Apple, the Evil Itself or cool electronic toys?

[netcat]

Right. By stating that the peak was in the past I'm implying that things have immatured since then. Cloud is a great example of taking power away from individuals / developers.

@Djoga'Ro - the things you mention are implementation details that don't change what phones can fundamentally do. Vendor hype / marketing.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

@Djoga'Ro - the things you mention are implementation details that don't change what phones can fundamentally do. Vendor hype / marketing.

Then I don't get what you mean. The first iPhone couldn't do anything, other things before it couldn't do. They just combined phone and general purpose computer in one package.

 

[netcat]

The thing that struck me about the original iPhone was a useable browser in your hand. Apple got it right because of Jobs quality control basically. No small feat.

But - all for profit companies are evil / have no morals. Apple would kill you for your teeth if it were not a pr disaster.

So I think @matzesu is right, Apple became a gadget company. I guess headphones are the most marketable thing they can come up with. Not exactly innovative. Not exactly evil.

 

[TeDaDeS]

The thing that struck me about the original iPhone was a useable browser in your hand. Apple got it right because of Jobs quality control basically. No small feat.

But - all for profit companies are evil / have no morals. Apple would kill you for your teeth if it were not a pr disaster.

So I think @matzesu is right, Apple became a gadget company. I guess headphones are the most marketable thing they can come up with. Not exactly innovative. Not exactly evil.

I still feel like the original firmware had a much faster experience compared to the later firmware. Especially opening applications and the browser. I had the original iPhone when it was just release, running 1.1.2.

 

[matzesu]

I had a lot of plans last week for this thing, but end up using it as a Tablet for Streaming in Garden over the Easter Weekend ..
Its quite nice how my Stuff is integrated in the Apple Cosmos: My Airpods Pro2 did work whitouth any new pairing on Iphone and Ipad, and they even work whit all features on the Pyra ^^

In fact i had the old Airpods Pro but they became damaged (maybe because of my Bike Incidend?) they ditnt work that well then on my Iphone so i bought some JBL True Wirreless, but they needed an App to work on the Phone and ditnt work on Pyra so i had to carry them and the Airpods back then..

 

[ElPoco]

First iPhone had less features at release than most dumbphones at the time. It didn't have an app store and couldn't even send MMS.
The other smartphones were far from ideal but I'm still saddened that the iPhone took over and destroyed all alternatives. I liked my M600 with its qwerty keyboard and its scrolling wheel and liked the from-factors experiments that some companies made in the early Android days.

I'm not a fan of personality cults. Most innovations are the result of very long chains of people building on top of one another's ideas.

 

[matzesu]

Whit the Apple Standart Headphones is quite funny: When the Pandora came out, every new Headphone had the "Apple Standart" Whit Ground and Microphone changed again each other, so i had to use a Old Extantion Cable to get the Pandora working whit my Headphones,
But the Apple Bluetooth Headphones are now the Solution on my Pyra to prevent me from the Audio Issue ^^

 

[PowerGod]

I'm still saddened that the iPhone took over and destroyed all alternatives.

Yes, this changed everything to the worst... there were devices for every kind of use case, Nokia and Sony Ericsson were super active in development of new stuff, now there is one kind of device, like it or not.
But the fault was by the entire market, AND by some Nations... there are more and more services that are requiring an APP to use them, even if only for identification (SMS or e-mail identification are becoming deprecated), and by "APP" I mean iOS or Android, no other choices... lately I had to start using an Android emulator, but at some point I'll have to buy one of those devices... and I feel sad having to buy something I don't need, and I don't like, just because it is required...

 

[Djoga'Ro]

@PowerGod I just don't use services that'd require of me to use proprietary apps (beyond driver blobs that is). What made you give in?

 

[PowerGod]

@PowerGod I just don't use services that'd require of me to use proprietary apps (beyond driver blobs that is). What made you give in?

The list is becoming too long... for now only one really require the APP to be used at all, and is the bank online account, the other services, postal, sanity, etc... still CAN be accessed in other way, but instead of pressing the APP button and you are done, you'll have to phone, wait in line, ask for an operator, wait in line, send an e-mail, send again an e-mail, call for an operator and wait in line again... and during all this, you also must keep ignoring people that tells you that the APP is required, because you know that there is still another way...

