iOS 8 reviewed • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#21

Post by ZanyProgrammer » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:32 PM UTC

dan1234 wrote: post #19

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #11

I 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…

Ars offer subscriptions[0] which remove the adverts (amongst other things) http://arstechnica.com/subscriptions

Ironically, Ars is a site that is really atrocious on mobile Safari, ad wise. I visit there regularly, and often I get full page ads that block the view.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#22

Post by abluecloud » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:35 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #15

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #11

I 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…

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 I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

Some of my browsing habits lead me to sites where there are literally popups upon popups. Sure, maybe I could only enable it for those sights, but that takes time - and I'm lazy.

So whilst I see where you're coming from, you can't just rule out annoying ads all together.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#23

Post by sirn » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:35 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

Credit 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…

My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between third party keyboards. I like SwiftKey, but I use about three languages daily and SwiftKey is not good enough for two other languages I use (Japanese, Thai), so I have to use other keyboard.

Switching between multiple keyboards in Android is totally pain. This was over a year ago, but back then I have drag down the notification area, choose Change Keyboard, select keyboard I want to use and go back to typing (maybe optionally switch the layout to the correct one before that) instead of a single button press. Some keyboard do provide a way to switch to other keyboard, but they're mostly non-obvious (e.g. in Google Japanese IME, you have to long press the layout switch [A/あ] button for few seconds, then choose "Change keyboard"). Even though most non-English keyboards also provide English layout, but most of time they're simply half-baked or just downright bad.

I don't know how Apple designed their third party keyboard API, but I truly hope they have some kind of guideline regarding the keyboard switcher, and that third party keyboards in iOS are per-language so all non-English keyboards out there don't ended up implementing a half-baked English keyboard. Either way, I'm really happy to see SwiftKey coming to iOS, even more so when my favorite Japanese IME (ATOK) announced they're going to release a keyboard for iOS.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#24

Post by DSMan195276 » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:36 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #15

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #11

I 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…

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 I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

I'm in the same boat, I don't run an ad blocker, but I do block flash and java-script from running until I enable them per-website. I personally don't have a problem with ad's, but my home laptop is pretty slow and ad's on most websites eat a ridiculous amount of resources.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#25

Post by jamroom » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:38 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #15

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #11

I 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…

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 I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

It's not just ads though - as someone who runs NoScript in Firefox the number of 3rd party ad targeting and "audience enhancement" stuff I see that gets pulled in to most sites is crazy - some sites pull in stuff from like 20 different providers. It's this ad retargetting that follows you around the web that personally bothers me - I know not everyone cares (and some even welcome it) but seeing how much tracking is going on makes me really glad I'm running NoScript and ad blockers.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#26

Post by personZ » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:38 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #15

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #11

I 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…

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 I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#27

Post by matt-attack » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:39 PM UTC

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #21

dan1234 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ars offer subscriptions[0] which remove the adverts (amongst other things) http://arstechnica.com/subscriptions

Ironically, Ars is a site that is really atrocious on mobile Safari, ad wise. I visit there regularly, and often I get full page ads that block the view.

I recommend the Reader mode in safari. It's the closest I've come to "ad block" on an iPhone. It can take an article on an absolutely atrocious website, with hovering top and bottom bars, hovering ads, etc., and transform it into pure heaven: beautiful text, on a clean background, with relevant images.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#28

Post by jkestner » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:39 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #10

It's ironic - the addition of extensions, custom keyboards and the like was possibly going to be enough to bring me back to iOS from Android - I always preferred the hardware, just wanted a little more flexibility from my software. But now Apple has totally ditched the 4" hardware factor - the main reason I liked the hardware so much. To me, Apple has lost an edge by doing that.

What do you get from an iPhone 6 4" over the current models there? Better processor, NFC, nicer camera? While the screen is a big part of battery drain, I'll bet that moving to the A8 also justified a bigger battery, and all these things got more room to fit in. You might have to give up something for a 4" form factor. But I'll also bet that as they hone the new architecture, you'll see it trickle down to the lower price slots, a la iPad mini Retina.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#29

Post by higherpurpose » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:41 PM UTC

chton wrote: post #8

voxic11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has had this for quite a while, though not to many apps make full use of it. http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/notifications.h...

I wasn't aware of this, despite having used enough Android in the past. Shows you how many implement it, I suppose :)

Or how well you advertise it. Apple heavily promotes every feature tiny or large, while usually most of the cool Android ones get ignored even by the tech writers who are supposed to know about Android, let alone regular people or press.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#30

Post by Osiris » Wed, Sep 17, 2014, 3:42 PM UTC

personZ wrote: post #26

untog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

I'm using HTTP Switchboard which uses much less memory has offers a lot more control over what to block and what to allow through, but it does take a bit more configuration than ABP.