The Glade 4.0

I used to have a mild distaste for iOS devices, primarily due to price. They simply didn't offer any major advantages for being triple the cost of an equivalent Android or Windows mobile device.

I've been put on a mobility project at work where I'm regularly working with Blackberry, Android and iOS devices. I've been provided with an iPhone6 and a brand new iPad for testing of Blackberry's Universal Device Service (MDM solution).

My feelings about Apple during this time have gone from "Damn. While they're overpriced, these devices really are beautiful. Wow. I like them. Okay, so they're not $900 of beautiful, but I wish I could have one at a more reasonable cost," to "I despise these Orwellian control freaks!"

Everything about iOS puts you in a bubble... a padded steel bubble with no obvious door.

This starts from the moment you begin setting up and using your Apple ID.

I want you to compare here:

A Google account can be set up and used on any android device with only a unique email address you choose yourself at the time. You need not provide Google with any verifiable personal information, no credit card or payment info (unless you want to actually purchase something). You have anomymity. Comparitively, An Apple ID requires two existing email addresses, which you must verify (although the "Rescue" email verification is optional), a credit card (non-negotiable - you cannot use your Apple ID on the app store until you've given them CC information at least once), and a telephone number. Seriously? You need to know that much about me to use a device that has already been purchased?

On Android, software for just about any function is available -- for FREE. And if you don't like Google Play's selection, or pricing, a simple settings choice allows you to install APK files from any source, and although Google advises against it, they do not STOP it. Apple - assuming that the Spawn of Jobs approves of the function, is likely going to charge you for it. And no, you can't install from another source. What? Bittorrent? No, that's used for piracy. We tell you what you can use your apple device for, you don't get to use it.

Then there's simple things - like how I seem unable to have the appstore simply remember my Apple ID password permanently. I can understand requiring the password again for paid apps, but free ones? I entered my password yesterday. Why do you need it again?

Those are just a few small examples. My feeling when using an Apple device is that I'm being coerced into being a nice consumer drone - doing exactly what I'm told and nothing else, because that's all I can do. It's telling that Mozilla won't release their Firefox browser on iOS due to the many restrictions Apple forces upon developers. (I'm surprised Google bothered with Chrome on it.) Prior to this experience, price was the only factor that really stood out to me to piss me off about Apple. I'd heard about their limitation and control of their devices, but I figured with my limited experience and technical expertise with the device, that wouldn't become evident or affect me for a long time. I was so wrong.

Apple can DIAF.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yep, Apple is definitely the Fisher Price of electronics. However, they play to the fact that most people know exactly nothing about how things work, so they've cornered that market. Click the big shiny button, the one thing that it's supposed to do, it does.

Android is the dev playground, IOS is the shiny prison. However, it also means that Android has more fragmentation, sometimes it requires more effort to do things on android, and the general public does not like effort. Bow to the cult of Apple.

That's the thing...I'm not a developer. I couldn't script my way out of a wet paper bag. I am only moderately technically adept at even my specialities, and mobile devices are certainly not my specialties. I didn't expect to run into issues where the control would grate on me. And yet I did, almost instantly.

I don't hate android, but ultimately, I think my most useful mobile device, is my $200 Dell Venue 8 Pro.

To top it all off, I'd been lead to believe from certain people (most of whom post here) that iOS feels more responsive and faster than Android. This is bullshit. My 2 year old Nexus 4 phone far outperforms this new ipad, even on simple click-responsiveness.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I don't have the deep, seething hatred of iOS or Apple that you do, but I do feel your frustrations. I'm a tinker, I love to mess around with things, and change things up. You simply cannot do this with Apple devices. They lock things down so tightly, that you can't do anything but what they want you to do. And I have two kids, both with Apple devices, and I do NOT want to have to enter a credit card, or create an iTunes account, just for them to be able to use them, but I'm given very little choice.

I had an iPhone for 4 years, then I switched to an Android device (HTC One X) for 2 years. And now, I'm back with the iPhone 6. And there are many reasons for that. I use my phone camera A LOT. Literally, for almost everything. I got the One X because it was an awesome camera. But I did get frustrated at times with the Android device. Most of that was because of the HTC Sense OS/Overlay, but occasionally, Google would make fundamental changes to the OS that irked me. And the battery life on my Android was...problematic, at best.

The main issue, though, was that non-techy people had problems using my Android. I couldn't hand my phone to my wife, or my kids, and have them perform a task for me. It just wasn't intuitive. Likewise, I can hand them my iPhone 6, and they can easily look something up, or get directions, or whatever I need them to do. This has happened multiple times, mostly while I'm driving. I will have my wife look up directions for me. She would get so frustrated with my Android, that she would give up and pull out her iPhone, instead.

I decided to go back to Apple with the iPhone 6 because, it's just gorgeous. I already had a 4.7 inch screen in my One X, so size wasn't the deciding factor, but the iPhone screen is just so beautiful. The camera is very, very good, despite only being 8 MP. iOS 8 has made several improvements, and quality of life changes. And, with my whole family having iPhones or iPads, I wanted to be able to FaceTime with them, since we are not always together. So far, I am very happy with my new iPhone, despite being locked into the Apple / iOS eco-system.

