@clifyt
I think it could be technically possible for Apple to “open up” its iOS devices, in essence providing a safer way to jailbreak them. They’d never ever do that, but they easily could and make a lot of people happy without compromising the “normal” mode of operation which you and I prefer. I fail to see the Jailbreak community impacting iOS in a negative way, so Apple potentially doing it themselves doesn’t seem like such a bad idea—technically—to me.
On another note, today I got my first Android device for work to test/use an App our team developed; a Moto E or something like that. This is the first time I used an Android for more than 15 seconds.
After Ⅰ got over the initial confusion and made my peace with the horrible organization and interface (it’s all stock Android, I’m sure there are very nice alternatives and options for customization around) Ⅰ started feeling physically sick from using it. The animations, the not-rubberbanding, the fonts and the horrid screen make me just as sick as if I was reading a book in a car or being on a bad boat. Approaching that thing with an open mind, as best as I could did not help.
Had to let that out, sorry.
You are right, but it would legitimize the pirate groups out there. The #1 feature of the jailbreak world is getting access to the Cydia ‘Store’. Or whatever it is called these days. As someone working on a few apps part-time, I don’t want this to be something sanctioned. The plan is to throw out binaries that don’t use my resources if I ever finish any of these – and let the pirates have what they will, but it isn’t something I’d want the general public to think was fine.
Shaddack seems like he’d be fine opening the doors to the store and letting people have at it…I don’t share this belief in any way. I know the reality is that as a developer, you have to sorta play to these people – when I was a software developer for synthesizers, I’d sell soundsets that completely gave a brand new machine for 1/20th of the original machine…and yet people still felt that it should be free. I ended up giving official releases to anyone that actually just asked (i.e., I didn’t want them to pirate it…and I didn’t want buggy versions out making me look bad)…but in a world where people actually respected those that make the tools they used, it would never happen in the first place.
As for Android? I’ve got a few devices…ironically, the ones I like the best are the Amazon Fires. They seem to be set up to be far more limited by design, but I think Amazon does a great job on them. Better than my iPads? Oh no. But still…I don’t care much to use Android, but its usable. Just not enjoyable. They ALL feel like they were made by autistic CSCI nerds. iOS devices feel like they are equal STEM / liberal arts. Ok…I agree entirely. It works, just not to a degree that someone that expects fit and polish expects. And maybe this is what pisses me off about the demand for backdoors in the machines…those that want free and open have just an much opportunity to make an OS that is just as polished. And as they haven’t, they want us to open the doors to fill the hole they couldn’t within their sad little religion. Sounds like a failing on their part as opposed to ours.
After work I took the time to update my Moto E 2nd gen. It’s now on Android 5.0.2 and says it’s “up to date.” Turns out there’s already an Android 6 out since October! What’s more is that the updates for this Moto E only go to 5.1, and the update for that from the manufacturer has been out since August. Now here’s the kicker: apparently, OS updates are also geographically locked!! So just because I reside in this backwater called Germany I have a worse device unless I engage in “flashing the ROM” with nefarious software or whatever’s expected of oh-so “free” Android users.
I knew the OS update situation was bad, but I did not expect this level of horrible.
iOS: once an update’s out, every user of any iOS device capable of running it (sometimes barely so) can immediately install it. 2011’s iPhone 4S runs the current OS; 2015’s Moto E can’t run one that came out half a year after it.
Which synths did you work on? I know from spending a lot of time on one current small synth manufacturer’s forum that some people can get downright nasty if they don’t get their free OS updates with fixes for their pet-peeves. Others offered to help develop said software, or asked for it to be made open-source, but I think the apparent benefits of this would not outweigh the additional overhead, effort and potential support issues that would arise from that for a very small company.
Agree completely. I use my Apple devices most of my waking time. I live and breathe that “ecosystem”. Switching to Android for even a couple of minutes and returning makes me appreciate Apple’s software and hardware on a whole new level.
No, I have missed nothing but a small minority that snivel at a product, but still want to dictate how it should function. I have no desire to take any of you seriously.
So because I want to be able to install software on a device that I paid about $500 for, but the company who made the device won’t permit me to… that makes me the dictator? LOL, you live in an interesting world, Mr. Trump.
