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Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

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Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#181

Post by scarface74 »

jfim wrote: post #6
yeswecould wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main Android dealbreaker for me is all the viruses, followed by OS fragmentation and finally the fact there is no privacy protection ( i.e. secure enclave )

Viruses: doesn't really apply if you just download non shady things from the play store OS fragmentation: doesn't apply if you're not a developer, just pick a phone that will have a reasonable amount of updates over its lifetime Privacy protection: really depends how you feel about Google on this one Presence of a secure element: this one really depends on your threat profile

OS fragmentation: doesn't apply if you're not a developer, just pick a phone that will have a reasonable amount of updates over its lifetime

So which Android phone could I have bought in 2013 that would still be getting updates like the iPhone 5s?

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#182

Post by hinkley »

adpirz wrote: post #57
raverbashing wrote: post #45

Do you know what really worries me about Apple now? So, when SJ came back to Apple, he reorganized their (then at the time) computer lines into more streamlined ones. Something like (I might get some of the names wrong), into consumer/pro and portable/desktop iBook/Powerbook, iMac/Powermac Now look at their line now What the F is an iPhone XR? Is the XS "better" than the X or not? Why are there 2 iPad Pros? Is an iPa…

A few quick thoughts: >What the F is an iPhone XR? Is the XS "better" than the X or not? Somewhat agree about the XR, though I guess the idea is it's one less than an S, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say their "S" naming scheme has been consistent since it was introduced after the iPhone 4. > Why are there 2 iPad Pros? Steve once said netbooks were dead, then released a laptop in exactly that form f…

I used to think the whole “X sucks we’ll never make one” was a feint to catch competitors off balances but lately I’ve wondered if it wasn’t a goad. He says something, his engineers prove him wrong, he changes his mind.

An internal message of “I dare you to prove me wrong” could be demoralizing to some but cause others to rise to the occasion.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#184

Post by sanketskasar »

gaius wrote: post #69
lotsofpulp wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't buying terrible things, they're buying the best thing available to them. Edit: Samsung/Microsoft/Google are free to come up with their own ecosystem and quality hardware devices that don't have the drawbacks that Apple's do. But for some reason they don't.

But for some reason they don't. Microsoft are adding headphones to the Surface range very soon, early reviews are very positive.

And then my laptop/tablet crashes with every update. Not to mention, they are priced similarly, yet they somehow sell less reliable devices. Contrary to that, I've been using my 2012 MacBook Pro non-retina and iPhone SE with public beta for over two years now, and they haven't crashed even once.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#185

Post by threatofrain »

Reason077 wrote: post #74
SomeHacker44 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I find FaceID to be vastly inferior to TouchID for many of my regular use cases. Perhaps the worst one is that you cannot easily unlock your phone while it lays on a conference room table to see the contents of a message. You need to picking it up and point it at your face. Likewise when using the phone while it is in a stand/holder. The one and only benefit I found is during the winter, it is easier to u…

I find Face ID to be a vast improvement over Touch ID. It's much faster and less fiddly to unlock the phone than with the old Touch ID. I love that you can activate and unlock the phone just by looking at it. Apple Pay is much faster. And I like that it's smart enough to not dim the screen when you're looking at it, even if you haven't interacted with the device for a while.

I find that Face ID is only a mild win over Touch ID in situations where it's better, such as when you're taking the phone out of your pocket in one motion, or when the phone is propped upright and you get more details on a notification.

But in situations where it fails I find that it fails harder and repeatedly, which makes you want to choose a simple password (perhaps that's why Apple tucks away the alphanumeric option). When a phone is laying flat on a desk, you can lean your face over the phone. When your head is on a pillow, you can lift your head off the pillow. When the lighting conditions aren't good, you can just turn on the lights and position the phone at that "magic distance" until it unlocks. But if you don't it'll just fail again and again.

As a minor point, I'm surprised that you prefer to double press while looking at your phone, versus having a fingerprint reader on the back so you can unlock your phone in one gesture of hand toward the payment system.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#186

Post by Wowfunhappy »

Reason077 wrote: post #50
iscrewyou wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the fact that I can keep them in my ear and just go on my Macbook and select the output from the volume icon. I’m always amazed by that.

Yeah, that's the most annoying thing about my Sony bluetooth headphones. They really don't like to switch between my phone and my Mac.

Device switching (particular between both Apple and non-Apple devices) is the primary reason I cannot switch to wireless, and cannot buy a phone without a headphone jack.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#187

Post by fulafel »

ilovecaching wrote: post #62
fulafel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple was in the tablet game pretty early with the Newton.

Granted the Newton was the predecessor of the ipad, although it was more a PDA like device. The Microsoft tablet was very much an early ipad.

What do you feel makes tablets like the iPad and PDAs different categories?

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#188

Post by naravara »

dangero wrote: post #75
icelancer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth in general is so shitty about this. How iOS/Apple gets it right and no one else does is beyond me.

Tight OS integration is their advantage. Airpods can do things in ways other manufacturers cannot. The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem. Try Airpods on Windows. They aren't as simple to setup.

>The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem.

They could if Apple would license out the W1 chip, or even sell dongles with W1 functionality that convert the 3.5mm jacks in headphones into bluetooth (like one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Receiver-TaoTronics-Hands-F...).

Of course they never will, but a man can dream.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#189

Post by Skunkleton »

drdaeman wrote: post #116
Reason077 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Face ID to be a vast improvement over Touch ID. It's much faster and less fiddly to unlock the phone than with the old Touch ID. I love that you can activate and unlock the phone just by looking at it. Apple Pay is much faster. And I like that it's smart enough to not dim the screen when you're looking at it, even if you haven't interacted with the device for a while.

My personal inconvenience is that I'm myopic so I tend to hold my phone too close to my face. The camera doesn't see me and have to tap the PIN every other time. TouchID doesn't depend on that and where my face is. My fingers are always near the phone. However, I recognize this is an edge case.

I am also near sighted. I have to back the phone away from my face to get it to unlock when I am not wearing glasses/contacts. At least it will retry on a swipe-up.

Re: Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It’s Mainly a Landlord

#190

Post by scarface74 »

philwelch wrote: post #136
amelius wrote: post #117

Why don't we all steer towards the IBM PC clone model, but for smartphones? Why do we have free/open Linux on PCs and not on phones? By the way, ironically, with its single user OS, an iPhone is more a "Personal Computer" than most PCs.

> Why don't we all steer towards the IBM PC clone model, but for smartphones? Isn't that Android?

What makes Android, Android to everyone outside of China is the proprietary Google Play Services and all of Google’s first party apps.
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