Yeah - Apple pushes MVC design for this very reason. I expect the better designed apps to come out with iPad versions very quickly.
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Gruber: No 'Widget Mode' for Minor Applications on iPad
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Yeah - Apple pushes MVC design for this very reason. I expect the better designed apps to come out with iPad versions very quickly.
Other developers finding this problem?
I have to wonder... if this is true, and even Apple itself can't figure out ways to translate these apps to the iPad with a good look and feel... what about all the other developers who make simple but useful apps, but don't have the aesthetic sensibilities of Apple... are we going to see a lot of bad design?
I have to wonder... if this is true, and even Apple itself can't figure out ways to translate these apps to the iPad with a good look and feel... what about all the other developers who make simple but useful apps, but don't have the aesthetic sensibilities of Apple... are we going to see a lot of bad design?
This raises a very interesting point. I thought when the device was released was great, more screen real estate, no more trying to pack all that info into an iPhone screen ...
But you know it's hard to fill all that space. On the phone you have little enough it's easy, on Mac OSX you have a screen but you don't have to use any more of it than you need, make your app as large or small as you like, perfect example is calculator, it's the 'right' size for a person to see as a calculator, it just takes up the bit of the screen it needs.
The iPad is a tricky device to design for for some apps because like the iPhone you have the whole screen and your window covers the whole screen and you have to fill it. Yes of course you can choose to make a black background with your (one single) window in the middle but that's going to look a bit ho-hum.
Some apps, like calculator and stocks and weather just want to have an iPhone sized screen of content which you can move around a larger display and bury under another running application, a 1024x768 pixel calculator is a hard thing to design and make functional, I don't want buttons 200 px square.
I'll be very interested to see where apple goes with this and how they bridge the gap between 'I have a full screen' and 'I can actually use a full screen'.
But you know it's hard to fill all that space. On the phone you have little enough it's easy, on Mac OSX you have a screen but you don't have to use any more of it than you need, make your app as large or small as you like, perfect example is calculator, it's the 'right' size for a person to see as a calculator, it just takes up the bit of the screen it needs.
The iPad is a tricky device to design for for some apps because like the iPhone you have the whole screen and your window covers the whole screen and you have to fill it. Yes of course you can choose to make a black background with your (one single) window in the middle but that's going to look a bit ho-hum.
Some apps, like calculator and stocks and weather just want to have an iPhone sized screen of content which you can move around a larger display and bury under another running application, a 1024x768 pixel calculator is a hard thing to design and make functional, I don't want buttons 200 px square.
I'll be very interested to see where apple goes with this and how they bridge the gap between 'I have a full screen' and 'I can actually use a full screen'.
Given that the iPad ships with a 3.x flavor of the OS, I'm not surprised.
Frankly I don't think that the iPad was meant to ship with 3.2. It seems to be a place holder OS until 4.0 is ready. I would expect an announcement for the 4.0 OS soon, but not in time for the iPad release. The development community has been using the 3.2 SDK for a few weeks and it would be poor form to pull a switch before the platform development stabilizes a bit (w/o hardware, they are already developing with their hands tied).
Looking at the trends from the competition, I would expect 4.0 to have an informational launch page and some type of widget support.
Frankly I don't think that the iPad was meant to ship with 3.2. It seems to be a place holder OS until 4.0 is ready. I would expect an announcement for the 4.0 OS soon, but not in time for the iPad release. The development community has been using the 3.2 SDK for a few weeks and it would be poor form to pull a switch before the platform development stabilizes a bit (w/o hardware, they are already developing with their hands tied).
Looking at the trends from the competition, I would expect 4.0 to have an informational launch page and some type of widget support.
"Beta" refers to the part of a product's development cycle where all the features have been added, but not all the flaws have been ironed out yet.
I think you meant to say "alpha," which is where major features that are targeted for the release in question are still unimplemented.
Except, of course, that would make no sense. Because we're talking about features that are not targeted for this release.
In other words, you're talking out your arse.
Could be that you're right, but not for the reason Gruber supplied. A common complaint about the iPhone is that Apple-supplied apps can't be deleted. For example, I never use the Compass. Why do I need it on any of my home screens? Why can't I remove it if I don't want it on my phone? Perhaps Apple is taking more of these apps to the App Store so that people can have more control over which apps are on their iPad? Such as the case with iBooks app. Gruber could be correct about the result, but completely wrong about the underlying rationale.
