Apple better have something really good up its sleeve for the next round

[Digital Skunk]

I like the path Apple is taking, I have no doubt they will come up with some big improvements in the nest OS update.

We've been saying that since iOS4 really. iOS 5 was nice, but nothing breakthrough, and some . . . . a very small number, considered Android to be on par then. Once iOS 6 came, it was a done deal.

Prepare to be disappointed.

No seriously, if you think that they will vastly improve iOS 7 after the diaster that was iOS 6 and they don't then...

Honestly iOS 6 was horrible. Apple Maps was the biggest feature and it was a total laughing stock. Google Now surpassed Siri. Passbook had limited functionality and was too confusing to use. All the other features were so minor, that Apple spend 10 minutes talking about Facebook integration.

They fired Forstall as a result. The question is whether Ive will have enough to time to implement whatever new design he likes and how big they will be.

At this point you either have to wonder...

A) Is Apple too arrogant to not realize that Android has surpassed iOS and won't want to admit by redesigning iOS.

B) Does Apple not have the ability to make further advances in iOS due to no "Steve Jobs" running around with design. I don' think Cook cares that much of how to implement iOS. They're just different people.

C) Both A & B

I agree, and I am going to need you to continue posting well thought out comments in much of these threads. I personally believe it will be C. Apple has to really decide whether they want to change the user experience, or stick with it. Both tough decisions.

Let's face it, Apple stopped innovating before jobs died.

I agree. The last thing they did was bring out the original iPhone, which it seems only the upper echelon of tech nerd knows was an amalgamation of current tech, with the real innovation coming with iOS.

 

[CosmicDice]

Just hope that Apple test Jailbreak tweaks and makes them part of offical iOS. There are many good ideas that Apple could use. For exsample 5 icon dock and notification center things.

I also hope Apple dont change iOS too much, I like it as it is. Simple, working and easy to use. Please, no widgets Apple.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Just hope that Apple test Jailbreak tweaks and makes them part of offical iOS. There are many good ideas that Apple could use. For exsample 5 icon dock and notification center things.

I also hope Apple dont change iOS too much, I like it as it is. Simple, working and easy to use. Please, no widgets Apple.

I agree. Only having four icons across on my Note II was kinda of a let down. They have five in the drawer, why not on the homescreen one would wonder.

The great part about widgets, is that you can turn them off. I'd rather have the option. I live in Google Calendar, and having both a month widget and a day widget on my home screen saves me much needed time.

 

[Beeplance]

I would sooner park my data with Apple than Google.

Personally, I don't care for widgets or live wallpaper or similar android features. I like my phone being a glorified app launcher. But I suppose the issue is - what can Apple do about IOS that doesn't make it seem like they are trying to rip Android off?



You are also ignoring the fact that just because people theoretically have the ability to customise their phone any way they wish doesn't mean that they will, or are bothered to.

I have people on iphone4 still sporting the same IOS4 it shipped with, just like I have friends with S3 and Note2 who don't really do much with their smartphones barring whatsapp/web surfing/calls, Facebook and stuff.

There are still many people for whom, the plethora of android features would be largely wasted on them anyways, or even prove a hindrance to them using the phone. In this aspect, they would not get be getting more value for their money going Android, but more complexity instead.

Iphone's key selling point has always been its simplicity and ease of use. I pray Apple will never forget this.

Going Android/Windows Phone 8 for my next phone I think.

Our country is full of iPhones and GALAXY phones. Board the MRT, everywhere iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, GALAXY S III, GALAXY NOTE II. It's a smartphone epidemic.

 

[dirkyd3rk]

iOS is boring and lame. It's an app drawer combined with an iPod. That's all it is. It does those two things right. Android as an os especially the latest flavor is incredible. I own the 4s and a nexus 4 and I switch between them both weekly. Androids software is only getting better. Ios 6 could be compared to gingerbread in terms of things it can do which is sad.

 

[Silvereel]

And what happens when you click on the notification? In Android, you don't have to launch the phone app. You can take action on the notifications (text back or call back). I've used both and Android is way simpler in this area.

I can see the value of texting back from the notification itself. To be honest, I don't know why Apple hasn't implemented that yet. I hate to sound like the guy on the Samsung commercial, but I'm sure we'll get that next time Still, a pretty minor feature, so I think we'll be okay.

Not sure why you'd want to make a phone call without opening the phone app, though. To me, it's too much trouble to focus on a call and keep using another app at the same time, but that's just me.

