The official tablet (and other useless electronics) thread!

[JPolen01]

Once in a while I can't connect my iPhone to my bose speaker, but I blame the speaker as it does not seem to easily put itself into discoverable mode no matter what combo of buttons you push.

My iPhone 7 is paired 24/7 with my iWatch and connects everyday to my wireless headphones no problem.

[Apoc]

Before I get a bunch of replies of "well my iBoner has always connected to everything you crazy"

[WRXtranceformed]

can someone please tell me why iPhones suck so bad at connecting to external hardware when it's not something that Apple built?  Before I get a bunch of replies of "well my iBoner has always connected to everything you crazy", objectively over the last year I have probably been asked to help at least 5 different people with iPhones connect to some kind of speaker or smart-something and every single one of them has been a colossal pain to set up or just flat out didn't work.  Within a matter of a minute or two I can get my S8 paired to them.  I'm also excluding from this the multiples of people who have told me that they have issues pairing and using their brand new iPhones with their brand new car interfaces.

What are you trying to connect to that's so difficult? Can't say I've had issues. The only goofy one was making my iPhone play music (over USB) to my Range Rover. The car didn't recognize it (as an iPod, old infotainment) because I didn't have any music stored in the Apple music app. Once I had any single song in Music.app, it would let it stay connected so I could just use Spotify or whatever, and have steering wheel controls work for whichever app was playing. That's a LR problem given the old protocol it uses, though.

Hell, with the right adapters/creativity you can hook up a whole bunch of USB devices and they are supported, too.

Most recently, a Sonos speaker that you have to connect via WiFi and an app (stupid, what speakers don't have Bluetooth nowadays) at my uncle's house.  We never did get that to work, although my brother's iPhone finally paired with it.  And a Vizio Bluetooth sound bar that took my neighbor and I about 15 minutes worth of failed attempts before it connected.  Toward the end while we were trying to set it up, I was able to pair my S8 in about 30 seconds and played music on it until it finally worked on his iPhone.

The last car related issue was my in my buddy's brand new TLX.  I can't remember exactly what the issue was again but I think it was the phone wouldn't always remember the car and commands from the phone wouldn't work (ie. voice text) when it was paired.

[Evan]

More iOS hate. Why is the back button all the way on the top left of some apps.

Oh the button that users use the most,  lets put it as far away from the thumb as possible and in the most inconvenient place to hit.   But only on most apps,   other apps can put it in other,  random places or not at all.  

horray apple usability.
remember when to eject a CD,  you had to drag it into the trashcan?

---

over the last year I have probably been asked to help at least 5 different people with iPhones connect to some kind of speaker or smart-something

iPhones are for stupid people who cant use technology.

[Apoc]

horray apple usability.
remember when to eject a CD,  you had to drag it into the trashcan?

I just installed an update for a random piece of software on my work Macbook. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't delete the install file. Apparently I had to "eject" it. So dumb. 

...and why do I have to use the command key to delete something? Is it because they're afraid apple users are incompetent and can't be trusted to not accidentally hit the delete key?

[.RJ]

Someone explain the back button to me? I am a sheeple.

[Apoc]

An OS-based button, whether it be hardware or software, that never moves, is easy to reach, and returns to the previous screen on every single application on the phone. Identical to the back button on your browser or mouse, except for your phone.

[.RJ]

yeah but what is the point/function?

I'm being serious for once because i've never had one and I dont get it. I've been brainwashed into thinking everything has one button

[Sijray21]

yeah but what is the point/function?

I'm being serious for once because i've never had one and I dont get it. I've been brainwashed into thinking everything has one button

It has different functions based on the context of what's on the screen. In a browser? It's a back button like in a PC browser. At the last page of that tab? It'll bring you back to the home screen. In a part of an app? It'll bring you to the lower level of that app. I find it very intuitive and natural to use.

[Apoc]

yeah but what is the point/function?

I'm being serious for once because i've never had one and I dont get it.  I've been brainwashed into thinking everything has one button

returns to the previous screen on every single application on the phone.

---

i don't understand what you don't understand...

gmail - return to inbox after reading a message
facebook - return to feed when reading comments/page
calendar - return to default view after reading event details
messaging - return to message list after finishing a text
browser - navigate back one page
amazon - return to search results after reading product page
google drive - navigating up one level in folder structure

[.RJ]

Swiping left on the jPhone screen does same thing.

