Recently, I decided buy an iPhone 6S and turn on iMessage.1 iPhones are great! But in the process of setting it up, I ran into some hassles that reminded me that for all the advancements that Apple has made with iOS over the years, it still can feel like it’s stuck in an old era of phones that were controlled by corporate politics. The iPhone is a computer, but sometimes it acts too much like a RAZR.
Anything even remotely related to managing files is a complete disaster on iOS, and it’s one of the main things Apple will need to address going forward, now that iOS is their future.
It’s not a disaster, it’s a walled garden and It’s great for a phone 100% focused in non-tech people like the iPhone is. In fact, I think that “disaster’, plays a big role in iPhone success.
iPad PRO is a different story, in that case I totally agree with you. If Apple wants to sell iOS to power-users, they must give some kind of access to the filesystem.
Apple decision to annoy tech-savvy people is a very very wise one.
Dropbox is my file manager for the iPhone. I can save just about anything there: Screenshots, most download links, PDFs, text files, etc. I can access any file in my Dropbox from my iPhone, and if the OS itself can’t handle the file, there’s an app out there that will.
A phone doesn’t need PC-style file management, and if you need that on the go then you need something more PC-like. And yes, I know Dropbox is a third party app and therefore the iPhone by itself doesn’t handle files all that well, but it’s a testament to the platform that Dropbox is so powerful on iOS.
And for Android users there’s Google Drive, which I understand to be even more powerful than Dropbox on iOS.
That’s what computer nerds don’t get: computers are commoditized now, and the vast majority of computer users are not nerds.
The “power users” nowadays, who think being able to use a graphical file manager is 1337, forget they were considered computer illiterate by the self entitled “power users” from back in the day. Because everybody knows that a real computer has to manage files using arcane, totally non intuitive, text commands. Which in turn were dismissed by the mainframe guys, because everybody knows that hierarchical filesystems are for sissies who can’t handle punching cards, which is how god intended to interact with computers. And before that, real computer users were supposed build their own computer from scratch. And before that…
Meanwhile, the vast majority of people just want a phone that communicates, plays music, surfs the web, supports whatever apps that go with their lifestyle, and just carry on with their lives… Apple is simply catering to that market, and given their financials they have all the encouragement to keep doing so.
There are plenty of alternatives for people who want more control over their OS/computer/phone. Just not from apple.
Edited 2016-04-16 03:53 UTC
The length to which Apple apologists will go never ceases to astound me.
We are not talking about managing a system here, we are talking about changing a ringtone in a way that is:
a) convenient
b) not at the beck and call of one corporation or another.
I would add that describing direct access and management of basic media files on a phone as a “power user” thing is quite ridiculous.
The concept that users shouldn’t have to engage with esoteric stuff like a file system (which is based on an abstraction anyway) is correct. The fact that the alternatives which are provided fail or don’t exist doesn’t change that. Its not like “direct access and management” of file do help you to archive anything, you will still need special programs or functions of the operating system to do anything meaningful with the files.
I’m a teacher. One of the assignments I gave to my students a short while ago required them to record themselves for a couple of minutes and to hand me those files. For a number of them, the most convenient device to do so was their phones (and indeed, I devised that assignment with the idea that most of them have a phone that allows them to so just that).
Then came the time for them to hand in their work. A number of them did so through flash memory (USB, sdcard…) or email, a couple I had to plug their phones and find where the files were. And then there were those with iphones. They didn’t have a choice: only email was possible. When e tried to directly copy the files from the phone to my laptop, I discovered that when you plug an iphone in, the only accessible directories are that of pictures taken on the phone. Anything else you can’t see.
I have no doubt that there is some kind of method to access those files, but it is in no way obvious.
So, Apple has decided to let people access their pictures however they see fit (because doing otherwise would have led to an uproar, I imagine), but anything and everything else is under lock.
This is not having a modern os made for people who don’t want and don’t need to know the intricacies of files systems. This is simply a company that does its utmost to control and monetize everything they can out of you.
Physical input permanent when powered, and physical output incapacitated, by design. You have to ask permission for entry into Apple Cloud [or Concessionaires], if wanting to reclaim a copy of anything [Is that YOUR data, to begin with?].
In fact, Apple is a lot more advanced than any other Civil? Cloud on ‘Ownership of the Reigns’ issue.
“…So, Apple has decided to let people access their pictures however they see fit (because doing otherwise would have led to an uproar, I imagine),”
This is Industry, not Apple-only guilt.
USER UPROAR should be for IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL access to EVERY BIT OF DATA HARVESTED.
