Needed changes are not going to come from Apple & Google

Android 16 vs. iOS 26: Why Apple's redesign falls flat

Its been all over the news recently.

Apple’s stunning ‘Liquid Glass’ design could change everything and Andorid’s material 3 design change.

These user interface changes I have lots of thoughts about them from a design and UI point of view (most which has been said elsewhere). However my biggest thought is the underlying problems of our smartphones and our tired notions. (especially since finishing the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and the The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher.

After all the hype and attention, I did fiid the book reasonable. There are parts I did question and frown at but generally it’s not as ground breaking as the press made out.

(comment on The Anxious Generation)

It strikes me, these are the horrible phase of a pig with a touch of lipstick.

The whole way we use smartphones is broken, I’m not that excited about glassy or blobby elements but it feels like were not getting to the root of the issue. Abuse of user/owner data, lack of user/owner agency and the mass surveillance of millions of people through their smartphones can’t got on as its has…

I’d love to see a new paradigm in the same way both companies have tried to tackle the huge rise in smartphone thief’s. Its not like we don’t have the technology to provide advanced protections for user data but rather each one (Apple & Google) benefit from access to the data. I know people will say yes Google but Apple protects user data access? Likely they do but then become the gatekeeper to your data means they can also offer it to trusted parties?

However this isn’t about that question, I’m questioning why so much work has gone into the UI and not into how to make reconsidering the problems of how we use them?

What are Android App permissions, and how do devs implement them?
Although old, this still feels clunky and could be done much better with better integration with the operating system

Using the scoped storage as a example. This limits an application to a certain space on the file system. iOS and now Android support this, but its a little clunky and almost encourages the owner of the phone to just accept all (This old tread highlights the problem).

Android recently put more emphasis on modes (basically profiles, which have been tried over and over again). It wouldn’t be difficult to tie modes to permissions too? The difference could be the user interface? I don’t have solid answers but I think about when (rarely) my Pixel goes into power saving mode when the battery is less than 20%. There is a visual UI clue but also it restricts the background data use too. I have heard about people turning on extreme power saving mode always for many reasons.

Some of you might say so what? This isn’t permissions and data but ultimately its the combination which is important. Its almost like their aim is just shift more new phones, regardless of the result… Of course! Some of you may say hey Ian, what would you change and how? My answer is simply I could rethink a bunch of things and I’m sure some of their teams already have but as usual its so low on the list as it doesn’t sell phones. Or even maybe they are waiting for regulation to force them to make the change?

How to Disable Gemini in Gmail and Other Google Workspace Apps - Make Tech Easier

I reflect on the AI/Gemini changes in Android and Google services, maybe I would like to use it for a limited scope of things and accept the results won’t be as great. But my only option is accept or decline. In 2025 this is bad and needs changing, heck I love for designers to take up the challenge of making this all seamlessly work with the ability to negotiate and change the scope at any time.

Really need to see Human Data Interaction replace Human Computer Interaction now because its become unacceptable in my eyes. Worst still it limits whats possible and leads to a outcome which doesn’t empower the owner/users.

How does look Ubuntu without convergence unity?

Ubuntu Convergence

Mark Shutterworth announced today that Unity the default desktop enviornment which comes with Ubuntu will no longer be developed. It was based on the concept of convergence which to be fair was a good idea.

I personally didn’t really like Unity for desktops and never really got to play with Unity on a smartphone or tablet. I needed to make a lot of changes to make it more useable although I did find it slightly quicker than Gnome Shell under Ubuntu. But Gnome shell is just great to use for many reasons including its many extensions and lack of clutter is just right.

The bigger news is the concept of convergence seems to be under some doubt too, which I assume puts Ubuntu phone, tablet and tv at some risk? Weirdly enough just like the Boot2Geko/Firefox phone project?

In the meanwhile, for those thinking this is the end of Ubuntu… they are very wrong.

