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I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

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Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#501

Post by rifung »

Jtsummers wrote: post #470
rifung wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it's annoying because I like to play games on the bus where I also don't have internet. I'm just saying that in a way, this was caused by people pirating too much software. I wish I had a solution which didn't require the apps to go online but I don't.

To forget about piracy. I mean no offense to these developers, but if your app can't sell then it can't sell. People will steal software regardless of what you do. Measures like this almost certainly don't encourage more sales, instead they result in negative reviews and fewer sales. Related question: This was on iOS. How bad is software piracy for this platform?

From what I understand iOS doesn't have much of a problem with piracy since you have to jailbreak to pirate apps (I think). If it's iOS then I'm not really sure why they had to use the internet to be honest..

I just know that Android has a pretty big issue with piracy and some developers choose to release their apps for free on Android for that reason.

I don't disagree with what you are saying and again, I don't know if requiring internet access to combat piracy is the right thing to do but I feel like it's a bit sad to place the blame solely on the creators of the app and not on people who pirate their apps

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#502

Post by cromulent »

stcredzero wrote: post #81

I don’t know whether or not this type of app was actually intended to be the primary mechanism for 3rd party dev to build apps for iOS but regardless… This was basically said by Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall during a WWDC keynote.

I think this is the one:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11iPhone-to-Support-...

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#503

Post by PopsiclePete »

Swizec wrote: post #102
stcredzero wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is that you left the freedom of your device to jail yourself into simple interface...? Actually, this is a pattern that many products follow, as they evolve from a newly tinkered thing pioneered by enthusiasts to a mature consumer device. There is much more "freedom" in 80's and 90's audio equipment. (And markedly higher build quality. Bargain stuff I bought as a teenager is now lauded on ebay as t…

> Cars also followed this pattern, come to think of it. I remember my dad complaining all through my youth about how the more modern that cars get, the less serviceable you are. That in new cars you need special computers just to tell them that yes, you did fix the problem and the car can stop complaining now. 10 years later ... man, if I have to even think about opening the bonnet and poking at something, I assume t…

It's great, but without tinkering - you never really learn how things actually tick.

I always chuckle to myself when I'm told by 40-year-olds how their 14-year- olds are "so amazing with computers!". But yeah - Jimmy can open up Facebook on the iPad like nobody's business, but Jimmy has no fracking clue what's actually happening or why, or how to even diagnose common issues. Then again, maybe that's ok if Jimmy doesn't give a crap about how computers work.

I grew up in Europe and never had a car until I was in my late 20's so I never tinkered with them. Now, if something goes wrong, I just take it to the dealer. So I'm like Jimmy with the iPad.

There's no problem for me or Jimmy. The world is fine.

But then there's Billy. Unlike me, Billy didn't grow up with DOS and early Linux, so Billy has never had to look at a hex dump or figure out what pointers are or registers or flags - Billy just hits "Go" in his Java IDE and prays everything works out. If it doesn't, his eyes glaze over and he heads over to Stackoverflow.

Billy is hampered by today's world. He doesn't have to tinker with his PC or iPad, but not only that, he's actively being prohibited from tinkering with them. They're not only appliances, they're sealed off, protected by dozens of copyright and patent laws appliances that you don't even technically own anymore without signing-off on 7 different legal agreements. It's insane.

Billy might never learn about how a computer actually works. And one day he'll have to diagnose/fix something that only the 30-somethings can and he won't know how, and not because he's dumb.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#504

Post by Swizec »

PopsiclePete wrote: post #503
Swizec wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cars also followed this pattern, come to think of it. I remember my dad complaining all through my youth about how the more modern that cars get, the less serviceable you are. That in new cars you need special computers just to tell them that yes, you did fix the problem and the car can stop complaining now. 10 years later ... man, if I have to even think about opening the bonnet and poking at something, I assume t…

It's great, but without tinkering - you never really learn how things actually tick. I always chuckle to myself when I'm told by 40-year-olds how their 14-year- olds are "so amazing with computers!". But yeah - Jimmy can open up Facebook on the iPad like nobody's business, but Jimmy has no fracking clue what's actually happening or why, or how to even diagnose common issues. Then again, maybe that's ok if Jimmy doesn…

Billy can also take a CS class or two.

Those DOS hex dumps meant nothing to me until I had a couple of microcontrollers and CPU architecture classes under my belt.

