iQuit: My Hellish Attempt to Leave Apple’s Walled Garden
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
> That portability largely ended in the mobile era. Apple, Google and a graveyard’s worth of other companies restricted access to internal software mechanisms, adopted more unique file types and “sandboxed” apps so each one had its own isolated data.
Call it a "computer in your pocket" and lock it down harder than Fort Knox so users become less computer literate over time. That's a big part of the smartphone revolution's legacy.
Super locked down devices that are fast and easy to use is better than everyone getting pwned by viruses because they can't be bothered to install an antivirus or not share their passwords with strangers.
Cars have an associated “literacy”, too. (Really, so do hammers, but its comparatively trivial.)
I'm a user. I want a device that's fair, controllable, extendable, customizable, and lets me control my own data.
Viruses and malware were common in the 2000s desktop computing era, pre-Windows Defender. Not now.
Samsung literally calls their flavour of this tech "Knox". Though "Guantanamo" would be more fitting.
Caveats: iOS messages can be kept, but they'll be in files, not your new message app. Photo edits will be lost unless you take extra steps.
Messages: if you are comfortable with it, use imessage-exporter (https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter) on your Mac to export your messages to disk. Copy to new machine. Validate you got what you wanted! Can also be used to decrease iCloud usage by backing up messages and deleting the originals from Apple Messages.
Photos: three ways. 1) open up the macOS photos app, select all photos, and export them. This will make any JPEG photos much larger than they originally were due to ridiculous default quality settings. 2) If you have access to a Windows machine, install iCloud for Windows, let the photos sync, and copy them to a new directory. 3) Use iCloud's web UI to download all the photos on the new machine.
Mail: pick a new provider. Several ways. 1) Add the new provider account to macOS mail. Copy and paste your emails/folders between accounts. 2) Create an app-specific password for iCloud, use the provider's migration facility (most major players support this and it will move your contacts and calendars).
Calendars: if you are sharing calendars with iOS users or will keep some Apple devices, keep iCloud as your primary calendar system. Use DavX5 (https://www.davx5.com/) on Android to setup a two-way mirror between your Android calendar app. Your email provider may provide calendar mirroring (Fastmail does, for one). If you aren't sharing / using your mail provider, export your calendars to ICS files from Apple Calendar and import into your new calendar app.
Contacts: if you will continue using Apple products, keep iCloud as your primary contacts system and use DavX5. Otherwise, open macOS Contacts, select all, and export to a VCF file. Import this into your new Contacts app.
Documents: copy to a backup drive from the machine, download them from iCloud on the web, use iCloud for Windows for the initial sync. Whatever suits you. If you are using Apple's office apps, be sure to load and save as a more universal format.
Passwords: pick a password solution (KeePass-based, cloud provider, etc). From a Mac that you’re sure isn’t compromised: open Safari, go to the Passwords section, export passwords to CSV. THIS IS AN UNENCRYPTED FILE. It does include the TOTP configuration information. KeePassXC will load this file, though you’ll need to tell it which columns are what. Presumably, other password providers can as well. Once done the passwords have been loaded into the new solution, delete the CSV file and empty the trash.
(Yes, in the before days, we stored photos on hard disks that we owned and moving photos was as easy as rebuilding the library in whatever other app you wanted to use. But at least we don't have to worry about losing photos anymore!)
> Only a little frustrated that iMessage didn’t allow for modern chatting on non-Apple PCs and phones.
RCS is trash and stupid idea on the face of it. It's all essentially wholly Google-controlled which means they will give up on in 1-2 years when some exec comes up with a way to climb the corporate ladder. They will implement a new app/protocol/platform with 70% or less of the features of RCS and be billed as the "new hotness" before it also gets thrown into the graveyard.
> Only a little miffed that I couldn’t choose Google Maps as my default navigator or set up an Amazon Echo as easily as Apple’s own HomePod speaker.
I've setup many Echo speakers from my iPhone, it's always a simple process, I have not clue what they are talking about here.