Now talking on behalf on Comm-Industry and Law-Enforcement:
Read-Only Access for any bit of data gone through Comm Link.
Voice Memos app on iPhone lets you record your voice, and then share via Messages, Email, etc.
http://www.howtogeek.com/238475/how-to-create-voice-memos-on-your-i…
In other words, you’re complaining because you didn’t know how to do something? Something it would have taken five minutes to look up? And you’re teaching children?
Oh, I’m sorry. I thought we were talking transparency and ease of use of a device whose maker and various fanboys claim is the easiest, most obvious one to use.
Clearly, tryning to have direct access to media files on it simply through plugging it on an USB port is a completely unexpected use that definitely needs documentation or a specific application.
Actually, the video files are int he same directory. it needs no documentation, just a teacher that will click the directory and see that.
Yes, indeed.
Unfortunately, as I said, perhaps not clearly enough, the students only recorded their voices and not videos.
Hard to believe in this day and age, I know. How thoughtless of me to want a document that isn’t designed to be uploaded on youtube or facebook. That clearly requires very specialised equipment. I must be too old.
Nah, it has nothing to do with age. Frankly, your methodology for that assignment sucked.
Hmm, I probably shouldn’t feed the troll…
Oh, well.
So, pray tell, what would have been a good way to design the assignment?
the requirements were simple:
– I wanted to hear the students (so not a written assignment)
– I didn’t want to eat into precious lesson time (listening and grading 27+ students takes time)
– Of course, anything that requires the students to buy whatever is right out.
I’m all ears.
Wow. Do I really have to explain you how an assignment that depends on the (technical) means, each student has access to privately, is inherently unfair?
If the students aren’t all using the same equipment, then you’re not going testing them on the same conditions. I fail to see how that’s supposed to be the iPhone’s fault.
How surprising. Instead of even having the slightest glimmer of an answer to my question, you reply with an attack (not to mention the previous insulting tone).
You’ll excuse me if I ignore your comments from now on.
Ah, I did miss the part where it was voice only.
The videos are in the same directory as the photos.
I was at the IT4K12 conference a couple years ago, and one of the school districts gave a presentation on how they use iPads in the classrooms and the workflow they came up with to overcome all the limitations in file management. It was mind-boggling how convoluted the workflow was, encompassing 7 or 8 different apps … and they were so proud of their setup and just gushing about how it only takes 20 minutes of work to get stuff off the iPads into a usable format for use on computers.
All I could think of was AirDroid, WebSharing, and similar apps that let you use any web browser to drag’n drop (or copy/paste or download) files off an Android device onto a computer. Less than 30 seconds of setup, and the only time “wasted” is waiting for it to transfer. And you could transfer any kind of file, not just certain types based on the app you were using to transfer them.
Having to plug a phone in to copy data off of it is the complete opposite of “modern”, imo. It sounds quite antiquated.
When you save an audio file in Voice Memos you have NUMEROUS ways to share… Text/iMessage, Mail, Messenger, etc… could also save directly to DropBox or other services and access it that way, for example.
In fact, any newer iPhone can share it directly, wirelessly via AirDrop, too.
NONE of that costs money or supports the suggestion there is an agenda to control or monetize access to the file.
“NONE of that costs money”
I beg to differ. I believe it should be obvious, but just to make sure, the situation I described took place in school. It so happens that there is no Wifi available there. It means that, however small the file may be, asking them to do something that involves the data plan of the student’s phone does uses some amount of money (probably extremely limited, but existing nonetheless).
As for your other “solutions”, not using any Apple products, I don’t know whether they software or hardware; however, in the former it implies jumping through hoops, and in the latter case, buying some equipment. By the way, even if you use some cloud solution, it never is completely free: they have to make money somehow (if not directly off of your credit card, then indirectly through making you the product)
Apart from that, I’m sorry if it seems antiquated, but I feel that plugging whatever device in to copy its files over is much too easy and fast to let go of.
I’m not convinced that following whatever a company decides is choosing the most convenient way to do things, especially when said company is famous for wanting to keep its customers into a walled garden so that they can milk them as much as possible.
…and I plainly pointed out this was incorrect and offered up numerous ways to transfer those files that did not involve “jumping through hoops” and the majority of students using any modern smartphone are well versed in doing so that way. They are quick, simple, and modern methods for sharing files.
They could have added it to a dropbox account or other service, even from home, and then given you the public link to the file. No charge to anyone in that case.
On top of that, physical connections between devices could fall under the concern of security issues or potential malware problems. …and the lack of wifi seems pretty antiquated to me too. You complain that Apple is not modern… but don’t know how to take advantage of normal, every day sharing methods… really?
