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My whole family (parents, sister & her kids, wife & our kids) have switched to iPhones (and macos devices) years ago. Result: 1. no "technical" issues anymore

My whole family (parents, sister & her kids, wife & our kids) have switched to iPhones (and macos devices) years ago. Result: 1. no "technical" issues anymore. As the go to IT guy in the family this alone is worth the supposed premium price one pays for the Apple logo. 2. Everything is updated, at all times. 3. "Facebook logs my sms" are a none issues 4. All devices die of old age (even the devices that have since long not recieved updates "just work") 5. Nothing beats the quality of Facetime (we live all over the globe and use it extensively to celebrate and share together). I still buy a couple of Androids per year. Cheapish phones for experiments with wardriving, imsi catcher catchers and other fun projects. So I totally get the "Android is outselling iPhones", thing is that we spend x moneys in the iTunes shop, and not a dime in the Google store. We've also moved out contact data out to google (since gmail is just absolutly the only email one ever needs and having synced contacts is wonderfull) together with the google photo app (since it is free and does a great job while migrating between devices). Now if only there was a way to painlessly move from one iPhone to the next, we would be exchanging them far more often. But no matter what I've tried: one always looses certain passwords / content / settings from different apps.

aeontech 8y ago
FWIW, I move my family between iPhones every year and haven’t noticed any data loss. One exception to date is WeChat, for some godforsaken reason they only back up the most recent dozen conversations or so, so if you want your entire history, you have to jump through hoops to initialize a device-to-device transfer over WiFi, which can take an entire night in worst case. Would be curious to hear what kind of data loss you have seen though?
- ttflee 8y ago
  Be cautious using WeChat. If the Chinese authority could retrieve something from the device, the U.S. authority must be able, too. https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-wechat-messages-can-be-retrieved-by-chinese-authorities.html https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-w...
  - syntaxing 8y ago
    I'm curious how you came to this conclusion. WeChat is owned by Tencent which is heavily regulated by the Chinese Government since every company needs a Internet license to operate. It's a lot easier for the Chinese government to force Tencent to hand over the information willingly compared to the US getting the information in other ways.
  - taneq 8y ago
    Why would they need to recover them from a device at all? Do they not just get chat logs bcc'd to them as a matter of course?
  - aeontech 8y ago
    Oh yeah, I am under no illusion about WeChat’s privacy. It’s insanely integrated into everyday life in China though - it almost feels as if people don’t care whether they use iOS or Android there, because they use WeChat apps for everything (banking, utilities, taxi, games, payments for everything, etc) rather than native apps.
- YouKnowBetter 8y ago
  Stuff like: in app purshases. In app authentication. In app settings. Two "trust" to be allowed to use particlar apps as second factor. Accounts. BTW: WeChat shows the future of all (not limited to chat) apps. The governmental control included I am afraid, but man is it future rich! Personally I only use it on a dedicated phone to maintain specific relations, but it is impressive.
baldfat 8y ago
My anecdotal evidence has been the opposite. My daughter has always been an Apple user and she has had so many more issues with her phone. Either she never upgraded her phone due to storage limitations because she refused to uninstall certain apps. He screen twice has twice peeled off. The battery expanded and now it glitches every hour but she is stuck because there is NO HEAD PHONE JACK. So she keeps saying do I buy a new phone but I want a head phone jack. My parents both ditched their iPhones before the plus came out due to size and eye sight. They haven't gone back to an iPhone plus. Video Conference: Best in class I would say is Google Duo. It is dead simple and works across all devices. Apple's weakness: Siri. Now as an adult I don't use voice commands much but both my two youngest 11 and 7 and their friends use voice commands all day long (On my computer and Google Home). I see this being a big issue if they don't fix this in about 3 or 4 years. We see a big upswing in voice commands and Google's recognition has a 95% recognition rate is about on par with humans ability to carry a conversation. http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
- matwood 8y ago
  Siri is definitely Apples biggest weakness, but the headphone jack? The phone comes with a little adapter. If you're a person who has tons of nice headphones laying around, but a couple more adapters and call it a day. Is it a bit of inconvenience at first? Sure, but don't act like there is no way to plug in headphones or that it's the end of the world. And Duo? I'm a tech person and I can't keep all of the Google communication options straight. iMessage and FaceTime are dead simple and work. Finally, if your daughter is having that many issues take it into an Apple store. I know there are anecdotes of bad service at Apple stores, but by and large the service they provide is great.
