Apple Operating Systems (macOS, iOS, watchOS, & tvOS) Catch-All

Amazon Prime is finally out for Apple TV!!!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017...

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EverythingsTentative wrote:

After spending a week with IOS I can definitely say I prefer Android. I was going to do a small pros and cons list, but I don't think anyone is that interested, plus it's all preference. There's nothing I couldn't get used to if I had to stay with IOS.

I would like to see a small comparison between a modern Android and IOS, if you don't mind.

I got my 8+ and I'm in love. It's so freakin' fast, everything opens instantly, whereas with the 6 just making call means a second or two of lag when you push the call-button and it actually starts signalling audibly.

I've accustomed to the size quicker than I would've thought. It does show up pretty ungainly in the front pocket of wool slacks, more so than the smaller 6 though. I'm going commando with it, a cover would bulk it up too much.

I know it's mentioned in the link above but it does seem an underreported story that Amazon Prime video is also supported on Apple TV 3rd gen (pre appstore model). Just noticed the link pop up this morning on my home screen. At some point I'll have to add my login and see if there's anything worthwhile.

Does anyone have a 3rd generation Apple TV? I'm curious how the Prime Video app feels on it - at Video Job we have more-or-less deprecated our app on that platform.

Well I'll let you know after I play with it tomorrow. We still use it for Hulu and Youtube, and iTunes Home sharing of course.

I recently switched to iOS, because you can't beat free iPhone from work, but the transfer app thing failed miserably from my OnePlus 3. I've set almost everything up manually by now, but I would like to transfer my text messages too.

I used SMS Backup and restore on Android, but it doesn't seem to have an iOS counterpart.

Does anyone know how to tackle this?

Suvanto wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

After spending a week with IOS I can definitely say I prefer Android. I was going to do a small pros and cons list, but I don't think anyone is that interested, plus it's all preference. There's nothing I couldn't get used to if I had to stay with IOS.

I would like to see a small comparison between a modern Android and IOS, if you don't mind.

If I'm honest, part of the reason I didn't post it was because I sound like a whiney baby who just wants his favorite toy back, and I didn't give iOS much of a shot. I got the phone expecting to hate it and go back to Android.

It's mostly con, because that's where I was in writing when OnePlus arrived, plus my blind love for Android wouldn't let me see many positives.

Spoiler to prevent text wall and make it easy to miss.

Spoiler:

Location. Location. Location! A lot of the issues I seem to have with iOS is button placement. I’ll start with the back button. It is in the wrong spot. I assume the reason it was put in the top left to begin with is because that is where it is on browsers, but it doesn’t make sense on a screen where the input device is typically tethered to the bottom right. And the fact that it wasn’t always there was a pain. There was a number of times I had to go home and reopen the app I was just in because I couldn’t figure out how to go back. I assume that is because of my inexperience with the OS, but when coming from a device where the back button is always there and in the same spot, it didn’t feel as intuitive.

Some people say that all video games should have a level builder, well I say all apps should rotate when I want them to. This also goes for the home screen Android! The only time I could get the screen to rotate is when a video was playing. I am a person that watches a lot of YouTube content, and I typically mount my phone to something when doing so. With iOS I was constantly taking my phone in and out of the mount because the YouTube app wouldn’t rotate when not in a video.

The widget screen is one of the most frustrating things about iOS to me. It’s not just the fact that they sore you to put them on on screen, it’s just more of the “You use this the way we want you to use it” attitude. Nothing makes sense to me about this screen other than Apple doesn’t want you to mix widgets and icons. You can’t mess up their design. Forcing the widget screen to be a scrolling list of widgets instead of pages of widgets seems counter intuitive too. The point of a widget is to have quick access to app controls. It’s not as quick if I have to slide to the widget page and then scroll to the widget I want to use. If you don’t want icons mixing with widgets, at least let me have multiple widget pages.

I mentioned this a little in the widget section, but to expand a little. Icon location is just silly. They admit that reaching the top of the screen can be difficult by adding a “feature” that pulls the entire screen down for a few seconds. Why not just let me put icons at the bottom? Or at least let me choose which side they auto arrange to.

