[azeemh]

no headphone port, no sd cards, no charger cables, now no sim cards, this is very much apple's locked down approach just further evolving.

imagine they made the most useful, intuitive, and beautiful device instead of just the thinnest one?

[threeseed]

Phones are a zero-sum game.

Having features like headphone port and SD cards means you don't have space for other ones that are potentially more useful or popular.

And the fact that the market quietly moved on from headphone ports, SD cards etc. shows that it was the right call.

Physical SIM cards will unquestionably be the next to go.

[cowtools]

>And the fact that the market quietly moved on from headphone ports, SD cards etc. shows that it was the right call.

I doubt this. I think the market moved that way because it is more profitable to upsell users to wireless headphones or cloud storage or greater internal storage. Remember, apple releases airpods as they removed headphone jack? It does not necessarily represent an increase in utility on the customer side.

[SpikeDad]

Yea. It's really put a dent in Apple's sales. Why do you think you are Apple's primary customer type? They want a solid phone with secure OS and App Store, no wires and they already have a dozen USB charging bricks.

BTW The iPhone 14 Pro is actually thicker than the 13 - you know because they needed to put in a better camera and larger battery. And your snide comment is somehow implying that Android is more useful and intuitive? Hahah.

[cowtools]

Android would more useful and intuitive because it has an actual file-system, and the android phones generally come with replaceable storage. This has been my personal experience using an iphone myself and helping my family with their iphones. I think apple purposefully increases camera resolution, prevents upgradable storage, and charges much more for increased storage, all in an effort to upsell users to their "iCloud" network storage service.

My experience with the iOS store is that it is mostly crap. I go to look for a pdf editor, the first three options that come up are a "free download" trying to get me to to sign up for an overpriced subscription service to use the app. The Android store is also garbage, but there is at least f-droid which is good.

The idea that iOS is somehow made more secure through the locked-down App Store and firmware is a prototypical case of security-by-obscurity. It has been trivial for law enforcement and other motivated groups to bypass iOS security measures. Operational Security is not some collection of marketable "features" or "solutions" that can be bought, it is a holistic mindset towards reducing risk and severity of cyber-attack. When you outsource the security of the device to a single all-powerful company, that is not good opsec. The find-my-iphone network is an example of this: is is an inescapable global surveillance network. to me, this reflects poorly on apple's security and privacy practices. The apple "ecosystem" is designed in a way to encourage the use of proprietary software such that apple can extract a fraction of sales revenue through their store.

Apple is a very profitable company because they are good at inventing new reasons to charge their customers more. I don't think the price of the product reflects its underlying usefulness, intuitiveness or security.

That being said, most android OEMs do ship a quite bloated, non-standard verison of android- this is analogous to PC OEMs that will install bloatware on any windows laptop they sell. This reflects quite poorly on the android ecosystem: the OEMs like samsung that most associate with "high-quality" smartphones are paradoxically the crappiest OEMs when it comes to software.

[SpikeDad]

You mean when you search in the Play Store you always get highly relevant applications. Come one. The Play Store is a mess which you noted. Your attempt to discount the App Store is just you being ignorant and ill informed.

It is not trivial to bypass iOS security. People may be inattentive to best practices but nobody is going to crack a new iPhone with USB security and a long password.

Find My is opt in. Don't use it if you don't wish.

Sure iOS software is proprietary but Android software is what? That nonsense tells me you have noting to contribute.

[wtmt]

> intuitive because it has an actual file-system

I disagree with this. Most non-tech people don’t know or care about file systems. As long as they have the sharing options they need and find them easier to use, they’re satisfied. FWIW, iOS/iPadOS has a Files app that exposes part of the file system.