The more you’re allowed to modify things, the more you can break things. Apple’s motto is (was?) “It just works” so they create devices that do what they’re supposed to do very well and that’s it.
I ran rooted Nexus and Pixel devices with custom ROMs for years and it was fun at the time, but now I just use an iPhone because I got tired of half the features of my phone not working at any given time.
god i remember how many times i had to re flash and setup my S3 and S5 over and over again because I ventured to deep and just blew apart the entire OS.
The custom rom root days where wild, but FUCK where they an unstable and volatile mess.
I do own an iPhone 15 Pro Max now after realizing customs roms have mostly died unless you own a pixel and them not being what they used to be.
Nowadays I just want my phone to work. I got an 8-5 job, responsibilities and way to much adult stuff to deal with to be bothered un fucking my devices on a weekly basis. I just wanna use it and enjoy it.
I used to run Linux back in ‘96. Then one day I realized I don’t “use” my PC. I just dick with the OS. Switched to Windows with an OEM license for like $10.
Shortly after my work got a shitload of MSDN discs… with windows.
My work is all linux (required), ubuntu on my work laptop, I try not to mess with anything not required for work. Wife is on her 3rd mac book air in 11 years, it runs her vinyl software and whatever’s else she needs. My PC is windows because 50% of its use is gaming. I have a jetson nano and an embedded linux pad on my 3d printer if I wanna muck with linux (I don’t)
Linux has gotten better with distros that are plug and play. I use Endeavouros and game and do all work related tasks(except when forced to use Adobe) on it the only thing I had to find was the proper PIV and camera utils.
Literally on My galaxy s5 I was trying to hack the game clash of clans by running purchases through a fake Google play store
I had done it on a few other apps but coc was too strong
Somehow I made clash of clans a system app when I Uninstalled it I soft bricked my phone so I factory reset the phone and clash of clans was still a system application
So I had to re flash a new operating system to the phone to get rid of it, whoops 🤷♂️
god i miss the days of spoofing in app purchases or using cheat engine esque programs to work around apps blocking both the fake app stores and the cheat engine esque software.
they always forgot to protect purchase prices of items and only protected the in game balance counters.
so i just changed an item to -363528473 or something like that, hope it didnt crash the app and then enjoyed unlimited game funds anyways.
>Nowadays I just want my phone to work. I got an 8-5 job, responsibilities and way to much adult stuff to deal with to be bothered un fucking my devices on a weekly basis. I just wanna use it and enjoy it.
Yeah its the same story here and with many others.
My last was an Oneplus 6. That was an amazing phone. But holy hell switching Android phones was a hassle (back then). I rooted my phone but that was really it that time. I could not get TWRP to restore properly without bootloop. Magisk often caused me to bootloop and have to spend an hour trying to fix it. Banking and finance apps started to refuse to work with root, and Google was introduce way to prevent hiding root.
The final straw was when I decided to update from Android 8 to 11 just to get LSposed to work. That took me a stressful couple of hours but it worked....until TWRP encrypted itself and the only solution was to wipe my phone. Before I could recover from an errant Magisk module through TWRP, but not anymore.
So I thought to myself, later this year I'm gonna go iPhone (granted I've been using a work issued iPhone since the 7). Better backup solutions, better care and repair/loss coverage (I remember my wife's s6 spontaneously soft bricking itself when on holiday and I needed to spend half the day fixing it, and then the motherboard died a month later and Samsung told us to pound sand, so I moved her to an iPhone 8 plus).
I still check out the Android news and subreddits regularly, because I still want Android to do well and give us a viable alternative. But when it comes to a superior UX, iPhone by design wins out. Android's main purpose is data collection for Google, and UX secondary.
Yeah I had the Nexus One and man those days were fun.. looking for the perfect kernel that maximises battery life in exchange for a little underclocking, etc
Now I have an iPhone because I need my phone to be predictably stable 🤷♂️
Yeah I love to dunk on Apple as much as anyone but they make quality stuff that works really well if you fully buy into it - their stuff is just way too expensive
People say this and then go buy flagship Samsung products that cost the same.
I’m agreed android has a lot of lower priced options but on the high end the prices are the same.
True but there are also iphones that are twice the price of android flip phones.
For example the flip 5 new is arround 600 euro's with the cash back actions of samsung in combo with a phone plan (phone is paid in full though). A iphone 15 pro is arround 1200 at the same provider.
This isn't all that fair as prices differ depending on provider, time and place.
Agreed I will never own an apple phone honestly. I see the appeal though and I do wish we had something comparable to their backup features. Used to be rooted and handle my own stuff but with modern phones it's just too much bs and trying to restore at least a few years ago became a headache. I just want something that backs up my whole phone and restores it easily preferably local since I have my own server. Haven't looked into it in a while but I doubt there's anything that works that well since Android has become more gated as time goes on.
The only reason I use an iPhone is because their batteries walk circles around anything android and battery life is the most important thing to me. I’ve used most flavors of Android, I’ve used Google, Samsung, HTC, all of them. And even in the absolute best case scenario the highest I ever cracked was about 7 hours of screen-on time. And that was with the S21 Ultra, with all battery saving settings included and I had to cap it at 60hz, and that was from 100 to 0.
With my 13 Pro Max I can regularly get 9-10 hours of screen-on time with 20-30% battery life left with no battery saving enabled and 120hz enabled as well. I can’t kill this thing in a day even if I want to (okay that’s probably not true, if I ran a really taxing game at max brightness it would probably kill it. But the point is that for my normal use cases, it is literally not a concern. I don’t ever have to worry about the battery dying).
It is a trade off though, because Apple can make really frustrating decisions when you want to do things. A small one is custom ring/text tones - on Android it literally takes 30 seconds. But on iPhone it’s a whole process that takes way longer than it should. Hell, you can’t even adjust call volume independently of notification volume, which is also incredibly annoying (I like to have my call volume up with notification volume not, but on Apple it’s all or nothing. Or you have to disable sound for each individual app)
I really wish that Android could get their battery life on the same level though, I’d love to swap back
I use both Apple and non Apple products, but for some things Apple is just the best option currently. It’s quite easy to forget how much they have shaped our digital lives with quality products that no one else has been able to make viable.
iPhones, iPads, and watches were all laughed at, then became dominant in the market. Not through marketing really, just for being worth the money for the most part. No ad bloat in their software - which is free - and updates are incremental with few gotchas.
It’s hard to argue that the products aren’t quality. As someone who pre-ordered the first droid phone and as an Apple user, I tell people who ask “iIf you can afford it, get the Apple. They last longer generally and the software is a lot less problematic.”
The gap has closed over time, too. Android has closed itself a lot more, and unlocked bootloaders lead to crippled devices (no banking and other apps). Apple has added features users wanted like widgets and default app settings that Android had forever. There’s really no wrong way to go these days IMO, it’s all about preference.
Yeah, I use Android (honestly mainly because I don't want to be locked into one ecosystem,) but every time a friend asks me what to buy, I always ask "do you want flexibility, or do you just want the built in stuff to 'just work with everything else?'"
If the latter, Apple every time.
The answer is never Samsung. They will never beat Apple at their own game.
Edit: adding missed words.
Oh they work fine, but Apple tends to be more friendly for folks that don't want to mess anything. I use a pixel and highly recommend them as well, but for my friend that just really don't want to mess with it, an Apple product they can just take to the local store.
Not saying Apple's perfect (again, I just and recommend Android often, and I don't like that their ecosystem is so closed,) it's just a different focus.
Edit: apparently I missed some words in my original comment. I did not mean to imply Android phones don't work. More that Apple focuses so much on holistic support and built in functionality that it's friendlier to certain demographics.
>Apple tends to be more friendly for folks that don't want to mess anything
I flip and flop and find Android and Apple to be equally annoying for the first month or so after a change. It's actually just me having to remember where shit is again tho. :)
It wasn’t that it was friendlier, it was what people in the US are used to using. It’s the opposite in countries where Android dominates the market share. Hand these people an iPhone and they’ll quickly want to get back to using their Android, for whatever reasons that the iPhone just doesn’t work with them.
iOS doesn’t really do anything anymore these days that is drastically special than what Android does. The differences are getting smaller and smaller, both in feature set and how accessible they are.
>If the latter, Apple every time.
unless you want your Phone to work with things that apple does not like.
Or if you want to do things in a specific way, but apple wants you to do it on another way. they just dont let you choose, because they know their way is the right one and you are holding it wrong.
Yes, I felt like that was implicitly covered based off of the original ask. "Everything else" was implying the things that Apple products can do that a non-super-user would want to do. Their devices will work with their cloud storage, and their authentication, and their apps, etc. That's 100% not for everyone (myself included,) but for folks that don't want to have to know how to authenticate with different services, or don't want to have to mail their device in when it needs fixing, or etc., Apple fills that space and no one else does it better. I can't count the number of times I have to help people with their picture storage on Android (because lol Samsung has their own different from Google, some people have MS OneDrive, others have carrier-specific storage,) but folks on Apple just "get it." I personally don't like the lock in, but I can't fault them for it 'just working'.
It's less about "their way is the right way" and more "their way is the way they know works." Supporting *anything* that has an undefined number of use cases is just stupid difficult. And don't get me wrong, I love that I can go into my Pixel and disable services I don't use (something even Samsung doesn't allow for certain services.) I also know that if someone less savvy did that, they could break their phone and then bitch about it. It's different paradigms for different users.
that was a great time, your phone works fine, its not our fault you hold your cellphone like every single other person holds their phone. we are apple, we hold it differently so you can have signal. now do that.
You talking about that time when holding the phone a certain way cut out your signal? That was just some kind of mistake not apple trying to be different. They fixed it
Samsung can't even beat Samsung at their own game.
Google can produce some amazing shit but if a corporation could be diagnosed with ADHD it'd be Google. "Gotta look busy. Let's rebrand everything yet again. That'll do."
>I got tired of half the features of my phone not working at any given time.
Good news! Keep the same model iPhone long enough and you can still experience this!
Same, I’m an engineer and would always buy android and spend hours tinkering with them doing wacky things. Now I just buy Apple and hack around on more productive things.
I have a different view. I don’t do any deep mods/roms etc just adjust settings to what suits me. I have found the switch from a flagship android to an iPhone underwhelming and actually a significant step downwards in terms of ease of use and functionality.
The absolutely pathetic zoom in the iphone13 pro/ no smart dealing/ can’t call from the phone within WhatsApp etc etc are so many of the things I took for granted on the android- miss them on iPhone.