  - tjoff 8y ago
    Royally disagree with the headphone jack. That is a huge issue that I don't ever see an end to. You never know when you need a headphone jack and there is no realistic way to carry an adapter all the time. And that is even if I'm willing to buy $100 worth of worthless adapters and do my best to sprinkle them out in my life. Friends car? Stereo in the summer vacation house? Buying bluetooth headphones doesn't mitigate this in any sense.
cryptoz 8y ago
> "Facebook logs my sms" are a none issues How is that a non issue? Just because one permission on iPhone prevents Facebook from sucking up that particular data point right now hardly makes it a non-issue. Surely someone in your family is texting an Android user any way. And Facebook is not upset by the lack of info your family is sending them, I'm sure. Dismissing major privacy concerns as non-issue just because you have an iPhone seems super dangerous to me.
- philliphaydon 8y ago
  I don’t understand your reply: he dismisses it because the issue doesn’t exist on iPhone so he doesn’t have to worry... that’s not dangerous.
  - codetrotter 8y ago
    I think he’s saying that it’s dangerous to think that your messages are safe from being uploaded to other companies because even if your device protects you, the people that you message might be using devices that do not. Ideally then you’d limit the amount of SMS messages you send at all, and use a secure messenger like Riot.im. There is no such thing as 100% security and privacy but we should strive to achieve the best security and privacy that we can.
    - philliphaydon 8y ago
      Ah that's a really good point!
- YouKnowBetter 8y ago
  I could have been more clear, but with the "Facebook logs my sms" in quotes I ment: One random app (Facebook in this example) can NOT access another random app's (sms in this case) data on an iPhone where it can (or could before the very current version) on Android. YMMV: You might call that "Freedom" and "not a walled garden", I call that cross access to data a nightmare and am happy that it is a none issue on IOS.
eddieroger 8y ago
I did the same thing a few years ago when I finally dropped Sprint for Verizon. Seven phones in total over two accounts, and things have never been better. Previously it was a mix of feature phones, iPhones and Androids, all with various versions of things and features, and a headache for me as the de facto helpdesk. Now, everyone is happy, all the devices are the same, and tech support is so much easier. I'm even considering running OS X Server for some light MDM to really automate the remainder of my problems away. Most, if not all, of our extended family are also on iPhones, so FaceTime is a breeze, and iCloud Photo Albums are the assumed way of sharing things - when they made it such that anyone could add to an album, it was a game changer.
- ballenf 8y ago
  I use a google suites account for basic MDM features on a family of iPhones. Tried the osx server route on a mac mini and it certainly had 100x more control, but I found I really only needed the basics that were available in the admin panel.
e40 8y ago
When my 80 year old dad went from Android to iPhone, the mistakes went up and his ability to get things done went down. Cognitively, he's the same, so it's not that. Maybe he was ruined by using Android first. For example, he never used to send texts to my home phone number. Now half of them are, though I seem to have got him to switch to email. He still can only send me pictures from his phone about 1 out of 4 times now.
- danieldk 8y ago
  These discussions are not very useful, because they are based anecdotal evidence. Just to offer a counterpoint: my mother never used a computer and is non-technical, but she manages great with her iPad (she does chat, Facetime, and web browsing). She had a couple of hand down Android phones (IIRC, Moto E, Moto G, and later a Samsung Galaxy Note 4). The Android phones were very confusing to her and she had difficulty contacting anyone while on the go. She recently got an iPhone and she manages without trouble. The problem is that there are a so many factors: prior experience (my mom used an iPad before), extremely small sample sizes, biases (if you are an iOS fan you like to believe that iDevices work better for your loved ones), etc. There are only some aspects that we can objectively evaluate (iDevices get security updates for longer periods, iDevices typicaly get more frequent updates). When it comes to usability, you can only get meaningful information from large samples.
  - superflyguy 8y ago
    "These discussions are not very useful, because they are based anecdotal evidence." This is true of practically every comment on this site!
    - danieldk 8y ago
      I disagree. I have learned a lot from technical discussions on HackerNews.
      - dogweather 8y ago
        I think that was meant to be ironic; there's a lot of value in anecdotes.
madshiva 8y ago
