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It's the software that's underwhelming

Some widgets are helpful. I use one that allows me to place four apps in the space of one app icon. Essentially 16 icons in one row. The other I use shows my next three appointments in a translucent bubble.

This allows me to have just one home screen on my phone. The app drawer remains for apps I use sparingly.
 
Just an idea re toggles, I can understand Apple not wanting them cluttering up the interface. But here's an UX idea: Pull down the notification sheet to see the normal notifications/weather/stocks/post buttons; then pull it down a *second* time to reveal settings toggles and a brightness slider.

Neat?
 
BaldiMac said:
Who is rabid? Besides your stereotypes, I mean. Seems to be a pretty calm discussion for a MacRumors thread. :)

I think it's amusing that you choose to insult people instead of participating in the discussion. Some people agree with Apple's design philosophy. Some people don't.

It's also amusing that you brought up copy/paste as your example. Turns out that despite all the rationalization about how Apple should have had it sooner, they ended up implementing it more than a year before Android finished their implementation.
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Not sure how me being amused is insulting people, it was just an observation.

Copy and paste is the perfect example of my point - there were dozens upon dozens of threads on this and rabid is really how to describe the rationalization about it. I don't really care when Android finished their implementation or who had it first - it was the mere fact that Apple chose not to include it that caused people here to proclaim it wasn't needed, only to have massive crowing about how great Apple's version was they finally did release it.

I think widgets would be the exact same thing, and I believe Apple will eventually allow some, though I'm sure not as open or flexible as the Androids do.

My own personal opinion is that widgets are extremely useful and would make the iPhone much more usable for me. Yes I can unlock my phone and launch several different applications to see things I could see at a glance from widgets or unlock my phone and drill down into the settings to toggle things on and off instead of doing it from the home screen. Not having them limits the usefulness of the phone. Clearly others disagree.
 
bushido said:
we dont even necessarily need "widgets" all we need is more things we can add to the notification center. the notification center has so much potential but is utterly useless now and looks even more pathetic on the big iPad screen with nothing to show cuz there isnt even a freakin weather app.

all we need is something like this, to turn off wifi/bluetooth/freakin rotation lock etc.

Image
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THANK YOU. quick access icons in the notification center is something i have wanted since ios 5 dropped.

wait...
iphone 3gs = speed
iphone 4s = siri
iphone 5s = shortcuts.

what-you-did-there-i-see-it.thumbnail.jpg
 
Has anyone ever watched someone else use a computer and search for something? Then you say to yourself "what the hell are they doing? Why didn't they just type their search in the search bar???" etc. etc.

I see it the same for phones. One person prefers one way of doing something and another persons prefers something else. Ultimately it comes down to the user. There is no best or fastest way, just whatever you are comfortable with.
 
richpjr said:
Not sure how me being amused is insulting people, it was just an observation.
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:rolleyes: It wasn't that you were amused. It was that you referred to people in the thread that you disagree with as defensive, rabid fanboys. But you knew that.

Copy and paste is the perfect example of my point - there were dozens upon dozens of threads on this and rabid is really how to describe the rationalization about it. I don't really care when Android finished their implementation or who had it first - it was the mere fact that Apple chose not to include it that caused people here to proclaim it wasn't needed, only to have massive crowing about how great Apple's version was they finally did release it.
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As I said to someone else before, you are confusing understanding why Apple didn't include the feature with the argument that the feature should never be included. If you look back, I doubt you will find many people arguing that Apple should never implement copy/paste.

I think widgets would be the exact same thing, and I believe Apple will eventually allow some, though I'm sure not as open or flexible as the Androids do.
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They already do. And, in my opinion, they are implemented in a way that deals with the main issues that people that complain about Android widgets point out.

My own personal opinion is that widgets are extremely useful and would make the iPhone much more usable for me. Yes I can unlock my phone and launch several different applications to see things I could see at a glance from widgets or unlock my phone and drill down into the settings to toggle things on and off instead of doing it from the home screen. Not having them limits the usefulness of the phone. Clearly others disagree.
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Absolutely.
 
BaldiMac said:
:rolleyes: It wasn't that you were amused. It was that you referred to people in the thread that you disagree with as defensive, rabid fanboys. But you knew that.
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Actually, my comment was not so much directed at just this thread, it's any thread where someone disagrees with Apple's way of doing things and the typical reaction to it. You are right - this thread is much milder than some threads here!