Like you, I'm also nostalgic about those error dumps and tinkering. But I also don't remember a single time when my reaction was more than "Oh neat, I understand my CPU did an error. reboot"

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#505

Post by goldbrick »

drewg123 wrote: post #471
spacehome wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anybody know what it's doing when it's "optimizing" applications?

It is pre-compiling apps from java to native executables. This comes from the ART runtime which is the default in Lollipop and newer. Google for "android ART" I think this is a HUGE problem, and that somebody is going to die because they're unable to call 911 while the phone is "optimizing"

Shouldn't it be possible to do this as part of the build process, or even by the play store?

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#506

Post by treehau5 »

kalleboo wrote: post #413
treehau5 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every web app I've used has required a painful sign-up process, which is usually where I bail out of the process. Way more friction than an app store install. That signup process can be made better. Nothing fixes the pains of having to download a large app over a potentially slow/spotty network, sacrifice an unknown amount of privacy, then having to twiddle a variable amount of options to get the thing to stop send…

> Nothing fixes the pains of having to download a large app over a potentially slow/spotty network You mean like the 12 MB it takes to load a Google Sheet? At least with a native app, once it's downloaded you know it's there and it won't go into an indeterminate state if you happen to try to use a feature that hasn't been loaded yet. > sacrifice an unknown amount of privacy, then having to twiddle a variable amount o…

> These are not issues when you have iOS's permissions model

Which is 13.9% market share currently.

Unless Apple wants to make budget devices (they don't), this world does not exist, and it won't any time soon.

> You mean like the 12 MB it takes to load a Google Sheet?

Although I realize we are speaking in hypotheticals, and generalizing the type of apps people use (I realize there are smaller ~2 meg apps), the average size of an iOS app is 20mb, and the average android app is 7mb. You pointed out an exceptional use case, not the most common.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#507

Post by ngrilly »

lucian1900 wrote: post #461
ngrilly wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how many things Atom gets wrong Like what? I'm starting using it and I'd like to know.

The biggest issue is the performance difference. It takes an entire second to syntax highlight a new file and large files are unusable. Almost all interactions have a noticeable delay, including typing. Scrolling is painfully slow. At least on OS X, it's by far the app with the largest energy impact. It's the only other thing that competes with Chrome. Besides that, it doesn't use native UI elements where it could. P…

Those are good points. What would you use instead?

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#508

Post by YZF »

Grazester wrote: post #405
YZF wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disappointing though it didn't get the latest OS upgrade. One of the reasons I bought the Nexus 4 is the promise that it would get updates...

Yeah and it got the promised updates(up to 2 years)

Only getting what's promised is a disappointment. My expectation from Google is that they over-deliver on their promises. Being pressured to buy a new (much more expensive) device is sure to turn me off from buying one.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#509

Post by hrktb »

Narishma wrote: post #458
hrktb wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This point is addressed in the article, the point is not to have web app perform as fast or better than native app. As long as they are fast enough it's ok. I'll support this point: for so many services I'd be ok to trade off native performance for a smoother install process and independance from arbitrary rules. For instance amazon kindle app is severly limited by the app store rules while it has arguably no feature…

> This point is addressed in the article, the point is not to have web app perform as fast or better than native app. As long as they are fast enough it's ok. That may be true if you only care about performance, but what about battery usage? That's something important on a phone.

Would the battery usage be much worse ?

I get that taking more CPU time and doing less efficient operations will be worse, but this peaks would generally happen when the user is actively interacting, which in the running time of an app is not a lot.

I would think the large majority of what this could be used for has less interactions and moving parts than the usual app. Of course someone would implement Quake in JS, but otherwise your note taking app or other utility (even a chat app) won't be actively sucking battery constantly.

Re: I switched to Android after 7 years of iOS

#510

Post by gryph0n »

spacehome wrote: post #453
babuskov wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy a Nexus. I have and it's a huge disappointment. I had a perfect Nexus 10 device running KitKat. And then it keeps nagging to upgrade to Lollipop, so I did. Ever since that, it runs every application slow as hell. If you allow the battery to run out, prepare for pain. Once you fill up the battery and it restarts it will start "optimizing" all installed applications. I have about 80 applications and this take…

Does anybody know what it's doing when it's "optimizing" applications?

It is performing AOT compilation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahead-of-time_compilation

The phone environment is not conducive to JIT'ing, unlike your typical desktop/laptop.

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