Has anyone considered if the iPhone is a good choice of you are a Gmail user?
I have noticed that the Gmail app load time, on the iPhone, is unusably slow but it is one of the apps I need to use daily.
iOS 8 reviewed
111–120 of 199 posts
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#112Credit where credit is due, the lack of customisable keyboards was a major gripe of mine when people asked me why I'd never buy an iOS device. A Swype-like keyboard (I actually use Google Keyboard's Swype mode, even though I own Swype) is a "must have" on my phone and has been for over three and a half years (since Swype beta was available on the original Galaxy Note). While there are definitely thumb typists who can…
When I had an android device, I thought this feature was over-hyped. I installed as many keyboards as I found and tried every single one for about a day. I hated all of them. They were all different and some added interesting features, but I found that I could type fastest on my iphone's stock keyboard. It just worked. On my android device, I ended up restoring the stock keyboard and never looked back until I sold it…
They were all mostly terrible until Google Keyboard came around with swipe support.
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#113Has anyone considered if the iPhone is a good choice of you are a Gmail user? I have noticed that the Gmail app load time, on the iPhone, is unusably slow but it is one of the apps I need to use daily.
Is there a specific reason you are using the Gmail app instead of the OS provided mail app?
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#114I really wish I could block ads somehow on my iPad Air. I'm pretty invested in the Apple ecosystem and use an LTE iPad Air almost every day on public transit, and the inability to block ads really makes mobile Safari a shitty experience. I mean, I'd never run (and I'm sure a lot of people here don't either) a desktop browser without some sort of ad blocking going on. That and being able to have two apps run side by s…
Why can't you just avoid sites that use advertising? How is it fair to companies to give you free content without having to pay for it.
If you find a site has annoying advertising then stop browsing it and find an alternative. Vote with your browsing habits.
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has long moved on to 2GB on flagships. Kind of a shame :(
And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. So how do you explain it? Ram is cheap and small. Yes it uses power but not all that much and certainly it would be worth it for a more powerful device. The only logical explanation I can come to is... more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience. More ram is the cure-all on a desktop but that's not apples-to-apples.
>And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package.
Well, not this time =p
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who cares why it happens? People who are curious about system internals. Probably some of the people who read a site like HN. Even my dad likes to understand where these limitations originate and he's not a 'computer person' (though he is an engineer in another field).
I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter. No one is going to do a 180 and say "oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I guess it doesn't bother me anymore." It's still a PITA and there's no good reason for it anymore. I get great battery life on my M8 and don't have to deal with this stupid quirk.
>>I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter.
Of course it matters. If you understand why, you can take steps to mitigate it or work around it. In this particular case, one workaround is to close unused programs and browser tabs every now and then to clear up memory so that the active tabs don't go through a forced-refresh. This is what I do on my 4S, and I haven't had to deal with the problem the OP describes in a long time despite being a "heavy" user.
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has long moved on to 2GB on flagships. Kind of a shame :(
And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. So how do you explain it? Ram is cheap and small. Yes it uses power but not all that much and certainly it would be worth it for a more powerful device. The only logical explanation I can come to is... more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience. More ram is the cure-all on a desktop but that's not apples-to-apples.
>more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience
Except when it would, as in, the case we are discussing right now.
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#118The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit
The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug). [1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392
Has anyone tried loading from Blob URLs? That might be a way to make Cordova work.
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who cares why it happens? I've gone back and forth between iOS and Android over the years and it never happens to me on my Android devices. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses obviously, but this used to piss me off to no end on iOS.
It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has long moved on to 2GB on flagships. Kind of a shame :(
Perhaps Apple can afford to keep iiOS devices at 1 GB of RAM and thus save battery life because iOS uses automatic reference counting rather than garbage collection, so applications' memory high watermarks stay lower. I imagine that's what Drew Crawford would argue, anyway (see http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow...).
Re: iOS 8 reviewed
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter. No one is going to do a 180 and say "oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I guess it doesn't bother me anymore." It's still a PITA and there's no good reason for it anymore. I get great battery life on my M8 and don't have to deal with this stupid quirk.
>>I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter. Of course it matters. If you understand why, you can take steps to mitigate it or work around it. In this particular case, one workaround is to close unused programs and browser tabs every now and then to clear up memory so that the active tabs don't go through a forced-refresh. This is what I do on my 4S, and I have…
Right... or I could just use a phone which doesn't force me to micro-manage my memory usage. That's a workaround at best, not a solution. iOS has always been subpar in regards to multi-tasking.