Apple Cracks Down on Notification Center Widgets, Says 'Neato' Must Remove Note Taking Feature

[kmichalec]

It pulls up the system keyboard - this widget seems to create it's own in the notification center.

The whole "no keyboards" thing has a very real, legitimate reason - keyloggers. As has already been mentioned, if a widget doesn't use the system keyboard (as whatever keyboard the user chooses is highly sandboxed and scrutinized before being allowed) the potential for security threats exist.

Apple doesn't want that. You don't want that. It's not that much more difficult to simply open a note taking app. It's actually extremely easy.

I mean at this point, why have a full app - let's just take all the functionality out of them, cram them into a small window/home screen and call it good. None of those horrible, painful extra taps to open the app and get a far better experience.

I concur with others here - if widgets are THAT important, go Android. Period.

You make a good point about a custom keyboard. And I agree with you on that respect. But if that's the security concern, then why can't Apple just let the widget pull up the system keyboard, just like the Quick Reply widget does? Wouldn't that solve the fear about the key loggers? Then it wouldn't be any different than the any other notes app inside the phone that opens the system keyboard and lets you enter a note, IMHO.

 

[C DM]

A widget is supposed to be small according to Apple's vision, but Apple's vision could very well be wrong. Users seem to disagree with Apple since this widget is very popular: it offers something Apple might not have envisioned initially but that users want.

Maybe Apple's vision needs to be revised taking users' feedback into account and guidelines needs to be rewritten, just like they revised their stance about iOS not offering native apps and many other things in the past.

At first blush this seems to be squashing innovation. Thoughts?

Apple has been controlling what's in their ecosystem forever, in particular when it comes to iOS. Again, why is this something new or surprising? It's a reality that has always been part of it for a while now.

 

[Arran]

I think some people are forgetting what the word "notification" means. Permitting typing in an area designed for notifications will lead to confusion about the area's purpose.

It's the same reason driving your truck on the sidewalk is generally frowned upon. Yes, you can do it - but that's not what the sidewalk is for.

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Apple has been controlling what's in their ecosystem forever...

Indeed, it's one of the attractions.

 

[jrswizzle]

You make a good point about a custom keyboard. And I agree with you on that respect. But if that's the security concern, then why can't Apple just let the widget pull up the system keyboard, just like the Quick Reply widget does? Wouldn't that solve the fear about the key loggers? Then it wouldn't be any different than the any other notes app inside the phone that opens the system keyboard and lets you enter a note, IMHO.

I would assume it would solve the problem yes, but I don't know. I'm just providing the reasoning behind telling them to take the app down.

Quick Reply isn't really a widget either, it's an actionable notification. The two are quite different.

If I pull down the notification shade and tap an empty space to enter text in a widget which then pulls up the system keyboard, what happens to the notification shade itself? Does it adjust to fit with the keyboard? Do widgets even have this type of access?

To me that goes against the whole "make it as simple as possible" mantra Apple has pushed for widgets. Simple actions like the eBay widget employ are fine. But when you start involving other system functions, it gets muddy. You might as well just enter the app at that point (and I get this widget doesn't have an accompanying app experience - baffling IMO).

Ultimately, Apple will always regard the in-app experience as paramount and won't do anything to over complicate the system and risk driving people away from the in-app experience.

 

[addicted44]

Apple really needs to stop doing stupid stuff like this.

If this was a worthless widget, which no one was using, and so it did not rise in the charts, it would have been ignored. OTOH, it only came to Apple's notice because it was popular, and their response was to eliminate something that people were obviously liking.

Makes no sense at all.

I don't understand how making widgets less useful is supposed to make me want to use them.

 

[ksuyen]

Apple reverting to old ways. Thought WWDC was all about "opening up". Clearly Apple hates innovation unless it comes from Apple.

I don't understand what's their problem. If users are happy with this, why would they remove it just for the sake of "simplicity" like if iOS users are children

If it's a bit much for you, then don't use the app. Simple.

I don't understand why Apple and some of their user base are so afraid of added functionality.

You aware that everyone can access this from lock screen right? And then people complain that the security in iOS is horrible. Rules are there to protect you. It's called NOTIFICATION for a reason, and it's accessible from lock screen for a reason. Adding a keyboard to that is UNACCEPTABLE from any security point of view, notwithstanding your iPhone is basically a credit card now.

 

[bsolar]

Apple has been controlling what's in their ecosystem forever, in particular when it comes to iOS. Again, why is this something new or surprising? It's a reality that has always been part of it for a while now.

Changing stance or revising the guidelines to better match developers and users' requirements doesn't mean relinquishing control of the ecosystem. As I already stated, Apple did change stance in the past on some topics: I don't see why it could not happen in this case too.

