Annoying Things - Password Edition

One of my first complaints in the first post was how annoying the required password was:  Here are the requirements for your App store password

1. The new password must be at least eight characters.
2. The new password must contain at least one number.
3. The new password must contain at least one lowercase letter.
4. The new password must contain at least one capital letter.
5. The new password must not contain three consecutive identical characters.
6. The new password must not have been used in the past year.
7. The new password must not be the same as the account name.

If you want to download an App from the Apple appstore, you must enter your password.  I think its good for 10 minutes or so, so if you download multiple apps in the same session you dont have to enter it multiple times, but I feel like apple is creating passwords complicated enought to secure Fort Knox.

I understand the need for security for users that are around shady people, but why not have a toggle to require the password.   Maybe just a 4 digit pin?

Android phones never ask for your account password after your initial login when you first setup the phone.

The requirement of this is just one reason I'm beginning to think that iPhones are ANYTHING but simple.... its just ridiculous.

I have to sit which way??

There are several SUPER BASIC tasks i feel my iPhone 4 should be able to perform.

  -Allow me to disable auto-rotate, so I can read with my head down on my pillow at night.  Instead I have to sit-up and use it vertically.  Thank you some guy (see comments)

  -Allow me to turn mobile data off to conserve battery thank you andrew

  -automatically silence the phone at night, and turn back on in the morning

  -in-app voice to text transcription

  -Allow me to silence my emails/SMS but not the phone (this is useful at night)  I've always left my phone volume on, only allow calls from family/friends in case of emergencies.

   - ALLOW ME TO CHANGE THE EMAIL OR CALENDAR NOTIFICATION!!!! I have the same notification as 110 million other iPhone.  Imagine working in an office where everybodies notifications are the same.

   - Allow me to set custom ringtone or SMS notifications.   There are only 6 17 SMS notifications to choose from, so if you are around 7 18 iPhones, two will have the same tone... but then again, apple never really is about choice...

  -More to come....

For you iPhone pro's out there, if I'm wrong about something PLEASE correct me!

iPhone positive post!

One thing i love about this phone that does not have any real android equivalent is the screen animations.   Animations are often used with any "objects" that moves around on the screen.
A couple examples of these
-GPS marker (the marker bounces around a little bit before settling)
-Scrolling left to right in the app drawer(its just so smooth)
-The way any frame in any app can move or bump into another frame.
-Moving anything around anywhere on the phone
-There are many many examples of professional animations

This is a very nice touch that apple added to iOS that really makes the user interface very smooth.

For comparison sake, I feel like the android animations were pulled straight out of Microsoft Powerpoint slide shows.  We get slide ins, slide outs, fade in, fade out, etc.   iOS animations are power point animations on steroids.

The conversation between android and Microsoft Powerpoint went like this.

Android :  "Hey Microsoft, we need some animations for our operating system, do you have any we can borrow"
Microsoft:  "ummm, I think we have some left over ones from power point that we dont use anymore"
Android  :  "SOLD!,  Wait, actually we already stole them.
Microsoft:  " We're going to sue you for using our animations!"

What is a super-user?

   I believe that there are two different kinds of smartphone users.   The standard user buys a phone with the primary intent of using it as a phone and sms.   The second intention for this group, and maybe even no intention at all is to use it for music, internet, and streaming video, games and other apps..    I would generally classify most women, and the older generation in this group.
   The second kind of user is what I have deemed the "superuser."   Superusers wake up with their alarm phone alarm clock, use their phone all day for everything, then go to bed.  They say goodnight to their beloved, then goodnight to their phone.   We buy our phone for the primary purpose of using it for games, podcasts, internet, calendars, email, and a camera. We do everything possible with our phone and at the end of the day we demand it rub our feet.  We root/jailbreak our phones the day we get them, use the LED flash as a flashlight more than a flash for our camera, and overclock CPUs to get better performance. The secondary purpose of a mobile device for superusers, is to use it as a phone or sms.
  This is important to note when deciding what kind of phone to get for yourself or for when somebody asks you what to get, which I will elaborate on in a post at a later time.

Cleanliness is next to Godlyness

One complain I have about the android OS is how cluttered the notification bar can get.    Here is a screenshot from my nexus one after about 3 hours of not being picked up.

The android notification system has had a pull down notification bar for years.   Any email, txt, or app that is running has access to post something in the notification bar.   What happens over time is apps keep notifying you of stuff, (in this case from left to right, app download, gmail, new news, gmail, facebook, and cyanogenmod).  If you dont constantly keep clearing notifications, it gets cluttered, ugly, annoying and useless.

This pictures is a pulldown of notification bar, again too much stuff!  Also note that toggles for bluetooth, wifi, gps, and sound are all in the notification bar.   A simple press of the clear button will remove all the notifications, but it still annoying how easy it is for apps to get access to the notifications bar.

