Ok, Apple haters, convince me

I don't like Apple's business model. If the Empire ever comes up with a phone company, it will be modeled after Apple. The Rebels are going to go with Android. 

My parents use iPhones and have constant problems with them. (Mostly caused by them.) They call me for help and I have to explain that I'm with the resistance. If they want tech support they will have to call my siblings who have already been assimilated into the collective. (Yes, I did change universes, get over it.) From the times I've looked at them, it seems that Apple is pretty resistant to changing anything except their charge cords. 

From a hardware perspective, I haven't really ever had an issue with Android phones. They work. They can literally do anything you will ever want. I usually average 3-5 years out of them except for my last folding phone. I'd avoid those.

I do like having a quality camera and actually looked at an Apple phone when I was shopping a couple of months ago. At the moment, that's not Apple. At the moment, Apple isn't in the top 3. So I just bought a Samsung S23 Ultra. 

Duke said:

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

Duke said:

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

What kind of screen customization do you want to do that the iPhone won't permit?

Custom icon packages, not having to have every single app on my phone on my screens, resizable widgets, etc.

OK, custom icons are probably off the table.  You can easily put all your unwanted app icons into a single folder on the last screen, which gets them consolidated out of view.  I don't have too many widgets, so that's not an issue for me, but I get it.

 

I don't know if Apple phones can do this, but here is another cool feature of the home screen for apps. 

I can take say Instagram and drop it on top of Facebook. It creates a new folder called "Social." Now that folder has 4 apps that I can see in the folder (even smaller icons) that only take up the space of 1 traditional sized icon. 

z31maniac said:

I don't know if Apple phones can do this, but here is another cool feature of the home screen for apps. 

I can take say Instagram and drop it on top of Facebook. It creates a new folder called "Social." Now that folder has 4 apps that I can see in the folder (even smaller icons) that only take up the space of 1 traditional sized icon. 

Apple can do this as well.  Im actually curious if this has ever not been an option on Apple or Android.  I recall seeing it on smartphones even before I had one, circa 2008

ProDarwin said:

z31maniac said:

I don't know if Apple phones can do this, but here is another cool feature of the home screen for apps. 

I can take say Instagram and drop it on top of Facebook. It creates a new folder called "Social." Now that folder has 4 apps that I can see in the folder (even smaller icons) that only take up the space of 1 traditional sized icon. 

Apple can do this as well.  Im actually curious if this has ever not been an option on Apple or Android.  I recall seeing it on smartphones even before I had one, circa 2008

Yeah, wife has one screen of multiple apps in folders grouped by what they are and what they do. games, learning apps, etc all in their own folders. 

Duke said:

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

Duke said:

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

What kind of screen customization do you want to do that the iPhone won't permit?

Custom icon packages, not having to have every single app on my phone on my screens, resizable widgets, etc.

OK, custom icons are probably off the table.  You can easily put all your unwanted app icons into a single folder on the last screen, which gets them consolidated out of view.  I don't have too many widgets, so that's not an issue for me, but I get it.

This sounds very inferior to the UI I am used to with Android.

It default has a separate layer (swipe up) where it stores access to all apps listed alphabetically. Then your home layer you can swipe left/right for your select widgets and apps in custom locations.

All the other apps aren't "unwanted", they're just low priority.

Beer Baron said:

This sounds very inferior to the UI I am used to with Android.

It default has a separate layer (swipe up) where it stores access to all apps listed alphabetically. Then your home layer you can swipe left/right for your select widgets and apps in custom locations.

All the other apps aren't "unwanted", they're just low priority.

Regarding unwanted apps, when you click "remove app", it will ask if you want to delete it, or just remove it from the home screen.  you don't need to have the icon.



The all-apps view is accessible on iphone also, you just swipe a different direction.

I never found widgets useful on Android, so I actually have my iPhone configured without them anyway.  They are possible though.

In reply to ProDarwin :

Yeah, all that. You can still access this stuff via a swipe, or you can just folderize them.

I reluctantly switched to an iPhone a few months ago (refurb 12 Pro from Backmarket), and it's okay. I was motivated by Apple's broadly better privacy than Google, being on the same ecosystem as my wife and parents (helps with tech support, I hope), while fighting my hate of their "we own your experience" model, their DIY-hostility, and the remaining bad feelings from when they stonewalled me on a lemon iBook during the last two terms of my computer science studies. That sucked.

It's fine. It works well. It has some neat tricks. I don't love it or hate it any more than I loved or hated my OnePlus 6T.