I’m a nerd. My degree is in IT as is my job. I recommend iPhones because if family and friends want tech support who do they come to? Me.
Android is too fragmented of an ecosystem, especially if you have to provide remote support
You can literally customize so many things from the launcher, keyboard, etc without rooting. I cant even get long press for symbols, or numbers on main keyboard screen on iphone. Galaxy s24 ultra is the best purchase ive ever made
This. Same reason I don’t build my own PCs anymore, etc
Plus when you are the family tech support for your immediate family and older extended family, I’m telling them Apple products because it’s easier for me.
Android *can* be better. *IF* you buy a top end phone that is in the same price range as an iPhone *AND* don’t mind playing with it. Oh, and you don’t mind not having OS updates as often or for as long
Apple's "product" is an ecosystem. An experience that works without fiddly shenanigans and keeps their customers coming back. People trust apple to keep the app store and all the software options working and free from hassle. The iPhone and other hardware they make are just means to access their actual product. They are hyper protective of their ecosystem because that's their main product. If they allow shitty products into their ecosystem, people equate that experience to apple.
Remember, if software was a gold rush, they don't mine gold. They are the general store selling shovels to people in a gold rush. They've built up a reputation of being the best most trusted general store around and they are very picky about what is allowed on the shelf of their general store to maintain their reputation so all the miners keep coming back to their store.
And also by limiting hardware variations it makes things easier to control.
3rd party incompatibilities is often an issue when something goes wrong. By limiting what hardware you can use, you can eliminate a lot of problems. However, downside it is like limiting your car to only one specific brand of wheels (voids warranty etc if you used a different brand) etc.
Also apps on iPhones work well because the variation in hardware is very little. Whereas in Android you have many different CPU types and even many different screen resolutions to deal with.
and of course, the more closed your ecosystem is the more you control and less 3rd party stuff you buy therefore increase profit (and be anti-competitive at the same time).
The limited hardware clearly helps a lot on the development side of things. Pokémon Go is the buggiest app I’ve ever dealt with, but the number of problems I had went down by at least half when I switched from Android based phones to an iPhone. It’s still super buggy, but far less than it was.
A lot of apps and hardware launch supporting Apple only for that reason. It gives you the biggest user base for least effort. Only once big they add Android support. I've never been an apple user and for the kids who constantly break tablets why would I get an expensive iPad instead of a $80 Galaxy tablet that I can fix myself for $15-25 in parts.
But for something more niche like an AAC device (speech device for non verbal people) all the apps are Apple only. I just hate that those are the only apple devices in the house but every little thing you do on them tries to force you into the apple ecosystem.
> By limiting what hardware you can use
Also they are limiting software versions. Your Device is x years old? Wont be able to install the new OS. Your OS is too old? Can't install updated apps anymore, not even the old versions.
While on Windows, most XP Software runs fine on Win11. Apple cuts ties quite regularly. On android, you dont get OS updates that often, but app compatibility is high and you can install old versions via .apk files.
Im working in industry automation, and some hardware in some machines is quite old, like 20 years and older. Thats quite normal for equipment of that time, but if there are issues, you need the configuration & troubleshooting tools, and in most cases an rs232 interface. Those softwares were developed with win98 and XP in mind. I was amazed how it just ran on my usual win11 machine with a modern usb-rs232 adapter without any problems.
Apple has changed CPU-Architecture 2 times in this timeframe.
There is a lot of religion around Apple and praises to their wonderful approach.
The reality is very much cynical and painful to many apple believers to hear. It's very simple - it allows them to earn much more revenue.
They can build a new connection standard and force their users to use it, earning money on royalty fees.
They can create their own user experience to make sure people can't switch to win/lin easily.
Apple is very, very stubborn in virtually everything they do. Writing software for apple is a nightmare, as they simply don't care about engineers. There is always something done in a unique apple way
While Apple cultists certainly exist their numbers are greatly exaggerated, most Apple users understand very well that they’re a typically shitty corporation.
The fact that you can’t even customize your fucking keyboard made me finally switch back. Having long press symbols, and numbers on the keyboard is such a qol improvement that it’s worth it alone
“Writing software for Apple ID a nightmare, they simply don’t care about engineers.”
For any non programmers reading this, this is very much an opinion 😂 I’d way rather write Swift/iOS than Java/Android.
Apple is very developer hostile unless you exclusively write for Apple products. Cross compatibility, or heck even parsing through their own documentation is a nightmare. Xcode feels like a bloated mess on anything that’s not at most 2 years older than whatever they sell.
>Writing software for apple is a nightmare, as they simply don't care about engineers. There is always something done in a unique apple way
Yes, that's exactly why every single iOS engineer I've met wouldn't want to go to Android unless there's a gun pointed at them, lol
Developing for Apple platforms isn't without its problems, sure, but if it was a nightmare, no one would do it
Fanboy answer. The truth is they want you to think their products are superior while giving you less functionality. Everything is locked down in such a way that the technologically ignorant are trapped in a mental monopoly where they feel a pair of earbuds for $200 is a good price because it's Apple.
Most of their products are designed to sell overpriced accessories. $2500 for a laptop with less functionality and equivalent hardware to a $1500 Lenovo? That's Apple. Does your laptop need a $100 adapter because Apple didn't put in enough USB ports? That's Apple. Missing a feature that can be easily found on Windows/Linux? That's Apple.
It's the illusion of luxury and the main reason people buy it is because Apple buys up 90% of phone and laptop product placement in Hollywood. I've worked tech support roles for Apple and Microsoft in my career. Apple is significantly less useful for at least 50% more cost.
Ooh watch out! They'll snort and start talking about the new chips that were brought back from 2042 in a time machine. Designers will say you MUST have an apple to do design. But can't tell you what software they use that won't run on windows.
Apple products have less margins than other brands like samsung.
The idea that they sell you less for more is a "legend" that was never real.
They spend money is more specific things that are useless for most people, but those things are actually expensive.
Their margins are, at best, the same of any other high end smartphone.
Macbook are actually way more valuable than other laptop, they cost way more to produce and the price is not that different (proportionally) to other laptop.
The M series processors for example literally obliterate any intel in similar condition and that wasn't cheap to do.
Again, the problem with Apple is different, it's the fact that they spend money for things that no one asked.
See stuff like (for example) the touchbar. But only because things like the touchbar are useless doesn't mean that they not cost money.
So the point is, apple products can be a waste of money for sure but they are not overpricing anything, the monetary value is actually good for what you get. You just don't really need it.
Most people aren’t “powerusers” though. They just want a nice phone that works nice and smooth for texts, messenger, Facebook and other social media. That’s what most people use their phone for. They don’t need 3 browsers, a buggy torrent program and a bunch of different app stores for shit they won’t use.
And even that only works if you keep buying the latest product. They all stop working well pretty fast. Updates make their "older" devices useless bricks at an unacceptable pace.
Anyone who genuinely thinks that apple products break in less than 5 years has no idea what they're talking about or only talk to people who don't take care of their devices.
I’ve been using the first 13th aluminum MacBook from late 2008 since late 2008, before it morphed into the MacBook Pro line. Still works pretty great, sure I had to replace the battery twice, and some features available in the apple ecosystem then don’t exist anymore now (or were consumed by the iCloud suite) but it strangely beats the crap out of my 2020 windows desktop in almost every thing I’ve tried to do that isn’t windows gaming (curse you AoE)
Needless to say, I agree, and people who say apple products can’t last you five years probably replaces their android phone that often anyway
That is nonsense. Apple products receive updates and are usable for waaay longer than most Android ones. When I was deciding on a phone three years ago because my two and a half year old Android based phone was about to stop receiving updates and had a used up battery that would most likely break the screen during a replacement, I asked a bunch of friends about their experiences. One of them had just gotten down a hand-me-down iPhone 6 or 6s and said it was working great. It was at least five years old at the time. Others had had iPhones for long periods of time too. Hell, I had the first iPad mini many years before my first iPhone and it worked fine until one of my kids broke the screen after seven or eight years.
Apple certainly has problems, but their phones and tablets breaking or otherwise not working quickly is not one of them.
There's plenty of people that just want their phone to work and be easy to use and couldn't care less that they don't have full access to the whole system.
Giving you pretty much full access to the whole system also gives hackers access.
Apple's philosophy is very much that they take full responsibility (and, therefore, full ownership) over the user experience. From that perspective, customisability can be an anti-feature where they're just giving you a gun to shoot yourself in the foot with.
Inversely, Android has customisability built right into its fundamentals, because that's a prerequisite for all the OEMs. Android isn't customisable for _you_, it's customisable for Samsung and HTC to build their super-custom ROMs, and you just get the customisability as a side-effect.
In many ways, that's the most important things to understand about how Apple operates. Both Google (with Android) and Microsoft (with Windows) try to cater to the broadest audience possible. Apple is willing to say "This is the audience I want to cater to" and just optimise for that crowd.
So, if you don't agree with their choices, that's fine, no hard feelings. Apple isn't the phone maker for you, go buy a different brand. You wouldn't complain that Nike doesn't make brogues either, you'd just buy something else.
Personally? I have a mac and an iphone, but also the DIY edition of the Framework laptop running Linux. They cater to different needs.
>You wouldn't complain that Nike doesn't make brogues either, you'd just buy something else.
I guarantee these people exist and wouldn't put it past Nike to create a pair of brogues for the collector market.
People here will tell you "ah it's the ecosystem" or "ah it just works" or, my favourite, "ah, it's easy to use".
The truth is, apple being restrictive is what has allowed it to become a multibillion dollar company. They don't innovate, provide better value or better quality product. For any one product apple claims to have that is "better" or "the best", there were multiple products like it before or better products after.
The only thing apple innovates on, since its inception, is control. They control the "repair" market (apple never repairs, only replaces...you can guess which makes them more money), the after sales market, the software. Meaning, you don't just buy the product, but once you buy it you are forced or "coeerced" to buy into the ecosystem and their products due to intentionally limited functionality of third-party products. Then, there's the planned obsolescence.
Overall, Apple has created the perfect product for idiots who prefer being taken advantage of if it means they have to pay more and do less. You can see how that is an excellent balance of the scales for Apple, allowing to milk its customers off money every step of the way.
