My Beef with iOS--Basics still missing

[ericinboston]

Unless iOS 6.x has addressed any of these, I am still quite unhappy with Apple's lack of improving basic iOS functionality over the past 4+ years. I am still on 5.x because of numerous factors that include many iOS devices at my house.


Here are my beefs with iOS...especially as a dad:

-inability to keep photos/videos from being deleted. There should be a switch in Settings do disable the delete/trashcan function. This would help when kids grab your phone or a malicious attack.

-can't send emails with over 4MB of attachments. What year is it now? Oh yea, 2013 where Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail have 25MB limits while most ISPs have 10-20MB limits. Ridiculous, Apple.

-can't get the videos off the iPhone...well, not via iTunes anyway. Terrible! I have to hook it up TO A COMPUTER. Or I can buy an App that will *wirelessly* send them to another iOS device or computer.

-videos recorded at the wonderful hi-def on the iPhone get pushed to cruddy quality when pushed to Youtube or an email attachment. Um....why?!!? It's 2013...a 50MB video file is nothing. And regardless if it's WIFI or cell carrier, it's my data plan...let me worry about my data usage. So all these 1080 vids are essentially stuck on my camera at full quality. Therefore, WHAT'S THE POINT of having 1080 if I can't show it 1080 somewhere else?!

-video clips sent via email are limited to 40 seconds if I remember correctly. Lovely.

-browser still has major caching problems. Why does it do a full refresh of the page when I come back to my phone 2 minutes later?

-when a big web page is taking awhile to load, I want to open a new tab and go somewhere else while the other tab loads. Impossible on the iPhone...as soon as move away from the tab, the loading stops.

-still tied to iTunes...talk about lock-in

-Can only sync wirelessly with iTunes if the phone is plugged into the electrical outlet...um....why?!

-The only way to see just the videos is to go through the Camera app, click on the little left bottom corner icon, then select Videos. Why the heck can't I just go to Photos and see the same VIDEOS tab at the top?! It has been this way for YEARS! So I need to go through all these extra finger clicks to get there.

-No parental controls for websites...Apple, in their let's-censor-everything-in-App-Store can't even provide a simple black-list of 10,000 websites my kids can't visit. Or a password to access Safari.

-No parental controls for youtube...something should be available here. What about a password to access Youtube?

-Only shows last ~10 days worth of calls...WHAAAT?!

-Safari History isn't so great...stuff is always missing from 3-4 days ago. And the type-ahead feature of the URL bar is nice, but again, 3-4 days later the history. It should be more like 30-60 days or have a user setting.

-Email attachments (especially Office and PDF) cannot be saved to my iPhone...I am forced to always go back to the email. That's about as unhandy as can be.





So although I have liked the iPhone for the past 4+ years, it's annoying that Apple hasn't addressed any of the above problems that I and others have made very public as well as have sent to Apple for inclusion in updates.

Remember, iOS is not just for the phones...it's also on the billions of iPods Apple has sold the past few years that are in hands of kids and adults.

If any of the above issues have been fixed with iOS 6, I'd love to hear specifically how they are fixed/enhanced. Thanks in advance.

 

[DefBref]

-Can only sync wirelessly with iTunes if the phone is plugged into the electrical outlet...um....why?!

Automatic syncing is initiated via the above, but you can manually choose to sync when on your wifi network anytime you want, whether your plugged in or not.

-Only shows last ~10 days worth of calls...WHAAAT?!

Its not date limited, but number of calls limited. My list shows calls going back to November, but I don't have that many calls on a daily basis. I think its about the last 100 calls it stores. What more do you want? Anymore and the list becomes unmanageable anyway.

 

[Menel]

Unless iOS 6.x has addressed any of these, I am still quite unhappy with Apple's lack of improving basic iOS functionality over the past 4+ years. I am still on 5.x because of numerous factors that include many iOS devices at my house.


Here are my beefs with iOS...especially as a dad:

-inability to keep photos/videos from being deleted. There should be a switch in Settings do disable the delete/trashcan function. This would help when kids grab your phone or a malicious attack.
Passcode lock. Prevents unauthorized access. Photos also get 'sort of temporarily backed up' and saved to Photostream when you hope on a WIFI network.

-can't send emails with over 4MB of attachments. What year is it now? Oh yea, 2013 where Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail have 25MB limits while most ISPs have 10-20MB limits. Ridiculous, Apple.
Email is not a good medium for sending files, 4MB while on the low side, should not be restrictive.

