from Hacker News

Flat design, yada yada. Here's what I need from iOS 7 as a developer

by davidkatz on 5/23/13, 9:08 AM with 52 comments

• by acqq on 5/23/13, 9:57 AM

  As a user, I am very against: "No More Push Notification Permissions"

  As long as I can select, I'll allow Push Notification only for one or two applications that I really want to interrupt me (e.g. some messaging client that I want to depend on -- even other messaging clients should keep quiet until I want to "chat"). All other apps should be forbidden by default to notify me of anything.

• by PanMan on 5/23/13, 9:53 AM

  I don't agree Push shouldn't need access and "– if a user doesn’t like their notificaitons, they know they can delete the app". There is some apps that I like to use, but don't want to allow to wake me at 3AM because they think something is important. The app can still work without being allowed to send pushes.

• by drawkbox on 5/23/13, 9:55 AM

  None of these will happen.

  - Push notifications the question is asked up front, good enough. Later on you can ask them to turn it on for benefits, that means notifications have to be worth it. This is the only way to control spammy abusers of notifications.

  - I agree 30% is high for physical goods but you'll have to raise prices on iOS. We are sharecroppers on a platform that we didn't build, they built it, it is the new normal. It's either feudal or sharecropping but that is what platforms can do and will. Smart competitors would lower their take (Play!, Amazon, Windows, BB) but they won't because it is greed and that is the new norm, just following the Apple script. Until there is competition here on the fees/take noone will budge.

  - Profile photos are available in plenty of places, gravatar, facebook, g+, etc. Maybe there is a startup that wants to aggregate all these and you can easily call that service. Doesn't need to be in the OS level. It would be great if profile photos had some common standard but everyone is building walled gardens and not sharing.

• by coldtea on 5/23/13, 10:17 AM

  >But Apple – if a user doesn’t like their notificaitons, they know they can delete the app. Push notifications don’t need a permissions process.

  So it never occured to the author that a user might like an app and STILL don't want push notifications from it?

  Jesus...

• by objclxt on 5/23/13, 10:02 AM

  One of the reasons Apple doesn't want to get involved in the whole physical product payments area is there are a number of additional regulatory and liability issues.

  But I don't think you have to be lumbered with PayPal - there are lots of great options for taking payment for physical products through apps. Stripe even have an out of the box UI layer for iOS to handle credit card payments, and they'll only charge you 2.5%.

  I admit some providers (like Stripe) are currently geographically restricted, but that's going to change in the short to mid-term. Going forward there's lots of potential outside of Apple.

• by rdl on 5/23/13, 10:44 AM

  The only thing I want is great credential/auth handling, in the device. Maybe biometrics on the phone, too. 4-digit passcodes are a failure, since it's possible to try an unlimited number (bypassing the delete-on-10-failures), even with physical possession required.

  If I got a bonus, it would be the ability to select overrides for internal apple apps (Mail sucks, Chrome > Safari, a phone client which supports SIP and crypto, a messages app which supports crypto) so other apps would use it, too.

  Extra super bonus is iCloud inside the firewall/self hosted on OSX.

• by eertami on 5/23/13, 10:08 AM

  >Push notifications don’t need a permissions process.

  Shouldn't happen and won't happen. You're arguing that you know better than the people who are actually using your app when chances are, you do not.

• by jon-wood on 5/23/13, 10:02 AM

  If you want people to approve notifications don't just throw up a permission dialog at startup, let them use your app for a bit, and when they make an action that will cause notifications to be needed ask them then after telling them why you want to use push.

  Saying "you can just delete the app" seems to be missing the point somewhat. There are many games that I enjoy playing, but I don't want them sending me a message about having a free coin while I'm trying to sleep.

• by idan on 5/23/13, 9:16 AM

  What about android-style permissions on install (versus making users jump through four "allow access to…" choices)

• by digitalengineer on 5/23/13, 10:25 AM

  "Categories" in Push notifications would help. The same as with most mailinglists. Let me check on/off what I'd like to receive and what I don't want so see. E.g. 'yes' for new functions, status and progress of the App and my order, 'no' for commercial offers and stuff.

• by matteodepalo on 5/23/13, 10:42 AM

  The problem with push notifications is that they drain a lot of battery. I enabled push notifications only for the applications that I really care about, like Mailbox or Facebook Messages. I just don't want other trivial applications to drain my battery.