Linus misses the mark on why iOS / Apple is not as good as Android

[Pro-Consumer]

I've been watching the Linus Tech Tips channel for a while now, and Linus's recent video on why Android is better than Apple, misses the mark on some of the key reasons Apple still sucks (I've been using iOS / Android both since 2010).

 

Here are the top reasons that Linus missed (and just about EVERY tech reviewer...why this is, is a mystery):

 

I)  Apple greed:   Apple's greed has pushed consumers to lose some abilities to do things that you can do on Android or PC:
 

1. You can't buy digital content natively on iOS apps - Amazon, Google Play, VUDU, Audible, etc...   I don't know how Apple can get away with their onerous terms of charging 30% for every sale via an app that you must use on iOS unless you root / jailbreak your iOS device (hard to do).  I mean, imagine if Microsoft back in the 90's started forcing every website and program to pay 30% to MS just for the privilege of you being able to buy content from a Windows device. Imagine how quickly this would be shut down.  How can Apple get away with this monopolistic behavior and have the EU and other countries just sit idly by??  
   
   This breaks all common sense and I'm bewildered that Apple, the richest corporation in manking history, can get away with it.
    
2. Apple has never supported SD cards, user replaceable batteries, all anti-consumer.  Then they remove the headphone jack (one of my biggest pet peeves), and stick with lightning cable while the entire industry used microUSB and now has moved to USB-C.  Sucking the consumers dry of money for every penny they are worth.  Yes, Apple claims to care about privacy and not selling their users "privacy" for profit, but they apparently have sold their customers down the river for profit in just about everything else. (you did mention this...kudos)
   
   Make no mistake, your pocketbook is Apple's greatest goal, and their corporate marketing of caring about your privacy is about as hollow as it gets.

 

II) Just plain junky iOS functionality:

1. My iOS contacts are an absolute mess.  I use my iOS devices for work accounts and personal accounts. However, because of the way the contacts app works in iOS, there is no easy to way to see, or designate which account I am creating a contact for.  (In Android, you can designate which account you're creating a contact for, simple field where you select and choose).  In iOS, my work contacts are in my personal accounts, and my personal contacts are in my work accounts.  This is because you can only select which default account to create contacts to, and it's a huge pain to change that every time you create a contact, so as a results my contacts are jumbled everywhere.  This could be  a huge privacy issue as I put my personal contacts in my work email accounts, and work email contacts in my personal accounts.  Insane.
    
2. The native calendar app is a huge ball of turd.  I had a blackberry before iOS, and the blackberry calendar was miles ahead of iOS calendar - I could set an appointment to "private", share my calendar, forward meeting invites to other folks.  The iOS calendar is such a limited POS I'm shocked no one calls this out as a huge weakness.
    
3. Linus mentioned this, but it's a huge pain - I like to set Google Maps as my default navigation app, EVERY time.  How Apple gets away with not giving this option to consumers, and yet Microsoft was sued and taken to task by the EU and other governments for not allowing defaults for browsers and other apps... mind blowing.  How does Apple do a mind-distortion field with governments and get away with this?
    
4. File system limitations - I store important and sensitive files like my password KeePass files natively on my Android devices and Windows devices.  I do not want to put my KeePass files on any cloud service.  And yet Apple doesn't allow you to do this. You must put your most sensitive files on a cloud service to allow iOS to access those files.  Yes, Apple cares about your privacy....  /sarcasm
    
5. The settings app in iOS is a huge mess.  You may have an insanely huge list of apps settings to scroll to under the settings app, and each app may or may not have its own settings area with some of the same settings, or not.  Android's settings makes a lot more sense, just like how Windows use to do it - allowing each app to have its own settings that you don't have to go to control panel for every time to change something.  This is basic UI design, and yet Apple seems to not give a flying leap about usability.  This along with the lack of universal back button (yes you mentioned this) is huge.
    

These are basic, obvious major problems with Apple / iOS, and yet I've never seen any tech reviewer mention this at all.  What are you all smoking??  Forget customization and all the other stuff, this is serious stuff that affects most IOS users every day.  And yet no one acknowledges the pink elephant in the room.

