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roxxette

macrumors 68000
Aug 9, 2011
1,507
0
Put the player in notifications. And where the player currently is...ready for this....toggles.

/mind blown

That a fantastic idea but like others have say best way is just to display music controls when your using a music app.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
No, when playing music, the lockscreen should just display the controls there without us needing to double-tap the home button to make it appear. There would be the best for me. I still don't get why we must double-tap it just to bring up the controls....:confused:
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
But they are. They tell you what is currently playing.

A simple one line text notification tells you what's playing; were talking about music CONTROLS (play, pause, next, previous, etc), which are not notifications.

I'm saying that so far, the notification centre is used strictly for notifications only. Music controls would break that pattern.

Yes, if you
want to open and close the calendar app over and over and over and over to check on something. A simple widget solves this. Set to show appointments a couple days ahead and you can see what your schedule looks like with a quick glance to know what's coming up. No pop ups, no notifications, no constantly opening and closing the app. Quick and simple.

The problem is apple has notifications configured so horribly, it's a pain in the butt to have more then a couple appointments show up at a time. That's why you think it's a burden, because of the way apple implemented the notification system.

You're talking about a widget now but were talking about notifications before. I like widgets, although I don't think they're really necessary on iOS for my uses, but wouldn't mind if they were added.

I still don't see why it's so hard to open the full calendar. If you're as organised as you say you are and plan days ahead of time, you shouldn't need to constantly check!

----------

Put the player in notifications. And where the player currently is...ready for this....toggles.

/mind blown

People will just complain the toggles are hard to get to then :p
 

F123D

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2008
3,776
16
Del Mar, CA
You're talking about a widget now but were talking about notifications before. I like widgets, although I don't think they're really necessary on iOS for my uses, but wouldn't mind if they were added.

I still don't see why it's so hard to open the full calendar. If you're as organised as you say you are and plan days ahead of time, you shouldn't need to constantly check!

My original post you responded to was about widgets.

I have widgets for my calendar, appointments, tasks, emails, etc so I can turn on my phone, quickly check for anything upcoming instead of clicking on one app, pressing the home button, click on another app, press the home button, click on another app, press the home button...

These widgets help notify me of anything upcoming in my schedule so they're part of notifications for me.

I don't have to constantly check and can easily plan ahead because I know what's on my schedule just by looking at my screen. Everything is right there without having to click in and out of individual apps like I did with iOS.

Sure, you can click on your calendar, reminder, notes, email apps and check them all separately throughout the day. I'll just check my screen and see everything in front of me in one place.
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
My original post you responded to was about widgets.

Nope:

I have widgets for my calendar, appointments, tasks, emails, etc so I can turn on my phone, quickly check for anything upcoming instead of clicking on one app, pressing the home button, click on another app, press the home button, click on another app, press the home button...

And as Mxbzz mentioned with Google now, a quick swipe and I can check weather, sports, events, news, stock, tracking info, etc all without checking separate individual apps.

The notification system on android is by far more detailed and functional. I just don't understand why apple only allows you to view appointments 24 hours ahead of time in notification center. (Jailbreak and lockinfo is a must if you want a functional NC).

:p
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
A static grid of icons. How fascinating...

Also widgets are much more useful than just looking nice. Why would I want to go into apps to see some information (calendar, weather, sports scores) or change settings when i can access it from the home screen?

And off topic, I hate how Apple forces its ways on you. Maybe I want to delete/hide some of the crappy Apple stock apps. I can't, the best I can do is put them in a folder. Hell, Apple won't even let me put that useless Newstand app in a folder for no apparent reason

Newsstand is already a folder and you cannot put a folder in a folder. Simple.
 

GoSh4rks

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2012
310
41
A simple one line text notification tells you what's playing; were talking about music CONTROLS (play, pause, next, previous, etc), which are not notifications.

I'm saying that so far, the notification centre is used strictly for notifications only. Music controls would break that pattern.

Except for the 'Share Widget.' There isn't anything paradigm breaking about putting the music controls in the Notification Center.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
Except for the 'Share Widget.' There isn't anything paradigm breaking about putting the music controls in the Notification Center.

Maybe because Apple already put the music controls in the multi-tasking tray, so they leave it as it is. They don't want to put another set of music controls in the NC. Unless they're considering shifting it, which I don't mind. I hardly use the music controls in the multi-tasking area.
 

