Full FeedRestoring spring to the iPhone Springboard
As with many iPhone and iPod touch owners, my screen has become a mess of app icons. I’m five screens deep now (and that’s nothing compared to some), with little rhyme or reason on what goes where. Apple introduced iPhone app management in iTunes 9, but this feels more like an afterthought than a feature, as new apps still go wherever they want, you need to be at your computer to take advantage of it, and you can’t easily pull up apps by category. To help users take control of this mess, Bruce Tognozzi at AskTog.com has a few suggestions for Apple to improve the Springboard.
Bruce sets up the article with this premise:
Apple, by all appearance, designs its hardware and software for a single user—Steve Jobs. This is, in many ways, an excellent idea. Steve has always been and continues to be fanatical about design, usability, and salability. It was a successful formula for the creation of the Mac, and it continues to be a successful formula.
The only problem is, there are other people in the world who are not like Steve. For example, there are people that not only examine a product from every possible angle, but actually use it. A lot. Some of us have thousands of songs. Some of us have tens of thousands of photographs. Some of us have hundreds of apps.
We are drowning.
Fair enough, but how does he suggest Apple solve the problem? By implementing Springboard 2.0 with five design/feature changes:
- Page Labels
- Vertical Scroll
- User-Controlled Icon Positioning
- Containers
- Multiple Links
Whether we see anything like this from Apple remains to be seen, although Bruce does suggest that variations of some of these suggestions are in the works at Apple.
For full details on Bruce’s ideas, including some great mock-ups, head on over to AskTog.com.
Subscribe to keep up with the latest Apple news and rumors! - 
Subscribe to our feed
Black Friday 2009
Black Friday is almost here! Gadgetell's got you covered with all the latest news on who's offering the best deals. Dangerous crowds? You're on your own.
Our new podcast: Meet...
We know. Podcasts are so last year - but this one you won't want to miss. Whether it’s a rumor that won’t die, a new product announcement, or just a really good Macintosh or iPhone app find that we have to let you know about, we’ll make sure it’s covered on Appletellcast.
iPhone App Reviews
iPhone Apps. They were great when the App Store was first announced and we could all pick and chose what we wanted, but the number is now overwhelming. Here at Appletell, we'll detail the great iPhone apps we find, and steer you clear from those that aren't worth it even if they're free.
iPhone Game Reviews
As Apple turns the iPhone into one of the most popular gaming devices, the staff of Appletell--gamers and Apple fans alike--are here to help you get the most entertainment value out of your app store purchases.
I like the idea of containers (kind of like Stacks), but question the necessity of all this. I’ve never understood people having so many apps (I have two pages, neither full, and am very selective of which apps I keep - i.e., I’m no app-pack-rat). I don’t really like the App Store much precisely because it has so many apps. Most of them are cobbled-together, worthless, and ugly. It seems like most people are having trouble with getting rid of things they don’t need: their iPhones and computers become as messy and cluttered as a teenager’s room! I think it’d be better if Apple released some guidelines for streamlining the apps/data you have and offered suggestions for how to organize it. You say you’re drowning, but your solution is to have someone throw you a life-raft, rather than to swim to a shallower place.
on October 12, 2009 at 02:52 PM - LINK