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IOS 6: Higher Hanging Fruit
- drewblaisdell 14y agoThere is no way that Apple is going to add any sort of direct file access into iOS 6. This would completely undermine the work that they have done to get rid of the metaphor. That said, there is certainly a problem with how files interact with iOS, mainly when it comes to email. Bridging the gap between the non-mobile file world and the pseudo-fileless iOS is going to be tricky.
- 2muchcoffeeman 14y agoUsually, if I want to share pictures or whatever, I am in the application that makes it easiest to navigate or search the content I want to send. Then I tap the share button. In fact I do a similar thing in Mac OSX. The iOS email client has only annoyed me a few times. What they need is something like Intents on Android or maybe something like Services on Mac OS X.
- geon 14y agoIt wouldn't be direct file access, but document access. My vision for that is an API to expose documents in my app, and letting other apps open my editor in a fullscreen dialog, just like the email composer dialog. The iOS today is very app-centric, and this would make it more document-centric.
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoCould you explain what is the matter with the filesystem metaphor?
- ZenPsycho 14y agoIt is too complicated and abstract for ordinary people to understand, and it is spiced with a sense of inherent danger since critical system files cannot be modified without doing significant damage to the system- system files that are right there along your ordinary user files which are impossible to find unless you can remember what you named it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago> It is too complicated and abstract for ordinary people to understand Evidence? > spiced with a sense of inherent danger since critical system files cannot be modified without doing significant damage to the system- system files that are right there along your ordinary user files Not on any operating system released in nearly 10 years. > impossible to find unless you can remember what you named it. UX is a problem, but eliminating files just creates other, in my opinion much worse problems, namely that all "files" or "documents" are tied to one specific application.
- ZenPsycho 14y agoThe evidence for the file system problem can be found in pretty much any book about user interfaces, but I have already linked to one in the post you are replying to. But aside from any arbitrary book on the subject, the evidence is not hard to find. All you really have to do is watch a computer novice try to use a computer for any length of time. I don't know what operating systems you are using, but My mac with the latest operating system still has a multiple "library" folders and a "system" folder. I presume windows 7 still has a windows folder, a program files folder, and documents and settings folders. Any unix type system has /usr /bin /var /etc . These things are so apparently ingrained it appears you are incapable of perceiving them. as for your third point, this is what is called the fallacy of the false dichotomy or false dilemma. The solution for this is that there's more than just the 2 options you are imagining.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago> I don't know what operating systems you are using, but My mac with the latest operating system still has a multiple "library" folders and a "system" folder. I presume windows 7 still has a windows folder, a program files folder, and documents and settings folders. Any unix type system has /usr /bin /var /etc . These things are so apparently ingrained it appears you are incapable of perceiving them. Those operating systems do separate user and system files with different permissions. Some even default to putting user files on a separate partition. > as for your third point, this is what is called the fallacy of the false dichotomy or false dilemma. The solution for this is that there's more than just the 2 options you are imagining. Please enlighten me.
- __float 14y agoThis seems to be quite a comprehensive collection of features yet to be found in iOS while still remaining well thought out. Adding some of these features surely would be silly, but as iOS reaches a higher level of maturity, it'll certainly be interesting to see what Apple comes up with. Windows 8 Contracts-like inter-app communication would seem to be the greatest feature users would love without even realizing its existence. It's a shame Apple (with OS X as well) loves to keep sandboxed apps so isolated. Launching Safari to open a URL for a specific app the user may not own is quite unfortunate.
- twoodfin 14y agoAn Exposé-style task switcher would be excellent, particularly on the iPad.
- k-mcgrady 14y agoThat would be nice. They could combine it with the iPad advanced gestures. Pinching your hand currently closes and app and does nothing on the home screen. How about making that zoom out to an exposé view?
- te_chris 14y agoBetter inter-app communication a la intents on android would be great.
- timspeaking 14y agoYes - this is probably the one major thing that keeps me on Android. Easy sharing between apps.
