Comments on: Why Andy Ihnatko switched from an iPhone to an Android

By: observer1959

observer1959 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:53:00 +0000

yep
http://macdailynews.com/2013/03/07/f-secure-android-accounted-for-96-of-all-mobile-malware-in-q4-2012/

By: MTBooks

MTBooks — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:32:00 +0000

Genuinely curious how you transfer wirelessly. Are you counting cloud storage type apps?
Yes, third party browsers are available, but they are reskinned safaris. No other web engine is allowed on iOS. I guess you can get out of using safari with Opera mini, which does rendering outside of the device.
What are you counting as a widget? I was thinking more like it’s just on the screen, you don’t have to pull a notification drawer down or anything. My experience was that the only thing like that was the calendar icon that changed dates.

By: Random Royalty

Random Royalty — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:46:00 +0000

It will be interesting to see how this debate goes when the Blackberry Z10 goes on sale in the US next week (flame away, fanbois!) :-)

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:36:00 +0000

I transfer files to and from my iPhone, wirelessly, all the time. Third party browsers are available. Checking the weather and constantly updating info on widgets — yep, also built in.

By: MTBooks

MTBooks — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:33:00 +0000

I would like to be able to transfer files to and from the device wirelessly. I also would like to be able to transfer files to and from the device over usb without using a proprietary software like iTunes. That hardly seems like hacking. Third party browsers (that aren’t reskins of the stock one) and third party keyboards…also hacking? Want to check the weather or other constantly updating info at a glance via a widget? Hacking too?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:30:00 +0000

People complain about all things, but I can’t say I really hear people complaining about the iPhone keyboard though, no. That’s my only gripe personally, but I don’t feel the need to discuss it at length. I cope.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:09:00 +0000

Complaining about the keyboard? I thought no one did that about the iPhone?

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:05:00 +0000

Try one of the other many Swype keyboards available?

By: raytube

raytube — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:10:00 +0000

Glad to see my #1 peeve here, the inability of the onscreen ios keyboard to change characters with the shift key.
#2 would be with Apple’s decision to not let safary search from the address bar, and while you are in the address bar, you don’t have a space key. Type in the first search term, look for the space bar, look for the space bar, crap, I’m in the address bar. delete text and click on search box, retype my search terms. That’s not helping me, Apple.
Also, I know there’s a search box right next to the address bar, and I know how to spell safary.

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:22:00 +0000

From my experience, jailbreaking a phone and then putting apps on it from outside an approved walled garden is a fantastic way to have a crashy, poorly-performing phone. Maybe it works for some people, but it certainly doesn’t work for everyone. A walled-garden approach might be anaethema to “makers”, I’m aware, but it’s an excellent way to keep things running and running well. It’s a smart consumer protection. And if you don’t like it, there’s other choices, so win-win.

Quite honestly, if you can’t get audiobooks running on an iPod, that’s not Apple’s fault. It’s a simple, built-in functionality. If my techo-adverse mom, who can’t quite figure out how email works, can do it, it’s not much of a “nightmare”.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:17:00 +0000

There’s a reason people jailbreak their iPhones. There are things they want to do that iOS explicitly prohibits.

Can you buy apps from someone other than Apple yet? And even then can you buy one that has not passed through Apple’s murky, ill-defined and partially anticompetitive approval process?

Yes, it is a tool. But the whole design philosophy since Job’s return to Apple has been based on a strictly limited set of uses for every tool to preserve simplicity. That was this article’s point, in part. I encountered this with the last Apple device I’ll ever purchase, an iPod Nano, which is great for playing 3 minute pop songs and an absolute nightmare for playing audio books. But playing audio books on an audio player doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:16:00 +0000

…or maybe some of us work with out hands all day. And so we have large hands.

By: Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:21:00 +0000

You can move the mic button to the symbols keyboard or remove it completely.

By: Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:52:00 +0000

Can you replace default associations yet?

