Rethinking the iPhone's App Switcher

Shortly before going to bed last night, I saw that *The Verge had featured something from one of their forum posters. Brent Caswell, aka brentcas, had a pretty neat concept of how the iOS multitask tray could be improved. He focuses mainly on the iPhone, and I really like what he came up with.

By adding another row of apps, I think the multitask tray would gain much more utility in easily switching between several apps. I also really like how he keeps the status bar visible and adds Spotlight search.

I love iOS’s Spotlight search, when I remember it is there. I think it would become much more notorious for use in Brent’s mockup.

I’m also loving his idea for dedicated music and settings sections. As far as his settings mockup goes, I applaud his toggles for Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G (or 4G/LTE, depending).

What I don’t like about his settings mockup is the Clear All button for killing every app. I know many of my friends swear their iPhone performs better when they tediously kill off every app int he multitask tray, but I still subscribe to it being unnecessary. Sure, there is the occasional errant app, but that is the exception, not the rule. In my experience, iOS is very good at managing itself.

In the comments to the post, user ThomasEvans makes the suggestion that instead of Clear All the button should be for activating Personal Hotspot. I’m much more on board with that idea.

I’m sure if someone important at Apple saw this mockup and was inspired to add it to iOS, it would be a little late in the game to include it in iOS 6. Maybe for iOS 7. Or maybe Apple has something better up its sleeve.

Profits

Horace Dediu today on Twitter:

Apple captured 73% of phone industry profits and Samsung captured 26%. HTC took 1%. Everybody else lost money.

— Horace Dediu (@asymco) May 2, 2012

Imagine if the iPhone 4S hadn’t been such a disappointment.

¶ Byword for iOS | Review

If there is one genre of app that I have more than my fair share of, it’s text editors. Since launching techēse, I have been seeking the perfect writing environment that gives me the least resistance to getting words written. I started with OS X’s TextEdit, and eventually found myself doing my long form writing in TextMate after I began writing in Markdown.

TextMate worked for a time. It is very much a coding environment. And even though Markdown is a syntax that relates to code, it is very much a writer’s syntax versus a coder’s syntax. TextMate is great for coding. But it has never satiated the writer in me.

I started using Byword just about a year ago on my Mac, when it added Markdown syntax highlighting and declared its focus to be the best Markdown editor for writers — which it most definitely is. In fact, nearly every article here has been written in Byword.

Byword is great on the Mac. But often I want to write on my iPad, and even sometimes, though rarely, on my iPhone. I’ve used Dropbox to sync and either Elements or iA Writer, which are both fine writing apps. But I have long wished for Byword on my iOS devices.

Today, the wait is over. Byword for iOS is here.

I’ve been beta testing Byword for iOS since early December last year. It’s a universal app with iCloud and Dropbox support.

Byword for iOS also has a handy keyboard accessory which shows word and character counts (tap it to switch between the two or show both simultaneously). The accessory can also. Be swiped to show quick cursor arrows and common syntax used when writing in Markdown. There are two different parts of the accessory for Markdown, pictured below.

Byword Keyboard Accessory

Byword also allows you to preview Markdown, export as HTML, send as an email, and print. It also includes TextExpander support.

Byword for iOS doesn’t yet have the dark theme like the Mac version, but it is coming in a future update.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the update to the Mac version, which now has iCloud integration. iCloud on the Mac is still pretty clunky when it comes to setting up files to be synced. That’s definitely a limitation of OS X Lion, which should be alleviated this summer by OS X Mountain Lion’s revamp of the Open/Save dialog.

First, on the Mac, you have to save the file locally. Then, while the file is open in Byword, you click the File menu and then click Move to iCloud. Once the file is in iCloud, everything becomes pretty seamless. Setting up a file within iCloud on iOS is straightforward. Just click the + button from the file list and give it a name.

In fact, you can have the same iCloud file open on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, then type on one device and watch it appear on the other two a moment later. It really feels like magic.

Byword for iOS is a fantastic, well-designed app that gets out of your way and let’s you write. It also has the best Markdown-optimized keyboard accessory I have seen on iOS yet, making it hands-down the best tool for a writer using Markdown.

If you are a serious writer, you need Byword.

Byword for iOS is being introduced at $2.99 $4.99 on the iOS App Store, and Byword for Mac is $9.99 on the Mac App Store.

P.S. This entire review was mainly written on the iPad, with a little bit on the iPhone and Mac, kept in sync the entire time with iCloud.

'Enriching Lives'

Stephen M. Hackett chronicles his day using his iPhone during his bike ride:

My point is this: the iPhone might just be a piece of technology, and Apple might just be a company, but days like today would not be as enjoyable without them.

And that’s the point, right? Apple Retail has this line about “Enriching Lives.” I used to think it was cheesy, but right now, it makes a lot of sense to me.