Yea, you can ‘ping’ and ‘pong’ the file? [object?] within their private garden, no problem.
I didn’t realize Apple owned email, Dropbox, Messenger, etc…. good to know.
I don’t think tylerdurden is being an Apple apologist, he’s just calling it as it really is. There has never, ever been a mobile phone OS apart from maybe Maemo on the Nokia N900 that has allowed a full analogue to PC file management. There’s a reason for that: A phone is not meant to be a PC replacement.
On one end of the (modern, smartphone) segment, you have iOS which is for the masses. The masses don’t care about individual files all that much, and for the little bit they do care, iOS handles the situation as expected. For the so-called “power user” there is Android, which gives you slightly better control over your files at the expense of ease of use. Windows Phone sits somewhere in between, with greater control than iOS but not as fine-grained as Android.
It always makes me laugh when people say “I want my phone to be a computer and do everything my computer does!” No you don’t, you just think you do. If it did, it would be the most awkward, annoying thing to ever hit mobile phones, because there’s no easy way to put a mouse-and-keyboard-based WIMP interface and PC-style filesystem on a phone and have it work well. It’s been tried and tried and never works.
Really? My old Sony K550i had a built-in file manager ( http://www.mobile-review.com/review/image/sonyeric/k550i/scr13-1.jp… ) where I could do whatever I wanted to the files saved in the phone or its attached SD card.
Then keep using that phone if it fits your needs.
Really? You could edit, view, copy, email, and print any PC file type on a basic feature phone? That would be a wonder to behold. Even more amazing is somehow getting an SD card to work in a device that only accepts Sony Memory Stick cards. You are truly a technological wizard and have achieved the impossible.
We are talking about file management, that means copy, move, rename, make directory, delete. Edit or print is way out of scope, you need an application that understands the specific file format for that.
> There has never, ever been a mobile phone OS apart from maybe Maemo on the Nokia N900 that has allowed a full analogue to PC file management.
It’s fucking trivial to do this on Android. You’re dead wrong.
So you’re saying Android can do everything file management related, every single thing, a PC OS like Windows or OS X can do, via the touch interface? You’ve clearly never tried to use Android as more than a gimmicky phone OS. I have; I’ve tried Remix OS, Android x86 on a PC, and a few other similar projects. Face it, Android is an OS for consumption devices, not a general purpose OS. Remember, I said “a full analogue to PC file management”. Being able to copy and paste a few .mp3s does not a full file management system make. Try again.
And before you bring out the “durr Appel fanboi” bullshit, I’ll be the first to say that Android is by far better at what little file management it can do, than iOS is. The fact that I have to use a third party app (Dropbox) for some semblance of file management on the iPhone clearly shows that. But making up some bullshit about Android somehow being a 100% analogue to a desktop computer OS? You should turn in your geek cred, because you’re f–king embarrassing.
Face it, Android, iOS, WP et cetera are OSes for phones, and phones are simply not designed to replace your desktop computer, no matter how much you wish it so.
Edited 2016-04-17 01:53 UTC
Given the hand holding (and the restrictions) placed on the user by modern OS X and Windows, I’ll say that a Cyanogenmod device with root access will give you at least as much file management control as those systems.
It’s still Linux underneath. Domain-name blacklisting via a hosts file or encrypting the user data partition with a different password than your lock-screen PIN is not much different than doing the same thing on a standard Linux distribution.
Of course, we’re talking rooted devices with Cyanogenmod (or whatever other custom Android distros people are using … Slim, Sultan, etc.). I would not purchase a phone which did not allow that kind of access.
That’s exactly my point. By the time you’ve done all of that, it’s no longer consumer Android, it’s an ugly hacked up Android that is unstable, difficult to maintain, and not at all meant for the typical user.
If a person truly needs their phone to be their PC, well…there’s no help for that. It’s a bad idea all around, especially these days when you can get a full x86 convertible running Windows or Linux for under $200. Tether it to your phone and stop trying to pretend the phone is able to do a fraction of what that full PC can; let it be the dumb modem it’s actually good at.
But I do get the sentiment; I still kick myself for selling the two Nokia N900 phones I had in my collection. That was as good as a phone/PC hybrid could get without totally sucking at both functions, and it was still awkward.
Maemo.
Should be prosecution for Software killing.
> That’s exactly my point. By the time you’ve done all of that, it’s no longer consumer Android, it’s an ugly hacked up Android that is unstable, difficult to maintain, and not at all meant for the typical user.
