Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Setting up phones is a nightmare

joelchrono.xyz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 257 posts

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#181

Post by zadikian »

Tzk wrote: post #172
cmckn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, setting up a new iPhone (without restoring from backup) is a pretty long-winded process these days. You have to make about 50 decisions on various features, tap through numerous info screens, set up Face ID, Apple Pay, voice recognition, etc. etc. It feels like every team at Apple wants something in the onboarding flow.

actually you can skip most of these, but get reduced functionality in return. You can skip faceID/touchID, unlock code, appleID. You can’t skip terms, some customization options and, data collection and privacy settings. In theory you can use iPhone and iPad without apple account - basically as dumb phone. But of course you won’t get AppStore access.

I think the point is that you can skip all those, but it's still 50 screens. There's no "skip all and go directly to my home screen" button.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#182

Post by LtWorf »

MattDamonSpace wrote: post #98
uyzstvqs wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your relatives are significantly tech illiterate, I'd skip the smartphone entirely and go for a locked-down Linux desktop + feature phone. The most dangerous apps are big legitimate ones. If you do go for a smartphone, my experience tells me that there's no difference between Android and iOS. The biggest sources for shady apps are the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Shady stuff on the web can be easily defe…

Sir a Linux desktop recommendation for non-tech-literate elders is just silly

Sir, have you tried doing it? Works great.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#183

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

hollerith wrote: post #128
drittich wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me why they only support Google Pixel phones, v6 through 10.

Those are the only phones that meet their stringent requirements. They have been talking to a manufacturer with the goal of getting a non-Pixel phone on the market that meets the requirements.

That's Motorola

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#184

Post by socalgal2 »

daliusd wrote: post #147
krick wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what I was going to say. I don't use iPhone because, well, it's iPhone. And until, like, this year, it was strictly more prohibitive than Android. Also, it was honestly just worse of a device than some Android flagships, and the tradeoff is only worth it if you are a lazy USA-ian, who doesn't use any "sketchier" non-mainstream apps, has an Apple account and owns a bunch of Apple devices anyway. Oh, and all yo…

I have 5 years old iPhone SE2020 that is relatively cheap having in mind that is 5 years old. None of Androids served me that long. Only Motorola tried, but water killed it. Water has not killed iPhone when my son threw it into pond. Which Android is that good, practically speaking?

> relatively cheap

relative to an iPhone Pro, yes. Relative to many other phones, No. It shipped at $399. You can buy 4 to 12 android phones for that price. I'm an iPhone user but my sister and her family are Android.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#185

Post by eloisant »

pibaker wrote: post #118

I am an iPhone user myself, but the number of "this is an android problem" and "just use iPhone" in response to the author's complaints surprises me. I thought HN was more anti apple in the past? Maybe we are all old now and tinkering with our devices is out of fashion, but this doesn't make the author's complaints illegitimate. And if we zoom out a bit, iPhones are only 20% of the global phone market. The overwhelmi…

HN is mostly US and apparently in US even geeks have given up on Android.

Anyway, here is my experience when I upgraded from a Pixel 8 to Pixel 10 Pro: login to my Google account, let the backup restore happen then my new phone was identical to the old one.

I only had to do the login process to a few messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp, and my home settings on Smart Launcher had to be manually imported but that's pretty much it.

Basically, a lot of what OP lists as "bare minimum requirements" are just preferences. If he used his Android phone like an iPhone, and like most people use it (with minimal tinkering) then the migration would have been just as smooth.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#186

Post by eloisant »

dhosek wrote: post #138
kwanbix wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use Android because iPhones are more expensive. In fact you can get Android phones that are as expensive and sometimes more expensive than iPhones. I use Android phones because it is a much more flexible ecosystem, where I can choose my browser, for example.

I’m very much the inverse of you. I don’t use Android because I don’t want to have to worry about all the fiddly stuff that is involved with Android. I like that it’s not a big deal to migrate to a new phone, that I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll be able to get security updates in a year, or have to spend time disabling telemetry. If I did want to do a lot of fiddling with the phone then sure, Android would b…

The idea that Android needs tinkering of fiddling needs to die.

80% of users in the world use Android, and most of them don't do any tinkering or fiddling.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#187

Post by eloisant »

nvartolomei wrote: post #15

Upgraded to one of the latest iPhone recently. First time I clicked on “transfer data from old phone”. I’m used to reinstalling the operating system every couple of months from when I used Windows. It took maybe 15 minutes with close to 0 interactions. Everything was transferred. I was already authenticated in apps. What took manual steps was eSIM transfers. I don’t remember exact steps so there could have been a bit…

I had the same experience upgrading my Pixel phone. The only apps that needed new authentication were a few messaging apps like WhatsApp.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#188

Post by daliusd »

socalgal2 wrote: post #184
daliusd wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 5 years old iPhone SE2020 that is relatively cheap having in mind that is 5 years old. None of Androids served me that long. Only Motorola tried, but water killed it. Water has not killed iPhone when my son threw it into pond. Which Android is that good, practically speaking?

> relatively cheap relative to an iPhone Pro, yes. Relative to many other phones, No. It shipped at $399. You can buy 4 to 12 android phones for that price. I'm an iPhone user but my sister and her family are Android.

I doubt I would get the same quality and reliability. Good Android phones are equally expensive and it is very hard to know which are actually good without doing research. As well I had bad experience with some Google Pixel model.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#189

Post by daliusd »

jack_pp wrote: post #155
daliusd wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 5 years old iPhone SE2020 that is relatively cheap having in mind that is 5 years old. None of Androids served me that long. Only Motorola tried, but water killed it. Water has not killed iPhone when my son threw it into pond. Which Android is that good, practically speaking?

I have a S21 which was released in early 2022. Bought it new in late 2023 for 430€. I don't see any reason to get a new one currently. Had to service it twice for water damage to be honest but service was free

OK I had Samsung that was OK. Later after upgrades it became unusable, but that's it.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#190

Post by throw-the-towel »

n8cpdx wrote: post #105
t0bia_s wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that isn't all that different from getting a Pixel. Paradox is, that with Pixel device you can get most freedom and security togather. Installation of GrapheneOS is easiest custom ROM installation that could possibly be.

I tried it, Graphene isn't really a good alternative because the built in apps are so bad that you end up needing to install the Pixel/Google versions anyway. If I have to install Google Messages for RCS, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Pixel Camera (which forces you to use Google Photos for basic functionality), … where is the benefit? If I have to turn Graphene into a Pixel to make it usable, and I did, there’s n…

I replace Google Messages with a FOSS version precisely because it doesn't bug me about RCS.
Post reply on HN