Anybody who follows tech has to have wondered at some point during the last few years, exactly what Googles aim was with Android. They don't make any money licensing the OS and they earn more advertising revenue from their iOS users. I know I've wondered.
Ben Thompson has written a great post on the topic over on his stratēchery blog. I think his idea is really interesting and has a lot of merit. It will be interesting to see where the Android OS goes in the next few years.
Skeuomorphic v. flat.
Scott Forstall v. Jony Ive.
Blah, blah, blah.
The usually brilliant Matt Gemmell takes the time to put any iOS changes into perspective in a very nice piece on his blog. There's nothing really left to say.
There are lots of iOS 7 concept videos floating around with the immanent announcement of WWDC. I look at most of them and simply ask; "What the hell"? John Gruber apparently agrees and has written a nice, brief thought on the topic.
Apple needs to figure out a way to provide users with app trials if a developer approves. This method, laid out by Amy Worrall, seems like a great way of doing things. I'd love to see this in iOS 7. I think it would lead to increased revenue for developers, something Apple has always emphasized for their platform.
MacStories Federico Viticci has written bout his wishes for iOS 7 today. Like almost everything Federico writes about, it’s worth your time to read, especially for his take on international user issues many of us never experience.
Frasier Spears, who pioneered the use of the iPad in education, knows iOS as well as anyone form a user perspective. His needs and desires for operating system improvements skew towards the power user side, rather than towards the very casual user. Because of this, it’s certainly worth wondering what improvements, changes or enhancements he’d like to see in iOS 7.
Luckily for all of us, he’s telling everyone in a blog post published today, just what he’d like to see.
Check it out. It’s certainly worth a click. For the record, I like just about everything he’s suggesting.
There’s little doubt that iOS will see some revisions when iOS 7 is announced shortly. Scott Forstall is gone and Jony Ive has been installed as the director of Human Interface across all software. Nobody knows for sure how the software will be affected. Changes to both the visual and functional nature of the software are inevitable, and welcome.
9To5Mac’s Mark Gurman has a good post about the nature of some of the changes that are in store.
Malware has long been talked about when discussing computer platforms. It’s beginning to be discussed with regards to mobile platforms. The issue will only grow in importance as mobile devices take the place of computers in many settings. Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports on findings about malware on mobile platforms and platform penetration into enterprise. It’s worth checking out.
I'm a sucker for weather apps. Seriously, I have a problem. I've purchased just about every promising weather app that's been introduced to the store. I just did a category search in my iTunes library and returned 25 hits. At prices between free and $4.95, I've probably spent $50-$75 to check the weather.
Without fail, each app will do some things I like a lot, while falling short in other areas. Over time, I’ve arrived at a place where I’m using two apps to get the job done. Those two apps, through process of elimination are Today Weather and Dark Sky. I love them each for different reasons.
Dark Sky is the best app in the world if you want to know what’s happening outside your door right now. Stuck in the car and need to dash through the parking lot in a driving rain? Check Dark Sky to see if you should wait 2 minutes. Want to know if you have time to get in a 30 minute run before it starts snowing? Check Dark Sky. It really is an amazing app using fantastic localized data.
Today Weather is quite spectacular in it’s own way. The main screen presents quick information about current conditions and a quick pictorial and temperature preview of the next 12 hours. The fonts and graphics are very tasteful and beautiful. A quick swipe to the left brings up an hourly forecast with graphics, wind and temperature information. Simple and effective. A swipe to the right from the main screen brings up a seven day forecast with weather graphics and a temperature graph. The graph is where the forecast really shines. Each day is represented as a bar graph with the temperature represented by graph color. The layout is beautiful and communicates in a quick glance exactly what the future days hold. Nothing else even comes close.
I didn’t expect these apps to be replaced any time soon, either by one killer app or by any combination of other apps. So it came as a big surprise yesterday, after only a couple hours of use, that there’s a new weather app icon on the home screen of my iPhone. The jaw dropping shock is that I didn’t get the app through the Apple App Store and I haven’t jailbroken my phone. The new app is an HTML 5 web app from the maker of Dark Sky. The announcement was made yesterday in a blog post on their site. They’ve created a new weather API and to show it off, there’s a companion website that’s available on computers and optimized for various devices. To install it on the home screen of an iOS device, simply click here and follow the instructions.
When Steve Jobs first touted web apps as the solution to apps on the iPhone, there was great disappointment. There have been a few web apps that have performed nicely on the platform, but there’s usually such a huge performance difference between web and native apps that native is the only way to go. There’s a tiny lag in the loading of the forecast.io app, but it’s very minor and doesn’t detract from the experience of using the app in my opinion. That said, if/when a native app is launched, I’m sure I’ll buy it.
The interface is beautiful. The main page does a great job of showing at a glance what’s happening for the next 24 hours. If you want more information about current conditions, it’s but a touch away. The brilliant ‘next hour’ information from Dark Sky is present when needed at the bottom of the screen. Pull to refresh is here. A simple slide right allows access to different locations and a F/C toggle. I’d like to see the toggle also change the pressure reading between inHg/mB at the same time. A swipe from the bottom brings up the seven day forecast. Everything that makes Today Weather so great in this area is present here except for the color coding of the bar graph. I hope that will change with time. Dark Sky’s amazing animated radar map is available with the tap of a button at the top. You can choose the zoom level from three choices and animate the map by dragging your finger on the screen. Gorgeous.
The only blemish is a very tasteful advertisement at the bottom of the seven day forecast. I hate ads, but I’m willing to live with it for all the advantages the app offers.
I’m blown away with what has been accomplished with the forecast.io app. I’d pay $5 in a heartbeat. Because it’s free, there’s no reason not to check it out yourself.
I really do love my iPhone. I’d also be lying if I said I’m not interested in trying out some of the other smartphone platforms. It’s not because I’m unhappy with iOS, but rather that I just love geeky stuff. Unfortunately, not being independently wealthy, this isn’t possible.
Lex Friedman recently used Windows Phone for a month and has written about it at Macworld. I enjoyed reading about his experience and am very much looking forward to some future improvements to my beloved iOS.
Hat tip to Shawn Blanc