Phones Sometimes The Grass Really Is Greener On The Other Side - Six Major Things I Think iO

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Another issue I have with Apple is 3rd party charging cables can still be a pain. When Apple went with the lighting port/cable, I thought that would be the end of .... "This accessory is not supported" message. It would work normally for awhile, then usually after a month of usage, that message would pop up and fail to charge correctly. It even happens on the Belkin charging cords that I bought directly from Apple. Never experienced that with Android or any other platforms.

Hopefully when Apple goes with USB-C, iOS devices won't have that issue.

 

[JackieInCo]

Sometimes it may be greener but I find that each platform has their pluses and minuses.

I've been using iPhones since 2007 and Android phones since the Nexus 4. I now have a Note 4, Note Edge, iPhone 6S and a 6S+.

There are things the Android phones do that I wish the iPhones could do and there are things that the iPhones do that I wish the Android phons could do so I continued to use all of the ones I have.

I enjoy the way buying music works on my iPhone. I buy a song or album and it's automatically on my iPad, MBP, Mac Mini and all my iPhones without doing a thing. I love the music player on iOS over Google Music. The music app on iOS will always be one of the top reasons I continue to use iPhones and no, I don't want an iPod Touch over an iPhone.

But then on the Note 4/Note Edge, there are a few apps that I prefer over the iOS versions of those same apps. I also have two batteries for each of those phones and I just swap them out when I need to and pop the used one in the charger. I don't care about the SD card slots because I don't need the extra space for music since I use my iPhones/iPad for that.

I have four lines on T-Mobile so I use the four phones continuously.

 

[nj1266]

One thing the iPhone lacks for me is a TRUE call recording app. iOS only has apps that call record from 3rd party services, and just don't work the majority of the time. Even Jailbreak doesn't provide a decent call record app.

If there was something like the ACR app for iOS, that would increase my chances of going back to iPhone.

That is because it is illegal in CA and a lot of other states to record a phone call conversation with another party without their consent. That is why the apps are absent from the App Store. They are available in the jailbreak community but even there there is a sound notification that tells the other party that you are recording the conversation.

 

[Tinmania]

I think that is because Siri is more of an assistant than a search engine. Google is more of a search engine than an assistant.

Exactly. And that is why I keep the Google Now app on the first page of my home screen on my 6S Plus. With 3d touch I launch it right into a voice search when I want a "Google" kind of search. So I kinda have the best of both worlds (especially since "Okay Google" was never reliable for me on my Note 4).

That said I use hey Siri quite a bit and for me the recognition is outstanding. Just about every morning before I open my eyes I ask about the current temp and any new notifications. It's more "conversational" than Google Now, and has more "personality" in my opinion. Since I don't like to have a clock visible when I sleep I often ask Siri the time. I have done this dozens of times and "she" usually has something "extra" to say along with the time; mostly it is related to the time of day, such as "It's too early!" or "Good morning!" The other day she said, "At the tone the time will be 5:38 AM.... beep!" Maybe I am easily amused but I like those little touches.



Mike

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

That is because it is illegal in CA and a lot of other states to record a phone call conversation with another party without their consent. That is why the apps are absent from the App Store. They are available in the jailbreak community but even there there is a sound notification that tells the other party that you are recording the conversation.

I highly doubt that's the reason. They have plenty of call recorder apps in the app store, but they run from a service, meaning it's running of a 3rd party server and you got to connect to another number first. It seems like Apple just doesn't allow the api for a true call recorder.

 

[Stuntman06]

I totally agree about the battery life when the device is asleep. I can leave my iPad Mini unplugged and unused for 2 weeks and it will still have more than 50% battery life left. With just WiFi on, it would only lose about 2% of the battery per day. My Nexus 6P would lose that much in airplane mode in 8 hours.

Another thing I think iOS does better than Android is the web browsing experience. When watching videos, I can pinch to zoom in iOS to go full screen. On Android, I have to tap on that tiny button.

 

[apolloa]

One thing that infuriates me with iOS is the lack of a back button!!

 

[gotluck]

I dislike that all mobile OS's do not give access to the system, while all x86 OS's give unfettered access to the system.

