Over the last 2 years, I have come to grips with the fact that the iPhone is not for me. I can’t keep carrying around a device that screams “I am one of the mindless in the mass” when there are devices that stand head, shoulders, and torso above the iPhone. “Why?” Well this is the part where I sit down that single reader of my blog and break down the hard truths.
The iPhone, and largely, the entire Apple ecosystem, is consumed with the concept that locking us sheep into products that are not customizable is somehow good. No popular, portable device they offer has a swappable battery. None of their flagship devices have doors that quickly grant access to their juicy innards. Nope, you can’t have access to the internals. You can take this same thinking and port it right over to their software. Heck, to even publish a software app on their iPhone and iPad, you have to go through their standards gestapo. Of course, none of this is groundbreaking news. It’s nowhere near newsworthy to shout from the mountaintops, but it is important to this guy because I have finally confessed to myself that I shouldn’t keep giving up my geeky freedom for the sake of being among the huddled Apple fanboy masses.
So, here we are, my one reader and I, standing on the precipice of cold unfeeling towards Apple, eying devices that pull at my very noul (that would be “nerd soul”, seemlingly shortened for the sake of saving the four keystrokes that were consumed in this lengthy explanation). The Nexus 7, owned by both of my sons, taunt with their simple enticements. “Look at my moving backgrounds”. “Check out my convenient size and price”. “Your son, who has less technology understanding than a diplodocus, just hacked me to do something cool.”
Then there was the string of phone features rolled out in generation after generation of amazing Android phones that seem to wedgie my iPhone 4s every day. It started with features like customizing the ringtones with music and widgets, but it then quickly elevated to using the phones as infrared remote controls for televisions, face unlocking, and NFC payment capabilities.
So what are these two flagship phones. Are they revolutionary in the manner of a Guttenberg invention? Probably not. Wait, definitely not. However, they make me yearn to be closer to the promises of a George Jetson pseudo-utopia, wielding immense power through “single-finger” work. I would comment on the underlying joke that in the future, extremely powerful and accomplished robots were designed to accomplish the most complex tasks, but they still need a human to press the button as some type of control override, but I would digress, if I haven’t already. The two devices I refer to are the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. I have read thoroughly about their general offerings, but I keep getting the same conclusion line in each head-to-head match-up: a draw.
Well, I probably need to simply wait to see which device simply falls into my lap. For some reason, it seems that things work out best when I let them come to me instead of me actively running to them. In the meantime, I guess I’ll wait until the new masses make the decision for me. Baaaa.