You can. Use Xcode. I’ve said this 3 times already. You CAN’T install signed binaries…you can install binaries built from source. I don’t remember feeling oppressed on Linux because I had to run MAKE.
But yes, keep spending a lot of money on products you don’t like, that you know the limitations, and then get angry that these limitations that you knew were there, are there.
Lack of beforehand knowledge (fairly common, few marketing blurbs tell you about the limitations of the devices/brands and piecing it from what’s available online is often less than easy and obvious only in hindsight)?
Or, perhaps, lack of experiences that leads to underestimation of the magnitude of the problem? Or an assumption that nobody in their right mind would not support $such_a_matter_of_course_thing?
Or, maybe, the given Big Suck being marketed as a Superb Feature?
Got first-hand experience of all these options, in different situations. They all suck. Do not assume vendor’s sanity.
For something that’s touted as so good, the market share of less than 14 percents is rather telling. Ol’ Veblen could perhaps comment on this.
Had to deal with The Fruit a couple times. Got bitten by the incompatibility of connectors, unavailability of apps/functionality, lack of support for memory cards, and quite less than intuitive user interface that moves pretty and is animated up to the wazoo but is weird and is obviously designed by a liberal arts major. The UI is something that one can learn, though; so I’ll consider that a subjective dislike; the rest are hard limitations.
How much do you appreciate the overpriced power supplies that functionally differ only with connectors (and only about 15% of people have them around)? A smartphone charger should have a microUSB connector (or, more generally, $whatever_everybody_else_uses, which is the microUSB, as sucky as it is - but a connector you have sucks less than the connector you don’t have). Do you always carry a charger? I got bitten a couple times, back when the chargers were more heterogeneous. (Tough to maintain communication with somebody whom you cannot loan your charger and who let her phone die - even if you brought your own charger all okay and did all the servicing and due diligence on your end.) It’s easier now when things got standardized. Same with headphones and other peripherals. Only one brand insists on their own, and their fanboy army insists on it being a Good Thing. Guess what? It’s a lie.
Even Sony learned to support SD cards instead of going MS only.
Ummm… Moto E 2nd gen is said to receive OTA updates in Europe, see here.
What’s nefarious on a flasher? Doesn’t anybody use it?
…and you can bribe a techie friend to take a look at it if you don’t want to bother yourself. Or drop by your local hackerspace with a bag of cookies and/or some beer.
You at least have that option, even if you don’t want to use it. If Apple doesn’t want something, tough luck. If a given Android vendor doesn’t want something, Cyanogen or its ilk. I don’t see what’s “oh so ‘free’” on it, it’s some actual bloody choice.
Is it where you can get encrypted chat apps in China where Apple cannot stock them in the oh-so-free official store? Or other goods that the corporation doesn’t consider compliant with their policies?
Alternatives are good.
Where else would you get an app like Gravity that the Fruit God rejected from their One and Only Temple?
That may explain why the iOS looks like an animated mess that swims when touched and induces mild nausea, and doesn’t allow access to many of the important settings.
Give me an autistic designer over a liberal arts know-nothing-but-it-looks-pretty wank any day. They are easier to negotiate with and produce more sensible results.
Wow. More complaining that you really really really want an Apple product. But that you don’t want an Apple product. And the posturing about how you are saving all of us 14 percenters from making bad decisions.
I don’t really want to continue complaining about a budget device I got for free that I will only use to run a single app anymore. The less I think about it, the better.
To address a few of your points out of order:
Chargers: yes, I do carry a battery pack with me most times I’m out for a longer stretch of time. With it I carry three cables: Lightning for the iPhone, 30-pin for my iPod and a micro USB for my noise-cancelling headphones, mirrorless camera and anyone in my vicinity who happens to run out of juice on their non-Apple device. I like to be prepared. If I carry one cable, the other two don’t make much of a difference. The cables are always included for free with the Apple product you buy, additional ones can be bought from third-party manufacturers at a more reasonable price.
Memory cards overcomplicate matters in my opinion, both from a development (hardware and software) and UX point of view. Quick transfer of large files without using networks is the one advantage I see, though.
Animations: as I pointed out earlier, the Android phone’s animations actually induce nausea in me while iOS seems very natural. Possibly hugely subjective matter, though.
UI: obviously we see things differently for one reason or another. Stock Android’s Settings app is an opaque mess to me, where it’s not clear when tapping on one thing leads me to more settings or not. Obviously hugely subjective matter.