[Sijray21]

Swiping left on the jPhone screen does same thing.

What happens if you're in an app that swiping left leads to things on the left?

Legit question.

[.RJ]

Dunno.

If a notification response changes apps (i.e. you get a jMessage and respond) you also get a 'back button' pop up in the upper left corner of the screen to go back to the previous app. So not a physical button but its still there. I guess I never use it.

[Sijray21]

Yeah, the back button on most modern Android-based phones aren't physical. Usually haptic or screen buttons (sometimes you can hide it or reassign its purpose to do something else). When you have a keyboard showing on the screen it acts to minimize the keyboard.

[Apoc]

you also get a 'back button' pop up in the upper left corner of the screen to go back to the previous app.  

lets put it as far away from the thumb as possible and in the most inconvenient place to hit.

[.RJ]

Ok, I get the function of it now.

But I also dont get why the android phone users make such a big fuss about it.

[Apoc]

Cause it's literally the most used button on the phone.

[Jake]

horray apple usability.
remember when to eject a CD,  you had to drag it into the trashcan?

I just installed an update for a random piece of software on my work Macbook. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't delete the install file. Apparently I had to "eject" it. So dumb. 

...and why do I have to use the command key to delete something? Is it because they're afraid apple users are incompetent and can't be trusted to not accidentally hit the delete key?

The "install file" was a disk image which must be ejected like any other form of media, you can do this by dragging to the trash or pressing Command-E. Files can be deleted by dragging to the trash or pressing Command-Delete. 

You don't use the "delete key" because that is akin to "backspace" on a Windows box and that key also does not delete a file. Windows lets you use the forward delete key, which doesn't exist on Apple laptops and didn't exist on various Mac desktop keyboards over the years. I think they went for a standard experience instead of a "oh if you have this key, use it."

All of you who grump about how hard and difficult Apple products are to use, but are in the technology world, really mystify me. If you're a professional, shouldn't you be adept at both OS's and be able to use either without complaint? I'm just as fast/keyboard-shortcut-y on a Mac as I am on a Windows box. Neither is hard to use at this point.

[WRXtranceformed]

All of you who grump about how hard and difficult Apple products are to use, but are in the technology world, really mystify me. If you're a professional, shouldn't you be adept at both OS's and be able to use either without complaint? I'm just as fast/keyboard-shortcut-y on a Mac as I am on a Windows box. Neither is hard to use at this point.

None of our developers, data scientists or data analysts to my knowledge use Apple computers.  The only people I see using them are our media / graphic designers and a handful of sales and other random roles where they've been indoctrinated to the point with their own tech devices that they don't want to use anything else.  

The big gripe with Apple products is that they don't play nice with a lot of enterprise software.  These same people I always hear griping about how certain programs aren't working right (like Powerpoint) on their computers.

[Jake]

All of you who grump about how hard and difficult Apple products are to use, but are in the technology world, really mystify me. If you're a professional, shouldn't you be adept at both OS's and be able to use either without complaint? I'm just as fast/keyboard-shortcut-y on a Mac as I am on a Windows box. Neither is hard to use at this point.

None of our developers, data scientists or data analysts to my knowledge use Apple computers.  The only people I see using them are our media / graphic designers and a handful of sales and other random roles where they've been indoctrinated to the point with their own tech devices that they don't want to use anything else.  

The big gripe with Apple products is that they don't play nice with a lot of enterprise software.  These same people I always hear griping about how certain programs aren't working right (like Powerpoint) on their computers.

Interesting. All of our devs (at a 6,000 person company) are Apple-based. It makes some development work easier because Mac OS has Unix at its core. Or at least, that's what I'm told. I had the choice when I started and picked a Mac, mostly because Windows hardware is by-and-large garbage and unlike your personal computer, it's a crapshoot what the company will provide you. Office 365 for Mac does everything the Windows version does, from what I have seen so far. Older versions didn't play as nice - I distinctly remember older Mac versions of Excel just not having critical features for some reason (which is laughable, given Excel was initially developed for Macs way way back when).

Anyway, lest y'all think I'm a blind fanboi, I have a Lenovo laptop at home on Windows 10 and it's mostly fine and Win10 improves a lot of things I didn't like about 8. None of the racecar data/video/tuning type programs run on Mac so there was no reason to spend double the money for a Facebook/porn/AIM Solo rig.