Support NeoGAF

[GWX]

After almost a day with iOS 9 on my iPhone 5s, I must say I'm a bit disappointed performance-wise. Animations are dropping frames where they didn't before - examples: Control Center (worst offender for me, feels like a 4s running iOS 8, and even my iPad 4 on iOS 9.1 beta is smoother), Cellular section in Settings (terrible scrolling performance, feels like Music.app on iOS 8.4.x or the early days of iOS 7), Spotlight "pull down" gesture (janky, janky, janky - was so smooth on iOS 8.x; turning off Siri Suggestions doesn't help) and keyboard "slide in" animation (dropped frames while writing this very post!). Safari scrolling inertia is also screwed, feels terrible to scroll through long pages.

What I do love about the update: content blockers (oh yes!), "back to" shortcut, proactivity regarding audio connections - such as headphones or Bluetooth speakers (genius!) - and all the app enhancements (small touches in Music and Mail, great new capabilities in Notes, News app - even if I feel it's quite slow).

 

[Maninthemirror]

Nilay just published an editorial basically saying the web is dying because companies are creating alternative publishing platforms and Apple is allowing ad blockers. I don't agree at all. I think this is the best thing that has happened to the web in some time because publishers now have a fire lit under them to get better and create value propositions that users will be willing to pay for.

He probably saw this chart

 

[samn]

Nilay just published an editorial basically saying the web is dying because companies are creating alternative publishing platforms and Apple is allowing ad blockers. I don't agree at all. I think this is the best thing that has happened to the web in some time because publishers now have a fire lit under them to get better and create value propositions that users will be willing to pay for.

So put everything behind paywalls?

My problem with paywalls is that they don't discriminate based on income. An ad-supported site is visible to everyone, rich or poor, even though the wealthier eyeballs may be much more valuable. It's not possible to have that openness with a paywalled site.

Apparently, Peace only hides ads, but not the space they occupy. Well, at least on some pages. This sucks. Crystal, on the other hand, removes the empty space too, but still not on all pages.

This article is a good example. With Peace, the ad after the opening paragraph is blocked, but the "Anzeige" ("ad") label remains. With Crystal, that label is removed too, but the white space remains. On my Mac, using Adblock, even the white space is removed.

I have more faith in Marco Arment than I do in someone who released a pay-for adblocker that doesn't even have a whitelist. So I'm sure Peace will sort this out fairly soon.

 

[Vyer]

Apparently, Peace only hides ads, but not the space they occupy. Well, at least on some pages. This sucks. Crystal, on the other hand, removes the empty space too, but still not on all pages.

This article is a good example. With Peace, the ad after the opening paragraph is blocked, but the "Anzeige" ("ad") label remains. With Crystal, that label is removed too, but the white space remains. On my Mac, using Adblock, even the white space is removed.

This is what I see on that page:

But I'm not sure what ad space I'm looking for. Seems pretty cohesive, but I'm not sure.

 

[Theecliff]

Battery life on my 5c is considerably better.

ok, this is good to hear. battery life on my 5c currently is absolute shite.

 

[Junior Mint]

This is what I see on that page:



But I'm not sure what ad space I'm looking for. Seems pretty cohesive, but I'm not sure.

Go to www.blogto.com and you'll see an example

 

[Fliesen]

too early to say bu i prefer it to crystal and purify (beta) for the ability to block comments widgets and for how good ghostery (the back end) is at blocking ads and scripts.

edit: @ Surfhurt. i think it might have been changed partly for the new force touch app switching shortcut on the 6s. push hard on the edge and swipe. having the multitasking windows on that edge make he image match the gesture

this.

The argument of diminishing returns when it comes to blocklists makes a lot of sense to me - the content blocker has to check every single occurrence against every single item of the list. The longer the list, the larger the workload for the blocker.

So an app made by a respected developer supported by a backend that seems to be well curated makes it seem like Peace is the right choice.
Even if there's kinks about it not removing all the whitespace, those will be ironed out. In 2 years it's going to be about which app has the most well curated blocklist, i think.

Again, i've even switched to ghostery on OSX Safari now and it's really, really neat. - it makes the granular control (what to black / whitelist when and where) very intuitive as well as transparent.

 

[SeanR1221]

There's a lot of different blockers. Which one is best?

Anyone?

 

[radio_apeshot]

Probably a candidate for my favourite iOS release yet. Now that I have the battery widget, I can turn off the percentage in the status bar for a cleaner look.

Has anyone tried side loading apps yet? gba4iOS?

How do you add that battery widget? Or is this on iPad?