 

Linus needs to do better, be better informed, and let the public know what's really wrong with IOS if they're going to put such a video out.

[Fasauceome]

If Linus included all of this it sounds like it would have ended up as a 20 minute video. He opted to use forum feedback for a lot of the content, which I don't believe was a bad move.

24 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

Linus mentioned this, but it's a huge pain

Why include it in a list of things Linus missed then?

 

24 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

You can't buy digital content natively on iOS apps

did he not bring up how there were different app stores to get access to much more content? pretty sure that was a big one.

 

24 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

Linus needs to do better, be better informed, and let the public know what's really wrong with IOS if they're going to put such a video out.

Linus has used iPhones as his main daily device before, it's not like there are things about the shortcomings of apple that he doesn't know. He's talked about corporate greed and anticonsumerism from apple loads of times before, be it on techquickie, wan show, etc. This video wasn't about that, it was about user feedback and what people say the use android for.

[Pro-Consumer]

3 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

If Linus included all of this it sounds like it would have ended up as a 20 minute video. He opted to use forum feedback for a lot of the content, which I don't believe was a bad move.

Why include it in a list of things Linus missed then?

 

did he not bring up how there were different app stores to get access to much more content? pretty sure that was a big one.

 

Linus has used iPhones as his main daily device before, it's not like there are things about the shortcomings about apple that he doesn't know. He's talked about corporate greed and anticonsumerism from apple loads of times before, be it on techquickie, wan show, etc. This video wasn't about that, it was about user feedback and what people say the use android for.

I was making this from my personal list of angst of using Apple products, and I'm glad Linus mentioned a couple of them.  However, the other stuff I have mentioned is so basic, fundamental, and yet I've never seen any popular tech reviewer mention this... it is mind boggling.

 

There is so much Apple hype and yet no one seems to mention these basic issues in pretty much any video I've seen on Youtube.  Just very bizarre.

 

It just blows my mind every reviewer focuses on how nice the phones feel in hand (give me a freaking break), and yet none address the fundamental issues, of function over form.  Linus seems to be more of a practical, more common sense driven channel, and yet still misses some of these key, basic things (and no, it shouldn't take 20 minutes to address these items I posted - it certainly didn't take 20 minutes to read it).

[KarathKasun]

Quote

Apple greed:   Apple's greed has pushed consumers to lose some abilities to do things that you can do on Android or PC

Apple wants to control transactions Google wants to harvest your data.  Pick which one is worse.

[Pro-Consumer]

7 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

Apple wants to control transactions Google wants to harvest your data.  Pick which one is worse.

I choose to give Google whatever information I feel comfortable with, whereas with Apple you have no choice.

For instance I always use incognito mode on my Android Chrome browser and PC, don't log into any of my Google accounts while browsing, give Google limited contacts details, etc.  I control what Google sees.

I also give Google kudos for consumer privacy for being first to:

1. allow full end to end HTTPS email browsing capability for any major free email provider (my horrible yahoo / hotmail services lacked this for years and years while Gmail was light years ahead)
2. Google does / did champion HTTPS for websites well ahead of other major tech companies.
3. Google set up free 2 factor authentication, and was first to market with Google Authenticator app, years and years before any other major tech company did so (including Apple, with its notorious iCloud hack)

Without Google doing some of these things, my Yahoo / Hotmail accounts would be still as junky as they have always been. Google forced others to step up their game in terms of user security.

 

Is Google perfect? No, but imho they are a level or two above other tech companies in terms of privacy / security.  I don't know why most people miss this point as well.

 

I think it's far too easy and lazy for people to point to Google as "mega company" who doesn't care about your privacy, and point to Apple as caring about this, whereas the reality is much more complex and Google does a lot more for consumer security / privacy than most people are aware of or even think of.

[KarathKasun]

With Google you have no choice.  They harvest data from every single bit of data that goes through their hands.  Every E-Mail, every app, every G-Doc.

[Pro-Consumer]

5 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

With Google you have no choice.  They harvest data from every single bit of data that goes through their hands.  Every E-Mail, every app, every G-Doc.

