I thought about the 4K Apple TV but decided against it and just kept my apple TV4.
My TV upscales so well with my LG TV that HD to 4K isn't that noticeable in fairness.
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2017 - A year leaving the Apple walled garden
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My TV upscales so well with my LG TV that HD to 4K isn't that noticeable in fairness.
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in the HomeKit forum section
I’m happy I decided to get an iPhone 8 as my daily driver after some time of having my main SIM in my S8+. I used to have an iPhone 7 but my wife got that one to replace her aging iPhone 6 (she’s got some extra patience with these things, but a broken screen and a battery going downhill fast finally got her to upgrade). Also the iPhont 7 camera was somewhat surprisingly a bit of a let-down for me.
The iPhone 8 more or less fixed the camera issue and it also brought something I enjoy having in my S8+, i.e. wireless charging. I had a nasty hole in my IKEA desk and I ”fixed” it by drilling it into a proper hole and filled that hole with an IKEA embedded wireless charger and now I can charge both of my phones in that spot.
I was trying to decide between the 8 and the 8 plus for quite a while, and the decision was finally settled one day when I placed my S8+ next to the 8 plus and the 8 plus was quite a deal wider. The S8+ with a wallet case I like to use nowadays was always borderline awkward to use compared to the 4,7” iPhone with a wallet case that I can flip open one-handedly while still being large enough to be useful unlike the SE, which is nowadays too small for me. So after imagining what life would be like with the 8 plus and wallet case, it quickly went to the nope territory.
So while the regular iPhone 8 is boring AF compared to the X and Android competition, it’s a solid and reliable workhorse and has a size that’s rather optimal for my use, a flat screen and TouchID in a usable position. Maybe I’m getting old, but that’s what works for me right now.
The iPhone 8 more or less fixed the camera issue and it also brought something I enjoy having in my S8+, i.e. wireless charging. I had a nasty hole in my IKEA desk and I ”fixed” it by drilling it into a proper hole and filled that hole with an IKEA embedded wireless charger and now I can charge both of my phones in that spot.
I was trying to decide between the 8 and the 8 plus for quite a while, and the decision was finally settled one day when I placed my S8+ next to the 8 plus and the 8 plus was quite a deal wider. The S8+ with a wallet case I like to use nowadays was always borderline awkward to use compared to the 4,7” iPhone with a wallet case that I can flip open one-handedly while still being large enough to be useful unlike the SE, which is nowadays too small for me. So after imagining what life would be like with the 8 plus and wallet case, it quickly went to the nope territory.
So while the regular iPhone 8 is boring AF compared to the X and Android competition, it’s a solid and reliable workhorse and has a size that’s rather optimal for my use, a flat screen and TouchID in a usable position. Maybe I’m getting old, but that’s what works for me right now.
I've considered this with a possible move to Android some day but our family is so entrenched in Apple Music and iMessage that it seems like a pain to leave.
For now the wall stays up.
Well I rebuilt the wall when Samsung once again dropped the ball with updates and I came to the conclusion that out of the current smartwatches the Apple Watch works the best for me.
How did the lack of a Samsung update impact you? Just curious because it seems from watching the news on this site that Apple's "frequent" updates impacts people way more negatively than Samsung's "infrequent" updates.
I have too much sensitive information and I care too much about security to tolerate a flagship phone that leaves a three-month gap between security updates. Especially when the same manufacturer releases the same updates monthly in other regions. If they find it too hard to maintain all those regional variants equally, then how about dropping most or all of the unnecessary variants and providing better support for a more manageable selection.
So...playing devil's advocate here.....how do you know all the vulnerabilities/security issues in IOS are being patched?
I mean...there have a great increase in IOS security issues lately. Not all make it to the public media. Some are reported to Apple by security insiders and are left for them to patch or not patch.
All vulnerabilities/security flaws in iOS are almost certainly not patched yet as I'm quite certain all of them haven't been discovered yet. However, once the vulnerability is discovered and fixed, the fix is available to all iPhones straight away without any regional or carrier BS or staged rollouts and such.
And while an unpatched vulnerability might be there in iOS and only known by a few security insiders, it's much less of a risk than having a well-known vulnerability unpatched. For after all, once the security patches are out, the details of the flaw are available for a huge audience and those who have been left without the patch are more vulnerable.
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No one can patch all of the vulnerabilities. No one.
But when major ones do come to manufactures knowledge, Apple in 100% of cases patches them up fast. And I do mean fast.