Already my iPad feels more personal than my Mac, but by far my iPhone is the most personal computer I own. It is almost always with me, and is in constant use for things from the mundane, to capturing moments of time with my family, to seeing my parents 450 miles away.

It’s honestly a little difficult to imagine what a day without my iPhone would be like.

¶ The Disappearing Home Button Caper

As is natural with Apple press invitations for events, folks like to look for hidden meaning in them. Many have noticed that yesterday’s invitation for next week’s iPad event doesn’t show a home button on the iPad’s bezel.

And people have lost their minds over it.

My Twitter timeline has been filled with people thinking Apple is going to kill off the home button next week. Conversing with some folks, I’ve heard that the multitouch gestures that can be enabled in Settings on an iPad running iOS 5 were the beta test for getting rid of the home button.

So many seem to think Apple will either rely on gestures, or introduce a capacitive home button. One even suggested that there may be a capacitive home button on each side, so the iPad will become orientation agnostic.

I have some arguments for why I think Apple will not be saying goodbye to the home button as we know it.

The Argument Against Gestures-Only

iOS 5 introduced the ability to turn on multitouch gestures to control quickly changing between apps, revealing or hiding the multitask bar, and closing an app. These are all accomplished by swiping four or five fingers right or left, up, down, and doing a full hand pinch, respectively.

I can’t remember if the multitouch gestures are enabled by default or not on iOS 5, but let’s say they are, since they would have to be if the iPad dropped a home button of any sort. How many people do you think actually know they exist? I seriously doubt my mom knows about them. I am certain my father-in-law doesn’t. And you know why? They aren’t obvious.

The home button is right there, on the front of the device, beckoning to be pushed. It doesn’t take much to figure out its primary function — closing an app and taking you home. The button even has the rounded square outline of an app on it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the gestures to switch apps and close an app quickly without having to tap the home button. I use them all the time. But you know what else I use all the time on my Mac? Keyboard shortcuts.

Complex multitouch gestures are the keyboard shortcuts of an iPad.

Not to mention that complex gestures involving four or five fingers would really suck if you were missing a couple fingers. And if you take a stroll through the accessibility settings on OS X or iOS, you’ll quickly realize that Apple greatly caters to folks with disabilities.

Also, if Apple exiles the home button from the iPad, it would make sense to do the same with the next iPhone. How in the world would you easily achieve a complex gesture on a 3.5-inch screen in order to go home? And how would you do that with one hand?

The Argument Against a Capacitive Home Button

This is where the people vouching for a capacitive home button come in. The home button is still there, it’s just not a moving part, and may be nearly invisible to the eye until you touch the target area.

Apple tried doing capacitive buttons on the iPod back in 2003. The third-generation iPod was fully capacitive. I had one. It was okay. It was awful trying to do anything while in the car, say, trying to pause the music. You don’t want to take your eyes off the road, so you fumble your hand on the iPod, and before you know it you’ve gone forward three tracks instead of pausing it because there wasn’t tactile feedback.

This was solved with the click-wheel, which has remained unchanged throughout the years on any iPod that didn’t go touchscreen, or the iPod shuffle, which never had a click-wheel.

Maybe a capacitive home button would work with today’s devices. It is only one button that more or less performs one primary function, and its secondary functions could be replicated easily.

But what about accidentally turning on the screen? I wake my iPhone by tapping the home button far more than I do my clicking the sleep/wake button. If the home button went capacitive, wouldn’t the screen on an iPhone activate in pockets? You can control a touchscreen through your t-shirt with your finger, so why couldn’t a capacitive home button activate against your leg through your pocket?

The solution would be to remove the ability of the home button to activate the screen. That’d be awful.

---

I definitely think the home button could use some work. It doesn’t feel like it was designed to withstand so many clicks for a couple years or more.

I don’t think the solution lies with making the home button touch sensitive nor removing it entirely for non-obvious complex gestures.

I think the home button is here to stay for some time.

¶ Clear | Review

I really like lists. Seriously, it’s an OCD obsession, one I believe was passed down from my mother, who is the Queen of 3M Sticky Notes. I sort of picked up that tendency to plaster my desk with sticky notes, even though the clutter created by the act is incredibly annoying to a person who likes to keep things tidy (another OCD obsession).

Ever since I got an iPhone, I have been trying to find a great to-do app to take care of lists of things to do. Needless to say, I was thrilled when Apple released Reminders with iOS 5 because of it’s ability to write once, yet have my lists available across my three devices. And for the most part, it works pretty well.

Though Reminders falls short in two areas:

1. On the Mac, they are currently shoved into iCal, which actually makes it quite difficult to deal with things if you keep multiple lists (this is fixed in Mountain Lion this summer, thank goodness).
2. It’s really hard to sort items in Reminders by priority. It takes many taps, and, even then, you sometimes aren’t able to put the top priority item at the top of the lists.

