[kristopolous]

I am still on a 4a.

I really hate how in subsequent generations, they faithfully cloned Apple's design decisions of removing ports and making the device gigantic.

"For customers who are dissatisfied with iphones,

Our product is a slightly different iphone-like device."

I mean come on now, what the hell...

About twice a decade google makes a good phone and the others are just iphone knockoffs

[lynndotpy]

I feel this a lot. Android's used to differentiate themselves from iPhones by having useful technical features at a competitive price. I used to be die-hard pro-Android, but now I can find very few reasons to buy one.

Now the Android UI is sparse and wobbly, Androids lost call recording, sideloading is limited, and they raised their prices to cost as much as iPhones.

Meanwhile, iPhones got call recording, they opened up NFC (a bit) and they support CalDAV and CardDAV and SMB natively in its built-in apps. The "control center" on iOS is customizable, to the point they do what Android's quick tiles did before 2020 or so.

It's very frustrating-- I wish they still made Androids like they used to :(

[homebrewer]

This comment equates Android with Google phones for some reason. The complaints have nothing to do with Android — side loading is light years ahead of Apple (and third party application stores can finally automatically update applications). Call recording works fine on my friend's Xiaomi 14T (I think) that he bought just a couple of weeks ago, and it works fine on my own device that's on latest Lineage (Android 15). There's lots of choice in UI depending on which vendor you're going with; I'm fine with stock Lineage (i.e. stock Android). There's lots of choice price wise (even the homeless have smartphones these days), while the cheapest iPhone costs about two median monthly salaries here.

Just don't buy anything from Google, they've always screwed something up.

[lynndotpy]

I have a very small pool of Androids I consider. Pixels maintain a strong security model (similar to what iPhones have), and they allow you to re-lock the bootloader after installing a non-stock OS. It's between a Pixel, or a FairPhone.

I liked Lineage, but an unlocked bootloader is a security non-starter for a device that's so personal and vital.

For those using the stock OS, Googles are nice because you "only" have Google's spyware built in to the OS.

[dhc02]

I didn't realize there were some non-stick OSes that you could re-lock the bootloader for. Which ones?

[lynndotpy]

GrapheneOS and CalyxOS are the only ones I'm aware of! It requires OS support and the phone to support it too, so it's a rare combo.

[spencerflem]

Same- I stick with them out of spite, since I refuse to use a device that doesn't allow replacing the OS or installing your own software ("sideloading")

But they're pretty clearly worse as phones and I'll go to my grave mad about the headphone jack.

[JTbane]

I'm still mad that I have to keep track of a tiny 3.5mm to USB-C dongle.

[spencerflem]

I lost mine yesterday -_+ have to buy a new one I guess

pure evil

[Lammy]

I've been very happy to have my headphone port back since I upgraded from iPhone 7 to REDMAGIC 9S Pro

[olvy0]

Hear hear

[m463]

I think this is something apple doesn't realize.

They used to have a really good human factors/ui team. I remember Bruce Tognazzini and reading his blog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Tognazzini

https://www.asktog.com/

I think I noticed around ios 7 things were getting bad. buttons didn't look like buttons, on-screen controls started being hidden, and form trumped function. Then like you said, ports disappeared and to me "do the wrong thing correctly" started winning.

but the worst thing is that apple sets an example. The same "simplify for sales, but not usability" technique has happened to countless other products in many industries. all laptops have elegant looking keys that have no curve to fit and center your fingers. Tesla cars have a pleasing-looking design, but when you drive them, you can't lean on the touchscreen to hit targets, you don't have drive selection or turn signal stalks to help you get into a parking space easily, and "elegant simplicity" is "cost cutting for the peons".

sigh.

[kristopolous]

Really I think technology lines can also suffer from Gramsci's interregnum.

[m463]

interesting thought. (I had to look it up)

I wonder how you mean it. Is it that older products with good fundamentals are being replaced with younger quick-to-market technologies without those fundamentals, and different (possibly) wrong things get optimized?

Or is it experienced engineers with "well known" fundamentals are not involved in new products?

...

"Gramaci's Prison Notebooks that 'the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear'"

"An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order."

[brailsafe]

Did the 4a have anything other than an aux port? I definitely still miss it, having moved onto a Pixel 7, but on the other hand I've also mostly stopped listening to anything with headphones from it. In surprising fashion, the fact that my screen is still intact and I feel pretty comfortable watching videos in the shower has proven more valuable.

[silon42]

Also the OS is copying Apple, making it worse.

[brailsafe]

Nah the OS is way better than iOS, unless you're joking about the update retroactively degrading the device.

[nullc]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotelling%27s_law

[kristopolous]

Yes but these are physical locations, not personal objects.

The reason I don't choose a hotel 500 miles away is fairly obvious.

This also applies to parking lots for the same reason...

I think it's just cargo culting products. Apple made electronics sexy fashion accessories through their marketing, advertising and branding.

The problem is the misattribution of their success to the poor choices they have the customer loyalty to get away with.

Nobody has said "well thank God my new MacBook has no ports" or "I'm glad my battery isn't removable". The support column for these decisions is empty.

[nullc]

> Nobody has said "well thank God my new MacBook has no ports" or "I'm glad my battery isn't removable". The support column for these decisions is empty.

No, but they do say "thank god my device survived being splashed by water" or "I'm happy this teeny tiny thin device doesn't leave an unsightly lump in my pocket"

The de-featuring isn't capricious -- it's a result of optimizing for different tradeoffs. While it would be best for the customers if multiple vendors managed to tile the pareto frontier of feature combinations, allowing us all to pick a product that serves us best, for the vendors bunching up around a single point is a more stable equilibrium.

[kristopolous]

I've never bought that argument. Apple wanted to sell high margin accessories that get broken, lost and replaced often because people hold on to their devices about 4 years now instead of the 1-2 from 10 years ago.

I use a panasonic wired headphone with a mic, $10. Airpods are $200. They wanted to increase their costs and frequency of purchase by hiding it behind accessories with higher profits and shorter longevity than the primary device.

[nullc]

How does that explain the same decisions being made by other vendors that don't sell headphones?

[scarface_74]

You realize that not only can you buy non Apple headphones, Apple sells Bluetooth headphones with the same integration that the AirPods have for $70?