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What Features Does iOS 7 Need?
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple's iOS 7, which is heavily rumored to make its debut at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, will almost certainly feature a totally redesigned interface. According to recent rumors (including a few key postings on the Apple-centric blog 9 to 5 Mac), the OS will stand as a shining example of "flat" design, which eliminates "real world" elements such as texture and shading in favor of stripped-down, basic shapes. That means certain iOS environments such as Game Center (with its casino-like green felt) and Newsstand (with its wooden shelving) could soon look completely different. But what about iOS 7's actual features? What could Apple change that would improve the operating system's chances against the increasingly sophisticated Google Android, not to mention the new-and-improved BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8? What would you do to iOS with Apple's full resources at your disposal?"
the OS will stand as a shining example of "flat" design, which eliminates "real world" elements such as texture and shading in favor of stripped-down, basic shapes
Something different instead of the simple outdated icon grid on the home pages. Whether it be a form of widget or something completely different is up to Apple.
This is double as strong when it comes to the iPad. I remember when they launched the device they were encouraging developers to use then larger canvas instead of just making big iPhone apps. They have still not done this themselves.
wouldn't need to be listening about bitching about changing the default look then.
other stuff: start adding resolution and density independent ui elements. you know, so that you wouldn't be so fucked as apple is with osx.
dedicated multitasking drawer+button.
block notifications from this app button to every notification sent through the apple system.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I want to be able to choose Chrome as my browser instead of Safari.
I want 1password to be able to hook in to it.
I want apps to open new links in Chrome instead of their own embedded browser.
WebRTC support
Save MP3s in to iTunes
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
OS:
- real push notifications (no connection) a la BB
- real bluetooth support
- sound multiplexing
- multi-user support a la Nexus 7
Shell:
- themes
- screensaver
- background download/upload without 'location services':o
- exif info in gallery
- realtime-thumbs task manager
Politics:
- JS JIT in apps
- support for other browsers
are not the features, but the idea that Apple wants to control everything.
If they change that, i will reconsider. However, since i bough quite some Apps for Android, and Android emulation would be nice
I might be a terrorist, after all.
see title. nothing would make my gaming experience better then a standard joypad support in the os. and them actually supporting keyup/keydown so i can map keyboard keys to button presses.
It needs: TOR, full disk/device encryption, PGP for email as standard and the "iCloud" repository fully encrypted and opaque to apple unless YOU specifically tell them it's ok for each app/service.
I want the iPhone to be primarily mine by default, and allow Apple to provide options I can opt into, rather than primarily Apple's and I need to jailbreak it to opt out of things.
Freedom
Like the were drawn with a mechanical pencil
A VR desktop, something like oculus rift and leap motion combined. It also needs to display the keyboard in the virtual world and show where the fingers are.
Also the UX needs to be in 3D, so to operate a slider you have to move your hand forward for example, windows should be replaced with cubes, with the controls to maximize, minimize, force quit on the outside of the cube and the app is contained inside of that cube, the interface should look a bit like what tony stark sees in his ironman suit. The interface could obviously be designed to only be see from a single perspective, but if a control is on the z-axis it has to be operated on that axis be the user.
It's not going to happen, but a single checkbox in the settings would do:
[ ] Allow installation of apps from unknown sources
What Apple needs is themes. The default looks are rather blah already and now it will be more so? Nunn
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Sounds like he's saying iOS should look a whole lot more like Android. Well, sounds like they already copied Android's and Windows' flat themes.
We have a big mix of Wintels, iDevices and Androids at home & work.
They're all pretty good at doing what we need.
The iDevices, however, stand out for being harder to get things onto and off.
And don't get me started on iTunes, especially when running on a non-Mac.
Sure there are alternatives, and apps like SugarSync and Evernote ease the pain, but why make it hard when a USP of Apple is supposed to be the user-friendliness?
Still, as I said, never going to happen...looks like they're going to focus on the cosmetics, rather than listening to their customers. Shades of Windows 8?
Final thought: Why don't they just take the top-selling and/or free apps, for both 'geek/power user' and 'normal consumer' and bake 'em into the OS? They've got the cash...
Apple didn't become the largest company by playing catch up to the competitors. I wouldn't change "features" in iOS. I'd change the paradigm in which iOS runs.
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
Two words: Self Destruct
Possibly a large enough explosion that makes an apple shaped mark on the device owner, so I know who to avoid talking to.
If you take a pic with the camera you can immediately post to twitter aaaaaaaaand, that's about it. On Android I have something like 20 options directly from the camera (twitter, facebook, dropbox, etc....)
Or at least a "guest" mode, so that an iPad can be shared among parents and kids.
Central filesystem so apps can share data in a simple manner.
