- true browser, true addons. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't limit 3rd-party browsers to reskins of the OS' Web engine, but allows desktop-like from-the-ground-up browsers. You can get Firefow and put uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger on it.

- sideloading w/o rooting. Exiting the Walled Garden (not recommended) doesn't require compromising the whole security setup by rooting, flasing a new ROM.... just activate Sideloading from the developer menu, and live only semi-dangerously. Reins in Google's censorship.

- Regular File management, incl. internal Flash, SD card, Network, and Cloud. On of the first apps I install is Asus's File Manager so I can easily move stuff around my LAN etc.. Also makes it easy to use different apps for similar content: I've got my podcasts, audio books, and music in different folders and a separate app for each.

- Plenty of storage: if you get a phone with an SD slot, you can have oodles of storage for dirt cheap, which is very handy if you wander out of cities.

- much more choice about everything: all apps including Phone, Keyboard, Mail, Browser, Text, Homepage (Launcher), Maps,... can be defaulted to any 3rd-party app. This makes for a steeper learning curve (I prefer HERE MAps over Google Maps and Waze; Nova Launcher; Google Messages ...) Only Notifications and Settings are hard-linked to the core OS.

- You get a choice of hardware. You can spend $500+ if you want to or need really good pics, but the $150 Redmi Note 7 or Realme 3 Pro are fine phones. The Note even have FM Radio, an IR blaster... no NFC though.

I'd add:

- kde-connect. It's awesome to be able to control my computer for my phone, especially while watching a movie.

- alternative stores. Being able to use aptoid and f-droid let me use the full potential of the phone without tying it to an email account.

- productivity concepts arrive first on android. We had wifi hot spot. Quick wifi/bt/3G switch first. Etc. With apple, you only have what Apple though about, or could copy later. With Android, the community can implement many things.

- USB-C charger. I don't want yet another charger/adapter

- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.

This for me is a downside as the USB-C landscape is a disaster of poorly-implemented designs. I'm less inclined to trust a USB-C adapter than a dumb USB adapter, and I would never plug a laptop charger into my phone. At least with dumb USB and micro-USB, you know you're getting 5 volts (excluding serious hardware failures).

- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.

I'd argue the opposite, many Android phones are built to be as cheap as possible and their longevity is really hit and miss. If you want build quality, you need to buy flagship phones - my Galaxy S5 is still working after 5 years, sure, but many cheaper phones are just disposable; I'd have smashed several screens by now if I'd bought something cheaper. There's also the issue that most manufacturers give up on Android updates after 18 months; my S5 officially maxxed out at Android 6, but I'm running 9 via LineageOS. This means I get security updates to the OS, at least, but the low-level firmware has been abandoned by Samsung and if there are serious vulnerabilities, they won't be patched.

Implementing USB-C wrong seems to be a passtime of all major manufacturers now. Nintendo got it almost completely wrong with the Switch. The RPi 4 is also wrong, as it bridges two connectors that shouldn't be and identifies itself as an audio device to some adapters. The whole ecosystem is a farce and I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/5/9674462/usb-type-c-google... is dated coverage of a Google engineer testing for out-of-spec cables. See also: https://twitter.com/laughing_man.

Do you have a link or some more info on that?

I don't think this is a standard, not every iphone button will be broken in 5 years; or no phone (with android os) has hardware guarantee for 5 years.

You need to leave a blank line to get a new paragraph.

They last just as an expensive phone would (I trek often and get screen cracked in a couple weeks).

I've got an actual userland Linux shell and package ecosystem, with 1,231 available packages (compare against ~6k for Red Hat / CentOS, 70k for Debian), including standard shell tools, editors, and scripting languages, plus several Android-specific tools and APIs. The scripting tools open up broader archives via pip (python), npm (node.js), and cpan (perl). Many of the "Linux" shell and scripting examples I've posted to HN over recent years have actually been run on and via Termux.

This replaces other Android tools, including console, SSH, audioplayer (mpv/mps), backgroundable and playlistable YouTube audio (mpv, mps-youtube), remote sync (rsync, scp, mc), editors (vim, emacs, nano, etc), and other tools. An sshd daemon allows remote (ssh-key-only) access to the tablet itself, useful for admin and substantial tasks at a bigger screen and better keyboard.