I just think Android just handles notifications better. It groups notifications from the same app into one. It just makes it easier to dismiss the unimportant stuff and open the things that need an action taken.

The Play Store is bad for trying to surface too many apps and the App Store is bad for the opposite reason.

This was probably a setting I needed to change somewhere, but I was having an issue with the Swiftkey Keyboard. Well, more that the Apple keyboard would pop up in some apps instead of Swiftkey. I was really excited to see that I would get Switkey, less excited that I couldn’t always use.

This was awesome when it popped up on my phone. My daughter walked downstairs and asked for the wifi password and I almost immediately got a notification on my phone asking if I wanted to send her the password. I haven’t seen anything like this in Android.

The silence slider should be on every phone. Having the ability to silence the phone without looking at it just smart.

Aww quit crying ya big baby! Seriously though, nothing you complained about is wrong.

Here are some tips from a longtime iOS user:

The back button was shoehorned into the ui only a few years ago when Apple started allowing apps to interact with each other more. It's kludgy and ugly and hard to reach. If an app invokes another app to trigger the back button, you could also just double tap home to flip back or force-press the left edge of the screen and drag to flip back.

The widget screen is more or less useless to me because its a pain to get to. What IS very useful though is that any app that has a widget can be force-pressed to bring up its widget. I keep a lot of apps on my home screen that have quick actions like this. For instance, every morning I just force-press Waze and select 'drive to work.'

I may be mistaken, but I think the only reason a custom keyboard should kick back to the iOS default is to enter passwords. It's a security feature that, although annoying, I've just learned to live with.

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I think my biggest complaint with iOS is the notifications. Grouping would certainly be nice, but I don't understand why most apps don't sync with other devices! Clearing notifications should sync to all devices and the badges should update too.

I've been nodding my head all morning, because I found a blog that bangs on Apple's awful design of late.

The iPhone X Is A User Experience Nightmare

From this piece.

With the iPhone X, Apple has completely left behind Steve Jobs’s original motto: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Now it’s the ultimate mess with singing chickens.

Also, a fun graphic on navigating the X.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNu58JoVwAAHiTC.jpg)

Another older piece linked from that piece. I can really relate to this.

How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name

What kind of design philosophy requires millions of its users to have to pretend they are disabled in order to be able to use the product? Apple could have designed its phone so that the majority of people could read and use the phone without having to label themselves as needy, disabled, and requiring assistance. Even worse, the assistive corrections destroy the very beauty Apple is so fond of as well as sometimes making the text no longer fit on the screen. If the font would have had slightly greater width, higher contrast, and with just a bit less antialiasing, all well understood principles of font design for readability. Apple could have preserved both beauty and legibility.

Literally the first thing I do upon setting up an iPad or iPhone is to increase the font size and various other tricks to make sure I can actually read the text on the phone. This has been going on for some time. Basically since iOS7. It's gotten slightly better with 11, but still it's a thing I tolerate because these days because only 1 company makes a secure, private smartphone and I need a smartphone.

IMAGE(https://e3.365dm.com/17/11/1096x616/skynews-samsung-apple-iphone_4148575.jpg?20171106084812)

Pretty much. Ironically the notch hides a bunch of useful information that was previously in the status bar. It's like a cascade of bad decisions that all start with the following premises, sometimes related, sometimes not.

- The iPhone must be waterproof, so the headphone jack must go away
- Because the headphone jack has gone away and plugging in two lightning cables is a hassle, let's develop wireless earbuds
- Because we're going wireless, let's go all-in and support wireless charging
- Because the phone now has a glass back there's no place for a fingerprint sensor on the back

Now there are a series of awkward compromises all connected to a future vision I just don't see.

Why is my Photostream not updating consistently on my Mac still a problem at this point? Crikey Apple.

Edit: if they just added an "update now" button then, sure, it would acknowledge that there's a problem but it would turn a significant irritation into a very minor inconvenience.

Another reason to not like Iphone. I sold the phone, but the person I sold it to can't use it because my account is still somehow attached to it even though I wiped it. Now I have to either refund the phone or give them my login information.

