i0S 5 will include widgets and a notification system!!??

[marketsqhero]

Half the people around here complain that with the new iOS there's too many apps "running in the background" even when there aren't. Their solution to this is too close everything they think is running to save battery life and make the phone perform better.

Why would these people suddenly be happy to have all these "mini" apps now running in the foreground, chewing up battery life and resources?

Widgets = Pointless

 

[Duvi]

So, I would have to double click home and then slide to the left to get to my notifications. No thanks!!!!

Or just tap the top of the screen and have a notification
screen come down

 

[Jellotime91]

Or just tap the top of the screen and have a notification
screen come down

The touch point is too small for Apple to allow that. They'd have to double the status bar when there's notifications (like when you're in a call) and the status bar doubling is really disruptive to many applications.

 

[gilroykilroy]

Coming from Android I did find widgets useful for both customizing the home screen(s) and for providing "at a glance" information (such as time, weather, when my next meeting is, etc.) without having to go to the specific apps.

In this respect the iPhone Springboard being just a bunch of app/folder icons is rather dull and not really customizable.

I also did find Android's notifications list useful when there was a bunch of notifications received while I was not at my phone. It was rather a pain to clear them out, for example when I read my emails.

I think Apple could take the "best" of Android and incorporate it into iOS and leave the other stuff behind. Barring any patent infringements, etc., of course

 

[anon(27512)]

Ok dudes, about the multitasking, when I first saw iOS 4 multitasking, I was like wow that's lame. There's no visual flare. But when actually using it, it feels so slick, and I love the 'shuffling' transition that it does. To me webOS's flashy app management is kind of useless. Not to mention every app is constantly running just so you can see movement on the 'cards'. It's silly and managing multiple applications on a small screen is just stupid.

People always complain that iOS's multitasking is not flashy enough. Seriously that's not what the OS is about. It's efficient and elegant, not flashy and slow.

Expose multitasking, I don't see how that would be at all attractive or useful. Apps are more recognizable by their icon rather than their screenshot. Say you left a web page open in Twitter and in Facebook and in Safari. You want to get to Safari and you accidentally click Twitter or Facebook because they have their own web pages open in the embedded web browser. That would be annoying as hell and would cause usability issues.

"Dashboard" style widgets are available via jailbreak, and it's stupid. Much like Mac OS dashboard, it's something you'd never actually use. I had it and I ended up just opening the damn calculator, notes, etc. app. Widgets are really pointless on a mobile phone.

For me the ONLY things I'd like to see in iOS right now are as follows:

- New notification system!!! (BTW for those that forgot, the man who developed webOS's notification system was hired by Apple to work on iPhone... So, expect great notifications)

- More double-click widgets (Brightness, 3G, Location), not sure how they'd implement that but I would really appreciate brightness, 3G, and location, so I'd never have to go into settings again.

I wouldn't mind if the tray expanded and went like this when you swipe right (crappy mockup I just did before sleep):

In my version of Expose multitasking on iOS I wouldn't have it show the windows, but the icons of the apps to better accomidate the screen size. Like you said, if it were to be windowed like on OS X, it would be cluttered, horrible, and confusing.

I like that Palm's deck of cards is flashy. To me it makes using my phone fun when I need to have fun the most: when I'm doing boring work. But that's my personal preference I can see how some would find the deck of cards annoying, but it's what I like.

Not having used the dashboard jailbreak method you mention I wouldn't know. I don't like to jailbreak because it makes my phone sluggish and it's irritating to me. That, and I have absolutely no use for widgets at all. Like you said previously I'm sure they drain battery and use system resources for something I would never care to use.

I do want a new notifications system. Please, Please Apple give us palm pre notifications. For the love of God.

As for the double click widgets, Idk. I don't really like them. To me I might as well just open settings it takes two seconds. That's just me though.

EDIT: I take back what I said about palm pre notifications. I would rather have android notifications. miss that so much.

 

[ericg1840]

I really want to see an update to notifications. Another one that i havent heard but im sure people would want is an update to maps. i wish they would include Google maps navigation into the maps app or do something with the company they acquired that would really help make the maps app more useful. Also onto the widget debate i think it would be cool if they did it for certain apps like the weather just so you can glance at it and see what the temp is but i wouldnt want full on widgets

 

[anon(27512)]

I really want to see an update to notifications. Another one that i havent heard but im sure people would want is an update to maps. i wish they would include Google maps navigation into the maps app or do something with the company they acquired that would really help make the maps app more useful. Also onto the widget debate i think it would be cool if they did it for certain apps like the weather just so you can glance at it and see what the temp is but i wouldnt want full on widgets

Yes!! I made a post about how I want Apple to make a car home app like Google has. The Google car home app has navigation, points of interest and other stuff. I thought since apple bought placebase that we would've seen this functionality. I guess not..

Here's my car home threadl

 

[Jellotime91]

@ericg1840
If they only did it for a few apps and called them widgets, people would constantly complain that it's not "open"..

You know we already have some widgets really... The only other widgets I'd like to see are quick access to brightness, 3G and location services, and live clock and live weather icon. I'd prefer to keep the home screen how it is really, even though home screen widgets can look nice.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Mother Brain ran iOS5.