There’s no logic in your conclusion. None. Clearly you’re a brainwashed Apple lover.
Agreed. Rooting and installing CyanogenMod or whatever custom ROM is trivial; keeping it updated without losing data (what we call “dirty flashing”) is not. It can be a pain to maintain across several devices, and then you are completely at the whim of whatever fourteen year old (only slightly exaggerating) decides to do with the ROM. I’ve seen threads on XDA-developers die because “mom got me an iPhone, I’m not going to update this phone anymore.” Probably not the case with more popular phones, but still a possibility.
I’ll admit, I exaggerated in the grandparent post. I would consider an iPhone device, just to get rid of the headache of maintaining updates past the lifespan that the manufacturer deems useful (usually about a year after release). Articles like this make me think that I would have to temper my expectations (I’ve never used an iOS device) in terms of what to expect from an iPhone — especially since I don’t have iTunes on my primary (Linux/BSD) system, and all of my music is ripped from CD in FLAC format. I’ve had the same ringtone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJgq5HgSb6s) for about fifteen years. On Android, I just drag and drop the ringtone into the Ringtones directory, and the FLAC files in the Music directory, and I’m set.
I think the iPhone sucks as a portable music device. It’s a great communications device, certainly. It’s the most stable and reliable smartphone I’ve used since the Blackberry days. But for listening to music, I prefer my old-school standalone MP3 player from 2009, a store brand (Best Buy’s “Insignia”) Bluetooth-enabled player that has a 20+ hour battery and uses a full size SD card for storage. It came with a very nice Bluetooth speaker dock, and the whole package was less than $80. I’ve tested it side by side with my iPhone and the MP3 player has superior sound via wired and wireless. When I do listen to music on the iPhone it’s via Amazon Music’s offline storage mode, which works very well.
I also use Linux (Slackware) as my main OS, and I don’t have iTunes installed on my Windows PC at all. iCloud handles my phone backup, and Dropbox has any important files iCloud misses. I find the iPhone practical, reliable, even boring, as a phone; in fact I’d say the only thing truly great about it is the amazing camera, and there are a few Android cameras that can outdo it. I hate Siri and Apple’s voice control; I really miss the excellent voice control I had on Windows Phone 8.1 that was extremely accurate and pleasant to use.
So, no, the iPhone is not the “Jesus phone” that Jobs always insisted it was, but for me at least it’s the most fitting tool for mobile communications. I’d rather use Android or Windows Phone to be honest, but Android has let me down every single time I’ve tried it as a phone OS and Microsoft has all but abandoned WP at this point.
An mp3 player is an mp3 player, none of them can really sound any better than any other unless they are truly hi-fi since they are playing the same 10% files through the same integrated circuit signal paths.
You might like the sound of your old MP3 player better, but it’s a different flavor of trash compared to the iPhone.
Get a Fiio or Pono or AKJr. and load it up with FLAC’s or DSD files to hear digital music as you’ve never heard before. It’s almost analog it’s so good!
A device’s sound isn’t solely determined by the file type. The digital to analog circuitry and amplifier circuit have a lot to do with the sound that ends up at your ears. There are some dedicated MP3 players that sound like garbage because they use cheap, inefficient amp circuits and D/As, and there are some multifunction devices like phones that sound great because quality circuits are used in them. My personal experience rates the last few iPhone models above most other phones, but not quite as good as some dedicated players (including the one I own).
Even Apple can’t always make a great sounding dedicated player; I have a 2nd gen iPod Shuffle that sounds terrible compared to the other devices in my household, using the same MP3 files.
Of course hardware (signal chain) has a lot to do with it. iPhones get the job done when playing 10% files into earbuds, but sound nearly the same playing lossless files, and most won’t even bother with 24bit lossless files.
I’m just saying – it’s pointless to debate which MP3 player sounds better when any mp3 player is by nature far from sounding good. It’s a phone for talking and playing games and videos, it’s really not a proper music playing device. Lossy music compression was built for dial up modems, it’s a shame it’s still in use today. Netflix requires more bandwidth than lossless audio.
iPhone/iPod is a music player sort of like it’s a keyboard, a synth, a typewriter, and a camera. It’s ok in a pinch, but dedicated devices built for quality will always surpass it.
Agree. But We Users shouldn’t be forced to hack. Shouldn’t be allowed such a mistreatment of the Consumer.
Agreed. Just wanted to add that setting up CyanogenMod on 2 tablets and 2 phones with encrypted data was much simpler than figuring out how to get OS X to auto mount an NFS partition on boot (and then adding it to the favorites in Finder).
