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Disagree. Fancy features are awesome for "normies". iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you sn

by na85 4y ago

Disagree. Fancy features are awesome for "normies". iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you snap the photo it offers you a crop and transform tool, and does a little image recognition to assist you and make the edges of the crop tool snap to the page within the photo. I've found that feature immensely useful in a professional context and (it was a company device) when I gave the phone back I seriously considered switching away from Android for my personal phone. Little things like that, baked into the OS, make for a really awesome UX.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally?
- joshgachnang 4y ago
  I've only used this in the Files app, which makes sense because you're making files. I'm not sure if it exists in the camera app as well.
  - Wowfunhappy 4y ago
    This to me is actually a problem with how iOS works versus traditional desktops. Almost everything you create is a file, so you could justify putting almost any feature in the files app. The files app should be exclusively for listing/moving/copying files. Files themselves should be created by and opened with different apps. This isn't to say apps shouldn't be able to talk to the files app. On macOS, for example, apps can install QuickLook plugins.
- na85 4y ago
  > Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally? It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least. Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
  - Wowfunhappy 4y ago
    > It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least. That's great if I'm sending an email, but what if I want to upload the documents to a website, or send them via iMessage, or Airdrop them to another Apple device, or print out the scan to effectively make a second paper copy? Do you add the icon to each of these interfaces, taking up screen real estate and adding mental load? (One new icon is never a problem, but do it 30 times and you'll be in a bad spot.) IMO, Apple's strategy significantly railroads users, while making interfaces ever-more complicated. > Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect. Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D I really don't think we should be making UI decisions based on this.
    - na85 4y ago
      >Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D I'm not really an "Apple Guy" so it's not clear to me what you are referring to.
      - Wowfunhappy 4y ago
        Over the course of more than a decade, Apple kept adding features to iTunes until the app become horribly slow, confusing, and buggy. Just about everyone hated it. When Apple finally killed the Mac version of iTunes on stage at WWDC, they basically admitted that they'd tried to cram in too much functionality, by joking that they were considering a Calendar and Web Browser.

by na85 4y ago

Wowfunhappy 4y ago

Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally?

joshgachnang 4y ago
I've only used this in the Files app, which makes sense because you're making files. I'm not sure if it exists in the camera app as well.
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  This to me is actually a problem with how iOS works versus traditional desktops. Almost everything you create is a file, so you could justify putting almost any feature in the files app. The files app should be exclusively for listing/moving/copying files. Files themselves should be created by and opened with different apps. This isn't to say apps shouldn't be able to talk to the files app. On macOS, for example, apps can install QuickLook plugins.
na85 4y ago
> Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally? It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least. Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  > It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least. That's great if I'm sending an email, but what if I want to upload the documents to a website, or send them via iMessage, or Airdrop them to another Apple device, or print out the scan to effectively make a second paper copy? Do you add the icon to each of these interfaces, taking up screen real estate and adding mental load? (One new icon is never a problem, but do it 30 times and you'll be in a bad spot.) IMO, Apple's strategy significantly railroads users, while making interfaces ever-more complicated. > Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect. Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D I really don't think we should be making UI decisions based on this.
  - na85 4y ago
    >Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D I'm not really an "Apple Guy" so it's not clear to me what you are referring to.
    - Wowfunhappy 4y ago
      Over the course of more than a decade, Apple kept adding features to iTunes until the app become horribly slow, confusing, and buggy. Just about everyone hated it. When Apple finally killed the Mac version of iTunes on stage at WWDC, they basically admitted that they'd tried to cram in too much functionality, by joking that they were considering a Calendar and Web Browser.