¶ App Within an App

I always try to use a stock app that comes with my iPhone, iPad, or Mac if it can do what I need it to satisfactorily. Hence for quick notes I use the built in Notes app on my iPhone quite a bit, especially since I know, thanks to iCloud, that the note will be on my iPad and Mac if I need it. And when Reminders arrived in iOS 5, I eschewed the other app I was using in favor of Apple’s solution, because Apple’s app performed the same function that I needed. Heck, it provided a little more with location-based reminders, which are awesome.

I do, however, have one little annoyance about Notes and Reminders — the way they are integrated into the Mac. On iOS, Notes and Reminders get their own apps. On the Mac, they are relegated to being apps within an app. Notes and Reminders are shoehorned into Mail and iCal, respectively.

I would much rather Notes and Reminders have their own apps on the Mac, with similar interfaces to their iOS counterparts. Notes, on its own, could effectively replace the Stickies app on the Mac.

My problem with Notes and Reminders being integrated into other apps is consistency. A great example of consistency between the Mac, iPhone, and iPad is Twitterrific. The app offers the same experience across all three devices. The user never has to question how to do anything on each device. Learn once, apply everywhere.

Take a new user, give them an iPhone for a bit. Sit them in front of a Mac, and tell them to find their reminders. I bet they’d hunt for a Reminders app. In fact, they’d probably be confused to learn that Reminders is part of iCal. It doesn’t really make sense.

One of the greatest things Apple did when releasing the iPad was to keep the experience familiar and consistent. Lately, the experience on the Mac has started to feel like a neglected ugly duckling.

¶ Five Years

Five years ago today at Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs unveiled a device that reshaped our definition of the personal computer. It reminded us of the stuff of science fiction from our childhood.

I remember the first time I actually saw an iPhone. It was a couple weeks after it was released, and I was sitting with my bride in the Denver airport, waiting for our connecting flight to Seattle for our honeymoon. While we were waiting to board our plane, a young woman sat next to me and started browsing on her iPhone. I was about to inquire, but instead admired as she had just received a phone call. That was the first time I saw one.

A few days later my wife and I found our way to an Apple Store in Seattle, where I finally was able to experience the future. I called my parents, who were a little confused when they answered as their caller ID said Apple, Seattle, WA. If I had resided in an AT&T coverage area then I probably would have left the store with one.

One year later we moved to a new city, which did indeed have AT&T, and I bought an iPhone 3G on release day. My son was born four days later. I used the lap timer in the Clock app to time contractions. A couple days earlier, in preparation, I drafted a message to our friends and family announcing his birth, and left blanks for things like time of birth, length, weight, etc. Minutes after he took his first breath, I snapped a picture with my iPhone, sent it to the web, added the link to my email message, filled in the details, and hit send.

A lot of folks mock Apple for describing their devices as magical. Let me tell you, being able to announce my son’s birth to the most important people in my life without having to leave his and my wife’s side, all within moments of welcoming him into the world…it was magical. Truly magical.

Today I own an iPhone 4. It is used daily and it, like its predecessor, is the thing I reach for to record these endearing moments of my life. My son has an old iPod touch of ours, loaded up with games, educational apps, and Pixar movies. He has apps that have helped him learn how to write the alphabet. Not to mention that he is fascinated by the iPad. I often sit back and wonder when he goes to college, if the computer he takes will be more like a MacBook or an iPad. I have my money on the latter.

Even after the past half decade of the iPhone being a part of our culture, I sometimes catch my iPhone 4 out of the corner of my eye, and notice how great it really is. It is a piece of art. I am still fascinated with how photos and apps seem painted on the glass.

In the end, the iPhone is just a device. I could live without it. However, its presence in my household sure seems to bring a lot of joy and delight. The iPhone changed everything. I can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring.

¶ iWork '09 Turns Three

This day in history, three years ago, iWork ‘09 — the current shipping version of iWork — was announced and released.

That’s quite a long time for a consumer Apple product to go without major revision. My guess is that development of the Mac version of the iWork suite fell behind as Apple built the suite for iOS — first the iPad, then the presumably monumental task of scaling it down for the iPhone & iPod touch.

