

IOS 5 predictions - breiner
http://www.oded.us/2011/06/ios-5-predictions.html

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Locke1689
These are some really... unlikely predictions. Especially this one:

 _Xcode for the iPad: This is more of a wet dream, but Apple is building on
the iOS as their main operating system for the future, and to get the real
hardcore users to move to it, they have to make an IDE available. The main
reason I gave up on my iPad and gave it to my mom was the lack of a good IDE
(plus she really liked it :-)._

This one makes me a little ill. Who would ever choose to develop in a crippled
OS on underpowered hardware with no keyboard?! Argh it's like sometimes I feel
there are two groups of software developers and I'm in the increasingly
shrinking sane one. Fortunately, everything from Apple indicates the exact
_opposite_ about OS X and that OS X is more likely to become a developer-only
environment than iOS to become any kind of development environment.

~~~
hmottestad
They could try for a visual DSL. Something like Automator, but with more
options.

~~~
chrisjsmith
I'd like to see that. I think automator is the best part of OS-X and bringing
portable automation would truly make the world a better place.

~~~
breiner
I'd like to see that too! oded from <http://oded.us>

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jannes
The widget prediction is very unlikely to happen, because that's what Apple
was trying to get rid of in the first place. At least that's what I think.

For example, many of the Apple's original iPhone apps were adapted from Mac OS
X dashboard widgets. The clock, calculator, notes, and weather widgets all
were Mac OS widgets before they became apps. Apple just invented a new device
form-factor exclusively for the widgets.

Why would they mess this clear division up by introducing widgets for iOS?

Besides, do you really need widgets that are always visible? Widgets on the
homescreen or on the lockscreen would show information to you without you
expressing an intent to view it. Wouldn't this potentially be distracting?
Wouldn't you potentially waste your time by looking at and interacting with
the widgets instead of doing things that you actually turned the device on
for, because the widgets are the first thing that you see when you turn it on?

Let's say you turn on your iPhone to look something up on Wikipedia while you
are at home on your couch. But then you suddenly see in a widget that you have
new unread emails. If the email catches your attention you would likely read
it. In this case you would likely forget what your original intent was.

You forget your original intents when you have widgets that contain
interesting information, because those intents only live in your short-term
memory and also there's nothing to help you remember, because most likely you
don't write notes for small tasks.

I think this is also part of the reason why Apple has to refine the
notification system. By showing those distracting dialog boxes on the
lockscreen which demand a decision, the notification system does the same
thing to you.

~~~
breiner
You have a very good point there which I didn't think about while writing
this. Still I think most iOS users have android widget envy... and Apple wants
to satisfy them.

~~~
nickpp
I seriously doubt iOS users have any kind of Android anything envy. Especially
if they tried Android and its rightful predecessor, Windows Mobile. That is
where widgets came from, actually.

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thematt
My biggest prediction at this point is a revamped notification system, given
that they've hired Peter Hajas.

[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/06/03/apple_hires_ip...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/06/03/apple_hires_iphone_jailbreak_notification_developer_for_ios_team_at_corporate_hq.html)

~~~
adamjernst
I'm as hopeful as you are, but they hired Peter days ago. I think his hiring
is more about picking up an extremely talented iOS programmer than anything
else.

~~~
thematt
They also hired Palm's designer of the WebOS notification system last year, so
perhaps they already have something in the works.

[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/09/designer_of_no...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/09/designer_of_notification_system_for_palms_webos_hired_by_apple.html)

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masklinn
> Cloud storage API: 3rd party apps will have access to iCloud storage as if
> it was local on the user's device.

Yeah something like Steam Cloud would be nice, especially if it can be made
available from outside iOS, via the user's iTunes Store account. Still,
there's the conflicting updates issue to solve.

> Lock screen is bye bye: there was no reason to have the lock screen to begin
> with

Some people actually enjoy the idea that their personal data will not be
immediately available to anyone taking their phone.

~~~
ugh
_Some people actually enjoy the idea that their personal data will not be
immediately available to anyone taking their phone._

No need to play dumb, you know what he means.

The important question is whether a lock screen less iPhone is safe enough
from accidental touches.

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simonsquiff
With icloud, I'm really hoping for shared saves on games between devices. Ie I
play a game on my iPad; then when I grab my iPhone I can pick up the same game
where I left off.

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hmottestad
I really like the sleep sync.

Mail is allowed to sync whenever it wants, why shouldn't my RSS reader do that
too? One problem is the amount of data, but with wifi only, that shouldn't be
a problem.

One solution though would be for Apple to host parsing scripts on their
servers so that you could parse XML to a very compact proprietary format, or
at least compress it.

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andrewnez
I've been hearing a lot of rumors and buzz about the ability to use Macruby on
iOS, really hoping that it's true.

