I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report • Hacker News Board

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#41

Post by wvenable » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:28 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #40

wvenable wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sometimes it's a grass-is-greener situation. I had an iPhone bug where the camera/gallery would just crash on startup or basically anytime I had to do anything camera related. I eventually fixed it (after months of trying) by connecting to a PC with a 3rd party app, navigating the file system, and deleting a bunch of thumbnail cache files. I had plenty of problems answering phone calls on my iPhone -- it woul…

I have beefs with my iPhone and iPad but not those. 1. Nagging for Apple paid services 2. Gestures changing every month and becoming increasingly complicated with small variations doing different things, inconsistent experience between iPad and iPhone 3. Audio jack 4. Anything that involves editing is a catastrophe. Selecting an element of a table on a web page or trying to copy the text of a link (not the url) is ne…

I was specifically replying to the idea that iPhone are glitch free rather than merely what's wrong with the fundamental design of iOS. That's an entirely different kind of post and after being an iPhone user for many many years I do have a long list of those too.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#42

Post by jb1991 » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:28 AM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #35

bdamm wrote: post #16

After 7 years Android user across three phones, I decided to try iPhone. Now 2 years in, on my 2nd, and never going back. Android tends to slowly slide into glitch land and demands you throw away your phone far more aggressively than iPhones do. The 911-crash on Android was the last straw. That's when you call 911, and the phone crashes instead of, you know, calling for help. iPhone might not be latest and greatest.…

I think sometimes it's a grass-is-greener situation. I had an iPhone bug where the camera/gallery would just crash on startup or basically anytime I had to do anything camera related. I eventually fixed it (after months of trying) by connecting to a PC with a 3rd party app, navigating the file system, and deleting a bunch of thumbnail cache files. I had plenty of problems answering phone calls on my iPhone -- it woul…

> Even more annoying about the iPhone is the always growing "Other" space on the phone. I was constantly short on disk space with no way of knowing what the cause was or how to clean it up.

Hm? There is a very simple Storage page in the Settings that shows you exactly how much storage each app is taking up (including things the app is storing) and it is ordered by size so you can immediately see what's using up your space and delete it if necessary. I have an old 16GB iPhone that is still chugging along after 7 years and is my daily phone but it is a bit lacking of space and this Storage area is a simple fix.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#43

Post by hellofunk » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:30 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #40

wvenable wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sometimes it's a grass-is-greener situation. I had an iPhone bug where the camera/gallery would just crash on startup or basically anytime I had to do anything camera related. I eventually fixed it (after months of trying) by connecting to a PC with a 3rd party app, navigating the file system, and deleting a bunch of thumbnail cache files. I had plenty of problems answering phone calls on my iPhone -- it woul…

I have beefs with my iPhone and iPad but not those. 1. Nagging for Apple paid services 2. Gestures changing every month and becoming increasingly complicated with small variations doing different things, inconsistent experience between iPad and iPhone 3. Audio jack 4. Anything that involves editing is a catastrophe. Selecting an element of a table on a web page or trying to copy the text of a link (not the url) is ne…

> Gestures changing every month and becoming increasingly complicated with small variations doing different things, inconsistent experience between iPad and iPhone

Why would the phone's gesture controls change for you every month?

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#44

Post by wvenable » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:30 AM UTC

jb1991 wrote: post #42

wvenable wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sometimes it's a grass-is-greener situation. I had an iPhone bug where the camera/gallery would just crash on startup or basically anytime I had to do anything camera related. I eventually fixed it (after months of trying) by connecting to a PC with a 3rd party app, navigating the file system, and deleting a bunch of thumbnail cache files. I had plenty of problems answering phone calls on my iPhone -- it woul…

> Even more annoying about the iPhone is the always growing "Other" space on the phone. I was constantly short on disk space with no way of knowing what the cause was or how to clean it up. Hm? There is a very simple Storage page in the Settings that shows you exactly how much storage each app is taking up (including things the app is storing) and it is ordered by size so you can immediately see what's using up your…

iTunes will show you the space taken by apps, by music, by videos, by documents, and then "other". My other just got slightly bigger all the time. This isn't unique to my phone either.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#45

