Today some developer released a “pay” package called “Vroom” which sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, it is. Do not install this package. Not only does it not do what it claims, but it is also somewhat dangerous and will wear out your iPhone with limited use. Read below for details. (Note: Zodttd has removed this package from Cydia, but it may creep up somewhere else).
First, this package claims to speed up your iphone, increase your free memory by managing your daemons, and increase your battery usage. Sounds amazing right? Who wouldnt want this?
So what does it really do? It enables memory swap on your device.
What are the results of memory swap on your device? The free memory will appear to be better. That’s because it is using your disk as memory. But that’s not all. This package is actually just a stolen file that is already on your device, renamed. So that means the “developer” decided to take a file off his iPhone, rename it, and sell it to you for $1.99.
Here is proof that the file is stolen. The original file is dynamic_pager that is provided by Apple in your /sbin folder. The new file from this app is called Vroom_data. Check out the md5sum of both proving that the files are identical:
BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/dynamic_pager
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a /sbin/dynamic_pager
BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/Vroom_data
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a /sbin/Vroom_data
Ok so the package is fraud.
But if you already have dynamic_pager, whats the harm in enabling it? The reason you don’t want memory swap enabled on your iPhone is this:
1) Memory swap will create a disk file on your flash disk. The CPU will need to spend I/O cycles reading and writing to this disk file. The I/O cycles will cost you battery because it takes battery power to do disk writes.
2) Flash disk has limited life span. They say some 100,000 writes per sector then it is dead. Having a swap file running will be quickly writing to the same sectors wearing out your flash disk.
3) Writing to a page file takes some CPU cycles.
Now, lets examine the developer’s claims and compare them to what the package actually does:
Claim #1: Increases memory. Sort of. It creates a disk swap. Result is iphone will appear to have more memory. Some apps may crash less. This isn’t all bad. (I think I will release a free package that enables disk swap with a strong warning on it for those that want this).
Claim #2: Manages your daemons. FALSE / lies. It is the apple dynamic_pager file. It does only that. It does not manage your daemons.
Claim #3: It speeds up your device: FALSE. In fact, disk swap actually slows down the device because there are extra disk write used in order to access memory.
Claim #4: It provides better battery performance: FALSE. In fact it actually causes your battery to drain faster because of the disk write I/O cycles and the extra CPU required.
Claim #5: It allows your iPhone to boot at 2% rather than 15% battery. FALSE. This is built into the device not the iPhone OS. (Just like DFU mode). You cannot make changes to this.
Claim #6: It allows your iPhone to run until there is 1% battery rather than 5% before it shuts off. FALSE. See #5 above.
Finally, the package in Cydia was packaged incorrectly. Daemon plist was owned by user 1000. Launchctl will not load any daemon not owned by root. This caused the daemon to not start. With that bug, the paging system is not even enabled resulting in no change in performance! (LOL again). Anyone claiming to install this and finding a boost in speed, battery, etc is experiencing the placebo effect.
This all reminds me of the scam last year with the fake app I dont crash. At least that guy wasn’t trying to charge you money.
Note: enabling memory swap also seems to break google maps app.
Posted using my iPhone 3g
