Got a pixel 2, swapping to iPhone X tomorrow, change my mind

[FastEddieB]

...the overpriced iThing that’s been slipping out of first place and accelerated it by becoming a fad device over the complaints of long time supporters...

Slump? LOL. The iPhone X was the world's best-selling smartphone in Q1
In fact, countering the predictions of many analysts, the iPhone Xclaimed the title of best-selling smartphone overall for the first quarter of 2018. Apple shipped 16 million iPhone X units between January and March, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Apple also nabbed the next two spots on the list with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which sold 12.5 million units and 8.3 million units, respectively.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-was-best-selling-smartphone-in-early-2018/

 

[kayoh190]

I think y’all are the ones who are bent about me pointing out their downhill slide. Otherwise why post that?

Nah - it's just that it's amusing to see you get so emotional about it. Apple is just another tech company trying to make money for the stockholders, like Google, Samsung, or whomever else. If you like their stuff, you buy it. If not, you don't. These things are friggin' gadgets - nobody is curing cancer here. But every time someone mentions Apple you launch into a diatribe like Tim Cook personally finger banged your cat.

 

[wsuffa]

What are you talking about? I'm agreeing with you enthusiastically with the minor nit that the NSA will not be the agency initiating a persecution against you, whereas countless other Federal agencies will, unless of course you're a foreign terrorist operative.



But that is what I already said - post #39: "we know exactly what the NSA is collecting on us (everything)"

You are violently agreeing with me.



Agree, agree, agree. I'm just trying to point out that - in addition to what you say, not in disagreement - it's pointless to fear what the NSA knows about you. It won't be used against you unless somebody lies to the FISA court and forces the NSA to cooperate. Yes that protection can be breached, but at least it's an obstacle that needs to be crossed; it's a Constitutional protection that does not exist with the FBI or the DEA or the IRS or your local cops, or criminal hackers. We are in huge danger of our private information being used to harm us, but, for most of us, the NSA is not going to be the culprit.

Besides, the NSA has nothing on us that doesn't exist elsewhere, as you also point out, unless we are very good at hiding our stuff, which most of us don't bother. All our cell calls exist with our carriers, all our email is actually read and used for marketing purposes, everything we do and everywhere we go is digitally stored somewhere.

The difference is how that data is manipulated for what goal. There are different ways to build and query and so forth that help you find whatever you're targeting. Most of us are in far more danger from identity theft for example, than from being wrongly targeted by the NSA, and the identity thief is not going to get your info from the NSA database. He'll get it from a hacked health insurance database or the like.

Is there a potential future where the NSA database is turned against us by our own government? Of course and it's already happened. But that was bad apples, not the official mission. Until the FISA court is abolished, and the NSA mission is redefined to include targeting U.S. citizens, we need not worry that NSA data is going to be used by say, the local cop to catch you buying weed. Most of us can go about our business not worrying about the NSA, but we should be big time worrying about all the rest.

Yep, apparently I read too quickly and didn't grok the meaning.

Apologies.

We're on the same page.

 

[James331]

Slump? LOL. The iPhone X was the world's best-selling smartphone in Q1
In fact, countering the predictions of many analysts, the iPhone Xclaimed the title of best-selling smartphone overall for the first quarter of 2018. Apple shipped 16 million iPhone X units between January and March, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Apple also nabbed the next two spots on the list with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which sold 12.5 million units and 8.3 million units, respectively.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-was-best-selling-smartphone-in-early-2018/

I don’t see as many as I would expect in the wild, but I did have to drive a get mine and did reserve it, had I not I doubt they would have had it when I got there.

 

[SoonerAviator]

Essentially: iPhone costs more than it should, because you pay the iTax on it. It's not as capable or as bleeding-edge as the flagship Android phones, but it serves its intended audience well. Android is a more flexible OS, and occasionally that causes some issues with hardware. I operate on both, as I have an Android tablet and personal cell, and an iPhone 8 work cell. I prefer the Android, as does my wife. When our company goes to a BYOD plan here in the next year, I'll drop the iPhone 8 for a new Samsung Galaxy model. It's just personal preference, and there's nothing tethering me to an iDevice since I don't use iTunes or any other Apple software.

