Behind Enemy Lines: My Week With An iPhone
Hell is freezing over, dogs and cats living together . Mass Hysteria! I am just kidding, but I did cause some shock and awe this week when I had to switch from my Lumia 1020 to a iPhone 5S.
Why did I have to do this? There are a few apps that allow me to control my websites I work on from the iPhone that haven’t really arrived on Windows phone yet as well as running and checking servers. Now I will probably be able to do more once the new Lumia line comes out with continuum. but in the meantime I had to switch over to the iPhone and it has been an experience. Also not to mention the earpiece failed on my Lumia and it sounded like someone was constantly whispering into my ear and even with it maxed out. I couldn’t hear anything.
First off, switching from live tiles to icons with just number on them take away the joy of seeing small previews of everything. Icons to me are a thing of the past cause they are boring, or even having widgets from android would be most enjoyable but the iPhone interface needs a refresh cause it does make me feel like I took a step back with just having simple numbers on top of the icon saying I have a notification but what is the notification for? gotta go into the app… Now something else that really does bother me is losing the ability to not see the apps I don’t use. currently I just have a icon folder with all the crap I do not use. Which is most of the apps that come with the iPhone. Like with Android and Windows Phone, you don’t have to see them, they are just in the apps section and become a distant memory. If you don’t use them you only see them when you bring up all your apps. I wish Apple would adopt that to remove all the clutter from the screen.
Another thing I have noticed is that there is a huge huge huge data increase and I am having to monitor how much data I am using. I think it is because the apps are set to constantly update and I am killing apps that do use a lot of cellular data and I think that will help kill the data grind that is currently happening this week.
Now something I do like, is the bottom swipe up control system. Having easy access to flashlight mode, volume for the music, play stop and everything else makes it beyond beyond easy to switch to my next song or use the flashlight or control the wi fi. I also do enjoy the fact I can unlock my phone with just my thumbprint cause having to enter in your PIN code can get exhausting. Yes I keep my phone locked all the time cause I am just paranoid. Also having that extra level of security for some of the other apps that require my thumbprint or PIN code definitely makes me feel more protected cause everything is behind another wall. Definitely all about that extra protection.
What is also getting use to, is actually having first party apps, like Instagram and Snapchat, cause if you know Windows Phone doesn’t really have that and third parties usually have to make apps for the Windows brand. Now I have the real apps and it is quite nice and not to mention some of the games, like Fallout Shelter, yes my friends have been playing this since it came out and now I get to join in on all the fun!
One last thing that I have noticed with this iPhone, its in the apps, is I feel bogged down by ads. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a few others, it just feels like blammo blammo blammo! ADS ADS EVERYWHERE! Like every few swipe downs, its just like ghoosh ad here and an ad there. I definitely know this is how the companies generate money but I never had this issue on Windows Phone probably cause the base is so small and companies don’t really push ads there like on the iPhone due to the mass market.
In closing, the first week with the iPhone 5s has been quite interesting, it is taking a while to get use to it cause its lighter, and smaller than what I am use to so I am like…is my phone in my pocket…or I have to be careful with it cause I don’t want to drop it and have it break cause I have seen that happen so many times but I will probably write another post a month from now and see if everything changes. Until then…
see you space cowboy…