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I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

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Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#491

Post by Retric »

Retra wrote: post #486
Retric wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part does not just mean discrete object. The lower part of that beam is damaged. pärt/Submit noun 1. "a piece or segment of something such as an object, activity, or period of time, which combined with other pieces makes up the whole." 2. some but not all of something. "the painting tells only part of the story" You might be thinking of Component, but even that's arguable. CPU's often contain nonfunctional parts so e…

This discussion isn't about parts, components, or any other pedantic segmentation of matter; it's about the consumer's ability to perform maintenance.

The need to preform maintenance during the useful life of an object is a defect. The ability to extend the life of an object through maintenance is useful. These statements are not in conflict.

Early CPU's where built to be maintained, modern CPU's are not. That in no way makes modern CPU's worse. The Hubble cost more to maintain than it would have been to replace with something better. From a utilitarian standpoint the ability to maintain it was useless, from a political standpoint NASA loved being able to pretend those missions where useful.

At a deeper level maintenance generally means some parts break down before others. So, an ax becomes less sharp over time. Meanwhile the head also loses strength which limits how long that head can reasonably be maintained.

QED: Maintenance is all about having different parts that ware out a different times.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#492

Post by rustynails »

_kp6z wrote: post #70

I did the opposite and can't believe how much better my life had gotten because my iPhone is just a simple tool that I use for communications and don't think about it as a project. With Android, I always wanted to tweak silly things and run Cyanogenmod because the handset firmware was always so bad and vulnerable. On several occasions I'd bricked my phone requiring hours of recovery, or had transient failures of cell…

We all have different experiences. For example,

My iPhone would ring and I could use speaker on a call but I could not hear music or sound in videos. I rebuilt my image, but the issue persisted for about 3 months!! It was my car audio dock and Apple's hidden "other volume" setting that was the culprit.

At one time, I tried to copy music to my phone, but all new songs were being corrupted. I used 3rd party tools successfully, but iTunes would corrupt the songs when I re-synced my phone. About a month later, Apple fixed the bug - but it was "impossible" to get new songs on my phone.

ITunes crashed during synchronisations and I realised at one point that I had about 25 gigabytes in lost space. I had to erase the phone and recover from a backup to fix the leak, which takes many hours to do. There is no file system fixer for IOS.

In most of these instances, I was snookered because I had no control over my device. Going several months without music was a major inconvenience that Apple failed to solve, despite many attempts. This reinforced that I am not truly in control of my device when such basic things are not possible.

TL;DR Apple "just works" is a myth. It's great when it works and disastrous when it doesn't.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#493

Post by kllrnohj »

krisdol wrote: post #118
kllrnohj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're running 2+ year old OSes, not 2+ year old apps. Just like Windows 7 still runs the latest Chrome despite being a whopping 6 years old, so, too, does Android KitKat run the latest Chrome.

You still need to write apps to be compatible with 2+ year old OSes if you want them to be able to install those apps. You don't get infinite forward compatibility for free. There are many updates I stopped being able to get on Android 2.x after 4 was released.

We're talking about websites here, not native apps.

So... no, you don't. Browsers already did the compatibility work for you.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#494

Post by kuschku »

mohaine wrote: post #465
sfa_aok wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to pick on your response, and you're right, a factory reset might be worth a shot, but factory resets on Android are a PITA. The last time I did it (my last 3 phones have been Nexuses), it literally took half a day to get the phone back to the point it was at previously - I had to install OS updates, re-install apps (which also reset to 0 in many apps), re-download music (I admit, I could copy files over from m…

Ahhh no. Factory resets don't do ANY OS upgrades. All they do is wipe the data partitions. Unsess you downgrade the firmware no OS needs to be upgraded. I've wiped my n10 many times. Wipe boot and let it reinstall. Takes a while to reinstall but hands off. The n10 is problematic hardware wise. Mine will do random reboots and always has. Boots fast so not a huge issue but annoying.

> Factory resets don't do ANY OS upgrades.

Quick mention: To the average user it might seem like an OS ugprade when integrated apps, like the Play Store, have to be updated.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#495

Post by kuschku »

ThatPlayer wrote: post #208
scarface74 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amazes me when Android users say that the answer to fleeing a walled garden where one company controls the hardware, the software, and the app store is by buying a phone (a Nexus) where one company provides the hardware and software and if you want to stay safe, only use their app store.

