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Your opinion about having windows in iPad

steelmarco

steelmarco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2011
17
0
Hi everyone,

today I was thinking about how useful would or wouldn't be using apps, or at least certain apps, windowed instead of full screen.
iOS was born on the iPhone and obviously, because of its "small" screen, it's better with full screen app but the iPad has a bigger screen which could manage apps better.

This idea came to me when yesterday I was taking notes with my iPhone, reading a website. Every time I wrote a phrase I had to double click the Home button to go back to Safari, then again. On a Mac this task would be much easier...

What do you think about?
 
steelmarco

steelmarco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2011
17
0
I'm not talking about the ease of changing app with windowed apps but the usefulness of having two apps overlayed.
You can change app with the multitasking bar, exposè like thing or multitouch gestures but it won't ever be like having windows.
 
Mac'nCheese

Mac'nCheese

Suspended
Feb 9, 2010
3,752
5,108
steelmarco said:
I'm not talking about the ease of changing app with windowed apps but the usefulness of having two apps overlayed.
You can change app with the multitasking bar, exposè like thing or multitouch gestures but it won't ever be like having windows.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. I was thinking this last night that I would like see two safari windows at the same time. I know they would be small, but I can zoom in to each and copy and paste easier.
 
steelmarco

steelmarco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2011
17
0
Mac'nCheese said:
I'm with you. I was thinking this last night that I would like see two safari windows at the same time. I know they would be small, but I can zoom in to each and copy and paste easier.
Click to expand...

You think it would be that small? Maybe in webpages rich of text... Unfortunately I don't have an iPad at the moment.
 
D

donnaw

macrumors 65816
Apr 19, 2011
1,134
6
Austin TX
I tend to agree. There are times when I need to switch between screens and having two open windows would be much easier than the current method. As for size, well they wouldn't be much smaller than what I have on my 10" netbook and those are big enough. It wouldn't even require 'multi-tasking'. The window out of focus could be suspended just like it is now.

Sadly, I highly doubt this will happen but it would be nice.
 
MrWillie

MrWillie

macrumors 65816
Apr 29, 2010
1,466
484
Starlite Starbrite Trailer Court
steelmarco said:
iOS was born on the iPhone
Click to expand...

iOS was born on a tablet. During the development stags of the tablet they throught that it would also be great on a phone. The tablet was shelved and work on the iPhone begun.

As far as your question goes, yes I would like it. This text block barely takes up half my screen now, so with touch to zoom and two web pages, (or a Word or Excel document open) I can see how this could turn out to be a good thing.

Note: Yes, I know that Word and Excel don't exsist for iOS, but I can dream too, right ?
 
Don Kosak

Don Kosak

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2010
860
4
Hilo, Hawaii
Mac'nCheese said:
I'm with you. I was thinking this last night that I would like see two safari windows at the same time. I know they would be small, but I can zoom in to each and copy and paste easier.
Click to expand...

There are a few "dual browser" type apps in the App Store that let you view two web sites side by side and copy/paste between them. Search for "dual browser" in the App Store.

(I know it's not a solution for other apps, but it's helpful.)

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of bringing windows in general to the iPad. I think there are a lot of draw-backs and clutter that come with that. I've seen some pseudo-windowy interfaces (check out 10GUI http://10gui.com/video/ ) with sliding "screens" rather than windows. The video shows this at 2:25.
 
scaredpoet

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
One of the big problems people used to have with windows on older computers was screen real estate. More than a couple windows, and you found yourself switching back and forth a lot between them, and it gets cluttered.

The same would probably be true on the iPad, at least at the current resolution. It would be a cluttered mess to have a bunch of windows.

Maybe when it gets a retina display...
 
B

blackNBUK

macrumors 6502a
Feb 19, 2010
607
35
UK
scaredpoet said:
One of the big problems people used to have with windows on older computers was screen real estate. More than a couple windows, and you found yourself switching back and forth a lot between them, and it gets cluttered.

