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AppleGeek692

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 30, 2008
1
0
I was just making this topic to see if anyone else feels the same way, I recently bought the iPhone 3G and was hoping the most needed feature (adding backgrounds to the home screen) would have been added. I love the Apple company but I expected better of them. I go around see all my friends with their basic phones and they all have the ability to change the background or themes. I do not understand how apple could overlook such a need to have feature. I like to make my phone personal but with the iPhone there is no way to do this. In fact Apple forbids developers from making apps that could change the look of the iPhone OS (I also don't understand why they would do that either). Microsoft has it's own version of a mobile OS, Windows Mobile. With Windows Mobile you can change the themes and background of your phone or PDA. If the iPhone OS want's to be taken seriously against Windows Mobile I think apple should look it over and add these basic features, (hopefully not making us pay any more money to get it). What I would like to see is an iPhone app developed by apple that allows us users to insert a custom background on the home screen. Or better yet allowing us to change the whole theme as well. Don't get me wrong, I am a big apple fan and yes I just had to get the iPhone 3G :) (it's a must have). So I hope we can get a lot of posts agreeing with this topic. Maybe with this we can get apple attention. :) Suggest this to apple by visiting: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
 
That would get rid of the clean-ness and Appleish-ness of it. It just wouldn't be an iPhone.
 
There is a reason for everything being the color it is. Once you start letting people make things whatever colors they want, the colors lose their semantics. Not only does it make the phone uglier, but it makes it more difficult for the average person to use. This is especially true on a device like the iPhone, where the minimalist interfaces must be carefully designed with meaningful colors, etc.

Even regular desktop OS X barely allows any interface customization beyond changing the desktop wallpaper. Don't expect it on the iPhone any time soon.
 
I agree with the OP. Themes are what I miss the most from my JB'd iPod touch. To at least have the option would be nice. If one prefers the default, that's fine for them, but why can't I make my property look the way I want? Oh well. I'm doing fine without it anyway!
 
I can understand some people want to have that ability and they should since it's iPhone.

Customizing the interface is not on the top of my list for features. And I doubt it is high on Apple's list either since OS X doesn't have much customization built in. I do appreciate Apple's design and don't feel much need to change it.
 
There is a reason for everything being the color it is. Once you start letting people make things whatever colors they want, the colors lose their semantics.

Got examples?

If Apple used color for semantics, I'd agree. But they don't. They can't even agree internally on what their shades mean. Sometimes darker means a button is pushed. Sometimes it means it's a choice.

Apps can even use their own background colors for titles and buttons.

Cheers, Kev (always ready for UI discussions!)
 
I've found that backgrounds on the home screen = ugliness.

I've never seen a good background on the home screen anywhere in the jailbreak community.
 
You do know why there isn't cut-and-paste yet, right?

It's because they haven't had enough TIME to work on it yet. That should tell you something.

Nokia and Sony and all those other companies have been making cell phones for years. Not only has Apple come up with something great in a fraction of that time, they created an SDK and software store to go along with it. How much can you expect in just 2 years?

If this hasn't changed in the next 2 years then it will be a valid complaint. By for right now it's amazingly silly to expect that a feature like this should have edged out cut-and-paste as something to work on.
 
Wait, you obviously knew the iPhone 3G didn't allow home-screen customization, otherwise you wouldn't know something like developers not being able to do it. So why would you "expect better of them"? And what do you mean changing an entire "theme"? What else would you change? It's not like the icons would change, those are part of the apps themselves, and if only Apple apps changed their icons you would end up with a mix of your customized ones and third-party app icons, which would be ugly, not to mention that would make Apple's apps harder to identify, so Apple would never do that. I guess maybe the bar at the top of the screen...

As for why developers can't, it's not like Apple specifically forbid changing the home screen. It's a security and stability thing, developers aren't allowed to touch anything at all outside of their own little sandbox the system gives them. They can't even access the iPod music list on the system. This is how Apple means to avoid the bad reputation Windows Mobile devices have about being unstable, running slowly, crashing a lot and running out of memory, since Microsoft gives WM devs full access.
 
You do know why there isn't cut-and-paste yet, right?

It's because they haven't had enough TIME to work on it yet. THat should tell you something.

Nokia and Sony and all those other companies have been making cell phones for years. Not only has Apple come up with something great in a fraction of that time, they created an SDK and software store to go along with it. How much can you expect in just 2 years?

If this hasn't changed in the next 2 years then it will be a valid complaint. By for right now it's amazingly silly to expect that a feature like this should have edged out cut-and-paste as something to work ok.
 
there's nothing having to do with semantics, cleaness or something. Apple wants to sell more iphones through your phone, making unique and identifiable at first sight. much like mac os x does.
So, if you don't want to participate in this type of marketing, better you go off Apple products, because they will always limited in this way.
 
FYI: There are lots of ways to do this if you Jailbreak. I would love the ability to customize the interface/have access to the resource data out of the box for the simple reason that those saying this is a bad idea have overlooked: that I can make the interface better than Apple can especially if we're talking about meeting my personal wants and needs.
 
You do know why there isn't cut-and-paste yet, right?
It's because they haven't had enough TIME to work on it yet. THat should tell you something.

Sure does. It tells us that:

1) Apple's priorities are income producers like the Stores and MobileMe subscriptions.

2) Apple's taking all the billions they're making and not using it to hire help. But then it's well known that their R&D expenditures, as a percentage of sales, are the lowest in the business.

3) The Jailbreak community, with no inside docs or official SDK, was able to come up with front page theme support in a few weeks. And even "Today" pages now.
 
I don't understand why such a basic feature would not be included. Some need it some don't, but it's so basic that it's exclusion baffles the mind. It is as basic as shoe lace on a shoe. Why apple?
 
You have to understand there are many features left out of the iPhone that are easy to implement and technically feasible but Apple chooses to leave them out on purpose as according to some vision they have.
 
You do know why there isn't cut-and-paste yet, right?

It's because they haven't had enough TIME to work on it yet. THat should tell you something.

Nokia and Sony and all those other companies have been making cell phones for years. Not only has Apple come up with something great in a fraction of that time, they created an SDK and software store to go along with it. How much can you expect in just 2 years?

If this hasn't changed in the next 2 years then it will be a valid complaint. By for right now it's amazingly silly to expect that a feature like this should have edged out cut-and-paste as something to work ok.

Um...it's not like background wallpapers would be something Apple needs to "work on," like they might need to do with copy & paste. They could add the option for backgrounds in a snap, with almost no effort. They don't have an option for backgrounds because they CHOOSE not to have one. (And frankly, I'm glad -- otherwise we'd be seeing a LOT of ugly iPhones out there...)

If you want to have a background for your phone, you still can. It's called jailbreaking.
 
You have to understand there are many features left out of the iPhone that are easy to implement and technically feasible but Apple chooses to leave them out on purpose as according to some vision they have.

This is true. I can't count the number of times that Jobs has gone on stage, and preached that the reason he doesn't allow iPhone customization, is because his vision is to force everyone to use a mid 1980s style GUI with a matrix of icons on screen.

Just like the first Mac. If the style worked for it, why change?

:apple: ;)
 
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