The Sneaky Lie Your Apple Devices Are Telling You

[power]

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/t...feature_module

never heard of this but thought it was funny, I wonder if Android does this too...?

When you touch an app to load it on your iPhone or iPad, instead of the program, it sends you a picture of the program, a completely fake, non-functional image to make it appear that the app loaded super fast. If you touch it, you'll find that it doesn't do anything, because it's a facade meant to hide the fact that the actual program hasn't loaded yet, with you pawing at it like a fly landing on a drawing of another fly and trying to hump it.

Meanwhile, the real program loads in the background, and a few seconds later will seamlessly replace the fake screenshot. They're just betting that your fingers won't be fast enough to hit the non-functioning buttons before the real ones take their place. It's kind of like a restaurant sending you out a photorealistic picture of a hamburger to make you think their kitchen is super fast, then quickly slipping the real burger under the picture while you're stuffing your napkin into your shirt collar.
A user named raygundan pointed this out in the comments at Reddit, and it sounded to us like a ridiculous urban legend, but it appears to be common knowledge among people familiar with the devices. Basically, the last time you used the app, your device saved a screenshot of it, then uses it to build the loading animation for the next time you launch it. It looks cool, you were none the wiser, it makes you feel like your expensive device is working more smoothly. And, the next time you use your iPhone, you'll completely forget that we told you this. You'll be blissfully enjoying their false reality, like a very small, sad version of the Matrix.

[deepspring]

LOL.

Checked this with my iPad 3 and iPhone 4. I can't tell.

[vindicator]

Meanwhile, the real program loads in the background, and a few seconds later will seamlessly replace the fake screenshot.

If this is true, it's milliseconds, not seconds, as I certainly can't beat it with my fingers when trying.

And really, as long as the interface is instantly responsive to the user, like the iOS one always is, then that's all that matters.

[power]

Originally Posted by vindicator

If this is true, it's milliseconds, not seconds, as I certainly can't beat it with my fingers when trying.

And really, as long as the interface is instantly responsive to the user, like the iOS one always is, then that's all that matters.

the next time you are mashing the screen on a freshly loaded app and nothing happens remember this thread.

I know I've been on iOS devices and had this happen, I would never have thought for a minute this was why.

taken from the link in the article

Correct, its bee there since iOS 3.0 with the second generation iPod Touch and the multitasking support. When you jailbreak, your device becomes slightly slower and this screenshot becomes increasingly apparent. I've stumbeled upon the folder where the cached screenshots are kept I think its /private/car/Applications/(the applications name).
Apple recently started using this feature in the full desktop version of Safari for MacBook Pros using the multi touch back and forward features ( two fingers left and right). You can clearly see this if you use Google's live search thing, click a link and then swipe back, it'll take a few seconds to recover before out can go on your merry way searching again.

[vindicator]

Originally Posted by power

the next time you are mashing the screen on a freshly loaded app and nothing happens remember this thread.

Hasn't happened to me on my iPhone 4.

[ronald_r32]

Originally Posted by vindicator

Hasn't happened to me on my iPhone 4.

nor my 4s, or the iPad1,2,3 we have at work.

[vindicator]

Originally Posted by ronald_r32

nor my 4s, or the iPad1,2,3 we have at work.

I'm the first guy to stand up and say "Hey, fuck you Apple, this shit is not acceptable" too.

I demand the best from Apple, but I'm really not seeing the problem here.

[ronald_r32]

So basically the article is saying that a splashscreen is popping up for a tiny amount of time, that you cant actually touch whilst the program loads in the background?

Yeah not seeing the issue at all

[power]

it's actually quite clever because it makes the device seem quicker than it really is, only a half second or so but still clever.

[alvarez]

With a reputable source like Reddit comments, How could it be false!
/internet sarcasms

Ive barely played with an iPhone but as a person familiar with computers I can see this is clearly false. the memory used to load an image of an app would take for more time to load an process than an app itself.

Edit: after reading through the re-posts and re-posts to get to the source article it seems that I was confused, I read this as a full size screenshot off the app is loaded but its talking about the pop up/down animation.

[dakiller]

Originally Posted by ronald_r32

So basically the article is saying that a splashscreen is popping up for a tiny amount of time, that you cant actually touch whilst the program loads in the background?

Yeah not seeing the issue at all

But rar rar rar, apple is deceiving everyone, rar rar rar, this is an outrage, iPhones are the Antichrist and will bring about the apocalypse

[power]

Originally Posted by dakiller

But rar rar rar, apple is deceiving everyone, rar rar rar, this is an outrage, iPhones are the Antichrist and will bring about the apocalypse

Where was tha implied? Or did you read it that way?

I saw this article that points out a clever little trick that iOS uses to make it 'feel' faster....

[FlameHead]

As an iPhone developer I can confirm this is 100% true.

And if you are saying you don't notice it, then you are lying.

Now to clarify, this only happens when the app has not yet been loaded. So if you have multitasked to it, then the app doesn't have to load, you don't see the fake screenshot.

It's also why sometimes you hit the app, you see one screen, like see old emails or something and then a second later the whole thing changes. Screenshots from your previous state only occur on Apple official apps. Third party developers are not allowed to do that trick.

You can test it out by bringing up the multitasking menu (double click home) kill an app, then start that app. When the image flies in, that's a PNG, then it "populates" which in reality is it loading for the first time.

And it doesn't matter what phone you have, it ALWAYS displays the PNG during the animation.

Android doesn't do any of this stuff finagling.

[FlameHead]

Originally Posted by alvarez

With a reputable source like Reddit comments, How could it be false!
/internet sarcasms

Ive barely played with an iPhone but as a person familiar with computers I can see this is clearly false. the memory used to load an image of an app would take for more time to load an process than an app itself.

Edit: after reading through the re-posts and re-posts to get to the source article it seems that I was confused, I read this as a full size screenshot off the app is loaded but its talking about the pop up/down animation.

I can confirm, it is a full screen PNG. So I would agree, that in some cases the PNG might take longer to load than just loading the app. But the difference is that the PNG load time can be optimised and have guaranteed performance while the UI cannot.

[dakiller]

Originally Posted by power

Where was tha implied? Or did you read it that way?

I saw this article that points out a clever little trick that iOS uses to make it 'feel' faster....

Not aimed at you, just the anti-Apple brigade