That would break simplicity.
The current solutions for importing/exporting files from Apple applications don't really qualify as "simple". Ever tried to share a file via iTunes or WebDAV? Having a filesystem that didn't raise its head until you chose 'share' wouldn't break simplicity - or maybe providing a standard API that let apps share through DropBox, Google Drive etc. (Flap, oink!)
I tried iCloud but it insists on moving everything off your iOS device into the cloud. If I wanted to do that I'd use Google Docs so I could share things with non-Mac users!
Allow printing to any fucking printer.
It can do printing, but only with printers that follow the spec. Printers that don't work requires extra drivers, that we shouldn't need in the first place anyway.
No, but there's no reason why Airprint can't work with any shared printer on your Mac. When AirPrint was first announced Apple were going to support this - then they signed an exclusive with HP and disappeared the feature. There's third-party software to do this (e.g. Printopia). At one point, I found instructions for adding the appropriate zeroconf and CUPS settings to my Linux box so I could print to it (but a later iOS update borked that).
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Perhaps what it really needs is a "NSA Prism" icon
I would love to be able to lock down the volume so my autistic son, who lives on the iPad, doesn't max out the volume on everything he does.
Apple made their mark controlling and simplifying the user experience to achieve broad market appeal. /.ers will inevitably want them to go the other direction and load up the feature set, as all engineers will. Without Jobs, the engineers will get the upper hand and the feature set will expand, thus losing their broad appeal. Unless someone else comes along who can stand up to the engineers, Apple is toast.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
PAH-LEEZE ... doing the flat look is more like changing the skin, not a total redesign.
As for any features add, changed, or modified ... well that is anyone's guess until Apple says so. Anything else is speculation and a blatant attempt to boost advertising revenue by driving clicks/impressions.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
Makes sense that a program called "iTunes" would deal with sharing files and getting apps.
Citizen, thank you for your input, USTASI welcomes feedback like yours for double plus good safety.
Feel safe citizen.
Yours observantly,
Senator Dianne Feinstein
USTASI, the "United States, True American, Surveillance Initiative"
We value your privacy.
I want to be able to tell iOS to a) only check for app updates on a schedule I specify and b) individually opt in or out of an update for a specific app. At an absolute minimum I would settle for the ability to turn off the icon badge for the App Store. I'm ticked off with the constant barrage of updates, the badgering of the badging bugs me.
This is the big thing. Whatever features are added, just make they damn well work. Almost two years to fix the damn podcast app is two years too many.
21st Century Renaissance Man
How widgets are displayed in Android varies with the launcher you're using. I suspect you might have seem a Samsung launcher or something as the stock one is done quite nicely, as are most of the other ones I've seen.
I want to be able to select which app opens things by default. If I want a new mail app, then I want all mail links to open in it. If I want a new browser, then I want all hyperlinks to open in it. If I want to change the default maps app to Google, then I want all directions opened in that. Etc.
So it supports double sided printing, perforations, multiple paper bins etc?
Thanks for pointing that out. I had not yet discovered it myself. (My GF has an ipad provided from her work.)
That is a really non-intuitive processes designed to prevent users from actually doing what they want. Why can't we just drag and drop from a folder like every other GUI? (including OSX)
I totally agree with GP. If Apple wants to improve the IOS experience they should get rid of the propriety crap and provide easy ways for people to use their devices as they want.
I think it is very important that they provide a way to allow some background processing to any app, it is plain stupid that you receive notifications and the content is not there after opening the app, that messages don't get sent because you minimized the app or that you can't minimize a web page / app while something is being loaded. Mainly because of this my iphone 5 feels like crap compared to my old Galaxy SII. Also: - Let people decide the snooze time... the fixed 9 minutes is weird. Turning off the vibration of the alarm would be good also. - How about providing a decent way to share photos between devices, and apple fans please... email or whatsapp is not a decent way. With decent I mean not having to use a cable and without a third party app. - Save files to your phone and download them later. - Share needs to be extended as in android, twitter + facebook is too limited, I would like to see whatsapp there or even better let the apps ask for permission to appear in the share menu.
No, but there's no reason why Airprint can't work with any shared printer on your Mac. When AirPrint was first announced Apple were going to support this - then they signed an exclusive with HP and disappeared the feature. There's third-party software to do this (e.g. Printopia). At one point, I found instructions for adding the appropriate zeroconf and CUPS settings to my Linux box so I could print to it (but a later iOS update borked that).
On a Mac, handyPrint works wonderfully. I have a networked HP laserjet that predates AirPrint. It's set up as a shared printer on my Mac, and then handyPrint adds the appropriate Bonjour advertising and any other necessary tidbits. Printing from my and my wife's iPhones and iPads works great. I have no connection to the company, just a very satisifed user.
