Paul Thurrott : I’m Switching to the iPhone

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https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/ios/260602/im-switching-to-the-iphone

After evaluating the iPhone 13 Pro for over a week, I’ve decided to choose reliability and certainty over unreliability and misery. But that’s not to say that the iPhone is perfect. It’s just that the iPhone’s flaws are less problematic than the many issues I have with the Google Pixel 6 Pro…

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ScotchJohn, DesKaos, Mele20, Cybertooth

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The replies in the thread are quite interesting. I agree with the poster who said that Thurrott will have another epiphany if he gets an Apple watch. My iPhone XR was my first Apple product and my first smart phone. I made the mistake of waiting a year to also get the Apple watch series 5 as I LOVE it! It is far better than the iPhone.

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Alex5723

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ2JiwEARFo

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Mele20

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Mele20 wrote:

I made the mistake of waiting a year to also get the Apple watch series 5 as I LOVE it! It is far better than the iPhone.

I would be interested in what makes the Apple watch so useful for you and why.

I’ve been thinking about getting one of these for a while but can only see the v7, SE and v3 models in Apple’s online store.

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The version 5 GPS Aluminum I purchased in December 2019 on line from Apple. v7 is the current version. I wish I had gotten the one with cellular also instead of just GPS. That’s because I don’t like to wear my iPhone on my arm when I go out for my daily walk (and really would hate to wear it if I was still running which I did for 30 years as it would be uncomfortable). Apple cripples the watch a bit if your paired iPhone is not nearby unless you have the model with cellular as well as GPS.

The watch records all sorts of useful information about my exercise (without the phone nearby) when I go walking and then sends that info to the phone’s fitness app as soon as I get in range of the phone. I did wear the phone on my arm about a week ago when I went walking and it was nice when a call came in that I did not have to take the phone out of its arm harness to answer the call. I just raised my wrist and answered it on my watch. If I had gotten cellular on the watch then I could take and make phone calls from the watch withOUT the phone nearby. That would be nice! Of course, the cellular model costs considerably more than just GPS and I did not think I would miss the cellular on the watch. I do though. The phone is cumbersome to wear and I have a comfortable arm holder that has held up well for the three years I’ve had the phone but how nice it would be to have cellular on watch too. Plus, the phone is not fully waterproof but the watch is. We have sudden, heavy downpours here in Hawaii and that is the main reason I don’t wear the phone when I go walking since I got the watch. So, whenever I get a newer watch, I will likely get one with cellular.

It did not occur to me to research radiation risks with the watch before I bought it but after reading a website dedicated to this issue, I’m glad I am at home a lot and don’t wear then. I also don’t sleep with it on but tried to when it was new (and before I stumbled on the radiation issue) and I couldn’t sleep with it on as the light on the back would come on bright white or green periodically and wake me up!

I also love the watch when I am wearing it along with the iPhone XR in my purse and I am out doing errands. I never have to drag my wallet out of my purse and dig out a credit card in a store. Nor do I need to take the iPhone out of my purse to use it to make a credit card purchase. Instead, I have the watch set up with my favorite, most used credit cards on it so I just hit the side button and up pops my default card with the others behind it. I can choose one of the other cards then or just use the default card and hold my wrist near the store’s terminal. I can also do things like check out library books without getting out my library card.

I use a great app Stocard (German company) on my iPhone and Apple watch which stores credit cards and cards like my library card on the iPhone and the Apple watch. I just call up Stocard on the iPhone or Watch and choose the card I need. It has a feature where I could have Stocard prepare the latest offers, coupons, etc from nearby stores but I am a bit leery since I would have to enable “always” in location accessing rather than just while using the app. I can even forget to take my iPhone with me when I leave the house to do grocery shopping, etc as the watch does not need the phone nearby to use Stocard app on it to make purchases without digging out my credit card(s).

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Rick Corbett

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Surprised Thurrott didn’t mention that the typing experience on Android is so much better. Gboard on Android, with its number keys, excellent gesture typing, and the keys showing you what other characters they’ll produce when you tap and hold them makes typing so much more enjoyable than iOS. Also, autocorrect is a lot less annoying on Gboard than it is on the iOS keyboard. On iOS, if autocorrect corrects your last word typed, and you send your message right away afterwards, the autocorrected word will be sent, even if it’s completely wrong, which leads to you sending another message to correct it. I’ve not noticed this on Android. Autocompletion is also more useful on Android than it is on iOS, with iOS frequently suggesting me bizarre and obscure words that I would never use in a conversation (though I suppose it’s because of Google’s data collection… you win some, you lose some).

