Earlier this week Apple showed off the next version of their mobile operating system, iOS 6. It has a ton of tiny features that will probably add up to an impressive update, but there aren’t any stand out features that you can point to and classify as “magical”. Personally, I’m disappointed that multitasking wasn’t addressed in the update. Anyone who owns an iPhone knows how sketchy the whole double tap thing is, that and the user interface to switch between apps is laughable at best. A designer by the name of Joost van der Ree has taken it upon himself to produce a concept video showing not only how Apple should do multitasking, but also how they should improve the notification screen and various other things within the OS. Take a look at it:
Now the multitasking UI should be familiar to you if you remember Nokia’s N9. That device was the first, last, and only phone to run MeeGo. Part of what made that thing special was how you could simply swipe to the right to unveil an infinitely long scrolling list of live previews of the last applications you used. Joost copies that concept, but in his interpretation you swipe up from the bottom of the device to pull up said multitasking UI. That’s incredibly similar to how Palm’s webOS worked. Just to make things clear: We have no problem with companies stealing ideas from each other if it results in better products being made.
So will Apple eventually improve app switching? Of course they will, the problem is we have no idea when. And now that iOS 6 is pretty much done, it looks like we’re going to have to wait at least another year. By that time who knows what Google will achieve with Android and what Microsoft has up their sleeve with Windows Phone.
What do you think, did Apple show off an “amazing” operating system earlier this week or were you disappointed because you were expecting more significant changes?