["Open Mike" is the weekly Editorial page of the vertical magazine that is TOP. In it, we dip a toe into the filtered-but-not-very mind of Mike.]
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The significance of this is explained eventually
herein. Read on. Photo by Georg Sander.
I'm actually thinking, actually really thinking, of not getting another iPhone.
I've recently given some longtime e-friends who know my predilections and peccadilloes—longtime readers, that is—maybe including you—a bit of a surprise: I moved on from ICE cars. Decisively, like Ctein moved to digital and struck his darkroom. No more stick shift allegiance, no more Miata-is-the-answer-to-every-question, no more naturally-aspirated-engine or rear-wheel-drive oversteer purity, no more blather about exhaust notes and le pur sang and petrolhead lore, no, none o' that from here on out. I'm quite certain I'll never buy an ICE car again. I would propose a rather radical reason for this. EVs are better cars. Period and end of sentence. Throw out all the blather and disputation about cost, ecology, infrastructure, politics, efficiency, everything. All of it. EVs are better cars.
That's a big enough tech-bro sea-change right there. But not only that, I'm also thinking about...an Android phone.
Does the apocalypse approach? Do birds fly backwards in a purple sky? What about the old unshakeable never-say-die Apple allegiance, the "my-first-Mac-was-the-first-Mac," the cozy fishbowl of the integrated Apple ecosystem, all that? This could be a shock to your conception of Mike-ishness, and, coming so soon after my defection from internal combustion...well, I hope I'm not rocking the rowboat too much.
Skip three
I have an iPhone 13 Pro. It's been fine. Normally I've updated every three cycles, skipping two. But this Fall the iPhone 17 will be announced, meaning I will have skipped three cycles. Plus, my battery is getting iffy. That's because "it's that time." But for the first time, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not dreading it, exactly, but I feel resigned rather than inwardly excited.
Here's the thing that started the snowball rolling downhill: Siri is stupid. There is no way around this. My friend Dan and I play pool most Monday mornings, and typically talk a good deal about music. Matters of mild dispute and questions of fact come up lots, and despite the fact that Dan has an old Android phone the screen of which is permanently tinted magenta, his phone aces Siri seven times out of nine when verbally asked questions. I've recently taken to asking him to ask HIS phone something instead of merely asking the same question of mine. He'll get an answer, whereas Siri won't understand the question, or will give me an amusingly nonsensical answer, or will require me to type something out...whatever. He casually asks his phone stuff that I wouldn't even attempt to ask Siri, because I know better. I'd be anticipating the usual bollix.
Apple is behind. It took me a while to wrap my mind around this if I'm honest. I accepted it only because the realization is unavoidable.
Here are a few other things that I'm assuming, or that have been bugging me:
First, Apple will want a hella lot of money. You just know the big-screen iPhone 17 with the good camera (both of which are important to me) is going to cost way north of a grand. Apple loves to soak my wallet. They farm money—that seems to be the thing they care most about now. That was fine back when I thought I got value for it...I liked Apple, and that was the way it was. If I had to pay more for it, well, so what, then I did. I got value in self-satisfaction and seamless integration and a cool form-factor, and that was enough for me. But recently it seems like there's nothing to get excited about. It'll be just be another phone, pretty much like the last phone. Another button here, another functionality there maybe, but nothing to knock glassware off the shelves. For some reason it seems like Apple stopped innovating around the time the Pandemic started. It's just the same old products in the same old wrappers. They don't even look that good any more—the designer left the company. Or rather, they look good, but in the same old way. The CEO doesn't visit the design studio every day like Steve did; Steve loved products and Steve loved design. The new guy just sits in his ivory tower atop a giant heap of gold coins plotting how to get more. When he already has too many. Which is his business, except that he wants my gold coins. And I ain't got that many.
Know what else Steve did? He kept thinking up ideas for new products. Some weren't such good ideas, others were great, others looked like they wouldn't succeed but did anyway. But he kept coming up with new things. What's been new lately? Yes, my current Mac Mini is the best desktop I've ever had, of my 17 or 19 Macs or whatever it is. They do iterate and improve. And the goggles (Vision Pro) are new, but they're expensive and some of the functionalities are not quite thought-through. Who wants to watch a movie alone with another person who is also watching the same movie alone? I do like the noise-cancelling headphones (AirPods Max), too. But basically it's just Macs, iMacs, iPads, iPhones and the Apple Watch, same as it ever was. (Current Not-Steve Guy does get the credit for the Apple Watch. But that was more than ten years ago—that's 70 years in device- and dog-years).
That's an oasis ahead
Maybe I'm not making my point convincingly. But have you ever looked at all the exotica you can get in the Android phone-i-verse? Did you know there's a phone with a Leica one-inch sensor?! It has a name I can neither spell nor pronounce, Xiaomi. Did you know there's one you can fold out to make a double screen?! Did you know Google makes phones?! Who knew these things? Nobody!
Well, I suppose somebody.
Here comes the kicker. Old Apple, when it introduced something, actually had them to sell, or at least would very soon. New Apple announces sh*t when it's still vapory and then sits on its own thumbs. And sits. And sometimes, like the charger-pad thingy or Apple Intelligence (a "product" I do not want, would rather not have, and am not looking forward to dealing with, so I suppose that's a win???), never come out at all. They're just describing mirages in the desert air, shimmering on the horizon. Surely they can come up with it; they're Apple.
So what? Well, so Apple is promising that iPhone 17 will integrate EV route planning into Apple Maps in CarPlay. But some of Apple's promises lately are worth tears and a heap of ash. So I know I'm going to expect iPhone 17 to have route planning, and they'll say it's coming, but it will either come many moons late or never come, while I wait, wait, wilt, and grow old. But I said "kicker": the kicker is that Apple doesn't keep stuff updated. Never has, never will. Twenty-eleven Siri still lives in my pocket and gets sklonkered by Google Assistant. Aperture was great, but it was never maintained or updated until it got so wilty it had to be killed (I didn't fall for Lucy and the football on that one). I still miss WriteNow*. (I am the OG.)