GnomeShell is one of many including KDE and more…

Using Amazon Glacier on Ubuntu

2015-04-27 10.55.13

Looking at my little home server, I noticed a Spideroak warning telling me I am up to maximum on online storage. I assume the reason for this is the 1391 pictures I took over the course of the 2 weeks in Tokyo.

Rather than just pay for the next band up, I thought I’d give Amazon Glacier a chance. because frankly I don’t need to view the pictures all the time. I uploaded the best ones to my Japan photoset on Flickr already.

Can I say one thing!

Amazon Glacier is certainly not ready for the general public!

Yes I’m using Ubuntu and yes I was seeking to do it with a GUI but boy oh boy… Amazon webservices is very very developer focused.

In the end after about 4 hours, I finally settled on using Simple Amazon Glacier Uploader, which uses Java 1.6+. It was that or try and use Wine to emulate a Windows app called FastGlacier. Don’t get me wrong there are many clients but not many for Mac and even less for Linux.

The thing which I think most people will miss is the fact you need to setup a user just for the uploading. Once you do that you need to setup a bucket and then give that user permissions to control that bucket. This is done in the policy control, without this you will get lots of errors which don’t make a lot of sense.

I’m still waiting to verify my test upload worked but I believe its correct now. If so, then the next few days would be the time I could really do with Hyperoptic fibre broadband. My picture count is currently at 91.9 gigs over 68794 files…

Alternative user interfaces

I studied interaction design in university and always had an imprecation for good interaction and interface design. Recently I seen a few examples which have got me a little excited.

Ubuntu’s scopes
I like ubuntu’s unity paradigms of scopes and lens, even though I prefer to use Gnome Shell as my default on the desktop. The scopes and lens really make a lot of sense. It was fascinating to see Ubuntu apply it across their phone and tablet. Be interesting to see how it works on Ubuntu TV if thats still ongoing?

Pebble timeline
When I first saw the pebble time interface, I instantly thought, when are they going to roll that across there existing line of smartwatches? If not, maybe I might invest in one of the new ones. Division of a interface by future, present and the past on a watch makes a lot more sense than anything else I have seen to date including the Apple Watch.

Android Material Design
Ice cream sandwich or Android 4.0 was a massive step up in style for Android but Android 5.0 Lollipop really was the first Android when the interaction design was thought about at a deeper level.

I don’t necessarily  like the style of flat plates of colour for example the Google hangout app is just the wrong kind of green for my pallet but the interaction model is nice. Although I have spotted a few places where the rules are broken by certain apps.

Unity comes into focus

ubuntu login screen with alternative environment

On Friday I tried using Ubuntu’s Unity interface, which some people rightly pointed out I really didn’t like.

When I first saw Unity and tried to use it, I didn’t like it but over the last few months I’ve seen more of what Unity has to offer. The HUD, Lens/Scopes, Ubuntu on Android and now Web App Integration.

I’m not totally switched over yet, however…

One of the first things I did was hide the dash and menu because I don’t like it eating up my desktop space. I still hate the fact the menu for each application is at the very top right but I’ve started using one application full screen every workspace. It kind of works but still drives me nuts.

I have changed Unity so its workstations are stacked on top of each other just like Gnome Shell, however I miss having a dual screen setup with one which stays static. Having dual screen and workspaces seems a little too much? Sure I would get use to it after a while.

The Dash or overlay is a bit messy compared to Gnome 3’s and I frankly find the way you navigate around a bit poo. But that was before I learned about Super + S and Super + W. I haven’t got the hang of the Hud yet but we’ll see how things go. I also find the gnome extensions very useful which seem to be missing under Unity.

I do still find Unity very noisy, I much prefer the Gnome Shell look, so if there was a skin which looked like Gnome Shell and acted like it, I’d deploy it in a heartbeat.

No matter what, I find the Ubuntu Unity Web API really interesting and I’ll be looking forward to seeing if Gnome Shell adopts some of Unity’s features or Unity chills out in the future.