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This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market. Apple literally revolutionised the smartphone market with the sim

This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market. Apple literally revolutionised the smartphone market with the simple usability of the iPhone. Of course, there are things that can be improved (with many decent suggestions from the author that most power users would agree with) but based on the author’s mild annoyances and casual observations that elderly, visibly challenged or foreign language people do not always know about features that can help them, iPhones are now “hard to use”. That’s quite an unfair title. There’s zero consideration by the author of how many hundreds of millions of people perform so many of the same tasks (email, messaging and navigation) almost seamlessly everyday using an iPhone. Our human nature is to only notice things that ‘dont’t work’ though. It would be interesting to see how the same people mentioned in the article fare on an Android device. This article reminds me of the time when the iOS alarm clock app had a bug that caused the alarm to go off one hour later on some random Sunday and it made headlines in all the tech press. Compared to the accepted norm that malware apps are almost routinely found in the public Google Play store.

peteretep 8y ago
> This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market Sure. But also, I'd say it's been written by a die-hard Apple fan who goes to Apple because they think they care. I was deeply skeptical of the article until I got some way into it. You know you're the market leader when you don't get compared to other, shittier alternatives, you're getting compared to platonic ideals.
rorykoehler 8y ago
>This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market. My phone cost $300
lern_too_spel 8y ago
> Compared to the accepted norm that malware apps are almost routinely found in the public Google Play store. To add to the author's list of things that iPhone users don't know that Apple keeps hidden, several orders of magnitude more iPhone users have been infected with malware than Google Play Store users despite the Play Store having several orders of magnitude more users. https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/20/xcodeghost-chinese-malware-faq/ https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/20/xcodeghost-chinese-malw...
- simonbarker87 8y ago
  Given that it is reported on a very well known Apple blog and Apple released a statement on the issue I don’t think you can say they are hiding it. So a quick google for xcodegohst brings up a Wikipedia page and widespread main steam news coverage (including BBC), with quotes from Apple - literally not hidden at all.
  - lern_too_spel 8y ago
    Apple underreported the number of affected apps by two orders of magnitude, reported that only on its Chinese website (even though millions of users outside of China were affected), took down even that report shortly after (it now loads a marketing page), and left the apps on users' phones. https://www.fireeye.com/blog/executive-perspective/2015/09/protecting_our_custo.html https://www.fireeye.com/blog/executive-perspective/2015/09/p... I consider anything that Apple says to be an ephemeral marketing gimmick.
- dkonofalski 8y ago
  That is flat-out untrue. There are several orders of magnitude more Android users that have been infected with malware than iPhone users. In fact, there have even been Android phones that were compromised within the supply chain and released into the wild. You're either being disingenuous or you're using a very narrow definition of "infected".
  - lern_too_spel 8y ago
    Prove it. I showed half a billion infected iOS users. Show me anywhere close to as many infected Google Play users.
    - dkonofalski 8y ago
      I don't really need to prove it since you're claiming that 500 million "potential" installs somehow equates to "half a billion infected iOS users". They got the 500 million number from the number of users of WeChat in China. Unless every single WeChat user in China and every user of those apps downloaded that update (which was pulled in less than 48 hours), that 500 million is a maximum number. Additionally, because iOS apps are sandboxed, uninstalling or updating the app removed the malware completely from those devices. Now let's compare that with Android and Google Play. According to Nokia's Security Intelligence lab, 74 percent of malware attacks are on Android devices. In 2017 alone, the largest confirmed Android malware attack was for 40 million users. That's verified installs. (http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/nokia-android-smartphones-biggest-malware-target-in-2017/article/507775 http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/no...) If 40 million users were hit off of one app and there are 8.5 million infected installers on the Google Play store (https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/technical-papers/sophoslabs-2017-malware-forecast-report.pdf?la=en https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/technical-pap...), it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you're quickly getting past the 1 billion active malware installs that would double the single incident you cited (which, again, assumed that the worst case happened). Additionally, you're completely ignoring the fact that the vector for the attack was the developers of those apps themselves who downloaded Xcode from a random site on the internet. They issued an update and the malware was removed. On Android, on the other hand, the only action taken was the removal of those apps from the Google Play store which means that the apps remained installed on all the devices they had infected. The rarity of attacks on the iOS front alone makes your statements both misleading and disingenuous. Android is also installed on far more phones than iOS is so we're only even dealing with the malware that's been confirmed and discovered. There's likely an order of magnitude more malware installs out there that are silently doing their thing.
JayXon 8y ago
> This article reminds me of the time when the iOS alarm clock app had a bug that caused the alarm to go off one hour later on some random Sunday and it made headlines in all the tech press. Android alarm going off one hour earlier in Brazil also got some press attention today. https://androidcommunity.com/brazils-dst-change-inadvertently-affects-millions-of-android-phones-20181022/ https://androidcommunity.com/brazils-dst-change-inadvertentl...
fireflash38 8y ago
> Apple literally revolutionised the smartphone market with the simple usability of the iPhone. How long ago? Should they sit on their laurels and do nothing? Or what if they have made progressively worse and worse decisions with regards to UX? What they did a decade ago doesn't matter if what they currently produce isn't that simple usability.

