What DON'T you miss about iOS?

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I keep hearing about what people miss about iOS when switching. This thread is about what you DON'T you miss.

I still use iOS daily on my iPad2 and still have my iP4. So this is not some anti iOS thread. It's just things I don't miss about iOS which IMO should be improved sooner or later.

For me ... I DON'T MISS .....

Syncing music.... I have no problems with iTunes, but when given a choice, I don't really need to sync anything. 95% of my music files are tagged correctly. With Android, all I need to do is drop my music folder in and any player I choose will see it. With my iPhone 4 which is jailbroken, I use other players and control where I store music via iFile. It kind of sucks being force to sync music on stock iOS.

Calendar.... Number of alerts/reminders severely limited. A limit of two sucks. Also less choices when settings alerts times and repeats. iOS calendar just needs to be a bit more robust. Many might not care about this, but I use calendar heavy.

Lack of Bluetooth File Transfer..... Come on Apple, I been waiting forever on this. I've already did a BT transfer numerous times to other phones and notebooks with my GS3. So YES, BT file transfer is still very relevant.

Photos App/Gallery....The UI is ok, but the control given to the user sucks. Photostream is also finicky at times.

Fragmented app settings ..... Meaning some settings are under "settings" and other settings are within the app itself. Each app is different.

Lack of Toggles..... So when will we finally see BT, WiFi, Data, and etc toggles?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Annoying popups for alerts, that break your workflow.

Annoying iTunes is annoying.

Being nickel and dimed to death.

 

[dontpannic]

This is the 21st century. Bluetooth file transfer is crap - always has been. Slow, inconvenient, some devices require pairing before it works... It's ridiculous to think that people still want it when there are much better and faster ways of transferring files such as email.

Syncing music? That's one of Apples best features. You dump it all into one application which automatically organises and tags things, and as long as you're on your wifi network or plugged in to the desktop, any new music you've downloaded appears on the phone.

You download a new album, tag it up, plug your phone in, launch I file, navigate to a folder, click and drag the folder across, open your music app, update the library, and then you have your music.

I fail to see how this is better than downloading a new album, add to iTunes, plug the phone in.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

This is the 21st century. Bluetooth file transfer is crap - always has been. Slow, inconvenient, some devices require pairing before it works... It's ridiculous to think that people still want it when there are much better and faster ways of transferring files such as email.

Bluetooth file transfer is anything but crap or slow. I'm able to easily BT transfer photos to other phones with ease and vice versa. It's much better than MMS or email for sending a quick photo or file to someone that's right next to you. Also if I want to quickly transfer a photo from my laptop to phone or vice versa, BT is really the quickest way. And it's not just photos. Almost any file can be transferred. Many of my friends, family and co-workers use BT to transfer photos or docs every now and then.

Syncing music? That's one of Apples best features. You dump it all into one application which automatically organises and tags things, and as long as you're on your wifi network or plugged in to the desktop, any new music you've downloaded appears on the phone.

Not everyone uses iTunes to purchase music. Not everyone wants iTunes to have complete control over their music library.

Does iTunes auto tag mixes? Or non iTunes downloads? No it doesn't.

You download a new album, tag it up, plug your phone in, launch I file, navigate to a folder, click and drag the folder across, open your music app, update the library, and then you have your music.

I fail to see how this is better than downloading a new album, add to iTunes, plug the phone in.

Um no .... I put music whereever I choose with iFile and have the player point to it. I only need to open up the player and begin playing music. Why sync unless you want the same music on multiple devices.

 

[Oohara]

I've been an iPhone user since my first smartphone, currently on a 4S, but planning to switch to my first Android. Just haven't decided on which phone to get yet.

- I can tell you that the first thing I'm looking forward to getting rid of is iTunes. I have no idea why Apple who are so good at smooth functionality in most cases are still insisting on such a user-offensive music interface as this. I never feel like I'm truly in control with iTunes. Click the wrong radio button and **** gets wiped from either my music collection, pictures, audio notes...

