iPhone 6

Initial impression - It feels very much like my former Samsung Galaxy S3.  Go figure.

MacBook Pro

Bought a used MacBook Pro 15" on eBay.  Tired of Windows.  My first Mac was a Macintosh 128 so this should be a bit different.

Been about 2 weeks with the MacBook Pro and so far I like it much.  It hurts every time I have to go back and touch a Windows computer.

More to come...

1 month later

It's been about a month with the iPhone.  The Android phone sold off on eBay.  No fall back device anymore.  So far I am surviving pretty well.  Actually now that I am forced into the Apple way I am actually finding that I like it.  In my previous posts some of the items I mentioned I may have liked better on Android really don't seem to matter anymore.  Like an old pair of shoes - its not always easy to let go but once you give it some time you can actually adjust to something different and maybe even find that you like it better.  That is my experience so far with the iPhone.

Some things I do like:

• No preloaded apps from my mobile carrier that I can't delete.
• When Apple releases an update it is available immediately.
• Plays really nice when you have family/friends with Apple devices too.
• I really like the way the iPhone 4s feels in your hand.
• My device was release in late 2011 but is still running the latest IOS version.
• Mail app.  Originally I hates this app but now that I have been forced to learn it I actually like it better than the mail app on the Galaxy S3

It just works!  Yeah it does!

Mid life crisis!

January 29th, 2014
After two months I have decided to jump back to iPhone.  Maybe I'm starting my mid-life crisis. Maybe its because I haven't been able to text any of my Apple friends because iMessage "damn you" won't SMS my Android anymore.  Maybe it's because I finally came to the realization that the only way to really test something new is to completely cut the cord of the old and force yourself to jump on with both feet without a safety rope to fall back on.

I bought a iPhone 4s 32GB on eBay.  Samsung Galaxy S3 for up for sale on eBay.  No more fallback device.  It's sink or swing this time.  1000% committed to iPhone because I have to be.

Android or iPhone

Android
After a month of back & force I decided to stay with the Samsung Galaxy S3 for now.  Nothing overwhelming - maybe its because I've have been an Android user for so long its hard to let go - but I could have gone either way.  In the end maybe it came down to bigger-newer device that made the difference.  If I had been testing with an iPhone 5s who knows ???

And the winner is

 COMING SOON ...

Day 30

Fear in the air
On Halloween, a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Ericsson, and BlackBerry filed lawsuits again Android manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei, Asustek, and ZTE, as well as other Android manufacturers. All the lawsuits target Google as well, if only indirectly, and one mentions the company by name, saying its core money-maker, Adwords, violates a 1998 patent.
Software patents are bad for software and Apple hooking up with Microsoft, Sony, Ericsson, and BlackBerry over software patents cries of desperation.  Is Apple running scared because of Android's 81% market share and 25% more downloads from Google Play over Apple?  I hope IOS 8 is more innovative than IOS 7.

Day 29

Stuck
Just to be fair to the blog my Android phone froze today and I needed to pull the battery.  Not exactly frozen: I was on a call - trying to take a picture - switched my Bluetooth headset twice - and the screen was stuck in camera mode and wouldn't respond to anything else.  Strange is call stayed up and as I moved the phone camera was still active but input was frozen.    I guess Android just like iPhone still needs the old CTRL-ALT-DEL or a power cycle to fix certain issues ;-)

Sync/Backup to PC
I spent almost an hour today trying to figure out how to backup up the photos on my daughter's iPhone 4s.  Now on Android you simply connect your device to you PC using USB cable and mount the phone like a disk drive and then simply copy off (or on) what you want.  iPhone apparently isn't this simple (maybe its easier if I had a Macintosh) but on a Windows PC not that simple.  I tried iTunes but I hate that application and it wasn't obvious how to do it there - if it was even possible.  Finally after some Googling I came across a windows app called "Syncios" that make the process pretty simple.

