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iOS is still miles ahead of Android and those are the only real choices. Plus the privacy thing. Plus development on Apple products is better.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
I disagree on two of those three, and I use both everyday. I develop for both, too. Do you? Kotlin on Android or something else?
- tonyarkles 6y ago
  Kotlin on Android is great, I think I prefer it over Swift. Android Studio frustrates me significantly more than XCode. Gradle frustrates me more than... whatever iOS uses for builds + CocoaPods. The Android Simulator frustrates me more than the iOS simulator. The Android BLE stack is a disaster; the iOS BLE stack is tolerable. Being able to hand out APKs is nice. Edit: not being able to work on the iOS app while my MacBook is getting repaired after a coffee incident is pretty terrible. Android Studio works fine on my spare Linux laptop.
zamalek 6y ago
> Plus the privacy thing. I really have to hand it to Apple there. I think they must be big tech that really cares (I use Fastmail etc. for this reason, but they aren't the same scope). Their privacy story nearly converted me a year back, but the walled garden has always been my biggest hurdle for switching to Apple. I personally regard the walled garden as a greater violation of what I think consumer rights are. I'd probably deal with the rest, like you all do.
- lern_too_spel 6y ago
  In addition to reducing freedom, the walled garden reduces privacy. You cannot install an app on your phone, not even (especially!) one you develop yourself, without telling Apple. The privacy marketing that Apple does for iOS is the biggest scam in consumer tech.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    This is true. The privacy threat model of an iPhone is absolute trust in Apple that has more control over your device than you do. For me, it doesn't compute.
    - EGreg 6y ago
      It computes for me. It's my Trusted Computing Base, in fact. Would rather have to trust one company than several, as with Android. Can we do better somehow? These 4-5 years may be the last era where we could trust our hardware, until governments all demand backdoors in the OS.
      - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
        > Would rather have to trust one company than several, What? Get the google pixel. One company. They don’t manufacture the phones but have complete control over them... and they are really good.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

I disagree on two of those three, and I use both everyday. I develop for both, too. Do you? Kotlin on Android or something else?

tonyarkles 6y ago
Kotlin on Android is great, I think I prefer it over Swift. Android Studio frustrates me significantly more than XCode. Gradle frustrates me more than... whatever iOS uses for builds + CocoaPods. The Android Simulator frustrates me more than the iOS simulator. The Android BLE stack is a disaster; the iOS BLE stack is tolerable. Being able to hand out APKs is nice. Edit: not being able to work on the iOS app while my MacBook is getting repaired after a coffee incident is pretty terrible. Android Studio works fine on my spare Linux laptop.

zamalek 6y ago

> Plus the privacy thing. I really have to hand it to Apple there. I think they must be big tech that really cares (I use Fastmail etc. for this reason, but they aren't the same scope). Their privacy story nearly converted me a year back, but the walled garden has always been my biggest hurdle for switching to Apple. I personally regard the walled garden as a greater violation of what I think consumer rights are. I'd probably deal with the rest, like you all do.

lern_too_spel 6y ago
In addition to reducing freedom, the walled garden reduces privacy. You cannot install an app on your phone, not even (especially!) one you develop yourself, without telling Apple. The privacy marketing that Apple does for iOS is the biggest scam in consumer tech.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  This is true. The privacy threat model of an iPhone is absolute trust in Apple that has more control over your device than you do. For me, it doesn't compute.
  - EGreg 6y ago
    It computes for me. It's my Trusted Computing Base, in fact. Would rather have to trust one company than several, as with Android. Can we do better somehow? These 4-5 years may be the last era where we could trust our hardware, until governments all demand backdoors in the OS.
    - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
      > Would rather have to trust one company than several, What? Get the google pixel. One company. They don’t manufacture the phones but have complete control over them... and they are really good.