I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS • Hacker News Board

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#311

Post by mostafaberg » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

naibafo wrote: post #222

mostafaberg wrote: post #152

>I don’t know about you, but the idea of having a fully capable web browser in my pocket was a huge part of the appeal. A: Both iOS and android have fully capable web browsers, I'm not sure what's missing here ? >I’m talking about stuff that QA should have caught, stuff that if anybody at Apple was actually building ? apps this way would have noticed before they released. A: They do pass QA, that's why features are r…

>Both iOS and android have fully capable web browsers, I'm not sure what's missing here ? I think at that point he was referring to the initial appeal of the iphone, when th efirst one was released. there was no Android and no comparable device existent at the time. >Thank god apple no longer allows that, how do you expect a tiny screen to have popups and switch web browser views when you click links ? this is a very…

>I think at that point he was referring to the initial appeal of the iphone, when th efirst one was released. there was no Android and no comparable device existent at the time.

True, but don't forget that the first iPhone was an expensive piece of nothing really, we had no app store nor sdks

>What kind of phone are you using? most things got screens so big that they don't fit into my pocket anymore.

I come from iPhone 3Gs->4->4s->5->6->6s->LG G4, I can say that it's a HUGE screen with bigger resolution than my desktop, but what i meant was the total size of the screen in physical size, i don't want no friggin popups and many windows in a 5" screen

>Rocket.chat does exactly that and it is fantastic. Other webapps as well. The key feature being that you can chat on any browser, and using for example electron (the engine based on chrome, also used by the atom editor) you can easily build apps for every platform. And if you add features, they are added everywhere at the same time without a problem

Ofcourse there are tons of good examples out there, I'm explaining my personal point of view when it comes to web browsers and doing lots of in it that that it was never intended for. I'm fine if you just rename it from web browser to "JS App Container" or whatever, but to me a web browser is just a place to browse pages

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#312

Post by roosterjm2k2 » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #65

hackergary wrote: post #37

Sounds like someone trying to force web apps to do native apps' jobs. When something like React Native bridges web languages and full native benefits/performance.

You're right, that's exactly what he wants to do. Why shouldn't he be able to? It works great on Android.

Because, when you try to use the wrong tool for the job, you don't get to blame the tool...

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#313

Post by talmand » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:56 PM UTC

lost_name wrote: post #58

untog wrote: post #24

I agree with pretty much everything in this article - I firmly believe that we're due a "post-app" world where progressively enhanced web sites provide 95% of the functionality we require. But we're not there yet - I'd love to see better WebView integration into native UI components (UINavigationController and the like), to provide things like swipe-to-go-back, which is monumentally hard to do on the web. But hey. Ma…

I struggle to find the reference, but I'm almost certain that the unveiling of the original iPhone came forward with this intention ("progressively enhanced web sites provide 95% of the functionality we require"), which is why there was no app store or anything until the second release of the iPhone. We were supposed to develop amazing web pages, which could be placed as shortcuts on the home screen and function some…

It certainly was, but that was before the 30% cut idea came along.

For the time, the web app method was not the best solution. Thankfully they moved on.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#314

Post by CamperBob2 » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:56 PM UTC

Grishnakh wrote: post #151

Roritharr wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maintainability is the feature of unreliable equipment. I want to see a two hour debate on that by top engineers from several industries because that seems to be one of the big questions of our time in regards to product development.

If you find an engineer willing to argue in favor of non-maintainable equipment, he's not a true engineer, but some failed engineer who's moved over to management and is more interested in profitability than in users having a quality product that allows them to keep their TCO low by being able to maintain it themselves (or by an independent professional) and keep it for a long time instead of throwing it away early.…

I'm sympathetic with your overall point, but the fact is, I own and enjoy a lot of cool gadgets that simply couldn't exist if your words became law.

It's best to think of "unmaintainable" things as monolithic components of a larger system. You wouldn't complain about not being able to fix a light bulb, would you? Then don't complain about not being able to fix a smartphone. Your phone is just the tip of a leaf on a very large tree... and the same will be true of our cars, soon enough. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

As for what "true engineers" would do, engineers have to take the big picture into account and design accordingly. Everything real is a compromise of some kind, and maintainability is only one factor among many that can make a product succeed or fail in the marketplace. If you design something that fails in the marketplace, it probably doesn't matter how awesome it is... or how easy it is to fix.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#315

Post by guelo » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

mostafaberg wrote: post #307

guelo wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A: I'm not here to judge your decisions or why you did it that way, but IMHO a chat product doesn't really belong in a "web browser" Slack built a very successful chat app on top of the desktop browser.

