So what do you want to see in a future iOS revision? I've been seeing the jailbreak community mature over the last year, and even recently became tempted to jailbreak again myself, having not done so since I got the 3GS over a year ago. I like some of the things you can do via jailbreak, but unfortunately just not enough to get beyond past experience with the instabilities I experienced that the jailbreak process introduced. iOS 4 feels rock solid and I'm not going to risk compromising that. But it did get me thinking what sort of things Apple could implement in a future iOS version that should still be within reasonable tolerances of Apple's design and aesthetic philosophies. I'm not talking full-on multitasking for all apps or things like that which Apple wouldn't ever dream of doing for fear of extreme battery drainage. Just some stuff that would make life easier and use what's already there, just build on it. Stuff like: - Lock screen widgets. I'd like to be able to choose to see something other than wallpaper or a ginormous battery charging icon on my lock screen. How about widgets that show me how many E-Mails I have? Details on missed calls or SMS messages? How 'bout a nice weather widget? They don't have to take up a huge amount of space, a list of line items at the top would do just fine, thanks. - Spotlight is a waste of space. Yeah, all that blank space fills in when you search for something, but how about putting that dead space to use? let's make that our staging area for the widgets, where we can add and organize them as they would appear on the lock screen, which would in turn also turn them into their own dedicated widget screen outside the lock screen area. Keep the search bar at the top by all means, just make the widgets disappear when we tap on it so it's used for its intended purpose, and otherwise put that blank space to work. - I'd like to be able to issue short SMS replies from within the pop-up dialog like you can do on jailbreak, without having to leave the app I'm currently in. It's not as big a deal now with fast app switching (provided the app I'm in supports it) but still, this would be a rather nice feature to have. - Primitive skinning. What I mean by that is, don't give the ability to change all of the icons to whatever you want -- I know Apple will never, ever allow that. But how about a nice compromise: Give users the ability to change A) The border mask, and B) The dock graphic. And maybe a few other small bits, like the slide-to-unlock graphics. The dock and other graphics are self-explanatory. The border mask is the thing that makes the icons rounded. at the corners. How 'bout giving people the ability to change that to make frames for the icons? Coupled with the ability to change docks it would go a long way to making it feel like people really can make their own custom themes for iDevices instead of just picking backgrounds. Yeah, it would ever-so-slightly change the feng shui of the iOS UI, but so what? It isn't like this will cost extra memory -- it's already used by what's there now. Those are the majors I'd like to see, and I really don't think these would fall outside of Apple's philosophies, or at least not too far; I think the benefits of these would far outweigh any preferred design considerations, and could even be worked around the existing implementation very nicely.
id like to see something like IntelliScreen, only seen screen pictures but yeah i agree why look at that battery and then blank space when it could be put to use for quick info. are you using iso4? or iso4.x? reason i ask is you say iso4 is stable.. if so, i must of just got a bad install.. and a restore will fix me up.. plan on doing that today.. i got stuck installing a new entertainment system yesterday when i was gonna redo my ipod. chri.s
People were arguing over the idea of giving people folder options, saying "oh noez, Joe Stupid won't understand it, it's against Apple's philosophy". I don't think they're gonna back your skinning proposal very much. I wouldn't mind it though.
My only wish is that just because I open my calculator once in a month that I don't have to double tap then hold and tap to kill it permanently. Meaning I want to customize by usage what stays in the fast switch dock or what gets killed upon exit.
Apps in the dock don't use any battery or CPU, so it makes zero difference if Calculator is in there, just ignore it.
maybe some more visual recognizing api's to use with the camera? to support apps like: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/16/pleco-2-2-chinese-dictionary-translates-text-in-real-time-using/ that is just crazy.. future is gonna be wiled for my sisters kids.. chris.
But they do use (Inactive) RAM - which means a little overhead for the iOS (keeping track of what state the calculator is in) and part of a second added at some point when you launch something that needs that RAM (as it's unloaded.) I'd love an on/off toggle for multitasking - during the day I use my iPod as a PDA, and would fully benefit from it, but most other times it's a games platform and I would be just as happy with it off. (non-jailbroken - I know how to turn it on/off in a jailbroken environment. )
If you're that fussed about an extra point-something of a second then you're probably better off just not playing any games or using a smartphone at all.
I believe inactive apps still require minimal memory to maintain their state, which I think would use a minimal amount of battery or CPU. It's minimal, but probably not zero.
That you can delete folder. Edit: And that you can delete all apps showing in multitasking at the same time. Edit: AND allows themes!
If I added up all the time I spent waiting for computers it would be very scary. More so if you consider the fact that I try to do to two or three things at once. Sometimes I miss my Visor Prism - it takes way too long from opening Notes on my iPod to getting to the point I can write...
Scrolling song titles - every iPod apart from Touch scrolls through titles with long names. This is especially annoying when on the iTunes app and can't see the ful l name of a podcast in a series, or whether a song is remix version, radio edit, featuring someone etc.!! Also, the ability to queue songs.
yeah i would agree with this.. there are some other things id like to see on the music side.. but, jobs will put the voodoo on me if i even bring them up. damn the magic! chris.
hell when i was in university we still had 486s in one of the computer labs.. last to get updated.. classes first.. anyhow.. yeah.. we are spoiled compared to them oldies! chris.
Hehe. Actually, MemoryInfo puts Safari in it's place quite well. So true. I can remember pressing play on the tape drive, then running off to make lunch while Temple of Apshai loaded...
For one I never said my gripe was ram or CPU usage...it's about functionality per my preference. Secondly keeping apps like calculator or equivilants do use active ram...not very much but it is used. Download system info (AppStore) open it then open your calculator. Open system info double tap home & delete (kill) calculator & you will see the memory increase. & considering every app you open stays in there even after you reboot the phone, to completely refresh your devise you have to manually kill every app you've opened which is hardly an elegant method of keeping your springboard organized and uncluttered. If you can ignore that...good for you. So a little customization would obviously go a long way for those that care about devise performance. Otherwise I would just keep sifting through the fast switch dock to find something I used a month ago...which means it would be faster to just launch it from the springboard anyway, unless I'm using another app but that should be left for me to decide. Because in truth a simple page in settings with toggles for the apps that I want to be killed on exit would solve the whole thing and provide more functionality across the board for all users. Hell they can even preloaded it with every app to go to fast switch for all the status symbol users....that way they don't get confused.
Even if a little active RAM were used, it'd be an insignificant change, and it's not as though performance would suffer because apps are automatically killed when more RAM is required anyway. Plus... scrolling through fast switch to find something you used months ago? The whole point is that it lists recently used apps. If you want to open an app you haven't used in a month then yes, you should be using the springboard. The whole fast switch system was designed so that you can completely ignore it. Never double tap the Home button and you won't notice any difference. If you're that anal about having it looking clean when it's not even something you have to pay attention to then it's your own problem, that's like painting the bottom of a table. You're just not required to look at it.
