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- Ten Things Not To Expect In iPhone OS 4
With the Apple Event less than a day away, there’s no shortage of speculation and wish lists for iPhone OS 4, but what about less optimistic lists? For the jaded Apple fan, there’s no reason to wait until tomorrow to start bitterly complaining about what should have been in iPhone OS today.Not that most Apple fans will be complaining, but expect the continued lack of Flash to be widely reported tomorrow. Some complain that HTML5 lacks the tools that Flash has, and that’s true. Too bad.
For the rest of us, there will be far more annoying features missing in iPhone OS 4. Here are ten of them.
- Wireless Syncing: Perhaps Apple has usage data showing most people charge their devices by plugging them into computers, that wireless syncing is the kind of “complexity” Apple eschews, or maybe it’s greed. After all, MobileMe is Apple’s wireless syncing option at $99 a year.
- Tethering: It’s been promised in one form or another for years, but we will never see iPhone tethering in the US. The last chance for that died with the 3G iPad. Both Apple and AT&T would rather have consumers buy a new device and plan than have tethering as an iPhone add-on.
- Mobile Finder: Considering the moribund state of the Finder in OS X, don’t expect a file management initiative on casual computing devices. For good or ill, mostly ill, iTunes is the new Finder for mobile devices.
- iPad User Accounts: Clearly, Apple does not care about traditional families, because after monetary problems I believe the lack of user accounts for the iPad will be the single greatest cause of divorce in 2010. Unfortunately, every user account on an iPad is potentially one less iPad sold, so forget it.
- Unlocked Bluetooth: Sad to say, but Apple letting the iPad use any Bluetooth keyboard is good news. The iPhone and the iPod touch can’t even do that, just headphones, and Apple isn’t going to relinquish control now.
- Custom Lockscreen: After three years of seeing the time and date, it’s hard to imagine Apple allowing users the ability to see e-mail or text messages, or the weather, or news headlines without at least swiping first. Of course, we are allowed iPod controls, so we should probably be grateful for that.
- Apple Todo App: Even if you pay for MobileMe to wirelessly sync you personal information, you won’t be getting your tasks from iCal. Again, after three years, it’s hard to imagine that changing.
- Apple Notes Redesign: Instead of a text editing tool like WriteRoom, we get cartoon icons on a yellow paper background and Marker Felt font. Obviously, Steve Jobs does not use Notes.
- Delete Default Apps: It’s a small thing, but why not allow the removal of the default weather app, or stock app, or the horror that is Notes? Who knows, but after three years, not happening.
- iPhone OS Moniker: Why not call OS X “iMac OS” or “MacBook OS”? Because it would be stupid, just like iPhone OS for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is stupid. How about iOS, or OS X Mobile, or OS Touch? Looking at the invitations for the iPhone OS 4 preview, that’s not going to happen, but it should.
That’s my bullet list of bile for what not to expect in iPhone OS 4. How about yours?
Переслать - What I Want To See In The Next iPhone OS
With Apple due to reveal the next generation of the iPhone operating system this Thursday, now is as good a time as any to discuss what we can hope to see in the upcoming fourth version of the mobile OS. You’ve already seen Patrick’s take, now here’s mine.The last major update to the iPhone’s operating system arrived last June, bringing with it many desired features. Highlights from the 3.0 update included the long awaited copy and paste, in addition to features such as spotlight search and voice control. But what can we expect from tomorrow’s 4.0 unveiling?
Custom Message Alert Tones
A small request and one that has bugged me ever since I bought my iPhone. I simply want the ability to customize my ringtone for when I receive an SMS. If it can be done for calls, why not for texts? But why stop there? When in a room full of iPhone owning friends, it can often prove annoying to hear the email notification noise every few minutes, let users customize that too. Choice is a beautiful thing.
App Navigation
iPhone users tend to have a lot of applications installed, so it comes as no surprise that these app-addicts want a better way to organize their growing collection of mobile software. Thankfully Apple is aware of the problem and introduced a visual way to organize apps in iTunes 9. However, beyond the occasional iTunes reshuffle, the daily on-device swiping to find that specific app is way past tedious.
