4 ms·

Counterpoint from someone who actually does own an iPhone after being on Android for years (and I only have an iPhone now because I dropped my Pixel 2, and Fi i

Counterpoint from someone who actually does own an iPhone after being on Android for years (and I only have an iPhone now because I dropped my Pixel 2, and Fi is taking a long time to send an replacement) -- no, it isn't unparalleled. The long press/longer press mechanism for removing/moving applications is incredibly unintuitive, and there's no reliable mechanism to figure out which apps do and don't support this. Swathes of bluetooth problems on an iPhone 8 (and previously, an iPhone 7). If you have airpods, this is probably fine, but they're not appropriate for the gym work I do. It's unacceptable to need to turn bluetooth on the phone off/on in order for the phone to actually pipe audio to a connected bluetooth device. My iPhone 7 overheated while sitting on my desk and bootlooped. Apple's response? "Time to buy an iPhone 8" The well-known performance degradation on older batteries to force people onto the upgrade treadmill, because the iPhone 7/8 are not fundamentally different from the 5S/6 in any way, and users weren't upgrading fast enough. There's no other explanation for Apple's behavior. The "back" button hidden in the upper left corner (assuming the application supports it) don't close tabs in either Safari or Chrome. If you're reading Github pull request from your email and press back, the tab stays. Then you open Chrome and there are 50 tabs open for no reason. Buying Kindle books is a 4 step process because Apple doesn't allow Amazon to sell products because :reasons: Digging through 5 different alerting frameworks to get IRC messages forwarded which actually notify, since Pushbullet, Prowl, and friends have apparently not worked correctly after some API changes in IO9 or 10. If you're heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, all of this is probably fine. But if you're not, it's death by 1000 cuts, and it's not even a little bit of an intuitive or even good user experience. My honest opinion is that it's Stockholm syndrome. Android has warts. iOS definitely has warts. Neither is perfect. But I'm tired of seeing people trot out how great the user experience on iOS is.

LarryDarrell 8y ago
It seems like the superior usability argument is more or less grounded in a perception of 5+ years ago. If you've stayed with Apple the whole time you don't have any reason to re-evaluate so you just say the same thing over and over. I remember the same thing among Mac users in the later 90s. I've used both. I think usability between OS's reached parity awhile ago. I like Android best because I have a wide range of devices to choose from as well as not being hemmed in by iTunes (I remember being blown away that I couldn't just copy mp3/flac files over and play them). I know I'm going to get downvoted, but Apple seems more like a luxury/status brand these days. Anyone who values money because they don't have a lot of it will be choosing Android all day long. If they do have money, they'll buy Apple because they notice that's what their peers have. The rationalization comes after that.
- bena 8y ago
  > The rationalization comes after that. For Android users as well. I hear more Android users defending their choices than Apple users. You talk about peers, but Apple has about 20% of the mobile OS market, the rest is Android. There are more Android devices. So if anything, you'll "notice" your peers have Androids. And I dislike usability arguments. Often they're rooted in learned behavior. Pretty much: "This doesn't work like this other thing I've used all my life, therefore it's not as 'user-friendly'". I found Android devices to be a little more frustrating at first because I was used to other paradigms. I get frustrated with Windows 10 because they've changed where a lot of things are from previous versions. It took me a while to get accustomed to Mac OS X's various paradigms. I personally prefer the iPhone SE. It's got enough beef under the hood and comes in a form factor I'm physically comfortable with. I find most other high-end iPhones and Galaxy devices to be way too large. I don't need a 13 inch screen on my goddamn phone. Hell, if they could make a modern phone the size of the iPhone 4 (Android or iOS, I don't care), I'd be happy as fuck. But I know exactly why I chose what I chose and I don't cast aspersions on those who choose differently because I don't need to defend my choice.
  - evol262 8y ago
    For me, at least, it's not about learning new paradigms. I like different user paradigms. It's incredibly inconsistent behavior (see my first post). Is there a reason why I can set the notification sounds for 150 different applications to 150 different things, but I _can't_ set the notification/alarm/ringer volume to different levels? It speaks of problems when the first thing I needed to do on the phone was Google how to find better alarm clock than it ships with. Is there a reason why the wifi hotspot is hit or miss? I don't know. It's probably a power saving thing somewhere. I don't care, though. When I have it turned on and no device has connected for a while, it should still be visible in a spectrum scanner without toggling it on/off, right? I guess not. I'm not even gonna get into Touch ID (which is less reliable than the fingerprint scanner on my Nexus 5x, 4 years ago). The speed of the phone is fine. The form factor is great. I'd be happy if it either behaved this way or that way all the time, instead of having to guess. I've mostly gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean I think it's a good experience. It means I've learned to work around it, in the same way that I learned to work around issues on Android. I don't want to talk about the ass-backwards behavior of the search/keyboard tray, and how desperately I miss a "back" button. Try hitting the "Search" in Spotify, then deciding that you actually want to go back. It's far too many taps versus 2 on Android, and it's not intuitive. Subjective opinion: Android (on a "Google Experience" phone) feels more consistent (breadcrumb/menu button almost always available instead of guessing which edge to swipe from, for example). And that's fine. But it's not what iOS is touted to be.