Samsung? Well, if they patch them at all, it is a win for them.
I'm not playing Apple's advocate here. I don't use iPhone at all anymore. But paying 800-900€ for a phone that doesn't get patched is just showing a major disrespect to the customer. And why would anyone defend that?
Let me tell you the bane of my existence. Messaging. No, I’m serious. MMS is bad, Allo is terrible on the desktop, Skype is Skype, and I don’t have the clout to move anyone to WhatsApp.
But iMessage? It works.
RCS is a good idea that goes nowhere.
But iMessage? It works.
RCS is a good idea that goes nowhere.
This is a great point! In the US iMessage is the best for us, however, for my coworkers throughout the world (EU, MEA, APAC), WhatsApp rules! None of them use native messaging. Anytime we travel overseas we have to make sure WhatsApp is loaded.
That seems a regional thing, too. My co-worker (Thai) uses Line2. My relatives in the Philippines use Viber.
Granted, native SMS is much more common for regular communication locally. Text messages are $0.02 per message or less with promos (1000 SMS for one month is ~$2, I think). Meanwhile there are a lot of people who have cellular data permanently disabled on their smartphones. Had a relative who disabled cellular data on my mom's iPhone when my mom went on vacation. The relative told my mom that data was expensive not knowing I already had my mom signed up for a 4GB data promo (~$10).
I find that practice so incredibly distasteful, getting people to pressure other people to change into their closed ecosystem in order for everyone else to get better quality messages, it's sneaky and abusive, that alone makes me want to switch away from everything Apple.
BTW. thank you for the initial writeup, well written interesting stuff!
2018 is the year I've moved wholesale to Apple. The final straw for me was the Galaxy S8 - of course, I managed to disable Bixby but the lacuna it left on the side of the phone (and one which couldn't be mapped to anything else) made it feel redundant.
There is nothing I miss about android - I'm not saying it's a bad platform, numbers don't lie - but it is a cheaper (and not in a good way) platform with too many mistakes in its identity.
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There is nothing I miss about android - I'm not saying it's a bad platform, numbers don't lie - but it is a cheaper (and not in a good way) platform with too many mistakes in its identity.
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I agree - the 8 is often overlooked and Qi charging is great.
Agree with you on all the carrier BS. I wish we could by pass them entirely in the patching process. They are an impediment to the process.
I don't agree that IOS vulnerabilities are only known by insiders. They are known by the people that would use those exploits the most and do the most harm.
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Again...how do you know IOS patches are being addressed? Because Apple told you so? I work in IT security.....my company deploys 5000 iphones. The people that mange and run them say they are less secure than the Samsung phones they replaced. But the SVPs and executives upstream liked Apple products because of what they used at home.
Not all IOS security vulnerabilities are patched or addressed at all.
S8+ with February Security not good enough?
Yes the rollout of Oreo beta on the heels of a number of MAJOR security issues last fall, some of which even M$ is trying to fix still...
Treble. Keep carrier drivers untangled, and out of each other's hair so it is easier - requires phone shipped with Oreo or later to take full advantage.
Yes the rollout of Oreo beta on the heels of a number of MAJOR security issues last fall, some of which even M$ is trying to fix still...
Treble. Keep carrier drivers untangled, and out of each other's hair so it is easier - requires phone shipped with Oreo or later to take full advantage.
No one said all of patches are being addressed. No one. And not all are even known. That's the nature of any OS or software.
But when they are known, they are promptly fixed.
And Samsung phones are more secure then iOS? Well, call me shocked. Because I work in IT as well, and I am an iOS/Android game dev. And Samsung is more secure then iPhone? Well, all I can say is that you have low skilled people that manage and run them.
Writing some basic malicious software for any Android or iOS is easy. But distributing it to users on iOS is quite hard (for basic stuff at least). Distributing it to Android is piece of cake.
Again, of course that not all are being patched or addressed. No one claims that they are. In that case iOS would be a perfect OS as far as security goes. And that is impossible.
But let me put it this way. If there is a major security breach on iOS, in a few days it's fixed by Apple. And everyone will receive that update at the same time.
If that happens to Samsung, well... As I said already, maybe they will fix it, maybe they won't. And if they do, well, then we got two scenarios. In first one, you won't ever receive your update. In second one, you will. But by the time you receive it, you will either be already hurt by that malicious code, or you have already forgotten about that in the first place.
Oreo is out for how long now? How long did it take for Samsung to update their flagship phones? How many customers have received that update? Note 8 Oreo?
