Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could be wrong, but I think all the articles are on Instapaper's servers, so you can re-download them.
But only if you are online, which defeats the object of "offline access".
That's not what jmcnevin asked.
IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
81–90 of 207 posts
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#82There are a number of possible scenarios for file storage, the problem is a lack of clarity or documentation about the properties of the various locations as they stand now. As a developer, I could imagine desiring the following choices:
1. Temp: No backup, cleared regularly
2. Cache: No backup, cleared when space is tight
3. Local: Local backup only, never cleared
4. Documents: Local/cloud backup, never cleared
5. Cloud: Cloud backup, cleared when space is tight
The problem seems to be that #3 doesn't exist. Yet you'd think it would be a common requirement for stuff like in-app purchases of large and essential content packs, for example, turn-by-turn navigation maps.
I'd hate to be on holiday and have a 10 megabyte podcast download automatically trigger the erasure of 1000 megabytes of navigation data.
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#83Maybe the solution is to make it a choice for the user? An option to "clean up documents when space is low on the device" in the instapaper options. If checked, stuff gets stored in cache. If not, in documents. That way, the default behavior is that "download something = want to keep it on device", but users can do the other one too if they want. I don't think the option is particularly useful, but it might make the…
This is what needs to happen. Either there needs to be a user confirmation before information can be "cleaned" from an app, or there needs to be a setting in the Settings/Appname for disallowing cleaning of that app's data.
[Edit] Upon further examination of the new Settings/iCloud in iOS 5, what will need to happen is that the user should be able to disable iCloud syncing for individual 3rd party apps. That's the most consistent solution for the current interface. [/Edit]
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#84I'm sympathetic to Marco's blog post here, but I wonder if he's failing to interpret the two paragraphs from the documentation within the context of Instapaper's purpose. With respect to point #1, and in the context of what Instapaper is for, the user is intending to read an article offline, and the local copy of the article was generated by the user's intent (and can, therefore, be considered user-generated even tho…
Say I have a multimedia app that downloads assets. I don't want to see them randomly disappear or have them backup to iCloud. Where should they go?
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#85He says he knew about this behavior, and he also explicitly said (on Twitter, can't be bothered looking for it) that he was not going to report bugs to Apple during the beta. I guess Marco just prefers venting after the fact.
Maybe if you are going to slag someone off you should be bothered looking for the tweet you base your slander on...
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#86Maybe the solution is to make it a choice for the user? An option to "clean up documents when space is low on the device" in the instapaper options. If checked, stuff gets stored in cache. If not, in documents. That way, the default behavior is that "download something = want to keep it on device", but users can do the other one too if they want. I don't think the option is particularly useful, but it might make the…
I would bet Apple's never going to make this sort of a choice obvious to the user -- it goes against the "just working" (whether or not it works the way you want) they're currently pushing. It sure does worry me to read all these comments though; it seems like you'll never be able to count on an app having the data it needs to run, without re-downloading. As somebody who spends half his day in an airplane or a subway, plus plenty of time in expensive places (like overseas), that's terrifying.
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems to be the only way for Instapaper to give their users a reasonable experience, but it's still a bad solution. It doesn't make much sense for the Instapaper app to backup its users' cached articles to iCloud, when the whole point of the app is to backup the articles on the iPhone. If you have access to iCloud, you have access to the original article, so it's a waste of bandwidth. Not to mention that Instapa…
I honestly don't think there is an issue with allowing Instapaper content to get backed up to iCloud here. The analogy of a user created archive is a good one. If people don't want the benefit of having their Instapaper content transfers across their devices automatically (and I do think this is a good feature) then they are free to disable iCloud backup for Instapaper in Settings.
That's not entirely true. You can disable iCloud syncing for individual Apple apps, but 3rd party apps are all-or-nothing. You can't disable iCloud syncing for a single 3rd party app.
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#88Maybe the solution is to make it a choice for the user? An option to "clean up documents when space is low on the device" in the instapaper options. If checked, stuff gets stored in cache. If not, in documents. That way, the default behavior is that "download something = want to keep it on device", but users can do the other one too if they want. I don't think the option is particularly useful, but it might make the…
I would bet Apple's never going to make this sort of a choice obvious to the user -- it goes against the "just working" (whether or not it works the way you want) they're currently pushing. It sure does worry me to read all these comments though; it seems like you'll never be able to count on an app having the data it needs to run, without re-downloading. As somebody who spends half his day in an airplane or a subway…
Actually a couple video players right now do make this choice available to the user - OPlayer and AVPlayer. They both say something to the effect of "Backup media" in their settings. This simply toggles which location the media is stored in (AVPlayer even seems to move the media on the fly).
This is literally exactly how I would implement the choice if I were Marco.
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the vast majority of developers of iOS apps the specifics of how their data is stored and backed up do not matter. If they were not forced by Apple to adopt this set of constraints they would make decisions on a whim, it would lead to less freedom for user, because where there is uniformity, there is a power to abstract, there is a freedom to not micromanage. Circumventing design decicions is hard. Learning the s…
> there is a power to abstract, there is a freedom to not micromanage. Oh, so is that like having freedom from porn now?
is that like having freedom from porn now?
Well, it is a lot like freedom from worry about what your 10-year-old is doing with the iPhone you bought them.
As long as someone offers devices that give you the abilities you want, why begrudge people who want something different?
Re: IOS 5's "Cleaning" Behavior
#90He says he knew about this behavior, and he also explicitly said (on Twitter, can't be bothered looking for it) that he was not going to report bugs to Apple during the beta. I guess Marco just prefers venting after the fact.
Maybe if you are going to slag someone off you should be bothered looking for the tweet you base your slander on...
Fair enough. I tried now but that was months ago and Twitter search is unhelpful.
However, he's being asked by multiple people right now for the radar# and he's ignoring the questions. He just said he's known it for two weeks, which might have been too late for Apple to fix it anyway.