Flashers: last time I’ve stumbled upon one was back when I “flashed” my PSP 1000 to play pirated content. I guess the illegitimacy of that stuck with that word in the context of mobile devices for me.
As a developer I love to see things with the eyes of a user who wants to use something to do something, and that leads me to conclude that iOS seems to be much better suited for general use. Not all special edge cases, mind you! It’s obviously not for everybody and I’m very happy that alternatives do exist. I just don’t agree that they are as user–friendly.
One last rant: You want the latest and safest system on your device? You’ll get it with Apple in no time. Connect to the internet, agree to update your device and enter you passwords a couple of times. With Android? Either hope for the manufacturer to issue an update for your specific device in your specific region at some point in time (if ever, mostly) or go “bribe a techie friend”, unless you want to spend your time to become well-informed on what software to trust, which one you like, where to get it and how to go through lengthy and unpleasant processes to do what the device’s manufacturer didn’t intend for you to do, but you’re “free” to do it.
Again, the iOS devices, from a security point of view, are the most secure precisely because of their limited nature. Also, when Apple makes a security update for the OS, all iOS users get it. This doesn’t happen in the android world where security updates are at the whim of your phone manufacturer and your carrier both.
As a security professional, I appreciate that and use an iPhone.
Also, Android user experience and app quality sucks balls.
I have friends with such machines. I see the incompatibilities rather too often.
I don’t. I just want them to not suck and to stop imposing suckiness on the rest of the world. And, worse, some people are normalizing the perception that the suckiness is not just acceptable but actually desirable.
If you were on some other planet, and not haemorrhaging the fallout all over the area, I’d be okay with it.
I like to be prepared as well. I carry a battery pack and a couple microUSB cables, some of them custom-made. If I lose or misplace one, no problem - everything is standardized around one connector (to the point of replacing a miniUSB on some things I have with micro, or adding one), the cables are replaceable.
Also “quick retrieval of data from a failed or discharged device”, “easy upgrade to more storage without having to buy a new device” - especially advantageous due to falling prices of memory cards, or “easy compatibility with non-wireless devices” - with a little swapping of cards one can get new books to a reader, or send pics from a camera, as needed. With old devices from different vendors, nonetheless. Using microSD with adapter wherever the device uses SD allows full compatibility across devices.
A lack of SD/microSD memory card slot is a major no-no.
Could be better, indeed. But isn’t that bad. I found it quite intuitive. Tried Apple, it is attempting to look simple while not letting you really in.
And you can often manipulate things from a root SSH shell in the device.
And that’s a problem… why? You open the capabilities of the device, become its true owner instead of merely a user, and what you do since then is irrelevant to the legitimacy of that initial act.
Or install Cyanogenmod and have updates with similar or better ease.
Whether they want it or not.
Cyanogenmod. Voila, independence on the vendors’ whim.
And you get the sources to putz around with when you need something the vendors omitted, for whatever reason.
Feels good to me.
Had one phone dying on me due to the “black screen of death”, which I couldn’t do anything with because it was a hardware issue. Had a responsivity degradation for a time because of the mmcqd0 issue because LG chose lousy flash chips, but running fstrim from cron alleviated it greatly. Otherwise good. Pondering upgrade to something higher-res due to silly desire to putz with Cardboard VR.
And I prefer a rudimentary crapp that does something atypical (e.g. NFC reading of that 24LR64 chip) over none at all. At the choice of crap vs none, I go for the first any day.
You and your malware from a shitty Android app both can on your rooted device!
And, actually, iOS users do get to choose whether to install updates, including security ones. If you think that they don’t, you need to actually try an apple device.
The answer to all Android security badness and poor design is not “Cyanogenmod!” I have a news flash for you, your rooted phone running Cyanogenmod is still rooted and still open to whole classes of malware that iOS devices are immune to, by their closed nature of requiring signatures and such to install things. In a world of non-computer or security experts, that’s actually safer.
But you’ve already clearly indicated that you haven’t owned or really used an iOS device so you have no basis of comparison. I’ve used iOS since it was released, Android since version 2 and Cyanogenmod on my primary phone for more than a year… I quit running it because I got tired of overall Android shittiness, which Cyanogenmod inherits.
