Yeah I don't like Apple. Though unfortunately, the iPad is the only useful consumer tablet imo. Android tablets seem to only be good for like integrated uses like a construction tablet with custom software.
I kept my Nexus 5X until Pixel 4a came out. That was a good phone. I was lucky that the refurbished i got, after suffering the dead after phone too hot demise, actually lasted and it's still alive as second phone, if needed. Custom ROMs were still a thing. I miss then sometimes or rather i sometimes miss the custom ROM community. Some very dedicated people, lots of asshats and always noobs asking the kind of questions everyone loved.
I had a Nexus 10 they abandoned after two years. Made me never want to spend money on an android tablet again. Honestly I would probably switch to iOS if I could have ad blockers.
You’ve been able to get ad blockers on iOS for years at this point, they call them “content blockers”. They’re not as full featured as those on android though.
The 5X was such a garbage device that it makes sense that they’d try to sweep that trash under the rug. I swear I was getting barely more than 40 minutes SoT and it would get stupidly hot if you tried to do anything on it.
I was so happy with my Pixel 1 purchase, Pixel 2 was also a treat. And then I switched to iPhone in 2018 because Google pissed me off when they insisted that the half pink screen on my Pixel 3 was normal and acceptable. I’ve had an iPhone as my daily ever since, but have tried every Pixel since and currently own a 7 as a backup phone.
But the iPhone experience is still overall better, especially since CarPlay is still rock solid compared to Android Auto, which was one of my absolute deciding factors. Apollo was too, but now that’s gone, so if Google could make wireless Android Auto not turn my Pixel 7 into a furnace and improve the battery life in general further for the Pixel 8, I could see me returning to Android.
If you use the stock rom, if you install a custom one you get updates as long as the developers continue working which is quite a pong time for some of the ROMs that exist right now
However you have to take into consideration what the OS updates do on each device.
On iOS, an update also updates all the system apps, meaning Safari, Maps, weather, notes, mail, health, photos, the calculator and so on are hyper dependent on having OS updates for a long time.
On Android, all of those system apps are updated via the play store, and a lot of deeper features can be updated via Google Play services similarly to how Nearby share was able to be back ported to any Android device running 6.0 or newer when it came out recently. Full OS updates are still important for Android, but they aren’t nearly as critical to the overall user experience.
I use an iPhone, but I’d love them to move all system app updates into the App Store for more frequent updates. The only plus side to the way Apple does it is that everyone gets the update at the same time and you don’t have annoying staged rollouts like you do with Google apps.
This used to be a huge issue for me, but the last couple of Samsung phones I bought they kept them pretty well supported for years.
I switched to iPhone because I was the last in the family thread and was ruining it for everyone's bubbles, and the iPhone mini is just a great size, the android phones I liked just kept getting a bit bigger and bigger to the point that it bothered me.
This was a huge reason for my switch from Android to Apple. Years ago i ran custom ROMs but i found myself spending far too much time flashing updates, and forgetting to backup data and wiping something important.
I will say, some ROMs these days are practically maintenance free. I have been running graphene os for about 3 years now and I have never had issues updsting by just pressing the button.
My problem with Apple is that everything's designed to interoperate with other Apple stuff, and nothing else. It feels like a walled garden that doesn't just keep users in, but also keeps those of us out who might want to try a single Apple device without spending many thousands replacing our entire ecosystem.
Absolutely, Apple is being resistant to RCS not because they think iMessage is superior but because they know it weakens their lock in power. I know I’m stating the obvious, but it just annoys me so much.
You can get one and try it out, the ecosystem stuff is more enhancement than a detriment if you don’t have them.
Like Apple Watch and my MacBook Air, I can authenticate or unlock the screen using my Apple Watch rather than a password. But that’s just a benefit and I wouldn’t be losing anything but the enhancement if I didn’t have both.