Re: Additions to the iOS/Android Features Document

Gordinator wrote on Thu, 16 May 2024 22:24:41 +0100 :

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate it, and it
makes me less regretful for spending money for Usenet access :)

I never spend money if I don't have to but it takes more work to
find good apps that are free, especially since I disabled the ability
to buy apps long ago on my phone.

As a result, even some payware apps are legally free, such as the
fantastic search engine that you don't get from Google or Apple.
 <https://skyica.com/appfinder/get>

I even worked with that developer to test his app when it was
in the alpha stage (pre beta releases) and he added many of my
suggestions (unlike the author of that document on iOSvsAndroid).

BTW, given I pay for nothing that I can get for free, I also get my
Usenet for free - where I don't understand why people pay for Usenet.

But I'm not saying it's bad - as if everyone were like I am, then
everything would fall apart as nobody could make money off of us.
:)
 

 

 
In summary, the choices for Android are:
a. 75% AUX
b. 50% FM Radio
c. 71% SD SLOT

 
That's pretty good stats, especially since FM radio is a fairly niche
feature, and phones have been ditching all three for well over a decade now.

My Android phones are all free from T-Mobile and they all have the aux
jack, the FM radio, and the all important portable-storage sd slot.

Most iPhone users think the portable storage slot is only for extending the
internal memory - but it's also portable storage - which they can't do.
(Apple wants them to pay for the iCloud so they can save pictures & video.)

Most Android Camera apps can be set to save directly to the sdcard, which
reminds me, that's ANOTHER thing iOS can't do that is not in the doc.

The iPhone can't change the default Camera app as far as I know, whereas
Android can have as many camera apps as you want, where the Google GCam app
takes great night photos and the open source Open Camera does lots of good
things (too many to elucidate here but suffice to say iOS can't do them).
 <https://opencamera.org.uk/>
 <https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencamera/files/>
 <https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencamera/>
 <https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.sourceforge.opencamera/>
 <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera>

The lack of Camera apps on iOS with those features should be in the doc.
 

As you said, Apple adds bloatware, it's just Apple bloatware,
and not carrier bloatware.

 
Don't get me started on carrier bloatware. It's why I buy phones
unlocked. It's why I install a custom OS on my phone, so I don't have
the entire Office suite taking up space on my phone (please, Samsung, I
don't need Play Store AND Galaxy Store!)

Buying phones "unlocked" usually means "network unlocked" where in the USA
(where I am), my carrier will unlock even a locked phone automatically when
you own the phone (they gave it to me for free but they owned it for two
years). Then they automatically network unlocked it without me even asking.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/NMcttY2s/networkunlock01.jpg>

But that network lock/unlock has nothing to do with bloatware removal.
You can always remove bloatware if you use adb freeware on a PC to do it.
 <https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/how-to-disable-and-remove-android-bloatware/49960/>

I repeat: All apps can be removed from the Android user space.
          (without being rooted)

So if there is bloatware, you can just remove it.

As an example, I've removed _both_ the Galaxy Store & Play Store from
my phone, and then I use Aurora to get any app I want from the Google Play
Store repository - without any Google or Samsung account on my phone.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/Bnyr9fP1/account01.jpg>

What's worse about Apple bloatware is most of it is unremovable.

 
Well, to be fair, things like the Calculator and App Store are removable
(for some reason).

As I said _all_ apps are removable from the user space on Android.
Without root. <https://www.google.com/search?q=adb+remove+bloatware>

Every app can be removed from the user partition without being root.

 
That's cool - I've been using rooted Android on and off since 2017 and I
didn't know that!

While I rooted my Samsung Galaxy S3 to get rid of Knox, unfortunately for
me, my Android baseband version is unrootable (according to the XDA
Developers' web site) so everything I do is as a normal user without any
account set up on the phone.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/NG5pHyBx/aurora10.jpg>

There is no bloatware since you can easily remove anything.

See? That's the kind of stuff that the author of that document doesn't
umnderstand, as he only believes what he sees in advertisements.

And nobody in advertisements is gonna tell you that you can remove anything
you want from an Android phone without needing to be rooted.

Apple doesn't have privacy. As with Ashley Madison, they advertise
they have privacy. But it doesn't exist for a number of reasons.

 
Just looking at what Ashley Madison makes you give them to sign up
eliminates the possibility of privacy.

Yup. When the Ashley Madison hack of 30 million people hit the news a few
years ago, it was said the company made you pay to scrub your data.

They took the money - but they never scrubbed the data.
They lied.

That's why they lost a big lawsuit (as I recall).

