: post #94
ngoel36 wrote: post #11

File size aside, I can confidently say - United hands down has the best app of any major airline in the world. It's better than their website and often-times even better than calling customer service on their 1K (top loyalty status) line. Many ways to make it better, but if we're comparing it to airlines & hotels, it's extremely well done.

I've found that true of other everyday things (eg, booking a session my local gym), and find it incredibly depressing. Not only have we devised a world where impersonal, digital communication is the way things get done, but we must also buy a smartphone to even start accessing it.

I find it a great step forward in society, for every Gym in the world to not need to staff someone to sit there and answer phone call questions around (what are your hours? can I book X for Y?). Those are done much faster with robots and lower our costs.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#237

Post by mrweasel »

Ignoring the economy of the development process, vs. just being able to push out an app quickly, I cannot help wonder how small, and fast apps like this could be, without losing features.

Sure stripping out symbols is a quick thing you can do, but how about eliminating the ad tech stuff (people already bought the ticket, leave them alone). Remove the dependency of 3rd. party libraries and frameworks, utilizing only the built in frameworks (or does that not make difference in iOS applications?).

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#238

Post by WJW »

thorncorona wrote: post #129
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with 7-year-old phones are not really a target group a company selling luxury stuff is going to bother optimizing for.

Perhaps not but everyone saying this is what kills accessibility for those who need it. This is the same argument made by companies to not support deaf/blind people. Requirements are often above average in some dimensions and below average in others. If we optimize for people who are wealthy, always in high bandwidth areas with new phones, etc etc soon we will have left most people behind.

> a company selling luxury stuff

Leaving people behind is the entire concept of selling luxury stuff though, so I still don't think that the companies will care much.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#239

Post by kingcharles »

mojuba wrote: post #5

But even the stripped version is way way too much for an app like this. I can imagine it's layers upon layers of poor, bad and terrible architectural and organizational decisions.

This seems like a huge market opportunity for a service where you upload your "final" binary and some app goes through the thing and shows you all the stupid you are doing and how to fix it.

This would have really pissed me off if I had to download it over my cell plan. I have one phone with minimum apps on it which I use for day-to-day, and then another with all the scummy bloated apps on it, but the data plan on that phone is small and 500MB would be a huge chunk out of my monthly quota.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#240

Post by vmception »

winrid wrote: post #176
wodenokoto wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fastmail is the only email/calendar app with a reasonable size (just 20MB) It's because it doesn't contain anything. You can't even see any UI, let alone emails without being connected to the internet.

Adding offline access would indeed be nice, but that wouldn't even add 2mb of code. I have entire native mobile games with multiplayer under 3mb. EDIT: just realized the app is a web view. Sigh

I’ve been judged by prospective employers based on reported app size being seen as correlated to complexity. VC backed startup I worked at for 18 months with a 12 megabyte app size due to efficient design choices? Must be a joke

So now I just add a 150 megabyte dummy file at everyone else’s expense

I’m sure there is a lot of that going on given how long some job roles were open, I have to imagine that every mobile developer on the market may have passed through and made the same conclusion!

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