My 30 day iPhone 5 Journey

[cuzo]

How's the battery?

 

[onthecouchagain]

Coach you better pay for bitesms if you really going to keep the iphone, can live without it and quickreply/quickcompose

Also for whatsapp is a tweak that lets you reply to msg without open the whole app, very nice.

Download foldercloser too, very underrated tweak that closes the folder once you launch the app you wanted when you come back to the homescreen the folder is allready closed.

ohhh forgot, callbar is really great but you seem to hate the little banners

Thanks. I don't text enough to need BiteSMS. Unless BiteSMS works with any messaging app? Say... Whatsapp?

What's the Whatsapp tweak that lets you reply without opening the app? That's something I could def. use.

Foldercloser -- great.

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How's the battery?

See brief response here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17006431/


I'll really need more days/weeks to determine battery life.

 

[MacManTexas56]

Battery life is pretty mediocre so far, but I'm going to chock that up to me tinkering with jailbreak, apps, setting things up, etc. It's at 35% already from 100% this morning (around 8:30 am). I don't know why it doesn't display my Usage stats. It says it will after I've fully charged (I thought it was fully charged over night, but whatever).

I'm hoping and expecting that the battery life doesn't take too major of a hit from the jailbreak apps. I'm only using a few -- as per recommended by another poster -- to help with the experience a little bit.


Regarding the S4...

My iPhone 5 ownership is very far from set in stone. While the smaller screen is bothering me a lot less than I anticipated, and while jailbreaking is making the experience far more tolerable, there is still a lot to be bothered about:

1) I'm always on either 2G or 3G, thankfully thanks to Tmobile's refarming, mostly on 3G and the speeds are decent (pulling down 5-6 Mb/s).

2) The screen size is still 4". No app will ever change this.

3) There will never be a notification light. The LED Flash is hardly an acceptable alternative, especially since it only works when device is silent.

4) At the end of the day, it's still grids of icons staring you in the face. Even with jailbreak, I still feel things are cumbersome to customize.


I really don't wanna get too much into it, but without jailbreak, iOS is a joke. A sick sick joke. It is so far from being the "world's most advance operating system" that it's sick. Truly.


Anyway, a lot will depend on my own hands on with the S4 and with reviews. I am really not liking what I see with the S4. The fact that a lot of the hands on videos still show lag and stuttering really concerns me. Hopefully, that's cause they're pre-release versions.

Will you ever be happy with any phone you get?? If it's not this it's that etc. own multiple phones and be done with it. U were all about the nexus 4 and how iPhone sucked and when the nexus 4 arrived, all you did was complain.

Learn to relax and just enjoy a device or 2 or 3 if that helps your fix.

Both platforms have their flaws. Own both devices so they even out. And then just relax.....

 

[onthecouchagain]

Another thing:

Photos (the app) sort of sucks. It doesn't allow you to organize your pictures, really. With Android, there were albums automatically created for screenshots, camera shots, whatsapp pictures, downloaded pics, etc.

Unless I am wrong?

If i'm right, once again, the world's most advanced operating system... not so advanced.

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Will you ever be happy with any phone you get?? If it's not this it's that etc. own multiple phones and be done with it. U were all about the nexus 4 and how iPhone sucked and when the nexus 4 arrived, all you did was complain.

Learn to relax and just enjoy a device or 2 or 3 if that helps your fix.

Both platforms have their flaws. Own both devices so they even out. And then just relax.....

No one's forcing you to read my posts, but I'll do my best to find a phone I like.

 

[matttye]

Another thing:

Photos (the app) sort of sucks. It doesn't allow you to organize your pictures, really. With Android, there were albums automatically created for screenshots, camera shots, whatsapp pictures, downloaded pics, etc.

Unless I am wrong?

If i'm right, once again, the world's most advanced operating system... not so advanced.

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No one's forcing you to read my posts, but I'll do my best to find a phone I like.

You can add your own albums and move photos into them.

 

[onthecouchagain]

You can add your own albums and move photos into them.

Yeah, but does this mean that every time a new photo is added/downloaded, I have to move it to the right album?

Come on world's most advanced operating system.

 

[matttye]

Yeah, but does this mean that every time a new photo is added/downloaded, I have to move it to the right album?

Come on world's most advanced operating system.

You can do it in batches, you don't have to do them one at a time, but yeah you have to do it manually.

The photo album is pretty archaic.

 

[F123D]

Can't say I didn't try. I really wanted to keep it. That boat has sailed.

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Any Zephyr-like app that allows me to put the phone to sleep with a gesture? Anything besides Activator (it wasn't reliably responsive).

