Consumer Technology 2019 iPhone event at 1 pm today (Apple TV+ $4.99/month - starts November 1st)

[Emblazon]

The battery life on Android has gotten a lot better than it used to be. The extra 5 hours on the Pro Max is quite enticing, though. That's an enormous increase. 

 

The biggest difference is app optimization. Apps, across the board, simply run better on iOS. 

 

Android messaging still flat out sucks. Doesn't matter what app you use, if you text at all, it's significantly better on iOS. 

 

For some reason, Android just can't get gestures right. Word is, they're actually worse in Android 10. There's no reason to have on screen icons for home, back, and menu in 2019. I currently use the pill and back, and it's sufficient, but apparently it's going away in Android 10, and I can't stand either of the other two options. OnePlus has the best gestures on Android, and I can't use them for more than about a quarter of a day before having to switch back because they're just so much worse than Apple's gestures. 

 

Split screen is nice when it works, but I wouldn't miss it. 

 

One thing I do use all the time, however, is swipe down from any part of the screen to show notifications. App search on an iPhone is pretty silly, and there's no need for it on the home screen. At least allow the option to turn off search and change swiping down from the lower half of the screen to bring up Notifications/Control Center. 

 

On the other side, it's absolutely silly that the calculator isn't an option from the notification tray on OnePlus. That, app optimization, and that extra battery life might be enough to get me back on iOS. 

[Reputator]

1 hour ago, Emblazon said:

There's no reason to have on screen icons for home, back, and menu in 2019.

 

Oof, gonna have to disagree with you there chief.

[Jason]

3 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I switched with the Galaxy S6, but I hated that phone so I went back to Apple after a year. Battery on it was total garbage. 

 

It's just up to your preferences. My phone does what I want, so I stick with with. And since I have the iPad and Watch, I'm just entrenched in the ecosystem now. 

 

Unfortunately the S6 was probably the worst possible Galaxy S phone to use to dip your toes into the water for switching from Apple.

 

2 hours ago, sblfilms said:

Phone fanboys are worse than console fanboys, somehow. I browse the web, send texts, send email, and take pics...there just isn’t a meaningful difference between any of these devices for such things. I use mine a lot for work so my batteries get a ton of cycles on them so a new phone is mostly a battery swap for me, whatever new this or that it does is at most icing.

 

There are a number of things I find actively distasteful about iOS as a phone OS (for some reason these things bother me a lot less on the iPad). Stuff like no proper app drawer and just vomiting all your apps onto the home screen (folders are not a full replacement, on Android you can have app drawer folders AND home screen folders), lack of widgets (although Google is apparently nerfing them so we'll see how that goes), etc. Stuff like adding alternate keyboard support helps--I'm lost without SwiftKey--but I'm still not quite at the point where I'd be willing to consider switching to iPhone. I do like that Apple is much better on stuff like security and privacy (much better permissions structure).

[Emblazon]

Apple has all the alternative keyboards, and had for years. Hell, Gboard was created on iOS first. 

 

Edit: Misread. Again though, all your complaints are cosmetic. Is that why you have a phone? To look at it's home screen?

 

MLB app? Significantly better on iOS. 

AMC app? Significantly better on iOS. 

Facebook? Why are the icons on top for Android?

Visual VM? Complement on iOS. 

 

The list goes on. Now, the gap has narrowed, but iOS is still far ahead. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

I'm still rocking an iPhone 6s (up to that point, I was getting a new phone every 2 years, because I was excited about them).  For some reason, nothing about iPhone 11 pro gets me excited enough to drop C$1,300 on a new one.

 

I got a new battery and charge port last year -- I wonder if I can nurse it to 5-years old?

[Emblazon]

Actually, come to think of it, Carcassonne is better (designed completely different) on Android. And the Audible app allows you to purchase books straight from the app (you can't on iOS and have to go to the website to purchase) in Android. So there's that. 

[RedSoxFan9]

The perfect upgrade cycle is every two years with your partner getting a new phone in the gap years. 

[legend]

15 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

What exactly is the point of AOD? 

 

It allows you glance at your watch without making a motion. Also, while the on-off detection is pretty good, it's not perfect. Always on bypasses that issue entirely.

[Jason]

3 hours ago, Emblazon said:

Again though, all your complaints are cosmetic.

