iOS developers expecting Siri APIs for WWDC 2012!

Here are the results of my latest poll: What are your expectations from iOS 6

The most promising expectations for me are Siri API's and an Apple TV SDK. The latter would create quite a stir this year because this would create a third App Store for Apple and would prepare Apple to position itself with a nice catalog of applications for a future iTV if ever Apple decide to launch one. Would be curious to read the HIG for Apple TV applications. 

Comments on iOS 5 Notifications Center implementation

As you know, notifications handling and management is a very popular topic among iOS enthusiasts. I can't remember all proposals that I stumbled upon in the last few weeks before WWDC 2011 keynote. Now that iOS 5 Notification Center is officially announced, I would like to compare Apple's implementation to my own proposal published a while back. 

In "iOS notifications: a better implementation proposal" my improved notifications handling was split in three parts: 

1. Providing visual cue for the newly received notification
2. Invocation method to access the notification stack
3. Management of the notification stack

Visual cue

According to Apple's keynote, when a new notification is received by the device, a visual feedback is provided at the top of the display. A small band is flipped like a cube to show the notification for a while. Then, with the same animation it disappears.

This visual effect and position is better then my proposal as it shows more information in a place where people are used to look for status informations: the status bar. The height of the bar is about the same as the status bar when a call is ongoing. Also, the animation is even less intrusive than my proposed vanishing in-the-middle view.

Invocation method to get to the notification stack
As many notifications can arrive in a very short period of time or simply during the day, a stack of notification is building. Apple proposes the two methods to open the process notifications: swipe from top to bottom starting at the status bar or swipe a notification from left to right while looking the lock screen. The first method will get the user to the notification center. The second method will let the user access the application responsible of the notification. By skipping the use of a stand alone application, Apple simplify the process of accessing the notification stack and provide a system wide invocation method without going back to the home screen.

Management of the notification stack

Apple's implementation of the notification stack management is pretty simple and requires nothing new to learn. Swiping a notification, tapping the X to dismiss a section are all gestures that users already practice a lot. The Notification Center's background is pretty dark. Emphasis is put of the text and the application icons. Apple introduce a special visual cue at the bottom of the view to dismiss the Notification Center.

 All in all, I like Apple improvements to the iOS notifications.

How I follow WWDC 2011 Keynote from home

Many of you guys are lucky enough to attend WWDC 2011 according to one of my recent poll. But for an indie iOS dev like me, I can only afford to take a one day brake from my day job to be able to follow the keynote. As of this writing, it appears there won't be live feed of the Keynote. So, in order to be able to get a near real time feed of news, I'm going to select four sources of news to stay informed. First, Twitter. I will be using my lists to filter out relevant tweets than those that aren't: @jfmartin67/applenews  and @jfmartin67/iphonedev.

Next are web sites with representatives attending the keynote.

http://live.appleinsider.com/
This year, AppleInsider is using CoverItLive. In the past, they always had a useful coverage of Apple events.

http://www.macrumorslive.com/
MacRumors is using a automatically refreshed page with new comments at the top. Again, simple web page, light with pictures. Kind of prefer it to CoverItLive format.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/engadget-broadcasting-live-from-wwdc/
Engadget is using a chat room coupled with a web page. I like to have a more critical point of view at Apple event other than MacRumors or AppleInsider.

Stay tuned for more.

WWDC 2010 Keynote comments

Here are a few personal comments on the WWDC2010 keynote.

First, the iPhone 4.Looking at the pictures and videos, I cannot but tell to myself how great looking is the new iPhone 4. Apple seems to be at its best on the industrial design side of the things. I'm anxious to see one myself in person. Wow what a device. There is so many things improved. Apple's iterative manner of improving its hardware is one of their strength. What is less clear is how the new screen resolution will affect the application user interface development. I wasn't at the WWDC myself so I do not know. I understand that system fonts and buttons will benefit right away but how to handle different artworks size in the UI is not obvious to me.

iAds seems to be so cool. They are factual apps by themselves but built on open standards.

So there was no MobileMe announcement. Many are disappointed by that but maybe they don't remember when Apple came out with its new MobileMe services at the same time of iPhone OS 3 and Iphone 3G in 2008? That was a nightmare for Apple and most of all for their customers. I prefer that Apple takes smaller steps rather than big ones. All I can say is that I think we will see some big changes for MobileMe before the end of the current year coupled with new iTunes "In the cloud".

Safari 5 wasn't shown at the keynote because Steve Jobs had more important things to say. One of the many messages that ought to go out was: Apple supports HTML5 and they control their App Store, no mather what people think of this. They do that on purpose because they care about the user experience with the App Store and the general quality of the apps found in there. You as a developer, if you don't subscribe to this, go somewhere else. You as a customer, if you don't like Apple curating the content of it's App Store or what can be or cannot be installed on a iDevice, then buy something else. That is it. As for HTML5 clear endorsement, again this is clear: Apple doesn't want to be dependent on a commercial-driven "standard" under the control of one company: Adobe. They bet on HTML5 because they believe it will fly in the future.

Now on iPhone OS 4. Sorry, iOS4! I think that renaming the OS makes sense as this become more and more clear that this will become the only OS that Apple will really care about in the long run. Mac OS X will stay but eventually, iOS will run on top of it sometime. We didn't hear about Apple TV because I think Apple is still not ready with the Apple TV SDK because we will eventually see that too in the near future. Mark my words, WWDC 2011 will be the year where Mac OS X will get iOS apps. Beside those notes, we didn't hear new things that we didn't know. I suspect that closed door sessions with NDA forms to sign at the door we're much more telling on what will be going on with Xcode and dev tools in general.

Tidbits. I think iMovie for iPhone will be bigger than most people think right now. Why? Because it is so easy it seems to create small videos without going to the computer. Easy to upload. Easy to share. Winning formula. One more thing: FaceTime. Well, this is version 1.0 boys. Wifi only is only temporary. In 2011 will remember that and we will all be using, at some point, FaceTime on Wifi, 3G and whatever network technology will be available. In itself, FaceTime is a nice addition and it shows again how Apple is about solving simple problem in elegant ways. Bravo.

One of the things that we didn't hear was the iPhone lock screen content. In iOS4, the lock screen stays the same. So to see appointments, new messages, notifications, etc, we have to unlock the device and open each application one after the other in order to get a complete picture of what's new. I guess they didn't introduced APIs for this either. Maybe iOS 5 will bring relief in that space next year. We'll see. For now, imagine this implementation: slide your finger on the status bar in order to get a global view on notifications with the main view sliding down in order to make room for those notifications (a little bit the same principal for the task switcher but at the top of the screen).

Steve Jobs seemed in great shape and I think this is its best presentation in recent memories. The many thanks that went to Apple teams was a really nice touch and well deserved.

Finally, what this keynote tells me is this: Apple is not standing still. The best thing Google is doing to Apple is being there in many of their markets. This keep Apple awake and innovative and we all benefit. Nokia fell asleep a while ago. RIM is falling asleep as of this writing. Microsoft is waking up but its too late. Palm is gone.