How About Text Reflow for iPhone iOS4?
September 6th, 2010
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by Carlton Flowers · Filed Under: Uncategorized
TEXT REFLOW SEEMS STANDARD FOR ANDROID OS… WHY NOT iOS4?
“Text Reflow”, or the function of word wrapping text when you zoom in on an article using your smart phone browser, seems to be a normal feature on Android smart phones these days. But this is lacking on the iPhone iOS4 platform. I am a heavy article reader, and I rely on my iPhone 4 to keep up-to-date with trends within the fields that I do business.
A major annoyance to me is the need to scroll horizontally to read articles when zooming in using the Apple’s Safari browser. When I pick up an Evo 4G or a Droid X, the text automatically re-wraps itself beautifully when you zoom in on an article or document. This is especially handy for those that like to speed read. In fact, you can download several programs on the net that basically provide the function of flashing text in groups of 2 or 3 words at a time to facilitate rapid reading. When you zoom in using an Android device, you can increase the text size as much as you want and it will reformat the text to allow vertical reading. You can easily flick down the page and rapidly read any article much faster than you could be scrolling sideways.
The folks over at Apple seem to think that text reflow is not necessary because the Retina display is so clear that you don’t need to zoom in on text to ease reading. I don’t understand this argument, and I think it’s an excuse to get around the fact that the Android platform has outdone iOS4 in this one single area. It doesn’t matter how clear the screen might be. If you can’t read tiny text on a printed document because of poor eyesight, you’re not going to be able to read it on a Retina display either. So you are left to zooming in to a decent size, and having to scroll back and forth horizontally to get through an article. It is very cumbersome to say the least.
Text reflow is almost a deal-breaker for me. I absolutely love my iPhone 4, but I would consider trying to get out of my contract and sell my device just to be able to have a device that I could use to speed read information in the manner that text reflow allows. I’m not a programming expert or software developer, but I would have to assume that this is an easy fix (or addition) for the Apple developers. In order to stay ahead of the competitors (who seem to be catching up rapidly), why not put the Apple ego aside and get this done?
I have started a blog page dedicated to drumming up support for text reflow on iOS4. If you are an iPhone user and you see the benefit of having text reflow for reading purposes, please click on the link and post a response on my blog page. I want my iPhone 4 to be my primary reading device, and I’ll do just about anything to have this feature!
Carlton Flowers
Techno Geek
http://carltonzone.com/blog/iphone-text-wrapword-re-flow-discussion-page/
UPDATE! I have found a temporary solution to the text reflow issue with the Safari browser! Read about it in my latest blog post here:
http://carltonzone.com/blog/quasi-text-reflow-on-an-iphone/
I agree wholeheartedly Carlton, but I think it should go much further than just the browser, why shouldn’t it be a universal option for pdfs, text, word docs and anything else?
I bought an app called Good Reader specifically for the purpose of reading books and documents on my phone, it works great for character pdfs, but not image pdfs (obviously, but unfortunately), it also doesn’t reflow text, or word docs. It MAY do that, but so far I haven’t figured out how.
I’m far from a computer whiz, but I wouldn’t think it should be too difficult to tell the phone how many characters fit onto a page at a given magnification, then wrap the text accordingly for ALL text apps. ( Divide the number of characters per line at a given magnification by the number of characters and spaces perhaps?)
Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I first discovered that pdfs were virtually unreadable in practical terms and it seemed so self evident that such a feature should be standard.
Apple should have added this feature the moment anyone actually saw the lack of readability of most text on this phone.
Don’t get me wrong I love my iPhone, but can’t help but wonder how anyone could have missed this immediately obvious functional shortcoming at first glance.
I couldn’t agree more, bring on the obvious and very useful feature into iOS4 please Apple.
Tim
Hey mate,
I am sooooo with you on this. I owned a Desire before I moved to an I phone and just like you, I’d say this is almost a deal breaker for me too. I love reading from the web and the experience on the I phone sucks in comparison to my Desire, Retina or no Retina! I am considering dumping the I phone for an HTC Desire HD over this point alone….
Crazy how Apple often overlooks the most fundamental things, like MMS (in their earlier versions) and assigning ringtones without having to use 30 second covers of the original songs…
I so need text reflow!!!
Cheers,
Chris
Tim & Chris, read my post about the Mercury Browser which is available for $2 in the app store. This browser is the only thing that saved me from ditching my iPhone 4 and buying an Android device. It allows you to increase the font size, and it does re-wrap the text. It will not do this automatically upon zooming in like the Android browser, so it is not dynamic, per se. But it at least allows you to increase the font size for ease of reading and eliminates the panning from side-to-side in order to read.
I am still very disappointed with Apple that they don’t get the importance of this feature. I guess not enough people have complained. That or their arrogance prevents them from admitting that this is a good feature. I called Apple Support last fall, and none of the technicians even knew what text reflow was, let alone the fact that the Safari browser won’t do it. The techs were very polite and helpful, and they searched for applications that had the feature and found nothing. I found out about the Mercury browser and Atomic browser from someone else who posted about it on their blog site. Sad that the Apple techs didn’t even know of their availability!
I want to love the iphone 5, but no text reflow means no sale. I can live with the tiny screen,overpriced accessories, no replaceable battery, walled garden, etc… But if I cannot read by scrolling up and down….forget it. I adore ANDROID!
Play it safe, Jim, and go Android. The chances of Apple addressing this issue are slim to none. And slim just slipped out the back door.
Text reflow on Android. It just works;) I have Atomic Web browser, but it renders some weird results on some web pages, like the text just growing bigger yet page doesn’t expand meaning the text starts overlapping. Is there a patent on it? The only reason I can see for Apple leaving it out is a possible patent infringement. Otherwise it is a “no-brainer.” I tried to find answers about it also, but just found Apple fans bemoaning the lack of this vital feature on a screen as small as the iPhone’s. Then I called in this question to a prominent iPhone podcaster, no response. Is there some big secret about this? Is it such a difficult thing to execute that Apple can’t do it? Hey Apple. Hire in some brain power from Android!
The big secret is, Apple doesn’t listen. They just don’t care. There is no such patent either. You can’t patent rearranging sentences. It isn’t even possible. I’m so glad I moved on. I love my Galaxy S2 and I use Opera Mobile, which is the best text-reflowing browser out there. I LOVE it!
Text reflow is most likely patented, which is why Apple hasn’t touched it.
Actually, no. It’s not patented. There are 2 browsers that you can download and use on an iPhone that reflow text, albiet un-dynamically. Some of the rendering is off, but half the pages out there work okay with them. Apple just doesn’t see this as an issue. No different than the way they denied “antenna-gate”.