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You're almost certainly right that iOS devices probably aren't going to get a hardware back button, but I disagree with you on the usefulness of hw back buttons

You're almost certainly right that iOS devices probably aren't going to get a hardware back button, but I disagree with you on the usefulness of hw back buttons. Generally, if I come to an activity from another app, it's to do one specific thing and then I want to go back to the original app. There are certainly cases when I want to stay in the app I got sent to and then hit back and find myself in the original app. The path then to the app I want is the same as always: home button, app shortcut. Conversely, on iOS, what happens when I get sent to a different app and then want to go back to the original app? Home button, app shortcut. In my experience, the android way addresses the more common scenario. Also, there are builds of android (HTC's Sense UI, I believe) that do have notifications on the lock screen. Not only that, but the lock screen is configurable, so you can add shortcuts that, when you drag them to the unlock field, take you directly to the app. This is a neat feature that I hope eventually makes it into android proper. EDIT: Hm, this is factual and fairly uncontroversial. I suppose getting downvoted sometimes is just an inevitable consequence of participating in any dicussion involving iOS and Android? Oh well.

wzdd 15y ago
> [on iOS] what happens when I get sent to a different app and then want to go back to the original app? The answer is that this (switching apps) happens far less frequently on iOS compared with Android. In Android, the intent system (and back button) make it very easy to switch between apps. On iOS, apps use APIs instead. Integrated Web views rather than opening a browser. Mail API rather than switching to the mail client. This keynote we just saw that Apple has done this again, adding a Twitter API to iOS 5. It's quite an interesting and significant difference between the two mobile operating systems. Android's approach encourages openness, Apple's approach gives them complete control over the UX. Neither is inherently bad.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  That's a good observation, but I would submit that the reason iOS apps use web views instead of opening the browser is exactly because of a lack of a good way to get back to the originating app. App developers naturally don't want to sent people away from their app with no easy/clear way to get back. The addition of the Tweet API is another way to address a symptom of the underlying problem of not having a way back. It is an interesting and significant difference, and I think the flexibility of Android's system is one of its great strengths. It's always been able to do what the Tweet API does, more flexibly, because app developers can just send focus to the user's preferred twitter client instead of having to write in the twitter functions they want, and don't need new functionality built in to the OS. Certainly it requires a bit more sophisticated user (not that iOS users are dumb, just that you have to understand what's happening, and it could very easily be confusing to a naive (non-pejorative sense) user), but it's really a joy to use. EDIT: I know I shouldn't care, but the systematic downvoting is really starting to get to me.
  - _djo_ 15y ago
    Give it time. Most knee-jerk early down-voting on HN tends to get corrected over the next hour or two. It's annoying when one or two people unfairly down-vote a comment, but at least the system usually self-corrects.Once a thread is a few hours old I seldom see comments down-voted into grey oblivion that didn't obviously deserve to be there.

wzdd 15y ago

> [on iOS] what happens when I get sent to a different app and then want to go back to the original app? The answer is that this (switching apps) happens far less frequently on iOS compared with Android. In Android, the intent system (and back button) make it very easy to switch between apps. On iOS, apps use APIs instead. Integrated Web views rather than opening a browser. Mail API rather than switching to the mail client. This keynote we just saw that Apple has done this again, adding a Twitter API to iOS 5. It's quite an interesting and significant difference between the two mobile operating systems. Android's approach encourages openness, Apple's approach gives them complete control over the UX. Neither is inherently bad.

joebadmo 15y ago
That's a good observation, but I would submit that the reason iOS apps use web views instead of opening the browser is exactly because of a lack of a good way to get back to the originating app. App developers naturally don't want to sent people away from their app with no easy/clear way to get back. The addition of the Tweet API is another way to address a symptom of the underlying problem of not having a way back. It is an interesting and significant difference, and I think the flexibility of Android's system is one of its great strengths. It's always been able to do what the Tweet API does, more flexibly, because app developers can just send focus to the user's preferred twitter client instead of having to write in the twitter functions they want, and don't need new functionality built in to the OS. Certainly it requires a bit more sophisticated user (not that iOS users are dumb, just that you have to understand what's happening, and it could very easily be confusing to a naive (non-pejorative sense) user), but it's really a joy to use. EDIT: I know I shouldn't care, but the systematic downvoting is really starting to get to me.
- _djo_ 15y ago
  Give it time. Most knee-jerk early down-voting on HN tends to get corrected over the next hour or two. It's annoying when one or two people unfairly down-vote a comment, but at least the system usually self-corrects.Once a thread is a few hours old I seldom see comments down-voted into grey oblivion that didn't obviously deserve to be there.