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Who here uses Apple Devices?

sachertorte said:
I have seen one and played with one. It seemed nice, but casual use one time does not tell one much.

Danny
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I didn't even get that far. I only saw dummy display models with cardboard screens in a Microsoft Store, where the staff seemed more interested in trying to sell me an Xbox game console. If I actually wanted to buy a Windows Phone device before trying it, they had to order it in. It seemed to be a really half-baked effort by Microsoft at marketing their product. I didn't know or see anyone who actually had a Windows Phone device themselves.
 
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mikedt said:
Microsoft was a fail when it came to smart-phones. In fact I never even saw a real Windows Phone device myself.
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Actually I know a couple of people who owned them and liked them. The UI was funky, but could be quite functional. They were just too late to the party, and probably needed to throw a lot more money at manufacturers and developers if they were to catch up at that point.
 
I tried out a Nokia 520 for a short time, and it was actually a nice experience. Fluid, fast, yeah flat though. But what killed Windows phone was the lack of apps available (with many being just browser UI that loaded the site, and many loaded with malware) and in the end Google pulled support for their own apps where you couldn't even use them anymore and that was that.

Same thing happened to BlackBerry once Google cut support. Apparently a lot of noobs out there love Google apps that much. Didn't matter that Nokia HERE Maps was superior, oh no. It has to have GOOGLE Maps or GTFO.

Also didn't help that the only browser available until at least Windows Phone 10 (but too late) was Internet Explorer. That's not how you succeed in the market.

I wanted it to succeed, as we need more competition. Heck, I wanted WebOS to succeed.
 
I went from all android to an iPad, then an iPhone, then a MacBook M1 Pro. Now, I'm back after about 4 years to android with a Pixel 7. I love it! I have Xfinity 1.2 gb d/l internet wifi. It registered 1.4 d/l to the box but my apple devices were only getting about 7 to 800mbps over wifi. I contacted the Pixel 7 and voila. 1.3gb DLs! Why, in heaven's name would iOS use an inferior radio or why would they keep the speeds down on all their devices? Weird. Android has gotten very smooth over the years and I'm glad I have one of my 2 lines on the pixel 7. Now, I shall investigate rooting it if I can get back to Stock easy enough.
 
Pixels are great candidates for GrapheneOS if privacy is your thing. Shame you have to give Google money to buy the Pixel just to get a privacy-focused OS though. Rooting has too many caveats these days, from breaking SafetyNet making tons of useful apps not work, to being stuck at a red triangle warning screen and not being able to get past it and boot the device because Secure Boot is enforced today.

Sadly, the days of CyanogenMod 7.1's level of mods are long past us, much like actual interesting smartphones.
 
My mother has an Iphone 10, yeah.... I think her battery is rapidly dying from over useage she does.. Seriously could her phone be dying from her cell battery being drained all the time?
 
My mother used to keep her iPhone 6s plugged in any time she was home, and it was always plugged in unless she was mobile. By the 5 year mark, it had already had the battery health at 65% and only made perhaps 4 hours of standby and she then upgraded to an 11 Pro, then 12 Pro.

But that might explain your mom's issues if she has the same habit. I've had batteries become 'spicy pillows' (swelling) by leaving a phone plugged in for a few weeks if not needing it (such as spending a week or two home during the Pandemic) and I was told that doing that wouldn't harm it as 'the phone knows how to regulate charge' but tell that to the two swollen Li-Ions that were in my Galaxy S5.

There's a reason that the notification 'Battery Fully Charged--Unplug Charger' comes up on early TouchWiz-era Samsung phones.
 
Milo Williamson said:
My mother has an Iphone 10, yeah.... I think her battery is rapidly dying from over useage she does.. Seriously could her phone be dying from her cell battery being drained all the time?
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If she actually drains it to flat or near flat on a regular basis, then yes. For battery longevity you should ideally try not to let it go below 20% (which of course gets harder as the battery ages!).

Of course the iPhone 10 will be 4 years old by now, so the battery may not be the best no matter how it is treated, and battery meters become unreliable for old batteries. A battery of that age will often appear normal until it reads 40%, 50%, 60% and then drop suddenly - if it's doing that that's a sign that she should consider getting the battery replaced.
 
