I've been an Android user ever since 2011 and I also own iOS devices. Care to name "popular apps on Android" deciding to "go off the reserve" and that don't work?
My first smartphone was actually an iPhone 3GS. Because of Apple's walled garden, it couldn't help me with a really simple and downright obvious task for a smartphone - blocking unwanted phone numbers from calling or texting me. People had to jailbreak their phones and install Cydia in order to do that. And because Apple caters to users instead of mobile careers, my iPhone could not tether my 3G connection either because Orange wasn't allowing it without an extra $5 per month. Oh wait, I think I got that backwards. So another use-case for which my smartphone was completely unsuitable for.
Now I've got an iPhone 6s that I received as a gift (well, I'm blessed with friends that think I want Apple stuff just because I use a MacBook for work). And I find the restrictions to be as annoying as ever. Yesterday's Firefox release for iOS reminded me of this very fact. On Android I've got the real Firefox and it can do extensions and it can innovate. For example I was blocking ads long before iOS 9, the very concept of ad blocking happening for Firefox first. Plus I use Firefox on my desktop so syncing is nice and I hate monocultures, like what WebKit has become. You see, I couldn't give a crap about F.lux, but I do care about having Firefox, as it's the open-source browser that saved the web and the browser that now keeps WebKit from taking over the whole market, like IExplorer 5 and 6 once did.
> I'll take that over complete unfettered license to muck about in the operating system
I understand that, but this is were we disagree the most. In society people can be very evil, people can steal from you, can leave you without your job, people can hurt you and your family in myriads of ways. Yet we can cope with this uncertainty, as we've invented institutions that protect us in times of need, we came up with rules for interacting with society (e.g. the concept of trust), we do our part in educating our children to not be complete assholes and all of this usually works, in spite of having certain rights and freedoms, like the freedom of expression, the right to having property, or the right for privacy. People often forget about that last one of course, as we increasingly prefer to police our peers in the name of security, in spite of a lack of evidence that it leads to a more secure environment and often forgetting what it is like to live in a police state, though as somebody that grew up in an Eastern Europe country that was once a police state, trust me when I say that's not nice.
But back to the point - personally, I consider any platform that rejects useful apps to be completely inappropriate, no matter the reasoning. And of course, Apple can do whatever they wish with their property, which is a fundamental right after all, but that doesn't mean I can't exercise my freedom of expression to bitch and moan about how much that sucks.
As is the expected answer to your softball there, no, I don't keep a list of apps I had issues with in my back pocket. You can choose to disregard my previous post if you'd like given this shocking revelation, that's kind of the point right?
I suspect there's a solution for every trouble I had, but the point is that after 4 years I don't want managing a phone to require that much of my life.
> I understand that, but this is were we disagree the most.
Apple isn't the USSR, nor a post-USSR bloc state. It's in a sense an agreed-upon model for the social structures you're discussing here.
Many, many consumers have chosen the ethos of Apple-as-institution.
Not sure what your point is with the right to privacy stuff. I'm not sure I've seen compelling evidence that Google of all companies protects your privacy any better than Apple.
Edit: Here's one[1] comment at least on the different approaches the two companies have taken, and the advantage Google may have with it's softer stance on protecting your privacy. (Though, I'm sure the source is biased in some way, it's just one article.)
But back to the point -
It's good that your personal definitions disagree with the line Apple draws between "useful" and "potentially dangerous to the experience or stability of the phone." You should absolutely have your own opinion and make choices based on it, I've nothing to say in the contrary.
I can name everything that frustrated me over time on both Android and iOS. And I can certainly name ways in which the apps I use have failed. I also have a pretty bad memory in general, the only reason for why I can remember such things is because we humans have a pretty good memory for things that cause us grievance.
This is why I was curious, as I certainly want to learn from the experience of others. You not being able to name apps that you claim have been going "off the reserve" and "muck about in the operating system" is a pretty strong indicator that you're probably lying. Again, this is how trust works.
