DreamLab - Powering Research Reviews

by LuthorCorp109

DreamLab is extremely concerning, it claims that we connect it to our device and leave it on over night and it then is able to collect “data” to help fight COVID or cancer or other “studies” without any questions or research, and I’m unable to see which apps or domains they contact in my privacy report

by R8erz

This is a great idea, but they need to do more to protect OLED screens from burn in. The logo sits on the screen for too long, it really needs to go away or move around to prevent burn in. OLED screens are not meant to have a static image displayed for hours and hours every night. Move the logo around like one pixel per minute or something and also slowly and dimly change its colors to protect the screen.

by Ftneek

When I wake up in the morning and check my ipad it says I only powered this app for 2 hours. I expected it to run the whole night, something must be wrong. My iphone 7 runs pretty warm/hot when running it. Also I don’t see an option to sign in anywhere, so I can’t track my total time/calculations across devices. please address these issues, I’d to help out.

by Hunna Butta

Works great and doesn't crash, but after several months of using it my phone said it was taking up over 5GB of space. Looks like it's not deleting old downloaded files. Can you guys fix this?

by Jkp1701

I’ve had several PCs running distributed computing programs for years and was glad to see one come out for iPhone. As far as I know is this is the only one.
I would like to see a setting added that would automatically start DreamLab running when it is put on charge during a time period (such as 10pm to 6am).
I tend to collect old electronics and now have 4 iPhones that just run this app24/7. Would like a setting to disable the sleep screen coming on so these phones constantly show their progress.

by Christopher Price

I have a 13-inch Late 2012 MacBook that is limited to Catalina. While I love what this app is doing, it will not run on Catalina. DreamLab claims my MacBook is not plugged in, despite being plugged in and charging/full. Suggest doing a branch build with charger detection removed on Catalina. Lot of older-but-powerful machines could be contributing there.

by TepidNeptune2

I like how this app allows people to donate their spare processing power to scientific research, but leaving the display on poses an issue with OLED devices. A static this app logo will permanently burn its way into the display within two years, and it’s because of this that I don’t feel comfortable using DreamLab on my new phone.

I’m hoping there can be an option to turn the logo off so the screen can be completely dark. I’d love to use my new device with its increased power and efficiency compared to my older devices, but not at the expense of the screen’s longevity. Until then, my older LCD devices will continue to do work.

by -David027-

I run DreamLab on two old iPhones and a not-oft used iPad 24/7, as well as my main iPhone just at night. I have a MacBook Pro 2017, so it has an Intel processor. Previously DreamLab was only available for Apple Silicon Chipped Macs. I went to check just to see if I could have this running on my Mac and lo and behold, it was available for me to download! I loaded it up and started running it and it runs without issue. It uses little CPU that I don't notice when it's running whatsoever.

A few things I would like addressed for the Macs/iPhones as well as the this app project in general:

-I would like an option on Macs to be able to utilize GPUs if possible. I realize this would likely require a lot of work. Right now it is most probably a ported app from iOS that was tweaked enough to run on an Intel Mac. If GPU could be used on the Intel Macs as well as Apple Silicon Macs, that would speed up research considerably. I would also like to be able to choose how much CPU I give DreamLab. I often times am doing tasks that require maybe 10% computing power total. While this is plugged in (only way for it to even run) I am having about 40-80% of my CPU not being utilized. I could crank out a whole lot more calculations this way. Volunteers have also expressed on Reddit that they would like to have an option to increase computing percentage on their old iPhones. I know my old iPhone X computes very slowly compared to an old iPhone 6S. I am pretty sure that is due to the efficiency cores in the iPhone X's A10 Fusion chip. Apple has baked in protections to keep the phones from overheating. You could allow more CPU power to be used and the iPhones would automatically throttle down if they got too hot.

-As for this app in general, there are many things that need addressed to make this a more productive research tool. Allow users to have either a profile, link DreamLab to AppleID, or have it linked to Apple GameCenter (for stat tracking). Many users have complained on Reddit and the iOS App Store about this lack of progress keeping. If you uninstall DreamLab and reinstall it, all the previous history of calculations is gone. That's very disheartening to see. No, it doesn't affect the research which is the point of DreamLab, but it definitely hurts a user who is proud to see how much they are contributing to this research. I would also like to see a progress bar for each calculation, similar to the hugely popular BOINC client for desktops. That is just something that shows more use than just a number and the running time. It's similar to any type of progress bar when installing a program, an app, loading a webpage even, anything like that. That is good UI which is why its across all platforms and interfaces. Lastly, the communication from Vodafone needs some serious work. The COVID project is in Phase 5 and it is the same copy and pasted information as when the project first started back in 2020. That's pretty unacceptable that someone couldn't have taken a few hours at most to revamp the info and to give its volunteers some progress updates on what exactly their free computing power has been doing. BOINC is extremely communicative with its projects and volunteers appreciate that. Volunteers are known to drop projects when the communication goes cold. We also would like some updates on the new Climate Change project that was announced some months ago that is being evaluated for consideration. Many of us would love to start that type of project. Vodafone: This would be IMMENSELY helpful to the work you are doing. Just some more communication would have volunteers more likely to stick around and have their friends/families join the cause. Please consider making an effort to increase communication, as well as making the aforementioned changes in the projects.

