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You can pay with credit card as a convenience + fraud protection mechanism without ever paying interest by just paying your bill off every month.

When chip and pin was first rolled out, Europeans were shocked by the low security of swipe cards in the US. The reason that wasn’t an issue for Americans was (and still is) that credit cards have excellent fraud protections.

If someone steals my credit card, it is the bank’s problem, not mine.

The risk of paying by debit card on a regular basis is unfathomable to me, even with fancy tech to try to make it secure.

After having tried Firefox with UBO on Android, I can’t say I noticed any difference compared to Orion on iOS.

I’m not commenting on the security/privacy. Only the convenience. And I find tap to pay extraordinarily convenient - a significant upgrade over the plastic card.

The watch is on my wrist, or the phone is already in my hand. The credit card is buried in a wallet that needs to be taken out of and put back into a pocket.

Also “unlocking” isn’t an inconvenient step, on iPhone it just happens automatically. As it should on android if the fingerprint sensor is in a convenient location.

The problem is as bad as Apple has become, it has a long way to fall before it reaches the depths of Google/Android. We could have six more iOS 26 style disaster releases and I suspect it would still be better than putting up with Android.

I tried to switch to graphene for similar reasons to you. It just wasn’t viable, as you’re discovering.

And if you want to even attempt to have a modern smartphone experience, you’re logging into Google account, which is an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” move.

It’s surprising to me that people who care enough about software to make a living writing it would tolerate the abominable state of software on Android.

I tried switching but it is really hard when nearly every app is just horrible to use or missing basic features.

Sure there are some limitations on what software is easy to install (as there are and will be soon on Android), but at least iOS has software worthy of being installed.

I tried it, Graphene isn't really a good alternative because the built in apps are so bad that you end up needing to install the Pixel/Google versions anyway.

If I have to install Google Messages for RCS, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Pixel Camera (which forces you to use Google Photos for basic functionality), … where is the benefit?

If I have to turn Graphene into a Pixel to make it usable, and I did, there’s not much point. And the apps are 90% of the time very noticeably better on iOS, so overall turns into a very bad trade.

No I’m comparing Apple Calendar to Google Calendar, Fossify Calendar, Simple Calendar, Etar calendar and literally every other calendar available in the Play and F-Droid stores.

There only two calendars in the entire Android ecosystem that support efficient use, one is a vendor lock in, the other is ugly as sin and requires a subscription.

As for web navigation, I’m comparing Safari to Vanadium and Firefox, neither are semi-abandoned.

I tried switching to graphene after frustration with the latest direction of iOS.

Yes I could use Firefox and ublock to get around YouTube ads, but it actually worked worse than using Orion browser on iOS to do the equivalent. The Pixel 10 Pro couldn’t manage 2x without audio stuttering even at 360p. My iPhone can do it with 4K YouTube video, not that I need that.

iOS natively supports self-hosted contacts and calendars. No hoops. Android needs a separate app that may or may not work (my experience: it doesn’t work and doesn’t give useful feedback when it doesn’t work).

The app quality is so much worse on Android I had to go back. No forward gesture in apps and browsers - insane omission. There are literally only two calendar apps on Android that allow touch-based event editing - Business Calendar 2 Pro (paid subscription) and the Samsung exclusive calendar.

How does a modern smartphone not ship with a decent calendar?? Or touch friendly web navigation?

The rendering engine of the browser is far down the list of priorities compared to supporting basic daily workflows.

I just tried to move to Android because it's more open. Was not prepared for the "open" OS to not have basic support for self-hosted calendars. Yes, contacts and calendar are a core OS level feature in 2026.

Yes DAVx5 exists, but Google Calendar was buggy with local calendars and DAVx5 actually didn't work reliably afaict.

Calendar.app is totally seamless with synology on iOS. Same with contacts.

Android was working overtime to make sure I use Google for everything. iOS isn't perfect but I don't have to jump through crazy hoops to be in control of my data.

It comes down mostly to app quality. The apps that are present are not as polished in ways that I found intolerable:

- myNetDiary: seemingly equivalent features, but was super stuttery on Android - like 20fps just scrolling and interacting. It also didn't feel native at all

- Transit: the app was extremely glitch when trying to scroll. Seizure inducing.