peteretep 8y ago

> This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market Sure. But also, I'd say it's been written by a die-hard Apple fan who goes to Apple because they think they care. I was deeply skeptical of the article until I got some way into it. You know you're the market leader when you don't get compared to other, shittier alternatives, you're getting compared to platonic ideals.

rorykoehler 8y ago

>This is another case of Apple being held to a higher standard than competitors in the market. My phone cost $300

lern_too_spel 8y ago

> Compared to the accepted norm that malware apps are almost routinely found in the public Google Play store. To add to the author's list of things that iPhone users don't know that Apple keeps hidden, several orders of magnitude more iPhone users have been infected with malware than Google Play Store users despite the Play Store having several orders of magnitude more users. https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/20/xcodeghost-chinese-malware-faq/ https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/20/xcodeghost-chinese-malw...

simonbarker87 8y ago
Given that it is reported on a very well known Apple blog and Apple released a statement on the issue I don’t think you can say they are hiding it. So a quick google for xcodegohst brings up a Wikipedia page and widespread main steam news coverage (including BBC), with quotes from Apple - literally not hidden at all.
- lern_too_spel 8y ago
  Apple underreported the number of affected apps by two orders of magnitude, reported that only on its Chinese website (even though millions of users outside of China were affected), took down even that report shortly after (it now loads a marketing page), and left the apps on users' phones. https://www.fireeye.com/blog/executive-perspective/2015/09/protecting_our_custo.html https://www.fireeye.com/blog/executive-perspective/2015/09/p... I consider anything that Apple says to be an ephemeral marketing gimmick.
dkonofalski 8y ago
That is flat-out untrue. There are several orders of magnitude more Android users that have been infected with malware than iPhone users. In fact, there have even been Android phones that were compromised within the supply chain and released into the wild. You're either being disingenuous or you're using a very narrow definition of "infected".
- lern_too_spel 8y ago
  Prove it. I showed half a billion infected iOS users. Show me anywhere close to as many infected Google Play users.
  - dkonofalski 8y ago
    I don't really need to prove it since you're claiming that 500 million "potential" installs somehow equates to "half a billion infected iOS users". They got the 500 million number from the number of users of WeChat in China. Unless every single WeChat user in China and every user of those apps downloaded that update (which was pulled in less than 48 hours), that 500 million is a maximum number. Additionally, because iOS apps are sandboxed, uninstalling or updating the app removed the malware completely from those devices. Now let's compare that with Android and Google Play. According to Nokia's Security Intelligence lab, 74 percent of malware attacks are on Android devices. In 2017 alone, the largest confirmed Android malware attack was for 40 million users. That's verified installs. (http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/nokia-android-smartphones-biggest-malware-target-in-2017/article/507775 http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/no...) If 40 million users were hit off of one app and there are 8.5 million infected installers on the Google Play store (https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/technical-papers/sophoslabs-2017-malware-forecast-report.pdf?la=en https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/technical-pap...), it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you're quickly getting past the 1 billion active malware installs that would double the single incident you cited (which, again, assumed that the worst case happened). Additionally, you're completely ignoring the fact that the vector for the attack was the developers of those apps themselves who downloaded Xcode from a random site on the internet. They issued an update and the malware was removed. On Android, on the other hand, the only action taken was the removal of those apps from the Google Play store which means that the apps remained installed on all the devices they had infected. The rarity of attacks on the iOS front alone makes your statements both misleading and disingenuous. Android is also installed on far more phones than iOS is so we're only even dealing with the malware that's been confirmed and discovered. There's likely an order of magnitude more malware installs out there that are silently doing their thing.

JayXon 8y ago

> This article reminds me of the time when the iOS alarm clock app had a bug that caused the alarm to go off one hour later on some random Sunday and it made headlines in all the tech press. Android alarm going off one hour earlier in Brazil also got some press attention today. https://androidcommunity.com/brazils-dst-change-inadvertently-affects-millions-of-android-phones-20181022/ https://androidcommunity.com/brazils-dst-change-inadvertentl...

fireflash38 8y ago

> Apple literally revolutionised the smartphone market with the simple usability of the iPhone. How long ago? Should they sit on their laurels and do nothing? Or what if they have made progressively worse and worse decisions with regards to UX? What they did a decade ago doesn't matter if what they currently produce isn't that simple usability.