[Slight OT] TDPL in Russia

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:03:59 -0400, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> "Nick Sabalausky" <a at a.a> wrote in message
> news:i5ov60$2c5c$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:op.vieozxaleav7ka at localhost.localdomain...
>>>
>>> Love my iPhone.  Love it.  My last two phones were a Palm Treo and a
>>> Samsung touch-screen (w/stylus) smartphone with Windows mobile 6.  They
>>> are absolute garbage compared to this.  Granted, I started with the  
>>> 3gs,
>>> and upgraded to iOS4 about a month after I got it, so my phone is the
>>> result of 3 years of polish, but I feel apple has the right focus for  
>>> it.
>>>
>>> iPhone is hands down the best phone I've ever used.  I thought when I  
>>> got
>>> it, I would have a hard time accessing small things like the on-screen
>>> keyboard keys, but I'm surprised at how accurate I am with it, even  
>>> after
>>> only having it for a few months.  I regularly go to webnews on
>>> digitalmars and can click the minuscule links pretty accurately.
>>>
>>> You can not like them if you want, you are entitled to your opinion,  
>>> but
>>> it seems like you have a very negative view of almost everything :)  I
>>> bet your glass is half empty, huh...
>>>
>>
>> I'm a "technical-ist": The glass is half-empty and half-full at the same
>> time. Problem is, most glasses I've seen are only a quarter full and  
>> with
>> overly-sweetened content (or three-quarters empty if you prefer ;) ).
>>
>> I just have standards.
>>
>> A. Search "you're holding it wrong".

Not a problem on my 3gs, and no longer a problem on 4 (free case).  Though  
I understand the issue people have with the statement, Jobs is as arrogant  
as they come...

>>
>> B. Closed platforms are evil (not to be confused with closed source).

s/evil/stable.  It's one of the reasons my previous company was in  
business.  They built server appliances.  When you control everything on  
the platform, there's less things to test, less things that can go wrong,  
and any bugs you fix for one customer automatically translate to all other  
customers.

>>
>> C. Gatekeeping is evil. See also http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html

This I agree with.  It should be enough that the developers follow the  
technical requirements.  Still, the apps that are available are pretty  
cool.  My new favorite is netflix.  When I'm waiting for something  
somewhere and I can continue watching a movie I was streaming at home,  
that's just awesome...

>> D. Service provider lock-in is evil. My phone works with *any* service
>> provider (and didn't become uselessly obsolete after a year or two):
>> http://www.uniden.com/products/productdetail.cfm?product=EXAI398  And I
>> really do like this phone a lot.

Then I guess 99% of phones are evil?  I also have co-workers and friends  
who use jailbroken iphones on other GSM networks.  I could never do that  
with most of my verizon phones.  Besides, who switches phone service  
providers within the life of a phone?  Not to mention that the two biggest  
service providers are incompatible with eachother, so you couldn't switch  
between them even if you wanted to.

>> E. A die-hard Apple fan I know recently showed me his beloved iPad.
>> Accurately setting the text-cursor was nearly impossible. But that would
>> have been an incredibly simple fix: Use a screen that worked with a  
>> stylus
>> or fingernail. There's millions of them out there. Even if that would  
>> have
>> prevented multi-touch (and I don't know that it would or would not  
>> have),
>> after using the multi-touch, I felt it added no real value other than a
>> "gee-whiz" gimmick factor. Stylus/fingernail support would have added at
>> least some real value.

Your friend is doing it wrong.  I can accurately set the cursor whenever I  
want using the magnifying glass.

See an example here:  
http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9781430231295/typing_numbers_and_symbols

>> F. Like all Apple software, the software on the iPad/iPhone are
>> appallingly slim on settings/options.

*shrug*  Most of the settings suit me well.  What options do you miss?

>> G. A *phone* without tactile dial buttons is just plain wrong. What is  
>> it
>> with Apple's long-standing war against tactile feedback? It detracts  
>> from
>> usability and the only thing it adds is high-tech-gee-whiz-gimmick.

What do you need tactile feedback for?  You get audible feedback, and the  
phone number buttons are extremely responsive.  Plus, if you want to dial  
without looking at the phone, you can use voice-activation.

Blackberry tried a touch-screen with tactile feedback, it sucked.

>> H. What's there to protect the highly-prominent screen?

The screen is made of pretty durable glass.  Like all touch-screen phones,  
it's highly advisable to get a screen protector for it.  I don't get what  
your problem is here, do you want a screen or not?  If you do, then what  
possible way could a manufacturer design a destruction-proof screen?  Put  
little airbags around it in case you drop it?

>> I. I don't give a crap how thin they can make it. But Apple seems to  
>> think
>> I should care. Heck, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on
>> something that I'll constantly feel I'm about to accidentally snap in
>> half. But that's exactly how I felt with the iPad.

This is petty :)  I can't speak for the ipad, but the iphone feels more  
durable than any phone I've had.  Maybe you'd prefer this phone:  
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100829/BIZ/708299922/1005/biz

Note that the ipad directly competes with e-Reader devices, so they need  
to appeal to those people too.

>>
>
> J. What happens when the battery gets old and won't hold a charge?

When I was looking at getting a palm pre as a verizon customer, and I  
discovered that palm pre doesn't support voice dialing, I mentioned I'd  
just be switching to AT&T for the iPhone.  The Verizon guy identified the  
battery issue as a reason not to get one.  So I looked up the details.  I  
think apple provides a $100 service to change your battery.  I don't know  
the details, but I think they just swap out your entire phone.  If they  
don't swap out your phone, that's crappy, but I can't complain yet because  
it hasn't happened to me ;)

$100 is pretty steep, but most phone batteries cost $40-60, so it's not  
unreasonable.  I think by making the battery internal they can make it  
more powerful and make the device smaller (sorry, some of us like the  
small size ;).

I also have read if you don't care about your warranty or your warranty is  
expired, you can buy an actual iphone battery online for about $20 and a  
kit for $10 more so you can change it yourself.

>> That's a lot of issues for something that's supposedly well-polished.

Wait, most of these aren't actual problems, but just design decisions you  
disagree with.  In fact, only one is a bug (the iphone 4 antenna problem),  
which has already been addressed.  "I hate how they think they're so cool  
because their devices are thin" isn't even a problem, its just a form of  
name calling.

Note that for all these "problems" you mentioned, the iphone's good  
features are *really* good.  Even the tiny details have thought put into  
them.  One example: I listen to music at work with the enclosed headphones  
(w/ mic and volume control inline on the wire), and I listen to it low, so  
I can hear when other people want to talk to me.  When I get in the car, I  
have to turn the volume on the iphone all the way up to normalize the  
input to the stereo.

I noticed that once I set the respective volumes, I didn't have to change  
them -- the iphone knows the difference between the two headphone types  
and auto-adjusts the volume to the last setting.  It's one of those  
features that is trivial, but just make the iphone a pleasant experience.

I'll tell you a few things that I've found annoying:

1. I disabled downloading graphics in emails (as everyone should), but in  
emails I know are not spam, I want to download the images.  There is no  
button for that...
2. A couple times, the phone had a hard time connecting to a wireless  
network that it previously had no problem with.  It mistakes a bad signal  
with a bad password, so it asks you for the password.  If you don't hit  
"cancel" and just hit "ok", it forgets the password that it used to have.   
I then have to go look up the password as it's some hex string.
3. The calendar app doesn't allow you to jump ahead quickly by months or  
years.  This is annoying when setting a future appointment.  You can  
quickly scroll via the day, they should give you wheels to do the month  
and year also.

-Steve