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> When I see features like Android's cloud-to-phone messaging APIs, I long for them to be in iOS. But then iOS 4 has nothing of this sort. Isn’t that exactly w
by alanh 16y ago
> When I see features like Android's cloud-to-phone messaging APIs, I long for them to be in iOS. But then iOS 4 has nothing of this sort.
Isn’t that exactly what push notifications are? Apps like Notifo, and Boxcar for that matter, allow you to implement push notifications for anything (c.f. Github integration) without even a dedicated iPhone app.
> users don't care about [fragmentation].
While Joe Consumer may not grok fragmentation, it definitely impacts his experience. E.g. the official Twitter app not being available on Droid or the Incredible, last I heard.
I don’t see Apple as missing the boat so much as taking their time to do things right. Just like copy-paste and multitasking. Patience for the polish, or yeah, go to Android.
To answer your question, iPhone will, yes, always lack features Android has, for the foreseeable future, but the experience is smoother and more consistent. Strictly in this sense, it it Android that will never catch up.
(This is pretty much what Gruber has been saying: http://www.macworld.com/article/151235/2010/05/apple_rolls.html http://www.macworld.com/article/151235/2010/05/apple_rolls.h...)
- stanleydrew 16y agoAm I the only one who absolutely prefers Android's copy/paste to the iPhone's?
- masklinn 16y agoCould you explain how/why you do? I just can't get how you could prefer Android's three-taps-deep switch to text selection mode (for non-editable text), and the text range selection seems so damn imprecise.
- aditya42 16y agoI realised about an hour after I posted the question that push notifications are almost exactly the same thing, except that cloud-to-device message APIs is something Google is using themselves to show the power it has, which Apple didn't do. But yes, one could write an app (I think Boxcar is in the best position to do this) that can push "intent"s to iOS devices and open them in the proper apps like it already does with Twitter.
- biafra 16y agoE.g. the official Twitter app not being available on Droid or the Incredible, last I heard. Runs just fine on my Milestone and should also run on the Droid. But I see what you mean.