Day 28

Keyboard
Android's quick input swype keyboard input feature is awesome.  Makes it a lot quicker to respond to emails and texts when you don't have to type and can swype instead.  Not a reason to scrap the iPhone but a "nice to have" on Android.

Day 27

Tablet
Yes I know this is supposed to be the iPhone challenge but I also own an iPad and since Apple is about synergy across their platforms I thought it only fair to drag tablets into the challenge.  Well some time ago I had myself an original ASUS TF101 Android tablet that was dropped which cracked the screen and after that stopped working.  Well long story short is I fixed it so the device powers back on - screen still cracked - but it's usable again.  Lets see if I prefer the iPad or Droid tablet in a few days.

Day 26

Call Waiting
My wife's iPhone 4s is not displaying calls on call waiting or giving an option to answer.  Did some searching on the Verizon website and this is apparently a known issue.  "Reset Network Settings" resolved the issue.  Had to do this twice in two days - today to fix the wife's iPhone "Call Waiting" issue and yesterday to fix my daughter's iMessage issues.

Widgets
Ahh yes another thing I surely did miss not having on iPhone were screen widgets.  Maybe IOS 8 will have screen widgets.

Battery Drain
My Galaxy S3 was draining it's battery in under 12 hours.  When I looked at the biggest offender if was Exchange Services - damn Microsoft crap.  Well a factory reset resolved the issue.  Not sure why all smartphones seem to have issues that require a factory reset to fix.

Day 25

As I mentioned yesterday I switched back to the Galaxy S3 yesterday afternoon to see if I can survive the Apple iPhone withdrawal process until Day 30 or if the iPhone addiction is too strong.  

Bigger is better
First thing I immediately loved was the bigger screen on the Galaxy S3.  The small screen size on the iPhone has been a problem for me since Day 1.  Maybe the iPhone 6 will be bigger?

eMail Alerts
First of all I'm not a big lover of either email app.  Both have their pros & cons but neither one is lacking improvement.  One feature I loved on the iPhone was VIP but it only works with email delivered directly to your main inbox (not folders).  If you only get a handful of emails a day I guess having everything in your inbox is cute but not when you receive hundreds a day.  The Galaxy S3 mail app has a similar feature to Apple's VIP which is called "priority senders" which actually knows what folders are and will alert you if you receive an email from someone on your "priority sender" email list and YES it even works in folders.

Stupid iMessage
My daughter and I have been texting each other all day but stupid iMessage has been trying to send all her texts to me via iMessage instead of over SMS.  I wonder how many other iPhone folks won't be able to text me now that I am back on the Droid ?  BTW: turning off iMessage - Resetting network settings - and turning back on iMessage fixed the issue.  Apparently a know issue - follow this link:  http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/40077/my-iphone-4s-wont-text-my-friends-android-my-phone-thinks-she-still-has-an-ip
So if you have an iPhone and your texts are no longer reaching me don't take it personally.  :-(

Day 24

Samsung Galaxy S3 outpaces iPhone 5S, 5C in touch accuracy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57609329-94/samsung-galaxy-s3-outpaces-iphone-5s-5c-in-touch-accuracy/

Funny how I was going to blog something similar as I test the 4S but I figured it would not be fair since the 4S was an older handset than my Galaxy S3 and accuracy was probably better on the new 5C/5S iPhones; we'll apparently not.  CNET wouldn't lie.

Navigation (cont)
Maybe I spoke to soon.  Navigation flipped out on me today because I deviated from the route.  Apparently Maps doesn't handle recalculation too well as it kept trying to direct me back to the last point instead of realizing I took a short cut and was much closer to my destination.  I did have this on early versions of Google Maps and the fix was to cancel and restart the navigation.  So while Apple Maps works pretty well there are still some kinks to iron.

