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If iOS.5 doesn't get a home screen overhaul, I'm switching to Android
- Thread starter coldwarx
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I promise if iOS had widgets and android did not, you would think the exact opposite.
I think you misunderstand - you want customization only because it lets you get things done (I presume), and you are focused on personal outcome (creation), not on the means. Unless you want to manage information for its own sake, which you do not.
sick point bro score one for NJM, very helpful would read again
Well I have an iPhone4 and an iPad2. I barely use the home screen on my phone, because i'm usually texting, browsing, listening to music or playing a game/using a social app (twitter, instagram, words with friends).
But as for my iPad, I use it QUITE a bit differently from my phone.
Sometimes i sit there and use my different apps,
other times, i have the iPad right next to me while i work. I listen to music from it and have my email open... it would be great to control the basic's of the ipad off 1 screen. Is that really difficult to envision?
i think the microsoft guy's put it best when they revealed the mango phone... using iOS is like "walking out the front door to a different house"... it would be a better user experience if it were "like going from room to room"
Both of those screen shots look awful to me, but hey, if that looks good to you I can understand why you want the ability to tweak.
But Apple doesn't view the icon screen as the place to spend time. It's like complaining about the Finder look as it displays folders. That's cute, but it's not where you do your work.
Android users, if I can overgeneralize for a moment about the Android users who choose Android simply because it is Android, seem to be largely made up of tweakers. Hackers. That's cool. I like hackers. I always have. I know the way they think. I have a bit of it in me too.
So yeah, if you want to customize your tablet, or your computer's case, or your car, or your code, or your room, or anything else, you're a tweaker. You look at the UI itself and want to make it your own.
Most people are not like that, so you're going to have a hard time convincing them to be like you. They want things that just work, and if you tell them you can tweak the home screen, they're going to say, "Why would I care? I want to run a program, not stare at the home screen. iOS gets out of my way. Android is in my face."
But Apple doesn't view the icon screen as the place to spend time. It's like complaining about the Finder look as it displays folders. That's cute, but it's not where you do your work.
Android users, if I can overgeneralize for a moment about the Android users who choose Android simply because it is Android, seem to be largely made up of tweakers. Hackers. That's cool. I like hackers. I always have. I know the way they think. I have a bit of it in me too.
So yeah, if you want to customize your tablet, or your computer's case, or your car, or your code, or your room, or anything else, you're a tweaker. You look at the UI itself and want to make it your own.
Most people are not like that, so you're going to have a hard time convincing them to be like you. They want things that just work, and if you tell them you can tweak the home screen, they're going to say, "Why would I care? I want to run a program, not stare at the home screen. iOS gets out of my way. Android is in my face."
I beg to differ.
Please forgive me if I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that you are a physician. And as such, surely your "top level of hierarchy" ought to be obtaining the best possible outcomes for your patients? Total cure and/or recovery from injury. Minimization of pain and suffering. etc.
"Information management" is, unless one's job is Director of MIS for the Hospital, surely a secondary concern? Which is not to say that "Information Management" might not be important. If you are currently spending hours and hours digging around in complicated and obscure medical references, or spending hours on the phone trying to track down medical records - then - indeed - "Information Management" might be an area to focus upon.
But, at the end of the day (to use a tired and overworked cliche) - I would certainly hope that - for a physician - the "top level" of hierarchical needs ought to be the healing of one's patients. For an artist the creation of the most beautiful and inspiring works. For a manager the most profitable and productive business results. How one achieves those results is, ultimately, of lesser importance.
There IS a choice. You can choose Android and I can choose iOS.
Everyone's happy.
But no, that's not good enough for you. You want Apple to change to be more like Google. Then you get what you want everywhere and I don't get the thing I want anywhere. So please don't throw the word "CHOICE" around like you're in favor of it. We have a choice right now and your thread is asking for it to be taken away.
No thanks. I'm in favor of actual choice which means I like Apple to be like Apple and Google to be like Google and not have one emulate the other.
Well, you do have a choice. It's called Android.
Not every operating systems does (or should) act the same. iOS will work great for some. Android will work for others. It's up to the consumer to decide which system works for them. For me its iOS.
The fact that so many people keep coming here and asking "why can't iOS be more like android" while not jumping over to android seems to imply that android isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
lol.. duh, that's why i might switch. But I've had an iphone since 2007.. I've paid for god knows how many apps and products. I've help design apps for the iphone (7Cities check it out). I'm pretty loyal to apple, but it would be great to have options for something I'm already knee deep in....
It's MUCH too ambiguous of a concept, I don't think I have the energy to explore it!!
Silly. Very silly. You're telling me you wouldn't rather have a screen with RSS feed widgets, sports scores, email, twitter, all on one screen?
iPhone user's way to listen to music:
1. unlock iPhone.
2. Navigate to iPod app.
3. Select music.
4. Play music.
5. Exit to homescreen/lock phone.
To change songs? Edit things? Repeat 1-5, or double tap home at the lock screen
Android user's:
1. Unlock phone.
2. Navigate to music app.
3. select music.
4. play music.
5. exit to homescreen/lock phone
changing tracks, etc:
1. turn on screen.
2. Drag down top notification bar.
3. Select music.
You're browsing on iPhone? Chatting? Double tap home, bring up app drawer, select iPod, wait for it to load, etc. Android is all accessible from the top notification bar. Way simpler and quicker. That's the one thing that needs to be fixed in iOS. Notifications.
Ok, I can see that. Seems to me visual alerts for each App could be a reasonable solution (numbers of new tweets, new e-mails, new RSS updates, the weather icon could change) - though it doesn't solve the calendar issue. At some point there's a balance between 'dumping all the possible info on the screen' and 'no visual information aggregation at all'. I'm pretty sympathetic to how iOS has done it so far; I think to solve the things people are looking for iOS needs tweaks, not overhauls, and there's no indication things won't improve.