-can't get the videos off the iPhone...well, not via iTunes anyway. Terrible! I have to hook it up TO A COMPUTER. Or I can buy an App that will *wirelessly* send them to another iOS device or computer.
Oh the horror, you have to plug it in to copy videos off. I'm confused is this a real compliant. Beginning to think you're a troll.

-videos recorded at the wonderful hi-def on the iPhone get pushed to cruddy quality when pushed to Youtube or an email attachment. Um....why?!!? It's 2013...a 50MB video file is nothing. And regardless if it's WIFI or cell carrier, it's my data plan...let me worry about my data usage. So all these 1080 vids are essentially stuck on my camera at full quality. Therefore, WHAT'S THE POINT of having 1080 if I can't show it 1080 somewhere else?!
Email attachment, because emails are not a good medium for file transfer. As far as upload from the app, I dunno, decent beef. Copy to your PC and upload to Youtube normally.

-video clips sent via email are limited to 40 seconds if I remember correctly. Lovely.
It's being sent as an email attachment... see previous.

-browser still has major caching problems. Why does it do a full refresh of the page when I come back to my phone 2 minutes later?
1. In case the site has changed. It dumped the cache because you ran out of RAM and it re-prioritized it for whatever app you were using. Resources are finite.

-when a big web page is taking awhile to load, I want to open a new tab and go somewhere else while the other tab loads. Impossible on the iPhone...as soon as move away from the tab, the loading stops.
Probably related to maximizing battery by minimizing data streams and simultaneous processing. It's a mobile device and highly optimized for mobile.

-still tied to iTunes...talk about lock-in
iPhone is an Apple product. iTunes is an Apple product... This seems obvious, trolling?

-Can only sync wirelessly with iTunes if the phone is plugged into the electrical outlet...um....why?!
Can do it manually. It's only automatic when plugged in to prevent unncessary battery drain. The OS is optimized as a mobile device. You keep hinting that you are a troll, or that you are unaware you are holding a mobile device.

-The only way to see just the videos is to go through the Camera app, click on the little left bottom corner icon, then select Videos. Why the heck can't I just go to Photos and see the same VIDEOS tab at the top?! It has been this way for YEARS! So I need to go through all these extra finger clicks to get there.

-No parental controls for websites...Apple, in their let's-censor-everything-in-App-Store can't even provide a simple black-list of 10,000 websites my kids can't visit. Or a password to access Safari.
You CAN enable password for Safari through restrictions.
You can do that, and leave your kids to one of the many 'Nanny' web browsing apps available on the app store. Ahhh choice.
Also there are far more than 10,000 websites you probably don't want your kids at. That's a monumental challenge to sort and rank them all and not part of an advertised spec from Apple.

-No parental controls for youtube...something should be available here. What about a password to access Youtube?
Remove the app. Put a password on the App Store.
Block youtube in your nanny browser app.

-Only shows last ~10 days worth of calls...WHAAAT?!

-Safari History isn't so great...stuff is always missing from 3-4 days ago. And the type-ahead feature of the URL bar is nice, but again, 3-4 days later the history. It should be more like 30-60 days or have a user setting.

-Email attachments (especially Office and PDF) cannot be saved to my iPhone...I am forced to always go back to the email. That's about as unhandy as can be.
Open them in iBook, Adobe Reader, or any other document handling app. Then they will be saved.



So although I have liked the iPhone for the past 4+ years, it's annoying that Apple hasn't addressed any of the above problems that I and others have made very public as well as have sent to Apple for inclusion in updates.

Remember, iOS is not just for the phones...it's also on the billions of iPods Apple has sold the past few years that are in hands of kids and adults.

If any of the above issues have been fixed with iOS 6, I'd love to hear specifically how they are fixed/enhanced. Thanks in advance.

Wow, I was feeling generous today.

You're welcome.

 

[ericinboston]

Its not date limited, but number of calls limited. My list shows calls going back to November, but I don't have that many calls on a daily basis. I think its about the last 100 calls it stores. What more do you want? Anymore and the list becomes unmanageable anyway.

I just went through my iPhone 4S with iOS 5.x and the limitations are:

-about 75 calls
-those "calls" are outbound and inbound
-those "calls" also include Facetime


I'm really interested in 1)the phone calls only (not Facetime) and 2)separate the Inbound from the Outbound. Not all of us like our calls consolidated.