I don't know why you get upvoted with so many false arguing. 1. I don't have technical issue. 2. Same apply with good android, you know the one that you don't buy. 3. I don't care about Facebook. Facebook as an argument... 4. What is revelent with this point? 5. Discord? Any other that Facetime beat it.
andrepd 8y ago
1. I don't understand, why would Android phones have more technical problems than Android? I don't recall experiencing any major problems in 8 years of having android phones, and I've even experimented with custom ROMs and kernels and the like. 2. Granted, updates are an issue. Not with very popular and/or Google-supported phones, like the pixel. 3. Why so? How do you know fb doesn't spy on your sms? 4. Do they? Or do they stop working because updates cripple older phones' performance and battery to make you buy new ones? 5. Pure marketing nonsense.
- derekp7 8y ago
  I would really like to know the answer to that ("why"). My most recent experience is with a Motorola Nexus 6 -- worked great for the first couple years after I got it. But recently a lot of things have been really glitchy. For example, Android Auto takes about 15 minutes to come fully alive, find my position, and plot a route when I plug it into my car. And video playback started stuttering bad. And the CPUs were maxed out periodically I've uninstalled all third-party apps, cleared cache, and that fixed the issues for about a week, then they all came back. Only thing I didn't do is reflash back to factory defaults. Bought a Pixel 2 to replace it, and am wondering how long it will last. BTW, this has also been the same experience with several family members, mostly with Samsung android phones -- they work great for a couple years, then start slowing down.
- YouKnowBetter 8y ago
  1: An example? Android's aggressive wifi roaming is... just not working. 2: Updates are an issue, even with popular phones. 3. The Facebook app on IOS can NOT read my sms on IOS. Yes it can and does on Android. 4: Age, I know since I have to thow them away myself. Apple may make the devices slow down (personaly not observed it, but I use no "benchmarks" just since the only thing I care about is my personal impression. 5: It is annecdotal, but it is how my family experiences it. On a daily basis.
sergiotapia 8y ago
Completely mirrors my experience as well. My wife used to have a Note and she would constantly have issues with the phone that I would have to deal with. Since buying her an iphone 6 years ago, ZERO issues. NO tech support from me. That alone is worth the price of admission. Same with dropbox, I pay the $99/yr gladly because it means my wife isn't asking me about the baby photos and if they're safe in the flash drive in the desk drawer.
- grincho 8y ago
  Make sure you have another copy; flash does degrade over time.
  - selectodude 8y ago
    Dropbox probably stores things in a couple different locations.
- robolife1 8y ago
  Who the hell still uses Dropbox when there are superior offerings like Google Photos/Drive. In fact even OneDrive is better from a reliability and cost viewpoint.
  - xtrimsky1234 8y ago
    Google Drive wasn't able to handle 30gb of storage a couple of years ago when I tried it. It was lagging insanely. I now have 700gb of storage so i'm a bit scared to give Google Drive another chance. Dropbox works very well. Also I don't like how Google Photos and Drive work together. If you edit a photo in Photos, it doesn't update the file in drive. I like to have all my photos as files. OneDrive looks good, I'll definitely give it a try once my paid year of Dropbox is done.
ekianjo 8y ago
> Result: You forgot: 6. You now all live in Walled gardens.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  It's funny, just this last weekend, I installed a wall around our garden at home. It's been a tremendous improvement.
- YouKnowBetter 8y ago
  One random app (Facebook in my example) can NOT access another random app's (sms in this case) data on an iPhone where it can (or could before the very current version) on Android. You might call that "Freedom" and "not a walled garden", I call that cross access to data a nightmare and am happy that it is a none issue on IOS. YMMV
krrrh 8y ago
For iPhone to iPhone migration and encrypted backups: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT205220 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT205220
elahd 8y ago
I've had the same experience with my immediate family (siblings, parents, in-laws). A few years ago, I made pretty clear that if their next phone wasn't an iPhone, they were on their own with regards to support. I set up iCloud backup (with a premium storage tier) and installed ESET NOD32 on every computer that I "support." There hasn't been a single "support call" in 3 years (aside from hardware and forgotten passwords). It sounds cold, but now I actually get to enjoy time with family instead of being bombarded with technical questions. They're also less frustrated with their devices.
- ppeetteerr 8y ago
  I can confirm that we had the same issue with my family. I switched them all to Apple hardware since they would complain of lost Wifi on their Laptops and confusing functionality on Android. Now that everyone has MacBook Airs and iPhone 6s, I have not heard complaints from anyone. These days, it's about using Google Drive (who really owns a shared file?)
