I am dissapointed in my peers. For years I have always been told to stay away from Apple devices and the company in general. However, no one who said that actually used their devices, or used them but not recently (some had like iPhone 4s in the past). Their knowledge was always based on some 3rd hand impressions or internet related peer pressure.
I am in the EU, and Apple devices aren’t as popular as in the US, mostly everyone uses an Android phone and a Windows machine. That also led me using Android and Windows in my daily activities, for the last 15 years. After many phones, starting with HTC Wildfire, i have continously been let down by my phone every 1 to 3 years after purchase.
First i was buying flagships, then mid-high, then back to non-pro flagship variants. I was also trying diffenent brands; HTC, LG, Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi, Nokia, OnePlus. When my last phone died, and i had to buy a new one, i had no idea what to get.
Everything seemed bad, i had them, they look the same, software looks the same, i was afraid of picking a “wrong” phone again. Every single one of them had some issue i couldn’t get over. Either notification problems, bad battery life, slow performance on camera, issues with sharing stuff, fingerprint annoyances, restarts…
Mind you, not everything was on a single device. One had great battery life but i wouldn’t get messages sometimes, other was great but battery life was poor, and on most of them the camera was laggy or buggy.
1 year ago, maybe a bit more, it dawned on me that the only brand i haven’t used anything from is Apple, so i got a basic iPhone 13 to “check it out”, planning on using it for a week or two just to see what the fuss is about. I was using my Android device as the main phone, and the iPhone as a second phone, I wasn’t ready for the jump.
After a week i found myself doing everything on the iPhone apart from voice calls, so then i finally took the SIM and retired my Android phone. 6 months later, my Windows laptop battery died and the repair would cost more than what the laptop is worth. So i decided to purchase a thin and portable laptop with intention to install Debian on it, as i was done with Win11 bugs and “features”.
After looking for 2-3 weeks, comparing different laptops, i was set on a HP 14inch laptop with a price tag of about €1300. Then i remembered that i am still thinking with my peers in mind. They were enraged on how i “betrayed” them by switching to iPhone.
I decided to look up Mac laptops and found out that they are actually very similary priced as the one i wanted to buy. I got out and purchased a M2 Air, basic configuration. I had no idea about the iPhone-Mac compatibility and integrations. Found out about AirDrop and other features. I was in love with this new combo that, cliche, “just works”.
My “friends” literally went 180 on me just for the dumb reason of using one brand instead of the other. None of them has actually tried to use Apple hardware. They were mocking me about being “locked in”, “fallen for their marketing”, and other stuff. “How do you like your iCloud subscription?”, things like that.
I have to tell you, i do not use any paid service from Apple. I succesfully conected my Apple devices to my home server where i keep my files, photos, calendar and all the other applications on it. I am not locked in, i feel like i have even more freedom because some services work better than on Android or Windows.
Syncing works flawlessly, something that was always janky on Android.
Sorry for the long post.
I guess what i am trying to ask is, why so much hate? Why can’t a person decide for themselves? Why is macOS/iOS looked down upon regarding connectivity with other devices and services when that’s clearly not the case?
Why do people that have no first hand experience so vocal and opposed to the brand? Shouldn’t you at least try and then be the judge?
I think you should talk to your friends about this, not us.
They know why they (appear to) judge you better than any of us can infer from reading your side of the story.
But to answer your question as written: Yes, I am very familiar with their hardware and products. The hardware is good. The products are coherent. The company is dishonest, monopolistic and anti-consumer. I value my consumer freedom higher.
They are all monopolistic and anti-consumer though. Which mainstream brand is truly on the side of the consumer?
None are. We can’t have that world.
But whether due to incompetence, lack of monopoly or a trace of human soul, most mainstream brands don’t harm consumer rights as effectively as Apple do.
^ Exactly this. I was an Apple fanboy (perhaps even shill) until the iPhone 5S when my device had a bad NAND chip causing it to randomly and sporadically blue screen and reboot (as a PC user, the blue screen irony was not lost on me) and Apple jerked me around for 3 months until the phone was out of warranty and then told me I should have bought Apple Care on the phone even though the issue started before the 1 year warranty had expired.
I didn’t find this acceptable as I had written proof I’d taken the phone in to the shop multiple times during the warranty period, ended up calling their corporate office of the president where they worked with me to generate logs from the device and send them to Apple techs who would review it, at which point they came back and said “yeah it looks like the NAND chip is bad” and “but it’s out of warranty”. When I told the person from Apple this was ridiculous because I’d been an Apple customer for decades and I’d had umpteen Macs and Macbook laptops and iPhones and I’d never had this problem with any other Apple device (the whole point being the devices are 30% more expensive because they’re high quality and don’t have these types of problems), she cut me off and said “Apple doesn’t have a customer loyalty program, sir.” and dead-ended the entire conversation right there.