Did you try 2 finger pinch screen or whatever it was called in activator to put phone to sleep? Option only available on the home screen but it always worked for me.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Did you try 2 finger pinch screen or whatever it was called in activator to put phone to sleep? Option only available on the home screen but it always worked for me.

Is this within the Zephry app?

EDIT: Sorry, you said Activator. Hm... I read Activator eats up batteries? Is this true? I'd like to avoid it.

 

[F123D]

Never had an issue with Activator and battery life.

Another app I loved that gives you some control of the notification center and lockscreen notifications is lockinfo. It was amazing on iOS5. Last I read, people were upset with the updates the developer made to it for iOS6 but he's super helpful and constantly updates to fix issues. I believe he provides a 7 or 14 day free trial. After that, it was 6 or 7 dollars.

 

[Frankied22]

I use zephyr and aux on my iPhone 5 and it really is great. Also, Springtomize has tons of customization. But I like my N4 too much now to care. Notifications are done way better on android. The dedicated back button is great. And the keyboard rocks once you get accustom to it. I get roughly the same amount of battery life as my iPhone too. Bring on KLP.

 

[roxxette]

Photo albums+ its a really good tweak for the photo app, its not free sadly

The whatsapp tweak is called "whatsapp quickreply" it offers couple of days trail then if you like pay.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Awesome. Great suggestions by all. Much thanks.

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So in the event that I don't decide to keep the iPhone, how do I do a full 100% restore so Apple won't know I jailbroke?

PS. Gonna jailbreak my iPad tonight. Can't wait to add these tweaks.

 

[longhorns172006]

LED notifications on iPhone 5 don't require you to have phone in silent or vibrate. It is VERY bright tho. I switched over to the S3 about a month ago and going to get HTC One once it comes out to get best of both worlds (build quality/new to me OS). I love swipe and catch myself trying to swipe on my iPad all the time. And the back button thing is something I didn't see myself growing so attached to. I don't see a huge difference in using the different OS's but just a couple things here and there.

 

[vastoholic]

I was a big proponent of SBSettings until I learned about NCSettings. It integrates those quick settings into the notification center pull down. Then you swipe left or right to get to the required notification. It can be altered to have your 4 most used in the bar when you first bring down the notification center.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I was a big proponent of SBSettings until I learned about NCSettings. It integrates those quick settings into the notification center pull down. Then you swipe left or right to get to the required notification. It can be altered to have your 4 most used in the bar when you first bring down the notification center.

I'm going to stick to Auxo for now but this is great. Reminds me of Power Widgets on Android.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I reinstalled Activator just to have a way to put my device to sleep without using the physical button.

I have it set to tap and hold the notification bar to put it to sleep. I think this works very well. With gesturing and sliding, Activator sometimes doesn't register it.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Boy do I miss the dedicated back button. Sure iOS has a button that takes you back but it's not always in the same place. Sometimes it's upper left, sometimes it's lower left (Safari's back button), sometimes it's upper right, and other times it's a "Cancel" button in the lower middle of the screen. You have to search for it, instead of just having muscle memory of tapping back.

What I like about the dedicated back button is that no app itself seems to control it.

On iOS, any back button seems to go back to according to how the app let's you go back. Depending on the app it will take you to to the last screen or somewhere else like a menu or beginning of app.

Also on iOS, there is no way to go back past the current app to the previous ones. You'll need to tap home twice then tap one of the recent icons, and if that app is already is a suspended state it might just start over completely instead of going back to where you left off. On Android I can go back n forth between multiple apps with just use the dedicated back button.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Now that I have the phone set up more or less the way I like it, I've been starting to use it more leisurely... playing games, browsing the web, etc., and I have to say, the screen size is beginning to bother me.

Especially games and apps that haven't been updated to the new 4" screen and have those black bars on the top and bottom. It's terribly cramped.

But even games that have updated and taken advantage of the 4" screen, the lack of screen real estate is really felt. Games are just a tad harder to see, everything and everybody looks smaller. Browsing is constricting. Etc. Y'all get the point.

There were moments today where I thought, "hm, you know, with jailbreak, this might all work out after all..." and now, I'm not sure.

It's a damn shame because Apple clearly sees the benefit of more screen real estate. They love mentioning it when they compare the iPad Mini to the Nexus 7.

