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Funny, I've bought every iPhone to date except this one. In fact, I went out and bought a Galaxy Nexus instead. I did it because Apple's fascination with perfec

Funny, I've bought every iPhone to date except this one. In fact, I went out and bought a Galaxy Nexus instead. I did it because Apple's fascination with perfecting form and design has somehow morphed into this inability to innovate. The primary reason I switched was that one day, I opened up my home screen and realized it hasn't changed in 5 years. We still open apps one at a time, each app allotted a sort of pseudo background API that allows minimal functionality. And God those apps are pretty. And the FPS is amazing. And the fluidity of the experience is breathtaking... but at the end of the day, my device is about acquiring information. I want to know when my train is coming, I want to save map info when I don't have a connection, I want to know that when I leave for work and hit the subway, Pocket auto downloaded all those articles I saved for later. Apple still maintains the best hardware, hands down. It's not even comparable. But it's irrelevant if the apps that reside on that phone are completely crippled by a draconian sense of design and control. If the phone has a "workstation tower processor" inside it, why the hell can't they let up and let the thing actually PROCESS more information? I'll miss the beauty of it, that's for sure, but unless Apple gets its act together with background processing and figuring out how to actually do cloud anything right, I'm moving to Google.

dmishe 14y ago
>Pocket auto downloaded all those articles I saved for later. Good point, I have no idea why don't they just push to iOS devices on my account.
eridius 14y ago
> If the phone has a "workstation tower processor" inside it, why the hell can't they let up and let the thing actually PROCESS more information? Because of power. It may have "workstation tower processing" power, but it's not hooked up to a wall socket. Power consumption is the gigantic bugaboo that plagues mobile devices, and that (in my opinion) justifies Apple's policies about background processing on iOS.
- majormajor 14y ago
  I wish they'd go further, though: how much battery life could Apple get out of an iPhone if they kept their great minimization and efficiency-maximization of the electronics going, but pulled back from the thinner-and-lighter-every-time mantra and devoted all the saved space to a bigger battery? An iPhone that's smaller than my still-pocketable non-Apple phone isn't that appealing to me (yay for having above-average-sized hands!). An iPhone that could go a week easily on a single charge would make me sit up and take notice, though.
  - janardanyri 14y ago
    The iPhone's battery takes up a gargantuan amount of its internal space already. Multiplying the battery size by 7 would end up doubling or tripling the device size easily. See the iFixit teardown of the 4: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1 http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1 It's truly just an incredibly hard problem to solve.
  - chrisbolt 14y ago
    If you care more about battery life, why not just add something like http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=112&cp_id=11213&cs_id=1083111&p_id=8292&seq=1&format=2 http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=112&c... ?
- technoslut 14y ago
  I agree somewhat but I think it's more than that. Apple made a specific choice to concentrate first and foremost on experience. On the PC we sacrifice speed and fluidity for running numerous applications at once unless you're running a high end machine. All of us have experienced how much you want to tear your hair out over lag (especially in iTunes). I think iOS eases that experience because there only is so much you can do at once and you always feel like you're in control in an environment that Apple actually controls.
udpheaders 14y ago
You are the type of customer I want to sell my stuff to. Form is important. But not more important than function. But do others share your view? There's no reason you shouldn't have the full uncrippled power of UNIX in the palm of your hand.
- krichman 14y ago
  I share that view, but I fear we are in the minority. My family, for example, wouldn't have any idea what to do with a pocket UNIX.
- taligent 14y ago
  > There's no reason you shouldn't have the full uncrippled power of UNIX in the palm of your hand. I couldn't stop laughing when I read this. There's probably a few reasons I can think of.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
initself 14y ago
Frankly, I'm glad my home screen on Froyo hasn't changed in 5 years.

dmishe 14y ago

>Pocket auto downloaded all those articles I saved for later. Good point, I have no idea why don't they just push to iOS devices on my account.

eridius 14y ago

> If the phone has a "workstation tower processor" inside it, why the hell can't they let up and let the thing actually PROCESS more information? Because of power. It may have "workstation tower processing" power, but it's not hooked up to a wall socket. Power consumption is the gigantic bugaboo that plagues mobile devices, and that (in my opinion) justifies Apple's policies about background processing on iOS.

majormajor 14y ago
I wish they'd go further, though: how much battery life could Apple get out of an iPhone if they kept their great minimization and efficiency-maximization of the electronics going, but pulled back from the thinner-and-lighter-every-time mantra and devoted all the saved space to a bigger battery? An iPhone that's smaller than my still-pocketable non-Apple phone isn't that appealing to me (yay for having above-average-sized hands!). An iPhone that could go a week easily on a single charge would make me sit up and take notice, though.
- janardanyri 14y ago
  The iPhone's battery takes up a gargantuan amount of its internal space already. Multiplying the battery size by 7 would end up doubling or tripling the device size easily. See the iFixit teardown of the 4: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1 http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1 It's truly just an incredibly hard problem to solve.
- chrisbolt 14y ago
  If you care more about battery life, why not just add something like http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=112&cp_id=11213&cs_id=1083111&p_id=8292&seq=1&format=2 http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=112&c... ?
technoslut 14y ago
I agree somewhat but I think it's more than that. Apple made a specific choice to concentrate first and foremost on experience. On the PC we sacrifice speed and fluidity for running numerous applications at once unless you're running a high end machine. All of us have experienced how much you want to tear your hair out over lag (especially in iTunes). I think iOS eases that experience because there only is so much you can do at once and you always feel like you're in control in an environment that Apple actually controls.

udpheaders 14y ago

You are the type of customer I want to sell my stuff to. Form is important. But not more important than function. But do others share your view? There's no reason you shouldn't have the full uncrippled power of UNIX in the palm of your hand.

krichman 14y ago
I share that view, but I fear we are in the minority. My family, for example, wouldn't have any idea what to do with a pocket UNIX.
taligent 14y ago
> There's no reason you shouldn't have the full uncrippled power of UNIX in the palm of your hand. I couldn't stop laughing when I read this. There's probably a few reasons I can think of.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

initself 14y ago

Frankly, I'm glad my home screen on Froyo hasn't changed in 5 years.