Many alternatives have been presented as a solution, including stacking, page overviews, category views, and more. A personal preference would be the introduction of folders. A folder could be presented just like any other application icon, which when pressed dug down into a page of specific apps. For example, a folder containing news applications, with another housing all of a user’s games. This would not only make it easier to find a specific app, it would also offer more breathing space to those more commonly used.
Improve The Lock Screen
A locked iPhone currently provides very little information at-a-glance. Adding information such as today’s calendar events, local weather and any missed calls or messages would offer up a much more useful hub for quick scanning. Of course if Apple were to add all this data to the lock screen it could turn off users who prefer the current minimalist version. A simple section in the device’s settings app could make it easy for users to pick and choose what information is displayed.
Wireless Sync
Picture this: You get home and your iPhone instantly connects to your home networks Wi-Fi, within seconds your iPhone realizes that your MacBook Pro is also connected to the same network. Once a connection is made your device begins to sync all your photos, notes, messages and anything else you choose, straight to your laptop, creating a seamless backup, all of which happens in the background, over the air. Sounds great right? Hope it sounds great to Apple, too.
What do you want to see?
The dream-features detailed above are just a representative selection. Plenty of other requests for the future of the iPhone’s OS have been suggested, some great, others not so much. I’d love to hear about your own feature requests in the comments.
Переслать - I Want My, I Want My iPhone OS 4
Apple is holding a media event at 10am Pacific time on Thursday, April 6 to discuss the latest release of its mobile OS, which presages new iPhone hardware likely to be released this summer. We’ll know soon enough what it will include, but that won’t stop me from making my own wishlist for what we’ll see on Thursday. Here are a few items on that list:- Speed: Yes, I’m well aware that the “S” in iPhone 3GS is for speed. But I can’t help compare even the iPhone 3GS to the iPad for sheer perceived speed of the user interface. The iPad is powered by Apple’s own A4 chip, which accounts for much of the performance improvements, but I’m also hopeful that the OS has been optimized even further in ways that will be come apparent on Thursday.
- Multitasking: I’ve said before that I think multitasking is overrated, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want it. Support at some level for 3rd-party multitasking would be a great feature to have for certain apps, like Pandora, which I could then listen to in the background while browsing the web or checking email.
- AppSwitching: I often switch from one app to another, then switch right back. For example, I might be on a phone call, and need to check my calendar, then return to the phone app. It would be nice if there was a more elegant solution for moving among apps than clicking home, finding the app on one of several screens and launching it. A particular gesture or multiple presses of the home button could activate an app switcher of some sort, like command-tab on the Mac, but for recent, favorite or most-used apps.
- Consolidated Inbox: If you’re at all like me, you’ve got several email accounts. Switching between the Inboxes of these accounts is tedious at best. Having a single inbox for all your accounts, as with Mail.app on Mac OS X, would be a huge productivity boost for anyone with several accounts.
Of course, these are all software-related wishlist items. There’s a slew of potential hardware news to come, such as an A4 chip, high-definition video, and a higher resolution display, all of which seem likely based on the iPad, Android devices and other mobile products. One day and counting: we’ll know soon enough. What changes to the software do you expect for iPhone OS 4.0?
Переслать - How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market
Whether you see Apple’s tablet the iPad as the catalyst of a digital media revolution, or just another gadget that Steve Jobs wants you to spend your hard-earned cash on, it’s hard to avoid the black hole that is the iPad buzz this week. But beyond possibly affecting the digital consumption of books, magazines, blogs and newspapers, I think the iPad will have an effect on a less obvious market: home energy.The home energy market is a nascent ecosystem that’s made up of: utilities that are trying get their customers to consume less energy, startups building smart energy software and energy dashboards that will manage energy data in the home and help customers consume less, large manufacturers dabbling in connected appliances, and investors looking for ways to make money (a dose of skepticism here).
