Posted on May 12, 2011 at 11:52 AM in iPad, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments
Noted on December 17, 2011 that scrolling all better now. A scrollbar also appears while scrolling. Thanks, Netflix!
Fire up the Netflix app on your iPhone or iPad and go to the home view. Now, try flicking that list up to scroll to the bottom. Feel that? It's like flicking through mud. It's like having an Android simulator on my iPhone.
Now, I know the Netflix UI here is mostly a web app. Maybe there isn't a good way to solve this problem for a web app like this and make it behave like a native app would. But as it is, it's downright painful to use. Another problem that comes from this design decision is that there is no scrollbar to indicate where you are within a list.
These are glaring usability flaws affecting typical use of the app. If I were Netflix, I'd build a native iOS app instead. Don't cut corners on building a flagship app that brings millions of subscribers and potential customers to your business.
Also, please bring back the DVD queue management features.
(Last observed in version 1.2.1.)
Posted on May 08, 2011 at 07:35 PM in Fixed!, iPad, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments
FIXED: File upload support (for images, video only) is available as of iOS 6. It lets you either select an existing photo or video, or you can choose to take one right then. Hopefully, iOS will eventually support selection of other file types, but this is good enough to be considered fixed in my book.
Mobile Safari has never allowed you to select a file to upload to a web site. That's broken. Here's how it looks today (under iOS 4.3.1, on iPad):
The button is grayed out, suggesting that the function could work if only you knew some secret incantation.
I know iPhone and iPad don't have a traditional file system where the user can browse for documents that are stored on it. But at the very least, such a button should let you select from your photo/video library.
But eventually, it should be possible to select from any document that a user creates on their iPhone or iPad. A file upload field should specify a list of document types that it can accept. HTML5 includes an "accept" attribute for this very purpose (although I'm not sure how well it is supported yet). For Mobile Safari, this information could help identify the files that are appropriate to pick from. iOS applications can register the document types that they produce. Safari could then allow the user to select the application, then the file within that application that they want to upload.
Another way to do this is to use a UI similar to the Spotlight search interface on iOS. Basically, you would simply search for the document you want. Any resulting matches would be displayed and grouped by application.
I'm hopeful that we're near to some solution to this particular problem. In previous versions of iOS, this field has been completely hidden. So I'm at least hopeful that since it's now visible but disabled we're inching toward a functional file upload feature.
Posted on Mar 29, 2011 at 12:11 PM in Fixed!, iPad, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments
Update: Fixed as of iOS 5 — this now says "Info".
Ran into this little bug last night as I was updating some of my iPhone apps:
This heading is shown when you are viewing the description of a specific application's updates. I don't know why it says "iTunes Store" instead of "App Store". You don't have a view like this on iPad — all change descriptions are shown on the Updates tab, which simply has the heading "Updates".
Yes, it's a small, small thing. But now that I've seen it, it bugs me every time I update an app.
Observed on iOS 4.3.
Posted on Mar 25, 2011 at 09:33 AM in Fixed!, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments
Update: Fixed in iOS 7.
If you use Mobile Safari a lot on your iPhone or iPod touch, you may have experienced this one.
After closing all of your open sites, Mobile Safari leaves you with a blank, "Untitled" view. Now, click the home button to leave Safari. Now, relaunch Safari. Instead of just displaying that same "Untitled" view, it loads up your list of bookmarks. Now, that might be helpful to someone, but for me, I always end up tapping the "Done" button to dismiss my bookmarks, because inevitably, I already have a site or web search in mind, and it isn't in my bookmarks. Rather than tap the "Done" button every time this happens, I'd rather tap the bookmarks button on the off-chance that I do want to use my bookmarks.
Perhaps another way to fix this is to have the bookmarks display, but show not completely hide the address and search field. That might be a little too cluttered, though. Suppressing the bookmarks list is probably the better approach. It's notable that this is not the behavior for Safari for iPad, which behaves and looks more like Safari on a Mac.
If you too are annoyed by this, I do have one workaround to share for this. You can create a home screen icon for the address "about:blank" (just type that into the address bar, then use the middle toolbar button at the bottom of the screen to create a home screen icon for it). This icon will cause Safari to always launch and display a blank page.
Posted on Feb 18, 2011 at 03:08 PM in Fixed!, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments
This isn't a software bug, but a process bug. There's an app in the App Store called "All Phone Tracker Real Spy HD". This app claims to "Locate any phone in the world, on any network, anywhere in the world on iPhone/iPod/iPad". Sounds great, but it's completely fraudulent to claim such a thing. Yet, somehow, this app has managed to evade the iOS App Store police.
Worse, right this moment, it sits at pretty high on the App Store's Top-Grossing chart (minutes before this screen shot was taken, it was #12):
Perhaps it is top-grossing partly due to selling a few copies at a new price of $449.99 (it had been priced at $0.99).
And somehow, this app has managed to get 20 5-star ratings since releasing version 1.0.1, an update summarized as "BUG FIXED."
I'm afraid that simply being listed on that chart is drawing extra attention and maybe there are just that many iPad users who are willing to spend $449 at the drop of a hat?
This app is a total scam (the 60 1-star ratings and negative reviews of the 1.0 release make that plain). It is in the "Entertainment" category, but claims it works ("WE GUARANTEE 100%"). Please Apple, remove this thing from the App Store and ban "Bendary" as an iOS developer.
Also, Apple shouldn't allow App Store submissions that specify an "App Support" URL of "www.Apple.com".
UPDATE: It's been less than 30 minutes since publishing this post and the app's price is back down to $0.99. The developer must really be having fun gaming the system. And now there are 50 5-star ratings.
Posted on Feb 14, 2011 at 11:13 PM in iPad, iPhone | Permalink | 0 Comments