Safari Suggestions

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One of the most useful additions to Mac OS X has been the share button in Safari. A common thing is to send relevant links via email and the easy efficiency the share button introduced is great.

If you happen to have more than one email account though, this becomes more complicated. If you use Outlook for work, and Mail for personal communications this creates a problem when attempting to share from the non default email client. A clever trick would be to allow the selection of another client via a modifier click, for example an alt-click or shift-click could open the share menu with the other email client selected. Better yet, allow a user to decide what apps or services to add to their share sheet. (Bonus points for allowing the format of the share be edited like an email signature.)

While on the topic of Safari, here is another one on the wish list: paste and go. Seriously, if you’re pasting a URL into the address bar shouldn’t Safari have the option to efficiently go to that page without extra inputs? How often don’t you want to paste and go? Ideally this would be implemented as a right-click menu item and a modified keyboard shortcut (alt-cmd-v perhaps?)

Streamlining repetitive tasks brings a sense of delight to the user, as they realize that the engineer on the other end of the code is considering how to best optimize the experience. Adding these things suggestions would demonstrate the consideration of what could make Safari even better.

Hyper Philosophical

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You could do far, far worse than listen to the Accidental Tech Podcast. In fact, it’s actually one of my favorites.

This weeks episode “32: It Doesn’t Bother Me” featured one particular topic that really struck home with me, finally making me appreciate the insight of John Siracusa. His description of the public’s reactions to iOS 7 was great (29:20), followed by an even better rant explanation of the update’s downside – namely the usability regression (41:00).

I agree with Siracusa, and I am optimistic that the iterations of the OS to come will address the areas that did not improve on iOS 6.

Chromecast Suggestions

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The Google Chromecast made a splash this summer by being a simple and cheap accessory to play back content on your TV.

The Chromecast is priced right at $35, and availability outside of the Play store helps; in fact, the ease of adding it to an Amazon order was key in my buying decision. The packaging presentation is thoughtful, much like an old iPod or Airport Express. Inside the box you’ll find an astonishingly short HDMI extension cable and micro-USB power cable of average length. I used both in my installation, which allowed for a cleaner look that’s invisible from the front.

Set up and use is easy, though I’m surprised the requisite Chromecast extension for Chrome is not pre-installed or more obviously linked when it detects an available Chromecast. But this isn’t a review, so onward to the suggestions.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that casting any video stream other than YouTube is inelegant and frustrating. It seems like Chrome and/or Chromecast should be able to detect any video on a webpage and send the URL to Chromecast for playback. Instead, you can cast the entire webpage, using full screen (on your computer and the Chromecast) to enlarge the video. This may be a limitation of Chromecast being a new product, but it does seem obvious and limits the usability of the device. Playback even with this method was surprisingly smooth over 802.11G, if some what low-res.

The bigger problem is a philosophical one for Google. The idea of Chromecast – and Google TV before it – was to allow you to stream anything, bypassing barriers from cable companies and the like. And yet, ironically, one of the first YouTube videos I attempted to cast was blocked, with a message that read “This video is not available for remote playback.” Really Google, really?

Choose your own cliché (dogfooding, goose and gander…), but the bottom line is that Google is compromising the end-user experience. Video playback restrictions are not unique to Google; Apple also has to dance around the attempts of content providers and hardware manufacturers to punish customers prevent piracy. The irony here, though, is that Google is restricting itself despite the vertical integration of the hardware, service and content.

Chromecast achieved a popular launch (Netflix offer notwithstanding), and while limited, it is well executed. The challenge for Google now is to iterate, expanding the device’s capabilities while deciding if they are prioritizing the user or themselves first.

iOS Keyboard Suggestions

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Two pet peeves about the iOS Keyboard interface, both relating to selection.

One; the loupe. I still remember reading a rumor pre-iPhone describing the magnifying glass on-screen used to place the cursor. It was literally unimaginable, until you used it, then having an on-screen loupe made obvious sense. The loupe needs to be engineered to be more intelligent when in edge cases, such as lines of text near the top of the screen. Having the loupe go off-screen is really no help at all. It wouldn’t hurt either if the loupe was a bit bigger or offset more, to see around ones finger better.

Two; arrow keys. Instead of having great apps like Byword need to code their own solution, the iOS keyboard could use some arrow keys built-in for fine cursor placement. I’ll admit, I don’t know where you could squeeze them in on an iPhone in portrait mode without resorting to some sort of two finger shift-select gesture or something else equally strange sounding. Regardless, a solution beyond the loupe for fast and accurate cursor movements would be great.

