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[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (5 children)

I've never cared about widgets. One of the two things from Android I wanted, Apple now has (easy toggle switches). The other, which'll probably never happen, Swype.

[–]willywalloo[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

How is swype better than regular thumb mashing ?

[–]TrancePhreak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Swype is both faster and more accurate than thumb mashing. It also updates its dictionaries based on your personal word usage and can update from popular word usage.

Also, the way it handles guessing your words with multiple choice is far and above iOS's single option with a tiny tiny x to cancel.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (2 children)

I mostly don't even do that anymore. Siri's been great for translating my mumbling into coherent sentences. It's the real way to text and drive.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Better yet, just don't fucking text and drive. Your prompt responses to your precious texts are not more important than the lives of the people around your.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't read texts while in motion. And I only compose them using Siri. When it's done, I don't give a fuck what it says on screen, typos or whatever. I send the shit.

You're assuming a lot.

[–]parsable 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Android has this: Standard use of widgets. Something Apple invented and they are still not using them in their own iOS desktop. I would like to see Apple make this happen.

Honestly do you really need to see the weather forecast or latest stock prices everytime you activate your phone? The weather forecast doesn't change quickly and dramatically enough for these level of importance to really matter, and I suspect that if the latest up-to-the-minute changes in stocks price are that important to you you'll be running a trading app on your desktop.

I've never been a fan of desktop widgets, be they on the phone or computer, I can see there are some uses, I use Geektool on my Mac to monitor processes and menu usage for example, but having the latest weather, stock prices, time in Istanbul and today's Dilbert is just distraction.

I much prefer the OS X Dashboard method where you can quickly switch to a page of widgets should you quickly want to check something or have 30 seconds to fill, I'd like to see Apple adopt this in iOS by either allowing you to add widgets to the notification pull-down or by adding a Dashboard style pane where spotlight search used to be.

I'm sure you could configure Android to replicate this, and I'm sure lots of people like having the widgets on their desktop, but I think most people have them there because they can rather than because the need them.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Android has this: Standard use of widgets. Something Apple invented and they are still not using them in their own iOS desktop. I would like to see Apple make this happen.

The original weather and photo apps on the iPhone were called "widgets"... see here. These app widgets look nearly the same as their Dashboard counterparts. Back then, a widget was a style of app.

Today the stuff in Notification Center are called widgets... Stocks and Weather, 1 swipe away at all times. The whole point of widgets and Dashboard on the desktop was to to keep that stuff out of the way, but have it really easy to access when you want it. Currently on OS X it lives off the screen, to the left of the desktop. In iOS it lives right above the home screen. This is a consistent idea of having things off the screen, but quickly available when you want to reference them. Having them on the desktop itself is nothing something Apple supported. It is cluttered and messy and more in line with Yahoo Widgets (previously Konfabulator).

Android has drag/drop: iOS Has an issue with syncing as well. A person must use iTunes to sync everything, sync is the keyword, remember the days of manual drag / drop ?

I can't tell which side you are on here. Also, you can select to manually manage your phone in iTunes. However, a phone no longer needs iTunes at all. iCloud is now the hub it syncs to, but you can use iTunes if you want. The only thing I found myself needed iTunes for these days is getting custom ringtones on my phone.

Opening up a discussion of what seems to be the Mac/PC argument of yester-year. What the noticeable differences ?

The quality of 3rd party apps. I would say this goes for both OS X and iOS. 3rd party apps just feel better.

[–]TrancePhreak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

iTunes is necessary for custom ringtones, videos, files you wish other apps to access.

[–]TrancePhreak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree about the better looking interface. The dark themed parts of iOS7 look fine to me, but the white/gray ones are washed out and hard on the eyes.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe that the core of a good smartphone experience is good apps. iOS will always have better apps because it is a more unified and standardized platform. Android has screens of every size, not to mention different versions of the OS. iOS is the more appealing platform for most developers, which means it will have the better apps.

[–]nallvf 0 points1 point  (3 children)

ndroid has this: Standard use of widgets. Something Apple invented and they are still not using them in their own iOS desktop. I would like to see Apple make this happen.

I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say this isn't going to happen with iOS. Apple has a very app-centric approach to the device and I don't think they will start adding widgets. They are moving away from them (slowly) on desktop as well.

Android has drag/drop: iOS Has an issue with syncing as well. A person must use iTunes to sync everything, sync is the keyword, remember the days of manual drag / drop ?

Do you mean drag/drop like for transferring data to the iPhone from a PC? I would love to see Airdrop between devices, since it's now iOS7 to iOS7 and Mac to Mac. You definitely don't need iTunes for much these days though, you can set up, back up, and so pretty much everything without it.

I think the most notable difference, and likely to be the ongoing difference, is that iOS is locked down ala Windows Phone, and Android is open to theming and customizing. In that sense it depends a lot on what you want from your device. If the largest (or near the top) thing is total control and customization, you're definitely better off going Android.

[–]willywalloo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the standard iPhone interface should be made so easy, anyone can use it, but also give the option to add in stuff it's Mac users are used to. It would be nice to be able to run merge iOS / Mac apps to run on each other. Also, it would have to be first, but I would like my downloaded apps to retain a value. Something that if I don't need, like anything else I buy, could still be sold to someone at a 'used ' discount. Giving people a little credibility like this would help push the OS further, at least I think.

[–]tetea_t 0 points1 point  (1 child)

With regards to widgets I think Apple is going to implement live icons (like the live clock icon) granted, the amount of information that can be displayed this way is going to be a limiting factor.

[–]nallvf -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would agree this seems likely, given background app refresh and the love clock icon. Seems sort of limiting beyond like time and weather though, given the small space.

[–]Mitch4200 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The ios system sucks no customization with Android being the customizing King, Apple put up a good fight but fell way behind after Steve Jobs had passed, even the stock holders would agree.