Well, after a less then cordial debate on a friends status on iphones, i decided to actually BLOG about it, perhaps even to set things a bit clearer, and clear the air. Let me say this, “Agree to disagree”; each person has his or her own likes, and dislikes about anything, and everything. In this case, i dislike Apple even though i own an Apple iPod. My reasoning behind this thought is that Apple releases “new” hardware every 6 months or so, with maybe more space, and nothing really new added to the phones software. What is the point of adding more space, and no new features, except for maybe 3G, or 4G (which, to my knowledge and i could be wrong, most carriers don’t even have yet). On top of this, Apple constantly, and consistently releases the SAME product (see iPad; iPad might have a “NEW” Operating System, but at heart, it is a iPod touch (another great example.. the touch is, in essence, an iPhone without the lock in to AT&T), or an iPhone 3G (or 3GS). My question to people now is: “Why do you put up with such practices from a Company?” Ah yes, now i am afraid that my favorite company has done this with some of its phones, or rather the distributor of the hardware: HTC. Why are we putting up with things like this? Now, let me get around to blasting Google for a second. Google isn’t a “do-no-evil” company, but it is as close as that as it can be. However, Google should be telling HTC not to release the “same” version of the phone over, over, and over again. Either buy the full featured model, or don’t buy it at all; it’s as simple as that. Now, with all this being said, i need to discuss one other issue i have: Open Source.
Apple just is NOT an Open Source company, even though their operating system is derived from (i believe) an open source kernel: Darwin (BSD based.. if i am correct). Apple uses the same operating system for all of their products, even if they are a bit modified. In addition, they have excessive rules about open sourcing an app, and thus this brings me to my next point: they are slowly killing their developer base by requiring a $90 fee to be a developer, close sourcing everything, and then if they don’t like your app, they can kill it. In essence, you are paying them so you can code your app, possibly have it approved, make little money while Apple makes money. Does that really sound right to you? It doesn’t to me, honestly. However, Google has the same practice, except it is much cheaper, and easier to get your app into their systems. Again, go back to the “do-no-evil” bit, and this is where Google becomes just as EVIL as Apple. Once again, Google doesn’t really take down Apps, and doesn’t really monitor apps being submitted to them (Auto-approval, i think) unless those apps violate someones’ ip, or violate some law in which then Google is forced to remove. Again, who is the evil corporation in this instance?
The next issue i’d like to cover in this nice little story is the GUIs and general overall review. I’ll admit that neither of them have the best GUI, or interface. Yes, i have spent very little time with each; playing with one in an Apple store, and with my brothers at Christmas. However, it is night and day between the two, and Google’s simply wins by far. I found that the Google GUI was a lot nicer, cleaner, and simply better then Apples, but i haven’t gotten to use an iPhone in a long time, so maybe its time to review that. In addition, i know three people with Android based phones, and each one of them absolutely LOVES theirs, but on the other hand, i have a friend with a iPhone 3GS, and he absolutely LOVES his. So, again, we come to “to each his own”, because everyone has their likes, and dislikes; again, mine favors Google rather then Apple, because generally Google has given back more to the community as a whole. (See: Google Summer of Code, Code.google.com — although, i am not really a fan of their APIs.. bit too restrictive on what you can do with it. Useful if you are doing a personal website, not so useful if you are doing a project that needs mostly transparent stuff.)
In conclusion to this article/blog (my biggest one yet), each person has their own likes, and dislikes, and both companies have issues that need to be corrected.
I can basically say this:
Google: Keep doing what you are doing, since it is apparently working.
Apple: Take a hint from Google, open source more, give back, relax on restrictions on iPhone Apps (killing/bricking modified iPhones isn’t a very nice way of rewarding Developers who want to develop on your platform but aren’t willing to shell out the $90 fee.)
As a side note: i’d really like to hear from Google/Apple users on what they think is best, and worse about their phones, and what they’d like to see in the future.
Before anyone asks, yes this is a bit more bias towards Google, but not so much that i can recognize that even Google fucks up at times.