You certainly do have a choice - you can choose not to use their email, their Google docs, etc.  I use hotmail / Outlook.com for some of my emails, yahoo for some others (mostly spam), and Gmail for some of it.

I use Office 365 / one drive for some of my docs, Google Docs for others.  

I'm leery of the other tech companies just as I am with Google. However, I've never had reason for any alarm with google services.  My Yahoo account was hacked repeatedly (and it turns out all yahoo accounts were compromised).

My Google accounts have never been compromised, ever, thanks to Google authenticator and full HTTPS encryption everywhere. 

 

People seem uneducated when they don't understand the whole picture, and just use FUD and paranoia to point to Google as the big bad wolf.  I guarantee Microsoft (including LinkedIn), Yahoo, and others harvest every bit of data just like Google, if not more (Facebook is the worst by far). Only Google seems to be under the microscope while many others seem to get away with it. 

[KarathKasun]

2 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

You certainly do have a choice - you can choose not to use their email, their Google docs, etc.  I use hotmail / Outlook.com for some of my emails, yahoo for some others (mostly spam), and Gmail for some of it.

I use Office 365 / one drive for some of my docs, Google Docs for others.  

I'm leery of the other tech companies just as I am with Google. However, I've never had reason for any alarm with google services.  My Yahoo account was hacked repeatedly (and it turns out all yahoo accounts were compromised).

My Google accounts have never been compromised, ever, thanks to Google authenticator and full HTTPS encryption everywhere. 

 

People seem uneducated when they don't understand the whole picture, and just use FUD and paranoia to point to Google as the big bad wolf.  I guarantee Microsoft (including LinkedIn), Yahoo, and others harvest every bit of data just like Google, if not more (Facebook is the worst by far). Only Google seems to be under the microscope while many others seem to get away with it. 

And they are all trash.  Nothing on the internet is free.

[Pro-Consumer]

3 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

And they are all trash.  Nothing on the internet is free.

Amen to that.  It seems most people only point to Google and yet happily post away on Facebook their full details of their lives, use other tech providers with their most intimate data...

 

Apple's latest FaceTime bug is the most ironic.  A consumer tried to warn them repeatedly about this incredible bug, and they only reacted when it was picked up by the media. If Apple really cared about user privacy, they would have taken that first report seriously (via multiple channels - twitter, email, phone calls, etc) instead of waiting for the media to report about this.  Shows Apple's hypocrisy.

[SenKa]

43 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

IApple has never supported SD cards, user replaceable batteries, all anti-consumer.  Then they remove the headphone jack (one of my biggest pet peeves), and stick with lightning cable while the entire industry used microUSB and now has moved to USB-C.

Correction. Every Macbook/ibook from 2001 to 2016 had an SD card reader. The desktops seldom did, because well... just buy a USB card reader. You would have to for most PC's even within the 2001-2016 timeframe. Also, all Powerbooks/iBook's/Macbooks prior to the 2009 Macbook had a removable battery.

 

 

Also, Apple is finally moving away from lightning. Word is the next iPhone will use Type C, the new iPad has a Type C port. The headphone jack does seem to be dead however, as sad as that is I fear the industry is moving that way as a whole.

[Pro-Consumer]

2 minutes ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Correction. Every Macbook/ibook from 2001 to 2016 had an SD card reader. The desktops seldom did, because well... just buy a USB card reader. You would have to for most PC's even within the 2001-2016 timeframe. Also, all Powerbooks/iBook's/Macbooks prior to the 2009 Macbook had a removable battery.

 

 

Also, Apple is finally moving away from lightning. Word is the next iPhone will use Type C, the new iPad has a Type C port. The headphone jack does seem to be dead however, as sad as that is I fear the industry is moving that way as a whole.

Good point, but I was talking about iOS devices only, not MacOS devices.

[SenKa]

Just now, Pro-Consumer said:

Good point, but I was talking about iOS devices only, not MacOS devices.

Ah. iOS always has been, is, and always will be shit unless they did a total scrap and re-do of the OS. It lacks mindless features that I didn't realize I ever needed until I tried to use an iPhone.

[Pro-Consumer]

8 minutes ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Ah. iOS always has been, is, and always will be shit unless they did a total scrap and re-do of the OS. It lacks mindless features that I didn't realize I ever needed until I tried to use an iPhone.

