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The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

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Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#391
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 5 years of android, I've never been happier to switch back to iPhone.

It is the best worst option. ;) Would love to read a post about it explaining your experiences (all of the good and bad) and why you returned.

Well, I've been an iPhone user since the OG iPhone until 2017 when I've switched to the first gen Pixel. I stopped liking the iOS look & feel when the home button got removed.

At that time, the only thing to keep me on the iPhone was iMessage - not that I didn't want to be a green bubble, it just the SMS experience sucks in general, RCS wasn't a thing you could use at that time. However, once I've met my future ex-wife, that stopped being an issue because we used fb messenger to talk.

Fast-forward to summer 2023, I'm in a process of divorce, watching Apple event. Get possessed by Steve Jobs, pause presentation, order new iPhone and Apple Watch Ultra for self-pickup, finish watching the presentation, drive to pick up my new phone and watch. Quick migration and up and running.

Android (Pixel) Pros:

- back button, the thing I knew I will miss a lot

- all pixel exclusive features like call screening

- I prefer stock android control center

- sideloading (i've made my own reddit client for android tv and used it for loooong time)

- kotlin > objc (irrelevant since swift)

- fingerprint scanner on the back of a phone was a genius decision

Android (Pixel) Cons:

- google inconsistent web interfaces

- apps have much lower quality

- Google wants you to use Chrome Cast, so you can connect your phone to a monitor

- Most non-stock android makes me want to vomit, specially Samsung

- Google didn't know how to position Pixel (is it a flagship? is it a mid-level? is it a low-end? wtf was pixel 5?)

- Watch experience is meh

- under screen fingerprint scanners suck

- Wired Android Auto sent me to therapy a few times (jk, but it was frustrating)

iPhone Pros:

- Apps better quality

- Better watch integration

- iMessage (won't elaborate)

- AirPods switching experience is near damn perfect

- idk just look and feel subjectively better

- Wireless Car Play easier to find than Wireless Android Auto

iPhone Cons:

- control center, so many times I've turned off wifi or bt instead of what I wanted to do

- lacking "back button experience" from android

- didn't use usbc until last year

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#392
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yall have to remember, there was a time you couldn't hook up your own landline telephone without it being one manufactured by Ma Bell herself (western electric) and rented out through an installment plan on your bill. Culturally the phone company (and the descendant cellular operators) were very much of this philosophical outlook. This page goes into particulars about the historically closed nature of the phone syste…

Apple won’t let you install software you wrote onto your own computer. Culturally the same as Ma Bell.

I’m really struggling to see how you could possible make that statement in good faith. I regularly install software I wrote I my own Apple computer.

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#393
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding No 2. That is very true but it is astounding just how much inertia is in the system that keeps iPhone going. Turns out that the curated experience of iPhone combined with a lot of fumbles from various android vendors has kept iPhone image of being the best and most desirable phone. It is very vaguely feeling like if another big player was to come in they could actually make some waves that causes everyone e…

After 5 years of android, I've never been happier to switch back to iPhone.

After five years of iPhone, I was so relieved to switch back to Android! People are different :P

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Android was initially designed so that operators could customise it. The idea was apps were developed (and sold) only by operators, and everything else would be via the browser. I'm not sure where you got this information. The Android Marketplace arrived with version 1.0 of Android on the T-Mobile G1. Side loading has been available since the very beginning. What you describe more closely resembles what iPhone did,…

> I'm not sure where you got this information. I was working in mobile games at the time and ended up working with Google on the Play Store launch, among other things. But what I mentioned was not some big secret. Everyone knew Android was supposed to be the response to google having to keep stashes of j2me devices in drawers, which is ironically what everyone ended up needing to do with Android devices. People have…

I remembered it the way you told it.

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#395
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s weird that governments would regulate a company on behalf of this reason. A bunch of teens got together and decided that some things were social stigma aren’t. I’m sure there’s some schools where you can’t be included unless you are wearing Abercrombie clothing, or have a MK purse. Is it time to step in there too?

When a person or entity doesn't do what you want, of course it's time to send in the goons to force them to behave. What's the point of having the goons if you're not going to use them?

I'm having a really hard time understanding the point of your comment. Let's peel back a layer of sarcasm here, evidenced by your use of the word "goons."

