Tag Archives: iOS

Andy Ihnatko on iPhoto for iPad

May 9, 2012 – 9:42 am

Results make up for awkwardness of iPhoto for iPad – Chicago Sun-Times: “iPhoto represents the second generation of iPad apps. It’s not merely a ‘mobile’ photo editor. It’s a photo editor. A less-ambitious photo app like Snapseed is something you play with. iPhoto is an app that you can actually rely on.”

(Via. Chicago Sun-Times)

I have to completely agree with Andy Ihnatko here. When I first started using iPhoto for iPad, I immediately thought, like everyone else, that it was a UI nightmare. But the more I used it, the more I ended up liking it. And more importantly, the more I ended up using it as my go-to app for photo organizing and experimentation. In a few days, I had already used iPhoto on my iPad far more than I ever had any of the other iOS iLife apps. 

iPhoto for iPad truly is as capable, and far more enjoyable to use once you learn it, than its desktop counterpart.

We are entering a second stage of iPad software, as Mr. Ihnatko suggests. One where people start to recognize that the iPad is eventually going to be the laptop replacement, not just a casual consumption device. This is what the Kindle Fire and the Android tablets are all missing. The iPad is so much more than the competition thinks it is. 

And who better than Apple to lead the way with a new generation of apps that go beyond consumption? True, the iPad versions of the iWork apps were heavily compromised for the sake of an easier user experience. But the newer Apple apps, Garageband, iMovie, and now iPhoto, are pushing the boundaries and demonstrating that over time, iOS will become just as capable as OS X on the Mac for most people. 

The trick is figuring out how do these things with our fingers. So yes, user experience is not quite as easy to figure out on these more robust apps yet. But it took several years for the mouse and the original GUI to evolve into tools capable of rivaling text-based user interfaces. It’ll get there. Developers have to be willing to experiment until they find what works. And Apple, of course, has more at stake than anyone in leading that charge. 

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You call that Compelling?

May 4, 2012 – 7:42 am

Compelling idea for moving files from Mac to iPhone | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog: “There’s iCloud, Dropbox and a host of other services to help us tranfer these files, but there are no solutions as elegant as the concept devised by interaction designer Ishac Bertran.”

(Via. TUAW)

Elegant? I’d say this is anything but elegant. For starters, how is manually holding a phone in one hand while pinching and dragging with the other on a vertical screen more elegant than iCloud automatically syncing the files with no user interaction whatsoever? 

Even Palm solved this problem already much more elegantly with the “bump” feature on the WebOS tablet a few years ago. You see a file on the tablet you want on your phone, or vice versa? Just bump the devices together on the side of the screen, and the file transfers. 

But again, even that isn’t as simple as putting your files in iCloud, where they will simply be available on all devices at all times. Make an update on your phone, your laptop will have it in a few seconds. Make a change on your laptop, and the phone will have it in a few seconds. 

I realize that Apple is just getting started with iCloud, and that they haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, but they’ve clearly demonstrated that this is the plan for the future. There will be no need for the user to ever “sync” anything, because synchronization will be constant and automatic. 

Why you’d try and solve this problem when it’s already been solved is beyond me. 

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Matt Gemmell on Quasar

May 1, 2012 – 2:36 pm

Familiar is not a design:

Quasar was not designed, but rather only implemented. It’s the classic outcome of closed, engineer-based thinking.

(Via Matt Legend Gemmell)

Matt Gemmell sums up my thoughts on Quasar perfectly. The iPad doesn’t present multiple apps on screen at once for a reason, and that reason isn’t because of some hardware limitation, or because Apple wanted to “dumb it down” for users. It wasn’t an arbitrary decision. Apple designed the iPad that way, and I believe it’s a better device for it. You can argue that other systems like Windows Metro or Palm’s Web OS handle this sort of thing better, but you can’t just haphazardly let people fall back into their worst desktop habits and call it an improvement.

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The No Internet Connection Dialog in iOS

April 11, 2012 – 9:00 am

Dear iOS app developers (including you, Apple),

When my iPad doesn’t have an Internet connection for whatever reason, popping up a dialog box to tell me it has no connection is somewhat annoying, but understandable. After all, it’s good to communicate what’s going wrong to some extent. You can probably find a less obtrusive way than a box that takes over my whole iPad until I tap it, but whatever.

Popping up the same box 15 times in three seconds, and constantly popping it back up as soon as I dismiss it, again and again until I hit the home button to shut you up, is just plain stupid. And it makes me want to stab you in the eyes with a hot poker.

I got it the first time. No connection. Check.

And Mail app, I don’t need to know you couldn’t get mail from each one of my accounts in a separate dialog box. Just tell me you have no connection; I can deduce from that that none of my accounts will get new mail.

Netflix Error box

Really? Retry is my only option here, Netflix? How about “Stop Trying?”

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Gaming the App Store Rankings

February 8, 2012 – 12:48 pm

Apple warns developers against gaming App Store rankings | Macworld:

For many developers, Apple’s warning, and the fact that it appears to be cracking down on apps that take advantage of these means, is definitely a positive. For one thing, it helps level the playing field for those trying not just to make a hit, but a living developing software.

“There are plenty of developers who work very hard to produce quality apps,” The Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry wrote in an email to Macworld, “and we’re all happy to see Apple kick these scammers to the curb.”

 

(Via www.macworld.com)

Dan Moren over at Macworld did a great job with this article. I’m glad someone is bringing the issue some attention, lest App Store customers get the impression that the majority of developers are more like snake oil salesmen than legitimate small business owners.

I suppose to some extent we should expect the hucksters to come in and try to make a quick grab for a million dollars off the latest trend. But I hope that it’s clear to at least a good number of App Store customers that we’re not all in it for fame and fortune. Some of us, as the article points out, really do just want to make a decent living and escape life in a cubicle. We’re in it for the long haul.

I talk about this constantly with my partners at Bombing Brain Interactive. The long term goal: be able to continuously make a living designing and building great products. No Lamborghinis or cruises around the world required. Just make enough to keep going and not have to work a “day job.” Support our families doing something we love, and make customers happy in the process.

There’s no short cut to achieving that goal. You work your butt off and keep trying to improve your apps, and hope that you get enough buzz and word of mouth going to keep feeding you.

The sooner the get-rich-quick scammers move on to the next big thing, the better off we’ll all be. I’m just surprised it’s taking this long for them to realize that most are falling flat on their faces. As long as they’re still around, the rest of us have to keep fighting the negative public perception.

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