uhhhhhhh 8y ago
I've got to say I have the exact opposite experience. It got to the point I now don't do apple/iphone support for family. The number of itunes issues, osx keystore issues, technical issues with phones was taking a lot of time, and user issues with the iphone never ended. My parents, sisters, and any aunts/uncles nearby that I support are all on windows 10 with android phones. My results. 1. Time spend supporting family 1/10th compared to before. Android phones just work for us, update often and cost less so the occasional "OMG I dropped my phone and its broken" issues pretty much went away. 2. Android phones are all running the latest OS, give or take a minor update (usually stick with google or samsung flagship or mid-range models). Updating doesn't brick or blow away app settings or cause issues for users. 3. Never had this issue, but most of my family doesn't use facebook on their phones. 4. I have yet to have an apple product last more than 2-3 years. My last iphone lasted 1.5 years before it started randomly crashing/glitching. My current android is 2 years in without any issues. 5. Skype/Duo works great for my family. There is a subset of the family that uses facetime, they don't talk to the rest of us as often anymore. I use apple products for work. I tend to get a HW replacement for laptops every 18-24 months due to HW failures, I'm on my 4th laptop in 6 years all due to HW issues. Sometimes its got to be just luck. we have almost exact opposite experiences
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- moogleii 8y ago
  Strange. My 2012 iMac and MBA are humming along just fine. And they're refurbs. My "bought as new" stuff has been just fine as well. I still have an iPhone 5s that, save for the old battery, works normally. I haven't encountered a bricked phone via an updated iOS, but I have had android folks who weren't running flagships try to get the latest OS, and brick their phones. Lastly, when I do have an issue, the apple customer service has just been too good to me over the years. My friend dropped my phone recently, and unluckily for me, it landed on a metal rail, damaging the sleep button. But Apple replaced the phone for free. As well as a wireless keyboard my coworker had me bring in. I had no receipt for that one, but it took too long for them to locate a buyable replacement of that particular model, so the CSR just gave me a newer model, for free. YMMV of course, but they seem empowered to do far more than typical companies. But this is all pointless; we can go round and round with anecdotes all day.
deaps 8y ago
My mother switched to an iPhone about a year ago - mainly so that she could 'text' with my son who has an iPod. Overall, that being her first 'smart phone' (she used to have a blackberry), she's made quite the transition, seamlessly. She doesn't have any problems and was even able to get CarPlay working with just a short phone call walking her through the first plug-in process. We FaceTime, she's been using emoji's, group messages just fine (she used to not realize if she was sending a group response/personal, etc), sharing pictures (live photos), etc. My point is, she's not very 'technical' - but the iPhone seemed to ease her into 'tech' smoothy. Now that's not saying an Android couldn't also have done the same - just one anecdotal point where the iPhone was successful in a technology-based transition.
jartelt 8y ago
I have spent more time helping my wife fix her iPhone 7+ than I have spent fixing my Pixel 2. My wife's iPhone won't let her transfer photos from the phone to her Mac. After talking with Apple support for 2 hours (they brought in 3 different people to troubleshoot), their recommendation was to buy more icloud storage or to use Google Photos to get photos off the phone. Their icloud offering is garbage in my opinion.
ajonit 8y ago
I was the first one in family to move to iPhone when 5s came out. Since then EVERYONE in my family and extended family has moved from BlackBerry/Android to iPhone and every single person had that "wow" moment and were like why didn't we start using it earlier. I can 100% relate to your story. Now if only there was a way to painlessly move from one iPhone to the next, we would be exchanging them far more often. Just last week I moved from my faithful 5s to X, used "iMazing 2" app which I got on offer for around $14. (In case someone is wondering why did I purchase an app just for moving stuff. iMazing 2, offers a painless way to do iPhone wifi enabled backups as well.) The move was flawless. Almost all settings got cloned, even the wallpaper. Disclaimer: Not related to iMazing 2 in any way. Just a user.
basch 8y ago
Apple syncing, backup, photos is a complete mess. I cant count the number of times people have asked me "what does this message mean" and the response is "pay apple $1/month for them to back up your phone, or stop backing up your photos." I am shocked apple still wont back up your phone for free. Not being able to see whats in a backup until you run a restore is also near inexcusable.
herbst 8y ago
Point 1-4 are true for me since my family switched fully to Linux on any kind of devices. (and we never used facetime so 5 is a non issue anyway)