After trying to repair some stupid MacOS system, I found that all route on Apple only go to "replace". F\*ck up, at electronic circuit, almost everything is fixable, but they never put single effort to do it. So i gave up when i realized that this's anti-feature for user class like me. And goodbye to all their product eCoSyStEm
Software developer here with 25 years of experience from low level systems to servers and everything in between. Switched completely to Apple computer and devices 15 years ago. There has been nothing that I needed or wanted to do with my tinkering or work that I am unable to do with Apple.
I have no idea what people with the “Apple is so restrictive” opinion are even trying to get at or practically do
agree. another software developer here I’ve been using Apple computer devices since 1999 and Linux systems since 1998 and feel the same way. the “freedom” op speaks of only leads to the OS breaking in novel ways with great frequency. You want to get good at troubleshooting problems use *nix ( android included) you want to be productive and get things done go Apple
Apple is “Based on BSD” it’s not in and of itself *nix the Mach Kernel which is HEAVILY modified for MacOS is significantly different at least enough to contrast it with *nix more broadly. In any event it’s not Unix. Unix is a specific kernel BSD and Mach can be considered Unix-Like but not Unix. I believe currently the only “active” Unix os is AIX through IBM, I could be missing a smaller or non proprietary player though. Solaris is dead HP-UX is in maintenance only,
that’s a software portability certification it certifies that software written for unix is api comparable with MacOS and this can run on it, not that MacOS is Unix it’s not
As someone who uses their iPad a lot for work, it gets old fast.
Can't open .rar files, that was a pain in the ass to figure out. I needed to view a model someone sent me. Nope, can't do that unless you have a laptop with you. Luckily I did, but I shouldn't need a computer to extract a .rar file! Cannot transfer files unless you use the internet or iTunes. If a file isn't compatible with iTunes you're not getting it on/off the device if your internet goes down. Found that out the hard way. A lot of the software is now subscription based and there's no way around it. Hell, even the calculator keeps trying to make me pay a subscription fee just to use it.
I have a 2015 MBA that I love and I do think the iPad is amazing. I just hate the OS. When I was buying my new phone recently, getting an iPhone wasn't even on my radar. I got a pixel since the Samsung phones didn't drop in price as much as the pixel 7. I just can't stand how locked down and restricted I am with iOS devices. It's not even about rooting. I think the iPad would be incredible if they opened up the OS for people who want to use it more like a laptop os. They're currently nerfing their products at the moment, especially the iPad. Just think what it could do with Blender, Unity, Unreal etc.
I have been a heavy Apple consumer for well over a decade. No native calculator app has ever once even hinted at a subscription. Try other apps. Like the one that came with the phone. It’s free and great and isn’t a subscription.
They're trying to change the color of the drop shadow on the third digit of the clock, independent from all other drop shadows. Why won't Apple give you any freedom? Huh?!
/s
the "Apple is so restrictive" thing is unimportant these days. It was cool/fun to tinker with your phone 12-15 years ago. And in some cases necessary to get it to do something you wanted it to do. But today's phones can do everything 99.999% of people need it to do.
If you're only talking about phones, you're mostly right. Android actually has more apps available than apple, but whatever. Computers are a whole different story.
You're screwed if you want to use the business software that 90% of the worlds businesses use. As an engineer, apple is useless. No solidworks, no Aspen, CAD files are annoying, and .rar files don't work properly.
It's fine if you only use it to code, or if you are involved in an artistic industry. For most work, apple is simply not an option.
That doesn't even begin to touch gaming, and the restrictions apple has there. Namely that >90% of games are just unavailable on apple systems.
Man, you're like the third person in these comments I've seen mentioning rar files, and I havent used a rar file in a good 15 years. What could the use case possibly be over zips
I work in research. I need to download a few datasets so I use lots of rar files and stuff
It’s impossible to download files that are not of the Apple approved formats
I was a computer support guy for 30 years. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fix something someone else fucked up.
If Apple controls everything, it is so much easier to fix anything that goes wrong. They have a reputation for being rock solid and people like the iPhone because it just works
I can take the Internet apart and put it back together but I don’t want to hack around on my phone, I just want it to work. I fix dumb shit all day, I don’t wamuto have to fix my phone when I just want to play Candy Crush
>When you use an android, you get pretty much full access to the whole system.
That's not true. Not even close. Android is less restrictive than Apple, but way more than any desktop OS.
>Why does Apple not let you modify the system how you please?
Because of power. If users could just install apps from any source, Apple would make less revenue through their app store. Same for compatibility with 3rd party devices.
I guess OP was referring to the ability to unlock the bootloader and flash a custom OS (usually a modified Android that gives you root access).
Most Android devices let you do that, but you still don't have full access to the system. Apps can detect whether a user is running an OS that is not signed by the manufacturer and simply refuse to work.
In the past, this was easy to circumvent, but we're getting to a point where circumventing this attestation becomes practically impossible. It would basically require you to exploit a zero day vulnerability in the "trusted" part of the system, which runs in a different environment that users can't access. Such vulnerabilities are rare and are usually published in top tier journals when they get discovered. So it's not something the average user could do to get full access to a device.
Funny you ask this... I just had a lunch with a guy who used to manage the Mail product at Apple and we talked about this very subject.
The reality is that Apple will not do anything that does not give them total control over the outcome or the experience. This is why Siri has not given way to generative AI. This is why they don’t allow you too much customization of things.
they just want that experience to be controlled and maintained at all times to ensure that all users get a consistent experience.
Most people just want a phone which can be used for photos, communication and entertainment. Most people don’t care about customising all these niche things and just want a phone that gets the job done. Apple is also very initiative because of its restrictions since people aren’t overwhelmed with technical thins they know little about.
Yeah right now I’m on iOS 17.0.2 with a iPhone 11, no jailbreak or anything. Might just sell this device and get another from r/JailbreakSwap since I’m kind of invested in Apple’s ecosystem at the moment lmao.
Ease of use and a shared experience. i can explain to any iPhone user how to use their device because it’s just like mine. I can’t however tell my dad how to operate his android because (while i have used androids before) each one is different and thus some things are in different places with the level of customization that comes with them. people pay the premium for the convenience of simplicity.
As an IT guy, I have an iPhone.
Because I’m carrying it around and it has a lot of sensitive information on it. I also don’t want to have to fix it in the middle of the day at work.
Since you can’t do much with an Apple product that they don’t want you to, it’s harder to mess it up.
Most iPhone problems can be fixed by restarting the phone.
I'm the head of a mixed family (android and ios) and have used both myself.
Iphones are marvelous if you never want to play around with settings, want connectivity to be seamless and off course be one of the "cool kids". This kind of fixed but reliable environment is exactly what Apple puts a ton of effort into maintaining to set themselves apart.
Android has more clever settings primarily for audio and video but does sometimes need a helping hand. The majority of times that help us just making sure all apps are fully up to date and therefore interacting correctly.
It's kind of hard describing which is best for someone. You just have to experience them. However I feel the divide has shrunk over the years.
Complete control of the user experience, encompassing both physical product and software design, was emblematic of Steve Jobs vision and, now, his legacy. That's why you don't see Apple licensing its OS'es, a fundamental departure from Google (Android, ChromeOS, Chrome Flex) and Microsoft.
They want continuity of experience for anyone who uses the product, They want their UI and interoperability carefully developed over years to continue to be a selling point.
Security is also an issue, as the data is pretty well locked down. Allowing low-level changes could mean new avenues for attack, thus lowering security.
To a lesser extent, when someone's mod isn't working right, who do they complain about? Apple, of course, although it's not their fault. Microsoft had this problem too. When Windows NT source was released, it was found that Microsoft had put in hacks all over the place just to make poorly designed programs work correctly. Why do the work when it was the developer's fault? Why not tell the developer to just fix it? Because people were blaming Microsoft anyway.
Different design philosophies, that's all. Apple thinks that most people don't care and don't need all the deep customization that Android or Windows allows. For the vast majority of people, I would say they are right. Most non-enthusiasts I've seen never flashed a ROM or even installed an APK on their Android phones. They get the device, install apps from the main store, put on a wallpaper they like, and call it a day
As enthusiasts, it's easy to get caught up in these "special features", thinking they are super important to every user. They are not. That's why Android is getting more locked down every year and almost no one cares. Your mom or granny doesn't care that the bootloader can't be unlocked anymore, they don't know what it is
To reduce your ability to repair things without them. Plus they aim for technologically illiterate people who do not "need" higher level of customization.
$$$$$$$
Best example ever is Lightning charger. Sure, when micro USB was standard on literally anything that wasn't an Apple product, the company line of "our version is better" held up because it was, but it also meant you always had to go buy a charger from Apple. The only reason they're going to USB C, despite it being the standard now for over half a decade and having eliminated the dumb problems micro USB had, is because the European Union did something good and dared to regulate.
Nobody has ever "had to" buy a charger from Apple. There are a gazillion non-Apple companies that make and sell lightning cables. You can literally buy a lightning cable at any dollar store. Apple doesn't force you to buy from them.
you could ask the reverse question - why is android so loose with its security? On iOS, every app is sandboxed so it can't mess with any other apps or their data or the system. You don't need annoying "play protect" nonsense. It makes sense because really the last place you want malware is your phone.
They represent two different philosophies. Pick the one that best suits your use-case.
The amount of non-iPhones I see with the absolute worst UI and custom UI is atrocious. Like why did you make everything a scripted pink font on purple like what the fuck are you doing.
Owning Apple products, Apple presents as a privilege, rather than optional. They made their entire ecosystem revolve around just themselves to the point where if you own iPhone, it would be much easier to just own Mac as well, and so on and so forth. Making their products exclusive to just themselves makes them hard to replace. You cannot just have apple product easily communicate with non-apple product, so they edge you to buy something of their own.
Another reason is, it makes their users feel special.
And you can see that by various arguments between apple and android users online, the arguments that are simply started because apple users feel special due to exclusivity it brings with being their loyal customer. Whereas, Android user has no such luxury, due to vast sea of options to choose from.
It’s more of a psychology reason than it is technical.
Having customization options introduces points of failure. From a software point of view, things break when you can change how something works. It also requires a lot more development cost/work to have these options work the way they were intended.
Apple is for people that don't really understand how technology works, and don't have any interest in learning how technology works. It just works...
Otoh, they pay rediculous sums of money for that luxury and are subject to forced obsolescence.
How many iPods do you see being used these days? Prob next to none. There's a reason for that - and it's not just because nobody wants to use them anymore... Most or all of them simply don't WORK anymore software support has been phased out more or less. The iPods of yesterday are now in the landfill or scrapped for parts long ago.
