iOS 7 looks familiar
chris.millr.org
chris.millr.org
I haven't used iOS 7 yet, so I can't say this with certainty, but based on my experience with Apple, I feel pretty confident to say that they may have integrated similar graphic motifs you're familiar with from other platforms, but the end experience will be leaps and bounds better than others who've tried to implement the same elements. There is real thought put into how a person will best use this product, not just how clean and pretty the UI can look.
I know it's Beta, but it honestly looks and feels like Android with a bit of lag here and there, some stuttering animations, confusing unlock and answer call screens, too thin fonts for my taste, icons and iconography aren't that great either (opinion), completely unnecessary eye-candy with animated parallax background which doesn't even work very well, etc.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that bad, but 'leaps and bounds better', I say no. I'm sure they'll redefine the design for final product though.
It's utterly fantastic. What is surprising is how much all the apps have changed - all the functionality was seemingly ripped apart and put back together.
It's definitely rough. This is a beta, not a Google "let's call it beta even though it's actually finished". A real beta. With plenty of bugs; occasional crashes. Lots of graphics glitches esp. when using 3rd party apps. Seems to use tons of battery.
If you don't understand what a beta is, better don't install this. Beta means buggy.
But as far as the UI is concerned, it's fantastic. It's beyond that - it feels as if a great weight has been lifted from iOS and I can feel the blood, sweat, and tears, as well as enthusiasm and sheer euphoria, of the people putting this together in an insane timeframe. 7 months!
Sure there's inconsistencies in the design - those will get fixed over time, probably before the GM; there's so many glitches - I expect some will remain past GM. There's some weirdness that'll only get fixed next year.
But all in all, this is one fantastic update. This is Apple at its best. If you can't see that, I feel sorry for you, but I also feel confident that you will see it in hindsight, next year, when everyone will talk about how Apple re-invented itself yet again with iOS7.
Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features, expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months. Parallax background will be first.
Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features,
expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months.
Parallax background will be first.
One example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=opotech.image3...
But the cynic in me will not be surprised to read more stories about how Apple revolutionized and invented multitasking, flat UIs, quick settings and file sharing on mobile.
But that's not the point. The point is Samsung will copy it. Just wait, I am pretty confident here ;) I mean they could just buy that existing app but something tells me that they won't... past behavior and all that...
Frankly I don't think Apple is taking any design clues from anywhere. They don't care what Android is doing - they do their own thing. And with iOS 7, they have revolutionized iOS. That's a fact.
You should apologize, though clearly you're being sarcastic. If you're going to claim that Samsung is copying what Apple has done, you'd better know what Samsung, stock Android, and probably at least a couple other flavors, have already done.
The point is Samsung will copy it.
Copy what, exactly? The look and feel of iOS 7 (at least from a few initial screenshots; I haven't tried it myself yet) looks how Android has looked for over a year and a half now.
Certainly the UX of iOS 7 is (presumably) still distinct from Android, but that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about.
They don't care what Android is doing - they do their own thing.
You clearly -- by your own admission -- aren't qualified to make this statement. Multitasking on iOS is a watered-down, shittier version of multitasking on Android. Notifications on iOS were basically ripped from Android. You may claim that Apple never saw what Android was doing and happened to come up with similar solutions, but that seems a bit naive to me.
That's a fact.
No, it's your opinion.
It's OK to be a fanboy, but at least try to understand what's going on.
Also, they might have revolutionized iOS but they didn't revolutionized mobile OS in general.
But seriously, the amount of snark (and hypocrisy imo) in your comment was too much to take.
Uhh... the whole idea with the present generation of smartphone (software) comes from the iPhone. That (and applying it to create pads people were willing to pay for) was new.
Everyone should be able to agree on that, at least.
Oh come on. It's an evolution of what was there before; Palm OS was already very clearly moving in that direction. There is very little that is conceptually new in the first iPhone.
The execution was superb, and everyone certainly got shaken awake by the fact that that level of quality was even possible... but the core ideas were already there.
In 7 months (after Ive got in charge)? Let's see any team in the world do better in the same time. Not to mention that if they had gone further, people would also complaint ("oh, this is not the iOS we knew and love at all anymore").
People talk about Windows Phone similarities. It took Microsoft 4-5 years AFTER the iPhone was introduced to copy all the basics (that all modern smartphones copied anyway) and get something out there compelling enough to consider buying (and it's not like many people did buy it, anyway).