Everything is hidden these days. Documentation is sparse, unless you are running OpenBSD.
You bitch a lot, but you haven’t given any examples of things you can’t do via an Android file manager, that you can do via Windows Explorer on a Windows PC.
So far, I haven’t found myself lacking in file management capabilities on Android, and my /sdcard has a very deep and very wide folder hierarchy on it. All managed via the touch screen.
Network shares? Yep, via SMB to my file server.
File transfers? Yep, via either SMB, or via WebSharing app that turns my phone into a server and any web browser into a client.
Create, edit, rename, copy/move, delete, backup, archive, etc? Yep.
So, what are you doing with your PC that can’t be done on Android?
Edited 2016-04-18 20:55 UTC
> There has never, ever been a mobile phone OS apart from maybe Maemo on the Nokia N900 that has allowed a full analogue to PC file management.
Even Symbian did it. Will drive letters for separate “disks” (yes, your memory card was another disk). The full line of mobile operating systems does that until today, with Android no exception.
On the contrary, mobile operating system that does NOT allow to manage files is quite rare. Until now, only iOS and to certain degree WP are like that.
And yet that supposed length is still microscopic compared compared to the distance you traveled to miss the point…
Apparently, I’m an Apple apologist who doesn’t own or want an iPhone. But then again, I believe in doing my own research before purchasing a product, to determine if it meets or not my own subjective needs. Weird, I know.
They’re either doing it in the name of security of just to sell you their cloud services and make money off their higher end memory offerings.
I go with the latter, since if you had say access to an SD card and 128 GB of extra storage on their iOS devices, they’d lose on a lot of money.
They already do this on their OS X systems (very few are serviceable in the RAM or SSD storage), so it is pretty well planned on their part, with most likely profit in mind and limiting any driver OS support and saving on that part also.
On Apple Desktop dismissal.
It’s not a disaster. On the contrary, it’s something carefully designed that way.
You consumer should ‘forget’ about any ‘doc’, ‘file’, ‘cabinet’ similitudes.
When you, or your children, forget about that, then you will stop asking for them, finally.
“We” never intended to give you control over anything, anyway.
> On the contrary, it’s something carefully designed that way.
Carefully designed so that the only way to interact with your phone files is through an abomination called iTunes? You’re not joking, right? Wow.
Where adding any musical files from any sources other than the iTunes store is akin to having sex while hanging on a tree with your face facing the ground?
“having sex while hanging on a tree with your face facing the ground”
Sorry about lack of context, birdie. Just mocking [which is deserved], the sarcasm [which is undeserved] is in return of the brain desiccating PR.
Time will come, when going to KFC, you’ll be no more offered two options. They will select for you “The Secret Recipe”. And you better eat it.
The iPhone is essentially an iPod Touch with added phone functions. That is why it often seems so primitive.
It’s the other way around: iPod Touch is an iPhone without the phone functions. iPhone predates iPod Touch by 4 months.
Reality check: iPhones only seem “primitive” to Android fanboys… for the great majority of people iPhones are the most beautiful, desirable and useful phones ever created. It’s a fact. Get over it.
The iPhone has a mere 20% (and still falling) of new phone sales globally. That suggests it a very small minority rather than the ‘great majority’ who think the iPhone is the greatest phone ever.
Don’t bother bringing up the BS argument that people only buy Android because they can’t afford an iPhone. The fact is that anyone in a developed country with a job easily can afford an iPhone. The fact that most of them don’t buy an iPhone tends to disprove your argument.
Edited 2016-04-16 07:48 UTC
Not buying an iPhone and considering iPhone “primitive” are totally different things.
People who think iPhone is primitive are usually Android fanboys. Which is… 0.001% of the world population? I don’t know, but I know one thing for sure: they are really really really annoying. OMG!!
PS: buying an Android phone don’t make you an Android fanboy!
LOL, I love how the two of you use the term “fact” when you actually mean “subjective opinion.”
It was a little bit of sarcasm, silly nerd haterism against Apple drive me nuts. I can’t believe how disconnected from reality nerd people could be.
iPhone is a product for the masses…expecting advanced features for expert users from it or thinking common people care about “filesystems” or about its supposed “primitiveness” is really hilarious.
iPhone is not designed for technical people!! We are not its main market and We’ll never be. Get over it.
I’m agreeing with you in essence, but let’s not pretend Apple’s intended market is not the upper levels of those “masses.” And not everybody wants or lusts for an iDevice.
Tangent: One ironic thing I’ve come to conclude is that most “computer obsessed” nerds, don’t actually understand what a computer actually is. Many people get caught up with the details and miss the essence. E.g. both the iPhone and the old rzors (or however they were spelled) are/were computers.
