

IPad - please don’t ding while you and I are asleep   - roee
http://modern-products.tumblr.com/post/25384729998/ipad-please-dont-ding-while-you-and-i-are-asleep

======
incongruity
_"Second, if you ever build a product that can go to sleep, ask yourself: when
my owner puts me to sleep, does he think I’ll make unsolicited noises unless
they were explicitly requested by him (eg alarm clock)?"_

I think what's at issue here is the mental model at work on the part of the
designers vs. this user (and other users, clearly)

For the designers/Apple, locked is clearly not synonymous with "sleep" – any
device that can receive push notifications or perform background tasks isn't
really asleep... it's just not the focus of my attention. Would you say your
smartphone is ever asleep? Mine never is. If it's not powered off, it's
constantly working in the background, for my benefit (presumably). It checks
email, weather alerts, waits for calls and everything else. It may not be the
focus of my attention, but it's certainly not asleep.

The author clearly wants to treat it like a traditional computer not
surprising given his opening statement about not viewing it as a worthy
replacement to act as one's "main device". If that's the mental model one
uses, then yes, I completely see the issue – and yes, the upcoming do not
disturb settings will be an all around blessing.

However, the big take away isn't whether the designers at Apple were right and
the do not disturb settings will be just an added feature or if the author is
right and the lack of a do not disturb setting is a huge failure.

The point is, instead, that we need to be better about understanding and
predicting alternative mindsets on the part of others.

From a design perspective, this is pretty obvious... but from a
consumer/critic's standpoint, it's a necessary one as well. Failing to see
this subtle issue makes your criticism much less impressive and much less
valuable if you're in a place to be influencing future development because
seeing the more abstract difference in mindsets will (often) help you see
other issues (good and bad).

~~~
roee
Exactly! By the way, when I talk about "sleep", I didn't mean clicking the
lock button, but rather "closing the lid" of my iPad cover. And you're
absolutely right I didn't mentally treat my iPad as a smartphone but rather as
a laptop. What right and what's wrong? I'm not sure. Just shared my thoughts
and immediate insights, and as always - open for criticism.

------
chrisdroukas
Wait a few months for Do Not Disturb.

<http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/06/11/do-not-disturb/>

------
rizwan
Isn't this what the new Do Not Disturb feature in IOS6 addresses?
<http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/>

Also, all iPads have the switch above the volume button as a mute button
already for notifications like this.

(Note: yes, I know most people have changed this setting (back) to be an
orientation-lock, but this guy's new to iPads so I'm assuming he didn't change
the setting)

------
prezjordan
Just out of curiosity, why not hit the mute switch when you're going to sleep?
That's what I do. It takes a tenth of a second and allows me to control when I
hear notifications just the way I want.

I guess if you want the notification sounds but not while the device is open,
then yeah you've got a bit of a problem (you would have to hit slide down and
then slide the switch back up once you opened it.

~~~
objclxt
I put my iPhone in airplane mode when I go to sleep - my alarms still work, I
don't get disturbed, and because the radios are all powered down the battery
barely drains at all (I charge mine in a dock at my work desk during the day).

~~~
cglee
I used to do this until I started missing important calls/texts because I
forgot to turn it back on. An airplane/sleep mode with a timer would be nice.

~~~
pooriaazimi
It is nice. And it's called 'Do Not Disturb', and is part of iOS 6. It has
plenty of other features (like letting a call through, if the caller has
calling twice in a row. It could be urgent).

------
josteink
On Android it is solved by simple installing a app which controls the devices
sound profiles based on times you prefer. It probably took the developer 5
minutes to cook up with an ugly UI, but it works.

I guess in the Apple world you need to wait for Apple to do it. And this
feature has been missing since iOS 1. Yeah. Not missing iOS one bit.

~~~
jshen
I've never found the abstract argument about more control a compelling reason
to choose a product. Does product A or product B provide me more value?

iOS is a much better user experience for me, and the people that point to
"user control" of android never show anything that is of such value to me that
it would overcome the better experience of iOS.

I'll give one huge value iOS has over android in my life. My 2 year old can
use an iOS device without needing assistance. She can't do the same with an
android device.