So here's what I think is going to happen. Apple will charge me $1,800 plus 8% tax for a new phone. For the phone I paid $1,100 for four years ago, they'll give me $85 in trade, unless they give me nothing. I won't be able to buy the new one outright at Verizon so that I can get the good monthly plan price—I'll have to buy it on time for three months for twice as much, on account of a certain calibrated percentage of customers will forget and keep paying the high price. They'll tell me the camera is improved but I won't be able to see any difference. Three things I already liked about the old phone will be gone, gone. Thirteen controls I already knew how to use and have committed to muscle memory will be changed around for absolutely no explicable reason. End result: four months of d*cking around and a bunch of cash sacrificed to the spaceship, and if I'm lucky I'll get back to...where I am right now. And, insult to injury, even if EV route planning is well implemented in Maps sometime within the current decade, parsimonious Apple won't pinch off the bucks to keep it groomed and up to date, so the functionality will age and fade, even though being up-to-date is the most crucial mission of an EV-charger-finding route planner—and even though Apple could afford to keep it sleek and groomed with less cash than it devotes to keeping the bathrooms spotless in the spaceship. I foresee frustration, in other words.
Great-great-grandmother
Oh, almost forgot—the picture at the top.
A curious fact: my great-great grandmother had an electric car. In 1907. The one in the picture is a restored 1907 Detroit Electric Model D, an automobile brand produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. I have no idea if that's the one my great-great-grandmother, Hannah Milhous** Wright Furnas, owned; but my grandmother told me her grandmother had an electric car. She remembered being sent to bed early when her grandmother was visiting, but staying awake at her upstairs window until her grandmother left, and that all she could hear were the tires crunching on the gravel of the driveway. She said this was when she was six years old, which would have been 1907.
It's quite possible Hannah might have been driving herself. My grandmother also said that Hannah Wright Furnas was the first woman in Indianapolis to learn to drive; her chauffeur taught her, on the little lanes that snake and loop around the sprawled-out grounds of Crown Hill Cemetery. My grandmother, who had a prodigious memory, said this like it was something that everyone once knew and that was not in dispute. There is of course no way on Earth to prove it now. But I'll believe it because she did.
Back to Earth now, and the solid ground of fact: I probably won't actually buy an Android phone. Only because I am not the type to be able to manage the transition. Many websites say it's do-able, many videos claim they tell you how-to, but I've never been much good with computers. I've known that all my life. New iPhone, here I come. I'm just no longer inwardly happy about it is all.
Mike
(Thanks to several readers for the "better cars" link.)
*Best word processor ever. "In the opinion of many of its users, WriteNow represented the ideal Macintosh application. It had a simple, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), no copy protection, and it worked in practically every revision of the Macintosh operating system, including in the Mac 68k emulator on PowerPC Macs and in the Classic Environment under Mac OS X. Its biggest claim to fame, however, was its speed. It was written in assembly language (Motorola 680x0) by a group of developers who had a reputation for producing extremely efficient code." (Wikipedia)
**Yes, that Milhous. Richard Nixon was my sixth cousin. Maybe once or twice removed, I don't know.
Original contents copyright 2025 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
Maggie Osterberg: "Siri. Oh lord, Siri. Dumber than a box of rocks, and twice as infuriating. But, maybe, a secret comedian. I was in a therapy session, speaking about some pretty heavy stuff in my past and how trauma had impacted my life, and, you know, the usual stuff, when, out of nowhere, my Apple Watch suddenly pipes up with my Irish Siri's voice. 'I'm not sure what to make of that, Maggie.' 'What?' I said out loud. 'I can't help you,' Siri replied. My therapist and I totally lose it, laughing our asses off. That was it for the session!"
Ronny Nilsen: "Have a look at the app 'A Better Routeplanner' for planning you EV trip, no need to wait for Apple, and it's available on both iPhone and Android."
Mike replies: I signed up. I'm all in. I'll use that. Thanks Ronny!
Chris Kern: "The best thing about Apple: the company’s products cooperate to form a coherent ecosystem—iPhones, iPads, Macs, and (with some limitations based on the characteristics of the platform) watches—you have seamless access to your data and application software from any of them. The worst thing about Apple: the frequent churn of user agent features: configuration parameters that are moved from one location to another and bundled applications whose functionality is altered for no apparent reason."
Christer Almqvist: "The salesman at my Apple distributor shares your opinion about the iPhone."
robert e: "Ah, what irony! Or do I mean metaphor? Do you know what else Apple under Tim Cook didn't do? Build an electric car, after trying to develop one for ten years at an estimated cost of $10 billion, possibly in collaboration with VW. (Per Wikipedia, 'Apple car project'). Do you know which electronics company did develop an electric car? Xiaomi. They announced their intention in 2021, started production in 2023 and officially released in 2024, the same year Apple gave up on its EV. The car, the SU7, is a runaway success. Jim Farley, Ford's CEO, had one for six months and said he loved it.
"Unrelated, but, a few years ago, I switched from Google's Maps app to Apple's for driving directions because I preferred the way Apple telegraphed turns way ahead of time, but on a recent cross-country trip, I had to switch back to Google Maps because Apple's directions often seemed a little bonkers."
Mike replies: Strange thing happened to me on my trip: I was driving my old Acura, but had my eyes peeled to see if I could spy any Nissan Ariyas in the wild. Driving to Vermont the directions take you off the expressway and never take you back on, and eventually I saw one pass going the other direction on a New York two-lane. Much later, I'm in Vermont, trying to make the final few miles to my friends' house, and Apple Maps in bonkers mode takes me down a very obscure dirt road that I strongly suspected was wrong. Then, about a mile down this road, Siri pipes up and says, "There is an obstruction ahead. Your route is cancelled. Goodbye," and falls silent. I phoned my friends for live directions. They got me turned around and headed back toward known roads, and then, on this remote dirt road on which I had seen no vehicles at all, what should pass by but the second Ariya I'd seen on the trip. Weird.
Later I was told by several Vermonters that Apple Maps often bails out like that on routes over dirt, seasonal, or steep roads, apparently so no one gets disappointed or stuck and later makes a complaint.
Oh, and when I arrived at the cookout area on Blue Moon, where the group was gathered for their weekly Summer picnic, Siri unexpectedly came to life again and said, "Arrived!"
Kirk: "I use an iPhone XR. It's seven years old. It works perfectly. Consider security before you switch out of the most secure phone system the world has ever known.... If you have a 13 you are two upgrades ahead of me. And I reiterate, mine works perfectly and in no way inhibits my progress or my business. And yes, it works flawlessly in my car via CarPlay. Seven years old. Just sayin'. Sigh, and people tease me for upgrading cameras...."
