Apple gave a small mention in yesterday’s keynote to something that may make a big difference to those iPhone and iPad owners who find themselves running short of storage space: App Thinning. The idea is that your iOS 9 device only downloads the code it actually needs, making apps significantly smaller than they are today.
What Apple listed as one feature is actually three separate mechanisms, each playing its own part in reducing app size, and ArsTechnica has provided an interesting look at how it all works …
The primary mechanism – App Slicing – is the one that does most of the work. Because apps need to run on a variety of devices, from the 3.5-inch iPhone 4 to the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 (or 10-inch iPad, for universal apps), they contain separate assets for each of those devices – most of which your device doesn’t need.
Say you have an iPhone 5C, which uses a 32-bit CPU and a GPU that doesn’t support the Metal API. Download a modern universal game, and that binary includes 64-bit code, iPad and “3x” iPhone 6 Plus assets, and Metal API code that it doesn’t need. It only needs the 32-bit code, “2x” iPhone-sized assets, and the OpenGL graphics code.
With App Slices, developers tag assets by device, and when you download the app from iTunes, it will only download the assets your device needs. Apple has made this process pretty simple for developers, so it’s likely that many will support it.
On-Demand Resources (ODR) is the second way to reduce app sizes. ArsTechnica gives the example of multi-level games, where you typically only need the level you are playing plus the next few levels up. ODR means you can download the game with the first few levels included. As your play progresses, the app downloads extra levels and purges the levels already completed.
Finally, Bitcode. Instead of uploading pre-compiled binaries, developers upload what Apple calls an “intermediate representation” of the app. The App Store then automatically compiles the app just before downloading. This allows it to automatically implement part of App Slicing even if the developer hasn’t bothered to tag their code, downloading only the 32- or 64-bit code as required.
But Bitcode also means that if Apple improves the compiler to make code more efficient, those improvements are automatically incorporated when you download the app.
There will be some trade-offs. For example, if you’re passing the time on a long flight by playing a multi-level game, it could be a bit frustrating to run out of levels when you’re still four hours away from landing. But overall, it should be something that will benefit most of us most of the time – especially those with 16GB devices.
Check out more detail over at ArsTechnica.
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I’d say the benifits out-way the costs, but what users are crying out for more than anything is increased free iCloud storage. 5 GB per device isn’t enough, never mind the current limit of 5 GB per account. 50 GB should be the baseline free account storage—at least.
iCloud storage doesn’t do bupkis for most users to solve the problem of not enough space on the device. I have a 64GB bursting at the seams with a camera roll. If I enable iCloud Photo Library and delete my photos from the device they’ll disappear from iCloud too. I’d use a better-priced service like my 1TB OneDrive, but the iOS photos viewer with its map integration is the best around. :(
What users want is MORE SPACE. Apple should make 64GB the new low-end. That would go a long way toward making sure the iOS experience kicks the crap out of the competition. Right now with at least photos being able to live on SD cards Android has, I hate to admit it, an advantage on the storage front.
If you enable iCloud Photo Library and turn on “optimize storage on this device”, all the full-rez images go to the cloud and you only have thumbnails on your iPhone until you view them or edit them.
You’re doing it wrong. Turn on iCloud Photo Library and choose Optimize iPhone Storage. This is one of Apple’s best innovations of recent years, and to try and decide otherwise how cloud storage should work is foolish. Especially when you are then going to bitch about the poor solution you’ve created yourself.
No, 64 should NOT be the low end. That comment is completely irrelevant. You don’t want to pay for storage, you don’t understand how best to use the cloud…yet you want ‘better’. Good luck.
16GB has been the base unit for FIVE years, since the iPhone 4. It’s well beyond time to change it to 32 or 64.
@shareef777
What does “time” have anything to do with it?
16 GB is more usable today than it ever was before, thanks to software innovation like what this article is talking about, and the more significant improvements that were made in iOS 8.
More than half of all iPhone purchases are of the base model. The majority of buyers make their decision based on price, not storage. Apple is not and should not just lose money on those buyers unnecessarily.
Apple made the correct choice last year, to keep 16 GB for the base mode, but make higher end storage (64 and 128) more affordable for the people who care about storage.
The only demographic left out, and rightfully so, is the one that wants all the storage and doesn’t want to pay for it.
PMZanetti, dont make excuses. 16GB is not enough. 32gb should be the base. AAPL makes enough money already. These kind of cheap decisions are really what encourages anti Apple sentiment.
Or you could just pay to use more storage if you need it.
