There’s been a lot of chatter on the web about recent Apple design decisions, such as the iPhone 6 battery case and the iPad Pro’s keyboard. Yesterday, I talked about how the iPad Pro’s keyboard was designed specifically for a touchscreen device, and the compromises that entailed.
Today, I want to talk briefly about another design element of the iPad Pro’s keyboard cover (Smart Keyboard) that’s often overlooked.
Microsoft famously claimed that the Surface Pro was a “no-compromise” device—the best of both a tablet and laptop. John Gruber of Daring Fireball famously pointed to reviews calling that claim into question. It was a touchscreen tablet with a full laptop keyboard.
So it was not surprising that reviewers and people on Twitter complained bitterly about the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard, and how un-laptop-like it was.
So I did a little research, and in this post I’ll explain my thoughts with photos to back them up.
Analysts and bloggers have been all over Apple’s new iPad Pro. Headlines scream “It’s a Laptop Replacement!” or alternatively, “iPad Pro Will NEVER Replace my Laptop!”.
What’s a person to think?
Well, of course, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
Apple just announced that iPad Pro is available for ordering Wednesday. I think it’s going to be a huge success, but I am a little concerned about one thing: Where are Apple’s pro apps?
Now I fully understand that the iPad Pro is, in many ways, “just another iPad” and thus will not likely have any apps that only run on the iPad Pro. And I understand that Apple wants to encourage third party developers to create apps of their own.
But for it to be successful, it certainly needs apps that take advantage of its hallmark features for professionals, such as Pencil and its new keyboard cover (a first for iPads and, I predict, will not be shared with smaller iPads).
But is Apple going to leave the pro apps to third parties like Microsoft and Adobe?
Your business or enterprise has an iOS app for iPhone and/or iPad, and you’re intrigued by the new app support on Apple TV and tvOS. Should you port your app to tvOS?
It seems like a fairly easy decision. Despite its different name, tvOS is very similar to iOS and has many of the same foundational building blocks. Much like Apple Watch and watchOS, Apple TV and tvOS allow you to build much of your app without changes.
But there are both technical and user experience reasons that feed into the decision on whether to port your app.
Apple did something very un-Apple-like for the debut of Apple TV. About 6 weeks before the Apple TV debuted, Apple held a lottery and sent some (many?) iOS developers a genuine 4th edition Apple TV for testing. For just a buck. This allowed developers to use a real TV and a real Siri Remote during development.
Apple TV and Siri Remote. Image courtesy of Apple.
This may not seem like a big deal, since Apple provides simulators for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs. But it was clear with the launch of the Apple Watch that not having a real device with a new user interaction model was a handicap to many developers.
The initial batch of Apple Watch apps were, well, let’s just say uneven. Now there were some technical reasons for that beyond developers’ control but, still, not having a Watch handicapped many an app.
Was the launch of Apple TV any different?
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the lack of web view functionality on the new 4th generation Apple TV. If your company is planning a tvOS app, you may be concerned that there is no way to display HTML on the new Apple TV because it doesn’t have a web browser. Even though many iOS apps don’t display a browser window per se, they do use a “web view” to show static but highly formatted HTML text. It’s just a lot easier than creating “attributed text” by hand or a complex series of labels in your app.
Well, fear not, because this is very possible on tvOS.
Apple TV screenshot of Greann Gaeilge app, showing HTML-formatted text.
I’ll explain how my app Greann Gaeilge did just that.
Everybody thinks they love the web. How could you not? “Apps” run the same everywhere on any device.
Well, that’s the theory, anyway. But you typically watch a blank screen—or, at best, some colored boxes—while the UI takes time to refresh. Not just once, but over and over again.
Sure, they’re adding new functionality all the time, but web apps are severely limited in what they can do compared to a native app. Yes, there are JavaScript bridges, but that adds more time and complexity.
Even the last bastion of web popularity—news sites and blogs—are now being subsumed by native news outlets like Facebook instant articles and Apple News.
But, but… what about Deep Linking, you ask? Both iOS and Android have deep linking now, so it’s no longer a web-only concept.
But displaying formatted text in a web view is so much easier than creating it on native platforms, you say. Well, since at least version 8, iOS text views have the ability to display HTML-formatted text. This is true even on tvOS on Apple TV, which doesn’t have a web view at all. Problem solved.
And look how things are progressing. Apple Watch doesn’t have any web functionality—and neither does Apple TV. The push is on for native apps.
Surprisingly, it was Google who put the final nail in the coffin.
Google just announced (or, rather, leaked the news) that
Apple had a plan when they introduced the iPhone. The iPhone was going to be your new pocket computer—easily at hand all the time. No bigger than a handful (and at the time, even a 3.5” screen was considered huge for a phone). It probably would’ve gotten thinner and thinner, until it became like the iPod touch 5th generation. (Have you held one of those recently? Pretty amazing.) iPhone app developers were given tools to carefully craft apps at a fixed screen size.
It’s been said that the iPad was in development even before the iPhone, but the phone was going to be the generate more money because everyone had a phone. So the tablet form factor (the iPad) was going to be an accessory. After being wowed by an iPhone, users would eventually want something that wasn’t so pocketable, but still booted up instantly, was thin & light & touchable, very secure, and ran the same apps as their phone.
That was the plan.
But a funny thing happened along the way: Continue reading
The Apple Watch isn’t out yet—not until April, 2015, Tim Cook says. But your company should be planning and designing for it already.
Apple has released a beta version of the developer’s SDK (software development kit) for it, as well as UX HIG (human interface guidelines) for it, and your architect and UX designer should be abreast of them.
The Apple Watch introduces several new terms which will become part of your vocabulary, such as Glances, Short Look Notifications, Long Look Notifications, Apple Watch app, and Apple Watch Extension. Each one of these new Apple Watch interfaces varies in the amount of customizability it offers to your company when creating an Apple Watch experience.
What are all these new terms, and what’s a good way of thinking about them that won’t overtax our already full brains? Continue reading
Lou Miranda 