Eric Chin: "Hi Mike: You may not be aware that Google also has a phone service, Google Fi. It uses the T-Mobile network. You could probably get a pretty good trade-in on your phone if you join the service. I started using Google Pixel phones because you get software upgrades immediately from Google. With the carriers, you have to wait for them to get the upgrade and sort it out for their phones, which can take a long time. Maybe more detail than you need, but the Pixel 10 coming out this year is the last year they're using the current chip architecture, and they'll be changing to a different architecture with the Pixel 11. Since last year, it's nice they now offer the Pro models in two sizes, so you don't have to buy a large phone just to get the best camera."
Robert Roaldi: "I use an iMac and an iPad but I'm still ticked at Apple for letting Aperture slide into oblivion. I still prefer it to anything else I've used. I don't like touch screens or those talking interfaces but I assume they are useful to someone."
Nick: Mike, you're thinking about switching from Nikon to Canon. Every phone is largely the same these days; the top models are roughly the same price and have the same features. Every maker tries to lock you into their own ecosystem, and they all have various positives and negatives. Not to say that your Apple complaints aren't valid, but you'll find just as many issues with a new Samsung or Xiaomi etc., and you will have lost a lot of UI know-how. You are correct of course there is more variety in body shapes outside of Apple, if a folding phone is of interest to you. Otherwise I think it's a grass-is-greener problem. But apart from losing integration with your Mac etc., at least it's an easier switch than camera bodies as you don't have a similar collection of lenses that won't work anymore. Relatively easy to buy another phone for this three-year cycle and see how you go."
John Gordon: "My son, living in Hong Kong in 2018, gave me a Xiaomi Android phone to compare with my iPhone. Technically the Xiaomi was good; the Android opsys not so much. And that version of Android was not upgradable so I quickly returned to iPhone and the Apple ecosystem. But the big news today is that Xiaomi now manufacture some of the best EVs in the world. According to an article in The Atlantic by Patrick George, 'The American Car Industry Can’t Go On Like This,' (14 August), Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, last year drove a Xiaomi SU7 for six months 'to scope out the competition.' The Chinese-made EV is 'one of the world’s most impressive cars: It can accelerate faster than many Porsches, has a giant touch screen that lets you turn off the lights at your house, and comes with a built-in AI assistant—all for roughly $30,000 in China.' Farley said, 'It’s fantastic...I don’t want to give it up.' Ford is now redesigning its manufacturing processes in an attempt to produce a Xiaomi-competitive truck that will sell for much less than the current F150 EV. Due in 2027."
Thom Hogan: "Advice: replace the battery and fight the 'new phone' battle another day.
"Commentary: You're missing a couple of key points. First, you're assuming today's Siri will be tomorrow's. Pretty clear from Apple that won't be true. Apple has this long-established habit of appearing behind and then doing the better product. That will happen with AI. When is the only question, but I think it's Pournelle's Real Soon Now. Second, the post about Google being a parasite is correct and this should disturb you. The only reason for Android, Chrome, and the search engine are to control and track you, and make you the product to someone else. Apple's products are actual products, not you. AI, for what it's worth, is going to be another eventual monopoly, much like search became. The reason has to do with the economics behind it. The cost to scale is enormous and that cost never goes away; it is ongoing and just keeps scaling. Which means that revenue has to pay the way. Google and Meta see AI as 'the next search/social,' and they have the business model (selling you and your information) that is proven. ChatGPT and many of the others don't have a model that works, and are looking desperately for one. Apple's model is 'sell you more devices that work together' (e.g. AI from your watch can deal with home, car, computer, phone, et al., and vice versa)."
Jerker Andersson (partial comment): "In 1991, a friend and I were in Haarlem, the original, in The Netherlands. We had a coffee break in a small café at the outskirts of town and I put my camera under my chair. Halfway through our coffee, two young men came in and sat down at the table immediately behind me. They talked in Arabic with a few words in Dutch. My friend and I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, but it was clear they were talking about us. So we decided it was time to leave. After a few steps I heard the scraping sound of a chair from their table and soon I felt a hand on my shoulder. I froze and slowly turned around. One of the young men stood there with my camera in his hand. 'I think you forgot something,' he said, and handed it over. My shoulders went down and it all ended with me paying for their coffee. There's lots of that stuff in this tale. And it's good to have your prejudices challenged from time to time. But hold on to your gear!"
A genealogist nit-pick: Your grandmother's grandmother is your great-great-grandmother.
Also genealogical: Gerald R. Ford Jr., yes, that Gerald R. Ford, was a 3rd cousin once removed to my wife. He was born Lesley Lynch King. His mother was Dorothy Ayer Gardiner (my wife's surname is Gardiner). Dorthy Gardiner divorced her 1st husband, married Gerald R. Ford Sr. while her son was still an infant, and her new husband adopted and renamed the child after himself. So, my wife's relative pardoned your relative. The rest of the family never did. We still think Nixon was a crook.
Posted by: James Bullard | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 02:07 PM
I use an older phone because it does everything that I need it to do and my old brain hates change. The improved cameras that are used as selling points mean nothing to me because I can't use a finderless camera with my eyes. I do however have a workaround and it only cost $6.
I bought a Micro USB card reader, shoot beautiful JPGS with my Fujis, and then pop the SD card into the reader in my phone's USB port and I can email, text or post the photos in seconds. I can enjoy my cameras viewfinder, multiple lenses and selective focus that no phone has matched yet... and only six dollars.
Posted by: Albert Smith | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 02:13 PM
The new Oppo phone has astounding cameras, including a real telephoto. The kicker? Not available in the U.S., for some odd reason.
Posted by: Stephen Cowdery | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 02:15 PM
Mike,
Bias alert, I have only had Android Phones.
I chose Android as I have a distrust of Apple and their seeming need to tie you to their devices. I needed a reason and this swung it for me.
I do like Google Gemini. I also like the ability to use a wide range of manufacturers for watches, earbuds, etc. My phone connects nicely to my Windows desktop.
FWIW - I think Apple's market penetration in North America is much higher than here in the UK where Android is more popular. Hence a different point of view from across the globe.
I can understand the reluctance to swap ecosystem though.
Andy
Posted by: Andy Munro | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 02:18 PM
I have a Google phone and I love it. I'm not an Apple fan and still can't navigate my ipad without help (android/pc all the way). My phone is a bit old but still takes great photos, better than my Olympus.
Posted by: Lisa s. Gorrell | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 03:08 PM
I have an iPhone 16, and Apple Maps already does EV route planning (I assume you mean automatically adding charging stops at appropriate intervals). It works pretty well, though it is more conservative about range than I am.