The develooment is active, response to bugs (I've found several) prompt and satisfactory, and growth in packages available (~500 when I first installed Termux) impressive and assuring.

This is by no means a full Linux system replacement, for numerous reasons, but it very much, and more than any single other feature, makes Android Not Completely and Utterly Suck (which it otherwise largely does).

Coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard (another long tale of frustration), a tablet becomes a surprisingly capable (albeit still frustrating) laptop adjunct. The biggest frustrations remain Android-imposed: Lack of full filesystem access and unpredictable process termination, by Android.

The lack of an equivalent IOS feature utterly kills that platform for me. I'm very much looking forward to Purism's tablet offerings.

"Have you ever sat on a bus and wondered exactly which arguments tar accepts?"

"Can you imagine a more powerful yet elegant pocket calculator than a readline-powered Python console?"

https://inventingsituationsdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/0...

Does seem quite preliminary though, yet.

Point remains that availability of similar capabilities to Termux does not really yet exist on iOS.

I do appreciate knowing about the tool thogh, thanks.

These days, though, there are apps and websites to do everything under the sun. If you need the power, why do the heavy lifting locally? Just use these cloud-friendly devices to connect to an SSH server via Panic’s Prompt app, or use the Shortcuts app to run Pythonista or an SSH-executed command via Siri or at a certain time (prompted). If you need something more advanced than Pythonista can support, perhaps for push notifications, you’ll probably have to use a third party app, or write your own with a Mac to set it up, but iOS is really more extensible with each new release.

For starters.

The apps often aren't all that, and search costs alone in trying to find one exceed time to complete of a typical task. With no additional overhead for bugs, incompleteness, ToU, privacy policy, or EoL / business continuity concerns.

As is direct interaction with your own device via CLI environment.

Sometimes being there is the best way to be there.

You can interact with your device with multiple accessibility mechanisms including voice control, software buttons, voiceover, Siri shortcuts, Pythonista, and wirelessly or remotely, including Safari automation. If the only problem you have is you have to use the Files app with your fingers and a GUI instead of typing “ls” and using a non-touch-optimized UI, well... maybe a phone with a touchscreen isn’t the right device for you. Perhaps the original android concept with a keyboard (like BlackBerry) would be preferable?

The tablet has a display and speakers. Or I can plug in -- yes, it has a jack, iOS fans -- headphones. Why not just use those?

Because that's what I want.

Rather more practicable than lugging around a a TV and generator.

And yes, the tablet's got Bluetooth and can stream to other devices. Or from an DLNA server. It's not as if Termux suddenly breaks that.

You and a few others keep suggesting apps and variations on remote hardware or servers. What such responses fail to acknowledge is that those are specifically the requirements that Termux allows me to avoid. Those are massive disutilities.

Becuse that's what I don't want.

Standard, simple, text-interfaced, local, consistent, and diverse tools, with a single (or small set of) install and update mechanism, and high levels of interoperability. That's the winm that's the goal, and any set of app, hardware, and/or remote-cloud-system solution rapidly destroys the very benefits and characteristics which make Termux so goddamned insanely great.

And that's what I want.

Louis Armstrong's comment fits very well here, I suspect.

I will say there's innovation in a platform that's completely untethered and allows processes to run as root. Jailbreaking on iOS early on provided much innovation. Similarly diverse hardware gives you lots of options too.

But let me know how other apps -- native Android ones -- interact with that app. Can Google interact with it? See, that's the difference an OS standard makes. The app you're describing, Termux, builds on top of existing Linux standards, including GNU utilities and distributions building and packaging apps. If you jailbreak on iOS, you can install deb packages too. It's not like the kernel doesn't support these features. All we need, obviously, is a virtual machine or emulator powerful enough, and you've got your Termux on iOS.

I'm absolutely not arguing against it, I'm just saying, "it's an app!" And the platform features on iOS are more widely distributed, adopted and often more innovative, than the equivalent on Android, and that's where the power comes from. Sure, one app, like iSH or Termux, will give you superpowers, and rooting or jailbreaking can give you even more control over your phone. But if the platform's not innovating, 90-95% of users won't benefit. And if you haven't found advantages to touch screens, cellphone form factors, music subscription services, and other forms of interaction beyond terminal, well ... I'm sorry we haven't made much progress technologically since Unix time sharing that you find useful...

https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57

Primary app-to-termux interaction is via the filesystem and saved content -- downloads and the like. For obvious reasons, arbitrary command access to Termux from apps would be hazardous, much as it is on any desktop OS. Android filesystem access restricts this somewhat, though the system Downloads and "My Documents" directories are globally accessible.

