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iOS 7: Catch me if you can

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Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#91

Post by jdgiese »

pbsdp wrote: post #58
jenius wrote: post #43

Anything that pushed native over web in my mind is a step backwards. Let's think about the challenges that come along with native ios apps: - Less accessible. Objective C is a strange, low-level, difficult-to-learn, niche language used only for mac development. - More work. See above explanation of Objective C. You need an IDE to even be remotely efficient, an IDE that Apple also controls. - More work to port anywher…

> - Less accessible. Objective C is a strange, low-level, difficult-to-learn, niche language used only for mac development. It's not hard for someone that already knows C, or really any other language. The learning curve is in platform knowledge, and every platform -- including the web -- is different. > - More work. See above explanation of Objective C. You need an IDE to even be remotely efficient, an IDE that Appl…

I have never used objective C, although I use C quite a bit. Javascript is much higher level than C, thus you can code more faster with less bugs in javascript. Of course it all depends on if you need low-level performance.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#92

Post by jdgiese »

pja wrote: post #62
Gravityloss wrote: post #57

Why is blur supposed to be computationally intensive? It's very simple mathematically...

It's not the computation itself, it's the GPU memory bandwidth it takes up. (Assuming you're doing it in real-time of course.)

if you blur an MxM area with a NxN kernel you have approximately MxMxNxN multiply adds. That can add up to a lot especially on a retina display. You are right that it is simple mathematically though :)

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#93

Post by potatolicious »

andrewflnr wrote: post #84
potatolicious wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of what goes into modern battery is notably radioactive, unless your'e suggesting a battery that's similar to a RTG?

I don't remember what RTG stands for, but I'm pretty sure they mean adding radioactive bits to the battery.

RTG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_gen...

Basically instead of having a big complicated nuclear reactor, you just throw some radioactive material in a package, let it decay, and generate electricity off the heat. It's mechanically much more simple and has the bonus of not involving critical masses of radioactive material ;)

Not very realistic though. Besides the obvious issues of carrying around lumps of plutonium, they're rather bulky, and disposal is a pretty major problem.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#95

Post by Cookingboy »

FireBeyond wrote: post #66
coldtea wrote: post #44

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. Catch up? Actually it was more of a "let's go another 100 miles ahead, Android seems to be catching up finally to were we've been the last 3 years".

To quote you: "Citation"? What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting? Let's be clear too, three years ago, iOS was at version 3.1.3. I would love to be enlightened, as an iPhone 5/iPad 4/rMBP owner.

60fps scrolling? A semi-decent animation framework for developers? Low audio latency and good power management? Pretty much all the advantages Apple has from their decade of experience of developing OS X frameworks?

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#96

Post by Cookingboy »

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.

Catch up? People like you really have no idea how much behind Android is as an OS. It's until very recently it's got close to 60fps scrolling, and low audio latency and decent power management.

One example on the advancement of iOS 7, how about take their animation framework a step further (which is already ahead of whats available on Android) and introduces a full rigid-body physics engine that's easily at the developers' disposal?

What Apple has always done is good developer support in the form of great APIs

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#97

Post by Cookingboy »

jdgiese wrote: post #91
pbsdp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Less accessible. Objective C is a strange, low-level, difficult-to-learn, niche language used only for mac development. It's not hard for someone that already knows C, or really any other language. The learning curve is in platform knowledge, and every platform -- including the web -- is different. > - More work. See above explanation of Objective C. You need an IDE to even be remotely efficient, an IDE that Appl…

I have never used objective C, although I use C quite a bit. Javascript is much higher level than C, thus you can code more faster with less bugs in javascript. Of course it all depends on if you need low-level performance.

Objective-C is about on the same level as Java.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#98

Post by coldtea »

FireBeyond wrote: post #66
coldtea wrote: post #44

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. Catch up? Actually it was more of a "let's go another 100 miles ahead, Android seems to be catching up finally to were we've been the last 3 years".

To quote you: "Citation"? What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting? Let's be clear too, three years ago, iOS was at version 3.1.3. I would love to be enlightened, as an iPhone 5/iPad 4/rMBP owner.

>What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting?

The basic feature it didn't have --and I'm not sure it yet getting--, is that it's not about features and feature lists at all, but overall polish, coherence of implementation and ecosystem.

That said, just randomly, some things that it didn't have:

- An actual deployment base for the new versions. Even TODAY (much less 3 years ago) half of the people out there use a 2+ year old Android version. (Google's own mid-2013 data).

- A good security story. Latest study: "Android accounts for 92% of mobile malware, malicious apps increase 614%"

- Tons of top notch apps that are iOS only (or appear on iOS years ahead of Android launch) because devs cannot be bothered with a platform that's too fragmented and with more people using it as a feature phone and not caring about apps. From Instagram, to Paper, to Vine, to Letterpress, Flipboard, and tons besides. (Sure, there are also Android apps that are not on iOS. But the highly celebrated apps, including apps that result in billion dollar businesses like Instagram, are always if not exclusive, then first on the iOS side).

- Low latency audio APIs. It's lack killed the musician's app market that thrives on iOS. Android started getting 1-2 apps this very last month, but it's still DOA on the audio apps market.

- A huge ecosystem of add-on peripherals -- from heart monitors to MIDI keyboards to camera tethering, to glucose meters, to external speaker bases.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#99

Post by hnriot »

potatolicious wrote: post #16
guywithabike wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"hotly demanded by users for a long time."

I never need to switch to airplane mode, or bluetooth on/off in a hurry? I wonder who these people are they find setting/slide airplane mode so time consuming.

Re: iOS 7: Catch me if you can

#100

Post by potatolicious »

hnriot wrote: post #99
potatolicious wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"hotly demanded by users for a long time." I never need to switch to airplane mode, or bluetooth on/off in a hurry? I wonder who these people are they find setting/slide airplane mode so time consuming.

People who use Bluetooth regularly find themselves having to turn it on and off for the sake of battery life. It's great to be able to do so without diving through multiple menus.

It's also not just airplane mode - do-not-disturb mode is also really useful, and it should be fairly obvious why someone would want to toggle it without menu-diving.

Ditto orientation lock. In iOS6 is tap-tap-swipe-tap-tap, now it's just swipe-tap. This last one is kind of a platform problem though - orientation lock is useful in part because some apps excel at landscape mode, while others suck at it but insist on enabling it.

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