 

I really don't know what to tell you if you think what I'm describing is just cosmetic.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

24 minutes ago, legend said:

 

It allows you glance at your watch without making a motion. Also, while the on-off detection is pretty good, it's not perfect. Always on bypasses that issue entirely.

I’ve worn an Apple Watch for nearly three years now and I gotta say that this has never been an issue. 

[Guest]

I don’t understand the love for the App drawer, but I also don’t keep very many apps on my phone so its pretty easy to organize mine.

[legend]

5 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I’ve worn an Apple Watch for nearly three years now and I gotta say that this has never been an issue. 

 

 I don't use one myself, but my wife does and even then I've seen her sometimes have to re-jigger it to get it to turn on or stay on. Especially if she was showing me something where it's less tuned for that, but even for herself.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Weird, it’s always been quite easy with both my series 2 and 4. 

 

I’d rather them improve the battery than having AOD draining it. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, legend said:

 

 I don't use one myself, but my wife does and even then I've seen her sometimes have to re-jigger it to get it to turn on or stay on. Especially if she was showing me something where it's less tuned for that, but even for herself.

Having to re-do the arm raising motion to get my watch to turn on was a big reason I stopped wearing mine. I also think the big blank screen on your wrist looks kinda dumb. The AOD seems to be both a form and function win.

[Brian]

AOD will be an option for all watches right? 

[RedSoxFan9]

I don’t think so

[ort]

Just the new one will have an always on display.

 

Not sure if you will be able to turn that off, but it seems fairly likely.

[Brian]

That’s dumb. I usually end the day with more than half my battery left on the S4. I don’t see why it can’t be part of an OS update for those who want it. 

[ort]

They are using some new sort of screen tech to make it possible.

 

That said, they should let people do it if they are willing to live with the sacrifices it brings.

 

For me an always on display is the tipping point. I really want an Apple Watch now, but having a hard time justifying the expense at the moment, seeing as how frivolous an item it is and how many other expenses we have.

[RedSoxFan9]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the S4 eventually gets an always on option. It’s discontinued so it’s not like adding the feature would cut into S5 sales. 

[TheLeon]

Sometimes I think that I want an Apple Watch, then I remember that I've never liked wearing anything on my wrist, and this isn't likely to be the exception. 

[RedSoxFan9]

https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/10/iphone-11-find-my-tag/

 

the Apple Tile will probably be announced at an event next month.

[Ghost_MH]

4 hours ago, ort said:

They are using some new sort of screen tech to make it possible.

 

That said, they should let people do it if they are willing to live with the sacrifices it brings.

 

For me an always on display is the tipping point. I really want an Apple Watch now, but having a hard time justifying the expense at the moment, seeing as how frivolous an item it is and how many other expenses we have.

 

Aren't the current line of watches also OLED? That is, unless Apple is doing one of those crazy dual layer screens, with OLED over low power, low res LCD.

 

I have the Armani Connect and have the display set to always on. At the end of the day, it's usually at around 20-30% left. That seems perfectly reasonable to me with an AOD.

[RedSoxFan9]

On 9/10/2019 at 6:20 PM, Jason said:

 

Now that Ive is gone maybe the iPhone 12 can be half a millimeter thicker to boost the battery life.

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/81840-secret-behind-iphone-11-pro-improved-battery-life.html

 

already happened 

[Emblazon]

12 hours ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/81840-secret-behind-iphone-11-pro-improved-battery-life.html

 

already happened 

Yup. The battery life increase is quite substantial. I don't believe I've ever seen a year over year increase this large. 

[Nokt]

On 9/11/2019 at 8:14 AM, Emblazon said:

Actually, come to think of it, Carcassonne is better (designed completely different) on Android. And the Audible app allows you to purchase books straight from the app (you can't on iOS and have to go to the website to purchase) in Android. So there's that. 

Snapchat is another one. Android doesn't natively use the camera. It pulls a screenshot of what you are seeing on your screen.

 

On 9/10/2019 at 10:33 PM, Jason said:

There are a number of things I find actively distasteful about iOS as a phone OS (for some reason these things bother me a lot less on the iPad). Stuff like no proper app drawer and just vomiting all your apps onto the home screen (folders are not a full replacement, on Android you can have app drawer folders AND home screen folders), lack of widgets (although Google is apparently nerfing them so we'll see how that goes), etc. Stuff like adding alternate keyboard support helps--I'm lost without SwiftKey--but I'm still not quite at the point where I'd be willing to consider switching to iPhone. I do like that Apple is much better on stuff like security and privacy (much better permissions structure).