There is also clipboard integration (termux-clipboard-get and -set), which I've aliased to xc and xp, respectively, much as I do similar OSX and Linux commands. So "xp | vim -" is a thing.

Very handy use is a titlecase script which converts strings, especially all-caps, for HN submission:

    xp | titlecase > tmpfile && xc < tmpfile && rm tmpfile

As for Google accessing Termux: Why would I want that? Google already has its (badly crippled) Android userland, as well as OS APIs and features. Termux is principally a userland -- a shell and utilities for user-initiated and directed interactions.

See by comparison Debian's Social Contract, Policy, and other guiding documents. Key among their principles is that the project's focus is its users, and that its policies serve to constrain the developers as to what they must provide, and must not do. Though Termux lacks such specific language its spirit (and Debian heritage) strongly suggest a similar orientation and philosophy.

As for "it's an app", that's both solipsistic and utterly fails to recognise that this app is singularly powerful and expansive in the spirit of the original Unix,[1] in ways that effectively no other single Android app (save other user command shells) can even hope to be.

________________________________

Notes:

1. See K&P's The UNIX Programming Environment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environme...). My 'Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User" addresses the distiction as well: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr...

Settings - Battery - Battery Optimization (dropdown menu upper right, three dots)

Change it for the apps you don't want Android to terminate.

It allows me to have mostly the same toolkit on my phone and on my home server, which is nice.

mps-youtube (mpsyt) is another streaming tool, which gives the option to interactivley request, search (by title, description, genre, or channel) YouTube (only, this time) content, and create, save, and recall local playlists. A great way to explore topics or speakers, or music. No ads :-)

youtube-dl,mpv, and mps-youtube have been transformative.

Safari seems to take this seriously instead of the race to the bottom on performance and resource consumption. I also like features like how Safari extensions are now 1st class apps and its declarative content blocker (1Blocker X being best in class imo).

What makes Safari so bad in your eyes?

(full disclosure: I am a happy Safari user, and the content blocking API is good enough that I tolerate it but I do miss uBlock for sure)

But for example I have a script that can convert Adblock format rules (like Easylist) into content blocker rules.

The problem with the declarative API is that 1) it’s just not as flexible as uBlock, especially in a world where billions are being poured into bypassing blockers and 2) each blocker extension is limited to 50k rules which is not enough (some apps work around this by registering multiple blocker extensions, but frankly this limitation is BS and should not exist to begin with) and 3) blockers don’t run with the browser, so you have to open the app every so often to update the blocking rules.

The rendering engine is poor. It's probably the browser I have the most trouble with when doing frontend work. iframe scrolling is broken, it's historically suffered from some frustrating flexbox bugs (see https://github.com/philipwalton/flexbugs#flexbug-11), its Can I use... score lags behind Firefox and Chrome. For a while, it didn't support service workers properly.

I could go on.

Things I do that are only possible in Android: 1) I script some behaviors using Tasker. One example is that I have a script that takes it out of vibrate mode and turns on the ringer if I'm home (GPS), the phone is plugged in, and it's between the hours of 9am and midnight. 2) This requires root, so it might not be worth the trouble for you, and it's not available on every phone. But, I've managed to make my default home screen completely blank. My primary "launcher" is an app called "Pie Control", which doesn't appear unless you touch an area of the screen, which you can set. I can also swipe up to get a screen with all of my apps - The default behavior of Nova Launcher.

It's not just customization. Really, the sky is the limit when it comes to what you want the phone to do. With an iphone, the limit is the constraints of Apple's design.

2) Direct sharing to/from ANY app. iOS is frustratingly limited. On a similar note, being able to assign default apps for specific types of content.

This has changed but it's up to the developer to define the actions one can take on a notification.

> 2) Direct sharing to/from ANY app. iOS is frustratingly limited. On a similar note, being able to assign default apps for specific types of content.

The sharing popover is quite universal in iOS at this point and can be found basically wherever it makes sense.