Then when one obtains access to the system on the mobile os it is deemed 'compromised' or 'unsafe' and apps can scan for the integrity of the device (like my uverse tv app knows my device is jailbroken and will deny viewing of certain channels - and I know of no workaround), while you could be doing the same exact thing on the x86 OS with unfettered access to modify the system and it is deemed 'safe and acceptable' (even though surely you could be recording the feed on PC and distributing it - which is surely what they are trying to prevent)

makes no sense, such a double standard

feels like on mobile 'they' dont want to handle DRM and want the OS to keep DRM in hand

while on x86 'they' already lost that battle and have to come up with their own DRM solutions and dont want to have to do that again for mobile

giving up freedom for copyright crap sucks

 

[Tig Bitties]

One thing that infuriates me with iOS is the lack of a back button!!

This X a million.

And please don't say the iPhone has swipe to move around, that just sucks, especially on a large 6S Plus phone, swiping screens is difficult one handed. Give us a frigging back button, like Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Android has already.

 

[The Game 161]

One thing that infuriates me with iOS is the lack of a back button!!

I thought I would miss it but somehow I don't. Two things I thought I would miss..back button and home screen widgets havn't been an issue.

If Apple brought in the homescreen widgets on IOS10 I wouldn't be against it. I think the widgets in the notification center is perfectly fine for me. Gives everything I need there to be fair.

 

[Tinmania]

This X a million.

And please don't say the iPhone has swipe to move around, that just sucks, especially on a large 6S Plus phone, swiping screens is difficult one handed. Give us a frigging back button, like Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Android has already.

The back button is not missed by me, even though I fully expected it to be.

And I do like the 3D touch swipe to go back to the last app, and the regular swipe to go back. I even like the "Back to.." in the status bar that at least lets me know exactly where I am going back to.

I did like the back button on my Note 4 but it wasn't exactly instantaneous--kind of sluggish. And one thing I really disliked was that it took me back to the home screen if there wasn't anything else to go back to. Too many times I accidently hit the back button in an app only to end up at the home screen.

Finally, and maybe this is because I have large hands, I find it about the same to swipe back or 3D swipe back, one-handed, as it was to reach down to the lower right corner to hit the back button.



Mike

 

[MRU]

What I miss actually is reachability on my android devices. I use it very regularly on the 6+ & 6S+ that when I go back to using my android I miss it.

Oh the other thing I miss is the force touch cursor for keyboard. That's best use of force touch for me and something I look forward to seeing on android in the future.

 

[tbayrgs]

What I miss actually is reachability on my android devices. I use it very regularly on the 6+ & 6S+ that when I go back to using my android I miss it. Oh and force touch cursor for keyboard. That's best use of force touch for me.

Completely agree. I do get a bit of use out of 3D Touch elsewhere on the phone (though there admitted is a learning curve and years of ingrained habits to overcome) but this feature is the most use aspect, so far. I really like using a swipe style keyboard but have forgone using SwiftKey specifically because this functionality isn't available (not sure if it's something 3rd party keyboard apps can incorporate) on anything other than the iOS keyboard. I use it all the time, both to move the cursor and to select text.

I can certainly understand how someone who's predominantly used Android would miss the back button but I also think in many cases, users who miss the back button the most are those who have generally spent much more time on Android, or started off using Android. I have admittedly spend much more time using iOS than Adnroid but for a good 1-1.5 years straight I used Android phones/tablets (still using an Android tablet somewhat regularly). I'm much the same way that former Android users find themselves reaching for the back button, I often would reach to swipe from the left edge. Does it mean the swipe option is better? No but rather it's what is familiar to me. The back button works great and for the most part offers consisency that the swipe gestures don't have yet on iOS but even after using Android for quite a while, I still found myself occasionally reverting to iOS methods and when I did switch back, never really found myself reaching for a phantom back button.

My feelings about navigating around iOS generally mirror those of Mike. Swiping from the left edge, while still not ubiquitous, is available more times than not in the apps I use. The 3D Touch option to switch apps is great and the 'Back to xxx' touch option when navigating between apps is terrific (do wish it wasn't at the top left corner for one-handed use but I don't use my phone only single handed that often so it hasn't bothered me much--having the function there far outweighs this slight nuisance.

Those of you repeatedly wishing Apple would add a back button need to just let that go--Apple will likely NEVER add that option. Apple would probably love to have as few buttons as possible and they won't be adding a back button...ever. The fact that they have expanded the touch screen options (swipe, 3D Touch, 'Back to' soft key) to meet those needs is all the proof that's needed.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

One thing that infuriates me with iOS is the lack of a back button!!

