iOS 14 Could Offer Home Screen Widgets, Wallpaper Customizations

[cgsnipinva]

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.

That was my quote you referenced - not Megatron's.
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Yeah, they also added Dex support in Windows and MacOS at the end of last year.

Right - but there is a problem - if I have a windows or MacOS machine - why would I care about using Dex at all? Its a misguided use case.

Fact remains and is undeniable - there is no real Android ecosystem. Google - which makes the best apps and services on Android - killed Tablet development (software and hardware) and killed wearable development (hardware and software).

The Android "ecosystem" is down to a commodity phone platform, some speakers, and ChromeOS Pixel. ChromeOS is not a real operating system - its a browser. Even within the phone platform - application development is spotty at best. Android does not get the attention from App developers that iOS gets. Period.

Given this landscape - which platform has the best long term prospects on delivering value?

 

[chucker23n1]

That was my quote you referenced - not Megatron's.

Oops.

Right - but there is a problem - if I have a windows or MacOS machine - why would I care about using Dex at all? Its a misguided use case.

Exactly. If I already have a desktop, and I need to connect the phone to portions of that desktop (display and input devices) anyway, why… not just use that desktop?

 

[cgsnipinva]

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.)

Well the Dex for tablets is not for connecting a tablet to a monitor/keyboard but having a Dex environment on the tablet itself as opposed to the normal tablet view.

 

[M3gatron]

Right - but there is a problem - if I have a windows or MacOS machine - why would I care about using Dex at all? Its a misguided use case.

To be able to access the information/apps found on the phone in a productive oriented interface.

Fact remains and is undeniable - there is no real Android ecosystem. Google - which makes the best apps and services on Android - killed Tablet development (software and hardware) and killed wearable development (hardware and software).

The Android "ecosystem" is down to a commodity phone platform, some speakers, and ChromeOS Pixel. ChromeOS is not a real operating system - its a browser. Even within the phone platform - application development is spotty at best. Android does not get the attention from App developers that iOS gets. Period.

Given this landscape - which platform has the best long term prospects on delivering value?

It's not a fact at all.
Most Android OEMs started to give up on tablets when the sales of such devices declined massively and also because of the increased popularity of big screen smartphones(instead of selling 2 tablets they could sell 10 phones). Even OEMs that made decent tablets that sold OK eventually decided to only concentrate on smartphones.
The simple fact is Android users aren't interested in tablets anymore, that's the main reason why Google killed their tablet hardware.

 

[chucker23n1]

Well the Dex for tablets is not for connecting a tablet to a monitor/keyboard but having a Dex environment on the tablet itself as opposed to the normal tablet view.

Oh, so it's Android but with multiple windows?

 

[cgsnipinva]

To be able to access the information/apps found on the phone in a productive oriented interface.



It's not a fact at all.
Most Android OEMs started to give up on tablets when the sales of such devices declined massively and also because of the increased popularity of big screen smartphones(instead of selling 2 tablets they could sell 10 phones). Even OEMs that made decent tablets that sold OK eventually decided to only concentrate on smartphones.
The simple fact is Android users aren't interested in tablets anymore, that's the main reason why Google killed their tablet hardware.

Response to your first point - On a MACOS -- I don't need to do that - as my iOS mobile apps Synch with my MacOS apps. Same thing with Windows Apps on a Windows machine. In fact, on my MacOS -- My Windows applications from my Office365 subscription - synch with the window apps on my MacOS machine. So the value proposition of Dex in that business case is minimal.

Response to Your Point 2 -- I disagree. A large screen phone doesn't replace a tablet with a larger screen that can perform productivity tasks. Google stopped providing support for Android features for tablets. With hardware fragmentation in the Android hardware market -- getting consistency made android tablets content consumption devices only which overlap with phones. Fact is Android ceded upper end tablet market to Apple. Android's application ecosystem is still takes a back seat to Apple's application ecosystem.
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Oh, so it's Android but with multiple windows?

yes - its putting a desktop look and feel on a tablet form factor.

