Archive for May 7, 2015

Thursday, May 7, 2015

iOS 9 Wishes

Federico Viticci:

Seven years into the App Store, I struggle to find a reasonable motivation for not allowing users to set different default apps on iOS. I believe Apple should accept that they can’t make the perfect email client or web browser for all kinds of users, and, just like custom keyboards, they should let users choose their favorite app for a specific set of core tasks. If personalization of a user’s iOS device has truly become a priority at Apple, then it should be extended to activities that users frequently perform on an iPhone or iPad.

[…]

Currently, you can’t pin specific iCloud Drive folders to other apps and browse their contents without going through the full iCloud Drive UI. Let’s say I’m a designer and I keep all my assets in Documents and I want to do my work in Pixelmator. I can’t create a Documents folder bookmark in Pixelmator for quick access to my files – I need to tap the iCloud Drive button, browse all app folders, find the Documents one, and load a file. This process, each time, for any file I want.

[…]

Currently, if you need to attach a file to a new message, all you can do is bring up the copy & paste menu in the body text and pick a photo or video from your library. That’s convenient and straightforward, but it’s fundamentally useless if you need to send any other document. Sure, you can send files using the Mail extension from third-party apps, but that only works for new messages and it doesn’t let you attach multiple files to the same message. Mail itself needs a file picker.

[…]

Like Siri, I believe Spotlight should turn into a universal utility capable of deep interactions with all apps on a user’s device. I want to see Spotlight grow from a simple launcher and search app to a global search tool that can look into any app that offers content I’m looking for.

[…]

On the iPhone 6 Plus, the landscape keyboard comes with special buttons to manage text selection and cursor placement, copy & paste, and even formatting. I’d argue that these shortcuts would make more sense on an iPad, which is where most iOS users tend to write long documents and emails that involve text editing. The iPad’s original keyboard was envisioned as a laptop-like, full-size keyboard, but it’s time for some customization, inspired by the 6 Plus.

Twitter Island

Manton Reece:

Justin Williams joked that Brent and I are now the sole inhabitants of “Manton Island”. That’s funny but it’s actually backwards; it’s Twitter that is the island. Everyone is there, though, in an overpopulated mess, so they don’t realize they’re cut off from the rest of the world — the open web, designed 25 years ago as an interconnected system of countless islands.

Customer Service and Security

Dr. Drang:

The automated system asked me to punch in my account number, so I did and was put in the queue to “speak with a representative.” The wait was only a minute or so, and the first thing the representative asked me was my account number. This happens with almost every telephone support system I deal with, so I no longer give the poor rep grief about it, but it still bothers me. This is one of those dumbass pseudo-security features that make a manager somewhere feel like he’s doing something valuable.