 

[addicted44]

I would imagine having a keyboard in notification center would use a fair amount of resources. probably has performance (User experience) in mind.

True. That being said, I would imagine that opening up the Notes App, taking a note, and then closing it would consume even more resources. And be far more cumbersome to boot.

If Apple is concerned about battery life when using interactive widgets, why doesn't it disable the interactive nature of the widget until the user taps on it? Basically, keep it in a frozen state (with the display being updated like any notification) until the user taps on it, so only the widget the user wants to use is enabled and consumes additional resources.

 

[C DM]

Changing stance or revising the guidelines to better match developers and users' requirements doesn't mean relinquishing control of the ecosystem. As I already stated, Apple did change stance in the past on some topics: I don't see why it could not happen in this case too.

It works both ways. They can revisit it and make things tighter, as they have done here, and they could revisit it to make things looser or at least allow them to remain as they were, as they have done with calculator widgets. Basically it's not new or surprising for it to go one way or the other.

 

[subjonas]

are prohibited from creating "a mini version" of an app.

I thought that's what a widget is. Anyway, there are certain apps that are very simple, and serve much better as a quick access widget than a full blown app. This seems like one of them.

 

[C DM]

I thought that's what a widget is. Anyway, there are certain apps that are very simple, and serve much better as a quick access widget than a full blown app. This seems like one of them.

A widget is generally more informational in nature often surfacing the main/important parts of whatever app/functionality it relates to. Some might have some limited almost one-click type of functionalities/shortcuts for something that is again main/important, but more or less that's it, on a higher level at least.

 

[bsolar]

You aware that everyone can access this from lock screen right? And then people complain that the security in iOS is horrible. Rules are there to protect you. It's called NOTIFICATION for a reason, and it's accessible from lock screen for a reason. Adding a keyboard to that is UNACCEPTABLE from any security point of view, notwithstanding your iPhone is basically a credit card now.

Are you aware that in iOS you can disable requiring authentication to unlock the device? So I as a user am allowed to leave my device completely open to whoever happens to get his hands on it, but thankfully Apple's rules protect my completely open lock screen from useful widgets...

It might be notification, but it's clear it's evolving into something different under the pressure of developers and users which experiment new things and find them interesting and useful, even if Apple didn't envision them at first.

 

[terraphantm]

Because if you don't remove things that are inconsistent with your design vision, you end up allowing everything, and hey presto, you have Linux. Which is fine for a certain type of user, but it's not the type of user that Apple products have ever been designed for.

OS X has done fine without Apple limiting what people can buy and install

 

[ksuyen]

Are you aware that in iOS you can disable requiring authentication to unlock the device?

That's is an option, which you do on your own risk. On the other hand, it's not an option for this widget to turn off the keyboard.

 

[C DM]

OS X has done fine without Apple limiting what people can buy and install

OS X also for installation of different OS X versions if you want and all kinds of other things that are fairly typical of desktop OSs. It would definitely be nice for iOS to be closer to that, but that's not quite how iOS has ever been designed (as unfortunate as that might be).

 

[casperes1996]

And they moved away from that in their post iOS 6 design.

Which was honestly a shame. The feature remains on OS X' Notification Center.

 

[brownpaw]

It makes me sad because this is exactly the type of thing that I want widgets to be able to do.

 

[2IS]

Crapdroid is always available to you.

It's always funny to me when an apple enthusiast takes it personally when someone complains about Apple or one of their products. As if someone dishonored your family name. Would you like to challenge him to a duel too?

 

[iamMacPerson]

Oh really? Well I just turned off auto-updating. No one is taking my Neato away from me. It is an awesome widget.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Oh really? Well I just turned off auto-updating. No one is taking my Neato away from me. It is an awesome widget.

Neato is best when it's used next to Heapo.

 

[0098386]

But that sounds like a genuinely useful function. That's sad.

 

[kdarling]

Widgets aren't apps. They have to be small and simple and fast, or the system becomes useless. And including a keyboard is obviously over the line.

The phone does not become useless. It becomes MORE useful to those who want the feature (and obviously many did).

I can't believe this is even in question.

I can't believe some people think others should not get to choose how they want their own device to act.

If you want this level of functionality, just open the damn app!

Or move to another OS that doesn't treat you like a child.

 

[PsykX]

Me: Agreed. Have decided not to develop for iOS due to it being a russian roulette.

When you realize how easy and lucrative it is to develop for iOS, you will develop for iOS.

 

[SolarShane]

Crapdroid is always available to you.

How is Android crap? Have you even used it?

Lollipop on my Nexus 5 is faster and more fluid than iOS. Ironic that year old hardware has actually been made faster thanks to Android instead of what iOS does to older hardware.

 

[Gutwrench]

I have no issue with Apple's decision, but how did this app get approved with a keyboard in the NC in the first place?