I've got no giant complaints, and I don't think there's a wrong answer. Both systems work fine. If it weren't for Google trying to sell every aspect of my existence they can analyze I probably wouldn't have moved off Android. Oh, I hate Apple Music (so this is a non-issue for the OP), and it's been seriously tedious being able to listen to my own music collection on an iPhone. Because I don't want Apple Music berking my collection, I've had to duplicate many gigs of FLAC and mp3 files into ALAC and a "sacrificial copy" pile of mp3s that I can just delete if/when I move off Apple. They're just files, I can manage them myself, and no app should be making any changes to my music collection.

Here's what I'm hoping to do in a few years: The Fairphone is actively user-serviceable, user-upgradeable (like they keep form factors consistent so that up to a point when the new version gets an updated camera, you can just get the camera and drop it in your old phone). Available with Android or a de-Googled Android (that's both exciting and probably a pain to manage apps on since I'm guessing that makes it non-Play-store-compatible). Oddly, I found out about it in a Driving 4 Answers video where he was discussing how people don't buy the repairable item when they have the choice, and I was all "I didn't knoooooooow!"

Another thing I don't like with Apple is that things usually work, but when they don't, you're stuck behind a GUI that doesn't let you get to the goods.  It's the antithesis of open-source.  I'm no coder or hacker, but I like to have options, and iPhone doesn't have many of the things I want.

If you want to print from an Apple, you use the iPhone software.  If it doesn't work, you're options on troubleshooting are limited.  If you want to print from an Android, you can use the built-in print service, or you could use one of literally thousands of apps that let you choose what you like, customize things, troubleshoot printing, etc.

If you're just using it to make phone calls and play Angry Birds, either one will be fine.  If you're using your phone as an actual tech device, I would prefer Android.  Both are fine devices, just depends on what you prefer and how you plan to use it.

Regardless of what you choose, if you switch - give it a couple months not a couple weeks. You'll unlearn and re-learn (and forget) all the touch sequences to do the things you need. And either one will very likely work just fine. 

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

The printing and scanning options have gotten better, but probably depends on the printer. 

We have an all in 1 printer from HP that is probably 4 years old and I can use the iPhone print function or the HP app. I'm also able to scan from the scanner directly to the phone or share scans via email, text or save to the phone or cloud. 

I've never liked direct phone printing. I guess I'm a Luddite. I always email whatever and print from a computer. Laugh if you want. 

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

That's not why we're laughing at you.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Another thing I don't like with Apple is that things usually work, but when they don't, you're stuck behind a GUI that doesn't let you get to the goods.  It's the antithesis of open-source.  I'm no coder or hacker, but I like to have options, and iPhone doesn't have many of the things I want.

If you want to print from an Apple, you use the iPhone software.  If it doesn't work, you're options on troubleshooting are limited.  If you want to print from an Android, you can use the built-in print service, or you could use one of literally thousands of apps that let you choose what you like, customize things, troubleshoot printing, etc.

If you're just using it to make phone calls and play Angry Birds, either one will be fine.  If you're using your phone as an actual tech device, I would prefer Android.  Both are fine devices, just depends on what you prefer and how you plan to use it.

yeah none of that is anything I will or need to mess with. I just like a simple plug and play model that is compatible with the wifes and we are good. 

The reason (and the only compelling reason for me) I switched from Apple to Android was the availability of headphone jacks.  You can still get a mid-level Android phone with a headphone jack. 

I suspect that by the time my current phone dies (it's pretty new), there might be zero practical phones (ie not low end) that still have a headphone jack built in.  If that does come to pass, I might well consider going back to the dark side.

Fruit co gets zero dollars from me because they brick perfectly good hardware when they decide its not profitable to keep the software updated. My first gen iPad which has zero problems and has 100% hardware function intact is essentially a pretty kitchen trivet because they wont unlock the OS.

EULA is a BS excuse they hide behind because profit. Berk them. Dry and hard.

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

Has it stopped running?  I've got an old iPad that still runs fine, despite having hit the end of it's OS upgrade path.  I've never had one not run.

My 14-year-old iMac still runs fine, too, though a bit slowly.  I got free system updates for at least 4 major OS releases, if not more.  I can't bring it up to the current MacOS, it is true.  But it still runs fine on the highest mountain range version it can climb.

I have a Dell Windows 7 laptop upstairs, too, that is never going to work with a more advanced system.  It ain't just Apple.

I was a hardcore Mac/Apple guy for many years. I went to Android about 2 years ago now, and I don't see going back. My move was based more on the Apple ecosystem and how bad it had gotten, especially managing photos. I saw Apple taking over more and more things as well, it got to the point that you had to have a Mac computer, and an iPad, and an iPhone in order to manage your stuff. Fine if you have all that and can buy new ones every few years, but work was providing me with free PCs, so that was a PITA. I never became an Apple hater per se, but I was ready to say goodbye. 