The worst moment was when at the postal office I had to ask for an appointment (and I was physically in the room where I wanted the appointment), they told me they wasn't able to get it, I had to use either their APP or (and this is the greatest) WhatsAPP !!
They were sure EVERYONE had whatsapp, so when I told them I didn't, they told me to ask to a friend its phone to ask for the appointment... I was like WTF !!
So, riding with their point of view, I asked if they had whatsapp... they naturally told so (with a superior grin on their faces)... and then I asked them their phone so I could have taken an appointment (with a grin on my face )...
they told me that they couldn't have done that, because the appointment uses the phone number to indicate the person... so, I underlined to them what they told me before of "asking the phone of a friend"... they actually understood the stupidity of the thing...
in the end I was able to get an appointment after like 20 calls to different people, and I was almost reaching the director...

I mean, now you can choose if to get a smartphone and press a button, or lose hours of time to obtain the same thing... (when you still have a choice).
This is not because smartphones are better, it's just everything else that's becoming worse.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

DHL has pack stations all over Germany. Although I don't like registering, I eventually did so to be able to explicitly have packages sent to a station close to me, which was nice. But at some point they made it necessary to use their app for this - not if you had it delivered to your home address, they didn't find you there, and put it in a station on their accord, though. Since then I consider those stations unavailable. And of course I dislike them for that.
In regards to banking, my bank's first choice of course would be I use the app, but if you want it, you get a colour tan reader, which - equipped with your debit card - can decode those. Since I don't take that thing with me, I cannot do banking on the go, but I also don't feel any need to. And in case of an exception, I still have a prepaid-credit-card-backed PayPal account. (Don't like having the latter either, but when it comes to buying stuff across borders, it soothes the nerves.)

 

[PowerGod]

Another example came to my mind, this is not exactly related to an APP, but to the smartphone actual environment and its wrong usage...
I had to sign a contract, they told me it was sent to me digitally, so I gave to them my email...
I received an internet link via SMS... (I mean, WTF what is this trend to send stuff on a protocol when you have to use it on an entirely different one ?!) so, I copied the link and opened it from a browser on the PC (fullscreen)... it was a PDF embedded in a form with a little blue bar on the bottom, I was able to see only a portion of the document and didn't know where to accept it... there were no scrollbars, and when I zoomed out the page I was able to see a button (that little blue bar was a portion of it), but I wasn't still able to read the entire document... so I started to play with the code of the page, and after having seen some suspicious tags, I enabled the "Tablet-Mode"... it became functional and perfectly readable...
This destroyed my informatic soul.

@Djoga'Ro : even Telepass has a portal where you can manage some of your data, but all the other services, even the free ones like reminders of deadlines are only accessible from their APP

 

[Djoga'Ro]

but all the other services, even the free ones like reminders of deadlines are only accessible from their APP

They probably just haven't heard of email and client-side calenders, yet. Tell 'em!

 

[undexsym]

I'm still saddened that the iPhone took over and destroyed all alternatives.

I am eternally grateful to this community and the niche handhelds that come out of it. After a number of heavy blows to my soul in my early twenties, not even being able to buy a fun little device with a physical keyboard with the money I was coerced into making nearly finished me off. I will never understand jabscreen enthusiasts.

 

[pyrat]

They were sure EVERYONE had whatsapp WhatsApp had everyone, so when I told them I didn't, they told me to ask to a friend its phone to ask for the appointment... I was like WTF !!

FTFY, otherwise very spot on. I feel your pain

 

[pyrat]

had to sign a contract, they told me it was sent to me digitally, so I gave to them my email...