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoIt's poorly implemented on Android. I have 5 browsers installed and when in any particular app I might click a link and it will ask me which browser I want to use to open it!
- jsz0 14y agoFor iOS6 multi-tasking on the 5th generation iPhone, if the rumors of a ~170 pixel taller display are true, I would like to see a persistent dock mode when you activate the multi-tasking switcher. So basically you double-home-tap and the app resizes down ~170 pixels and the dock appears. The dock stays on the bottom of the screen as you switch between applications and use them. When you're done with your little flurry of heavy multi-tasking you double-home-tap to hide the dock again. This should also work nicely on an iPad sized display. For the ways I multi-task on iOS this would be almost a perfect system. Most of the time I'm jumping into another app for a very brief stay -- just long enough to copy something, reference something, or act on an event, then I'm returning to whatever I was doing. On the iPhone this presently requires a ridiculous number of home button taps. On the iPad using the multi-touch gestures require a lot of swiping. The Mission Control style switching this article suggests would be OK but I feel like it would still require a lot of extra taps and swipes.
- twodayslate 14y agoI really don't think Apple is going to change the screen size of the iPhone. They have their designs down to a science. http://dcurt.is/2011/10/03/3-point-5-inches/ http://dcurt.is/2011/10/03/3-point-5-inches/
- tomflack 14y agoThis flies in the face of the extremely believable leaked photographs of the last week. http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/29/3049874/new-iphone-backplate-photo-rumors-dock-connector-widescreen http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/29/3049874/new-iphone-backpla...
- twodayslate 14y agoWhat I want, and what would convince me to not jailbreak, is quick reply. The iPhone is powerful enough to handle the extra processing and it makes life a whole lot easier.
- user23409 14y agoA computer. What you want is a more general computer. There's nothing wrong with that, just saying.
- tomflack 14y agoWhile we're playing the speculation game... The ability to arrange home screens in shapes other than grids The Windows 8 Consumer Preview has shown me that the merits of arranging app icons in shapes are numerous. It's easier to find things. Likelihood: Low Sync galleries between devices via iCloud I love the Photo Stream. Photos I take on my phone show up on my iPad and I can select the good ones to make galleries from... fantastic! Only downside is those galleries don't sync back to my phone, so when I want to show a friend on my phone the sweet gallery of photos from Friday night's party I can't. Likelihood: Medium Sync notifications between devices via iCloud If I look at twitter on my phone, when I look at my tablet four hours later the same @mention notifications shouldn't be waiting for me. Ditto to every other app I use on both devices. Likelihood: Medium-low Gratis turn-by-turn navigation Android does it, Nokia Windows Phones do it. iPhone should do it. Perhaps I'm just a cheapskate or perhaps navigation has been devalued so much by Google Maps' ubiquity but I don't want to pay for an app in the app store to do this. Apple bought a mapping company a while back - let's see something happen with it! Likelihood: ????
- chrisbroadfoot 14y agoApple actually bought three mapping companies :)
- peterkelly 14y ago+1000 for direct file access. Apart from this, I personally find iOS to be an almost perfect platform. But this single omission IMHO cripples it immensely - especially for content creation tasks.
- rimantas 14y agoYou will never get that from Apple. What's more, you will lose that in OSes from others. Why? Because file system is not a solution, it's a problem. "Normal people" don't think in terms of file system, they think about their documents, spreadsheets, photos and movies. Cooper and others wrote about that years ago.
- iamgilesbowkett 14y agoI loved this part: "What iOS could take from BlackBerry" iOS already took BlackBerry's entire market. Isn't it kind of cruel to be looking for even more things to take?
- cageface 14y agoI think the major mobile operating systems are rapidly approaching maturity. I don't expect any radical changes in Android, iOS or WP at this point. iOS in particular hardly looks different than what Steve demoed in 2007. This is also why I think Android's upgrade problem may not turn out to be so important in practice. Even if the carriers utterly fail to roll out OS upgrades, the 2-3 year device churn cycle will eventually get new versions in play and ICS has fixed most of the glaring problems with the OS and is "good enough". Once Google makes major components like the browser upgradable as apps it won't be that important to rev the base OS.