 

[falainber]

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.

You are moving the goal posts. The discussion was about the OS features, not the apps. In general, though, Android vendors (specifically Samsung) position tablets as media consumption devices which makes perfect sense given the inherent limitations of the form factor. Apple is the only company that is trying (for many years now) to fool people into thinking that the tablet is a suitable computer for productivity. What they ended up with (in iPad Pro) is a thing that is a tablet in the name only. It is as big and as expensive as a laptop with all the features of the latter (mouse, keyboard, pen).
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Oh, so it's Android but with multiple windows?

Yes, and?

 

[falainber]

DeX is dead for a reason. A better use case is a surface pro or equivalent. Much more productive.

DeX is for those who need a computer just for occasional use. I agree that surface pro (or any laptop) is much more productive. They are also much more productive than iPad Pro.

 

[nburwell]

I wholeheartedly welcome these features!

 

[cgsnipinva]

You are moving the goal posts. The discussion was about the OS features, not the apps. In general, though, Android vendors (specifically Samsung) position tablets as media consumption devices which makes perfect sense given the inherent limitations of the form factor. Apple is the only company that is trying (for many years now) to fool people into thinking that the tablet is a suitable computer for productivity. What they ended up with (in iPad Pro) is a thing that is a tablet in the name only. It is as big and as expensive as a laptop with all the features of the latter (mouse, keyboard, pen).
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Yes, and?

Actually Samsung has been positioning their tablet offering as a productivity device -- that is what Dex is all about.

Apple has been succeeding in getting the tablet into the productivity sphere and iPadOS has moved that forward still. They haven't had to fool anyone in that area.

 

[I7guy]

DeX is for those who need a computer just for occasional use. I agree that surface pro (or any laptop) is much more productive. They are also much more productive than iPad Pro.

What one can do on an iPad one can replicate on windows. The same can’t be said for Dex. Then there is the conversation the iPad (thankfully) is not windows and that it is the best full-featured tablet.

 

[chucker23n1]

The simple fact is Android users aren't interested in tablets anymore

Maybe that's because Android tablets were never great.
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You are moving the goal posts. The discussion was about the OS features, not the apps. In general, though, Android vendors (specifically Samsung) position tablets as media consumption devices which makes perfect sense given the inherent limitations of the form factor.

That's fascinating, because your original post said: "You just have no clue about Android tablets. Samsung DeX on tablets is way more advanced than iPadOs. Better GUI, better multitasking and more RAM."

So, just to be clear: Android tablets have "better GUI, better multitasking and more RAM", yet despite this, they're not even suitable for production use? Must be pretty ****** multitasking if the device limited to consumption.

Apple is the only company that is trying (for many years now) to fool people into thinking that the tablet is a suitable computer for productivity.

You may have heard of some upstart called Microsoft.

What they ended up with (in iPad Pro) is a thing that is a tablet in the name only. It is as big and as expensive as a laptop with all the features of the latter (mouse, keyboard, pen).

Except the keyboard is detachable.

Look, I don't even own a personal iPad Pro; I'm more into the MacBook Pro. But your assertion was that "DeX on tablets is more advanced than iPadOS", which is just laughable. Don't turn that around into "oh, well, tablets aren't that useful anyway".

 

[falainber]

Actually Samsung has been positioning their tablet offering as a productivity device -- that is what Dex is all about.

Apple has been succeeding in getting the tablet into the productivity sphere and iPadOS has moved that forward still. They haven't had to fool anyone in that area.

DeX is offered on smartphones too. It's a productivity add-on. Productivity enhancements make sense for both smart phones and the tablets. However enhancing productivity and positioning the device an alternative to real computers are two very different things. If Samsung were positioning the tablets as productivity devices they would release roper hardware. As is, their tablets have less RAM than the phones and same (or less powerful) processors.

