Apple Needs To Do Better With These Things

Being primarily a user of Apple products over the last 5 years, I've mostly been happy with the way they've performed.  That being said, there are some things about their products and services that have been bugging me.  Things I wish they would change.

Default Apps in iOS:
We have this choice in a desktop operating system.  If I can click on a link in OS X and have it open in Firefox or Chrome instead of Safari, why don't I have that choice in iOS?  The only exception to this seems to be that Google apps can open links in other Google apps like Chrome, but this is not the norm, and we obviously aren't using Google apps all the time on an iOS device.  It's not just the browser though.  Apple Maps is the default mapping application.  Why?  I suppose they would rather have people using their maps instead of Google's, but the simple fact is Google Maps is the mapping app of choice by a large percentage of their users.  It's not just that everything links to Apple Maps, but Siri also uses Apple Maps for anything location based.  The only exception is that you can currently choose your map application by asking for directions "via transit", but that is hokey and still requires you to select from a list. Not only that, but that feature is most likely going away once Apple starts offering transit directions in its map app, as much as we may not want that.

Disable Built-In Apps
There are several built-in iOS apps that just plain don't get used by a lot of people (Newsstand, Passbook, Compass, Stocks).  These apps often just get pushed out of the way as much as possible, so why should we even have to deal with them?  Give us an option in settings to disable those so we can just get rid of the icons.  Maybe it sounds petty, but it will help us keep our home screens organized.  It should also be noted here that newer versions of Android have the ability to disable built in apps through the app settings.

Customizable Control Center
Control Center was probably the best change that iOS 7 brought us, but the way it is today should really should be a work in progress if it isn't.  There are several functions in Control Center that are only used by a few people, so I would like to see it much more customization for each user's needs.  Personally, I don't use Airplane Mode a lot, I don't need to turn Bluetooth off and on very much, I basically never turn on Do Not Disturb manually, and I basically don't use the stopwatch or calculator.  For my own personal use, I would like buttons for mobile hotspot and turning cellular data on or off when I am trying to save some battery.  Apple should be aware that we don't all use our iPhones the same way and therefore having options for different buttons will serve some of us better.  And yes, Android users, I am aware that Android phones typically have more customization options in your notification pulldown menu.

Fix iCloud
My experience with iCloud has not been great.  I've used it for document syncing, backing up device data, syncing app data between devices, iTunes Match, and iMessage.  None of these services have proved to be reliable on a consistent basis.  First of all, I have restored from a backup on many occasions.  I don't recall a single time where I restored from an iCloud backup where it actually completed before I had to sync with iTunes to finish re-installing my apps.  Because of this, I generally back up in iTunes in addition to the iCloud backup just in case of any problems.  Then there's iTunes Match.  If you try to download a playlist from iTunes Match, it better not be a long one, or it may continuously keep trying in the background and drain your battery.  If you turn on the setting to only allow downloading over WiFi, don't count on it working that way all of the time.  I've found if you queue up a playlist to download while on WiFi and then leave your WiFi network, that it will often continue downloading over your mobile data.  Not what you want when you are on a limited data plan.  This last time around, I let my iTunes Match subscription lapse and now use Google Music instead (for free).  Then there's data syncing.  I've tried several podcast apps that sync playback data between devices through iCloud (or at least try to).  You can pretty much expect problems doing this.  So many times have I played through a podcast, only to have it show up on another device as unplayed.  It's so bad that I recently moved to the Pocket Casts app, which syncs with their own server and works between iOS and Android, and has far fewer syncing problems.  I've also tried document syncing between the iWork apps to have it not work as expected.  To this day, I have a Keynote presentation that will show up on my iOS devices and on icloud.com in a browser, but does not show up in Keynote on my Mac.  Why this file never shows up for my Mac is a mystery.  And last of all, there's iMessage.  First there's the many outages Apple has had with iMessage.  Yes, I'm aware there is always texting as a fallback, but if they're going to provide this service, people are going to become dependent on it.  I did a restore from backup recently on my iPhone that got iMessages working on my iPad and Mac again, but I've lost that syncing ability more than once.  Once it is gone, it's generally pretty hard to get it back without restoring from a backup.