In contrast, this redesign took Apple only 7-8 months. Along with new features and lots of behaviour changes in the UI.
This is essentially version 1 of the new UI. It will be polished further in iOS 8.
>that there attempt to copy other trends is different than what apple has done before.
Didn't Apple adopt the Delicious Library skeuomorphic real-life look around 6 years back? Including snatching the Delicious Library graphic designer from the company he worked in?
How do we know this is about "copying other trends" instead of what Ive would have liked to do all along, if he was in charge for the UI?
Well, as Jobs said, the iPhone was ahead of the industry by about 5 years. Those 5 years have passed.
Did anyone think the competitors would never catch up? It's not like Windows for the desktop is like XP anymore. It has also seen much more refinement and maturity, and could be compared far more favourably to OS X.
That said, Apple / iOS retains the benefits of the 5 year head-start: iOS is more coherent and mature, the whole ecosystem is bigger (from apps, to accounts on file, to third party peripherals, etc), etc etc.
This is just speculation, I haven't run the iOS 7 developer preview yet.
This sort of lag has been a common artifact throughout the iPhone's history. Crashing apps, lag, and outright unresponsiveness are daily occurrences on my iPhone 5. It's honestly gotten to the point where, if I didn't have an astronomical amount of money tied up in their ecosystem, I'd switch to a Nexus 4 tonight.
I'll bet the entire os has debug symbols and other things turned on that never reach production.
That said, the jerky animations are annoying in use. But its mostly spit and polish things nothing overly broken. I did set this up on a 4s with a new install and not restore (i'm not putting a beta on my main phone).
Having said that I do use a Blackberry (but not really out of choice,) and it also drives me nuts!
I'd have thought that the number one priority for most of these UI developers would be to make something that was intuitive and very usable. Getting the phone part of the phone nice would be a good start.
Adding contacts, viewing call logs, checking balance, turning on and off answerphones etc.
Being able to read the display in sunlight. Being able to use it as a clock, and it be readable. Not having the thing beep at 4am to tell you that it's running out of battery etc.
There's loads of directions these UIs could go in. And they could be completely different to one another, but share some underlying principles. Like intuitive computer game interfaces, that you pretty much pick up immediately.
What I have been most impressed with is watching babies/toddlers play with iPhones. Which suggests the interface is pretty good. Though there have been cases of kids racking up huge account costs. But how about an easy way to child lock the damn thing, or make this harder.
And how about a phone that doesn't crack when you drop it. I watched someone destroy his Galaxy S the other morning, and he wasn't that pleased about it.
Hope I've suitably ranted for you.
I am, however, not a fan of some of the graphical choices they made. A few subtleties like a thin 1px inset color on the NavBar text would do wonders for UI and contrast - but I'm not hired by them to make those decisions.
I understand hardware is required for the features to work. But to suggest zero fragmentation is reality distortion.
THe iPhone 5 and the 4" display was a step backwards in that regards, but still, you can safely target iOS 5+ and reach about 95% of active, current app-buying iOS users, or target iOS 6+ and reach 90%. But you can't do that with Android (yet) - targeting 4.0+ would lose you a lot of sales.
This will be fixed in the Android market in the next couple of years though, but until then, iOS users/developers/lovers can rightfully boast about "less fragmentation".
I've been using it on my phone and I love it. I always had to jailbreak my phone, but I don't feel like I need to with iOS 7. Though I wish they'd add Quick Reply and then I'd be set.
But, so far, for me, it's been very fluid and smooth.
Drains battery like crazy though. I went to bed 100%, woke up at 3% six hours later.
I am actually thinking it's kind of shocking to do something as radical as that. Is my mom going to get it? She's barely gotten used to the old iOS.
And for the jailbreak sentiment: iOS 7 finally has the ability to block calls and messages. So now I don't need a JB anymore.
Let's face it; look to the Samsung vs. Apple case to see how it is the laymen making billion dollar calls. Not designers. It's not designers that Apple has a majority rule over.
The damages were reduced to $600 million after the judge ruled that the jury's used an "impermissible legal theory" to award damages, and ordered a new trial.[1] The jury foreman had a technical background and lied during voir dire by failing to mention that he had history of suing others for patent abuse.[2] He was the one he told the other jurors to ignore prior art and assume that Samsung had violated the patents.[3] So it isn't fair to say that laymen decided the damages.