I see your point and in hindsight yes I do agree with you. But I still think it doesn't describe iOS users versus Android users. If I use an iOS app to look up a medicine interaction for example, I'd be using the same or similar app on Android. If I customized my iOS lockscreen to help me manage information better as a tool, I'd be doing the same on Android. You make the mistake of postulating that Android users are first and foremost concerned about customizing their device and less about using apps to create.
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Be careful what you generalize. You don't like the "grandma" generalization of iOS users, by the same token you can't (unless you have some specific demographical study in hand) generalize who Android users are. I think users are MUCH more overlapping across the two OS' than that.
i see that you're written something, but you're not actually saying anything.
How is asking for customizable options on the home screen the opposite of choice?
I'm not asking Apple to change it's iOS code to be exactly like Google.
I'm saying that the iPad screen is big, it could be utilized a way better.
And is it really that much of a ****ing faux pas here, to ask for some evolution to something that's been around for years now?
But that's not what you asked for. I'm all for evolution. I'm in favor of iOS adding many of the features talked about in this thread.
But you didn't say evolution. You asked for a "home screen overhaul," meaning a complete change from top to bottom. I don't want to see iOS throw everything away just to try and be like Android. I think that's a terrible idea.
*sigh*
Even when I put a disclaimer in my comment about overgeneralizing, I get called out for overgeneralizing.
You did say (not to me), "You make the mistake of postulating that Android users are first and foremost concerned about customizing their device and less about using apps to create. "
Well, that's most of what we get lectured about around here endlessly, so that's where the impression comes from.
And to the comment about wouldn't I like my home screen to have all that functionalilty: No. That's not how I use my iPad.
It's really going to be hard for many of us to accept the post-PC era. This will be the era where the computer disappears. If you are trying to tweak your home screen to have all that computer functionality, you are exhibiiting PC thinking. Good for you. Most people don't think that way.
*sigh*
Even when I put a disclaimer in my comment about overgeneralizing, I get called out for overgeneralizing.
And to the comment about wouldn't I like my home screen to have all that functionalilty: No. That's not how I use my iPad.
It's really going to be hard for many of us to accept the post-PC era. This will be the era where the computer disappears. If you are trying to tweak your home screen to have all that computer functionality, you are exhibiiting PC thinking. Good for you. Most people don't think that way.
But you are generalizing again. It's easy to attempt to predict the future, this PC-less world where everyone will be carrying only tablets Star Trek style. It's easy to generalize and say just because some of us want choice and customability that we are looking to get a desktop like experience on our smartphones/tablets, it's easy to generalize that we are exhibiting "PC thinking", although I can only guess what that means. Do you really think "most people don't think that way"? Or is that just another generalization? I am tending to agree with you that most people don't exhibit this ambiguous "PC thinking", they would just rather have the choice. For example, I'd love to have lockscreen information, that has no "PC thinking" associated with it, but hey don't let that stop you from lumping me in with the rest of the "PC thinkers" if they do exist.
The hypothesis (such as it is) was prompted by the OP: That, regardless of the fact that optimized iPad Apps outnumber tablet-specific Android Applications by a factor of a hundred to one, the inability to customize the homescreen was an important reason for this individual to switch to Android.
So 1) you are making a statement about the OP specifically and not generalizing about iOS versus Android users, correct? Your quote: "Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" explains (IMHO) the differences between Apple users and Android people. "
2) You are saying the OP (assuming #1 above) is not driven by the desire to attain his full potential but rather he's focused on a lower level of self actualization because he likes the customability of Android?
Lol, it's interesting to discuss but it's a bit humorous as well, that's some deep psychological stuff that's being stretched mighty thin. Sir, I wish they had a golfclap icon on here somewhere.
I've seen that (or variations on it) posted a lot, but don't really understand the logic behind it. Why is it better to have an option that you're not going to use than not have that option? Either way you're not using it so it doesn't make any difference at all!
I see what you are saying, but you don't know that others may want that choice, or even yourself if you were to use it and realize you liked it. We can agree to disagree, but I'd rather have an option that I may use in the future if my needs changed than not have the option at all. This just comes down to our personal opinions and neither of us can be wrong, the only decision that is wrong is the one that causes a loss of market value, and it's too early too tell so far.
First of all, I do not believe there will ever be a "PC-less world where everyone will be carring only tablets." I never said that, I don't think it, it won't be like that. That's not what the post-PC era means.
We are not in the mainframe era, yet mainframes continue to be used. Similarly there will always be PCs around, but each era dramatically widens the user base compared to the era that came before it. The number of smart phone and tablet users will one day vastly outnumber the PC users. But there will always be PCs, and many of us will continue to buy them. But they will be the minority of consumer purchases, perhaps as soon as ten years from now (my prediction has always been 2020).
Secondly, my comment about PC thinking refers to wanting to turn tablets into PCs. Most of the complaints about iPads have to do with them not being PCs: no keyboard, multitasking not working the right way, cannot get to the file system, etc. This complaint about not being able to install widgets, and to turn the desktop into a functional and useful thing is another example of wanting your tablet to work more like a PC.
We see this sort of thinking every time we transition into a new era. One of the more popular uses of early PCs was to install 3270 boards so that you could turn your PC into a dumb terminal.
Is this generalilzing? Duh. Any time you talk about an era, you have to generalize. If I were a mainframe user during the 1990s, I could get all snippy and say, "Oh you PC guys are generalizing. I'm using a mainframe." But it was still the PC era. And we are now entering the post-PC era. One day people will stop trying to turn their tablets into PCs, but we're not there yet.