I agree with notifications. Android seems to handle those a lot better. Swiping off notifications is a bit of a mixed bag for both. In Android, notifications are dismissed immediately when you swipe left or right on them. This is good for getting rid of useless notifications, but it’s also easy to accidentally dismiss something you might have wanted to keep. On iOS, you need to swipe and then tap “Clear” to dismiss a notification, which adds an extra step that can get tedious, but protects against accidentally removing notifications.

The Silent mode switch on iPhone is actually pretty fantastic to me. I like how I can quickly and effortlessly set my phone into silent, without having to turn the screen on. On Android, I have to turn the screen on and select Vibrate or Silent, which adds a few extra steps if all I want to do is quietly mute my phone during a lecture when I’m not supposed to have my phone out. It also means that I can just glance at the side of my phone to see if it’s on silent. I haven’t upgraded to iOS 15 yet (still waiting for stability, and ideally want to upgrade it alongside macOS Monterey when the time comes), but I do like how Android makes it more flexible to set Do Not Disturb options, allowing me to specify how many hours to keep it on for, rather than only for one hour or “Until this evening”.

I honestly don’t even mind the notch. It looks glaring at first, but I honestly got used to it (I am not lying and I’m not an Apple Fanboy—I genuinely don’t find the notch to be bothersome. Then again, I never found bezels to be bothersome either.

I bought a cheap $15 plastic iPhone case for my iPhone XR and it’s not a problem for me to hold at all.

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What are these super Android features worth if you get security and OS upgrades for 1-2 years at best ?
Even Google and Samsung support their (new devices) devices for only 3 years while Apple support is 7 years.

How many are running Android 12 ? < 0.001%. Android 12 is not even on the Android OS market share list while iOS 15 has surpassed 60% after 80 days.

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On iOS, if autocorrect corrects your last word typed, and you send your message right away afterwards, the autocorrected word will be sent, even if it’s completely wrong, which leads to you sending another message to correct it

The ability to turn off auto correct has helped averted some disasters on Android, not that our brain’s signalling can do any better sometimes due to circumstances. Though at least you may be aware enough to double check before pressing the send message icon. 🙂

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Just as a random thought: My wife switched to the iPhone from using Android phones for years. Why? One reason alone, FaceTime. Her daughter and many work associates rely on it frequently. What is her take on the iphone? “If it wasn’t for Facetime I would go back to the Android tomorrow.”

She hates the battery life, she hates the confusion of where things are at on the menus, she just doesn’t like it at all. Her daughter, a 30 something, refuses to use Skype, which is what my wife is familiar with.

Anyway, I’ve been using iphones for about a decade, and have no intention of going to Android. I’ve helped many Android users and it seems a much more confusing set of interfaces than the iPhone. Yes, the typing on Android is better. I agree with that. So is the voice recognition. But I don’t want to monetize everything I do on a phone, which I’m sure that Google is doing to all Android phone users.

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I owned an iWatch for about a year. Too Large. Too clunky. Hated recharging it nightly. Switched to a simple Fitbit. Love it. Only take it off once a week to recharge it. Recharges in less than an hour. Shows me who’s calling on my iPhone. Doesn’t answer the phone though. I did like that on the iWatch when I was on my bike. But hell, I can stop on my bike and answer the damn phone. I’m not that busy.

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8string wrote:

Doesn’t answer the phone though

Doesn’t initiate a 911 call when you fall, doesn’t support Apple Pay, Doesn’t support Apple Music, no Siri (or any other Apple Watch apps)…

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Mele20

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well if you need a watch to do all that then you might as well go buy that one!  I found that it was way overrated and I never fall and need 911. nor do I listen to music through my watch, i use apple pay withthe iphone I always carry. those aren’t my requirements in a watch. sometimes simple is better.

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Alex5723

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I had Apple watches since Apple Watch 0. Now with Apple Watch 7.
Before the Apple Watch I used the Pebble smartwatch.

https://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/smartwatch-timeline-history-watches

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