Amen, but you wouldn't know it if you just listened to the mainstream media.  This is why I posted this to share the fundamental issues with iOS, since...about forever, and yet every tech channel seems to gloss over this.

 

I'm hoping mainstream media picks up on this, and forces Apple to do better. Get rid of the 30% profit on digital media sold via apps (hahaha Apple will never do this unless forced by governments), allow other default apps (just like every other major OS - Windows / Android), have better contacts / calendar apps, etc etc.

 

Apple doesn't do anything for consumers unless the mainstream media picks it up, and makes it an issue, it seems.  Apple certainly doesn't care about the consumer, at all.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

35 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

You certainly do have a choice - you can choose not to use their email, their Google docs, etc. 

Well, you can choose not to use Android, but you cannot choose to use Android and not use it at the same time  If you use Android, Google is collecting data, so it is relevant for the comparison you try to make.

 

Quote

People seem uneducated when they don't understand the whole picture, and just use FUD and paranoia to point to Google as the big bad wolf.  I guarantee Microsoft (including LinkedIn), Yahoo, and others harvest every bit of data just like Google, if not more (Facebook is the worst by far). Only Google seems to be under the microscope while many others seem to get away with it. 

It is funny that you bring that up, since in every topic discussing Windows' privacy issues there's always at least one person (typically more) arguing that "Google harvest every bit of data as Microsoft, but only Microsoft seems to be under the microscope while Google gets away with it". Change the focus to a different company and the argument resurfaces with company names switched around. It's a never-ending mary-go-round of whataboutism 

[SenKa]

15 minutes ago, Pro-Consumer said:

Amen, but you wouldn't know it if you just listened to the mainstream media.  This is why I posted this to share the fundamental issues with iOS, since...about forever, and yet every tech channel seems to gloss over this.

I said this in another thread, and I think it's suited here too.

 

So long as you play by apples rules, and use their devices the way they intend for them to be used, it is a damned near flawless system. iOS is beautiful so long as you don't ask too much of it, macOS is genuinely years ahead of windows in terms of management and stability (as I write this i am dealing with one of my devices BSOD boot looping once before booting and being stable. This happened randomly with no correlation to updates/hardware changes. Never seen a KP in my life on macOS.), and the integration between all devices is better than Windows will ever be, even when MS had the chance to take the cake with Windows Mobile. It was so damned close!

 

I would probably invest in it a hell of a lot more if:

 

The Macbook Pro would stay cool (since I would bootcamp to windows and game with an EGPU, macOS for school.)

iOS was usable for any length of time before wanting to throw an iPhone into the nearest pit to hell. I could even overlook the need for a "Random crap" folder (since I also need one for my Note 8 ) if I could atleast sort my applications with empty tiles!

 

Those are my two big issues. There is certianly an "Apple tax", but it's not as much as it once was or is made out to be, and I would be more than willing to pay it. I don't really use apps outside the G Play store, nor do I need anything that doesn't exist on iOS. Hell, some usecases (and ones I have often) work better on macOS, like Carbon Copy Cloner being far superior to anything on Windows, FCP for editing, Logic X... So on.

 

As for your points regarding security. Apple is really no better than google. Seriously. Apple, though they may collect more info, may actually more secure now than Google is.

 

Default apps... yeah, I don't know how apple has gotten away with it.

 

The price premium for app devs is under scrutiny as I write, and will likely hopefully be changed soon.

 

The settings app... Don't remind me, I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to set a simple setting because it was buried in the most non-sensible place ever. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something really stupid. But if I used iOS more regularly I would likely get used to it. Android's storage management has gotten worse over the years (atleast in the Samsung Experience UI. Haven't used a different phone in a while), and it is slowly pushing me away.

 

That's all your points touched, in my own opinion of course. I hope this thread doesnt derail into apple fanboys bitching at you. You put lots of thought into your post.

[KarathKasun]

5 minutes ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

I said this in another thread, and I think it's suited here too.

