This article by #CoryDoctorow from 2010(!) is more valid than ever. Not just related to iPads but for the whole #Apple ecosystem. You rarely own an Apple device whose biggest value it only gets by accessing the walled gardens Apple has total control over.
It's for #consumers and not for people who want to play with their devices in a #creative way!
@publicvoit@lproven I was an Apple fanboy but then my son was born. Soon after I came to the same conclusion: closed devices and applications limit creativity. Good old dos was better for children than the shiniest of iPads.
@publicvoit@lproven ...to suggest that iPads aren't for creatives/makers, or for people who want to use their devices in creative ways is to take a really narrow view of creativity. And it could be argued that the more you want to push the iPad beyond the bounds of expected use, the more creative you have to be.
It is entirely possible to do more than consume things on an #iPad. To code, write, administer or do other meaningful work on an iPad.
@jslr Well, Apple did a very clever trick: they emphasized "creativity" in their marketing. This moved the point where people might start being creative (in a very(!) narrow way) to the apps-layer instead of expecting that the OS-layer is part of my interest.
iOS and iPadOS are so locked down, there is zero chance of being able to learn and tinker.
Imagine a teenager who just wants to have more pink in the UI. With Android it's possible and that might be the start of a life-changing journey.
@publicvoit@jslr Right tool for the job. Imagine I want to build something that requires nails. Well, I need a hammer. That's for hammering nails. I can't use it for screws.
This idea that a computer has to be completely open to be useful as a creative tool is silly and ideological. All tools have limitations.
I want to build a birdhouse that requires nails and I can't use my very open Linux laptop for that task! It's so limiting. Silly.
@publicvoit@jslr In your example, then, yes, the teenager should use Android as that's a better match for what they want to do.
Me? Use Serif's Affinity suite of apps to do graphic design. I can do that on Windows, a Mac or an iPad. I choose to do it with an iPad and make my living that way. But I couldn't do it with an Android device as the app isn't available there. See, right tool for the job. In my case, the iPad is fantastic for what I need to do..
@dennyhenke@jslr Sorry, this is a common argument which actually would exclude you from any "iOS/iPadOS vs. Android" discussion.
If you're depending on a tool which is available on one platform only, this can never be any argument for discussions of platforms.
If somebody is telling me that "Windows is the best OS there is because it runs X where X only exists for Windows", this person is not actually discussing OS properties at all.
@jslr@publicvoit@lproven It seems silly to make such blanket statements given that millions of #iPads have been sold and that there is ample evidence that the apps that DO exist have, in fact, been used by many people to create a fantastic variety of things.
It's perhaps ironic that the strident ideology that produces posts like these is, in its own way, restrictive in that it ignores/denies the reality of how iPads have been used
@dennyhenke@jslr@lproven Well, the quality of IT knowledge should be dramatically increased meanwhile, right?
I see the opposite effect. The so called digital natives have way less tech knowledge than we had when I started as a freshmen at the university in the 90s.
Teachers have to tinker with their grading so that certain classes do get positive grades at all. And I do think that walled garden tech is one of the reasons - not the only one of course.
@publicvoit@jslr@lproven Well, that's a different conversation. Related, sure. But it's a different conversation. Again, all tools are different. Why not be more flexible and accept that tools have limitations. Sometimes it's the form factor, sometimes it's an OS, etc.
This notion that we have to choose one direction, one tool set, one ideology or philosophy seems limiting. We have access to them all and can use a mix.
Besides: with Android apps like #Tasker I get so much value from my otherwise not so smart phone.
For purely political and financial reasons, #Apple forbids to offer and run such applications in its #walledgarden and an Apple "owner" can't do nothing about this.
Furthermore, there are many stories where Apple used their total power to get companies out of the Apple market in a very dubious way. They're not the people you want to absolutely depend on.
There are tons of stuff on the web including many example scripts to use or modify.
Basically, it's a very simple way of adapting small functionality on a phone in order to actually make it smart.
There are many apps that provide similar stuff but you'll need to find & sometimes pay & hope they do it exactly as you would expect which is not often the case, ending up with many apps + compromises.
That sounds really good but I am moving for a long time in the direction of using the phone less and less and less. Maybe this might change things, but will need to see if I can get this running on lineage os. @publicvoit
Tasker (and other tools like that who are forbidden on iOS) can do so much more. I built custom UIs for quick capture of log entries that gets written to Syncthing shares (which was forbidden for the most part of iOS) and interpreted otherwise.
I have so many interesting actions which iOS doesn't and will never support because of non-technical reasons to protect their golden cage.
Re/Syncthing: This actually is a technical issue (writing in Go). There is a lot of stuff wrong (e.g. no side-loading, iPadOS) and annoying (prices) with Apple/iOS but this is not it.
For what it’s worth, terms like walled garden and golden cage take a bit away from your argument and suggest that the user has no agency.
@laotang How can I write a log entry with "2023-11-07 # 16.39 # wifi-office # 88 # 30674" (date, time, ESSID, percentage battery, uptime) to a text file whenever I "enter" a specific WiFi network? Is this possible?
Same for adding log entries whenever I plug-in/out a power cable, boot or shutdown the phone, capture a text line which later notifies the user whenever he/she enters her/his home WiFi, invoke a notification when the local API of my lawnmower reports an issue, ...
@publicvoit@laotang Yeah. There's a Shortcuts automation trigger for joining a specific wifi network of your choosing, for when you connect to power, and more. Might not be the full range of things you're looking for, but it sounds like there's more than you expect.
@jslr@publicvoit This is the point I would also like to make. There is a lot of things you can do but maybe less than you want. In addition there would also be stuff like Pythonista.
Look, Android and iOS have different strengths. The former does allow more barebones stuff and configuration, the latter has a better app-ecosystem, more privacy (sandboxing) and less Google (compared to stock Android). Whatever floats your boat. Mobile phones are not my primary computing platform.
@laotang@jslr I strongly disagree on the privacy part.
The difference here is most probably: when all(!) of my most personal data lands in the iCloud somehow, I consider that a major catastrophe for my privacy. Apple-users seem to ignore data that goes to Apple. With Google, I got the impression that I might disable much more cloud-stuff although is should be much more easier to do so, yes.
@publicvoit I know :). Let's agree to disagree on the amount of data shared with Apple and the implications. With stock Android the amount of data shared with an ad-company is a few magnitudes higher. One cannot even install a content blocker on stock android, right? In the end Apple does not (yet) earn significant amounts of money with my data, whereas this is the core business of Google.
@laotang True. But you lose your data anyway. And to the agencies which Apple is happy to share upon requests nobody knows.
I agree that stock Android without changed settings is almost as bad or even worse. However, I urge and teach people to change that.
Furthermore, there are alternative Android ROMs I might flash in order to get a magnitude of better protection. This will never be possible with an Apple device. Ever.
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