I'm sure this is some kind of security feature, but does that matter? If the phone was stolen I still wouldn't have a phone. If the phone had a lock screen they still wouldn't be able to use the phone.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Another reason to not like Iphone. I sold the phone, but the person I sold it to can't use it because my account is still somehow attached to it even though I wiped it. Now I have to either refund the phone or give them my login information.

Do NOT give them your login info. Log into your Apple account here and remove your device from your account:

https://appleid.apple.com/account/ma...

That should do it.

PaladinTom wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Another reason to not like Iphone. I sold the phone, but the person I sold it to can't use it because my account is still somehow attached to it even though I wiped it. Now I have to either refund the phone or give them my login information.

Do NOT give them your login info. Log into your Apple account here and remove your device from your account:

https://appleid.apple.com/account/ma...

That should do it.

I did. Of course I couldn't remember my password and now I have to wait for Apple to determine that my account needs to be recovered.

This is a security feature that makes it harder for thieves to steal the phone and use it. If someone steals your phone without this they can just reset the phone and start using it. With this you can't just reset the phone and use it. Android does this as well.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

This is a security feature that makes it harder for thieves to steal the phone and use it. If someone steals your phone without this they can just reset the phone and start using it. With this you can't just reset the phone and use it. Android does this as well.

Odd, I thought you couldn't wipe the phone in the first place without disabling Find My Phone?

Kurrelgyre wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:

This is a security feature that makes it harder for thieves to steal the phone and use it. If someone steals your phone without this they can just reset the phone and start using it. With this you can't just reset the phone and use it. Android does this as well.

Odd, I thought you couldn't wipe the phone in the first place without disabling Find My Phone?

Correct.

I'm considering an Apple Watch, more-or-less for the novelty factor (my parents have long abandoned trying to figure out a birthday/holiday gift and just give me money on the classic condition "get something you wouldn't normally buy with your own money")

Since it's more for the novelty and less for the utility, I'm considering a used first generation Apple Watch, which run at or below $150 on various sites. Those are a few generations old now, does anyone still use a first-gen Apple Watch? Is watchOS still somewhat quick, or is it worth spending a bit more to get a used Series 1 or Series 2?

Also, are there any must-have killer apps or whatever for the device? One big point for me is that I'd like to wear it to sleep and use it as a personal alarm that doesn't wake up my wife or son.

Edit: "is there" -> "are there". Grammar!

T-Prime wrote:

Also, is there any must-have killer apps or whatever for the device? One big point for me is that I'd like to wear it to sleep and use it as a personal alarm that doesn't wake up my wife or son.

This is a killer app, IMO. My wife has one and uses it for this and I find it personally invaluable. The watch vibrates on her wrist and she pops up and doesn't even stir me most days.

Others who actually own one can speak to the real killer apps, but I really appreciate this.

T-Prime wrote:

I'm considering an Apple Watch, more-or-less for the novelty factor (my parents have long abandoned trying to figure out a birthday/holiday gift and just give me money on the classic condition "get something you wouldn't normally buy with your own money")

Since it's more for the novelty and less for the utility, I'm considering a used first generation Apple Watch, which run at or below $150 on various sites. Those are a few generations old now, does anyone still use a first-gen Apple Watch? Is watchOS still somewhat quick, or is it worth spending a bit more to get a used Series 1 or Series 2?

Also, is there any must-have killer apps or whatever for the device? One big point for me is that I'd like to wear it to sleep and use it as a personal alarm that doesn't wake up my wife or son.

I had a Series 1, it's now my Wife's I haven't gotten another one.

The alarm is fun, but on an older watch you'll need to charge it before bed if you have it on all day. I believe the Series 2 had better battery life.

Killer apps:Not really - most of what I had (and now my wife has) on the watch are reminders from the phone, and the activity app which is pretty great. Breathe is also good as a reminder to stop for a couple minutes every hour (or however long you set it to). There are a couple of idle games that are pretty fun, but otherwise no one really developed for it.

I started not wearing it because it can be really distracting, especially if multiple things are going to it (like for me, Slack notifications, Email, Meeting reminders etc etc).