But iWork on the Mac is really starting to show its age. The iOS apps have iCloud integrated, and it works like magic. But the Mac versions can’t see those iCloud files. In fact, Apple hasn’t updated any of their Mac apps to peer into iCloud document storage. There isn’t an example from Apple of how iCloud documents should be presented in the user interface.

iWork should have been a prime candidate for demonstrating iCloud documents on the Mac. Instead, iA Writer was the first to do it. And though iA Writer does a good job, I think Apple should be setting the bar.

I love iWork, and use it often. I recommend it over Microsoft Office to new Mac owners, as long as they don’t have needs that explicitly require Office. But it’s three years old and hasn’t kept up with the rest of Apple’s ecosystem.

It’s time iWork got a facelift and joined the cloud.

¶ Twenty-Twelve

2011 was a pretty eventful year for Apple. We saw updates to its core line of Macs, a new iPad, a looks-just-the-same but all-new-inside iPhone, a great upgrade to iOS and OS X, iCloud, a new CEO, and the passing of one of its co-founders. Quite eventful. Many of them great. Some not.

I think 2012 will be not only another eventful year for Apple, but an exciting year. Here’s some of the things I think are on the horizon.

The Pro Goes Air

I’ve been using a 15-inch MacBook Pro just a couple weeks shy of three years. It’s a fantastic machine, and has endured years of use more gracefully than any other portable Mac I’ve owned. The best part is — unlike my previous Mac notebooks — it still feels fast.

That said, my wife received a 13-inch MacBook Air for Christmas. And it makes my MacBook Pro not only look like a cow, but it makes it look like a slow, pokey cow. Some of that, I’m sure, is attributed to the Air’s Core i5 processor versus my Pro’s Core 2 Duo, but I know the majority of that is the Air’s SSD compared to the Pro’s traditional hard drive. Apple knows this.

When Apple introduced the revamped MacBook Air in October 2010, they said it was the future of notebooks. 2012 will be the year the MacBook Pro takes a backseat, much like the Mac Pro did in the desktop lineup. I see the 13-inch MacBook Pro disappearing in favor of the Air, like the 13-inch MacBook did. I also see the 15-inch MacBook Pro going on a diet and changing its name. The Pro will still live on, but only in the 17-inch form, for those who still need SuperDrives and ExpressCard slots.

A little wild card? I think the 15-inch MacBook Air will be equipped with a Retina Display.

Speaking of Retina Displays…

The iPad seems ripe for receiving a Retina Display this year. I do not think anything needs to change with the body of the device. I think the iPad 2 has a great feel to it. There’s also a manufacturing advantage to not changing the design of the iPad, as the assembly line is already set up and optimized for the current body.

There is one metric which I think could warrant a design change of the body: weight. I like the overall feel of the iPad 2, but weight could be better. Less weight would probably mean a thinner body in the iPad 3.

Another thing that has been bouncing around in my head is that Apple may continue to sell the iPad 2 alongside an iPad 3, much like how they sell multiple iPhone models. Imagine an 8GB iPad 2 priced around $299 or $349. What would that do to things like the Kindle Fire?

Also, I say the iPad stays at 9.7-inches. Quit dreaming of a 7-inch iPad, it’d be horrible to type on.

iPhone

Of course, there will be a new iPhone. My guess is we’ll see it in the fall. I think the fall release of the 4S wasn’t because of any outright delays, but that Apple wanted to shift it to being part of their Christmas lineup, since iPod growth has stabilized. Apple already has a lot on their plate each year in the summer with WWDC and iOS. I think it makes sense for them to introduce new iOS releases at WWDC and then release it alongside a new iPhone in the fall.

So what will we see in the next iPhone? My guess is a better processor, better camera(s), a possibly a new body design (though I wouldn’t mind if the iPhone 4/4S design stuck around again. I love it). I’d actually like to see the front camera gain HD quality, as I think FaceTime HD (present in current iMacs and MacBook Pros) would be a great move.

I think the Retina Display screen will stick around at 3.5-inches. Last year’s rumors of a 4-inch screen just don’t sit right with me. Many of those I hear advocating the 4-inch screen rumor say so “because Android phones have larger screens”. Well, bigger does not always equal better. It’s similar to the argument that there will be a 7-inch iPad because everyone else is doing it. I say bulldonkey.

Beyond design changes and spec bumps, I can’t really fathom what else may be in store for the next iPhone. I do like this bit from Shawn Blanc’s predictions:

But the wild card is that in 2007, when Steve Jobs first introduced iPhone, he said that it was 5 years ahead of any other smartphone. It has now been 5 years. I could see the next iPhone being continued iteration because that’s how Apple rolls. But I could also see the next iPhone being something huge, something for the next 5 years.

iOS 6

I see iOS 6 going one of two ways.