 

[denverpilot]

Nah - it's just that it's amusing to see you get so emotional about it. Apple is just another tech company trying to make money for the stockholders, like Google, Samsung, or whomever else. If you like their stuff, you buy it. If not, you don't. These things are friggin' gadgets - nobody is curing cancer here. But every time someone mentions Apple you launch into a diatribe like Tim Cook personally finger banged your cat.

I get strict about all crappy tech. Been making a good (but often very annoying) living supporting the junk for years.

When a company heads the wrong way (on top of ALL of them heading the wrong way right now with software quality and pretending it’s “engineering”... when it’s just coding the same mistakes over and over and over...) I call it out.

It’s not emotional. I got over that 15 years ago. Tech crap is just crap. Two steps forward, one backward.

Cook should be fired, but don’t read any emotion into it. I’m not mad at him other than SMH at how clueless he is about a good thing he inherited and doesn’t know how to move forward with anymore. He’s let a LOT of talent walk out the door, mostly because he can’t motivate those folks. They wanted to work for Apple under Jobs even when they hated him. Apple’s creatives have departed in droves under Cook. They see that he just doesn’t get it. He’s a logistics guy. He’ll make sure the same boring stuff ships forever now.

John Scully Part Deux. Not emotional, it just is.

 

[denverpilot]

Slump? LOL. The iPhone X was the world's best-selling smartphone in Q1
In fact, countering the predictions of many analysts, the iPhone Xclaimed the title of best-selling smartphone overall for the first quarter of 2018. Apple shipped 16 million iPhone X units between January and March, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Apple also nabbed the next two spots on the list with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which sold 12.5 million units and 8.3 million units, respectively.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-was-best-selling-smartphone-in-early-2018/

I said “first place”. What I meant was “best”.

I’m an engineer. I don’t care about their sales numbers. I’m talking product and price to value.

Sales at Apple has always been driven by their marketing department and Cook’s ability to do international logistics. And yes. He does do that well.

I PAID to beta test OSX because it literally was revolutionary in the desktop market. Not because the iBook was “Bondai Blue” and looked like a Barbie purse. Looks and popularity were never EVER a reason I chose to give Apple thousands and thousands of dollars. Better tech was.

They don’t have “that” anymore. They’re copying Samsung for the most part. That’s what I meant by “first place”. The stories that “Apple was never ahead of anyone else and they always come out later and make it more solid...” are crap. The days of the Cube they were WAY ahead. iTunes initial announcement, five years ahead of anything else that big. Etc.

They haven’t been on top for a while now. All they’ve got are different sizes and the same processor and memory upgrades the PC world always does to keep up with fatter and less efficient core code.

Even OSX got beat to a number of significant security ideas in the last ten years by Microsoft, as much as this Unix guy hates to say it. And Apple STILL doesn’t have a decent way to manage corporate operated Macs. Probably never will. The abortion known as OSX Server never got finished and then went severely backward, tech-wise.

There were good days at Apple. They’ll have them again someday after they create a huge tech deficit for themselves under Cook.

 

[Everskyward]

I think a huge majority of smartphone users only use them to make calls, text, take photos, check email, get directions, and do social media. I've met quite a few people who don't know how to download an app. In fact I was talking to one the other day. She liked my transit app that tells when the next bus will arrive. I told her it was a downloaded app. She said she had never downloaded and app, and that they, "just appear" on her phone. I finally found the android app store on her phone. I have an iPhone so I wasn't quite sure where to look for it. Who knew it was called "Google Play". To me, that sounds like an app that plays music.

Anyway, it seems like people here geek out about what goes on under the hood of their phone. Most people don't care, as long as they are able to do what they need to do.

 

[rbridges]

I don't think you can go wrong. I went from an iphone 5s to a pixel; I get the kids hand me downs. I do miss having foreflight on my phone, but otherwise I like it. My wife has an iphone 8 plus, and it's a good phone, too. I think it's like high wing vs low wing. It boils down to your preference.

 

[denverpilot]

I think a huge majority of smartphone users only use them to make calls, text, take photos, check email, get directions, and do social media. I've met quite a few people who don't know how to download an app. In fact I was talking to one the other day. She liked my transit app that tells when the next bus will arrive. I told her it was a downloaded app. She said she had never downloaded and app, and that they, "just appear" on her phone. I finally found the android app store on her phone. I have an iPhone so I wasn't quite sure where to look for it. Who knew it was called "Google Play". To me, that sounds like an app that plays music.

