WWDC 2022: Wishlist

[Cmaier]

Things I’d really like to see (with my user hat on)…

iPadOS

• Multi-user support
• Much improved multitasking support
  • Interface: arbitrarily sized floating windows
  • Functionality: much improved ability for apps to run in the background
• Virtual memory support
• Improved external monitor support
• app parity - weather, calculator, apple wallet, health, etc.
• preview.app
• notes: make it easier to intermingle pencil sketches and text. Just give me a sheet of paper and let me put text and ink wherever I want. Also, why is the document scanner in Notes? Make it a separate app and allow us to put the scanned document anywhere we want using “share“ functionality or the files.app.

iOS (and iPadOS)

• make iTunes home sharing work as well as it does on Apple TV, and not take 15 minutes every time just to populate the library list
• some much improved way to arrange icons on springboard
• interactive widgets
• always-on support (on new phones, at least - though then they wouldn’t announce at WWDC)
• much improved Siri. Somehow.
• notifications improvements. Clear all. Make the notification summaries more useful. Ability to report notification spam more easily.
• Separate app for password management.
• improve Home app. At the very least, add hierarchy to the rooms list (e.g. group by zones/floors). Maybe allow house floor plans, the ability to adjust the interface based on where you are in the house (based on proximity to Apple TVs, computers, or HomePods), etc.
  • Related: the ability to have automations with timers. “If this switch is turned on, wait x minutes and then do something.” The most obvious case is “if this light is turned on, turn it off in 15 minutes.” There are hacks using shortcuts (I wrote a complicated one) to get you to 10 minutes, but beyond 10 minutes it won’t work.
• Much smarter siri-answering behavior: right now, when I say “hey siri” with my phone in my hand and me looking right at it, there’s a 50% chance some other nearby device will answer. At least a couple ways to solve this, Apple, though there may be patents on at least one of them. Compare time stamps to figure out which device heard the voice first (and is thus closest), and only that one answers, coordinating over the network so that nobody else does. Or instead of time stamps, use volume (to the extent that can be calibrated). In any case, if my phone is unlocked and I am looking at it, why would I ever want a HomePod in another room to answer, Apple?
• Facetime: make this a real competitor to zoom. Make it much easier to schedule meetings with many people, and support features like live transcription, meeting recordings, multiple hosts, waiting rooms, breakout rooms, etc.
• Camera: make it easier to take raw, raw+jpg/HEIC, etc., and generally make things more powerful. Perhaps by scrolling from photo/portrait/etc. to new, user-programmable “camera modes” where you have set the settings the way you like (specific zoom levels, adjustments, filters, sharpening modes, etc.)

macOS

• Separate app for password management
• notifications improvements. In addition to what I said about iOS, they made the “dismiss“ click zone too small, made it so actions are hidden behind a click, etc. Yuck.
• Widgets on desktop, and not buried in the side bar.
• pop up boxes: the tall and narrow style is cute, and all, but it is harder to read long messages and not appropriate in all cases
• stop hiding things by default (e.g. the icon in the title bar that you can use to drag files to folders or the desktop). Put the focus back on basic user interface principles - there is no reason to hide things that don’t cause confusion or get in the way
• Preview.app: add OCR functionality (after all, it’s everywhere else). For bonus points, add redactions and page numbering/bates numbering, and I’d probably be able to cancel by acrobat subscription.
• App parity - weather, health, apple wallet, etc.

Of course I’d really like to see “glasses,“ new SDKs for common user interface elements so we don’t all have to keep reinventing the wheel, much improved swift UI, better xcode templates for swift UI projects that make it easier to jump in and get started with a MVVM setup (or whatever it is apple wants us to use), Apple TV improvments, etc.

 

[SuperMatt]

Separate app for password management

Separate from the ”Keychain access” app?

 

[Cmaier]

Separate from the ”Keychain access” app?

Good point. I should be more clear (for macos - of course no keychain access app exists on iOS). Keychain access is not a good app for the average user - it‘s far too complicated. So it would be fine if they provided a simpler interface within that app, but a separate app would be better.