I took the 5S out to my driveway and smashed it with a hammer and went and bought a $200 HTC One E8 and I’ve been an Android user ever since and will never give Apple a penny if I can avoid it. The products were fine, the software was good, but the service/company is rotten.
- Are you AI/bot?
- Wall of text = incomprehensible, would not read/5.
- It’s rarely about how good the devices are, but how much they cost + Apple’s two-faced moral model that makes people oppose/reject it.
Are you AI/bot?
- No why?
- Ok, i didn’t take any writing classes
- What does that have to do with a device? To each their own, but i wouldn’t choose my daily drivers based on a company. We almost all drive gas cars, and big oil=bad, same with a lot of other stuff in our life but people are somehow really worried about their phone brand
It always surprises me how many people go for the self burn. Whining about a few paragraphs of texts is basically admitting their literacy level or attention span is pitiful.
That said, people who don’t like Apple still have legitimate reasons. Stuff like being forced to use proprietary connector, their “walled garden”. Basically if you’re happy within the limits of how you think they should do stuff it’s great, but not everyone is. None of that has really changed.
Use what you like though. People calling switching to Apple if that’s what you prefer a “betrayal” are being ridiculous.
My ADHD only allowed me to read the first two sentences.
I’m not reading that whole post, but in answer to the title. I use an android for my personal phone and an iPhone for my work phone. I’ve used both side by side for more than the last 10 years. Without a doubt the android phone is more functional and easier to use. I don’t give a shit about cameras, messaging apps, or brand loyalty. The android is more affordable and allows me to send texts, surf the internet, and watch YouTube without adds through vanced. I would never consider getting an iPhone as my personal use phone.
Paragraphs.
Paragraphs?
Paragraphs!
Ok i will add them sorry :|
Seems like i can’t find the eddit button anywhere
No. To me, Apple is like Nazis. They look good but are bad. The end.
I use Apple devices for work and although their hardware and software are reasonably well refined, I would never choose to use them for my personal devices as long as they continue their anti consumer walled garden approach.
I use an iPad for work. It’s getting better now that they have widgets and allow a little customization. I hate the app store and the keyboard (even with gbosrd installed it’s still clunky), and almost everything about using it. That said, it starts quickly, has good battery life, and is durable. Good device, terrible os. Android feels like the opposite - less reliable (more restarts) but much more pleasant to use. I haven’t used an apple computer in a hundred years but i dint remember it being bad. My kids use macs for design stuff at home and work and love them. As someone else mentioned, i think it’s ios that is hated.
People has often a natural need to play teams. I would have serious discussion with your friends about it. Because there is a limit when friendly ribbing turns not friendly. And that doesn’t sound healthy friendship.
iPhone is great for some people and Android is great for some people. I am happy you found what works for you.
But I have to ask what are you using for syncthing? Last time I tried it it was really sub par compared to my android.
I’m using nextcloud and synology drive (both available from the internet) with SMB fall-back through wireguard in case i need access to other folders on the server.
I gave up with trying to have serious conversations about not-serious topics with people in my life, it isn’t worth the time. I would much rather enjoy a meal or a drink and talk about something that actually requires some critical thinking than to just have piss contest on whose phone is better or whose car is faster, if you know what i mean.
Also cool thing about the iPhone. Bottom right of the keyboard there’s a button labeled “return”. Push it twice to start a new paragraph.
They were enraged on how i “betrayed” them by switching to iPhone.
Your friends need to chill the fuck out.
I’ve used Apple devices for work in the past (phone and laptop) although not for about 7 or 8 years and they were fine - bit of a learning curve as I have always been a Windows and Android person, but I got used to them, and those aspects of them that I found ideosyncratic (or just plain dumb!)
That said, it’d take a pretty big shift for me to want to go back to Apple by choice, but that’s partly because of cost and the sheer number of apps I’d have to buy to replace those I have.
But, if you want to go with Apple, it’s your call, and your friends should not be taking it so seriously.
I agree with the chilling, i think most people are on some death rampage to money and that makes them angry and irrational
I haven’t tried nor will I want to try Apple products for the following reasons:
Apple products seem to always have some critical design flaw under the surface, or even something I can only put down to deliberate malicious designed-to-fail, not-repairable shenanigans (soldered SSD, serializing even trivial parts like screen opening sensor, having high voltage backlight pin right next to low voltage signaling pin that connects directly to the soldered CPU etc).
The software is extremely locked down, I simply cannot function without Fdroid and installing packages straight from Github (how else am I going to extract the necessary encryption keys to use a gadget with an unofficial FLOSS application instead of the official spyware?). Android is not perfect, but at least I can hack it and mutilate it as I see fit and there are custom ROM-s. My next phone will probably run /e/ OS.
Plus Apple lacks the critical-to-me hardware like 3.5mm analog audio output. IR blaster is also nice to have when working with AV stuff that may not have the remote with them.
