iPhone OS 4 beta 3 brings iPod widgets to the dock
By Nilay Patel 
posted May 4th 2010 6:14PM
posted May 4th 2010 6:14PM
posted May 4th 2010 6:14PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
That sounds fairly useful.
poor attempt to make something useful out the mess that is the iPhone UI. Android doesnt have these problems
@pitnefor I know right? The Android UI is so easy to use, no wonder it's number one!
@pitnefor
You're so right, iPhones are barely usable at all!
Kind of makes you wonder how they sell so many.
@Lord Xlar
Ooo... I actually like that.
@pitnefor Yeah but it has problems with firmware, and utilization of hardware, coming from a Hero owner. Still no 2.1 and even twitter's official app's animated background gets bogged down on the fastest custom 2.1 rom out. At least the iPhone knows how to work its hardware.
@Lord Xlar
Yeah it does, it would've sucked to lose double-press for iPod functionality.
This OS is slowly but surely maturing and coming along very nicely, now just one more thing...
can't we please have a non-completely obnoxious notification system?
I love when Plants vs Zombies on my iPad pauses literally every 3 seconds due to an IM. They are making some great progress in other areas of the UI, this issue NEEDS to be fixed. I'm hoping that they have a new method, but it wasn't quite ready for their previous announcement but is coming soon. wishful thinking?
@Lord Xlar What if you double tap from the lock screen? Same as before?
@Yoda
They don't look like a huge leap over the iPod controls that show up currently on a locked iPod screen... but a change of scene doesn't hurt the eye... not in this case at least! :)
@pitnefor
You are really so biased.
@Yoda
imposter, you are
talk like this, you do not
@franktinsley
He does have a point though. When the iPhone OS was originally dreamt up these kind of things weren't even a consideration. Adding them in now makes them feel really tacked on.
iPhone 3G user.
@franktinsley Since when is it number one?
@DonClark Completely agree
i wonder when this is coming out
@DonClark
If a game involving plants and zombies on your iPad is being interrupted by your friends trying to talk to you, I think you've got a bigger problem than the notification system of the iPad OS.
You baught an iPad? I love apple products, but I won't dare by an iPad
@DonClark
Can be fixed in OS4 w/backgrounding threads... of course, if the developers update their apps --that's going to be a few weeks of interesting updates.
@PastorTom
"You're so right, iPhones are barely usable at all! Kind of makes you wonder how they sell so many."
That's a dumb comment, regardless of the original comment's merit. Most people agreed that almost ALL phone UIs sucked ass before the iPhone, and yet they sold millions and millions of them. While you can find examples in lots of other product arenas, the irrelevance of the UI is particularly strong in the cell-phone marketplace because nobody actually TRIES the product's UI before buying. They ask: Does it look good? Does it work on my carrier? Can I afford it? Does it have the physical shape I like? SOLD.
If people (and reviewers) were more discerning, we would have had decent phones 10 years ago and Apple wouldn't have just walked all over the market. The exact same thing happened with iPod and other MP3 players. Creative could've owned that market (and initially did), but their designs sucked. I mean, they took a rectangular hard drive and put it in a giant, unwieldy, saucer-shaped chassis disguised as a DiscMan. Why?
The iPod was simply the obvious way of doing that kind of device. The iPhone is somewhat better than the obvious, but still it makes some major mistakes. Take, for instance, the lack of important phone functions like audible alerts of missed calls & voicemails.
@MastaYoda
I'm so flattered that you decided to make a commenting account that copies me just for an engadget meme that ended 2 weeks ago!
@DonClark
How about you go into Settings and turn off pop-up notifications for your IM client? Notification badges and/or notificaton sounds seem to be more appropriate for your high message load.
@Lord Xlar I must say that iPhone OS is turning out really nicely, unfortunaly I cant say that I like the design of new phne tho, why it couldnt look like this http://milionpixela.strana.rs/image-7F40_4B561C62.jpg
@nk of a new phone (we need that edit button -.-)
@tobsmonster2 You mean like multitouch on Android?
@Information Central he was being sarcastic. ...way to react like a girl on her period iPhones are good android phones are good end of story.
@Information Central You do get an audible alert for a voicemail. And why exactly would you want an audible for a missed call when you just heard the phone ring and decided not to answer?
How many other mobile OS'es have native visual voicemail?
@vqro
"And why exactly would you want an audible for a missed call when you just heard the phone ring and decided not to answer?"