Here we have a screenshot of the iOS home screen.   Note that the bar up top is not really a notification bar, its more of a status bar.   Notifications pop up and interrupt whatever you are doing.   If your browsing the web and get a txt, it will pop up infront of your browser.  This method i feel is much cleaner, but also much more annoying.    Also note that the email app has 39 emails.
It will be interesting to see how iOS 5 handles the above mentioned problem.

Things I like about iOS

I posted a negative post about the iPhone setup yesterday, so here is a positive one with three separate points

Apps - 
  I believe the app store for the iPhone contains some higher quality apps than the android market.   I haven't actually paid for any games (and I don't plan to), but the free games I've downloaded, and some of the paid games I've seen screenshot for look outstanding.   That being said, there are alot of apps I feel are missing from the app store.

  I feel that there are very very few FREE apps in the Apple appstore.   In the Google Marketplace you can find a free app to do almost anything, in the Apple appstore, it seems that only the most basic of apps are free.
  Also missing are apps that I absolutely love for my android phone.  Here are a few that I've noticed in the last 18 hours, just to name a few.

Chrome to phone
Tasker
MightyText
Juice Defender
Data Counter Widget

I'm going to "jump to conclusions" and say that while the Apple appstore contains a greater number of apps, the android marketplace contains a greater variety of useful* apps, ESPECIALLY when it comes to free apps.  Of course there are exceptions and I reserve the right to change my mind as the month continues, netflix for example)

*useful as determined by me.

LCD - 
  The screen that comes with the iPhone 4 is really bright and does not "washout" in sunlight.   It is also significantly higher resolution than industry standard (326 ppi vs about 180 ppi).  
  This however comes down to somebodies individual choice.  I do not feel that a screen that looks good under a microscope is necessary on a mobile phone, I feel like it would have been a better choice to go with a larger screen as opposed to a higher resolution.
  Anybody in the market for a phone needs to checkout Samsungs Super AMOLED+ screens.  The screens are absolutely beautiful and there is no comparison, even to a phone with higher resolution.   However, the downside to the technology is that they get dim when in direct sunlight.  If that bothers you, then choose something else.

Battery - For test purposes I left the phone on over night.   It only dropped 5% of its battery, which is quite impressive.   I did notice instantly yesterday, that when the phone is actually being used, there is nothing special about the battery.   I played with the phone for 3 hours last night and managed to drain the battery from 60% to 20%.   Today, while on wifi, the phone dropped from 70% to 10% over the course of 6 hours(keep in mind I use the crap out of my phones).   This is no different than any android phone I have ever owned, and might even be a little bit worse.
  Iphones are often noted for their excellent battery life.   I have formed the conclusion this only applies to a phone that is not used.

Simple setup?

  In order to be able to better speak from experience and to jump start this blog, I'm going to spend 30 days using an iphone 4.  I will commit to posting one topic per day, detailing at least one pro and one con.  Long term this blog will discuss android and iphone tech, software and all topics related to both platforms.

The setup of my iphone was surprisingly complicated for a phone advertised as "simple".   The AT&T store turned on the phone and did an initial setup for me.   The sales rep said the phones came from the factory "bricked" until they are activated in the AT&T store.  That is fine, it took an extra 10 minutes to setup and I was on my way.

I had to create an app store account to begin to download apps, but Apple wanted all sorts of information from me.  Here is what it asked for

Phone number - I had to enter the phone number into my phone.  Why couldn't it just import my phone number from the phone?
Home address - Why does apple need my home address?  Would a zip code suffice?  Are they going to send me junkmail?
Username - simple enough
password - The password needed to be 8 digits, non-sequential, no words, super complicated.   Come on, this is a phone not a bank!  This is important and I will tell you all within the next couple posts.
Secret question/answer - fine with me!
Spam - it auto signed me up for apple spam, which I was able to decline.  TWICE!  It then tried to get me to sign up for spam again later!
Credit card - The phone give the initial impression that a CC is required.   In order to select "none" you have to click on the drop down menu, scroll to the bottom and select none.   I feel that "none" should be the default.

After you enter all the information above, you have to verify the email on the account(which is understandable, but still complicated).

The final step in creating your app store account is to download itunes to your computer(which took another 10 mintues to download/install) then plug your phone into said computer.

Only after ALL the above is complete, do you have access to the app store.
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Allow me to explain the android process in equivalent detail.

You can buy a phone at the store and walk away without having to get it activated at the store.  Most all stores will open it to make sure it works, however if you ask them not to open it they dont have to.

You can then turn on the phone and either login or create a google account.  If you already have one, you enter your login and password and your good to go.   If you need to create an account, you enter the following:

your first and last name -ok
a unique username - ok
8 letter password - it can be anything, including 12345678 or 11111111
A secondary email - not sure why?
then do a word verification and your good to go.

It does not ask for CC information, no spam, or email verification.  You dont have to download any software for your computer, etc.

With the google account, it automatically gives you the option to start syncing your calendar, gmail, contacts, picasa, etc.  The iphone currently does this via a USB sync to itunes, more on this later.