New Bloomberg iPad App Review

Yesterday I was forced to update the Bloomberg App on my iPad, which I was a bit reluctant to do as the old one I thought was good, useful and fairly easy to use. The presentation of the old version looked good, maybe a little cluttered, but after a short time I really liked how I could get quickly get a good overview of markets, currencies and the latest news on one page.

After installing the latest version and running it my first impression was how I disliked the presentation, the previous app was dark, and easy on the eye, the new one has a lot of white and feels too bright. The new home screen does not give an overview of stock markets and currencies, which is something I liked in the previous version. Even when you go to the markets page, you cannot get a good overview, you have to select the area of interest from a drop down.

The overall screen layout feels as if it was designed for a phone and not a tablet. The previous version felt like a complete piece of software, this version feels like a basic or lite version.

While using the App it felt a little buggy, the refresh of currencies does not seem to work and I had to go out of the screen and back in for it to refresh correctly. I am not confident the graphs work correctly either (see image below), when looking at the performance of one stock it showed the month being "Feb 2017", with 31 days, the current date was the 1st so it felt the label for the month was incorrect and should have displayed "Jan 2017".

Overall this App feels like it has been rushed and has not go through the QA department correctly. I think they need to employ some UX designers to try to get the usability right, maybe they should also consider doing some end-user testing to get some feedback, the reviews on the app store are appalling, which is understandable. The previous version I would have rated 7/10, this new version I would give 2/10.

Safari iOS 8 - Search for text on a web page

I am getting a bit concerned with Apple, it seems they are making stupid decisions on software features. One of these is to remove the option to search for text on a web page in Safari on the iPad. There are some sites they tell you different ways to search for text, but they are all old and there currently is no way to do this. Come on Apple sort it out, have you started employing x Microsoft developers who have no idea on software?

iPad - How to take a screenshot of the display

While doing developments for the iPad it is often a user will report an issue or make a request. I've found that asking them to take a screenshot an emailing it a very useful tool on the iPad. To take a screenshot just follow these steps.

1. Press and hold down the home button, this is the button on the front of the iPad.
2. Press the power button on the top, this will cause the screen to flash confirming the screenshot has been taken.
3. Go into 'Photos' and you should see the image of the screenshot allowing you to email the image.

Using iPad / iPhone as remote mouse

Recently I have been doing some development work on the iPad and iPhone, while doing this I started thinking of ideas for my own App. One of the ideas was that the iPad touch screen works very similar to my MacBook's trackpad, but is larger, so I thought it would be great to be able to use my iPad as the trackpad for my MacBook, my first thought was how it would communicate between the devices and I thought Bluetooth was the solution. Someone has already beaten me to this idea and come up with an App that does this, it is called 'Remote Mouse', if you do a search in the App Store you will find it. You will also need to go to their web site and download the software that needs to be installed on the computer, it can also be installed on a PC. It does not use Bluetooth but uses WiFi, it is a clever app and I am glad I did not spend much time looking into developing one.

iPad Point of Sale Pros and Cons

Currently the company I work for is developing an iPad application for point of sale. I have noticed various other companies developing such apps but how good is an iPad as a POS solution? I can see quite a few pros and cons. Below is a list of what I consider as the pros and cons, first pros:

• Hardware surprisingly is cheap for each unit, other units can cost a lot more.
• Company image looks good when using the most up to date system. iPad is a cool device and this portrays an image of professionalism.
• Ease of use, if the application is designed well it makes the sales person confident about the system. This also applies to other hardware but at the time of writing this the iPad has great touch screen technology.

And now the cons:

• The iPad is a very basic device compared to others, it requires more hardware behind the scenes.
• Because it is a desirable device, it is more likely to be stolen, either by employees or by customers who later on break in to steal all the devices.
• I am still not sure how robust the device is but unless you get a decent case or cover I can imagine it will start looking damaged with scratches quickly.
• Development is expensive, this is because Apple developers at the moment charge more than others. Also it requires web service development, so there is a range of developers required. This is not the case if you manage to find a suitable out the box POS system.

These are some pros and cons but I am sure others will pop up as time goes on. I am still not sure how the battery life will handle a day of using. Will have to wait an see.