¶ What I'd Like Apple to Take Away in iOS 6

In a few days Apple will give its keynote address at WWDC, where it will more likely than not show off OS X Mountain Lion in final detail and offer a glimpse of what is to come in iOS 6 this fall.

In years past, I have led up to WWDC with my predictions and/or wish list of features I want added.

I’ve decided to try something different this year. While there are many things I would like to see added to iOS, there’s a few things I’d actually like to see taken away.

Cover Flow

I remember when I got the first iPod touch, I loved rotating it sideways and flipping through album covers to select songs. There’s a problem with Cover Flow, though: it’s more beautiful than it is functional. Quite frankly, it just isn’t that easy to use. I invoke it accidentally far more than purposely these days.

The novelty is gone. Maybe it is just because I have grown out of Cover Flow’s eye candy, but I have to wonder if new users to the iPhone and iPod touch find any usefulness in Cover Flow.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Cover Flow find its way to retirement in iOS 6. It makes for a neat demo to a new user, but more often than not it just introduces friction and lag when it pops up at the slight tilt of your hand.

Ping

Speaking of lag, the Ping integration in the Music app is a constant source of frustration for me. I find that I cannot act on the play/pause or track forward/backward buttons until Ping has polled Apple’s servers for whether I have previously “liked” or commented on a song.

This is one more thing that I think could be pruned from an overcrowded Music app, let alone the entire iTunes ecosystem.

Google’s Maps Data

There have been plenty of rumors going around that Apple will ditch Google’s map data from the Maps app in favor of its own data in iOS 6. I hope they come true.

Don’t get me wrong, Google’s maps are a fantastic service that I use nearly every day, and the data is very comprehensive.

But I just don’t think Apple can afford to rely on Google for such an important part of iOS when they are each other’s top competitors.

YouTube

The YouTube app seems slightly irrelevant these days, given that is somewhat out of date with YouTube’s current feature set, and YouTube’s mobile site is more than functional. Heck, let Google roll their own YouTube app onto the App Store.

I just don’t see much advantage to having a built-in YouTube app anymore. And let’s face it, the icon is hideous.

Newsstand

And speaking of icons, it seems Newsstand is reviled by nearly everyone I know with an iPhone or iPad. I would like a way to at least hide the Newsstand icon when it is empty. I do not subscribe to any Newsstand apps, and I don’t foresee myself doing so any time soon.

So, instead, I have Newsstand shoved off onto the very last page of my home screen. I’d rather be able to toggle it off and keep it out of sight.

---

I have a much larger mental list running of things I’d like to see improved or added to iOS. The fact there are so few things I’d like to see removed is a testament to how well Apple has done in making an overall appealing system.

Quote: Patrick Rhone

If you are still serving up your mobile site for the iPad, you’re doing it wrong.

— patrickrhone (@patrickrhone) June 8, 2012

"On Reporting Rumors"

Stephen M. Hackett:

There’s no denying that rumors drive a shit ton of page views. Lots of people are genuinely interested in them, and they fill the time leading up to an event, but I think we as “Apple bloggers” are over-doing it.

It's true. The rumor-mill feels like a rabid foaming-at-the-mouth wildebeest this time around.

The New Nike+

I started using Nike+ with my second-gen iPod nano in January 2007. I ran weekly for a solid 6 months, right up to my wedding. But that final month was painful. As a complete novice, I had no idea that all running shoes were not created equal. I had the wrong shoe for my feet, and I developed a really bad injury to my left foot.

I pretty much took a couple years off, only running occasionally.

I decided to get serious about it again in January 2011 by starting to train for a 5k to take place that March. I went to a running store and was fitted with a proper set of shoes, and I used Nike+ to track my progress, and Felt Tip's excellent Run5k (née Couch to 5k) to give me a training plan.

I've always enjoyed Nike+. I think it is a creative system to encourage fitness, and I need a lot of encouragement. I use their Nike+GPS app in lieu of the built-in Nike+ app on my iPhone now, as Nike has shown more love to the service than Apple has in recent years.

My one longstanding gripe with Nike+ has been the site has been entirely written in Adobe's Flash since its inception. I'm not a big fan of Flash.

Today, Nike launched the new Nike+. It's built on HTML5, and is refocused around Nike Fuel — Nike's metric for measuring different types of activity throughout the day. Gone is the white and orange interface, along with the comical — and useless —"mini" characters. Now there is a sleek white and black interface with green accents.

Everything is smoother and faster. Maps of your runs have a more interactive feel to them, graphs look sharp, and information is easily accessible.

This reworking of Nike+ has been needed for a very long time, and I am pumped to finally use it.