Edited 2016-04-16 20:29 UTC
All consumer devices are not designed for technical people.
It’s not that Apple could not offer these features (by third party apps or allowing you to activate this feature from some hidden menu, or developer mode) but by design they don’t want you messing with it.
Problem is that they also have to cater for developers and enthusiasts (those people that actually keep the healthy app ecosystem alive). At least this year they failed to deliver.
Waiting anxiously for the next event though.
[unclefester’s usual]
aka if i just keep saying the most successful smart phone ever sucks, and keep repeating that for 8+ years, maybe someday i’ll find some stats that minimize it.
i’m too old for that. i’ve watched you predict iPhone’s total failure, i’ve watched your predict it being a flash in the pan, i’ve watched you predict it will soon be replaced by android, such an original design itself.
or was it windows phone that was going to send apple back to toy-maker status? i think you are that guy, butthurt about windows phone’s multiple failures.
your stance is tired and not backed by fact. when apple was dying 15 years ago you were dancing on their grave. as they were surpassing all your favorite vendors you kept on dancing, oblivious to the world around you and the major changes taking place.
i see 60-80% iPhone use where i live and i’m middle class, in the software business. that’s amazing, and far more market share than any other apple product has even come close to.
and i see all the other phone makers still competing with that market leader, iPhone. you can count raw market share, i count profit share, mindshare, and app usage/purchase rates.
Edited 2016-04-18 13:16 UTC
That sounds so cheesy.
Haha yeah, it really is!! But it’s also kind of true. Don’t hate me, think a little bit about it.
Honestly: Do you know REAL people thinking iPhones are “primitive” technology? (Android fanboys and Apple haters don’t count, they are not people haha).
Jokes aside. iPhone is synonym of slickness and technology to almost every human being in this planet. Apple spent ZILLONS of dollars in marketing to put that perception into people minds!
So saying “people think iPhones are primitive” sounds more like a nerd vivid dream than a real world problem. IMHO.
In all honesty, most real people I know barely think about iPhones (or any other type of smartphone) at all. That is what happens to product markets that become commoditised.
Very interesting point. BTW I don’t think iPhones are a commodity product yet (in fact, they are exactly the opposite)… I think Android phones are prone to suffer a commoditization of its market, because you have a lot of Android suppliers with very little or no-differentiation between them… and that’s exactly the definition of a commodity market.
iPhones OTOH are only provided by Apple and as long as they have a good perceived value (which Apple fuels with tons of marketing and brand recognition) iPhone prices could be maintained far above the production price.
That doesn’t affect the fact that smartphones as a sector are commodified. To give you an analogy, Miele washing machines are seen as providing excellent value, having high brand recognition, and so on, thus letting Miele charge a substantial premium for their machines – but that doesn’t change the fact that washing machines are a commodified market. Likewise for iPhones. Outside blogs like this, the choice between an iPhone or an Android phone does not have the momentous quality it might once have seemed to. In the circles in which I move, it really is not all that much different from a choice as to which brand of fridge to buy.
And Android is a wanna be version of the Linux desktop, which is why it’s as disjointed as it’s bigger cousin.
Man. I thought the process of making an mp3 into a ringtone on Windows Phone was bad, but holy hell this is crazy.
On WP, you have to trim the song to 30 seconds, make the file less than 500k (I think. Can’t remember), and change the genre of the song to “ringtone”.
But, this is just far worse.
What version of Windows Phone required that nonsense? On 8.0 and up I just placed an MP3 in the Ringtones folder on the SD card, and it showed up fine. I think I do remember some sort of issue with WP7 (mainly that the device didn’t have an SD slot so I had to copy the file over to internal memory via USB) but I never had to pull those sorts of shenanigans.
If you do have WP8/8.1, try this tutorial. It is basically “drag and drop the file to your phone and select it as the ringtone in settings”.
https://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/settings-and-personali…
7.x required all this nonsense.
I couldn’t remember if 8/8.1 did or not, but, I didn’t have my HTC 8x very long before it got dropped and rendered unusable, requiring me to go back to my Nokia Lumia 710 for a while.
EDIT: I’ve been using Android since last summer, and as much as I loved WP 8.1, I don’t plan on going back
Edited 2016-04-16 04:40 UTC
It has been a few years since I’ve used that version, so maybe I just don’t remember what exactly I did (I do recall using the Zune software to actually copy them over, I believe), but it was never as frustrating as you have put forth. I definitely don’t recall having to tweak song length or file size; my 7.8 phone (HTC Arrive) just pulled the tones in once I had them in the right place. Now I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of that phone, I’d love to try this process again and perhaps eat some crow if I’m wrong.
