I never thought the day would come, but it did.
My workplace assigned me an iPhone SE, and I had no choice but to accept it.
Sadly, there were no other options available, other than iPhone 15 models which are reserved for the higher ups anyway—would’ve been nice though.
Today I went to buy a case and a screen protector for it, since I don’t want it to get damaged, since it is not even my property anyway and my workplace didn’t include one—would’ve been nice, though.
I have to say, if there’s one thing I found charming about this device, it is the screen size. It is totally tiny and adorable compared to my regular phone, and having huge black bars in the top and bottom, as well as a home button in the front is rather nostalgic, despite the fact that I never had an iPhone before.
Also, just because I am barely allowed to install things on it and the like, doesn’t mean I’m not going to customize it to whatever degree Apple will let me, I don’t think I’ll share it or anything since it will probably just be the same wallpaper I already have on my other phone, but still, just letting you know.
Regardless, no need to worry dear reader, I’ll still be mainly using my trusty Android device, the Poco F4, for the time being.
This is day 56 of #100DaysToOffload
]]>Apple vs Android: Why Apple is the Clear Winner in Security and Features
Smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives. When it comes to the two major players in the market, Apple and Android, there’s no denying that Apple stands out as the clear winner in terms of security and overall features...
Yes I just stole that upper embbeded post thingy from Kev’s site.
Recently Kyle did an editorial piece on Apple, which is, in my opinion, quite interesting to say the least. After reading it a while ago and once again when writing this, I still think that Apple is NOT the clear winner in security and features.
This is going to be a bit of a rant, I ain’t gonna lie, but sometimes, you have to correct things you know are wrong. But hey, maybe I am not correct in many things either so, feel free to respond to this too.
Kyle, I am very grateful for everything you as a developer, and also co-administrating a pretty cozy instance on Mastodon, but this article didn’t really have that many good points—in the opinion of an Android fanboy such as me, lol.
So, since this is my blog, I’ll just write the reasons I consider many of the arguments brought up in this case are wrong—from a certain point of view.
I have to admit, that in a way, Security is the one factor where Apple has a certain advantage, but does it really?
Apple is a closed ecosystem, so, once its compromised, we have to rely on them to fix it. With Android, we can switch, we can upgrade, we can build from source, we can remove system apps and do whatever. Of course it is not always easy and its a burden on the regular user—one does have to get to work and get dirty with some things.
Also, in Android we can usually get apps (at least the FOSS ones) directly from developers and whatever distribution methods they provide (GitHub, F-Droid, Websites), without having to rely on the app store itself. This argument could be used against a Distro Repository, or F-Droid itself. But I would rather trust people and systems I can even contribute to, instead of a corporation.
Apple has a single point of failure and we have to put all our trust in them, simple as that.
I mean, Android has more features—and it is much more flexible. There is simply no comparison. When it comes to interface and design, it is just a matter of taste. Both old and young people can struggle using an Apple device just as much as they struggle with Android. And you can get Android phones with physical keyboards, different screen sizes and features according to your needs.
Apple likes to refine things to a level that sometimes makes no sense, and then they also like to pretend it never existed. Just look at the dynamic island, have you ever heard of any new uses for it since it came out? And look at widgets, they maybe more fancy, but they are nowhere near as useful as on Android, and their potential is very limited, they end up unnoticed and underused, unless they can make money out of it, I guess, like getting rid of the headphone jack, or having a bunch of MagSafe add-ons.
Privacy is a matter of scope nowadays, you can’t be fully private if you have a connection to the internet, but you can choose who you want to be private from.
I don’t trust Apple with my data, and I don’t trust Google with my data. Or maybe I do, I have YouTube, I can use YouTube, but I can also use a frontend for it if I want, which can also serve as a proxy and anonymize me.
But wait! Apple won’t let you install those app frontends like Newpipe or so. At least you can use the brower you want to check websites frontends right? NO, gotta stick to Safari. Or you can use a skin that is just frontend of Safari to watch a frontend of YouTube of course, very fun!—alright enough getting off topic.
Similarly, Android can be used in its AOSP form thanks to a good amount of custom ROMs, maintained by the community. Of course, you have to trust those random developers. But again, I’d rather trust them than Apple or any corporation.
Yes Apple has a bunch of privay claims and they somewhat fulfill them, but it really feels like a marketing strategy rather than something they do just because it is the right thing to do.
