Fallen Out Of Love With Apple. But Whats Next For Me?

I’ve been a massive advocate for Apple and the Mac platform for nearly two decades, but of late my love of them has become less love, more habit. Once locked in to the macOS and iOS ecosystem, about 18 months ago I broke free, ditched my iPhone and jumped in to the Google camp.

This was a major step, it meant I no longer required a Mac to take advantage of my phone. The cat and mouse game of will my phone version work with my Mac and will my Mac version work with my phone is no longer there.

My Android based Motorola Moto G4 has served me amazingly for over a year and I can not fault it in any way. It works very well too with a Mac, but it isn’t tied to it.

With every year that passes my beloved MacBook Air gets older and older. A 2012 11” with i5 processor and 8GB of RAM means it is still no slouch and hardware wise probably has a few more years left, but Apple increasingly push hardware and drop older models with each new release of macOS. I am running Sierra, I haven’t bothered with High Sierra and the next version is just around the corner. Whether you want to run the latest or not sometimes you are forced to by software developers or Apple themselves. There is a good chance the next version will be the last for my now 5 year old Mac and that puts it on the slippery slope to ‘low end’.

So what next? I no longer drool over the latest Apple tech and I certainly don’t have the funds to stump up a £1000 for another Mac. Going the used market route saves you a few hundred but puts you closer to the eventual cut-off where you will be in the same position again.

I have had a keen interest in Linux as a desktop operating system for years, dabbling in various distros - such as Mint, Ubuntu, LXLE to name a few - and learning the basics, but it has always been a side interest, a geeky look at what those ‘nerds’ run. However it is no longer spotty speccy geeks who snort with excitement over new kernel releases or wet themselves over the newest LTS release. It has become a real contender in the OS wars. It places itself sandwiched between Windows haters and those who either can't afford Apple hardware or those who don’t want the lock-in you get with them.

Looking at my list of apps sitting in my dock, I see very little that is Mac exclusive. I browse using Chrome, I use GMail for emails, I write in Google Docs or use OpenOffice. I use VLC for video use, Audacity for audio tweaking, HandBrake for video conversion and DropBox for off site back ups. All of which are available for Linux, some of which were originally Linux apps ported to the Mac.

I have a few other minor apps, which may not be on Linux but I am sure there are just as suitable alternatives.

I no longer use iTunes everyday. It is used mainly for editing tags and adding artwork to music and since leaving iOS I don’t use Photos anymore.

Android File Transfer is an awful piece of essential software for any Mac user with an Android, but isn’t required in Linux as most support native mounting with drop and drag.

The one caveat to not owning a Mac would be Adobe Photoshop. Being an ex professional graphic designer I grew up learning Photoshop and despite many attempts haven’t found anything to match it. Perhaps there are or perhaps I am just too set in my ways to get my head around another graphics package. If I am honest it is one of the main things holding me to my Mac.

However, it isnt just about apps. Linux is a large learning curve. It may be nix based and OSX/macOS may share similar ideas, layout and operations - especially compared to Windows - but Mac is 99% GUI. Linux - while it has come a long way to be user friendly - you still need to delve in to terminal and understand what you are doing once in a while.

It is a big step for me, after 20 years of using a Mac, I know the OS inside out. It just works. It never lets me down. It never gets in the way of my every day use. Moving to a relatively unfamiliar operating system I don’t want to be spending time constantly looking up how to perform simple tasks.

Microsoft is definitely not an option. Nothing anyone can say will make me switch to that swiss cheese OS. I may not be an Apple devotee anymore, but I still have extreme hatred for Windows.

The future for me is uncertain, but my love of Apple is no longer where it was. I want the freedom. I want the choices to be my choices and not governed by who makes my computer. Linux is looking more and more appealing as a way to escape the clutches of Apple.

Written by Simon Royal. Follow me at twitter.com/simonroyal

Android Is For Me... 8 Months After Leaving iOS

In February, I took a massive step and walked away from being an iPhone user. My family in my house had Motorola Moto handsets and I was getting both impressed and jealous.

At the time of switching I wrote an article 'Goodbye iPhone... Hello Moto' for LowEndMac. 

