iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden • Hacker News Board

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#21

Post by atonse » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #20

This is a very poorly written article > Only a little frustrated that iMessage didn’t allow for modern chatting on non-Apple PCs and phones. RCS is trash and stupid idea on the face of it. It's all essentially wholly Google-controlled which means they will give up on in 1-2 years when some exec comes up with a way to climb the corporate ladder. They will implement a new app/protocol/platform with 70% or less of the f…

Totally agree with your analysis. I’m often called an Apple fan mostly by people that don’t know the difference, when I’m the first to express frustration that Apple seems to be the only game in town that has such deep and excellent integration between products in the whole ecosystem, coupled with security and privacy baked in from the hardware level all the way to software.

It isn’t on Apple to open up iMessage, express your frustration at Google and others for not being able to build a halfway decent alternative in nearly 15 years. So instead they shove the RCS turd down everyone’s throats.

Remember, iMessage wasn’t the first of its kind. Blackberry messenger had similar network effects. Yet Apple built a great alternative. So don’t disparage them for building something great. Get mad at the others for not bothering to compete, leaving customers wanting more.

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#22

Post by rchaud » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

> It wasn’t always difficult to migrate between computing platforms. During the heyday of the PC, jumping from a Dell or Compaq to a Macintosh, and vice versa, was relatively easy, because users had almost unrestricted access to their own files, most of which could be counted on to work across different brands.

> That portability largely ended in the mobile era. Apple, Google and a graveyard’s worth of other companies restricted access to internal software mechanisms, adopted more unique file types and “sandboxed” apps so each one had its own isolated data.

Call it a "computer in your pocket" and lock it down harder than Fort Knox so users become less computer literate over time. That's a big part of the smartphone revolution's legacy.

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#23

Post by onetokeoverthe » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:26 PM UTC

daggersandscars wrote: post #5

As someone who has moved between macOS+iOS and Windows/Linux+Android several times, this is doable. For technical people, it's just annoying. For non-technical people, this probably needs written into a more formal set of steps. If you have the need, one can setup your world to work on both systems transparently, but that takes more work. Caveats: iOS messages can be kept, but they'll be in files, not your new messag…

[dead]

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#24

Post by nunez » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

Apple isn't the only one that makes leaving difficult. Moving photos between services has been especially difficult since, idk, forever?

(Yes, in the before days, we stored photos on hard disks that we owned and moving photos was as easy as rebuilding the library in whatever other app you wanted to use. But at least we don't have to worry about losing photos anymore!)

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#25

Post by nunez » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #22

> It wasn’t always difficult to migrate between computing platforms. During the heyday of the PC, jumping from a Dell or Compaq to a Macintosh, and vice versa, was relatively easy, because users had almost unrestricted access to their own files, most of which could be counted on to work across different brands. > That portability largely ended in the mobile era. Apple, Google and a graveyard’s worth of other companie…

Users never wanted to be computer literate. Many of them saw computers as a tool, like a hammer or a car.

Super locked down devices that are fast and easy to use is better than everyone getting pwned by viruses because they can't be bothered to install an antivirus or not share their passwords with strangers.

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#26

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

nunez wrote: post #25

rchaud wrote: post #22

> It wasn’t always difficult to migrate between computing platforms. During the heyday of the PC, jumping from a Dell or Compaq to a Macintosh, and vice versa, was relatively easy, because users had almost unrestricted access to their own files, most of which could be counted on to work across different brands. > That portability largely ended in the mobile era. Apple, Google and a graveyard’s worth of other companie…

Users never wanted to be computer literate. Many of them saw computers as a tool, like a hammer or a car. Super locked down devices that are fast and easy to use is better than everyone getting pwned by viruses because they can't be bothered to install an antivirus or not share their passwords with strangers.

> Users never wanted to be computer literate. Many of them saw computers as a tool, like a hammer or a car.

Cars have an associated “literacy”, too. (Really, so do hammers, but its comparatively trivial.)

