A few days ago Apple announced its plans for ios 14 (and a bunch of other software-related things, and the fact that it's going to start building its own CPUs). Details here: https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/ios-14/
People are mostly talking about the changes to the Home screen - the addition of widgets and the new "App Library". The general consensus, as I understand it, is that these things are good, but aren't exactly new if you're an Android user, and aren't as good as they could be. For example, the Smart Stack widgets1 are supposed to be good, but not great because you can't actually interact with the widgets themselves. The widgets can only display information, and have no other functionality.
I've also seen the way the App Library was sold being criticised. In the keynote speech, it was said that the feature was being introduced because people knew what was on the first couple of screens on their device, but after that even Apple executives lose track of what is where. It's been said that that's an abdication of Apple's responsibility because the reason why people generally don't organise their apps better is because organising apps on the iPhone home screen is an absolute nightmare.
I have a lot of sympathy for that argument, TBH. I organise my apps by icon colour so, even though I've got 6 screens organised like that, I find it very quick and easy to locate any app I want to use, even if I don't use it very often. In fact, it's usually easier to remember where it is than it is to remember what it's called, so scrolling is easier than searching or asking Siri to open it for me. But it's such a pain in the arse to organise that after my 6 pages I've got a further 2 pages of stuff that just exists in the order in which I downloaded it, because I've not got round to going through the painful process of sorting everything out.
There's a tonne of more stuff, but the thing I'm most interested in is AppClips. This is basically taking the model that's made WeChat so popular in China and implementing it on the iPhone. Basically these are <10Mb apps that will be downloaded to your phone in certain situations, and will then disappear again. So, for example, say there's a parking place that doesn't accept cash. Previously in order to pay you'd have to visit a website, sign up, give your card details, etc., etc. Now you scan a QR code, a proprietary code, or place your phone near a NFC terminal and a mini app will download which will allow you to pay through it, using Apple Pay. It works because you're already signed in to Apple, so you don't have to verify anything else.
Perhaps not terribly useful in most places in 2020, but this is something that seems like the future to me, especially in today's world, where we're becoming socialised not to touch things.
I think the biggest misstep is in Apple introducing their own, circular version of a QR code. Because if Apple are releasing this now, you can bet that other iPhone manufacturers will be doing the same thing next year. And, as already noted, this is how WeChat works. So as it works with a QR code, and that's how WeChat works and likely how other apps/phones will work, I imagine most businesses that use this model will simply use QR codes, rather than creating two separate codes for everything.
The only other misstep that I see is that Apple are pushing this to developers as a way to demonstrate their apps to people. In other words, what they're pushing to consumers as a quick, hassle-free way to pay for things and otherwise navigate around the world, may simply be overrun with people telling you you ought to download their app. If it's frustrating to use, then people will be less inclined to use it.
Beyond that, I'm most interested in what the practical implications for the improvements to Shortcuts are. Shortcuts are very useful, and the more you can do with them, the better.
1A widget which combines several widgets that you can scroll through, and which Siri will attempt to analyse your behaviour to automatically show you which one you want to see at the time you want to see it.
People are mostly talking about the changes to the Home screen - the addition of widgets and the new "App Library". The general consensus, as I understand it, is that these things are good, but aren't exactly new if you're an Android user, and aren't as good as they could be. For example, the Smart Stack widgets1 are supposed to be good, but not great because you can't actually interact with the widgets themselves. The widgets can only display information, and have no other functionality.
I've also seen the way the App Library was sold being criticised. In the keynote speech, it was said that the feature was being introduced because people knew what was on the first couple of screens on their device, but after that even Apple executives lose track of what is where. It's been said that that's an abdication of Apple's responsibility because the reason why people generally don't organise their apps better is because organising apps on the iPhone home screen is an absolute nightmare.
I have a lot of sympathy for that argument, TBH. I organise my apps by icon colour so, even though I've got 6 screens organised like that, I find it very quick and easy to locate any app I want to use, even if I don't use it very often. In fact, it's usually easier to remember where it is than it is to remember what it's called, so scrolling is easier than searching or asking Siri to open it for me. But it's such a pain in the arse to organise that after my 6 pages I've got a further 2 pages of stuff that just exists in the order in which I downloaded it, because I've not got round to going through the painful process of sorting everything out.
There's a tonne of more stuff, but the thing I'm most interested in is AppClips. This is basically taking the model that's made WeChat so popular in China and implementing it on the iPhone. Basically these are <10Mb apps that will be downloaded to your phone in certain situations, and will then disappear again. So, for example, say there's a parking place that doesn't accept cash. Previously in order to pay you'd have to visit a website, sign up, give your card details, etc., etc. Now you scan a QR code, a proprietary code, or place your phone near a NFC terminal and a mini app will download which will allow you to pay through it, using Apple Pay. It works because you're already signed in to Apple, so you don't have to verify anything else.
Perhaps not terribly useful in most places in 2020, but this is something that seems like the future to me, especially in today's world, where we're becoming socialised not to touch things.
I think the biggest misstep is in Apple introducing their own, circular version of a QR code. Because if Apple are releasing this now, you can bet that other iPhone manufacturers will be doing the same thing next year. And, as already noted, this is how WeChat works. So as it works with a QR code, and that's how WeChat works and likely how other apps/phones will work, I imagine most businesses that use this model will simply use QR codes, rather than creating two separate codes for everything.
The only other misstep that I see is that Apple are pushing this to developers as a way to demonstrate their apps to people. In other words, what they're pushing to consumers as a quick, hassle-free way to pay for things and otherwise navigate around the world, may simply be overrun with people telling you you ought to download their app. If it's frustrating to use, then people will be less inclined to use it.
Beyond that, I'm most interested in what the practical implications for the improvements to Shortcuts are. Shortcuts are very useful, and the more you can do with them, the better.
1A widget which combines several widgets that you can scroll through, and which Siri will attempt to analyse your behaviour to automatically show you which one you want to see at the time you want to see it.
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2YGsg0k
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