I have found the Google ecosystem to be pretty good, though you do have to deal with a Samsung ecosystem that fights for your commitment unless you buy a Google Phone. (Plus Microsoft trying to muscle in. And legacy Apple stuff. Ugh.) But like Apple, as long as you move to the Google way of doing things, everything syncs and works. 

My wife and son still have iPhones and its hard to use them now. Once you are used to one system, it is hard to use the other. But switching takes about a week and once you are up to speed and its not an issue. Overall, I think they are very similar in that some things work great and others could be improved. For every thing that iPhones do better, there is something that Android phones do better. I do like having more control over my phone and wider integration with PCs and websites and cars (The Elantra can be used sans-key with an Android phone, not an iPhone). 

FWIW, I use the google ecosystem (Drive, Keep, Photos, Gmail, etc.), but with an Apple phone.  No issues there. 

Threads like this make me want to go to Android. Using one for about 5 minutes, like I did yesterday, fixes that. My brother says "but the iPhone can't do XYZ". Last night I asked what he was trying to accomplish with XYZ. Every XYZ he could come up with, either it was something that didn't matter to me at all, or else I could do it faster on the iPhone than he could on the Android. 

I'm not exactly a luddite; I've had Android before for a few months, I use UIs at work that are very customizable and not beginner friendly... I can do it. But I don't want to. The iPhail works directly out of the box. I don't have to fiddle with it. It just works with no necessary input from me. 

It is a phone. I text people, I check email, I make phone calls. I use it to surf the web or social media. Occasionally I'll print something from it, and it works every time. But it is still just a phone. And Apple still has the best plug and play solution. 

Some of that is definitely the fact that I've had about 8 years of iPhone and about 7 months of Android (well, I guess it is actually about 9 years of Android via tablets). 

I'll say that if I could get iMessages on Android, I'd be more inclined to give them a better chance. I think this is actually an Apple problem, but vidoes and images don't work well via SMS between Android and iPhone. And since 99% of my messages are to other iPhone users, it makes it an easy decision. 

I currently need to figure out if I can use the iPhone 13 from my old job. I think I still have access to the Apple ID. 

mtn said:

I'll say that if I could get iMessages on Android, I'd be more inclined to give them a better chance. I think this is actually an Apple problem, but vidoes and images don't work well via SMS between Android and iPhone. And since 99% of my messages are to other iPhone users, it makes it an easy decision. 

Oh, this is 1000% an Apple problem.

You can vote with your $, but once you are outvoted by a large enough group of people it doesn't matter anymore.  Eventually you stop bitching about no manuals being available and you just buy a DSG BMW or similar. 

In reply to mtn :

The iMessages thing is maddening. Apple will neither adopt the more modern public text protocols nor allow Android to use their version.

 It's very much like saying "text shouldn't be a thing that works between any two phones" or "we're going to provide a browser that doesn't work with actual standards, so if you don't buy our server and use our nonstandard code, your site will look broken to our users."

I'm half surprised Apple doesn't put a "crinkling newspaper" audio filter over calls from non-iPhones.

I know all this and I'm still cross enough with Google to be writing from an iPhone. The whole situation sucks. Telephony shouldn't be this siloed.

ProDarwin said:

mtn said:

I'll say that if I could get iMessages on Android, I'd be more inclined to give them a better chance. I think this is actually an Apple problem, but vidoes and images don't work well via SMS between Android and iPhone. And since 99% of my messages are to other iPhone users, it makes it an easy decision. 

Oh, this is 1000% an Apple problem.

What's so special about iMessages?  AFAIK they are just iPhone-to-iPhone internet messages rather than using the SMS system.  There isn't anything inherently different about them.

I am in a mixed family group of iPhone and Android users.  We have 11-12 members and nobody has any difficulty getting each other's messages or images.

The only one with a problem is my one sister who is anti-technology and refuses to buy a phone made in the current decade (no matter which decade it happens to be).  She can't get replies in any thread with more than a few people.  She's on the Android side, not the Apple side.

In reply to Duke :

The only weirdness I get on my Android texting with people who use iPhone is that I frequently get the message, "[Person] liked [text of last message I sent]." Because the thumbs-up icon they see on their phone doesn't translate.

For whatever reason, SMS messages with photo's or video's come through with terrible quality between Apple and Android. 

Since 99% of the people I interact with using my phone use Apple, it makes the decision for me.