BaldiMac said:
As I said to someone else before, you are confusing understanding why Apple didn't include the feature with the argument that the feature should never be included. If you look back, I doubt you will find many people arguing that Apple should never implement copy/paste.
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I understand why Apple didn't include it right away, but that isn't really pertinent to the point I was making. There were a LOT of people here arguing it wasn't needed on a phone.

BaldiMac said:
They already do. And, in my opinion, they are implemented in a way that deals with the main issues that people that complain about Android widgets point out.
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Not sure what you are saying here - what widgets are you talking about being implemented?
 
PhoneI said:
I will explain. They are useless because I can launch the full app that offers a far better experience in .25 seconds. Unless all your widgets are on the first screen, there is no time savings. I grew bored of widgets after 3 days.
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They certaintly aren't useless. I had always thought they same thing until I purchsed a Nexus 7 tablet. I love having widgets, and I can tell you from my person experience that I much prefer 4.1 JB over iOS. In fact my next phone will be either Note II or a Nexus.
 
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Does it really take that much time to hit the settings button on your home screen to get to all these options (wifi) that some of you are asking for? Why waste the home screen with widges to change these when its already in the settings app?
 
davelanger said:
Does it really take that much time to hit the settings button on your home screen to get to all these options (wifi) that some of you are asking for? Why waste the home screen with widges to change these when its already in the settings app?
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Why open up an app when you can change them from the home screen?
 
TheMTtakeover said:
Why open up an app when you can change them from the home screen?
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Because why clutter the home screen with usless things like wifi, brightness, bluetooth etc when you can instead use apps for those spots. Just curious, how much longer does it take to click on the settings app, then turn on wifi ? Less than a second? I would much rather have that room on my home screen for an app than a usless widget that would save me less than a second.
 
TheMTtakeover said:
Why open up an app when you can change them from the home screen?
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Thank you.

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davelanger said:
Because why clutter the home screen with usless things like wifi, brightness, bluetooth etc when you can instead use apps for those spots. Just curious, how much longer does it take to click on the settings app, then turn on wifi ? Less than a second? I would much rather have that room on my home screen for an app than a usless widget that would save me less than a second.
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It's my home screen, I will add clutter if I want.

Also these things in a folder on the home screen as still faster than messing with settings.
 
I agree with the OP

I have to actually agree with the OP. I would rather see an iPhone running on android. In my opinion; iOS just isn't very competitive to Android. People may say "Well with android you can't update and most people are using ancient software" but I know people with Android phones and they have so many features that iOS is missing. Even my mother's LG Optimus V which runs android 2.2 has features that iOS still lacks even on iOS6. One example is automatic app updates which really should already be in iOS by now. I am not an Android fanboy as I do own an iPod Touch and the hardware is fantastic but the software is just ok. I like using multi-tasking but on iOS, I hate the method for closing apps...There has to be something better. I am just not very impressed with Apple's software as it lacks innovation. Android 2.2 is what 2 years old now? And also remember that Android did not even come out before iOS so iOS has had a lot of time to be developed. I find having to scroll through many homescreens just to get to one out of the 200 apps that I own very crappy. I overall like Android much better and Apple is just selling so much because of their hardware and mainly Siri. Apple really needs to play catch-up on their crappy iOS software or people will switch to cheaper Android devices that have the same specs and better software. iOS needs a total revamp as many of its features need to be re-done. I wish it was just a matter of a swipe to close apps and I wish apps would be updated on its own so I don't have to constantly update them. iOS 6 has some good features but for me it was just a major disappointment. Please Apple...please kick it up a notch on your software side and make it very competitive to a latest version of Android.
 
F123D said:
Jailbreaking makes iOS come to life. Useful tweaks left and right.
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Exactly what I was thinking. I got rid of my HTC Evo 4g Android and got my 4s. I never wanted to go back to Android ,because of how smoothly it interacts with my iPad and Mac. I did get kind of tired of it so I jailbroke it and I will continue to do so for every iPhone I get. It is definitely the way to go.
 
davelanger said:
Because why clutter the home screen with usless things like wifi, brightness, bluetooth etc when you can instead use apps for those spots. Just curious, how much longer does it take to click on the settings app, then turn on wifi ? Less than a second? I would much rather have that room on my home screen for an app than a usless widget that would save me less than a second.
Click to expand...

I think we just have differrent prefences. To you it's clutter, to me it's useful.
 
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