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216 points aq3cn | 26 comments | | HN request time: 0.986s | source | bottom
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hartator ◴[] No.13063880[source]
I think I am starting to get worried about the future of Apple.

2016 was a bad year. New iPhone has been the worst selling one in relative numbers since the iPhone. New MacBooks has several issues and controversial choices, while not bringing anything substantial to the table. New Watch changes are so small, nobody noticed an update.

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1. econnors ◴[] No.13063980[source]
Anecdotally, among my (20 something year old) friends, the iPhone used to be a must-have for many reasons; now, it's only a must-have for imessage. If android phones could send "blue texts" than I'm sure many would switch over.
replies(3): >>13064088 #>>13064212 #>>13064566 #
2. dopamean ◴[] No.13064088[source]
Blackberries were a must have among my friends because we all wanted BBM. Some of us were pretty late getting off of Blackberry because of it.
3. etatoby ◴[] No.13064212[source]
Isn't WhatsApp widespread enough in your circles, as a IM replacement? I thought it was quite universal.

Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing?

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4. mikestew ◴[] No.13064245[source]
Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing?

The feature called "Built into the ROM of every iPhone".

replies(1): >>13064978 #
5. epmatsw ◴[] No.13064373[source]
In the US, I know 0 users of WhatsApp (excluding work friends from other countries). It doesn't have nearly the market penetration of even something like GroupMe as far as I can tell.
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6. WayneBro ◴[] No.13064566[source]
The non-iPhone users don't send the blue text. Your sent texts are blue on your iPhone if you're messaging another iPhone user and it's green if not.

Though, who actually cares about this and why?

Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back.

My second biggest gripe is that links from Apple's shitty programs only want to open in Safari instead of my browser.

And third, I can't organize my icons the way I want to. Typical Apple: No choices. Their way or the highway. Fuck you power-users and people who know what they want.

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7. zachwood ◴[] No.13064637[source]
For me, the main feature of iMessage is that Facebook isn't gobbling up all of my metadata.
8. mikeash ◴[] No.13064726[source]
It's getting less common, but some people still pay exorbitant per-message rates for SMS. I no longer care, but when iMessage first came out I was really happy that I could finally text (some) people freely.
replies(1): >>13065507 #
9. swolchok ◴[] No.13064978{3}[source]
It's not built into the ROM. iMessage got a huge update with iOS 10. If it was built into the ROM, that wouldn't be possible, because the old version would be, well, read-only.
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10. artmageddon ◴[] No.13065141{4}[source]
Either way, iMessage comes by default, and every iPhone is guaranteed to have it. Using iMessage instead of say, Whatsapp means I don't have to download yet another app and sign up for yet another service and search for yet another user(not to mention possibly giving away personal information to Facebook) when I can already use what's already on my phone.
11. dajohnson89 ◴[] No.13065249{3}[source]
I know lots of people here in the US who use WhatsApp, but yeah, many of them are from other countries. Even people born in the US, with families/friends outside the US, use it heavily.
12. zeroer ◴[] No.13065397[source]
I change sim card (and hence phone number) frequently for international travel. WhatsApp is horrendous for this use case. It makes me re-authenticate (or something) each time, and people have a hard time finding me. Identity should not be linked to phone number.
replies(1): >>13066887 #
13. rajathagasthya ◴[] No.13065411[source]
> Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back.

You can swipe from the left corner of the screen to go back (do this with 3D touch and it switches to your previous app). You don't need to reach the top for the back button every time.

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14. smpetrey ◴[] No.13065507{3}[source]
I'm floating in the same social circle right now. 99% of my friends and family have an apple device to communicate. I just kicked the text-messaging subscription bucket.
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15. mikestew ◴[] No.13065854{4}[source]
Thanks, Captain Pedantic. Pretty sure folks get the idea despite the egregious inaccuracies in what I wrote. (And, as an aside, I knew that when I wrote it.)
16. pfranz ◴[] No.13066410[source]
> my biggest gripe is: no back button

I had an Android for awhile and the hardware back button made no sense to me. I thought most phones eventually moved to a software back button. I never really knew if I would be going back inside the app, to the last app I had open, to the home screen, or if I was at the end of the queue and it did nothing. Apple took much longer to add it, but I prefer the context their implementation has and gestures for it.

> And third, I can't organize my icons the way I want to.

I have no idea what you're talking about. This is what it sounds like you're talking about[1]. I don't think it was in the original iPhone (2007), but I see references dating back to Jan 2008.

[1] http://i0.wp.com/content.screencast.com/users/Fosteronomo/fo...

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17. mikeash ◴[] No.13066719{4}[source]
I only have unlimited texting because it ended up being cheaper for me to get a package that included it. It's nice to be able to sign up for SMS alerts and such without worrying about the cost, but if it hadn't been cheaper I'd still be relying on iMessage for everything.
18. dcohenp ◴[] No.13066887{3}[source]
I do this often, too. Just FYI: all you need to do is tell WhatsApp "Never mind, I'm not actually changing my number" when prompted (which should only happen once per SIM card change). That's it. You'll continue being identified to your WhatsApp contacts by your "home" phone number (not your temporary one).
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19. zeroer ◴[] No.13069419{4}[source]
I don't have a home phone number.
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20. saghm ◴[] No.13073564{5}[source]
I think from the fact that it was in quotes, "home" just means your default number
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21. zeroer ◴[] No.13079357{6}[source]
I don't have a default number.

You can see why I might think that forcing phone number to equal identify might be a bad idea.

I understand that I'm an unusual case, but I'm sure plenty of other people go through something similar this every couple years if and when they switch phone numbers or providers or move.

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22. etatoby ◴[] No.13081210{7}[source]
I have had the same mobile number for the past 20 years, throughout dozens of different phones and operators. This is very typical where I live (Southern Europe) where, in fact, WhatsApp is very popular.

Question: how do people you haven't been in contact with manage to find you, if you change your number every 2 years?

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23. WayneBro ◴[] No.13081266{3}[source]
> I thought most phones eventually moved to a software back button.

The Android OS implements the software back button, not the apps...and it's always at the bottom of the screen where I can easily reach it. iOS does not implement any such back button - each app has to implement its own and the convention on iOS is to place that back button all the way in the upper left corner of the screen which is very inconvenient to reach for.

> I have no idea what you're talking about. (re: organizing icons)

So, let's imagine that you have 3 app icons on one of your home screens in iOS...

Can you put one of them in the lower right corner? Nope.

Can you put one of them all the way on the right side while the other 2 stay on the left? Nope.

Can you do anything to position them absolutely? No you cannot.

You must resort to jailbreaking or other hackery (like blank icons) to make this work.

24. WayneBro ◴[] No.13081298{3}[source]
This is incorrect. There is no feature of iOS that behaves even remotely like the universal Android back button.
25. zeroer ◴[] No.13085060{8}[source]
In the past three years, I haven't spent more than 60 cumulative days in a single country. Keeping a single phone number is a nonstarter for me.

People contact me via email. Apple's iMessage is the only chat client I've been able to use effectively, because they tie identity to email, not phone number.

26. econnors ◴[] No.13124429[source]
Sorry for late reply, just saw this. Nobody in my circles uses WhatsApp, so nobody uses WhatsApp.