Switch back to Droid early - 15:45 today
OK I said I was going to switch back to the Galaxy S3 for the last five days to allow some time for Apple's Kool-Aid to slowly drain from my veins but to be honest I think half way through Day 24 is more than enough time for me to decide that I actually like lots of things about the phone - also some things I don't like.  So having said that lets see how well I handle Apple withdrawal till Day 30.

Day 23

Navigation
I have been a regular user of Google Maps as my in car GPS for many years and over the years the product has continued to improve.  It works so good that I have no need or interest to purchase a dedicated navigation only device.  In the last 23 days I have been using the iPhone and have on numerous occasions used the Apple Maps for navigation and it works just as good as Google Maps.  I could live with either one.

Pinch Zoom
I don't know if this is a "pinch zoom" issue or just a problem with the email app but when I "pinch zoom" text in an email message the text gets bigger but it all gets pushed off the screen.  On Android when you "pinch zoom" in the email app the text gets bigger too but the rest of the text re-flows so you can read the entire message in a larger font.  Apparently it's not just me as here is a someone else's comment from the internet: "When I double tap to zoom on my ipod touch 4g, the words are unreadable. I pinch to zoom and then the words go off the screen. Android automatically reflows the zoomed words into a column that fits my screen. Android lets me scroll down to read. iOS makes me scroll right then left then right, etc"

Day 22

New plan.  Since my idea to carry two phones did not work out I'll continue the next few days carrying the iPhone and will probably finish out the last five days with the Galaxy S3.  That way I am finishing up with my original device and I'll have a few days for the Apple spell to start wearing off.

versus

Day 21

IOS 7.0.3
One day after Apple announced this minor update to IOS it is available for installation across all compatible Apple devices.  Now that's cool as I don't have to wait months for my phone carrier to test and verify updates because Apple has already done that.

Two Device idea a flop

Yesterday I mentioned that today I was going to start carrying both devices so I could use them side-by-side.  Well that idea was a big flop because it appears as if my android device which is the one that does not have the active cellular plan at the moment drains the battery faster than a bank robber drains and open bank fault even after I put the phone in airplane mode and only have Wi-Fi enabled.  Maybe I missed it but I couldn't find a setting to just turn off the cellular radio.

Notifications

I have really gotten uses to the iPhones notifications.  I was skeptical at first since they ripped this off from Android but they seem to have imlemented it better.  Personal preference that I prefer. :-)  

Day 20

Home Stretch

Today we are at the 2/3 mark - day 20 - after today 10 more days to go.  I am considering finishing up the last 10 days on the Galaxy S3 to see if I miss the iPhone.  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"?  I'm torn as I have become used to the iPhone (like a comfortable slipper) but I guess I will not know how much I miss it until it is gone.  Let's see how the day goes.

Two Devices

For the next 10 days I will carry both devices.  Since I only have a single mobile plan I will alternate the first 5 days using the iPhone as my phone and the last 5 days use the Galaxy S3 as my phone.  Since when at work or home I am on WIFI it should be a pretty even test.  When not at work or home (no WIFI) I will carry the device with the active phone.

Day 19

Google Latitude

One thing that has pushed me to test an iPhone is Google scrapping their Latitude app and not replacing it with a viable alternative on iPhone.  Find Friends is the IPhone equivalent and easily allows me to find where my family members are.  Yes I know there are other apps that do this across platforms but this one just works and it's simple.

iPod

Apple wins this one hands down and is probably the biggest reason why most young kids end up with an iPhone.  If you grew up with iTunes and an iTouch why not end up with an iPhone.  Add Apple's power in education and it's no wonder so many young kids grow up to get an iPhone.

Day 18

Photo Sharing
Went pumpkin picking today with the family and since all of us currently have iPhones (and iPads) it is so simple to share the photos we all took using a Photo Stream.  I know I know - there are tons of other ways to share photos (i.e. Google+) but this was so simple and comes stock on all Apple devices.

