Wozniak & Android

Posted: January 18, 2012 | Categories: Mobile

I like my iPhone. It's got a cool UI and the apps are great. Unfortunately, I just can't use one day to day – there's too many klugy things about it. The BlackBerry has spoiled me with the keyboard, I can so quickly go to the top of a list (by pressing the 't' key), bottom of a list (the 'b' key), File an email message ('f' key) and most importantly use the keyboard to type the name of the folder I'm filing an email into.

I get more than 100 emails a day and the way iOS and Android forces me to swipe through this huge folder list (I have a hundred or more folders in my inbox –  I use folders to keep my inbox manageable, go figure) rather than just let me use the keyboard (virtual or physical, I don't care) to type the first few characters of the folder name drives me crazy.  These devices are 'supposed' to be Enterprise friendly, but neither Apple nor Google has seemed to view the Enterprise user as one who needs a simple and efficient way to manage filing email messages into folders.

Even RIM, who hasn't done a lot of smart things lately, was smart enough to still show an option to bring up the keyboard when filing messages – even on touch only devices. How hard can it be?

Anyway, iOS are cool devices, but unusable for someone who needs to actually manage a real inbox.

I laughed out loud when I saw an article today entitled 'Steve Wozniak sings Android praises' located here: https://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/60837-steve-wozniak-sings-android-praises.

My favorite quote from the article? Here ya go:

“Wozniak conceded that Android is a better choice for people who actually know what they're doing when it comes to technology.”

That statement is absolutely correct. I've been having a long, heated argument with some long time colleagues about this topic and it's really true. If you don't know what you're doing or if you don't have any real experience with mobile technology, the iPhone is an amazing device. If you know what you're doing and you have experience with smartphones, the iPhone will drive you crazy.

I gave my wife an iPad and when her laptop died, I expected her to just use the iPad for everything. No can do – she hates it. She knows what she's doing and knows what she wants to be able to do with the device and since iOS blocks her from doing what she wants in so many ways, the device drives her crazy and she hardly uses it.

Is this what Apple expected? No, but I imagine they don't really care.

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Header image: Photo by Eirik Solheim on Unsplash.