_________________
"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

See, my kids have no trouble at all using the camera on my Nexus 4 phone. They know how to use it better than I do (I simply don't take pictures. Almost ever.) There's nothing difficult about android - "it just works." Sound familiar? The interface on it is not harder than iOS. They're pretty much the same, in fact. I've never rooted the device, I don't tinker with it. There's nothing mysterious or un-friendly about Android -- I've not had any problems with it. I never have to look up how to do something on the droid - it's intuitive. Ironically, google has been my constant resource trying to use an ipad. Unfortunately, half of the "How do I do this?" questions on iOS are answered with Apple's jedi mind trick, "You can't do that on iOS. You don't need to do that on iOS. You don't need to do that on anything."

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I haven't used an Apple device since iOS8 hit, but they definitely used to be much more responsive than android devices. If that has changed I wouldn't be surprised, Android has been focusing on streamlining their OS while Apple seems content to bloat theirs.



Stock Android, sure, you can do whatever you want. What about on devices that you can't root or unlock the boot loader? Options suddenly become pretty limited. On that same note, let's not pretend that you can't jailbreak (root) iOS devices and do the same damn things, there's multiple unofficial "app stores." Yeah it's a pain on the newer devices but hey, ever tried to root a Note 3? Good luck.

Of course Windows RT can't do any of this **** and Windows Phone population is so small that no one bothers.

I never root or unlock an android device. You don't need to do so for what I'm describing. I rooted my first samsung galaxy ace a few years ago, and have never done it to another device since. There's very few things that require it. (Now, with that said, there's a reason the only Android devices I'll touch are Google Nexus branded. They aren't rooted, but they ARE stock android. They're also much better value than Samsung's offerings.)

I'd never touch Windows RT. My Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet ($200 at Best Buy) has Windows 8.1 full version on it, not RT.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Android Lollipop is going to be leap and bounds better than existing android in terms of performance and general efficiency...

I am definitely excited to get it on my Nexus 5. Should be any time/day now.

Although I am unsure of how much of a boost I'll actually see, since I am already running ART over Dalvik RTE.

_________________
Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Surprisingly,the best of many new features will actually reduce the value of the Nexus brand...

http://www.engadget.com/android-lollipop-review/

I see that as a major plus. The biggest current failing of the Android brand is due to proprietary manufacturer and carrier software: Android updates are not rolled out equally and universally.

When Google releases a new version, manufacturers and carriers need to modify and test it to work with their special software. Eventually (and usually very quickly) they quit doing that as the next new piece of hardware comes out, so it's not uncommon that a phone that is only a year old will never see another update. Not without rooting it and installing a custom ROM, which can be difficult, as some manufacturers go out of their way to make some phones hard to root. And, even then, you are totally reliant on a third party to continue to convert the latest update to be compatible with your phone (who may also one day get tired of doing so).

For people that want to keep using the fun software, they can. But now users can have a choice.

_________________
Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Manufacturers and Service Providers have no incentive to develop, test and deploy software updates for older hardware.

It's far more profitable to sell you a new one. :p

Metro isn't much better, requiring to change you primary system logon to a Microsoft account and making you enter a verification code when you log into a new device

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Like Google, you can sign up for a Microsoft account completely anonymously. There is no credit card required for verification. However, unlike android, you don't need a Microsoft account to set up windows 8/8.1. You can set up the primary user unconnected to a Microsoft account.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I know its not as bad. I'm just grumbling trying to get a new machine set up

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Windows 8/8.1 does not require that you do this to log on. It just encourages it to better integrate into their ecosystem.

_________________
The Dude abides.

If you want to acquire anything from the store it does, unless I missed something. On top of that the metro version of splashtop was absolutely horrid anyway. I'm hoping I can use the 7 version.

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

But you can install software and make the system useful without using the app store.

With Apple... not so much...

OS X you can just fine, iOS not so much. Since we're talking about Windows proper here, let's compare apples to apples.

o.O

_________________

Actually we began talking about tablets. Taly is upset that she can't run BitTorrent on an iPad. I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to her that tablets ware not the appropriate device for peer to peer file transfer, and therefore BitTorrent is not, and shouldn't be, a priority for the design of a mobile OS. I now know what she feels like when she has to provide support to customers.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Thanks for letting me know how the thread started. The cool thing about conversations is that they can move from one topic to another! Rori's little tangent changed the topic of conversation from tablets to Windows 8 in general.

You're welcome. I understand that people have a hard time staying on topic and like to start making snide comments about various tangents.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Staying on topic when the topic is a general rant isn't really that important.

Some people become obsessively focussed on how something started, instead of taking part in an organic conversation as it grows, this derailing the entire thread and conversational topic in a completely separate and ultimately less productive way.

_________________
Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

If this board's purpose is to be productive, I need to stop reading it at work.

_________________