Day 17

Fragmentation
I think this is what I like most about iPhone and hate most about Android.  No Fragmentation!  The four Apple devices in my house household - (3) iPhone 4s & (1) iPad all work alike.  6 months ago we had a Galaxy S3, Incredible 2, & iPhone 4s.  The iPhone 4s was released in  late 2011 but is still relevant today just receiving IOS 7.  The Incredible 2 was released middle 2011 and is already EOL (end of life).  The Galaxy S3 was released middle 2012 and is still relevant today - BUT with the S4 released earlier this year it makes me wonder how much longer Android updates will continue on the S3.  My point is the Apple phone is the oldest but is still running the latest OS.

Day 16

iMessage
Internal document from the Drug Enforcement Administration complains that messages sent with Apple's encrypted chat service are "impossible to intercept," even with a warrant.  I don't totally believe that messages are "impossible to intercept" - well maybe for the DEA - but if Apple really wants to I'm sure they could find a way.  Anyhow at least it's more secure that SMS. 

Day 15

Missed Calls (cont):
So if you miss a call this is the screen you would see.

Now many times I don't want to call the person back I just want to text them a quick reply.  Well on iPhone if you tap the missed call it will automatically redial the call.  If you just wanted to text the caller you would have to tap the little icon info icon to the right of the missed call.  Don't miss with your fat fingers - as I did 3 times.

Android did this one better.


Email
I am starting to like the iPhone mail app a little better.  I scrapped the GMail app and have added my GMail accounts to the native iPhone mail app.  At least I can view attachments now which is something that Apple apparently didn't give the GMail developers access too.

Day 14

Email
Apple's wonderful (not really) email app has a feature VIP that unfortunately does NOT recognize folders.  I know email folders are so 1990s but so is Microsoft and our Exchange servers do not support email tagging which by the way neither does the iPhone email app.  Anyhow I have been therefore forced to take most of my emails out of folders and move them back to my inbox.  I receive hundreds of emails a day so today should be fun ;-)

Email (cont)
I survived the day and the email experience was not too bad yet.

Missed Calls
Intuitiveness not really.  If you someone calls you get a missed alert but if you click on the entry it redials the person when all I wanted to do was text the person.  On Android if you click on a missed call if pops up options and does not just assume you want to call the person.

Day 13

Interesting Article?
The athletic apparel company on Tuesday introduced its second-generation fitness tracker, the FuelBand SE, which worked beautifully on Apple's iOS devices and computers. Missing from the presentation, however, was any mention of Android.  Interesting but pretty dumb move to isolate all those people.

Email Oops!
I was in the middle of sending an email when I received an incoming call which I answered.  When I finished the call the email was no where to be found.  Gone.  History.  Buh Bye!  Where the heck did it go?

Gmail

In order to try and fully embrace the Apple way I have ditched the Gmail app and added my Gmail account to the native mail app.  So far so good and at least now I can play wav file attachments.

Day 12

Camera Oops

Okay so yesterday I took a whole bunch of pictures and I was a bit annoyed because they all came out with a yellow tint. Did some searching on the Internet and found a few posts about the iPhone 4 having this problem in lowlight situations.  I did a little more research this evening it turns out that that is not the problem at all. Apparently the camera has an effects button that apparently when you change it stays in effect between different shots. I must have been playing with the camera the other day and picked one of the other settings and did not realize it.  Sorry Apple maybe I'm an idiot but you lose one point for intuitiveness in the camera app.

Reminders

Started playing with the reminders app yesterday and a little more today. I set up a shared reminder between my wife and myself and now I can add items to a single list and both of this us will see them and be able to check them off as we complete them.  

Day 11

Camera Roll

Took a walk today with my daughter and started using the camera pretty heavily. I experienced an issue where the thumbnails in the camera roll are coming up as black.  Reboot seem to have fixed the issue.  I guess we just have to get used to no matter how much technology advances power restart is sometimes the only fix.  I did figure out that if you edit the images with the missing thumbnail it'll then re-create the thumbnail for you so I guess this is a good enough work around that I can live with.

