I need a new cell phone = frustration! I hate cell phones!

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I'm with you on using a phone for many years. Especially if it works good and you like it. And especially for the money that a "good" phone costs. I know that used iPhones have good value, so you can always trade in your old one as a way to upgrade to a new one. But jeez, I don't have the ambition to do that every year or two LOL. And I like to keep my old phone as a backup anyways.

My current cell phone provider still uses SIM cards. I say "still" because I don't know how much longer that will be around. I really like using SIM cards. I can get a phone at anytime from anywhere, and as long as it isn't locked, I can put my SIM card in it and immediately start using it. I don't have to wait, I don't have to call anyone or do anything to activate it. Just pop that SIM card in and that's that. The Unihertz was even a dual SIM card phone, which is a neat feature for certain things. The iPhone 13, the model that I got, is the last model iPhone (in the USA) to use a physical SIM card. Later models use eSIM cards, which requires you to go through your carrier to activate. I think that's lame.

The BB KeyONE was really long in the tooth though, but I kept using it anyway. Granted, I kept using it mostly because there was no equivalent to upgrade to. But still, six years went by very fast. I would have easily kept it longer if it was still supported. But it started to slow down. Eventually even the top companies stop supporting older hardware and OS versions. The ones that still work may not be optimized. And some just simply no longer work. Like the Amazon shopping app updated and then told me my OS was too old and the app is no longer supported. That was annoying. Also, the KeyONE didn't have any security updates for the OS in years. So I was pretty much forced to get a new phone. It just really sucks, that was by far my favorite cell phone. Oh well. Nothing gold can stay.




So my iPhone 13 was delivered Friday, and I switched to it that night after I got home from work. I've been using it over the weekend, mostly just setting everything up, but so far I think it's great. It's very snappy, and texting with other iPhone users is definitely a better experience than Android. Using the phone, the OS, is not completely foreign to an Android user. It's largely the same, with a few key differences. There might be a few things I think Android does better. But as far as how you interact with the OS, I don't have a strong opinion on Android versus IOS.

Some various things that annoy me or I'll have to get use to...

One thing that I find kind of annoying is settings. So this took me a few minutes before I realized how it works. But on Android, when you're in an app you can go into that app's settings. But on IOS, there's a settings app that you go to for all settings of all apps. I think the Android method is better. One thing that could suck about Android app settings is the way to get into the settings differs from app to app. So sometimes it takes me a while to find out WHERE settings are. But the downside of IOS is that you constantly have to switch form the app you're using into the settings app to tweak something, then switch back again to the app. It just doesn't seem as logical in my brain. But in reality, since switching between apps is pretty seamless with gestures, I'm sure in time it'll just seem as natural to me.

The other weird thing coming off Android is the control center or whatever it's called. On Android, you pull down from the top for quick access for certain controls and this is also where you view notifications. On IOS, you swipe down from the top for notifications, but you have to swipe from the top-right corner for quick access controls. I guess it's no big deal, and I'm just use to those things being in the same location.

But one thing that I'm not liking with notifications, so far, is there doesn't seem to be any flags for them. Like, if I miss the banner pop-up for a notification then I see no indication that there's a notification waiting for me if I swipe down from the top. I don't know if I'm missing something, or there's a setting I need to tweak. But I miss having the little icons in the top-left alerting me to check notifications.

One neat thing with Google and Android is Google Prompts. So if you have a Google account, you can set up Prompts as an authentication. So if you log into an account on a new device, or similar thing that warrants a prompt, you get a notification on your Android device that you can allow or deny. But it isn't an app, it's built into the OS so it's really seamless. You can still do Google Prompts on ISO, but you have to install a Google app to do so. And then the prompts are a notification that have to open an app (or web page?) to allow or deny. I guess it works just as good, it's just not as seamless as on an Android device.

Another weird thing that doesn't really matter that Android does better is moving icons around on your home screen. On Android, you can place them where ever in a grid sort of like a Windows desktop. But on IOS, they can't just be where ever, they have to be in a row. That seems kind of weird that they limit how you can place things on your home screen.

I've noticed whenever there is a back button it's always in the top-left corner. I find that annoying, I'm use to being able to hit back (a physical button) with my thumb, even when one-handing the phone.

The app store seems pretty neat. But one thing that I dislike to far is the lack of filtering when searching. For example, no option to filter by "highest rated" or "most installs" etc.