Anyway, it seems like people here geek out about what goes on under the hood of their phone. Most people don't care, as long as they are able to do what they need to do.

I’m always amazed at people who not only will get a $1000 device, but they’ll finance it, and it’s nothing more than jewelry for them.

Of course they’re probably weirded out by someone who’ll spend $20,000 on a GPS with ten year old tech in it for an airplane, so...

 

[Everskyward]

I’m always amazed at people who not only will get a $1000 device, but they’ll finance it, and it’s nothing more than jewelry for them.

I don't think that's the case in this situation. No way was her phone $1000. I think it was a medium-sized Samsung. I don't know too many people who get them as status devices either. What I hear mostly is that they get a new phone when they qualify for one on their plans.

 

[denverpilot]

I don't think that's the case in this situation. No way was her phone $1000. I think it was a medium-sized Samsung. I don't know too many people who get them as status devices either. What I hear mostly is that they get a new phone when they qualify for one on their plans.

Ah right. The other end of the smartphone spectrum.

I was talking about the sales and other people I run into in tech biz that buy whatever is popular because they want “the best” and they’d just buy on brand and have zero clue how to use 90% of the features. The people keeping Apple’s sales merry go round going but don’t know why.

But you’re right, there’s still a market for a dumb phone, but not many being made.

 

[James331]

Essentially: iPhone costs more than it should, because you pay the iTax on it. It's not as capable or as bleeding-edge as the flagship Android phones, but it serves its intended audience well. Android is a more flexible OS, and occasionally that causes some issues with hardware. I operate on both, as I have an Android tablet and personal cell, and an iPhone 8 work cell. I prefer the Android, as does my wife. When our company goes to a BYOD plan here in the next year, I'll drop the iPhone 8 for a new Samsung Galaxy model. It's just personal preference, and there's nothing tethering me to an iDevice since I don't use iTunes or any other Apple software.

Well minus the iPhone X blowing the Pixel 2 out of the water on speed bench tests

And the OPTICAL zoom on the camera on the iPhone vs the pixels digital.

But for me it’s also the looks and fit and feel and that’s where you pay the extra hundred or so for a iPhone.

Add to that ForeFlight and the security/privacy issues inherent with google and that sums up why I started this topic on a Pixel 2 and am typing the reply on a iPhone X, the pixel did work very well at activating the google fi sim though

 

[SoonerAviator]

I haven’t used a Pixel, so I can’t comment there. I have played with the Samsung Galaxy S8 (they have an S9 out now) which is the benchmark that Apple must reach. They fall short in a few areas, yet costs more. Like I said, they fit their niche just fine. People who don’t care about customizing much and want it because they are already invested in the Apple iUniverse. I prefer having a bit more cutting edge tech while potentially sacrificing some reliability, although I’ve had no real problems with my Android programs versus their Apple counterparts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Everskyward]

Ah right. The other end of the smartphone spectrum.

I was talking about the sales and other people I run into in tech biz that buy whatever is popular because they want “the best” and they’d just buy on brand and have zero clue how to use 90% of the features. The people keeping Apple’s sales merry go round going but don’t know why.

But you’re right, there’s still a market for a dumb phone, but not many being made.

I'm sure the circle of people you regularly interact with is different than mine. I probably know some people in the tech business, since I live in the heart of it, but they don't talk tech or try to impress me with their gadgets. It seems as if it's more common for me to be talking to a total non-tech oriented person who is slightly intimidated by, or suspicious of, their smartphone.

 

[overdrive148]

*slides his $120 smartphone back into his pocket

 

[Sundancer]

Please allow me to disabuse you of this notion.

iPhone X in a dash mount running Waze. Real-time routing around traffic jams, warnings about accidents, objects in road, wildlife, police and so much more.

And guess what? No fumbling!

I recently found the Garmin NUVI I used to use all the time on my workbench. Only use it now on motorcycles where I don’t want to risk the iPhone to the elements. And it feels like a clunky dinosaur, though I’ll assume newer ones are worlds better.

If this was the only thing my iPhone did, it might still be worth $1 a day to me!

I'd have to buy an iPhone (and a mount) - one of which I find clunky, and the other is "clutter".

A little tongue-in-cheek, but I don't want to invest much time /energy into a utility device; if it's not very intuitive, I'm less intersted. Like having a watch with multiple functions I don't use often enough to be facile with.