Is the iPhone 5 really worth it?

Because something is simple or intuitive it means geeks shouldn't use it? Simple is good! Simple is the best damn thing to happen to smartphones since it means I can actually spend more time doing stuff on my phone. Any good engineer will tell you that ultimate simplicity is the sign of a great product. Android is definitely making strides in that area, and Jelly Bean is quite enjoyable on my Nexus 7. However, no first time user, geek or no, can pick up an Android device up and navigate and use it comfortably like iOS.

I find iOS much more fun to mod that Android, and therefore better for "geeks." An interesting article from a long time Android fanboy. Forget Android: The iPhone is a better phone for hacking, tweaking, and customization

How about widgets? And live wallpapers? I actually like those. And the notification system still beats iOS. And, one phone. No choice between slider, better camera, cheaper phone, etc. No sd card slot.
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
How about widgets? And live wallpapers? I actually like those. And the notification system still beats iOS. And, one phone. No choice between slider, better camera, cheaper phone, etc. No sd card slot.

Live wallpapers are unnecessary trash that drains the battery. Only complete noobs use those, I don't care who you are.
 
Live wallpapers are unnecessary trash that drains the battery. Only complete noobs use those, I don't care who you are.

No, I don't care about the battery. I use it rarely during the day. You would say that, because you don't have one. They are cool. And a feature the iPhone doesn't have. And I noticed you are a iFanboy, so nothing I can say will deter you from buying a apple product.
 
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lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
No, I don't care about the battery. I use it rarely during the day. You would say that, because you don't have one. They are cool. And a feature the iPhone doesn't have.

I've played with Android phones long enough to know that the live wallpapers are crap and shouldn't be used. That's why the iPhone doesn't have them, they're not good for battery life.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
Live wallpapers are unnecessary trash that drains the battery. Only complete noobs use those, I don't care who you are.

I've played with Android phones long enough to know that the live wallpapers are crap and shouldn't be used. That's why the iPhone doesn't have them, they're not good for battery life.
While I don't use them, I haven't had a bad experience with battery life when I do. It's not like it's actually running when the phone display is off, so the amount of time it's actually consuming battery is very little.

Nothing wrong with live wallpapers though, I had a beach one on my old 10" tablet that looked awesome.
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
While I don't use them, I haven't had a bad experience with battery life when I do. It's not like it's actually running when the phone display is off, so the amount of time it's actually consuming battery is very little.

Nothing wrong with live wallpapers though, I had a beach one on my old 10" tablet that looked awesome.

I'm sure it varies per phone, but there's several people I've helped who had serious battery problems and turning off the lwp fixed them.
 

Ethan3.14159

Active Member
How about widgets? And live wallpapers? I actually like those. And the notification system still beats iOS. And, one phone. No choice between slider, better camera, cheaper phone, etc. No sd card slot.
I can sort of see your point about widgets. The only widget I've found actually useful is the power control widget.

But live wallpapers isn't something many iPhone users would miss. The improved notification system in 4.1 is really, really good. My favourite feature that I wish iOS had is Google Now.

What do mean one phone? Apple sell 3 models from "low end" to high end.
 

speedyink

VIP Member
Live wallpapers are unnecessary trash that drains the battery. Only complete noobs use those, I don't care who you are.

Sorry dude, no dice. Live Wallpapers that drain your battery are not Live Wallpapers you should be using. I've used them on all three of my phones to no noticeable effect on my battery, hell, I even use them on my Android watch, to again, no noticeable performance or battery loss.
 
I can sort of see your point about widgets. The only widget I've found actually useful is the power control widget.

But live wallpapers isn't something many iPhone users would miss. The improved notification system in 4.1 is really, really good. My favourite feature that I wish iOS had is Google Now.

What do mean one phone? Apple sell 3 models from "low end" to high end.
Man, they are 3 different memory capacities. Or if you mean 3gs and 4S and 5, that is dumb. I mean you have choice with a android. You can have a slider. You don't need itunes. You can get a 2012 free android, not a 2009 free iSuck, oops, iPhone.
 

Ethan3.14159

Active Member
Man, they are 3 different memory capacities. Or if you mean 3gs and 4S and 5, that is dumb. I mean you have choice with a android. You can have a slider. You don't need itunes. You can get a 2012 free android, not a 2009 free iSuck, oops, iPhone.
It's 4, 4S, and 5. You never have to use iTunes to have an iPhone.. and at least the 3GS from 2009 will get the latest OS the day it comes out. I still don't even have 4.0.4 for my HTC One X, let alone 4.1. :rolleyes:
 
It's 4, 4S, and 5. You never have to use iTunes to have an iPhone.. and at least the 3GS from 2009 will get the latest OS the day it comes out. I still don't even have 4.0.4 for my HTC One X, let alone 4.1. :rolleyes:

But their are roms. Their are roms to add jelly brand for a DROID. Bassicly, that is like, can you get a iOS 6 for a iPhone 2? No. Their isn't vendors roms in the first place. Their are special roms for better battery life, etc. And apple will not support the 3GS forever. The ipad 1 is on iOS 5 or 4 (?) forever.
 

