Reminds me of old Samsung phone I had. It had IR transmitter and some app to control it as TV remote.
But it wasn't Samsung's app, nor (I assume) one owned by them. Still installed as system app so unable to uninstall tho.
So one day the company decided to monetize on that and just started to display ads on lockscreen. No way to remove it either. So I rooted that POS and never bought any Samsung shit again...
Same. God I miss when handhelds had honest to god infrared transceivers, not just the now-dead "IR Blasters". I could put my old Palm into learning mode and copy an entire remote in less than thirty seconds.
yeah, all the sensors and reality bending futuristic technology in the universe would not be enough for me to switch back to android away from the Apple ecosystem, due to experiences like what you described
Apple would really have to mess something up, and another vendor would need to be more committed to their hardware than I’ve seen
I would probably jump on the dumbphone luddite trend before going back to android
Ask me about the time I tried to put a song on my Apple™ iPod. It was sufficiently customer-hostile that I there's not enough futuristic technology to get me to try Apple again. Something about it requires iTunes, but iTunes sucked for various reasons. I had another way to work around it, but they patched it out in a firmware update. The no-name music players had a better UI. (just drag and drop)
iTunes wasn’t a secret. Apple didn’t bait you. It was well known you needed to use iTunes.
On Android you have regular apps that turn into Malware. Samsung will sell you a phone/TV then introduce/increase the amount of ads/malware with a software update.
The problem isn’t that there are ads. The problem is that the ads are introduced after you’ve already purchased it. This doesn’t happen with Apple, and that’s something many people value more than being locked into a walled garden.
The difference here is that on Apple you can do the research figure out it's OK to use.
On Android with pre-loaded software you can to the research up front, figure out everything is OK and BOOM a year later you're getting ads from a non-removable application.
iTunes wasn’t a secret. Apple didn’t bait you. It was well known you needed to use iTunes.
Only if you were already in the Apple ecosystem.
Many years ago a coworker was gifted one of the more basic iPods, which was his first experience with the Apple ecosystem. It didn't go terribly badly, but I do remember him not knowing about iTunes at the time.
Lol I remember that. Back when the iPhone came out I was super confused why I had to use the awful iTunes and why it took literal hours to load songs to my phone when my buddy could just drag and drop to his mp3 player.
well you’ll be elated to know that not much has changed on that front, except that generations of people now don't really care for self-custody of music. Compressed formats are good enough, streaming is good enough, and stored formats in walled gardens are good enough.
There is some burgeoning sentiment that some music is disappeared from the face of the earth, but nobody really cares.
Apple has started adding advertisements into their built-in apps, so it's probably not a bad idea to get an idea of what the dumb phone market is looking like. (though spoiler alert, a lot of them actually do still run Android internally.)
AppleTV shows have started displaying ads for other shows before you can watch an episode. It is extremely irritating, considering that it's a paid service.
Just this week I saw a new ad on my iPad homescreen.
At some point an iOS update added a “Smart Stack” widget to my homescreen with some common app widgets (contacts, maps photos) (I assume it was automatically added, I don’t recall ever creating it, it seems to be a new iOS 14 feature.)
In iOS 15, iOS got something called “Widget Suggestions”, so apps you haven’t added to smart stack will automatically appear. (And this got automatically turned on for the smart stack on my home screen.)
Result: I got the App Store automatically suggested in my widget stack and displaying an ad for some Disney thing. (Which I assume I wouldn’t be able to access without either paying, or watching more ads.)
Wallet has a prominent un-dismissible ad for apple pay that sits above any actual items one might add to the app. IMO part of the overall trend towards tasteless and classless growth at any cost mindset from Apple.
Every address you accidentally click opens the App Store for Apple Maps, even if you only have Google Maps installed because Apple Maps has periodically sent you to the middle of a farm field (like it has for me).
The Music app's default screen is nothing but a list of ads for Apple's subscription services. I just switched to a third-party music app because I was tired of constantly getting that shoved in my face. The same subscription options are listed as first category in the settings app too.
News, AppleTV (the tv app, not the device), and the app store and Maps. The app store is understandable but I search for my very local bank’s app and at the top of the results was a big banner for a stupid app that had nothing to do with my local bank. It was like doing a Google search.
You can at least root android, use some kind of ad-away or other ad blocking software and also remove 95% of the ads within apps and games.... on apple, you're stuck with those.
I find my exposure to unwanted advertisements to be much greater now that I've bought an Apple device, simply because Apple does not apparently have the tech to effectively block the spam calls & texts.
Yeah, this is wild. Last phone purchase I jumped ecosystems Android->iPhone on account of Google breaking their "free photo storage" promise on my Pixel. There were a number of pleasant surprises in the Apple ecosysem, but the spam situation is shockingly bad. So bad that I will probably go back to Android next hop if they don't figure it out.
Having an amazing experience here on grapheneos. And unlike on iOS, I can sync my files, contacts, calendar events etc. to my nextcloud server, use syncthing to sync stuff in a decentralized manner and play nintendo switch games with the yuzu emulator.
Maybe all unimportant for you, but this amount of security and freedom is amazingly refreshing.
