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Very impressed by Apple's handoff feature
tdenson
Posts: 5,773 Forum Member
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I've just started using the new handoff feature of IOS 8 and must say I am singularly impressed by it. For those not familiar with it, it allows you to start doing something (eg composing an email) on one Idevice and then seamlessly pick up from where you left off on another idevice. So for example you could be out and about with just your phone, start an email but then finish it when you get back to your desk on the laptop.
As an example and an exercise in using it i am flying today from Nairobi to Leeds. I started this message on my phone while queuing to board the plane. I am picking it up at this point with my iPad while sitting in my seat whilst I can still use Bluetooth (the transport mechanism for handoff). I will complete it and post it on my laptop in the lounge at Amsterdam while waiting for my connection.
Now, this is nothing that can't be achieved other ways e.g. cutting and pasting it into an email to oneself but it's the seamless nature of it that makes it so appealing. I think the concept of having different sized devices for different scenarios has finally come of age.
(From my laptop)
There are a lot of things about the supposedly seamless nature of the Apple ecosystem that I absolutely hate, but hats off to them for this.
As an example and an exercise in using it i am flying today from Nairobi to Leeds. I started this message on my phone while queuing to board the plane. I am picking it up at this point with my iPad while sitting in my seat whilst I can still use Bluetooth (the transport mechanism for handoff). I will complete it and post it on my laptop in the lounge at Amsterdam while waiting for my connection.
Now, this is nothing that can't be achieved other ways e.g. cutting and pasting it into an email to oneself but it's the seamless nature of it that makes it so appealing. I think the concept of having different sized devices for different scenarios has finally come of age.
(From my laptop)
There are a lot of things about the supposedly seamless nature of the Apple ecosystem that I absolutely hate, but hats off to them for this.
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My android phone will save my incomplete email to the draft folder and I can then pick it up later on my iPad, or even my computer to finish it off. What am I missing about the awesome new feature ?
It seems like a gimmick to me as if I have decided I am going to send an email now on my phone I'll do it. If I decide not to, I'll do it later when I get back to a PC and do in full then, I won't start bits and finish later, it's only an email, not a manuscript.
Quite possibly, although I've just had a little play at starting Chrome on my Mac and Chrome on my HTC One and can't immediately see any connection or how to make one. Can you explain as I would find it useful
(plus can choose to sync bookmarks, apps, history, passwords)
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/features.html#signin
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/165139?hl=en
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2591582?hl=en-GB
Very few people seem to care about their privacy when it comes to technology.
yup. that was my understanding too.
syncing of browsers, apps, emails etc has been about for quite some time (on multiple platforms) i thought ?
its the syncing of calls/sms etc that seems a little more functionality than other ecosystems give (unless you include skype and other third party apps).
Not sure if its good or bad with so many shared items out there. i can understand it if you had different accounts/profiles but im not sure whether iOS items have that yet do they ?
I know, Android phones have had NFC since 2010 and Google Wallet introduced terminal based mobile payments in Android 4.4, but everyone is talking about Applepay like it's new because they hype it up so much on stage and with the press, who treat Apple like gods.
It is good that they have worked with so many banks and retailers, but the technology Apple has used isn't new, not the NFC, nor the virtual credit card number technology, it sits on a largely already implemented system by the credit card companies.
Although paying with your phone is the biggest gimmick and most pointless use of nfc I can think of. That applies across all phones, I simply fall to see any ease of use in it whatsoever.
It's the feature where you lock your device (say your phone) while you were mid writing an email or using a website etc.. If you pick up your iPad say a little icon of the app being handed over is showing at the bottom of left of the lock screen then just swipe it up and you're right where you left it. Works with (the more modern) Macs too. It's pretty handy if you switch between devices quite often, but needs more refinement I'd say. They have given developers access to these features so maybe 3rd party apps will make good use of it eventually. It's a feature that certainly has future potential.
Great for live-alone apple fans but for those with families surely this needs to go hand in hand with user profiles ?
That's a strange thing to say when the alternative is to let Google do it, whose whole business model is based upon monetising your personal information. At least Apple's is based upon high margin hardware, they have no major vested interest in your private data.
As far as the "always on" is concerned, that's taken care of by a much better approach (IMO) to multi tasking that takes care of such things transparently
It is that as well, and in fact it's rather useful when I'm upstairs in my study and my phone is downstairs and when a call comes in it rings on my laptop upstairs as well. In fact it's rather like having extensions on an old fashioned landline - I can have my phone, iPad and laptop all in different rooms.
What I was trying to say is that handoff is the sum of lots of parts. No particular one thing is revolutionary and not been done before by the likes of Google. It's simply the way it's been put together as a seamless whole without resorting to 3rd party apps that makes it attractive, but before I got a chance to develop that theme I was shouted down by the anti Apple brigade, so I shall shut up.
Nobody is saying (least of all Apple) that they have invented NFC. But in their usual fashion they have brought some extra slickness and gloss to the technology (plus a decent dose of marketing) that will make it attractive to the masses. Within two weeks they had more users than the entire history of contactless payment before them.
I'm not sure that is true, I think it was more transactions that all mobile devices, not including contactless.
Where some are getting mixed up is Applypay allows secure, easy payment of values that contactless does not allow., so will instantly be better than contactless because the payment limit restriction has been removed.
Back to handoff, the demos on YouTube look very slick.
Yes, sorry, I stand corrected