 

[Got the Shakes]

Android has had ad blocking since it's inception lmao

Android doesn't even have proper ad blocking today. You either need to use a specific 3rd party browser that blocks ads, or you need to root to get something that resembles a not jank solution. Makes sense though honestly, as Google shouldn't want people on Android blocking their big revenue stream.

I don't quite get the ad blocker enthusiasm, a browser like Dolphin (the very best) had it for years. Am I missing something?

I love the new OS. It really shines on the iPad.

It's built in at the OS level. Setup a content blocker and you don't need to use any 3rd party browsers to enjoy and ad and tracker free experience. I believe once apps start adopting SafariViewController that ads will be blocked when opening an in app browser.

 

[giga]

So put everything behind paywalls?

My problem with paywalls is that they don't discriminate based on income. An ad-supported site is visible to everyone, rich or poor, even though the wealthier eyeballs may be much more valuable. It's not possible to have that openness with a paywalled site.



I have more faith in Marco Arment than I do in someone who released a pay-for adblocker that doesn't even have a whitelist. So I'm sure Peace will sort this out fairly soon.

Not everything. But if the majority of your revenue is coming from invasive and battery killing ads, it might be time to look at alternative business models. That can range from paywalls to sponsorships. I don't know what the solution is. But I think blaming Apple for allowing blockers or Facebook for creating an alternative platform is shifting the blame for how we got here.

 

[Pastry]

Anyone?

Peace is very nice so far.

 

[karmaforgotme]

Here is a way you can easily decide between peace and purify

Peace comes from the guys behind ghostery
Purify comes from the guys behind Ublock

I never used Ublock, but I use ghostery for Firefox (work PC) and for Safari (on MacBook). What are trying to tell us non-users of one or both of these services?

I already got Purify, because I didn't like the lack of options on Crystal. I hadn't heard about Peace at the time, but I assume you can't go wrong with either.

 

[ClosingADoor]

Not everything. But if the majority of your revenue is coming from invasive and battery killing ads, it might be time to look at alternative business models. That can range from paywalls to sponsorships. I don't know what the solution is. But I think blaming Apple for allowing blockers or Facebook for creating an alternative platform is shifting the blame for how we got here.

Apple and Facebook just want you to use their apps, which will gather even more data to target ads.

I guess the future is go through there and a lot of sold editorial content on most websites instead of actual ads.

Let's see how this will impact publishers in the future. But I think there should really be a middle ground somehow between 'block nothing' and 'block it all'. A screen filling ad? Block. A normal banner on top of the page? Just let it be.

 

[Tunesmith]

Probably a candidate for my favourite iOS release yet. Now that I have the battery widget, I can turn off the percentage in the status bar for a cleaner look.

Has anyone tried side loading apps yet? gba4iOS?

If you have the source you can compile whatever app you want tailored to your Apple ID with Xcode for free for use on all your devices.

 

[giga]

Apple and Facebook just want you to use their apps, which will gather even more data to target ads.

I guess the future is go through there and a lot of sold editorial content on most websites instead of actual ads.

Let's see how this will impact publishers in the future. But I think there should really be a middle ground somehow between 'block nothing' and 'block it all'. A screen filling ad? Block. A normal banner on top of the page? Just let it be.

I would be more than happy with that.

 

[Blackhead]

I have more faith in Marco Arment than I do in someone who released a pay-for adblocker that doesn't even have a whitelist. So I'm sure Peace will sort this out fairly soon.

So an app made by a respected developer supported by a backend that seems to be well curated makes it seem like Peace is the right choice.

goddam Marco is popular in the Apple fan community but you should sometimes consider other alternatives... You do know that Purity is made by the guy who develops uBlock right?! uBlock is one of the most popular and praised adblockers on the every desktop platform right now; he's been doing this a lot longer than Marco. uBlock is open source too, he's willing to fork and maintain. How long before Marco gets tired of supporting Peace and sells out?

 

[samn]

Not everything. But if the majority of your revenue is coming from invasive and battery killing ads, it might be time to look at alternative business models. That can range from paywalls to sponsorships. I don't know what the solution is. But I think blaming Apple for allowing blockers or Facebook for creating an alternative platform is shifting the blame for how we got here.

I agree completely, Apple's in their rights to do this, it's good for their users, and I use adblockers on all my devices. But those alternative business models seem to me to either be less lucrative (and so support less content creation) or to be against the open nature of the web.

goddam Marco is popular in the Apple fan community but you should sometimes consider other alternatives... You do know that Purity is made by the guy who develops uBlock right?! uBlock is one of the most popular and praised adblockers on the every desktop platform right now; he's been doing this a lot longer than Marco. uBlock is open source too, he's willing to fork and maintain. How long before Marco gets tired of supporting Peace and sells out?

