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IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

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Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#11

Post by lukifer »

bruceboughton wrote: post #9
lukifer wrote: post #3

He missed one, IMHO: apps which can live on the springboard or the lock-screen. I'm not anticipating that Apple will do these, mind you, as it complicates their simple UI scheme, but it's a clear advantage for Android power-users. I'm hoping that they plan on making a big push on cross-app communication. I also hope that they're investing in their platform from an e-commerce perspective: paid upgrades, trials, video…

A million times no. The Android homescreen is incomprehensible to me as an iOS user and the main reason is the clutter and weird alignment.

It's opt-in, is it not? Phones are very personal devices, and if you don't want yours to be that way, then don't use the feature.

Honestly, the biggest reason I want it is for things that apps aren't allowed to access anyway: a global control on the Springboard to disable WiFi, or change screen brightness, for instance.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#12

Post by guelo »

bruceboughton wrote: post #9
lukifer wrote: post #3

He missed one, IMHO: apps which can live on the springboard or the lock-screen. I'm not anticipating that Apple will do these, mind you, as it complicates their simple UI scheme, but it's a clear advantage for Android power-users. I'm hoping that they plan on making a big push on cross-app communication. I also hope that they're investing in their platform from an e-commerce perspective: paid upgrades, trials, video…

A million times no. The Android homescreen is incomprehensible to me as an iOS user and the main reason is the clutter and weird alignment.

The Android homescreen can look however you want including almost exactly like an iphone.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#14

Post by Lewisham »

lukifer wrote: post #11
bruceboughton wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A million times no. The Android homescreen is incomprehensible to me as an iOS user and the main reason is the clutter and weird alignment.

It's opt-in, is it not? Phones are very personal devices, and if you don't want yours to be that way, then don't use the feature. Honestly, the biggest reason I want it is for things that apps aren't allowed to access anyway: a global control on the Springboard to disable WiFi, or change screen brightness, for instance.

Apple has never been a company that believes in opt-in. Rightly or wrongly (and, to be fair, usually rightly), it's a company that believes you having the choice to do something it thinks is dumb is a bad idea.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#15

Post by Zaim3 »

Not really seeing why Gruber thinks Win8 "contracts" are "richer" than Android's intents/content providers. They're pretty much identical (though "contracts" has a much clearer name).

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#16

Post by MaxGabriel »

lukifer wrote: post #11
bruceboughton wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A million times no. The Android homescreen is incomprehensible to me as an iOS user and the main reason is the clutter and weird alignment.

It's opt-in, is it not? Phones are very personal devices, and if you don't want yours to be that way, then don't use the feature. Honestly, the biggest reason I want it is for things that apps aren't allowed to access anyway: a global control on the Springboard to disable WiFi, or change screen brightness, for instance.

I haven't thought of the specifics, but I think I'd prefer accessing that from the multitasking view or the pull-down notifications. That way I'm not as interrupted from using my app.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#17

Post by igul222 »

Focusing on "low-hanging fruit" (things iOS' competitors already have or that are obviously missing) is important, but after a point Apple's going to need to break new ground and innovate.

Siri is a great example of this: iOS already ha voice control and nobody was complaining about it; it's just that nobody was really using it because it wasn't very good. Apple didn't get to where it is today just by cloning and refining things.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#18

Post by jdc »

rglover wrote: post #5

Something I thought about earlier that would be nice: automatic geofencing based on my interests. So if I'm on vacation and I mark "burgers" as an interest, I get pinged when I'm close to a popular burger spot. May already exist but didn't take the time to look.

Georeminder does that: http://www.skumancer.com/georeminder

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#19

Post by danso »

Less clunky file-management. I'm speaking out of ignorance as to how the API works, but there is such wide variance and unpredictability in how apps handle file import/export and sharing between existing apps.

Re: IOS Low-Hanging Fruit

#20

Post by cyen »

lukifer wrote: post #3

He missed one, IMHO: apps which can live on the springboard or the lock-screen. I'm not anticipating that Apple will do these, mind you, as it complicates their simple UI scheme, but it's a clear advantage for Android power-users. I'm hoping that they plan on making a big push on cross-app communication. I also hope that they're investing in their platform from an e-commerce perspective: paid upgrades, trials, video…

I'm still surprised that URL Schemes[1] aren't used widely. Facebook uses them to implement Facebook Connect, and sites exist[2] that try to aggregate various apps' schemes, but it'd be nice to live in a world where they were well-known and reliable enough to use instead of having to integrate individual third-party SDKs.

1: http://mobiledevelopertips.com/cocoa/launching-your-own-appl... 2: http://handleopenurl.com/scheme

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