Slashdot Mirror
Apple's First Android App, Move To iOS, Is Getting Killed With One-Star Reviews
An anonymous reader writes: Apple today launched Move to iOS, the company's first Android app built in-house. As we noted earlier, "It should surprise no one that the first app Apple built for Android helps you ditch the platform." The fact that the app is getting flooded with one-star reviews is not particularly surprising, either. At the time of publication, the app has an average rating of 1.8. The larger majority (almost 79 percent) are one-star reviews, followed by five-star reviews (almost 19 percent).
I presume that all the 5-star reviews are from people happy about how easy this app made switching away from Android, and it will be their last Android app review.
Similarly, the 1-star reviews are from people who have not used the app, will not use the app, and have an odd desire to murder anyone who does use it.
but Apple rejected the "Ditch Apple and switch to Android" app in iTunes?
I figure it prepares your data for use on an iOS device - encrypting videos you've shot and adding DRM, watermarks your mp3 with your email address/Apple ID, and converts any patent-free codecs like Ogg Theora to mov with an Apple-patented codec.
The competition has certainly been good. The features iOS has ripped off of Android are great. I can't believe it's been 8 years and we FINALLY have back button and a keyboard that shows us which case we're typing in.
It's a pity we can't discuss that without the word 'invent' being thrown around by everybody except Apple.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The app creates a secure wireless connection directly between your new iPhone and your old Android phone. It then moves over your contacts, pictures, and videos. Any app that's on the Android phone that's free in the App Store will get downloaded to the iPhone. Any app that requires a payment will be put in your Wish List in iTunes.
If I was planning to switch from Android to iOS, I would consider using an app like this. The question is, do the app itself work well for the use case it is advertised for? Does it actually move your data over to iOS? What data does it specifically move? What does it not move?
I don't care what kind of computers other people use. I write MacOS X software for a living. I chose MacOS X as a user and as a developer for a variety of reasons, but I recognize those reasons may no longer be current. I haven't used Windows since Vista - and my use of Vista was doing development on a cross platform Windows/Mac/Linux app I wrote. I have written software for iOS (before it was even called iOS) and some iPhone apps I've written have been commercially quite successful. I thought about writing software for Android, but I haven't because my understanding is that Android users don't (in general) spend money on apps. I don't like "freemium" apps. I prefer to charge up front or else have it free. These days, I'm really more interested in MacOS X software and Linux software.
That said, I don't care what phone you like. I am very glad there are multiple viable phone platforms. I think iOS is cool. I don't like having to ship software through the App Store. That said, I've certainly sold more through the App Store than I ever sold through other channels like Kagi.
Anyway, I'm disappointed that the conversation here isn't focused on whether the reviews are useful. That's what I would care about.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I'm IT in the local school district, which has plentiful amount of mac. I looked up the current power cable for macbook airs on a whim; I was morbidly curious about how much apple charges for one.
I'm not sure why Apple put a rating system into their own site's products. Especially when it ends up like this.
Pages of people with appleIDs, and pages of their handwritten, one-star reviews.
In just skimming the top reviews, it looks like:
the 5 stars are mostly Apple fanboys who have never used Android but have invaded Google Play so that they can stick up for their platform of choice, despite having no device on which to actually use the app to see whether it works as described.
the 1 stars are mostly Android fanboys who have never used iOS but are posting reviews anyway so that they can stick up for their platform of choice, despite having no intention to switch platforms or use the app to see whether it works as described.
In a perfect world, app reviews would tell you whether the app does what it's supposed to do and how well it does it, then leave it up to other users to decide if that's something they want. In the real world, that actually useful information gets buried under thousands of pages of useless drivel between fanboys for each side.
It would be nice if there were more of a specific description of what this app does. How does it help you move to iOS?
I can't tell you exactly what it does, but you might find my experience useful. After vaguely thinking that it might be interesting to get an iPhone for a change, I installed the app yesterday and ran it in the normal way. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but then a faint rotating spiral appeared on the screen. As the beautifully designed pattern became gradually more intense, the phone began to play a strange pulsing harmony and the flash LED blinked softly in time to the music. At that point I began to feel strangely tired, and the next thing I knew it was half an hour later. I have no memory of what happened in that missing 30 minutes, but I see that a $949 transaction has been made on my credit card and a 128GB iPhone 6s Plus seems to be on pre-order from my brand new account at the Apple Store. I hope it comes quickly and my data has been transferred, as all my Android phone will now do is display random quotes in Helvetica like "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" and "Just avoid holding it in that way".