After the trial, a patent('380, bounce-back) that Apple relied heavily upon during the trial to prove that Samsung was "infringing on their innovative designs" was invalidated by the USPTO.[3] This means that if the jury had been competent and searched for prior art (which the foreman with technical experience told them to ignore), or if Samsung had been allowed to present evidence demonstrating prior art, it is probable that no damages would have been awarded at all.
[1]: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130301161659602
[2]: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20121031200136965
[3]:http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130402121308772
Parent doesn't say that at all, or make any comparisons.
The most important features of the new UI are the behavioural and conceptual changes.
Not the icons or the hues. Those can and will be fine-tuned easily in upcoming versions, just as OS X went from lickable glowing candy buttons, pronounced stripes and metal windows to today's look.
There should be no better argument that software patents (in most instances) are idiotic.
No one is arguing that this sort of copying is wrong. Instead, they are merely identifying the inherent hypocrisy and irony in Apple's actions over the past year.
I agree that patents are imbecilic and Apple v. Samsung was one of the lowest points in the industry's history, but it just seems absurd that Apple can lament how other's have "copied" them, only to turn around months later and "copy" wholesale many features from other platforms.
Can Apple take elements from Windows Phone and Android? Yes, that is reasonable and benefits the industry as a whole. Do I, as a current Apple user, benefit from this process? Yes; good design trends make for a better experience. Does it seem dickish? Yes.
They're living up to the motto of great artists stealing. It's done in every industry, and it's done by great designers. It's a myth that great designers don't 'steal' constantly, of course they do. Ditto great musicians, and any other artists.
While Apple winning 600M on the same argument?
In the past I managed a few remote Windows Servers, and to keep from confusing them, I gave each a unique desktop background colour (a pleasant pastel shade) for no reason other than to keep them visually distinct.
First - Samsung was found not to infringe on design patent D'889, which is commonly criticized as the "rounded rectangles" patent. Most of the patents in the case covered other ideas ('381 patent - "rubber band" scrolling, 'D '305 patent - home screen design, '163 patent - double tap to zoom onto a specific block). The "rounded rectangles" issue had little bearing on the verdict.
Second - Read patent D'889 (Please note that it isn't a regular patent, rather, it's a design patent). The patent specifically (and only) covers a touch-screen handheld tablet shaped like a rounded rectangle, with a thin bezel, edge-to-edge glass, and minimal extras, a charging port at the bottom and no stylus. It's hardly as simple as a patent on "rounded corners" - it's a patent on very specific design features, and if a single one was changed, the patent wouldn't apply (and it didn't!).
It's like being upset that the 2014 cars have the same steering wheel and pedal layout, or that a manufacturer "stole" the idea of using a USB port in a car.
My personal issue with this design is that it signals the coming of a boring lull in mobile design. Its the death of distinction. Android, Windows, and iPhone now largely look the same (to me). In fact I think the Windows stuff actually looks better. Its upsetting because there are surely more than just two possible designs ("flat" or "skeuomorphic"). Did iOS need a design overhaul? I don't know (I'm personally of the belief that it was missing key features and services more than a new skin). But if for the sake of argument it did, then this just frankly feels lazy on Apple's part. It was the most obvious direction to go in, and its been done. Aqua and iOS 1 were different, fresh, and represented an original vision for UIs. Even if you didn't like them it provided something to contrast to. This just provides something to compare to :/
Surely, that's not the case. And as I've been messing around with IOS7, I'm noticing a lot more than just a graphical redesign. This is also a usability redesign. Little things like including a contact button at the top of the Messages app itself rather than at the top of the message view. IOS7 is full of these little tweaks that have been standard fare in the jailbreak communities.
To boil it down to "a boring lull in mobile design" is to really ignore the quality of the IOS7 redesign.
I think the community in general has felt that iOS 7 was Apple's chance to respond to the criticisms (fair or not) that iOS was stagnating, and I feel that that is what Apple feels it has accomplished. I feel they have done so in the shallowest way possible. To me they presented a corporate image of playing catchup: catching up to Windows and Android visual design cues, catching up to jailbreak experiments that have been happening for years, catching up to interactions we saw in Web OS ages ago. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done this, I'm saying that in my eyes these are bug fixes and there exists an Apple that pushed further. There are a million things I wish Safari did every single day that I use it, and quite frankly "3d tab organization" is not one of them.