- Wire guard supports on demand tunnel on iOS and macOS. No such option on Android. Inconceivable.

- If you want a polished experience, you have to install the Pixel/Google equivalents of apps, and it is hard to use them in ways that aren't associated with your Google account. The built-in messages app is horrible so you need to install Google Messages. If you're logged into Play you're logged into Google Messages; no choice in the matter. If you want a good camera you need to install Pixel camera, and they leverage that to lock you into Google Photos. iOS is no better, but the trade off with Android is less polish for more choice, not less polish for the same strong arm lock in tactics.

- the OS hijack navigation in ways that are horrible for day to day browsing. In particular, there are no forward gestures because android insists on making swipe left from the right edge go back. I was told android is customizable but there is no option here. Consequence: no draggable scrollbar, no forward navigation in browsers.

- the built-in calendar (Google calendar) doesn't support drag and drop for adjusting event times. It made the calendar app excruciating to use - everything takes many more taps than iOS. Also, no support for CalDAV and CardDAV out of the box means Android is a bad choice if you self host. I tried DAVx5 but found it unreliable.

- Google Calendar won't show local calendar entries on open until you navigate to a different app then go back.

- The back gesture works differently more or less at random. Sometimes an app screen is part of the navigation stack, sometimes it isn't. Because android apps assume you will have a back button, they don't provide any back option, but it is always ambiguous what back will do - close the keyboard, close the app, close the menu, navigate back within the app. On iOS the options are different but more clearly presented and overall far more consistent than android.

- copy and paste is less consistent than iOS. Sometimes it for some reason makes me do a detour through a full screen text editor. Not really sure why.

- app design is inconsistent - a mix of pre-material, material 1, and material 3/you.

- doesn't have basic features I've come to rely on. Like on iOS I can make an app require biometrics to open. No such option with stock android launcher. Similarly, basic android doesn't seem to have the photo slides how option for backgrounds, which I love on my iPhone.

- Android has poor support for RCS. RCS just worked on my iPhone, but it failed to set up after a day of trying on the Pixel.

- Health Connect does a bad job deduplicating data. On iOS my watch, phone, earphones, etc all contribute data. IOS can handle this without eg double counting steps. Health Connect cannot. There are also fewer options for visualizing the data, since Health Connect is very new, whereas HealthKit is well over a decade old.

There are parts of android that are polished. I think the basic launcher experience is overall better if you turn off the Google Now stuff. I like that the animations are faster. Material You, although underrealized, looks great where it is implemented, far better than liquid glass.

As bad as it is, I don't think it is bad in ways that non technical users are likely to notice unfortunately. Mostly because I think years of horrible software have trained people to not have expectations.

Tahoe is still a breath of fresh air compared to Windows, and iOS 26 is still great compared to Android (as I've unfortunately learned from a failed switch attempt).

You can get a brand new Mac for < $600

People develop for iOS because iOS users spend more money. End of story.

I’m surprised at the chilly reception to this article.

I ride bus and MAX (light rail) in Portland and despite not being the worst offender, too frequent stops is quite noticeable. When the bus stops every two blocks to let one person on or off each time, it really slows things down.

You can also notice when playing Cities Skylines. It is quite intuitive that making your transit stop constantly is not efficient.

On the rail system, the system has been closing redundant stations and it has made it feel much faster. Small adjustments can make a big difference.

Sure I’d like more transit investment, but that can be paired with using resources well.

Are iPhones known for quality issues stemming from low quality parts?

Can someone explain to me how Discord got so big in the first place, particularly for non-gaming uses?

I saw this coming a mile away when folks started ditching slack for Discord - Slack being problematic because a) it was profit-seeking and would use its leverage over your personal data to seek rent and b) it was antithetical to the open web.

Discord has the exact same two issues so was obviously not a solution.

Why did the internet en masse fall for it again?

4 now imma trendsetter homie u b tripping

no cap u need to b like so unc 2 read this I finna yeet my phone like who even reads I have siri English is lowkey chueggy anyway all my homies use emoji now bet

English is cooked fam. Gen Alpha’s kids are going to get lost at the 2000 paragraph.

