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iOS 7: Catch me if you can

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Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#11

Post by gfodor »

josteink wrote: post #4
zachwill wrote: post #3

iOS 7 was clearly designed to show off what’s possible in 2013. I absolutely agree with this point. And, while I disagree with the post's main thesis — I believe the changes were in no way directed towards the web — it's a pretty entertaining take on the updates, OP.

I'd rephrase that as ios7 was clearly made to catch up with android 4 and holo, but maybe that's just me. there's nothing revolutionary in ios7 shown so far. that said, I can't wait for Apple to sue Android over the things they just stole from them.

I haven't used Android since it first came out, but does it have the dynamic physics, layering, dynamic image compositing (blur, etc), parallax, etc, that all are in iOS 7? iOS 7 seems to me to be very much about how it feels and behaves in motion. The current beta still isn't performance tuned, so my guess is the final build is going to be a pretty futuristic experience on the iPhone 5S.

I think a lot of people are getting hung up on lack of textures/lighting as "copying Android" but I would love to hear how Metro and Android are comparable on the things that are going to define iOS 7's experience: motion, dynamics, translucency, layering, and depth.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#12

Post by potatolicious »

ajross wrote: post #5

This needs a dose of cynicism I think. The success of the iPhone in 2007 really wasn't driven by hardware capability (except arguably the capacitative touch screen). Even then, other phones had faster processors, more memory, and equivalent GPUs. Apple won because it invented new usage models, not because it drove its designers to "show off what's possible in" 2007. The stuff this is talking about is just eye candy.…

It was a bit of both. The original iPhone wasn't a hardware revolution, but it was an OS revolution. It was the first time anyone put an OS on a phone that had a blazing fast graphics layer.

Touchscreen phones existed before then, but because of platform performance, was always of the "poke, wait, stuff magically appears, poke, wait, stuff magically appears..." model.

Apple didn't just invent new usage models, they invented the platform that made it implementable. The deep integration of UIKit with hardware acceleration, as well as animation as a first-class consideration in the API, were (and still are) some of Apple's greatest advantages.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#14

Post by hrwl »

guywithabike wrote: post #7
josteink wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rephrase that as ios7 was clearly made to catch up with android 4 and holo, but maybe that's just me. there's nothing revolutionary in ios7 shown so far. that said, I can't wait for Apple to sue Android over the things they just stole from them.

In your estimation, what did iOS "steal" from Android? For example, a common iOS 7 feature cited as "stolen" is the app switching interface. But that's the same interface Safari has used for switching tabs since the very first iPhone. They simply repurposed their Safari UI for the OS.

I think you could argue the control center is borrowed from Android (although the iOS 7 version looks kinda spiffier). The interface for moving between apps is similar. I had to open Safari to see your comparison. The demo I see on the product page for iOS7 reminds me more of Android than Safari. I remember seeing a few other things in the WWDC presentation but I don't remember what they were.

All that said, I hope both sides "steal" good ideas early and often.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#15

Post by scott_s »

ajross wrote: post #5

This needs a dose of cynicism I think. The success of the iPhone in 2007 really wasn't driven by hardware capability (except arguably the capacitative touch screen). Even then, other phones had faster processors, more memory, and equivalent GPUs. Apple won because it invented new usage models, not because it drove its designers to "show off what's possible in" 2007. The stuff this is talking about is just eye candy.…

I think you may be underestimating the impact of the touch screen. It's wasn't just that it was touch, it was the phone. I can't find it, but I remember reading industry reactions that were incredulous that it was even possible to have enough power to drive the screen for significant periods. That large touch screen really set the iPhone apart.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#16

Post by potatolicious »

guywithabike wrote: post #7
josteink wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rephrase that as ios7 was clearly made to catch up with android 4 and holo, but maybe that's just me. there's nothing revolutionary in ios7 shown so far. that said, I can't wait for Apple to sue Android over the things they just stole from them.