Siri

I've dabbled a bit with Siri but today I am trying to do all of my blogs using Siri exclusively. So far I am pretty much impressed it seems to work fairly well and probably as good if not better than Google voice dictation that I used to use on my android phone.  I did have to make a few minor corrections but that's not something that I didn't have to do on my android phone either.

Day 10

Icons

This is a bit petty but I wish the App Icons didn't have to snap to the next available space on the screen.  When you have lots of installed apps it can be difficult to locate a specific icon.  Would be nice if you could spread them out with some white space between them like you can do with Android.

Day 9

iPhone 6 will sport a 5-inch display?

It would be nice if this is true.  As I stated days earlier "size does matter" and probably my biggest complaint with the iPhone is the screen size - too small for my aging eyes.

Google Voice
I'm a big Google Voice and being a Google service it's nor surprising that this integrates much better on an Android device.  Thankfully you can download the Talkatone & GV Connect apps which gets you pretty close.  It ain't perfect but I can live with it.

Day 8

Originally this was going to be a 30 day blog but I fear that I may be running out of things to blog about.  May have to shorten this blog down to 15 days and then make a final decision.  We will see how the next few days go. :-)

Day 7

Settings

This one drives me a bit crazy and maybe it's just something you need to get used too but to me application specific settings should be selectable from within the application settings menu not the system menu.  For example if I want the Facebook app to make a certain sound when something new is posted you actually have to go to the system settings sound menu and find Facebook to make the change when it would be more natural to make this change directly in the Facebook app.  Maybe this is just me needing to embrace the Apple way?

Lock screen

I like the quick access to the settings screen and the camera from the lock screen.  I know I could do some of this using gestures from my galaxy S3 android phone but it wasn't as clean as I find it on the iPhone.  This is another example of how Apple may not come out with something first but they definitely take the time to do it right when they finally do bring it out.

Day 6

Battery Life

So today was a pretty typical phone usage day.  Battery is at about 41% currently as I type this on my phone.  Fully charged at 100% 13 hours ago.  Can't complain about that.

Day 5

Battery
Removable vs. Fixed?  This used to be a big issue for me and years ago I even used to carry a spare battery but with my last phone "Galaxy S3" I do not have a spare battery and don't feel a need for one. Bottom line as long as I make it though the day and I still have battery life I'm OK.  This ain't a biggie for me and honestly I don't know what lasts longer the 4s or the S3 as long as it lasts the day.

iTunes
Not a big lover of this app.  It's no accident that the sole purpose of iTunes is to keep you in the iTunes Store to spend money because they make it so damn difficult to do anything else.  I wanted to install a custom ringtone which on the Android was a simple as connecting my phone to my computer via USB and dragging the .mp3 in to the proper folder.  On iPhone (unless I missed something obvious) I have to take the .mp3 and drop it onto iTunes, then select the .mp3 and convert to ACC, then save the .m43 file back to my desktop, rename it to .m4r, copy it back to iTunes, then sync the phone.  WTF!  Maybe this process is easier on a Mac -- I'm using Win7 :-(

iTunes (cont)
I hate iTunes so much that I use Winamp to sync all my music between my iPhone & iPod.  With Winamp it's as easy as drag & drop.

Day 4

User Interface (UI)

You can't argue that Apple by far has the most integrated user interface across all of their platforms which is probably their best feature.  HTC's Sense UI is awesome but only across their products.  Touchwiz UI from Samsung is Ok but not my preference. I had a Nexus tablet for a while and I actually liked the standard Android UI.  My point - no UI standardization across Android devices which is why Apple devices are so easy to move between because that all just work the same.

Email app

VIP not working for items in folders is stupid.  Fix it Apple.  Fix it.  This worked on my Galaxy S3.

Apple Store

What can I say other than great.  Great showcase for all Apple products.  Samsung is trying this by partnering with Best Buy and Microsoft has dabbled with this for years but only Apple has been able to sustain it.

