What my iDevices need
I've got a few iDevices (iPad
I need a "guest mode" on my device. If I want to hand it to a friend to browse the web, or give it to my kids to play games, I don't want it running in the same mode as when I use it. That is, I don't want my kids to be able to to make phone calls, read my emails, send text messages or any of that. They can play Angry Birds
There are some firms where the executives have iPads and they're able to read their very confidential emails from that device. Maybe it's through Outlook Web Access and the device's web browser, maybe it's the actual mail application. We in the security industry worry about the device getting stolen and we're slowly seeing the necessary features being introduced to handle that situation. There's a long way to go, though.
What we're not covering is what happens when the owner intentionally hands it over to someone who shouldn't have access to some of the stuff on it. Like her kids, his wife, or a friend at a bar who wants to see that funny youtube video. They're only a few (innocent or not innocent) taps away from seeing confidential information.
Now, I don't have all that much proprietary information, but I have lots of different circles of colleagues, friends, and family. Some of them should not see certain things on my iDevices, but it's a risk I take every time I hand it over.
iPad with a Bluetooth Keyboard
I just got a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, and I have to say it makes the iPad much more functional as a laptop replacement. Its rather generically named the Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad
Here are some specific limitations.
- There are no keyboard shortcuts for doing things. For example, in mail there is no way to do new message (at least that Ive found). Likewise there is no way to send. I can start typing a persons name and I will get a list of possible completions. There is no way to say yes, thats the one, without touching the screen—even if there is only one possible completion.
- Things like Cmd-Tab ought to bring up the running apps, like double-tapping the home button does. Interestingly, double-tapping the home button on the bluetooth keyboard works the same as double-tapping the home button on the device. But, there is no keyboard based navigation (e.g., arrow keys dont do anything.)
- This keyboard has a magnifying glass key that jumps you to the search feature. I like that, but then I type a search term like word (to find wordpress) and Im back to no navigation. I can see wordpress in my search results but I have no way to get my cursor down from the searching box into the results and then hit enter to activate wordpress.
On the plus side, it acts very much like a real keyboard on a real workstation. For example, Ive just bought a US-layout keyboard and Ive hooked it up to my UK-localised iPad
Also on the plus side, iOS seems to realise that I have an external keyboard, so it doesnt take up half the screen with a visual one. I can bring up the visual keyboard on the screen if I want to (doesnt make much sense), but its smart in that regard.
The particular keyboard I got also comes with a case that turns into a stand. I like that stand quite a bit, because I have bought an after-market sleeve for my iPad. My sleeve (from TeckNet) is a fair bit thicker than the usual Apple cover (and it cost £10 instead of £60). The stand from the keyboard works well, though.
Im interested to see how well this will hold up on a train, where it is quite bumpy. Sitting on a table, its brilliant.
Where are the missing iPad apps?
I got an iPad 2
iPhone OS 4.2 SMS tones are terrible
I understand that people like different kinds of tones for their SMS alerts. But the most recent batch of 17 new alerts (see the IOS announcement) are all obnoxious. That is, every one of them goes on for a good 3-8 seconds and they're all pretty musical. I guess this must fit what the public wants. But it isn't what I want. I would really love to just have a simple beep, or something low-key and discreet. The existing "glass" (which is just a 'ding ding' lasting about 2 seconds) is what I use for this.
I'm not surprised that they didn't release 17 simple, discreet tones. I'm surprised they didn't release 1. Just 1 out of 17 seems reasonable. Or 1 out of 18. Yes, I could jailbreak the phone and put my own tones in and all that. But I want to play by the rules.
To be fair, I think AirPlay and AirPrint are awesome ideas. I can't wait to try them. But the message tones are completely unimportant.
Apple accessibility gimmick on iPhone 4
High contrast settings
I'm not sure if this is a feature of the phone or the OS. Either way, Apple's attempt at "high contrast" or "white on black" is a complete joke. I find it dubious that it makes much easier to read. It's a silly trick from Graphics 101, trumped up like a feature.
If you turn on "white on black," they do a really stupid inversion of the palette. Sure, white becomes black, but purple becomes green, orange becomes blue, and all the other colors change, too.
In the settings page, you get white text on black background. In mail you get white text on a black background. OmniFocus looked pretty good. I played with it for a little while and thought "maybe I could get used to this." But then I discovered a few colossal screw-ups.
For example, I normally use one of their very dark backgrounds for my wallpaper. The phone is already smart enough to use white text in front of this background. When I activate "white on black," I get an inversion. The background becomes light and the text dark! That is, I have "black on white" when I asked for "white on black"!
Inverted home screen
And the screen inversion is complete. It is everywhere. Activate the camera and you see an inverted picture! Who on earth wants that!? And with the high-contrast turned on, you don't get what you see on the screen (thank goodness, in that sense). You get a normal picture captured by the phone. But I tried to capture a picture of my home screen, to attach to this blog post, and it actually captured the correct colors, not the inverted ones, when I did a screen capture. That surprised me.
I think the main reasons I am so bothered by this are:
- This does not change the contrast. According to the dictionary distributed with MacOS X, contrast is "the degree of difference between tones in a television picture, photograph, or other image". If you invert the picture, you haven't changed the degree of difference in the tones. Blue is no farther from orange than orange is from blue. If the screen or an application had poor contrast before, it still has poor contrast after inverting it. If they increased the tonal difference, that would be something else, but this is just a gimmick. Notice that you never see Apple display an example of their high contrast feature, except the settings screen itself. There's a good reason.
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View through an inverted camera
It is phenomenally idiotic to apply this inversion across every single app. I have no easy way to turn it on and off selectively. It's not like "push notifications" where I can say "this app: yes, that app: no." It's either on 100% all the time, or not on at all. I don't want to play games with inverted color, use FaceTime with inverted color, edit movies with inverted color, or half the stuff that the phone is capable of.
- They called this "accessibility," but I don't see how it actually makes anything more accessible. Sure, white text on a black background is often easier to read, but they don't ensure that you get white on black. As I showed, my text actually was white on black before I activated this feature, and then it became black on white.
With so many really well-done features, did Apple really need this stupid gimmick? Of all the phones in the world that support accessibility, the iPhone has some impressive claims (support for braille displays, reading out text, zoom, etc.). Did they need this to make their accessibility seem real?
I'm always looking for ways to get white on black, because it is easier on the eyes and easier to read. This was just a frustrating joke. I hope, in the future, it becomes an option that programmers can latch onto the way they do with push notifications. That is, they can signal to the OS "I'm an app capable of high contrast" or that they can ask the OS "has the user selected high contrast?" and then choose an appropriate palette.