no argument here, except i've yet to find a cell provider that doesn't have crappy service (chicago), including sprint and verizon.
2. apple app store policies and requisite adobe/flash dig.
get over it. some people like consistent ui controls between apps (hello, HIG) for a less confusing user experience.
and really folks, flash has never been allowed to be in the store, yet somehow they've built a 200,000+ app ecosystem worth > $4B in revenues.
3. I'd have to buy a new iPhone for 4.0
let's breeze past the android fragmentation topic. 3g, 3gs, and the to-be-name next version iphone are all capable of supporting 4.0. the author has a 3g.
Ultimately, my reason for switching can be summed up thusly: I used to feel that, to get the best smartphone software and hardware experience, I had to live in Apple's walled garden.
like the other points, this is highly subjective and up to each individual. in my opinion, having played with the droid, incredible, and hero, the best hardware/software experience is inside the apple garden.
get over it. some people like consistent ui controls between apps (hello, HIG) for a less confusing user experience. and really folks, flash has never been allowed to be in the store, yet somehow they've built a 200,000+ app ecosystem worth > $4B in revenues.
"get over it"? why?
Can I be the judge of what kind of UI controls I like instead of Apple deciding for me? This hasn't be a problem with any Windows or Linux app I've ever used or any webpage I've ever visited. I guess I don't confuse easily.
And without those same app store policies holding them back, how long do you think it will be before Android passes Apple's ecosystem?
200,000+ is a lot of apps, but how many of them are "fart apps" or something equally as useful?
The $4B in revenue also sounds like an impressive number, how much of that money is because users had to pay for apps to make up for the lack of flash? And why does it matter to me how much money they've made? Isn't that part of the problem? At the end of the day the app store doesn't exist to serve users, it exists to make Apple as much money as possible, this motivates them to maintain as much control over it as possible no matter what the cost to users or developers is.
So let me get this straight, you're saying he should get over the fact that Apple is acting against his interests, because Apple doesn't care about his interests? How does that make sense?
It sounds to me like the sensible choice is not to stick with a company that doesn't care about you, but to switch to one that does. Which is exactly what he did.
The iPhone OS 4.0 update will not bring all the features to my iPhone 3G, notably multitasking. Some things may be subjective and down to individual opinion, but lets not go just making up facts to suit our argument.
As tempting as it is to jump on the Android bandwagon, here are some of my reasons for sticking with my iPhone 3GS.
* I don't live in the San Francisco area bubble, so I get great service. The only time it was crappy was the one day I was on vacation in midtown Manhattan.
* I still have over a year left on my contract. But even when it's up, I'm going to stick with my iPhone until it dies. The only thing that would possibly get me to switch is if my monthly payments would be at least $20 less than what I pay now for the same level of service.
* What I really wanted in a smart phone is a good web browser, which the iPhone has. I do use a handful of apps from the store, but they're not essential to me.
* My whole family uses at&t, so free minutes. I talk with my brother in NYC for hours each week and no minutes are eaten up.
Saying all that, I'll probably won't be buying Apple products for a long time because of all the usual complaints.
I jumped because I'm in NYC. I thought I'd be disappointed but I love the custom keyboards (swype) and that you can press and hold (aka long press) the search button and say "Directions to 88th and 2nd" or "hacker news" or "pizza" and it magically does what I want it to do. As such, I actually think android is the better platform for people who don't use apps.
I guess my main point is there are millions of us between NYC and San Francisco that don't have these issues and are happy with the iPhone. I've just never had any issues, but that's the price I pay for living in crappy city in a red state. Totally understand switching if you have bad service.
BTW, my experience with NYC is that the bad spots seemed "localized". Up in Washington Heights where my brother lives service is fine. But maybe that neighborhood is the boondocks by Manhattan standards.
Why am I still reading about bad reception in San Francisco? I've been hearing about this for years. Why hasn't it been fixed? Is there some technical problem?
Genuinely curious. (Not interested in conspiracy theories or guesses, though. I can come up with those on my own.)
I popped over to SF for a week, taking with me my UK 3g iPhone. At no time did I have less than stellar reception from AT&T. I travelled from SF to San Jose or so, it seemed pretty solid to me.
Is the US version of the iPhone different hardware? :/ Maybe it's only crappy if you have a contract with AT&T? Maybe 'roaming' phones are given priority? idk...
Did you go into the Mission? Or Hayes Valley? Or over by Jtown? And god help you if there is any sort of Event nearby. During the maker faire every iphone read "5 bars" but no one could get their iPhones to do anything. Oh sure, it said it was sending texts and trying to make calls, it said it was trying to load webpages, but it all failed.
We Are Not Making This Up; and it's not just iPhone customers.
Yeah good point, I mainly use my phone for SMS/data rather than voice calls. So I probably don't have enough data there. I probably only had 3 or 4 voice calls. All of them were fine though.
Also I was at Google I/O, so there were probably 10,000+ phones all trying to get signals etc
And you're right, perhaps I'm assuming that my phone showing 5 bars actually means it has a strong enough signal to do stuff (Which is certainly the case in the UK) :/
The whole communications industry in the US seems like it needs a massive shake up from government to me.
Also did you make calls on your phone much? In the mission my phone shows good signal but on Saturday literally every call dropped. 15 dropped calls in a day.
Do you know if T-Mobile is any better in the mission?
Are you sure your roaming provider was AT&T? (I suppose there's a chance that for voice and edge data, your UK carrier partners with TMobile rather than AT&T.)
NYC isn't much better. Union Square, Midtown, Downtown; full bars and I can't connect to a web page or sitting by a windowsill and dropping calls. My iPhone/AT&T is done as soon as the contract is up.
Ditto, and I'm also regularly vexed by Apple's neurotic control over the iPhone platform and sync process. It took me 45 minutes to put an audiobook on my phone the other day, and that was after it told me syncing would cause me to lose 30 apps (or all of them, if I decided not to sync applications at all).
I'm just happy to see the tech media finally putting real pressure on Apple to open up. I love my (jailbroken) iPhone and all, but Apple deserves a swift kick in the pants for fighting me for control over it.
The reasons the author states are all why I'm not getting an iPhone, primary Apple's unwelcome control over the app store.
I'm eager to "jump on the Android bandwagon" but I have to figure out how to deal with the ETF on my current featureless Motorola phone with Sprint. Apparently replacing a broken phone resets your contract date.
I've never used Instapaper on an iProduct, so I can't compare. But I'm addicted to Instapaper and I'm very happy using it with InstaFetch on a Droid Eris.
FWIW, I have an unofficial third-party Instapaper client for Android on the Android Market, still needs a bit of polish though, nowhere near the user experience of the iPhone client.
1. crappy at&t service.
no argument here, except i've yet to find a cell provider that doesn't have crappy service (chicago), including sprint and verizon.
2. apple app store policies and requisite adobe/flash dig.
get over it. some people like consistent ui controls between apps (hello, HIG) for a less confusing user experience. and really folks, flash has never been allowed to be in the store, yet somehow they've built a 200,000+ app ecosystem worth > $4B in revenues.
3. I'd have to buy a new iPhone for 4.0
let's breeze past the android fragmentation topic. 3g, 3gs, and the to-be-name next version iphone are all capable of supporting 4.0. the author has a 3g.
Ultimately, my reason for switching can be summed up thusly: I used to feel that, to get the best smartphone software and hardware experience, I had to live in Apple's walled garden.
like the other points, this is highly subjective and up to each individual. in my opinion, having played with the droid, incredible, and hero, the best hardware/software experience is inside the apple garden.