I’ve been spending some more time researching and experimenting with the bluetooth MFi controller disconnect issue, and I’ve come away with some interesting conclusions.
First of all, to be clear, the problems I was describing are very real. If you use a MOGA Rebel on iOS 8, you will notice frequent disconnects in affected games, seemingly getting better or worse depending on the hardware you use. The SteelSeries Stratus disconnects significantly less frequently, but often was plagued by lag and “stickiness” to the analog sticks, severely impacting gameplay. These problems have been confirmed and tested by a variety of people on Twitter and on this site, and notably by MFiGamer, who runs a forum about these controllers.
What’s more, lightning-connected MFi controllers exhibited absolutely none of these issues, working as well under iOS 8 as they did under iOS 7.
From this testing, we all concluded (reasonably I think) that iOS 8 introduced some sort of bluetooth bug that was interfering with MFi controllers. Coupled with the fact that there are widespread reports of bluetooth incompatibilities on iOS 8, I chalked this one up to Apple screwing something up and started the long wait for a fix.
The thing is, I no longer believe that’s entirely true.
Enter Mad Catz
While I’m still awaiting review units of the C.T.R.L.i from Mad Catz (or for the thing to be available at all), I did manage to obtain a Micro C.T.R.L.i of my own. I quickly discovered that the controller doesn’t disconnect on iOS 8. Ever. No matter how hard I try – and believe me, I tried.
I ran the same test on an iPad Air 2, iPhone 6, iPhone 5, and even a first-gen iPad Mini: Connect the controller, enable Airplay and download a huge file (to tax the ram and CPU to the limit), launch a game with known BT incompatibilities, play for a bit, and switch to game controller tester app and see if anything lags or disconnects.
Thus far, I have not been able to get the controller to drop it’s connection or lag out a single time. Not once, not even with the first generation iPad Mini. I’m going to keep testing the heck out of it leading up to my review, and I’ll immediately report any issues I discover, but the fact is, I can’t make it disconnect on iOS 8 at this time.
Retesting the MOGA Rebel
This situation piqued my curiosity. I’d been using the Rebel regularly to play retroarch and Jet Set Radio on an iOS 7 device, and I’d never experienced any disconnects. But I also never tested it all THAT thoroughly on iOS 7. I decided to change that.
I ran through the test procedure listed above, this time on my old iPad 4, still running iOS 7, and the results were surprising: I was able to consistently get the Rebel to drop it’s connection. Not as frequently as on iOS 8, and mostly when taxing it hard with background tasks, but still – the BT disconnect bug is NOT exclusive to iOS 8.
Conclusions
This re-frames the situation somewhat, I think. Apple may still bear some blame for this – they changed something in iOS 8 that broke products they’re still selling on Apple Store shelves. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but I do know things got worse.
But at the same time, Mad Catz made their controller work. MOGA bears some responsibility here as well. They had access to iOS 8 betas like the rest of us, there is no reason for them not to be have been aware of this problem. Barring some sort of low-level incompatibility with their Bluetooth chips and Apple’s Bluetooth driver implementation, there should be nothing stopping Apple from patching this out in firmware. If Mad Catz can do it, I don’t know why MOGA can’t. The same goes for SteelSeries – they just pushed out an update today that doesn’t fix the controller lag, they certainly have a team working on updates. Let’s hope they make it happen.
Controllers for All allows a variety of non-MFi controllers to be used in MFi compatible games, and does in a relatively straightforward and pain-free manner.
While the iOS 8 jailbreak is still not ready for average users, itâs great to see developers getting their apps updated before the jailbreak goes mainstream.
Also of note: Cjori has been unable to replicate any disconnects in iOS 8 using this tweak. It would be sad if the unofficial controllers enabled by this tweak work better than the âApple certifiedâ MFi controllers we pay so much for.
SteelSeries has today released a firmware update for their Stratus MFi controller, bringing increased compatibility for iOS 8, and an “app match” feature that lists a handful of compatible games directly from the App Store.
This update follows a February firmware update that fixed a particularly unpleasant button-lag issue, where holding down the d-pad and pressing any other button would delay the button press by a half second.