by PinkNikky99

DreamLab is really amazing and cool. And I feel like I’m really actually making a difference for the world 😀❤️. I recommend DreamLab 100%.

by Georget48864

DreamLab is terrific! However, I have tried contacting them via their Feedback email system and I get no reply. I have tried to locate a human to ask some questions and OFFER my support and resources and there is nobody associated with DreamLab. There is no community or forums. No phone number (and this is funded by a phone company!!!). No twitter or other social media account.

Very sad.

They took the time to build this system and tens of thousands of us are giving them free cpu resources and they cannot even be bothered to communicate when people reach out to offer ideas and support.

by Lives Will Be Saved

A terrific idea that needs wide publicity. Also it should be made clear that app cannot be powered unless phone is plugged into a charger and, when plugged in, not fully charged.

by Masoud.H.P

I hope that with such programs, the world will be a better place to live together

by Dvddogg

This makes me feel like I’m contributing to a much larger cause. Please port this to Apple TV! It sits idle while I’m at work and can spend the time contributing to this app all day!

by Momofsarcomafighter

This is your opportunity to harness the capabilities of your little electronic devices when not in use. Help those you love in a real way by contributing all that brain power to solve calculations related to killing cancer cells! It feels good! Momofsarcomafighter

by Mr.Prdx

Its so simple to help cancer research. Me and my whole family use DreamLab all the time. Thousands of phones makes a real supercomputer power. Many researchers needs computing power but they cand find fundings. So it’s important to participate. Run DreamLab to make a difference

by Pkainoac

I just read a telegraph article about DreamLab and downloaded it immediately! It’s so cool to think I can help fight not only cancer, but COVID-19! Make sure when you download it or if you already have to go to the causes that you can support and select the Coronavirus one!

by Tfwapsu

I downloaded this and tried to initiate it, but it just kept taking me to the page that gives instructions. I did what they asked, charged the phone, tapped the tab that says Power this app, and went to sleep but in the morning it said I had not completed any computations. What am I doing wrong?
Tim

by Ilianai

My heart goes out to those that have to personally deal with these diseases. I believe together we can do so much more than alone. It’s so amazing that we have something like this that can help scientists speed up their process in discovering new info and medicine that can help in terminating cancer & other diseases, and living happy healthy lives. I’m all for it. Thank you for whoever thought this up and those that helped build and create it, and those that use it! You are wonderful! :)

by Chessplayer62

I heard about DreamLab about a year ago from an article and at first I was a bit skeptical. I was wondering: "this sounds too good to be true. An application that anyone could download and use and could help potentially find lifesaving cures?"
But over time I have done some research and it's true!!! DreamLab really can help find potentially lifesaving cures. I recommend this application. Almost no interaction is needed for the application to keep working.
I have 2 questions for the developer.
I have seen that recently, DreamLab takes up over a gigabyte of storage. Is this normal? If not, what can I do?

Also, I've heard that closing any unused applications could make the device run faster. If I closed all of my unused applications before clicking the "start session" button, would my phone be able to make more calculations?

by Tried A Dozen Nicknames

Why not let your phone help find cures for diseases?
It couldn’t be any easier way to helpMedical research!
I don’t know why everybody doesn’t participate.
Imagine what could be accomplished if every phone was participating!

by Newblar

Any chance to add settings to avoid burn in on the oled screens on the iPhones? Such as once compute start DreamLab displays a black screen?

by Mcseely72

It’s wonderful to be able to assist scientific/medical research while I’m charging my cellphone. So far I have helped both genetic profile research and Project drugs all while I “sleep”. Dream on!!

by Peter Kempinski

Love the product

by Still Hoping

DreamLab allows you to lend the computing power of your iPhone to analyze big data to try and solve some of the questions about cancer in order to find new and better treatments. By loaning your device while it is charging researchers have the power of a supercomputer at their disposal when thousands of phones microprocessors are applied at once. This allows them to study things like the genomes of cancers, the drugs already created that have presently unknown potential to treat cancer or developing new drugs or biological treatments that harness the body’s own immune system. Please pitch in and support the cause and you may help save an untold number of lives or reduce the suffering that comes with cancer through better diagnostics and treatments.

App has not been providing updates on calculations since last week of June 2018. Developer has not responded to inquiries. What is up?

There is as of 9/17/2018 apparently another bug in the new Project Drugs 2 task? It won’t run and asks you to update the program. I have done this multiple times including today. I appear to be in a loop where either the update isn’t working or some other aspect of DreamLab is broken. Please fix ASAP!