This is my point, I think people are not seeing the actual usability improvements that could have taken place. You think design is more than just visual stuff, its usability. I agree, I just think its more than making things take 3 taps less. Remember the original iPhone and iOS, it was a completely different way of interacting with your phone that allowed you to do NEW things you couldn't before. Google is now exploring real new territory with their excellent services like Google Now. If Apple wants to keep fighting services and infrastructure with "design", that's fine, but its going to require more than endlessly spinning its wheels trying to figure out the "best" weather interface possible and micro-optimizing insignificant interactions with the OS.
I see the jailbreak tweaks as the alpha version of features that will one day make it into the main source. People who are not afraid to test things out play with and refine the tweaks until they're ready to be official.
I love the fact that at least eight tweaks have been integrated into the main source!
Sometimes you need to step back in order to advance further. The Pentium 4 is a case in point.
I'm sure there will be ongoing refinement to the visual language, and will feel finished by the time iOS 7 ships. Then iOS 8 and 9 will be able to progressively layer new ideas into the new literal and metaphorical white space.
I didn't listen to Apples presentation, so I don't know if they tooted their own horn on this new design scheme, but if I was a designer who had been working on interfaces similar to what Apple is switching to, I would still be pretty pissed off right now. Because, once people switch to iOS 7, the general public will perceive your design as "Apple like" or "Apple inspired."
I guess that's the difference. If Apple implemented something I created in their products, I'd be super happy that my idea is doing well and will benefit more people. I care about the ideas themselves, not about receiving credit.
I dont get where people got this obsession from either.
I agree the whole back and forth is a bit silly from both parties.
Edit: missed a word
Frequently seen re: MBA and iMac knock offs as well. It's hilarious and worth pointing out in both directions although I think the popular notion that one cancels out the other is false equivalence.
Only this is not a copy. It's just a different flat design, just as Windows also uses a flat design.
It doesn't copy the look of Windows Phone -- it just uses a similar flat visual language.
We cannot say the same for, e.g., MBA look-alikes that you cannot tell apart from 5 feet away.
It's like the difference between two manga comics by different artists (of course there are similarities: they used the same visual language) and a cheap rip-off of an animated series (e.g Power Rangers vs Powerful Rangers).
Disclaimer: I'm not saying I personally agree or even think this viewpoint is entirely true; just offering some insight.
http://www.androidcentral.com/apple-s-ios-7-copied-everyone-...
Or did you mean when they took out a design patent for a touch screen device of iPad like dimensions with very specific rounding on their corners that is reflected in the rest of their product line as well.
I'm pretty sure, that particular patent of Apple's is EXACTLY what design patents were invented for.
Disclaimer: I don't believe in the patent system at all, but the system exists, so the players play it.
The thing that stood out the most for me was slide-up to unlock, that's been a Windows thing since they began their redesign with WP (from WinMobile).
Still I think that somehow Apple did a better job with the flat UI, I'm currently using Windows 8 (by choice) and my phone is a Lumia 521 (again by choice), and I always feel that something is off with the WP/W8 buttons, they just seem too flat or too... just off -- I can't explain it but I get this weird feeling everytime I see them, the buttons and controls just don't feel polished enough.
When I first installed W8 on my laptop, I thought it might be because it's a beta product and not finished, then when they shipped those icons, I thought it was just my screen (my laptop is a four year old dell inspiron that shipped with vista, incidentally it runs W8 better than it did W7, and better than vista before that), but now that I have a new smartphone the niggling is justified -- there is something odd about the buttons, especially when compared to the new iOS7.
See it in action:
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2013/06/slide-to-unlock-appadvice...
I get the desire to eliminate depth, but that little slide gutter and right-pointing arrow tell you exactly what you need to know. The iOS7 UI instructs you to do the wrong thing!
The presence of the up arrow is actively misleading, from a UX perspective. It's like having a slide toggle that you have to double tap to activate!
Few people read user manuals, which Apple knows. It doesn’t even ship a physical user manual with their iOS products (just a thin quickstart guide). There are in-depth user manuals available for download[1], but the percentage of iPhone owners who read it must be negligible. I often meet iOS users who don’t know that double-tap on the Home button brings up the app switcher.