The past few months have been a fresh of breath air. The move to a non-Apple device has given me a blistering fast, up to date handset for a fraction of the price and a mobile OS that will do what I want and can be tweaked to do more. It has also allowed me to break that Apple tie-in giving me more freedom over my future desktop OS choices.

I have no regrets, the Android world has gained a new fan.

My Moto G4 may now be last years model, but it is still amazingly fast (for it's price range) and has been upgraded to Android 7.0 ‘Nougat.’ And although Motorola recently announced no plans for Android 8.0 ‘Oreo’, that doesn’t matter in the Android world, most apps and Google services run as far back as Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich, which was released in 2011.

The ability to upgrade the storage - via Micro SD card - is superb, although I have yet to fill the 64GB card I have, but if I did I could just buy a bigger one. OK, so SD cards aren’t the best storage method and can be a bit flakey at times, but I have had no issues with mine and it gives you more options. I have recently discovered USB OTG allowing further drives to be attached as well as a whole host of devices, turning my mid-priced handset in to a portable computer.

I do far more on my Android than I ever did on my iPhone. The bigger screen makes watching films and Netflix a joy and the massive battery just keeps on going and going without the need for a power case or portable battery.

I have spent the last few months wondering why I have spent years trapped in the iPhone world, buying older models because that is all I could afford and therefore lagging behind the rest of the iPhone world.

I love my Moto G4. I love the Android operating system and I am loving the whole experience.

Written by Simon Royal. Follow me at twitter.com/simonroyal

iPhone 8 and X - What is all the fuss about?

It’s that time again, when the Apple reality distortion field is at full force after an iPhone Event, and the mainstream media are gushing over their shiny new toys. So what’s all the fuss about?

Well not much really, the iPhone 8 and 8 plus look almost the same as the old ones but include a slightly better camera, slightly faster CPU, have a few more gimmicks, and now have a glass back to accommodate QI wireless charging, which the LG Revolution had in 2011 and many Android devices have had since. It also has Fast Charging, which has also been around for 4 years in the Android world. The glass back also means more money to Apple for all the repairs they will undoubtedly have very soon when owners drop their shiny new toy. I also wonder if new phone cases might appear to allow QI charging to work properly. Of course Apple could try improving the battery life on the iPhone, which is probably the biggest complaint my Apple using friends have these days...There was also something mentioned about being designed for Augmented Reality, which is nothing new either. Other than that, the 8 and 8 Plus are so unexciting that Apple didn’t even live demo them at the event, instead Craig Ferenghi saved that for something ever so slightly more exciting...

Craig Ferenghi

The main highlight of the Apple Event was the iPhone X, for £999 (yes, practically a thousand quid, and that’s the base model) that celebrates ten years of the iPhone. Unlike the 8 and 8 Plus, it features an edge to edge screen much like other recent Android flagships from the likes of LG and Samsung, and the Sharp Aquos had a few years ago. It’s also OLED for the first time on an iPhone, which Apple calls a “Super Retina Display” in their marketing bollocks.

iPhone X

Yet again, Android devices had OLED screens years ago, (2009 on the original Samsung Galaxy), so nothing particularly exciting there either. LG recently switched to an OLED edge to edge screen on their V30 which has a higher PPI than the iPhone X.

The odd looking brow on the X reminds me of the little bump that intrudes on Andy Rubin’s Essential phone, except bigger, and I don’t like it there either, it’s ugly and will likely get in the way. (I don’t like the lack of a headphone jack on the Essential phone either).

Another feature borrowed from Android is Tap To Wake, which first appeared in 2013 on the LG G2 and subsequently incorporated into many other Android devices. Just tap the screen to show the clock and notifications. I first used it on my LG G3, (which they called KnockOn) which was nice, but LG went one step further and incorporated knock to unlock where you could tap out an unlock code. I really think though that Raise to Wake and Active/Ambient Display are much more useful and I got very used to waving my hand over the AMOLED screen on my second gen Moto X to wake it up and see notifications. Raise To Wake is very handy, pick it up and it shows the clock and notifications. Both these features save battery power, particularly on AMOLED screens, perhaps Apple might steal these features for the iPhone...XI? Or will it be the X2? Or the iPhone XS?...

