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“f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

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Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#91

Post by alextgordon »

untog wrote: post #72
coldtea wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you don't understand it either. While I do "lose the freedom to install what I want" (outside of the 1.5 millions apps that I can install that is), I get more than "fancy designs". I get a system where progress and adoption is faster, I get far less (close to statistical noise) malware compared to Android (none, actually, if I stick to top tier apps -- whereas there are Android phones that came with malware p…

Sure, the OPs point was stated somewhat flippantly but the point still stands. If an average user owns an Apple device, they cannot install apps that are not on the App Store. Talking about what apps are available just seems like clouding the issue.

You can, as of 2015.

1. Download Xcode

2. Pair your iPhone with Xcode

3. Download source code of the app you want to install

4. Build and run.

You just can't install closed-source software. iOS may yet become Stallman's dream platform ;)

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#92

Post by coldtea »

lispit wrote: post #77
coldtea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's the "patent pending" part that sucks. They're trying to patent the idea of changing your video card's CLUT (color look-up table) to reduce eye strain, which is a fairly obvious and trivial thing to do once you know that blue light affects melatonin production. On the other hand, since nobody else has done it (or patented it yet), real life proves that it's not that "obvious". Like the "egg of Columbus" some th…

I said "obvious and trivial thing to do once you know that blue light affects melatonin production. " In the past people did other hacks with CLUTs (like some early 3D games baking gamma correction into the CLUT so that proper linear lighting could be displayed without an expensive postprocessing pass). If you were aware of the blue light effect (I'm not a sleep scientist, I don't know how long they've been aware of…

>I said "obvious and trivial thing to do once you know that blue light affects melatonin production."

That doesn't change my argument. That too was known for ages, and still no light changing apps for it like flux (with the exception of a Linux app which I think came later).

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#93

Post by kuschku »

izacus wrote: post #54
ucha wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does making it open source helps 95% of the iPhone owners out there? Outside of this tech ivory tower, most people don't even understand what a compiler does.

Not every piece of software has to be usable to the 100% of world's population.

Not a single piece of software is usable to 100% of the population.

Next to all web-based software is even only usable by 4.28% of the global population: the US population. You need for many things an US credit card, or a .edu email, etc.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#94

Post by rererererere » 

  $ codesign  -vvv -d iflux
  Executable=f.lux-xcode-master/iflux
  Identifier=com.justgetflux.iflux
  Format=bundle with Mach-O universal (armv7 (16777228:0))
  CodeDirectory v=20200 size=645 flags=0x0(none) hashes=23+5 location=embedded
  Hash type=sha1 size=20
  CDHash=a32a120fefd588adbc6a420d6fc5786d223cfa72
  Signature size=4340
  Authority=iPhone Distribution: Michael Herf
  Authority=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority
  Authority=Apple Root CA
  Signed Time=11 Nov 2015 01:41:42
  Info.plist entries=35
  TeamIdentifier=VZKSA7H9J9
  Sealed Resources=none
  Internal requirements count=1 size=176
They were distributing a binary signed with their enterprise certificate and suggesting that user re-signs it. Additionally, flux.beta contains some auto-generated iOS project code, which is totally irrelevant. So it seems like the author himself does not quite understand what he was doing. It also makes sense that Apple took it down: it is against EULA to (publicly) distribute binaries signed with enterprise certificate.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#95

Post by kuschku »

morgante wrote: post #65
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #30

This is why consumers need root access to their phones. These are more than just phones, they are pocket sized computers. We have root/admin access on our laptops and desktops, we should have it here.

Isn't that what jailbreaking is for?

Then Apple should offer an official Jailbreak tool from their website available if you sign a statement that you won’t get software support anymore.

Like Motorola does with bootloader unlocking on their devices.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#96

Post by coldtea »

lispit wrote: post #86
coldtea wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do people support this software? Same reason we use Photoshop, Pro Tools, etc: because we like/want the functionality. Build an open source alternative as good, and we'll use that.

I could kinda see your point of view in your other posts ITT (though I disagree), but what? The entire point of this discussion is that their patent application is discouraging other people from creating "competitors" (if you can call them that).

That's the latter part "build an open source alternative as good" that might be problematic due to the patent (then again, if it was obvious somebody should have built it BEFORE they did and thus have prior art).

But the first part, "because we like/want the functionality" still holds whether there's a patent or not. If there's no alternative, either because nobody bothered, or because the software is patented, then people will still use it, regardless if it's proprietary or not.

Photoshop, the other example I gave, also has tons of patents, proudly listed on their "About" windows.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#97

Post by coldtea »

heinrich5991 wrote: post #87
DavideNL wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is quite simple, many people don't want or need any other apps than those in the App Store. Most people are not developers or computer nerds. And what they get in return is for example an (almost) malware free device. I'll probably get downvoted for saying this... Anyway here's an example, Google them, all reports show the same results: > "Kaspersky Lab experts estimate that 98.05% of all existing mobile m…

f.lux seems to be an exception to this. I'm not sure if you're right in saying that "only developers or computer nerds" want to install apps other than those in the App Store.

>f.lux seems to be an exception to this.

Only developers or computer nerds even know about flux in the first place.

>I'm not sure if you're right in saying that "only developers or computer nerds" want to install apps other than those in the App Store.

Because most "regular" users don't even know there are apps outside the app store.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#99

Post by Eric_WVGG »

jws wrote: post #61

If Apple decides that having the screen temperature vary with time, lighting, whatever, I promise it is easier for them to write a few hundred lines of code than it is to engineer secure holes in the sandbox, develop policy around their use, and deal with f.lux. Adjusting white point is a feature, a little one in a long bullet item list, not a business model. ␄ Appendix: If you are doing this yourself, you can get an…

I agree very much. Giving any old app access to the device’s gamma settings sounds like a recipe for mayhem. I know the Flux guys don’t like this, but I think this app needs to be Sherlock’ed.

Re: “f.lux has been ready to ship for iOS for four years, but we need Apple's help.”

#100

Post by lispit »

coldtea wrote: post #92
lispit wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said "obvious and trivial thing to do once you know that blue light affects melatonin production. " In the past people did other hacks with CLUTs (like some early 3D games baking gamma correction into the CLUT so that proper linear lighting could be displayed without an expensive postprocessing pass). If you were aware of the blue light effect (I'm not a sleep scientist, I don't know how long they've been aware of…

> I said "obvious and trivial thing to do once you know that blue light affects melatonin production." That doesn't change my argument. That too was known for ages, and still no light changing apps for it like flux (with the exception of a Linux app which I think came later).

>That too was known for ages, and still no light changing apps for it like flux

How is Joseph Programmer von Notasleepscientist supposed to know that a blue-light dimming filter is something that he might want before he sees the effect in action? I'll give some credit to f.lux for popularizing the idea, but once the idea is out there, there are only two ways you can implement it: postprocessing in software, or postprocessing in the CLUT. You wouldn't need to know anything about how f.lux works to come up with one of them yourself, once you are aware of the idea.

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