I am content with icloud, I’m not interested in emulators ever since I got a job
I’m glad to hear grapheneos is useful for someone as I was skeptical, sounds like the same “file system freedom” sentiment android users have led with for a decade, to which I should remind all that iOS users are aware and an uncompelled
What the specific difference is, is that on grapheneos I can control the sandboxing myself with storage scopes and contact scopes. On iOS in terms of security the sandboxing is good but the user is treated like a child who shall not be able to customize because they could mess it up. Same exact thing with the installation of apps from unknown sources.
to which I should remind all that iOS users are aware and an uncompelled
I mean I guess I'm "uncompelled" in the sense that these stupid iOS restrictions aren't quite enough to get me to jump ship, but the restrictions are still pretty insane nonetheless. For example, I'm very happy that the EU is going to force iOS to allow for side-loading.
>"I would probably jump on the dumbphone luddite trend before going back to android"
There are also foss Linux phone OSs like postmarketOS, however hardware support and os are definitely in alpha or beta depending on the exact combination of hardware and software you use.
However if you don't mind tinkering with Linux they do the basic job.
FYI I wrote this from a PinePhone running postmarketOS (for Linux enthusiasts/tinkerers only, you've been warned)
I tried to buy a phone supported by LineageOS. And I have to say, this is impossible, given the restrictions ("available now" and "costs less than 500 USD including shipping to the Philippines"). So I ended up with a Poco X4 Pro 5G and Pixel Experience as a custom ROM.
Yeah it can be quite limiting. Especially when you start looking for specific phone options. I have the older Pocophone F1 and it's great. Unfortunately can't buy it anymore anywhere.
Comments
Reminds me of old Samsung phone I had. It had IR transmitter and some app to control it as TV remote.
But it wasn't Samsung's app, nor (I assume) one owned by them. Still installed as system app so unable to uninstall tho.
So one day the company decided to monetize on that and just started to display ads on lockscreen. No way to remove it either. So I rooted that POS and never bought any Samsung shit again...
My OEM HTC keyboard (TouchPal) straight up turned into malware. It was banned from the Play Store... but was unremovable without adb.
There was never a notification either, I just saw it on a news site.
I remember that app. It was great and I used it all the time, before they started adding all the unnecessary bs and ads.
Same. God I miss when handhelds had honest to god infrared transceivers, not just the now-dead "IR Blasters". I could put my old Palm into learning mode and copy an entire remote in less than thirty seconds.
Yes, I used that palm feature. I also had IPAQs with IR.
I know it is not the same, but there are IR learning remotes. I bet those will disappear, too.
https://www.amazon.com/One-All-Universal-Replacement-Learnin...
Yeah, I really liked my Samsung flip phones, but made the mistake of buying one of their smartphones. So much uninstallable garbage. Never again.
yeah, all the sensors and reality bending futuristic technology in the universe would not be enough for me to switch back to android away from the Apple ecosystem, due to experiences like what you described
Apple would really have to mess something up, and another vendor would need to be more committed to their hardware than I’ve seen
I would probably jump on the dumbphone luddite trend before going back to android
Ask me about the time I tried to put a song on my Apple™ iPod. It was sufficiently customer-hostile that I there's not enough futuristic technology to get me to try Apple again. Something about it requires iTunes, but iTunes sucked for various reasons. I had another way to work around it, but they patched it out in a firmware update. The no-name music players had a better UI. (just drag and drop)
Apple doesn't get it right all the time.
These are very different scenarios though.
iTunes wasn’t a secret. Apple didn’t bait you. It was well known you needed to use iTunes.
On Android you have regular apps that turn into Malware. Samsung will sell you a phone/TV then introduce/increase the amount of ads/malware with a software update.
The problem isn’t that there are ads. The problem is that the ads are introduced after you’ve already purchased it. This doesn’t happen with Apple, and that’s something many people value more than being locked into a walled garden.
Yes. If I had done some research I probably could have learned how terrible iTunes was in advance. I guess it was really my fault all along.
The difference here is that on Apple you can do the research figure out it's OK to use.
On Android with pre-loaded software you can to the research up front, figure out everything is OK and BOOM a year later you're getting ads from a non-removable application.
Only if you were already in the Apple ecosystem.
Many years ago a coworker was gifted one of the more basic iPods, which was his first experience with the Apple ecosystem. It didn't go terribly badly, but I do remember him not knowing about iTunes at the time.
Yeah but that's Samsung problem, not Android problem.
Lol I remember that. Back when the iPhone came out I was super confused why I had to use the awful iTunes and why it took literal hours to load songs to my phone when my buddy could just drag and drop to his mp3 player.
In 2005 about 20 years ago right?
well you’ll be elated to know that not much has changed on that front, except that generations of people now don't really care for self-custody of music. Compressed formats are good enough, streaming is good enough, and stored formats in walled gardens are good enough.
There is some burgeoning sentiment that some music is disappeared from the face of the earth, but nobody really cares.
Apple has started adding advertisements into their built-in apps, so it's probably not a bad idea to get an idea of what the dumb phone market is looking like. (though spoiler alert, a lot of them actually do still run Android internally.)