Also, I know Apple has icloud.com so Windows users can edit iWork documents in the cloud, but why do they block Android users from using it?

Fix iTunes
Can we just be honest about iTunes?  No matter how much you may love Apple products, you have to agree that iTunes completely sucks, and has for quite a few years.  iTunes today is bloated, slow, and arguably more complicated to use than it ever has been.  To be fair, Apple is trying to have it do a lot of different things such as accessing the store, managing music, movies, tv shows, podcasts, ringtones, books, apps, and playing media all in one piece of software.  But, since it has become a bloated mess, Apple really needs to clean up that mess.  I don't have the answers as far as how to do that, maybe it's something along the line of having separate applications for some functions (like how the Mac allows iPhoto to manage photos on devices).

Live At-A-Glance Data
Android has widgets.  Windows Phone has live tiles.  What does Apple offer as an equivalent?  Nothing.  Some apps try to work around this with push notifications, and I've even seen a few weather apps get around this by having the icon number badge show the current temperature.  In a way this highlights a bigger problem with iOS where virtually any action has to be done inside of an app.  It seems like it should be time for iOS to move beyond just having a grid of icons on the home screen, and make it more useful than it has been.

Siri and Third Party Apps
It bothers me that Siri can perform a lot of functions with Apple's built in apps, but has virtually no support for third party apps.  The most you can do is to tell Siri to launch an app.  There is the work-around solution of asking for directions via transit that allows you to choose a mapping application, but you can't select it through voice, and it most likely will go away once Apple Maps starts offering transit directions.  As far as looking up information with Siri, you can only use the sources that Apple has designated.  Not really ideal if you generally like using Google as an information source.  There's also the issue that Siri just isn't all that accurate.  Sure it's better with iOS 7, but still not accurate enough that I can depend on using it in situations where texting isn't reasonable.  I really only find Siri useful for setting reminders and appointments, and even then I end up having to cancel them at times because of inaccuracies.  I've basically given up on trying to make Siri do anything else.  For a company that generally prides itself in simplifying the experience for the user, Siri simply doesn't do that.

It's Not All Bad
After reading this, I could see people asking why I would even use Apple products if I have this many frustrations with them.  I think there are plenty of things they are doing well.  I like the Mac, and the usability improvements they make with each new version OS X.  I've been pretty happy with OS X Mavericks in general and hope that my 5 year old Macbook Pro can still get another update or two.  For iOS, its shortcomings have become more prevalent as I have owned a Nexus 7 tablet currently running Android 4.4 and some of the additional features that make Android feel closer to being a normal computer.  That being said, my iOS devices are generally more responsive than my Nexus 7.  My experience in general with Android devices is that they may start off feeling stable and fast, but like older Windows machines they often become slower over time, even to the point of having to wait on them for several minutes.  Some of it may be that I generally have about 200 apps on any device at one time, but I feel like the operating system should be able to manage that to some degree so the user isn't having to kill apps and depend on third party utilities to free up RAM.  Right now my preferred choice for a mobile operating system is iOS, but if Android can resolve some of the stability and resource management issues I've seen, who knows what the future may hold?

Why I Left Verizon for T-Mobile

I was a T-Mobile customer before.  For six years it was the only cell phone carrier I knew.  I generally didn't have a lot of problems with their service before, but I would hear things about how Verizon was better and sometimes hear other people complain about T-Mobile's service and wonder what I was missing.

When I left T-Mobile for Verizon in 2011, I was frustrated by a few things.  Mainly that T-Mobile wasn't offering the iPhone and that I would always have to jump through the hoops of unlocking an AT&T iPhone to run on T-Mobile and only have access to 2G service.  It's also worth mentioning that at the time T-Mobile's other offerings for phones was pretty lousy too.  Their top Android phones at the time were unbearably slow so it wasn't like I was going to get a great experience with a different phone.  When I switched to Verizon, I was also single and therefore in a better position to handle the increase in my bill.

