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T3/stuff - magazines

yenrod

yenrod

Well-Known Member
Can anyone tell me why Stuff and T3 magazines have such a preoccupation with the iPhone - ok its great phone BUT Android IS A BETTER OS which we all know - Anybody ?
 
Jammy in every smart phone test they do they ALWAYS CHAMPION the infernal iPhone for some reason...1 of them has an award ceremony soon anxious hope the Desire gets the best phone title ! I like the mags but the Apple thing does my head in...
 
I think all apple products are handled like this. To me they are highly overrated but the thing is, you get them out of the box and it works. They look nice too. But the problem is, once you own it - you can't do anything YOU want with it. So for that reason, I'm out.
 
I read them both and agree they are iphone biased. The only thing I will say though is that not everyone is as tech savvy as we are. Some people just want good functionality and a UI that's easy to handle. I would say most people aren't really bothered how customisable the UI is provided you can change the tones and wallpaper.

I however love being able to have everything set just so. How I like it. For that I love Android.
 
Owning an iPhone 3G at the moment, I must say it is a pleasure to use. A huge range of apps are it's main strength I'd say, as well as a familiar interface.

BUT my 3G is showing it's age, the camera produces OK pictures but doesn't record video. And I've often been disappointed with "OK" for the pics when I've wanted something a bit better.

So I've decided to upgrade to the Desire HD, it looks awesome, I reclon it could be the one to topple the iPhone from it's throne.

The main factor for me was cost. I got the Desire HD for
 
I am a tech journo covering all sorts of technology (mainly non consumer) and I cancelled subs to both magazines due to their blinkered infatuation with everything Apple. I still get a phone call every now and then asking me if I want to resubscribe and I give the same reason for not doing so.

I met the web editor on one of the magazines once at a press do and even he said he was tired of it. Both editors are Apple fans, so much so that impartiality doesn't even get a look in. Bad journalism if you ask me.
 
I agree..last issue of T3 in Greece made out that iPhone is the best smartphone..without even posting a line re the antenna issue..freebies I guess...
 
I don't mind journalists being Apple fans, but it's really disappointing when there's clear bias towards the iPhone.

Take the Gadget Show's iPhone4 review for example. They compared the iPhone4 to the Desire by seeing who could post a picture on Twitter the fastest. That's fair enough, but they had a guy who's had an iPhone for a couple of years against the presenter who's had the Desire for a couple of hours. No surprise that the iPhone4 was faster, or rather the USER of the iPhone4 was faster! It had absolutely nothing to do with the phone's ease of use or usability, all it showed was that a long-term iPhone user knows more about how the iPhone works than someone picking up the Desire for the first time.
 
I'm pretty tired of the argument that iPhones are easy to use or work from the box. Is Android any more or less complicated? The answer ofcourse is no. Infact open the app drawer and you basically have an iPhone in your hand. Did my desire not "just work", perhaps it was even easier than my iPhone as I didn't need to activate it.
 
nicmel said:
I'm pretty tired of the argument that iPhones are easy to use or work from the box. Is Android any more or less complicated? The answer ofcourse is no. Infact open the app drawer and you basically have an iPhone in your hand. Did my desire not "just work", perhaps it was even easier than my iPhone as I didn't need to activate it.
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Tobehonest - i visited an iphone shop locally & wondered wot the big deal was about...

I look at an iphone similiar to an apple computer - they are a real wonder to use ie I dont know how to get it to do anything...as i dont know where the icons are !

Apple is like a secular religion to me ! ;)
 
That's true about the activation malarky. I bought my wife an iPhone at the same time as I got my Desire and I was up and running waaaaaaaaaay before her. I think the "ease of use out of the box" argument - activation aside - is kinda valid, but then that's also the chief hallmark of the iPhone's (and Apple's in general) psudo-dictatorial crave to only allow you to do what they want you to do. The iPhone is easy(ish) to use because you can't tinker with it. The settings menus are not multi-layered becuase you can't tinker with it. You don't have to learn about widgets because the iPhone (AFAIK) doesn't support them. You don't need to know about SD cards or mounting cards or formatting because the iPhone has a fixed in-built memory. So yes, the iPhone is good looking - if you like that kind of thing - and simple to use but it is so because of its failings, not in spite of them.

But I digress. I read Stuff occasionally - largely after I have had a quick flick through to see if there's much that I'll actually be interested in reading - but I agree that the pro-iPhone / pro-Apple stance has gone way beyond "one person's opinion" and is now dancing further and further in to Apple-bias territory. Jobs' goons could send in an iP4 run over by a HiLux and covered in elephant poo after a recent safari (ho ho) mishap and I imagine the magazines would praise it for being well-travelled and in tune with today's ecological and environmental issues. If you want to hear the other side of the coin, have a listen to Cnet UK's weekly podcasts. If anything, the folks there could be labled so anti-iPhone as to be biassed towards the 'Droid!
 