1. iOS will gain a bunch of refinements, just as in years past, and Apple will really tout 10 or so of them. The majority of these will address any extremely vocal shortcomings. Like a do not disturb setting for notifications.
2. iOS will take a giant leap forward and set the stage for the foreseeable future. Think of this as equivalent to Mac OS 9 and OS X. And I have no clue what that would look like.

I’m not very risk-tolerant, so if I were a betting man on this topic, I’d go with the former scenario.

iCloud

I think iCloud is going to become even bigger in our little Apple universe this year. Maybe around the time we see that 15-inch MacBook Air we’ll also see an update to OS X Lion and the iWork apps that will integrate iCloud’s document storage more plainly on the Mac. Then we’ll really see the hybridization of OS X and iOS start to blossom.

Apple TV

I’m sure Jony Ive has a prototype of an Apple television set in his lab. How long do you think he had an iPad and iPhone in his lab before they were released? I don’t think we’ll see it this year. I do think Apple will update their “hobby” device, the current Apple TV box, this year. I bet it looks the same, gets an A5 or the upcoming A6 chip, and plays back 1080p video.

Sure, we will likely see Apple release a full television some day. I just don’t think it’s the right time or season.

¶ Notifications

I have been thinking a lot lately about notifications on my devices — both Mac & iOS. Today, after a conversation with some friends on Path, I finally tied it all together in my mind to share with you.

Let’s start with the Mac.

Mac

The Mac’s notifications are all over the place. In the Dock, you can have badge notifications, and apps can bounce up and down like a Jack Russell Terrier for your attention. Badge notifications have also crept into Launchpad, which isn’t easily discoverable. One last place for badge notifications is the apps residing in the menu bar.

Then there are modal notifications that pop up over whatever you are currently working on.

This is the same sort of mess that we had in iOS until banner notifications and the Notification Center came into play in iOS 5.

On top of the frenzy of notification placement, some of these just look plain outdated. For instance, iCal notifications look like this:

iCal Notification

What era is that clock from? It even annoyingly shakes. It is an eyesore on the beauty of the rest of OS X.

OS X Lion was billed as being the best of iOS being brought back to the Mac. And in many ways, it is. Take full-screen apps, for instance. I use them all the time (like right now, as I write this in Byword). I keep Safari, Mail, iCal, iTunes, & Reeder in full-screen almost all the time.

Notification center and banner notifications would be awesome, especially in full-screen apps. Give me a keyboard shortcut or trackpad gesture to quickly see all my notifications on my Mac, and subtly show me reminders and alerts without demanding an interruption to my workflow.

iOS

I have very little to complain about regarding iOS notifications since iOS 5’s revamp of the system. But there is one.

I do not always have my MacBook Pro with me. And when I am on the go, and at night, it is closed, making notifications impossible. This is not the case with my iPhone. It is always with me, always on, and charges in a little tray on my nightstand. It serves as my alarm clock.

But emails and app notifications roll in throughout the night, making noise and briefly turning on the screen.

There are only two types of notifications I want while I am asleep: the alarm that I set and phone calls (in case of an emergency). Everything else needs to shut up.

Here is what I propose: a global Do Not Disturb setting for iOS notifications. This would prohibit notifications from turning on the display or activating the speaker during hours that I set (like when I am sleeping). There would be a list of exceptions that I could set, such as alarms or phone calls. For everything else, it can stack its notifications in the Notification Center for my review in the morning.

The ring/silent switch works great for things like meetings, where you can be alerted to something via vibration if need be. You’re still active in that situation. It doesn’t work that well for sleeping at night, though.

Being able to tell our apps that we do not wish to see or hear them right now would be great.

Update

on 2011-12-30 21:01 by Chris De Jabet

Just a quick addition to note that Airplane Mode isn’t enough to solve this problem. Some apps, like games, will use local notifications that do not require a network connection. My wife likes to play Tiny Tower, which will use local notifications to update her on when something needs restocking or a new level of her tower is ready (it’s simply using time calculations for all this).

Also, Airplane Mode would disrupt the ability to receive calls. And we all know the moment you disable calls is when the crap will hit the fan.

