Yesterday, while I was getting lunch with a friend of mine, he asked me how my "break" from iOS was going. I told him it was fine, and went on and on about how the Lumia 1020's camera made up for whatever shortcomings I was having with apps. After all, it's not a secret that the camera is my most important feature these days. More than that, though, while I love all the application options on iOS, the truth is I hardly ever actually used any of them. So, I'm not actually missing all that much, as far as I'm concerned.
While I was talking up the camera, he just nodded at me. Eventually, he couldn't hide the smirk any longer. Of course I knew why he was doing it, and I reassured him that my break from Apple's mobile OS would last longer than just a few days -- the longest it's gone in the past.
Again a nod, coupled with that sarcastic grin.
He's still got his iPhone, and he's still in love with it. However, I know for a fact that it's not all rainbows and butterflies on his end, either. He just doesn't want to switch to anything else, because he's been stuck in the Apple ecosystem for too long. He owns only a few apps from Google Play, and none from the Windows Phone Store. I know he has no desire to switch, because he doesn't have any desire to buy apps all over again.
So my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked him if he loves everything about his phone. He gave me the same speech I've heard before under different circumstances. It's the best iPhone yet, it's ridiculously light, the camera's great, and the display is awesome. (He actually doesn't want a bigger iPhone display, if you can believe it.) He notes that the battery could be better, more often than not, but he's got a Juicepack attached to his phone, so he doesn't much notice anymore.
Through this, though, I notice that he doesn't actually tell me anything he loves about the software. So, I dig in a bit.
And that's when the cracks start to show. He tells me he likes iOS, overall, but that some of the changes he's not a big fan of. Or, more specifically, he's still waiting for Apple to make changes to their platform that have needed to be instigated for quite some time. For instance, he wants to be able to switch defaults -- and he thinks it's ridiculous that this is not something you can do in 2014.
He also wants to be able to interact with the notifications in Notification Center, and not simply remove them from the drop down list, only to have to interact with them again in the specific app. So, like what's available in Android's Shade, he wants to be able to Archive (or delete) mail, share photos, or a plethora of other options. As it stands, he feels the Notification Shade is too simple for its own good.
I was honestly surprised to hear the things he wanted to change, or needed to be changed, for him to be truly happy with iOS as a platform. More shocked, though, that many of the issues have been around for years now, and they're just things Apple refuses -- or has refused, at least -- to address. Maybe that'll change this year, but my friend's got less-than-high expectations for that.
But, what about you? Whether you've used iOS or not, what are your issues with the platform? Are they big enough that they've caused you to ditch the devices running it, or do you ignore them and hope for the best in the future because you don't want to use anything else? Let me know!
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