It's no different than Apple who lies all the time about having privacy.
On iOS you can't even have the Tor browser privacy for God's sake.

In addition, Apple won't allow the privacy of the Tor Browser.

 
Apple is scared of freedom-giving web browsers. Oh, the irony of it!

Not really. Apple simply requires WebKit for all browsers.

Why? I don't know why. But WebKit has no privacy (according to the
makers of the tor browser - which I gave you the link to as I tell
the truth about all platforms).

Very many of Apple's zero-day holes are in WebKit by the way,
which is another thing Apple never touts in its advertisements.

Another of which is Apple inserts a unique tracking ID into
every app - which no other operating system but Apple does.

 
So much for App Tracking Transparency.

Most people are unaware that Google can't insert a tracking ID into
downloaded apps and Apple always does.

Also most people aren't aware a free Android app works on all phones, while
a free iOS app does not - they only work on phones with your AppleID.

(Or your family plan - but that's essentially just another AppleID.)

I can vouch for the fact that the Genius Bar people are useless.
 
I went to them asking them to test why the iPad had far worse
radio reception than Android and they didn't even know what a
decibel was.
 
All they did was use an UV light on the water detection strip
(no water) and ensure that it had the latest operating system.
 
That's all they can do.

 
Wait, you asked them about radio reception, and they checked for water
damage? And they didn't know what a decibel was? I know nothing about
radio and I know what a decibel is, come on!

Android has many utilities for graphically displaying Wi-Fi and Cellular
signal strength in realtime whereas iOS doesn't have a single one, which is
something that is in the document that Steve has published for us to read.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/Gtywwn8f/signal01.jpg>

What I've noticed is the iPad sucks compared to Android for picking up
Wi-Fi access points that the Android phone can easily see but iOS can't.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/4xgmTTgm/wifi01.jpg>

When I brought it to the Genius Bar to debug, they knew absolutely nothing
about how to test Wi-Fi signal strength.

All they can do is check the phone to see if it's physically damaged.

I don't know anything about eSIM so I'll let the two of you work it out.
We benefit from that if Steve responds to your suggestions about his doc.

 
I doubt Steve will do that.

I hope the two of you work out the eSIM and other issues I know nothing
about (bluetooth, credit cards, etc.) as nobody knows everything but
together as a team we know almost everything about the iPhone & Android.

Biometric security is a (brilliant) marketing gimmick.
People feel) their face is unique and only about them (even twins).

 
As far as marketing gimmicks, saying "you can unlock your phone with
your face" is borderline genius in its success at converting new iPhone
users and creating new iPhone salespeople in the form of Android haters.

I agree that the biometric gimmick works on people who are herd animals,
and specifically it works for people who are scared shitless of a phone.

Most Apple users bought the device because Apple makes them feel safe.

The real threat to a phone isn't that we all live in slums where
people steal our phones out of our hands, so I don't even have
a PIN on mine - but since Apple requires people to log into the
Apple mainframes, people need to add these security locks as if
all Apple iPhone owners live in the abject squalor of the slums.

 
It's a little reductive to assume that most people don't worry about
getting their phone stolen. I mean, have you ever used the subway system
of a major city (London's Tube, etc.)? Pickpockets are RUTHLESS there.

I understand what you're saying but what you're not saying is what happens
when the phone is stolen? Nothing on my phone, right?

What I mean by that is my phone has no login account.
My phone can't buy anything (nor do I want it to).
Nor can my phone automatically log into anything (like a bank).

If I want to log into a bank, I can go to a web page and log into it.
If I want to buy something, I can pull out my credit card even easier.

What do I lose if someone steals my phone?
The phone.
Which I got for free from T-Mobile (well, I had to pay the imputed tax).

Now, what you didn't say is most people do not have their phone set up like
my phone, which means they do have ways to buy stuff and they do have ways
to get private information. I do not. They do.

So if someone steals my phone, they only get my free phone. Big deal.
There's nothing private on it that they can do anything with.
Not even my name is on it anywhere.

They get nothing of value about me (I don't even have contacts on it).

And the iPhone has ten times the active exploits than any other phone!

 
To be fair, it has a lot of eyes on the OS due to its popularity. It's
the same reason why the majority of desktop malware targets Windows.
It's not to say that no-one else is targeted, and it says nothing about
which is 'more secure' over Windows/Linux. Although I personally prefer
Linux ;)

If you look at Google Zero's report on how shitty Apple's QA is, you
wouldn't say it's only due to the number of eyes on it, and if you looked
at market share where Apple is something like 16% of the world's phone
market you wouldn't say it'd due to eyes on it either.