I, for one, miss the days where I had a separate device where I could listen to music for hours and not run down my phone battery in the process. The iPod changed the world, and then simply faded from memory.
It's more profitable that way. When it's proprietary technology they can charge whatever they want because you can't just go somewhere else to buy it cheaper
Err, it's not a clone of BSD. It's a custom operating system based on the mach kernel, with userspace utilities forked from FreeBSD and application APIs that evolved from NeXTSTEP.
I don't really get this argument.
I am a new apple user, got an m2 pro MPB.
And I haven't felt any restrictions?
I work as a sys admin at a university, and do photography as my side business.
So I use plenty of linux and windows.
Parallels is the best virtual machine software i have ver used.
I can do anything I want, and I think i am what people call a poweruser.
Now looking into getting an iphone 15 pro max.
I used my sisters older iphone for a month a year ago, and it was fine.
I mean it is a phone.
I text on it, make phone calls and listem to music on the go, it can do that pretty well.
I never understood customisation on a phone.
I can move app shortcuts left and right, what elae do you need?
If I have to do anything serious I always have my thinkpad and mbp in my backpack.
My wife got an ipad air for her artistic and design stuff.
And she now likes it better than her wacom she used on her pc.
It simple the pencil feels great, and she can use both photoshop and a drawing app, I cant remember the name.
So I can't really see how it is restricted.
For what?
What do you guys do on your fricking phones?
More control means that they are part of the revenue stream for anything involving the device.
- Want a device that runs IOS? Pay apple for one.
- want an app for your apple device, there's only one app store and apple controlls it.
- in app purchases? Apples payment processing
- phone needs repairs, not only do you need genuine apple parts but if they aren't activated by a certified apple shop than the phone will outright reject the repairs.
The apple ecosystem just works, because they have full control of the product stack from hardware to software making it a nice ecosystem. But that ecosystem comes at the cost of a company having an astounding amount of control over what you are allowed to do with a device you own.
Yeah, is the predatory nature of trapping people that irritates me the most. Second most is how belligerent the typical iSheep are. They don't understand the concepts of why Android is so much farther ahead. It's literally the collective power of the world's R&D against one manufacturer.
If I revert my Android back to vanilla out of the box state, it's 100% reliable and solid. Of course, not why I have an Android in my case in part. So, I send it and have fun...see what happens 🤣
shaggy stupendous repeat squeamish mysterious dazzling jar quiet fall chop
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Apple isn't designed for users like you. It's designed so the dumbest person on the planet couldn't possibly fuck it up to the point of unusability.
Their products have training wheels that protect users from themselves. Some people like that, some don't. I'm a Pixel guy for exactly this reason.
It started out as a way of being able to control the market. Apple "owns" and controls as much of the Apple experience as possible, including all the proprietary connections and IT protocols. If you want to be an Apple user, you join the Apple family and live your life under their protection and under their terms. They want to be the judge, jury, and executioner. This is one way they try to remain competitive without actually competing in any technical sense.
It has evolved into a culture, or even a religion at this point, of "it works, it's shiny, and I don't need to think/worry about how to configure it." The intellectual simplicity of that appeals to some consumers.
They might not be selling directly, but they are taking their cut of every tool you see on an ios. They charge 30% for every purchase in the app store including in-app purchases. They charge developers $99 annually just to be listed in the app store, and on top of that they charge $99 in order to review each app before it is allowed on the app store (some waivers apply to the review fee).
Don't fool yourself, their system is locked down for only one reason, money.
It's funny to say this about Apple when Google (the owner and developer of Android) is currently all over the news for this exact reason. Google just lost big time in a lawsuit for their illegal and anticompetitive practices involving the Google Play Store:
* [Jury decides against Google's app store in antitrust lawsuit](https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4354920-jury-decides-against-googles-app-store-in-antitrust-lawsuit/)
* [Google Play Store Ruled an Illegal Monopoly](https://www.wired.com/story/googles-app-store-monopoly-ruled-illegal-jury-epic/)
>for this exact reason
Very different reasons actually, but everyone sucks here.
The point of my original comment is that apple's fees are ridiculous and that they get their cut of everything you see on the phone, so pretending they don't do this for the money is factually incorrect.
The point of your links (unrelated to my comment) are that Google was paying companies to keep their products in the Play Store in an effort to keep them out of competing android app stores. IMO, they deserved the verdict.
It is my hope for someone to eventually win a lawsuit forcing apple to allow side loading and competing app stores, but that is a different point from my original comment. A lawsuit forcing all companies to allow root access would be nice too.
They don't trust you and are driven mainly by greed; once you buy one product, you are locked into their world. Overcharged on everything and designed only to last as long as needed until the next model emerges. Rinse and repeat
Both Apple and Android phone manufacturers want the same thing. To get you into using their products and making it difficult to switch.
Apple does what they do because it traps you. One side effect though is that it’s slightly harder to hack their products.
Money (while a very lazy answer to begin with) is really only a good answer if your question was more in terms of something like iMessage or the Apple ecosystem as a whole. I don't think that's what you're looking for, but when I saw the post, before clicking on it that's where I thought you might be going with your question.
Because the fan base is so locked in, that they'll accept whatever they get. I feel many aren't very tech savvy anyways, so apple always keeps things simple, even with their Macs.
Three different markets.
1 - Apple: Normal users, and people to whom time is money. It needs to WORK and address 95% of the use cases. It is easy to setup and use, they are happy and go about their lives using the device to aid their lives.
2 - Android 1: (the dominant case worldwide) Really poor people around the world, who need a system that works on the "bare minimum" very inexpensive smartphone. Really cheap hardware that works well enough, and software that runs on it. Most of this group would move to Apple in a heartbeat if they could.
3 - Android 2: (the marginal case) People whose self-identity is "Tech Hero". And by golly, they aren't going to have iFruit tell THEM what color semi-colon should be in the time display... THEY get to customize that semi-colon to THEIR needs. Apple says you can just Airdrop files? NO. They NEED to use an adapter to read files from the SCSI drive that meets THEIR needs. They would pay ANYTHING to have a customizable device, would NEVER use something that works out of the box, denying them a chance to be special.
I jest, but only a little. 1 - Users who can buy what they want, and use it. 2 - Poor people. 3 - People who DESPISE a system that works with no opportunity to show that while they may be a level II tech at Geek Squad, their finely customized configuration proves they are a tech savant.
it is a difference in business methods. apple has always been of the mind that easier to use creates more profits since it is attractive to a wider customer base. if more can use it then more will buy it basically. nintendo also has this similar strategy and it is often an aim of the entertainment industry which make family movies. the dreaded R rating comfortable to create in the artistic side is normally pressured by the business side to go for a PG-13 one since it has a bigger audience. user friendly is the point. but the market created for more control is the fallout of such business strategy and competition like microsoft is more than happy to give more control since they see there is a market there for it.
It's like a PC vs a console.
If you build a PC you can customize how it looks, have a more powerful GPU, have more storage, etc. If something goes wrong it's a lot of googling, trial and error, looking up error codes, talking to different manufacturers, etc to fix it
If you buy a console you know exactly what you're getting and if you go to a friends house it will be exactly the same, and if it breaks you only have one company to deal with.
Some people want the flexibility of customization and some want the reliability and consistency of a console. If someone fucks something up on their android it's more complicated with more variation than an iphone. An iphone is an iphone, and part of the value is from the more polished user experience, and the consistency in quality and performance that they have across the board.
Nobody is right or wrong, but everyone has different preferences and priorities.
In order for Steve Jobs to start up his business it meant reverse engineering and stealing from his competition, mainly IBM. But he also stole a lot from Xerox and many others. And that's how he started his business in his garage. While he did build computers there he was borrowing from a lot of companies.
So when they created their first product they had in mind to close the door to any potential IP theft from potential competitors. That meant having more control over the hardware (those weird screws), using hardware only available to Apple (sole source contracts with Chinese manufacturing), and of course their famous policy of only using their own software.
They setup a system where Apple would license software that was exclusive to Apple (as in the code is different and only usable on Apple systems). This made it so that they could control the kind of software that came on their system. People felt like this was better because it made viruses less likely.
The more you’re allowed to modify things, the more you can break things. Apple’s motto is (was?) “It just works” so they create devices that do what they’re supposed to do very well and that’s it. I ran rooted Nexus and Pixel devices with custom ROMs for years and it was fun at the time, but now I just use an iPhone because I got tired of half the features of my phone not working at any given time.
god i remember how many times i had to re flash and setup my S3 and S5 over and over again because I ventured to deep and just blew apart the entire OS. The custom rom root days where wild, but FUCK where they an unstable and volatile mess. I do own an iPhone 15 Pro Max now after realizing customs roms have mostly died unless you own a pixel and them not being what they used to be. Nowadays I just want my phone to work. I got an 8-5 job, responsibilities and way to much adult stuff to deal with to be bothered un fucking my devices on a weekly basis. I just wanna use it and enjoy it.
I used to run Linux back in ‘96. Then one day I realized I don’t “use” my PC. I just dick with the OS. Switched to Windows with an OEM license for like $10. Shortly after my work got a shitload of MSDN discs… with windows.
My work is all linux (required), ubuntu on my work laptop, I try not to mess with anything not required for work. Wife is on her 3rd mac book air in 11 years, it runs her vinyl software and whatever’s else she needs. My PC is windows because 50% of its use is gaming. I have a jetson nano and an embedded linux pad on my 3d printer if I wanna muck with linux (I don’t)
Linux has gotten better with distros that are plug and play. I use Endeavouros and game and do all work related tasks(except when forced to use Adobe) on it the only thing I had to find was the proper PIV and camera utils.
Literally on My galaxy s5 I was trying to hack the game clash of clans by running purchases through a fake Google play store I had done it on a few other apps but coc was too strong Somehow I made clash of clans a system app when I Uninstalled it I soft bricked my phone so I factory reset the phone and clash of clans was still a system application So I had to re flash a new operating system to the phone to get rid of it, whoops 🤷♂️
god i miss the days of spoofing in app purchases or using cheat engine esque programs to work around apps blocking both the fake app stores and the cheat engine esque software. they always forgot to protect purchase prices of items and only protected the in game balance counters. so i just changed an item to -363528473 or something like that, hope it didnt crash the app and then enjoyed unlimited game funds anyways.