Sadly, the Mac version of this update still unnecessarily installs a kernel extension to the system folder (/System/Library/Extensions/StratusDFU.kext), and includes no uninstaller. I recommend manually removing this extension after upgrading your controller.
Based on my testing, this does seem to improve compatibility with iOS 8 a little bit. There is still a noticeable “stickiness” to the analog sticks that didn’t exist on iOS 7, most apparent in games like Sonic or Monster Hunter, but I haven’t noticed any disconnects yet.
I’ve heard a number of people talking about how iOS8 changed the Pause button behavior on MFi controllers. Basically, some people have found that since updating to iOS 8, the Pause button now acts as a Home button, kicking you out of the game and back to the home screen.
The truth is, Apple did not change the Pause button behavior. What actually happened is, they tweaked the Accessibility settings so that if you’ve enabled certain usability options, the Pause button automatically changes to function as a Home button â presumably to make the device easier to controller for people with motor skills difficulties.
If you’re experiencing this behavior, try disabling the Accessibility options in the device settings. The controller’s Pause button should return to iOS 7 behavior.
Thereâs a catch, though: the Cydia store isnât included or supported at this time. That means while you may be able to jailbreak today, you canât actually do much with your jailbroken device. No emulators, no themes, no awesome tweaks. Basically, this is a developer release for now.
The good news is, Saurik is hard at work on a version of Cydia for iOS 8. We probably wonât have long to wait until a full Cydia-compatible iOS 8 jailbreak is available for everyone.
Personally, Iâm not particularly happy about this release. MFi game controllers are stillhorribly broken in iOS 8.1, and this isnât likely to be fixed until Apple ships a new version of iOS 8. Now that Pangu has released their jailbreak into the wild, no doubt Apple will patch whatever exploit this jailbreak takes advantage of. That means when 8.2 rolls around, weâll have to choose between jailbreaking and using bluetooth MFi game controllers without constant disconnects. In this instance, it would have been nice if Pangu waited a little longer to release this jailbreak into the wild.
Blade Electronics broke their 5-month-long silence to announce that their upcoming Bladepad MFi controller will not, in fact, be releasing this month, as had previously been hinted.
Blade Electronics says:
Hey everyone, we are sure that many of you are wondering when/if Bladepad is still being produced. […] Apple has strict requirements, which they are constantly changing, and they are very difficult to communicate with so it is not an easy process to get through. We honestly have no idea how much longer it will take to push this through, but we are still here working on it and communicating with Apple as frequently as they will respond. […] For the time being, Bladepad is delayed indefinitely
Looks like Bladepad is blaming Apple’s MFi spec requirements on this one, saying Apple keeps changing plans and shifting the requirements out from under the Blade Electronics team. Perhaps Apple is making things difficult, perhaps there’s two sides to every story. Lacking any other details or information on what’s actually happening here, it’s hard to say one way or another. We waited 5 months for this information saying basically “keep waiting”. Before that, the last real update was 3 months previously, and it basically amounted to them announcing another Bladepad delay while launching a Kickstarter for an iPhone battery that didn’t support the iPhone.
I’m not sure what’s happening with the Bladepad, but my gut feeling is, if this is the MFi controller you’re waiting for, you’re probably in for a disappointment.
Still no good news for Bluetooth MFi controller owners
The first major update for iOS 8 is here: 8.1 is now officially available for all devices capable of running iOS 8.
8.1 brings Apple Pay, allowing owners of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus I use their devices as virtual credit cards both in-store and online. In addition to bringing added convenience, there are many security improvements inherent in this approach.
For gaming, the news isnât so good. The horrible Bluetooth disconnects associated with MFi controllers on previous versions of iOS 8 still remain. In addition, 8.1Â fixes the loophole that allowed GBA4iOS to run, meaning no more emulation – at least not GBA emulation – without a developer account.
Users with iOS 8 will probably want to upgrade to iOS 8.1 anyways, as the stability fixes are probably worth it. Users of iOS 7 with Bluetooth MFi controllers are advised to steer clear, at least for now. The experience of using them on iOS 8 is not pleasant.