By: Stephen Whitehead

Stephen Whitehead — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:48:00 +0000

I hit the microphone button by accident all the time which is frustrating enough. But who the hell decided that it should make a noise *even when my phone is on silent*? It’s infuriating beyond belief.

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:54:00 +0000

That old “cult of Apple” argument holds exactly zero weight in 2013, sorry. An iPhone/iPad does not force you to do things “Steve’s Way” or prevent you from doing anything you want to do — as long as you’re not planning on hacking your phone, no. Steve Jobs didn’t envision 99.9% of the millions of apps available and certainly didn’t mandate that they all “work the way he works”.

An iPhone is just a tool. It’s incredibly flexible. Don’t pretend it isn’t as a way to mock Apple users.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:25:00 +0000

I’ve had 2 Androids and neither of them do any of those things. My stepson’s iPhone does indeed work, consistently — as long as I’m only doing things Apple envisioned me doing. But if I have an idea Steve didn’t have, or work in a way he didn’t work, I’m toast.

By: vonbobo

vonbobo — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:14:00 +0000

I get crashes on my android frequently, but it has always been because of crappy 3rd party apps. If I identify the correct suspect, the problem goes away.

By: Sasha Shepherd

Sasha Shepherd — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:32:00 +0000

Stealing design patents is as valid as ‘stealing’ copyright on use of the phrase ‘good morning.’

By: Jeff Baker

Jeff Baker — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:58:00 +0000

A three part series implies more than “one specific piece of UI”

My Galaxy S3 has never had any of those problems (unless I run a custom rom so that’s on me). My Evo 3D didn’t either. The Hero had problems.
Until the S3 though, the only thing I envied about the iPhone was the battery life, but no more.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:23:00 +0000

Keep ‘em coming. I hope Apple abandons the iPhone and refocuses on MacBook Pros instead. /wishful thinking

By: Ambiguity

Ambiguity — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:12:00 +0000

On Android, the microphone button is right next to the period, so I always accidentally hit it when I’m trying to punctuate. It’s annoying — so I understand the writer’s gripe — but I’m not sure that switching to Android will solve that particular problem.

On the other hand, I think swipe it pretty nice, so I prefer the Android keyboard to IOS.

By: Ambiguity

Ambiguity — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:05:00 +0000

An Acer, but I bet they have similar keyboards.

I don’t know why they’re selling oversized keyboards — never had an issue with a standard, full-sized one. Maybe people’s fingers are getting too fat!

By: jackbird

jackbird — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:27:00 +0000

Swype makes me feel like I’m enrolled at Hogwart’s. Especially when I start swyping faster than my mind can actually process and it still mostly types the right words.

By: ♡ Malcolm Jackson

♡ Malcolm Jackson — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:24:00 +0000

“Press and hold to activate speech-to-text” does not need to be a user-settable option, just needs to be far away from the space bar!!

bip-BONG!

By: Okapi

Okapi — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:06:00 +0000

I lost interest when he said he originally tried iOS because it was better than Windows mobile. I only gave up my winmo 6.5 phone 5 months ago!

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:18:00 +0000

I don’t know if its the difference here, but the biggest issue seems to be:
All Iphones are equal, roughly. At least from the same time period.
All Androids are very much NOT. Good ones are better, worse ones are much worse.

At least that’s my understanding of the issue.

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:14:00 +0000

This is why I purchased a wireless keyboard, which I use with my laptop. It means I’m not tethered to being right where the laptop is either, which is nice.

But without that, I could see myself EASILY switching devices to get a more comfortable interface. It’s probably the most important difference between various computers for me.

By: MediaUnbalance

MediaUnbalance — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:06:00 +0000

Is this the result of fat finger syndrome?

By: MediaUnbalance

MediaUnbalance — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:59:00 +0000

Toshiba? My wife just got a new laptop with the same problem. Very annoying, although I think she’s sort of getting use to it.