¶ The Gift of Geek

Last year I posted about the duty of The Family Geek™ — be as helpful as possible when your family members receive shiny new technology as gifts. I’d like to take this moment to reiterate that, as I know I’ll be drinking my own medicine heavily this weekend.

Some things to be prepared for:

1. Be available. Set aside some time for one-on-one walkthroughs, or time to talk on the phone if your relative isn’t with you this holiday. That doesn’t mean you have to give up your entire holiday, but set aside a few hours for lending a helping hand.
2. Be patient. Your relatives aren’t as nerdy as you are. Keep that in mind, and don’t treat them like an idiot. It’s new to them, and it takes time to learn new things. Also, don’t rush through so much to point of making it impossible to retain. Start with the basics. There can always be more phone calls.
3. Run updates on their devices. One of the things I like to do is make sure everything is up to date on my relatives’ devices. There’s a few of them who never run updates, and there’s a lot that piles up over 6 months.
4. Backups. On the same note, make sure to set up your relatives for data backup in one way or another. This will save you a headache later.

There’s a lot of other stuff to do as the family geek, but these are a few things your relatives will appreciate.

¶ LTE

I don’t think we’ll be seeing LTE in an iPhone for some time. Why? Engadget’s review of the LTE Galaxy Nexus by Tim Stevens serves as Exhibit A (the strong emphasis is mine):

And then there’s the battery life. It’s well known that LTE can put a real hurting on phone longevity and that appears to be the case here as well, our Nexus struggling to hold on to a charge in day-to-day use with all antennas firing. We’ve as of yet had very limited time with the thing, but in our 24 hours of intensive testing we had to reach for the charger multiple times. Using Google Navigation with LTE enabled? The battery drained so fast our in-car charger couldn’t keep up, leaving us unsure of which exit to take off the 101.

Stephen Hackett, in response to another article regarding LTE’s affect on batteries, gets straight to the point:

I don’t think Apple will ship an LTE-equipped device until it can ensure the average user can enjoy good battery life with faster data enabled. Most people wouldn’t know how or when to turn off 4G.

In the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, Apple had a switch buried in Settings.app for forcing the 3G antenna off. The 4S has no such setting. As far as I’m concerned, Apple could have removed it from the 4 as well in iOS 5, but they didn’t. 3G hardware has become efficient enough to forego the need of a manual fallback. Wouldn’t it be nice if Apple never needed to have a manual fallback when it comes to 4G? I think it’s better for Apple to let 4G mature, instead of shoehorning it into what is still the best phone on the market.

¶ The Facebook Timeline

It’s always interesting when Facebook makes a significant change. Such changes are often followed by a flood of disgruntled friends and acquaintances in my feed. Last week, Facebook put the profile page and wall in the past and replaced it with Timeline. And so far I haven’t seen any outrage.

Opt-In

Part of the lack of whining may be because Facebook hasn’t forced this change…yet. Right now you have to visit the Timeline about page and click the Get Started button. You’ll then have immediate access to Timeline, which is a continuous stream of every single thing you have ever done on Facebook. Sounds a little daunting, doesn’t it?

Don’t worry, you get 7 days before your Timeline is viewable by anyone except you. So, if you have some things on there you’d rather not have everyone know about, you can go ahead and hide or delete items from the Timeline. If you finish your edits before the 7 day period, you can go ahead and press a button to publish it to the public immediately.

Telling a Story

I have to say, I really like Timeline. It furthers the idea of storytelling. You can feature certain events more prominently on your Timeline. For example, I put things like my engagement, wedding, when we moved, when my wife & I found out we were going to have a baby, said baby’s birth, and other neat things that I want my friends to know about me. The highlights of your life story are easy to showcase.

Another thing I like is featuring a photo at the top of your Timeline in addition to your profile pic. Facebook calls this your cover. I put a nice picture of a cup of coffee, since that is one of my little hobbies. It helps to communicate your interests. I think it looks great and adds more personality to the experience.

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Timeline surely won’t be liked by everyone, but I think many will embrace it as a great way to share life stories. Storytelling is how we pass on knowledge, build relationships, and find enjoyment. The Profile and Wall didn’t work well to communicate a story of who you are. Timeline makes significant steps in that direction. With so many of us using Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives, sharing stories has never been easier.

¶ Fly

When it comes to using an app or service on multiple devices, consistency is key. This is one of the reasons I love Apple’s Mail app, as the majority of the experience is now the same on the Mac, iPad, & iPhone.

