Closed Bug 1161258 Opened 9 years ago Closed 9 years ago

Blur should be disabled on underpowered Apple devices

Categories

(Firefox for iOS :: Home screen, defect)

Other
iOS
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED FIXED
Tracking Status
fxios + ---

People

(Reporter: tecgirl, Assigned: bmunar)

References

Details

Attachments

(2 files)

The background for the panel row (icons) and table views has not been defined, or has been defined incorrectly.

Currently #EEE, should be #FFF
This happens because a UIVisualEffectView is used to add a blur effect (see viewDidLoad in HomePanelViewController). On devices that are not powerful enough to render the blur (such as the iPad 2/3) this falls back to a grey tint which causes the #EEE. Devices with enough computing resources (such as the iPhone or iPad Air) will render the blur which makes the white background shine through.

What is the reason for having the blur effect at all? There seems to be nothing behind the blur view to actually get blured. We could either remove the blur view altogether or disable it on under-powered iPad models.
Flags: needinfo?(randersen)
(In reply to hennes from comment #1)
> This happens because a UIVisualEffectView is used to add a blur effect (see
> viewDidLoad in HomePanelViewController). On devices that are not powerful
> enough to render the blur (such as the iPad 2/3) this falls back to a grey
> tint which causes the #EEE. Devices with enough computing resources (such as
> the iPhone or iPad Air) will render the blur which makes the white
> background shine through.
> 
> What is the reason for having the blur effect at all? There seems to be
> nothing behind the blur view to actually get blured. We could either remove
> the blur view altogether or disable it on under-powered iPad models.


Thanks for the explanation! You're right, blur here is inefficient. Let's start by disabling where it's obviously an issue, on the under-powered devices. 

Darrin, should we keep blur on the home panel for devices that can render it? What's the benefit if there's nothing behind it?
Flags: needinfo?(randersen) → needinfo?(dhenein)
tracking-fxios: --- → ?
Personally, I think it's a serious issue if someone opens up Firefox and sees a bunch of gray LOL
Assignee: nobody → bmunar
Bug is rendered non-bug if wes's new top sites thing lands. Please resolve bug when landed, Wes.
Flags: needinfo?(wjohnston)
Bryan and Darrin to sync up on this. Land small stuff.
(In reply to Robin Andersen [:tecgirl] from comment #2)
> Darrin, should we keep blur on the home panel for devices that can render
> it? What's the benefit if there's nothing behind it?

There is often content behind it, i.e. the website you're currently on. The only time we have nothing behind the panels is with a fresh new tab. Hence, the transparency (the larger concern here was the loss of context when tapping the URL bar and being presented with the panels... by fading it in and keeping a hint of the page behind it, we maintain the spacial relationship that the panels are just 'in front' of the websites behind them, like an overlay.)

Also, why is this bug specific to iPads? Is it because these (iPad 2/3 likely) are the only devices at the cross-section of iOS8 and non-blur-supporting?
Flags: needinfo?(dhenein)
Summary: Background color should be white on iPad panels → Blur should be disabled on underpowered Apple devices
updated for a more accurate title
My stuff is waiting for UX (I think?). We should finish this without it probably.
Flags: needinfo?(wjohnston)
also, my work is landing in pieces. The better useragent string is landed. The grouping will land soon. But the redesign I was playing with is still up in the air.
Attached file PR
Currently detects which devices have blur support, but for simulators it categorizes them as one type; thus, just for simulators, blur is always enabled and on hardware, it detects and applies the changes correctly. To test to see how the UI changes on devices without blur support, negate the return statement in isBlurSupported() in DeviceInfo.swift.
Attachment #8639690 - Flags: ui-review?(randersen)
Attachment #8639690 - Flags: review?(bnicholson)
Comment on attachment 8639690 [details] [review]
PR

LGTM with comments
Attachment #8639690 - Flags: review?(bnicholson) → review+
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Depends on: 1188903
Attachment #8639690 - Flags: ui-review?(randersen) → ui-review+
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