Ghostery have been around a lot longer than uBlock. And when Marco 'sold out' Instapaper, it became an even better product.

If I cared that much about open source I wouldn't be using an iPhone.

Marco says he tested hosts databases other than Ghostery's, but they were all lacking in various ways, e.g. failing to block trackers that aren't visible to the user. uBlock uses the same freely available host databases as everyone else - its only selling point was that it blocked the same ads faster then ABP. This is no longer an advantage on iOS as the content blocking mechanism is always the same and is performed extremely quickly. Considering that uBlock is more of a homebrew, hobbyist product, compared to Ghostery which is a more professional operation, it's very plausible to me that Ghostery has a much better database.

 

[LyleLanley]

Nilay Patel is predicting the death of content on the internet because of ad blockers.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/17/9...gle-vs-facebook-and-the-slow-death-of-the-web

His twitter arguments are as hilarious as expected as well.

Edit:

I should read the thread, apparently this has been brought up already.

 

[Fliesen]

Not everything. But if the majority of your revenue is coming from invasive and battery killing ads, it might be time to look at alternative business models. That can range from paywalls to sponsorships. I don't know what the solution is. But I think blaming Apple for allowing blockers or Facebook for creating an alternative platform is shifting the blame for how we got here.

There's plenty of money to be made by creating content on the Internet. Ads aren't the be-all-end-all solution and if, instead of finding new ways to monetise content fairly, ad providers simply double-down and get more and more invasive, pretty much daring people into using ad-blocking software, then the blame's on them.

Ads are easily blockable because they're separate from editorial content. So one possible issue i see is that this'll lead to ads being woven into editorial content. (like the in-video / podcast prerolls for crunchyroll, audible, freshbooks, dollarshaveclub, - no addon can remove these...). And shadier outlets will most certainly be very intransparent about which of their coverage has been paid for.

Spoiler

#itsaboutethicsingamesjournalism

goddam Marco is popular in the Apple fan community but you should sometimes consider other alternatives... You do know that Purity is made by the guy who develops uBlock right?! uBlock is one of the most popular and praised adblockers on the every desktop platform right now; he's been doing this a lot longer than Marco. uBlock is open source too, he's willing to fork and maintain. How long before Marco gets tired of supporting Peace and sells out?

don't worry, i'm keeping close track of all of my options.

i wasn't aware that purify is made by the ublock people.
Purify doesn't allow for the whole "social sharing buttons" and "comment section" blocking, though, right? i'm a big fan of that feature as well, hence me prefering Peace.
My argument about "developer" and "backend" was mostly aimed against Peace vs. Crystal, tbh.
but honestly, how should i have known? the app's made by "Chris Aljoudi" (who?) and i can't even find a proper website for that developer.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Nilay just published an editorial basically saying the web is dying because companies are creating alternative publishing platforms and Apple is allowing ad blockers. I don't agree at all. I think this is the best thing that has happened to the web in some time because publishers now have a fire lit under them to get better and create value propositions that users will be willing to pay for.

The problem with this is that it still doesn't solve the "I investigated this issue for 2 years and published a report" -> "Oh, that's neat. It sure would be terrible if I plagiarized you on my c-level blog with a better click-bait title, and I get all the money for none of the work" problem.

 

[SeanR1221]

Peace is very nice so far.

That's the one I was eyeing up

 

[Lavpa Jasai]

I'm going to assume this runs terribly on an iPad 3. Is that a correct assumption?

 

[samn]

I'm going to assume this runs terribly on an iPad 3. Is that a correct assumption?

Apparently performance is pretty much identical to iOS 8.4.1. So unless you're still on iOS 6 you may as well update.

 

[LyleLanley]

I like how adamant Nilay is that The Verge ad content isn't consistently awful. There's a reason everyone uses The Verge as their ad blocking speed test.

 

[Junior Mint]

goddam Marco is popular in the Apple fan community but you should sometimes consider other alternatives... You do know that Purity is made by the guy who develops uBlock right?! uBlock is one of the most popular and praised adblockers on the every desktop platform right now; he's been doing this a lot longer than Marco. uBlock is open source too, he's willing to fork and maintain. How long before Marco gets tired of supporting Peace and sells out?

Ghostery have been around a lot longer than uBlock. And when Marco 'sold out' Instapaper, it became an even better product.