 

So long as you play by apples rules, and use their devices the way they intend for them to be used, it is a damned near flawless system. iOS is beautiful so long as you don't ask too much of it, macOS is genuinely years ahead of windows in terms of management and stability (as I write this i am dealing with one of my devices BSOD boot looping once before booting and being stable. This happened randomly with no correlation to updates/hardware changes. Never seen a KP in my life on macOS.), and the integration between all devices is better than Windows will ever be, even when MS had the chance to take the cake with Windows Mobile. It was so damned close!

I find this to be mostly incorrect.  Its only "ahead" because it lacks support for anything and they lock out old hardware.

[SenKa]

2 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

I find this to be mostly incorrect.  Its only "ahead" because it lacks support for anything and they lock out old hardware.

Linus touched on that point in his Android video, though vaguely.

 

macOS is better at background crap management. This is a non-disputable fact.

Rogue apps are much, much, much less common. By this i mean random bugged apps using massive amounts of CPU/RAM/Disk Uptime. (Windows 10 100% disk bug, apps randomly consuming 40% CPU despite doing nothing, poor RAM allocation/runaway apps eating up RAM for no reason. Though this is the software devs fault, Apples more locked down dev system does prevent this.)

You don't have to update. Windows 10 was infamous for forcing W7 users to update to 10 when it damned so pleased. If you're running a supported Mac product on an older version of macOS you may get 1 popup on launch day. Maybe.

Apple's locking out of otherwise perfectly functional devices is really, really stupid. I agree. But even "non supported" macbooks work absolutely perfectly if forced to run updates (which is an easy tool to download online). My 2009 Macbook non-pro felt like new on Mojave with more RAM and an SSD before it died. But keep in mind, Microsoft is guilty of doing the same thing more recently. They locked out Skylake and above systems from installing windows 7.

Kernel Panics (macOS's version of the BSOD) are incredibly rare, and only surface when there is a genuine hardware issue save for incredibly rare and weird exceptions. I had a brand new build BSOD'ing when trying to install Adobe CC for no discernible reason. Then I did nothing different, and it started working. Weird shit like this is incredibly common.

 

[TheReal_ist]

9 hours ago, Pro-Consumer said:

Apple still sucks (I've been using iOS / Android both since 2010).

I can do anything with my Jailbreak what u talking about mate. Lmao............. 

 

If you wanna compare an OS aka Android which is INHERENTLY Open to one that is INHERENTLY Closed. Then don't cause thats now how they should be compared. U wanna compare something then compare a Rooted Android OS to a Jailbroken iPhone. 

 

The funny thing is u guys on both sides of the fanboy scism miss the only point there ever was. Each OS is made for diff groups of people. You don't like one go to the other. You don't like either then either root one of them and make it your own or build your own. 

 

Anything beyond that is stupid sh*t that is irrelevant due to you and your emotions getting in the way. So please stop fanboying and go home already..............

[Arika]

Because it was "why is android better than ios" not "let's shit talk apple for 20 minutes" 

[mr moose]

13 hours ago, Pro-Consumer said:

  I mean, imagine if Microsoft back in the 90's started forcing every website and program to pay 30% to MS just for the privilege of you being able to buy content from a Windows device. Imagine how quickly this would be shut down. 

 

You're not allowed to use that argument on these forums,  only apple are allowed too have an exclusive app store for security reasons, everyone else is bound by monopoly laws.

 

 

[Guest]

Same old Apple vs Android or Apple vs PC. All made up reasons. 

 

Just get what you want with your money. Everyone else's stuff is their business. 

[msoffice]

1 hour ago, floofer said:

Just get what you want with your money. Everyone else's stuff is their business. 

Exactly.

edit: though, to be fair to OP, some business practices are a bit anti-consumer. And people who are not so informed are spending more than they should. 

Edited February 19, 2019 by msoffice

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

1 hour ago, floofer said:

Same old Apple vs Android or Apple vs PC. All made up reasons. 

 

Just get what you want with your money. Everyone else's stuff is their business. 

^ This, Apple vs Android threads could go on for literal years. Buy what you want, use what you want. Both have ups and downs.