In your estimation, what did iOS "steal" from Android? For example, a common iOS 7 feature cited as "stolen" is the app switching interface. But that's the same interface Safari has used for switching tabs since the very first iPhone. They simply repurposed their Safari UI for the OS.

I make my living writing iOS apps, but come on - there's plenty here that has been "borrowed". Off the top of my head:

- The insta-airplane-mode-wifi-bluetooth buttons in iOS7. These are a straight lift from Android, and have been hotly demanded by users for a long time.

- Notification Center is an incredibly uncanny look-and-feel-alike of notifications in Android. It's basically an outright clone - though this isn't an iOS7 development.

- The new app switcher is a takeoff from webOS. Swipe to close an app is also implemented almost precisely like it was on webOS. Claims that this came from Android are IMO off the mark. I don't think it's fair to say they repurposed the Safari tab-switcher, considering the gestures bear such an uncanny resemblance to the webOS implementation.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#17

Post by [deleted] »

potatolicious wrote: post #12
ajross wrote: post #5

This needs a dose of cynicism I think. The success of the iPhone in 2007 really wasn't driven by hardware capability (except arguably the capacitative touch screen). Even then, other phones had faster processors, more memory, and equivalent GPUs. Apple won because it invented new usage models, not because it drove its designers to "show off what's possible in" 2007. The stuff this is talking about is just eye candy.…

It was a bit of both. The original iPhone wasn't a hardware revolution, but it was an OS revolution. It was the first time anyone put an OS on a phone that had a blazing fast graphics layer. Touchscreen phones existed before then, but because of platform performance, was always of the "poke, wait, stuff magically appears, poke, wait, stuff magically appears..." model. Apple didn't just invent new usage models, they i…

[deleted]

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#18

Post by bengotow »

gfodor wrote: post #11
josteink wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rephrase that as ios7 was clearly made to catch up with android 4 and holo, but maybe that's just me. there's nothing revolutionary in ios7 shown so far. that said, I can't wait for Apple to sue Android over the things they just stole from them.

I haven't used Android since it first came out, but does it have the dynamic physics, layering, dynamic image compositing (blur, etc), parallax, etc, that all are in iOS 7? iOS 7 seems to me to be very much about how it feels and behaves in motion. The current beta still isn't performance tuned, so my guess is the final build is going to be a pretty futuristic experience on the iPhone 5S. I think a lot of people are…

I agree, but it's funny. iOS 7 is all about dynamic, physical interfaces - so much so that they built a physics engine into UIKit. At the same time, they're ripping apart the user experience so that nothing onscreen _looks_ like a physical object.

Before, interfaces looked like a bunch of real-world objects. Now, they look like a bunch of thin-ass lines and boxes, but behave like real-world objects.

I agree that iOS is all about motion, dynamics, translucency, layering and depth. But the verdict is still out on whether those things make for better interfaces.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#19

Post by bornhuetter »

If this article is accurate - and that iOS 7 has so much eyecandy that it will only work on the latest high end hardware - does this mean that a low end budget iPhone is off the table? Or is this Apple's way of segmenting a high end version of the OS and then a version with all the eyecandy disabled for the cheap iPhone?

It's interesting that Apple and Google seem to be going in polar opposite directions right now - with Apple going for high end effects, and KLP reportedly focusing on reducing the minimum requirements and letting it run on lower end hardware.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#20

Post by Recoil42 »

>If we felt really crazy, we’d make simple things like home screens and modal dialogs subtly shift in 3D, real-time, in response to gyroscope input. (To a mobile web developer that sounds like a troll feature request.)

Uh, except that's all completely possible on the modern web, thanks to tools like CSS3 and deviceorientation APIs. In fact, when iOS7 was revealed a few weeks ago, developers raced to duplicate the parallax background feature, and did exactly that in very short order: http://matthewlehner.net/ios-7-style-parallax-background-bas...

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