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iOS 6 for iPad: Refinement or Ground Breaking?
- Thread starter Mad Mac Maniac
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iOS does not need a massive overhaul. It can always use refinement and new features though.
Android needs a massive overhaul every year because it sucks. It needs a new look because they keep getting sued over stolen intellectual property and have to make changes to keep from paying people royalty fees.
iOS does not have these problems.
Android needs a massive overhaul every year because it sucks. It needs a new look because they keep getting sued over stolen intellectual property and have to make changes to keep from paying people royalty fees.
iOS does not have these problems.
I think it's definitely time for a major update to iOS. The iPad has been around for two years now, 2.5 by the time 6 is released. They've had time to see how people really use it and want from it, what kind of apps are most popular, what frustrations people have, etc. Time to kick it up a notch.
My #1 wish is side-by-side or picture-in-picture multitasking. I have no idea how likely that is, but it would turn the iPad into a much more realistic work machine for me.
Better print options would also be great. I don't see why I can't print from any wifi printer.
Don't care much about Siri, although I'm interested to see what app devs could do with the APIs. But I doubt I'd use it much - most of the time I'm using my iPad while taking care of a toddler. Unless Siri can give him more Cheerios on command, I doubt she'd be much use to me.
I also wish they'd make the photo editing within the albums REAL edits, that can be exported with the photos. Especially since it's got the best red-eye remover I've found on the iPad, but it's useless when I'm trying to order prints. :^P
My #1 wish is side-by-side or picture-in-picture multitasking. I have no idea how likely that is, but it would turn the iPad into a much more realistic work machine for me.
Better print options would also be great. I don't see why I can't print from any wifi printer.
Don't care much about Siri, although I'm interested to see what app devs could do with the APIs. But I doubt I'd use it much - most of the time I'm using my iPad while taking care of a toddler. Unless Siri can give him more Cheerios on command, I doubt she'd be much use to me.
I also wish they'd make the photo editing within the albums REAL edits, that can be exported with the photos. Especially since it's got the best red-eye remover I've found on the iPad, but it's useless when I'm trying to order prints. :^P
Except for the side-by-side window / picture-in-picture feature, all your wishes sound like feature improvements to me, rather than major overhaul. I tend to agree with Technarchy that iOS doesn't need an overhaul. There isn't a lot that I want to do with my iPad that can't already be done by some combination of apps and cloud services -- now, it will be nice if those functions were folded into the OS itself, and to people who haven't come upon the current workarounds, the addition of those features might seem like a major overhaul, but to me, it'd be simply a slightly more convenient way of doing things.
you're right, I was in a rush. The other major change I'd like to see is better file management. If they still don't want to give total file system access that's ok(ish) but there must be a better way that making you have a separate copy of the file for every app. That, IMO, would qualify as a real overhaul and is sorely needed.
I agree that having a common document folder all apps can access, rather than making each app keep separate copies, would be a wonderful improvement. I'm not sure I'd class it as a major overhaul, though. Come to think of it, iCloud was a pretty significant improvement in many ways, but it seemed like a new feature rather than an overhaul. When I think of overhaul, I guess I think of something in the order of Windows 8 -- now, that's an overhaul, lol.
No way! Some developers who falsely claim their products are (always) on sale and cost lower than usual would be beset by this!
The Springboard needs an overhaul and so does the ridiculous "task manager," but I don't think those updates will come with iOS 6.
I think we'll finally get a Maps.app with turn-by-turn directions and a 3D view and a Siri upgrade, but other than that I'm not sure.
We really need an updated iWork and iLife suite for the Mac so iCloud will finally be complete. However, they'll probably hold off on that until Mountain Lion ships.
I think we'll finally get a Maps.app with turn-by-turn directions and a 3D view and a Siri upgrade, but other than that I'm not sure.
We really need an updated iWork and iLife suite for the Mac so iCloud will finally be complete. However, they'll probably hold off on that until Mountain Lion ships.
No way! Some developers who falsely claim their products are (always) on sale and cost lower than usual would be beset by this!
You can check the pricing history of apps at appshopper.com, or with their free app.
No way! Some developers who falsely claim their products are (always) on sale and cost lower than usual would be beset by this!
I love it when I see an app "half off" and check AppShopper to find it's never cost twice its current price once since it was introduced.
That reminds me, I also want a MAJOR overhaul of the app store. it's the most poorly designed app on my iPad right now. they've made a few incremental improvements, but it's still awful.
I see a lot of hopes attached to Windows 8, but I think it still misses the mark.
The iPad works and has become a massive success because it doesn't aspire to be a full desktop experience. It's lean, fast, battery efficient, highly portable and requires no real maintenance.
Windows 8 bringing all the baggage of a desktop to a tablet has been done to death already and it was a failure. How is adding a new metro skin and gestures supposed to fix that?
Furthermore, I dont see the appeal of a $900 tablet with a 4hr battery.
The iPad works and has become a massive success because it doesn't aspire to be a full desktop experience. It's lean, fast, battery efficient, highly portable and requires no real maintenance.
Windows 8 bringing all the baggage of a desktop to a tablet has been done to death already and it was a failure. How is adding a new metro skin and gestures supposed to fix that?
Furthermore, I dont see the appeal of a $900 tablet with a 4hr battery.
I guess I don't know all of Windows 8's features that you find so groundbreaking. Personally, I think that fixing the two most glaring problems with iOS - multitasking and file management - would count as quite a major overhaul. Especially if they worked photos into the file management scheme as well (so sick of winding up with 5 copies of a photo from using different editing software!). I'm not sure how much you require to call it more than incremental.
iCloud is nice, but it's also just streamlining a feature that many users already had via Dropbox. Some people also manage to use Dropbox as a filesystem, but it's a pretty clunky workaround for that. And even with a jailbreak and iFile it's a challenge to find the files you want and get them where you want them to be.
