Saturday, June 30, 2012

iOS feature wish list - The Verge

O.K., I normally don't post in the forums, but I wanted to post my wishlist for iOS, what I want to see and stuff.

-The ability to change the default apps, and delete stock apps.

This is a common feature requset, but the launch of Chrome for iOS has reinforced this for me. I love Chrome for iOS, the ui, pre-caching, and most importantly, syncing with desktop Chrome. I use syncing between Safari and Safari Mobile so much, I can't justify switching unless it can offer a similar experience on the mobile side of things. I can't justify it if Sparrow will open links into Safari with no way to get them over to Chrome besides copying the link. Also, e-mailing from Safari always goes to the default app, not Sparrow, which is my e-mail app for iOS. If we could just choose the default apps for browser, photos, email, youtube, keyboard, and weather, it would make things so much nicer. Then, if we could delete default apps so we don't need a folder on the last page for apps we never use.

-A basic file system for better app-to-app communication.

Let's face it, it is not a very elegant solution for one app to have to specifically support apps like dropbox, send the file to the internet, and then bring the file back down to your device when they both are using the same storage. Each app could have their own seperate files that other apps can't access, like it is currently. Then, there could be a basic, universal one that apps can offer part of their content to certain types of apps. Using the dropbox example again, the app could have tags saying it is for this type of app (of course these tags would be made by Apple), and then Drobox would have a receiving tag that says it will recieve these kind of tags. Then, once set up, the app would automatically send all info with compatible tags to drobox.

-Fix the issues with Notification center not fitting in with the rest of the transitions in iOS.

After I read this from a site (can't remember where though), it bugs me every time I use Notification Center. Every os transition is about sliding objects, revealing things behind it. The multitasking tray slides up, revealing the apps behind it. The folders split, revealing the apps in the folder behind it. What does the Notification Center do, it slides ON TOP OF your current screen. Why does it depart from the rest of the ui? What it should do is provide the current "handle" as you slide down, pulling the current screen down, revealing the notification center behind the screen. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does. It is one of those things that I can't unsee (sorry for all those that read this and are like me, and now are annoyed by it).

-Add widgets to Notification Center.

If they ever implement widgets, they should NOT do it on the springboard. The home screen is about opening apps, widgets are about seeing information. When I go to the homescreen, I already know what I am going to go to next. I don't need to see info about something that I will not open, or am already going to open since I am already headed there. It makes more sense to put it in Notification center, which is focused on feeding info to you. If they had seperate pages for notifications and widgets, I don't care. Because Notification center is available everywhere, you can see that info everywhere, rather then seeing it on the home screen in the few seconds that you are there. I know some people will counter this logic by saying "coming from the lockscreen, you need to be able to see all the info in a second". This point is moot, since the lockscreen has all your notifications, so why would you need widgets after seeing all your notifications.

-Add functionality to the Music app.

I recently discoverd some annoyances with the music app. I find it irratating of how little functionality the quick access music controls are on the lock screen. First, why can't the music controls always be there when music is playing? Why do I have to double click the home button to get these features. Second, why can't they put shuffle and repeat toggles there, even if it is revealed by a double click, I would be happy. It is stupid that it shows album art and controls, just to shuffle around a tiny bit when unlocked. If the repeat and shuffle toggles flanked the album and song name, it wouldn't clutter things too much.

Next, I have a playlist that consists of all the songs I have from three bands, OneRepublic, Death Cab For Cutie, and Coldplay. I have them grouped by artist, which then groups each artist by album. I find it frustrating that there is no tracker on the side, which is normally letters because in "songs" it is in Alphabetical order. Because it is organized by album, it would help a lot to find songs by having some sort of thing on the side. I realize this is farfetched because of the amount of different songs some people have, but it would help a lot for having some kind of slider on the side (just wishful thinking).

I think that is all the features I am wishing for right now on my iPod Touch. I hope that at least some of these could be implemented.

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