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Comment by sockaddr | Hacker News Reader

Do not download this.

I downloaded this on my 14 Pro and it completely locked up the system to the point where even the power button wouldn’t work. I couldn’t use my phone for about 10 minutes.

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Quick follow-up:

I’ve just submitted a new update for review with a few small but hopefully noticeable changes, thanks to your feedback:

1. StableLM Zephyr 3b Q4_K_M is now the built-in model, replacing the Q6_K variant.

2. More aggressive RAM headroom calculation, with forced fallback to CPU rather than failing to load or crashing/hanging in such a nasty fashion.

3. New status indicator for Metal when model is loaded (filled bolt for enabled, vs slashed bolt for disabled.)

4. Metal will now also be enabled for devices with 4GB RAM or less, but only when the selected model can comfortably fit in RAM. Previously, only devices with at least 6GB ever had Metal enabled.

I really appreciate your taking the time to test — the hanging you experienced was unacceptable, and I truly am sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you’ll give it another chance once this update is live, but either way I’m grateful for your help in isolating and eliminating this issue!

Britt

I've used it for a couple weeks on my 15 Pro and I haven't experienced anything like that. (IMO it's well worth the download)

The developer is also pretty responsive and actively looking for feedback (which is why it's currently free on TestFlight)

I’m very sorry about your experience. That’s definitely not what I was aiming for, and I can imagine that was a nasty surprise. Any hang like that is unacceptable, full stop.

My understanding is Metal is currently causing hangs on devices when there is barely enough RAM to fit the model and prompt, but not quite enough to run. Will work on falling back to CPU to avoid this kind of experience much more aggressively than today.

Thank you for taking the time to both try it out and to share your experience; I will use it to ensure it’s better in the future.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately on my device the behavior makes it impossible to report a bug using a screenshot as requested in the app. I can give you more device info if you want to narrow down the cause.

Yes of course, I would very much appreciate that, if you’d be so generous — thank you! You can email britt [at] bl3 [dot] dev

That is an iOS bug. No app should be able to do this.

So rather than reporting in the app you can report it in Feedback Assistant, if you want to.

Exactly the same here - full lock up for 2 minutes without being able to reboot even with hardware buttons.

I’m very sorry to hear you had such a poor experience as well. I’m sure it’s little consolation at this point having been inconvenienced as you have — it’s certainly not what I aim for in my work!

I’ve just submitted a new update for review with a number of small but material changes to address these issues: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38920916

I hope you’ll consider giving it another shot once that’s live, and thank you for taking the time not just to test but also to report your experience!

Britt

Thanks. I did test your new version but unfortunately similar issues. App completely hung and entire OS was sluggish. iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 17.1.2. Unfortunately I won’t have time to test any more but very good luck with the project.

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