Apple actually issues a 'software update' that reduces or throttles the CPU speed to help prevent the battery dying at an odd percentage, after a slew of iPhone 5's did a 'blue screen of death' due to a fading battery capacity, and got a lot of hell from it, as apparently that's been a thing with their 'long update cycle' since the iPhone 4 (don't ever install iOS 7 on that--it's not just ugly, it reduces the thing to a paperweight!)
 
I went all iOS believe it or not. I have a MacBook, retired iPad, iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple TV, etc. I was forced into it because I needed to go virtual during covid and certain students only had FaceTime.

Since that time, I've gotten a Thinkpad laptop, on windows 11, which I crack open from time to time. On a nice note, I was gifted a Pixel 7, which I love. I missed android. I have two phones now, with three phone numbers. Don't ask. I had to go with an ATT line because where I moved to (rural) the verizon service is shabby.
 
Same thing, the school told everyone to use Zoom, and later on Voov for the online classes. No Facetime nonsense here. And actually it seems very unreasonable to be forced into using Apple hardware because some students have Facetime.
 
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mikedt said:
Same thing, the school told everyone to use Zoom, and later on Voov for the online classes. No Facetime nonsense here. And actually it seems very unreasonable to be forced into using Apple hardware because some students have Facetime.
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Does it? It's unreasonable to be forced into buying Apple hardware! But if the school pervides the hardware, what's the problem?
Steven58 said:
I needed to go virtual during covid and certain students only had FaceTime.
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Why not have those students install Signal or something, or just use a good old-fashioned phone call?
 
Windroid said:
Does it? It's unreasonable to be forced into buying Apple hardware! But if the school pervides the hardware, what's the problem?
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Well yeah, if the school gave everyone Macbooks, iPhones, and iPads, i'd have no problems with that. But ours didn't.

Windroid said:
Why not have those students install Signal or something, or just use a good old-fashioned phone call?
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We were running virtual classrooms with up to 50 students at a time, which used virtual whiteboards, with video as well. and a way for students to put their hands up virtually to answer questions, etc. Can Facetime or Signal do that? They originally wanted us to all use ClassIn, but it's horrible, so we used Zoom and Voov instead. .
 
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Windroid said:
Does it? It's unreasonable to be forced into buying Apple hardware! But if the school pervides the hardware, what's the problem?
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From what I know I would guess that wasn't that was Stephen's situation.

But even where it is possible, why have to adopt one platform just because that's what some students use? I don't know whether FaceTime has any technical advantage for what Stephen does (less lag? Would that help?) but otherwise it isn't obviously reasonable for either the individual tutor or an organisation to buy expensive kit to cater to some students, especially since others will not have access to that platform. But of course this was Stephen's choice, not mine.

Like Mike I was catering to much larger groups, up to 200+ (I suspect that a lot of Stephen's teaching is individual), so no platform-specific solution would work.
Windroid said:
Why not have those students install Signal or something, or just use a good old-fashioned phone call?
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See above, plus as Mike says you want to use AV, shared whiteboards, students sharing their computer screens (and keyboards for some things). There is a difference between a chat app and proper collaborative tools.
 
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Windroid said:
Does it? It's unreasonable to be forced into buying Apple hardware! But if the school pervides the hardware, what's the problem?

Why not have those students install Signal or something, or just use a good old-fashioned phone call?
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"Does it? It's unreasonable to be forced into buying Apple hardware! But if the school pervides the hardware, what's the problem?"

You'd have to use it. Advertisement: You could buy a cheaper Pizza, but then you have to eat it!

Danny
 
Bittersweet news: I'm replacing my Kindle Fire with my father's old iPad mini as my secondary tablet. My Kindle Fire was my father's, and I'm giving it back to him: It will once again become his secondary tablet and bedroom alarm clock.

Here's why I have two tablets: My Surface Go has two operating systems installed; it's both a Windows laptop (with the keyboard-mouse attachment) and an Android tablet. However, it can't be both a Windows laptop and an Android tablet at the same time: Booting one operating system means shutting down the other. If I want to use a tablet while my Surface is busy being a laptop, I need a second tablet.