I believe Apple is simply doing a date limitation...nothing older than 2 weeks. I just think it's nuts to only allow a 2-week window...a lot of us go on vacation for a week, ya know. Why am I forced to wait weeks for my paper bill just to figure out the last time I called somebody in particular?...or go to the ATT website and traverse through their site?

All I'm saying is the limitation is crude...for 2012...for an OS that is 6 years old and 6 versions old....on a device that has 64GB of STORAGE....and a set of data that would be at most 15KB large.

 

[ericinboston]

Wow, I was feeling generous today.

You're welcome.

1)First, I'm not a troll...especially since I own Apple products (and stated so in the OP) and the product of my complaint (iPhone and iOS). I am a customer with legitimate complaints. Don't like them? Fine...but trolling?...jump to conclusions elsewhere.

2)Most of your replies about 3rd party products are spot on...but THEY ARE 3RD PARTY. Did you not read the title of this thread? Here it is again: "My Beef with iOS--Basics still missing." I emphasized "basics" to indicate should-be-mandatory features. I have nothing against 3rd party products, but again, that's not what I am complaining about.

3)I am aware that email technology is not the best method for transferring files...it's been like that since easily 1994 when people complained about attaching 100KB files. However, let's be realistic...Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo give 25MB of attachment space per email (thanks fellas!)...and all 3 providers are integrated into iOS...and I'm pretty unhappy that iOS will only attach 4MB. Even most ISPs give 10-15MB per email. Yet Apple is somehow stuck in 1994 and policing/limiting other integrated tool's (email) behavior. Seriously...why is Apple limiting this? It's not Apple's email system...and Apple doesn't watch my data plan/wifi usage or pay the bill.

4)Locking my entire phone because I don't want someone to delete my picture is an option. But not a good one. When you have your 3-5 age children asking to look at the photos on your iPhone while you cook dinner or drive the car, it would be great to hand them the device and trust that they won't accidentally nuke that great photo you took an hour ago.

5)Tied to iTunes...yup. Maybe you're not sure what I meant...I mean that to even begin to use my iPhone, I have to plug it into my computer and install iTunes. Music, sure...I understand that Apple lock-in with the music. But to activate and use the iPhone? Same thing goes with any other i device from Apple.

6)The browser caching reply...um no...the iPhone/Safari combo is the only thing that automatically refreshes my pages. None of my Macs or PCs do that with IE or Safari or Firefox or Chrome...so why the iOS device? Lame. Of course resources are finite...please get off your pedestal.

7)Can't save email attachments...so you want me to install more 3rd party apps to read the SAME THINGS THAT iOS CAN READ just so I can save the file? Um, no. There should be an "area" of iOS, say, called "Files" that allows me to save my attachments there. Just like how I can save my pix to the Camera Roll. Amazing that I can save my 2-3MB pix from email permanently to Camera Roll but I cannot save a 100KB PDF or Excel doc somewhere for reading/reference down the road and offline.

8)You keep saying "mobile" all over your reply. Care to define "mobile"? My laptop is mobile...I've been using laptops for decades...and ya know what, they don't "act" like the iPhone when I close the lid or sleep them. Your "highly optimized for mobile" statement(s) means nothing.


Lastly, sorry for the late reply...had to take my wife to the hospital the day of my post and spent a few days there and then forgot about this thread.

 

[Ledgem]

I am a customer with legitimate complaints.

That's fine and plenty of your complaints are valid, but you were accused of trolling because this is an Apple user forum. Share your thoughts, share problems and solutions, but listing grievances and complaints? What do you expect other users to do? There's a legitimate place to contact Apple with your concerns and suggestions: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

When you have your 3-5 age children asking to look at the photos on your iPhone while you cook dinner or drive the car, it would be great to hand them the device and trust that they won't accidentally nuke that great photo you took an hour ago.

It would be great. It would also be great if knives could have their blades stowed away with a lock, so that when a young child wants to touch and play with one, their parent doesn't need to worry about them injuring themselves. Unfortunately, that's not reality, and your request would probably never be implemented. If you can't trust your child not to screw something up, they shouldn't be using it without your supervision.

5)Tied to iTunes...yup. Maybe you're not sure what I meant...I mean that to even begin to use my iPhone, I have to plug it into my computer and install iTunes.

I don't recall having to do this with my iPhone 4S, but I may be mis-remembering. I definitely didn't have to do it with my iPad 3. Starting with iOS 5, Apple has been moving away from requiring their mobile devices to interface with computers. Now you can sync wirelessly, you can be fully free of a computer by syncing to iCloud and performing iOS updates without a computer... even if I'm mis-remembering and you need to connect the phone to a computer for its initial activation, how is that such an inconvenience?