Keychain access has to cater to both users and developers, and it’s not the best at either)

 

[SuperMatt]

Good point. I should be more clear (for macos - of course no keychain access app exists on iOS). Keychain access is not a good app for the average user - it‘s far too complicated. So it would be fine if they provided a simpler interface within that app, but a separate app would be better.

Keychain access has to cater to both users and developers, and it’s not the best at either)

So basically, take the “passwords” section of the Safari preferences and make it its own app?

 

[Cmaier]

So basically, take the “passwords” section of the Safari preferences and make it its own app?

Well, I suppose, but make it nicer. Wouldn’t be an exact match, since the passwords should cover apps, too, not just websites. Something like 1Password, for example. They have most of the functionality there, they just make you dig for it. And my wife and my kid can’t find it.

 

[jbailey]

I don’t mind passwords as a system preferences panel. It just needs to be more automatic in apps like it is in Safari.

 

[Cmaier]

I don’t mind passwords as a system preferences panel. It just needs to be more automatic in apps like it is in Safari.

Well, on the mac, it gets confusing. You have keychain access. You have safari preferences. Where is each particular password stored? What about credit card autofill?

Why should any of this be different on iOS vs macOS, is another question.

 

[Yoused]

Facetime:

What would you think of a Facetime data channel? I just took-this awesome picture, I want you to see it in it full glory, without having to go through mail. Or, I found the web page you were looking for, here is the link. Seems like a no-brainer.

 

[SuperMatt]

Well, on the mac, it gets confusing. You have keychain access. You have safari preferences. Where is each particular password stored? What about credit card autofill?

Why should any of this be different on iOS vs macOS, is another question.

Passwords are in the settings area of iOS, which means the most direct translation to MacOS would be to put them as an icon in System Preferences. If that system pref covered safari AND all other apps, I’d be fine with it being there instead of its own app.

As for keychain access, I agree it‘s a more advanced tool and unnecessarily complicated for basic password management.

 

[Cmaier]

Passwords are in the settings area of iOS, which means the most direct translation to MacOS would be to put them as an icon in System Preferences. If that system pref covered safari AND all other apps, I’d be fine with it being there instead of its own app.

As for keychain access, I agree it‘s a more advanced tool and unnecessarily complicated for basic password management.

Agreed that’s how it‘s done in iOS. But I’m not sure it should be. Given all the stuff you may want to put in a “vault,” a stand-alone application makes more sense to me. 1Password is a great example of the difference between what can be done in settings vs stand alone.

 

[Nycturne]

iPadOS

• Much improved multitasking support
  • Interface: arbitrarily sized floating windows
  • Functionality: much improved ability for apps to run in the background
• Virtual memory support
• Improved external monitor support

I wouldn’t be surprised that if iPadOS picks up a more Mac-like windowing mode, that external monitor improvements are part of the deal. The underlying issue (as I see it) is fundamentally similar between the two.

I’d be surprised if we get a page file anytime soon though, but I could be wrong. At least I assume that’s what you mean by virtual memory in this case.

iOS (and iPadOS)

• make iTunes home sharing work as well as it does on Apple TV, and not take 15 minutes every time just to populate the library list

Fingers crossed on stuff like this, but Apple has seemed so focused on streaming that I’ve seen family members who don’t do the streaming thing start getting hit by bugs in the Music app all up. On Mac, apparently importing music got busted in some scenarios. Whoops.

I’ve honestly moved on (and have been writing apps to help me do that).

• stop hiding things by default (e.g. the icon in the title bar that you can use to drag files to folders or the desktop). Put the focus back on basic user interface principles - there is no reason to hide things that don’t cause confusion or get in the way

Yes, please.

 

[JayMysteri0]

I've pretty much rolled with whatever is on the IPad that year in the OS. Not one of those who want the iPad to be some one panel version of a mac, otherwise it's no good.

The biggest desire is for proper monitor support with the iPad. This nonsensical mirroring "don't work for me brotha".

Second a better back up system.