Posted by: AN | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 03:26 PM
I don’t think I’m an apple apologist, but you be the judge. Siri works fine for the very limited number of things I use it for. Basically, setting alarms/timers. I use LLMs as a part of my professional life and they’re still…iffy (at best). I once argued with one for 10 minutes about what year it was (I was right, natch). Are they getting better? Yes. Is Apple behind the curve on the tech? Also yes. I simply don’t care, at least for now. If LLMs get to the point where they’re reliably useful /and/ I have a use for one on my phone /and/ Apple is still behind the curve, that may change things. But, for the moment, my trust of Apple with my data, while certainly not absolute, is greater than my trust of google with it, and my desire for that outweighs the LLM thing, or the more interesting phone thing.
Posted by: Noah | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 03:32 PM
When I was working, we labelled promised software goodies "vaporware." Many times, if we bought any of it, it was hardly used, therefore magically transforming into "shelfware."
See if you can find an independent shop that repairs iPhones, to "upgrade" with a new battery. The "right to repair."
Posted by: MikeR | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 04:05 PM
Replace your "iffy" battery and sit out this product cycle. That's what keeps my iPhone SE going.
Posted by: Joel Bartlett | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 04:34 PM
It has occurred to me more than once that you should change the name of your blog from "The Online Photographer" to "The Online Photographer + Other Machines." You could actually keep the Online Photographer as the basic name, and just add "+ Other Machines" to the top line of the blog. In the last few years you have written fairly extensively about speakers and turntables, enlargers, watches, pens, cars, razors, computers, printers, keyboards, phones, cameras and lord knows what else -- bicycles? -- and most people here seem to like that. That's because, I've learned, lots of "photography" fanatics are actually "camera" fanatics, but they not only like cameras, they like all kinds of mechanical stuff. You obviously enjoy doing the research, often to the finest details, but you also seem somewhat abashed by your enthusiasms. You shouldn't be -- a lot of people find it fascinating, and it might even enhance your readership. It's just not for me -- I like pictures, both photographs and paintings, and I don't care much about cameras, outside of their basic functions. I admit I bought fast expensive cars for a while, when I could afford them, but deep in my heart, I know I did that for status reasons rather than the purity of the machines. (I still have a 2017 Mercedes SL550 with...wait for it...12,000 miles on it, over eight years, because it turns out I'd rather drive something practical and cheaper that I don't have to worry about.) Anyway, think about just throwing up your hands and adding "+Other Machines" to your topline. Then you can relax and just do it.
Posted by: John Camp | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 04:41 PM
I'm still on the second version of the iPhone SE because it's the smallest available. No idea what I'll get when it dies. Maybe I'll go back to a flip phone, or gasp, do without.
I'm getting a new Macbook Pro delivered next week. Siri is the first thing I turn off on all Mac products. The so-called Apple Intelligence will be next.
Posted by: Keith | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 04:54 PM
In many respects, changing from the Iphone to something Android isn't too difficult. While things will work a bit differently and be in different places, in the end there's still a bunch of tapping icons, using some form of finder/recent apps list to switch between applications, and a bunch of useful apps like navigation, alarm clocks, and the like.
For me, typically the bang-for-buck is better for Android phones, especially in the middle of the pack. The Play Store tends to be better "stocked" with free stuff I use (YMMV). At a given price point, camera sensors are pretty much equivalent, as are lenses--within reason, if you don't pixel-peep. Updates are typically frequent, sometimes annoyingly so. Many apps like Maps are arguably better. The interface and operation of the phone are highly configurable.
In contrast, Iphones are simply well-sorted. Operation is largely intuitive and, while there is nowhere near the configurability of the Android phone, it's a whole lot easier to set up and just *use*. Most of what you'll need is already installed on the phone and bloatware is at a minimum. Sure Iphones can look a bit dated, but most people hide the things in cases. Most of the time, the phone is in a pocket/purse/backpack, so who cares about looks?
I went with Android because I am tech oriented and enjoy setting up everything "just so." I also found Apple to be more expensive at all but the highest-level configuration. If you change phones every several years, it doesn't take long for those $200 differences to add up. But, in terms of everyday useability, I have absolutely no problems with Apple tech.
In the end, Siri isn't really a reason to change phones--you can always download Chrome for IOS and use its AI with voice recognition. A bit cludgy, but perhaps more useful?
Posted by: Greg Boiarsky | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 05:04 PM
I don't get it. Buy a cheap Android phone and be done with. I just don't understand the orgasmic gushing about iPhones. It's a semi disposable electronic gadget. Go inexpensive and replace as needed.
Posted by: Kodachromeguy | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 05:41 PM
As a “resister” still using my 2020 Iphone se, I am committed to buying a new phone only when mine finally dissolves in my hands. I’m on the second battery, ($75) and third protective cover.
The simple fact is, they don’t do anything now that they didn’t do in 2020.
When I retired I committed to only spending money on life experiences or things with long term value. If it doesn’t hold value, I simply don’t buy it. Ex: I’ll buy a used Leica lens, because I know I could someday recover that money.
There are four levels of possessions:
1. Things your family will keep after you die
2. Things your family will sell after you die
3. Things they will give away after you die
4. Things they will throw in the garbage after you die
95% of what we own is in category 4
Cheers!
Dan
Posted by: Dan | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 06:19 PM
Rave On Mike!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUV-QxwlRM
Yes, Apple makes disposable stuff these days. iWatches are their worst damnation of too soon disposable and too expensive tech. That's the universal tech world business model today - including cameras and cars. The value proposition has changed dramatically and we're just renting stuff until the cost benefit equation tips over to getting new stuff vs. maintaining our beloved comfortable last generation slightly feature deficient older tech.
Hell, I'm still happy with my soon to be obsoleted iPhone 8+. Good cameras and touch iD - but tech moves on - ready or not. I don't look forward to my next smartphone "upgrade". My first smartphone was a Handspring Treo 600 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_600.
Those were the days lol. A camera, email, web browser, pda and downloadable music player and cellphone that fit in my pocket - woohoo! This was magic. The more sophisticated and better thought out iPhone finally showed up and blew up the smartphone world for a couple of decades - in a good way. Remember Blackberries?
Folding phones? So many inevitable engineering failures - hard pass. I'm probably gonna bite the financial bullet one last time and get another iPhone - unenthusiastic reluctant shrug.
Adobe - need I say anything else about ripping us photographers off on incremental feature and broken UX creep. But - the latest greatest version features an amazing ability to remove unwanted dust spots (for those that still stop down our lenses and know why they would) and can remove unwanted people and random stuff. People disappear convincingly - and reliably. Maybe the AI is "thinking" about its' future removing pesky unwanted humans. l could always just clean my camera sensor too lol.