LarryDarrell 8y ago

It seems like the superior usability argument is more or less grounded in a perception of 5+ years ago. If you've stayed with Apple the whole time you don't have any reason to re-evaluate so you just say the same thing over and over. I remember the same thing among Mac users in the later 90s. I've used both. I think usability between OS's reached parity awhile ago. I like Android best because I have a wide range of devices to choose from as well as not being hemmed in by iTunes (I remember being blown away that I couldn't just copy mp3/flac files over and play them). I know I'm going to get downvoted, but Apple seems more like a luxury/status brand these days. Anyone who values money because they don't have a lot of it will be choosing Android all day long. If they do have money, they'll buy Apple because they notice that's what their peers have. The rationalization comes after that.

bena 8y ago
> The rationalization comes after that. For Android users as well. I hear more Android users defending their choices than Apple users. You talk about peers, but Apple has about 20% of the mobile OS market, the rest is Android. There are more Android devices. So if anything, you'll "notice" your peers have Androids. And I dislike usability arguments. Often they're rooted in learned behavior. Pretty much: "This doesn't work like this other thing I've used all my life, therefore it's not as 'user-friendly'". I found Android devices to be a little more frustrating at first because I was used to other paradigms. I get frustrated with Windows 10 because they've changed where a lot of things are from previous versions. It took me a while to get accustomed to Mac OS X's various paradigms. I personally prefer the iPhone SE. It's got enough beef under the hood and comes in a form factor I'm physically comfortable with. I find most other high-end iPhones and Galaxy devices to be way too large. I don't need a 13 inch screen on my goddamn phone. Hell, if they could make a modern phone the size of the iPhone 4 (Android or iOS, I don't care), I'd be happy as fuck. But I know exactly why I chose what I chose and I don't cast aspersions on those who choose differently because I don't need to defend my choice.
- evol262 8y ago
  For me, at least, it's not about learning new paradigms. I like different user paradigms. It's incredibly inconsistent behavior (see my first post). Is there a reason why I can set the notification sounds for 150 different applications to 150 different things, but I _can't_ set the notification/alarm/ringer volume to different levels? It speaks of problems when the first thing I needed to do on the phone was Google how to find better alarm clock than it ships with. Is there a reason why the wifi hotspot is hit or miss? I don't know. It's probably a power saving thing somewhere. I don't care, though. When I have it turned on and no device has connected for a while, it should still be visible in a spectrum scanner without toggling it on/off, right? I guess not. I'm not even gonna get into Touch ID (which is less reliable than the fingerprint scanner on my Nexus 5x, 4 years ago). The speed of the phone is fine. The form factor is great. I'd be happy if it either behaved this way or that way all the time, instead of having to guess. I've mostly gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean I think it's a good experience. It means I've learned to work around it, in the same way that I learned to work around issues on Android. I don't want to talk about the ass-backwards behavior of the search/keyboard tray, and how desperately I miss a "back" button. Try hitting the "Search" in Spotify, then deciding that you actually want to go back. It's far too many taps versus 2 on Android, and it's not intuitive. Subjective opinion: Android (on a "Google Experience" phone) feels more consistent (breadcrumb/menu button almost always available instead of guessing which edge to swipe from, for example). And that's fine. But it's not what iOS is touted to be.