- dafunnie 14y agoI feel like some of these suggestions would defeat Apple's minimality. Amalgamating Windows and Android's complex features with Apple would completely damage the benefits of iOS. Stripping things like personalization, information display and unnecessary configuration options is what makes Apple what it is. If you want/require Windows and Android's tech customizability, you wouldn't own an Apple device. If Apple implemented those features, it would be like Facebook reverting to MySpace's overabundance of ugly profiles and teenboppy usernames.
- slantyyz 14y agoMy biggest beef is a low hanging fruit issue. I can't get any reliable voice dialing recognition (I'm using Voice Control but I haven't had any better luck with Siri on my wife's phone) - it would be nice if you could limit voice dialing to your favorite contacts as opposed to your entire address book.
- X-Istence 14y agoYou can add nicknames for your contacts which will be used by Siri. I've never had Siri dial the wrong number when I have asked the device to call someone...
- credo 14y agoMy wish is that Apple adds paid upgrades for apps in the app store. I'm now close to releasing a major upgrade for an iPhone app, but these upgrades aren't going to be sustainable for me without paid upgrades (I don't want the new features to be IAP features) In the long run, this will also benefit customers because paid-upgrades will help developers add more features to the app. Users who want the new features can pay for the upgrade. Users who don't want to pay more can stick with the older version of the app (and hopefully the app store will make it possible for users to re-install older versions of the app).
- duiker101 14y agoLet's suppose you app uses an API, or whatever other thing that you do not have control over it. You make your app and release it. Then you make a paid upgrade. After some time, that thing your app rely on gets deprecated or changes. If you push an update to only people with the a paid upgrade you screw those who have not paid, leaving them with an non working app that they might have paid for. which sucks. But if you push a free update for everyone you will screw those who paid for the upgrade. which sucks. So, what would you do?
- glogla 14y agoAnd if you are unscrupulous, planned obsolesce combines with paid upgrades really well.
- acdha 14y agoAlternate strawman: you do not use paid upgrades and at some point stop making enough money to continue developing and supporting the app and the API. All of your users are screwed , too. It's easy to envision hypothetical situations and they're all already possible, leaving customers stuck having to gauge how serious a company is and how sustainable their business model will be. Paid upgrades don't change this situation but do offer a currently blocked way for developers to make apps with a long-term plan
- dmix 14y agoCan you release a version 2 separately?
- cpeterso 14y agoI would love to see a Swype-like keyboard. I'm surprised that Apple didn't acquire Swype. The user experience is fluid and iOS-like. Apple could use Swype's patents to keep the keyboard as a unique selling point for iOS.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- X-Istence 14y agoWhen you start a search it should search the server as well, it doesn't just search the emails it has stored locally. I have over 15 GB's of email and the iPhone uses server side searching and finds emails back to 2002 with ease. And I am pretty damn sure those are not local on the device.
- tferris 14y agoMajor flaw on all platforms: switching apps is cumbersome and slow We need ALT TAB on phones
- PidGin128 14y agoBlackberry Pearl 8130. OS 4.5. Right side convenience key assignment? "Application switcher". Works exactly like desktop Alt-Tab. Not that this one random four year old example proves you wrong. It's just the experience I can share. (Here's a screenshot that I found from elsewhere: http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd504/Kirkx1/utf-8BU25hcFNjcmVlbjEuanBn.jpg http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd504/Kirkx1/utf-8BU25hc... )
- eco 14y agoWorks fairly well on Android in Ice Cream Sandwich I feel. You click the dedicated button and just tap your app's thumbnail from the list. Two taps with maybe some sliding if you have a lot of apps open and want to go to one you weren't using recently seems nearly as simple as you could make it.
- ZenPsycho 14y agofour finger swipe left and right not good enough?
