After days of speculation and rumors, Microsoft’s major announcement has just been unveiled at a press event in Los Angeles: a Surface tablet. We suspected the company might be working on its own tablet, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the device on stage at Milk Studios in Los Angeles today. Discussing Microsoft’s history with Windows, Xbox, and Kinect, Ballmer introduced a video of the company’s hardware products over the years before unveiling Windows 8’s companion, the Microsoft Surface.
The Surface is like a Nexus Tablet, but for Windows 8. Microsoft’s own attempt to create an incredible, competitive, tablet.
For certain, it is a risky strategy. As shown by the Surface, they evidently feel that they need to kickstart the cavalcade of Metro devices with their own, Microsoft branded, device. The product they have made is undoubtedly interesting (in particular, the ‘Smart Cover’ accessory that has an inbuilt keyboard) and probably captivating to a reasonable number of consumers.
However, whether it is wise to, essentially, become a competitor to their other “partners” (such as HP, Dell and Asus) is still to be determined. I think Google can get it away with it with the Nexus series because Android has already established platform lock-in, such as the app ecosystem. This makes it hard for a manufacturer to disconnect themselves from Android, despite their annoyances regarding the special treatment Google has given to some companies, and go it alone with another new OS.
For Windows 8, though, there is none of this. This is a platform with zero apps and zero install base. Potentially turning away hardware partners, before the OS even ships, is very risky, indeed.
My biggest issue with Notification Center is the repeated text. As indicated in the screenshot, “NYTimes” appears once in the header, and once for every NYTimes app notification. The same applies for Tweetbot; this results in a lot of repeated text. In my opinion, this space could be put to better use.
If Apple could let developers set a subtitle for each individual notification, Notification Center would improve functionally and aesthetically. For instance, for the Tweetbot notification, it would be easier to identify the content if the subtitle was something like “Mention from @hrbrt”, rather than just repeating the app’s name. A quick glance could determine whether a notification requires further action, rather than having to read the smaller body text. It is also better aesthetically, simply because it looks nicer, as there is no repetition.
As shown below, Apple’s own apps already do this.
For example, the Messages notifications are much more informative, as they include the receiver’s name as the subtitle, rather than just repeating “Messages” again. This allows you to see, at a glance, the message’s sender without having to squint to see the smaller text beneath.
Therefore, I hope Apple will add this functionality to third-party iOS developers, in the future, as it not only makes Notification Center simply look better, but also has a functional improvement of adding more context to incoming notifications. In many ways, it seems inevitable, as Apple’s own apps already do it. It is simply a matter of opening up the feature to other developers.
This week, the industry group responsible for the “Do Not Track” privacy protection functionality issued a proposed change to the spec that contradicts Microsoft’s plans to enable this feature by default in its next browser, Internet Explorer (IE) 10. “Do Not Track” must be disabled by default and manually enabled by users, according to this new spec. And that means Microsoft will need to change IE.
This is ridiculous. It is outrageous that the specification body will undermine Microsoft’s implementation of the service, simply because they respect user privacy. In fact, the governing body actively encourage advertisers to ignore Microsoft’s preference if its “on-by-default” policy continues.
The ADA, an abbreviation for the Advertising Digital Alliance no less, are clearly biased. “Do Not Track” is a scam. It is a propaganda scheme, that really shrouds the advertisers’ goal of maintaining traditional revenue sources. In fact, in their own statement, they basically admit this.
[Microsoft’s] unilateral decision, made without consultation within the self-regulatory process, may ultimately narrow the scope of consumer choices, undercut thriving business models, and reduce the availability and diversity of the Internet products and services that millions of American consumers currently enjoy at no charge.
The quote “undercut thriving business” echoes back to the whole idea of skating where the puck is, rather than where it is going. I wouldn’t exactly describe the newspaper industry as “thriving”, for instance. They are profitable now, but the future is bleak.
Effectively, the ADA is a cohort of backwards online media companies, who have no interest in expanding consumer privacy options online. “Do Not Track” is optionally implemented to start with, and as demonstrated above, the defaults (which 90% of users will never change, let alone think of changing) are biased towards the interests of advertisers. In my view, a complete propaganda palaver, and more evidence of incumbent business trying to sustain outdated business models.