I do miss the previous "home screen" layout where I could have a set of desires widgets on the side all the time.

 

[Cmaier]

I wouldn’t be surprised that if iPadOS picks up a more Mac-like windowing mode, that external monitor improvements are part of the deal. The underlying issue (as I see it) is fundamentally similar between the two.

I’d be surprised if we get a page file anytime soon though, but I could be wrong. At least I assume that’s what you mean by virtual memory in this case.



Fingers crossed on stuff like this, but Apple has seemed so focused on streaming that I’ve seen family members who don’t do the streaming thing start getting hit by bugs in the Music app all up. On Mac, apparently importing music got busted in some scenarios. Whoops.

I’ve honestly moved on (and have been writing apps to help me do that).



Yes, please.

Yeah, i meant the page file. iOS is a little weird in separating the concept of virtualized addresses from paging, so in my mind “virtual memory” is shorthand for swapping. (Or maybe it’s not weird nowadays. I dunno. When we were designing TLBs and dealing with virtualized addresses, the point was always to enable swapping, though).

 

[Nycturne]

Yeah, i meant the page file. iOS is a little weird in separating the concept of virtualized addresses from paging, so in my mind “virtual memory” is shorthand for swapping. (Or maybe it’s not weird nowadays. I dunno. When we were designing TLBs and dealing with virtualized addresses, the point was always to enable swapping, though).

At the end of the day the only real difference is that iOS doesn’t enable the swap file (or sets its size to zero, I can’t remember which off the top of my head right now). It uses all the other tricks paging offers though. In the broader sense, iOS is heavily dependent on VM addressing to keep its memory footprint down, and get the performance levels they do compared to devices with more RAM.

At least we aren’t on 32-bit anymore. Chasing down virtual memory address exhaustion issues on iPad 2s weren’t fun. “Hey, this app has a 20MB heap, why is malloc failing?”

 

[Herdfan]

iOS (and iPadOS)

• some much improved way to arrange icons on springboard

Not sure what the springboard is, but would love to see them handle apps like Android. If I want 1 app per row, with each app in a different position lining up diagonally, then I should be able to do that.

 

[Roller]

One of my biggest wishes for iOS is a way to disable the sound whenever the iPhone begins charging. I'd also like to be able to control more events in Shortcuts. A useful addition to Contacts would be a field that's updates automatically shows the last time I was in touch with a person and how it was done (phone, text, etc.)

For macOS, I'd settle for a release with no new features, but just a thorough clean up of the interface (like @Cmaier's point about hidden UI elements) and elimination of bugs that have been around for years. I wouldn't use an Apple password manager, though I'm surprised they haven't bought 1Password or another similar product.

IMO, the area most in need of revamping is Apple services. Apple ID, Family Sharing, Apple Music, iTunes Match, downloadable iTunes purchases, iCloud — it's all a mess. I especially hate that you can't change the email address that is your Apple ID. It's not enough to be able to specify a new email address at which you can be reached. And Apple should find a way to let people definitively merge Apple IDs.

 

[DT]

Things I’d really like to see (with my user hat on)…

iPadOS

• Multi-user support

I'll trade everything just for this

 

[Yoused]

Not sure what the springboard is, but would love to see them handle apps like Android. If I want 1 app per row, with each app in a different position lining up diagonally, then I should be able to do that.

Just one contemporary iPhone has more computing power than was available to the entire world 35 years ago. My first Mac back then allowed me to arrange icons any way l wanted. I could cluster them in a tightly interleaved heap, even overlapping, or drag an icon way over to the far reaches of a window, so that you would have to scroll to oblivion to find it. The ability to lay out stuff to be pleasing and efficient for me is greatly missed.

I mean, yeah, we could do some deeply stupid shit, from which the rigidity of iOS protects us. Still, more flexibility would be great.

 

[Citysnaps]

AR Glasses, with an accompanying suite of apps developed in collaboration with Stanford's AR/VR laboratory.

 

[Andropov]

Native 16 bit base types (+the related SIMD types) for Swift/Objective-C headers please. Just so I can share structs with Metal.