iOS ergonomics

On the Accidental Tech Podcast, John Siracusa posited that perhaps some people in the future will work at a drafting-table-like iOS-like device instead of at a personal computer. Some feedback he got was that this would be ergonomically worse than horizontal keyboard and mouse with vertical monitor.

I do already suffer from “iPad neck” on occasion, but...some thinking out loud...

Firstly, John was making an educated guess. The important point is that for some workers in the future a touch-based device may well replace a PC. We know that there are ergonomic problems with touch-screen PCs, so whatever the workstation looks like, it won’t look just like a PC.

Secondly, ergonomics is overblown. It is important, and for some people it is more important than others. But ergonomics can easily go beyond what is necessary. We don’t need a perfect workplace; we need one that is good enough.

Thirdly, office ergonomics best practices have been built up around the PC. So, it is no surprise that the recommendations favor the PC setup. When our devices no longer look like PCs, new ergonomic advice will be formed.

Fourthly, the most important lesson of ergonomics is to not sit in one posture for too long. Even with the best ergonomically design workspace, people need to not sit in one posture too long. And if you aren’t, then many ergonomic concerns become less important.

Instacast → Downcast

Listening to podcasts through the iPhone Music app was frustrating. I was very happy when I bought Instacast, which made it a pleasure. I never shared most of the complaints others had about Instacast. In fact, I didn’t like some of the changes they made to address those concerns.

→

I don’t believe the people behind Instacast intended to be unfair to their customers. I believe that they simply made some mistakes and rectifying those mistakes required doing things that were unfair to their existing customers.

Good intentions, however, doesn’t change the fact that they did make mistakes, and one consequence of those mistakes is that this customer is checking out the competition rather than upgrading.

As with Instacast, I don’t share most of the complaints I read about Apple’s Podcasts app. Digging a little deeper, though, it seems that beyond those surface complaints, it is just as buggy as listening to podcasts through the Music app used to be.

While a few other podcast client apps get some love, it seems that Downcast is the most popular among people whose opinion I value. So, that’s what I’m trying. Exporting my list of subscriptions from Instacast to Downcast was ridiculously easy. The challenge was getting episodes other than the most recent from each feed marked as unplayed in Downcast. I’d have to flip over to Instacast, check which episodes I hadn’t listened to, and then flip back to Downcast to...

Well, it took me a while to figure out the next bit. You don’t so much mark an episode as unplayed as queue it for download or streaming.