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

#101

Post by oldcynic » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:32 AM UTC

rxhernandez wrote: post #57

cm2187 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 have definitely known too many people to experience issues with missed calls on iPhones to ever consider buying one. I have had android phones since the HTC Dream and I have never had something as simple as that go wrong - although the 911 bug seems far worse; I've just never met anyone with that problem.

My Nexus 4 developed an interesting one after the update to 5 and 5.0.1. Incoming calls would crash it half the time, or 5 seconds of silence on calls that didn't crash. The dialler was almost unusable.

Was widely reported but never properly resolved, so that was the cue for replacement.

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

#102

Post by saagarjha » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:33 AM UTC

yomly wrote: post #91

cm2187 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

2. is a real issue. I had to google how to turn off an iPhone X, this is after there being an iOS product of every gen being in the family since the iPhone 3

Well, that's the thing: you're obviously not supposed to turn it off :)

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

#103

Post by saagarjha » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:35 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…

Unfortunately iOS tends to group everything that's outside an app's container into a big lump that you have no permission to modify or even view to see what's taking up the space. Often the only solution is to perform a full wipe and restore from a backup.

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

#104

Post by robin_reala » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:38 AM UTC

dogweather wrote: post #65

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…

> the always growing "Other" space ... Lol, I had an "Other" folder for the growing set of iOS apps that I didn't use but couldn't delete.

You can delete nearly all default iOS apps now as of iOS 10.

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

#105

Post by saagarjha » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:38 AM UTC

timrichard wrote: post #88

I develop on Macs, and really like using iOS devices. The iPad is my tablet of choice.... But I've always stuck with Android phones, since the G1 (and a lot of jokes at the time). I think it's because the app interoperability was designed in from the start, something that only appeared gradually in iOS. I find a lot of value in workflow companion apps. So when I get a text message, it gets archived to Gmail with a la…

> So when I get a text message, it gets archived to Gmail with a label so it's searchable. And every incoming/outgoing/missed call puts an entry with the details and timestamp in my calendar, so I can look back for reference.

With iOS, these all get synced across your devices through Continuity. They're not really searchable because Apple hasn't figured out a way to do search right, but they're there.

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

#106

Post by freddie_mercury » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:40 AM UTC

fasj82 wrote: post #73

dingaling wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't just walk into an Apple store and get an issue fixed The vast majority of people can't do that anyhow due to the rarity of Apple stores. For example there are two on the island of Ireland, for a population of seven million. Most people have to get the i-devices fixed by a third-party just like they do with Android.

Then you call Apple. A guy comes and picks your mobile up, and then another guy comes and gives you a new mobile.

There is no Apple in my country. I can't call them and they certainly won't come pick up my phone.

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

#107

Post by herbst » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:41 AM UTC

Siemer wrote: post #33

setquk wrote: post #23

I was an an android user for many years but switched to an iPhone about 10 months ago. I have three complaints with android which will stop me going back again: 1. It demands my attention too much. Updates, problems, weirdness, random crashes. 2. I don’t trust any android handset vendor to look after me. I’ve had a handset abandoned by the vendor before I’d even bought it despite assurances otherwise. A promise is wo…

1. Buy a flagship phone. My S7 hasn't crashed once since I got it over a year ago. 2. Buy a flagship phone (or get better laws? Pretty sure EU has laws against that sort of behavior). 3. Disable the 2 or 3 settings in Google Maps that make your phone ask those nosy questions [a]. [a] https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/161704/turn-off-...

Except the update issue I always tell people the opposite, never ever buy a flagship. Usually they have bad screens (in terms of you always only see flagships breaking on a 1m fall) the added software usually is a mess compared to original Android software, should it break or decrease in efficiency you don't throw away something that was 800$.

There are a few good flagships I've seen. (namely most of Huawei) but there are also bad examples like all of Samsung.

If you ever had or know someone who had a J series you can easily tell those are less prown to issues and breaking compared to the S series.

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

#108

Post by saagarjha » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:42 AM UTC

fasj82 wrote: post #74

techsupporter wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the crux of the issue for me: > it's privacy and security, of which Apple is far different I simply don't trust Google to act in my interests when it comes to use of very private data by them or how their operating system permits use of that data. Frankly, I think Android is great. I love myriad things about it: - Set a default e-mail app - Set a default browser that isn't Safari (my kingdom to use Firefox Mo…

>- Background tasks That's bad

Well, it could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. It's foolish to argue that background tasks can't be useful. Can they also be privacy-violating battery drainers as well? Sure. I'm sure there's a right tradeoff here, and it doesn't have to be "no background tasks, period". My personal take is that it's much closer to "no background tasks" than "free reign", but your needs may vary.

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

#109

Post by alimbada » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:43 AM UTC

oldcynic wrote: post #29

ScottBurson wrote: post #3

Interesting to read this since I'm considering getting an iPhone; so far I've only used Android. Does anyone have comments who has done the switch in that direction?

I did it a little over a year ago. Many frustrations with Android, switched to the iPhone SE (mainly due to size). Most of the time on android I was running native on Nexus. Apps are more consistent, and generally better designed. Wider range of apps, far less crap. Restrictions on background tasks and what apps are allowed to do mean a couple of things I had on Android can't be duplicated on iOS (eg a WiFi signal st…

> Apple focus on privacy, along with granular app notification and data restrictions are marvellous, as is the way apps request permissions, and it just works.

This is one of the reasons I also ditched Android for an iPhone.

And here's something that should make people go "WTF?!" that I read recently here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16871340

I had an HTC Hero, an HTC Desire and a Galaxy Nexus before I jumped to the iPhone. I forked out more than I normally would have for a phone when I bought my Galaxy Nexus under the assumption that it would receive regular OS updates being a Nexus device. Nope; stuck on Android 4.3 and was eventually forced to install a glitchy 4.4 custom ROM. There were never any decent ROMs for later Android versions so I gave up on the whole platform.

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

#110

Post by herbst » Tue, May 01, 2018, 10:43 AM UTC

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #27

zspitzer wrote: post #21

I have a Pixel 2 XL, alas the USB-C headphone adaptor died. There's a request a support call button in settings, I pressed it and 2 mins later a native english speaker called me back, 12 minutes later (which included getting my address details), Google was express shipping a replacement from part which arrived 42 hours later (HK - Melbourne, Australia).

Holy mother cow That's awesome on so many levels. Just having "call me i need your help" on the phone is so obvious and yet unexpected. And then actually having strong customer support is ... ungoogle-like wow

Googles business customer service never actually was bad. Guess that is why the price tag of the pixel isn't to bad because it allows them to serve quality service.