Good article on iOS4 and it's many shortcomings

[Lotso]

If your not receiving texts heavily then the notification system is fine. But I'd you get many at a time it can get annoying. I don't know what I like better though, because I definitely don't like androids notifications.

Another thing which pisses me off is how iPhoto now opens every time you plug the phone in to Sync it, interrupting your workflow on the computer, even when there's no picture on the phone. I don't remember it doing that before.

Just go into iPhoto, under Prefrences and there should be a drop down menu that says what you want iPhoto to do when it detects a camera(iPhone). You can change it to nothing.

 

[WeegieMac]

The YouTube point is valid, it's piss poor on the iPhone (both my old 3G and my 4).

I have found that going to Safari, typing in www.youtube.com, and adding the web app to my home screen and using that instead of the built in app gives greater performance.

The picture and streaming over 3G is far superior from the web app compared to the built in app, and streaming over WiFi never buffers or stops midway through.

 

[skunk]

Just go into iPhoto, under Prefrences and there should be a drop down menu that says what you want iPhoto to do when it detects a camera(iPhone). You can change it to nothing.

I've changed the Preference in Image Capture, but I actually want iPhoto to open when I plug in an ordinary camera. What I don't want is for it to open when there's nothing on the iPhone. I may be wrong, but in earlier versions of iOS I don't remember this being an issue: if there weren't any new pictures on the phone, iPhoto wouldn't open. Maybe I'm misremembering...

 

[milamber]

You for all of you who want quick access to bluetooth and wifi and stuff should check out SBSettings. It's a jailbroken app which allows you to have toggles to stuff like that really easily accessible.

 

[JD914]

You for all of you who want quick access to bluetooth and wifi and stuff should check out SBSettings. It's a jailbroken app which allows you to have toggles to stuff like that really easily accessible.

The majority of people don't jail break. Apple not the jail breaking community needs to address this issue.

 

[Nippur]

My biggest gripe is also is iOS pi$$ poor notification system, as I'm sure many out there are not happy with it. Plus there are MANY valid points made, I hope someone in Cupertino is reading this.

***Fan Boys please don't get your panties up in a bunch***

From BGR

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/10/22/the-iphone-is-the-worst/

"Finally, my biggest complaint: Apple’s iPhone has the worst notification system known to man. It is, without question, abysmal.

iOS notifications are as disruptive as notifications on a mobile device can possibly be. A box pops up in the middle of the display, interrupts whatever might be taking place at the time, and prevents the user from doing anything else with the device until one of two things happens — the user must either interact with the notification (dismiss it or open the related app) or turn the display off and back on."

Great article, thanks. All the iOS aging flaws described with great accuracy.

 

[Fernandez21]

If your not receiving texts heavily then the notification system is fine. But I'd you get many at a time it can get annoying. I don't know what I like better though, because I definitely don't like androids notifications.

Webos has the best notification system I've seen, I use a pre plus as my work phone. All notifications appear on the bottom portion of the screen with a little icon and number telling you how many you have. When you tap the icon small horizontal bars appear for each message with a preview of what was said (who the message is from, the subject header, and the first sentence of the message). You can then tap the message to fully view it or discard it it by sliding it to the side. And you can do this without closing any app or disrupting your work flow on the phone, it's really elegant.

 

[Ubuntu]

My biggest gripe is also is iOS pi$$ poor notification system, as I'm sure many out there are not happy with it. Plus there are MANY valid points made, I hope someone in Cupertino is reading this.

***Fan Boys please don't get your panties up in a bunch***

From BGR

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/10/22/the-iphone-is-the-worst/

"Finally, my biggest complaint: Apple’s iPhone has the worst notification system known to man. It is, without question, abysmal.

iOS notifications are as disruptive as notifications on a mobile device can possibly be. A box pops up in the middle of the display, interrupts whatever might be taking place at the time, and prevents the user from doing anything else with the device until one of two things happens — the user must either interact with the notification (dismiss it or open the related app) or turn the display off and back on."

Having tried my friend's android phone I have to say I am starting to like that OS. It will be a while before it wins me over but the recent versions are looking pretty good and feel more like a proper OS than iOS. By proper I mean it seems to have the little things that iOS misses out on, such as custom SMS tones, bluetooth file transfer, even the little alarm clock screensaver. No doubt they won't matter to many people but I actually miss the very basic features that even my cheap nokia has.

I quite like the notifications on android, from what I remember. I would much prefer iOS if the notifications appeared at the bottom or something.

