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I'm currently torn between a pixel 5 and an iPhone 12 mini. This is definitely nudging me towards the iPhone.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
searchableguy 6y ago
Pixel 5 isn't a great phone. You should go for pixel 4a which is $349 at retail or iphone 12 mini. Safari ad blockers are severely crippled and you won't have any choice in browsers. Ublock origin is available on android with firefox which is something to consider if you browse on your phone often.
- bnjemian 6y ago
  You can now switch your default browser in iOS, with Brave being one of the options.
  - kmonsen 6y ago
    I thought they still had to use Apple webview for rendering web content meaning as blockers should not be significant different?
    - bnjemian 6y ago
      Ah, that may be. Any iOS devs wanna weigh in?
      - croes 6y ago
        Apple only allows their browser engine
    - criddell 6y ago
      IMHO, that's probably a good thing as long as Apple stays small. If a Chromium-based browser took over iOS as well, it would be the only rendering engine anybody targets.
      - kmonsen 6y ago
        What I was trying to say is that ad blocking cannot really be a lot better than Safari? You would have to block on the network level and not the content level.
      - damnyou 6y ago
        Apple should open up its app store to GeckoView, then. It would be great to have both WebKit and GeckoView as options.
  - BenTheElder 6y ago
    But all of them are safari core, Apple does not allow other browser runtimes, they're only the custom UI around the webview. [1] All of the core browser bits including adblocking are safari still in every iOS browser on the app store. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ > 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript. (i.e. ~safari webview)
    - PaulRobinson 6y ago
      You're going to have to provide rather incredible evidence that adblocking is broken on iOS, because it's a rather incredible claim.
      - BenTheElder 6y ago
        If you read my comment again you'll note the only claim I make about adblocking is that all browsers must use the same runtime. I don't claim that it's broken, but the ability to switch browsers (finally!) doesn't seem terribly relevant given that they're all required to essentially be safari skins.
    - JimDabell 6y ago
      > But all of them are safari core, Apple does not allow other browser runtimes, they're only the custom UI around the webview. [1] You’re mixing up Safari and WebKit. This gives a misleading impression. Safari is Apple’s web browser. WebKit is Apple’s rendering engine. There’s much more to a browser than its rendering engine. Apple requires browsers to use WebKit, not Safari. Everything else – add-ons, syncing, UI, homepage, etc. – can be completely custom. I’d be pretty pissed off if I were a developer working on a browser for iOS and everybody treated all of my hard work as if it were nothing. Alternative browsers aren’t just reskinned Safari. They are entire applications of their own.
      - BenTheElder 6y ago
        In this context they're more or less the same, because the relevant networking / adblocking bits are in webkit, AIUI. It's true that safari and webkit are not the same, this comment is imprecise. But switching browsers won't net you different adblocking capability due to the restriction to use apples webkit core. Edit: that is "safari core" is a very lazy shorthand for the webkit framework here. The impact to the user is pretty much the same in this context.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - captn3m0 6y ago
    Changing the default browser doesn't get you much far: 1. Not all apps will use the default browser. 2. You can't uninstall Safari 3. Safari's content blocking framework doesn't work for third-party browsers. This means no adblocker. 4. iOS has a great time-tracking feature that lets you block websites beyond certain usage. Once again, only works on Safari. Not to mention that we still don't have extensions in Firefox.
- fn1 6y ago
  Why crippled? 1blocker works very well on Safari?
  - izacus 6y ago