A smarter loupe, combined with arrow keys would make for a much more fluid and uninterrupted typing experience on iOS.

The Power Of Touch

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Not actually having used Touch ID on the iPhone 5S yet, I can already think of a great place for it in the future: The power button on Macs.

I realized today how much time it would save me if I could use Touch ID to unlock my Macbook Pro that is issued and administered by my employer. Trying to think of where on a Mac the sensor could go, the power button seems like the most elegant solution and a natural adaptation of the existing hardware. The sides of a Retina Macbook Pro are too thin, as are the Macbook Airs. The FaceTime camera would just get dirty, and anywhere else would stick out like, well, a sore thumb(print).

Desktops could also use their less convenient to reach power buttons, or perhaps the Apple logo could hide the sensor.

If Touch ID is a success for Apple it would be cool to see the capability transition to the Mac line. In the mean time the ability for the Mac to use the iPhones Touch ID sensor would also be a cool trick.

So Close, Yet So Far

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Almost despite itself, Chrome is growing in popularity as the go to low-end notebook OS. Products like the Acer C7 and the Samsung Macbook Air XE303C12-A01US gained a lot of attention for their price and specs over the past year.

The prematurely newly announced Haswell based Chromebooks look to be even better; with faster performance and longer lasting batteries making a compelling argument if the costs can be kept in line with current models. The ability to run apps (even if they are web apps) outside of the browser and disconnected from the internet is also a key change that will improve the usability of Chromebooks. Hopefully support for Chromecast will expanded beyond the current Chromebook Pixel too.

All of these improvements will mean nothing if missing support for essential functions and apps is not addressed. Case in point: the Citrix Receiver app, crucial for business and educational customers, currently sits in the Chrome Web Store with a paltry 1.5 star rating. If these markets really are important to Google for expanding the Chromebook and Chrome OS, you’d think working with partners to make these tools reliable would be a higher priority.

There is a lot Google is doing right with Chromebook innovation. Details like Google Drive storage and cellular connectivity without fees are useful and look great on paper, but mean nothing if Chromebooks cannot accomplish your most critical computing needs. Google will remain so close, yet so far away from consideration until they bridge these gaps.

Apple Keyboard Suggestion

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Among the best features that Apple has made standard in their laptops is the backlit keyboard. The recent introduction of the very cool looking CODE keyboard reminded me of an option I wish Apple would introduce– the choice of a backlit keyboard for the desktop.

The Magic Trackpad demonstrated that laptop centric hardware design could be transitioned successfully to the desktop. Enabling backlit keys would bring another good idea back to the desktop.

There are plenty of other great options that I wish Apple would offer when purchasing a keyboard; black or white keys, compact or number pad, USB or Bluetooth, Mac or iOS layout, but none are as practical and desirable as having backlit keys for the desktop user.

 

A Super Idea

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While the optical drive is not long for this world, there is one last way to make it useful.

Apple was among the first companies to deprecate the optical disc drive (ODD). Beginning with the MacBook Air in 2008, they have steadily omitted the drive from new revisions of their products. Once the Mac Pro is re-released later this year with its new circular design, Apple will no longer sell a computer with a built-in optical drive.

For those regular legacy users wanting to be on the cutting edge back in 2008, Apple provided a high-tech and a standard option to access disks. Allowing Remote Disk access meant you could share your optical drive via ethernet or Wi-Fi. With the removal of ODDs from all computers they offer, though, this solution is no longer practical.

This leaves the decidedly pedestrian solution of a USB drive physically connected to your machine. What makes this a less-than-ideal solution is the same thing that led to the ODD being pushed out of the computer in the first place: its size. Having to carry an adapter for video output or ethernet connectivity is one thing, but the size and shape of the ODD makes it inelegant and inefficient.

There are two things that could make the removal of the optical drive easier to accept, and both involve using Apple networking hardware. One: allow the Time Capsule to mount disc images over a local or external network connection. This way, any disc you have can be accessed without having to physically put it in a drive, after an initial rip. Second, to handle that initial rip, add external SuperDrive support to Airport devices. Instead of plugging the drive into your computer when needed, you could leave it plugged into the network. When you do encounter that increasingly rare disk, you can pop it into the SuperDrive, then let the Time Capsule make an image of it. Ideally, there would be support for third-party optical drives, access via any Airport device, and access to the stored disk images via the internet (but realistically that’s unlikely to happen).

This would be a great way to extend legacy compatibility with existing hardware, just engineering a software enhancement.