If you’re never heard of the market, it’s because from a consumer perspective it really doesn’t exist yet. According to Texas-based consultants KEMA, 68 percent of Americans haven't heard of the smart grid, and exuberance in the home energy market “should be tempered to account for the challenge of engaging large numbers of residential customers."
The preliminary stage of the market is one reason why the iPad could possibly have such a large effect. As Glen Mella, the President and COO of Control4 — a home automation and energy management startup that created a free iPad app — put it to me in an interview yesterday, think of the millions of people that could suddenly have access to a power display with rich media for home energy management. “We’re excited to embrace the iPad as another way to bring home automation and home energy management to the mainstream,” explained Mella.The iPad has a real chance of playing a key role in “the digital home,” a long-discussed market where consumers are supposed to use a fourth screen to manage home digital entertainment, security, lighting, and heating and cooling. In recent months home automation players like Control4 have added on energy management as another feature, (see Is Energy Management the Killer App For the Home Automation Market?, GigaOM Pro, subscription required).
But the iPad could offer a few unique characteristics specifically for home energy management in comparison to an energy-specific dashboard gadget — like those made by Tendril, EnergyHub and Control4 (yep they make a gadget too) — mobile interfaces with smaller screens like the iPhone, or a website on a computer. Those advantages include a large screen, the ability for rich media and the fact that the device can do an unlimited amount of other tasks. “People aren’t buying the iPad for energy, but now they have this sleek and capable energy device,” says Mella.
So, say iPad buyers do one day embrace home energy apps like Control4’s on the iPad, it could certainly change the newly forming energy management ecosystem. More specifically, it could cause stand-alone energy devices to stall. To that, Mella says “Sure the iPad could replace some of the sales, but let’s do what the consumer wants.”
Other entrepreneurs that make both energy management software and hardware have similar thoughts. Marco Graziano, CEO of energy management startup Visible Energy, which has an iPhone app for energy management and plans to make a native iPad app, explained to me in an email:
I never thought specialized displays were a good idea for monitoring energy consumption. They don’t have any sex appeal and are too expensive anyway as freebies for utilities to give away. We found that interactivity is really a plus when it gets to visualizing energy consumption and to engaging people in energy awareness. In this respect the iPad is a breakthrough.
Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of energy management company EnergyHub, which makes both an energy dashboard that has rich media, and is also developing an iPhone app, says:
We think it’s important to offer consumers a choice of how they interact with their home energy management system. That includes dedicated devices like our Dashboard for people who don’t have a multi-purpose “Fourth Screen,” as well as apps for the iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, and other platforms that gain significant market traction. Our key value is really in making software that makes personal energy management easy for consumers, and delivering that software in a way that’s accessible to as many people as possible.
The bottom line is that it’s still early days for these startups, which means that they can pretty easily adapt, change business models, and, say, start pushing more software than hardware, if a dominant energy hardware platform emerges. And if the iPad ever does help the energy management market break out into the mainstream, it will also mean that the energy management market has moved solidly into the domain of the consumer, as opposed to being a product distributed by a utility. That will ultimately mean a lot bigger market and a lot more opportunities for these startups.
Переслать - iPad Keynote: A Better Mistress Than Wife
I don't give a ton of presentations, but I'm something of a presentation junky — one of my favorite web sites is Presentation Zen, where the author gives lessons on design theory. Therefore, I've been looking forward to iPad Keynote since Phil Schiller gave his dog and pony show.
Keynote for the iPad is a decent companion program if you need to give light presentations or make light edits while on the road. As a sole means of creating presentations, I found it lacking.
The Art of the Transfer
Currently, getting files to and from your iPad is needlessly difficult. To get an already-created presentation from your computer to your iPad, you need to either sync it via iTunes, or send it to yourself via e-mail; there's no mountable file-system or iDisk support. Also, if you make changes to the presentation, you'll need to export and re-download it via iTunes; it will not auto-update your local copy. Also, you can only export in Keynote and PDF; you cannot export your slides as a PPT file.