    They have the exact same limitations as Chrome team is trying to introduce. Here is HackerNews being angry at them: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20044430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20044430
  - damnyou 6y ago
    On top of the limited, static lists, you cannot both use content blockers and sync your bookmarks and history with MS Windows or GNU/Linux at the same time. That's pretty broken. It's really easy to do this on Android—Firefox with uBlock Origin is brilliant.
- ehsankia 6y ago
  Pixel 5 is a great phone, albeit a bit overpriced in the US due to the extra mmWave chip. So is the 4a, depends on your needs. Pixel 5 has 2GB more ram, 50% more battery, wireless charging, 90hz display and waterproofing. Now that may or may not be features you need, both they're both great deals.
  - searchableguy 6y ago
    Pixel 5 has bunch of issues which make the performance worse than pixel 4a 5g and comparable to pixel 4a. OP talked about iphone 12 mini so I thought they cared about small size which pixel 4a rocks.
    - ehsankia 6y ago
      > make the performance worse than pixel 4a 5g There were a few strange stand out benchmarks, though to me they seemed more like bugs than a pattern. I haven't had any performance issues in every day usage. > I thought they cared about small size That's fair, I assumed they were just avoiding premium prices. Still, some people really care about wireless charging and waterproofing and if so, I think P5 is a great option.
- PaulRobinson 6y ago
  Safari ad blockers are not severely crippled.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    They do kind of suck, however. They’re not very dynamic and are capped at an arbitrary limit of 50,000 rules.
    - PaulRobinson 6y ago
      All software has "arbitrary" limits. Is 50,000 rules enough to provide adequate ad blocking? If not, it's a problem. If 50k rules is more than enough, it's not accurate to suggest that the limit is an issue we should care about.
      - damnyou 6y ago
        The only way to do adequate ad blocking is dynamically. Static lists are not sufficient.
    - tpetry 6y ago
      The most popular blocker named 1Blocker is adding multiple rule lists, one for each of it’s categories (ads, trackers, regional rules, ...) to circumvent this limit. Its not a real problem.
      - sirn 6y ago
        I think the better way to put it is it is a real problem, but with a well known workaround. AFAIK, these slots needs to be pre-defined so you're still limited to number of lists that were defined at installation time. This limitation prevent the model with traditional adblocker where extension and block lists are independently maintained by different parties (e.g. uBlock Origin/ABP + EasyList) so you're stuck with relying on extension maintainer to update their list or download another blocker app when the blocker become unmaintained (where in traditional model you could just subscribe to another list)
- damnyou 6y ago
  On the contrary, a Pixel 5 is actually a fantastic phone. It's the smoothest-feeling phone I've ever used -- the 90Hz screen makes a huge difference. Tip: go to the developer options and change the animation durations to .5x to make the phone feel blazing fast. Plus a Pixel integrates a lot better with non-Apple operating systems, both MS Windows and GNU/Linux. MS's "Your Phone" and KDE Connect are both great.
qz2 6y ago
Get the iPhone. Everything just works. I have the non mini 12. Its damn near as perfect as it’s going to get.
raxxorrax 6y ago
Buy a nokia or something. Clean distro, doesn't make you dependent on manufacturers.
GeekyBear 6y ago
Recent iPhones getting twice as many years of software support after the sale is also a big factor. The original iPhone SE and iPhone 6s are both on their sixth year of support. The iPhone 5s got a security update a couple of days ago, after it's own six years of support had ended.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Pixel 5 isn't a great phone. You should go for pixel 4a which is $349 at retail or iphone 12 mini. Safari ad blockers are severely crippled and you won't have any choice in browsers. Ublock origin is available on android with firefox which is something to consider if you browse on your phone often.