Now the two sides appear on the brink of formalizing the relationship. After much speculation, Facebook integration will indeed be baked into the latest version of iOS, we’ve learned.
Facebook integration into iOS was kinda-expected. However, the complexity involved of Facebook sharing is much greater than that of Twitter. Facebook is a multi-faceted monster. There are lot more elements to the Facebook experience, than a 140-character-limited text box.
For example, you can upload a picture to your Photos or post a link to a photo on the News Feed. In addition, Facebook has the added layer of metadata, such as tagging and album-sorting and privacy settings.
Also, there are just a lot more types of content that Facebook can handle. Will you be able to share a Calendar appointment to Facebook? Will you be able to sync Contacts with your Facebook contacts?
My guess, for the time being, it will be limited to just News Feed posts and OS-level API support, so Facebook-login to apps is streamlined and managed from the global device Settings. This also means there will be a prominent option to disable the feature, akin to the Twitter implementation.
One such part that we have not talked about is the Broadcom BCM4334 that has been found in code dumps. The BCM4334 is a step up from the 65nm BCM4330 used on the “new†iPad and the iPhone 4S, and it is notably built on a smaller, more efficient 40nm process.
Along with now-standard stuff like Bluetooth 4.0 and FM radios, this chip also features dual-band Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct.
Wi-Fi Direct is the technology that enables AirDrop on Lion, which is why it is only able to be activated on certain Macs (from about 2008 onwards). AirDrop on iOS is an interesting thought, as whilst it would speed up direct sharing between your Mac and your iOS device, the mechanics of the function are unclear.
For example, what happens to the file once it appears on your iPhone? Do you have to “open in” to save it permanently? Or would there be a temporary location where AirDrop files remain? Unlike the Mac, on an iPhone or iPad, you can’t save to desktop. There is no desktop.
Industry sources tell Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu that China Mobile is looking for a cut of App Store revenue.
China Mobile can want whatever they like. They have no leverage. Apple may want to enter China in a big way (and 628 million subscribers is a big draw), but China Mobile knows that the iPhone is very significant, too. Apple is already churning out blockbuster quarters without these 628 million customers (10 million unlocked iPhones already run on China Mobile’s network, without any sort of subsidy deal in place). They don’t need China, at least in the short-to-medium term. China Mobile wants iPhones much more.
For skeptics, compare it to the Verizon deal. They are the dominant player in the US. They were having some success with Android devices. They “wanted” Verizon crapware on the iPhone home screen.
It came out, in February 2011, with no such crapware. It was the iPhone. On Verizon. The ‘iPhone in China’ will be exactly the same.
Little changes like this are often overlooked but they represent disproportionately large changes to usability. I see two main changes taking place with the UISwitch, which is the technical name for this view in UIKit.
Before the switch was squared off, interactions occurred by either sliding the square nub, or tapping to alternate the state of the control. Now, the nub is rounded, and follows the rest of iOS UI, becoming circular and finger-sized. In the new design, the background colour of the switch is easier seen, as the nub size has become smaller. This is important in non-English languages (determined the device’s locale settings), where the control isn’t labelled with “On” or “Off”, but rather “O” or “I”, like a power switch. By being able to see the highlight colour easier, less mental parsing is required as to the current state of the switch.
To my memory, this change of the UISwitch is the first major change of a UI element in iOS. Gradients and backgrounds have changed slightly around the system, but the change in switch design is much less subtle. I think this is good. It shows Apple is prepared to change things, even in a device population dominated by “newbies”, rather than the geek - who can take on change much easier, as seen in the regular revisions in Mac interface. I had been concerned that Apple was resistant to large change in iOS to maintain simplicity, but this sets my mind at ease.