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#27

Post by JohnFen » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

dagmx wrote: post #11

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #3

strange to me that people spend $1000+ on a phone when you can get another one that does 95% the same for $200-300. is that 5% really worth an extra $800+... the only big difference is if you care about resale value. trying to sell a used android/windows vs a used apple product is definitely an eye-opening experience.

What’s strange is that people still make this ridiculous comparison. Unless they’re severely out of touch with how the general populace think and what they value. Let’s talk phones, and just ignore the brand to start. Higher end devices often have better cameras, better support, better build quality. I’m sure you’ll find some random phone that competes with a flagship, but that’s irrelevant to the vast majority of us…

> Higher end devices often have better cameras, better support, better build quality.

True with the camera. But if you're like me, that's not actually a big deal. Better support? I wouldn't know, as I've never needed support so I can't compare. Better build quality? True -- but is that a huge deal? Even the cheapest phones I've used have lasted for most of a decade.

> Each brand has value adds like platform specific apps and ecosystem integration.

I always thought that stuff added by manufacturers takes value away from the phone. And worse, you often can't remove it.

Anyway, I think the point is that a $1000 phone is not 5 times better than a $200 phone. It may be worth the expense to people anyway, of course, but the price goes up far faster than the extra benefits do.

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#28

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

o1y32 wrote: post #13

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #3

strange to me that people spend $1000+ on a phone when you can get another one that does 95% the same for $200-300. is that 5% really worth an extra $800+... the only big difference is if you care about resale value. trying to sell a used android/windows vs a used apple product is definitely an eye-opening experience.

There is a huge difference between a $200 Android phone vs a $1000 iPhone, and why people choose the latter is easy to see. The line gets much blurrier after $500. I have a Samsung "flagship" that is near three years old but is still rocking. Performance is still good. It won't receive new OS upgrades but will continue to receive security updates for another year, when I'll be looking for a new phone. (Latest Samsung…

[deleted]

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#29

Post by no_time » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:28 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #22

> It wasn’t always difficult to migrate between computing platforms. During the heyday of the PC, jumping from a Dell or Compaq to a Macintosh, and vice versa, was relatively easy, because users had almost unrestricted access to their own files, most of which could be counted on to work across different brands. > That portability largely ended in the mobile era. Apple, Google and a graveyard’s worth of other companie…

>Call it a "computer in your pocket" and lock it down harder than Fort Knox so users become less computer literate over time.

Samsung literally calls their flavour of this tech "Knox". Though "Guantanamo" would be more fitting.

Re: iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden

#30

Post by goosedragons » Tue, Jul 11, 2023, 3:32 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #21

joshstrange wrote: post #20

This is a very poorly written article > Only a little frustrated that iMessage didn’t allow for modern chatting on non-Apple PCs and phones. RCS is trash and stupid idea on the face of it. It's all essentially wholly Google-controlled which means they will give up on in 1-2 years when some exec comes up with a way to climb the corporate ladder. They will implement a new app/protocol/platform with 70% or less of the f…

Totally agree with your analysis. I’m often called an Apple fan mostly by people that don’t know the difference, when I’m the first to express frustration that Apple seems to be the only game in town that has such deep and excellent integration between products in the whole ecosystem, coupled with security and privacy baked in from the hardware level all the way to software. It isn’t on Apple to open up iMessage, exp…

Apple is also a problem. Do you think if Google/carriers had the perfect messaging open standard ready to go they would bother implementing it? I doubt it. Tim Cook's response to someone asking for RCS support to chat with their mother was to "Buy your mom an iPhone". It's in Apple's best interest to not bother with things like this or half ass it so long as their own solution looks good. They don't support MTP commonly used by Android devices (and others) to talk to computers either for example. Another example is NFC pairing. NFC pairing is great and has been around for years, iPhones have had NFC for years. Apple never bothered but implemented "quick" pairing with the release of the Airpods (honestly its jankier too but hey...).