What could the Apple Tablet do for the iPhone?
This is the inevitable Apple Tablet post. Barring any last-minute explosion in Silicon Valley caused by the white-heat of tech journalist speculation, Apple should reveal their hitherto mythical Tablet device next week.
All the rumours seem to point to it running some form of iPhone operating system, and that iPhone OS 4.0 will be revealed (there’s a really good Gizmodo UI speculation article on this). But what’s really interesting me is how could a Tablet fit into Apple’s existing home setup, where iTunes is the media hub? And what this could mean for the iPhone?
App Review: Orbit
This isn’t so much an app review as an excursion into the hinterland of the unfinished iPhone user interface. There are always tweaks – and sometimes wholesale changes – to be made to an operating system’s interface. But on mobile devices these changes face higher scrutiny, as there are usually more constraints on the end-user being able to install workarounds to better suit their preferences. This is especially true on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
So this is a look at an app that provides a different way of navigating your iPhone, borrowing from Exposé and Spaces on the Mac’s OS X. But, because it radically changes the method of switching between pages of apps, you won’t find it in the App Store. This one is jailbreak only.
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The Quest for the Perfect ToDo App
Ever since the App Store threw open its doors and waved in the general public to have a snoop around, I’ve been on something of a quest. This isn’t a quest for gold, the fountain of youth or a crystal skull. It isn’t even something I would expect to take long enough to be described as a quest. I simply want to find a ToDo app that works the way I want it to.
The usual method I (and, presumably, most others) use to choose apps is to wander around the App Store seeing what takes my fancy. “Oh look”, I might say, “an app to calculate the weight of all my socks. Just what I need.” Or, maybe “Ah, an app to synthetically replicate the expulsion of gastric exhaust – my life is complete.” But this is different. This time there is a very clear idea in my mind what the app should do and how it should do it.
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – but it’s not Elegant
You, me and next door’s cat know that a lot of the hardware and software designs coming from world phone manufacturers and mobile developers have been directly inspired by the Apple iPhone. All of a sudden full-screen interfaces are back in fashion, with even Windows Mobile getting finger-friendly additions bolted on wherever possible. From HTC’s TouchFLO to third party utilities, the finger-lovin’ starts off as reasonably impressive and then disappoints fairly soon afterwards. And there are a whole crop of proprietary OS devices with iPhone pretensions, such as the LG Viewty, about as close to the iPhone as you can get while still being able to say ‘hey, don’t send the lawyers round here, guv, this is totally different’. (more…)