Android apps can support multiple Android versions, you can still install modern versions of many apps on Phones running versions like Android 8 (Oreo) or even older.
I may be wrong, but I think that as soon as an iOS version stops getting support, there are really no more app updates for it. Of course they give you a lot of updates for a long time, but Android is catching up on that regard too! At least with some vendors. Not to mention custom ROMs.
While interactions between devices is not as smooth as what Apple can do. Android has a lot of apps that help achieve similar functionality. Kyle mentions the seamlessness of Google products and services, but I don’t use either of them. I can do wit DAVx5 (Calendar and contact sync), Nextcloud (Cloud file storage, also interacts with DAVx5), KDE Connect (Computer and phone sync, share clipboard, and a lot more), Syncthing (Cloudless file sync) and similar tools that get the job done in many regards. And a bunch of these 3rd party apps can’t even work on iOS, so you are stuck with what Apple offers you and not much more.
App Store is controlled by Apple and they are evil.
Play Store is controlled by Google and they are evil.
Apple is barely following EU regulations in the worst possible way regarding their walled garden practices, and I don’t think any upcoming new changes they may have to do will still make it worth it.
Android let’s you install apps from 3rd party sources. You can use F-Droid (FOSS app store, I recommend the Droid-ify client), Obtainium (Fetch app updates from multiple sources, usually the developers themselves), Aurora Store (Get apps from Google servers, without a Google account), and many other options, some more trusted than others, of course.
There’s a lot not to like about Android as it is offered by Google and OEMs, but the community behind it offers a bunch of ways to stray away from the surveillance and data mining that goes on. Apple says they do things, and we have to trust them, but when they don’t, who can hold them accountable anyway? I just don’t trust Apple, and Google sucks too.
Give up on Google, give up on Apple, give up on an easy life and just install a Custom ROM on some random Xiaomi phone while you can, or get a used Pixel that works just as well if not better.
Just kidding, I have Google on my phone, I have to use banking apps now and I gave up on my privacy and freedom and we are all doomed.
This is day 19 of #100DaysToOffload
]]>There is a thing that has existed for a while already, open standards and protocols, basically, ways for devices to stay communicate with each other, so every device understands whats going on. The internet, HTTP, or USB are examples of these, and companies and programmers make sure a USB cable can communicate with a computer once plugged.
We all know about how Apple tends to add “new” features that already existed on Android and on separate programs, Marques recognized that , but then he proceeds to say
…It seems like everytime the iPhone gets new features, they’ve been somewhere in some Android phone before. So why? Its not like Apple is choosing to be later all the time There’s good reasons for it…
One of the arguments he brings up is the focus on the Ecosystem, which isn’t that eco-friendly to be honest. Of course Apple wants their software to work seamlessly with each other, since that way people will use it all even if they only like certain parts of it, so that’s why they take so long to come up with this stuff.
I don’t think so. Why would it be harder to come up with these features that can only be understood by so few devices using operative systems specifically made for them? Where is the difficulty? I am not trying to undermine the complexity of Apple’s software, I am just saying that things like Nearby Share work regardless of the device as long as it runs Android (with Google Services), and the feature is coming to Chromium browsers too!
Apple is not innovating, they are just reinventing the wheel; but limiting it to roll only under their own terms.
Later, the video talks about some features such as Focus mode, which
enables different profiles that you set up across all your devices as long as
they are Apple’s. And of course, the elephant in the room, “Universal
Control”. Why is such a “universal” feature, limited to their ecosystem? Well,
I don’t really care, in the end is their stuff and its up to them, but I have
been wondering, why do tools like this one are baked into the OS? I think the
answer is pretty simple, because they limited themselves.
Think about it, couldn’t a lot of the features here be decently implemented just by installing an app and a desktop client? I know it would probably be slower than something below userspace. But why do we actually need this to be so integrated, if such integration means that its going to be so difficult to port over to something that isn’t Apple?
For some reason, people is eager to get these features, to get an ecosystem where everything is available out of the box, and while I understand the appeal, I am not really into it, I would like my system to be light and fast, and of course, Apple manages to achieve a smooth feel thanks to how cherry-picked their hardware is.
Honestly this is probably being more of a rant rather than a proper argument, a workflow like Apple’s might be great for some people, I just don’t think they should appropriate everything they do as if it was unique.
I stopped halfway because I felt like doing some icons with Inkscape and I kinda lost my own train of thought in some places, my apologies.
This has been day 43 of #100DaystoOffload
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