As the OSes on these mobile devices become more capable over time (and the interaction model grows more complicated), users may need to start treating them as computers that require learning beyond trial and error.
Especially because there is no reason to drop the visual slider, or to make all the visual hints on the screen super low-contrast (on the new starry sky background at least).
Unfortunately, in my experience so far, this isn't the only case of misleading and unintuitive design in iOS 7.
And why on earth do people assume Apple hasn't thoroughly tested this? They may get many things wrong, but it's insane to thing they overlooked that part.
Any thoughts as to why they did that differently? Am I just totally off base?
No, you're not using the right lingo. If it's Apple, they do not throw away; they "evolve". They also do not copy, they "refine the experience".
edit: I guess it seems obvious now...
I think what has everyone generally up in arms is that, with Apple, they never look like they're copying anyone. Until they do.
And what frustrates others is when users try to explain away how it's not really a copy, it's something different because it's done oh-so-much better.
I don't really care all that much, but one thing is certain -- the new iOS7 design looks more like designs of competitors than it does the previous iOS line.
The windows phone likely took some of its design concepts from previous iOS and Android designs, and now iOS7 is 'evolving' the same way.
This (evolution) can be described as a recursive process: keep the things that work (natural selection), try something new (mutate) with the things that didn't work.
I would also like to note that I find iOS7's weather app design closely resembles Yahoo's weather app, more so than the Windows' phone.
No sense in redoing something that is already well done.
“Yahoo! Weather stands apart with its simple, uncluttered, and beautiful visual design. This highly-rated app displays weather details with stunning photography based on time of day, location, and current conditions. Yahoo! Weather has great layout and typography, compelling animations, fast image processing, and clear iconography. This attention to detail means that in a saturated category, an app can rise above the crowd.”
https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/events/awards/#yahoo-weathe...
With a bunch of WebOS thrown in, e.g. the task switcher.
There are further reasons it's not an ad hominem - I recommend you read The Ad Hominem Fallacy Fallacy [1]. I don't mean to criticize - I made the same mistake until recently, so I offer the article in a spirit of goodwill, not superiority.
A: "All rodents are mammals, but a weasel isn't a rodent, so it can't be a mammal." B: "Well, you've never had a good grasp of logic, so this can't be true."
Maybe I'm not seeing the difference though (not a native speaker, just curious).
The example you show instead points to an attribute of the speaker to imply that what he says is categorically untrue, regardless of whether it's relevant or not. In this case, an attribute of the speaker is used to refute a specific argument of his (that he is such a demigod of UX design that he can design better than any of the top teams in the industry), while still allowing him to participate in the debate.
No argument can be made connecting someone's poor grasp of logic to the taxonomy of weasels, but an argument can be made connecting someone's poor grasp of grammar to that same person's ability to design.
(I agree with your gist though about ridiculing the idea it would be trivial to do a better job at design)
It seems a fair assumption that mattermill is a native English speaker when he's on a primarily English-speaking site, committing a primarily English-native grammar error, and echoing some very American hubris (not saying Americans are all terrible - I am one - but we do have a certain characteristic braggadocio).
You can make something pretty without the ability to clearly communicate and a strong attention to detail, but you can't effectively design for information and interaction purposes without those skills. Anecdotally, most of the excellent hackers and designers I've met have had excellent communication skills, and those native to English usually speak it impeccably.
Also, the kind of absolute mastery of UX design he claims (the ability to out-design all the best in the industry on his own, based only on screenshots) would require all but perfection of all the attributes of a good designer. Such a trivial mistake would not pass the muster of such a demigod of design.
Regardless of whether I'm right in that argument, it's still not an ad hominem, because there is an argument present, not a simple dismissal of everything he has to say because he made a grammar error. It's a challenge extrapolated from his grammar to his implicitly claimed mastery of UX design, not a dismissal of his ability to participate in the debate.
Edit:
Text: http://chris.millr.org.nyud.net:8080/ios-7-looks-familiar-ca...
Images:
http://chris.millr.org.nyud.net:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013...
http://chris.millr.org.nyud.net:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013...
http://chris.millr.org.nyud.net:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013...
http://chris.millr.org.nyud.net:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013...