Of course, with the iPhone, they hide behind this whole one handed argument. But that is utter BS when you consider -- again, using the iPad Mini as an example -- what they have to say about one handed use with the Mini:

In the official iPad Mini video, Jon Ive explicitly says "...you can still pick it up and easily use it with one hand..." Easily. Earlier in the video, they make the distinction that you can hold it with one hand, but at the 2:10 mark, they're clearly talking about using it with one hand.

http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/overview/#video-ipad-mini-features)

Going by that reasoning, any device can be used one handed, yet according to their iPhone 5 campaign, one of the main talking points is that anything larger than a 4" smartphone is unusable with one hand.

So either the iPad Mini can be used one handed (like it says in the video) and therefore so can other smaller smartphones, or nothing above the iPhone 5 screen size (like it says in the iPhone campaigns) can be used one handed in which case the iPad Mini video is a lie.


It's really time Apple followers open their eyes to the BS that is the Apple philosophy. Again, I point to the notification light. There is no reason why Apple shouldn't implement this amazingly useful feature (being useful is something that Apple apologists insist a feature must be before consideration). There's nothing Apple needs to wait on or figure out how to get "right" about a notification light. They just refuse to do it.

Anyway...


TL;DR: The 4" size is beginning to suck.

 

[Tig Bitties]

If you took the fruit logo off the back of the iPhone 5, and put a little green Droid. That 4" phone would be ridiculed like no other as the outdated sad design it is, with a home screen that looks like you left the app drawer open.

I really think the big bezel on top and bottom is very dated looking. The iPhone bezel takes up so much space. New phones like the S4 are almost edge to edge all screen.

iPhone 5 looks like old tube TV with big wooden box it sits in. New Android phones look like the nice thin Plasma HDTV's.

 

[onthecouchagain]

If you took the fruit logo off the back of the iPhone 5, and put a little green Droid. That 4" phone would be ridiculed like no other as the outdated sad design it is, with a home screen that looks like you left the app drawer open.

I would expect this to be true, as well. It would likely be viewed as some mid-range phone given its specs too. Dual-core, 1GB Ram, 321 PPI, 1850 mah battery, etc.

 

[F123D]

Lets say you have your jailbroken iPhone finally the way you want it and enjoy it. Pretty soon, the next iPhone and iOS7 will be coming out. You're either stuck on iOS6 because you'll lose your jailbreak if you update or you end up purchasing the next iPhone and you lose your jailbreak that way and you're now back to stock iOS and the waiting game for a jailbreak begins all over again.

This was the main thing I did not miss when I left the iPhone.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Lets say you have your jailbroken iPhone finally the way you want it and enjoy it. Pretty soon, the next iPhone and iOS7 will be coming out. You're either stuck on iOS6 because you'll lose your jailbreak if you update or you end up purchasing the next iPhone and you lose your jailbreak and now back to stock iOS and the waiting game for a jailbreak begins all over again.

This was the main thing I did not miss when I left the iPhone.

I will factor this into my decision when the One/S4 come out. It's something I'm definitely thinking about, so I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. I think it's something that would definitely affect me aversely.

It takes months for jailbreak, right?

Stock iOS is horrendous. The whole thing reeks of limitations without jailbreak. The term "jail break" is so unbelievably apt.

 

[F123D]

I will factor this into my decision when the One/S4 come out. It's something I'm definitely thinking about, so I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. I think it's something that would definitely affect me aversely.

It takes months for jailbreak, right?

Stock iOS is horrendous. The whole thing reeks of limitations without jailbreak. The term "jail break" is so unbelievably apt.

I believe it took 4 months for a jailbreak to be released for this iPhone. That's a quarter of the life of the OS. With each update and new phone, Apple will only make it tougher.

I tried to enjoy the iPhone 5 when I upgraded but couldn't stand the stock OS after having used a jailbroken iPhone before it.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I believe it took 4 months for a jailbreak to be released for this iPhone. That's a quarter of the life of the OS. With each update and new phone, Apple will only make it tougher.

I tried to enjoy the iPhone 5 when I upgraded but couldn't stand the stock OS after having used a jailbroken iPhone before it.

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if iOS 7 didn't bring the giant improvements everyone seems to be holding their breath for. If that ends up being the case, it would make keeping jailbreak an easy decision. Of course, if it does offer a desirable update, the it would be a dilemma. You'd be waiting either way...

I think the best scenario is if Apple finally wakes up and starts adding toggles or gestures baked right into iOS. That right there would take care of Zephyr and Auxo, the two single best jailbreak apps I've downloaded.

One can dream...

But really, my decision will be made probably long before that. I only have 30 days, and I'm hoping come HTC One (US version) and S4 reviews, it'll make my decision easier.

I'm assuming you're waiting for the Note 3, yourself?