Comment by davb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by davb | Hacker News Reader

In general, iOS isn’t very friendly to users who favour 3G/4G over WiFi. I’ve got unlimited data on my LTE plan but very shaky WiFi at home. I can’t start an iCloud backup without WiFi and can’t download apps or updates over a certain size. And now WiFi miraculously turns itself back on after I turn it off in Control Center (as I’ve done for some time). If I want it off I’ve got to dig through Settings.

Changing defaults is bad enough, but not giving users a choice to change them back is incredibly frustrating, especially for a device with such a diverse range of users and use cases.

Apple (and Google, in their own way) seem to think they can push users towards a lowest common denominator use case. It just doesn’t work.

Take “Do Not Disturb While Driving” for example, which kept activating when I was taking the train. I don’t drive. I set the option to manual yet it still continued to activate whenever I moved above a certain speed. I feel like the folks at Apple have decided “well, since we all drive, it’s probably true of most people”.

I'm on unlimited data plan too, I was constantly running into the device refusing to do what I wanted because it was trying to protect me from imaginary "unexpected charges".

Strangely enough it was actually much nicer using my Android phone as the hotspot for my MacBook instead of the iPhone, because (recognizing the iPhone) it refused to auto-connect (probably those "charges" again eh?), and it would turn off the hotspot whenever the last person disconnected (so I'd have to keep my phone on all night, or be woken early by data-hungry housemates), probably for power saving.

I do understand these are sensible defaults for most people. But it stops being sensible when the defaults are inappropriate, get in the way constantly, and cannot be changed.

I guess their philosophy is something like, "Make 80% of people happy and totally disregard everyone else."

> I guess their philosophy is something like, "Make 80% of people happy and totally disregard everyone else."

Which probably makes sense financially...

Sadly the default assumption in IT these days is "users are dumb sheep". Its not just Apple or Google, MS is doing it as well, and I see more and more of it in the FOSS world.

Because if they changed it, 1% would be happy while the other 99% would complain about high charges. And $1000 phone bills because of an iCloud backup are the stories that go viral.

You can warn 3 times and people would still agree and complain later. Disallowing options that are costly for the vast majority is the only option. The number of iphone users with true unlimited data is probably <5%.

Fun fact: there was a really obscure bug on the first LTE iPhone where sometimes your iCloud backup would happen over LTE even if you're connected to wifi.

That was not pleasant.

Because they are. Step out of your IT bubble.

Man, most people I happen to talk with casually don't even know the concept of Android and iOS. To them it's iPhone, Samsung, Google, LG, Sony, HTC etc. They have no idea that most non-iPhone devices share a similar OS. Nor do they care.

Also, most never even look at warning / question popup texts and impatiently press "Yes", "OK", "I agree" buttons.

Maybe calling them "dumb sheep" is too much but they aren't intellectually illuminated individuals either.

Apple (and Google, in their own way) seem to think they can push users towards a lowest common denominator use case. It just doesn’t work. - But this is not that case though. My non tech friends expect the wifi to off when its off. That would be the lowest common denominator.

This is a mentality that is making its way though the whole of consumer IT, even the FOSS world is not immune in their chase for marketshare...

> If I want it off I’ve got to dig through Settings.

Or just say "Hey Siri, turn off WiFi."

"Disconnected from 'WiFiNetwork'"

Instead of messing with impractical workarounds, why not just fix your wifi ?

> If I want it off I’ve got to dig through Settings.

Yeah: press Home button, tap Settings, tap Wi-Fi, tap the toggle.

A lot of digging indeed.

Like, come on.

In that case, why have the quick access menu at all?

They serve two different purpose -- the quick access only disconnects you from the Wi-Fi network / Bluetooth devices (all except Apple services / devices) and the settings toggle stops the radios whatsoever.

I'll again say it's not intuitive at all and it's not communicated well (if at all), but for us here that go the extra mile to research, having two separate such options is handy.

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