It's insignificant compared to the time you've already cost yourself by the mental context-switch.
iPad apps
First of all mobile Apps for the iPhone ARE widgets. This is what widgets have become. They've turned into a multi-million dollar industry over the last few years.
Secondly, many people have complained about certain apps being fixed to their desktop (namely stocks, weather, etc.). You can't get rid of them and they take up precious space. I for one use the Weather Channel App instead of the crappy Yahoo Forecasts default app.
Anyway, it could just be that these apps were being reworked to fit the iPad, which caused its release delay (They did say it was software related.) On a side note, I think the iPad is highly marketable to the elderly where a giant fullscreen calculator wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
First of all mobile Apps for the iPhone ARE widgets. This is what widgets have become. They've turned into a multi-million dollar industry over the last few years.
Secondly, many people have complained about certain apps being fixed to their desktop (namely stocks, weather, etc.). You can't get rid of them and they take up precious space. I for one use the Weather Channel App instead of the crappy Yahoo Forecasts default app.
Anyway, it could just be that these apps were being reworked to fit the iPad, which caused its release delay (They did say it was software related.) On a side note, I think the iPad is highly marketable to the elderly where a giant fullscreen calculator wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
Apple "Beta" products are considerably more advanced and better than Microsoft Marketed Products...
I don't get the "negative" votes. Widgets was always a blogger fantasy, no doubt to get attention as bloggers are known to crave.
As far as Apple not including these apps Hallelujah and Amen! It annoys me to no end that Apple includes these CRapps on the iPhone. They were decent when the iPhone 1.0 shipped & there was not App Store. But now nearly every single Apple included app has been eclipsed by a 3rd part version. The exceptions being those Apps like Safari where Apple won't allow competition.
Stocks - Bloomberg, CNBC
Weather - WeatherBug, Weather Channel
Calculator - CalcPad & many others depending on what you want to calculate
Clock - Actually use the iPhone clock as a sleep timer/alarm, but won't be using the iPad this way so no huge loss. Plenty of clock apps available anyway, and surely more to come.
I kinda get the feeling Apple said, these are so basic let other devs spend their time on it and we'll still make money (Muwahahaha!).
As far as Apple not including these apps Hallelujah and Amen! It annoys me to no end that Apple includes these CRapps on the iPhone. They were decent when the iPhone 1.0 shipped & there was not App Store. But now nearly every single Apple included app has been eclipsed by a 3rd part version. The exceptions being those Apps like Safari where Apple won't allow competition.
Stocks - Bloomberg, CNBC
Weather - WeatherBug, Weather Channel
Calculator - CalcPad & many others depending on what you want to calculate
Clock - Actually use the iPhone clock as a sleep timer/alarm, but won't be using the iPad this way so no huge loss. Plenty of clock apps available anyway, and surely more to come.
I kinda get the feeling Apple said, these are so basic let other devs spend their time on it and we'll still make money (Muwahahaha!).
Apple’s PR last week said the iPad will ship with 12 apps, so... I guess those apps will be missing! And they’re not automatic necessities that a tablet “has to” have (since there IS a simple clock built into the OS already) but Calculator comes pretty close I feel. There are tons of free and paid apps to do all these things anyway I suppose, with more on the way, but a calculator bundled would be nice, and maybe at least an alarm clock.
I agree that the size is a challenge (especially with some people thinking it’s “only” a big iPhone). But I still think Apple CAN make each of the missing apps look good and feel right at a large size, and that they’ll probably do so with (some of) them after launch if not before:
* Clock: a giant clock would look fine on a docked device, plus a row of small clocks underneath it for other world time zones. Buttons would pop up the timer and stopwatch in small popovers. And alarms could be set by dragging markers around the big clock face, or with a second screen. (You could even have the next 12 hours of calendar events highlighted with arcs around the clock face.) Allow the clock face to be a photo slideshow maybe.
* Calculator: The full height on the left side could be a paper tape. For the rest, add a Memory display, make the buttons a little bigger, and center it vertically (same as Address Book) with some empty black above/below. (Throw in a tip calculator if it wouldn’t stepping on third parties too much.)
* Stocks: show more info (like news) at once, with bigger/more detailed graphs. A left-side list could show all your stocks at a glance with less need for scrolling.
* Weather: show more info at once. Radar would be nice! Or allow up to 4 locations to be tiled at once.
