Woz Says iPhone Features Are 'Behind' 587
redletterdave writes "The iPhone may be one of the bestselling smartphones on the planet, but Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes Apple's flagship smartphone has fallen behind its competitors, namely those built by Samsung, when it comes to smartphone features. Speaking at Businessweek's Best Brand Awards on Thursday evening, Wozniak said he was proud of how loyal Apple fans were to the iPhone, but also said 'this loyalty is not given,' shortly before denouncing his own company's smartphone. 'Currently we are, in my opinion, somewhat behind with features in the smartphone business,' Wozniak said. 'Others have caught up. Samsung is a big competitor. But precisely because they are currently making great products.'" I prefer Android, but it seems hard to find iPhone users who aren't enthusiastic about it. Whatever kind of phone you prefer, are there features you envy the users of some other variety?
Re:about the same as my fembots (Score:0, Informative)
Or maybe you are just plain stupid. Reread what he wrote.
Re:Google undermining itself! (Score:3, Informative)
Stop spreading FUD, I dropped mine and it bounced down a flight of stairs. When I got to it expecting it to be trashed, it was perfectly fine.
Re:Not really... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:about the same as my android (Score:5, Informative)
But many of the free apps are riddled with holes, spyware, and have zero privacy controls...
FUD.
android has better privacy controls than iOS. every android app must declare permissions for the services it can use BEFORE it is installed. i've been an android user since the G1 and i've never had a problem.
the reports that pop up every month reporting "spyware found on google play store" are from "researchers" scanning the store and recording the permissions requested by certain apps that technically do not require that permission to operate. e.g., a flashlight app that requests internet access. there's no evidence that the apps are actually spyware, they are just suspicious. the only reason you don't see such reports on iOS is because iOS apps aren't required to declare permissions, so there's no easy way to tell what the heck they are going to do.
Re:about the same as my android (Score:2, Informative)
Find a free Samba client for iOS that is not trialware with a tiny file size limit, and a free VLC/Mplayer equivalent.* Ready? Go!
You took two samples, got unlucky with both and condemned iOS based on that? One of my reluctant hobbies is tech suport for a gaggle of friends and family who own a surprising variety of Android gizmos and iDevices. There are things available for free on Android and that are not free on iOS and vice versa and there is an overlappign set of software that is available free on both platforms. Pissing and moaning about the fact that everything you need isn't available for free is naive, developers like to get paid. The most expensive apps I have bought for my iGizmos were a few games and the iWork suite, the vast majority of the other apps I have gotten has been in the $0.00 to $4.99 range and it's no skin of my nose to pay a $3.75 for a SMB capable file browser should I ever need one. As for VLC you have a crusading Nokia employee to thank for VLC being zapped from iTunes because the use of DRM in the iTunes store apparently constituted a violation of the GPL license. So if you want to march your torch and pitchfork parade anywhere, try Nokia HQ. I am assuming that any media player in any app store that is offering any kind of DRM would similarly be in danger of having any GPL'ed software zapped from it's inventory and, yes, I know you can install untrusted apps on Android but given the recent news of Android botnets with in excess of 500.000 nodes I'm sticking with trusted stores.
Re:iFirstPost (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously?
I charge my 6-7 year old "dumb"-phone once per week, occasionally less often when I forget. It's still on the original battery, and it's never run out of charge. Which smartphones even approach that level of battery life - even with minimal use?
There is nothing to envy from the iPhone (Score:5, Informative)
I would be very interested if an iPhone user put forth one feature that the iPhone has, and Android is incapable of doing. I have not found a single thing an Android user would have to envy iPhone users for. This is partly because the iPhone is a phone, and Android is an operating system that comes installed on phones that run the whole gamut from cheap and flimsily-built knockoffs to high-end cutting edge powerhouses.
There is always an Android phone out there that fits your bill. There is however, only one iPhone.
Re:Nexus 4 (Score:2, Informative)
Not right. In fact, wrong. It supports the AWS band LTE (1700/2100). You just have to enable it. The question is - does your carrier support LTE on that band? In Canada the story is pretty groovy. In parts of the US on AT&T it's also good to go. So, dude, you know you're wrong, right? I bet a simple google search for "Nexus 4 LTE" would have told you that.
Re:Check me if I wrong... (Score:5, Informative)
That's a subsidized price that locks you into at least a 2 year contract. You generally end up paying far in excess of $1000 for your phone. A Nexus 4 is $309 outright where I am, while an iPhone 5 unlocked starts at $700, twice the price.
Re:Updates (Score:5, Informative)
Just buy Nexus devices. The more people that stop buying unsupported carrier devices, the more devices that will have updates.
Re:As an iPhone user (Score:5, Informative)
You read that article wrong. It doesn't say that it offered the fix only for Jellybean. It says, "Google’s security officials replied in minutes, confirming the flaw and promising to correct it. Within days they had incorporated a fix into the latest version of the Android operating system, Jelly Bean 4.2, and made available a security update for earlier versions."
The real problem, the article goes on to say, is that those security updates aren't pushed automatically by Google, they're up to the manufacturer and/or carrier to implement, which is where the monolithic approach of Apple has its advantages, although I still prefer my Android overall.
Who cares about untethered? (Score:2, Informative)
How long did it take to get an un-tethered jailbreak this time?
Why does that even matter?
Un-tethered just means the jailbreak lasts through a phone reboot. But you know when I reboot my phone? Pretty much never! Only OS updates.
It simply means that on reboot you need to hook to a computer to jailbreak again, it's not like it's at all a problem to use tethered jailbreaks - and they come out pretty quickly.
Re:No, it was pulled because of idiocy (Score:4, Informative)
The FSF says the licenses are incompatible and any GPL apps in the app store are in violation:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement [fsf.org]