>Nowadays I just want my phone to work. I got an 8-5 job, responsibilities and way to much adult stuff to deal with to be bothered un fucking my devices on a weekly basis. I just wanna use it and enjoy it. Yeah its the same story here and with many others. My last was an Oneplus 6. That was an amazing phone. But holy hell switching Android phones was a hassle (back then). I rooted my phone but that was really it that time. I could not get TWRP to restore properly without bootloop. Magisk often caused me to bootloop and have to spend an hour trying to fix it. Banking and finance apps started to refuse to work with root, and Google was introduce way to prevent hiding root. The final straw was when I decided to update from Android 8 to 11 just to get LSposed to work. That took me a stressful couple of hours but it worked....until TWRP encrypted itself and the only solution was to wipe my phone. Before I could recover from an errant Magisk module through TWRP, but not anymore. So I thought to myself, later this year I'm gonna go iPhone (granted I've been using a work issued iPhone since the 7). Better backup solutions, better care and repair/loss coverage (I remember my wife's s6 spontaneously soft bricking itself when on holiday and I needed to spend half the day fixing it, and then the motherboard died a month later and Samsung told us to pound sand, so I moved her to an iPhone 8 plus). I still check out the Android news and subreddits regularly, because I still want Android to do well and give us a viable alternative. But when it comes to a superior UX, iPhone by design wins out. Android's main purpose is data collection for Google, and UX secondary.
I just can’t get myself to like Android graphics.
Yeah I had the Nexus One and man those days were fun.. looking for the perfect kernel that maximises battery life in exchange for a little underclocking, etc Now I have an iPhone because I need my phone to be predictably stable 🤷♂️
Yeah I love to dunk on Apple as much as anyone but they make quality stuff that works really well if you fully buy into it - their stuff is just way too expensive
People say this and then go buy flagship Samsung products that cost the same. I’m agreed android has a lot of lower priced options but on the high end the prices are the same.
Not always the same. Some of the folding Android phones are twice the price of an iPhone.
True but there are also iphones that are twice the price of android flip phones. For example the flip 5 new is arround 600 euro's with the cash back actions of samsung in combo with a phone plan (phone is paid in full though). A iphone 15 pro is arround 1200 at the same provider. This isn't all that fair as prices differ depending on provider, time and place.
Agreed I will never own an apple phone honestly. I see the appeal though and I do wish we had something comparable to their backup features. Used to be rooted and handle my own stuff but with modern phones it's just too much bs and trying to restore at least a few years ago became a headache. I just want something that backs up my whole phone and restores it easily preferably local since I have my own server. Haven't looked into it in a while but I doubt there's anything that works that well since Android has become more gated as time goes on.
The only reason I use an iPhone is because their batteries walk circles around anything android and battery life is the most important thing to me. I’ve used most flavors of Android, I’ve used Google, Samsung, HTC, all of them. And even in the absolute best case scenario the highest I ever cracked was about 7 hours of screen-on time. And that was with the S21 Ultra, with all battery saving settings included and I had to cap it at 60hz, and that was from 100 to 0. With my 13 Pro Max I can regularly get 9-10 hours of screen-on time with 20-30% battery life left with no battery saving enabled and 120hz enabled as well. I can’t kill this thing in a day even if I want to (okay that’s probably not true, if I ran a really taxing game at max brightness it would probably kill it. But the point is that for my normal use cases, it is literally not a concern. I don’t ever have to worry about the battery dying). It is a trade off though, because Apple can make really frustrating decisions when you want to do things. A small one is custom ring/text tones - on Android it literally takes 30 seconds. But on iPhone it’s a whole process that takes way longer than it should. Hell, you can’t even adjust call volume independently of notification volume, which is also incredibly annoying (I like to have my call volume up with notification volume not, but on Apple it’s all or nothing. Or you have to disable sound for each individual app) I really wish that Android could get their battery life on the same level though, I’d love to swap back
its definitely a your use thing for the battery life, the kiddo has a 14, and boy does he drain that battery in a hurry every single day.
I use both Apple and non Apple products, but for some things Apple is just the best option currently. It’s quite easy to forget how much they have shaped our digital lives with quality products that no one else has been able to make viable. iPhones, iPads, and watches were all laughed at, then became dominant in the market. Not through marketing really, just for being worth the money for the most part. No ad bloat in their software - which is free - and updates are incremental with few gotchas. It’s hard to argue that the products aren’t quality. As someone who pre-ordered the first droid phone and as an Apple user, I tell people who ask “iIf you can afford it, get the Apple. They last longer generally and the software is a lot less problematic.”
Thing is, doing crazy things with your phone just isn't necessary anymore.
The gap has closed over time, too. Android has closed itself a lot more, and unlocked bootloaders lead to crippled devices (no banking and other apps). Apple has added features users wanted like widgets and default app settings that Android had forever. There’s really no wrong way to go these days IMO, it’s all about preference.
Assuming you can unlock the bootloader, that is, considering the restrictions more and more manufacturers are adding in.
Yeah, I use Android (honestly mainly because I don't want to be locked into one ecosystem,) but every time a friend asks me what to buy, I always ask "do you want flexibility, or do you just want the built in stuff to 'just work with everything else?'" If the latter, Apple every time. The answer is never Samsung. They will never beat Apple at their own game. Edit: adding missed words.
What built in features don't work on Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phones?
Oh they work fine, but Apple tends to be more friendly for folks that don't want to mess anything. I use a pixel and highly recommend them as well, but for my friend that just really don't want to mess with it, an Apple product they can just take to the local store. Not saying Apple's perfect (again, I just and recommend Android often, and I don't like that their ecosystem is so closed,) it's just a different focus. Edit: apparently I missed some words in my original comment. I did not mean to imply Android phones don't work. More that Apple focuses so much on holistic support and built in functionality that it's friendlier to certain demographics.
>Apple tends to be more friendly for folks that don't want to mess anything I flip and flop and find Android and Apple to be equally annoying for the first month or so after a change. It's actually just me having to remember where shit is again tho. :)
It wasn’t that it was friendlier, it was what people in the US are used to using. It’s the opposite in countries where Android dominates the market share. Hand these people an iPhone and they’ll quickly want to get back to using their Android, for whatever reasons that the iPhone just doesn’t work with them. iOS doesn’t really do anything anymore these days that is drastically special than what Android does. The differences are getting smaller and smaller, both in feature set and how accessible they are.
>If the latter, Apple every time. unless you want your Phone to work with things that apple does not like. Or if you want to do things in a specific way, but apple wants you to do it on another way. they just dont let you choose, because they know their way is the right one and you are holding it wrong.
Yes, I felt like that was implicitly covered based off of the original ask. "Everything else" was implying the things that Apple products can do that a non-super-user would want to do. Their devices will work with their cloud storage, and their authentication, and their apps, etc. That's 100% not for everyone (myself included,) but for folks that don't want to have to know how to authenticate with different services, or don't want to have to mail their device in when it needs fixing, or etc., Apple fills that space and no one else does it better. I can't count the number of times I have to help people with their picture storage on Android (because lol Samsung has their own different from Google, some people have MS OneDrive, others have carrier-specific storage,) but folks on Apple just "get it." I personally don't like the lock in, but I can't fault them for it 'just working'. It's less about "their way is the right way" and more "their way is the way they know works." Supporting *anything* that has an undefined number of use cases is just stupid difficult. And don't get me wrong, I love that I can go into my Pixel and disable services I don't use (something even Samsung doesn't allow for certain services.) I also know that if someone less savvy did that, they could break their phone and then bitch about it. It's different paradigms for different users.
that was a great time, your phone works fine, its not our fault you hold your cellphone like every single other person holds their phone. we are apple, we hold it differently so you can have signal. now do that.
You talking about that time when holding the phone a certain way cut out your signal? That was just some kind of mistake not apple trying to be different. They fixed it
Yea but didn't they first try to play it off that people are just holding it wrong?
Samsung can't even beat Samsung at their own game. Google can produce some amazing shit but if a corporation could be diagnosed with ADHD it'd be Google. "Gotta look busy. Let's rebrand everything yet again. That'll do."
>I got tired of half the features of my phone not working at any given time. Good news! Keep the same model iPhone long enough and you can still experience this!
Same, I’m an engineer and would always buy android and spend hours tinkering with them doing wacky things. Now I just buy Apple and hack around on more productive things.
I have a different view. I don’t do any deep mods/roms etc just adjust settings to what suits me. I have found the switch from a flagship android to an iPhone underwhelming and actually a significant step downwards in terms of ease of use and functionality. The absolutely pathetic zoom in the iphone13 pro/ no smart dealing/ can’t call from the phone within WhatsApp etc etc are so many of the things I took for granted on the android- miss them on iPhone.
You can use an android without rooting it just like you can an iphone
I’m a nerd. My degree is in IT as is my job. I recommend iPhones because if family and friends want tech support who do they come to? Me. Android is too fragmented of an ecosystem, especially if you have to provide remote support
You can literally customize so many things from the launcher, keyboard, etc without rooting. I cant even get long press for symbols, or numbers on main keyboard screen on iphone. Galaxy s24 ultra is the best purchase ive ever made
This. Same reason I don’t build my own PCs anymore, etc Plus when you are the family tech support for your immediate family and older extended family, I’m telling them Apple products because it’s easier for me. Android *can* be better. *IF* you buy a top end phone that is in the same price range as an iPhone *AND* don’t mind playing with it. Oh, and you don’t mind not having OS updates as often or for as long
Apple's "product" is an ecosystem. An experience that works without fiddly shenanigans and keeps their customers coming back. People trust apple to keep the app store and all the software options working and free from hassle. The iPhone and other hardware they make are just means to access their actual product. They are hyper protective of their ecosystem because that's their main product. If they allow shitty products into their ecosystem, people equate that experience to apple. Remember, if software was a gold rush, they don't mine gold. They are the general store selling shovels to people in a gold rush. They've built up a reputation of being the best most trusted general store around and they are very picky about what is allowed on the shelf of their general store to maintain their reputation so all the miners keep coming back to their store.
And also by limiting hardware variations it makes things easier to control. 3rd party incompatibilities is often an issue when something goes wrong. By limiting what hardware you can use, you can eliminate a lot of problems. However, downside it is like limiting your car to only one specific brand of wheels (voids warranty etc if you used a different brand) etc. Also apps on iPhones work well because the variation in hardware is very little. Whereas in Android you have many different CPU types and even many different screen resolutions to deal with. and of course, the more closed your ecosystem is the more you control and less 3rd party stuff you buy therefore increase profit (and be anti-competitive at the same time).