If you read the internal emails of Craig Federighi complaining about how
shitty Apple QA is (which agrees with Google's assessment) you wouldn't say
the holes in Apple's phones are due to the eyes on it.

In fact, the fact Apple QA is well known to be atrocious is the fundamental
reason (remember, Apple shipped the same bug twice in numerous releases!).

They don't even test for stuff they already fixed and did again.
That's just shitty QA.

It doesn't help that Apple only recently (in iOS 16) started patching
phones where until then, they had to build an entire release even if only a
single line of code was changed.

The author of that document buys everything on credit,
and he engages in finding the best "rewards" credit cards.
 
To be fair, Steve finds some good deals but he spends way more
energy looking for those rewards dollars than any of us do.

 
Credit cards are a tool that can be used properly, provided you know
how. Using credit for literally everything is a bad idea. Then again,
I'm not the Money Police.

As I said, the author is big on rewards cards.
All the power to him on that.

Most of us don't spend the time he does to get a good deal on them.
I've had the same Costco VISA for something like a few decades.

What the author of that document doesn't know is that the iPhone
has puny batteries compared to Android phones where that's why
I've often said if someone is charging every night, they're on an iPhone
(because Android phones can typically go a few days between charges).
 

 
They can, until they get as old as mine, at which point I need to set
the low battery threshold to 50% to remind me to conserve the battery
and use less cycles. It did the trick, that's for sure!

Well, my free Samsung Galaxy A32-5G lasts for days, and on the fast charger
that came with the phone in the box, it charges back up in a couple of
hours.

I no longer charge nightly even though I got the phone sometime in 2020 or
2021 as I recall - so it's not a new phone - and the 5 Amp Hour battery can
jumpstart a car - it's so powerful. (Note: I'm joking about jumpstarting
but I'm making the point that no Apple iPhone battery is anywhere close.)

39i. Crash Detection  

>
False positives lead to useless 999/911/112 calls that cost taxpayer
money and hold up the phone line for someone having a *real* emergency.

 
Apple sells mostly to people who are scared.
 

 
You forgot to mention people who want a "just works" experience, but to
be fair Android provides that AND the ability to tinker if your heart
desires.

Android works fine in the "just works" category nowadays.
The "just works" was simply a brilliant marketing gimmick.

Try to set the volume control on an iPhone for various things and
you'll see how the "just works" doesn't work at all.

40i. Physical Silent Mode Switch  

>
Physical volume buttons exist.

 
Agree.  Android can assign actions to the buttons.
 

On my S8, my old Bixby button switches between apps, it's great.

I forget the app I use to assign the flashlight to the power button but
when I doubleclick the power button, my flashlight goes on - which is a
nice thing that I do not think iOS can do.

If Steve is reading this - we might ask him if the ability to assign
buttons to actions is possible on iOS as I've never tried to do that.

I just looked on my phone and I think it was this app that did it.
 <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton>

Like I said, Apple severely restricts what developers can add but Google
can't so that's why you get everything you ever wanted with Android
and not with iOS (because with iOS you only get what Apple wanted).

44i. Region restricted app stores 

>
Because that's a benefit and not DRM.

 
Having restrictions is a disadvantage in my book.
 

 
Which is why I default to finding apps from F-Droid instead of Google
Play (and even then I use Aurora Store as a frontend for it). F-Droid is
awesome!

It's good you use Aurora as I have had great experience with the current
developer who is very understanding and who added some good features that I
had asked for (my most recent request is an "x" at the right side of the
search to wipe out the old search without you having to backspace it).

He hasn't added that yet but he said he will do so when he can.

I use F-Droid to get payware apps for free, such as the Simple Mobile Tools
Pro apps and the OSMAnd+ payware apps - which are free on F-droid but not
free on the Google Play Store.

This is something that is impossible with iOS in the United States,
and which may be possible in Europe soon but so far only 38 of something
like fifty thousand apps are using the alternative store due to the way
Apple is charging (according to the recent news, which was discussed here
as it's a current court case that is in the legal system as we speak).

45i. AirTags 

>
Tile existed for a decade before AirTags did.

 
And both Apple and Google recently signed a joint agreement
so that mutual software will find them.
 

 
That's actually cool. I like this. It also makes AirTag so much easier
to reverse-engineer, since Android is mostly written in Java and its
derivatives ;)

I don't use them but when I travel, I just use Android to find them.

48i. Realistic Replica Devices 

>
Yes, because I want a knock-off phone. If a design is easy to copy, it's
a bad design. End of.