 

[bozzykid]

I can see the value of texting back from the notification itself. To be honest, I don't know why Apple hasn't implemented that yet. I hate to sound like the guy on the Samsung commercial, but I'm sure we'll get that next time Still, a pretty minor feature, so I think we'll be okay.

Not sure why you'd want to make a phone call without opening the phone app, though. To me, it's too much trouble to focus on a call and keep using another app at the same time, but that's just me.

It's not a "minor" feature. It expands to all apps (like music apps having controls built right into the notification center). What it does is it keeps you from feeling like all you are doing is opening and closing apps all day looking for your notification. You can perform actions without even having to jump into apps themselves. It's really a game changer in the way you use a phone.

 

[Smartass]

the new Google Nexus phone is a great device especially android OS on it is really smooth and fast. iPhone 5 has a great design... and thats about it. Unfortunatelly.

 

[Dolorian]

I think this will be an interesting year for both Android and iOS as far as their design goes. On the one hand in Apple we have ive taking over the design of iOS, so I think we will see a refresh of the interface doing away in some way with the whole skeuomorphism that has dominated iOS since it's inception. Without Forestall in the way pushing for skeuomorphism (and Jobs who also pushed for it), I think Apple will be more willing to experiment with their current design and inject some fresh ideas into the 'stale' interface iOS currently has.

On the other hand Google has been pushing for a consistent design across all their apps as seen in both the web and mobile version of many of their apps as the latest iOS apps they have released show (Maps, Google+, etc) and they have, I would say, finally found their own design language. I think it is only a matter of time before that visual style finds it's way into Android itself. Perhaps Key Lime Pie (Android 5.0) will feature it just as Apple's iOS 7 will feature Ive's design style.

It will be interesting to see how things play out.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I think it is only a matter of time before that visual style finds it's way into Android itself. Perhaps Key Lime Pie (Android 5.0) will feature it just as Apple's iOS 7 will feature Ive's design style.

It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Mostly irrelevant.

Perhaps it's not what concerns their forthcoming Moto phones, where google has full control over both hard and software, however Google's own design (outside of their own apps) is next to irrelevant when it comes to non-google owned OEM's. Unless google switch out the linux kernel (and with it the linux filesystem they employ) and make it closed source to actively forbid people fiddling around with it (which would also include essentially forbidding OEM's to use SD card slots on their device since Android has no native support for SD cards, it's the OEM's that code the SD functionality into it, it's not actually abstracted, the phone treats it as an extra folder in the file system, resulting in a bit of a clusterf...) OEM's are also pushing their own design and feature set more than ever, google imposing their own design isn't only not viable, it's actively counter-productive, seeing as part of what makes android so attractive for OEM's is the freedom to slap their custom rom on top of it. (This goes for the user, too, obv) There's a few good articles on the increasing importance of OEM roms for the OEM's floating around somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go find em right now.

As long as the kernel remains open source, there is no way google can stop OEMs from completely altering the design and adding their own apps and functionality, which of course, most of the major players are already doing with almost all of their android phones. Of course, it wouldn't take google long to make their own closed-source kernel to regain control, given google's experience with linux, and the fact they pretty much resorted to the linux kernel in the first place because it was the most convenient thing, I highly doubt it, though. Somehow, it just wouldn't be android anymore, also, you can be sure they wouldn't suddenly get the idea to support SD cards, seeing as they're eager as anyone to push people into the cloud... expect OEM's to include yet more of their own functionality in the future, because it's precisely this feature set which is becoming the major selling point for OEM's, as opposed to "it's running android".

I personally think this is a good thing, I usually don't like where things go when companies have tight control over every aspect of the OS and hardware. Just becomes too... proprietary somehow, and we're back in "imposed vision land". I don't want neither Jobs nor Cook nor anyone at Google to tell me what I can and cannot do with my phone... hell, that's why I switched to Android in the first place. It's bad enough JB lost GB's "set as ringtone" option for music files, and bad enough that there's a ton of google apps you can't delete without rooting your phone. (What's worse is that those stupid apps actually drain your battery as there seems to be no real way to truly delete, or even properly disable them, and some just constantly run and update in the background, sucking on your battery... puke...) If it gets any worse, I'm gone.

 

[OSxiPro]

I have no idea what exactly is "everything you've seen from Android.".

Dude, the beauty of Android is that it can be anything you want it to be.
...

Those screenshots remind me of my old android from 2010-ish. That thing was ugly too. I can see you put some icon theme on to replicate the iOS theme effect but it just doesn't work. I was thinking of switching to a droid again lately but now I just don't think I want to touch one again.