aeontech 8y ago

FWIW, I move my family between iPhones every year and haven’t noticed any data loss. One exception to date is WeChat, for some godforsaken reason they only back up the most recent dozen conversations or so, so if you want your entire history, you have to jump through hoops to initialize a device-to-device transfer over WiFi, which can take an entire night in worst case. Would be curious to hear what kind of data loss you have seen though?

ttflee 8y ago
Be cautious using WeChat. If the Chinese authority could retrieve something from the device, the U.S. authority must be able, too. https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-wechat-messages-can-be-retrieved-by-chinese-authorities.html https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-w...
- syntaxing 8y ago
  I'm curious how you came to this conclusion. WeChat is owned by Tencent which is heavily regulated by the Chinese Government since every company needs a Internet license to operate. It's a lot easier for the Chinese government to force Tencent to hand over the information willingly compared to the US getting the information in other ways.
- taneq 8y ago
  Why would they need to recover them from a device at all? Do they not just get chat logs bcc'd to them as a matter of course?
- aeontech 8y ago
  Oh yeah, I am under no illusion about WeChat’s privacy. It’s insanely integrated into everyday life in China though - it almost feels as if people don’t care whether they use iOS or Android there, because they use WeChat apps for everything (banking, utilities, taxi, games, payments for everything, etc) rather than native apps.
YouKnowBetter 8y ago
Stuff like: in app purshases. In app authentication. In app settings. Two "trust" to be allowed to use particlar apps as second factor. Accounts. BTW: WeChat shows the future of all (not limited to chat) apps. The governmental control included I am afraid, but man is it future rich! Personally I only use it on a dedicated phone to maintain specific relations, but it is impressive.

baldfat 8y ago

My anecdotal evidence has been the opposite. My daughter has always been an Apple user and she has had so many more issues with her phone. Either she never upgraded her phone due to storage limitations because she refused to uninstall certain apps. He screen twice has twice peeled off. The battery expanded and now it glitches every hour but she is stuck because there is NO HEAD PHONE JACK. So she keeps saying do I buy a new phone but I want a head phone jack. My parents both ditched their iPhones before the plus came out due to size and eye sight. They haven't gone back to an iPhone plus. Video Conference: Best in class I would say is Google Duo. It is dead simple and works across all devices. Apple's weakness: Siri. Now as an adult I don't use voice commands much but both my two youngest 11 and 7 and their friends use voice commands all day long (On my computer and Google Home). I see this being a big issue if they don't fix this in about 3 or 4 years. We see a big upswing in voice commands and Google's recognition has a 95% recognition rate is about on par with humans ability to carry a conversation. http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

matwood 8y ago
Siri is definitely Apples biggest weakness, but the headphone jack? The phone comes with a little adapter. If you're a person who has tons of nice headphones laying around, but a couple more adapters and call it a day. Is it a bit of inconvenience at first? Sure, but don't act like there is no way to plug in headphones or that it's the end of the world. And Duo? I'm a tech person and I can't keep all of the Google communication options straight. iMessage and FaceTime are dead simple and work. Finally, if your daughter is having that many issues take it into an Apple store. I know there are anecdotes of bad service at Apple stores, but by and large the service they provide is great.
- tjoff 8y ago
  Royally disagree with the headphone jack. That is a huge issue that I don't ever see an end to. You never know when you need a headphone jack and there is no realistic way to carry an adapter all the time. And that is even if I'm willing to buy $100 worth of worthless adapters and do my best to sprinkle them out in my life. Friends car? Stereo in the summer vacation house? Buying bluetooth headphones doesn't mitigate this in any sense.

