Auxo Shows Off a Redesigned iOS App Switcher

[genovelle]

Originally Posted by Sincci

Actually, Google music was introduced few days before iCloud, so it's actually Apple who is copying Google!

Oh you are right. I remember them rushing to market with a half baked offering when rumors that apple was working on such a service filled up the internet with details of what they were planning. They weren't expecting the match so they had to go back and copy that later.

[louis.b]

Now we know what design Apple WON'T use.

[Speedy2]

Apple, why you not do this kind of stuff anymore??

[GoldenJoe]

It's nice, but closing out apps isn't really something you do in iOS. The "card" previews look better than plain icons, but I don't think they add any actual utility for the user. The best thing here is clearly the toggle shortcuts, which Apple really should add to the multitasking menu.

[somethingelsefl]

Apple, use all that cash and hire these people ASAP! This...is...amazing.

[Mr. Gates]

I'm still waiting for an unteathered iOS6 Jailbreak for my iPhone 4S

Anyone know if there is one yet ?

[TopToffee]

First JB tweak i've seen that really tempts me to jailbreak

[somethingelsefl]

Originally Posted by gto55

will apple hire this guys to add these evident features asked by many

Absolutely, Apple should use some of that extra cash to hire these guys!

[Mackan]

Originally Posted by camnchar

Apple needs to hire these folks.

I can't imagine Apple being so stagnant they need to hire people to implement something simple as this.

[manu chao]

Originally Posted by bushido

actually yes, i close an app as soon as i dont need it anymore. i just hate knowing they sit down there in the appswitcher ... waiting. i'm weird like that lol and i also cbf trying to figure out what "may" continue running so i just close them all together

Do you also empty your browser cache and delete your history every time you switch away from the browser?

If not, why is having a history of app usage and a caching of the last state of the app worse than a internet browsing history and a caching of the last state of every visited website?

[Saladinos]

The good news is Apple is definitely listening to this. They know people think the iOS design is stale; they will see the massive positive reception this has been getting and the comments in the press about how worn iOS has become.

We should definitely see some changes come iOS7. I have no doubt about that.

[manu chao]

Originally Posted by AirThis

Actually, I think you've answered your own question. I've underlined the important parts. Three comments:

a) If you like flicking through pages and pages of backgrounded or suspended apps, that's your preference. Personally I like tidiness.

Then you just maintain a curated history of app usage as a quick launching service. Nothing against that, but it might be easier to put all the apps that you want to keep in the app history just onto the first two pages of the homescreen. To get to your 20 most used apps is much faster via the homescreen than via the app switcher.

b) Some apps don't reach the suspended state quickly. Instead they use a feature in IOS which allows them to request a 10 minute extension to their background status. If you inspect the running processes on a jailbroken phone, you will see that certain apps are really very badly behaved. They keep on using CPU and memory as long as 50 minutes after they cease being active. That's because they are repetitively requesting a 10 minute extension of their background status from IOS. IMHO, Apple has been way too lenient about this.

I would not worry about that 10 min limit but apps that misuse it like you describe it definitely deserve to be killed. But only those apps and not just all apps, killing all apps to catch a few bad apples is not a very efficient way of doing things.

c) As you've mentioned, certain type of apps will keep on running in the background (for valid reasons). However they do consume a lot of resources, which is something you seem to take entirely for granted. Many apps that track your movement (ski, bike, nav app.) can drain the battery of an aging iPhone 4 in less than 7 hours. To me it's obvious that when you take your skis off at lunch, you're going to want to kill that nice ski app. Ditto for other sports apps. That's why I like to keep my apps tidy as stated above. Otherwise I'd have all sorts of apps open.

Again, agreed. But that is just a few select apps. I kill those apps too but they are only a small fraction of the apps I mostly use.

Finally, I don't understand your need to question our motives. If we're closing the apps, it's not because it's 'useless' as you're trying to imply. It's because we've observed the effect certain apps have on the phone in real life. RR2 doesn't run well at all with those com and nav apps in the background. Why should I keep them there and have a degraded gaming experience?

If people create the impression that it is best to always kill all apps because they are misinformed, they misinform others. If your motives are based on misinformation and because of this you misinform others, one is perfectly justified to question your motives.

As for your purge question, no I never run it. Because it's not necessary.

There are situations where it can be beneficial. The clearest cut case is Handbrake. It uses a lot of memory and then releases it, creating a large pool of inactive memory. That is not bad in itself, but in the process of requesting and then releasing memory it pushes out all inactive memory used by other applications. This can lead to degraded performance in these other applications.

Of course, running purge throws out all inactive memory. But it takes a while for Handbrake to chew through all free memory again (depending on your processing power and total memory). During this time (ie, before it has gobbled up all free memory), being able to have other application re-use their own inactive memory can lead to a noticeable performance increase.