Where's your argument ? You can make the worlds best services/apps in the web browser, that doesn't mean it's the de facto. Also a chat app or any of the other fancy webapps we see here does not fit into the definition of a web browser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser

The context of this discussion is wanting to make the mobile browser a suitable platform for development of all apps similar to what has happened in the desktop browser. One of the reasons for this is that the web is one of the few truly open platforms. That it doesn't fit your opinions about what belongs in a web browser is not very interesting, especially since you're not giving any reason why you think some apps should not be in the browser.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#316

Post by juliand » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 9:58 PM UTC

S_A_P wrote: post #202

Im not sure what it is about articles like these that bother me so much. Is this guy some hacker hero that I should know? I dont care what the platform is, and this is nothing to do with iOS vs Android. I really cannot stand this "why I quit x" type of blog post. Is there a reason this guys opinion matters more than anyone elses? I know I could just ignore articles like this, but it does happen to be staring me in th…

It's just an opinion. It probably bothers you because you don't like what you're reading.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#317

Post by rcarmo » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 10:00 PM UTC

I tried to do this a few years back and it was completely impossible to order anything from the Google store and have it delivered to Portugal.

Although I routinely rebuilt Android to reflash my Nook Color and even rebuilt Android x86 for the "Magalhães" school laptops on a lark, I could not beg, borrow or steal an Android device with "proper", vanilla Android for myself without resorting to shady imports and zero warranty.

So after a year of using an HTC One[1] and, later, a moderately vanilla LG 4, I quietly went back to the iPhone, got a Nexus 7 (2013) to scratch my occasional Android development itch, and haven't looked back. The ecosystem is _so_ much better, Safari on it (and my iPad) still knocks Chrome on Android out of the park from a user perspective, and I can tinker all I want on stuff like the Remix PC and the ODROID without having to put up with a lousy phone user experience.

Would I use Android? Yes, for sure - but I wouldn't _like_ it.

Would I develop for it? Sure, no problem. Did that for digital signage, even[2].

Would I develop for it _first_? Doubtful. The only serious money in it is in vertical (B2B) apps and suchlike.

Would I develop web apps for it _first_? Like... are you serious? With the market being what it is?

So although I "get" the article, I think it's not that realistic.

[1]: http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2013/10/20/2230 [2]: https://github.com/rcarmo/android-signage-client

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#318

Post by mastazi » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 10:02 PM UTC

Just yesterday, I switched back to Android after 4 years of iOS and I am really really pleased. I especially like the interoperability between apps and the "draw over other apps" capability. In relation to the linked post:

1- I'm not 100% convinced that web-based apps are always the way to go on mobile platforms, there are many pros and cons.

2- While Chrome for Android supports a wider array of web standards[1], that difference doesn't (yet) seem very significant looking at various sources such as caniuse.com.

I just wish Apple was working more actively on Safari develpment, both on desktop and mobile: they started from a very good position (e.g. the circa-2010 Safari for iOS was vastly better than the circa-2010 Android browser) and they are now rapidly losing ground.

[1] http://caniuse.com/#compare=ios_saf+9.0-9.2,and_chr+49

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#319

Post by rcarmo » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 10:02 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #121

jseliger wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, let me piggyback on your comment and ask a usability question: Has anyone written an OS X app to make OS X play nicely with Android phones by syncing contacts, emails, calendars, and audio? I ask because Apple did something supremely annoying with an iTunes, OS X, or iOS update a while ago: Contacts and calendars no longer sync directly from OS X to iPhones and vice versa. This is monumentally annoying. iPh…

You can connect your gmail account on a Mac and it sync's contacts. I do this so my VoIP apps have access to my gmail contacts, which are shared with my Android phone.

This. It just works (mostly), although be prepared to put up with some weirdness if you have custom fields and pixelated avatars.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#320

Post by zo1 » Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 10:13 PM UTC

harshreality wrote: post #237

lake99 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It must either be maintained or treated as disposable. While I agree with this, I understand where Swizec's comment is coming from. I have a few business acquaintances who have been automotive engineers for 30-40 years now. They have an excellent idea of how their cars work. And yet, they rue that earlier, they could open any broken car and get it to run. Now, there's not much they can do to fix their own cars. Pre…

> Pretty much all they can do when they see a blinking light is take the car to a mechanic. Why? Don't they have OBD-2 readers?

Not that, but certain "luxury-brand" cars specifically don't want you fiddling with anything, and to simply bring it in for a service.

E.g. The weirdest part of it (after driving an old car for the longest time) was they explicitly tell you not to have gas-station attendants check your oil for you. If you're leaking/losing oil, the lights will at some point come on and prompt you to take the car in for service.