You think it's wrong for the state to enforce a rule that prevents a certain type of behavior. Where does that end? Unsanctioned violence? Environmental destruction? Surely you're not advocating for anarchy.

Ok, so you agree with reasonable limits on the power of these "goons." Do you then think Apple's behavior simply doesn't warrant this kind of enforcement? Why not just say that instead, and explain why?

Spewing random sarcastic libertarian screeds just makes the whole discussion worse.

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dead simple until you consider that you have to (a) buy a new phone (b) transfer all your passkeys (c) transfer all your apps (and find replacements for those that don't exist on both platforms) (d) transfer all your data/log in to all your accounts... etc. It's anything but dead simple. (And I went from Android to Apple back in 2020 and back to Android in 2021. It sucked, both ways.)

Most people buy a new phone every few years as it is, app passwords are the same between platforms, and the average user only uses about a half dozen apps. No one is locked into iOS nor Android. We are talking about 2-3 hours of effort to switch, hardly a ‘anti-competitive’ burden. Get real.

If only the DOJ had thought of your idea before they launched the huge antitrust case against Apple! They might have saved themselves so much time!

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thanks, I don't want your fake "higher standards". >Does this sound like gouging the customer to line their executive pockets to you? Yes, it does, when they lobby to fight against right-to-repair. Yes, it does, when they price gouge the customer on storage upgrades. Yes, it does, when they hide defects in their products and push people to buy new products. Yes, it does, when they use child labor.

“Right to repair” is shallow thinking compared to durability and safety at billion device scale. “Storage upgrades” are shallow thinking compared to reliable unified memory at GPU speed -- again across a billion devices. Both of these benefit more consumers more, and more of the device lifetime, than the rarely applicable supposed harms you cite.

repairing increases its lifetime and prevents things from being dumped into landfills. some of the highest selling products are screen protectors, and cell phone cases. Clearly the consumers don’t believe your argument about durability.

They were price gouging even before unified memory so your argument doesn’t really hold water. I am sorry.

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#398
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Android was initially designed so that operators could customise it. The idea was apps were developed (and sold) only by operators, and everything else would be via the browser. I'm not sure where you got this information. The Android Marketplace arrived with version 1.0 of Android on the T-Mobile G1. Side loading has been available since the very beginning. What you describe more closely resembles what iPhone did,…

Previous versions Android were nothing like T-Mobile’s G1. It was more like if Nokia made a BlackBerry device. Just something else I was thinking about with Android. I love the Android OS but Google’s implementation is far and away the best version and while you could technically run Android with just the bare necessities and without google apps, it may as well be unusable. So, google has “technically” made it availa…

Yes, before it was launched it was a different OS. The iPhone forced a pivot.

Nonetheless, the very first phone that shipped with Android on it was the T-Mobile G1 (also branded as the HTC Dream).

> Just something else I was thinking about with Android. I love the Android OS but Google’s implementation is far and away the best version and while you could technically run Android with just the bare necessities and without google apps, it may as well be unusable. So, google has “technically” made it available without their services but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze to get it working how you want it.

Yes, it's unfortunate that AOSP is a shell that is missing so much-- it's more an OS framework than a complete OS at this point.

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European, it's baffling to me that your friend group wouldn't simply switch to a messaging app with good group chat support. WhatsApp, Signal, Messenger (FB) - these are all great alternatives that are extremely popular, and all have more features than iMessage. For example, in Scandinavia the current marker leader on all platforms is Facebook Messenger, despite this also being one of the only markets where iOS…

In the United States, if your friend group is using FB Messenger, all their messages are* readily pullable by police looking at someone two or three times removed from any one of them without a warrant “investigating” whether someone in their network asked a friend what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. That's less likely to happen to you in Scandinavia, perhaps since Puritans found it safer to set sail for New Eng…

You can now turn on end-to-end encryption on Messenger, and it sounds like they're making that the default option:

https://about.fb.com/news/2023/12/default-end-to-end-encrypt...

Re: The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think they’ve ever cared about being top dog, just the best. And the best might not be for everyone

Whether they cared or not at some point they were the most valuable company and, therefore, the top dog.

I didn’t say they weren’t.
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