I actually want someone to convince me to get an android. Could someone post some different pics that could tempt me? And don't mention widgets because I don't care for them, I get automatic notifications as soon as I need them and widgets just won't help, and also don't mention customisation; it's a phone for gods sake and I would rather customise a GNU/Linux installation.

The main thing that disappoints me about android is the awful tablet apps and wonder how long it would take to get even 10% the quality of what's available on the iPad.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Those screenshots remind me of my old android from 2010-ish. That thing was ugly too. I can see you put some icon theme on to replicate the iOS theme effect but it just doesn't work. I was thinking of switching to a droid again lately but now I just don't think I want to touch one again.

I actually want someone to convince me to get an android. Could someone post some different pics that could tempt me? And don't mention widgets because I don't care for them, I get automatic notifications as soon as I need them and widgets just won't help, and also don't mention customisation; it's a phone for gods sake and I would rather customise a GNU/Linux installation.

The main thing that disappoints me about android is the awful tablet apps and wonder how long it would take to get even 10% the quality of what's available on the iPad.

Do you want us to convince you to buy a tablet or a phone? If the main thing that disappoints is the tablet apps then what's wrong with the phones?

Personally, I find the tablet apps, far superior to the ones on iOS. For the longest time many cross platform developers had to "dumb-down" iOS apps for the iPhone yet the Android, Android tablet, and iPad apps were full featured.

Now, as far as convincing, that's something we'd need much more information from you to do. I am not going to try however, since all the reasons I switched to Android are 100% related to what I needed in a device.

 

[OSxiPro]

Do you want us to convince you to buy a tablet or a phone? If the main thing that disappoints is the tablet apps then what's wrong with the phones?

Personally, I find the tablet apps, far superior to the ones on iOS. For the longest time many cross platform developers had to "dumb-down" iOS apps for the iPhone yet the Android, Android tablet, and iPad apps were full featured.

Now, as far as convincing, that's something we'd need much more information from you to do. I am not going to try however, since all the reasons I switched to Android are 100% related to what I needed in a device.

I was talking about either but am interested in these better tablet apps. I know some developers felt the need to dumb down some apps but there are also some powerful ones like coda, etc on the iPad. Could you give some example of android tablet apps that are superior to those found on the iPad? I really love delving deep into applications on other platforms but I tend to find iOS apps better, not because they are dumbed down but because they work really well and have had a lot of time poured into them.

Please don't think I'm elitist - I'm far from it. I just want something that works great without too much hassle because I prefer to tinker with computers to be honest.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I know some developers felt the need to dumb down some apps

I doubt developers "felt the need to" not provide in-app links to non-app store purchasing methods, I doubt developers "choose to" gimp or completely omit inter-app communication, I doubt devs "choose to" give their browser a disadvantage to apple's stock browser Safari from the offset, etc, etc. Apple impose these needless limitations, not sure why you seem to think the developers have any say in this... they *have* to, because Apple forces them to.
I'm not sure why you're defending actually getting less for no reason other than to fill apple's pockets, these limitations aren't there on android and what concerns stability, had apps crash on me at least 10 times since upgrading to iOS 6.x.x, on my iPhone5 no apps crashed on my droid phone in that time period.

As for simplicity, if by "simplicity" you mean "less features for no good reason", then yeah.

 

[macUser2007]

Those screenshots remind me of my old android from 2010-ish. That thing was ugly too. I can see you put some icon theme on to replicate the iOS theme effect but it just doesn't work. I was thinking of switching to a droid again lately but now I just don't think I want to touch one again....

As I mentioned, you are free to disagree with my particular color scheme, icon choices, or a launcher choice.

But the (much, much, much) larger point I was making was that you CAN change things according to your individual preferences. AND add to this the points made above by Insulin Junkie, to get the main thrust of this thread: iOS is falling behind Android and unless Apple does something fairly dramatic about it, in a year or two its market share will be in the single digits.

I don't understand why you even bring up Android circa 2010. Jelly Bean is a very different and much more polished version of the Android OS, and as I noted, it is the first version of Android OS which IMO is clearly superior to iOS.

Your statement is akin to someone remembering Mac OS 7 and swearing off Macs forever because of it.

 

[batting1000]

I have no idea what exactly is "everything you've seen from Android."

You can have a grid only, or you can have a combination of a grid and some widgets, or something else. You can change the icons, if you want to, or the names, or have text only screen, or whatever.

For reference, here are screengrabs of the only two screens I have on my Galaxy Nexus, which are, frankly, more user friendly overall than what I have on my iPhone 5. You may or may not like my choice of icons, background, or widgets, but they are all easily changeable (by a long press, generally).

