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Comment by suprgeek | Hacker News Reader

"...is that it highlighted just how insular and superior a lot of Apple developers act and feel. If you don’t believe me, just join a group of them at WWDC and whip out your Android phone. Within moments, you’ll wish you had whipped out something less offensive, like your genitalia instead."

Can relate to this a little bit...A coworker who is completely in the Apple camp argued fiercely how consistent the iOS keyboard was when I mentioned to him that the Android one changes case to match the Caps lock setting.

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I've met both types of people, those who argue fiercely for either Google/Android or for Apple. Learning to ignore them is the best thing you can do. I don't think they are any more prominent in one camp or another.

I find people who seem to pin their own identity and ego onto a brand perplexing. I mean, I get irrationally excited about new technology, but I'm not going to be any brands "fanboy".

> Android one changes case to match the Caps lock setting.

My primary mobile device runs Android and it's always a shock to me that the iOS keyboard doesn't do this. Are they taking their skeuomorphism too literally?

As a die-hard iOS user... that was a stupid argument to be in. There is a reason Apple does what it does (supposedly to match a real keyboard) but it's not strong and doesn't matter.

And the iOS 7 shift key symbol stupidity should automatically lose him the argument.

> There is a reason Apple does what it does (supposedly to match a real keyboard) but it's not strong and doesn't matter.

Wow. Really? That a silly reason for an otherwise indefensible UI decision. I really wish the iOS keyboard changed case. Ever since iOS 7, I can't tell whether shift is on or off. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but sometimes I fumble with it a half dozen times before getting it right. It's worse than trying to plug in a USB cable.

I see nothing wrong with only showing uppercase letters on the keyboard as they seem easier to read.

The major flailing is the shift key. Right now it's white with a black arrow. That means the sentence started with an initial cap. At any other theme, say mid sentence, it's different again. Mid sentence it's a white arrow on darker gray.

So, in short: about to type cap? Black on White. Mid sentence? white on dark grey. Want to do all caps? Double tap it and get a new version.

I'm not sure how these semantics are different enough from iOS 6 to cause confusion but it does ALL THE TIME.

Good point. I don't remember having this problem with iOS 6. I suppose it's simply a matter of personal preference, but if the keys changed case, I could instantly determine what my keypress would output to the screen. That seems like a UI no-brainer to me.

It was fine in iOS 7.0. The problem started in 7.1.

They're not easier to read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_caps

Are you sure that prose and single-character button labels have the same readability characteristics?

The same property that makes "BIG TEXT" more difficult to read than "small text" might make each individual character easier to read. I'm not sure that it does, I just don't think your wikipedia page discusses this at all.

> There is a reason Apple does what it does (supposedly to match a real keyboard)

This argument doesn't stand since the shift key itself changes when you press it (it switches from an empty arrow to a filled arrow), something a real keyboard obviously doesn't do.

There's just no practical nor logical reason for the iOS keyboard to act like that.

Shift key or Caps Lock key? The caps lock on a keyboard does have visual feedback - usually in the form of a light above the keyboard (so it's not obscured by your hands), though my favourite keyboard had a light on the cap lock key itself. Shift, being a transitory key, is not active if there's no pressure on it.

Shift key.

Technically it's both.

Wouldn't that reason lose validity now that they've moved away from skeuomorphism? I've found that to be one of my biggest annoyances with iOS that the keys don't reflect the characters that will be typed.

> Within moments, you’ll wish you had whipped out something less offensive, like your genitalia instead."

I am intrigued, what happened? Did they verbally insult him?

so funny

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