What do we want in iOS 6? - I

Nothing is known so far iOS 6, the successor of the mobile team that currently Apple's mobile devices. There is no doubt that its development is well underway at Apple and the next major upgrade of IOS will certainly be presented soon.

Pending further information, it is not forbidden to dream: we list our wishes for iOS 6 and those of our readers asked on our Twitter, more reasonable wishes of the wildest ...

Center notifications

Major new iOS 5, the center brings together all those notifications received in your absence. Practice as it previously lacked, this function is not perfect so far, and iOS 6 can improve it without much trouble.

Add Widgets

In addition to notifications, Apple slipped in the center of notifications iOS two widgets that track two news. The user can know the current weather and forecasts for six days to its current location and can follow a few eye trends stock prices.

Daily, these widgets are useful. So much so that one would be others who may be more suited to their needs. View the latest tweets received, the remaining time of a timer or the time before the alarm sounds or even the position of a friend ... the possibilities are endless.

Hopefully Apple will add widgets by default in IOS 6 as a widget that would be associated with the Clock application. It would be best, however, that application developers can create their own modules. The user could then add them or not through the center of notifications settings, but these should be reviewed so as not to become totally unmanageable.

Both widgets iOS 5 are reserved for iPhone and iPod touch. The iPad is not entitled to any widget, and we really hope that Apple will add iOS 6. This will also develop applications and Scholarship Weather, which could also give something pleasant on the interface.

Add settings

Apple has greatly inspired the world of the jailbreak to build its center notifications. IOS 6, the builder should again draw a very good idea: the integration of tweaks over the notifications.

Found in the world of jail breaking several systems that complement the center of notifications for activate faster WiFi, 3G or change the screen brightness. This is a very convenient and fast way to quickly access commonly used settings and avoid moving to wherever in the dedicated application.

Another idea would be to create a specific area dedicated to these settings often. Deck, another system for iPhone unbridled, shows an area to the right of the screen with a shift to the left to view it.

  Multitasking

A centralized system cron for applications

In traditional computing, particularly on servers, often using cron, that is to say, commands that are executed at a specified time or at regular intervals. To give a concrete example, the items are displayed in our two mobile applications through cron that regularly analyze our sites.

On IOS devices, autonomy is a vital issue, so much so that Apple has significantly reduced the power of applications. Unlike computer software, applications iOS can not run in the background to monitor the arrival of new mail, for example. Apple has made concessions to this rule and a strict application of VoIP as Viber (Free) has a right to expect a call in the background.

Apple has relaxed the rules as you and the company must go further with iOS 6. The exception in place does not reflect the needs of particular applications: a mail client, an RSS reader or even a topical application as MacG Mobile can not verify that there are regular new content.

For our applications, we use instant notifications, but this system requires installation of a dedicated server and allows it to inform the user of a novelty, not to download it to the background. The mail client Apple knows how to do: you do not need to open the application to periodically download new messages. This is an exception and an email client developed by a third-party as Sparrow (2.39 €) can do the same. He would set up a server and store the identifiers of particular email accounts of all its users to view notifications.

iOS 6 might allow developers to seek regular if the new without putting too much at risk the battery of mobile devices. The system could centralize these issues through a system of tasks triggered at regular intervals. Just like the notifications, these tasks still hungry autonomy could be centralized and could be easily blocked if you need the best possible independence.

Facilitate exchange between applications

We can send a document from one application to another in IOS. An attachment of mail can easily be displayed or edited in a compatible application, like Word document that can be opened in three applications on the terminal.

This feature is interesting but it does not go far enough and Apple could improve it in iOS 6. You can open it in Pages (€ 7.99) a document stored in Dropbox (free), but the document in question is duplicated. The changes are not returned to Dropbox: not only it is not done automatically, but Pages can not even do it by hand. It will go through a trick necessarily painful, like sending the document by mail and retrieve it later in Dropbox, before replacing the old version.

IOS 6, we would like a document can be accessed from any compatible application, but mostly it is not duplicated. A text document could be opened in Pages or alternatively as an editor byword (2.39 €), but the changes are immediately reflected on the document source.

More generally, Apple should relax the links between applications with system services like Mac OS X offers for years. The developer of an application to iOS 6 indicate that it is capable of doing, the type of information or documents it can process or any other useful information.

The mobile system Apple would then propose the user a list of possible actions in different situations: a GPS position could be open in TomTom (€ 59.99), a piece of text could be used to create a task in any manager, etc.. iOS already offers a similar system with application-specific addresses, but it is much more rudimentary than that found on other systems, like Android.