EDIT: The author seems to have had a real big issue with youtube on his iPhone. Its been fine for me, really. I'm not an Apple fanboy but I think he's just been unlucky.

 

[Bernard SG]

I'm not big on OS concepts, let alone mobile OS; but aren't notifications more about implementation in Apps rather than the OS itself?

 

[kenypowa]

I'm not big on OS concepts, let alone mobile OS; but aren't notifications more about implementation in Apps rather than the OS itself?

No, because Apple only allows PUSH notification and every time you get an update, an annoying message box would pop out, regardless what you are doing. I hate it when it occurs while watching youtube or videos.

For my Nexus One, if I receive a text message, the trackball would glow green. It doesn't interfere with what I'm doing.

 

[Primejimbo]

It's perfect if you only get one text a day and disable push notifications. The terrible thing about iOS' notification system is that past notifications just disappear into thin air when you get a new notification. Horrible.

My issue with the notifications is when I am on a call and get a text message. I have to do something with the notification before I can even hang up.

 

[kdarling]

Webos has the best notification system I've seen, I use a pre plus as my work phone. All notifications appear on the bottom portion of the screen with a little icon and number telling you how many you have. When you tap the icon small horizontal bars appear for each message with a preview of what was said (who the message is from, the subject header, and the first sentence of the message). You can then tap the message to fully view it or discard it it by sliding it to the side. And you can do this without closing any app or disrupting your work flow on the phone, it's really elegant.

+ millions. WebOS beats everybody in terms of best notification system. Which is no doubt the reason why Apple hired back Rich Dellinger, the UI designer who did it. (Dellinger probably left Apple for Palm in the first place, because Palm allowed him to implement his ideas. )

I often wonder why some people claim that iOS is "more polished" than X or Y. For simple new users, sure. For slightly more advanced users, no.

 

[lexvo]

I recognize many of the points in the article. However, I don't recognize:
- playing YouTube videos: this works fine on my iPhone, both over 3G and WiFi
- the auto-correct system not learning: it learns on my iPhone

 

[jaw04005]

My iOS 5 Wishlist

- New notification system
- New Voice Control system with dictation like Android
- Updated video output (why no 720p support via component cables?)
- Widgets (preferably compatible with Dashboard desktop widgets)
- Home sharing for built-in iPod.app
- Basic editing for photos (crop, contrast, etc)
- iChat
- Photobooth
- "Smart" FaceTime calling (as in don't show the FaceTime call option if the contact doesn't have a supported device that's 'online')

Even adding something as simple as colored bubble notifications in 4.x would go a long way in helping out the notification system for now. I've turned off all push notifications except SMS for now. I couldn't do anything on my phone for the NYT app sending "Breaking News" pop-ups every 10 minutes.

 

[acfusion29]

i agree with everything in the article, but the things i care most about, can't easily be accomplished with other phones.

for instance.

- i like that i don't have to pull the battery every few days because my phone freezes
- i like that i can take high quality pictures and record awesome (high FPS) videos
- since i have a mac, my iTunes library syncs beautifully with my iPhone HASSLE FREE
- the touch screen compared to other phones is a million times better. i'm not talking about the resolution, i don't care (i'd rather use a 3GS than any other phone on the market). i'm talking about the input. it's sloppy on Android, BlackBerry and most likely Windows Mobile 7.
- i like that i've never had my iPhone crash on me while writing a text, sending an email or recording a video (*cough* blackberry)

i can continue but i won't

 

[fabianjj]

i agree with everything in the article, but the things i care most about, can't easily be accomplished with other phones.

for instance.

- i like that i don't have to pull the battery every few days because my phone freezes
- i like that i can take high quality pictures and record awesome (high FPS) videos
- since i have a mac, my iTunes library syncs beautifully with my iPhone HASSLE FREE
- the touch screen compared to other phones is a million times better. i'm not talking about the resolution, i don't care (i'd rather use a 3GS than any other phone on the market). i'm talking about the input. it's sloppy on Android, BlackBerry and most likely Windows Mobile 7.
- i like that i've never had my iPhone crash on me while writing a text, sending an email or recording a video (*cough* blackberry)

i can continue but i won't

Well I'm really pleased with my iPhone 4 too, but seriously the camera is OKAY, nothing more. I'm not complaining about it as the camera is not really my highest priority in a phone, but there are a lot of better cameraphones out there, even the iPhone 4 does not stand a chance against them.

