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Comment by lukifer | Hacker News Reader

He missed one, IMHO: apps which can live on the springboard or the lock-screen. I'm not anticipating that Apple will do these, mind you, as it complicates their simple UI scheme, but it's a clear advantage for Android power-users.

I'm hoping that they plan on making a big push on cross-app communication. I also hope that they're investing in their platform from an e-commerce perspective: paid upgrades, trials, video previews, better analytics, better coupon/promotional codes, etc.

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I'm still surprised that URL Schemes[1] aren't used widely. Facebook uses them to implement Facebook Connect, and sites exist[2] that try to aggregate various apps' schemes, but it'd be nice to live in a world where they were well-known and reliable enough to use instead of having to integrate individual third-party SDKs.

1: http://mobiledevelopertips.com/cocoa/launching-your-own-appl... 2: http://handleopenurl.com/scheme

They'll probably add this. Windows 8 supports lock screen notifications as well. It's really great to see your next meeting and weather right on the lock screen.

A million times no.

The Android homescreen is incomprehensible to me as an iOS user and the main reason is the clutter and weird alignment.

It's opt-in, is it not? Phones are very personal devices, and if you don't want yours to be that way, then don't use the feature.

Honestly, the biggest reason I want it is for things that apps aren't allowed to access anyway: a global control on the Springboard to disable WiFi, or change screen brightness, for instance.

Apple has never been a company that believes in opt-in. Rightly or wrongly (and, to be fair, usually rightly), it's a company that believes you having the choice to do something it thinks is dumb is a bad idea.

And the fans lap it up. "A million times no."

Counter-point: the iPad multi-tasking gestures, which are disabled by default.

I haven't thought of the specifics, but I think I'd prefer accessing that from the multitasking view or the pull-down notifications. That way I'm not as interrupted from using my app.

The Android homescreen can look however you want including almost exactly like an iphone.

Which Android home screen? Unless you're on a pure Android device, it's the home screen of your manufacturer. Or whichever you downloaded from Google Play.

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