Clicking through is not signing anything. The alleged signer can always say the text that was shown to him was something else, and the part asking for the signature can likewise pretend the text was another, since nothing relates the content to the signer...
Of course if the link is sent in clear text in an email anyone could read it and sign it so the signer can easily pretend it wasn't him, it's all pinky unicorns...
Digital signatures are more complex for a reason.
It's like capturing a handwritten signature on a touchscreen to pretend to sign some text. Ink stays in the printed text and is somewhat of a proof of what was signed, but the image of a handwritten signature can be applied to any text whatever the signer was shown. It's just an intelligence insulting scam.
It should be mandatory to carry a hammer to destroy those signing touchpads wherever one sees one...

 

[PowerGod]

Clicking through is not signing anything. The alleged signer can always say the text that was shown to him was something else, and the part asking for the signature can likewise pretend the text was another, since nothing relates the content to the signer...
Of course if the link is sent in clear text in an email anyone could read it and sign it so the signer can easily pretend it wasn't him, it's all pinky unicorns...
Digital signatures are more complex for a reason.
It's like capturing a handwritten signature on a touchscreen to pretend to sign some text. Ink stays in the printed text and is somewhat of a proof of what was signed, but the image of a handwritten signature can be applied to any text whatever the signer was shown. It's just an intelligence insulting scam.
It should be mandatory to carry a hammer to destroy those signing touchpads wherever one sees one...

The confirmation wasn't made by just clicking the link, it was directing to a form, with the readable contract, that needed my account username/password to be completed, so the link by itself was useless for outsiders.

Once I signed the tablet of a package courier with the arm in plaster, because with the other arm I was holding the package... turned out like an abstract piece of art , and yes, is a really dumb way to validate things...

Spoiler

 

[ElPoco]

I am eternally grateful to this community and the niche handhelds that come out of it. After a number of heavy blows to my soul in my early twenties, not even being able to buy a fun little device with a physical keyboard with the money I was coerced into making nearly finished me off. I will never understand jabscreen enthusiasts.

The worst is that it's not just devices but also software, features and services.
There was a time where new technology was exciting but now even when it is, it's tied to shitty things that'll spy on you. Now when I read something about a new feature I'm like "that could have been cool, but I'll never be able to use it".

 

[netcat]

I reckon most people get excited about a new gadget because they hope it will resolve something really annoying about their current one. It's like taking heroin to not get sick as opposed to get high.

 

[matzesu]

So yesterday was the big September Apple Event (whe need an Dragonbox Event too) ..
- New Apple Watches (they look cool in Titan but the Batterielife is still a joke compare to the 24 Days i have on my Garmin Instinct2 Solar) ..
- New Airpods, they have now all USBC, there is a Middle Modell whit ANC, and the Pro3 Provides now an Hearing Aid Feature which might be usefull as in the USA there is no Health Insurance and you would otherwise have to pay yourself for an Medical Hearing Assistance Device ..
- New Old Airpods Max, only new Feature is USBC for Charging and a few new Colors, mine is still working fine so i would rather buy a stock of USBC to Lightning Adapters for the Old one..

They have now this Apple AI which sounds not bad after all, you can let it form your textes in better words, or other stuff, and if you wants to have some infos on an Event you see a Banner on the Streets you can take a Picture and the AI will tell you about this Event and its can mark it in your Calendar..
There was even an Demo whit a Dog: You take a Picture of the Dog and its tells what breath it is, instead of just asking the Owner ..

I dont know if this features will come to Germany some time, but it seems like they will only be available in English next year..

There are also new Iphones: 16 in 6,1 Inch and 16 Plus in Bigger, and Pro Modells ..

The 16 is allready quite apealing for me: 2 Cameras allready, whit good specs, this might help making better Pyra Videos, USBC, so one Cable and one Adapter less,
hopefully better Batterie Time, as my XR is not that good whit its Batterie anymore..
There is now also this Multifunctional Dedicated Camera Button, instead of Controlling everything via Touchscreen, you can Controll everything whit this Touch Button.. and Start the Camera whit it..

Shure for my Youtube Chanell, i should maybe better take the Pro Model, but its much too Overpowered for my Projekts, the XR Camera was allready good, the Normal 16 Camera should be much better..

My XR is 6,1 Inch too, and its also Blue, so apart from the 2 Instead of 1 Camera and the Extra Button, it should not get that big different..