* Voice Memos: roll it into the Notes app, where I think it always belonged even on the iPhone. When recording, you could make typed notes as well—and they’d end up in the Comments field in iTunes.
* Compass: Do the 3G models have this? If so, roll it into the Maps app, where I think it always belonged. (Stick it in the corner of the map, maybe with a tap to toggle a larger size.)
P.S. I can only imagine the awesome iTunes Remote that Apple could make based on iPad’s big iPod app!
I agree that the size is a challenge (especially with some people thinking it’s “only” a big iPhone). But I still think Apple CAN make each of the missing apps look good and feel right at a large size, and that they’ll probably do so with (some of) them after launch if not before:
* Clock: a giant clock would look fine on a docked device, plus a row of small clocks underneath it for other world time zones. Buttons would pop up the timer and stopwatch in small popovers. And alarms could be set by dragging markers around the big clock face, or with a second screen. (You could even have the next 12 hours of calendar events highlighted with arcs around the clock face.) Allow the clock face to be a photo slideshow maybe.
* Calculator: The full height on the left side could be a paper tape. For the rest, add a Memory display, make the buttons a little bigger, and center it vertically (same as Address Book) with some empty black above/below. (Throw in a tip calculator if it wouldn’t stepping on third parties too much.)
* Stocks: show more info (like news) at once, with bigger/more detailed graphs. A left-side list could show all your stocks at a glance with less need for scrolling.
* Weather: show more info at once. Radar would be nice! Or allow up to 4 locations to be tiled at once.
* Voice Memos: roll it into the Notes app, where I think it always belonged even on the iPhone. When recording, you could make typed notes as well—and they’d end up in the Comments field in iTunes.
* Compass: Do the 3G models have this? If so, roll it into the Maps app, where I think it always belonged. (Stick it in the corner of the map, maybe with a tap to toggle a larger size.)
P.S. I can only imagine the awesome iTunes Remote that Apple could make based on iPad’s big iPod app!
With all the great ideas that float around Apple, it really seems like someone could have come up with a better way to deal with iPhone apps on the iPad than the "zoom" or "float" method. Being able to have multiple iPhone apps running as widgets seems almost a no-brainer. Why shouldn't you be able to have your stocks ticker up on the screen while you are browsing the Web? Or have a small e-mail app open while you are creating a document in iWork. For all the years of hype and excitement about an Apple tablet, the real incarnation has come out looking like a rush job.
A widget is no different then a full app in any meaningful way besides where they are viewed. What people usually mean by widgets are small framed apps running in the background that can be pinned to a quickly accessible page like the OSX dashboard.
A well implemented dashboard on the iPad could eliminate the need for multitasking by having helper widgets for an applications background tasks.
Nooo!!!!!!!!!
This is actually pretty nasty news.
The iPhone Calculator is simple and elegant. It works. I love being able to switch from mode to mode by rotation. That is the calculator I use.
The iPhone Clock is even more important. It is able to do something many Apps can't - run in background. I can set a timer to turn off my iPod Touch / iPhone after 1:30 hours. Very, very, useful.
These are both very useful Apps that could be enhanced but at least should be available as they currently are. They should continue to be available since after all they said the Apps we had would be available.
Stocks I can do without. It would be great to be able to delete those standard Apps we don't want.
This is actually pretty nasty news.
The iPhone Calculator is simple and elegant. It works. I love being able to switch from mode to mode by rotation. That is the calculator I use.
The iPhone Clock is even more important. It is able to do something many Apps can't - run in background. I can set a timer to turn off my iPod Touch / iPhone after 1:30 hours. Very, very, useful.
These are both very useful Apps that could be enhanced but at least should be available as they currently are. They should continue to be available since after all they said the Apps we had would be available.
Stocks I can do without. It would be great to be able to delete those standard Apps we don't want.
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I should preface this by saying I probably wouldn't buy an ipad regardless of what it can do because iMac + work laptop + iPhone covers my computing needs fully.
That said, I really want to like the ipad, but they are making it hard. Why should it lack these basic apps? This would be a great chance for apple to enhance these apps and really make them shine. Instead, because iphone apps don't scale up properly, the ipad gets nothing?
This just enhances the feeling I've had from the start: the whole iPhone-os-on-a-tablet thing seems lazy. it really should be running iPhone os+ or OS X-lite. You know, something actually designed for the form factor. Slapping either the iPhone os or OS X on a device that neither os was designed for seems lazy and very un-apple.