I think we can all agree though, that the Apple way of doing this one function is as much of a headache as the article suggests.
Well, here’s the directions from WindowsPhone.com
less than 40 seconds, less than 1MB.
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp7/start/create-ringtones
Awesome, thanks for the link. I honestly don’t recall setting such limits, just using Zune to copy it to the phone and put it in the ringtone folder, and it showed up as a ringtone. Rose-colored glasses, perhaps? WP7 was the first phone OS I truly enjoyed using since the Palm Treo 650 days.
I’m actually surprised I remembered the details. I loved Windows Phone, but I only ever set up one ringtone (I don’t bestow individual ringtones upon my friends), and I only ever do it once.
I’m on my second Android phone, and it’s the same ringtone as the phone before, as pulling ALL of the data off the old and putting it on the new was stupidly simple.
They weren’t even the same brand of phone either. (Sony -> LG)
If managing files is near the top of the list of things you want to do on your mobile device, why did you get an iPhone? It seems like you want something more hacker or enthusiast oriented so why are you getting something that’s explicitly targeted at not your needs?
Apple knows their market, their market is happy with their devices, and their market doesn’t seem to be you.
I don’t know why I keep seeing posts about how you love apple products but it doesn’t do things like lunix does, they’re not for you, stop buying them.
FireFox OS:
Seek File_Management Icon. Click.
Ownership is not a ‘hack’, or an ‘enthusiast drive’. It’s a RIGHT.
I don’t think “managing files” is near the top of list of things he wanted to do, though.
Rather, I think “Picking a custom ringtone” was something near the top of the list of things he expected to be able to do without a bizarre amount of effort.
And, this is a bizarre amount of effort.
In terms of managing basic files on a smart phone or tablet, I suppose different users will have different use cases for what satisfies their needs. With respect to the iPhone, I am totally uninterested in managing ringtones except to turn the suckers off to avoid annoying anyone else.
I am sufficiently satisfied with the ability to access and manage, for just one example, transcoded blu ray video loaded from my mac mini via Air Video Server HD, Dropbox and iTunes….all of it is basic and simple. It’s not really analogous to WindowsExplorer, but pretty much drag/drop/sync, and that serves my purposes very well….ymmv.
I used to be anti-apple everything. But eventually I grew out of the hate-filled stance and checked out the “other side”. To be honest, I don’t find iOS to be the least bit “better” to android, but what I find remarkable is how well executed the entire ecosystem is. Indeed, it is a walled garden, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
iOS does things differently because it is different from android. And again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s possible to have two great systems, catering to two different type of people and approaching two different ways of doing the same task.
The walled garden is good only for Apple Inc. By controlling how users can interact with their data, they can treat interaction as transaction, and profit immensely. There’s nothing in it for the user, at all.
Sure there is: The user is trading ease of use and stability (iOS) for utility and nerd cred (Android).
iOS holds your hand and tries to make things easier for everyone. Android expects you to poke around in its innards so the user experience doesn’t matter as much.
Besides, there’s one really great benefit of Apple’s walled garden: While it’s not bulletproof[1], it’s extremely difficult to get a virus or trojan via the Apple App Store. That can’t be said for the Android Market, where if you’re not careful you can end up with a pwned device five minutes after turning it on for the first time, and it’s been like that since the first Android release.
Given Apple’s prompt response to that and other security threats, their stance with the government on backdoors, their ever improving authentication[2], it makes sense to want to use an iPhone as the device that increasingly carries all of our personal and professional lives on it.
Meanwhile, I’ll certainly continue to enjoy Android on my tablet; it’s the best tablet OS by far. I just don’t trust it as a phone OS.
[1] https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/09/22/apples-app-store-hit-by-…
[2] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915
The walled garden doesn’t give you ease of use or stability. Neither does it guarantee safety in the app store. Most iOS apps, just like Android apps, serve adds and track the user.
Edited 2016-04-17 09:22 UTC
I call BS. None of them do it without Apples approval, after being reviewed by a human. Apple rejects plenty of apps that run wild on other stores.
That’s exactly what it gives you. Hit app store, pick an app, click download, run safely, done. Even if a CC purchase is required.
Nothing in the app store will kill your machine, steal your data, or false advertise what it offers. If it gets by the initial check it’s pulled immediately upon user complaints.
This is STABILITY. This is CONVENIENCE. Do you have alternate definitions?
