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iOS 14 Could Offer Home Screen Widgets, Wallpaper Customizations
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I’d love a “Wallpaper of the Day” type feature where a new one is downloaded automatically from Apple each day.
So people want to add widgets to their home screen, and have an "app drawer" with all their apps in it. Well the current home screen is your app drawer. Do people actually use want to have the Today View as their home screen, and have to swipe to see the first screen of apps?
I hope they put some actual effort too in creating some good wallpapers that aren’t merely 4-5 versions of blobs, funeral flowers and flat rainbows. Their older wallpapers (aerials, macros etc) used to be top notch (no pun) and the iPhone 6s goldfish was rad. After iOS 10 it’s all been another example of minimum effort.
So in your mind being a power user is being able to use secure folder, seeing your battery %, double taping camera button? AOD? Really? How on earth are these things you mentioned make you a power user exactly?
Secure folder is a decent feature and I suppose there is a use case for it but for me anything that’s on an iphone is pretty secure as it is. Do I need to hide stuff on my iPhone? No as when my phone is locked it’s locked and nobody can get into it anyway.
Swiping down for notifications? I fail to see how this is that important certainly when a lot of people can swipe down with no issues. Not everybody uses big phones and most can do this one handed so sorry this is not something worth mentioning. Certainly when many use their apple watches for quick access to notifications
Double click power button for camera? No different than tapping screen when locked and swiping right to get the camera. So no that one is not really worth mentioning
AOD? It’s great sure but if you have an apple watch or a smart watch everything you see there you can get on a watch. So really are people with iPhone missing out on AOD? Not really. Does having AOD make you use your phone to your potential? Not really no as it’s just the time and notifications. It's not a must have feature but sure it's good to have.
To make it clear I mentioned spilt screen and picture in picture as they are great features. The ones you mentioned aside from AOD are not worth mentioning. Just like it’s not iPhone users worth mentioning about tap and swipe to open the camera. There are plenty of features on IOS which to me aren’t really worth mentioning similar to the ones you mentioned on android. I mentioned what I mentioned due to them being great features. As in being features that I miss not having.
I don’t think I have ever said android don’t have some great phones. However what you just mentioned nobody should class as that is why you don’t take android to it’s full potential.
Actually I wish I could explain it, that said I could never explain why battery life was so poor on every android phone I’ve ever used. Being in the UK the chips Samsung use for us are worse than the US and the fact they use different chips is stupid in the first place. Another thing that with Samsung makes them frustrating
Of course I knew how to use the S10. It’s a phone it’s not rocket science. I’m not the only one here who has reported these issue. There was a big thread in the iPhone forum about it and why it was an issue. This is a known issue which clearly doesn’t effect everybody but everybody has different usage patterns and not everybody has tons of notifications. I can sometimes get 2k a day so for me I want them to arrive and arrive on time.
You can believe it or you don’t doesn’t really matter but it does exist and as much as I wanted to love android this was a big issue that couldn’t be avoided and a deal breaker.
Also it has to be said why should you need to change things and switch things off to get notifications on time? you shouldn't need to adjust anything and this is why many don't like android due to the amount you need to switch off or change
Just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it will be the same for everybody. It’s certainly not down to the user as to why they didn’t come through.
I can only go by my own experience. When I woke up in the morning notifications didn’t come through with a certain app which was twitter and nothing came through until they were cleared. Which certainly isn’t the case with iPhones.
Things may change but history tells us over two years or more they will slow down. Maybe with 120HZ now this won’t be an issue. One can hope
Well as expected, you posted a myriad of excuses which honestly are quite unconvincing. There's no point for me to try to address them.
Anyway what I want to point out is that your statement regarding Android only missing slit screen and pip was general but now you try to make it about yourself, what you think, what you consider etc. Maybe you should have went with that from the very start.
Also you still haven't addressed at all your claims that widgets slow down Android phones(well that's not unsurprising because it's just not true).
Well the recent history(aka the S10) doesn't support your claim anyway. At least you admitted the obvious, there's really no guarantee the S20 will slow down in 2 years or more(or 2 months or 6 months like others claimed) so it's quite an irrelevant point point of view.
I don't think comparing a feature list like this is productive.
I think being able to glance at the phone while it's just somewhere on a table is neat.
I think being able to glance at the phone while it's just somewhere on a table is neat.
Nothing I stated were excuses. Some of the things you mentioned were quite shocking really. I mean mentioning battery %. Maybe it's needed to be checked on android phones but on the recent iPhones nobody needs to worry about battery life and I don't see why % is a big deal you can see what kind of level it's at.
Actually I said those features were the only two features that are missing as in those are actual features I and many would use. What you mentioned aren't deal breakers for anybody. AOD is fair but really that's about it. As I said what you highlighted aren't big deals just like people could mention some apple features don't matter too much.
As for widgets slowing down android phones from my experience it did. If you only have a few widgets it likely won't but if you have plenty then it will. If apple do allow on screen widgets I will be very surprised if this will ever be an issue.