cryptoz 8y ago

> "Facebook logs my sms" are a none issues How is that a non issue? Just because one permission on iPhone prevents Facebook from sucking up that particular data point right now hardly makes it a non-issue. Surely someone in your family is texting an Android user any way. And Facebook is not upset by the lack of info your family is sending them, I'm sure. Dismissing major privacy concerns as non-issue just because you have an iPhone seems super dangerous to me.

philliphaydon 8y ago
I don’t understand your reply: he dismisses it because the issue doesn’t exist on iPhone so he doesn’t have to worry... that’s not dangerous.
- codetrotter 8y ago
  I think he’s saying that it’s dangerous to think that your messages are safe from being uploaded to other companies because even if your device protects you, the people that you message might be using devices that do not. Ideally then you’d limit the amount of SMS messages you send at all, and use a secure messenger like Riot.im. There is no such thing as 100% security and privacy but we should strive to achieve the best security and privacy that we can.
  - philliphaydon 8y ago
    Ah that's a really good point!
YouKnowBetter 8y ago
I could have been more clear, but with the "Facebook logs my sms" in quotes I ment: One random app (Facebook in this example) can NOT access another random app's (sms in this case) data on an iPhone where it can (or could before the very current version) on Android. YMMV: You might call that "Freedom" and "not a walled garden", I call that cross access to data a nightmare and am happy that it is a none issue on IOS.

eddieroger 8y ago

I did the same thing a few years ago when I finally dropped Sprint for Verizon. Seven phones in total over two accounts, and things have never been better. Previously it was a mix of feature phones, iPhones and Androids, all with various versions of things and features, and a headache for me as the de facto helpdesk. Now, everyone is happy, all the devices are the same, and tech support is so much easier. I'm even considering running OS X Server for some light MDM to really automate the remainder of my problems away. Most, if not all, of our extended family are also on iPhones, so FaceTime is a breeze, and iCloud Photo Albums are the assumed way of sharing things - when they made it such that anyone could add to an album, it was a game changer.

ballenf 8y ago
I use a google suites account for basic MDM features on a family of iPhones. Tried the osx server route on a mac mini and it certainly had 100x more control, but I found I really only needed the basics that were available in the admin panel.

e40 8y ago

When my 80 year old dad went from Android to iPhone, the mistakes went up and his ability to get things done went down. Cognitively, he's the same, so it's not that. Maybe he was ruined by using Android first. For example, he never used to send texts to my home phone number. Now half of them are, though I seem to have got him to switch to email. He still can only send me pictures from his phone about 1 out of 4 times now.

danieldk 8y ago
These discussions are not very useful, because they are based anecdotal evidence. Just to offer a counterpoint: my mother never used a computer and is non-technical, but she manages great with her iPad (she does chat, Facetime, and web browsing). She had a couple of hand down Android phones (IIRC, Moto E, Moto G, and later a Samsung Galaxy Note 4). The Android phones were very confusing to her and she had difficulty contacting anyone while on the go. She recently got an iPhone and she manages without trouble. The problem is that there are a so many factors: prior experience (my mom used an iPad before), extremely small sample sizes, biases (if you are an iOS fan you like to believe that iDevices work better for your loved ones), etc. There are only some aspects that we can objectively evaluate (iDevices get security updates for longer periods, iDevices typicaly get more frequent updates). When it comes to usability, you can only get meaningful information from large samples.
- superflyguy 8y ago
  "These discussions are not very useful, because they are based anecdotal evidence." This is true of practically every comment on this site!
  - danieldk 8y ago
    I disagree. I have learned a lot from technical discussions on HackerNews.
    - dogweather 8y ago
      I think that was meant to be ironic; there's a lot of value in anecdotes.

madshiva 8y ago

I don't know why you get upvoted with so many false arguing. 1. I don't have technical issue. 2. Same apply with good android, you know the one that you don't buy. 3. I don't care about Facebook. Facebook as an argument... 4. What is revelent with this point? 5. Discord? Any other that Facetime beat it.