With the upcoming iOS 4, Apple has announced a solution for some of those applications, but only a handful of specific kinds of applications: location data, voice over IP (VoIP), and audio. You will be able to stay on a Skype call even if Skype is in the background, once Skype adds support for it. You will be able to listen to Pandora Radio in the background once Pandora adds support for it. Your GPS app or other location-aware app will be able to keep tabs on your location in the background, once it is updated. In fact,Tom Tom has already announced that its navigation app will be background-ready, so your “At the end of the road, turn left” announcements will come through even if you’re doing something else. That’s it, though. Background processing is extremely constrained to three specific areas, which Apple believes will cover most of the things that most people want to do most of the time.
The description of how multitasking worked before iOS 4 is correct. However, iOS 4 isn’t simply constrained to location, VoIP and streaming audio for multitasking. There are, in fact, seven services developers can use. Background audio is one. VoIP is one. Streaming audio is another.
But, there’s more. A slightly tenuous one Apple notes is “push notifications”. I don’t class this as multitasking; it is push notifications - completely separate. Remember, a year ago, Apple were saying (which was a blatant lie) that push notifications were instead of multitasking, so they can’t be the same thing. Local notifications are, and that’s the next service. This allows push-notification-like alerts that do not need a server running, thus no internet connection is needed either. Therefore, alarms and timers can background (making a noise/alert when the time ends), TVGuide.co.uk can alert you of your next episode of Glee extremely easily. Heck, even We Rule could make a noise when your crops are done. This is a multi-purpose service; it doesn’t have one set function (unlike the first three), and has many applications.
The same is true with task completion; something the article blissfully ignores. Task completion lets an app complete a task, the thread is then destroyed as soon as that task ends to save resources. A very good example Apple states is letting photos upload. Enter Flickr, upload 20 photos. Go out of Flickr. Photos continue to upload. That’s multitasking. And that’s not “location data, voice over IP (VoIP), and audio” at all. For more examples, task completion allows for the user to continue to check email whilst waiting for the downloads of songs in Tap Tap Revenge to finish.
The largest flaw of the article is yet to come though.
According to a few developers who talked to pocket-lint.com, don’t hold your breath for multitasking support in all your apps. One developer said “Why would you want to multitask during a game?” I don’t know who this developer was, but I would like to remind him/her: the iPhone is innately a multitasking device. All applications should be ready at all times to exit at the user’s command.
Why? Because the phone might ring.
If the phone rings and I answer it, will your application bring me back to exactly where I was when I left off? It should, but very few applications get this right. With iOS 4, that oversight is going to be much more glaring especially since Apple is promising people that apps can remember where they left off. Starting with iOS 4, if your app doesn’t do that, your customers are going to expect that you are working on a new version that will. Yes, even the gamers. Save your state and bring us back where we left off when we exited your application and you’ll be ahead of most applications.
Umm, that’s the last function of the multitasking solution; fast app switching. That’s why Apple is promising people. In previous versions of iOS, state-saving was the sole responsibility of the developer, but it was possible. The reason it had little use was because it was difficult to implement. It required large rewrites of some codebases, due to the nature of Objective-C classes. Apple has recognized it was an issue, and have responded with a first-party API set to abstract the difficulty to the OS. Apple’s solution (memory caching) is better aswell, allowing for 1:1 instantaneous restore of state. This means games put you right back in your place mid-game, if you got a call, if you got a new email, if you needed to do anything. It works and it’s here; here’s Steve showing it off with a game of Tap Tap (about 4minutes in).
In conclusion, Apple’s implementation of “multitasking” isn’t perfect from a functional perspective (the overall experience is very good though), although it certainly is better than what the article makes it out to be. I agree, the OS needs a background-updater for things like Instapaper, and Marco Arment’s proposal is good. I had a similar idea, utilizing a new type of push notification. This push notification would do nothing user-facing, but push relevant content (such as Instapaper articles) to the device. The OS stores this, and then - once the app is reawakened - informs the app of the new content and let it deal with it. Even a socket link API would do the trick for IMs, so the app doesn’t need to reconnect to it’s streaming server. The socket would be able to be left open but idle, reducing the wait time for the app to interact once the user returns.
Multitasking in iOS 4 is not a magical sparkle pony. It’s a magically sparkly unicorn that is close enough to a pony to reasonably allow Apple to call it a pony for the vast majority of users, when it still has a horn on its head.
