

We can make most web apps work on the iPad. Even Google Docs. - spion
http://gkosev.blogspot.com/2012/12/we-can-make-most-web-apps-work-on-ipad.html

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notlisted
I like the premise and your remarks with regards to interaction with the
screen, but it is a little strange that zoom is not present (why not include
it in your toolbar) especially since the initial screen doesn't even fit...
the login box is cropped on the right, and there's no way to scroll
horizontally (double fingered or not).

Moreover, you have a privacy policy where you explain you'll use my email
address. How will you get this address? Do you intercept the email text field
on the screen? That worries me. Do you intercept data entry into all text
fields?!?

Not logging on, despite desiring exactly what you describe... a better way to
interact with web apps on an iPad.

PS - your username (spion == spy) doesn't make it any more comfortable.

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spion
We actually ask you for your email address with a dialog box, we don't
intercept it. You can give us a fake one if you want.

What you enter in the google docs login screen is sacred and will not be
touched. The same for anything happening in the browser (documents list,
documents you edit) - we are not reading any of it.

edit: as for the login box - very strange. Which iPad are you using?

~~~
notlisted
Thanks. I did not see a box requesting my email address, only the privacy
notification, which is why I started wondering.

I use an iPad 3, iOS 6, issue repeatable, open app in portrait mode, then
rotate to landscape. Width does not adjust. When I open it in landscape more,
issue does not present itself.

Edit: ah, found the box, it shows up shortly after launching the app, as a
pop-up. The message in this pop-up (Please register and support us, it's free)
is somewhat unclear. How does it support you? Also, I would suggest that you
show that pop-up immediately after the privacy notification. OK, gonna to log
in now!

~~~
notlisted
Other issues:

Perhaps unavoidable, but I opened a google document, typed "hello mister how
is this working for you" tried to position the cursor before the first 'i' in
that line, and the blinking cursor appears over the s. Expanding selection by
dragging also isn't clear.

Tried copying the selection using the right-click menu (long-press) but this
resets the selection.

Repeated selection.

Tried copying selection via edit menu (not really convenient) and then I get a
notification I need to install the web drive app to support cutting and
pasting.

Perhaps this can be solved by adding cut/paste to the menu bar. I would not
mind having left/right cursor control in that bar too (but I can see how that
would interfere with the history function).

~~~
spion
The somewhat-off positioning of the cursor is a known issue and we're still
attempting to fix it.

We're also looking into implementing the API part of Google Drive required for
clipboard access to enable copy and paste.

~~~
notlisted
Without copy/paste it's gonna be a hard 'sell' (to me). Is there any way to
copy/paste at the moment that I might have missed?

~~~
spion
Turns out there is a workaround. In the Edit menu there is "Web Clipboard",
you can use it for now.

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polskibus
This solution could speed up ipad adoption in the Enterprise market - part of
the problem is getting the legacy intranet apps to work on new devices without
rewriting the software. Keep up the good work!

~~~
spion
That is definitely a use case we're considering - we just wanted to start with
a popular web app which is perceived as hard to do (Google Docs) and see how
far we can go.

But we'd like to think that we can take the concept to other popular web apps.
Imagine coding away in Cloud9 IDE <https://c9.io/> on your iPad with a
bluetooth keyboard, or creating tiny websites in Weebly
<http://www.weebly.com/>

There are many mature full-featured web applications with non-existent or
comparatively-toy versions on iPad. We might be able to make them usable.

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da_n
Not to knock against an undeniable excellent effort, I am sure this will
delight some people, I wish them luck.