andrepd 8y ago

1. I don't understand, why would Android phones have more technical problems than Android? I don't recall experiencing any major problems in 8 years of having android phones, and I've even experimented with custom ROMs and kernels and the like. 2. Granted, updates are an issue. Not with very popular and/or Google-supported phones, like the pixel. 3. Why so? How do you know fb doesn't spy on your sms? 4. Do they? Or do they stop working because updates cripple older phones' performance and battery to make you buy new ones? 5. Pure marketing nonsense.

derekp7 8y ago
I would really like to know the answer to that ("why"). My most recent experience is with a Motorola Nexus 6 -- worked great for the first couple years after I got it. But recently a lot of things have been really glitchy. For example, Android Auto takes about 15 minutes to come fully alive, find my position, and plot a route when I plug it into my car. And video playback started stuttering bad. And the CPUs were maxed out periodically I've uninstalled all third-party apps, cleared cache, and that fixed the issues for about a week, then they all came back. Only thing I didn't do is reflash back to factory defaults. Bought a Pixel 2 to replace it, and am wondering how long it will last. BTW, this has also been the same experience with several family members, mostly with Samsung android phones -- they work great for a couple years, then start slowing down.
YouKnowBetter 8y ago
1: An example? Android's aggressive wifi roaming is... just not working. 2: Updates are an issue, even with popular phones. 3. The Facebook app on IOS can NOT read my sms on IOS. Yes it can and does on Android. 4: Age, I know since I have to thow them away myself. Apple may make the devices slow down (personaly not observed it, but I use no "benchmarks" just since the only thing I care about is my personal impression. 5: It is annecdotal, but it is how my family experiences it. On a daily basis.

sergiotapia 8y ago

Completely mirrors my experience as well. My wife used to have a Note and she would constantly have issues with the phone that I would have to deal with. Since buying her an iphone 6 years ago, ZERO issues. NO tech support from me. That alone is worth the price of admission. Same with dropbox, I pay the $99/yr gladly because it means my wife isn't asking me about the baby photos and if they're safe in the flash drive in the desk drawer.

grincho 8y ago
Make sure you have another copy; flash does degrade over time.
- selectodude 8y ago
  Dropbox probably stores things in a couple different locations.
robolife1 8y ago
Who the hell still uses Dropbox when there are superior offerings like Google Photos/Drive. In fact even OneDrive is better from a reliability and cost viewpoint.
- xtrimsky1234 8y ago
  Google Drive wasn't able to handle 30gb of storage a couple of years ago when I tried it. It was lagging insanely. I now have 700gb of storage so i'm a bit scared to give Google Drive another chance. Dropbox works very well. Also I don't like how Google Photos and Drive work together. If you edit a photo in Photos, it doesn't update the file in drive. I like to have all my photos as files. OneDrive looks good, I'll definitely give it a try once my paid year of Dropbox is done.

ekianjo 8y ago

> Result: You forgot: 6. You now all live in Walled gardens.

toasterlovin 8y ago
It's funny, just this last weekend, I installed a wall around our garden at home. It's been a tremendous improvement.
YouKnowBetter 8y ago
One random app (Facebook in my example) can NOT access another random app's (sms in this case) data on an iPhone where it can (or could before the very current version) on Android. You might call that "Freedom" and "not a walled garden", I call that cross access to data a nightmare and am happy that it is a none issue on IOS. YMMV

krrrh 8y ago

For iPhone to iPhone migration and encrypted backups: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT205220 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT205220

elahd 8y ago

I've had the same experience with my immediate family (siblings, parents, in-laws). A few years ago, I made pretty clear that if their next phone wasn't an iPhone, they were on their own with regards to support. I set up iCloud backup (with a premium storage tier) and installed ESET NOD32 on every computer that I "support." There hasn't been a single "support call" in 3 years (aside from hardware and forgotten passwords). It sounds cold, but now I actually get to enjoy time with family instead of being bombarded with technical questions. They're also less frustrated with their devices.

ppeetteerr 8y ago
I can confirm that we had the same issue with my family. I switched them all to Apple hardware since they would complain of lost Wifi on their Laptops and confusing functionality on Android. Now that everyone has MacBook Airs and iPhone 6s, I have not heard complaints from anyone. These days, it's about using Google Drive (who really owns a shared file?)

