Texas Instruments already cornered that market with their Speak & Spell back in '82.
-
Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more
What's so fantastic about Apple?
- Thread starter Humes fork
- Start date
Texas Instruments already cornered that market with their Speak & Spell back in '82.
megaresp
Muse
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2007
- Messages
- 715
Oh. Craptastic.
I don't do much office/document type of work on my ipad - I didn't know that. That's really not fantastic.
Well I bought Quickoffice Pro HD so I can more easily edit the documents I keep in Dropbox.
Basically all the office apps read, edit and output Word, Excel and PowerPoint files so I can shuffle things back and forth more or less at will. But it would be useful if Apple made things simpler and just implemented DropBox support for Pages, Numbers and Keynote because I prefer using these over their equivalents in Quickoffice Pro HD.
And while I'm wishing for the sun, moon and stars - it would be nice if the iPad verison of Keynote could incorporate an MP3. Or an original 'composition' from GarageBand.
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
Fishstick
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2009
- Messages
- 1,603
What is this supposed to imply?
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
Well, iwork apps don't work with dropbox. Omni apps (omnigraffle, etc) don't work with dropbox. If apple did it intentionally, as darat claimed, then omni group must have done it intentionally as well ?
megaresp
Muse
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2007
- Messages
- 715
There is no similar system of folders available from the desktop in iOS. The apps themselves reference the file system. If the app itself doesn't include support for Dropbox it won't be possible to use it with Dropbox on an iPhone or iPad directly.
For me it is a problem because Pages, Numbers and Keynote (all by Apple) are very nice to use but have no support for Dropbox. I can store copies in Dropbox but I can't retrieve them again for editing. Which is frustrating. Although I can retrieve them to QuickOffice Pro HD.
Still, life would be easier if Apple just allowed the Dropbox app to see Pages, Numbers and Keynotes files and open them in their respective apps. And save them back to Dropbox again.
Last edited:
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
Briefly, it's the difference in security model in iOS vs android. Android, any app that has 'modify s/d card permissions' can read/write on the sd card and the apps and thier data are not sandboxed.
iOS each app is sandboxed, and there are various ways to expose the data, such as via protocol handlers or docinteraction api.
BobTheDonkey
Illuminator
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2009
- Messages
- 4,501
Oooooh, I get it now. The inability to sync documents from your iPad to your Apple computer is a feature, not a hindrance...
Fishstick
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2009
- Messages
- 1,603
So on iOS, any app that wants to use functionalty from app Y needs specific permissions/api calls to deal with app Y, rather than the permission-structure that enables app Y to do its thing ?
From a security viewpoint, that makes sense.
Edit: So there's no way to, for example, give App X r/w permissions, and it would enable it to work with app Y which also deals with io R/W without resorting to direct calls to Y?
Last edited:
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
I'm not an iOS developer, so I am getting out of my element if I try to get into specifics, so here is a good URL that explains it better than I can.
It's a deliberate decision by Apple not to support Dropbox, I don't know how clearer I can be?
I've no idea why you think that is a "conspiracy" - using "conspiracy" to describe that is widening the meaning of the word to include pretty much every decision a company makes about the features of their software which is a usage I've never seen before.
Fast Eddie B
Philosopher
Given Apple's history, they could...
...add Dropbox functionality as a feature...
...buy Dropbox and incorporate it into the OS...
...come up with an elegant and transparent alternative to Dropbox...
...or something else.
They do, after all, have 100 billion dollars and gifted programmers - give them time.
I use Dropbox in a limited fashion. Awkward was that Numbers on the iPad would only recognize Excel spreadsheets if they had a .xls suffix. None of mine did, so I had to add them and then reestablish broken links.
One rumored announcement with some credible sourcing is MS Office apps for the iPad/iPhone. If that used iCloud, I think it would work for me.
BTW, today is the day I'm going to attempt to switch from MobileMe to iCloud. Wish me luck!