The basic photography skill set of watching out for distracting background stuff and shifting your position slightly to avoid these photo faux pas seems to be another lost skill. But you can always just get a newer bokeh monster (f1.0-f1.4-f2.0) and be comfortably self congratulatory about smoother less distracting backgrounds and your sophisticated lens flavor discriminatory tastes. The camera fondler cognoscenti will approve with thumbs-up emojis lol.
I worry every time I hesitatingly hit the update button these days. That's just our transient existence reality manifesting more obviously through tech. Be happy that you still know the old stories and know the differences of good vs. bad tech.
Relax and enjoy the ride is my unsolicited advice!
Ed
Hell in a Bucket - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Bs4xhDyxw
Posted by: Ed Kreminski | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 06:32 PM
...Plus, my battery is getting iffy...
Have Apple install a new battery ($69). Problem solved.
Posted by: DavidB | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 06:44 PM
I don't like Apple and only have an iPhone because everyone else in my immediate family has one. The only benefit of that I make use of is Messages. If you're not going to get any trade-in value just get a new battery. My iPhone 7 finally died last year so I upgraded to a new iPhone 8 with more memory. It's just a smartphone.
Posted by: JimF | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 06:46 PM
Longtime iPhone AND Android phone user here.
It just doesn't matter which one you choose.
Because. For the makers of phones, it's all about the money. Marketing can and will convince you otherwise, but in the end, it's just a thing that impoverished nations populations make so that we waste our time and money while interacting with it.
Buy a cheap competent Android phone, like a Moto G. Bluetooth it to your car for gps and hands free calls. And sling a light nice basic camera over your shoulder. A camera like a preloved Canon S110.
Keep it simple. And don't get sucked into the marketing nonsense. It is nonsense. You know that. Right?
Posted by: Kye Wood | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 07:09 PM
I'm a longtime Apple user, but I have never used Siri. I'll take your word that this has been a wise choice. Now when I want to know something (several times a day) I open the Chrome app on my iPhone SE2. The app features a Google search window. I dictate my question to that, and get links to a series of answers, including forums.The first in the list is an AI summary, which is all I need to satisfy most of my needs.
Worth a try before you abandon ship!
Posted by: Allan Ostling | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 08:14 PM
Mike, everyone knows that there are only 2 ways to edit text: for pure ASCII you use EMACS and if you need to have formatted text you use Word-star. That is why I have DOSbox and Word-star 7.0d on the computer I am typing this on...
Nothing better has ever been created...
(I will now hide in my bomb shelter while wearing my asbestos underwear despite being in the middle of my road trip... ! 🤣 )
Posted by: William Lewis | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 09:04 PM
Don’t get a new phone, Mike. Just replace the battery at an Apple authorized service center. My iPhone 11 battery life was getting pretty short, but everything else I use on the phone still worked fine. I looked at the new iPhones and said, “Meh.” So instead of spending $600 plus on a new phone, I spent about $100 on a battery replacement. And life continues just fine.
Posted by: Rod | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 09:51 PM
I have used android phones from quite a few manufacturers over the years and each manufacturer puts their own skin on the operating system, so there are annoying differences between all of them when trying to find features or ways to do things. Not all features are always even there and I’ve only used Android because there are many more reasonably priced phones available. Apple is at least pretty consistent across all my other devices and if Apple is a giant money hungry beast then Google is worse IMO. I will be incorporating an iPhone into my ecosystem next time, albeit one that is a few generations behind, which is all I need as I hardly ever use the camera and never for serious photography.
Posted by: Kefyn Moss | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 09:52 PM
Say what you will about Apple, their products tend to be well made and very reliable. The great chief designer you referred to, Jony Ive, became obsessed with making Mac laptops as slim and free of buttons, ports, and slots as possible. This led to the worst laptops Apple probably ever produced. The butterfly-switch keyboard adopted to make the laptops super slim had a reputation for being unreliable and essentially unfixable. The thinness led to bad airflow within the case, and poor thermal dissipation. The lack of ports meant that ungainly dongles had to be connected, ruining the clean design. “Good riddance!” was the thought I had when it was announced that Jony Ive would be retiring. When that happened, reliable scissor-switch keyboards were put back into the laptops; and laptops were made a bit thicker, so that proper airflow could circulate within the cases.
My one big beef with Apple is its practice of bringing out a major MacOS update every year. I am not sure I see any real operational improvements when they do this. Each update adds more and more models of older Macs to the lists of unsupported and “vintage” Macs, which appears to be a cynical ploy to force users to buy newer models. And each update has new bugs that take months to fix. I would rather see Apple update macOS every few years.
Posted by: Craig Yuill | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 09:56 PM
Xiaomi is pronounced shau
·
mee. It is also used as a female name and can be translated as millet or little rice.
I have been having phone issues. The screens on 3 phones acting up. I ordered the cheapest Android I was offered. It's just a tool. When told another phone had a better camera, I told the sales person I had several digital cameras and give me the cheap phone I asked for.
Posted by: Michael L Shwarts | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 10:07 PM
My sense is that technology companies are so tied to fees generated by upgrades that they have forgotten that there is some value in the long-term stability of how things work. A spatula is a spatula. But re-training your workforce every five years so you can write the same report, blog post or business letter is just bad engineering. Give me the dang spatula and go cure cancer, or solve the climate crisis. Yeah, yeah . . and get off my lawn you meddlin' kids.
Alterkaker rant off/
Posted by: Benjamin Marks | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 10:44 PM
Mike, there's no reason to replace an iPhone unless you notice your old one slowing down or it starts malfunctioning and repair is cost-prohibitive. In August of 2019, I purchased the then-current "budget" phone, iPhone Xr with 256GB of storage. It was still working fine--maybe just barely beginning to slow down on common tasks--in the summer of 2024. I wanted the wide angle camera and needed much more memory (100GB of stored topographic maps and 150GB of losslessly compressed music). You should be able to go at least 5 years with your current iPhone. As someone suggested, get a new battery installed (at Apple) and enjoy another 3 years.
Posted by: Keith B. | Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 11:05 PM
Apple and Google are quite different.
When you buy an iPhone you pay Apple too much money and you then probably end up paying them more money for additional services, and they take money for every app you pay for.