- solnyshok 14y agogoogle "swipe nokia n9"
- elsurudo 14y agoAlmost all of these will never happen, since they are against Apple's philosophy. They've tried to simplify things (which makes sense for a small device), and get rid of old metaphors (files). All most of these things do is clutter things up for the average user.
- mrich 14y agoI agree, I think this will also be the reason why iOS popularity will fade over time. Either they adapt and make their OS more powerful, or people will move to alternatives that let them do more quicker. Simplification was a good selling point but features will become important again as smartphones become the central window to computing .
- mrich 14y agoIt is good to see an unbiased article admitting that iOS can learn from other platforms.
- dorian-graph 14y agoCan anyone think of cases where some blog post has been listened to by Google/Microsoft/Apple about what they, apparently, should do?
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoIt's pretty amazing that the things WebOS got right from the beginning - cards, synergy, and notifications - are still way better than what other phones are providing.
- alper 14y agoI am amazed at how every single one idea in there is either stupid from the onset or the concept given is executed in an absolutely braindead way. Just one: direct file access. The best thing Apple did for the learning curve of computing is destroy the concept of files for the casual user. The restrictions are put on the designer who has to figure out a creative way to enable task fulfillment within those restrictions. That is not a file picker (with Folders no less). The most important enhancement is not even on the list: an iPad with several hundred apps is totally unwieldable. That should be fixed.
- christiangenco 14y agoWhat's the solution to mobile file system management, then? Android has a lot going for it with its plug-and-play-esque filesystems: installed Dropbox? Now every app that uses the File API can save/load files from your Dropbox. On iOS each developer has to specifically implement each file service in each app - that's not the future.
- ZenPsycho 14y agono file system management. Or, put another way "We've invented this thing called an automobile" - "I don't get it, where do I attach my horses?"
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoSo how do I open files made in app A in B?
- ZenPsycho 14y agoI know right, where's the hitch? Where DO I attach my horses?
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoAre you suggesting that there is no need to have open file formats? No need to use more than 1 app on a single file?
- gurkendoktor 14y agoI see why someone with 250+ unread mails would also care about information density. I cringed all the way through the article, it screams information addiction throughout. Not everything that a device can possibly display (or scream in the form of a notification) should be crammed into the OS just because it's possible and thus still "missing". I'm considering a Jailbreak to turn off Notification Center and Spotlight and other stuff I don't use, but can't be disabled. Simplifying iOS is a high-hanging fruit. Or outdoing Google at maps. Or outdoing Dropbox at cloud services. Or outdoing amazon at books. Or taking some of the painful burden off iTunes.app.
- dr_ 14y agobut the features pointed out in this article have not attained widespread use, and who knows - maybe there's a reason for that. Windows phone has a negligibly small market share. WebOS died. Blackberry 10 is not even out yet. And apparently the newest Android OS is also on very few phones.http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/6/2/3058522/android-4-0-now-on-7-1-percent-of-devices-still-woefully-behind http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/6/2/3058522/android-4-0-now-... The features that iOS has allowed are in widespread use once they are implemented. This is just an observation but perhaps there's a reason Apple prefers a controlled roll out of new features.
- headShrinker 14y agoApple is or at least under Jobs, was very clear about not adding function that would consequently disrupt form or usability. Many of the features listed as suggestions for the iOS are present in other OSs. It's these 'features' that motivated me to move back to the iPhone. Here is an example: The current rumor is Apple will introduce a larger (~170 px taller) screen. With larger screens (or taller) when you are using one hand (which most seem to want to do), as you reach your thumb to the far side of the screen your thumb muscle makes contact with the touch surface, causing inadvertent input. One-handed operation with newer devices such as the GS2 are very difficult. Also the sheer size of some of these newer "handhelds" is a bit too big for my hand (which is average to large size) requiring me to use two hands. It's little details like this that the OP and iPhone competitors seem to miss. Does the screen need to be bigger, and at what cost? If the cost is usability or adding clutter to the UI, then it will likely not make it in to the iPhone 5. Mobile devices are good for somethings but are not meant to replace full computers.