I understand that perhaps they keep it like it is because of DRM handling or whatever, but drag and drop really is so much more straightforward. Apple haters tend to exagerrate Apple's control over their users a bit too much, complaining about how iOS is so claustrophobic etc, but in the case of iTunes I do agree 100%.

- The second thing I won't miss is the unimaginative environment of the OS in general. This is 2012, smartphones have come a long way and these days there's not much the hardware prevents them from being able to do. So why is the face of iOS still nothing more than an app drawer?

It's almost insulting, given what my phone can do in theory. It's a pocket computer - why not let me build my own desktop? It is after all my "home" environment, I look and interact with it hundreds of times every day. I'm really disappointed and actually surprised that Apple hasn't bothered to innovate at all in this area. Intelligent widgets are not just "a gimmick", they are utterly functional. But completely lacking from iOS. Multiple home screens make for fast and intuitive access to a plethora of useful features - but not when all my home screens are nothing but app drawers.

- The third thing I won't miss is the calendar. It's quite nice on the iPad, but on the iPhone it looks totally dated and is lacking a lot of functionality. Why let these useless grey frames eat up so much of the screen real estate when the month view could feature larger rectangles for each day with little representations of what I actually have planned for each day, like on Android?

 

[dontpannic]

This is 2012, smartphones have come a long way and these days there's not much the hardware prevents them from being able to do. So why is the face of iOS still nothing more than an app drawer?

Why fix what isn't broken? True it might be little more than an 'app drawer' but it does its job as an OS perfectly well.

Am I seriously the only person who is able to manage iTunes fine? I've never lost anything by clicking a radio button, it works pretty quickly and does everything I need it to do. On Windows, yes, it's bloated, but on OSX? Are these the same people who manage to get Windows viruses too?

 

[flameproof]

There is one iOS function that is very underrated and seldom mentioned: the phone function. I love it!

 

[b24pgg]

No LED notification light: I love knowing whether I have a notification without having to turn my screen on. Android is amazing this way. Missed call/voicemail? Green light. Facebook message? Blue light. Whatsapp message? White light. Low battery? Red light. I can't believe this isn't even an option on the iPhone in 2012.

No widgets/toggles: So inconvenient. In this day and age of limited data plans, a WiFi toggle is crucial. Why do something in 3 clicks (Settings -> WiFi -> On/Off) when only one will do?

No Google Navigation: Apple Maps has promise, but it is years behind Google Maps. The layers and detail of Google Maps are unparalleled.

Lack of customization: Go to any Android forum and find a "post your home screen" thread. The creativity of some people is astounding - it's almost limitless what you can do with the visual appearance of your device. And let's be honest - iOS has its flaws, but stock Android isn't perfect either. Non-Nexus devices add unnecessary bloat and occasionally restrict features. Enter custom ROMs and rooting, which allow you to debloat and truly gain complete control of your device.

 

[Elit3]

I don't miss everything

 

[Oohara]

Why fix what isn't broken?

To me, the lack of evolution in iOS does constitute it being broken. With your logic, Mac OS would still look like it did on the Classic. Good for you if you're happy with background + app icons ad inifitum, for me this is what's making me buy a non-Apple phone for the first time in four years. I want to be able to turn the homescreen into something that feels more like...home.

On the reverse, iTunes to me constitues an unnecessary "fix" to a perfectly good system (drag and drop). I want to transfer a file from computer to phone. What would be the simplest setup for this? Drag the file from the computer to the phone. Not click one of a thousand radio boxes and then ask for something to be synchronized with something else.

I'm happy that the system is working for you, me I accidentally clicked the wrong radio box and had my entire list of songs and audio notes with song ideas wiped just before heading out the door to fly off to a tour + rehearsals where I wanted to go through some of that material on the plane. My fault, sure, but since then I find myself always looking over my shoulder and having to double check every single click when dealing with iTunes. With simple drag and drop, that wouldn't be the case.