While iPads (and tablets in general) do have real use cases outside media consumption, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks. They are almost there: they have almost as good displays as laptops, almost as much RAM as (cheap) laptops, they even have (crippled) keyboard and trackpad. They can be used as productivity devices but that's a huge compromise. Makes sense for some but mostly as an occasional computer. Sometimes it seems to me that the fact that the 13" iPad Pro is as much a social phenomena as it is a technical one. In most cases, it's not a good media consumption device (too big for hand holding and there are better and much cheaper alternatives for a stationary use). Anecdotally, from reading people comments here on MR, we see that many people chose between Mac Books and iPad Pros (13"). And it seems that it is often a case that people can't afford both (or a Mac Book) and also many of these people just can't imagine buying a device from another vendor. In many cases, a $600 windows laptop (or a Chromebook) would be a better option for them but they are not looking in this direction. It's less of an issue (or not an issue at all) outside Apple "ecosystem". With breadth of options, people just are not interested in "productivity tablets".

 

[rhett7660]

I for one can't wait for the ability to customize my phone... Widgets... Yes! Being able to place icons anywhere I want... Yes!

I do not care if Android had it first... I would like it for my iPhone and I hope we get it.

 

[sintra1]

How? It’s one folder, one garage as you say. You guys act like this is some life changing difference. It’s a place that houses all your apps, pretty simple.

And a shed load of cr*p this should in settings

 

[sintra1]

To be able to access the information/apps found on the phone in a productive oriented interface.



It's not a fact at all.
Most Android OEMs started to give up on tablets when the sales of such devices declined massively and also because of the increased popularity of big screen smartphones(instead of selling 2 tablets they could sell 10 phones). Even OEMs that made decent tablets that sold OK eventually decided to only concentrate on smartphones.
The simple fact is Android users aren't interested in tablets anymore, that's the main reason why Google killed their tablet hardware.

What’s an Android user exactly - Most people on contracts simply want a mobile phone within their monthly budget With millions of Android powered devices many really cheap and promoted by networks customers will snap them up . Load a few games and the usual useless social media apps , and might take some selfies . These people will have no idea how to side load an update nor do they have any inclination to do so -Thats the facts why Android powered devices command the market share they do and No other reason period.

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DeX is offered on smartphones too. It's a productivity add-on. Productivity enhancements make sense for both smart phones and the tablets. However enhancing productivity and positioning the device an alternative to real computers are two very different things. If Samsung were positioning the tablets as productivity devices they would release roper hardware. As is, their tablets have less RAM than the phones and same (or less powerful) processors.

While iPads (and tablets in general) do have real use cases outside media consumption, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks. They are almost there: they have almost as good displays as laptops, almost as much RAM as (cheap) laptops, they even have (crippled) keyboard and trackpad. They can be used as productivity devices but that's a huge compromise. Makes sense for some but mostly as an occasional computer. Sometimes it seems to me that the fact that the 13" iPad Pro is as much a social phenomena as it is a technical one. In most cases, it's not a good media consumption device (too big for hand holding and there are better and much cheaper alternatives for a stationary use). Anecdotally, from reading people comments here on MR, we see that many people chose between Mac Books and iPad Pros (13"). And it seems that it is often a case that people can't afford both (or a Mac Book) and also many of these people just can't imagine buying a device from another vendor. In many cases, a $600 windows laptop (or a Chromebook) would be a better option for them but they are not looking in this direction. It's less of an issue (or not an issue at all) outside Apple "ecosystem". With breadth of options, people just are not interested in "productivity tablets".

Isn’t DEX pretty much a cut down Linux distro?

 

[cgsnipinva]

Isn’t DEX pretty much a cut down Linux distro?

Actually no. They do offer a hosted linux desktop option. But Dex as originally conceived was to take the Android phone and when connected to the Dex hub (with monitor, keyboard, and mouse) offered a windowed desktop interface on the larger screen. To be honest - it was the one thing I saw Samsung do with the Android platform that Google should have done. It had an initial base of applications that would port to this interface scale nicely and you could do email, word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing like a desktop from the phone.

