Shorter one for you tonight, I don’t have a lot of time, but wanted to write about something that has been on my mind for a bit.
I recently got my Google Pixel 6 back from repairs, and while my issues with the hardware (phone calls/texting/cellular) are resolved, there are some software anomalies that remain. Brightness issues, Android bugs, and more have muddied the experience for me. Maybe it’s Google first-gen Tensor chip? Yeah, actually… Tensor G2 is miles better than the first-gen in the Pixel 6 series, and it doesn’t suffer from random, avoidable issues.
And speaking of cellular issues, I have a post coming up about my carrier potentially adding a particular network to their coverage lineup, which excites me.
Now that we’re getting closer to tech season (August, September, October) time, I’m paying a little more attention… and my eyes are slowly moving off Google Pixel lineup entirely. I know that Tensor G2 is more stable, but my interest in Tensor has shifted. And as a nerd who loves digging into this chip stuff, that is really sad for me to say. I think Tensor has potential, but given the stability… I’m not sure I can trust it in a phone I carry with me and use for mission-critical communications.
The straw that broke the camel’s back
When Meta’s Threads platform launched, it actually performed better on iOS than the Android counterpart in terms of how stable and fluid it felt. On Android, there are some better things about the app — being able to select text in a post (Thread?) is evidentially one thing the Android app can do that the iOS one can’t — but it’s a little more finicky in my experience. On iOS, Threads feels native in a way that is hard to explain. (Although, the Threads app on iOS crashes whenever you attach an image, so… it’s not perfect either.)
I lamented on Mastodon that, in fact, iOS gets the better end when it comes to apps, especially new social platforms. Quite frankly, this is because Android’s APIs suck. I can appreciate that Android has an open ecosystem where anyone can build things, but for whatever reason, Google still allows it to be pure chaos.
Apple is a little more restrictive on what they’ll allow, but that gives them the ability to have super stable apps available on their App Store. There’s no competition here: Apple has the better SDK, hands down.
So, what now?
Well, as of writing, my personal SIM card is still in my Pixel 6… but every day, my urge to throw said personal SIM into my iPhone 12 (that, full disclosure, I got for free from Apple a few months ago) grows ever bigger. I might give in, I might not… I don’t know. RCS is definitely a factor, as I use that to communicate with a lot of people and it’s something iOS notably lacks (and really shouldn’t lack, for that matter…)
Who knows. I’ll keep you posted, though…
The post I think I might want to switch back to an iPhone appeared first on Slade Watkins.