I had decent luck with transferring Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. Only one (a Keynote presentation, oddly) had any sort of problems; the others came in just fine.
The problematic Keynote presentation I expected to have problems with. I use a lot of third-party fonts in my presentations, and since you are limited to what Apple provided, custom fonts will be substituted. Below is what the title page looks like in OS X Keynote and iPad Keynote.
Title Slide From iPad
Title Slide From OS X
Those weren't the only issues I had. About 20 of my slides were charts, and the slides were designed to transition so the pie chart was the same size and in the same place on every side. To ensure this, when I created the presentation, I just duplicated the first slide with the chart and changed the numbers. When I gave the presentation on my MacBook, it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, on the iPad that was not the case and on some slides the chart size changed ruining the effect — the other common elements displayed correctly. The iPad’s resolution is 4:3 and I built the presentation for a 16:9 widescreen display.
I also had some odd issues with graphics. I tend to have a lot of full-frame images (where the image takes up the entire slide). On the presentation I had problems with, on some slides the graphic was pushed-up, requiring me to reposition them. Other presentations with full-frame graphics worked OK, so I might just have one Cursed Presentation.
Bottom line, the simpler the better when transferring presentations to the iPad. If you have a graphic-intensive talk, be prepared to spend some time double-checking it. In fact, if you’re going to be using your iPad to give a talk, you are going to want to take its limitations into account when you design it.
The Art of Giving
With the optional VGA cable you can hook your iPad up to a projector or a display. In my limited testing (comprised of hooking it up to an LCD display) it worked very well. The iPad seemed to auto-detect the resolution and the slides displayed as well as they did on the iPad screen. However, while the auto-detection looks OK, I did notice some distortion of pie charts on the display; they were stretched horizontally (this could be due to the conversion from widescreen to 4:3, and back to widescreen again.
The presentation tools when connected to an external source are limited. There is no presenters view or notes view. All you see is a black screen with a slide count. There is a pop-up display that will let you chose a starting point, but there's no way to see what the next slide is. The Apple Remote also doesn’t work with it, so you're pretty much chained to the podium and can't move around. Could you see Steve Jobs being restricted to giving an iPad-presentation without free range of the stage?
The lack of a presenter's view and notes is a deal-breaker for me. Unless you have an excellent memory, use note cards, or just read your slides aloud Keynote for the iPad is of limited value for giving presentations. Also, since the only way to see your slides is on the projector, you're going to be spending more time facing the screen than your audience.
The Art of Making
Again, the simpler the presentation, the easier time you will have creating presentations. The good news is, Apple provided a decent set of templates that closely mimic the templates you get in the desktop version of Keynote. The bad news is, there's no way for the iPad to recognize your corporate templates as real templates; the closest you can come is importing the template and copying it every time you want to create new talk.
One nice touch is when you use an Apple-supplied template and add a slide, you'll get a pop-up of slide types to use that match your template — for example, a slide with bullet lists, or a slide with just a text box.I found Keynote to have a steeper-learning curve than I'm used to for Apple — I needed to read the help to learn how to add a text box. I found myself going, "OK, how the heck do you do this?" frequently. Some tasks seemed needlessly complicated. There does not appear to be an easy way to customize a wedge color; I had to use the column with the color I wanted. Also, apparently no one at Apple is color blind, because I couldn't view color names.
The Art of Closing
Is it possible to use your iPad to create and give presentations? Yes.
Is it possible to create and give amazing, TED-quality presentations on your iPad? Not, really.
If you’re willing to trade some features and inconveniences to save carrying around a laptop, you might get a lot of use. There was a point in my testing when I “got” the potential of this tool. I was scouring the halls at work trying to find a free conference room to test out the projector. I’ve done a version of this trip before, juggling a laptop, power cables, etc.. Now I just had a computer the size of a pad of paper. Future versions of Keynote, or a competing product that address the issues I encountered could turn the iPad into a killer presentation tool.
As it stands, Keynote for the iPad will let you give an adequate presentation. It will not let you give an amazing performance.
Переслать
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