Unfortunately - Samsung started to go in multiple different directions on this instead of focusing on app development. This is where Samsung could have divorced the Android platform from Google and create their own ecosystem. It was a platform that could show what a mobile OS and mobile (ARM) hardware could do.

They didn't put enough muscle behind it to keep it going - they got distracted. I believe they did so because software development is not their strength. And to be honest that is what has hampered the Android ecosystem. Google does not focus on products or services that either goo too far from their search based/ad based revenue model or if they encounter some market difficulty. They put up a beta of a service - then kill it. Put up hardware then kill it.

Samsung was the one vendor I thought could take Android and make it what it could have been given their hardware expertise. If they could have taken a shot at a suite of apps to include mail, calendar, contact, task office suites and throw in a browser like Opera -- they could have taken that and what Microsoft had developed and made a go at it. They could have integrate this with their tvs and boom --- challenge to to what I see has been Google's mismanagement of the platform.

 

[I7guy]

....

While iPads (and tablets in general) do have real use cases outside media consumption, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks. ...

What the heck is a "classic productivity task"?email? Word processing? Spreadsheets? Check facebook? Forget the last one, that is not the definition of classic.

 

[cgsnipinva]

While iPads (and tablets in general) do have real use cases outside media consumption, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks. They are almost there: they have almost as good displays as laptops, almost as much RAM as (cheap) laptops, they even have (crippled) keyboard and trackpad. They can be used as productivity devices but that's a huge compromise. Makes sense for some but mostly as an occasional computer. Sometimes it seems to me that the fact that the 13" iPad Pro is as much a social phenomena as it is a technical one. In most cases, it's not a good media consumption device (too big for hand holding and there are better and much cheaper alternatives for a stationary use). Anecdotally, from reading people comments here on MR, we see that many people chose between Mac Books and iPad Pros (13"). And it seems that it is often a case that people can't afford both (or a Mac Book) and also many of these people just can't imagine buying a device from another vendor. In many cases, a $600 windows laptop (or a Chromebook) would be a better option for them but they are not looking in this direction. It's less of an issue (or not an issue at all) outside Apple "ecosystem". With breadth of options, people just are not interested in "productivity tablets".

You are wrong on a few points here.

1.) Crippled keyboard and trckpad? - I can take my 2017 iPad Pro and connect and apple bluetooth mouse and keyboard from my main Mac desktop.

2.) My 13" iPad Pro is perfect for media consumption as I use it on airplanes and on business travel. Its case supports it upright and I use my airpods with it.

3.) I have a Mac as a desktop and use an iPad in lieu of a macbook for mobile work needs. Its lighter, thinner and can do things with my Apple Pencil and the camera I could not do with a traditional laptop. It has LTE connectivity built in and all day battery life.

A clunky $600 windows laptop or a gimped and limited Chromebook (glorified browser masquerading as an OS) -- does not make the cut.

 

[chucker23n1]

Actually no. They do offer a hosted linux desktop option. But Dex as originally conceived was to take the Android phone and when connected to the Dex hub (with monitor, keyboard, and mouse) offered a windowed desktop interface on the larger screen. To be honest - it was the one thing I saw Samsung do with the Android platform that Google should have done. It had an initial base of applications that would port to this interface scale nicely and you could do email, word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing like a desktop from the phone.

Unfortunately - Samsung started to go in multiple different directions on this instead of focusing on app development. This is where Samsung could have divorced the Android platform from Google and create their own ecosystem. It was a platform that could show what a mobile OS and mobile (ARM) hardware could do.

They didn't put enough muscle behind it to keep it going - they got distracted. I believe they did so because software development is not their strength. And to be honest that is what has hampered the Android ecosystem. Google does not focus on products or services that either goo too far from their search based/ad based revenue model or if they encounter some market difficulty. They put up a beta of a service - then kill it. Put up hardware then kill it.

Samsung was the one vendor I thought could take Android and make it what it could have been given their hardware expertise. If they could have taken a shot at a suite of apps to include mail, calendar, contact, task office suites and throw in a browser like Opera -- they could have taken that and what Microsoft had developed and made a go at it. They could have integrate this with their tvs and boom --- challenge to to what I see has been Google's mismanagement of the platform.