"Not sure what's worse about WWDC keynote days: Apple fans cheering for new features or Android/WP fans saying "we have that already"."
It's boring and repetitive and expected. Yeah, they mimic. Big deal. Get over it.
This Steve Jobs quote comes to mind: "Design is not how something looks; design is how it works"
Everything about iOS, and all the included apps, has been taken apart, and put back together. Everything has been questioned.
This is amazing because I think it's the basis that will take Apple and/or iOS to a whole new level. iOS 7 is not an evolution - it's a revolution.
What the hell does that even mean?
We can wax poetic about design and UX or we can accept that what they did was change the way something looks and feels, which is ultimately not the same thing as changing what something does.
I'm not underplaying the importance of design, but I think calling something that ultimately does not affect the capabilities of the device a 'revolution' is a bit of an exaggeration.
iOS 7 doesn't change the looks. It changes how everything works. All the built in apps have been changed completely. The entire OS layer has been changed completely.
A revolution is not poetic - it means a significant change where all the old paradigms are thrown out and replaced with new ones.
I was up until 1:00 am yesterday night finding more and more features and changes, and I am still finding more changes. I know it's not technically but it certainly feels like iOS has been re-written from scratch.
Still time to fix it though, I don't expect Apple to leave it in this state.
I'm more concerned with why hasn't Apple made lower case keys show up on the keyboard yet? This is a no brainer.
My point, on topic with your objection, is that I never even noticed the lack of lower case keys before iOS 7. So for me it's not something high on the list.
From there, it's impossible to see how Apple could possibly change anything without someone somewhere claiming that they've ripped off something from somewhere else. But the people they're allegedly ripping off have in turn ripped off Apple, rendering the entire debate pointless.
†Not that it's a bad thing, once the iPhone came out, everyone else had to copy it. The first iPhone was the starting point for how all smartphones from that point on shoud be.
The flat trend in web and app UI design has been building for the last couple of years. We're at a point where flat is simply the present zeitgeist of UI design.
However, 'flat' largely covers superficial aspects of design. Where iOS still differs is in the actual meat of the design; the interactivity and user experience.
Also, as the page was down for me, here's the Google cached page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FATZrqh...
All these interfaces are pillaging the Bauhaus! Shame on them! Shame Shame Shame! (-;
http://www.effectiveui.com/blog/2013/04/26/an-historical-per...
In all seriousness though, there isn't any original design. To think that the goal of design is to snatch something from thin air in moments of lighting like brilliance is a gross misconception. Designing is solving problems.
Personally, I like previous version better.
As for other features, iPhone jailbreaking community should take more credit then Google or others, quick access to wifi and other settings. I remember seeing them on jail broken iPhone way before Android.
If you are worried about somebody ripping somebody off, worry about the works from Jan Tschichold, Adrian Frutiger, or Josef Müller-Brockmann being ripped off, not MS, Apple, Android, or whoever else.
Yes, they were resistive rather than capacitative touch-screens. That wasn't because it didn't occur to anyone to use a capacitative touch-screen before Apple, it was because the technology wasn't mature enough before around 2006/7. And if even you want to make the (silly) argument that whichever manufacturer happens to be the first to bring out a full-face capacitative touch-screen phone can somehow claim to have invented the concept, that honour goes to the LG Prada.
Flat is beautiful, and easy to use, if it strips away non-functional chrome. It's even more beautiful, but a little hard to use, if it obscures the controls. A pro user (say, one who's trained on a previous version, and knows what functions are available) might feel at home, but it's just not intuitive anymore.
Having an unfortunately difficult time finding a relevant link :(
We progress by improving upon the current best. Clearly Apple felt that Microsoft had taken some steps in the right direction.
get with the program. :)
Seriously though, its a great phone and if you need one for work like I do, might as well get one you really like.
It's 2013 and I can't browse certain web pages with my expensive smartphone...
Contextual gesture unlock/launch mechanisms are actually pretty popular. Here's an example with 4 options, but that is by no means the only option set.
http://cloud.addictivetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/MI...
WM, being a ground-up re-imagining of how smart phones work is looking forward...better to co-opt some of those ideas instead...be in a position of innovating while walking forwards.
https://securecdn.disqus.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/516/5...
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/06/10/ios7-vs-android-a-quick...
https://plus.google.com/112995668742108647641/posts/dmSKzTwC...