>one company provides the hardware Nexus devices have a variety of manufacturers. The current 9 is made by HTC, the 5X by LG, and the 6P by Huawei >one company provides the software Nexus devices all come with unlockable bootloaders that allow you to flash custom Android ROMs such as Cyanogenmod. Past that, other operating systems such as Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch could be flashed on Nexus phones such as the Nexus…

As an android developer:

You have realized that from Android M on you can’t rely on getting notifications on Android anymore unless they go through Google?

Any application running in background – unless it is from Google – can be killed at any moment to save battery.

In Android M, when the device hasn’t been used or moved for half an hour this "Doze" mode activates, usually during the night.

In Android N, it activates as soon as the screen is off.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#496

Post by rsync »

ywecur wrote: post #243
stcredzero wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is that you left the freedom of your device to jail yourself into simple interface...? Actually, this is a pattern that many products follow, as they evolve from a newly tinkered thing pioneered by enthusiasts to a mature consumer device. There is much more "freedom" in 80's and 90's audio equipment. (And markedly higher build quality. Bargain stuff I bought as a teenager is now lauded on ebay as t…

I don't understand why this is seen as required. A Nexus phone if very modular and easy to use.

"I don't understand why this is seen as required. A Nexus phone if very modular and easy to use."

That's funny, as I see the nexus line as somewhat non-modular, given the lack of a storage expansion (SD card) slot.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#497

Post by zacharytamas »

drewg123 wrote: post #471
spacehome wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anybody know what it's doing when it's "optimizing" applications?

It is pre-compiling apps from java to native executables. This comes from the ART runtime which is the default in Lollipop and newer. Google for "android ART" I think this is a HUGE problem, and that somebody is going to die because they're unable to call 911 while the phone is "optimizing"

Allegedly in Android N this will be much faster. When I upgraded my Nexus 9 to N this step was probably less than 30 seconds long. I almost didn't even notice it.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#498

Post by lern_too_spel »

sethd wrote: post #229
lern_too_spel wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like all the Apple apps you can't remove on iPhones? The difference is that on your Nexus 7, you can disable the HP Print Driver, so you never see it, while on your iPhone, those Apple apps are going to keep taking space on your home screen and continue to waste battery and data on updates.

That is true to an extent but the key difference is that on iOS they are Apple apps, not third party. We you buy a device that comes with third party apps that are not removable it feels like you just paid for an advertisement.

You mean like Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Stocks, and (formerly) Google Maps and YouTube?

To actual users, it doesn't matter whose app it is. It just matters that they don't want them, and most of the Apple preinstalled apps are utter crap.

Meanwhile on Android, though the apps aren't removable because the system partition is read-only, the apps are disable-able so the user never sees them, which is far better than what iOS lets you do.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#499

Post by [deleted] »

sethd wrote: post #229
lern_too_spel wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like all the Apple apps you can't remove on iPhones? The difference is that on your Nexus 7, you can disable the HP Print Driver, so you never see it, while on your iPhone, those Apple apps are going to keep taking space on your home screen and continue to waste battery and data on updates.

That is true to an extent but the key difference is that on iOS they are Apple apps, not third party. We you buy a device that comes with third party apps that are not removable it feels like you just paid for an advertisement.

[deleted]

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#500

Post by sjenson »

cbeach wrote: post #381
sjenson wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't read it that way at all. He's calling out that Apple isn't doing a great job supporting the web and this fact is so important to him that he's willing to switch platforms. And 'blaming the poster' is classic victim shaming. Not reading a post and then flaming based on the title is exactly what the web tends to do far too easily (and what we need much less of)

It's completely subjective that you and the poster think "Apple isn't doing a great job on the web" - for one, I think they're doing brilliantly. Safari is extremely fast and well-optimised on iOS, certainly a better experience whenever I've compared iPhones and Androids of similar vintage side-by-side. And I'm relieved that web gizmos like bluetooth support aren't built into iOS Safari. I can't think of a more invit…

You clearly don't do web development do you... I'm very supportive of Apple and happy that they are starting to finally update Safari more quickly but the reason OP published this article is that there is a long list of modern web features (going through the W3C) that Apple is severely behind on. I totally agree with you that Safari is a'good, fast browser' so from the your consumer point of view, it's quite nice. But it is lagging behind standards that are being implemented on nearly every browser BUT Safari. Again, this is hopefully changing, but it's this slowness that motivated the OP.
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