 
I don't even understand this one. A phone is a commodity.
They all do the same things, even as iOS does fewer of them.
 

 
For the most part, you're right. However, I generally don't like the
idea of knock-off phones, since you're getting the worst of many worlds:
 
1. You are paying for a phone from a sketchy manufacturer that might put
actual malware on the phone, give you fake specs, etc.
 
2. You are supporting the manufacture of counterfeit devices, which may
be morally questionable to some.
 
3. You are supporting companies that produce e-waste, which is bad for
the planet and your wallet, since such e-waste will likely break sooner.

Oh. Now I get what he meant by "knock off" phones. You mean counterfeit?

49i. iPhones Can Improve Your Love Life  

>
If someone likes you more because of a green bubble, they're not the
kind of person to be around.

 
Agreed. The iPhone sells to gullible people who are herd animals.
 

 
Thank you for not saying "sheeple".

Heh heh heh... I have called them iSheep but what I've noticed is they're
herd animals. They don't think for themselves. They do what others tell
them to do. So if some marketing person says you need to create an account
for your todolist or food counter, they don't even think about it.

They create the account. (which is then used to track their activities)
I don't ever create an account for anything that doesn't need an account.

I find a todolist (or whatever) that doesn't need to create an account.
 <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.secuso.privacyfriendlyfoodtracker>
 <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.secuso.privacyfriendlytodolist>

51i. Seamless Updates 

Literally who cares. Updates download in the background, and install
with a reboot in less than 5 minutes. Again, NOBODY CARES.

 
This is actually false. Android A/B updates are completely seamless.
As is Project Mainline completely seamless.
 
Project MainLine (since renamed a few times) for asynchronous updates:
https://www.androidcentral.com/android-12-features-we-love-android-runtime-now-part-project-mainline
https://www.xda-developers.com/android-project-mainline-modules-explanation/
https://www.hexnode.com/blogs/android-project-mainline-everything-you-need-to-know/
 

 
The ability for my phone to update in a way that minimises risk is
always welcome.

Google updates EVERY Android 4.4+ phone monthly over the Internet.

<https://www.androidheadlines.com/2022/01/google-monthly-changelog-play-system-updates.html>
  "Google System updates, meanwhile, are fully automated. Originally
   referred to as Project Mainline, these updates fix bugs discovered
   in various OS components like device connectivity, location services,
   media services, Emergency alerts, and others."

That's yet ANOTHER HUGE THING that is missing from Steve's doc.
As I said, he means well but he has no idea how Android actually updates.

52i. Less Fragmentation 

>
Fragmentation --> Competition

 
Agreed. Fragmentation is good because it keeps the prices down and
it keeps the functionality up.
 
Even so, Samsung has the lion's share of Android anyway,
which negates the fragmentation issue.
 

 
Shame the competition thing doesn't affect the cellphone carrier market.

Well, in the USA, T-Mobile started a lot of good trends (such as no
contracts) which forced the other two big carriers to follow suit.

Also, yes, Samsung does own the lion's share, meaning they're basically
a carbon copy of Apple in this regard (and others as well).

Yup. No fragmentation if you always buy Samsung phones (or get them free
like I do from T-Mobile who gave EVERYONE in the USA a free Android phone
if they were postpaid customers and unlimited data if they had any data).

Mostly the author suffers from reading too many Apple advertisements
(e.g., he thinks the iPhone is more private and it's just not).

 
This sort of marketing actually aggravates me, and I wonder why
regulatory bodies don't look into it. You can't lie to sell a product.
Even worse is the aforementioned App Tracking Transparency, which is
just a way of Apple hogging your data for themselves.

The reality of marketing is that they tout something like "safety" which
has a thousand components, and if they have ONE component that they can say
is better, then they say "it's safer!".

Apple will never tell you in ads that the iPhone is the most exploited
phone in history and Apple will never tell you in ads that they only fully
support a single release - so most people think Apple supports more
releases than everyone else and that it's safer.

Apple's marketing is brilliant.
But it works only on gullible herd animals.

Mostly what the author needs to do is CORRECT his otherwise decent
document so that the things you explained to him will be improved.
 
But he won't do that, unfortunately.

 
In that case, the doc doesn't matter much, if it's designed to be a
useful form of reference.
 
Anyway, thanks again for responding :)

I hope Steve reads this information and makes the changes we stated
so that his document, which is already pretty good, only gets better.

Mostly he suffers from reading too much into Apple advertisements,
and he lacks the knowledge you and I have about Android (but to his
credit he has some knowledge that I lack such as about eSims).

Together we should be a pretty good team since nobody knows everything.