Ethan3.14159

Active Member
But their are roms. Their are roms to add jelly brand for a DROID. Bassicly, that is like, can you get a iOS 6 for a iPhone 2? No. Their isn't vendors roms in the first place. Their are special roms for better battery life, etc. And apple will not support the 3GS forever. The ipad 1 is on iOS 5 or 4 (?) forever.
So you have to root and put a custom ROM on just because the company you bought your Android phone from has horrible product support? Awesome.

And of course Apple won't support the 3GS forever, that's not my point at all. My point is that Apple gives better support to a 3 year old phone than HTC or Samsung do to brand new products.

Whited00r lets you put the latest iOS on even the oldest devices. Just an FYI. :good: http://www.whited00r.com/
 

speedyink

VIP Member
So you have to root and put a custom ROM on just because the company you bought your Android phone from has horrible product support? Awesome.

No, it just means you CAN. Like Sense (Or touchwiz, or motoblur, or whatever)? Great, stick with it. Don't like it? The world is your oyster. With Android, it's up to choice. Right now, my Galaxy Nexus is PERFECT. It's like it was designed with me in mind, because, oh wait, I did design it by setting it up exactly how I want it. From my lockscreen to my home screens it's simple, extremely functional, and looks amazing. And most of that could be done out of the box. If you really want more options you can get into rooting and roms, which lets you add the more intense tweaks such as LCD Density control to fit more on the screen, cpu and gpu overclocking, Notification LED modifying, and soo much more (seriously, insane amounts more). When I was die hard iOS, I felt a serious lack of that flexibility. It always felt like something was missing..then I used an Android phone, and that void was filled. True story.

Again, because you have a choice, you don't HAVE to do any of that if you want the whole "it just works" thing. Buy a Nexus, done. Pre setup in a very decent way, updates immediately and for much longer without fiddling with roms, no bloat to boot. It's like the iPhone of Androids.
 
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Ethan3.14159

Active Member
No, it just means you CAN. Like Sense (Or touchwiz, or motoblur, or whatever)? Great, stick with it. Don't like it? The world is your oyster. With Android, it's up to choice. Right now, my Galaxy Nexus is PERFECT. It's like it was designed with me in mind, because, oh wait, I did design it by setting it up exactly how I want it. From my lockscreen to my home screens it's simple, extremely functional, and looks amazing. And most of that could be done out of the box. If you really want more options you can get into rooting and roms, which lets you add the more intense tweaks such as LCD Density control to fit more on the screen, cpu and gpu overclocking, Notification LED modifying, and soo much more (seriously, insane amounts more). When I was die hard iOS, I felt a serious lack of that flexibility. It always felt like something was missing..then I used an Android phone, and that void was filled. True story.

Again, because you have a choice, you don't HAVE to do any of that if you want the whole "it just works" thing. Buy a Nexus, done. Pre setup in a very decent way, updates immediately and for much longer without fiddling with roms, no bloat to boot. It's like the iPhone of Androids basically.
I know you CAN do all of that. I've been through that with my first HTC Desire. But you shouldn't have to do all of that just to get the latest OS on a non-Nexus phone. My point was concerning support, not customization. That's why I said in the previous post that the Nexus is the only Android phone worth buying.

But getting into extreme customization is far less of a hassle, and far less risky on iOS. Rooting is downright stressful next to jailbreaking, and Cydia provides one massive community for mods and tweaks. Tweaking a jailbroken iOS device is much more enjoyable, for me at least, than an Android device.
 

mihir

VIP Member
That is exactly where a geek differs from a noob. A geek likes to experiment with his phone. Flashing roms is fun. Using different types of UIs and everything.
If you like the UI of the iphone so much then with an android phone you can get the same UI on a better and bigger screen with faster insides.
If you are talking about software updates, every android phone has unlimited number of ROMS.
Specially Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus.
I have the Nexus S and I am using a Jelly Bean rom. It has improved my battery life and my phone is much faster now and also boots up quicker.
As for live wallpapers, they are fun to have but you get bored easily. But they are just another feature over the iOS. Widgets are very important. The torch light widget on my phone with the regular soccer score update widget on my homescreen is more important than the icons.
The notification bar is way more customizable compared to ios.

