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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I'm just a consumer whore, but this update hit it out of the park for me:

- I was waiting for the rMBP Haswell update.

- I love my mini, but the shitty screen is the worst thing about it.

- My wife loves the 10" form factor of her iPad, but it's heavy and the half pound weight reduction is substantial.

Also, as a practical matter, I like that Apple realizes what their products' pain points are and appreciate incremental updates like these to address them. This is something you really don't see in PC space where each new product iteration can have totally different flaws. E.g. with the Vaio Pro 13, Sony did a great job with battery life. But then its bigger, heavier Flip PCs have worse battery life! Huh?

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I like that Apple realizes what their products' pain points are and appreciate incremental updates

Please realize there's a bit of rose colored glasses here. After an iPhone 3g, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s I couldn't stand the wait for a larger screen any longer and was forced into switching away from iPhone. I chose a Lumia 928. A co-worker of mine ended up with a Galaxy S4. The Lumia 928 is the best phone I've ever owned and my co-worker says the same thing about his Galaxy. You really don't realize the pain points you had with an iPhone until you have something else. For example: the fact that the screen is so narrow means that they had to come up with the hack of hiding the address bar unless you're at the very top of Safari. That's a pain. To reduce that pain they came up with the hack of tapping the very tippy top of the screen which whisks you instantly to the top of the page. Not a bad hack - until you're on page 9 or 10 of reading something and accidentally trigger the immediate scroll to top thereby losing your place.

There are a ton of things that users have been clamoring for in every Apple product and most of these things, Apple just ignores.

The thing I thank Apple for in the smart phone arena is raising the bar so high with the original iPhone that it led to having several decent choices today. It's a shame they've stagnated since then though and the competition has significantly passed them.

I have the orig. Nexus 7 tablet and I sorely miss the tapping the titlebar to get to the top functionality. I don't think it's a hack, although I think they need a reverse type of feature where tapping it at the top sends you to your previous location near the bottom for exactly the situation you describe.

Personally I don't like larger phones. I like the smaller size of the 4S mainly because I like stuff to fit comfortably in my pocket.

I too have an OG Nexus7 and I'm sorely disappointed by it. The flash modules Google put in them were shit and Android didn't support TRIM until very recently, so memory performance degraded very quickly. As soon as I hit over 40% full, it becomes unusable.

On the otherhand, I've been overall very happy with all the HTC devices I've bought...HTC is really the Apple of the OEM world

Just wanted to point out that the weird "hiding the address bar" thing isn't as bad as you describe (the behavior you talk about might have existed in one of the betas, but trying on my iPhone now it seems to be gone). Instead, if you press the top of the screen the address bar now appears, and pressing the top again makes you scroll to the top of the page.

> significantly passed them.

Look, I'm an Android fan. But your claims of Apple being surpassed are hot air. Name a single Android phone the size of the iPhone 5s that's even close to its capabilities. You can't. Android phones are laptops, while iPhones are Macbook Airs. Android manufacturers still can't touch the iPhone for what it is. Namely, the best damn phone money can buy in its category (ultra-light and compact). Your complaint about Apple is that they should make larger phones for you--a valid argument--but that doesn't mean Apple is falling behind. They're not even in the game, yet. A Galaxy S4 is so much bigger than an iPhone it's practically a separate category of phone.

> A Galaxy S4 is so much bigger than an iPhone it's practically a separate category of phone. Name a single Android phone the size of the iPhone 5s that's even close to its capabilities.

Motorola X.

It's literally designed to be the Android version of an "iPhone" form factor. (It's technically larger than an iPhone, but only marginally.)

http://cdn04.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09...

It's 56% bigger in its dimensions. I guess it depends on your definition of close.

The difference is only a few inches!

Sony Z1f

Excuse me while I puke a little.

Sony seems to be in a positive transition off late. All products havent been refreshed. I was surprised how good the Xperia Tablet Z was. Was lighter and thinner than any comparable tablet when it launched around Mar this year.

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