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Apple: no more 'free memory' apps?!

I'm with Apple on preventing apps from freeing memory like this. It's an extremely bad way to do it that has a not insubstantial chance of permanently breaking other software. Anybody using these is playing with fire.

On the other hand it's ridiculous that there would be any need for apps that free memory. Apple's done an amazing job with the iPhone OS; It's amazing how they turned a solid OS like OS X into something in the same class as Windows Mobile.
 
Spades said:
I'm with Apple on preventing apps from freeing memory like this. It's an extremely bad way to do it that has a not insubstantial chance of permanently breaking other software. Anybody using these is playing with fire.
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How exactly does one application allocating memory run a chance of "permanently breaking" other software?
 
IPhone already free memory when it is needed. I have iStat, great app but i will not miss it. Sometimes also this "free memory" button crashed my phone. Just... use iPhone.

I laugh at who says "another reason to jailbreak" since most of time instability are caused by installer and cydia trashes & hacks.
 
longofest said:
How exactly does one application allocating memory run a chance of "permanently breaking" other software?
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If it works as somebody else described, allocating memory until the system runs out and it starts killing processes, then these memory freeing applications are the equivalent of doing a Force Quit on all the applications on your Mac.

99.5% of the time you'll be OK, but you also run that 0.5% chance of killing it in the middle of a critical operation and corrupting data. Corrupt a database or plist, and the app has some chance of not working until the corrupted data is cleaned up. And good luck doing that on an iPhone.
 
This function is literally the only reason I purchased iStat for the iPhone. I guess that I will have to be on guard to prevent my version from being accidently updated to the now (for me) functionless version.

What bullsh*t. I guess this is one way of promoting the 3GS phone.
 
Having the ability to free memory might give users the impression they have some control.
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You misunderstand what this application is doing - esp. HOW it is doing it.

You could tell people they can fill their car's gas tank with pure ethanol and run on that to have "control" over their fuel source (with a warm fuzzy feeling of snubbing The Man), but they may not understand that the subsequent blowout of engine gaskets is related to your bad advice.

If a tool frees memory by identifying orphaned blocks and freeing them correctly, fine.
This one frees memory by growing until nothing else has space to run in and gets forcibly released/terminated - a Very Bad way of solving the problem.

The correct solution is make sure Apple gets it as a clear common bug report, and they fix the imperfect OS code.
 
I have used two of these, iStatPro and SystemMonitor (?). Anyhow, I've found that a wipe is needed sometimes before I can get iHeartRadio to properly function.

Just thought I would mention it.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Riemann Zeta said:
This function is literally the only reason I purchased iStat for the iPhone. I guess that I will have to be on guard to prevent my version from being accidently updated to the now (for me) functionless version.

What bullsh*t. I guess this is one way of promoting the 3GS phone.
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I would request (demand) a refund from Apple.
 
Behold!
img0012x.png


This is SBSettings. You can access it from any application by swiping across the status bar on the top, and it swooshes down.

Also: How free memory apps work is by allocating (requesting) as much memory as they can, and then releasing it all. If a process still needs memory then that won't be given to the free memory app. It's not quite like force quitting. This is not "playing with fire," as someone put it.

In addition jailbreaking in itself does not make your phone unstable. All you're doing with jailbreaking is changing the filesystem at / to allow writing, and perhaps a patch to lockdownd to bypass activation. What causes unstability and slowness is, by far, caused by Winterboard. There are some other apps that will give you trouble. You can install things such as SBSettings, YourTube, and Safari Download Manager, etc., however, with little impact on CPU and memory usage. Just avoid Winterboard and you'll be fine.
 
ctdonath said:
You misunderstand what this application is doing - esp. HOW it is doing it.
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I think you're missing the point that the function only caused Safari, Mail and non-vital apps to quit. They quit on their own terms, controlled by the OS (with a big nudge from iStat).

I'm not suggesting that it's the best way to do things, or an amazing feature, but some users found it useful. I used to use it to ensure Mail wasn't fetching new messages.

If a user likes the rest of iStat, but doesn't like the free mem button, then that's fine. iStat does a lot more: remote Mac/Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD monitoring etc.

ctdonath said:
The correct solution is make sure Apple gets it as a clear common bug report, and they fix the imperfect OS code.
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Absolutely. That's a path that might take some time to travel though. There's also a chance they might not consider the way things work to be bad.

In the mean time, other solutions could be seen as viable options.

Spades said:
It's an extremely bad way to do it that has a not insubstantial chance of permanently breaking other software.
Click to expand...
All third party apps are sandboxed. No third party app can break another third party app (in theory anyway).

For the record, we're not upset with this decision. We're still committed to writing the best iPhone apps we possibly can. We're still committed to ensuring iStat is the best app of its kind (stats/remote stats/network tools).

However, I think this thread is getting off topic. The issue isn't really about a single function being a nice or naughty thing to do, it's about the App Store being a volatile place for developers AND users. The people who bought our app for feature X have every right to be angry if it gets removed. We would have been fine with Apple saying they didn't want the feature on day 1. Letting us release with it, then removing it is what's caused the problems.