 

[Wrathwitch]

No LED notification light: I love knowing whether I have a notification without having to turn my screen on. Android is amazing this way. Missed call/voicemail? Green light. Facebook message? Blue light. Whatsapp message? White light. Low battery? Red light. I can't believe this isn't even an option on the iPhone in 2012.

No widgets/toggles: So inconvenient. In this day and age of limited data plans, a WiFi toggle is crucial. Why do something in 3 clicks (Settings -> WiFi -> On/Off) when only one will do?

No Google Navigation: Apple Maps has promise, but it is years behind Google Maps. The layers and detail of Google Maps are unparalleled.

Lack of customization: Go to any Android forum and find a "post your home screen" thread. The creativity of some people is astounding - it's almost limitless what you can do with the visual appearance of your device. And let's be honest - iOS has its flaws, but stock Android isn't perfect either. Non-Nexus devices add unnecessary bloat and occasionally restrict features. Enter custom ROMs and rooting, which allow you to debloat and truly gain complete control of your device.

This pretty much covers it, and what another poster said about the pop up notification freezing whatever you are doing at the moment until it fades.

I really like hiding my lesser used apps in a "drawer".

 

[dontpannic]

To me, the lack of evolution in iOS does constitute it being broken. With your logic, Mac OS would still look like it did on the Classic. Good for you if you're happy with background + app icons ad inifitum, for me this is what's making me buy a non-Apple phone for the first time in four years. I want to be able to turn the homescreen into something that feels more like...home.

I see the need for widgets, I see the need for toggles. Both of these can be integrated into the already existing springboard without too much aggravation. When I turn my phone on, it's to perform a particular task. Whether it be looking something up on-line, playing a game, sending a text etc, I have to launch an application to do any of these things. Therefore, why do I need to have the option of hiding everything away in an app drawer, adding an extra step into launching applications I don't use often enough to warrant a shortcut on the home screen?

Sure, I'd appreciate more widgets, however they could quite easily be put into the Notification Centre (along with some much needed toggles). Something like the IntelliscreenX Jailbreak tweak would be spot on. Also, the lockscreen is heavily under-used.

I don't agree that iOS is lacking evolution, I just think that Apple need a push into putting the features that we want into iOS (widgets and toggles etc), which we know already work as the tweaks are out there in Cydia.

Android has widgets available on a number of home screens, which is a fine way of doing things, until you realise what is already possible with iOS.

So far, I've seen various Clock/Weather widgets, which I would prefer to see on the lock screen rather than the home screen, media player controls, facebook news feeds, email previews and that sort of thing.

When you then delve into things a little further, media player controls are actually in iOS, and available at any time you've unlocked the phone, in the multitasking tray. Weather app is available in the Notification Centre, which again, is available at any time you've unlocked the phone.

Something similar to IntelliscreenX is how I think Apple should progress with iOS. Separate pages in the notification centre allowing you to see emails, twitter, facebook, etc, and I would dearly love Apple to open up the Notification Centre widgeting API's to developers. Most people running Android from what I've seen (not all, granted), don't even utilise or customise their home screens, I just see huge blank space of wallpaper when there could easily be shortcuts or widgets taking up that space.

iOS definitely isn't perfect, but it wouldn't take much to improve it ten-fold. Instead of alienating the jailbreak community, start bringing some of them on board as official sanctioned developers.

On the reverse, iTunes to me constitues an unnecessary "fix" to a perfectly good system (drag and drop). I want to transfer a file from computer to phone. What would be the simplest setup for this? Drag the file from the computer to the phone. Not click one of a thousand radio boxes and then ask for something to be synchronized with something else.

Quite. However, it's not just transferring a file. If I want my entire music collection, its a series of files and folders. Each folder has to have its own album art file, each file has to be correctly tagged, then you have to add that folder to a music player and let it update the library.