[TC03]

Originally Posted by Saladinos

The good news is Apple is definitely listening to this. They know people think the iOS design is stale; they will see the massive positive reception this has been getting and the comments in the press about how worn iOS has become.

We should definitely see some changes come iOS7. I have no doubt about that.

Functionality and usability is what matters most to Apple, they won't give up that simply because things have become 'stale'.

People should acknowledge the elegance and extreme usability and functionality iOS currently offers. This is so much more important than looks (still 10x better than Android) which have become boring or stale.


IOS needs to refresh on API's and functionality, not the looks.

[53kyle]

Originally Posted by The Bulge

Like hiring those guys for the job? Oh yeah if every company stole in this way.

I mean like siri and how I am pretty sure apple didn't even give the original app credit for the name

[Serelus]

Originally Posted by irDigital0l

what about that notification center from Android?

:P

I had a lockinfo widget which allowed me to have a notification center based feature, on my first generation iPhone.

Android was barely anything back then, and notifications it definitely did not have yet. Stop using such trivial things, as proof, that makes it seem like it was stolen from Android. Neither Google nor Apple came up with the "idea" of a notification center.

[Davewithak]

I will be jailbreaking my iPhone 5 whenever possible just for this. Awesome.

[kockgunner]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

The iPhone 5 jailbreak can't come soon enough. This looks like something that Apple, dare I say "used to" put out.

This doesn't look like anything Apple has ever put out. I know people think Apple is the best company so anything "cool" seems like something Apple would have done, but Apple has never put toggles or quick access to brightness sliders except on desktops. This does however look like something Apple MAY put out.

[nylonsteel]

re original article
dude (aka tim cook) this is good stuff
get with it aapl pull the trigger and make it happen

[irDigital0l]

Originally Posted by Serelus

I had a lockinfo widget which allowed me to have a notification center based feature, on my first generation iPhone.

Android was barely anything back then, and notifications it definitely did not have yet. Stop using such trivial things, as proof, that makes it seem like it was stolen from Android. Neither Google nor Apple came up with the "idea" of a notification center.

Like I said Google introduced it in Android and after introduced it, Apple basically took that idea and made it seemed like they created this brand new amazing breakthrough notification center in iOS 5.

[robotphood]

Love how this became an android vs ios debate. Let's get back to the topic shall we?

Originally Posted by petsounds

The settings toggle switches are nice, but the app cards are just eye candy. Seeing the last state of the app? What does that give you? It's pointless user interface. And swiping to remove an app? Oops, I just lost the song I was making that I hadn't yet saved. Apple makes destructive actions slow for a reason. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that "are you sure" dialog that pops up only does so for apps that are using background processes like Spotify.

So no, it doesn't improve app switching at all. It's still bound to the Home button, which is the main pain point. If Apple ever redesigns app switching on the iPhone, I want a system gesture to swipe between apps. Not having to double-press a stiff button every time.

Personally the one thing I like from this tweak is swiping to remove apps. In my previous jail broken device I had a tweak to keep the delete button on the switcher apps persistent. Never accidentally killed anything. Can't imagine many people would accidentally swipe down on apps when that was never a gesture in the first place.

As for gestures replacing the home button, check out the tweak zephyr. It's probably the one tweak I miss the most other than google voice integration and Bitesms.

[REM314]

Looks like Android

[JPChicago]

I've never jailbroken but I think I've lost my chance since I barely updated to 6.0.2.. right?

[Mr. Gates]

~ Serious question ~

What is the latest version of iOS to have an Untethered Jailbreak ?

[Mr. Gates]

So... This was on Wiki.

It seems like the Jailbreak scene is pretty much frozen at the moment.

[redkamel]

Maybe I am a bit thick, but I think this is silly. It offers little to no functionality, but a lot of complexity. Here is a list of the "features"
-Apps appear as cards: takes more space, less obvious/simple than icons
-volume slider: I have volume hard buttons on my phone
-album art: not neccesary; at this point I should just go to the ipod
-settings: why not just use the settings app? theres multiple rows in a one row window, seems very inelegant...its practically a different window.
-preview window: Do not want. You can't see whats going on anyways
-swipe to remove apps: just click the X....
-warning when deleting app in use: I guess it could be useful, since I can't do that now
-remove all the apps at once: this is not necessary in iOS
-open up settings from toggles: thats kind of cool.
-reconfigure toggles: that is nice of them since there are so many

I don't even see why they need to redo the app switcher. It would be easier just to keep your iphone neat and tidy. One can just push home, then click the app they need.

I can imagine power users or those whose phones are loaded with apps (for what I can never imagine; I have >45 apps, they fit on 2 screens. My friend had over 120 apps over 4 screens with duplicated functionality so I guess he would want it....)

I am impressed with the workmanship; very clean. But I'll pass on this.