Hacker News Reader

Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

Kind of amusing that a lot of what people want from jailbreaking is available now in stock Android.

Apple's hardware is top notch but the fact that people have to hack their OS to get these features says a lot about the inertia in Cupertino.

View on HN

It's a race to the bottom if everyone in the mobile space just tries to maximize feature checklists. I think it's great that Apple tries to be an arbiter of good taste and user experience, even if they fall down sometimes.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why does actively restricting features that people clearly want enhance user experience, and exemplify good taste? Where's the bad taste in NFC?

I can assure you that that lack of a decent notification centre (like the one Android has had for a long time) is not style, taste or anything else. It's a MAJOR pain in the ass.

To be able to disable wireless with a wipe and a tap is a VERY, VERY, VERY (you get the idea) useful feature.

As I said before, this is not style, taste or anything else but a MAJOR pain.

You say "clearly want" but I you don't know that. You are making an assumption about what "everyone" wants based on what you want, or what you think is important. Maybe this demand goes beyond yourself to your friends (I mean hey, they're your friends because they are simliar to yourself right?)

Tech savvy people get lost in this thinking all the time. I don't get why in a startup focus environment like Hacker News I see this so often.

More doesn't mean better. I'm not trying to defend Apple here, I'm just saying that when you make a grand assumption about what the market wants based on some marketing hype, you've probably been steered in the wrong direction

Right, maybe he doesn't know what everyone wants. But shouldn't the users decide that for themselves? Why put so many restrictions to prevent users from installing 3rd party applications?

Theres a difference between maximizing feteatures and allowing users/3rd parties to add their features. I like that Apple keeps their products (relatively) simple. I am not even entirely apposed to a walled garden app-store. What I do not like is that they took technical measures to prevent users from installing apps that they do not approve.

Sure there's a balance to be struck here but clearly a lot of people think Apple has swung too far to the conservative side.

I don't disagree. There is nothing particularly innovative in iOS 6 or the iPhone 5. I just think that if they had NFC, Google maps, less strict app store policies, and so on they would be indistinguishable from Android. Honestly, if you want to go there, I think Android is in fact getting conservative and WP8 is where the innovation is happening in mobile right now.

I haven't had a chance to actually use a WP8 device yet but I like what I've seen online. I may pick up a 920 just to try it even though I really don't want to commit to another walled-garden ecosystem. I agree that Microsoft seems to be taking much bigger chances than anybody else right now.

I also think Microsoft has far and away the best UI toolkit with C#/XAML.

conservative != slowing

What is WP8 innovating on? Yes, it looks different, but... that's not really the point here is it? It looks gorgeous. I happen to think WP8 > Android (ICS/JB) > iOS in appearance, but it's pretty damn apparent to me that Android > iOS > WP8 in terms of shipping functionality. (And maybe flip the first two for app availability).

I don't see how "Android has a complete feature set" means it's conservative... it's not like they've been removing features from Andorid...

Depends on how you define "a lot". I think the percentage of jail breakers is considerable lower in the general public than "a lot"

It also happens to be considered lower in the general public than the numbers actually demonstrate: out of only hundreds of millions of total devices sold, there are tens of millions out there that are jailbroken.

Even then, you may consider that a "low percentage, certainly nowhere near a majority", but that is still "a lot of people": no one is claiming most people want it different (although if it were easy? dunno).

Well, here in SE Asia it seems to be just about everybody but I suspect that has more to do with app piracy.

Add in the people that bought Android phones for their extra flexibility and you get a lot closer to "a lot".

Yeah. I hate to say it, but when it comes to the iPhone, I'm in it for the hardware at this point. iOS is fast, but lame.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com