Then the biggest thing is worldwide support. Apple provides excellent support in US. But what about the other countries. Here in India once the iPhone is released we have to pay $1000 for an unlocked iPhone which is our only option. And compared to that the S3 is available for $700 with a quad core and a bigger screen. Specs which eat the iphone alive. The Galaxy Nexus is available for $400 again with better specs than iPhone and a lot more room for experiments.
Then SIRI does not work in India. The iphone voice recognition does not work with an Indian accent. But Google's voice recognition works so nicely with Indian Accents. The jellybeans new search features work so well in India. Then there are the maps. I am pretty sure India won't get voice navigation with the iphone. They might be able to manage the US maps well, but other country maps will be handled pathetically.
Android has now the support of a huge chunk of the open source community and those people are like some of the best programmers in the world. So no matter how screwed up your phone gets by some bad flashing or whatever, there is always a solution.

Then the itunes thing, which forces me to install windows(I use GNU/linux) to run itunes properly to transfer apps and other things. Apple has the biggest database of Users with their credit card numbers, even with this information being a common knowledge, people still think that "Innovation" is what Apple seeks.

The other thing is the other day a friend of mine wanted a document which was on my phone and we were in an area which had no internet connectivity. He had an iPhone, at that time I was not able to send the document to him over bluetooth because to my surprise I discovered you cannot do so. I was not able to transfer a document from an android phone to an iphone over bluetooth. That is what $1000 gets you.


Although there is one good thing about the new iPhone. It has shut all the fans up.




But getting into extreme customization is far less of a hassle, and far less risky on iOS. Rooting is downright stressful next to jailbreaking, and Cydia provides one massive community for mods and tweaks. Tweaking a jailbroken iOS device is much more enjoyable, for me at least, than an Android device.
How is tweaking anything fun without opening a couple of tabs of the terminal(the linux/unix shell) on your computer. :p
 

DMGrier

VIP Member
I know you CAN do all of that. I've been through that with my first HTC Desire. But you shouldn't have to do all of that just to get the latest OS on a non-Nexus phone. My point was concerning support, not customization. That's why I said in the previous post that the Nexus is the only Android phone worth buying.

But getting into extreme customization is far less of a hassle, and far less risky on iOS. Rooting is downright stressful next to jailbreaking, and Cydia provides one massive community for mods and tweaks. Tweaking a jailbroken iOS device is much more enjoyable, for me at least, than an Android device.

No wonder why you are not a fan of android, you started out using a HTC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8

Love the commercial.
 

Ankur

Active Member
Im just a newbie when it comes to mobile devices, but I am just curious how's the Windows 8 OS? Comparing to Android and iOS? Not the Hardware. :p
 

ayan

New Member
Im just a newbie when it comes to mobile devices, but I am just curious how's the Windows 8 OS? Comparing to Android and iOS? Not the Hardware. :p

My brother has an windows 7.5 phone, and i'm not really really impressed.. It moves very very nice, but the phone seems to have little customization. I don't know what to say about it. I get W8 for free as a student, but i haven't been attracted enough to it in order to even bother to install lol.
 

swchoi89

New Member
I've played with Android phones long enough to know that the live wallpapers are crap and shouldn't be used. That's why the iPhone doesn't have them, they're not good for battery life.

False, I use one and has no impact on my battery life on my SGS II, with or without my battery lasts 1 day ~ 2 days.
*Not all live wallpapers drain your battery "THAT" much. If you use one that constantly sends you ads or processes too many information while your screen is on, then it's garbage.

Let's be clear on that.
 
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speedyink

VIP Member
But getting into extreme customization is far less of a hassle, and far less risky on iOS. Rooting is downright stressful next to jailbreaking, and Cydia provides one massive community for mods and tweaks. Tweaking a jailbroken iOS device is much more enjoyable, for me at least, than an Android device.

How is rooting an Android phone any more stressful than jailbreaking? In fact, how are you not ripping your hair out when fiddling with an Apple device? I mean;
Dfu mode button hell (spent like an hour trying to get one to get into it...only to come to the conclusion the home button is screwed. Had there been any sort of visual cue on the device it would've been SO much easier to figure out)
Installing package files of older OS versions using iTunes, which then doesn't work because it only wants to install the newest version, so then you have to screw with hosts file, which only works sometimes making a 2 minute job turn into like an hour
I LOVE finding the best jailbreak tool/firmware version for said jailbreak tool, which of course is different for different iphone models and it's SO awesome to find out all the lovely quirks (had to break my brother's 3G's GPS in order to get what I wanted to work)
Uh oh, software update, have to start from scratch again
Cydia...oh man, what a shit show. Finding decent mods without following a youtube video is retarded. All this repository bullshit. Everything has to route through cydia involving jailbreaking, so you're stuck with it. Buggy and horrible looking app.

So yeah, in my experience modding Androids have caused me MUCH less headaches.

Since when does Android not have a massive community for mods and tweaks? It's called XDA Developers. It's THE major community website for Android modding that is SO much nicer than dealing with Cydia.
 
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