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Apple Continues War on Notification Center Widgets, Asks 'Drafts' to Remove Note Creation Feature
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Eh... many of the things that become official in iOS exist because the developer community created them first. The most famous of all UI paradigms is "Pull to Refresh" first done in Tweetie.
The other problem with the rules is that they are indeed inconsistently applied. I mean, if Yosemite has an official calculator widget, one would presume that you could make one in iOS, but the PCalc debacle is proof enough that even obvious things aren't so obvious anymore.
Because when it doesn't work properly, the user blames Apple. It's on the iOS lockscreen, so obviously it must be an iOS problem, thinks the average user.
When an app is crappy, the user blames the app maker.
Agreed. They giveth, and then take away. But i think that once people have had a taste of something, it's harder to avoid letting them have it. Like when they were going to pull the calculator app widgets... and then changed their minds. I assume after a lot of uproar over it.
I guess we know what we have to do from now on. Any app at all that we think we may or may not want to use at some point, we have to download... so we have a copy of it. I still regret now getting that damn launchpad app.
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Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
I'm kinda surprised that I haven't seen this comment yet, but I have a feeling this simplicity model has as much to do (if not more so) with Apple watch as it does the iPhone. These widgets are meant to be the same concept as the glances on the Watch. Glances cannot be interactive (I don't believe). So Apple wants to create as much cohesion between the two platforms as possible. It makes sense, but do I like it? Maybe not.
Honestly, I'm not too sure why glances can't be interactive, but that's the direction Apple wants to take it
Honestly, I'm not too sure why glances can't be interactive, but that's the direction Apple wants to take it
How is this different from what was demoed?
During the WWDC Keynote (go to roughly 1:30:16 or so), Craig demoed the eBay widget and showed off the ability to bid from Notification Center. I'm not sure how that's a significantly different form of interaction from what Drafts is doing.
Seems like a distinction without a difference, really.
As with so many technologies, widgets have grown in productive ways Apple didn't foresee. Rather than bring the hammer down, Apple should be looking for ways to guide developers to be even more productive and consistent with a core set of values in order to bring greater value to users.
During the WWDC Keynote (go to roughly 1:30:16 or so), Craig demoed the eBay widget and showed off the ability to bid from Notification Center. I'm not sure how that's a significantly different form of interaction from what Drafts is doing.
Seems like a distinction without a difference, really.
As with so many technologies, widgets have grown in productive ways Apple didn't foresee. Rather than bring the hammer down, Apple should be looking for ways to guide developers to be even more productive and consistent with a core set of values in order to bring greater value to users.
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I guess my question would be...
Why do you not think this is going to happen?
We are past computers being computers. Computers are appliances now. If you don't think that's the way OS X will act in 5 years, then set a reminder for yourself in your calendar app to revisit this thread in 2020.
The difference is that Apple was able to establish this level of control to begin with. With OS X, they will have to gradually transition and ween users off alternative installation sources.
Remember, the computer is truck. If you need a truck you get a truck. Most people don't need trucks.
A better question is why bother asking this close to a decade after iOS has been around and has followed this mentality from the beginning? This is nothing new, nothing even close to being new, so what's the point of trying to stir things up to "discuss" something that's basically a given at this point and has been discussed probably literally millions of times by now in the past 7 years or so?
Just get rid of notification center and be done with it. Why offer it and then cripple it until it becomes worthless and dies?
When iOS 5 first introduced Notification Center, I thought it would be so awesome if Apple opened it up for dev to create widgets.
I was wrong.
Notification Center widgets are terribly designed, grossly implemented, and worst of all, usually comically useless. Just give up and forget about it.
I was wrong.
Notification Center widgets are terribly designed, grossly implemented, and worst of all, usually comically useless. Just give up and forget about it.
That's how you end up with unauthorized app distribution websites which sell stolen apps and/or apps which steal your personal info and/or apps with an inferior UX.
All of which is exactly what Apple is trying to avoid by running the iOS App Store.
In the process, Apple may not draw the lines in quite the right spots (some crappy apps still get allowed, some great, innovative apps are rejected) but it's pretty good.
Most users aren't savvy enough to realize what the difference between downloading from the official store or an unofficial one (heck, an unofficial one might try making itself out to be the official one). If they were smart enough, trojans, viruses, and malware wouldn't exist/spread. But they do because most people don't understand the technology they use.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
In this case, Apple doesn't have a vision.
And if it weren't for the jailbreak community, Apple may never have had the "vision" for any supported third-party apps. It's not entirely clear that Apple originally had a plan for any 3rd party apps for the iPhone, except for web apps, which they very heavily promoted as *the* superior and only method for apps until iOS 2.
Apple has now added widgets like jailbreaks and other OSes have allowed, but semantically it's a bit of a jumbled mess to combine them with notifications, which I believe is why they have difficulty determining which widgets make sense.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
This whole thing behind apps breaking the guidelines of NC Widgets has been selective at best. Drafts does nothing different from Evernote and Evernote has had a NC Widget since iOS 8 hit the public servers.
Seriously? I just want my Widgets to actually be Widgets and not a blob of text.
Yes, but the Yosemite widget lives in the dashboard, not the notification area. iOS doesn't have a dashboard - so it's not a straight comparison.
Their developer guidelines are fairly clear:
Apple said:
The obvious suggestion is, don't replicate app functionality, and don't use a fake keyboard. If they wanted Today extensions to use the keyboard, they would've provided access to it.
Many apps slipped through in the iOS 8 launch rush. App reviewers were overwhelmed. Apple is now going back to kicking out apps that flagrantly violated their intentions.
Because it's not so cut and dry. Our app - Pocket Informant - has a today widget that shows events and tasks for "Today". But we also have a button to open our "Focus" view which shows the focus of today. And we have buttons to create an event, task, or note. It just feels natural there and is an extension of showing stuff for "Today".
I'm now expecting Apple to ask us to remove it soon as well. The only people hurt are the users. In our case it doesn't negatively effect the purpose of the widget.
And if iOS supported installing apps outside the app store you could just turn elsewhere with your app, which is not an option now.