 

On 9/11/2019 at 9:08 AM, sblfilms said:

I don’t understand the love for the App drawer, but I also don’t keep very many apps on my phone so its pretty easy to organize mine.

Most of the time my apps I use or rarer occasions I just push to the second screen, but I find that more of a bandaid fix to having an app drawer. So I see the appeal somewhat, its not a huge gripe.

 

What is a huge gripe is that iOS still doesn't let you reorganize apps anywhere on the home screen. This really kills one hand usability on the larger phones, especially when you take the home button away. It's the only reason holding me back from getting the larger phone (and having a larger battery and higher resolutions). There are other minor gripes as well, like the notification screen being atrocious and how the phone handles notifications in general is pretty dated. Swipe isn't great on the native iOS keyboard (I've been using iOS13 beta).

[Emblazon]

1 hour ago, Nokt said:

Snapchat is another one. Android doesn't natively use the camera. It pulls a screenshot of what you are seeing on your screen.

 

 

Most of the time my apps I use or rarer occasions I just push to the second screen, but I find that more of a bandaid fix to having an app drawer. So I see the appeal somewhat, its not a huge gripe.

 

What is a huge gripe is that iOS still doesn't let you reorganize apps anywhere on the home screen. This really kills one hand usability on the larger phones, especially when you take the home button away. It's the only reason holding me back from getting the larger phone (and having a larger battery and higher resolutions). There are other minor gripes as well, like the notification screen being atrocious and how the phone handles notifications in general is pretty dated. Swipe isn't great on the native iOS keyboard (I've been using iOS13 beta).

One handed mode is great on iPhone. You don't realize how great it is until your phone doesn't have a one handed mode. 

[Nokt]

3 hours ago, Emblazon said:

One handed mode is great on iPhone. You don't realize how great it is until your phone doesn't have a one handed mode. 

Reachability to me is the most half baked solution for one handed users. Let’s just cut the screen in half! May as well have the smaller screen at that point. 

[Emblazon]

8 hours ago, Nokt said:

Reachability to me is the most half baked solution for one handed users. Let’s just cut the screen in half! May as well have the smaller screen at that point. 

That's how I feel about Samsung's implementation. If I wanted a 4" phone, I would have bought one. 

 

Then again, OnePlus doesn't have a one handed mode, and Android fucking puts all it's damn app nav at the top of the screen (Facebook), so literally anything is better than what I currently have. 

[RedSoxFan9]

https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-announces-release-dates-for-os-updates-new-iphones-and-apple-watch-2/

 

all of the release dates

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

On 9/10/2019 at 11:12 PM, Reputator said:

 

Oof, gonna have to disagree with you there chief.

Of you want a home button iOS does have one. It’s pretty customizable. You can set the opacity so it is nearly invisible most of the time, then becomes solid when you touch it. It has layers for various options and gestures. And the button itself is customizable. You can choose different actions for single touch, double touch, and long hold. And you can put it anywhere on the screen. 

 

So if you prefer a one touch button for home instead of swiping up from the bottom of the screen, you got it. You can then make double tap your App switcher to bring up all open apps. Then make long tough something like screen capture, or Apple Pay, or notifications, or to open the menu where you have other options. 

 

Its kind of a hidden feature on iOS I just loved when I went back to Apple after having an S7 for two years. 

[RedSoxFan9]

On 9/11/2019 at 11:14 AM, Emblazon said:

Actually, come to think of it, Carcassonne is better (designed completely different) on Android. And the Audible app allows you to purchase books straight from the app (you can't on iOS and have to go to the website to purchase) in Android. So there's that. 

 

You can now use credits to buy books in the iOS Audible app

[Emblazon]

52 minutes ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

 

You can now use credits to buy books in the iOS Audible app

That makes me even happier now that my Pro Max is on its way. 

[Emblazon]

Holy fuck--the Pro Max has a near 4000 mAh battery. Five more hours than the XS Max might be a low estimate. 

[Joe]

On 9/10/2019 at 9:04 PM, Emblazon said:

To annoy the shit out of everyone around you. 

 

No one is annoyed by AOD. It's not shiny. Honestly, I like it, but wouldn't care if it were ever removed in the future, either.