“When building an app for Apple Watch, Mikael Berner and his team at EasilyDo quickly learned that their work could carry over to the iPhone,” Shara Tibken reports for CNET.
“The EasilyDo developers found it sometimes took too long for users to find the information they wanted in the company’s namesake app — which acts as a virtual assistant by managing your email, calendar, travel information and services like LinkedIn,” Tibken reports. “When you’re wearing a smartwatch, you need to be able to glance down and see what you’re looking for without digging through menus. Deciding that also made sense on the iPhone, the developers restructured their smartphone app to also be ‘more micro-moment,'” said EasilyDo CEO Berner, showing quick glances of information that’s relevant to what you’re doing at a particular time.”
“Apple Watch hasn’t hit the market yet, but its tiny screen is already changing how our iPhone apps look and feel,” Tibken reports. “Some of the simple, ‘glanceable’ functions found on Apple’s first wearable will make their way to smartphone apps, as will more minimalist designs. And it’s not just about making the phone and watch apps work together seamlessly, but actually incorporating watch features — like new functions and different design schemes — in the iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This makes sense.
We’re currently considering future options for our app, too. Perhaps, for our app, one that simply sends notifications of new articles to iOS devices, listing current headlines with brief descriptions that when tapped opens that article in a MacDailyNews mobile site in Safari, would work better than attempting to replicate too many functions of the site in an app and trying to keep it current with annual iOS software and device changes? Do you think that approach would work better?
Since I post to Facebook any article I find interesting, going straight from Safari would be easier.
MDN: Having to open an app to read your articles just isn’t that convenient. People flip from site to site when they read the things that interest them on their browsers and opening an App isn’t going to replace that. Why so many ads on your site? Why do they regularly hijack my iPad and send me to the App Store? The content of your site is for the most part great. The presentation, though, is horrible. Would Apple ever tolerate this? You need to look more closely at the company you admire and try to emulate them, not just write about them. Don’t just talk it. Walk it.
Yes, this is exactly what we’re discussing: Improving the experience on mobile devices. From the feedback we’ve received, the most useful parts of the app are the Push Notifications. An app would preserve that. Going to a mobile version of MDN in Safari would allow us to improve the experience and control costs (app development is expensive).
As for the auto-redirect ads, we’ve explained that before, as recently as:
Shady app install ads automatically redirecting mobile users to App Store, Google Play – January 16, 2015
We’ve begun turning off entire third-party ad networks to see if we can pinpoint a definite problem network. Please continue emailing us if you get an auto-redirect when viewing the site on your iPhone or iPad in Safari. When the emails cease, we’ll know when we’ve located a problem ad provider.
We understand that we have too many ads. If you are blocking ads, please white list MacDailyNews. This will help us to reduce the number of ads.
I appreciate your feedback, MDN, and also that you need ad revenue to stay alive. From a reader’s standpoint, though, I think this is a simple issue that doesn’t need a complex fix. MacRumors, The Loop, Daring Fireball, Apple Enthusiast, Apple Insider and many others are all examples of sites who are getting by with far fewer ads and I’d hazard a guess that many have lower traffic. No app or mobile site required. And, I’ve never had my iPad hijacked when visiting them.
*Edit: Apple Insider really isn’t a great example, I should have left them off th list.
I love reading the content on the site especially when I’m using my iMac or MacBook Pro. When I’m using my iPhone, lately I’ve been getting booted to the App Store with nearly every article that I read. Sometimes it happens on the main page when I am just visiting. It isn’t just ads for games either, one of your Apple Watch posts redirected me to the Gilt app. This certainly gets annoying and I understand that you are burning the midnight oil trying to locate the offending ad network(s). Keep at it.
Honestly, the app UI could go away if one thing worked better: right now, if I click a notification, sometimes all the rest of them get cleared out too. But I like to save them up as a reading list and use them to keep track and make sure I read everything I was interested in. Sometimes it’s so frustrating when it clears out that I just skip the rest of those stories. If they would stay until each individual one was either clicked or swiped off, it would be much better.
Thankfully I haven’t had a redirect since you discoverd the problem a while back.
People who block ads are stealing. MDN should block those who block ads. Those who block ads are accomplishing one thing: More ads on the Internet. If you like a site and visit it often, you are stealing by blocking ads and you are making the experience worse for everyone, including yourself. You should not block ads on sites you like.
In your twisted world, should cars be blocked from driving down the interstate if they don’t look up at your annoying billboard advertisement?
My time is not your possession, buddy.
Mike + Website Developer. I think you both have valid points. Absolutely, sites need advertising to stay alive and blocking the ads could potentially be harmful to the ones we depend on. But, when ads are overdone to the point of feeling abusive and leave readers afraid to touch the wrong thing as if walking a field of land mines, you certainly can’t blame people who use defensive measures.
Why are there “too many ads?” Ad blocking, that’s why.
MDN, I urge you to block those who block ads. It would solve many problems!
So the TV networks were right when they tried to ban video recorders that allowed fast-forwarding through the commercials? I’m sure you sit through every one, going to the bathroom only during the program so you won’t steal eyeballs from the advertisers who have paid the programmers for your time.
No, of course not. There are many revenue streams in TV, not just commercials. Product placement within shows, syndication fees, etc.
As far as I can tell, like many “free” sites, ads are MDN’s sole source of funding. Those who block them are stealing.
Stealing???
So if one doesn’t click on your ad, is one also stealing?
Doesn’t matter if you’re hawking your wares on billboards, on the street corner, in magazines, or on the internet — just because people ignore what you’re selling doesn’t make them thieves. Maybe the problem with advertisers today is that they’re so lazy with their inappropriate gimmicks that people don’t find them informative and valuable to their lives. Ads could be crafted in a way to make them desirable, but most ad agencies are in the business of annoying customers instead. And when you have the attitude where you call a potential customer a thief if he is not interested in your particular type of ad, then clearly you’re part of the problem.
Macuser,
Ignore the ads all you like. MDN gets paid for most ads simply for displaying them. When you do not allow your browser to display them, you are stealing from MDN and putting pressure on the site to run additional ads.
There will always be workarounds to the scourge of ads. Get over it. Nobody is stealing anything. If anything, the stupids ads are stealing my time by making me look at them, especially those stupid one that lock the screen for 4 to 30 seconds. That is why I avoid any news website that does that.
Mike,
Relax with the “twisted world” bullshit. The interstate isn’t funded by billboards. MacDailyNews is. Block MDN’s ads and you’re forcing them to make a choice: Block those who block ads or heap more ads on the site to make up for the shortfall.
Those who block ads are creating and worsening the exact situation they purport to hate.
Mike, you’re a thief. Plain and simple.
I have to say that I love the MDN app and use it every day on my iPad to check Mac news.
I like that apart from the banner ads, it allows pretty full and direct contact with the content, without much distraction. The scrolling side menu works really well too, with the blue indicator of articles not yet read.
Please don’t kill the app!
It will be interesting to see the consumer reaction when their 38mm wrist display is filled with ads. You know, because if we don’t succumb to ads, then we’d be theives. /s