Another major ‘new’ feature of the iPhone X is that the fingerprint sensor has been replaced by FaceID for securely unlocking the phone. This means users will have to point their mug in front of the screen before opening Apple Pay, creating one more step in the payment process. Unlocking the X now means picking it up, swiping up from the bottom of the screen then holding it up to the face to unlock, that’s two more steps than just pressing a digit on a fingerprint reader. All presumably because Apple, like Samsung, could not find a way to put a fingerprint sensor underneath the screen. For me, the best place for a fingerprint reader on any phone, if they must have one, is on the back, where the index finger rests. As any Android user who remembers the Galaxy Nexus back in 2012 will tell you, face unlock really isn’t very convenient, no matter how much it has improved since then. Of course it also might make it easier for a gang of thugs, like the Police, to hold the owner by their arms and unlock the device with their face. It is also meant to work in pitch black darkness but I look forward to seeing how it all works (or doesn’t) in practice once the iPhone X is in the wild.

LG V30

It’s really about time Apple upgraded other components in the iPhone range, like giving them a decent DAC, something as good as the high quality quad DACs in the LG V10/20/30, though I doubt they will since most Apple users likely use Bluetooth earbuds as there is no headphone jack, and the adaptors are too awkward to use, or they just do not know or care about decent audio quality. In fact, instead of the iPhone X, you could probably save a couple of hundred Dollars/Pounds and buy an LG V30 which not only has wireless charging, facial recognition (should you want to use it), fingerprint reader, and Tap to Wake, but also a higher resolution OLED edge to edge screen, aforementioned quad DAC, arguably better camera, expandable storage and a headphone jack. And for the average user who doesn’t need any fancy features could save even more money and buy a year or two old flagship and not notice the difference, there is certainly plenty of other very capable devices around.

Motorola Moto G : 4th Generation Review

I’ve been an iPhone user for many years, but when my kids wanted decent smartphones we looked around and was pointed in the direction of Motorola - not a name synonymous with decent phones these days. However the last few years their Moto range has taken the Android world by storm.

I bought my son a Moto G third generation last year and it blew me away. My daughter then got a Moto G second generation and we were just as impressed.. These might be mid range handsets, but they offer serious power that can even rival high end handsets.

So when my wife wanted to switch from iPhone - there was only one manufacturer to look at, Motorola. She opted for the Moto G fourth generation.

Unboxing revealed an amazing looking handset. For a handset that can be bought for £150 brand new SIM free you get a lot of hardware. While the G3 wasn’t a massive leap over the G2, the G4 is a huge improvement over its predecessor. 

The G4 packs in a 5.5” screen, Octa-Core processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB built-in storage with an SD slot. Compare this to the G3 with it’s 5” screen, Quad-Core processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB built in storage and it is easy to see the improvements the G4 has.

Build
They might be plastic, but Motorola make good solid handsets. The G4 is no exception. It feels strong and sturdy. Its removable back does seem a little flimsy, peeling it off I had a brief worry it would break. The back has a rubbery feel which great for grip.

It is a large phone - especially when you are used to an iPhone 5 or SE with their 4” screen - but the handset fits neatly in the hand. It is thinner than previous models and despite its size feels like it weighs less, although officially both weigh 155g.

The back features the camera, flash and the Moto dimple. The bottom features the MicroUSB port for charging, and connecting to a computer, and the right side has the power/lock button which has a textured feel and also the volume rocker. The top has the headphone socket.

Screen
The 5.5” screen is superb. It is large and very bright and the 401ppi makes it very crisp. Colours look vibrant and viewing angles are great. One thing I have found on all Moto is the screen is very sensitive to touch, which takes a little getting used to.

Cameras
The G4 has the same 13MP camera and 5MP front camera as its predecessor although the front camera now features a ‘selfie flash’ mode similar to the Galaxy S7 and iPhone SE. It shows a white screen illuminating your face in low light.

Back camera: outdoor shots

Front camera: outdoor shot and indoor shot

Back camera: indoor shot

Call/Music
It is a phone primarily, so call quality is important. This handset has the clearest and loudest call quality I have ever experienced on a phone. I live in a poor signal area and still had no issues even indoors.

Music playback was also as good as you get on a phone. I’m not a fan of banging out choons on a tiny phone speaker - no matter what the manufacturer claims - but it performed decently and when hooked to a Bluetooth speaker it was superb. Listening over headphones also produced very loud sound - something I like from a phone.