The iPhone 5 is a much nicer piece of hardware, but iOS definitely feels behind Jelly Bean.

Little things that you take for granted in Android (cross-app integration, ability to chose a much better keyboard, and yes, multitasking at times) are stumbling blocks in iOS that are getting harder to overlook.

Jelly Bean is the first Android OS that I felt was better than iOS, but also note that Google is likely to announce Android OS 5 in May 2013, which will presumably push the platform further ahead. The reality is that Apple has been stagnant, while Google has been hard at work and has finally reached its stride with the OS.

If I were Apple, I'd actually worry about Chrome OS as well, because while it is rather useless now, it is getting better and it looks like Google is pushing it pretty hard. And it sure does have the potential to be the first real desktop OS contender in decades, and a formidable one at that, if done right.

Add to this Google's (and Netflix's) open Air-Play challenge and most will see that Apple cannot rest on its laurels and trickle minor updates without any real innovation.

Apple has Ive, who is a design genius, IMO, so I hope he can get us all excited again. But it needs to be soon, to remain relevant.

---

Edited to replace the screengrab showing a Shazam widget, replacing it with the stock Google Search widget. As I learned from Ralf Rottmann's blog post linked above, Google Search can now recognize music and in my brief tests, it did it perfectly (I do feel bad for the Shazam crew, through).

I can honestly say that home screen looks like garbage.

 

[OSxiPro]

I doubt developers "felt the need to" not provide in-app links to non-app store purchasing methods, I doubt developers "choose to" gimp or completely omit inter-app communication, I doubt devs "choose to" give their browser a disadvantage to apple's stock browser Safari from the offset, etc, etc. Apple impose these needless limitations, not sure why you seem to think the developers have any say in this... they *have* to, because Apple forces them to.
I'm not sure why you're defending actually getting less for no reason other than to fill apple's pockets, these limitations aren't there on android and what concerns stability, had apps crash on me at least 10 times since upgrading to iOS 6.x.x, on my iPhone5 no apps crashed on my droid phone in that time period.

As for simplicity, if by "simplicity" you mean "less features for no good reason", then yeah.

For starters the engine used with safari is locked down for supposed security warnings, I disagree with the lock down on it but hey-ho it is not a deal breaker because the other browsers still work decently. Safari on my iPad has higher performance than most of my browsers I use on a desktop which is why I never opt to change it for an alternative. I don't believe I said simplicity - I said the apps had more time out into them and some of them work great without the need to fiddle, which is not necessarily saying they are simpler - just easier. There is a difference.

You know what I said in 2010? iOS is so locked down and you can't do this that or e other with it but even-though that is the case - at least you know you can actually do stuff on it smoothly with decent stability. Your iOS device crashes apps and your android doesn't? We must be living in different dimensions. I had the exact opposite - my old android crashed all the ****ing time and even though I could play with it I soon moved to a stable phone that actually works well without unexpected problems.

Kind Regards,
OsxIpro.

----------

I don't understand why you even bring up Android circa 2010. Jelly Bean is a very different and much more polished version of the Android OS, and as I noted, it is the first version of Android OS which IMO is clearly superior to iOS.

Your statement is akin to someone remembering Mac OS 7 and swearing off Macs forever because of it.

Well, I was just talking about MY phone(2010) but I also bought my partner an android tablet (late 2012) with 4.1 or 4.2 I forgot on it and almost the exact same applies to that sadly. I actually bought it for myself to play around with it, but it felt almost the same - but a little smoother I must admit so I just gave it to her, lol.

It's not clearly superior, yet! But it could be in the next few versions if its worked on enough. My argument is based of experience, thank you very much.

Kind Regards,
OsxIpro.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

For starters the engine used with safari is locked down for supposed security warnings, I disagree with the lock down on it but hey-ho it is not a deal breaker because the other browsers still work decently. Safari on my iPad has higher performance than most of my browsers I use on a desktop which is why I never opt to change it for an alternative. I don't believe I said simplicity - I said the apps had more time out into them and some of them work great without the need to fiddle, which is not necessarily saying they are simpler - just easier. There is a difference.

You know what I said in 2010? iOS is so locked down and you can't do this that or e other with it but even-though that is the case - at least you know you can actually do stuff on it smoothly with decent stability. Your iOS device crashes apps and your android doesn't? We must be living in different dimensions. I had the exact opposite - my old android crashed all the ****ing time and even though I could play with it I soon moved to a stable phone that actually works well without unexpected problems.

Kind Regards,
OsxIpro.