When I first joined Verizon, I had a plan with 450 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data for $80 a month (about $87 after taxes), also included was unlimited calls and texts to Verizon customers.  I was generally happy with this plan, but later there were a few changes that made me wonder about the way Verizon treats its customers.  I later bought an iPad with a Verizon data plan. I was a little miffed at the time when I found out they got rid of their $20 a month tablet plan and in order to purchase the iPad from their store I had to activate that day for $35 and then pay $30 a month for 2GB.  This took my bill up to $110 a month ($120 after taxes).  Later that year I decided I wanted to upgrade to an iPhone 5.  I knew going into this upgrade that Verizon was forcing its customers to give up their previous plan and choose their Share Everything (in your wallet) plan.  Still, the $80 plan I had was serving me well since I didn't need the extra minutes and texts.  When I realized I wasn't going to get an iPhone 5 on eBay for a reasonable price, I reluctantly went forward with the upgrade when I became eligible.  The problem with the Share Everything plan is they essentially force you into unlimited minutes and texts even if you don't need them and put strict limitations on your data usage.  I went from having unlimited phone data and 2GB of tablet data to having 2GB between the two for the same $110 a month I was paying before. Not only that, but I could only save $10 a month if I took my iPad off the tablet plan, so to have a phone with 2GB of data would be $100 instead of the $80 I was previously paying to get unlimited data.  Soon after upgrading, my frustrations furthered when I was charged $15 for barely going over.  This came as a surprise as I had been tracking my usage with the My Verizon app.  On the last day of the month, I was still under (according to the app) and turned off data on my phone hoping to avoid going over.  Unfortunately I must have already been over and the app did not have the up to date data usage.  I tried to argue this when on the phone with customer service, but the agent actually told me the app was not accurate.  I find it ridiculous if we're trying to track our usage to avoid going over that we can't trust the data that they provide us.  Considering how little I actually went over, it would have been nice if they had reduced my $15 overage at least some, or retroactively upgraded me to a higher tier of data so I would only be charged $10, as I probably would have done that if I felt I needed to.  This lead me to wonder how honest Verizon really is with their customers, and their customer service didn't prove themselves to be accommodating at all.  I find it hard to believe that they don't have up to the minute data on each customer's usage, or they do not have a way to calculate it effectively on the fly.  I could have turned off my data a day earlier if I had seen how close I really was to my data cap.  

Last summer I got married, and as part of that I brought my wife's phone onto my plan.  This brought my bill all the way up to $175.  With each month that passed, I looked at that $175 coming off my credit card each month and really started wondering if I was getting my money's worth.  That question would also come each time I tested my data speeds on Verizon's LTE network.  When I first bought my iPad two years ago, my LTE speeds generally would range from 13-20 Mbps.  At the time I was pretty happy with what I was getting as it's comparable to what most people get at home.  Over time, it started slowing down some.  It hadn't slowed down enough to concern me at the time when I bought my iPhone 5, but since then I have seen speeds I drop dramatically.  It seems likely to be congestion related as there are obviously more LTE devices being added to their network by the day, but for the rates they are charging their customers, they need to be doing more to keep their network up to speed.  In recent months, I was typically getting anywhere from 4 to 8 Mbps on LTE.  This may be fine for most functionality you perform with a smartphone or tablet, but the arrow is obviously pointing down on the speeds we can expect from their network, enough to have you wonder if they'll even be able to keep speeds above what most would consider 3G.

One of the things I sacrificed using a Verizon iPhone 5 on T-Mobile is not having access to T-Mobile's LTE network.  Honestly, it hasn't made much difference as I am getting similar, and in some locations better, speeds on T-mobile's HSPA+ network than I was on Verizon's LTE.  My monthly bill with T-Mobile right now is around $120 a month, and that includes $22 for monthly installments paying for my wife's iPhone 5S.  We traded in her old iPhone 4S to pay my Verizon termination fee and even with a new phone we are saving close to $50 a month.  I know some will argue how great Verizon's coverage is, but in my experience that just meant you would get 1 or 2 bars in a few obscure places not covered by T-Mobile.  I haven't been to a city yet where T-Mobile's coverage seemed lacking, and I'm not sure why so many people on the internet are adamant that T-Mobile's coverage is subpar.