Performance
This handset is no slouch. Everything is a dream to use on it. Surfing the web, Facebook, Twitter, listening to music, gaming and even navigating the OS, this Moto is amazingly fast.

It’s large screen makes viewing web sites, browsing social media, watching YouTube videos and looking at your camera roll a superb experience.

Battery
It packs in a 3000mAh non-removable battery. Out of the box it was almost fully charged and setting it up, performing the 6.0.1 update and installing her apps made no dent in the battery. The following day, she continued to play with it, made calls and listen to music connected to a bluetooth speaker and by 10pm it still had over 70% battery left. That is very impressive.

OS
As with other Moto handsets, Motorola offer a nearly vanilla Android experience with a few Motorola apps thrown in. It shipped with 6.0 Marshmallow and is due 7.0 Nougat in the near future. The Android world generally falls short of the massive four year of updates you get in the Apple world - however you are talking about a phone that is a quarter of the price.

Conclusion
I was already seriously impressed with the Moto G range - and this large, elegant G4 has seriously turned my head. I can’t fault it in any way.

My ageing iPhone is in need of updating and for the first time I am seriously swaying away from iPhone.

Written by Simon Royal. Follow me at twitter.com/simonroyal

iPhone 7 And The Removal of The Headphone Jack.

So, yet again Apple makes an incremental update to their iPhone range with ever so slightly tweaked design, slightly faster CPU, better cameras and removal of the headphone port, supposedly allowing better quality audio, but actually a ploy to eek more money on accessories, such as their £159 AirPods, and whatever sludgy sounding overpriced crap (Apple-owned) Beats produce these days. And it still does not have wireless charging, which Apple will probably debut that on the iPhone 8, call it new and "magical" and use their own particular incompatible format.

I keep hearing the same arguments by various tech people that removing the headphone jack is no big deal because we used to have phones that had proprietary adaptors for headphones. Those people seem to forget that every device maker had proprietary connectors for charging or headphones so you ended up with a box full of all these different cables. Nowadays, all chargers are Micro USB or USB C, except Apple. We don't want to go back to the dark ages of tech! If you are stuck somewhere without a charger or headphones you can usually borrow a charger off somebody or pop into a pound store and get a micro USB lead or ear buds in an "emergency". And headphone makers will have to have work with Apple to get their Lightning and wireless headphones working with the iphone 7 (and maybe not working with non-Apple devices). I doubt the overpriced wireless AirPods will work properly with non-Apple devices either.

The use of a Lightning port to analogue adaptor cannot really improve audio quality (since analogue is still the destination) and Bluetooth headphones just aren't up to the quality of decent wired headphones. Plus the headphone jack component was pretty tiny and maybe could have been moved back to the top of the device instead. And although headphone jacks can break with abuse, they are still tougher than the awful quality of Apple Lightning cables!   

I have also heard the argument that removing the headphone jack helps with making the iPhone 7 water resistant, but other device makers seem to have no trouble making their devices water resistant without removing it. iPhone 7 users who want to use wired headphones while charging their device will have to buy an adaptor from Apple (£49) or elsewhere, and not lose it. iPhone users tech lives must be all about buying and (not) losing adaptors! 

Meanwhile, outside of the Apple Reality Distortion Field..

Of course the recently released Motorola Moto Z had  beaten Apple to it and debuted with a lack of headphone jack earlier this year, not that is a feature to boast about. Sadly Motorola are a shadow of their former self ever since Lenovo took them over. I have a 2014 Moto X, their last really great non-Lenovo device. 

The day before Apple's event, at a fairly dull, lower key, event, LG announced it's V20 phone with high quality quad DAC audio output, fast onboard modem, 4GB RAM, and fingerprint scanner. The specs are great and it's actually an innovative device compared with the iPhone 7. It brings it's 4 camera setup to the V range and keeps a removable battery, SD card slot, second screen along the top, and still has a headphone port! It's DAC includes a dedicated headphone amp too. The only thing I don't really like with LG is their skin over Android, but it is impressive to see it's the first Android device to ship with Nougat out the box. Having a massive SD card would be useful in the device for those who like to travel with lossless audio and for recording high quality UHD videos, which LG have added "Steady Record" electronic image stabilization (EIS). They have also improved the manual camera settings, including volume input levels on the HD stereo mics. It's also pretty tough device as it has a body MIL-STD 810G Military spec Transit Drop Test rating. Also, I am not sure whether it'll actually appear in the UK, since the V10 didn't. 

