While I love a lot of the work that is going into Ubuntu Touch and the project itself (thus why I want to write what I think should change). From a user of Android and trying out new Carriers after getting out of the vice grip that is Verizon I have had to enter a lot of custom APN’s for my phone.
Some examples:
Cricket: {
Name: Internet
APN: ndo
Proxy: Not Set
Port: Not Set
Username: Not Set
Password: Not Set
Server: Not Set
MMSC: http://mmsc.aiowireless.net
MMS Proxy: proxy.aiowireless.net
MMS Port: 80
MCC: 310
MNC: 150
Authentication type: Not Set APN type: default,mms,fota,hipri,supl
}
Ting: {
-
- Name: Ting Data
- APN: wholesale
- APN type: If there is a free form field, enter the following exactly as written without spaces: default,admin,fota,mms,supl,hipri,internet,dun
- If your device has a series of check boxes rather than a free form field, check all the boxes that correspond with the values listed above. For example: your device has checkboxes for default, mms, supl, wap and ia. Check only default, mms and supl.
- If it’s not set, enter 310 for MCC.
- If it’s not set, enter 260 for MNC.
- For APN protocol, enter IPv6
- For APN roaming protocol, enter IPv6
}
Now lets take a look at home Android (the current version: Lollipop) and yes it is a different UI design language but it is a great example of UI that anyone can use I believe.
Now the Ubuntu Touch APN UI:
Why is MMS and Internet separated? I believe it should all be together like Android has it. One place for users to set everything they need to have working Data and MMS. Now I do like that I don’t have to enter all that other information that Android needs. But it is a bit different then Android has it and every Carrier is going to write the APN information in a way that Android needs it.
June 12, 2015 at 12:16 pm
Hi, thanks for the thoughtful post! I designed the APN settings for Ubuntu, and I’m working on revising the design at the moment.
APN settings are two-dimensional. One dimension is the different connection types (MMS, Internet, VoLTE, hotspot, and so on). The other dimension is the different fields: APN name, user name, password, proxy, port, and so on.
Because a phone screen is wide enough for only one column of stuff, we have to find some way of mapping those two-dimensional settings into a one-dimensional list. Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Ubuntu all take different approaches to this problem.
The Android approach is to get you to create collections of APN settings, and then enter which of the connection types each of them apply to, which is why you are told to type for example “default,mms,fota,hipri,supl”. This might be “UI that anyone can use”, but it has major problems. It’s inefficient: for example, it makes you enter a “Name:” that isn’t used for anything, and it invites you to enter MMS fields even when they’re never used. And it’s error-prone: for example, if you type “intrenet” instead of “internet”, your cellular data connection won’t work and it will be hard to see why. iOS and Windows Phone don’t have any of those problems.
They avoid those problems by doing the opposite: arranging the settings by connection type, and showing only the fields that are relevant for each. The only drawback is that it’s inefficient when multiple connection types use the same settings values, because you need to copy and paste them.
For Ubuntu I’m trying to get the parsimony of iOS and Windows Phone, plus the ease of sharing values between connection types provided by Android. The “Same APN as for Internet” option shown in your screenshot was an early iteration of this, but I’m working on simpler designs now.
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June 12, 2015 at 12:19 pm
Thank you very your answer and I’m happy to know that such thought goings into the design and making it much easier for the end user. And I can’t wait to see your new designs.
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