OS X Chooses Discrete Graphics for Status Bar App

Apple isn't "using discrete graphics for that app", Apple is using discrete graphics for a given set of APIs which CloudApp is using to do something. Did they need to do it that way? Maybe, maybe not, but the onus is on the application developer, not Apple. It's not like Apple has some master list of applications that use discrete graphics, it kicks in on certain API calls.<p>Silly little rants like this, where someone doesn't quite understand the way a system works and so blames the wrong provider; these things are the reason for Apple's crazy draconian SDK terms. Imagine a similar situation on the iPhone: "Waa, Apple killed my battery life when I run this application at boot!" 10 million retweets later, Apple is having to explain some third party application's deficiencies, and it could very realistically effect their bottom line.

I'd like to be clear right now what this article is about. It's about Apple's choice to get frameworks such as Core Image and OpenGL to direct which graphics card the Mac should use, and how by doing this, there have been some unusual cases whereby some applications cause the dedicated graphics card to be enabled, and continue to be enabled. This leads to a detrimental effect on battery life which is the exact opposite for putting this in place. With this in mind... read on.

Sometimes I think Apple just jumps out of a moving train. For example it isn't possible to turn off the notebook display and only keep the connected monitor/projector active. Or, if you wake it with the lid closed to turn on the (notebook) display at a later time without disconnecting the external display.<p>Same with this. I can understand why they do the switching the way they do it, but where is the harm in putting a "Don't use discrete graphics" option in the Energy-Saver menubar drop-down menu? If they believe their customers are that stupid display a dialog box warning them, with the option to never show it again.

I also read that having X11 running apparently switches to the discrete GPU. Now, I have no idea why it would do that (GLX extension?) but that kind of sucks given that I spend essentially 100% of my time in an xterm. (If anything, X11 graphics is so slow anyway that I don't see the point of ever switching to the discrete GPU for its sake.)<p>Really, Apple needs to fix this. If the application requires &#60; x resources, or if the frame drawing time is &#60; y, then stick with integrated graphics regardless of API used.

AFAIK there's no public API for putting icons in the menu bar, so it's not surprising that an app doing something hacky causes problems.

<i>Discrete</i>, not <i>discreet</i>. I had a lot of trouble parsing that sentence (oh, so the status bar application has flashy graphics by default and OS X somehow forces it to have less flashy graphics?) before I realized what the title meant.