2023-01-17


             CRAWLING BACK TO ANDROID AFTER 7+ YEARS OF IOS

                             Steven Peguero


Over the last few years, I grew increasingly frustrated with Apple's
paternalistic ways, particularly with regards to iOS. Consider the
following list of issues I have come across and noted (as of iOS v16):

  *  No true application multitasking support.

  *  Rudimentary music playback support for non-Apple Music
     applications.

  *  An inability to interact with USB storage natively.

  *  An inability to block cellular network access for specific
     applications.

  *  An inability to stop cellular networks from dictating iOS' portable
     hotspot feature.

  *  A web browser engine (WebKit) monopoly.

  *  An inability to install applications not hosted on the App Store.

  *  App Store customers indirectly paying for Apple's annual Developer
     Program membership fees that iOS developers must pay, which enables
     the growing subscription phenomenon and encourages further data
     harvesting.

As of late, I've been trying to find a solution to synchronize files
between WebDAV / SFTP servers and iOS, and achieve it in an automatic,
unattended fashion. But, after much research and testing various
applications, I came to the conclusion that cross-device, background
file synchronization is impossible to practically achieve on iOS without
resorting to Apple's iCloud subscription offerings. This was the point
in which my frustration had peaked and I sought to retire the iPhone for
a Google Pixel with Graphene OS. After 7+ years of dealing with Apple's
nonsense, no computer should be this egregiously adversarial to use.
One's computer should work in accordance to their will.

Until a Linux smartphone can become a feasible and practical option, I
will have to get accustomed to Android once again. I have since placed
an order for a new Google Pixel and am ecstatically awaiting its
arrival.

The last Android smartphone I was in possession of was a Moto G in 2016,
which featured the now-defunct Cyanogenmod[0] that many (including I)
once knew and loved. I also previously owned the Galaxy Nexus[1], the
HTC Evo 4G[2], and even the now-hilariously rudimentary T-Mobile G1 /
HTC Dream[3] that ignited the Android platform in the late 2000s. I am
thrilled to rejoin this platform, which has seemingly become only more
sophisticated since I last used it full-time. Perhaps I will finally own
a smartphone that can behave as a computer and perform the equivalent of
`(~/script.sh &)`.

---

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod 
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Nexus
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Evo_4G
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream