

WWDC 2011 Prelude - Judson
http://daringfireball.net/2011/06/wwdc_2011_prelude

======
gfodor
Here's something that's been broken in iOS since v1.0 that I hope they fix:
autocorrect. I was going to write a blog post about this but I'll just write a
small version here.

Problem 1: Autocorrect is by definition an algorithm that makes mistakes.
Hence, it should be an 'opt-in' UX. Currently, it's 'opt-out', ie, I can type
a word that's perfectly correct, and the computer can "overrule" me and
replace the word I just typed. This is horrendous. If _I_ make a typo, that's
my fault and I can only get mad at myself. If the _computer_ makes a typo (ie,
replaces my text with text I don't want without me telling it to) then that's
inevitably frustrating.

Problem 2: The autocorrect bubble appears on the screen where the cursor is.
This makes it so that I cannot develop muscle memory for the mechanism to de-
activate autocorrect.

Problem 3: The bubble has the word it's going to replace with as well as an
"X" -- the naive user will think that tapping the bubble will activate the
word, and tapping the X will remove the bubble. It turns out, that tapping the
word itself behaves the same as the "X".

Problem 4: Combine 1 & 2 and you realize that autocorrect as implemented right
now _necessarily_ makes it so I constantly have to be looking at both the
keyboard _and_ the cursor _at the same time_ as I type. Every letter I type I
need to "double check" at the cursor point to confirm iOS is not about to
overrule me when I wack the spacebar. Then, if it turns out that I catch the
computer doing something wrong, I have to _remove my hands from the keyboard_
, and tell it "no, bad computer." On iPhone, this is barely tolerable because
of the small screen. On iPad, it is a nightmare.

It amazes me Apple got this one so wrong since they usually don't miss these
details. Here's some alternatives:

Proposal 1: Add a button to the keyboard to cancel the autocorrect and show
the word if one is about to be blasted in over my typing. Basically move the
"bubble" into the keyboard. This at least will make it so I don't have to
watch the cursor like a hawk as I type.

Proposal 2: Proposal 1 + make it opt-in. So the new keyboard key is one-click
to activate the word as opposed to deactivating the autocorrect for that word.
(I think this is how Android does it?)

Proposal 3: Leave the UI as is but make the bubble opt-in (tap to replace)
instead of opt-out.

Of course there are other ways to deal with this and they all involve
tradeoffs. But it's clear to me that since I've owned an iPhone now since they
first came out and I'm _still_ frustrated by the autocorrect clearly there's a
better solution out there.

~~~
philwelch
Autocorrect works the way it does to optimize for the average case, and if you
type very very fast on the keyboard and ignore any typos you make, autocorrect
simply fixes them as you go. I've actually found it one of the better thought
out parts of the system. Of course it makes mistakes but in my experience it
fixes more than it breaks.

~~~
gfodor
It all comes down to frustration. Having autocorrect "fix" things that aren't
broken say 1% of the time, consistently, forever, is a constant frustration
that I have no way to remove without either turning it off or changing the way
I type (by watching the cursor for the bubble to come up.)

On the other hand, I've noticed simply turning autocorrect off results in less
overall _frustration_ , despite less efficiency at first, since the mistakes I
make are my own _and_ its my responsibility to improve my typing accuracy so
they approach zero.

~~~
britta
Yeah, I get irritated when autocorrect automatically "fixes" unusual words I
wanted to type, but it's also nice to have correction available. So I'm really
happy with ManualCorrect on my jailbroken iPhone - it makes it just correct
when I tap the suggestion, instead of automatically. Not a real solution, but
nice for my particular case.

------
CoffeeDregs
tl; tisfl (this-is-still-fucking-long): I'd like to pre-apologize for this
rant, but Gruber is killing me. He's trolling for pageviews/loyalists and I
hate that I keep reading his articles expecting insight and objectivity. Learn
from my mistakes.

Also, I'm using grown-up words. Be warned.

Also, I stopped reading TFA at the "What I Hope..." section because my head
started to throb.

From TFA:

    
    
        But in short let’s just think about the ways that iCloud 
        might be a major, dare I say game-changing, step away from
        USB tethering between iOS devices and iTunes running on your
        Mac/PC. Consider just the new out-of-box experience. Rather 
        than “Take this out, plug it into your Mac or PC (after first
        making sure your Mac/PC is running the latest version of 
        iTunes), wait for it to sync before you actually play with it”,
        you might get something like “Take this out, turn it on, sign
        into your iTunes account, and start playing with it.”
    

Really? Not plugging your phone into USB and then fucking about with iTunes is
"dare I say game-changing". What decade are we in? Oh wait, maybe this quote
was missing some critical bit of context... If so, fill me in. If not, FTFA.

But wait, there's more:

    
    
        If Apple can work out (or, if we can dream, perhaps secretly
        already has worked out) a deal to allow movies, in addition
        to music, to be bought and stored permanently in your iCloud
        account, then the Apple TV 2 suddenly changes from a machine
        for renting movies into a machine for buying or renting 
        movies. I like to buy movies, so here’s hoping.
    

The _point_ of the cloud is that I don't have to "store permanently" movies in
the cloud. A bit of data is stored that says I have permanent access to the
movie. [I know that some might yell about DRM and what, but I really dig this
access model and don't give a shit if I lose access to Top Gun. GrooveShark +
PSN + NetFlix => no media files in my life.] And how could studios possibly
agree to this insanity?! Oh wait. Netflix. (To which someone says, "but they
don't have everything"; to which I say, "they will".) "Apple TV 2 suddenly
changes from a machine for renting movies into a machine for buying or renting
movies"... If I wait longer, will this sentence become not-dumb?