They do note that android is looking good, but almost always give best marks to iPhones. I have come to the conclusion that this is because they own an iPhone, and do not know how to use/understand android. There is definitely bias going on, even if subconsciously.

Proof of this is the time I relied to the T3 twitter account about their selection of top 50 apps for android. Where like 3-4 of those were task killers. I explained why it wasn't needed, especially on their high end Desire phone.

The eventual reason (I went through a lot of guff to actually get a real reason from them) they said it was required was to close spotify because it made their phone go slow. I didn't get a reply from me suggesting they use the close option in spotify...
 
The media tend to use Apple computers so it stands to reason they've mostly have Apple phones too.

If you're reviewing a set of phones it's gonna be tricky not to find "yours" to be the best...

There is way too much bias toward the iPhone though; yeah, it's a great handset, but it's really no better than the top Androids out there.

A friend of mine has a Galaxy, she is not in anyway a techie but she gets on with her phone just fine; she took it out of the box and it works.

I hate this idea that Android is for geeks; an idea perpetuated by (guess who) the Apple loving tech media.

I also agree about the Gadget Show "test", why did they need three different handsets to go up against the iPhone 4? Why not put the top phones from each OS against each other in the same tests? Why? Probably because the iPhone wouldn't win.
 
I played about with my mates iPhone4 the other day.

I have to say I was impressed with the way applications switch (y'know the way it swishes from one app to the next) that is cool. It sure has that iCandy, if the Desire were to implement something similar it would give the idiot jornos a few headaches.

And it did seem to be pretty easy to use - rather simple.

But, having said that, I was bored of it within about 5 minutes. I've had my Desire for, I dunno, a good few months now, and I still like playing with it - changing this and that.

And judging by my previous experiences with Apple stuff - like bloody iTunes, and iPods that suddenly break because of an update to iTunes that Apple completely deny - I can't say that an iPhone is a must for me.

And the goons on the Gadget show - WTF do they know?

I've never seen an un-biased review on that show, all they do is spout off about the latest gadget without doing any proper research on the marketplace or what people would actually need.

I would never have expected them to do an honest review on the Desire Vs iPhone because at the end of the day, it is really very close to call and would require a much longer exhaustive dialog then just the ohh "who can upload a photo to Twitter first" rubbish.

But then again, I always research into what I'm spending my money on - I don't just waltz into Currys and buy a TV recommended by the salesman, I never listen to anyone in PC World, and I don't buy a phone from anyone because they tell me its 'the best'.

Unfortunately, other people do just that.

I'm not making the assertion that everyone who has bought an iPhone is a sheep - but a lot of people are.

Apple are excellent at marketing.

:D
 
nicmel said:
I'm pretty tired of the argument that iPhones are easy to use or work from the box. Is Android any more or less complicated? The answer ofcourse is no. Infact open the app drawer and you basically have an iPhone in your hand. Did my desire not "just work", perhaps it was even easier than my iPhone as I didn't need to activate it.
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If you go from Android to an iphone or from a PC to an Apple mac, its like "woah wtf?"

But if you go from a basic nokia dumb-phone, I definitely think the user will find an iphone easier to navigate because it's interface is basic.

I went from a blackberry to Android and it took me a few days to get to grips with android.
 
Maybe, but check out the phone section; the wildcard entry is (of course) the iPhone 4

So the reality is that the iPhone 4 isn't eligible, but they're chucking it in anyway because otherwise there wouldn't be an Apple phone in the list!

The only other wildcard I found was iPlayer 3.0

Why can't both be in next years awards?

iPlayer 3.0 - now with added cr@p like instant messaging, facebook and twitter
 
Ipods and Ipads are very attractive things, they are very good at incentivising people, as you have probably seen for example, when companies want you to take part in surveys and competitions.
Now a lot of these journo's are egotistical, shallow magpies and the sight of a bit of glint will do anything. I'm pretty sure Apple throw a load of kit at these people for free and that's it, hook line and sinker :)
 
Well, blow me down with a feather!

Which phone won the prize? iPhone 4, the wildcard entry.

For christ's sake, I can't help wonder which phone the judges have in their pockets?

The Desire has had a massive impact on the phone world this year, pushing Android to new levels of popularity, but of course all that means nothing against a phone mostly famous for having a crap antenna.

Well done T3, why not just get Steve Jobs to pick next years winning phone
 
desire won the phone of the year
HTC won tech brand of the year
with iPhone only winning commuter gadget of the year.

Oh well, I feel this is much less biased now.
 
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