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Woz Says iPhone Features Are 'Behind'
redletterdave writes "The iPhone may be one of the bestselling smartphones on the planet, but Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes Apple's flagship smartphone has fallen behind its competitors, namely those built by Samsung, when it comes to smartphone features. Speaking at Businessweek's Best Brand Awards on Thursday evening, Wozniak said he was proud of how loyal Apple fans were to the iPhone, but also said 'this loyalty is not given,' shortly before denouncing his own company's smartphone. 'Currently we are, in my opinion, somewhat behind with features in the smartphone business,' Wozniak said. 'Others have caught up. Samsung is a big competitor. But precisely because they are currently making great products.'" I prefer Android, but it seems hard to find iPhone users who aren't enthusiastic about it. Whatever kind of phone you prefer, are there features you envy the users of some other variety?
I have a Nexus 4, I envy nobody. I have a $30 a month plan and Wi-Fi almost everywhere I go, so lack of LTE is non-issue for me. I'm completely pleased with this phone, no disappointments.
Until the Android ecosystem can handle an issue as basic as providing it's users with OS and security updates, Android is not ahead at all.
Over half of the Android devices out there are still running variants of version 2 of the OS and lower while the last three Android releases are version 4 and higher.
Android needs to be rearchitected so that carriers provide drivers for the hardware, while Google takes full responsibility for updates to the OS. This approach has been working with Windows for decades.
Look, people have always liked to place themselves into heirarchies. The modern USA is no different; we fawn over the modern equivalent of wealthy nobility, grumble and whine about how they're not treated like common folk and ohh and ahh as the fancily dressed dandies parade around the film industry court. Periodically, there are popular rebellions as the raging masses rise up and install a new order. Sometimes the outcome is good - the birth of a republic, the creation of the Westminster parliamentary system, but sometimes you find yourself under the boot of raving mad Leninists, racist fascists or clueless but vicious oil sheiks. So enjoy your shiny telephone and breathe a quiet thanks that you're not in a 1920s Soviet Gulag or North Korea. (As for the root cause of trouble in the USA: full-bore capitalism doesn't work, especially when there's a strong religious and social push to consistently increase the population to build "the economy." The US has three times the population it did in 1913, but there aren't three times as many meaningful jobs and many traditional occupations have either been outsourced to legalized slave camps in China or replaced by technology. You just have 200 million extra people trying to figure out the purpose of their life.)
Ironically, I think this is exactly what Apple lacks since Steve Jobs passed away. Say what you will about the guy; he was a showman extraordinaire. Though I didn't know him, I can imply from the stories I've read and heard that he also had that ability to recognize weakness and almost certainly never truly believed in private that Apple was untouchable and was the best. He drove Apple to create the best because he was absolutely convinced they weren't there yet.
Since Jobs passed away that has been lacking at the top of Apple. Unfortunately the RDF has outlasted Jobs himself and is still endemic to the company and everyone who worked for him (I DO know a few Apple engineers, and they agree with my assessment). They really do believe they are the best at everything and unfortunately it's going to take quite a force of will to convince them to excel as they did under Jobs. Tim Cook is a good guy and a great CEO... but he's not really the man to break that philosophical trough that Apple has fallen into.
Here we have a good answer.
Apple's restrictions ban a lot of "service" apps that are used by IT techs (and by suspicious persons too) that is one good reason to use android because Apple just suddenly pulls stuff claiming its "used wrong". Apple has a clear "don't shop here" sign out for common OSS network tools and the like.
People who love their iPhones usually bought them. There are two things going on there. Firstly, it's a self-selecting group. They bought into the idea of the ads they saw for the phone. Secondly, they spent money on it. When you make a purchase, you tend to self-justify. You think what you bought was the best, because otherwise you got suckered. No one likes that, so we tell ourselves we won. What we have is the best.
I was handed an iPhone by my company. It's really nice to have a free phone and I appreciate it hugely. Yes, it's a ball and chain to the company, but if they hadn't given me the phone, they'd be calling me on my personal phone anyhow.
But I hate the iPhone. Hate it. My antipathy for it was nonexistent when I got it. It was way better (in some ways) than the crappy blackberry it replaced. But over time, I've grown more and more frustrated with the potential of the thing which is squandered. Every little thing about it annoys me.
My wife has an android phone. I am so envious. There's still much to hate there, but not nearly as much, and there seems to be progress on Android. Something which annoys you might actually get fixed. On the iPhone, you must learn to love it, for it will never change.
I've just purchased a couple of of iPads, and frankly, the "walled garden" apple thing is FUCKING annoying.
Jesus motherfucking CHRIST, but the inability to easily share documents among "apps" on a single device is fucking retarted. I don't care what the motivation was for this, but it's stupid and gets in the way.
From "app" 1, save your document in the "iBooks" thing, the iCloud, "iTunes" (lol) - then it's, oh sorry, but "app" 2 can't open said document from any of those. oh, oh, wait, app2 saves it's documents in it's own little shit hole garden, where nothing else can access it...
I wish I'd known before I bought these devices that there is no simple, easy to use, way of sharing documents among apps. Windows/linux/osx/* users will have no idea what the fuck I'm on about.
I tried to upload a simple pdf doc to a website using safari... oh no, can't do that. The fucking document can't be found anywhere. It's in appN's walled garden. Solution? Pay for iCabSomething-or-other, which is really a hacked browser which "allows" you to upload any document you want to a simple html fucking form on a website... but only after you've downloaded the document using the SAME browser so you can access it from the same shit hole garden.
It's no wonder the other executives in my team have had their fucking iPads for MONTHS but have yet to use them productively... oh wait, one of them uses it to browse and email. That's it.
FUCK apple, I thought you were better than this.
No, another user who is aware that other people are also real, and that there's an exchange between the app developer and the app writer.
I have an app up which is free, but requests donations. It's on Apple's app store and also on Google Play. The Apple users sometimes donate. One Google user has. Now, in this particular case, I don't care much, because the app is intentionally pro bono work. But even so... The disparity is quite noticeable. If I were primarily acting to make money, there is no way I would bother with an Android port.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/