And it's not just about security. Bugs and sloppy programming happen to anyone (just look at apples 'root' fiasco). But when it happens to Apple, update is there in a day or two. Maximum a week. When it happens to samsung? Well, I have already described that scenario
Granted, my S8+ is now on February security as it got the Oreo update. That’s naturally OK as the March update doesn’t even exist yet. However, what’s not good is that in the early February I was still on November patches. I might have been OK with skipping a month, but two months is pushing it a bit too far especially when all Spectre/Meltdown fixes were delayed.
Samsung Knox is more secure than IOS. This from people that do this for a living managing devices in a worldwide enterprise environment.... I'll take their opinion over yours all day long...No one said all of patches are being addressed. No one. And not all are even known. That's the nature of any OS or software.
But when they are known, they are promptly fixed.
And Samsung phones are more secure then iOS? Well, call me shocked. Because I work in IT as well, and I am an iOS/Android game dev. And Samsung is more secure then iPhone? Well, all I can say is that you have low skilled people that manage and run them.
Writing some basic malicious software for any Android or iOS is easy. But distributing it to users on iOS is quite hard (for basic stuff at least). Distributing it to Android is piece of cake.
Again, of course that not all are being patched or addressed. No one claims that they are. In that case iOS would be a perfect OS as far as security goes. And that is impossible.
But let me put it this way. If there is a major security breach on iOS, in a few days it's fixed by Apple. And everyone will receive that update at the same time.
If that happens to Samsung, well... As I said already, maybe they will fix it, maybe they won't. And if they do, well, then we got two scenarios. In first one, you won't ever receive your update. In second one, you will. But by the time you receive it, you will either be already hurt by that malicious code, or you have already forgotten about that in the first place.
Oreo is out for how long now? How long did it take for Samsung to update their flagship phones? How many customers have received that update? Note 8 Oreo?
And it's not just about security. Bugs and sloppy programming happen to anyone (just look at apples 'root' fiasco). But when it happens to Apple, update is there in a day or two. Maximum a week. When it happens to samsung? Well, I have already described that scenario
I have little confidence at all that recent IOS vulnerability are being patched. Then how many of those patches broke something else? Most of them....
Apple had a ton of complaints about their new Macbooks and battery life.
So stop people from complaining the sent out an software update that removed the battery icon!!! Now to get battery life people have to install a third party battery app!
Yeah you can trust Apple has your best interest at heart for sure.....
I have little faith in Apple to patch behind the scenes security issues. This company deliberately slowed IOS devices down to prompt people to buy new devices. That right there is enough to doubt they have their customers best interest at heart.
Then what software enhancements are missed from not getting Oreo? All of the core Android apps are updated through the play store independent of getting Oreo!
This. I’m extra annoyed when my region (NEE) gets updates every two months and some times they even skip two months in a row while some other European regions get monthly updates. What makes Samsung think NEE users don’t need as frequent patches? Are we just too small a market to deserve proper security in Samsung’s opinion?
In addition, with no Samsung Pay here (and I wouldn’t hold my breath on it), the Gear S3 Frontier wasn’t just up to par with my Apple Watch (which finally has Apple Pay also here).
One morning I realized I was deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem.
That was the morning when I smashed my iPhone, went to the store and 1.5 hours later walked out with a fully functional phone.
I’ve also switched to Mac for work.
People tell me all the time about what I am missing. Then I ask how often they use those features.
I don’t know what I am missing but do know Having multiple platforms with a similar interface helps me achieve what I need.
Then again maybe I’m just lazy and don’t want to change or would rather spend my time doing something else.
For me apple products just tie so well in together that there is no way I wouldn't keep buying the products. everything works so well together with my daily life.
I love my Apple Watch so that alone will mean I will always have an iPhone. I'm very happy with my iPhone X even though it does cost me a lot per month with my carrier but with them I get a new phone every year.
I do like android though and if I could see the point in rocking an android as well I would.
I have always loved Samsung devices but in recent years got tired of how it was run even though the hardware was great.
The pixel I think is the more likely phone I would get as an extra to my iPhone though. It runs so smooth I just wish google put more of an effort in marketing it in the UK.
It's a joke only EE have it here.
I think google have the resources to go hard at apple with their products such as the pixel/pixelbook/pixelbuds and hopefully they bring out a google watch..that ecosystem could actually challenge apple in terms of making people switch due to their consistent updates and smoothness.