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My iOS 7 Wishlist

tomdale.net

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Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#101

Post by jonknee »

starik36 wrote: post #53
jonknee wrote: post #13

I'd love to be able to actually replace Apple's apps with Google's. When I hit a link I don't want it to open in Safari, I want Chrome. Ditto with Map links. I want Siri to be replaced with Google Voice Search (and for there to be APIs that allow Google to fully replace Siri).

Siri is pretty great at the domain I use it on (directions, alerts, reminders, etc...) . Google Voice Search is not even close. Not quite sure why you'd want to replace it.

I'd replace it because I don't use Siri and I would use Google Voice Search. Siri has gotten my directions, alerts and reminders wrong enough times that I don't use it at all. If it could replace Siri I think Google would expand things a bit to allow more Siri-like functionality, but even at the moment a very fast way to Google things is more useful to me than Siri.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#102

Post by shadesandcolour »

bborud wrote: post #84
Me1000 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I feel your frustration with iOS apps in general, concurrency is not a silver bullet. I can't say anything specifically about what's making certain iOS applications slow, but I actually think it's probably more related to Core Data and file IO. I can also say their new concurrency technology (Grand Central Dispatch) is one of the most brilliant pieces of technology I've seen in a while. The reasons why are pret…

No, concurrency is not a silver bullet, but when your programmers consistently make beginner's mistakes the software really sucks. You do NOT allow the UI thread to hang on blocking calls. That's UI programming 101. And Apple engineers are unique in how consistently they fail to follow even this most rudimentary of rules.

Sorry. Have you see the source code of any part of the iOS system? No I don't think you have. Give me some reference to somewhere that the UI thread hangs. Not blocking the UI is taught to everyone who writes apps for the app store, so my assumption is that the guys who wrote the app store code know a little better than we do.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#103

Post by dannyr »

jxdxbx wrote: post #96

I am worried that so much of the "integration" people are calling for is integration with the services of just one company, Google. And most people that want to replace the built-in iOS app defaults want to replace them with Google apps so they can use more Google services. Is that healthy for the web? Now, Google offers the best-in-class web services in a number of domains. But I've never been very fond of many of t…

"Integration" may benefit Google at first. You have think of the possibilities though if that integration is available to any developer.

Google is good at a number of apps but not all.

On Android, a lot of core functionalities built by Google can be replaced with a third-party app. You can replace the keyboard, use a different Home screen or Launcher, another app to manage your Contacts or have a different dialer.

I think the current situation is worse since only Apple can integrate tightly with iOS. Apple did allow Facebook & Twitter some integration though.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#105

Post by bigtones »

phinnaeus wrote: post #82
jsnell wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was very skeptical of Google Now originally, and disabled it after a week on the Nexus S. It never gave any useful info, and indeed made it unlikely the battery would last the day. But with the Nexus 4 I left it on, and have been finding it useful regularly ever since. Zero-action directions and timetables for getting home after a night out. Directions to local places I've recently searched for on maps. The automat…

Three days of battery life on the Nexus 4? That sounds like a dream. Do you put it on airplane mode when you're not using it or something?

I would agree with that. I get great battery life from my Nexus 4, around 3 to 4 days.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#106

Post by revelation »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #48
RexRollman wrote: post #24

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 reinvent…

MTP is a complete trainwreck. The main problem is that the support in Windows is absolutely useless. Copying a big file and want to continue exploring the contents? Nope. Any kind of simultaneous operation will just plain not work. There is a very odd warning if you copy over plain old data like zip files - it tells you that the device might not be able to play the content. You can still copy them over, at crappy speed. But then trying to read them again will often fail with a weird error that amounts to "The connection broke".

Oh, and Explorer constantly locks up when dealing with MTP devices. It either plain crashes or waiting for data that is never coming, no matter, its blocking the GUI interactions for fucks sake, in 2013.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#107

Post by richardwhiuk »

sp332 wrote: post #46
justinph wrote: post #28

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. 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.

The IMAP experience of Gmail is possible, but by and large ime it sucks. Gmail treats a email has having 0+ tags, IMAP implementations rely on an email being in 1 folder. This is a fundamental difference.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#108

Post by [deleted] »

shadesandcolour wrote: post #102
bborud wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, concurrency is not a silver bullet, but when your programmers consistently make beginner's mistakes the software really sucks. You do NOT allow the UI thread to hang on blocking calls. That's UI programming 101. And Apple engineers are unique in how consistently they fail to follow even this most rudimentary of rules.

Sorry. Have you see the source code of any part of the iOS system? No I don't think you have. Give me some reference to somewhere that the UI thread hangs. Not blocking the UI is taught to everyone who writes apps for the app store, so my assumption is that the guys who wrote the app store code know a little better than we do.

[deleted]

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#109

Post by jxdxbx »

dannyr wrote: post #103
jxdxbx wrote: post #96

I am worried that so much of the "integration" people are calling for is integration with the services of just one company, Google. And most people that want to replace the built-in iOS app defaults want to replace them with Google apps so they can use more Google services. Is that healthy for the web? Now, Google offers the best-in-class web services in a number of domains. But I've never been very fond of many of t…

"Integration" may benefit Google at first. You have think of the possibilities though if that integration is available to any developer. Google is good at a number of apps but not all. On Android, a lot of core functionalities built by Google can be replaced with a third-party app. You can replace the keyboard, use a different Home screen or Launcher, another app to manage your Contacts or have a different dialer. I…

I think this is true as far as iOS goes--and it is more likely that Apple will open up the iPhone to third parties than that Google Now and so on will start working with third parties.

My concern is more with how so many very tech-savvy people, usually so skeptical of companies that get a little too ambitious--are extolling the virtues of a system that requires your email, search, maps, and nearly everything else be sourced from a single provider.

More on point, even if iOS allows for changing default apps, it should keep system-wide settings as far as possible. For example, the drop-down email sheet that apps can use will probably have to stay Apple, even if you're using Gmail for your mail, at least until there's a more robust contracts-like system. But right now this would mean having to input your email credentials into both system settings, and the gmail app separately.

Re: My iOS 7 Wishlist

#110

Post by rayiner »

nicholassmith wrote: post #38

Here's my feature wishlist for iOS7: - Nothing. I don't want anything new. I'm happy with the current feature set my phone currently has. What I desperately want from iOS 7 is a renewed focus on stability and Not Sucking. There's been a significant amount of additional functionality brought in over the last few releases, but it feels like in terms of stability it's not improved anywhere near as quickly.

Apple Maps is the first time I've ever had a "what the fuck were they thinking" moment on my iPhone. On my 5, it's really easy to accidentally switch it into 3D mode while zooming, which slows the phone to a crawl if you've got an iffy network connection. Like 30 seconds between screen updates. Just absolutely awful.
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