Over recent years I have usually owned both a droid and an iDevice and switched betweem them, usually that meant most time on the iPhone but over recent years that balance has shifted towards android and it got me thinking as to why that happened. iOS has always frustrated a little from the uniform home screen that you cannot change (better now but still not great) to the bluetooth audio being constrained to 250kbs, no always on display or the 2 stage unlock process that was a step back speed wise from a FPS and is even more annoying with a mask added into the mix.
I accepted though that Apple would rather sell me an apple watch than give me an always on display and would rather keep things simple for the majority of users who do no care about things like high quality audio or being able to customise their home screen, hell my Mum does not even use face unlock as she does not understand it and prefers to put a pin in!
So I always went in with my eyes open and lets be fair lots of stuff has improved, provided you do not care about how sharp a photo of a street sign is from 5 miles away then I think the iPhone has the best camera for both stills or video out there, the hardware remains terrific and they are not even stupidly more expensive than rivals anymore. My issue though is that in addition to the niggles mentioned above I think that iOS is now both badly designed and buggy and I am at the point where I genuinely do not enjoy using it anymore. Here are some examples of what I mean....
- Notifications are terrible and badges are buggy. Notifications have never been great on iOS and it has always been the case that clearing the notification and associated badge requires 2 steps but the badges are infuriating and on a daily basis now I go into the app to I think clear the badge only for it still to be there when I exit the app so it is a case of rinse and repeat
- The general UI is buggy. With a full home screen if I want to move an app about or move an app from the app library into a folder on my home screen then EVERY time the bottom right app on the home screen moves to the 2nd page and I have to move it back manually.
- The design is lazy. You could park a bus in the gap between the dock and first row of icons, I mean who at apple thought that was a good idea? Seriously if you cannot get the layout symetical then at least put any gap at the top where it matters less. We already lose a ton of screen real estate due to the notch and swipe area at the bottom.
- Accessing control centre and switching your phone off still feels way more complicated than it should andf if I take another accidental screenshot trying I might just lose it!
- Having to go to two places to change the lockscreen widgets depending on what type of widget it is well just a 🤦♂️
- Gone are the days of apps being almost always better on iOS and I am finding so many buggy apps now, from my shopping app not being able to cope with 2FA forcing me to the web page or to Newton Mail being 6 hours behind, Sonos not finding my speakers or Facebook often loading with no content requiring exit and reload and that is just off the top of my head.
- Maybe it is the lack of a high refresh rate, maybe over-bearing animations or just the OS in general but it all feels so slow too. Now I know the current iPhones are the very opposite of slow and benchmark off of the charts but in general navigation I think they feel it, almost like scrolling through treacle at times.
- Pulse Width Modulation causing headaches. This is a definiate thing, fortuneately does not affect me massively but I do notice it if I use the phone for any extended time like reading an article or something.
Now I realise this post will have people sharpening pitchforks to defend Tim and co but honestly I am at the point where I just do not think I want to use it anymore, it is just a bad OS IMO. It feels like they have just continued to build on top of springboard over and over rather than build a new OS from the ground up and the cracks are starting to show and in places it just feels really dated.
Not intending to inflame just curious to see if it is only me who feels this way??
I accepted though that Apple would rather sell me an apple watch than give me an always on display and would rather keep things simple for the majority of users who do no care about things like high quality audio or being able to customise their home screen, hell my Mum does not even use face unlock as she does not understand it and prefers to put a pin in!
So I always went in with my eyes open and lets be fair lots of stuff has improved, provided you do not care about how sharp a photo of a street sign is from 5 miles away then I think the iPhone has the best camera for both stills or video out there, the hardware remains terrific and they are not even stupidly more expensive than rivals anymore. My issue though is that in addition to the niggles mentioned above I think that iOS is now both badly designed and buggy and I am at the point where I genuinely do not enjoy using it anymore. Here are some examples of what I mean....
- Notifications are terrible and badges are buggy. Notifications have never been great on iOS and it has always been the case that clearing the notification and associated badge requires 2 steps but the badges are infuriating and on a daily basis now I go into the app to I think clear the badge only for it still to be there when I exit the app so it is a case of rinse and repeat
- The general UI is buggy. With a full home screen if I want to move an app about or move an app from the app library into a folder on my home screen then EVERY time the bottom right app on the home screen moves to the 2nd page and I have to move it back manually.
- The design is lazy. You could park a bus in the gap between the dock and first row of icons, I mean who at apple thought that was a good idea? Seriously if you cannot get the layout symetical then at least put any gap at the top where it matters less. We already lose a ton of screen real estate due to the notch and swipe area at the bottom.
- Accessing control centre and switching your phone off still feels way more complicated than it should andf if I take another accidental screenshot trying I might just lose it!
- Having to go to two places to change the lockscreen widgets depending on what type of widget it is well just a 🤦♂️
- Gone are the days of apps being almost always better on iOS and I am finding so many buggy apps now, from my shopping app not being able to cope with 2FA forcing me to the web page or to Newton Mail being 6 hours behind, Sonos not finding my speakers or Facebook often loading with no content requiring exit and reload and that is just off the top of my head.
- Maybe it is the lack of a high refresh rate, maybe over-bearing animations or just the OS in general but it all feels so slow too. Now I know the current iPhones are the very opposite of slow and benchmark off of the charts but in general navigation I think they feel it, almost like scrolling through treacle at times.
- Pulse Width Modulation causing headaches. This is a definiate thing, fortuneately does not affect me massively but I do notice it if I use the phone for any extended time like reading an article or something.
Now I realise this post will have people sharpening pitchforks to defend Tim and co but honestly I am at the point where I just do not think I want to use it anymore, it is just a bad OS IMO. It feels like they have just continued to build on top of springboard over and over rather than build a new OS from the ground up and the cracks are starting to show and in places it just feels really dated.
Not intending to inflame just curious to see if it is only me who feels this way??