History has shown that they do slow down and it's an issue many have had over the years. It's foolish to pretend this has never been the case. There's no guarantee the S20 will or won't. I would be worried if it did after 6 months.
More RAM maybe but that is changing as Apple is bumping that up. - better interface? More advanced? Not even close. The app ecosystem for Android tablets is inferior on its best day. Dex is trying to put a desktop like experience on a tablet but still has uneven Applications support. More importantly - Google sets up the idea of an ecosystem -- Nexus, Pixel Tablet, etc. -- Then when you do they discontinue the products and don't give updates for drivers or software. Basically - when you invest in Android - you invest in a phone and that is it. Most Android phones don't even run the latest version of Android - and don't get the latest features.
There is a reason why Android on tablet is dead. Even Google gave up on it. A lot of this is not just the crappy application ecosystem -- Google does not to keep support for older phones/hardware and their reliance on Snapdragon and their desire not to keep drivers open for new functionality required to make tablets competitive. The video below from two years ago gives a great critique on how Google is not managing or supporting the Android ecosystem well.
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And you posted a laundry list of features. That’s silly. A product is more than a feature matrix. There are absolutely things I miss in iOS, but there are also things I would miss in Android.
DeX is dead for a reason. A better use case is a surface pro or equivalent. Much more productive.
Not at all, they were just plain average excuses.
Really? Amusing, again you are making excuses, nobody needs to worry about battery...
Well again you made a general statement that widgets slow down android phones, a statement that you clearly can't support. Widgets most of the time only use RAM(and some of them use very little Ram) so if you have an android phone with low amounts of RAM(2-3GB) and you use a very large number of widgets it could have a negative impact(it depends on the phone) but that's a particular case not a general one. In general widgets don't affect performance on Android phones.
Also regarding Apple, it's a matter of physics and resources, the more things are active at the same time the more it uses certain resources. There are quite a lot of iphones with low amounts of RAM and that poses a problem. Well maybe widgets on the home screen just won't be available for those iphones or there will be a limit on how many widgets people can use on the home screens.
That's quite anecdotal. At the same time many people said their phones didn't slow down. It's foolish to pretend that x device slowing down in a certain amount of time it's an absolute fact.
Yeah there's no guarantee the S20 will or won't slow down and you only said this after I challenged you. In your initial statement you tried to make it seem like it's a sure thing.
If we take it further there's also no guarantee the 11 Pro Max will or won't slow down after 2 years. I mean it did happen in the past with quite a few iphones(especially with the iOS 11 update).
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The things I mentioned proved a very simple thing: picture in picture and split screen are not the only things missing.
Past that I don't care how users here characterize the things I mentioned.
Before this rumor, home screen widgets and wallpaper customization would have gotten even more trashed on this forum if anybody would have mentioned them but here we are, commenting on the fact that Apple supposedly plans to implement these features. It's quite funny.
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It is, you just refuse to see it.
If I would say thta I coud get the latest Android version on a phone by installing a custom ROM, would you consider that a valid argument in supporting the idea that Android phones have no problems getting the latest OS version?
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It’s not dead. Samsung recently added mouse window snapping and new gesture support to it.
Yeah, they also added Dex support in Windows and MacOS at the end of last year.
Dex was a product delivered DOA, only a few of the hardcore fans seem to wax lyrical about Dex.
Weird flex. That’s because I don’t have much of a problem with the rest of it.
Reaaaaaaally.
So where's Photoshop for DeX? Pixelmator? Procreate? Any pro graphics app at all? Crickets?
Android on a tablet is a joke compared to iOS and Windows.
I dont think he meant dead in that Samsung isnt adding to the features - but few are using it primarily for the lack of application support. Most android apps dont work well in landscape of work at all in landscape.
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According to latest stats - your approach still hasn't solved the Android fragmentation problem.
Welcome to the Fragmentation Party, Android 10
Android may be leaving dessert names behind with Android 10, but its OS market share is still a buffet of Pie, Oreos, Nougat, Marshmallows, Lollipops, and even a couple of KitKats.
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Here's one I thought for sure Apple would do once they got OLED panels in their phones, but to modify the way the lock screen behaves, but only lighting up notifications, or notification counts etc. Like the Motorola Q's did - the whole screen is blacked out save for a few heads up items on the lock screen. I'd love to customize it a bit more that way too.
Well no they don't as it's clear as day without seeing the actual % how much battery you have left. As I said maybe it's more important on android phones to know the battery %. On the iPhone pros it certainly isn't as battery life isn't a problem
Well you can't support that it doesn't either. So really this is pointless going back and forth on. All you can make the argument is your own personal usage. Which is what I'm basing mine off. If yours is fine then great
Until it happens we will see, I think the limited amount of ram on older iphones will be an issue with home screen widgets. So yes I do think only certain models would get it.
