Yes I know this article appears to be late but it is after all supposed to be a Wednesday one. I normally get them out earlier. This week I had Monday off and that threw out all of my normal triggers to get it done earlier. Also this may be the last one for a few weeks as I am going on holidays for four weeks. If I get the chance I’ll post as usual but that will depend on where I am and if I am close to an Internet connection or not.
So my best friend has an iPhone, as do a few of my other friends. The question is should you rush out and buy an iPhone 5? The short answer is “no” and there are some good reasons not to.
When I buy a phone I want it to, at the very least, do a good job of being a phone. In recent years the iPhone has not done a very good job of being a reliable device for making phone calls. Most people also want the antenna to work the iPhone has been plagued with problems in this area.
When I bought my Samsung S2 one of the first things I did was get a better battery for it leaving my original one as a spare. The new battery has a better power rating so it lasts longer than the original. My current usage gives me about two good days of use. If I turned everything on, listened to music, watched some videos and did a few length downloads then this figure would drop to under a day and possibly to a number that would be shorter then my time away from home and my charger. No problem I could simply swap out the battery for my spare. This one capability alone is the best reason not to buy the iPhone 5, you can’t swap the battery out. The design technology to allow this is simple and given how much an iPhone costs it should quite frankly be a standard feature and that it is not is an insult to phone users.
The second thing I did, or perhaps it was the first was to drop by the local electronics store and pick up a micro SD card to use as data storage, music file storage and a target for photos, videos and anything else I may want to put on it. The card came with a regular SD sleeve that plugs into my notebook for easy data transfer. When the card gets full I could simply put in a new one and keep snapping. In an Apple iPhone to add storage you buy a new phone, yes there is no memory card slot in the device. Nil, none, nada, nix. To get your photos off your device you had better have iTunes installed on the device concerned so forget about using your friend’s computer as they will not want that application on their device. Yes you can also transfer files using the Apple data channel connect9ivity but that can be messy and time consuming. If you have ever wondered why Apple sells their devices with different capacities this is the reason no real expandability or flexibility.
Just these two reasons alone are enough to have any sensible phone buyer considering other options but with Apple you get so many more reasons to stop and think before you rush out and buy.
The really first thing I did when I got my phone was sit down and access sll the lovely free applications that are available at the marketplace. I didn’t need any special software to connect and I already had a Google mail account. I didn’t need to sign up for anything or provide any payment details in advance. Just click, search and download a lot of free apps. In my case the phone is Android based. This is an open framework that anyone can write to and anyone can hand out or sell their applications. No special stores required and no real control on what you can get and put on your device. Apple has worked tirelessly to squash such capabilities and thrown up a series of walls between you and the software you can put on your iPhone. Sadly this has been driving others to follow in their footsteps and for a number of platforms now the same kind of stories have been set up. Being the market leader in this case has been the opposite of openness and flexibility. This approach be it Apple, Microsoft or anyone else should be actively discouraged so don’t buy an iOS or iPhone based device otherwise you are supporting the whole thing. Who is responsible for this? The original iPhone buyers of course they supported and encouraged it after all.
Since we are now up to version 5 the whole idea of getting an iPhone because it was new and different is long past. Even cars are coming with iPhone attachments and docks so basically since many people have one then having one yourself no longer makes you someone different or leading edge. The latest iPhone will not have the latest technology features in them. They never really did and still lag behind the others when it comes to the latest technologies. Instead of a leader buying one just makes you a follower. If you like that sort of thing then fine, if not, time to look elsewhere.
One important consideration for most buyers is value for money. What is the feature set you are getting for the money you are spending? iPhones are not cheap. On a feature by feature comparison for a similar unit at the same cost the Apple devices fall well short in the value for money stakes. If you think about it you are paying a premium for what is essentially a deliberately limited device.
I love the nice big screen on my device. Not dead space either above or below the screen. Now take a look at your friend’s iPhone. What is it with all that extra space when Apple has a strict one button policy? On my Samsung there is a little bit of space on the bottom but that is for a button and two extra touch areas for a menu and navigation.
So if you are going to get one, because you really, really have to then don’t buy it as soon as it comes out. I waited a couple of months and bought the S2 for about two thirds of the release price. If you buy one immediately then you will be paying a premium for far fewer features than the S2 has and for a much greater price. If you really must have one then at least wait until the initial crazy pricing furore has died down and all those phones the suppliers overstocked with are being sold at a much lower margin.
So here I am at the end of this section and it looks like I managed to use up my usual word count telling you not to get the new iPhone 5. There is one news item that caught my eye and will be relevant for those readers from Thailand.
The Twitter account belonging to Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been suspended after someone took control of it and used it to send messages critical of her administration. An investigation has pointed to a Thai national whose last tweet was "If she can't even protect her own Twitter account, how can she protect the country? Think about it." The authorities claim to know who it was but that may not be true. If caught the perpetrator could face up to 5 years in jail and a fine of about 100,000 Baht. If the same thing was said in say Australia I would laugh but since this is Thailand the sentences could be imposed as stated.
For those who may have missed it my references to the iPhone 5 above were of course sarcastic. While everyone expected a 5 they ended up with a 4S. I can only assume that the S stands for "sucky."
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