Apple Crumble?

Post Reply
Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

so, september 12 is the date that, undoubtedly the most amazing iphone yet is set to be unveiled.

there have been quite a few leaks this time most fairly consistent with this sort of design

Image

is it just me, or have apple got just a bit boring?

i suppose since jobs took a back seat in running apple in the months up to his death, the last batch of apple products have, to be fair not been particularly innovative and have been only modest upgrades on their predecessors.

ipad 2 > ipad 3. on paper the screen is a significant upgrade, in reality, although sharper certainly, it's not much to crow about really.

the iphone4s seems lost amongst the big screen android devices out there and is this spate of global litigation from apple a sign that they are genuinely running scared of samsung?

i remember a few years ago seeing tons of people with the trademark apple earphones and iphone in hand. it was a genuinely desirable, premium device. unfathomably a status symbol. this has changed.

it will be interesting to see exactly what apple have been working on for the last year or so.
User avatar
Bail
Posts: 1142
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 21.41
Location: UK

This thread was disappointing. Literally yesterday I was having a serious conversation about the proper crumble to fruit ratio (70/30 imho) of a standard crumble as well as best accompaniments (custard).


Re the iPhone 5. I'm honestly sure there isn't much more they CAN do with it. I've got the iPhone4, didn't bother with the 4s, and I love it, honestly nothing I wouldn't change* about it. I will get an iPhone 5 because I have been sucked in by the cult of Apple, and quite honestly, I'm ok with that.

I've used blackberry and android and for me, they just don't compare to iOS.

*That's a lie, the antennagate thing is annoying and does drop calls.
Image
Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

that's the thing i find so strange really, i just don't get why so many people think iOS is great.

to me, it looks and feels dated. widgets and live wallpapers don't exist here. it's significantly less configurable than android and as a browsing experience i don't rate it, the ergonomics of safari are yuk.

the notification bar is just so much better implemented in android. the notification bar on my ipad is something that looks like it was stuck on at the last moment. and widgets are a great way to get all the info you want on your homescreen just don't exist in ios in the same useful way they do on android. and if you don't like the default launcher or lockscreen you can use another one. annoyingly apps also inconsistently add their options either in the settings or within the app itself, i don't buy into the argument about consistency in iOS.

i get the design (and revenue) decisions behind limiting everything to apple's walled garden, but ultimately i think it has stifled the ecosystem. emulators and all sorts of goodies are freely available on android.

without question there are more apps on ios, there are especially more apps aimed at children and casual gamers. all the big apps are available on both platforms, but i can see the attraction there.

one thing i also never really understood was the term 'fragmentation' which was banded about (though not so much these days) - the complaint being that android phones come in lots of different screen sizes and operating system variants. i don't know if these developers are living in a complete bubble, but windows developers have been dealing with "fragmentation" on the ibm-pc platform for 30 years with the near infinite combination of configurations that exist. it's not rocket science, you just get on with it.
Critique
Posts: 980
Joined: Mon 17 Aug, 2009 10.37
Location: Suffolk

I have an Android phone, but would happily be sucked into getting an iPhone, because there are things like iCloud which would sync everything across my Apple devices perfectly, if I also got a Mac - and these are the kinds of services that no-one else can offer.

I don't think it's a case of there's not much else they can do, because there is. Technology will have evolved in a few years, and no doubt all the latest devices will have NFC, if the technology does really take off. And in terms of how Android is more customisable - I don't think that's always important/necessary. Everything on iOS is clean, and I certainly don't think it's boring. When you buy a phone, you know what you're getting yourself in for, and if you don't like the UI, and are just a standard user, then you should reconsider getting the phone. I don't see the need for changing the launcher, so there are some options on Android, as much as I love it on my One S, that are just there for the sake of it.

And them again, I don't believe Apple have just got boring. They design things to look simple and, let's be honest, beautiful. And to be fair to Apple, you could accuse some devices from competitors of copying the style of the iPhone. And so, if these devices weren't there, the iPhone would still look unique and lovely, and I doubt it'd be called boring.

Now, I might sound like I'm just defending Apple and ignoring any faults, but I'm not. I didn't get an iPhone 4 because of the Anntenae, and I've recently rented quite a few things from Google Play, because the equivalent in iTunes is considerably more expensive. People pick many faults will Apple, and I think some of them are simply just people moaning for the sake of it. Of course, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I think some people give Apple a rough ride because they're Apple.

I, like everyone else, will be very interested to see what Apple bring to the table on September 12th, although I think, regardless of what Apple come up with, there'll be quite a few critics complaining about the iPhone 5, whatever it is.