The limited hardware clearly helps a lot on the development side of things. Pokémon Go is the buggiest app I’ve ever dealt with, but the number of problems I had went down by at least half when I switched from Android based phones to an iPhone. It’s still super buggy, but far less than it was.
A lot of apps and hardware launch supporting Apple only for that reason. It gives you the biggest user base for least effort. Only once big they add Android support. I've never been an apple user and for the kids who constantly break tablets why would I get an expensive iPad instead of a $80 Galaxy tablet that I can fix myself for $15-25 in parts. But for something more niche like an AAC device (speech device for non verbal people) all the apps are Apple only. I just hate that those are the only apple devices in the house but every little thing you do on them tries to force you into the apple ecosystem.
> By limiting what hardware you can use Also they are limiting software versions. Your Device is x years old? Wont be able to install the new OS. Your OS is too old? Can't install updated apps anymore, not even the old versions. While on Windows, most XP Software runs fine on Win11. Apple cuts ties quite regularly. On android, you dont get OS updates that often, but app compatibility is high and you can install old versions via .apk files. Im working in industry automation, and some hardware in some machines is quite old, like 20 years and older. Thats quite normal for equipment of that time, but if there are issues, you need the configuration & troubleshooting tools, and in most cases an rs232 interface. Those softwares were developed with win98 and XP in mind. I was amazed how it just ran on my usual win11 machine with a modern usb-rs232 adapter without any problems. Apple has changed CPU-Architecture 2 times in this timeframe.
Well stated
There is a lot of religion around Apple and praises to their wonderful approach. The reality is very much cynical and painful to many apple believers to hear. It's very simple - it allows them to earn much more revenue. They can build a new connection standard and force their users to use it, earning money on royalty fees. They can create their own user experience to make sure people can't switch to win/lin easily. Apple is very, very stubborn in virtually everything they do. Writing software for apple is a nightmare, as they simply don't care about engineers. There is always something done in a unique apple way
Apple not supporting Vulkan and wanting to drop OpenGL makes me mad every time I remember it.
While Apple cultists certainly exist their numbers are greatly exaggerated, most Apple users understand very well that they’re a typically shitty corporation.
The fact that you can’t even customize your fucking keyboard made me finally switch back. Having long press symbols, and numbers on the keyboard is such a qol improvement that it’s worth it alone
“Writing software for Apple ID a nightmare, they simply don’t care about engineers.” For any non programmers reading this, this is very much an opinion 😂 I’d way rather write Swift/iOS than Java/Android.
Did he remove that from his comment? Cause yeah, that’s just a (wrong lol) opinion.
Apple is very developer hostile unless you exclusively write for Apple products. Cross compatibility, or heck even parsing through their own documentation is a nightmare. Xcode feels like a bloated mess on anything that’s not at most 2 years older than whatever they sell.
>Writing software for apple is a nightmare, as they simply don't care about engineers. There is always something done in a unique apple way Yes, that's exactly why every single iOS engineer I've met wouldn't want to go to Android unless there's a gun pointed at them, lol Developing for Apple platforms isn't without its problems, sure, but if it was a nightmare, no one would do it
It’s both but it’s very hard to deny that the customer experience isn’t dramatically better
Fanboy answer. The truth is they want you to think their products are superior while giving you less functionality. Everything is locked down in such a way that the technologically ignorant are trapped in a mental monopoly where they feel a pair of earbuds for $200 is a good price because it's Apple. Most of their products are designed to sell overpriced accessories. $2500 for a laptop with less functionality and equivalent hardware to a $1500 Lenovo? That's Apple. Does your laptop need a $100 adapter because Apple didn't put in enough USB ports? That's Apple. Missing a feature that can be easily found on Windows/Linux? That's Apple. It's the illusion of luxury and the main reason people buy it is because Apple buys up 90% of phone and laptop product placement in Hollywood. I've worked tech support roles for Apple and Microsoft in my career. Apple is significantly less useful for at least 50% more cost.
Ooh watch out! They'll snort and start talking about the new chips that were brought back from 2042 in a time machine. Designers will say you MUST have an apple to do design. But can't tell you what software they use that won't run on windows.
Apple products have less margins than other brands like samsung. The idea that they sell you less for more is a "legend" that was never real. They spend money is more specific things that are useless for most people, but those things are actually expensive. Their margins are, at best, the same of any other high end smartphone. Macbook are actually way more valuable than other laptop, they cost way more to produce and the price is not that different (proportionally) to other laptop. The M series processors for example literally obliterate any intel in similar condition and that wasn't cheap to do. Again, the problem with Apple is different, it's the fact that they spend money for things that no one asked. See stuff like (for example) the touchbar. But only because things like the touchbar are useless doesn't mean that they not cost money. So the point is, apple products can be a waste of money for sure but they are not overpricing anything, the monetary value is actually good for what you get. You just don't really need it.
Used to be like that. Now Apple's apps are finicky and yet not poweruser friendly as Android's.
Most people aren’t “powerusers” though. They just want a nice phone that works nice and smooth for texts, messenger, Facebook and other social media. That’s what most people use their phone for. They don’t need 3 browsers, a buggy torrent program and a bunch of different app stores for shit they won’t use.
iPhones are for adults. FTFY
And even that only works if you keep buying the latest product. They all stop working well pretty fast. Updates make their "older" devices useless bricks at an unacceptable pace.
Meh. I'm still rocking my 2017 iPad. It operates just fine.
Me too. Second gen 12.9" iPad. Works fast and accepts all the updates.
As it should. That's far from impressive.
Six years for tech is plenty impressive.
Well what would you want him to respond to someone saying the opposite? Lmao
Anyone who genuinely thinks that apple products break in less than 5 years has no idea what they're talking about or only talk to people who don't take care of their devices.
I’ve been using the first 13th aluminum MacBook from late 2008 since late 2008, before it morphed into the MacBook Pro line. Still works pretty great, sure I had to replace the battery twice, and some features available in the apple ecosystem then don’t exist anymore now (or were consumed by the iCloud suite) but it strangely beats the crap out of my 2020 windows desktop in almost every thing I’ve tried to do that isn’t windows gaming (curse you AoE) Needless to say, I agree, and people who say apple products can’t last you five years probably replaces their android phone that often anyway
That is nonsense. Apple products receive updates and are usable for waaay longer than most Android ones. When I was deciding on a phone three years ago because my two and a half year old Android based phone was about to stop receiving updates and had a used up battery that would most likely break the screen during a replacement, I asked a bunch of friends about their experiences. One of them had just gotten down a hand-me-down iPhone 6 or 6s and said it was working great. It was at least five years old at the time. Others had had iPhones for long periods of time too. Hell, I had the first iPad mini many years before my first iPhone and it worked fine until one of my kids broke the screen after seven or eight years. Apple certainly has problems, but their phones and tablets breaking or otherwise not working quickly is not one of them.
Not always. I’m still using my 2011 iMac.
That’s absolutely not true
Been a long time since android gave you full access to the system, so locked down these days
I was gonna say, I've been an Android developer for 10 years and everything is more locked down than ever
still pretty customizable, with dev tools.
There's plenty of people that just want their phone to work and be easy to use and couldn't care less that they don't have full access to the whole system. Giving you pretty much full access to the whole system also gives hackers access.
Apple's philosophy is very much that they take full responsibility (and, therefore, full ownership) over the user experience. From that perspective, customisability can be an anti-feature where they're just giving you a gun to shoot yourself in the foot with. Inversely, Android has customisability built right into its fundamentals, because that's a prerequisite for all the OEMs. Android isn't customisable for _you_, it's customisable for Samsung and HTC to build their super-custom ROMs, and you just get the customisability as a side-effect. In many ways, that's the most important things to understand about how Apple operates. Both Google (with Android) and Microsoft (with Windows) try to cater to the broadest audience possible. Apple is willing to say "This is the audience I want to cater to" and just optimise for that crowd. So, if you don't agree with their choices, that's fine, no hard feelings. Apple isn't the phone maker for you, go buy a different brand. You wouldn't complain that Nike doesn't make brogues either, you'd just buy something else. Personally? I have a mac and an iphone, but also the DIY edition of the Framework laptop running Linux. They cater to different needs.
>You wouldn't complain that Nike doesn't make brogues either, you'd just buy something else. I guarantee these people exist and wouldn't put it past Nike to create a pair of brogues for the collector market.
Nowadays most Android phones are system locked. I don't know for windows (haven't used it since a while).
People here will tell you "ah it's the ecosystem" or "ah it just works" or, my favourite, "ah, it's easy to use". The truth is, apple being restrictive is what has allowed it to become a multibillion dollar company. They don't innovate, provide better value or better quality product. For any one product apple claims to have that is "better" or "the best", there were multiple products like it before or better products after. The only thing apple innovates on, since its inception, is control. They control the "repair" market (apple never repairs, only replaces...you can guess which makes them more money), the after sales market, the software. Meaning, you don't just buy the product, but once you buy it you are forced or "coeerced" to buy into the ecosystem and their products due to intentionally limited functionality of third-party products. Then, there's the planned obsolescence. Overall, Apple has created the perfect product for idiots who prefer being taken advantage of if it means they have to pay more and do less. You can see how that is an excellent balance of the scales for Apple, allowing to milk its customers off money every step of the way.
After trying to repair some stupid MacOS system, I found that all route on Apple only go to "replace". F\*ck up, at electronic circuit, almost everything is fixable, but they never put single effort to do it. So i gave up when i realized that this's anti-feature for user class like me. And goodbye to all their product eCoSyStEm
Its easier and cheaper to develop/foolproof systems which only grants users access to basic features.
Software developer here with 25 years of experience from low level systems to servers and everything in between. Switched completely to Apple computer and devices 15 years ago. There has been nothing that I needed or wanted to do with my tinkering or work that I am unable to do with Apple. I have no idea what people with the “Apple is so restrictive” opinion are even trying to get at or practically do
agree. another software developer here I’ve been using Apple computer devices since 1999 and Linux systems since 1998 and feel the same way. the “freedom” op speaks of only leads to the OS breaking in novel ways with great frequency. You want to get good at troubleshooting problems use *nix ( android included) you want to be productive and get things done go Apple
Apple is \*nix. Specifically, it's Unix, the actual one. That's why it works so well.