5 GB of space is more than enough for the average user to backup their 16 GB iPhone.
Users who want more, pay for it. Prices are pretty competitive. Not long ago I was paying $9.99 a month for 100 GB. Now thats 500 GB. Pretty soon it will be 1 TB.
5GB is not enough, especially for multi iDevices users like me. Now I have resorted to Onedrive with 200GB storage and Google Photos. And yes I do use optimize photos and still only have 1 gb free space on my 16gb phone.
personally id like to see storage on iCloud shuld be based on the device you purchase
bigger the device storage more free iCloud storage!
Tom@L (@_ArcTic_FiRe), if you can afford being multiple iDevices, you’re more than likely to be able to afford additional iCloud storage.
This is great stuff!!
Great… But I still miss delta updates!
It will help, but it’s sort of like trying to stop the rain with a cocktail umbrella. The biggest consumer of resources on devices are not assets built into apps, but data downloaded and generated on the device. Music, photos, video and cached or wholesale duplicated data that sticks around for too long instead of being purged.
Those are deleted automatically by the OS.
Except when the App developers cheat, and store files that aren’t needed, Apple can’t do anything about it…
> if you’re passing the time on a long flight by playing a multi-level game, it could be a bit frustrating to run out of levels when you’re still four hours away from landing
Solved-ish, Have a setting to disable ODR. You could even do this in a smart way by allocating X GB to apps or games, and allow the games to use the space accordingly based on game usage and date downloaded.
They should just offer a reasonable amount of storage at a reasonable price. Like 100 gigs for $5 a month. Most people would spring for it, and love it.
Allow you to “archive” stuff that you don’t want on your phone but still want backed up.
Simple and easy.
You can get 200gb for 4 dollars a month already…
Praise the Apple Gods for App Slicing.
That’s great, but I still want a 256 GB iPad!!!
All this talk of paying for storage you need… Everyone needs storage, and Apple GIVE 5Gb as a standard, which is fantastic, anything for free is good. But lets look at the idea behind this.
You are paying for a premium device, and that FREE storage isn’t really free as you have already paid for it to be able to use the device you bought…
SO no think of the people that require more than 1 device, you still pay the premium, but because you use the exact same log in, you are in fact penalised by the fact that you actually LOSE storage…! So i have an iPhone 5S for UK and iPhone 6 for Norway, i have an iPad 4 for travel and home use, and then i have 2 iPad Air 2’s for work…! Yet i only get 5Gb of storage…!!! Really Apple…???
The alternative is 2 set up different email addresses for each device and use family sharing, but then we also have 3 other iPhones and 4 other iPads in the same household so that doesn’t work either…!
At least give 5Gb PER REGISTERED DEVICE…!!!
You have 5 Apple devices (~$2000) and are not paying a measly 10$/mo for storage? You could also have a separate account for your work stuff
“You are paying for a premium device, and that FREE storage isn’t really free as you have already paid for it to be able to use the device you bought…”
Actually it is free. Value things for what they are. If you didn’t buy the top of the line iPhone you still get free iCloud storage. You aren’t buying a server somewhere when you buy an iPhone. You get a lot for that premium you pay, why should cloud storage be tacked on?
But It’s not to say I don’t understand the problem. The biggest issue lies with backup since backup data isn’t shared across devices. Documents and data are. If they removed backup from the equation – which would be a remarkable gift, that would solve the problem. I also think they could introduce another way to back up – like allowing users to back up wirelessly and automatically to their time machine, instead of to the cloud or through a connected iTunes synch.
agreed. 5GB is a slap to the face for multiple iOS device users. Now I use Onedrive. They gave me free 200GB storage. Plus using Google Photos as well now. Apple really need to stop being cheap.
iCloud storage should reflect the cumulative amount of space available on all devices connected to the same account.
For example, if you own a 16GB iPhone and a 64GB iPhone 6, both of which use the same Apple ID, then you should have 80GB of available storage, period!
About apple’s 5gb free iCloud. I think this would be fine if they just took device backups out of the equation. The issue is that for one iCloud account you are backing up multiple devices. Backup is so important, it should really be a feature that Apple tries to push. Having people get “backup failed” notifications in the morning doesn’t get most people to buy more storage. It just makes them annoyed. I know, because my family members keep ignoring them and just complain about it when I visit.
I think it’s fine that there are payed data tiers but I think it should be for more optional convince services like photos and documents and data. Another ok solution would be to let iOS devices backup directly to a time machine. That way the storage responsibility isn’t on apple but the backups aren’t eating away at iCloud space. It’s not the best but it would be automatic wireless backups one they invest in a time machine.