Instapaper is the Free App of the Week at Starbucks

More Instapaper news from The Verge today:

For the next week, Instapaper for iOS is available for free as a part of Starbucks’ “Free App of the Week” campaign. To get your free copy of the app (which normally costs $4.99), you have to physically go to a Starbucks shop and get a promo card, then enter the code into iTunes.

If you don’t have Instapaper already, shame on you. Now get over to Starbucks this week and get it. Or skip the burned coffee and buy it on the App Store.

Instapaper Gets an Awesome Feature for iOS and an Android Version

Instapaper is one of my most used apps on my iPhone and iPad, and it continually gets better and better.

A couple days ago, it was updated with a really great new feature, background update locations. The feature only works on iPhones and 3G/4G equipped iPads (because of those devices enhanced geolocation abilities). What it does is allow you to set up several geofences — say, home and work — and Instapaper will download any new articles when arriving and leaving those areas.

It’s useful for just about anyone, as your article list is pretty much always ready. I imagine train or bus commuters will really love this feature.

Already it makes me wish I had gone with the 3G/4G enabled iPad this last time (something I likely would have gotten had the carriers been seriously talking about shared data plans at the time).

But this isn’t the only news for Instapaper.

Instapaper for Android

Last night, The Verge published their exclusive on Instapaper for Android. Instapaper for Android is blessed by Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, but is developed by Mobelux. The two had a working relationship when Marco was at Tumblr, and with Marco focusing most of his time on iOS, I think it makes sense to contract out Instapaper for Android.

It looks like a solid 1.0 release, with a few shortcomings from the iOS version. I’d expect a lot of those will be resolved with time.

The Verge also has a little interview with Marco about the Android version. What I liked from that is that even though Instapaper’s roots are on the iPhone, Marco says his main focus is first on tablets, then smartphones. It’s also worth noting that Instapaper for Android does have separate UI’s for smartphones and tablets.

Instapaper for Android is $2.99 and is available on Google Play, and will be available soon on the Amazon Android Appstore and the NOOK market.

Removing Friction with Keyboard Shortcuts

Jason Rehmus offers some great productivity advice on the Frictionless blog:

Moving your hand the short distance from your keyboard to your mouse may not take much time, but it can interrupt your workflow enough to distract you and cause enough friction to slow you down. That’s why you should learn the keyboard shortcuts for every program you rely on.

One of the best things I've ever done to understand how my computer makes a better tool has been learning the shortcuts. On the Mac, that of course is mainly done with the keyboard, but Lion also brought trackpad gestures. Those have been handy as well, when necessary. And on iOS, it's a good idea to learn the gestures on the iPad if you have one, or for any app that offers gestures as a quick way to accomplish a task. Gestures are the keyboard shortcuts of iOS.

Rehmus focuses on the desktop, and has some great hints at getting you started.

Quotebook 2

I've loved Quotebook on my iPhone since its debut. It's a well-designed app for capturing, organizing, and sharing memorable quotes. I've used it to capture both famous quotes and even profound things friends have said.

Today, Lickability (love their logo) released Quotebook 2. After nearly nine months of work, Quotebook has come to the iPad and supports iCloud sync. It is absolutely gorgeous, and if you have a penchant for quotes, you need Quotebook in your arsenal.

"One Phone with One Screen Size and One Resolution"

There’s been a lot of talk about the next iPhone going to a 4-inch screen, which could very well still happen, but I thought this bit from Tim Cook at the D10 Conference tonight, caught by John Siracusa, was interesting:

Tim Cook, minutes ago: “We have one phone with one screen size and one resolution, and so it’s pretty simple if you’re a developer.”

— John Siracusa (@siracusa) May 30, 2012

Hm.

Apple Starts 'Free App of the Week'

Late last week, Apple started a free App of the Week promotion in the App Store, much like their long-running free Song of the Week for the iTunes Music Store.

They kicked off with a game, Cut the Rope: Experiments(App Store link). I grabbed it because I had remembered a friend speaking highly of the original Cut the Rope.

Later, when on my iPad, I saw Cut the Rope: Experiments HD(App Store Link) was being offered as the free app for iPad. I almost passed on downloading it because I didn’t want to maintain two levels of progress on different devices.

Then I noticed both versions featured iCloud sync. Bingo. This is how gaming should be done on iOS. Now, I can casually play a couple levels on my iPhone, and later pick up on my iPad, with all my scores and progress synced via iCloud.

Another perk of iCloud integration? Should I ever need to delete the app (let’s say if a serious bug crept up), I could choose to leave the save data in iCloud. Reinstall the app and all my progress is still there.

I’ve greatly enjoyed Apple’s inaugural picks for the section of the App Store. And they’ve made me realize how games should start integrating iCloud for saving progress.