Lastly, sorry for the late reply...had to take my wife to the hospital the day of my post and spent a few days there and then forgot about this thread.

I hope your wife is OK.

 

[Menel]

That's fine and plenty of your complaints are valid, but you were accused of trolling because this is an Apple user forum. Share your thoughts, share problems and solutions, but listing grievances and complaints? What do you expect other users to do? There's a legitimate place to contact Apple with your concerns and suggestions: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

No, its that he 1. Made complaints that you couldn't do things that you can. He either didn't, RTFM (read the user guide), use google, look in obvious places like Settings.app, or just wants to troll. I'm an optimistic guy and like to give people credit for intelligence, so I omit the first 3 possibilities.

2. He complained that iOS is both lacking in features, but having an App Store that can add features is invalid. He might be the first person Ive crossed paths with who wants iOS even more walled in, restrictive and crippled. Android would certainly soar as the only option then...

 

[ericinboston]

No, its that he 1. Made complaints that you couldn't do things that you can. He either didn't, RTFM (read the user guide), use google, look in obvious places like Settings.app, or just wants to troll. I'm an optimistic guy and like to give people credit for intelligence, so I omit the first 3 possibilities.

RTFM...what a joke...as if iOS (or any software since 1990) comes with a User Manual. What is Google? Never heard of it. What is Settings? I've never heard of that either. In fact, I don't do any research before submitting questions/complaints/enhancement requests...I just try once for less than 6 seconds and then yell. Yup. That's me. Sheeeeeez.

2. He complained that iOS is both lacking in features, but having an App Store that can add features is invalid. He might be the first person Ive crossed paths with who wants iOS even more walled in, restrictive and crippled. Android would certainly soar as the only option then...

You obviously don't understand English, or at least refuse to read. My complaints are with iOS...not the App store or the ability for me to pay money to get features that were not included to begin with. No, I'm not looking for iOS to be more closed in (as if they really could be)...and I don't feel like jailbreaking my iPhone to get a few features that I feel should have been included within the last 6 release cycles of the OS.

 

[ericinboston]

That's fine and plenty of your complaints are valid, but you were accused of trolling because this is an Apple user forum. Share your thoughts, share problems and solutions, but listing grievances and complaints? What do you expect other users to do? There's a legitimate place to contact Apple with your concerns and suggestions: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Well, I have sent a list to Apple in the past regarding these features.

The reasons I listed them on this site are:

1)It is a forum to discuss pros/cons of Apple products (as well as many other topics). If you look through the thousands of other threads on this site, there is fair % of complaints and/or frustration with Apple products.

2)I did actually ask for people to confirm if some of the issues I have are fixed in iOS 6.x and/or were someplace in iOS that I just didn't see.

3)Granted my post was more of a list, it's a valid list and is factual. It's not going to be a huge conversation piece because, well, it's fact. I'm not seeking help in understanding how/why something works in iOS...I'm listing facts. It was also my intention to see if Apple employees (who actually do visit here contrary to belief) might actually read the list and consider the complaints.


As for the knife analogy, that's way off. Come on. Besides, Apple can't put a "Disable Delete in Photos/Videos" in the Settings? Or add a Trash Can which also allows me to restore something that is in it? I believe the Delete complaint is high on the list of reasons why people jailbreak.

 

[Ledgem]

1)It is a forum to discuss pros/cons of Apple products (as well as many other topics). If you look through the thousands of other threads on this site, there is fair % of complaints and/or frustration with Apple products.

There are, but from what I've seen there are usually two types. In one, the person is frustrated and is asking for help. They receive decent replies, most of the time. In the other type, people are listing grievances and don't want help. They're not asking questions, they're making statements and some seem to think that the rest of the forum should share their outrage but doesn't because they're oblivious. Those types receive very poor responses. I mean no offense in saying this, but your thread is pretty close to fitting the description of the second one.

3)Granted my post was more of a list, it's a valid list and is factual. It's not going to be a huge conversation piece because, well, it's fact. I'm not seeking help in understanding how/why something works in iOS...I'm listing facts.

Some are facts, some are misunderstanding (such as your complaint that the recent calls list only displayed "the last 10 days"), and some are very personal things that aren't even a really big deal.

