speaking of alternatives, what brand do people hate that actually has a decent alternative?
speaking of alternatives, what brand do people hate that actually has a decent alternative?
I know people prefer to complain instead of act, but what is something people don't like but has an alternative?
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iPhones. Love my Pixel and I don't care how much my co-workers bitch about bubble colors.
I (American) just attended a strategy meeting and one of the ice breakers was "are you a green or blue bubble?".
I had no idea what it meant, similar to others that are android users. While it was a fun and engaging session, I was kind of shocked that was a thing. I'm obviously not oblivious to Apple vs Android convos and opinions, but I had never been asked that question.
Our group, BTW, was pretty evenly split. 😅
The alternative to that is using Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp. I didn't even know it was a thing until I read American news on Apple being it's regular anti-consumer self.
As an European, I always find it funny how iMessage seems to be so prevalent in the US that the "bubble colors" issue is even a thing. Here, almost everyone uses WhatsApp. Better for communication across different device types, probably worse for privacy. But at least no artificial discrimination because apple hates open standards ¯\(ツ)/¯
apple hates open standards
What about WhatsApp is open?
I think they are maybe referring to Apple's reluctance to integrate with RCS.
Not an unfair complaint against Apple, but ignores Google's/Android's problematic "support" for RCS, and in this context of this comment seems to imply that What'sApp isn't "closed" like iMessage.
Yeah, that's true. Pretty much every messenger has that issue, Signal, Telegram, etc. Ideally there would be an open standard like email, SMS and you could choose your preferred app and have cross messaging and group chats.
RIM made a similar play when they kept BBM closed to their phones and it backfired but Apple seem to have the opposite effect from keeping it all in house.
I'm certainly not trying to be an Apple apologist here, as iMessage has plenty to critique. But it bears consideration that iMessage falling back to SMS is a certain amount of openness, is it not?
Just thought I’d come back to share this if you haven’t already seen it. They’re at it again!
I mean, RCS is garbage, And googles messaging woes are entirely of their own design, see: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/
A lot of reading there, I'll be honest, I cherry picked a few bits.
It is for the most part not the best but I still use it for sending uncompressed images. If you use the Google messages SMS app it does offer a bit more. I still think they should get a bit of Kudos for trying but at the same time. The iterative death, rebrand and rebirth of Google messaging platforms has been terrible. Allo was the worst in my opinion.
Yeah it's weird. I mean I use Google Message (RCS) and it has visual differences for conversations that are using RCS vs ones using SMS but I honestly don't care about the color. I care more about using a modern cross platform standard than falling back to ancient SMS because Apple wants to use a proprietary locked down system at the expense of their user's experience. WhatsApp might not be bad but no one I know really uses it so I would have to start convincing people to switch. That's more than a uphill battle. It's completely futile. The only thing that will change the tide is Apple either opening up iMessage or Apple incorporating RCS into iMessage. I don't see either happening anytime soon because they simply don't care about interoperability.
Went back to android with the first pixel. After five different phones (microphones and speakers kept breaking) I went back to iPhone.
All 5 were Pixel's?
Yes - only because they were still under warranty so google kept shipping me more.
Sounds like you had issues exclusively with hardware, perhaps you should'ce gone for a different manufacturer. My personal anecdote has never seen anything break (that I didn't cause myself).
I mean, it’s google’s flagship phone. My experience with Samsung in their other products has never been good. Which is why I went back to the product that has always worked for me.
This is why I don’t buy Android.
The software isn’t optimized enough from smoothness and battery consumption perspective.
Also, the ROM that’s usually comes from the manufacturer is either spyware, bloated, or just crap. You need technical knowledge and risking bricking your device to install custom ROM.
The hardware, which is my least concern, depends on the company you buy from.
My SONY smart tv (with apps disabled) would phone home like ~200 times a minute.
Fellow Sony Smart tv owner here. Whatever that google tv os thing is, it phones home like crazy. And with my Pihole enabled on the network some of the tv functionality doesn't work. I just banned it's MAC address from my network at the router and don't use it's "smart" features.
I did use pihole to block it. Sadly, not everyone have the technical knowledge to do so.
That’s why I’d recommend apple products even though they’re not that great.
Aside from firmware updates, I don't know why anyone uses smart tv apps. 99% of the time they are terrible and buggy. Get an apple tv or shield, or even a fire stick. I'd love to find some kind of private tv device (at least the device itself, I know the apps are the data siphons) if anyone has suggestions.
I think you just got unlucky most people don't have anything close to that experience
Yeah, conversely my kids use iPhones and they, and their iPods back in the day, are more troublesome than my and my wife's Androids (Galaxies, Pixels, One+)
The kids are only on iPhones because they were the smallest form factors for sale at the time. Little kids have little pockets
Yeah it sucks that apple stopped the mini line they were really the only option for a good small phone
This is the same thing that happens with Windows and Mac. Your issue was hardware; you could have tried any of the other manufacturers who make Android phones. It's like saying you stick with Mac because you don't like Dell - there are other hardware brands who use the same operating system.
As I mentioned elsewhere - this was google’s FLAGSHIP phone. The other big hardware manufacturer for android is Samsung - I’ve had plenty of their products (including a phone) and have not had good experiences.
As for your other comparison, I actually use Mac because after 7 years my MacBook runs like the day I bought it whereas the 4-year-old Lenovo l have takes about 15 minutes to boot and struggles to open Word.
In the US,I phone is a social status. They're judging you because it's like you don't own a car and just have a unicycle in their minds. What amazing marketing. I'm an Android pixel owner since the beginning and still am. There's some articles written about it too
It's strange as flagship Androids are just as expensive.
But there are a lot of Androids that aren't expensive, unlike iPhones.
Yeah Apple people are very clickie. If you don't have one you're a freak. Lol I'm fine being a freak. I never cared much about fitting in anyway. Fuck the Joneses!
Is spending money for social status, just something I'm to mid western to understand?
Like your expected to say all you did to get a good deal when talking about any major purchase here.
Not to mention the slavery going into making them that apple lobbies so hard to maintain.
I can see reasons why people would prefer android, e.g. ability to install apps outside of the manufacturer’s App Store, and there are some android models that are cheaper than iPhone (less so since iPhone SE, but still true).
But the post asks about alternatives for companies that people don’t like. I.e., where it’s the company that has a problem morally. Do people generally think that Google is morally better than Apple? Sure, Apple is anticompetitive about hardware and software access because that’s how they make money, but Google is anticompetitive about data and advertising because that’s how they make their money. I kinda think they’re both bad.
Hoping I don’t come off as antagonistic here. I’m genuinely curious what people think.
I feel like google used to be the good guys relative to apple. They were more open and truly supported open source & standards. But I don't feel like there's much difference anymore.
One of their slogans used to be "don't be evil"
Obviously they dropped that a while back.
I didn't see anything in the original post about morals. I answered based on the fact that Apple is a company that some people don't like and Google offers an alternative for some services and products.
If we're talking strictly about morals I would have to think of a different answer.
You can save so much money and add so many customization options by switching to android.
I'm old, and think of my phone as a piece of equipment. In terms of looks, status, and stuff like that, I'm more interested in what protective case to buy.
I'm not sure but the iPhone bubble colour debate seems so US centric. In the UK, I've never heard of anyone bringing it up
It is 100% exclusive to iPhone users in the US and it's so bizarre and ridiculous. Apple has even brainwashed children with this shit to the point that kids are bullied for not having iPhones.
I wouldn't be surprised if teens in Canada felt the same way. Not necessarily the Hubble colour bu indefinitely sense iPhone is a status thing.