Post by syshum » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:32 AM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #8

> Much more transparency about what the phone is doing This is a curious point, especially considering the recent FB Android app revelations about lots and lots of things the phone was doing that nobody realised, things that cannot happen on iOS due to stricter privacy enforcement. I suppose no month is complete without an iOS/Android flame war, but hopefully that won't happen here. For what it's worth, smart phones…

>>especially considering the recent FB Android app revelations about lots and lots of things the phone was doing that nobody realised,

No lots of people realized them, and lots of people have been talking about them for years just no one really payed attention until now.

When you install FB or any other app you get a nice list of things the App is allowed to do, if you do not want the app to do those things you should not install the app.

The problem is most people simply ignore this list and click "install" with out questioning why a Flashlight app would need access to your call history...

With Android the user is in control, Some/Most people can not handle that responsibility.

For a person that is concerned about privacy, Using facebook at all seems counter intuitive...

For me while I do supports Apple's take on user privacy, I do not support their Business Practices of being rabidly anti-repair, anti-ownership, and anti-consumer. It is my device not Apple's, the the fact that Apple wants completely control over a device have I bought from them for about $1,000 is a non-starter for me, I can control my privacy in other ways I do not need my phone OS to do that for me.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#46

Post by MichaelGG » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:33 AM UTC

elcapitan wrote: post #7

Most of what the article describes in terms of user experience is that of stock Android, not just the Pixel 2 - For those interested in a clean Android but who don't want the Pixel I can recommend the Android One line, those are devices by other manufacturers that basically have the same stock Android as the Pixel devices, with similar quick updates etc. I just exchanged an older Samsung Galaxy S-line phone with a ne…

Yep. I'd recommend the Mi A1. If you can find one, they're pretty cheap, $200 I paid at a retail store. Great specs, very little trash (Moto X4 is Android One, but ships with Moto specific stuff that is annoying.)

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#47

Post by Wildgoose » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:36 AM UTC

I have an iPhone SE because it has a headphone jack. But if the SE 2 doesn't have a headphone jack then this will be my last iPhone. My son wants to replace his iPhone, he's just waiting to see if the SE 2 has a headphone jack as well, or he will be switching to Android.

Some of us like being able to charge our phone and use it to listen to music in our cars using the AUX input of our car stereos. Plus have a wider choice of headphones that don't require constant charging.

And No, a dongle to get lost or broken is not an acceptable compromise.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#48

Post by chrischen » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:37 AM UTC

lwansbrough wrote: post #31

chrischen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they've improved their OS and features, but as far as I know their revenue model is still advertising based.

Anyone know if you can still get a high quality Android experience without being a slave to Google? Obviously things like Google Now are only particularly useful if you submit to Google, but other than that, what can be expected? Can I root it and disable all the bullshit?

For a while I tried using a blackberry that had android app support. One of the caveats was that the android support had no Google services support which rendered many apps unsable (including apps like Lyft that required Google maps).

I can’t imagine it’s gotten any better.

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#49

Post by fulafel » Tue, May 01, 2018, 7:53 AM UTC

elcapitan wrote: post #7

Most of what the article describes in terms of user experience is that of stock Android, not just the Pixel 2 - For those interested in a clean Android but who don't want the Pixel I can recommend the Android One line, those are devices by other manufacturers that basically have the same stock Android as the Pixel devices, with similar quick updates etc. I just exchanged an older Samsung Galaxy S-line phone with a ne…

The new Nokias¹ with Android One get updates directly from Google, so a good alternative there.

¹ really HMD

Re: I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

#50

Post by dogweather » Tue, May 01, 2018, 8:00 AM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #20

dogweather wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm crossing my fingers that "the time is right" for Android, especially on a Google device.

Maybe they've improved their OS and features, but as far as I know their revenue model is still advertising based.

I do pay for a Google business account, so that probably biases me in favor of connecting to their services. I use it for the branded email.