For example, your request about deleting photos. When you hit the trash can button, two large buttons come up. One is a big red button that says "delete photo" while the other says "cancel." That's your confirmation. It doesn't completely remove the possibility of deleting photos by accident, but it makes it much more difficult. Thanks to the iCloud Photostream, even if you accidentally delete the photo from the device, the photo is still in the cloud (unless you deleted the photo before it could be uploaded).

In other words, there's already a mechanism to guard against accidental deletions. What if your young children delete the photo by accident? It's a possibility, but your young children could screw up an awful lot of things on your phone if left unsupervised. Should Apple go through the effort to create some special locked-down mode for that sort of instance? I think there's an easier solution: don't let your children use your phone unless you can trust them or unless you're directly supervising them. This is where the knife analogy came in: if you can't trust your child to handle a knife without bringing about harm in some way, what's the solution? Lobby knife companies to put safety features on knives, or... don't let your children handle knives?

Menel gave a nice response to most of your issues. It's unfortunate that iOS isn't designed exactly as you want and expect, and that you need to download other software and/or adapt your working style and expectations, but what do you expect? Apple can't cater to all of us. iOS is flexible enough that many of your needs can be met - you just need to be flexible enough to meet it part-way. No program or product is perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect to be usable and useful.

 

[dirkyd3rk]

The guy isn't a troll he's just voicing his opinions and I agree with everything. I'm an android fan boy for sure but also a tech junkie so I have almost all mobile os flavored in my home and i compare all the time. Android has done all these things he listed ages ago and let's not get on iTunes; it sucks, its restricted, and it sucks.

Current Devices:
iPhone 4S
iPad Mini
Google Nexus 4
Google Nexus 7

 

[Ledgem]

The guy isn't a troll he's just voicing his opinions and I agree with everything.

He's voicing his opinions and passing them off as fact. I happen to disagree with many of his statements and yours, but you won't see me trying to convince anyone that I'm absolutely right and they must be wrong. That's because we all have different needs. If you have concerns that you'd like addressed, use the Apple feedback page. If iOS isn't doing it for you but Android does, then use Android. Do what works for you. If you come into a user forum and just want to state negative opinions, what do you expect to happen? Will a positive, productive discussion result? It's baiting people into negative, time-wasting replies which, contrary to popular interpretation, is what the "art of trolling" is all about.

 

[Menel]

RTFM...what a joke...as if iOS (or any software since 1990) comes with a User Manual. What is Google? Never heard of it. What is Settings? I've never heard of that either. In fact, I don't do any research before submitting questions/complaints/enhancement requests...I just try once for less than 6 seconds and then yell. Yup. That's me. Sheeeeeez.



You obviously don't understand English, or at least refuse to read. My complaints are with iOS...not the App store or the ability for me to pay money to get features that were not included to begin with. No, I'm not looking for iOS to be more closed in (as if they really could be)...and I don't feel like jailbreaking my iPhone to get a few features that I feel should have been included within the last 6 release cycles of the OS.

Again, you're wrong. I'll be nice and help, but ignore the rest of your ranting post.

The user guide is at the bottom of Safari's bookmarks by default. It's interactive, informative and easy to use.

You can also get user manuals here.
http://support.apple.com/manuals/

 

[AlphaVictor87]

4)Locking my entire phone because I don't want someone to delete my picture is an option. But not a good one. When you have your 3-5 age children asking to look at the photos on your iPhone while you cook dinner or drive the car, it would be great to hand them the device and trust that they won't accidentally nuke that great photo you took an hour ago.

There is actually an option they put in iOS 6 for this. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access.

This does take a few seconds to set up but sounds like it'll solve your problem.

Once guided access is on. Best way i found for you problem is go into the photos app, and go to a picture so you can see where the edit/"send to"/delete buttons are.

Tripple click the home button, it'll tell you to circle the areas you want disabled. So you circle around the edit button, trash button and the send to button.

Once you hit start they cannot leave the photo app and those buttons will be disabled but they will still be able to look through all your photos.

Hope this helps OP

 

[TacticalDesire]

Those complaints are relatively minor compared to iOS's other glaring issues.

Why can't I set default apps? Sorry apple but there's some better 3rd party alternatives. If I click on a link in my email I want it to open in Dolphin. If I click on a link to a YouTube video I want it to open in Jasmine. I don't want safari to take me to YouTube's mobile site.

Why do I have to dig into settings to toggle/change simple things?

Why is every photo I save/download put into my camera roll? Why can't I choose what album it does in?

Why can't I delete individual notifications?

Why can't I choose other widgets to go into the notification tray?