~~~
cageface
Apple is clearly playing catch-up here. Their overall user experience is more
polished but it's going to take a big leap of faith for them to bridge to the
net as well as Android.

If their cloud service is an "ownership" model rather than a subscription
access model like rd.io or Netflix they won't be getting much cash from me.

~~~
CoffeeDregs
Obviously, I agree with you. Continuing: I really don't like the way Microsoft
claims stuff they copy as "sparkling new MS technology", but that's expected.
I really don't like it when Apple, the underdog, does it, even if they are
playing catch-up.

~~~
Steko
FYI Gruber =/= Apple.

I'd guess Gruber's two overexcited paragraphs were the result of his trying to
reconcile the "big deal" atmosphere surrounding WWDC (e.g. inviting world
media) with what little he knows about it. It goes without saying that OTA
sync is not the "game changer" Apple is ready to unleash on the world. If
Apple's got a real game changer (and jury is still out) they're prolly going
after markets worth over $100 billion.

The smartphone was a powerful disruptive device primarily because it converged
the function of many things (among others "an ipod, a phone, an internet
device" as Steve repeated at the debut). Tablets also did the same thing a bit
less obviously.

Currently Apple offers 4 non-mobile consumer devices: computers (mac mini and
iMac), Apple TV, Air Port and Time Capsule. In addition consumers also have
televisions, game consoles, DVD/Blue Ray players, and stereos.

So my theory again is that Apple is coming out with a converged device that
replaces* most of the above (I don't think they will sell the actual tvs or
speakers).

* It won't replace them perfectly. In fact in many cases it will be strictly worse, as in the case of cloud gaming vs console gaming. But just as the best camera is the one you have with you, the totality of having one simple device that just works will be what they are banking on.

------
raldi
I'm surprised he didn't mention that, without iTunes, you don't need a
computer at all to use your iWhatever. You could travel for months with just
an iPod Touch, or be a technophobe with just an iPad, and never miss not
having a laptop to plug either into.

Or, in my case, be a Linux guy with an iPhone and iPad and no longer need to
borrow my wife's Mac for syncing.

~~~
spicyj
You do need iTunes to activate the device, though.

~~~
raldi
Currently, but I see no reason that's not fixable.

~~~
spicyj
That was exactly what Gruber's point was.

------
niravs
The Twitter app for iPad does an incredible job of solving the side-by-side
portrait orientation split view problem. I wish the native mail app behaved
like this.

~~~
mortenjorck
Heck, I'd go one further and wish it were a native Cocoa Touch framework.

------
ansy
You know what Gruber didn't mention that's supposedly on the schedule? OS X
Lion.

There's not much to say about it I guess. But it could be the first system
update distributed over the App Store.

~~~
philwelch
I doubt that a lot--OS updates need to be on disc so you can boot from them.

~~~
ugh
Hm, why? Lion was already distributed to the developers through the App Store.

~~~
ZitchDog
What do you do if your HD goes kaput and you need to restore?

~~~
dazonic
iCloud, dummy! Seriously though, I'm guessing it's a second partition.

~~~
uxp
Multiple partitions won't help if the drive goes bad.

With Apple's insistance that new HDDs in all their newer devices (*except the
Mac Pro) are not user serviceable, no one should care about that because the
new harddrive will be pre-loaded with an OS after you get it back from the
Geniuses or AppleCare.

~~~
uxp
If you want to downvote, that's fine, but please provide an explanation. My
comment was not derogatory, rude or against any of the HN guidelines.

Recent iMacs have been known to have their harddrive fans spin at full after a
stock harddisk is replaced with an aftermarket replacement. Rumor is
circulating that recent MacBook and MacBook Pro models are similar. Apple has
hijacked some unused SATA wires to use for onboard temperature control on
their branded drives. Unless you have access to genuine apple parts, any
harddrive replacement on those models of computers won't work well.

[http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-
upgra...](http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-
options-on-new-imacs)

Long story short: To Apple, Harddrives are not user servicable components,
thus to Apple, "no one should care", because the computer will come back to
the consumer after any repairs to a failed harddrive with a clean copy of the
new OS.

I don't agree with that, but this is how things will be. I'm just a messenger
with an opinion.

~~~
dazonic
No downvotes from me. I've had two iMac HDDs die, lots of friends' too. My
heart sunk when I found out about special temp sensor, I live a long way from
any Apple repair centre.

As for Lion, it's anyone's guess whether we'll get a burnable/USBable DMG or
not...

------
mattparcher
Regarding side-by-side portrait-orientation split views on the iPad, wouldn't
such a layout require the message view to be too small? I'd rather that the
message list appear in the top half of the screen, with the message view below
it, but this isn't quite typical on the iPad (notable exception provided by
Matt Gemmell's open-source MGSplitViewController [1]).

[1] [http://mattgemmell.com/2010/07/31/mgsplitviewcontroller-
for-...](http://mattgemmell.com/2010/07/31/mgsplitviewcontroller-for-ipad)

------
deltriggah
I would rather have the two apps running on split screen view landscape.

~~~
thirdsun
The windows 8 video that appeared some days ago had a good solution for this.
You could put any apps side by side and drag the separation line
horizontically - of course this requires a special view for many apps.

------
drivebyacct2
Good, bad, or otherwise, Gruber usually has unique insight. Nothing here seems
shocking or surprising, or really anything that people weren't guessing a year
ago.

~~~
smackfu
Yes, this is basically a few paragraphs on iCloud and then some really mundane
things to complain about.

