Oh ok I missed that, I interpreted all the whining about waiting for the new M5 Mac’s as that in general, not waiting for M5 Pro or Max. You you’re completely right pointing that out, thanks 🤦♂️😅
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Phones Moved to Pixel after 16 years on iPhone
- Thread starter macsince2008
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May I ask what it is that is so bad and what you mean they stand for? 🤔
Google is a massive spyware company. I don't understand why you are asking that, as you should already know that.
Please, tell us more about what we should already know.
They seemed to have learned a lesson or two from Apple though and are going directly to "very tinted" as a default
You are making a huge mistake going to Android.
You’ll be back.
You’ll be back.
Well, I suspected that was what you meant, but wasn't sure if that was all.
Seems like an unbiased opinion 😂
I went back to Apple, then back to Android once I realised how much more user friendly it is.
Blur isn’t bad at all it’s basically iOS18… but Glass is frustrating
Android 17 could take a page from Liquid Glass, and here's a close look
A new leak suggests that Android 17 could offer more blur effects. Now, we've got a close look at these newly blurred elements.www.androidauthority.com
It's just in testing, so who knows if it will look actually like that. But it's mostly just some added blur, which you can already turn off on Android. As long as they stay away from dancing edge highlights around everything that parallax with the phone movement. That crap makes me nauseous.
Android 16 QPR2 secret: How to turn off your Pixel's annoying background blur
Android 16 added a controversial background blur to Pixel phones earlier this year. Here's how to turn it off.www.androidauthority.com
An older Pixel or other decent 5G-capable Android hardware, running /e/OS, or something with Sailfish OS if they ever ship to my country, will be my next phone. My Apple iMac and Mac mini will be moving to Debian shortly, my laptop having already migrated.
I've been an Apple user since the late 1980s, and even persisted through the dark days of PowerPC in the early 2000s.
But the cynical, pointless and half-baked iOS26 / MacOS26 / iPadOS26 release, never-ending subscriptions for iCloud and photos storage (let's just not mention Creator Studio or the AI mess) of the Apple ecosystem, and the embarrassing kow-towing to politics above principles, are the end. Not to mention the potential geo-political risk of having all your tech largely based in and controlled by one, well how can I say politely, erratically-behaving-to-allies country.
My email and company web sites, data and services have already been relocated outside that country, and the final risk-management move is to ensure end-user device independence. It's painful, but possible.
It's been a long journey, but there comes a time when you just have to wriggle in your seat, ring the bell, and get off the bus.
I've been an Apple user since the late 1980s, and even persisted through the dark days of PowerPC in the early 2000s.
But the cynical, pointless and half-baked iOS26 / MacOS26 / iPadOS26 release, never-ending subscriptions for iCloud and photos storage (let's just not mention Creator Studio or the AI mess
) of the Apple ecosystem, and the embarrassing kow-towing to politics above principles, are the end. Not to mention the potential geo-political risk of having all your tech largely based in and controlled by one, well how can I say politely, erratically-behaving-to-allies country.My email and company web sites, data and services have already been relocated outside that country, and the final risk-management move is to ensure end-user device independence. It's painful, but possible.
It's been a long journey, but there comes a time when you just have to wriggle in your seat, ring the bell, and get off the bus.
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You might also check out LineageOS for your Pixel conversion, if you haven't already done so.
I'm curious to hear what you chose for your laptop. I usually don't do plain debian, as I like the hand holding for full disk encryption and non-open source graphics drivers. But I'm also thinking about moving away from Ubuntu.
For the OP: hope you're enjoying the way Android does notifications. That's something that bugs me often when I pick up my iPad instead of my Android tablet.
Thanks for the tip on LineageOS. I'll give them all a look once I am ready.
I tried many Linux variants (and FreeBSD) and at the risk of diverging this thread, I found Mint was the least-broken out of the box for a laptop. FreeBSD is what I run my company servers on, it's reliable, simple and safe. It is not good on laptops, though there is much effort on improving that.
But although Mint is excellent, and I recommend it to anyone who just wants to use their computer with least hassle, I simply prefer Gnome to Cinnamon. Hence I moved to plain Debian / Gnome. There is no issue using disk encryption nor non-open source graphics drivers. I installed the Dash2Dock Animated extension and some others that are useful to me...
(pic from Extension home page)
Almost all the Linux "distros" are similar bases, with some dock or UI tweaks. Hence I feel if you have some technical skills and don't mind the minor effort, you might as well just do it yourself. Then you get exactly what you want rather than someone else's view on what you want.
Try https://distrosea.com/ to have a look at the various distros and you'll see that they are much more alike than different, despite what the sometimes-rabid fans of each declare.
And now back to the thread subject. I think a Pixel 7a might be the test-bed for the migration from Apple. It's cheap here (used) and supports 5G and /e/OS/, so it might work well for me.
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So you changed platform due to poor service in a local store and slow internet syncing data on iCloud?
Pixel 9a here and I couldn't be happier, especially with its battery life. Really solid phone, perfect for its price point. Previously I had 6a.
Those PC gamers spending $500 more for RAM that has colorful lights have always struck me as the height of technical savvy people. I guess being technically savvy means you need an entire industry devoted to protecting their endusers from things like spyware, malware, viruses and the like. Some people see value in platforms that have a longer track record of stability and reliability.
Plus Google already has a history of not respecting user privacy. But hey, if the guy wants to sacrifice privacy to switch to Android, let him. Whatever gimmicks Android phones have to offer aren't worth giving up the privacy Apple offers.
No, I mean he is totally right. You will play for a while and then get tired and go back, that's a cycle we all have been thru.
I had an idea to upgrade to Pixel 10 but I am not a fan of getting a processing power comparable to iPhone 11 from 2019. Yes, it has a basic 5x telephoto which takes 10MP stills but I don't think telephoto would change my life significantly, I am used to small zooms anyway (1.5, 2x).
As for AI, well idk but all the AI services are available on all the platforms and often from the web, the notorious video generators too. Before I cracked a screen on my ancient 11 Pro I've used it to talk with ChatGPT via voice, it is impressive how well it understands context, however I would like it to think deeper more often
I have been using an Android tablet alongside iPads the last couple of years, and it makes me think my next smartphone might be an Android. It has become a wash by now, and iOS is getting more off-putting each year.
They seemed to have learned a lesson or two from Apple though and are going directly to "very tinted" as a default
It's hard to tell how much of a lesson they've learned when you observe all the other noise going on. I often feel like Google hires open source engineers working on the Linux Kernel to do their UX, and that's definitely the case right now.
Apple hoover up just as much data as Google. The difference is it's just anonymous user data for product development rather than ad profiling. One is clearly better than the other but still.
You can't use the internet without something somewhere tracking where you've been. It's been this way since browser cookies and what keeps it largely free at the point of use. It's not exactly ethical but thems the breaks.
And in Google's defence they don't hide their data collection and in return for the devils bargain you do get a whole suite of web apps and services. It's not like they're Meta who take your data and give you nothing constructive in return.