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I don't understand how Android allows you to pass data between applications while iOS does not. I'm under the impression that I can use copy/paste and custom pr

by 5teev 16y ago

I don't understand how Android allows you to pass data between applications while iOS does not. I'm under the impression that I can use copy/paste and custom protocols to pass information between applications on my iPhone. Am I missing something? If there's any cultural divide Gruber alludes to, it's that iPhone users tend not to know a whole lot about how the phone works deep inside, and whether by necessity or curiosity, Android users do.

bjelkeman-again 16y ago
You say "iPhone users tend not to know a whole lot about how the phone works deep inside, and whether by necessity or curiosity, Android users do." I don't think that is true. Most Android users have no idea how their phone works inside. They are not techies, they are just smartphone users. Most people have no idea what a computer does inside. Don't think that all Android users are techies because many on HN are.
- commandar 16y ago
  I probably know a dozen people in my circle of friends with Android phones at this point. Of those, maybe 3 would give you any more than a blank stare if you asked them what CDMA and GSM are. I'm the only one out of that group that has a rooted device. I think technically inclined people are more drawn to Android, but I don't think that anything close to the majority of Android's user base is technically inclined by a long shot.
- 5teev 16y ago
  I don't mean hardcore, nuts and bolts stuff, just that they're more involved with managing how the operating system behaves. And I'm not saying this, I was inferring from Gruber, who notes how many task managers, etc., are the most popular apps.
  - Locke1689 16y ago
    That's the worst kind of user, though. The "power user" is almost the bane of my existence as they do not truly understand anything yet think they understand everything. These are the same morons that dig into the Windows registry for "super speed optimizations" and end up blowing their installation to hell.
commandar 16y ago
Applications on iOS aren't allowed to touch storage outside of their own data store or the photo roll. Some developers used to backdoor around this by passing data via the photo roll, but Apple started denying app approval for this a while back.
- Zev 16y ago
  Some developers used to backdoor around this by passing data via the photo roll I've never heard of an app that did that. Can you name some?
  - commandar 16y ago
    I got it slightly wrong, it seems. Devs were using the photo roll as a way around the lack of USB mass storage support on the iPhone.[1] It's the Address Book that some devs have used to pass data between apps.[2] [1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/02/apple-stanza-usb/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/02/apple-stanza-usb/ [2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/220630/how-to-share-custom-data-between-iphone-applications http://stackoverflow.com/questions/220630/how-to-share-custo...
    - Zev 16y ago
      Still wondering what apps uses that trick, and which ones have gotten rejected for trying to use it ;)
      - commandar 16y ago
        Well, it's pretty clear that Stanza (from my first link) got in hot water with Apple given they pulled the feature at Apple's behest. As for the address book thing, I can't name any specifics as I don't follow iOS overly closely; I just know it's a hack I've seen mentioned enough times that it seems to be fairly common knowledge that it can be done, just with the caveat that it's also against the rules.
      - hboon 16y ago
        TextExpander uses it for their SDK. Snippets you add in the TextExpander app is available to other apps which integrate with their SDK.
callahad 16y ago
When speaking of passing data between applications, I'm specifically thinking of the use cases enabled by Android's intent system. Applications can register their ability to respond to and fulfill certain interactions, and then the OS mediates between them. Say, for instance, you're in the Twitter app and click on a link. Instead of embedding a UIWebView, the application fires off a message saying it needs something to display a webpage. The OS then looks at the list of applications that can handle that intent and selects the best one available. If you only have one application that can fulfill that intent, it launches and renders the linked page. If you have multiple browsers, Android prompts you, with an option to remember your preference for that intent. Which means that I can click a link in Twitter and open it in Opera. Or Firefox. Or any third party browser. And then when I open a link in another application, my preferred browser still gets to handle it. The Twitter app doesn't get to own that experience in the same way that it can on iOS, since it's actually backgrounding itself and letting the other application fully handle the task. This also applies to getting directions, calling people, sending text messages, etc. The necessary data (an address, phone number, or message) is transparently shunted from the first app to the next. That dance greatly weakens the boundaries between applications, but enables some really great workflows. Similarly, say I'm looking at my photos and I want to share one with someone. I simply hit the "Share" button, and up pops everything that can handle working with an image. In my case: Bluetooth, Messaging (SMS), Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and Gmail. Even better, were I to get fed up with the official Twitter client and go install Seesmic, it'd also pop up in that list, automatically, and without any changes to the Photo Gallery itself. Say I install an FTP client. It'll also appear in that list. Google Goggles, too. Any image I can share, I can also send to Goggles for analysis. As far as I know, there's nothing like this on iOS, but I'd be happy to learn that I'm mistaken.
- 5teev 16y ago
  Not all applications embed a UIWebView, and many that do also offer opening in Safari as an option. There are also between-app communications like Twitter's "Save Draft to Birdhouse..." or sending addresses to the Maps application. Not as flexible as the workflows you describe in Android, to be sure, but in that data is being passed between its apps, I believe it was overly broad to describe iOS as focusing only on "bite-sized" and "self-contained" apps.