The same would probably be true on the iPad, at least at the current resolution. It would be a cluttered mess to have a bunch of windows.

Maybe when it gets a retina display...
Click to expand...

I largely agree with you, the iPad is too small for overlapping windows to be often a benefit and not having overlapping windows makes using the iPad a good deal less hassle. If you're making notes on a web page in landscape then the page would only have a quarter of the screen to display itself.

The part I disagree with is that retina display would change things. Apple is using high-dpi screens to improve the quality of the display not to fit more content on the screen. No matter how good the display is there are limits to now small things can be for most people to see and interact with.
 
B

bass93

macrumors regular
Aug 25, 2009
134
0
When I read the title, I about croaked. Cuz I thought you meant putting Windows from Microsoft on it. lol

But anyway, it would have to be implemented much better than on OS X. If it was windowed it would suck. But if we kept full screen apps (And we definitely will) and made a better multitasking ability between apps, we could have like a three or four finger swipe or pinch. Or hold down that many fingers for a couple seconds. But that would not work with games for instance a racing game, so it would have to be a swipe or a pinch. Hoping they implement that.
 
D

Detrias

macrumors member
Jan 11, 2011
68
0
bass93 said:
When I read the title, I about croaked. Cuz I thought you meant putting Windows from Microsoft on it. lol
Click to expand...

Rofl same with me, i was like i gotta see where this is going

Anyways i agree there should be a way to have more than one window at a time if desired, also i would love for youtube to keep playing while locked/minimized pandora style ><
 
S

Smoothness

macrumors regular
Apr 6, 2011
182
0
Nj
scaredpoet said:
One of the big problems people used to have with windows on older computers was screen real estate. More than a couple windows, and you found yourself switching back and forth a lot between them, and it gets cluttered.

The same would probably be true on the iPad, at least at the current resolution. It would be a cluttered mess to have a bunch of windows.

Maybe when it gets a retina display...
Click to expand...

Wrong. It was a problem in the past but not now. Things like expose, mission control,etc. We can easily stack windows now, group them and have them autosized neatly.

Playbook and webos is on right track. They need a ios for the tablet.
 
Fliesen

Fliesen

macrumors 6502a
Mar 30, 2010
758
2
Austria
i love how the iPad 'becomes' the current app and i wouldn't wanna give that up just for having to have windows that i have to resize, move around, exposé, open, close, etc.
 
T

thibaulthalpern

macrumors regular
May 2, 2008
241
2
East Coast, USA
scaredpoet said:
One of the big problems people used to have with windows on older computers was screen real estate. More than a couple windows, and you found yourself switching back and forth a lot between them, and it gets cluttered.

The same would probably be true on the iPad, at least at the current resolution. It would be a cluttered mess to have a bunch of windows.

Maybe when it gets a retina display...
Click to expand...

I would like to see NO windows. Apple is trying to come out with a whole new metaphor of working with computers and here we are applying old metaphors like windows to a burgeoning development. I think this is a good time to see what other work ,metaphor would work better and thus far going back to the windows concept I think is a step backwards.
 
Piggie

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,016
MrWillie said:
iOS was born on a tablet. During the development stags of the tablet they throught that it would also be great on a phone. The tablet was shelved and work on the iPhone begun.

As far as your question goes, yes I would like it. This text block barely takes up half my screen now, so with touch to zoom and two web pages, (or a Word or Excel document open) I can see how this could turn out to be a good thing.

Note: Yes, I know that Word and Excel don't exsist for iOS, but I can dream too, right ?
Click to expand...

I don't really think this is true to be honest.

I know they developed the rubber band scrolling (the VERY basics) and decided to shelve the tablet idea and go with the phone.

But I think this was very VERY early on. the whole grid of a few icons and empty log on screen etc etc was all designed just for a phone sized device with a tiny screen.

I simply do not accept that given a 10" display and 1024x768 Apple would of designed iOS as it looks now for a tablet, everyone, even Apple can see that it's a massive waste of a screen and a poor design for this size of device.
 
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