It feels like the mobile web client.
It is the mobile web client, only slower.
Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
101–110 of 118 posts
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. I find it interesting that Google is intentionally using its own icons for pre-existing iOS conventions (Floppy disk for save, weird action menu, nonstandard trash can, buttons without borders, etc.) I can understand being in love with your own syste…
The weirdest Google-ism I found was when running the desktop version of Reader on my iPad: single-finger scrolling was turned off! I had to use two fingers as if I was using a Mac trackpad.
That's actually a consequence of how iOS handled scrollable areas on pages prior to iOS 5. Totally not Google's fault; I believe you'll have better luck using desktop Reader in iOS 5.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
I bet it's the same reason Apple products suck on Windows... the devs themselves just don't use the platform.
Well, I'm not convinced it's fair to say that Apple software is worse on Windows. I don't know anyone who's tried Safari on Windows (so maybe it is worse than on a Mac, but I wouldn't know) and while iTunes is certainly absolutely terrible on Windows, from what my Mac owning friends tell me it is just as bad on Macs.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#104So, if Google is supposed to only be hiring A people, who is making all these crummy iOS apps?
Google hires the type of people who want to solve hard engineering problems, not the type of people who want to really polish an app.
Thing is, this app isn't just unpolished. They threw up this excuse for a native app to avoid engineering a real one.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you used the Google Voice app for the iPhone? It's literally the worst app I've ever seen in my life. Crashed constantly, won't refresh from the server, will close your text box randomly while typing a message (clearing your message), will fail to make calls frequently, and since I upgraded to iOS5 now has signed me out and crashes immediately when trying to sign back in so it's been rendered completely unusable…
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
No, you don't say "lets make crap". But you deny the proper resources. You place unnecessary restrictions on the project. You hire a bunch of iOS newbies and say "hey go make gmail, but you have to make it out of javascript in a UIwebview" and basically force the outcome.
Come on, hasn't everyone had to work on a project where the boss/manager didn't want it to succeed? Whether for political, personal, or boredom, people don't do their best work all the time. Not everyone is as demanding as Steve Jobs.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
I bet it's the same reason Apple products suck on Windows... the devs themselves just don't use the platform.
Actually, from what I understand, Apple products are used quite extensively by Google employees. I have friends who work there, and there are lots of developers there who use Macs for day-to-day work. My understanding is that the Google Voice iOS app began life as a Google employee's side project, scratching his own itch. I've heard that even relatively senior managers use iPhones as their cell phone. This speaks favorably of Google's corporate culture, in my opinion.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
I bet it's the same reason Apple products suck on Windows... the devs themselves just don't use the platform.
[deleted]
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you used the Google Voice app for the iPhone? It's literally the worst app I've ever seen in my life. Crashed constantly, won't refresh from the server, will close your text box randomly while typing a message (clearing your message), will fail to make calls frequently, and since I upgraded to iOS5 now has signed me out and crashes immediately when trying to sign back in so it's been rendered completely unusable…
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
> Do people think companies really behave this way?
An interesting anecdote from the Steve Jobs biography:
Finding Nemo had just been released to critical acclaim and Pixar were in renegotiation talks about their deal with Disney.
(Disney's) Michael Eisner had one powerful trump card. Even if Pixar didn't renew, Disney had the right to make sequels of Toy Story and the other movies Pixar had made, and it owned all the characters from Woody to Nemo. Eisner was already planning -- or threatening -- to have Disney's own animation studio do a Toy Story 3, which Pixar had declined to do.
The threat had teeth not because Pixar would lose control of some of their characters, but because Disney's animation studio had been releasing flop after flop. After ten years of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, there were ten years of rubbish. As a company, Disney had been creatively brain-dead for a decade.
(Pixar's) John Lasseter was aghast at the prospect of breaking up with Disney. "I was worried about my children, what they would do with the characters we'd created," he recalled. "It's like you have these dear children and you have to give them up to be adopted by convicted child molesters."
Effectively, Disney's negotiation tactic was "re-sign with us, or else we'll spin up a shitty division to make shitty sequels of your movies!"
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
The app review process isn't QA.
OTOH The first two items on the list of app store review guidelines: 2.1 Apps that crash will be rejected 2.2 Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected
That doesn't mean Apple's QA will look for ways to make the app crash or bug out. It just means that if, during the course of regular testing it crashes, they'll stop testing and reject on the spot.
Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…
> Do people think companies really behave this way? An interesting anecdote from the Steve Jobs biography: Finding Nemo had just been released to critical acclaim and Pixar were in renegotiation talks about their deal with Disney. (Disney's) Michael Eisner had one powerful trump card. Even if Pixar didn't renew, Disney had the right to make sequels of Toy Story and the other movies Pixar had made, and it owned all th…
Effectively, Disney's negotiation tactic was "re-sign with us, or else we'll spin up a shitty division to make shitty sequels of your movies!"
That's from Pixar's perspective.
From Disney, it was more like this: "re-sign with us or we will utilise out right to produce sequels, for which you won't be paid"
ie, It wasn't a threat to do a bad job - as the parent comment says, companies (almost never) deliberately do bad work.