Should I get an iPhone?

It took the whole week, between downloading iTunes and finding the Lost iCloud Passwords(*), but I finally got the phone reset, unblocked and running. then it took 10 minutes for IT to actually, I'm not making this up, cut the SIM chip from the old phone down to size and install it in the Apple phone.

We'll see how it goes. Right now I love the fact that it works nothing like my tablet.

The thing is I still wish I could have snagged the Moto G...


(*) How clueless are many users? The person who game me her old iPhone claimed, repeatedly, she had neither an iTunes nor and iCloud password. I wish I knew how one can use an iphone for a year without either.

Naturally she did have them.

After a week with an iphone, I've got some observations:

1) I much prefer any Android to any iOS. In particular I dislike the "home" button.

2) That said, I like having a phone that works in a completely different way than my tablet. That way I don't get commands mixed up. of course, this wouldn't be an issue if Android were not personalized by each phone maker.

3) The iphone runs well enough, though it's still somewhat slow in some things like planning routes or showing traffic in Google maps (apple maps has no voice guidance available in Mexico, thus making it completely useless for navigating).

4) I still fail to see why it's an object of veneration among the faithful. Sure, it's nice, it's reasonable, it even makes phone calls. And when it came out it was special, there's no denying that. But it's been out for years and, frankly, many cheaper Android phones have long surpassed it.

5) The 4" screen is way, way, way too small.

Of course, for a free phone it's great.

Quote: Nareed

Walmart is selling the 4s with 8GB for about $350. That's a bit more than I'd be willing to spend and it includes signing up for a call and data plan. At the apple Store it costs more, but it's unblocked.

The Walmart here has dropped the price of Apple iPhone 4 8GB, for Straight Talk, No Contract from $349 to $250.

One thing I strongly dislike with the Apple products and the IOS is the forced obsolesence. Our 2nd generation ipod touch is pretty much only usable as an mp3 player now, and my 4th generation ipod touch (basically an iPhone 3 without the phone) just got the 'app bomb' where every app that was just updated to support ios8 is no longer supported on my device, which is capped at ios 6.

I think I have just about recovered all of my apps to pre-upgrade versions, but that means no more updates for me, and probably no new apps as all of them will be ios7+ only.

Quote: Dalex64

One thing I strongly dislike with the Apple products and the IOS is the forced obsolesence.

Apple is in the business of selling hardware. never forget that.

Android fragmentation, meaning many different versions of the OS are running in different devices, more or less ensures some upgrade continuity for older phones and tablets. Further, Google's latest efforts are towards making the new OS able to run in older models (or rather in less capable models).

Apple's iOS is much less fragmented. And hardware being Apple's business, they won't try to make room for their older models in the new OS.

The more I use an iphone, the more I'm convinced Apple is a cult, based mainly on looks.

Now, the hardware is very good and high-end, and the software performs well. But there are so many annoyances and design flaws it's hard to see how the fanboys believe Apple to be uniformly "good" in every aspect.

Take the crystalline back on the device. It's terrible. Sure, it looks nice, but it also makes the phone slippery. I'm used to placing my phone in certain places and finding it there minutes later. Not the iphone, it tends to slide even on what seem to be level surfaces. The back also gives little grip to hold on to. No wonder so many people have iphones adorned with cracked screens.

Then there's the native podcast player. It's very good, and free, and better than what I was using on Android (Dogcatcher). But some controls are hidden, thereby making the defaults a bit hard to change. Worst of all I set it up so it wouldn't use the cell network to update or download podcasts. After all, I get WiFi at work and have it at home, and I download the massive podcast files there. no need to waste cell time/data which costs money. The damn program reminds me every time I open it the cell data is off, and asks whether I want it on.

So the phone is good. But I'd exchange it for an Android handset with similar hardware specs and a plastic or rubber back any day.

Quote: Nareed

The more I use an iphone, the more I'm convinced Apple is a cult, based mainly on looks.

The 10th anniversary iPhone 8 is expected to cost north of $1000, or the same price as a nice laptop.

I just got a new iPhone last week. I went with the 6S Plus.

I don't want the 7.

Quote: ams288

I just got a new iPhone last week. I went with the 6S Plus.

I don't want the 7.

Did you get one for less than $500?

I am old enough to remember the 3M goal (roughly 35 years ago)
The minimum specification for academic/technical workstations was going to be at least a megabyte of memory, a megapixel display and a million instructions per second (MIPS) processing power. It was also often said that it should cost no more than a "megapenny" ($10,000).

Steve Jobs picked up on the term and sold his NEXT computer as a 3M machine.

BTW, I was still looking for time to experiment with the prehistoric iphone 4, when the coworker I'd loaned it to had her new Android phone stolen. So I re-loaned her the iphone 4.

Oh, well.

I did find out one thing. If you keep the phone off for two weeks, it actually keeps most of the charge in the battery.