What Features Does iOS 7 Need? 262
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?"
Better Application Hooks (Score:5, Insightful)
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 thing which stopped me from buying Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Re:iOS (Score:4, Insightful)
Something different instead of the simple outdated icon grid on the home pages.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.
I think that would be a huge mistake. If you change the look of features, people can still navigate by memory of layout. If you change the layout of features, people can still navigate by look. If you change both, everyone's completely lost, and you anger 100% of your customer base.
I would go so far as to say that Apple should change practically nothing in terms of functionality. Bug fixes, improved compatibility, speed enhancements, but don't "change" anything.
What Features Does iOS 7 Need? (Score:2, Insightful)
Android (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:themes. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
I beg to disagree: in theory resolution independent user interface elements should be a lot better than Apple's approach of only allowing double densities. Practice however shows, that if you have a resolution independent UI API, a lot of developers are lazy and do not adapt their layout to different screen sizes, or do not correctly use the APIs.
As an example, the windows experience on high-res displays is significantly worse than the Mac OS X experience: the majority of Windows applications simply do not work correctly on a Mac Book Pro Retina display, since only parts of the UI elements scale correctly, resulting in a complete mess.
Android fares somewhat better due to a better API, but the fine-tuned user interfaces for different resolutions on iOS (tablet/phone) usually make for a better user experience. On Android there is too little incentive (return on investment) for developers to fine-tune their user interfaces to different resolutions.
Re:Better Application Hooks (Score:3, Insightful)
All of those things are things that malware and crapware would immediately use to make your phone much, much worse. I'd like them too, but I can see why Apple would want to keep those things off their system to keep their users happier.
Multiple accounts (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:simple (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
/. is a bad place for Apple feature advice (Score:3, Insightful)
"totally redesigned interface" ??? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Makes sense that a program called "iTunes" would deal with sharing files and getting apps.
Re:Better Application Hooks (Score:5, Insightful)
Then you don't want an iPhone,
Re:/. is a bad place for Apple feature advice (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod parent up. iOS needs to keep doing what it's doing. It must be doing something right if /. consensus is that Android is "increasingly sophisticated". This is by the same group of people who don't understand why Linux does not have broad appeal.
As an iOS user and developer (as well as user and developer for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS and attempted but tired and frustrated user and developer for Android :) ) - I hope Apple continues with incremental and stable approach, giving users well thought out and tightly controlled new feature sets, while maintaining clean, simple and usable system.
Do *not* under any circumstances let engineers ruin this one.
Re:Multiple accounts (Score:5, Insightful)
"Just buy another one"
- Steve Jobs
(sorry, couldn't resist)