When you buy an Android phone you pay Google no money at all. Perhaps they take commission on apps, perhaps you pay them for services. How do Google exist then? They exist because your Android phone is not a phone, at all: it is a parasite which scrapes shavings from your soul, and sends them to Google. Google traditionally used these soul-shavings to build a model of you in their computer hive: this model was then rented to advertisers to sell you things. That approach is now reaching its limit, so Google are trying another one: they stir all their shavings together in a vast pot and construct a thing – a sort of soul-porage – which, perhaps, can fool you that it is a person. It is not clear what profitable use this thing has: it *is* clear that it and its siblings are tearing society apart, but this is considered a small price to pay if it makes some plutocrats more pluto.
Of course Apple are also in the soul-shaving business – it is very fashionable – but much less so than Google: soul-shaving is Google's entire business model.
Posted by: Zyni | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 02:17 AM
Mike, all the commentators here are much wiser and more rational than you are, so I advise you to listen to them.
Posted by: Jozef | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 02:42 AM
Siri is wonderful, hilarious or a mystery depending on your point of view.
I've never been ensnared by smartphone marketing, I just get the cheapest Android phone I can find that does the basics acceptably. I'm currently using a £150 Moto G30. It's fine accept the screen brightness is insufficient outside on a sunny day (which is annoying). No other complaints and I will use it until it is in pieces.
Now back to Siri. My wife is completely bought into the Apple thing. And for her, Siri is one of the best features. It responds instantly to her Voice of Command, whether indoors or in the car, and can do all sorts of fairly complicated things handsfree such as setting up the satnav and accepting and sending WhatsApp messages on the go. Instantly and accurately. Google on my phone is by contrast useless. It seems half deaf and simply misses half my commands. And it is so slow that it takes about 2 minutes to respond to something like "No reply" in response to a question about whether I want to answer a message.
Now here's the hilarious bit. If we are in the car and my wife's iPhone is plugged in, and I try to get Siri to do stuff, it completely and utterly ignores me as if I had said nothing. Zilch, nada, sent to Coventry. It only responds to the One-True-Voice-of-Command.
Posted by: Dave Millier | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 03:24 AM
I have the Xiaomi 15 Ultra (also got the photography kit), and it does have good cameras (except the selfie camera). It has lots of options, RAW as well, but no manual, and in bright light one misses a viewfinder.
It is good to have it, but I prefer real cameras.
Posted by: Anton Wilhelm Stolzing | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 03:42 AM
My problem with electric cars has never been that they are electric. It's that they're modern cars.
The reason I dislike them is the same reason I'll probably never own an iphone: I have an extremely strong dislike for touch-screen interfaces.
My smartphone is one of the only models still on the market featuring a physical (slide-out) qwerty keyboard. When we recently switched to an induction stove, we went for one of the only brands producing a model with real knobs.
My favourite car-era is the period surrounding the turn of the millenium, when modern safety and comfort features were widely available, but still controlled using real buttons and knobs.
I mean, on modern Teslas, even the gear-selection is done using that insane tablet bolted to the center console. How can you do that repeatedly while parking without constantly alternating between looking at the road and looking at the inside of the car? On a sunny day, that's going to wreak havoc with your eyes.
Electric cars are indeed great from both a technical and economic standpoint. But the driving experience in modern cars (both ICE and EV) has been deteriorating rapidly as manufacturers realized that a single tablet and some software written without input from a UX/UI designer is a lot cheaper than a real, physical interface. This is a problem with all modern appliances, but especially noticable in cars.
In my opinion, of course.
PS: This whole tirade obviously also applies to cameras. There I've also noticed a steady rise in controls only available through overloaded touch-screen menus. But that qwerty-phone I mentioned earlier? It has a dedicated, physical shutter button for the camera...
Posted by: B.J. Scharp | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 03:49 AM
I don’t really care whether you rant about all things Apple, as long as you NEVER mention anything EV…….again!!!
Posted by: DaveB | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 05:26 AM
That Detroit Electric looks expensive. Look at all that glass! Curved glass all the way around.
No more ICE: no more third-world (manual) transmission. Oh, whew.
Posted by: Luke | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 06:54 AM
When you get that new iPhone, immediately get the Adobe Project Indigo camera app that will run on it. Your pictures will look much better.
Posted by: David Littlejohn | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 07:57 AM
Will keep using my iPhone 8 until it dies and then get whatever the latest one is. But the first thing I do whenever I get a new Apple device is turn off Siri. Who needs it?
Posted by: Charlie Ewers | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 08:53 AM
I had been an Android user since the beginning, but just switched to iPhone. Why the switch?
- Android phones typically have short support lifetimes, so you'll stop getting OS updates, including security updates. Most phones it's 2 years from the phone's release date (not from when you bought it). If you look carefully you can get 4 years. I couldn't find anything better than that. This mattered a lot to me because I don't like trashing expensive things that fast.
- Google really shoves things down your throat. They broke the clock on my home screen because it demanded that I allow Google Assistant to run constantly and listen to me. If not, no clock. They fixed it after 6 months of half my home screen being a banner ad for spying.
- A lot of the manufacturer skins on Android are garbage. If you are going to do it, I recommend getting one that's stock Android.
That said, some things that are bugging me about iPhone:
- The UI is just inconsistent. Going "back" is sometimes tap here, sometimes there. In Android, it's "swipe right to left". In every app. All the time. And it works between apps. It's *much* nicer.
- The UI frequently has multiple active zones tightly spaced, usually at the top of the screen, so I get a lot of mis-activations.
- Google has a really good text-from-your-desktop website (messages.google.com). Apple's equivalent is barely acceptable on Mac, and garbage on Windows.
- The autocorrect is noticeably worse than Google's, in hard-to-define ways.
- Arranging icons on the home screen is maliciously bad. Especially trying to add an item to a group that's at the edge of the screen.
- A lot of just UI weirdness. eg, I can use the "Active Island" to pause playing music... but not to un-pause it because the app disappears. Thanks?
Anyway, YMMV, of course. But there's no perfect answer.
Posted by: BR | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 08:56 AM
At this point I don't care what moves the car, but I will argue that EV's are not better cars. Simply because manufacturers have all the wrong priorities of what makes a good car. SUVs disqualify themselves from the start, and everything else in EV form at the moment is just useless if you want anything but a small city car. In that format yes, you'd be an idiot to buy anything but a BEV. But there are still people around who don't want to own several cars and in that case the pickings are slim. Although honestly, so increasingly are ICE powered versions.
Posted by: JB | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 09:48 AM
I'm probably the least qualified person to comment on this post - I have never owned a mobile phone. That has saved a significant chunk of change from not buying phones and (very conservatively) thousands of hours of staring at a tiny screen instead of being in the world around me. I have also never participated in social media, outside of a few online forums like this; I have no doubt that I am better for it.