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
Maybe because Apple already put the music controls in the multi-tasking tray, so they leave it as it is. They don't want to put another set of music controls in the NC. Unless they're considering shifting it, which I don't mind. I hardly use the music controls in the multi-tasking area.

Agree. The music controls in Multitasking tray are useless because I never go there. It's not an intuitive location for music controls. Not even close.

NC makes more sense, or give us a new gesture that does not require double tap. Maybe swipe up, or use all the dead space under spotlight.
 

kiltedthrower

macrumors regular
Aug 24, 2012
144
0
I still don't see why it's so hard to open the full calendar. If you're as organised as you say you are and plan days ahead of time, you shouldn't need to constantly check!



It's not that it's hard to open the calendar, we're talking about making things more convenient. Yesterday I had to schedule 11 appointments, 6 submission dates, 3 soccer matches, 5 client training sessions, and 2 lecture dates. I would have had to click the calendar icon 23 different times. It's just nice to be able to skip steps.

When I used a black berry, I used to say, "why does my phone need to do that?" whenever is e see something cool the iPhone could do. Now I think it's better that my phone is capable of more things.
 

zbarvian

macrumors 68010
Jul 23, 2011
2,004
2
No, when playing music, the lockscreen should just display the controls there without us needing to double-tap the home button to make it appear. There would be the best for me. I still don't get why we must double-tap it just to bring up the controls....:confused:

Thank you! I never understood this.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
It's not that it's hard to open the calendar, we're talking about making things more convenient. Yesterday I had to schedule 11 appointments, 6 submission dates, 3 soccer matches, 5 client training sessions, and 2 lecture dates. I would have had to click the calendar icon 23 different times. It's just nice to be able to skip steps.

When I used a black berry, I used to say, "why does my phone need to do that?" whenever is e see something cool the iPhone could do. Now I think it's better that my phone is capable of more things.

You're a really busy man.:D

Or you can just ask Siri, "What do schedules do I have today?":)
 

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,721
Boston, MA
Finding an app isn't hard. Just use spotlight or Siri.

It's not hard, but it's also not convenient. I also fail to see why, after over five years, I still need to keep a junk folder sitting all alone on its own page. It's pretty safe to say that the vast majority of users have a junk folder. WHY oh WHY am I forced to keep these apps anywhere on the screen? :(


Quick settings to toggle on and off? Why would iOS need that? Battery life is amazing even when leaving everything on. Android needs that to save battery.

It's not all about battery. A specific case for me is that our building has wifi that I can get a connection to. We also have wifi in our unit, which is much faster (talking 65mbit versus 10mbit). It would be nice to have a quick toggle or faster way to get to these settings. Of course iOS has improved on this with iOS 6, which I do appreciate. My wife and I also have bluetooth in both of our vehicles. We don't always want one device to sync over the other. A quick toggle, again, would be handy.

Name a worth while widget. Just one. iOS you can get the weather quick via notification bar or Siri. Sports scores and schedules. What widget is out there that is must have on the Android that makes it so much better than iOS?

Anything I name as worthwhile, you can easily say it is not. It's a matter of opinion. I would certainly like notes/calendar to be a widget. For a person that is setting/checking appointments on their phone throughout the day, that extra second or two can be handy. Is it a deal breaker? Probably not. We are talking about convenience here, not necessity. The way iOS handles it works fine. But it could be more convenient, IMO.

Back button? I had android and the back button is just one more button I had to worry about. I don't even see it as an issue with iOS but to each there own. I guess you go back a lot?

I don't find myself missing a back button in iOS. If I had just been using a WP device, I find myself looking for the button (muscle memory), but that's about it. I can go either way, to be honest. I don't think it is necessary, but I also don't think it's bad. My overall preference is 100% software buttons. With the iPhone 5 I was disappointed that the home button is still there. As you said, to each his own.
 

dkersten

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2010
589
2
Newsstand is already a folder and you cannot put a folder in a folder. Simple.

No its a useless feature for 80% of iOS users that we have no way of hiding. Who wants to actually read newspapers and magazines on the small screen of an iPhone anyways?
 