That's also something I miss when using iOS, simply cause many iOS apps don't include back buttons within the app from certain points. With Android, that doesn't matter, the system back button always takes you to the previous screen within the app.

 

[Tig Bitties]

The back button is not missed by me, even though I fully expected it to be.

And I do like the 3D touch swipe to go back to the last app, and the regular swipe to go back. I even like the "Back to.." in the status bar that at least lets me know exactly where I am going back to.

I did like the back button on my Note 4 but it wasn't exactly instantaneous--kind of sluggish. And one thing I really disliked was that it took me back to the home screen if there wasn't anything else to go back to. Too many times I accidently hit the back button in an app only to end up at the home screen.

Finally, and maybe this is because I have large hands, I find it about the same to swipe back or 3D swipe back, one-handed, as it was to reach down to the lower right corner to hit the back button.



Mike

What is " 3D swipe back " ?

 

[tbayrgs]

What is " 3D swipe back " ?

Swipe from left edge with slightly more pressure than regular swipe. It opens the task switcher with the first app in the stack being the last app opened. You can also just select any app open in the app switcher.

 

[jamezr]

Swipe from left edge with slightly more pressure than regular swipe. It opens the task switcher with the first app in the stack being the last app opened. You can also just select any app open in the app switcher.

Thats cool feature! I didn't know that was there. I tried it just and almost dropped my phone. For me it def takes two hands. The back button on the either side of the home button is def easier to use imho.

 

[nj1266]

This X a million.

And please don't say the iPhone has swipe to move around, that just sucks, especially on a large 6S Plus phone, swiping screens is difficult one handed. Give us a frigging back button, like Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Android has already.

Swiping back within the app works for me. For moving between apps, I force touch to activate the app switcher. I can do both one handed.

Apple will not implement a back button nor would I want them to.

 

[Tinmania]

Thats cool feature! I didn't know that was there. I tried it just and almost dropped my phone. For me it def takes two hands. The back button on the either side of the home button is def easier to use imho.

It was hard originally for me to get used to, but now it is second nature. I use it all the time. I never even use the double-press of the home button to access the switcher.

I like that I can "peek" at another without opening the app too. I use that, for example, if writing an email that references a spreadsheet. I can 3D touch swipe right, without releasing my thumb, to peek at the spreadsheet. I can see just about the whole screen and then flick back left to stay in my email app. Starting to use that a lot too. Poor man's "split screen" lol.



Mike

 

[gotluck]

I really wish you could 3d touch swipe from the right. As a right hander with a 6s I feel like that would be much easier one handed. I don't use the gesture much because it takes two hands for me to do it reliably from the left side.

 

[Fernandez21]

Thats cool feature! I didn't know that was there. I tried it just and almost dropped my phone. For me it def takes two hands. The back button on the either side of the home button is def easier to use imho.

Easiest way to do it is to first force press the left edge, with you thumb partially on the left bezel, then swipe after the animation starts. It takes some getting used, but I find it more comfortable than the back button. Of course that could just be my webOS bias showing.

 

[arlomaclean4653]

I can tell which one is better, I only know which one I like better

 

[apolloa]

Swiping back within the app works for me. For moving between apps, I force touch to activate the app switcher. I can do both one handed.

Apple will not implement a back button nor would I want them to.

If you know you can do that, iOS won't tell you as a new user, yet you know what a back button will do in Android, also it's tricky with a case on the iPhone sometimes to swipe like that, and you need a case because the iPhone is too thin and slippery.

EDIT:: I should add I don't use the swipe as it is a pain to do for me with the official Apple leather case on, it has the sides that are higher than the phone height so it's not easy to get the swipe to work, so it makes it slow and cumbersome, smacking a back button is much quicker I find.

 

[jamezr]

It was hard originally for me to get used to, but now it is second nature. I use it all the time. I never even use the double-press of the home button to access the switcher.

I like that I can "peek" at another without opening the app too. I use that, for example, if writing an email that references a spreadsheet. I can 3D touch swipe right, without releasing my thumb, to peek at the spreadsheet. I can see just about the whole screen and then flick back left to stay in my email app. Starting to use that a lot too. Poor man's "split screen" lol.



Mike

The more I use it the more I am starting to like it. The 3D Touch swipe is pretty cool!

 

[Zwhaler]

Weird, I didn't see music player mentioned. That is the only thing I think Apple does better with the iPhone than my Samsung (iTunes). Other than that, Android is superior for me.