I'm happy that the system is working for you, me I accidentally clicked the wrong radio box and had my entire list of songs and audio notes with song ideas wiped just before heading out the door to fly off to a tour + rehearsals where I wanted to go through some of that material on the plane. My fault, sure, but since then I find myself always looking over my shoulder and having to double check every single click when dealing with iTunes. With simple drag and drop, that wouldn't be the case.

Drag and drop really isn't all that great in this day and age. It means that the average user has to spend time keeping file systems tidy and using third party utilities to manage ID3 tags, album art, ripping CD's and downloading music etc, not only that, but updating music libraries in third party players. Some people may like that sort of thing, but personally I just want to plug my phone in and let it do its thing, I don't have time to sort out all this stuff myself.

I totally fail to see why iTunes is such an issue for people. It is not a difficult or problematic program to use. Create a playlist with music you want on an iDevice, plug in that iDevice and tell it that you want that playlist on that iDevice. It goes away and does it. iTMS integration means that tags and album art are all added automatically. Perhaps it's because I use a Mac that I don't find iTunes offensive? In fact the most annoying of its habits is that it only sporadically responds to the play controls on my MBP's keyboard.

If a drag and drop file copy bums out halfway through, you have to work out where it got to, and start over. If an iTunes sync bums out halfway through, plug the phone back in again and let it finish off. Syncing does have advantages.

 

[matttye]

The stumbling blocks that are present due to the lack of features. For example, it's impossible to save email attachments to the phone then attach them later. The lack of a file system is annoying.

I don't mind too much on my ipad because I get my emails on both my ipad and my S3, so I can use my S3 to do this.

Having to go into settings every time I want to turn settings off is annoying too.

 

[MadGoat]

Syncing music....

iTunes syncing is actually one of the features I miss most when using my Android. Keeping track of play counts, last played, ratings, and just the ease of checking playlists to sync is my favourite.

I for one had manually managing folder, then copy paste to the SD card.

and the Android->iTunes solutions are shoddy at best.

 

[Calidude]

I really like hiding my lesser used apps in a "drawer".

It's great isn't it?

When Android does something like this people say things like "WHAT? No way man! That drawer crap is SO stupid! Every app is useful on the iPhone, even the Newstand app, and I LIVE for the opportunity to have to flick through 10 pages of apps, most of which I don't use on a daily basis!"

If iPhone suddenly started doing it this way, people would act like the exact same drawer functionality was an Apple innovation and how they can't live without that functionality now.

 

[ReanimationN]

It's great isn't it?

When Android does something like this people say things like "WHAT? No way man! That drawer crap is SO stupid! Every app is useful on the iPhone, even the Newstand app, and I LIVE for the opportunity to have to flick through 10 pages of apps, most of which I don't use on a daily basis!"

If iPhone suddenly started doing it this way, people would act like the exact same drawer functionality was an Apple innovation and how they can't live without that functionality now.

To be fair, I used to hide away my little used apps in folders on my iPhone. It's not a hard thing to do, I wouldn't exactly say it's something the iPhone is crying out for. Widgets would be far higher up the list.

 

[rocknblogger]

iTunes syncing is actually one of the features I miss most when using my Android. Keeping track of play counts, last played, ratings, and just the ease of checking playlists to sync is my favourite.

I for one had manually managing folder, then copy paste to the SD card.

and the Android->iTunes solutions are shoddy at best.

I never understood the need for keeping track of ratings, play counts, last played or myriad other iTunes tracking options. Can you explain to me how or why you want to track that stuff?

 

[cynics]

This pretty much covers it, and what another poster said about the pop up notification freezing whatever you are doing at the moment until it fades.

I really like hiding my lesser used apps in a "drawer".

I agree it's annoying but to point out a top notification can be swiped to the right to speed it off the screen.

 

[matttye]

To be fair, I used to hide away my little used apps in folders on my iPhone. It's not a hard thing to do, I wouldn't exactly say it's something the iPhone is crying out for. Widgets would be far higher up the list.

It's not intuitive though.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

iTunes syncing is actually one of the features I miss most when using my Android. Keeping track of play counts, last played, ratings, and just the ease of checking playlists to sync is my favourite.