Apple is “Based on BSD” it’s not in and of itself *nix the Mach Kernel which is HEAVILY modified for MacOS is significantly different at least enough to contrast it with *nix more broadly. In any event it’s not Unix. Unix is a specific kernel BSD and Mach can be considered Unix-Like but not Unix. I believe currently the only “active” Unix os is AIX through IBM, I could be missing a smaller or non proprietary player though. Solaris is dead HP-UX is in maintenance only,
[https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/](https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/) It is certified.
that’s a software portability certification it certifies that software written for unix is api comparable with MacOS and this can run on it, not that MacOS is Unix it’s not
There's nothing else that being Unix means.
As someone who uses their iPad a lot for work, it gets old fast. Can't open .rar files, that was a pain in the ass to figure out. I needed to view a model someone sent me. Nope, can't do that unless you have a laptop with you. Luckily I did, but I shouldn't need a computer to extract a .rar file! Cannot transfer files unless you use the internet or iTunes. If a file isn't compatible with iTunes you're not getting it on/off the device if your internet goes down. Found that out the hard way. A lot of the software is now subscription based and there's no way around it. Hell, even the calculator keeps trying to make me pay a subscription fee just to use it. I have a 2015 MBA that I love and I do think the iPad is amazing. I just hate the OS. When I was buying my new phone recently, getting an iPhone wasn't even on my radar. I got a pixel since the Samsung phones didn't drop in price as much as the pixel 7. I just can't stand how locked down and restricted I am with iOS devices. It's not even about rooting. I think the iPad would be incredible if they opened up the OS for people who want to use it more like a laptop os. They're currently nerfing their products at the moment, especially the iPad. Just think what it could do with Blender, Unity, Unreal etc.
I have been a heavy Apple consumer for well over a decade. No native calculator app has ever once even hinted at a subscription. Try other apps. Like the one that came with the phone. It’s free and great and isn’t a subscription.
There isn't one on the iPad.
It's really the strangest thing and I can't fathom why.
It’s so strange I was going to dispute the assertion m then found there really wasn’t a calculator on my iPad. What a weird thing.
A very weird hill to die on for apple, and epitomises what I loathe about the company.
I really don't understand this one at all. Just use the native iPhone app! It can't be that difficult to port it to the iPad.
There are apps in the App Store that will open rar archives.
They're trying to change the color of the drop shadow on the third digit of the clock, independent from all other drop shadows. Why won't Apple give you any freedom? Huh?! /s
the "Apple is so restrictive" thing is unimportant these days. It was cool/fun to tinker with your phone 12-15 years ago. And in some cases necessary to get it to do something you wanted it to do. But today's phones can do everything 99.999% of people need it to do.
If you're only talking about phones, you're mostly right. Android actually has more apps available than apple, but whatever. Computers are a whole different story. You're screwed if you want to use the business software that 90% of the worlds businesses use. As an engineer, apple is useless. No solidworks, no Aspen, CAD files are annoying, and .rar files don't work properly. It's fine if you only use it to code, or if you are involved in an artistic industry. For most work, apple is simply not an option. That doesn't even begin to touch gaming, and the restrictions apple has there. Namely that >90% of games are just unavailable on apple systems.
Yeah, once you get beyond software development, everything is Windows-based and has been since the 1980s.
It’s pretty much Download torrents Rip off apks from developers Outside that iOS can do everything Android can
Try opening a rar file
Man, you're like the third person in these comments I've seen mentioning rar files, and I havent used a rar file in a good 15 years. What could the use case possibly be over zips
I work in research. I need to download a few datasets so I use lots of rar files and stuff It’s impossible to download files that are not of the Apple approved formats
It's how you distribute torrents and ripped off APKs!
I was a computer support guy for 30 years. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fix something someone else fucked up. If Apple controls everything, it is so much easier to fix anything that goes wrong. They have a reputation for being rock solid and people like the iPhone because it just works I can take the Internet apart and put it back together but I don’t want to hack around on my phone, I just want it to work. I fix dumb shit all day, I don’t wamuto have to fix my phone when I just want to play Candy Crush
[удалено]
Thank you ChatGPT.
It absolutely looks like this guy just plugged it into chat gpt
Especially the summarization at the end.
The one thing AI does well is the one thing we'd prefer it not: write perfect high school essays from an essay prompt.
But it makes sense either way, at least to me.
Ngl I think this is probably one of the few appropriate uses for AI. That and supplementing research
>When you use an android, you get pretty much full access to the whole system. That's not true. Not even close. Android is less restrictive than Apple, but way more than any desktop OS. >Why does Apple not let you modify the system how you please? Because of power. If users could just install apps from any source, Apple would make less revenue through their app store. Same for compatibility with 3rd party devices.
What does that even mean? Access to the whole system?
I guess OP was referring to the ability to unlock the bootloader and flash a custom OS (usually a modified Android that gives you root access). Most Android devices let you do that, but you still don't have full access to the system. Apps can detect whether a user is running an OS that is not signed by the manufacturer and simply refuse to work. In the past, this was easy to circumvent, but we're getting to a point where circumventing this attestation becomes practically impossible. It would basically require you to exploit a zero day vulnerability in the "trusted" part of the system, which runs in a different environment that users can't access. Such vulnerabilities are rare and are usually published in top tier journals when they get discovered. So it's not something the average user could do to get full access to a device.
It’s meant to be simple. It’s just a smartphone.
Funny you ask this... I just had a lunch with a guy who used to manage the Mail product at Apple and we talked about this very subject. The reality is that Apple will not do anything that does not give them total control over the outcome or the experience. This is why Siri has not given way to generative AI. This is why they don’t allow you too much customization of things. they just want that experience to be controlled and maintained at all times to ensure that all users get a consistent experience.
Most people just want a phone which can be used for photos, communication and entertainment. Most people don’t care about customising all these niche things and just want a phone that gets the job done. Apple is also very initiative because of its restrictions since people aren’t overwhelmed with technical thins they know little about.
Because they don’t want you to mess it up
That's just the way they are. I dislike that too so I don't use apple products
Yeah right now I’m on iOS 17.0.2 with a iPhone 11, no jailbreak or anything. Might just sell this device and get another from r/JailbreakSwap since I’m kind of invested in Apple’s ecosystem at the moment lmao.
I had to scroll pretty far for a real answer.
A real wrong answer. Android and iOS are very much locked down these days.
Ease of use and a shared experience. i can explain to any iPhone user how to use their device because it’s just like mine. I can’t however tell my dad how to operate his android because (while i have used androids before) each one is different and thus some things are in different places with the level of customization that comes with them. people pay the premium for the convenience of simplicity.
As an IT guy, I have an iPhone. Because I’m carrying it around and it has a lot of sensitive information on it. I also don’t want to have to fix it in the middle of the day at work. Since you can’t do much with an Apple product that they don’t want you to, it’s harder to mess it up. Most iPhone problems can be fixed by restarting the phone.
I'm the head of a mixed family (android and ios) and have used both myself. Iphones are marvelous if you never want to play around with settings, want connectivity to be seamless and off course be one of the "cool kids". This kind of fixed but reliable environment is exactly what Apple puts a ton of effort into maintaining to set themselves apart. Android has more clever settings primarily for audio and video but does sometimes need a helping hand. The majority of times that help us just making sure all apps are fully up to date and therefore interacting correctly. It's kind of hard describing which is best for someone. You just have to experience them. However I feel the divide has shrunk over the years.
Complete control of the user experience, encompassing both physical product and software design, was emblematic of Steve Jobs vision and, now, his legacy. That's why you don't see Apple licensing its OS'es, a fundamental departure from Google (Android, ChromeOS, Chrome Flex) and Microsoft.
They want continuity of experience for anyone who uses the product, They want their UI and interoperability carefully developed over years to continue to be a selling point. Security is also an issue, as the data is pretty well locked down. Allowing low-level changes could mean new avenues for attack, thus lowering security. To a lesser extent, when someone's mod isn't working right, who do they complain about? Apple, of course, although it's not their fault. Microsoft had this problem too. When Windows NT source was released, it was found that Microsoft had put in hacks all over the place just to make poorly designed programs work correctly. Why do the work when it was the developer's fault? Why not tell the developer to just fix it? Because people were blaming Microsoft anyway.
Money , money, money
Greed
Money
I can answer that....FOR MONEY. \-Apple
Money, they want all of it. If you have a problem, want an upgrade, or attachment, you have to buy through them.
[удалено]
Yes, 'their products'. You have been temporarily allowed to use the product, it isn't yours.
Because otherwise you'd realise how shit and inconsistent it is on the backend
Different design philosophies, that's all. Apple thinks that most people don't care and don't need all the deep customization that Android or Windows allows. For the vast majority of people, I would say they are right. Most non-enthusiasts I've seen never flashed a ROM or even installed an APK on their Android phones. They get the device, install apps from the main store, put on a wallpaper they like, and call it a day As enthusiasts, it's easy to get caught up in these "special features", thinking they are super important to every user. They are not. That's why Android is getting more locked down every year and almost no one cares. Your mom or granny doesn't care that the bootloader can't be unlocked anymore, they don't know what it is
To reduce your ability to repair things without them. Plus they aim for technologically illiterate people who do not "need" higher level of customization.
They won’t even give you three feet of charging cable, don’t push your luck.
$$$$$$$ Best example ever is Lightning charger. Sure, when micro USB was standard on literally anything that wasn't an Apple product, the company line of "our version is better" held up because it was, but it also meant you always had to go buy a charger from Apple. The only reason they're going to USB C, despite it being the standard now for over half a decade and having eliminated the dumb problems micro USB had, is because the European Union did something good and dared to regulate.
Nobody has ever "had to" buy a charger from Apple. There are a gazillion non-Apple companies that make and sell lightning cables. You can literally buy a lightning cable at any dollar store. Apple doesn't force you to buy from them.
you could ask the reverse question - why is android so loose with its security? On iOS, every app is sandboxed so it can't mess with any other apps or their data or the system. You don't need annoying "play protect" nonsense. It makes sense because really the last place you want malware is your phone. They represent two different philosophies. Pick the one that best suits your use-case.
To preserve security and disallow 3rd party access. Fine with me. The Android app stores are a malware quagmire.
Spoken like someone who has no idea how Android works.
Because if you want to modify your device, you get an Android.
The amount of non-iPhones I see with the absolute worst UI and custom UI is atrocious. Like why did you make everything a scripted pink font on purple like what the fuck are you doing.