It's not just developers that are being hurt, it's all iPhone users.

We realise that the App Store is still new and needs work though. We're open to any dialogue from our users, other developers or Apple that helps move things forward for all of us.
 
Highland said:
All third party apps are sandboxed. No third party app can break another third party app (in theory anyway).
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You can break them when you intentionally crash them. Although you shouldn't be able to intentionally crash them.

Of course I'm operating under the assumption here that this memory freeing process works as described above: Allocate memory until the operating system starts killing processes. If it works differently then my point is moot.
 
Thank you to the non-whining people

I just want to say thanks to those who put up useful posts about this thread. I've been trying to understand why Apple would do this, and several of you have posted great responses, and I think I'm getting a better picture. Thanks Highland for the response, as an iStat user its great to see the company I gave my money to isn't in the game of inflaming a situation but practices patience and perseverance. Something I think a lot more people should have in general, especially when it comes to technology as a whole. Hopefully Apple will explain its actions as soon as it's edited and polished its statement. Something I've always appreciated about them, the thought before speaking and not just reacting... again something more people should embrace.

Oh... and I'm good without the free memory button. I think I might actually enjoy seeing the shutdown swipe a little more!
 
Spades said:
You can break them when you intentionally crash them. Although you shouldn't be able to intentionally crash them.
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My comment was regarding third party apps. We CAN NOT crash (or break) third party apps because they are not running while iStat is running.

We have seen no reports of the free memory function doing any permanent damage. The absolute worst case is that the phone resets. So I guess our users are rolling the dice: hit a button to quit Safari etc and be able to play a game with more ram or reset. Sure, there's cases where it might fail, but from the responses we've had, people were happy with the function.

We were very happy that Apple chose to contact us so we could release an update on our terms and inform as many users as possible that the update was coming.

It's worth noting that there's plenty of cases where software heads into grey territory, doing things like using unsupported or undocumented APIs etc*. It's always a risk, but if it's the only option available**, then the risk might be worthwhile.

*iStat for iPhone does not use any unsupported or undocumented APIs. This was just an example. There's lots of software on Mac OS X and other platforms that is stable and wildly useful that does though. Doesn't mean they're "bad" or "immoral", just that they might break at any point if Apple change the OS.

**In this case, the only other alternative is to reset the iPhone/iPod. Might be ok for you, but others have appreciated the short cut we've provided. Please don't judge something just because you don't like it. Others might.
 
Highland said:
My comment was regarding third party apps. We CAN NOT crash (or break) third party apps because they are not running while iStat is running.
Click to expand...

I didn't specify only third party apps. Those are actual safe(r) for the reason you mentioned. (Although the iPhone OS will happily kill third party apps and create the potential for this same crash-corrupt problem, won't it?) These free memory apps are killing Apple's apps, are they not? So the potential is there to break Mail, Notes, Safari, etc.

And freeing memory occasionally resets the phone? Meaning that it occasionally CRASHES the OS? That's an awful idea.
 
Spades said:
These free memory apps are killing Apple's apps, are they not? So the potential is there to break Mail, Notes, Safari, etc.
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I think you're taking this to the extreme. As far as I understand, the OS asks Safari, Mail and iPod to quit, then they quit themselves. There's no "killing" in the "force quit" or terminal "killall" command sense.

Even if there was, don't you force quit apps/processes on OS X all the time? I do it fairly regularly with zero side effects.

All App Store apps can only affect things within their sandbox. iStat is no exception.

And again, I don't think the free mem function should be the part of this we're questioning. It the app approval inconsistancy that's the discussion point.
 
in after the apple defense force.

Seriously, nobody would argue about force quitting an application in OS X or terminating a process in Windows task manager. Anybody following down this line of thought for the iPhone environment is just being an Apple apologist for their draconian management of the App Store.
 
Highland said:
.... The issue isn't really about a single function being a nice or naughty thing to do, it's about the App Store being a volatile place for developers AND users ....
Click to expand...

+1

Possibly the most intelligent comment I have read here.

Apple should at least explain itself, and describe how they're going to improve memory management so that users do not experience lag or instability.
 
Apple should back off

Apple need to stop micro-managing software developers. There is the SDK and other developer guidelines to keep things within the limits of the operating system.

The underlying attitude of Apple is similar to a despot who wants to control and manage everything. This is not healthy. It's outright despotism.
 
UNDERD0G said:
Yea, today is Sept. 5th 09 and this app is still in the uk and usa app store.
Why is this?
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Yeah, I was just thinking about this as well yesterday... maybe it's likethe Emoji app -- after Apple swept the store for them and pulled them all, are there not still a couple of apps in the store that do that, too?
 
Yes there are both Emoji and free memory apps still in the store, saw a free memory one in there today.

I've had my 3GS for a few days and have never felt I needed a free memory app though.
 
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