I for one had manually managing folder, then copy paste to the SD card.

and the Android->iTunes solutions are shoddy at best.

There have been many times where it has been inconvenient for me. Like only being able to sync to one desktop. Not being able to sync to another desktop without losing music on iPhone which means I have to add my music to the new desktop first, sync with iTunes, then sync with iPhone. Also if you don't let iTunes copy music to folders, then the music is stored as a bunch of weird files in weird named folders. Even if you put it back in iTunes it won't be able to recognize plenty. And all that isn't even the half.

I have a huge selection of high quality music that surpasses even 64GB. And besides a huge backup I rarely touch, plenty of my music is not on one desktop. So I change things around a lot. It's easier just to drag n drop into organized folders and have the media player instantly see the changes instead of syncing.

 

[dontpannic]

Why do you want to sync with more than one music library? Can't you just combine the two into one library and do it that way?

Ratings, play counts etc are all interesting information to have handy - you can easily see trends and what you prefer. If you rate stuff when your out and about you can create a smart playlist when you get home of all the songs you've rated with 4 or 5 stars etc. it's handy stuff.

 

[MEJHarrison]

I'm not leaving, but if I did, I'd be thrilled to dump iTunes. And not just for music. A friend last night got a new phone (the wi-fi & bluetooth on her 4S died). She clicked the wrong button and synced ALL of her photos over. So can she just delete what she doesn't want and move on from there? Of course not! She has to change iTunes and re-sync. That's just stupid. I would LOVE to bypass iTunes and just drag-n-drop music, photos, videos, etc.

Also, I don't let iTunes manage my music or anything else. I do all my own ripping to MP3, tag things on my own, fill in whatever details I want, and THEN import into iTunes. But I'd MUCH rather just move the stuff on my own.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Why do you want to sync with more than one music library? Can't you just combine the two into one library and do it that way?

I don't want to sync more than one library, I just want to manage my library on my phone from anywhere. Whether it's my MBP, PC Laptop, the phone itself or even someone's else's computer.

Ratings, play counts etc are all interesting information to have handy - you can easily see trends and what you prefer. If you rate stuff when your out and about you can create a smart playlist when you get home of all the songs you've rated with 4 or 5 stars etc. it's handy stuff.

No need to sync for that. Many players already do this without syncing, even before iTunes iPod and iPhone.

But anyway I never really been interested in that type of stuff. Whenever I do an auto playlist, it's usually by genre.

Also, I don't let iTunes manage my music or anything else. I do all my own ripping to MP3, tag things on my own, fill in whatever details I want, and THEN import into iTunes. But I'd MUCH rather just move the stuff on my own.

I do the same.

ITunes has too many genres that it categorizes with. That sucks for auto playlist features. And when you select the setting to simplify it to the most general genres, it will tag plenty under the wrong genre. Also even when I rip original albums from CDs, it will sometimes tag it and use cover art from a greatest hits or a soundtrack album.

 

[jeffe]

I totally fail to see why iTunes is such an issue for people. It is not a difficult or problematic program to use. Create a playlist with music you want on an iDevice, plug in that iDevice and tell it that you want that playlist on that iDevice. It goes away and does it. iTMS integration means that tags and album art are all added automatically. Perhaps it's because I use a Mac that I don't find iTunes offensive? In fact the most annoying of its habits is that it only sporadically responds to the play controls on my MBP's keyboard.

Getting rid of Itunes is one of the best things I have ever done. I usually buy my music from several different providers depending who has the best price. It downloads to a folder, and then Google music automatically makes it available to my phone. I don't have to plug my phone in, I don't have to worry about tags, I don't have to open a new program. It just works and it is one of my favorite things about Android.

The best part is that it doesn't lock me into Android. My music is now available to me if I'm on iOS device, if I'm on Android device, or if I'm on a Windows device.

 

[dontpannic]

And iTunes doesn't lock you into an iPod/iPhone. It's all DRM-Free now.