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My iOS 7 Wishlist

tomdale.net

41–50 of 160 posts

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#41

Personally, the biggest thing for me is file management. I hate it that I can't just connect a device and copy files to and from it via USB. Now, I'm not saying that I need to see every file and folder on the iOS device, but exposing a data folder for each installed application would be a big help.

I was very surprised when I plugged in my Lumia 920 and a data folder popped up. I don't recall this existing in WP7, and it sure didn't exist on the Zune. It really can't be too hard or disruptive to allow this, the biggest reason I like it is for copying pictures from the phone without needing the Zune software or a network connection.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#42
post #32

Yet the problem with your phone doing all of this location-aware intelligence is that you wind up with the dead-battery he started his article out with. Whenever I read articles like this one I'm left wondering whether my life is distinctly different from most. I generally have a pretty good idea about my calendar - where I'll be going that day, and what restaurant I'll grab a bite to eat in if that's part of my agen…

> Yet the problem with your phone doing all of this location-aware intelligence is that you wind up with the dead-battery he started his article out with.

Unlikely. The main culprits in high battery usage are the screen, the gps, and the radio when there's not very much signal. Google Now does not ever show up in my top-five battery users list.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#43

Sounds like the author just wants Android in a iPhone form factor.

It's more than simple form factor. Apple's hardware integration work too is way beyond what the Android OEMs are doing, too.

One of the complaints in the article is battery life, and that's dead on. My wife's 4S routinely lasts all day. Occasionally she forgets to plug it in and in the morning it's crossed 24h of uptime with a little power to spare until she can plug it in at work. My Galaxy Nexus with the extended battery (7.77WH vs. 5.3 in the iPhone) will never make 24h without special attention (e.g. airplane mode, disable sync, etc...). And it's routine on days of slightly-heavier-than-normal usage for it to die before I plug it in at bedtime.

Some of that effect is simply the larger backlight (75% more screen area on the Nexus), but surely not all of it. Power management in iOS is just plain better than it is in the Android world, and quite noticeably so.

For me, that's an acceptable trade for Android's deeper features and hackability. But I won't say I don't wish it did a little better, and wouldn't begrudge someone making a product decision based on it.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#44
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the orignal commenter, but I've tried switching to Android several times so I feel qualified to reply: * Apple hardware is superior to any of the Nexus phones. Buttons don't rock without triggering action, screens are consistent colors, etc. * There is a hardware home button that doesn't change locations. This makes it easy to get 'home' from anywhere, and, most importantly, to orient the device by feel in your h…

There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. The goofy mail experience was a big turn-off for me last time I tried switching to Android. The quality of apps on iOS is vastly superior to Android. This might be true on average, but in my case, I only really use a handful of apps with any regularity, and they all seem to be around parity on both platforms.

This hasn't always been the case. I've switched between Apple and Android about three times. The most recent time, just a few months ago, I stuck with Android. Because while the long tail of apps on iPhone look and work better, the top-100/top-200 apps an Android are roughly on par with those same apps on iPhone. Since those are all I use, the question turns to OS feature-sets, and Android has iOS beat on that front. If you're in to mobile gaming, though, you probably need to have an iPhone.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#45
post #30

Google Now isn't awesome because Google exposed various APIs into their omniscient database. And they're not letting random apps grab 'Now' information for their own purposes either. They haven't played the "Open" card on "Now", at all, that I've seen. So thinking Apple would match it by just opening some APIs is double-unlikely. Particularly not with their reluctance to allow any hooks that third party developers mi…

Ironically, Apple's services like Maps and Siri are the ones that are not very "integrated" but are quite "fragmented" instead, since they need hooks into different databases from 3rd party vendors of which they have no control on, while Google only uses their own Google search engine for Google Now, and their own Maps database for Maps.

Also, Google has already brought Voice Search to the iPhone. I think Google Now is also a service they'd like to bring, since it seems like one of those services where they would benefit if it was on the most popular mobile platforms at least.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that you're primarily wanting Google software, what is it about iOS or the iPhone that is keeping you from switching to an Android phone?

Not the orignal commenter, but I've tried switching to Android several times so I feel qualified to reply: * Apple hardware is superior to any of the Nexus phones. Buttons don't rock without triggering action, screens are consistent colors, etc. * There is a hardware home button that doesn't change locations. This makes it easy to get 'home' from anywhere, and, most importantly, to orient the device by feel in your h…

There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail.

If you enable IMAP access to your Gmail account, you can use the "email" app to access gmail accounts along with everything else. The Gmail app has a dedicated button for "archive" and it handles labels better, but you don't really need it.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#47
post #32

Yet the problem with your phone doing all of this location-aware intelligence is that you wind up with the dead-battery he started his article out with. Whenever I read articles like this one I'm left wondering whether my life is distinctly different from most. I generally have a pretty good idea about my calendar - where I'll be going that day, and what restaurant I'll grab a bite to eat in if that's part of my agen…

> Yet the problem with your phone doing all of this location-aware intelligence is that you wind up with the dead-battery he started his article out with. Unlikely. The main culprits in high battery usage are the screen, the gps, and the radio when there's not very much signal. Google Now does not ever show up in my top-five battery users list.

[deleted]

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#48

Personally, the biggest thing for me is file management. I hate it that I can't just connect a device and copy files to and from it via USB. Now, I'm not saying that I need to see every file and folder on the iOS device, but exposing a data folder for each installed application would be a big help.

It's getting worse. My Nexus 7 doesn't allow it either, although you can work around it and (use it as a flashdrive at least) by pretending it's a camera.

I understand the problem is having a disk mounted by two OSs similtaneously. There is newer protocol called mtp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol) that is supposed to be the answer, but it isn't supported by older OSs. Feels like they reinvented the wheel though.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#49
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that you're primarily wanting Google software, what is it about iOS or the iPhone that is keeping you from switching to an Android phone?

I also want other software, Apple's weather app is pathetic and it would be great if something more accurate could show up in my notification bar. As for why I have an iPhone, mostly because the hardware is great, I get a lot of mileage out of the iPod functionality and I do quite a bit of mobile web development that having an iOS device is handy for (regardless of sales figures, I see a ton more iOS web traffic than…

The same could be said for Stocks, Game Center, Videos, Voice Memos, Reminders, and Newsstand. In my experience, I don't use these apps but they clog up my apps list. They should be optional - They could come pre-installed, but if I deleted them and wanted to re-install Apple just needs to make a Separate "Official Apple" tab in the App Store. The only App that arguably shouldn't be removable is "Settings". Even the App Store could be activated (or not) from within there.
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