I’ve been team Android since day one and proud of it. For the first time in eight years my daily phone isn’t a Google based phone. I’ve been rocking an iPhone for about a week and decided to jot down some of my thoughts on the adjustments, the good, the bad, and the what the fuck?
Things I miss:
- App Drawer. I like to try out lots of apps and having to look at all of them clutter up my home screens just looks messy to me. Folders improve the aesthetic a little but it’s still not ideal for me.
- Notification light. Android gives you a persistent flashing colored light on the front of the phone that flashes when you get a notification. Apple does not. Technically, you can set your iPhone to activate the camera flash when you get a notification but it only flashes once and if you’re not looking in your phone’s general direction then it’s pretty useless.
- Dedicated back key. This was one of my major turnoffs about iOS in the past. After playing with my phone for the last week it isn’t as bothersome as I thought it would be, for the most part. Navigating back to Safari from an app, vice versa, or some other combinations can be more difficult than it should be but I haven’t wanted to throw my phone yet.
- Photos. There doesn’t appear to be native support to play gifs in the photo gallery. I thought I was doing something wrong until I read that you basically needed to use an app or you actually had to send it to someone to see it play. Really? Another thing I miss is that there’s no simple way to hide NSFW pics and videos on the iPhone without an app. There’s a way to do it but basically you have to delete the picture in two or three different places and anyone who knows where to look can still find it.
Things I don’t like:
- The default mail app. How do I put it? It’s garbage! I tried it didn’t like it so I downloaded the Google Mail app.
- The Google Mail app. It’s straight booty! I should’ve trusted the negative reviews but I didn’t. It’s better than Apple’s mail app but it looks and feels nothing like the native Google Mail app. Yeah, I know it’s iOS but Google made the app so why didn’t they just do a straight port instead to iOS? Seems like they let the 3rd stringers play and they just fucked everything up.
- The default keyboard. I gave it a go for about a day or so but it doesn’t feel right. Not really sure how to explain it but it felt wrong and annoying. I downloaded my default keyboard, Swiftkey. I’m a little disappointed that Android has a lot more Swiftkey themes and they apparently don’t transfer over to iOS.
- iCloud drive. My iCloud is apparently set up but I can’t get the iCloud drive app to work on my phone or on my laptop. Fortunately, I have four other cloud storage apps but it’s still disappointing when you’re trying to stay mostly in the iOS architecture.
- Proprietary cables. It’s not too bad. I got a lightning cable with the phone and another one as a bundle I got with my phone so I haven’t had to spend money on them yet. I will because I want a six foot cable so I can comfortably use my phone at home while it’s charging. I also have to get a new car charger because my current one is for mini USB.
- App Store apps costing more than their Google Play counterparts. I paid $8 to replace an app that I bought for half the price on Google Play. They also charged me tax. Google Play rarely charged me tax on purchases.
Things I like:
- Battery life. I can go most of the day before having to charge it. With the same amount of use on my last phone I was charging it two or three times a day.
- Force touch.
- Getting apps and games first. I always hated hearing about having to wait for some cool game to hit Android while it’s been in the App Store for months.
- Greater selection of apps.
- Call quality. I didn’t talk a lot on my last phone in part because the experience was horrible (dropped calls, garbled calls, etc.). I haven’t made many calls yet but so far they sound a lot better.
I still haven’t quite gotten the hang of the home button that isn’t actually a button button. I keep activating Siri instead of going home or whatever else I’m trying to do. It would be really nice to get that finger press correct, regularly. Sometime over the weekend I plan to download all the pics and stuff that used to be on my last phone to my new phone. I’m somewhat of a master at finding the perfect gif or funny picture to respond to a comment. I miss having them on my phone. I set up Apple Pay but haven’t used it yet. Haven’t FaceTimed anyone yet either. I don’t feel like shaving and making myself pretty so I don’t scare off all the FT freaks I keep hearing about.
I’m not sure I’m ready to wave the team iPhone flag yet but overall I’m enjoying my iPhone. Now I need the hookup on some live wallpapers. Feel free to leave any tips in the comments.
After I commented, I went and tried Hulu and it worked out!
What other surveys do you do so I can get ITunes?
It’s not an app but I’ve had good experiences with pineconeresearch.com. I’m going to start looking for some survey/reward apps.
Oh ok, I use that one. But they don’t send me surveys anymore. If you find any cool app ones, let me know!
One thing thst I miss is Google. My ex brought me a Chromecast and I’m not sure if Apple supports it. I downloaded something close to it but have yet to see if it works. I also miss Google rewards. When I downloaded Google play, I realized I never really have to pay for music nor games because I do the surveys and let the money build and buy it that way. Ughhhhh!!!
Google makes some useful apps! I did the same thing with Google Rewards. It stopped sending me surveys earlier in the year. Apparently, that happened to a lot of people. I do other surveys on my phone and between them got a Starbucks gift card and an iTunes one. That reminds me I have to redeem my points for another card.
From what I read Apple supports it…somewhat. You can cast Netflix and YouTube. There’s a list of apps supported but Netflix and YouTube are probably the only ones I would use.