None of that has anything to do with any walled garden. Apple could vet their app store and still allow sideloading of all sorts of crap, giving exactly the same security (this is neither convenience nor stability) without the walled garden.
“…they [Apple]can treat interaction as transaction.”
No, inter- is not trans-.
iOS does what I want it to. If that is old fashioned then so be it. I really don’t care. It works for me.
I write software for a living but really don’t feel the need to get access to the filesystem in my iPhone.
As an engineer (Mechanical control Systems) by profession, I use a variety of tools to to the jobs I need to do. The same goes for phones/tablets/computers.
I also restore old motorcycles. If I want to remove the clutch on my 1962 Bonnieville, I use the tool designed for that job. It works as it should.
My iPhone is a tool that does all I ask of it wothout fuss. Granted that this might not be what some people commenting here want from their device. Great. It is good to have different requirements. Variety is the spice of life but I wish more people would appreciate that especially on tech forums.
Not everyone has the same needs as you so please give them the courtesy of not slagging them off.
But it just works and everything is so easy.
Like if you want to delete a mail in the mail app, you just google “How the f*** do I delete a mail in iPad” and you find thousands of blog articles and forum postings about how to delete a mail in iPad mail app. Its only four or five steps, six tops.
To delete a mail message in iOS, I sweep to the left and the message is in the trash. One step….not 4-6 steps.
I tried that and “delete” is not there. Apparently it depends on which email provider you are using. For gmail you get “archive” in place of “delete” by default and you can switch it around in settings (and lose the “archive” feature). I suppose there is way to “delete” using gmail without toggling settings, but I couldn’t be bothered to dig into a blog article about it when its simpler to use absolutely any other mail client ever created to do it.
In my mail app, I have 5 different email accounts including gmail; and I can delete messages simply by sweeping from right to left…..it just works that way.
Edited 2016-04-17 23:33 UTC
Removing emails from your inbox is not the same as deleting them from the server.
Most users don’t care about deleting emails if they have virtually unlimited email capacity.
If you generally want to delete rather than archive, there is a setting to allow that. You go to the account settings, under “Advanced” and you have the option to move discarded messages into Trash rather than into the Archive (True for GMail).
You can also open the email, press and hold “Archive” and you will get the option to delete rather than archive.
The third option is to hit “Edit” in the inbox, select the messages you want to delete, press and hold “Archive” and you will get the option to delete.
Not very important for most people, but not difficult or impossible either. There are at least 3 ways of doing it!
Yeah, I figured archiving trash is the new delete and I’m just too OCD to appreciate it. It does amount to much of the same thing, i.e., getting the mail in question out of sight forever.
Thank you for the press and hold archive tip. How to hell do you find features like that? Do you just long press everything in turn to see if it does something? There is nothing to hint that long press on archive would open a menu and pressing archive when you want to delete is just absurd.
You can also install the Gmail app from google, or use Inbox from Google. Do note, that Google has adopted this same mentality with Inbox (their way forward, btw), in which delete is not a quick UI option, but a dig. Your quick options are now snooze and Done, which is the new Archive.
The author just shows how hard something so ‘trivial’ as putting a new ring tone on a phone can be.
I find this a lot of Apple projects. Just recently someone asked me a ‘file’ related question at work.
They had taken a screenshot and wanted to email it. They clicked on attach file or something, which asked them to sign up for cloud or something.
He was like… how the hell do I get access to the picture
The answer I figured out was to attach photo… which then gave access to the ‘file’
I think it is fine to try and hide the file system.
The problem is:
1. You don’t do it right so people can’t do what they want to do (ringtone, added screenshot to email…)
2. You have removed the ‘direct’ way of doing it.
It is definitely more frustrating especially for things that *aren’t that complex*. A file system is not really that complex. I had ‘file folder’ organization in grade school. Little folders separating each subject. Our ability to organize and group is probably just as inate as our ability to use our finger to operate a device. You can restrict it in all kinds of way to avoid the ‘complexity’ argument of powerusers (hiding mounts, file system files…) Heck, just a simple shared folder of the users ‘home’ directory would do it. People are used to filing things, looking things up in tables…
All these cases that I’ve seen from friends and this one online would be solved via a very simple file system access.
All these operating systems have tried to get rid of the file system (Windows, Android, IOS…) and they all do it poorly.
It’s great to theoretically get rid of it, but you have to make it work properly before you do.
It would be like if Apple got rid of the mouse/pointer in favor of a touch screen, but completely buggered the touch input. People would be outraged because we had a good working model before (mouse).
We’re lucky they did an amazing job of touch that they could get rid of mouse/pointer for smartphones.