But it's Apple that usually get all the publicity, particularly from the mainstream newspapers (for example BBC and The Guardian) who usually fawn over the new iDevices, though with the removal of the headphone jack, that has taken centre stage in the press. Only time will tell how well the iPhone 7 goes down with the public, though of course there always seems to be a hardcore Apple fanboy following that will buy it anyway, even at the higher prices they are now here in the UK. I can only hope sanity prevails and the removal of the headphone jack really won't be a trend for future Android devices.  

Further Reading:

• LG V20's impressive audio setup.
• Features iPhone 7 took from Android

Apple's iPhone 6S announcement in Tweets

As per usual Twitter pretty much exploded with tweets about Apple's latest conference - the #appleevent hashtag stream was a blur in Tweetdeck - about the new iPhone 6S, iPad Pro, new Apple TV and to a lesser extent Apple Watch, here are some of my favourite Tweets:

In a surprise move Apple allowed the conference to be viewed in Microsoft's new and very basic Edge browser, perhaps in a deal with Office on the new iPad Pro. Microsoft also made a surprise appearance on stage at the event.

Microsoft Edge: the only browser that let's you stream the Apple keynote *and* draw on Jony Ive's face pic.twitter.com/zBG4aN1PiM

— Jacob Rossi (@jacobrossi) September 9, 2015

At one point in proceedings, Apple demonstrated the new iPad pro by editing a woman's smile, because they didn't like women having their own emotions perhaps...

2014 Apple: What, women exist? Mid-2015 Apple: Maybe women use our things too Late-2015 Apple: BABIES! ON YOUR WRIST! CONTRACTIONS! LADIES!

— Mark (@shinypb) September 9, 2015

Apple genuinely demonstrating new Adobe tools by changing the smile on a woman cos "they're not happy with it". pic.twitter.com/TCXMBn8QCw

— Guardian Tech (@guardiantech) September 9, 2015

Ah yes, and then Apple unveiled...a STYLUS! Or rather "Pencil" that needs to be charged, and costs $99! Yes, you read that right, ninetynine Dollars!

Well, this is awkward #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/wPH88QCgda

— Atom Bank (@atom_bank) September 9, 2015

Apple has revealed a stylus. A stylus that you have to charge. Next is Now pic.twitter.com/xD03LwKADj

— XDA Developers (@xdadevelopers) September 9, 2015

$99 for the pencil? Apple is insane! They should have offered Pencil, Pencil Sport, and 18K Pencil Edition collections, just like the watch.

— Reginald Braithwaite (@raganwald) September 9, 2015

And then Apple unveiled their new Apple TV with "tvOS"..

tvOS. To be mispronounced by non-technical media as "tivos"

— Wes Miller (@getwired) September 9, 2015

And this tweet pretty much won my stream today!

Apple never stops innovating. Today they announced a Microsoft Surface, Frogger, and now, the Wii.

— Matt Haughey (@mathowie) September 9, 2015

And finally Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S...

This is all stuff that won’t work unless you use Apple’s default apps. Also, stuff that my parents will never know is there.

— Will Smith (@willsmith) September 9, 2015

 So much truth!...

One of the ways Apple has made their phones desktop class is by making the desktop machines slower and buggier

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) September 9, 2015

And now iOS is copying Ubuntu Phone edge gestures. Remember when people used to copy Apple? #AppleEvent

— Simon Phipps (@webmink) September 9, 2015

Final thoughts

I think I nearly dozed off during the Apple Watch part hence the lack of tweets there. Then Apple showed the iPad Pro which btw does not have the iPhone 6S's "innovative" 3D Touch, I guess that will probably in next years iPad Pro Plus!
And how is it that Apple still makes a 16GB iPhone? With the usual size of that "Other" folder and all the apps and bigger 12MP (really Apple?) photos to store (at least temporarily), that 16GB will be used up rather quickly! Oh and by the way, in the small print from Apple: "Live Photos and 4K video recording not supported on 16GB" - for obvious reasons! I'm more looking forward to Google's Nexus event in October.