I think this is spot on.

Around early 2012, I was shown a tablet by a Samsung marketing person. The hardware was fine; a bit iPad-esque in looks, though I believe both the case and the screen protection were plastic, rather than metal and glass.

The software? Well, it ran Windows 7 (this must have been around half a year before 8 had launched; we couldn't wait for that). Windows 7 did add various touch gesture APIs, but boy, were those in an early state. In order to make the software selection look a bit better, Samsung had developed an entire series of custom apps, including a launcher. That's right: basically just for this one tablet (that I know of), they made a full-screen launcher app to replace Windows Explorer, sort of looking like a blend of Android and iOS at the time. They made their own Weather, Clock, and other apps. I think Notes, too. They had Apple-like-but-not-quite-Apple icons and UI. They were buggy as hell.

Clearly, they had given some poor intern the job to come up with a few sample apps.

I don't quite recall if those apps came with a software updater. They could've been entirely throwaway stuff. There was no store or anything.

It's basically the same story: Samsung had a chance to push big into their own, Windows-based tablet+app platform, and didn't. I think they culturally view software too much as a means to an end (that end being to sell hardware), rather than as important and difficult on its own.
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While iPads (and tablets in general) do have real use cases outside media consumption, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks.

While Macs (and GUIs in general) do have real use cases outside drawing, they are poor man's computers for classic productivity tasks.

 

[cgsnipinva]

A good article on the state of Android app development.

How Google's Failing the Android App Market

DVD Jon, the reverse engineer who decrypted DVDs for the masses and liberated iTunes with DoubleTwist, is worried about the Android Market. There's too

gizmodo.com

DVD Jon, the reverse engineer who decrypted DVDsfor the masses and liberated iTunes with DoubleTwist, is worried about the Android Market. There's too much junk, he says, and Google needs to follow Apple's lead to clean it up.

That might seem like a surprising notion coming from someone famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) for methodically removing bricks from some of the tech world's most fortified walled gardens, but in a post on his blog, Google's mismanagement of the Android Market, Jon contends that Google's simply doing too little to curate their app offerings.

 

[1193001]

I started out with Android - but for me app quality and OS fragmentation was a problem. As much as we bang on Apple - Android had a devil of a time getting a decent message APP and then there is google - I just don't trust google and have no accounts with any of their products.

A good article on the state of Android app development.

How Google's Failing the Android App Market

DVD Jon, the reverse engineer who decrypted DVDs for the masses and liberated iTunes with DoubleTwist, is worried about the Android Market. There's too

gizmodo.com

DVD Jon, the reverse engineer who decrypted DVDsfor the masses and liberated iTunes with DoubleTwist, is worried about the Android Market. There's too much junk, he says, and Google needs to follow Apple's lead to clean it up.

That might seem like a surprising notion coming from someone famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) for methodically removing bricks from some of the tech world's most fortified walled gardens, but in a post on his blog, Google's mismanagement of the Android Market, Jon contends that Google's simply doing too little to curate their app offerings.

I use APKPure than Play Store, APKPure devs seem to only get the best apps than Google Play. I rather have choice here

 

[LFC2020]

smaller notch and widgets

Image reportedly shows iPhone 12 design with smaller notch and iOS 14 home screen widgets - 9to5Mac

As a continuation of a purported leak of what the iPhone 12 camera bump will look like, the same Twitter...

9to5mac.com

 

[Sparkletouch]

Image reportedly shows iPhone 12 design with smaller notch and iOS 14 home screen widgets - 9to5Mac

As a continuation of a purported leak of what the iPhone 12 camera bump will look like, the same Twitter...

9to5mac.com

 

[Austin Chow]

Time to spice up those wallpapers!!!!! iOS wallpapers have basically been stuck the same since iOS 10. really hope Dynamic Wallpapers (like on mac) make their way to iOS