~~~
Ineffable
More control is a big source of value for a lot of people. Personally, I don't
need a 2 year old to be able to use my phone, but I draw great enjoyment from
being able to customise it to my tastes very easily. Don't like the stock
keyboard? Chuck it out. Don't like the app launcher? Download a new one.

If you want a more consistent UI and smoother animations over that, then great
- there's a polished, well made device for you too on iOS. Different strokes
for different folks.

~~~
jshen
I agree with you, but let me rephrase one sentence.

"More control is a big source of value for a [minority of people]"

~~~
josteink
Given Android's rampant popularity, you would have to come up with a source
for that claim.

I know here on HN the mantra is that people buy Android because it is
cheaper/"they cannot afford iPhones", but in the real world people
deliberately choose things not made by Apple.

Despite the Apple fandom on this website, there is no universal truth in Apple
being a superior platform.

In fact, I say the lack of customizability speaks of it being poorly
engineered.

~~~
jshen
So your argument is that quality is a function of sales volume?

~~~
josteink
My argument is that sales volume is a function of customer acceptance. And
thus Android has the biggest customer acceptance of all the platforms out
there.

The hacker news meme that Android is barely usable is getting rather stale.

~~~
jshen
You love strawmen. I said that iOS is much better in the usability department.
I didn't say "android is barely usable".

Also, most android phones are not nexus phones. Most of these phones can not
be upgraded to 4.0 yet. By your logic customer acceptance clearly shows they
aren't interested in control if they can't even upgrade the OS.

------
phren0logy
This is an actual beef, but is this seriously the the biggest criticism this
guy could come up with? If so, it would seem the iPad is pretty well designed.

------
leephillips
The first paragraph was incomprehensible to me; I stopped reading there. This
is no criticism of the author, whom I assume is not writing in his native
language. But so many links here seem to be to articles that read as if they
were written with a crayon while the author was talking on the phone and
watching TV.

------
ChuckMcM
Ok, this reminded me of the HACTRN :
<http://www.poppyfields.net/filks/00117.html>

I too find it annoying that calendar event notification doesn't honor the mute
setting.

------
dutchbrit
You can't just put it on mute?

~~~
rjd
Thats what I was thinking...

it comes with adjustable volume controls... it comes with configurable sound
menu... he has an iphone so knows the process.. seems like someone bought into
hype so much it blinded him to the obvious.

------
bmelton
I put my iPad to sleep to save battery more than for any other reason. I often
find that not only do I prefer it making noise, but I've grown to _rely_ on it
to let me know if somebody sent me something that I might need to respond to.

Of course, I have different use patterns than the author I guess. I do
everything I can to get the _least_ amount of mail, for one. In lieu of just
dealing with a lot of mail and getting upset when I'm notified of it, I prefer
to limit the amount of mail I get by limiting newsletters and the like the I
subscribe to.

I suppose if he's more famous than myself, that might be more difficult, but I
think I'd try to work on a high-volume /public mail account that wasn't auto-
polling in order to keep my personal/low-volume email account more usable.

My iPad also sleeps in a different room than me, so that might be the biggest
difference maker.

I think Android's solution solves _his_ particular problem better (but is
suboptimal in perhaps other ways) in that it only dings on the first
notification of each event type. I'll get a ding for 1 unread email, but the
second and _n_ after emails don't bother me until I've checked and cleared the
active alerts.

~~~
roee
I waited all my life for someone to think I'm famous :) But seriously - as
part of my job I get hundreds of emails every day that I need to review or
respond to. It's a reasonable usage scenario I think.

~~~
bmelton
I'm not saying it's unreasonable. But you have _very easy_ fixes:

1) mute your iPad,

2) Don't sleep in the same room as your iPad.

In addition to more complicated ones being offered elsewhere in this thread.

I was just posting to point out that it isn't necessarily a design flaw just
because it doesn't fit your use case as, to the contrary, I would be very
upset if my device didn't notify me of something just because it was sleeping.