Last, but not least, they’re simply too expensive for me. I’m not willing to pay more than 300…400€ for a phone, and I don’t want to buy a mobile gadget used—demons only know what that thing has been through. And Apple desktop/laptop computers—yeah, well, just no. I like my standardized x64 architecture, where I can upgrade RAM and storage as I see fit for cheap and install whatever opsys I want, just fine thankyouverymuch.
I had an iPhone 12 for two weeks before I returned it. I tried to like it because, while you’re still in a corp walled garden and they cannot really be trusted, they so far are better than Google at least with regards to privacy.
However, there’s a list of stuff that got me too annoyed. Some examples:
- the stock keyboard is just garbage. All the infamous typos on social media come from iPhones because they choose to correct words that have already been written. You also cannot sensibly replace the stock keyboard because you cannot block a specific app’s data usage and keyboards are far too critical apps to grant internet access.
- stock apps are good overall (better than Android) but that means people don’t make replacements. The mail app could’ve been great but they choose to not support PGP and it’s practically impossible to set up.
- you cannot replace Safari completely, some apps still open it. Safari is crap because no way to install adblock.
- you still feel that iOS wasn’t developed as a multi-threading system. I had a few apps that wouldn’t correctly work while in background
- apps are far more expensive than for Android. Lots of subscription-based plans, more comparable to full-price PC software than mobile apps.
- no native file system access. Apps are sandboxed and handle their files themselves. I prefer to do that myself but no chance on iOS.
- the community is garbage. Every question or critcisim is the user’s fault. The Holy Corp does not make mistakes. Collective Stockholm syndrome.
I also ran into various bugs. I do on every platform but the “it just works” narrative is especially strong for Apple and it’s just not like their fans claim.
I find the keyboard much better than gboard. I don’t use autocorrect tho.
Stock apps are one of the things that kept me. I didn’t have to search the play store for an app, it was already there. I use imap for mail, and the mail app is the best app i ever used on any mobile device. Paid apps included.
There is adblock for safari
Background sync works a lot better for me than on Android. I never have to worry about syncing photos or files, while on Android it would stop and i wouldn’t notice for weeks that my photos disn’t sync.
Apps are more expensive, but better as well. There are apps that are the same as on Android but pricier on iOS, i agree there.
I don’t use a filesystem on any computer, or should i say built-in storage. Everything is connected to my home server and that part works as intended.
For that part, the Apple website has an actual user documentation for iOS and MacOS and it’s good. Not the best, but far better than anything available for Android.
You have to actually give it a try. It isn’t like android. It requiers some adaptation. That said, i understand if someone found their OS of choice and doesn’t consider anything else, i just never was in that postition with Android.
Most of the things I use my phone for don’t work on iPhones. They work just fine if you want the limited apps that they have available. I’ve found that making custom automation is not even a thing with Apple. You can’t side load apps, so you’re limited to just what they offer inside their store.
iPhones are for people who aren’t really into tech and just want something very basic that works.
I’m into tech. I program. I don’t give a fuck about tinkering on my phone. I use an iPhone
If you’re not writing your own software for the phone, and you don’t need access to the raw sensor data, there’s likely an equal app for iPhone now. I was in the same boat for a while - needing things that only android offered. I switched to iPhone in '19 I think, and I’ve found replacement apps for everything except detailed wifi scanning. Also, the apps I used on android which offered direct GPS tracking would show how many satellites and nominal locations are just binary - you have signal or you don’t. That’s frustrating when you’re at the edge of signal and trying to get a lock.
I can see how it would be a deal breaker if you need a specific app for work. I can’t switch to mac as several of my (multi-thousand dollar) analysis programs are windows only, and if an update breaks something or there’s an incompatibility, it costs me $2k/day to troubleshoot.
I don’t write my own software. I will alter apps sometimes, though. Mainly I use things like Tasker to create my own apps. I have about 85 apps that I’ve made using Tasker. It’s pretty much my entire reason for having a smart phone. Unless something has changed with Apple, you can’t run something like Tasker and you can’t side load your own altered apps.
Have you tried WiFiMan?
Not recently; it’s bee a year or two since I needed (and I use the term loosely) to find out and map the wireless bands and strengths that are in my house. Wifiman doesn’t appear to expose the specific channels each signal is bound, just a strength. By contrast, something like WiFiAnalyzer shows which APs are using which channels, what each signal strength is, and which channel zones are empty. I don’t need it often, but for something like setting up an AP for Quest PCVR, knowing where the blank spots are is pretty convenient.
I am really into tech but the phone is the only part that i really don’t want to fiddle with.
Recent Apple is the whole problem! Jobs era apple was amazing, but Cook era Apple is just a style brand with mediocre products. I used to love everything apple made, but for a long time now I’ve disliked almost everything they’ve done.