Day 3

Keyboard

Realizing as I am sitting here typing this from my iPhone that I do miss the Swype keyboard input I used on my Android.  Again not a real biggie but i would have been done with this post much sooner had I been Swype-ing.

Facetime

Nice app.  Reminds me of Blackberry messenger when I had a Blackberry.  Works great but it's sort of useless unless all your friends are Apple folks.  Nice app though and using it today between my daughter and myself to troubleshoot a problem on far sides of the house was nice.  Google Hangouts works almost as nice and it supports group conferencing across devices.  Not sure how often I'll use this one.

Accessories
Shopping for accessories for the iPhone is a no brainier.  Gear for iPhone comes in all shapes and colors.  In comparison for Android there is only a handful of anything available and if your phone is unpopular good luck finding anything.  If Samsung continues to increase market share then maybe this will change - for Samsung handsets at least.  Same reason I abandoned my Creative Labs Zen MP3 player years ago - great MP3 player but no online store & barely any accessories.  Apple wins this one hands down.

Day 2

Size does matter

Bigger screen would be nice especially in the morning but then again that could just be that I'm getting older :-). I like the iPhone 4s but honestly I don't think I would upgrade to a an iPhone 5 for the additional features unless it had a proportionally larger screen - not just vertically stretched.  The bigger screen on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is definitely one feature I miss.

Widgets

Screen widgets were nice on Android.  Surprisingly this is a feature I thought would have been introduced into the new iOS 7.

Telco
I don't miss the VERIZON BLOATWARE!  No stupid preloaded apps on my phone that I can't delete.

Camera

Used the camera today.  It works.  No surprises here.  Panoramic.

Maps

Used the Maps app for the first time for navigation.  Worked as good as Google Maps navigation - maybe even a bit better.

Day 1

Made it through Day 1 which was also the first day at work with the phone.  So far so good.  I have to say I really like the feel of the hardware and the smooth flow of the interface.  It took me a bit to figure out where some of the settings were but that's just my learning curve.  So far not really missing my Samsung Galaxy S3.  Haven't made or received any calls yet but I paired all my Bluetooth devices so I'm ready.

Connected my iRig to the iPhone and surprisingly playing guitar through the phone was not bad.  Makes for a nice little portable practice amp.

More tomorrow.  I have nothing else for today.

Setting up the phone

A package waiting for me -

Just got home this evening from Atlanta and saw the box with my new (used) eBay iPhone 4s.  The listing was correct "Like New!" -- the phone does look brand spanking new.

Setting it up

Ok so now that was easy.  I already have an Apple ID for my iPad.  Switching phones using the Verizon website was pretty simple as well.  Made my test call to verify that the phone works.

Need some apps now

Now I need to start downloading all the equivalent apps I was so familiar with on my Android device.

Waiting for IOS 7.0.2 to finish updating first.

Installing & configuring some favorites:

• Google Voice
• Gmail
• Google+
• Dropbox
• Twitter
• Google Calendars
• Google Contacts
• Facebook (Nope - I'm antisocial)

Enough playing for now.  Stay tuned once I actually start using it.

Waiting for phone

No phone yet. According to the USPS tracking system it'll arrive on Monday. 

I will pick this up next week when I have the phone in hand. 

Overview

Background

After four Android phones I have decided to cave to the pressure from my worker buds and take the iPhone plunge for 30 days.  The rules are simple - get a used iPhone 4s on eBay and use it exclusively for 30 days.

Some History

Smartphones

1. HTC Eris
2. HTC Incredible
3. HTC Incredible II
4. Samsung Galaxy S3

Tablets

1. iPad 3 (still have this)
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7"
3. ASUS Transformer 

The iPhone

• Apple iPhone 4S - 16GB - Black (Verizon) Smartphone 
• Auction won 09/24/13.  Waiting for my package to arrive from my eBay seller.