Personally, I just sold my iPad and got an 11" MacBook Air. I know some people
are tired of hearing this (Gruber for one) but from direct personal experience
over 6 months use my conclusion about the iPad is it is great as a media
consumption device, and it does have some extremely lightweight abilities for
content creation, but that is about it. I tried using the iPad as a code
editor with Diet Coda, Textastic, iSSH etc, using a remote server for remote
VIM etc, but with the onscreen keyboard leaving only a tiny viewing port and
the obvious lag and internet connection requirements it was just a novelty I
couldn't seriously consider. For some people the iPad is a wonderful, perfect
desktop computer replacement, but I found it extremely hard to justify the
high cost for what I was getting in return. I guess my hopes were too high
from the off, I had read many stories about people giving up laptops and just
using the iPad for everything, I found that to be laughably unrealistic. Next
time I get a tablet it will be a cheaper one with no expectations of using it
as a sort of laptop replacement.

Good luck to them anyway, I am probably in the vast minority.

~~~
spion
This is exactly why we're doing this. Companies are still treating the iPad as
a toy and its productivity features are lacking.

We started with a docking solution kickstarter -
<http://www.completedock.com/> which we planned to extend with a Surface-like
keyboard solution. Then we realized productivity apps aren't up to snuff and
that solutions using Apple TV and external keyboards might be the answer to
some input and output issues.

We're actively brainstorming and trying to attack the problem on both the
hardware and software fronts. This is our second attempt.

As for open platforms, they're a whole different story. Unfortunately most
users don't seem to care enough.

The web however is quite open. You can access any website without an app
store. Also, if we can get a web-based IDEs for web apps to work decently,
that would be a step towards a more open iPad. Apple doesn't seem to mind web
apps so this might actually work.

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randall
Love this. A totally unique approach to what the iPad can be good at. I hope
people at Apple take notice. It'd be great if webapps could opt-in to this
behavior.

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preem
I was trying to log in to my Google Docs. I have 2 factor enabled so I get a
prompt from google to ente my 6 digit code. I tried double tapping on this
text field to give it focus but I am not able to. Here is a screenshot.
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/vt4091si0y7us25/Photo%20Dec%2013%2...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/vt4091si0y7us25/Photo%20Dec%2013%2C%2023%2043%2024.png)

~~~
spion
That's definitely a bug - we didn't test a two-factor authentication login
scenario. We'll look into it. Thanks for the report.

~~~
macspoofing
I can confirm it doesn't work. The login page is also broken (in that it
extends past the edge)

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mbesto
Ugh. I don't see prolonged use on the iPad happening anytime soon. Trying to
build a presentation on an iPad in google docs looks like an absolute pain and
a strain on my hands.

Go buy a MB Air or something similar. I don't see this as being a viable long
term solution.

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hbbio
Free and no ads. What's your business model?

Or: Do you play with user data?

~~~
spion
We track anonymous usage time and ask for your email address. That is all.

One of our potential business models is to work with other companies to make
their web apps work on the iPad.

~~~
hbbio
Thanks, sounds like a good demonstration for this business model.

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mikegioia
Is it yet possible to disable the pinch / zoom for the web on the ipad? Can
you force users to scroll the page with 2 fingers instead of 1?

~~~
spion
Yes and no. There is some not-so-pretty trickery involved on both the native
side and the JS side. We have an invisible layer on top of the browser on the
native side, and call the JS code which generates the appropriate events and
scrolls the appropriate elements.

~~~
mikegioia
So, a new layer above javascript and below the browser?

~~~
spion
Yup, events never actually reach the browser. They are received by the
invisible layer and then sent to some JS code (which is injected into the
page).

Thats why you need to double-tap to edit text fields or upload a photo - we
can't make text boxes enter editing mode or initiate image upload via JS (the
second is disabled because of security issues) so we need to temporarily
disable the layer when you attempt that.

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freddywang
Would be even more ideal to cut the cord go AirPlay. It defeats the purpose to
bring iPad around with VGA adapter dongle.

~~~
spion
This should work right now - did you try it?

~~~
freddywang
I did. I can't find anywhere to toggle into AirPlay mode.

~~~
spion
Okay, we're going to test this tomorrow

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hallman76
chiming in late...

The app store says it requires iOS 6. Do you have any plans to make it
available for iOS5 users or are you using iOS6-specific features?