The Logitech PowerShell, the first MFi controller ever announced and the second one made available, has been removed from Logitech’s homepage. This follows removal from the Apple Store a few months back, and likely signals the phasing out of the product.
If you’re primarily using an iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, or iPod Touch, and you want a pocketable controller that will double your battery life, there has never been a better chance to grab one for cheap. The PowerShell is currently available for $29.99 on Amazon, likely in limited supply. My advice: grab it now if you want it.
IGN put together a good review of the MOGA Rebel controller. And unlike Gizmodo, IGN discussed the bluetooth disconnect issue on iOS 8 in their review, meaning that they must have spent at least a little time actually using the controller before writing the review – always a good sign.
I’m still working on my review, but frankly, I want to wait until I have access to the iOS8 bluetooth issue is fixed, as any current review would be fairly straightforward: don’t buy ANY bluetooth iOS controller if you’re on iOS 8.
At their big event today, Apple officially announced the long-awaited iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, along with a 5K Retina iMac and upgraded Mac Mini.
The new iPads are the most relevant to the focus of this site, so I’ll spend some time talking about them here. Luckily, unlike with last year’s iPads and this year’s iPhones, the decision of which model to get this time is very simple.
The iPad Air 2 – A Gaming Powerhouse
No two ways about it, the iPad Air 2 is a gaming powerhouse. The A8X chip represents a 2.5x improvement over the previous model – in other words, a 250% performance improvement. The display maintains a 2X pixel density, rather than upping it to 3X, meaning all of the extra graphics horsepower goes directly to improving gaming performance.
The previous generation of iPads, the iPad mini 2 and iPad Air, were at a performance disadvantage compared to the iPhone 5S. They shared the same A7 chip, but due to the need to power a drastically larger screen, their GPUs had less energy to put towards gaming. That meant games ran smoother or looked better on the phone than they did on the tablet.
The new iPad Air 2 rectifies that situation. The A8X GPU apparently offers twice the performance of the standard A8 GPU, likely due to increasing the core count from 4 to 6. Considering that the screen of the iPad has a little over 3 times the number of pixels as the iPhone 6, we should be looking at a new iPad that actually performs comparably to the iPhone from the same year – a situation we haven’t seen for several years.
It’s worth noting that we have a different story with the iPhone 6 Plus. The Plus powers twice as many pixels as the regular iPhone 6, but does not feature an upgraded GPU, meaning it performs almost half as well as the iPhone 6 and the iPad Air 2.
The iPad mini 3 – A Very Mini Upgrade
Then we come to the iPad mini 3, and the story changes pretty drastically. Simply put, it looks like the only thing new about the new mini is the gold paint job and the Touch ID sensor. The processor is last year’s A7 – not even a standard A8 chip, as I was expecting. Performance should be identical, though perhaps they managed to clock the chip a bit higher, as they did with last year’s iPad Air. If we’re lucky, they managed to upgrade the display from last year’s desaturated model to the true sRGB-accurate display on the iPad Air and iPad 4 line.
Apple didn’t even upgrade the Wifi in the iPad mini 3 to 802.11ac like they did with the new Air, meaning the iPad mini 3 still maxes out at 802.11n. This will eventually be noticeable for Airplay gaming quality when Apple finally releases an 802.11ac-capable Apple TV (I’m still a little sad today wasn’t the day for that).
To be fair, last year’s iPad mini 2 was a great product. It’s only major weaknesses – a little bit too heavy and a slightly desaturated screen – may very well have been solved with this year’s model. But it wasn’t a device that was particularly well suited for gaming. Sadly, it still isn’t.
Final Thoughts
There is still quite a bit unknown about these new iPads, much of which we’ll learn as they start getting into the hands of reviewers. Was the RAM upgraded? Is the screen on the iPad mini 3 still desaturated? Are there any other performance improvements in the A8X chip, maybe related to AirPlay encoding? We’ll see the answers to those questions soon, but for now, the conclusion is still pretty straightforward.
If you want to buy an iPad for gaming, you should buy the iPad Air 2. Period. It’s over two-and-a-half as powerful as any other iPad, including the new iPad mini 3.
There. If only Apple made all of our decisions that easy…