T-Mobile is a different company from when I left them in 2011.  They had been purchased by AT&T, and their CEO at the time seemed apathetic about their situation.  After the merger was nixed by the Department of Justice, John Legere took over as CEO and has made a world of difference.  T-Mobile today is all about shaking up the industry and killing off the policies of cell phone providers that have been treating customers unfairly for years.  They've killed contracts.  They offer phones in monthly installments.  They let you bring your own phone and not be forced to pay the higher rates of the contract carriers.  They offer early upgrade programs that are far more consumer friendly than those of the contract carriers.  They offer a free data plan for tablets.  A company that offers these things to the consumer is a company I want to stand behind.  

The Good and Bad of iOS 7

It's been one week since the official release of iOS 7.  During that time, I've been able to experience a lot of good and bad with the changes and decide what works well for me and why.

Not a lot of information taking up a lot of space

Notifications

The Good: I like that notifications are more visible when they come in.  Apple has increased the size of notifications at the top of the screen which does help in noticing them as they come in.  The "All" view of the notifications pulldown is more organized and easier to read, and the x to clear them is much easier to see and touch.

The Bad: I hate that the "Today" view of the notifications pulldown is the default.  Not really a big deal in the grand scheme as I just swipe over to "All", but it seems like the "Today" view is a little bit of information taking up a lot of space.  Another thing I don't like is how the notifications pulldown on the iPad now takes up the full screen.  I thought it was nicer before where you could simply tap outside of the area to make the pulldown disappear.  I'm not sure how to feel about the change on the lock screen where "Slide To Unlock" no longer launches the app for an incoming notification.  Probably the way it should be, but the fact that it's a change in behavior to what we've grown accustomed to in iOS is going to throw us off some.

Only 9 icons?

Icons and Folders

The Good: It never really made sense that folder sizes where limited to just the icons you see on the screen.  Being one who likes to try several apps, I've had several categories where I would have to create more than one folder.  I had 5 folders of Games on my iPhone 5 which I have since consolidated to 1, which has actually reduced the number of home screens I need on my phone.

The Bad: 9 visible icons in a folder sucks, especially on an iPad.  I had a few folders on my iPad that went all the way up to the 20 icon limit of previous versions of iOS, which now is spread across 3 PAGES.

Lock screen controls for the music player have improved

Lock Screen

The Good: I think what Apple has done with lock screen music controls is an improvement.  They are displayed nicely in the upper half of the screen with the progress bar, title, play controls, and volume controls.  The progress bar is a nice addition, and the whole area has a nicer look than the previous lock screen controls that you had to double tap the home button to use.

The Bad: The "Slide To Unlock" is a little less intuitive than the arrow Apple has used with all previous versions of iOS.  It seems like I am actually missing the area to swipe, or just not completing the action when it seems like I should be.

Lots of bright colors in iOS 7, not all of them look great

Design Elements

The Good: Sometimes it's just good to do something different.  The old look and feel of iOS has gotten stale and for those of us who have been using iOS devices for several years, it's a welcome change to be looking at something different.

The Bad: Too much pink in the music app.  Overall I really wish they had used colors that are easy on the eyes, but in several places they use brighter colors which can create more eye fatigue if you are using the device for an extended period of time.  Also the use of < and > in some places like tabbing through form fields is less intuitive than the "Previous" and "Next" buttons they used before.

Users of other operating systems may find
iOS 7's multi-tasking familiar.

Multitasking

The Good: While it does seem to mimic the way other mobile operating systems multitask, having a window view of the app is more helpful and makes better use of the screen space than previously just having the 4 icons across the bottom.  It's also easier to swipe to "terminate" the apps than to hold down on one until they start jiggling and pressing the red minus button.

The Bad: If you are a heavy multi-tasker, it may be a little slower to switch to an app you've been using if you go well beyond the few apps that are visible.  While the window view of the app does make it easier to identify and switch, it does take up more space which can take longer to swipe through.

