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Apple Disallows Previously Approved Calculator Widgets for iOS 8 Notification Center

This is a perfect example of why we need a jailbreak for ios 8. I miss my jailbroken iphone 5 on ios 7. Sure the new features on ios 8 are great but my workflow is severely limited. If you have used intelliscreen x or Auxo you would know how powerful and useful notification center and app switcher can be when limitations are removed. I also miss activator:(.
 
Cyberius11 said:
I think you completely missed my point. Apple only allows you to stack them all in the notification center, leaving your home screen a mess of folders, apps, or both. What I want is the ability to put widgets on my homescreen, where they make sense for ME. If you want to play games in your notification center or use a calculator, leave that ability too, more power to you. For ME, PERSONALLY, they are 100% pointless as-is. Why do I want to go to "today" to see some news or whatever when I could just as easily add the same widget to my homescreen? On my Android phone I could instantly see all my appointments, weather and time, news, etc. without having to pull down the notification center, and perhaps click today, if it was already on the notification center and not "today." I had a home screen for news, productivity, etc. Worked great. Often unused but still necessary app icons were hidden in the drawer. Notification shade was just that. Notifications. Very organized. Why Apple is being a bastard about these things I don't know.
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I'm very glad you're not in charge of developing ruining iOS.
 
autrefois said:
From what you're saying, they shouldn't allow Widgets at all then. Why shouldn't people be allowed to put a calculator widget, dictionary widget, or *gasp* mini-game in the Notification Center if the tech allows it and the user wants it?

What would be an example of a Widget that they should allow, then? You yourself say that it would be hard to say what the line should be.
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You sound like you would think there should be no line at all, that everything should be as configurable as under Android. Which implies that you think no good can ever come from restricting things. Which is ok to have as an opinion but iOS differentiator towards Android is clearly that things can be better if you restrict some elements, questioning that is questioning the existence of iOS per se.
 
macduke said:
Sigh—just when we started to think that the new Apple was going to be less restrictive.

What they actually need to do is set some guidelines on design for widgets. It's a mess all over the place with random margins and inconsistent appearance. I know not every widget should look the same but at least line things up properly with consistent typefaces and standardized point sizes, such as heading 1, heading 2, body copy, etc. As a designer all I see is a cluster.
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You might be right, but to some degree this is inevitable. There has to be some trial and error at the beginning to help figure out what the best rules should be.
 
MasterRyu2011 said:
Holy crap. You're totally right. They're taking away a perfectly functioning feature or way of doing things. Oh...the irony.
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Except for the distinct possibility that there may be a security reason why Apple is not allowing widgets that accept input or calculations.

Apple Pay has no such issue currently.
 
Only logical reason why Apple would do this is to allow them to bring in their own calculator widget like os x Yosemite.
 
nickhutson said:
£10 for a calculator? No thanks. I'll just swipe up.
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There is a free version too: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/pcalc-lite-best-free-calculator/id300311831?mt=8

$10 == £6, still not cheap but devs need to pay bills too, how many sales do you think he makes, how many sales do the other 100 calculator apps make? Not a lot. I'm sure he's put twice the time and money than he could have made working at McDonalds. That is, until this news broke, probably the richest calculator developer out there now.
 
Patriot24 said:
Except for the distinct possibility that there may be a security reason why Apple is not allowing widgets that accept input or calculations.

Apple Pay has no such issue currently.
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It doesn't matter. The retailers behaved in a way that is in the retailers' best interest, not the users'. And here Apple has behaved in a way that is in Apple's best interest and not the users'. See the parallel?
 
Patriot24 said:
Except for the distinct possibility that there may be a security reason why Apple is not allowing widgets that accept input or calculations.
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Again. There is no security reason. Widgets don't pose an increased risk just because they have 20 more buttons than other widgets.

Quite the contrary actually. The biggest risks in software happens in components that connect to the internet. PCalc does not do that but most acceptable widgets (i.e. weather, social media) do.
 
Social Buttons

nickhutson said:
£10 for a calculator? No thanks. I'll just swipe up.

I am still waiting for them to add the compose Tweet, Facebook etc buttons BACK to the notification centre.
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Don't wait for "Them" to add the Social Buttons BACK - You need to do it yourself! Here's how... Open the Notification Centre - Click the Edit button at the bottom - Click the Green Plus sign next to Social - Drag the new section to where you want it.

You're Welcome! :)
 
I think the time must be fast approaching where these devices are recognised as personal computers, and that it's absurd for one company to be in control of what you can or can't run on them.

Noone would put up with it on a laptop, and eventually there'll be legislation to afford the same rights on a phone.
 
Jamalien said:
Only logical reason why Apple would do this is to allow them to bring in their own calculator widget like os x Yosemite.
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That is not very logical. Apple stepped away from that "you must not replicate our functionality" rule years ago.

There are many apps that come with calendar, stock and weather widgets. Each of them is supplied by Apple as well. If that's not an issue for weather widgets, why should it be for calculator widgets?


Apple just does not want those kind of widgets. They are against their idea what belongs in the 'Today' section. Strict from the meaning of the word 'Today' it should be reserved for stuff that changes from day to day.


If they do anything they will remove the calc widget from Yosemite.

Maybe they introduce a more general widget area next year.
Our newest exciting feature of iOS9 and OS X Tahoe: Dashboard. A new way you can run all your widgets in one place. Amazing. It even comes with a dedicated button on our new Mac Keyboard! And we even replaced the calculator button in iOS quick settings menu with a dashboard button. Customer sat will go through the roof.
 
akswun said:
I can see why they're doing this.

It's a security concern. Not specifically the calculator app but launchers for other apps. You're pretty much accessing the apps via the notification centre which doesn't require any finger print identification or passwords.

Yeah its a calculator app or a launcher for social media apps. But I'm assuming the rule is there for other obvious reasons other than basic apps. If these widgets allow the user to semi-access certain apps without any type of security verification then its' going to cause issues.
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You cannot launch an app from the notification center without entering your PIN code or using the fingerprint sensor. But your point on actually running an app (inside the notification center) without needing authentication is valid. Apple could sandbox the widgets completely, ie, not allowing network access or any access to data outside of the widgets/apps sandbox. But some widgets, eg, weather widgets, do need network access. Maybe allowing either network access or data input but not both?

One can access the Clock, Calculator and Camera app from the Control Center without any authentication but then these are Apple apps, so there is no risk they would do something nasty (and on several previous occasion being able to access other apps from those directly accessible apps was possible, representing a security breach).

There actually seem to be no widgets besides calculators that allow user input without requiring authentication.
 
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simon48 said:
That's all fine and dandy, but (whether or not this was a good idea) what Apple is helping stop, is the side affects of someone running badly developed widgets tainting Apple. If someone is running a lot of resource intensive widgets and they complain of slowness some people will say "iOS X is slow, Apple doesn't know what they're doing."
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True. Good point. In theory, though, Apple should be weeding out the badly developed widgets so that they don't even land in the App Store. I understand that's much more of a theory than a plausible reality, though.
 
spacemanspifff said:
Don't wait for "Them" to add the Social Buttons BACK - You need to do it yourself! Here's how... Open the Notification Centre - Click the Edit button at the bottom - Click the Green Plus sign next to Social - Drag the new section to where you want it.

You're Welcome! :)
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Thanks - but I was referring to them being on the phone :)
 
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