If I cared that much about open source I wouldn't be using an iPhone.

Marco says he tested hosts databases other than Ghostery's, but they were all lacking in various ways, e.g. failing to block trackers that aren't visible to the user. uBlock uses the same freely available host databases as everyone else - it's only selling point was that it blocked the same ads faster then ABP. This is no longer an advantage on iOS as the content blocking mechanism is always the same and is performed extremely quickly. Considering that uBlock is more of a homebrew, hobbyist product, compared to Ghostery which is a more professional operation, it's very plausible to me that Ghostery has a much better database.

Isn't there a difference in speed? I thought Purify claimed to be faster than Crystal?

After my testing (yes, I bought both), there is no doubt that Purfiy is the better ad blocker right now. Once Peace irons out the page formatting issues, I think it'll become the standard. Being slightly cheaper is also a bonus.

 

[Your Entertainer]

I like how adamant Nilay is that The Verge ad content isn't consistently awful. There's a reason everyone uses The Verge as their ad blocking speed test.

yeah, the dude's a bona-fide dingus if i've ever seen one

 

[werks]

I like how adamant Nilay is that The Verge ad content isn't consistently awful. There's a reason everyone uses The Verge as their ad blocking speed test.

Doesn't take away from what he is saying. If this was truly about the user then Apple would allow system level ad blocking in apps.

It's not hard to see what apples motive is when they will not block iAd and they are pushing Apple news which will also not block ads.

If Apple can starve content creators of revenue from the web, they will move to a more proprietary solution like apps or Apple news. Somewhere Apple can peddle their ads.

How long before m.neogaf is shut down and replaced by an iOS app, if I'm paying the server fees for this site I would be working on it right now.

And there lies the crux of the issue, the iOS app can have as obtrusive of an ad as it wants. Nothing will block it. Just get off googles network and move to iAds.

 

[VincentMatts]

So this Peace ad blocker app, does it work with the youtube app?

edit: also, why isnt low power mode appear in the slideup menu? Kinda annoying to go in settings all the time.

 

[Fliesen]

Doesn't take away from what he is saying. If this was truly about the user then Apple would allow system level ad blocking in apps.

Well, there's a framework to remove ads from many apps: in-app payment for the "full version"

there is no such thing on the web, which is why the user can't even choose to opt out of the ad / tracking infested experience without opting not to consume the content altogether.

Also, ad tracking within apps seems to be much more "limited" from a privacy perspective than on the web, right?

edit: but, to be clear, this is - of course - also a strategic move by apple. One that their customer's benefit greatly from, however. (unlike the AppleMaps thing)

 

[Wreav]

I made a thread about Nilay and ad blocking if anyone wants to contribute there.

 

[Garuda1One]

wait..

is there any reason why you guys are talking about ad blocker suddenly ?
does it improve battery life or just wanting to get rid of google ad in safari ?

 

[Fliesen]

wait..

is there any reason why you guys are talking about ad blocker suddenly ?
does it improve battery life or just wanting to get rid of google ad in safari ?

it greatly improves loading times on many websites, and therefore also battery life, if you use mobile safari a lot

 

[Sean]

There's a lot of different blockers. Which one is best?

I've tried a few and Peace is my favorite so far. It blocks ads and trackers like most others, but it also allows you to block social widgets and hide comments completely if you wish. It seems faster than the others, probably cause it uses the Ghostery database.

But the best thing of all is the "Open in Peace" extension, so if you have an app that hasn't been updated for iOS9 yet (like Tweetbot for example), you can still get ad-blocking as long as the app has a share sheet. You just long press on a link and then when the share sheet comes up you press "Open in Peace" and it slides up a new iOS9 webview that takes advantage of the new content blockers. It's really clever.

1Blocker also seems good (free for one category of blocking, $2.99 IAP to unlock all) and looks like the most customizable of any content blocker out right now. You can actually configure your own rules and stuff if you're an advanced user.

I've not tried Purify yet but heard good things about it, seems that and Peace are the best two out right now. You can use multiple content blockers at once btw.

 

[dkeane]

Something I found ... if you long press the refresh button in Safari it gives you the option to load the page without the ad blocker enabled.

 

[Junior Mint]

I'm fine with iOS 9 except for the app switcher. Why change it?

It's a regression in every way from performance, to readability and usability. I used to use it to reference information from another app, now the windows are obscured. Frame rate is low flicking through it and apps maximise from it with a stutter.

Navigating it is frustrating, I find I scroll beyond the app that I'm looking for and the previous one will flick to the front and then I slowly have to to fine tune my scroll to get what I want.