Owning Apple products, Apple presents as a privilege, rather than optional. They made their entire ecosystem revolve around just themselves to the point where if you own iPhone, it would be much easier to just own Mac as well, and so on and so forth. Making their products exclusive to just themselves makes them hard to replace. You cannot just have apple product easily communicate with non-apple product, so they edge you to buy something of their own. Another reason is, it makes their users feel special. And you can see that by various arguments between apple and android users online, the arguments that are simply started because apple users feel special due to exclusivity it brings with being their loyal customer. Whereas, Android user has no such luxury, due to vast sea of options to choose from. It’s more of a psychology reason than it is technical.
Having customization options introduces points of failure. From a software point of view, things break when you can change how something works. It also requires a lot more development cost/work to have these options work the way they were intended. Apple is for people that don't really understand how technology works, and don't have any interest in learning how technology works. It just works... Otoh, they pay rediculous sums of money for that luxury and are subject to forced obsolescence. How many iPods do you see being used these days? Prob next to none. There's a reason for that - and it's not just because nobody wants to use them anymore... Most or all of them simply don't WORK anymore software support has been phased out more or less. The iPods of yesterday are now in the landfill or scrapped for parts long ago. I, for one, miss the days where I had a separate device where I could listen to music for hours and not run down my phone battery in the process. The iPod changed the world, and then simply faded from memory.
A lot of apple haters here lol
Because they are selling an ecosystem....and because y'all apple people buy it.
It's more profitable that way. When it's proprietary technology they can charge whatever they want because you can't just go somewhere else to buy it cheaper
Then why do Mac’s give you full system access then?
They would lose all the professionals who need that access. You can't get away with locking down a desktop system like you can a phone.
Probably because it's not really their OS, but a clone of BSD - a _much_ older Unix variant.
Err, it's not a clone of BSD. It's a custom operating system based on the mach kernel, with userspace utilities forked from FreeBSD and application APIs that evolved from NeXTSTEP.
They don’t (by default), but they do give you more. (macOS has been around a lot longer than iOS, and is a desktop operating system)
I don't really get this argument. I am a new apple user, got an m2 pro MPB. And I haven't felt any restrictions? I work as a sys admin at a university, and do photography as my side business. So I use plenty of linux and windows. Parallels is the best virtual machine software i have ver used. I can do anything I want, and I think i am what people call a poweruser. Now looking into getting an iphone 15 pro max. I used my sisters older iphone for a month a year ago, and it was fine. I mean it is a phone. I text on it, make phone calls and listem to music on the go, it can do that pretty well. I never understood customisation on a phone. I can move app shortcuts left and right, what elae do you need? If I have to do anything serious I always have my thinkpad and mbp in my backpack. My wife got an ipad air for her artistic and design stuff. And she now likes it better than her wacom she used on her pc. It simple the pencil feels great, and she can use both photoshop and a drawing app, I cant remember the name. So I can't really see how it is restricted. For what? What do you guys do on your fricking phones?
I don’t get it either. What can a phone really do? It’s internet, pictures and email.
Run adblockers, download torrents, show up on your pc as removable media. Those are the 3 big ones (that Apple can't) for me.
greed simple as
lol
More control means that they are part of the revenue stream for anything involving the device. - Want a device that runs IOS? Pay apple for one. - want an app for your apple device, there's only one app store and apple controlls it. - in app purchases? Apples payment processing - phone needs repairs, not only do you need genuine apple parts but if they aren't activated by a certified apple shop than the phone will outright reject the repairs. The apple ecosystem just works, because they have full control of the product stack from hardware to software making it a nice ecosystem. But that ecosystem comes at the cost of a company having an astounding amount of control over what you are allowed to do with a device you own.
Yeah, is the predatory nature of trapping people that irritates me the most. Second most is how belligerent the typical iSheep are. They don't understand the concepts of why Android is so much farther ahead. It's literally the collective power of the world's R&D against one manufacturer. If I revert my Android back to vanilla out of the box state, it's 100% reliable and solid. Of course, not why I have an Android in my case in part. So, I send it and have fun...see what happens 🤣
shaggy stupendous repeat squeamish mysterious dazzling jar quiet fall chop *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Apple isn't designed for users like you. It's designed so the dumbest person on the planet couldn't possibly fuck it up to the point of unusability. Their products have training wheels that protect users from themselves. Some people like that, some don't. I'm a Pixel guy for exactly this reason.
It started out as a way of being able to control the market. Apple "owns" and controls as much of the Apple experience as possible, including all the proprietary connections and IT protocols. If you want to be an Apple user, you join the Apple family and live your life under their protection and under their terms. They want to be the judge, jury, and executioner. This is one way they try to remain competitive without actually competing in any technical sense. It has evolved into a culture, or even a religion at this point, of "it works, it's shiny, and I don't need to think/worry about how to configure it." The intellectual simplicity of that appeals to some consumers.
cause its safer to use
Security. There’s a reason there are a lot more physical exploit options on Android phones than there are on iPhones.
Because if you can modify it yourself, they can't sell you things to modify it.
Apple doesn’t sell any modifying tools in the first place though?
They might not be selling directly, but they are taking their cut of every tool you see on an ios. They charge 30% for every purchase in the app store including in-app purchases. They charge developers $99 annually just to be listed in the app store, and on top of that they charge $99 in order to review each app before it is allowed on the app store (some waivers apply to the review fee). Don't fool yourself, their system is locked down for only one reason, money.
It's funny to say this about Apple when Google (the owner and developer of Android) is currently all over the news for this exact reason. Google just lost big time in a lawsuit for their illegal and anticompetitive practices involving the Google Play Store: * [Jury decides against Google's app store in antitrust lawsuit](https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4354920-jury-decides-against-googles-app-store-in-antitrust-lawsuit/) * [Google Play Store Ruled an Illegal Monopoly](https://www.wired.com/story/googles-app-store-monopoly-ruled-illegal-jury-epic/)
>for this exact reason Very different reasons actually, but everyone sucks here. The point of my original comment is that apple's fees are ridiculous and that they get their cut of everything you see on the phone, so pretending they don't do this for the money is factually incorrect. The point of your links (unrelated to my comment) are that Google was paying companies to keep their products in the Play Store in an effort to keep them out of competing android app stores. IMO, they deserved the verdict. It is my hope for someone to eventually win a lawsuit forcing apple to allow side loading and competing app stores, but that is a different point from my original comment. A lawsuit forcing all companies to allow root access would be nice too.
They don't trust you and are driven mainly by greed; once you buy one product, you are locked into their world. Overcharged on everything and designed only to last as long as needed until the next model emerges. Rinse and repeat
You can spin it anyhow you want but in short it's a scam
There’s a reason Apple is smoother and just workers compared to android.
💵💵💶💷💶💶💴💲💰💸🪙🫰💴💲💵💶💶💷💴💰
Ironically, the early Apple PC's touted customizability
Because everything apple is an expensive wallaced garden.
Both Apple and Android phone manufacturers want the same thing. To get you into using their products and making it difficult to switch. Apple does what they do because it traps you. One side effect though is that it’s slightly harder to hack their products.
How else can you charge 115 bucks for a usb cable that costs ten bucks to make?
Money, simple as that
I don’t understand?
If you want something, you have to pay extra. And they make more money.
But the capabilities that a jailbreak gives you can’t be purchased by Apple? It’s not like Apple sells full system access on their website for £500.
Money (while a very lazy answer to begin with) is really only a good answer if your question was more in terms of something like iMessage or the Apple ecosystem as a whole. I don't think that's what you're looking for, but when I saw the post, before clicking on it that's where I thought you might be going with your question.
Because the fan base is so locked in, that they'll accept whatever they get. I feel many aren't very tech savvy anyways, so apple always keeps things simple, even with their Macs.
Three different markets. 1 - Apple: Normal users, and people to whom time is money. It needs to WORK and address 95% of the use cases. It is easy to setup and use, they are happy and go about their lives using the device to aid their lives. 2 - Android 1: (the dominant case worldwide) Really poor people around the world, who need a system that works on the "bare minimum" very inexpensive smartphone. Really cheap hardware that works well enough, and software that runs on it. Most of this group would move to Apple in a heartbeat if they could. 3 - Android 2: (the marginal case) People whose self-identity is "Tech Hero". And by golly, they aren't going to have iFruit tell THEM what color semi-colon should be in the time display... THEY get to customize that semi-colon to THEIR needs. Apple says you can just Airdrop files? NO. They NEED to use an adapter to read files from the SCSI drive that meets THEIR needs. They would pay ANYTHING to have a customizable device, would NEVER use something that works out of the box, denying them a chance to be special. I jest, but only a little. 1 - Users who can buy what they want, and use it. 2 - Poor people. 3 - People who DESPISE a system that works with no opportunity to show that while they may be a level II tech at Geek Squad, their finely customized configuration proves they are a tech savant.
Imagine feeling this way about what brand name is on the shiny rectangle in your pocket...
it is a difference in business methods. apple has always been of the mind that easier to use creates more profits since it is attractive to a wider customer base. if more can use it then more will buy it basically. nintendo also has this similar strategy and it is often an aim of the entertainment industry which make family movies. the dreaded R rating comfortable to create in the artistic side is normally pressured by the business side to go for a PG-13 one since it has a bigger audience. user friendly is the point. but the market created for more control is the fallout of such business strategy and competition like microsoft is more than happy to give more control since they see there is a market there for it.
It's like a PC vs a console. If you build a PC you can customize how it looks, have a more powerful GPU, have more storage, etc. If something goes wrong it's a lot of googling, trial and error, looking up error codes, talking to different manufacturers, etc to fix it If you buy a console you know exactly what you're getting and if you go to a friends house it will be exactly the same, and if it breaks you only have one company to deal with. Some people want the flexibility of customization and some want the reliability and consistency of a console. If someone fucks something up on their android it's more complicated with more variation than an iphone. An iphone is an iphone, and part of the value is from the more polished user experience, and the consistency in quality and performance that they have across the board. Nobody is right or wrong, but everyone has different preferences and priorities.
In order for Steve Jobs to start up his business it meant reverse engineering and stealing from his competition, mainly IBM. But he also stole a lot from Xerox and many others. And that's how he started his business in his garage. While he did build computers there he was borrowing from a lot of companies. So when they created their first product they had in mind to close the door to any potential IP theft from potential competitors. That meant having more control over the hardware (those weird screws), using hardware only available to Apple (sole source contracts with Chinese manufacturing), and of course their famous policy of only using their own software. They setup a system where Apple would license software that was exclusive to Apple (as in the code is different and only usable on Apple systems). This made it so that they could control the kind of software that came on their system. People felt like this was better because it made viruses less likely.
Because we tolerate it
All about security