Sent from my iThing.
User avatar
Pete
Posts: 7589
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 13.36
Location: Dundee

Of course I doubt Apple are too worried. They only have to ship a few at $1000 a pop (lifetime cost) to turn their profits. The main thing they have in their favour is that the big companies all develop their apps for iOS whilst some don't bother for Android and fewer bother for BlackBerry.
and of course WinPho seems to be going nowhere, not helped by confusion over what WinPho 8 will be.

I've just gone and got myself an iPhone 4S (on a 12 month contract from Orange) and I have to say I love it. Having had to put up with the HTC Desire both through Froyo, Gingerbread and even redoing it with Cyanogen to faf about with the lacklustre space it became simply a chore to own. Constantly clearing caches and difficulties with Google Play and bizarre crashes did not matters. The keyboard was shit, continually coming up with even more preposterous suggestions for moments where I'd simply missed the space between two obvious words.

Course the iPhone isn't flawless. Here are my list of issues.

:arrow: Safari is pathetic as a browser. and of course it won't let you set the rather lovely Chrome as your default, instead forcing you either to jailbreak of piss about with bookmarklets.

:arrow: The fact you have to use iTunes. It's just ghastly and why does Wifi sync never work properly? And why do apps keep downloading to my PC for no good reason, just have them on the sodding phone.

:arrow: The inflexibility of the homescreens. Sometimes I rather like having gaps between my icons. I'll admit I was never fond of widgets or tiles or anything like that so that doesn't bother me,

:arrow: The inability of apps to add themselves to the sendto menu. Why do I have to have two versions of my gmail account just so I can send things via the mail app as it won't let gmail hook in? Admittedly my android sentdo menu was ridiculously long with "send to BBC News" and other such nonsense but frankly it is not a difficulty concept that I might want to take a PDF from my dropbox and email it out? Having to piss about with opening it in Adobe Reader (that I had to install just for this purpose) then emailing it out is just poor.

:arrow: Why can't you keep your iCloud contacts in sync with your google address book?

And various other complaints. Still the fact that it just works without exploding, or failing to lock and then getting VERY HOT in my pocket as it does fuck only knows what launching app after app like the Desire did still means I prefer it.

The Desire, FYI, has been unlocked for giffgaff, reset back to a nice clean install of Cyanogen and gifted to my dozy brother. He seems content with his new toy.

EDIT: Also - does anyone else use Hullomail? Rather nice little visual voicemail for those of us who aren't on o2. Anyhow mine keeps resetting itself back to the Orange voicemail every time the phone reboots, is this meant to happen? Obv its easy to fix but you have to remember to do it!
"He has to be larger than bacon"
User avatar
lukey
Posts: 587
Joined: Thu 25 May, 2006 01.11
Location: London
Contact:

I'm in two minds about iOS. I agree that so much of it feels very dated. I've always found the modal blue dialogs to be among the ugliest UI elements on any platform, and the dense home screen on the iPhone (at least given some room to breathe on iPad) is really unattractive, never mind the fundamental ewwness of a wall of icons (why on earth this ended up in OS X I have no idea). I'm not sure I agree widgets and live wallpapers are the way to go (the latter seem a little naff to me), but something vaguely resembling WP7's 'live tiles' would be progress.

On the other hand, it's the 'least worst' mobile platform I've used. Sure, a lot of this just comes from having more of the better apps, and the cross-platform apps seem (generally) better. Most of my Android experience is limited to Froyo-era phones (the Desire etc.) but while the stock UI has come a long way, it still feels a bit meh and design-by-committee, like every Linux WM. I have some big problems with Apple's skeuomorphic bent, but at least there's something vaguely coherent about it (and I'll throw WP7 into the same yay-bucket for that).

On a personal note, I've used a WP7 phone since late 2010, and I've been holding out for the near-simultaneous launch of the iPhone 5, and WP8 to decide what to plump with. The iPhone looks to be a pretty incremental update unless they plan on doing something a bit mental with it (this would also have to involve telling us something about iOS 6 we don't already know), and so the only motivation for going with it now is to benefit from the app ecosystem compared to WP (lovely OS, but app-wise it feels a little dead in the water). Seeing as WP has lost momentum, even if WP8 arrives with some nice phones, I can't imagine that fixing its biggest weakness at the moment.
rts
Posts: 1637
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.09

It will most probably be looking like this. Evolution rather than revolution.

http://www.iresq.com/iphone-5-assembled.phtml
Image
Post Reply