Instead, for the past 20? years I have used a $5 cordless phone bought at a yard sale plus a VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) service that costs about $25/year. I think I replaced the battery one time so that adds another $10-20 to the total. You call and I answer if I'm here or listen to your message when I get back, just like Alexander Graham Bell intended.
But, times change. My parents are getting older and I need to be reachable at all times. I have been researching "dumb" phones, which are generally cheap, reliable, and can make and receive calls and texts (except for all the times when I am out-of-service, which is not uncommon). Good enough is good enough.
Posted by: ASW | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 09:52 AM
I still kind of like Apple, despite their "boring appliance" status these days. I just appreciate focus on the overall experience, and how extremely well the phone works with my AirPods Pro ear buds, with their dedicated chip. I do wish it were a more open platform. I would like to be able to install Android on my iPhone and switch systems with a click. Same with Android phones. There are days when I yearn for no phones at all, as well. In many ways, they are like helpful leg-irons.
Apple is something of an AI sceptic, it seems. I appreciate that. AI has been hyped by our infernal money machine, but much of it is hype, despite some useful applications, like what Google is doing with its search. No doubt those good answers you like from Google are AI generated summaries.
https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/thinking-ai-isnt-so-smart-after-all-apple-study-finds/
Posted by: John Krumm | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 10:46 AM
I use an iPhone, but I'm not particularly loyal to any brand. Two things to consider though:
1. Apple is very and stubbornly concerned about user privacy and goes to great lengths to preserve it. Google on the other hand, is much more lasaiz-faire about it, and has even last year ended up in court having to destroy data that they claimed they never collected.
2. The Apple Store is mostly nicely curated, safe apps. The Google Play store, on the other hand, I've seen a lot of apps that are designed to look or seem like a popular app, with similar naming or icons. Caveat Emptor!
Posted by: Mark Rouleau | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 12:44 PM
I am a Macbook user but I've always used cheap Android phones because they were good enough. For my last purchase I decided to splurge on the smallest top-of-the-line Samsung. I did this to get a higher-spec USB-C port and Samsungs DEX software. These features come in handy for my trips to the mountains where I stay in a cabin with limited amenities. I can now plug a hub into my phone and then plug a TV and charger into the hub to get a laptop-like expierence on the big screen using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Its nice. I also found a tiny HDMI auto swith at B&H that allows me to share the TV's ARC HDMI port with both a Blu-ray player and the hub...also nice.
I like tech and use it daily but I don't buy products that must be connected to the internet to function properly. I'd be surprised if an EV (as impressive as they are) will function properly with its SIM card removed and internal data logging disabled. This Internet of Things connection is a deal breaker for me due to the current data security and privacy implications...which is a shame because there are some amazing safety features possible with this technology.
There is currently a bill in committee that deals with automotive data privacy and autonomy but I'll be surprised if it goes anywhere. There is just too much money at stake. I imagine the only reason they are even considering this bill is because some of the car companies "harvesting" the data are based outside the U.S.
Posted by: Jim Arthur | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 01:54 PM
Keep the 13 till it's dead. Plus it is easy enough if I am not mistaken, to find someone to change the battery for you.
I have changed the batteries myself in iPhones twice and given them away. These were older ones though.
Can't say that I have reached the level of maturity as yet that I don't feel the compulsion to upgrade every year. I have resisted twice now, but I think this year I will cave.
I heartily endorse your transition to EVs. I watched your learning with interest as I have undertaken a similar exercise over the past couple years and have bought one late last year. Entirely a city car, so tiny and very restricted range. But it's significantly better than any ICE that I could have gotten for a similar purpose.
Posted by: Nikhil Ramkarran | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 02:59 PM
Apple went down Veblen Road.
Posted by: Sergio Bartelsman | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 03:49 PM
I have owned an iPhone since the 6 back in 2015, and I have updated when needed. I stopped for a long time with the iPhone 11 Pro Max in 2019 because of the battery on the device. I finally got an iPhone 16 Pro Max in November 2024 because the cellular radio was beginning to fail, and I could not have a phone that wouldn't make a phone call.
In the mean time I've been working with the macOS 26 beta on an Apple Silicon M1 13" MacBook Pro. After this experience I will not be upgrading to macOS/iOS 26 with its Liquid Glass UI bullshit. I hate it, full stop. I've locked down my iPhone and my other Macs so they won't automatically upgrade, which is a first for me. I haven't been this pissed off at Apple's UI since Aqua was introduced over 20 years ago. I thought Apple'd learned a lesson or two and had left that kind of crap behind, but I was wrong.
I'm strongly conflicted with Apple because I do like the hardware, and especially Apple Silicon. But time, tide, and technology stand still for no one and I've begun to see AMD release chips that are challenging the latest from Apple. There's a strong possibility that my next computer, if I should need one, will have AMD inside and run either NetBSD or a minimal Linux distribution. I can then transfer all my software tools over, including tools I use for image (read; camera image) processing as well as software development.
What about that iPhone 16 I opened with? I'll keep it for a few years, then see what Android phones are out there, especially those made by Google and Samsung. But I doubt that, like you, I'll purchase another iPhone.
Posted by: Bill Beebe | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 04:46 PM
Lots of comments with a variety of viewpoints. Most of my viewpoints have been expressed, but in 20 different posts.
I've been into computers since about 1963, so I've seen a few. I'm now pretty well totally Apple, mostly because of their privacy policy but also because of their interoperability. I keep my phones 5-8 years but am especially happy with my latest one because of the decent photographic possibilities. I always carry a 'real' camera, but that one doesn't always have the lens on it that I want at the moment. I might not get another phone for quite a while.
Siri sucks. I shut it off. The AI in Google searches generally misses the point and takes the space that another couple of useful links could use. There are already a number of areas where AI can be shown to have further dumbed down and impeded critical thinking, which is the last thing we need.
I've tried EV's (or rather my wife had one for 3 years) and I don't want one at this point, although I'm conflicted about that because the envirnmental benefits, although generally overstated, are there. I don't like them mainly because, even more than current IC cars they rely on screens; especially touchscreens. We're not supposed to use our phones when driving, but we're supposed to do all vehicle adjustments during driving by looking away from the road to a touch screen??? How does this make sense. The other things that I'm not happy about regarding EV's is their weight, which, especially regarding the battery, make the environmental argument for them a lot less compelling, plus affecting the driving dynamics negatively. To slightly misquote Colin Chapman of Lotus, 'To make a car better, add lightness'.