by 5teev 16y ago

bjelkeman-again 16y ago

You say "iPhone users tend not to know a whole lot about how the phone works deep inside, and whether by necessity or curiosity, Android users do." I don't think that is true. Most Android users have no idea how their phone works inside. They are not techies, they are just smartphone users. Most people have no idea what a computer does inside. Don't think that all Android users are techies because many on HN are.

commandar 16y ago
I probably know a dozen people in my circle of friends with Android phones at this point. Of those, maybe 3 would give you any more than a blank stare if you asked them what CDMA and GSM are. I'm the only one out of that group that has a rooted device. I think technically inclined people are more drawn to Android, but I don't think that anything close to the majority of Android's user base is technically inclined by a long shot.
5teev 16y ago
I don't mean hardcore, nuts and bolts stuff, just that they're more involved with managing how the operating system behaves. And I'm not saying this, I was inferring from Gruber, who notes how many task managers, etc., are the most popular apps.
- Locke1689 16y ago
  That's the worst kind of user, though. The "power user" is almost the bane of my existence as they do not truly understand anything yet think they understand everything. These are the same morons that dig into the Windows registry for "super speed optimizations" and end up blowing their installation to hell.

commandar 16y ago

Applications on iOS aren't allowed to touch storage outside of their own data store or the photo roll. Some developers used to backdoor around this by passing data via the photo roll, but Apple started denying app approval for this a while back.

Zev 16y ago
Some developers used to backdoor around this by passing data via the photo roll I've never heard of an app that did that. Can you name some?
- commandar 16y ago
  I got it slightly wrong, it seems. Devs were using the photo roll as a way around the lack of USB mass storage support on the iPhone.[1] It's the Address Book that some devs have used to pass data between apps.[2] [1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/02/apple-stanza-usb/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/02/apple-stanza-usb/ [2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/220630/how-to-share-custom-data-between-iphone-applications http://stackoverflow.com/questions/220630/how-to-share-custo...
  - Zev 16y ago
    Still wondering what apps uses that trick, and which ones have gotten rejected for trying to use it ;)
    - commandar 16y ago
      Well, it's pretty clear that Stanza (from my first link) got in hot water with Apple given they pulled the feature at Apple's behest. As for the address book thing, I can't name any specifics as I don't follow iOS overly closely; I just know it's a hack I've seen mentioned enough times that it seems to be fairly common knowledge that it can be done, just with the caveat that it's also against the rules.
    - hboon 16y ago
      TextExpander uses it for their SDK. Snippets you add in the TextExpander app is available to other apps which integrate with their SDK.

callahad 16y ago

When speaking of passing data between applications, I'm specifically thinking of the use cases enabled by Android's intent system. Applications can register their ability to respond to and fulfill certain interactions, and then the OS mediates between them. Say, for instance, you're in the Twitter app and click on a link. Instead of embedding a UIWebView, the application fires off a message saying it needs something to display a webpage. The OS then looks at the list of applications that can handle that intent and selects the best one available. If you only have one application that can fulfill that intent, it launches and renders the linked page. If you have multiple browsers, Android prompts you, with an option to remember your preference for that intent. Which means that I can click a link in Twitter and open it in Opera. Or Firefox. Or any third party browser. And then when I open a link in another application, my preferred browser still gets to handle it. The Twitter app doesn't get to own that experience in the same way that it can on iOS, since it's actually backgrounding itself and letting the other application fully handle the task. This also applies to getting directions, calling people, sending text messages, etc. The necessary data (an address, phone number, or message) is transparently shunted from the first app to the next. That dance greatly weakens the boundaries between applications, but enables some really great workflows. Similarly, say I'm looking at my photos and I want to share one with someone. I simply hit the "Share" button, and up pops everything that can handle working with an image. In my case: Bluetooth, Messaging (SMS), Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and Gmail. Even better, were I to get fed up with the official Twitter client and go install Seesmic, it'd also pop up in that list, automatically, and without any changes to the Photo Gallery itself. Say I install an FTP client. It'll also appear in that list. Google Goggles, too. Any image I can share, I can also send to Goggles for analysis. As far as I know, there's nothing like this on iOS, but I'd be happy to learn that I'm mistaken.

5teev 16y ago
Not all applications embed a UIWebView, and many that do also offer opening in Safari as an option. There are also between-app communications like Twitter's "Save Draft to Birdhouse..." or sending addresses to the Maps application. Not as flexible as the workflows you describe in Android, to be sure, but in that data is being passed between its apps, I believe it was overly broad to describe iOS as focusing only on "bite-sized" and "self-contained" apps.