Because of this, I find myself really using Reminders for items that either need an alarm or location alert. I’ve been using sticky notes for my daily to-do lists again. And my desk has been cluttered because of it, which annoys and distracts me.

Enter Clear by Realmac Software, Milen, and Imending, Inc., released last week. Clear is a new to-do list app for the iPhone that is re-imagined around gestures, instead of check-boxes and buttons.

To start a new list, you just pull down slightly or pinch apart between two existing lists, and type a name. Need to move the list up or down amongst other lists? Just tap and drag to where you need it.

Tap into list, and you are presented with a nice inspirational quote. Pull down slightly to add a new item, and type. Items are limited to holding 30 characters, encouraging brevity. Just like with lists, items can be added by pulling down again, or pinching apart between a couple items. Reordering works the same, too.

Reordering is where the good stuff happens. Put the important stuff at the top, and the less important stuff at the bottom. A visual gradient is applied between the list items to give a sense of priority, much like a heat map (which is, appropriately, the name of the default theme).

Swipe an item to the right to mark it as done, and it grays out and move below the last item of the list with a strike through it. If you decide you don’t need an item anymore, swipe to the left to delete it. As you mark items as complete, you get a progressive tone that is reminiscent of an old NES game about a plumber. When all items are complete, pull up to clear you list with a triumphant jingle to go along with it.

I have found that my favorite things about Clear are how fast I can add items and how easy it is to determine priority at a glance. It has pretty much taken over as my go-to place to jot down items as they hit me. It’s also earned a prominent spot on my iPhone — it sits right next to Twitterrific, so I am sure to see it often and tap into it.

I have one thing I would love for Clear to add in an update, and that is syncing with my iCloud Reminders. I love Clear’s interface, but it would be great if creating a new list in Clear made the change in Reminders across my devices. Then, if I do need an alarm of geolocation alert, I can switch to Reminders and add that, but I can use Clear as my main way to view and act on items.

I highly recommend giving Clear a shot for simplifying your daily tasks. It’s on the App Store for 99¢.

¶ A Big Day for Tweetbot

Tweetbot 2.0

Tapbots released Tweetbot 2.0 for iPhone and iPod touch today. What was already a really well polished Twitter client is now at a high gloss. My biggest pet peeve has been fixed in the timeline. You used to need to tap twice on an account name or link to activate it, and now it is a single tap.

I also really enjoy how Tapbots has relocated the retweeted by icon and text. Direct messages have been overhauled and display much like the Messages app in iOS 5, but with Tapbots’ signature style.

The coolest little touch is the redesigned notification of how many new tweets have loaded. It sticks to the top of the tweet list, and as you scroll it counts down the number of remaining new tweets. Like I said, it’s a nice touch.

Tweetbot for iPad

But that wasn’t all Tapbots was up to today. They also released Tweetbot for iPad, which is a separate app from its smaller-screened sibling.

Tweetbot for iPad is really impressive. Tapbots has paid a lot of attention to detail in the interface and interaction. The layout and flow of the app was designed brilliantly.

If you miss what once was Tweetie, and abhor what Twitter has done with it since acquiring it, you should give Tweetbot a shot. It’s the kind of “everything and the kitchen sink” client that Tweetie was. The iPad experience is fantastic. Most of all, Tweetbot’s polish on both devices makes it feel like a precision instrument.

For $2.99 each, you can buy Tweetbot for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad on the App Store.

---

I am a huge Twitterrific advocate. Not only is Twitterrific a universal app, it has a Mac version, and offers the same experience across the board. However, in recent months, Twitterrific has tended to fall behind on the feature list when compared to the competition. I still love Twitterrific and it is my go-to app, mainly because the mindset of its design gels with me. And, after years of using it, I have found that when it starts to lag behind in comparison, it means it is on the verge of a giant update to lap the competition.

¶ A 4-Inch Screen

I was just looking at this article over at AppleInsider about a patent application from Apple regarding a touchscreen universal remote. There has been a lot of talk since the debut of Steve Jobs’ biography about Apple releasing an actual television set, rather than the current $99 Apple TV. So, in that sense, a universal TV remote would make sense, right? Heck, it even makes sense for the current form factor if you ask me. Right now I have to dig out a separate remote just to turn my TV on.

Now, there’s also been some talk about the next iPhone having a 4-inch screen, which I just don’t see happening. It would either diminish the crispness of the retina display, or, to keep the pixels per inch at retina quality, a new screen resolution would need to be introduced. This would be a nightmare for developers and designers, as they already have to support at least two resolutions for the iPhone. When Apple introduced the retina display, the increased the dimensions by exactly double. This makes it easier to design an interface.

What if the 4-inch screen rumor isn’t destined for the iPhone?

What if it is for a touchscreen universal remote that doesn’t run App Store apps?

Think about that.

¶ 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.

¶ 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.