> But these things began to add up, as did the $120 I was spending every year to store my photos on iCloud.
Apple's 2TB plan = $9.99/mo, Google 2TB play = $9.99/mo, neither are required.
> When I emailed Google to request interviews with executives about the switching process, a spokesperson accidentally copied me on a note to his team in which he mocked the very idea that an Android-and-friends model could work as well as iOS. “It’s like doing a car comparison but trying to compare a Honda to a car you build from parts you got at Pep Boys,” he wrote.
So clearly the Google execs don't care about making this easy (as also seen later in the article when the transfer tools have issues) but the writer lays all the blame at Apple's feet repeatedly through this.
Then the author goes into a completely non-sequitur about the market value, Vision Pro, and Epic (which Google also battled with over the same thing). Literally adds nothing to the article at all.
> moving files from iOS to Android turned out to be shockingly complicated and expensive
From what I can tell the "expensive" part is never explained in this article, it's just throw in... because?
> jumping from a Dell or Compaq to a Macintosh, and vice versa, was relatively easy
Rose colored glasses much? Windows <-> Windows was easy enough (though many normal people failed at that) but Windows <-> Mac (both directions) has never been particularly simple/easy. In a lot of ways it's easier now with everything being web-based.
> A Google sales adviser promised that migrating from my iPhone would be as “easy as you copy paste from your computer.” This, surprise, turned out not to be true.
Wait, a sales person lied to you? Stop the presses, we must tell the masses about this new development immediately. Spare me.
> When it finally completed, only a smattering of photos appeared along with random texts from 2011 to 2013, which soon abruptly disappeared.
I honestly wouldn't have expected there to be any way to transfer old messages at all. The fact that the ones that came over disappeared later is very clearly an Android problem. It's not like Apple reached out to your Android phone and deleted them later. A common theme in this badly written article is to blame Apple for everything and refuse to take any person responsibility or lay any at Android/Google's feet. Cool.
> My 171 iCloud contacts auto-merged in a mess with every Gmail address archived in my account going back to 2005, including nine ancient versions of myself.
Again, what did you expect. You already had contacts in Google's ecosystem, is it on Apple to find a way to merge those all intelligently? That process is actually a lot more difficult that people might think and the consequences of screwing up can be bad, better to have dupes than overwrite/lose data.
> A Google support agent couldn’t figure out the problem and referred me to Apple customer service through a 1-800 number.
Google's transfer app didn't work so it's up to Apple to figure out? Ok....
> The next day, an AppleCare technician called and, to the company’s credit, spent 52 minutes suggesting more detailed fixes. But he also said he couldn’t evaluate Google’s recommended transfer steps for possible issues, because Apple blocked Android’s website internally.
I have a very hard time believing this. It literally makes no sense. Is Steve Ballmer moonlighting as a manager at the call center?
> I also realized I would have to manually transfer my saved passwords, two-factor authentication codes and Signal and WhatsApp messages.
I fail to see how 3rd party apps are Apple's fault?
> I was excited to try Xbox cloud gaming (which isn’t available in Apple’s App Store) on my phone
I do this at least once a month on my Mac and/or my iPhone, it works perfectly fine in the webapp even with a controller. The issue is latency to their servers, something I don't think a native app would actually fix. I actually do think Apple should relent on this front some but also the experience is just not great. You aren't going to be playing FPS or any fast paced game here, the lag is just too bad.
> The XPS touchpad didn’t feel as smooth as Apple’s.
Those pesky Apple execs! Sneaking into the XPS factory and screwing with their trackpads. Seriously? Why is this mentioned? If anything it's clear that the hardware they switched to is subpar and there was good reason to stay on Apple's hardware in the first place but they manage to write it as if it's somehow Apple's fault (like the whole article).
