Filed under: Software, Hacks, Productivity, Apple, Leopard, iPhone
Stacks on the iPhone
So I finally had a chance to watch that Leopard guided tour that everybody has seen already this week, and one thing struck me like a bricked iPhone thrown directly at my head: boy, Apple really does love iTunes, don't they? It's everywhere in Leopard, from the unified toolbars to the Finder with its CoverFlow interface and drop-down sidebars. Leopard might as well be called the iTunes OS.
But in the future, a few months from now, we can only hope that some of Leopard functionality comes back around, and beefs up our iPhones and iPod touches. Until then, we've got this awesome hack-- someone has put Leopard's stack functionality onto the iPhone's little dock. Very cool-- if you made all four of the icons on the dock into four little stacks, you could have all of the application access, and none of the clutter.
Especially when the SDK comes out (and already, those with jailbroken iPhones are feeling the icon squeeze), we're going to need expansion slots like this. Apple clearly borrowed lots of ideas from iTunes and the iPhone in their new OS, and with this idea, it's time to start borrowing them back.
Thanks, Steve!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve said 5:08PM on 10-20-2007
Hey Mike - better video here of the latest version : http://mobilestack.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Stacks.mov
Cheers!
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Andrew said 5:24PM on 10-20-2007
Looks like a nice feature, but hopefully when Apple steal it, it will be a full screen affair, à la the 'grid' stacks
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Niroshan said 5:36PM on 10-20-2007
Just to let you all know, thats an iPod Touch not an iPhone there.
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Brian said 5:40PM on 10-20-2007
Why would Apple need to "steal" from themselves? They use the stacks feature in Leopard already. It becomes very safe to assume that they already know how to put this feature into the iPhone, the iPod Touch or any other device they want to develop. Using the word "steal" implies that they don't already have this feature in their products, that they are taking it away from another developer on another programming platform.
Language use is everything, and too many people on the internet need to go back to 9th Grade English class for a refresher course.
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Steve said 5:41PM on 10-20-2007
That's right Niroshan, looks like they're starting on the call-everything-iPhone idea early :)
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Richard said 6:20PM on 10-20-2007
Ummmm ... for the ipod touch who needs it when there is a better solution in the updated summerboard? There is scrolling to the left page by page by page... arrangements of any sort you really desire... desktop themes... and numerous other improvements.
ijailbreak includes when installed (6 minutes for me on my intel imac) ... the new summerboard .. the new apptapp ... and a zillion and one applications to install. I now have the ipod touch i dreamed of.
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Steve said 6:32PM on 10-20-2007
That's the reason behind this - I for one hate having extra apps on my home screen because the default looks so clean and professional. Summerboard doesn't support blank icon spaces afaik so you can't have the same layout as the default iPod touch home screen.
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CUBSWILLWIN said 7:42PM on 10-20-2007
it is pretty " Shackalackin!" , what Chris Ferguson sarcastically calls the zune, but it really isn't that useful for me
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tico24 said 3:03AM on 10-21-2007
The reason apple copies iTunes is to try and convert the windows users. They have been doing it for a couple of years now. "Like iTunes? OSX is exactly like that."
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Steve said 10:53AM on 10-21-2007
New youtube video showing a 5-item stack being used concurrently with Summerboard pages. You're not limited to one method only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egKm-pPN0Sw
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Rahil said 2:30PM on 10-21-2007
Thats great but how do u install? I could not find anything on the website. Thanks
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geochick said 7:11PM on 10-21-2007
Its safe to assume that after Leopard Apple will enable some of the functionalities in their latest OS into the iPhone via firmware and iTunes updates. Remember that the iPhone OS is a trim down version of Mac OS so its a no-brainer for Apple to put those features on the iPhone they will probably just turn on a piece of code that's been embedded in the OS. Yes Stacks would be nice for those of us who don't like clutter especially when the SDK is released and more of us start adding 3rd party apps to our iPhones.
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jeremy said 2:55PM on 10-22-2007
isn't that an iPod not iPhone?
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Leonard Nimrod said 3:39PM on 10-22-2007
I'd rather have the main 16 spaces to be "flickable" allowing me to see scroll past them to as many apps as I choose to add. Using iTunes, of course, to add and and arrange as I see fit. The bottom 4 icons would remain in place despite the other scrolling.
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