T-Prime wrote:

I'm considering an Apple Watch, more-or-less for the novelty factor (my parents have long abandoned trying to figure out a birthday/holiday gift and just give me money on the classic condition "get something you wouldn't normally buy with your own money")

Since it's more for the novelty and less for the utility, I'm considering a used first generation Apple Watch, which run at or below $150 on various sites. Those are a few generations old now, does anyone still use a first-gen Apple Watch? Is watchOS still somewhat quick, or is it worth spending a bit more to get a used Series 1 or Series 2?

Also, is there any must-have killer apps or whatever for the device? One big point for me is that I'd like to wear it to sleep and use it as a personal alarm that doesn't wake up my wife or son.

My first concern would be a 2-3 year old lithium battery. Unless it has been replaced you are likely looking at very a degraded battery life.

The Apple Store will replace any Apple Watch battery that's out of warranty for $79. None of the models are considered obsolete, yet.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

The Apple Store will replace any Apple Watch battery that's out of warranty for $79. None of the models are considered obsolete, yet.

Right, but that should definitely be taken into consideration with the price.

Edit: Whoops, I just assumed that those were used watches. Is the $150 price for new?

Hovering around $150 for a used first-gen 42mm watch on Swappa.

Related: Does anyone have experience with buying from Swappa? I just assume it's on-par with eBay for buying stuff.

athros wrote:

The alarm is fun, but on an older watch you'll need to charge it before bed if you have it on all day. I believe the Series 2 had better battery life.

This. The gen 1 battery doesn't last very long, even new. It's basically meant to be left on the charger overnight. If you want to wear it to bed as an alarm, you'll need to charge it at some other point during the day.

T-Prime wrote:

Hovering around $150 for a used first-gen 42mm watch on Swappa.

Related: Does anyone have experience with buying from Swappa? I just assume it's on-par with eBay for buying stuff.

I think Swappa's better because they insist on proving (as much as is possible) that your device is clean, paid off, etc. They're really good at ensuring transparency. All my experiences have been positive. Most of the sellers there are fairly professional or tech enthusiasts. The worst you're likely to run into are people refurbishing products and selling them there. And in that situation you can always ask if they were the original owner, etc., get the proof you require and proceed accordingly.

All used markets are buyer beware. Even Apple refurbished products. Swappa seems to be one of the better ones, though.

DSGamer wrote:

Even Apple refurbished products.

I've bought several Apple refurbs and have never had a problem. Apple replaces the batteries and screens on all of their refurbs. They also come with a 1 year warranty. The down side is that their refurbs aren't as heavily discounted as you might find elsewhere.

The best time to buy is right after an Apple event. I mean literally as soon as the store comes back online after a newer version of a device goes up for sale.

PaladinTom wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Even Apple refurbished products.

I've bought several Apple refurbs and have never had a problem. Apple replaces the batteries and screens on all of their refurbs. They also come with a 1 year warranty. The down side is that their refurbs aren't as heavily discounted as you might find elsewhere.

The best time to buy is right after an Apple event. I mean literally as soon as the store comes back online after a newer version of a device goes up for sale.

Sure. I've heard horror stories of devices having trouble, but as you can imagine that's anecdotal and Apple's return / repair policy is going to be head and shoulders above everyone else.

I just meant that even with the best refurbished resellers (Apple) there's always risk. I would put Swappa at riskier than Apple, but worth it on price, while being much less risky than Amazon, eBay, etc.

DSGamer wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Even Apple refurbished products.

I've bought several Apple refurbs and have never had a problem. Apple replaces the batteries and screens on all of their refurbs. They also come with a 1 year warranty. The down side is that their refurbs aren't as heavily discounted as you might find elsewhere.

The best time to buy is right after an Apple event. I mean literally as soon as the store comes back online after a newer version of a device goes up for sale.

Sure. I've heard horror stories of devices having trouble, but as you can imagine that's anecdotal and Apple's return / repair policy is going to be head and shoulders above everyone else.

I just meant that even with the best refurbished resellers (Apple) there's always risk. I would put Swappa at riskier than Apple, but worth it on price, while being much less risky than Amazon, eBay, etc.

I've heard of Swappa before but didn't know they're better than eBay (which I hate and only use when I have to).

I actually have a few devices to sell that I am going to look into. Thanks!