I traded my Kindle for the iPad mini, because the iPad's much smaller than the Kindle and the Surface (the Kindle and Surface are the same size). Now that I have two tablets of two different sizes: When I want a smaller easier-to-hold tablet, I'll use the iPad. When I want something with a larger screen, I'll use the Surface.

Edit 2023-06-15:

I finally got around to setting up that Kindle Fire to be my father's alarm clock. I felt bad doing it, because that involved undoing most of the work I put into it. Most notably, it no longer has the Google app store (unlike most Android tables, Kindle Fires don't come with the Google app store). Without the Google app store, it's capabilities are severely limited. That's okay, because it's new job is to be an alarm clock that doubles as an e-reader and a web browser. That's all it needs to be, but it's still sad that I've crippled my Kindle.
 
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Windroid said:
Here's why I have two tablets: My Surface Go has two operating systems installed; it's both a Windows laptop (with the keyboard-mouse attachment) and an Android tablet. However, it can't be both a Windows laptop and an Android tablet at the same time: Booting one operating system means shutting down the other. If I want to use a tablet while my Surface is busy being a laptop, I need a second tablet.
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This is actually why I started using a Mac. For years I used dual boot Linux/Windows laptops, but I had some responsibilities for which I needed to use Excel (actual Excel: LibreOffice/OpenOffice didn't support the particular tools well enough). This meant booting into Windows, but then I could do nothing else, since all of the rest of my work was Linux-based (I kept a minimal Windows partition literally just for this one task). Microsoft would never release Office for Linux because Linux scares them, but I could get Excel on MacOS, which is usable for the rest of my work because it's just another *nix variant underneath the GUI (even if Apple don't advertise it that way ;)). Hence switching to MacOS allowed me to do those occasional but important tasks without disrupting everything else.
 
The only active Apple devices in my home are quite old. One Apple TV from 2010 that still works (and has that lovely skeuomorphic UI.) and I don't think even a 2010 Android TV box will work today, but the Apple one does so there's that. It cost me only $24 at a thrift store anyway.

The other is another old Apple TV (a 2013 model, sadly using the more iOS 7 looking UI) that's hooked up to the Zenith console in the patio (which is all off now since the Zenith got exposed to rain and now only shows retrace lines and I'm still trying to resurrect it).

The last is a later model 2015 iPod touch, but mostly because Apple forces 2FA and I need it to receive codes for when my other two decide to log me out and won't login without a code. The iPod is the only device that can actually recieve the codes.

Thankfully I don't depend on video calling and I still think it's creepy, but I'm just more into vintage. I run Windows 7 for crying out loud. The only uses a smartphone have for me today are calls, texts and music. That's pretty much it.
 
Windroid said:
Who here uses Apple products, especially iPhones and iPads? As for me: I have an iPhone and some AirTags, alongside my two Android tablets.
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Windroid said:
AirPods. That would be Apple's tiny wireless headphones. What would you say the advantages are of AirPods; why use them rather than the cheaper headphones?
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Perhaps one of the advantages is that they are convenient, that is, there are no cords. I like to ride my bike in the fresh air and these headphones are very comfortable.
In general, I used different headphones, they all have different sound quality and comfort. I probably choose more according to the situation.
 
I have looked at and auditioned Apple Airpods 3 myself, but I couldn't justify paying that much for BT earbuds, and also I don't have an iPhone so I wouldn't be able to use any special features that they might offer. I've got sets of Huawei Freebuds 4 and 4e BT earbuds, for less than half the price of Airpods, which I'm very happy with. As well as a pair of Sony BT noise-cancelling headphones, that I use on trains and planes. I also have Bose QC35 BT headphones, but they're getting a bit crusty now.


BTW when I bought the Sony BT headphones, I did look at and audition Apple's Airpod Max BT headphones. But there was an immediate deal-breaker for me, in that they can't be used in wired mode, with a cord plugged in. Because an important feature for me with any headphones, I must be able to plug my headphones into an aircraft in-flight entertainment system. And the Sony and Bose BT headphones, did both come with the appropiate dual-jack aircraft adapters, as well as cords, which the Airpods Pro do not. Without the adapter, even with wired headphones, if you plug a normal stereo TRS jack into an aircraft system you only hear one side only. If you're on a flight and you want to use your own cans with the in-flight, and your headphones are Bluetooth only, you're SOL.
 
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