bnjemian 6y ago
You can now switch your default browser in iOS, with Brave being one of the options.
- kmonsen 6y ago
  I thought they still had to use Apple webview for rendering web content meaning as blockers should not be significant different?
  - bnjemian 6y ago
    Ah, that may be. Any iOS devs wanna weigh in?
    - croes 6y ago
      Apple only allows their browser engine
  - criddell 6y ago
    IMHO, that's probably a good thing as long as Apple stays small. If a Chromium-based browser took over iOS as well, it would be the only rendering engine anybody targets.
    - kmonsen 6y ago
      What I was trying to say is that ad blocking cannot really be a lot better than Safari? You would have to block on the network level and not the content level.
    - damnyou 6y ago
      Apple should open up its app store to GeckoView, then. It would be great to have both WebKit and GeckoView as options.
- BenTheElder 6y ago
  But all of them are safari core, Apple does not allow other browser runtimes, they're only the custom UI around the webview. [1] All of the core browser bits including adblocking are safari still in every iOS browser on the app store. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ > 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript. (i.e. ~safari webview)
  - PaulRobinson 6y ago
    You're going to have to provide rather incredible evidence that adblocking is broken on iOS, because it's a rather incredible claim.
    - BenTheElder 6y ago
      If you read my comment again you'll note the only claim I make about adblocking is that all browsers must use the same runtime. I don't claim that it's broken, but the ability to switch browsers (finally!) doesn't seem terribly relevant given that they're all required to essentially be safari skins.
  - JimDabell 6y ago
    > But all of them are safari core, Apple does not allow other browser runtimes, they're only the custom UI around the webview. [1] You’re mixing up Safari and WebKit. This gives a misleading impression. Safari is Apple’s web browser. WebKit is Apple’s rendering engine. There’s much more to a browser than its rendering engine. Apple requires browsers to use WebKit, not Safari. Everything else – add-ons, syncing, UI, homepage, etc. – can be completely custom. I’d be pretty pissed off if I were a developer working on a browser for iOS and everybody treated all of my hard work as if it were nothing. Alternative browsers aren’t just reskinned Safari. They are entire applications of their own.
    - BenTheElder 6y ago
      In this context they're more or less the same, because the relevant networking / adblocking bits are in webkit, AIUI. It's true that safari and webkit are not the same, this comment is imprecise. But switching browsers won't net you different adblocking capability due to the restriction to use apples webkit core. Edit: that is "safari core" is a very lazy shorthand for the webkit framework here. The impact to the user is pretty much the same in this context.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- captn3m0 6y ago
  Changing the default browser doesn't get you much far: 1. Not all apps will use the default browser. 2. You can't uninstall Safari 3. Safari's content blocking framework doesn't work for third-party browsers. This means no adblocker. 4. iOS has a great time-tracking feature that lets you block websites beyond certain usage. Once again, only works on Safari. Not to mention that we still don't have extensions in Firefox.
fn1 6y ago
Why crippled? 1blocker works very well on Safari?
- izacus 6y ago
  They have the exact same limitations as Chrome team is trying to introduce. Here is HackerNews being angry at them: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20044430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20044430
- damnyou 6y ago
  On top of the limited, static lists, you cannot both use content blockers and sync your bookmarks and history with MS Windows or GNU/Linux at the same time. That's pretty broken. It's really easy to do this on Android—Firefox with uBlock Origin is brilliant.
ehsankia 6y ago
Pixel 5 is a great phone, albeit a bit overpriced in the US due to the extra mmWave chip. So is the 4a, depends on your needs. Pixel 5 has 2GB more ram, 50% more battery, wireless charging, 90hz display and waterproofing. Now that may or may not be features you need, both they're both great deals.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Pixel 5 has bunch of issues which make the performance worse than pixel 4a 5g and comparable to pixel 4a. OP talked about iphone 12 mini so I thought they cared about small size which pixel 4a rocks.
  - ehsankia 6y ago
    > make the performance worse than pixel 4a 5g There were a few strange stand out benchmarks, though to me they seemed more like bugs than a pattern. I haven't had any performance issues in every day usage. > I thought they cared about small size That's fair, I assumed they were just avoiding premium prices. Still, some people really care about wireless charging and waterproofing and if so, I think P5 is a great option.
PaulRobinson 6y ago
Safari ad blockers are not severely crippled.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  They do kind of suck, however. They’re not very dynamic and are capped at an arbitrary limit of 50,000 rules.
  - PaulRobinson 6y ago
    All software has "arbitrary" limits. Is 50,000 rules enough to provide adequate ad blocking? If not, it's a problem. If 50k rules is more than enough, it's not accurate to suggest that the limit is an issue we should care about.
    - damnyou 6y ago
      The only way to do adequate ad blocking is dynamically. Static lists are not sufficient.
  - tpetry 6y ago
    The most popular blocker named 1Blocker is adding multiple rule lists, one for each of it’s categories (ads, trackers, regional rules, ...) to circumvent this limit. Its not a real problem.
    - sirn 6y ago
      I think the better way to put it is it is a real problem, but with a well known workaround. AFAIK, these slots needs to be pre-defined so you're still limited to number of lists that were defined at installation time. This limitation prevent the model with traditional adblocker where extension and block lists are independently maintained by different parties (e.g. uBlock Origin/ABP + EasyList) so you're stuck with relying on extension maintainer to update their list or download another blocker app when the blocker become unmaintained (where in traditional model you could just subscribe to another list)
damnyou 6y ago
On the contrary, a Pixel 5 is actually a fantastic phone. It's the smoothest-feeling phone I've ever used -- the 90Hz screen makes a huge difference. Tip: go to the developer options and change the animation durations to .5x to make the phone feel blazing fast. Plus a Pixel integrates a lot better with non-Apple operating systems, both MS Windows and GNU/Linux. MS's "Your Phone" and KDE Connect are both great.

qz2 6y ago

Get the iPhone. Everything just works. I have the non mini 12. Its damn near as perfect as it’s going to get.

raxxorrax 6y ago

Buy a nokia or something. Clean distro, doesn't make you dependent on manufacturers.

GeekyBear 6y ago

Recent iPhones getting twice as many years of software support after the sale is also a big factor. The original iPhone SE and iPhone 6s are both on their sixth year of support. The iPhone 5s got a security update a couple of days ago, after it's own six years of support had ended.