People do talk about it and has been an issue and what people claim. Doesn't matter if you disagree. If yours doesn't slow down over time then that's all that matters, right?
I'm basing it off past experience. Phones these days shouldn't slow down but would It surprise me if the S20 slows down in two or more years. However how many people keep android phones beyond two years?
I don't think that is true. I would say people would enjoy it if it arrived but would it matter if it didn't? not really and no they wouldn't miss not having it when it's not been there.
People buy iphones for their own reasons and if all these features android had was that great more would buy them.
There are plenty of features I would use and enjoy from android if apple added it to their software but does it effect the user experience not having it? nope.
Just like I said picture in picture and spilt screen are two features I would love. Just because I didn't mention others doesn't mean I wouldn't welcome them on the iPhone. I just wouldn't class it as important
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I was a big fan of Dex when it first came out. Mostly because of the phone business case - being able to connect a phone to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse was the most exciting part. However, application support was still mixed at best and what platform resources could be leveraged by applications in this business case depended on the hardware profile of your phone.
I think Samsung made a mistake diverting resources to bring Dex to tablets. There is little to no gain converting a tablet interface to a Dex interface as you still have the same physical form factor. The biggest value increase was using your phone as a desktop. Not making a tablet more desktop like.
And this is where the lack of control over hardware and software integration hampers Android and the hardware makers. If there no strong direction provided by Google or any company (in this case Samsung for Dex) -- there is no consistency. Samsung provides too much reliance on third party app developers to make Dex really a success. It gets no support from Android in this case. They should really invest in their own application ecosystem built ontop of stock Android. However, Samsung does not have a good track record in this. They gimp Dex too much by relying on Google and a fragmented Android developer base.
Now its true, Apple is just now adding features that debuted earlier on Android (although a lot were through 3rd party developers not stock android) , but the world is different now. Access to external USB media, pinned desktop widgets, and split-screen functionality are all productivity features. People are happy to gobble them up in 2019-2020. The iPad isn’t seen as a content-only device anymore — many people use them as their primary computers. Accomplished photographers Ted Forbes and Brian Matiash use their iPads every day for high-end video and photo editing, primarily due to app support from developers.
Another reason for the iPad’s success is continued support and improvement from Apple itself. Developer APIs like Metal make apps run much better on Apple hardware. Developers can quickly take advantage of that power for their productivity apps. While Google has done a great job of expanding language options, it’s hard to deny Apple’s ability to make its hardware lucrative for developers. The Apple developer ecosystem is superior to the Android environment. Developers make more money off iOS apps than they do off of Android apps. Which group will get more attention?
For consumers, a big reason to continue to buy the iPad is consistency. An iPad has always behaved like an iPad, since the very first model. If you buy one, you know what you’re getting into. The Android tablet market is at best a total crapshoot.
Well, the key part to worry about is whether it's almost full, half full, or low enough to go into low-power mode. The small icon already shows those. Details can be seen in Control Center. It doesn't really matter whether it's 76% or 74%, does it?
Where "missing" means "I like those features and wish the other OS also had them"? Because it can't actually mean "missing", which would imply something more critical than that.
They're interesting features, and maybe you personally depend on them, but I bet most don't.
(Likewise, iOS has tons of features most people don't care about. That's normal. I wouldn't say those are "missing" on Android.)
You continue to make excuses. Quite amusing.
Well I already did when I mentioned that widgets mainly have an impact on RAM so I's not about my own personal usage, I actually looked at the way apps that have active widget behave.
With Gsam Battery monitor I can see exactly how much resources the application uses. I haven't found anything to support your general claim that widgets slow down android phones.
Also you said: As long as they don’t slow down the phone like they clearly do on android. That's a general statement.
Regarding your personal usage, the S10 has 8GB minimum, there's no way widgets can slow down such a phone. How many did you use? 100?
It's based on anecdotal claims. iphone's being slowed down is based on past factual experiences.
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Whether Dex, Microsoft Continuum, or whatever Ubuntu Phone once called it… the general idea of connecting a phone to a monitor and keyboard is interesting, but doesn't seem to have caught on.
(The thing I keep coming back to is this: how many desks do you have that have a monitor, keyboard and mouse/trackpad, but don't… also have a computer? How likely is that? It seems Dex is waiting for a hypothetical future where we have computerless desks like that, and that future so far hasn't panned out.)
Apple's Continuity model seems more pragmatic than that — accept that people have a separate computer for the bigger screen, and instead make it simpler to move data and information. Universal Clipboard, Handoff, etc.
Microsoft seems to be moving in that direction with their Phone app.
On the contrary, connecting a tablet to a bigger screen makes more sense to me than doing so with a phone. It's just that the Android tablet market is kind of a wasteland, and Samsung alone so far wasn't able to fix that. (And Google seems to have stopped caring, perhaps in favor of ChromeOS.)
Right.
Establishing a platform is really hard, though. If Samsung were willing to work together with a few others, maybe.
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