...add Dropbox functionality as a feature...
...buy Dropbox and incorporate it into the OS...
...come up with an elegant and transparent alternative to Dropbox...
...or something else.
They do, after all, have 100 billion dollars and gifted programmers - give them time.
I use Dropbox in a limited fashion. Awkward was that Numbers on the iPad would only recognize Excel spreadsheets if they had a .xls suffix. None of mine did, so I had to add them and then reestablish broken links.
One rumored announcement with some credible sourcing is MS Office apps for the iPad/iPhone. If that used iCloud, I think it would work for me.
BTW, today is the day I'm going to attempt to switch from MobileMe to iCloud. Wish me luck!
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
The deliberate decision part was quite clear.
The 'to force people to use icloud' was an assertion you have not provided any evidence for. Please provide some.
You also neglected to answer why a popular developer like omni group would also not support dropbox. Is it because they also want to force people to use icloud ?
I would also like to see you provide some good examples that back up all these claims:
iOS5 looks like something from 5 years ago in terms of style and its usability does not compare to a good Android implementation and integration is behind where Android (version 4) is at today
How can it be anything else? If the only cloud based storage integrated for an iPhone user of Apple is their own? The one follows from the other.
No idea, you may have not noticed but my comment was about a company called Apple not Omni.
There's been no major revision to Apple's OS styling for over 5 years so of course they are by definition a style of 5 years ago... As for the integration and usability most of my opinion is based on the software development projects I have been involved with over the last 6 months or so and the consumer focus testing from that. That data I can't share but this very example of Dropbox provides a good example of iOS's poorer integration.
Last edited:
I understand where you're coming from but I'd also have to put Android in that as well.
The most major "restyling" seems to be with Windows 8. It certainly piqued my interest based on how it looked alone. Something quite new and original.
I'm thinking in a few short years Apple and Android tablet OSs will be the same as those running on notebook computer OSs (OSX and Chrome)
TheL8Elvis
Philosopher
- Joined
- May 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,276
It could be a technical limitation of dropbox. It could be a technical limitation of iWorks apps. Since there are other solutions (dropbox +dropdav), airshare, email, etc - so it in no way 'forces' people to use icloud. You are wrong, it's not simply one follows from the other
And if it were the case that iWork does not support dropbox to force people to use iCloud, as you claim, why would other apple allow other core features of iOS support dropbox ? Does that make sense to you ? Apple will only have *some* stuff work with dropbox in order to force people to use icloud ? icloud, a feature that didn't exist in iOS 4, where iWorks still didn't work with dropbox...
Do you have special insight into apples business decisions that you don't have into the omni groups ? You claim to know absolutely why apple iworks does not work with dropbox, but you have no idea why omni group apps don't.
Humor me. Give me your best guess. Could it be, hmm, i don't know, technical limitations ? Is that possible ?
It seems to me apple completely revamped notifications in iOS5. So that claim fails.
As to the usability : That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.
Last edited:
Android has been through a couple of quite major revisions over the last couple of years in regards to styling but Android is a rather different type of platform in regards to iOS as it is designed to be highly customisable and often is by the device manufacturer. But if you can take a look at an Android stock "1" compared to 4. The style changes are quite substantial.
Windows 8 is an example to point to but don't forget much of it's redesign is because of functional changes rather than simply being a re-style. Probably a better comparison would to look at say Windows XP to Windows Vista/7, that was a substantial restyling (as well as changes that followed from function).
OSX is long overdue for such a change (of course in my not humble opinion) as is now iOS. For quite a few years Apple unquestionably led the industry with its design language, but the world does not stand still and consumer products are always evolving for what is "fashionable". I'm hopeful that Apple will pull some surprises out of the bag over the next year and again start to lead design. But Apple may now have a problem they've really not had before and that is their millions upon millions of consumers may be unwilling to accept anything radically new, people don't like change!