4 ms·

What I find the most surprising is how Apple continued to sell the 3GS. You could have bought a 3GS at a time where I wouldn't have updates for even a year. T

by gnur 13y ago

What I find the most surprising is how Apple continued to sell the 3GS. You could have bought a 3GS at a time where I wouldn't have updates for even a year. The upgrades also shouldn't be a reason for buying a phone, you buy a phone for what it can do now. You don't know whether an update will be useful or not. What did iOS 6 add? Apple's own Maps, Facebook integration (why is that an OS feature?). Those are all things that in Android are just app updates, any app can integrate with other apps and feature SSO & default apps (like Maps, SMS, browser) can be chosen by the user. There are some things that iOS 7 does better then Android, and some things that Android does better. Both have a target audience and both are really advanced, but neither is a truly better OS. I currently own an iPhone 5S. And while I do love the fingerprint sensor and the back-gesture-swipe, there really are some oddities in iOS. Why can't I use a mp3 as a ringtone without using iTunes? Why do I have to use iTunes to add music to my phone? Why can't I choose Chrome as my default browser?

JimDabell 13y ago
> Why do I have to use iTunes to add music to my phone? You don't. You have to use iTunes to add music to the bundled Music app. You can use other music apps that have different ways of getting the music onto your device, e.g. Spotify, last.fm, Amazon Cloud Player, etc.
- Cthulhu_ 13y ago
  And you don't even have to use itunes, plenty of alternative / reverse engineered systems that can send music files to your idevice.
  - ward 13y ago
    Is that still correct for iOS5 and newer? I know I never solved that to anything remotely close to satisfaction when checking it out last time for iOS6
- oblio 13y ago
  And what if I want to use Windows Explorer or Nautilus to just copy my files to the device without installing anything? Just like any other mobile device in existence since the invention of Plug and Play and USB.
  - JimDabell 13y ago
    > And what if I want to use Windows Explorer or Nautilus to just copy my files to the device without installing anything? You don't like how the bundled Music app works but you don't want to install a different music app? You're setting up a no-win situation there.
    - mikestew 13y ago
      No, the poster is setting up the same tired argument that is raised since the iPod came out: it's not a USB media device out of the box. That is by design, and likely for reasons other than to "restrict our freedomz!". I don't want to use a file manager to organize my music, I'll take an iPod/iPhone, please. You may feel differently, so you might want to take a look at the fine music players on the market. Or just suck it up and install the app on your iPhone.
      - makomk 13y ago
        I know that loading new music onto recent iPods is protected by cryptographic techniques with a similar strength and level of code obfuscation to their DRM scheme. Wouldn't be surprised to find the same is true of the iPhone.
      - oblio 13y ago
        I want to hook up an iPad to my laptop - FOR FREE - and be able to copy 2GB movies to it whenever I want, with 2 clicks or less. I say iPad but it's the same, really, for iPhone. I just care more about the iPad here :) You can do it, but it's in no way straightforward: all sort of cloud services (no, I don't want to send my files over to your servers in Finland to copy things in my living room), making the iPad a WebDAV server (probably the simplest solution but definitely annoying), SMB shares (only seen on the iPad through crappy or paid apps), iTunes (again, crappy solution, a lot more clicks than a real file manager). I mean, just because Apple (or the media companies Apple does business with) has an agenda to push you can't blame me for bitching at them. After all drag'n'drop file copying between devices was a problem solved 20 years ago. Now I need special "apps" on either my PC or on the iPad (most of them crapware or paid or paid crapware) to connect glorified "iDevices". The just took that option out - there was no technical reason to not have it and just HIDE the entry from newbies. Add to this the fact that the app market looks so immature that I feel I'm back to DOS shareware land. Few major companies I feel I can trust to not screw me at a low level (I don't care about NSA intrusions, I care about credit cards numbers being leaked out or major security breaches on code no-one has ever reviewed), no well known, mature OSS apps for the main things I do with my device. Right now installing an app seems a crap shoot. Anyway, it's all business reasons and not tech reasons, I get it. End of rant :|

by gnur 13y ago

JimDabell 13y ago

> Why do I have to use iTunes to add music to my phone? You don't. You have to use iTunes to add music to the bundled Music app. You can use other music apps that have different ways of getting the music onto your device, e.g. Spotify, last.fm, Amazon Cloud Player, etc.

Cthulhu_ 13y ago
And you don't even have to use itunes, plenty of alternative / reverse engineered systems that can send music files to your idevice.
- ward 13y ago
  Is that still correct for iOS5 and newer? I know I never solved that to anything remotely close to satisfaction when checking it out last time for iOS6
oblio 13y ago
And what if I want to use Windows Explorer or Nautilus to just copy my files to the device without installing anything? Just like any other mobile device in existence since the invention of Plug and Play and USB.
- JimDabell 13y ago
  > And what if I want to use Windows Explorer or Nautilus to just copy my files to the device without installing anything? You don't like how the bundled Music app works but you don't want to install a different music app? You're setting up a no-win situation there.
  - mikestew 13y ago
    No, the poster is setting up the same tired argument that is raised since the iPod came out: it's not a USB media device out of the box. That is by design, and likely for reasons other than to "restrict our freedomz!". I don't want to use a file manager to organize my music, I'll take an iPod/iPhone, please. You may feel differently, so you might want to take a look at the fine music players on the market. Or just suck it up and install the app on your iPhone.
    - makomk 13y ago
      I know that loading new music onto recent iPods is protected by cryptographic techniques with a similar strength and level of code obfuscation to their DRM scheme. Wouldn't be surprised to find the same is true of the iPhone.
    - oblio 13y ago
      I want to hook up an iPad to my laptop - FOR FREE - and be able to copy 2GB movies to it whenever I want, with 2 clicks or less. I say iPad but it's the same, really, for iPhone. I just care more about the iPad here :) You can do it, but it's in no way straightforward: all sort of cloud services (no, I don't want to send my files over to your servers in Finland to copy things in my living room), making the iPad a WebDAV server (probably the simplest solution but definitely annoying), SMB shares (only seen on the iPad through crappy or paid apps), iTunes (again, crappy solution, a lot more clicks than a real file manager). I mean, just because Apple (or the media companies Apple does business with) has an agenda to push you can't blame me for bitching at them. After all drag'n'drop file copying between devices was a problem solved 20 years ago. Now I need special "apps" on either my PC or on the iPad (most of them crapware or paid or paid crapware) to connect glorified "iDevices". The just took that option out - there was no technical reason to not have it and just HIDE the entry from newbies. Add to this the fact that the app market looks so immature that I feel I'm back to DOS shareware land. Few major companies I feel I can trust to not screw me at a low level (I don't care about NSA intrusions, I care about credit cards numbers being leaked out or major security breaches on code no-one has ever reviewed), no well known, mature OSS apps for the main things I do with my device. Right now installing an app seems a crap shoot. Anyway, it's all business reasons and not tech reasons, I get it. End of rant :|