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
May sound silly, but if it supported a bluetooth mouse (I do not jailbreak but know I could and get this) I could use it much more effectively in two ways - easier to select text for copy/paste type operations, and when connected via RDP or VNC to another box I could have the full experience of that box. I would still use my iPad 90% of the time for browsing, email, etc. But if it had this and I added a BT keyboard it would get a lot more use.
no comment
sshfs.
It'd be great if Android provided that, too.
All apps should run on all devices OS agnostic. AppleTV, iOS, MacOS, Classic (PPC/68K/Intel), Windows, DOS, CPM, Unix. With rare exceptions everything should run. The computing power to do the emulation is there on even the lowliest Apple device.
Likewise we should be able to access and manipulate our data sets in our applications on any device.
You mean like Marlin, Konqueror, Nautilus, or Dolphin are obvious file managers?
I'm sure the word of an Anonymous Coward making a purchase based of significant changes would be honoured, said no corporation ever.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
That would cause iOS to lose it's Apple identity.
it is about time to enable WebGL in the browser. WebGL runs fine in Safari on Macs and iOS Safari but is currently only enabled in mobile safari for iAds. In other words, it does work but is only enabled for the kinds of things that I need the least, i.e., ads.
run 3rd party software like android
It should be able to read your thoughts and transmit them to Apple every time you have a new idea, so that Apple can instantly create a new patent application and claim that they invented the idea. This would solve the problem of people being able to steal Apple's inventions before they have a chance to secure a patent on it. The API should be called something like 6. (Not sure if those will show properly, but there should be a superscript th and the c used for cents. Obvious play on 6th sense)
I agree, workflow on the iPad is tough because of the security model where apps can't get into each others files. While this keeps down malware, it makes uploading files, creating digital portfolios, and sharing between apps nearly impossible without the use of computer or cloud service. Hopefully Apple has a plan for it's new shiny giant green data centers other than serving iTunes apps and running flaky near useless iCloud service.
Improving workflow on the iPad would be on the top of my list, I can live with the UI as-is.
Some other interesting features might be allowing wireless devices communicate with each other to share and collaborate. The 8 iPad - Jam session for Garageband is a good start but we need more than just "more cowbell".
I know the marketing Apple marketing droids don't want the iPad to be a laptop since it would cannibalize MacBook Air sales, but I say forget it and let the iPad morph into a better platform.
if i want to muck up my phone with crap thats on me. I dont want apple pretending to be my dad and im 4 years old "now hold my hand as we cross the road."
I don't know any logical reason why you would want to "muck up" your phone with crap. Apple's policies have nothing to do with you specifically. They're in place because the vast majority (well into the 90% range) of people who use an iPhone (or Android for that matter) are very ill equipped to keep their phones free of malware. Most people really just want their phone to work and don't want to deal with a repeat of the malware removal software (ala Norton Antivirus) on their phones as well as their PCs.
If you want a phone with less hand holding, there are some options out there. No one will be offended if you choose something other than an iPhone.
Ogg vorbis support is needed to be supported a lot better then it is now. Currently if you want to play Vorbis music files you have to transfer the files manually to your iDevice and use a different music player that supports the format. However, I doubt the chances of this happening may unfortunately be slim to none. Ogg vorbis IMHO is a much better format then AAC but god forbid Apple supporting it on the devices and in iTunes.
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
What about Finder? I think that would have been a good choice for sharing files and getting apps.
1) Need Siri to respond intelligently to time-based queries - "Show me nearby currently open hair salons"
2) Voice Translation in Siri - "English and Korean translation mode. You are so beautiful!"
3) Ability to replace default utilities - i.e. replace safari with Crome.
Interesting... Requirement to enable promiscuous printers... I wonder what the detection algorithm would look like... And the multiple attach printing algorithm might be interesting to.
iOS 7 should let the device act as normal flash storage. This is a crippling weakness in Apple's current devices and traces all the way back to the Newton's custom filesystem in the 90s. Seamless printing, especially with all the wireless printers around, is a no-brainer.
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
iTunes as a method to manage things is a joke. App organization is particularly weak.
Buying apps through iTunes is silly: why not use the web? At the very least the browser built into iTunes should be made more robust. You should be able to do browsery things like change the font size, bookmark, etc.
Photo syncing is a mess. In fact the whole backup/sync distinction is too confusing.
The find file function lets you launch an app, but doesn't tell you where the app lives.
USB hubs should be supported so that more than one thing can be connected to an iOS device.
I could go on, but it might seem like I'm ranting.
I would love it if I could leave my phone unlocked, but with an option to lock the few particular Apple applications where I care about others' access - especially Apple's email, but maybe also the phone, calendar, etc.