VulchR

macrumors 68040
Jun 8, 2009
3,508
14,459
Scotland
This is an interesting thread, and for once there seems to be little trolling. To answer's the OP's question, a psychologist or neuroscientist would tell the OP that boredom with iOS amounts to 'sensory specific satiety'. We seem to be hardwired to prefer change, which is why restaurants serve different kinds of food in different courses. iOS hasn't changed that much externally, so people who like variety and change have started to look at other mobile OS's. It's annoying that they feel compelled to belittle others' choices, but there it is.

I think there is another issue at stake here as well. I think some people have called it 'simplicity' but I think it's engineering 'elegance' - namely, that iOS solves many complex problems very well with little user intervention. However, what iOS doesn't really do is allow the user to express themselves. Can a home page on a mobile phone be personalized art? I think it can, just like jewelery or clothing. If Apple doesn't recognize this soon, they'll go the way of IBM (reliable machines that nobody wants).

Finally, although iOS is great for many things, not all of the solutions and user interface elements are 'elegant' in terms of engineering. Toggles are an excellent point: There is a whole empty search page, and battery-saving toggles can be put at the bottom. Instead, Apple has chosen to put them in menu under the settings app, so while they recognize the utility of the toggles, they bury them in a complex hierarchical menu system. There are other examples as well - why isn't there a way of clearing all the apps from the task-switching bar (which is a privacy issue)?. Why is Newsstand a folder that we can't get rid of rather than an app? Why can't we use different keyboards? There are others as well.

I love iOS and I have several iOS devices at home and in my lab. I am not bored with iOS, but I can see its shortcomings. I fail to understand why Apple doesn't see them as well, for fixing them would be trivial. I don't want iOS to become Android (yuck, with all due respect), but I would like iOS to be better.
 
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Black Magic

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
2,812
1,506
I think its disgusting people suggest spotlight.

Expand on that Roxxette. Do you not like that feature?

----------

I am not even going to argue with you as its pretty obvious that no matter what I say you'll never be convinced.

iOS is new to me as I switched from Android a while back. I found its design and simplicity refreshing.
 
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F123D

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2008
3,776
16
Del Mar, CA
You're a really busy man.:D

Or you can just ask Siri, "What do schedules do I have today?":)

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "What do schedules do I have today". Would you like me to search the web for "What do schedules do I have today"?

With that many appointments, it'd be quicker to just open the app.
 

TacticalDesire

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2012
2,286
23
Michigan
Because this is the extent of Apple changing how the homescreen looks. The most drastic thing that's changed is them adding wallpapers...

iphones.png



Don't get me wrong. The home screen works fine for launching apps and is "simple". But nothing else. They need to let users customize it a lot more than just arranging icons stuck to a grid.


And as far the the feature set goes. They've offered next to nothing we haven't seen before. It took them until iOS 3 to add MMS and landscape mode in mail, iOS 4 to add freaking wallpapers and very basic multitasking, and iOS 5 to bring a useable notification system that was copied from another platform (not saying that's a bad thing. But let's face it. They did.), and for iPhones, iPods and especially the iPad to be PC free. iOS 6 brought what? A new music app, an awful maps application and oh yeah; "Do Not Disturb".

I've been an iOS user for 4 years and use it every day and really like it. But Even I'm appalled at how slow things are going and Apple purposely withholding "features" so they have something to release 1 year later.

At least we have iOS 6.1 to look forward to.


Larger "Report a Problem" button in Maps
New music controls on lock screen when you double-press home button
Siri can now purchase movie tickets via Fandango (USA only)
LTE now works with several European and American carriers
Individual songs can once again be downloaded or deleted when using iTunes Match
New, persistent Passbook pass explaining service functionality.
 
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matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
Sure, pick the one line where I wasn't discussing the usefulness of widgets over iOS notification system . ;)

That's the part that I replied, then you replied to my post, then I replied to your post, and so on. That IS what was being discussed.

Not sure why this is so difficult to grasp. :confused:

Except for the 'Share Widget.' There isn't anything paradigm breaking about putting the music controls in the Notification Center.

Good point!

It's not that it's hard to open the calendar, we're talking about making things more convenient. Yesterday I had to schedule 11 appointments, 6 submission dates, 3 soccer matches, 5 client training sessions, and 2 lecture dates. I would have had to click the calendar icon 23 different times. It's just nice to be able to skip steps.

Well yeah, in that case I'm sure a widget would greatly assist. However, the user I've been replying to was talking about simply seeing events coming up more than 24 hours in advance.
 
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