> While my iPhone-using friends joked (I think?) that I was dead to them, my family was annoyed that it was tougher to share videos with my Pixel. For whatever reason, some of my texts failed to send. Much of this poor usability seemed to be more Apple’s fault than Google’s, because Apple has resisted adopting a communication protocol that could improve sharing between iOS and Android
Again, let's just blame Apple. See above, RCS is shit and no one else in the world cares about RCS or iMessage even. Either use a 3rd party chat app or stop complaining.
> The impasse was particularly frustrating because I was still a paying iCloud subscriber whose iMessages were stuck on Apple’s servers.
I don't see what this has to do with the price of eggs in China. If I leave a subscription active with another platform why would I expect that to affect my experience on a different platform? Hey I'm still paying for Hulu but Netflix is doing something I don't like! Can you believe that? Even while I'm still paying for Hulu? See how silly that sounds?
> I, for one, failed. Neither I nor the experts I consulted could figure out how to get my photos, texts and other data out of iCloud and convert them to files that could live seamlessly on my Pixel or Dell.
We are throwing that word, "experts", around pretty loosely here aren't we? I don't think I'd classify anyone they talked to through this whole process as an expert.
> So I returned the Android and PC and instead bought a new iPhone and MacBook Air. Although these devices are as refined and powerful as they’ve always been, Apple didn’t have to make the best products to regain my business. I just wanted my life back.
Bullshit. You tried other products and they weren't as good, this is a pretty big retcon in my opinion. We didn't hear hardly anything that was better about the XPS or the Pixel other than faster picture taking on the Pixel and how sleek the XPS was with it's keyboard (but remember the trackpad was shit, and somehow Apple's fault?).
It isn’t on Apple to open up iMessage, express your frustration at Google and others for not being able to build a halfway decent alternative in nearly 15 years. So instead they shove the RCS turd down everyone’s throats.
Remember, iMessage wasn’t the first of its kind. Blackberry messenger had similar network effects. Yet Apple built a great alternative. So don’t disparage them for building something great. Get mad at the others for not bothering to compete, leaving customers wanting more.
Ah, but it is, morally. That's what comes when you have the greatest "profit share".
Ah, but it isn't, in reality. Your moral judgments have no power over anyone but you.
This is a statement that closes a discussion. Instead, prefer making statements that open a discussion. For example, in this case: in which ways can moral judgments be channeled into actual power?
One answer to this question is "the law". The EU has already taken action in this regard.
That, too, is just plainly not true. Moral utterances can and do change people's minds all the time, so by definition they have non-zero value to other people. I've had my mind changed on a lot of things thanks to other people's moral utterances -- haven't you?
Apple blocking the Android website internally is the least surprising thing in the article. Apple is petty and vapid like that, right on down from Steve Jobs's ":)" response to a recruiter being fired while Apple was illegally colluding with Google [1].
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-smiley-face-email...
I hope Apple (and Google, for that matter) die miserable corporate deaths.
is that 5% really worth an extra $800+...
the only big difference is if you care about resale value. trying to sell a used android/windows vs a used apple product is definitely an eye-opening experience.
I have for work a mid range android (Samsung a53). The camera is significantly worse than my iphone 12 pro max. So i have to get high end phones and then the extra money for a iphone is not much.
For me the long term updates and lack of maintenance are key factors - it’s been 15 years since I’ve had time to faff around with phones, I just need something that works and can easily transfer on to the next one.
It’s more about how well the two phones do similar things. Yes a 200$ phone takes photos and videos, but the image quality is worse and the files ironically tend to be bigger.
Yes it will run all my apps, but they’ll be sluggish cause of bloat in the software stack.
Same idea, but repeat it for everything else.
Now, this may simply not matter to someone, and that’s great they get to save 800$. But to many others, myself included, it does matter.
Let’s talk phones, and just ignore the brand to start. Higher end devices often have better cameras, better support, better build quality. I’m sure you’ll find some random phone that competes with a flagship, but that’s irrelevant to the vast majority of users.