Yes, of course I'd like to see it more open, etc. But I take it we're discussing realistic options here.
Seriously, this is like the worst of the military command structure, where every time a new commander steps in they have to change everything around just to pad their package.
It doesn't need to be "flat". Doing that says that the height of design style was AOL in 1997.
Ives, stop being an ego-maniacal clown and try introducing some real design improvements.
--- Void where prohibited. Your mileage may vary. ---
Meanwhile, for those of us with root, iFile is freaking fantastic....
I'd really like to see Apple implement an approval process for privileged code. Establish the world's tightest NDA for a private source code auditing program, or require that all privileged code be open source.
Allow people to do what they want with their phones if developers can make the peer-reviewed cut, preserving the quality of the user experience Apple prides themselves on but can only achieve by locking you out of the device you own. What most jailbreakers really want is not root... we just want our experience to be open to the same innovation that computers have facilitated since their inception, and we don't want to have to make the compromises ourselves to get it done. As Apple has made abundantly clear: the compromise is their job.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Things like Notification Center and four-finger-swipe-to-change-apps should be controllable in some way, so apps that really want a full-screen UI can have one.
Honestly, that'd be a pretty big part of it.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
YMMV. I have android gizmos, but they basically collect dust because the UI sucks and I can't find apps that do what I want. :)
(Disclaimer: If anyone can point out a PDF reader for Android that can match GoodReader for speed, reliability, and quality, I'd be interested in hearing about it. I've found nothing even remotely close yet, and I've looked.)
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Why can't we just drag and drop from a folder like every other GUI?
Because Apple sees manual management of data files in folders a legacy concept. Something that belongs to the PC model of computing, and will be gone with post PC devices.
We're in an awkward period of transition right now, where manual management of data files are still a fact of life. But the time will come when such a concept is as irrelevant as choke, distributor cap and carburettors to modern day motorists.
Apple is skating to where the puck will be, not where it is, let alone where it used to be.
They're both wrong, and being disingenuous. IOS uses traditional filesystem organization EVERYWHERE except where the user can get at it. What the user gets are these crippled ass, can't-hold-subfolders, limited-to-few-files abortive pseudo-folders that (barely) act as a filesystem. IF you don't have very many apps. Then your stuff overflows into other folders, you end up with multiple folders containing the same types of things, apps can't share data or features, so every useful feature has to be re-invented and re-implemented by every app that has it... this is toyland. It's viable, sure, because half the population is on the left side of Gaussian. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, it cripples the living hell out of the device.
No, Apple has skated back to where the puck was in the late 1970's. Tiny directories that can't have sub-directories. It's not a new idea. It's an idea the entire computing world tried, found wanting, and discarded long ago.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Images. RAW images. Text files. Art. Spreadsheets. Email. Source code. Notes. Calendar data. Stats. IQ data. Recordings. Videos. MIDI data. Preferences and other control information. HTML files. CGI. mp3s. tar, zip, dmg, and other compressed data files. Logs (talking ham radio logs, but yeah, program logs as well.) Screen grabs. You know... FILES.
And then there are plugins for apps. How to get a feature in one app to appear in another. We know how, it's a doddle, but under IOS... nope.
Meh, doesn't matter. Know what we're probably going to get? "Flat Icons." Whoopdee farking doo.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
standard USB connector.
ogg/flac/opus support
removal of app kill switch
xterm + coreutils + bash
well documented open program API
unlocked bootloader + weak/no carrier lock
ability to sync with stuff other than itunes + linux desktop support, to include tethering via USB.
root access
the source code.
If your not willing to provide at least 3/4ths that list, I couldn't care less about it, like I couldn't care less about it now.
So it supports double sided printing, ...
Funny, I have a printer plugged into my linux (Ubuntu) box that supposedly does double-sided printing, but many hours of digging around in TFM pages, googling, and experimenting were utterly unsuccessful at getting any 2-sided pages printed. The CUPS there even admitted to me that the printer does this, but I have yet to discover a way to make it actually happen.
There's also the problem that, for the past year or so, only other linux systems can use this printer. Various Macs see it and think it's working, get no errors, but their files never print, and I get popup print windows saying "Network host '<hostname>' is busy; will retry in <N> seconds...". This state is permanent, with N slowly increasing. Google gets lots of matches for that error message, but I've never found anything saying how to fix the failure. The logfiles on the linux box show no connections at all from the Macs. (My suspicion is that recent updates on the Macs quietly blocked the ability to talk to CUPS servers and/or linux machines. The linux boxes can all use each others' printers, and the few Windows boxes can use them, too, so it's apparently not CUPS that's failing.)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
You might want to try iFunbox, I don't think it needs a jailbroken iThingy.