Lots of settings are now just a swipe away.
It's about time.

Control Center

The Good: The fact that it exists.  Several controls here will be convenient for changing settings quickly.  Some of these settings you previously would have to launch the Settings app and then go a few levels in to change.  It's also more convenient to have music controls here than previously double-tapping the home button and then swiping to the left.  

The Bad: Hard to pick on a feature that didn't previously exist, but they made some questionable choices for quick launch settings, and it would be nice if there was some customization in the settings available to toggle on/off.  For example, I don't anticipate using the rotation lock setting a lot on my iPhone.  Whether or not others will use this is debatable, but for me personally it would be more convenient to have an option to turn on/off mobile hotspot or cellular data.  I also question the choices of Calculator and Timer for quick launch icons, and some have questioned the need for flashlight here.  These could probably be used better, especially if the user is allowed to select their own icons.

iTunes Radio (hopefully) is
a work in progress.

Other Features

The Good: For me, having another competitor in internet radio is ultimately a good thing.  While sometimes buggy, iTunes Radio is a welcome addition in iOS 7 and I hope they are able to improve the service over time.  AirDrop is a nice little addition, although restricted to iPhone 5 and up running iOS 7, and is somewhat unnecessary considering a lot of these file transfers could be done over MMS.

The Bad: Like I stated above, iTunes Radio is buggy.  I've had a few occasions where tapping "Never play this song" would result in that same song being started from the beginning again.  I've also seen a song repeated 2 to 3 songs after being played previously.  I also find it a little strange that tapping the star brings up the menu that marks a song as a favorite or select to never play that song again.

The iPhone 5C Is Not Worth It

The iPhone 5C Is Not Worth It

Apple recently announced 2 new models of iPhone, the iPhone 5S which starts at $199 on contract for a 16GB model, and the iPhone 5C which starts at $99 on contract for a 16GB model.  So here's a basic rundown of what these phones offer:

iPhone 5S
This is Apple's new flagship offering.  While the body of the phone is similar to their previous flagship model, the iPhone 5, it contains several hardware upgrades over the previous generation which should help to future-proof the device.

iPhone 5C
This is a new model of iPhone with a plastic body, and is offered in several colors.  It seems likely that the target audience of this phone is a more youthful audience between its lower price tag and bright colored options.  Internally, the hardware on this phone is nearly identical to the iPhone 5.

The Rip-Off
Here's why the iPhone 5C is not worth buying.  While it's similar to the iPhone 5 internally, the plastic casing is inferior to the aluminum body that was previously offered with the iPhone 5 and currently is offered on the 5S.  Why did Apple do this?  It seems likely that they found it would be more profitable to design and produce a phone with cheaper build materials than to continue to sell the iPhone 5 at a reduced price, which Apple has done with previous generations.  Perhaps they also decided it would be easier to market what is essentially previous generation hardware if they dress it up differently.

A Better Alternative
You may not feel the iPhone 5S with its finger print sensor, A7 64-bit processor, and improved camera sensor are not necessary.  Given the difference in built materials between the 5S and 5C, I would think that alone would be worth the extra $100 for a phone that you will most likely be using for at least the next 2 years.  If the 5S price still seems hefty, you may consider shopping around for remaining stock of the iPhone 5.  Currently, Verizon is still offering the white model in 16GB capacity for $99.99, the same price at the 5C:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/device/smartphone/iphone-5-16gb-white

Generally speaking, I recommend getting the best phone you can buy.  With most carriers charging $80 to $100 a month for your monthly service, you should view your phone purchase as an investment over the next 2 years that you are going to own it.  While you may be happy with a phone initially, you will most likely install apps and operating system updates over the next 2 years which inevitably slow down your phone's performance, in which case you probably won't be very happy with your phone by the time you're 20 months into your contract.  For that reason, I would strongly recommend the iPhone 5S to anybody if iOS is your preferred operating system, even if you may not be a heavy user.  The $199 price tag may seem like a lot initially, but for a phone you're going to be spending around $2,000 on in monthly service over the next 2 years, a $100 difference in price shouldn't be such a great deterrent.