And I wasn't talking about who is providing better privacy, but about policing your peers in the name of some bullshit security claims and other nonsense. Practices which have been agreed upon, embraced actually in the former USSR by its people. Or maybe you've got the impression that the "social structures" in the former USSR weren't "agreed upon", but that would be odd.
Even more so, you seem to think that iOS apps don't go "off the reserve". Remember that time when it was discovered that Twitter on iOS is tracking installed third-party apps from last year? As if everybody else wasn't doing it - I know because I participated in the development of such an app a year earlier. And do you know how Dropbox detects movement to wake up its app in order to backup your pictures? It must do that because otherwise iOS doesn't leave background processes running, so instead Dropbox is asking for (and has the potential to track) your location. And do you remember when VLC was pulled from the iTunes Store (not sure why), with the iTunes Store being then filled with knockoffs guilty of using VLC's name and logo, and probably spyware (since that's what knockoffs usually are) with Apple not lifting a finger to clean that up?
There, I just named 3 instances for iOS without being a heavy iOS user.
> This is why I was curious, [...] is a pretty strong indicator that you're probably lying.
Like I said above, discount all of my comments if you'd like, that was your goal in the first place.
It's an indicator that I didn't keep a list, and that, as I said, I don't want a phone to be such an important part of my conscious experience that I could do so. I doubt any list I gave you would actually lend credibility here, as your position seems to be to discredit vs discuss.
> Again, this is how trust works.
Not really, no. Trust is established through a set of conditions two or more parties agrees establishes authenticity. You've just made demands, I'm pretty sure.
> And I wasn't talking about [...]
Neither of these products is "policing your peers in the name of some batshit security claims." Apple, Google and Microsoft have published ground rules for playing in their playground. You said above that you don't want to play in Apple's.
So don't play in Apple's. That's totally cool. I just got sick of playing in Google's. It's counter to your message to attempt to force someone else's compliance with your set of values, isn't it?
My first smartphone was actually an iPhone 3GS. Because of Apple's walled garden, it couldn't help me with a really simple and downright obvious task for a smartphone - blocking unwanted phone numbers from calling or texting me. People had to jailbreak their phones and install Cydia in order to do that. And because Apple caters to users instead of mobile careers, my iPhone could not tether my 3G connection either because Orange wasn't allowing it without an extra $5 per month. Oh wait, I think I got that backwards. So another use-case for which my smartphone was completely unsuitable for.
Now I've got an iPhone 6s that I received as a gift (well, I'm blessed with friends that think I want Apple stuff just because I use a MacBook for work). And I find the restrictions to be as annoying as ever. Yesterday's Firefox release for iOS reminded me of this very fact. On Android I've got the real Firefox and it can do extensions and it can innovate. For example I was blocking ads long before iOS 9, the very concept of ad blocking happening for Firefox first. Plus I use Firefox on my desktop so syncing is nice and I hate monocultures, like what WebKit has become. You see, I couldn't give a crap about F.lux, but I do care about having Firefox, as it's the open-source browser that saved the web and the browser that now keeps WebKit from taking over the whole market, like IExplorer 5 and 6 once did.
> I'll take that over complete unfettered license to muck about in the operating system
I understand that, but this is were we disagree the most. In society people can be very evil, people can steal from you, can leave you without your job, people can hurt you and your family in myriads of ways. Yet we can cope with this uncertainty, as we've invented institutions that protect us in times of need, we came up with rules for interacting with society (e.g. the concept of trust), we do our part in educating our children to not be complete assholes and all of this usually works, in spite of having certain rights and freedoms, like the freedom of expression, the right to having property, or the right for privacy. People often forget about that last one of course, as we increasingly prefer to police our peers in the name of security, in spite of a lack of evidence that it leads to a more secure environment and often forgetting what it is like to live in a police state, though as somebody that grew up in an Eastern Europe country that was once a police state, trust me when I say that's not nice.
But back to the point - personally, I consider any platform that rejects useful apps to be completely inappropriate, no matter the reasoning. And of course, Apple can do whatever they wish with their property, which is a fundamental right after all, but that doesn't mean I can't exercise my freedom of expression to bitch and moan about how much that sucks.