Where? I haven’t seen a single ad in any of their apps, and guaranteed none to the level described above. Citation needed.
AppleTV shows have started displaying ads for other shows before you can watch an episode. It is extremely irritating, considering that it's a paid service.
They're probably referring to in the App Store, perhaps Apple Music does as well?
e: Yeah looks like Apple Music, Apple News also, soon Apple Maps & Apple Podcasts
Just this week I saw a new ad on my iPad homescreen.
At some point an iOS update added a “Smart Stack” widget to my homescreen with some common app widgets (contacts, maps photos) (I assume it was automatically added, I don’t recall ever creating it, it seems to be a new iOS 14 feature.)
In iOS 15, iOS got something called “Widget Suggestions”, so apps you haven’t added to smart stack will automatically appear. (And this got automatically turned on for the smart stack on my home screen.)
Result: I got the App Store automatically suggested in my widget stack and displaying an ad for some Disney thing. (Which I assume I wouldn’t be able to access without either paying, or watching more ads.)
Wallet has a prominent un-dismissible ad for apple pay that sits above any actual items one might add to the app. IMO part of the overall trend towards tasteless and classless growth at any cost mindset from Apple.
Ugh. They're going to stop being associated with any "Premium experience" by their non-IT end users if they keep going down that track.
Every address you accidentally click opens the App Store for Apple Maps, even if you only have Google Maps installed because Apple Maps has periodically sent you to the middle of a farm field (like it has for me).
The Music app's default screen is nothing but a list of ads for Apple's subscription services. I just switched to a third-party music app because I was tired of constantly getting that shoved in my face. The same subscription options are listed as first category in the settings app too.
I’m curious about it, what Apple apps have ads now?
News, AppleTV (the tv app, not the device), and the app store and Maps. The app store is understandable but I search for my very local bank’s app and at the top of the results was a big banner for a stupid app that had nothing to do with my local bank. It was like doing a Google search.
You can at least root android, use some kind of ad-away or other ad blocking software and also remove 95% of the ads within apps and games.... on apple, you're stuck with those.
This is why I'm itching to go back to Android. I switched to an iPhone because my car only supported CarPlay, and I've regretted it ever since.
You can(could?) jailbreak iOS too.
I find my exposure to unwanted advertisements to be much greater now that I've bought an Apple device, simply because Apple does not apparently have the tech to effectively block the spam calls & texts.
Yeah, this is wild. Last phone purchase I jumped ecosystems Android->iPhone on account of Google breaking their "free photo storage" promise on my Pixel. There were a number of pleasant surprises in the Apple ecosysem, but the spam situation is shockingly bad. So bad that I will probably go back to Android next hop if they don't figure it out.
Oh don't worry, as in any closed ecosystem the bullshit will come.
Android at the very least have OSS options and after installing one on the aforementioned Samsung it was fine.
Having an amazing experience here on grapheneos. And unlike on iOS, I can sync my files, contacts, calendar events etc. to my nextcloud server, use syncthing to sync stuff in a decentralized manner and play nintendo switch games with the yuzu emulator. Maybe all unimportant for you, but this amount of security and freedom is amazingly refreshing.
I am content with icloud, I’m not interested in emulators ever since I got a job
I’m glad to hear grapheneos is useful for someone as I was skeptical, sounds like the same “file system freedom” sentiment android users have led with for a decade, to which I should remind all that iOS users are aware and an uncompelled
What the specific difference is, is that on grapheneos I can control the sandboxing myself with storage scopes and contact scopes. On iOS in terms of security the sandboxing is good but the user is treated like a child who shall not be able to customize because they could mess it up. Same exact thing with the installation of apps from unknown sources.
I mean I guess I'm "uncompelled" in the sense that these stupid iOS restrictions aren't quite enough to get me to jump ship, but the restrictions are still pretty insane nonetheless. For example, I'm very happy that the EU is going to force iOS to allow for side-loading.
There are also foss Linux phone OSs like postmarketOS, however hardware support and os are definitely in alpha or beta depending on the exact combination of hardware and software you use.
However if you don't mind tinkering with Linux they do the basic job.
FYI I wrote this from a PinePhone running postmarketOS (for Linux enthusiasts/tinkerers only, you've been warned)
Unfortunately the only way to have a good Android experience is to go custom ROM. I only buy phones that are supported by LineageOS.
No bloat, no adds, no bullshit. And a solid experience for years on end.
I know some people have issues with banking apps refusing to work but it has never been an issue for me.
I tried to buy a phone supported by LineageOS. And I have to say, this is impossible, given the restrictions ("available now" and "costs less than 500 USD including shipping to the Philippines"). So I ended up with a Poco X4 Pro 5G and Pixel Experience as a custom ROM.
Yeah it can be quite limiting. Especially when you start looking for specific phone options. I have the older Pocophone F1 and it's great. Unfortunately can't buy it anymore anywhere.
I am sick of both.
Jailbroken iOS was heaven though. I hear its more difficult now (which is why Apple has lost my business since IIRC the iPhone 6).