 

[The Phazer]

I think it's a pretty good article. Even Apple must be slightly embarrassed by the fact they've not sorted some of these things yet, and the lack of updates for the YouTube app and mobile Safari nearly since launch (where's search by most recent in YouTube? Or having to use a Swype gesture to use autocomplete passwords in Safari? Or file uploads (and even if you don't want to give access to the file system, there's no excuse for not giving access to the photo/video folder).

I thought Apple had finally begun to move forward with iOS when 3.0 hit and it was a major update. But 4.0 was poor, and if we really have to wait another 9 months for the major functionality fixes I slightly despair. Why is HDR etc considered more important than some of these basic UI issues? At this point I have to suspect that iOS development is so slow compared to the competition because the iOS development team is spending all it's time trying to retrofit an interface to new products rather than improving the OS for it's existing users - the iPad, and now Apple TV, and the iPhone is getting pushed down the priority list.

Sigh.

Phazer

 

[acfusion29]

Well I'm really pleased with my iPhone 4 too, but seriously the camera is OKAY, nothing more. I'm not complaining about it as the camera is not really my highest priority in a phone, but there are a lot of better cameraphones out there, even the iPhone 4 does not stand a chance against them.

the thing is... most of those phones lack other key features such as a great input touch screen. or the phone is thick as hell.

 

[kdarling]

- i like that i don't have to pull the battery every few days because my phone freezes

You must not have used other phones in a year or two. Never had to do that on either WinMo 6.5 or Android.

- the touch screen compared to other phones is a million times better. i'm not talking about the resolution, i don't care (i'd rather use a 3GS than any other phone on the market). i'm talking about the input. it's sloppy on Android, BlackBerry and most likely Windows Mobile 7.

Again, not sure what phones you're talking about. I find the touch on an Android Incredible to be just as accurate and fluid.

- i like that i've never had my iPhone crash on me while writing a text, sending an email or recording a video (*cough* blackberry)

iOS is not at all crash-free. It just hides it better by exiting to the homescreen with no message or warning at all.

After various updates over the past year, my iOS devices tend to crash fairly often on both apps and websites. It seems to happen when they request more memory.

 

[acfusion29]

You must not have used other phones in a year or two. Never had to do that on either WinMo 6.5 or Android.



Again, not sure what phones you're talking about. I find the touch on an Android Incredible to be just as accurate and fluid.



iOS is not at all crash-free. It just hides it better by exiting to the homescreen with no message or warning at all.

After various updates over the past year, my iOS devices tend to crash fairly often on both apps and websites. It seems to happen when they request more memory.

i've used android phones and windows mobile. i can't type as fast as i can on my iPhone.

i can out type all my friends on my iPhone, compared to their blackberry's, android's and other phones.

 

[The Californian]

I believe I read something a while ago that said Apple had hired the guy that developed the notification system for webOS on Palm devices. Maybe a new notification system in iOS 5.0?

 

[JD914]

I often wonder why some people claim that iOS is "more polished" than X or Y. For simple new users, sure. For slightly more advanced users, no.

People sometimes say this out of sheer ignorance and not having tried out other platforms. The power user would totally agree that iOS has many issues that need to be addressed before it can be considered a "polished" OS.

 

[kdarling]

i've used android phones and windows mobile. i can't type as fast as i can on my iPhone.

i can out type all my friends on my iPhone, compared to their blackberry's, android's and other phones.

Ah. You're talking about typing?

(I couldn't tell what you were talking about when you said, "the touch screen compared to other phones is a million times better".)

So are you saying that you think you're faster on the iPhone because you can hit its letters easier? If so, that's good in your case.

You also remind me that I should try the Swype Keyboard. Thanks! I just haven't had the time yet.

(Btw, newcomers to HTC Android phones should use Settings - Language & Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Calibration Tool. You type in the "quick brown fox" sentence and it learns how your fingers tend to hit the keys. Really helped me.)

 

[sinsin07]

i've used android phones and windows mobile. i can't type as fast as i can on my iPhone.

i can out type all my friends on my iPhone, compared to their blackberry's, android's and other phones.

This does not mean anything if your friends can't type to begin with. The only way this has meaning is if your friends can type on par or faster than you on a iphone.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Outside of a few things, i have no problem with iOS at all. I'll go in no particular order.

1) The notification system.
2) Ability to set, by default, each app's multitasking to be on/off. Some apps, i just don't want to have multitasking on and would prefer to not have to constantly close it when done.
3) Tlert style text system. Fits in with notification system, sort of.
4) Lock screen could be more useful.
5) Ability to make folders, as with apps, in our camera rolls. I have over 300 pictures. So being able to hold/drag images on top of each other into folders would make it a lot easier, neater, and less cluttered.