Now start introducing brands to the mix. Each brand has value adds like platform specific apps and ecosystem integration. Samsung and Apple have a big ecosystem of products that they work with that other brands don’t. Even if the other brands work with them, many people prefer to stick with the single brand for support reasons. You’ll likely suggest alternative apps and products. Users don’t want that, they want a product that does what they need without being technically competent.
Your problem is you’re looking at spec sheets and seeing equivalence in the things that matter to you. The things that matter to most people aren’t on the spec sheet. A spec sheet does not convey experience.
By your same argument, why do people buy nicer cars? A fiat 500 is most of what I get with a ford f150 and a Lamborghini Aventador.
Why do they buy nicer clothes? Fast fashion from H&M is the same from a utility perspective as a nice tailored suit from Armani.
If your arguments start with random value segments and don’t take into account experience, nothing will ever make sense. The experience of a $200 Android phone is not the experience of a $1000 Android phone, let alone a $1000 iPhone. The experience of a $10k car is not the experience of a $80k or $400k car. The experience of a $20 shirt is not the same as the experience of a $180 shirt.
Do you value shutter lag? Support? Product ecosystem? Video quality? App ecosystem? Accessibility features? Build quality? Software updates?
The divide is as small or as big as each independent person makes it. But on average many people clearly see value in different product segments.
The trouble with discussing it on HN is that this is the exact wrong demographic for this. This is the site that discussed Dropbox by saying people could just use rsync. That routinely suggests technical workarounds to any project posted. many people will pay the extra money to not care.
True with the camera. But if you're like me, that's not actually a big deal. Better support? I wouldn't know, as I've never needed support so I can't compare. Better build quality? True -- but is that a huge deal? Even the cheapest phones I've used have lasted for most of a decade.
> Each brand has value adds like platform specific apps and ecosystem integration.
I always thought that stuff added by manufacturers takes value away from the phone. And worse, you often can't remove it.
Anyway, I think the point is that a $1000 phone is not 5 times better than a $200 phone. It may be worth the expense to people anyway, of course, but the price goes up far faster than the extra benefits do.
This is an egocentric view of products. Clearly other people do care because cameras are the focus of most reviews, and the thing that sees the most upgrade Gen on Gen.
That’s what matters. What matters to people on average, not one off HN posters.
That’s not to diminish your opinion. That’s what you value and it’s important as well. It’s just not relevant to demographic trends
I see people say an iPhone lasts many years but you need to get a new Android phone every 1-2 years. That hasn't been true for quite a while for middle- and high end phones. And I don't see myself paying more for an iPhone when I barely get any benefits.
Meanwhile, I switched to Apple and skip 2-4 generations at a time and hand down my phones to my kids, who still receive updates. It was only the end of last year that we phased the last iPhone 6 out of our family, a phone released September of 2015. A phone Apple replaced the battery in for $35 halfway through its lifetime.
I’ll never own an Android phone as long as the carriers have any control over OS updates or baked in applications.
Oh, and let’s not forget while phone backups automatically to the cloud. Every new phone I’ve purchased has continued on right where the last one left off. Settings and customizations I setup in 2015 are still working to this day on a phone that’s only a year old.
I’ve had a Mac since 2014, after years of complaining about them. Then the M1 came out, and I became a zealot, because my base-spec Air trounces my fully-spec’d i9 MBP that my work gave me.
But the real trick that keeps people in is the ecosystem. I switched to an iPhone a couple of months ago. Other than some iOS complaints, the handoff and interplay between devices is incredible. Answer a phone call on the Mac? Sure. Copy a URL on the Mac, and then paste it on the iPhone? Yep, no problem. Apple solves small, annoying problems, and does so without friction. Things just work.
This. I’ve tried Android a couple of times over the years, and every time there’s just little quirks and problems that drive me back to iOS.
Same with Linux on a laptop. I actually prefer Linux as a dev environment, but I’ve never been able to get the same laptop experience as I can with a Mac. The quality of the touchpad, keyboard (the butterfly keys being the lone exception), display, weight, and form factor just can’t be touched.
Yes, yes it is. Some people value their time and energy really highly.