There doesn't seem to be a way to archive text messages. On Android, I can swipe a text thread to the right and that archives it. It doesn't delete it, it pretty much just hides it. And it's as simple as swiping right. I do this often, for OTP codes and people that I don't particularly like and don't want to see constantly in my list of text threads. But I can keep the thread with those people, just hide it. On iPhone, there doesn't seem to be a way to do this. Just delete a thread, which isn't even that easy since it has a few steps to do.

I was aware that there's an app you can get from Google Play to transfer stuff from Android to iPhone, but I really didn't care to use that. I kind of wanted to do a "from scratch" set up. Luckily, a .vcf contacts backup is compatible with everything it seems. So I just dumped my Android contacts and imported them on the iPhone. Nothing else I really cared to transfer. And I don't mind setting up a few accounts.

I installed Gmail but mostly so I can get Google Prompts. I've been using the iPhone mail app. So far I mostly like it better than the Gmail app. I don't use the mail app on my phone a whole lot, so it doesn't make much of a difference. But the mail app on iPhone seems to be a lot people to monitor multiple mailboxes. That's one huge plus for it in my opinion.

I see that I can install Google Maps on iPhone. I decided not to, and to check out the Maps app that comes on iPhone. I haven't navigated with Maps yet, so I can't comment on that (although I'm sure it's fine) but so far I like the usability of it a lot more. Just setting up some favorites and well and home and work locations, and general use of the app, it seems to be better than Google Maps. For example, if I keep Maps on my home screen then I can quickly tap maps then tape Home or Work to start navigating. With Google Maps, I have to do more clicking and some scrolling. I know I can add a "home" shortcut for Google Maps, but that takes up valuable home screen space. I just like that when I open Maps on iPhone, your favorites are RIGHT THERE and you can easily click on "more" to get the full list. Then the list of favorites is huge, easier to read (notably when you're in the car) and easy to add nicknames to. It just feels like someone took all of those annoying things I thought about Google Maps and fixed it for me.

I can go on about a lot of small things, but on the whole, I'm really liking it so far. It's very snappy, and mostly intuitive to use. And it's funny that this model was released two years ago. Most Androids that are two years old are not going to be nearly as good of an experience.

Now for me, the elephant in the room is the keyboard. I've just been such a big fan of physical keyboards for so long, that's mostly what kept me from upgrading over the years. I have had a touch screen keyboard before, it's just been a while. I just finally got to the point that I'm willing to sacrifice the physical keyboard for a better experience with everything else. That said, the iPhone keyboard has been mostly good for me so far. When I type on it normally, I can get away without many errors. When I try to type fast though, I end up with lots of errors. It also depends on my posture. Like if I'm sitting upright or standing, and I can faster and more accurately. When I'm sitting back or lying down, I start to fat finger the keys. But luckily swiping still feels pretty natural, I use to swipe all the time on my last Android without a physical keyboard. I've already gotten use to certain shortcuts, like double tapping space for a period. I'd like to know though if there's any shortcuts for typing a comma, exclamation and question mark. Aside from going into "123" mode. If not, I'm already sort of getting using to hitting 123 to type those punctuation. Anyways, I'm glad that typing on this iPhone doesn't seem so bad.

And, of course, the camera is amazing. That's one thing I'm looking forward to using for sure. I've always used my phone's camera more as a tool than the way people normally take pictures. I mean, I'll occasionally take a picture of a person or a nice view. But that's rare compared to how I use my camera on a daily basis. Being able to quickly take a picture that's clear and in focus and automatically adjust the light levels for dark areas is just fantastic. Like if I have to stick the phone in a small dark spot to try and snap the pic of a model or serial number. Or in a cramped area, the wide angle feature really comes in handy.

I'm also happy to have a slimmer phone again. Not that this is something specific to the iPhone, it's pretty normal thickness for phones today. But the UniHertz Titan Slim was a tad thick. Holding a slimmer phone again just feels more comfortable.

[marurun]

The thing that seems to sunset iPhones more than any other factor (other than physical damage) is the battery. Apple has the same battery issues everyone else does, but the batteries are more expensive to replace in Apple devices (not that they're cheap with any phone). But I'd say the quality of Apple's devices justifies investigating replacement batteries to extend the device's life. Apple also is very good about supporting older units with new OSes. iOS 17 just released on the 18th and it supports phones going back to the XS (Sept. 2018) and the budget XR (Oct. 2018). iOS major versions are roughly annual, so that means that the XS and XR will be supported officially by the OS until probably Sep. 2024, or for 6 years. And even though iOS 18 is likely to drop those oldest devices, Apple will still selectively issue some security updates for probably another year. Compared to the typical uneven support Android vendors offer this is essential to keeping older Apple hardware in circulation.