[abazigal]

15 hours ago, Pro-Consumer said:

Apple has never supported SD cards, user replaceable batteries, all anti-consumer.  Then they remove the headphone jack (one of my biggest pet peeves), and stick with lightning cable while the entire industry used microUSB and now has moved to USB-C.  Sucking the consumers dry of money for every penny they are worth.  Yes, Apple claims to care about privacy and not selling their users "privacy" for profit, but they apparently have sold their customers down the river for profit in just about everything else. (you did mention this...kudos)

I will say this comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of how Apple thinks and works. 

 

First off, it undercuts their design philosophy. Apple is about minimalism and purity in hardware design. It's the same reason that the iPhone has four physical buttons. In the eyes of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, perfect products are made by cutting out everything not absolutely required in the design. To them, it's about creating products that are cut down to their absolute most basic form, with nothing standing between the user and the device. The products aren't about having the most features, or being the "most useful", they're about distilling out the purest mixture of form and function possible.

 

Remember the old iPod Nano? The one with no buttons? That's one example where the formula didn't work. No one wants a media player with no buttons. While it may have been pure in the eyes of the design, it was a useless product. In the iPhone and the latest run of iPods, Apple has found, to them, a perfect balance of form and function. The devices are beautiful products that retain full functionality. Note the "to them" up there. It's obviously not something everyone agrees upon, but this is through the eyes of Apple's design department, not the general population. And while you may disagree, you have to admit that they're close to correct. No media device saw the success of the iPod in its heyday, because of the flawless mix of usability and beauty. Up until the iPhone, phones were devices used by phone companies to sell service plans. People talk about the "planned obsolescence" of the iPhone, because of the removable battery, but they don't remember the crap phones from six years ago that fell apart if you sneezed on them. Sure, you could replace the battery, but the battery lasted like six months. Yeah, the phones took removable media, but the internal memory was measured in tens of megabytes, not the gigabytes we have now. Apple's design philosophy, whether or not you agree with it, has totally reshaped the phone and computer industries over the past five years, because it works.

 

So what does this have to do with replaceable media? Simple. Apple believes that it's better to have a high capacity, monolithic phone than one with an extra "feature" that many people don't care about, or even need. "Now hold on, god_uses_a_mac," you say, "that's just your inner fanboy talking. Plenty of people want removable memory, and shouldn't what people want determine what goes in a product?" Sure, there are many users who want it. There are even some people who need to be able to swap out media. But Apple doesn't care about that. If they listened to what people wanted, we wouldn't have the iPhone, iPad, or anything else like them on the market. No one wanted an iPad when it was announced, until they started using them. For the people that do truly need removable media for whatever reason, Apple really doesn't care about them. It's sort of a niche feature, and time and time again, Apple has proved that they don't care about niche features or markets (See: 17" MBP, XServe, Mac Pro, iPod Classic, or other useful products that Apple has either discontinued or left for dead.)

 

You see the same philosophy in the lack of removable battery. Apple decided that would sacrifice the integrity and the beauty of the phone were the battery removable, and they're right. Having a solid frame with an internal battery makes the phone more durable than it would be at the same form with a removable battery, and the battery lasts longer too, because it can be built larger within the phone. Why not just make the phone bigger? Because that would compromise the design principles. Again, Apple is trying to make the most pure product possible, in their eyes. Thin, light, yet uncompromising simplicity is the goal here. That, not a huge feature list, is what Apple believes makes a product good.

 

So, again, back to the memory. Think about how many people you know who really need removable memory. Most people I know just stick a 32 GB MicroSD card in their phones and forget about it. Apple would rather you just buy a 32 GB phone. It's more straightforward, and admittedly they do make more money. (People try to make it about Apple grabbing money everywhere they can; this isn't really the case, but money is always a bonus...) Having no removable media is less complicated for the end user, and helps simplify and perfect the design of the phone overall.

[Tamesh16]

2 minutes ago, abazigal said:

with nothing standing between the user and the device. The products aren't about having the most features, or being the "most useful", they're about distilling out the purest mixture of form and function possible.

weirdly phrased, but i agree, its phone most people will be able to do all their stuff on and enjoy, designed to feel premium and perform the tasks they were meant to well, however i would say ios has had a bit of issues over the years