What about all the calls you DIDN'T HEAR? Do you seriously think the only reason people don't answer calls is that they decide not to? Talk about detached from reality. What a bizarre assumption.
@TheArchitect
Not hating on Apple, but I recently got an Incredible (switching from a BlackBerry) and one of my favorite things about the UI is the drag down notification bar. SO convenient.
I can see what the alert is from almost any app (depending on how the dev fills the screen) and choose to either ignore it for now or drag it down and view/act on it.
@albinomexi Maybe you should dare to take an English class.
@Information Central Look up the concept of hindsight bias and then realize what a massive case of it you have. In this case it enables fairly pedestrian minds to think that they are really clever by showing how obvious things were after the event even though at the time they were seen as revolutionary. It is a double whammy for little thinkers to simultaneously imagine that they are dead clever and the innovator really wasn't that smart. Stop fooling yourself and either innovate yourself or shut up about how obvious things are (after they happen)
@jmiotto
I completely agree. The iPhone UI is starting to feel tacked on.
@vqro
im sure steve jobs was not the inventor of multi touch.
and android is KNOWN for its widgets how many other platforms have useful widgets. (plz dont say touch wiz either -__-)
@Oghowie I think that brings up the multitasking pane now. Scroll to the left as mentioned in the article then brings up the iPod controls. So this is just a way to retain that functionality in a different fashion.
I'm glad anyway...I didn't want to lose the iPod controls
@Information Central
you mean the ring tone for the missed call and the chime when someone leaves a voicemail are not audible enough for you
@Information Central
um, you need some more information for your central... That guy was SOOOO OBVIOUSLY being sarcastic! Seriously!
@capnbob66
Already did innovate, AND called out the Creative blunders WHEN THEY HAPPENED. Even E-mailed them about several of those design flaws, about which they did nothing. Also routinely file bugs and suggest solutions on other products.
So, really, the small-minded person is the one who assumes that because HE didn't get off his ass, nobody else did either.
@Lord Xlar I like the OS 4 during its debut, but I like it even more today. Opinions. http://j.mp/os-4-0-by-iphone
@Wackowampa1
"you mean the ring tone for the missed call and the chime when someone leaves a voicemail are not audible enough for you"
Exactly, because they only occur ONCE, right after you missed the call. Now gee, let's think it through: If you missed the call, it stands to reason that you're going to miss ONE chirp that occurs seconds later. Maybe you were in the shower, or down the hall doing laundry while your phone was in its dock charging, or driving in a noisy environment, or in any other easily imagined scenario where you temporarily couldn't hear the phone or feel it vibrating.
@HTCAndroidTre everyone talks about how great the widgets are on android, and while I did like them, I mist have downloaded at least 50 applications and almost none of them had widgets. How can it really be a huge advantage if there are so few of them. Maybe I was just downloading the wrong apps
@Fadakar he sucks dont blame android for your shi tty phone problems... i got a mt3g and it does it all no problems... and yes i have a custom cyanogen 2.1 eclair rom.... and i over clocked it to 528 mhz .... some android phones come with 1000mhz on default so its your phone
@spalding90
yeah you must have been doing somethin wrong or downloaded the wrong apps. and you rly must not have had a htc sense device cuz theyre everywhere on the incredible, desire, legend, hero etc...
Welcome back iPod controls! :)
Next up: restoring controls (and common goddamned sense) to the Shuffle.
@sonola777 wish they would've put it at the TOP of the App switcher screen instead of having to swipe to the left to see them. But I'm glad to see it was implemented decently though.
Not to mention: How is the user supposed to know that swiping will reveal these controls?
@sonola777
Gotta say I like the way the Pre implements the controls here. Even just turning on your screen and not unlocking it they sit nicely at the bottom and even have a little icon of the album art if there is any. It's unobtrusive just like all the other notifications.
Widgets...multitasking. .sounds like the "innovators" are not the same innovators to the smart phone game they once was!
@Android4Eva
your name kills your credibility here... thanks for trolling though.
@Android4Eva You should have ended with "They blew it" instead. Then your credibility would skyrocket!
@Android4Eva
It doesn't matter who adds what feature to their phone the first, it matters who adds what feature to their phone the best. And, well, you can't deny that generally Apple implements most features wonderfully, even if they were a little behind.
@Android4Eva
Back under the bridge troll. Cydia has had all of this since 2g. Android didn't innovate a thing. Jailbroken iPhone destoys all competition.