If there is anything "groundbreaking," I doubt we'll be predicting or asking for it here, pretty much by definition. Apple's idea of groundbreaking is usually coming up with something totally out of left field - nobody's predictions for the iPhone looked anything like the finished product.
Really, I'd like to see some form of widget functionality, say, to toggle things like Wifi and Bluetooth. It's really a pain to have to go to Settings and then General, then Bluetooth, to connect/re-connect a Bluetooth speaker or disable BT entirely... or change my Wifi network... etc. And "at a glance" widgets for weather or appointments would be stellar. The "icon-only grid" layout looks and feels dated and doesn't allow a user to customize their screen to easily show useful information... everything is buried in apps.
I'd also like to see them be more liberal with web browsing. Safari isn't bad, but other devs could do better. So much better...
I'd also like to see them be more liberal with web browsing. Safari isn't bad, but other devs could do better. So much better...
I'm glad people like you aren't in charge of innovation. Because... damn. Yea, you could boil just about everything down to 'launch and manage apps' if you truly wanted to... and you'd overlook gems like Airplay and iCloud. These go beyond "apps" and into integration territory. You could whittle something like Siri down to "just an app" but really, you shouldn't -- it's more than that.
I'm not a starry-eyed Mac-sycophant, but I recognize that they've implemented features in their devices and OSes that improve a user's capabilities and quality of life, and they've done a good job of keeping these features simple and accessible while also highly functional.
I didn't say Windows 8 was groundbreaking, just that it was a major overhaul. Groundbreaking will be stuff like the iPhone, like you said. I guess when I think overhaul, I think major changes in the way something is structured, and that's why I said Windows 8 is an overhaul. All changes to iOS so far since its inception, including iCloud. feel to me like incremental improvements, because they haven't changed the basic way I interact with iOS devices. And I don't think adding file management to iOS so you don't end up with 5 copies of the same picture would require a major change in the way we interact with iOS. It'll probably be a few more menu/popup options, a few changes in the way apps handle files that will be non-obvious to the end user. Now, windowed or picture-in-picture multitasking, *that* will feel like a major overhaul.
Sounds like you haven't seen windows 8 metro in action, it's far more than just a skin of the desktop version. Microsoft is well aware the desktop windows isn't what people want on tablets.
In fact Windows 8 so far hasn't offered much of anything for desktop computers this time around. I can't see many using windows 8 as their desktop operating system over windows 7.
People like what windows 8 has to offer because it is offering something new whereas iOS has remained the same game since 2007 and android has been mostly the same too.
The biggest thing windows 8 holds is pro-gesture navigation which can help bridge the gap between keyboard shortcut benefits on a regular computer and touch navigation.
I'm also interested on where you can up with your battery life and cost estimates, surely Microsoft is smart enough to be price and spec competitive.
Biggest hurdle for Microsoft is that they are late to the game and it's gonna require killer marketing, correct pricing and an operating system that offers something the competitors cannot.
Anyway...
I like iOS but I think it could use some improvements such as:
- allow assigning to the side buttons, would love to be able to assign one of them to turn airplane mode on/off or bluetooth on/off
- ability to customize the keyboard size, the split keyboard is just way too small.
- ability to switch between touch keyboard/external keyboard on the fly, right now you can't switch between the two keyboards, you have to disable the external keyboard first to use the screen keyboard.
- file management is the biggest drawback of the iPad, I hate how files are locked into apps unless you send it to online storage. They could have some basic functionality here.
- Who uses the search function when you scroll to the left? I think it should be replaced with the settings screen or a screen that allows assigning of custom gestures.
- The way you kill apps is not effecient as it could be, I think the close icon should be active the minute you pull up the dock instead of having to hold your finger on the icon.
- Spell check should work with the external keyboard but for whatever reason it does not.
- Ext. keyboard shortcuts would be nice but is not possible.
- Ability to remove the default apps icons that come with the iPad.
- Overlay icons that are in folders instead of popping up a window
- Allow multiple windows on the screen at once
- Allow the assigning of browser, right now when you open up something in a new window in your browser of choice it always pops open Safari
- Customize icon size (iPad only)
- Default apps setting, allow you to set files to open up with certain applications
Pushing the eject key to switch between onscreen and external keyboard not fast enough for you?
I want a clock app for my iPad like my iPhone. I think that the iPad music app could use some work (the iPhone one seems more user friendly when it comes to playlists, and browsing artists). When updating apps, I don't do every single one at once, so it would be nice when hitting the update for that app, that it doesn't exit the app store each time. That's all I pretty much want.
I would totally agree with you... except for the fact that I have seen the lock screen on my iPad all of like 5 times in a year. You really should just get a case/cover with the magnetic lock/unlock. That's how Apple is designing iOS to be used on the iPad. I don't expect a whole lot of movement on the locked iPad screen because of this. But you never know.
I refrain from setting any expectations when it comes to new products.
Especially now that we are deeply entrenched in the iToyz era.
Who knows what sensible, or bizarre ideas are in the pipeline. Catering to what can be a very fickle public, or at least taking them into consideration when creating devices like Apple does, leaves them open to the daunting task of creating a somewhat universally appealing product.
As a result, Apple is exposed to a greater number of customer preferences, than it ever has been subject to in the past.
True, but doesn't that magnetic lock / unlock work only if your iPad isn't password protected. I guess that was what i was leaning to. Instead of numbers, maybe we could get something quick and sweet as Androids?
Pushing the eject key to switch between onscreen and external keyboard not fast enough for you?
Geez I'm such a n00b. Thanks man, makes operation much less frustrating.
... We're talking about iOS, not the hardware. But the features you mentioned are most likely going to be included in the next iteration.