Something I use as much as — if not more than — email is Twitter. I have long shied away from Twitter’s official experience, because it is completely fractured. The iPhone app is nothing like the iPad app, neither are like the Mac app and the web is also different. It’s a whole new ball game every time you switch to a different device. Instead, I have favored Twitterrific, which offers the same Twitter experience across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Twitter seems to be taking a hint and has begun to roll out an attempt at a more unified experience with Fly. They have updated the iPhone and Android apps to a unified interface, and the web interface is slowly rolling out to users over the next couple weeks.

The experience is divided amongst four tabs — Home, Connect, Discover, and Me.

Home houses the timeline, where you can read tweets, view photos & videos, and follow links.

Connect takes over housing Mentions, and also pools together what Twitter is calling Interactions. Interactions shows the actions other people take related to you and your tweets, such as new followers, retweets, favorites, or list additions. Connect also integrates search for @usernames.

Discover aggregates stories, trends, and popular hashtags. It also attempts to offer stories that it thinks you’ll be interested, based on what you tweet about, where you’re located, and who you follow.

Me is the new profile section. If you’re looking for your direct messages, this is where they have been buried. This is also where you can switch accounts. A couple tips I saw regarding the Me tab on touchscreen devices:

• Swipe up on the tab to immediately go to DMs.
• Swipe left on the tab to immediately go to the account switcher.

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I’m all for Twitter trying to get their experience on the same page. I think it is a misstep to de-emphasize DMs in favor of trends and stories (I have heard some folks say they have seen ads in the discover tab, as well).

A couple refinements I rather like so far are the feather quill in the Compose button (let’s face it, it’s cute) and the Tweet Button for websites (you can see it at the bottom of this post) has been refined and looks much better.

It will be interesting to see how the iPad and Mac apps will change. TweetDeck, a recent Twitter acquisition was also updated today with the new look and feel (and also available on the Mac App Store).

I look forward to seeing how the more unified experience pans out over the next few months. But if you ask me, I think all the innovation still resides with third-parties like Twitterrific and Tweetbot.

¶ It's All in the Family

I really enjoy my iPhone. A lot. I’ve owned the iPhone 3G, and an iPhone 4 (two of those if you count my wife’s). When buying both iPhones over a couple years, AT&T was the only outfit selling them. It wasn’t until about 9 months ago when we in the US had options for carriers when it came to the iPhone.

AT&T has been fairly decent as far as I’m concerned. I live in the Midwest, in a city of about a quarter-million people, covered by AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. There isn’t much in the way of congestion on any one carrier. Sure, there’s a couple dead spots, but every carrier has their weaknesses. I know for a fact that Verizon isn’t fantastic in my apartment building. I have no issues with AT&T because there is a tower just down the road.

To be honest, though, if I would have had a choice in 2008, I probably would not have gone with AT&T as a carrier. They didn’t have enough coverage to the places I travel to (this was fixed in early 2011, when they dramatically expanded coverage in the upper Midwest).

Now, with Verizon and Sprint being legitimate options, I’m not 100% sure I’ll stick with AT&T when my contract is up next year. Like I said, I don’t have a bone to pick with AT&T, I receive the service I expect, and whenever I have had an issue, their support has been fantastic and kind. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be wooed away by another carrier. For me, the iPhone is all that matters.

For instance, The Verge reports Verizon will be offering family data plans in 2012. I use data far more than voice minutes. My wife & I share voice minutes, why not data? AT&T offers two tiers for data, 200 MB and 2 GB. My wife, being at home on Wi-Fi most of the time, has the former, and I have the latter. Honestly, if there were a 500 MB plan, I could easily fit into that. My usage is around 400 MB every month. My wife, on the other hand, toes the line of 200 MB often. She hardly uses her iPhone when Wi-Fi isn’t available for fear of going over her allotted data.

That sucks. Customers shouldn’t have to experience any sort of fear in a service they pay for. It would be far better if my wife & I could share that 2 GB plan. I’d wager the two of us would hardly touch 1 GB in a month. My wife wouldn’t have to forego actually using her iPhone the way she wants when away from home.

I’ve noticed Verizon and AT&T tend to do the cat & mouse game quite often. One does something, the other follows suit. AT&T has until June 2012 to offer family data, or they may lose my account.