Also, most of the time I have to touch an app twice to maximise it, not sure if it's the low frame rate or just the animation not being complete and it's discarding touches either way it's a frustrating experience.

Yeah this shit is awful. The intertia/speed feels completely fucked. It's impossible to slide over to the app you want precisely. It lags like shit in every way. And the transition from the app switcher to the home screen or any app feels like it's moving at 10 FPS.

 

[ido]

Downloaded Crystal and enabled it in the Settings... does not block any ads whatsoever.

iPhone 6 Plus for reference

Restarted and hard restarted.

Anyone know whats up?

 

[Tobor]

Yeah this shit is awful. The intertia/speed feels completely fucked. It's impossible to slide over to the app you want precisely. It lags like shit in every way. And the transition from the app switcher to the home screen or any app feels like it's moving at 10 FPS.

What device are you on? It works great on my iPhone 6. Works well left handed.

 

[Blackhead]

I'm fine with iOS 9 except for the app switcher. Why change it?

It's a regression in every way from performance, to readability and usability. I used to use it to reference information from another app, now the windows are obscured. Frame rate is low flicking through it and apps maximise from it with a stutter.

Navigating it is frustrating, I find I scroll beyond the app that I'm looking for and the previous one will flick to the front and then I slowly have to to fine tune my scroll to get what I want.

Also, most of the time I have to touch an app twice to maximise it, not sure if it's the low frame rate or just the animation not being complete and it's discarding touches either way it's a frustrating experience.

Yeah this shit is awful. The intertia/speed feels completely fucked. It's impossible to slide over to the app you want precisely. It lags like shit in every way. And the transition from the app switcher to the home screen or any app feels like it's moving at 10 FPS.

It's clearly designed for a 3DTouch A9 phone, all other 'legacy' hardware be dammed haha

 

[Junior Mint]

What device are you on? It works great on my iPhone 6. Works well left handed.

iPhone 6+

 

[Your Entertainer]

Downloaded Crystal and enabled it in the Settings... does not block any ads whatsoever.

iPhone 6 Plus for reference

Restarted and hard restarted.

Anyone know whats up?

Open the actual app. Let it run for a bit.

 

[cjp]

How do you add that battery widget? Or is this on iPad?

It's on iPhone. I believe you need a Bluetooth device connected for it to show up.

If you have the source you can compile whatever app you want tailored to your Apple ID with Xcode for free for use on all your devices.

Yeah, I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it. I've not got around to using it yet.

 

[ido]

Open the actual app. Let it run for a bit.

Thank you!

Is this a one time thing?

 

[mrklaw]

Safari is easily the best browser.

Chrome isn't amazing but is second best. The rest are pretty bad. Either ugly, slow or unintuitive.

Plus you get no OS integration so they're a huge inconvenience.

Is safari on Windows any good? All my family's PCs are Windows and currently use chrome. Biggest issue is lack of syncing tabs/bookmarks. So which would be better - switching to safari on PC, or switching to chrome on iPad?



As for ad blocking - I'd be perfectly happy to have ads as long as they didn't double page load times or weights. Hey really have gotten ridiculously convoluted. Sort out how the system works so there is less stress on users devices and I won't mind.

 

[Fliesen]

Is safari on Windows any good? All my family's PCs are Windows and currently use chrome. Biggest issue is lack of syncing tabs/bookmarks. So which would be better - switching to safari on PC, or switching to chrome on iPad?

i think it was shit and has been discontinued, pretty much.

 

[Blackhead]

.

 

[pdk27]

Downloaded Crystal and enabled it in the Settings... does not block any ads whatsoever.

iPhone 6 Plus for reference

Restarted and hard restarted.

Anyone know whats up?

Edit Beaten: I think you have to launch the app once so that it downloads it's database. It uses background refresh to automatically get the updates. So unless you force kill it you should be fine.

 

[Tobor]

Is safari on Windows any good? All my family's PCs are Windows and currently use chrome. Biggest issue is lack of syncing tabs/bookmarks. So which would be better - switching to safari on PC, or switching to chrome on iPad?

Switch your family to Mac. That's what I did.

 

[Tunesmith]

It's on iPhone. I believe you need a Bluetooth device connected for it to show up.



Yeah, I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it. I've not got around to using it yet.

Yeah I've been compiling various apps and whatnot for a few weeks since the beta went up, works as advertised no problems.

 

[cjp]

Yeah I've been compiling various apps and whatnot for a few weeks since the beta went up, works as advertised no problems.

Brill. I'm looking forward to getting gba4ios running.