It doesn’t just seem hard, it is hard. I’m working on it, but here’s a few examples:

- I want to delete my Amazon account because service has gotten worse and they mistreat their employees. I also want to be able to get groceries, but I don’t have a car and the walking distance grocery store just closed (due to mismanagement). Now I need to spend hours every weekend walking to the farmers market or to the Safeway a considerably distance away.

- I want my prescriptions, but the pharmacy I used to walk to is closing. Now I need to find a pharmacy delivery service that isn’t tied up with Amazon.

- I signed up for One Medical before it was Amazon and it was great. Now it sucks. There aren’t exactly a lot of great alternatives even if I wanted to pay a premium. Wtf do I do?

- I have a Microsoft account I want to delete. If I do that, I will lose access to my Xbox games, and I will lose access to download anything at all on my Xbox 360, which is loaded up with XBLA games I can only use because Microsoft has kept the download part of their store working.

- I’m not on Instagram, but businesses seem to think Instagram has completely replaced the World Wide Web - many restaurants don’t post their hours _anywhere_ but Instagram. I cannot access these details without logging in. A local “speakeasy” coffee shop has a password you have to get from the Instagram story. I just can’t go. Unfortunately the employees are not accommodating. I’ve left a nasty review but that can only go so far. Without a big tech account I can’t even do that.

The irony is that things like HealthKit make it easy to build a system out of parts that just work together - my glucose monitor, watch, and scale all feed data into my nutrition tracking app seamlessly, and if I want an AI spin on the data, I use a separate app that reads the same data. Very hard to do that on Android.

My iPhone seamlessly adapts to my working context using focus modes automation - Android still doesn’t do that; maybe they have launchers with equivalent features.

Android makes it easy to customize the things I don’t want to customize, and hard to customize the things I do.

I think they mean worse at generating services revenue. Everyone knows that’s the iPhones primary goal and purpose.

It will be hard, but I’m transitioning out of Apple ecosystem regardless of whether they improve.

Just like Windows 11, I get ads whether I want them or not - just got a push notification for a new financial product (!!!) despite going out of my way to opt out.

iOS 26 made my 16 Pro, practically brand new, feel slow. I upgraded because my 13 mini was slow, and I chose Apple in the first place because they had some of the best performing phones (especially cpu/gpu; they always had less ram but before llm it didn’t matter).

The keyboard is horrible, but I don’t trust Google or Microsoft keyboards either; I think my next phone will be graphene; just waiting to see who their new hardware partner is.

I loved Apple TV because it was fast; under 26 it is slow.

I chose Mac for best in class hardware. That is unfortunately unchanged; really hoping snapdragon X 2 elite has good Linux support.

My Apple Watch, despite doing nothing new it didn’t used to do, has also become slow and annoying, and its battery was never as good as it should have been. When I jump to Android I think garmin is probably the best choice, but maybe there are good wearables now. Unfortunately Android doesn’t have its act together re:built in health data database.

Replacing Athlytic and keeping my history will be one of the biggest challenges in the transition.

Competitors unfortunately still have huge blind spots even if some of the core experiences are better.

iPhone 16 Pro and Apple TV and Apple Watch have all become noticeably slower/laggier with choppy animation under 26. Totally unacceptable.

> But graphical UIs are mature and we all need to acquire a vocabulary for these, so that information is conveyed across national and linguistic barriers.

Or we could just translate the text?

Colors and pictures aren’t exactly free of cultural baggage, either.

Back in the bad old days of Intel Macs, I had a full system crash just as I was about to get up to give a presentation in class.

It rebooted and got to desktop, restoring all my open windows and app state, before I got to the podium (it was a very small room).

The Mac OS itself seems to be relatively fast to boot, the desktop environment does a good job recovering from failures, and now the underlying hardware is screaming fast.

I should never have to reboot, but in the rare instances when it happens, being fast can be a difference maker.

The Twinkie defense is alive and well, I see.

You chose not to enable FileVault during setup. Probably because you were worried about being locked out and wanted an easy way to reset the password.

Would you prefer that Apple did not give you the option to disable the security feature you disabled during setup?

Glucose monitor disagrees.

You’re way off base. It can also create sexually explicit pictures of men.

Hover on the green button. Also, Mac has a really robust keyboard shortcut system. Including shortcuts for tiling.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/tile-app-windows-mc...

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/create-keyboard-sho...