It's worth noting, though, that several of his major issues with the iPhone will disappear with OS 4.0, such as undesired screen rotation and lack of app switching (though only for 3GS or newer phones). The mail app will also get improvements like conversations, though I don't know how good its implementation is compared to Android's. I wasn't particularly impressed by it.
Likewise. On the other hand, I find interesting that (I think) he compared the iPhone's mail application with Android's GMail application. I was under the impression that Android's own mail application (for everything other than GMail) was less than stellar, but that it would be a better comparison basis (general-purpose MUA)
> The mail app will also get improvements like conversations
I was under the impression that it would only provide threaded view (much like Mail.app's own), which is a far cry from GMail-type conversation views. A nice improvement for e.g. mailing lists, but not the same thing as GMail's convos.
You're also right that he compared iPhone Mail to Android GMail, which offers a better experience than standard Android mail. On the other hand, the iPhone Mail interface doesn't get any better if you use MobileMe. Using MobileMe would have given him the equivalent of Where's my Droid?, though.
Probably, the outbox might have a different structure than the inbox, and lack some kinds of IDs.
> On the other hand, the iPhone Mail interface doesn't get any better if you use MobileMe.
Absolutely (well I think you get push support, but that's about it), and I think this here is a core difference between Apple and Google: with Google, the Service (Gmail) is given a seat front and center (its own MUA) because it's what Google "sells", whereas with Apple the service (MobileMe) is really nothing more than a perk, it doesn't have any kind of primary status on the device, and it's not expected that it be the main service for users of the device.
It should be trivial to associate the messages the mail client sends to the messages it gets from a server. If nothing else, you have the full original message.
It would also be valid to point out that Android can't sync with iTunes - if you are an extensive iTunes user, music transferring on the iPhone blows away Android's.
Also, I'm curious what about the app switching is more poorly implemented than Android's version of the same?
For apps that start fast (notepad), this is no big deal. But for things like the browser or skype, it is. It takes 4 seconds for him to switch back to swype:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThkbDcZ_9-k#t=2m30s
This is also seen when switching to the browser near the end of Techcrunch's video: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/04/08/first-video-of-iphone...
The problem to be solved is how to support background processing of 3rd-party Apps without draining the battery.
Thus we are trying combinations of call-backs and App hibernation techniques.
Battery life is more important to me and I suspect most other smartphone users.
What is your evidence for OS4's multitasking being Poorly Implemented?
I recall reading an article linked from HK a few months back written by an Android OS developer who seemed to think it was a fairly solid crack at the problem.
What would you do differently?
And if they missed a use case (always possible) but still decide against general-purpose background threads (à la android/webos) they can always add a service or two for what they missed.
> What would you do differently?
I'm guessing he'd just go with desktop-type multitasking, not considering the resources exhaustion issues inherent to a mobile platform.
The fact that Apple doesn't support proper background services outside of the very basic 3 things they let an app do in the background, only support for bg notifications through a timer or their own push notification server.
I mean, I understand the power assumptions that Apple is making and claiming as benefits, but it just seems limited. I think of several applications I use that would not be implementable on iOS, certainly not without many major modifications including some weird use of the iOS push note-server.