ios7 memory issue loading json file via angularjs (Ionic) httpPromise.then - json

Question

I have an odd issue. I an using angularjs (Ionic) to load an external json file via a httpPromise.
All has been working correctly until yesterday when the remote files were moved to another host.
Now the problem is on an iphone4 running ios7 it tries to load the file but can't and crashes out with memory usage issues. inspecting it using xcode it quickly climbs to over 300mb and then crashes. does the same thing on two devices. runs fine on other phone emulators etc.
Now if I host the file on another server it works as expected.
the different response headers are:
the one that fails:
Accept-Ranges bytes
Connection close
Content-Length 721255
Content-Type application/json
Date Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:04:15 GMT
Last-Modified Thu, 11 Dec 2014 05:12:57 GMT
Server LiteSpeed
Vary User-Agent
Working host:
Accept-Ranges bytes
Connection keep-alive
Content-Encoding gzip
Content-Type application/json
Date Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:05:01 GMT
Last-Modified Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:29:48 GMT
Server nginx/1.6.2
Transfer-Encoding chunked
Vary Accept-Encoding,User-Agent
Code used to get json file.
var deferred = $q.defer(),
httpPromise = $http.get('http://someurl.com.au/deals.json');
httpPromise.then(function success(response) {
so after all of that my question is why would the json file not load or return an error of some sort?
But cause such a memory spike?
The only main difference I see between servers is the connection configuration.
working uses Connection keep-alive and the one that fails is closed.
thoughts?
Additionally, I've just tried it on 3g and it works fine but via wireless it doesn't work?

Answer 1

i think you need to focus on the Content-Encoding gzip which is probably what is saving you from memory issues