| On number 2 I think that's just your lack of experience with Android apps. Me I've made the switch from Android to an iPhone 6s which I've had for a year already and now I also have an iPad Pro, both received as gifts, as I'm an Android guy :-) And let me tell you, I like Android more because of the apps. Now granted, there are a couple of nice, polished apps on iOS. But there are also entire app categories on iOS that simply suck. Some random examples: 1) For my big ass iPad Pro, I can't find a Torrent application and given how common torrent apps are, I have a feeling they are banned by Apple. On Android I have uTorrent, Bittorrent, BitTorrent Remote, you know the real deal. 2) For iOS the one KeePass port that's available and usable sucks compared with Keepass2Android. 3) For Android you've got a really awesome XMPP client, see https://conversations.im/ - for iOS the XMPP clients I tried sucked. 4) Firefox on iOS is just a shell around a Safari webview and cannot do plugins, being handicapped by Apple's restrictions - it can't even do ad-blockers like official Safari. On Android on the other hand Firefox is the real deal, as it comes with its own engine and can do plugins. 5) On Android I could find a good and usable app for Pinboard.in (PinDroid). No such luck on iOS, so I use it from the browser. 6) Speaking of Firefox, on Android you have the "official" Tor browser and Orbot, the proxy. On iOS you have the "Onion browser" - better than nothing, but still, it's not even a comparison. 7) We have Signal from Open Whispers Systems on both platforms, but can you encrypt plain SMS on iOS? No you can't. But on Android you can, see: https://silence.im 8) On Android I also have apps that monitors my battery usage and gives me detailed reports about what is consuming my battery (currently GSam Battery Monitor Pro). On iOS you only get the stuff in its settings and that's not enough. 9) On Android you can manage your files with file managers. So for example I use Amaze File Manager and you can organize files, copy or share them. And given that you can copy files to/from an Android phone directly, without that iTunes monster, that can be pretty handy. On iOS people use freaking Dropbox for file copying, which is pretty dumb. 10) Once upon a time VLC wasn't available for iOS, then it happened, then it got banned by Apple, being replaced by copy-cats trying to fool people, without Apple lifting a finger, then it got approved again. Either way, VLC is a second class citizen on iOS. |
Design decisions have led to the requirement that apps can only access files inside their app container sandbox.
This means if you want a "file manager" for iOS, it can only manage the files that you send into that app.
Documents by Readdle is a bit of a hack: a file manager that also includes PDF reading bits and media decoding bits and picture viewing bits, with plugins to copy to/from cloud services. Either way, the only files you get to manage are livinng inside of Documents' file system. It's not very UNIX-y, granted.
But the inability to create a "file manager" is a legitimate design decision with legitimate upsides.