I enjoy driving. That means I enjoy a responsive car that provides feedback at the controls and rewards some skill and attention. EV's don't do much of that. Since I was young (a while ago) I had the image of the American car not being generally for driving, but being essentially a living room that got you places. You got in, paid it minimal attention, turned on the music, had conversations, had something to drink (cup holders), a snack and after a while, opened the door and you were at your other living room or an office. The drive was a necessary but annoying interregnum to be mitigated as much as possible. As the standard of living rose, you demanded more luxury (why are the seats in all but the least expensive cars leather, when there are fabrics that are a lot pleasanter when it's hotter and keep you in place better and are at least as well wearing), the infotainment options exploded and sometimes made up 20% of the price, everything had to be roomier; bigger and move impressive. All this is not in aid of driving, just in aid of the living room.
I like driving. I like steering and feeling what the steering wheel tells me. I like shifting and adjusting the gearing and revs to the current driving environment. I like accelerration but I don't need acceleration like dual motor Tesla's. I like cornering a lot more, especially when the steering ans suspension let me know what's going on. I also like braking, but that is a loaded topic, especially in regards to most American and some foreign cars designed to be sold in N. America.
With regard to Chinese EV's: they have been heavily subsidized, not necessarily in production but in their total evolution. China has aggressively worked to acquire a full understanding of car manufacturing from Western companes by luring them to manufacture in Chine due to the size of its market. Then, in the last 25 years, it has encouraged and invested extensively in innovation and developing in car manufacturing and especially EV development. They have hugely out-innovated and out-developed the West. The number of their patents aren't necessarily greater than those of N. America and Europe combined, but they are much more focused and coordinated. They now dominate world wide production of EV's, and they are on an upward trajectory still. If all of Trump's moves standand continue the way they have been going, the US might not be a smaller player than Romania in car prodution in a while, but they are heading there. In other things as well of course, like vaccine development.
It's easy to get carried away. :-)
Posted by: Henning | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 05:04 PM
"...Siri unexpectedly came to life again and said, "Arrived!"
Laughed out loud!
Posted by: Kye Wood | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 10:21 PM
Siri has disappointed many by its inability to answer questions. As the oldest of the voice agents it is a very different animal than the recently developed large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. It is more of an action agent (turn on the lights, show me what's on the calendar for tomorrow) rather than a knowledge agent like the LLMs. Apple's attempt to bolt an LLM onto Siri seems to have failed (thus the delay in promised features) and they are having to redo Siri to reliably do things while providing AI capabilities. Siri on newer iPhones (15pro and later) can directly access ChatGPT. So your iPhone 13 can't do that, but you can run the ChatGPT and presumably other LLM apps on your iPhone. I wouldn't recommend buying an iPhone 17 when it becomes available in September, but rather wait for then next generation which will likely better support AI features.
Posted by: Bill S. | Monday, 18 August 2025 at 11:10 PM
So here you go again now you want to drop the iPhone for an Android phone . Wrong move again just like your electric car which will suffer in the Winter when it’s cold a you will get terrible mileage and range anxiety !
Bill
Posted by: William Giokas | Tuesday, 19 August 2025 at 07:03 AM
Silly boy, MOTORCYCLES are the answer. :)
Posted by: Tom Duffy | Tuesday, 19 August 2025 at 11:15 AM
Instead of trying to "get the get the good monthly plan price" on Verizon, take a look at a couple of MVNOs like Visible or US Mobile. They run on the Verizon network, but don't have physical stores or ad campaigns to pay for, so the prices are always lower (and simpler — no bundles with streaming video or whatever). They're like $20-$40 a month. Separately, you could buy the new phone on an Apple credit card and pay 0% interest instead of taking the loan from Verizon.
Posted by: SF Murph | Tuesday, 19 August 2025 at 12:05 PM
I am obviously late to the party here, but some of this doesn't seem fair. I have been an Apple person since the company gave me a computer and hard drive back in the 80s as part payment for a writing project. I am in for good. In response to your projection about a phone trade in, I recently upgraded to a 16 pro from a plain ole 12 and got $200 in trade, which seemed fair to me. Yes, Siri is behind, but I just go to Google and get what I want until she catches up. Integration, safety = Apple's brand.
Posted by: Bill Poole | Tuesday, 19 August 2025 at 05:35 PM
Very late comment, sorry. I think it will be from another viewpoint.
First, I have an iPhone 12 Mini. The battery has been bad for more than a year but I bought a small USB battery that I keep in my bag and it charges my phone in the afternoon, so it can last up to bedtime, when I plug both for charging overnight.
I have about 20 Apple devices and services scattered in the house, used by my daughter, my wife and I. It’s very inconvenient but I will not replace them with Apple products when they will be obsolete or at the end of their subscription.
Tim Cook’s Apple makes me sick. The gold trinket he offered to the man-baby is so depressing. I will never buy something from this company again.
Anyway, i think there’s a good alternative now, and not from a Chinese company, which I don’t trust much either. The company is Murena and they developed an OS based on Android, but without any Google services. Everything is open source, secure, good looking and performing well (it got pretty good reviews). They can sell you a phone with this system pre-installed. One of these is the Fairphone, which is made with half as much impact on the planet than comparable phones, from a Dutch company. https://murena.com/
Posted by: Marc Gibeault | Wednesday, 20 August 2025 at 10:12 PM
I think Zyni's 'soul shavings' comment was one of the best things I've read for a long time. A poetic analysis of an un-poetic reality.
I still remember the first time I got to play with an iPhone - it might have been a 3GS - after having bad experiences with other (alleged) smartphones, e.g. an HTC phone running some Microsoft software ('Windows Mobile'?). I did a few things on that iPhone and my immediate thought was "ah, of course - that's how they're supposed to work...".
I'm deep into the Apple ecosystem with no less than 6 types of major devices, a couple of add-ons, and several services as well. While I'd played with Apple technology previously, I bought into it in a big way some 20+ years ago. I had a job (my last job before retiring) working from home which frequently involved working odd hours. This began to cause problems splitting 'me-time' from 'work-time' - I was sat in the same room, at the same desk using two very similar computers for work, photo processing and blogging. I therefore decided that it would help me to separate work from play if I got a computer for my personal stuff that would be clearly different from the PC my employer provided, and a Mac was the obvious choice.
I've been perfectly happy with Apple ever since then.
Posted by: Tom Burke | Friday, 22 August 2025 at 05:25 AM