If you're fine with the browser thing, and the aforementioned features being gimped or missing from apps, lack of customization, etc. you're free to like whichever OS you prefer (a lot of people don't care for these things, and that's perfectly fine). If it's your cup of tea, by all means, use it.
I generally agree with the smoother experience bit (for how long apple will yet have that advantage over android, I don't know, also depends heavily on the OEM's custom rom...) And we are on *Mac*rumors after all, so hey, no place to be too antagonistic. For me personally, Android was a homecoming, and I feel there'll be even more speaking for it in the future, each to their own though.

 

[macUser2007]

...
...

Well, I was just talking about MY phone(2010) but I also bought my partner an android tablet (late 2012) with 4.1 or 4.2 I forgot on it and almost the exact same applies to that sadly. I actually bought it for myself to play around with it, but it felt almost the same - but a little smoother I must admit so I just gave it to her, lol.

It's not clearly superior, yet! But it could be in the next few versions if its worked on enough. My argument is based of experience, thank you very much.
...

I can't speak to tablets, since I use iPads only I cannot stand the 16x9 screen ration virtually all Androids have on their tablets. It's useless for web browsing, useless for magazine or PDF reading, useless even for game playing.

But on my Galaxy Nexus (which is a year older than my iPhone 5) the Android OS (4.2.2) is at least as smooth as iOS and it simply does more, and in many cases, better. Overall, Jelly Bean does provide a better experience than iOS, IMO.

I can honestly say that home screen looks like garbage.

And I can honestly say that your comment is garbage, as it does not pertain to anything we are discussing here.

 

[BenTrovato]

A lot of nitpicking over features that sound good in theory but really have no useful application. Both platforms do the important tasks very well.

I use the Nexus 4 and GS3 quite a bit and they're outstanding products. Better than iOS? Maybe ..if you think so. If you've been on android for a while and missed ios 4-6, switching to the iPhone will appear like jumping 20 years into the future. Conversely, if you've been using iPhones for the past 3 years, switching to android will be a breath of fresh air. It's relativity, neither product is far superior than the other. If anything, the person who wrote the article is closed minded for staying on one platform for way too long so when they make the switch they're eyes are opened forgetting to realize they've been stuck in the same place for years. You can make the case both ways but anyone who tells me one is so much better than the other (right now, in 2013) hasn't spent enough time on both platforms. You might like one over the other but in my opinion they are both on par right now. Choose your poison, but their effectiveness is the same.

 

[tmanto02]

I dont want Apple to chose what is best for me on the phone , I want the freedom to chose what is best for me on my phone

I think you are out of luck there - Apple became the biggest tech company in the world by telling the consumer what they want and they have done a great job so far.

Yes there is room for improvement, but I think Ive will pull through

 

[MindsEye]

With how impressive Jelly Bean has been in terms of both performance and productivity and with the fact Key Lime Pie is going to be first out of the gate, i really don't think Apple can afford to rest on it's laurels like it did with ios6.

Personally at this point, i couldn't care less about skeuomorphism and i really hope this is not high on priority. I hope the main area of focus is revising existing feature's such as multitasking, notification centre, folders etc. Also adding new features only seen on the jail breaking scene and other platfroms such as a file repository, new multitouch gestures, app scaling etc.

You can't speak of a 'Post PC era' while putting Social networking and gimmicks like Passbook and Siri at the forefront this is not whats going to push me away from my PC or Laptop. My next iPad is most likely going to be my first jail broken device if ios7 follows in the same vein as 6.

 

[BergerFan]

Dangit, you should've put FLASH PLAYER as your 1st point, so I could've stopped reading there

Haha. It all seemed legit until then.

 

[silvetti]

iOS has been stagnant and unless Apple starts burning the midnight oil and come up with something WOW!, by this time next year the iPhone's numbers will start looking like BB's.

Did you really just write that ?
Specially the last part ? Give me what you are smoking, I want some

 

[rocat1997]

While android may have cool features, I do not feel it is safe and secure. Seems every month I read about hackers and viruses with android and advice that you need a virus scanner. I have sensitive information on my phone. Security is critical. Also, advertising. Can't stand it. Don't want it. Google can keep it. Apple may not be flashy, but, their polished and their graphics are the best. I've looked at the galaxy 3 and it just don't hold a key to apple. Is android bad? I don't think so. Everyone in this world doesn't need complexity. Everyone doesn't need advanced levels of customization. I find those items never get used after the new wears off. Apple is a niche market. Those that love them will still love them. They have a nice product, their stores always take care of my needs and are willing to help. They will survive.