uhhhhhhh 8y ago

I've got to say I have the exact opposite experience. It got to the point I now don't do apple/iphone support for family. The number of itunes issues, osx keystore issues, technical issues with phones was taking a lot of time, and user issues with the iphone never ended. My parents, sisters, and any aunts/uncles nearby that I support are all on windows 10 with android phones. My results. 1. Time spend supporting family 1/10th compared to before. Android phones just work for us, update often and cost less so the occasional "OMG I dropped my phone and its broken" issues pretty much went away. 2. Android phones are all running the latest OS, give or take a minor update (usually stick with google or samsung flagship or mid-range models). Updating doesn't brick or blow away app settings or cause issues for users. 3. Never had this issue, but most of my family doesn't use facebook on their phones. 4. I have yet to have an apple product last more than 2-3 years. My last iphone lasted 1.5 years before it started randomly crashing/glitching. My current android is 2 years in without any issues. 5. Skype/Duo works great for my family. There is a subset of the family that uses facetime, they don't talk to the rest of us as often anymore. I use apple products for work. I tend to get a HW replacement for laptops every 18-24 months due to HW failures, I'm on my 4th laptop in 6 years all due to HW issues. Sometimes its got to be just luck. we have almost exact opposite experiences

deleted 8y ago
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moogleii 8y ago
Strange. My 2012 iMac and MBA are humming along just fine. And they're refurbs. My "bought as new" stuff has been just fine as well. I still have an iPhone 5s that, save for the old battery, works normally. I haven't encountered a bricked phone via an updated iOS, but I have had android folks who weren't running flagships try to get the latest OS, and brick their phones. Lastly, when I do have an issue, the apple customer service has just been too good to me over the years. My friend dropped my phone recently, and unluckily for me, it landed on a metal rail, damaging the sleep button. But Apple replaced the phone for free. As well as a wireless keyboard my coworker had me bring in. I had no receipt for that one, but it took too long for them to locate a buyable replacement of that particular model, so the CSR just gave me a newer model, for free. YMMV of course, but they seem empowered to do far more than typical companies. But this is all pointless; we can go round and round with anecdotes all day.

deaps 8y ago

My mother switched to an iPhone about a year ago - mainly so that she could 'text' with my son who has an iPod. Overall, that being her first 'smart phone' (she used to have a blackberry), she's made quite the transition, seamlessly. She doesn't have any problems and was even able to get CarPlay working with just a short phone call walking her through the first plug-in process. We FaceTime, she's been using emoji's, group messages just fine (she used to not realize if she was sending a group response/personal, etc), sharing pictures (live photos), etc. My point is, she's not very 'technical' - but the iPhone seemed to ease her into 'tech' smoothy. Now that's not saying an Android couldn't also have done the same - just one anecdotal point where the iPhone was successful in a technology-based transition.

jartelt 8y ago

I have spent more time helping my wife fix her iPhone 7+ than I have spent fixing my Pixel 2. My wife's iPhone won't let her transfer photos from the phone to her Mac. After talking with Apple support for 2 hours (they brought in 3 different people to troubleshoot), their recommendation was to buy more icloud storage or to use Google Photos to get photos off the phone. Their icloud offering is garbage in my opinion.

ajonit 8y ago

I was the first one in family to move to iPhone when 5s came out. Since then EVERYONE in my family and extended family has moved from BlackBerry/Android to iPhone and every single person had that "wow" moment and were like why didn't we start using it earlier. I can 100% relate to your story. Now if only there was a way to painlessly move from one iPhone to the next, we would be exchanging them far more often. Just last week I moved from my faithful 5s to X, used "iMazing 2" app which I got on offer for around $14. (In case someone is wondering why did I purchase an app just for moving stuff. iMazing 2, offers a painless way to do iPhone wifi enabled backups as well.) The move was flawless. Almost all settings got cloned, even the wallpaper. Disclaimer: Not related to iMazing 2 in any way. Just a user.

basch 8y ago

Apple syncing, backup, photos is a complete mess. I cant count the number of times people have asked me "what does this message mean" and the response is "pay apple $1/month for them to back up your phone, or stop backing up your photos." I am shocked apple still wont back up your phone for free. Not being able to see whats in a backup until you run a restore is also near inexcusable.

herbst 8y ago

Point 1-4 are true for me since my family switched fully to Linux on any kind of devices. (and we never used facetime so 5 is a non issue anyway)