“Let’s start off with this simple notion: iOS 10 at its most basic level is a platform for mobile devices. It allows developers to build things – apps — on top of it that do certain and specific things,” Michael deAgonia writes for Computerworld. “One app takes photos. Another takes and makes calls. Another lets your browse the web. Apple builds the iOS foundation, frameworks and apps; third-party developers build apps and services on top of the platform. Users pick and choose what they want to do with each one.”
“But with the advent of iOS 10, which is in public beta now and expected to arrive in finished form next month (along with new iPhones and an updated Apple Watch), that old notion of ‘platform’ is getting increasingly blurred,” deAgonia writes. “Because Apple has, in a sense, gone meta with its mobile operating system, allowing what were once simple, discreet but limited apps to perform functions and do things that are only tangentially related — at best — to what they were originally designed to do.”
deAgonia writes, “In essence, apps themselves are becoming mini-platforms, built atop iOS 10 in ways that extend their abilities in myriad useful ways.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And Fragmandroid falls further and further behind.
Got to shift focus to Samsung for a bit now.
Photos show the aftermath of a Galaxy Note 7 that exploded while charging.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/photos-show-aftermath-galaxy-note-7-exploded-while-131614256.html
It exploded because the user attempted to charge it with a USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 adapter because he wanted to use his old charger cable instead of:
A) the manufacturer-provided charging cable (AND manufacturer-provided wireless charging station)
B) a compatible USB 3.0 cable
Likely this device is still under warranty. If not, this fellow chose a new batch of USB 3.0 cables – which can be had for like $12 – over his $900 phone.
Did he really say “discreet”?
Yes, I noticed that as well as you. I’m sure he was thinking “discrete” but simply typed it incorrectly — right. What’s important is the near-certainty that the “writer” (and I use the term loosely) at least received many ribbons and a diploma for merely showing up at his public school.
Please do as I did, and email the following link to the “writer”:
http://learnyourdamnhomophones.com/
No big deal. Spellcheck gotcha
dis·crete
dəˈskrēt/
adjective
individually separate and distinct.
“speech sounds are produced as a continuous sound signal rather than discrete units”
synonyms: separate, distinct, individual, detached, unattached, disconnected, discontinuous, disjunct, disjoined
“discrete units of sound”
“MacDailyNews Take: And Fragmandroid falls further and further behind.”
Wrong. Android has supported “apps as a platform” for some time. For example: “In previous versions of iOS, overviews in Maps would display traffic conditions — orange for congestion, red for heavy traffic — but in GPS/guided mode, streets would lose the color-coding, and the inability to pan and zoom meant you couldn’t easily look ahead. Both of those limitations are fixed in iOS 10: the turn-by-turn navigation screen now displays traffic data and the interface allows for panning, zooming, and tilting the camera view.”
My Google Maps has done this for quite some time. In fact, my Google Maps on my old smartphone that I now use as a car GPS and music streamer does this, and that device is still on Android 4.4, which was released in 2013!
If you want to talk about “apps as a platform” you need to consider this “app streaming” function that Google previewed in last year’s Marshmallow but will go prime time in Android 7.0. Don’t worry. You guys will get similar functionality in 2018, because 2 years is the typical lag time between iOS getting features that Android has.
Then again, maybe not, because Android introduced multiple user accounts for a device like 6 years ago and iOS still doesn’t support it!
I think the overall point you are trying to make is that Apple is behind the curve and not out in front. I would tend to agree …. Apple typically is not the first runner out of the gate. However, Apple seems to take a different approach which you can either appriciate or you can complain about. The Apple approach has always seem to me to vet out technology and then apply some refinement to make it more useful/easier to use, etc. For example, Apple was not the first to introduce the eWallet concept, but when they did, they ensured many locations would readily accept it, unlike Google. Google tends to be more cutting edge …. where they fall short in that approach seems to be that they lack the well thought out plan/infrastructure/refinement to support said tech. I’m getting hold, and I do not like to tinker like I did in my youth. I just need it to work for me the majority of the time. I feel the same about my cars. when I was young, I would waste money sprucing up my ride …. now I just want it to be reliable, no break downs ….
nice thoughts if true, but not even close to true.
every single innovation that’s worth anything or has a high degree of difficulty in mobile computing in the last 10-15 years has been from Apple’s R&D.
Sure, fingerprint identification predates Apple’s use of it, but what you’re forgetting is that Apple PERFECTED the method using their R&D to fix the problems with it. Now it’s so good you forget your phone even has security.
3D Touch: does exactly what it says it does, adds a new layer to the UI much in the same way a 3rd dimension is 50% better than 2 dimensions. Did we FORGET that in an age of Blackberry who invented the finger-diddle UI? So guess which platform is adoptiong “3D Touch” in the coming months but calling it something else of course? And how many new Android phones come with FingerID solutions which are clunky and located in some odd spot on the phone so they don’t get caught (again) with design-patent legal problems?
Ruggedness & Waterproofing? Yeah, you probably think the droids invented this too? Go ahead and look up which smartphone has the highest combined rating for ruggedness. I’ll give you a hint, the top score is “4” (1 is best) and the winner has a “6” and an “S” in it. But keep on buying into the Samsuck marketing hype, bc when you look at Samsuck’s financials, that’s what they spend money on, not R&D. Android’s “R&D” since they first ditched the Blackberry design for Apple’s UI in 2007 has been to take apart an iPhone and see how it works. pathetic.
Apple will continue to set the standard, and run R&D circles around the androids chinese zero quality control OEMs.
I’ll say this for android tho: They “invented” the 5 and 6 inch screen category. Woo hoo, must’ve taken some SERIOUS R&D to figure out THAT technology.
Android, cheap toys for 3 year olds to see pretty lights. Stuff doesn’t work, and the sad thing is you misery-loves-company suckers don’t even know what you have is awful.
It’s funny bc he forgets that fandroids are toys and don’t work when trying to do basics, much less 2nd-derivative stuff. fandroids are also built by the OEMs who bring you twice-a-year repairs on your fridges, washers, dryers, and phones. cheap clunky crap that doesn’t hold it’s value whatsoever bc everyone knows it’s dogcrappily made chinese-junk with zero quality control.
But you keep shelling out $875 for Samsuck products which are worth $5 when you return them to Verizon two years later assuming the screen, buttons, and screws last 6 months.