Joining the Dark Side

It was right around four years ago that I bought my first smartphone, and discovered what an "indispensible luxury" it is -- something you can get by just fine without, right up until the moment you have one. And, in the very epitome of a "first world problem," each of the two smartphones I had in that period started out great, and then became unbearably bad by the end of my two-year contract.

I'm now on to smartphone #3, and I have at last joined the Dark Side: after two Android phones, I've switched over and bought an iPhone, the new iPhone 5.

I'm still in the process of getting adjusted to all the things that work differently (or use different terminology) to things over in Androidland. But I'm far enough along at this point to decide that overall, I'm very happy with the new purchase.

As for the phone itself, I'm very pleased with the battery life so far. My old phone was pathetically weak in this department, with even sparse use draining it down in a matter of hours. I haven't yet had what I'd consider a "heavy use" day on the iPhone, but with moderate use, I have yet to drain the battery even halfway before it's the end of the day and I'm charging it again.

The camera is a huge upgrade. The photos are great, and the reaction time of the shutter is blazing compared to what I had before. I've tinkered with the touted "panorama" option as well, and while I'm not sure how often I'll actually want it, I'm pleased with the results. I've used various "photo stitch" software before with some older digital cameras I've owned, and this is so easy by comparison that it's like a completely different thing.

The world of apps has some adjustments that will take some getting used to. One of the things that seemed appealing about iPhone was that it seemed to have a broader array of more useful and better looking apps than Android generally has. But you do get what you pay for. On Android, I always found it quite easy to find at least a reasonably useful tool for whatever I wanted that cost nothing; the Android side of the universe seems populated with altruistic programmers who are simply happy to know people are using their free software. The iPhone side of the universe, by contrast, is populated with companies of all sizes actually trying to make money. There are few truly free apps, just hopelessly disabled free versions of apps trying to convince you to upgrade to the paid version. (I would pay, if you gave me enough of a taste to know if it's good!)

As for using the phone, I would say that overall I'm fast becoming a believer in the way Apple is doing things. That said, there are a few minor things that I come across now and then that were absolutely done better on Android. (And because Google and Apple are fighting tooth and nail, don't expect them to change any time soon.) They're almost always little things, but little things can add up.

For example, the keyboard. The keys on Android would display lower-case letters most of the time, and only turn caps when you actually pushed the shift key. On Apple, the letters are Capped all the time, making it far less obvious at a glance whether you're about to type a capital letter or not.

Or even something as simple as arranging your app icons on a screen. Android gives you total freedom in this, positioning any icon anywhere you want. Apple forces you to fill a screen one slot at a time from upper left to lower right, not allowing you to leave any gaps in between.

Like I said, little things... but the truly perfect phone would incorporate the best of both worlds.

Much has been made about the buggy Apple Maps software, though I have yet to make much use of that. I have come up against an entirely different bug, though -- one that has apparently been in the iOS software literally for years now. My old iPod is capable of having Live Updating smart playlists based on when the song was Last Played. (That is, as soon as I play a song, the list automatically removes the song and replaces it with another.) I've read online that since iOS 3, this functionality hasn't worked on iPod Touches or iPhones; you have to plug into a computer and resync to iTunes to have Smart Playlists update on any characteristic other than song rating itself. On the one hand, I didn't use my old smartphone as a music player before, so it's hard to complain. On the other, my spiffy new iPhone that's supposed to do everything doesn't function as well as my years-old iPod. Why Apple hasn't fixed this bug after all this time is beyond me.

But in so many other areas -- text message interface, e-mail interface, web browsing -- I'm definitely liking my new iPhone better. So I guess I'm saying "one of us," "drink the Kool-Aid," "give in to the Dark Side." If you're in the market for a new phone, I'm very happy so far with the iPhone 5.

Of course, ask me again in around a year and 8 months, when I suppose it will be unbearable and I'll be counting down the days until my contract expires.