And this story right here shows the problem with it. The small iPhone screen demands a unique way of interacting with it. It also demands small, clean, uncluttered apps suited to that screen. Those ideas are not necessarily useful on a 10" screen.
Multitasking is the big example. I can live without it on a phone, but on a device with a proper word processor, not having it borders on insane. Nobody would design an os without multitasking for a word processing 10" computer - but of course, that's my point - nobody did design an os for the ipad. They slapped something that works great on a phone on to a device it was never intended for, and lo and behold, things don't work right (as with these apps).
The ship has sailed on a proper tablet os, but they at least need to properly translate the iphone's basic functions to the ipad.
I should preface this by saying I probably wouldn't buy an ipad regardless of what it can do because iMac + work laptop + iPhone covers my computing needs fully.
That said, I really want to like the ipad, but they are making it hard. Why should it lack these basic apps? This would be a great chance for apple to enhance these apps and really make them shine. Instead, because iphone apps don't scale up properly, the ipad gets nothing?
This just enhances the feeling I've had from the start: the whole iPhone-os-on-a-tablet thing seems lazy. it really should be running iPhone os+ or OS X-lite. You know, something actually designed for the form factor. Slapping either the iPhone os or OS X on a device that neither os was designed for seems lazy and very un-apple.
And this story right here shows the problem with it. The small iPhone screen demands a unique way of interacting with it. It also demands small, clean, uncluttered apps suited to that screen. Those ideas are not necessarily useful on a 10" screen.
Multitasking is the big example. I can live without it on a phone, but on a device with a proper word processor, not having it borders on insane. Nobody would design an os without multitasking for a word processing 10" computer - but of course, that's my point - nobody did design an os for the ipad. They slapped something that works great on a phone on to a device it was never intended for, and lo and behold, things don't work right (as with these apps).
The ship has sailed on a proper tablet os, but they at least need to properly translate the iphone's basic functions to the ipad.
I was hoping for a Dashboard like functionality that was maybe globally activated by swiping the status bar (kindof like SBSettings for jailbroken iPhones). It could have probably worked with straight Mac OS X widgets or ones slightly modified, and since Safari already runs in the background, why not Dashboard widgets which are just little encapsulated javascript/css "web pages"...
I think this is sort of dumb, a modern gadget that doesn't have a calculator and a timer/alarm clock is kind of stupid. It's not like you can't live without it, but it's the basic stuff that you take for granted. I don't care for the Weather widget since it's predictions are utterly useless and completely random, and I don't care for stocks either, but Clock and Calculator are important. I hope they release cooler versions of them later. Like a TI graphing calculator emulator... That would rock. Not gonna happen though.
But I really think this upscaling of apps, or running them in small mode is quite funny, I really hope every single app will be updated soon to support a new layout for the iPad. Those huge buttons and controls with gigantic text just look retarded
But I really think this upscaling of apps, or running them in small mode is quite funny, I really hope every single app will be updated soon to support a new layout for the iPad. Those huge buttons and controls with gigantic text just look retarded
This is the problem! No one can write an application that runs in the background except Apple.
Because said document includes a variety of figures that you're using in your calculation?
An on-screen calculator clearly needs to be floatable and moveable, and run alongside other applications.
Apple even realised this with Mac OS 1.
The iPhone's small screen is reason enough that the calculator is full screen and exclusive on that platform, but the iPad is different. Maybe Cocoa Touch 3.2+ will have UI elements for full calculator utility, so apps can include it themselves on a button if they want to...
How can you say this one is no huge loss, while stating how much you use the iPhone clock at the same time.
I don't care about removing the weather, calculator. They can easily be replaced by a third party app, giving equal or better functionality. I also hate how the Apple supplied ones can't be removed.
But clock is different, it's functionality simply can't be replaced by a third party because of it's ability to run in the background.
My iPhone has become my alarm clock, I have a job where I need to get up at a different time depending on the day of week. I set my iPhone's weekly alarm schedule, and forgetaboutit.
The timer functionality is something I use all the time as well. Another example of lost functionality, that can't be replaced by third party apps.
If one of the justifications for removing flash, is it's a battery killer, how can removing the clock app be justified. To get near the same functionality a third party app would need to be run and the device and app left running. This kills the battery and prevents you from running other apps.