3D touch is rumored to be replaced with long-presses.

[1]https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/view-and-respond-to-n...

The default app thing could be improved for sure.

Also some Android tablets have half decent OLED screens, though stock iPhone OLED will out-perform them.

Android has USB-C support that iOS is only now starting to get with the iPad Pro and iPadOS 13.

Re. Intercepting text messages on Android, theoretically that’s going to be more locked down as the OS gets more privacy-aware, but iOS will likely always take the lead. Certainly it’s impossible to do Content Blocking in Chrome the way one can on iOS.

So... there’s trade offs... my preference is to recommend cheap Android handsets for non-smartphone family members and friends and relatively expensive iPhones for anyone actually checking their email on their devices, etc. due to the superior security & overall fit and finish. The only folks who can have trouble with Apple’s limitations of iMessage on Apple products only, etc., tend to be folks who use both Mac and Windows. If you only use Windows, you don’t know how the clipboard integrates smoothly over iCloud, that you can answer text messages and calls from your computer, and so on. Microsoft plans on making Android as integrated with Windows as an iPhone is with macOS, but they haven’t succeeded yet and it’s been two years since the first announcement in this direction. So... we’ll have to see.

Oh and Apple Watch support is also a vote for iPhone right now. And Bluetooth music has been historically much better on iOS, though I imagine that has improved on Android handsets in recent years. Android devices might still have headphone jacks, of course, but I prefer BT these days anyway.

Firefox with uBlock Origin or just about any other add-on will work kn Android. It's the best solution there is.

I googled around out of curiosity if such a thing exists on iOS and turned up nothing, which seems reasonable considering the more open nature of Android vs iOS - could be wrong about this though, happy to be corrected.

For those who don't know, enable Developer Options, then change "Window animation scale", "Transition animation scale" and "Animator duration scale" all to "0.5x". It should really be the default and I'm surprised there isn't a "0.25x" as of yet.

Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google Calendar widget on the main screen...

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wireguard/id1441195209?ls=1

And if you want something OSS, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ which does the same thing.

1. Aard2 Dictionary

Offline Wikipedia for eg. travelling. Other Mediawiki dumps are supported as well. Bonus: if you deactivate image loading you don't leave any trace online.

2. use old saved app versions

3. USB-CDROM-emulator via usb gadget mode and a USB-CDROM drive app that "inserts" .iso files off your sdcard (eg. Win10 install disk, Grml.org live CD, servicepack disks etc)

4. rtl-sdr radio scanner, handy for eg. checking AirBnB homes for "bugs"

5. 400GB microSD cards for 60$ (e.g. on newegg)

6. the existence of specialty distributions like Kali Nethunter edition for Android phones

[1]: https://aarddict.org https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=itkach.aard2

[3]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwareba...

[4]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mantz_it.r...

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/android/

As with many gadgets it sits in a drawer for some time now.

If on the other hand don't mind adapting your workflow to someone else's conception of design which many people find ok iOS will suit you.

Technologically, there's very little difference between top of the line Android and iPhone though you do get more interesting featuretrade-offs to choose from in Android (eg. Samsung Note 9 has a great stylus, Huawei P30 has by miles the best camera in any phone, Pixel is stock OS etc) - which again kind of links to personality.

You can do anything on an Android phone that requires root access. None of that is possible on iPhone unless it's been out for quite awhile.

(install TWRP and custom ROM package)

> adb push vendor.img /sdcard/

(Go to 'install' in TWRP and install vendor.img)

> fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-bullhead-bhz31b.img

> fastboot flash radio radio-bullhead-m8994f-2.6.41.5.01.img

That's the quick version of how I set mine up and it works. :)

The big question is, are you ready and willing to root and/or custom rom your phone? If not, the advantages you described on Android are not as substantial as you may hope. Yes, you can use Netguard, but the approach is janky (out of neccessity). It will not stop ads in all apps either. For example, on the youtube app, which does not use DNS based advertisement delivery. For youtube specifically, you can get NewPipe though, but it's not all that slick.

It seems that 3d-touch (hard press) can be emulated qith the spacebar.

Try both - if you find that you like the iOS UI and experience, I’d say use an iPhone; otherwise, get an Android and customize it to your liking.

- Basic stuff works equally well on both. You can reply to notifications now on iOS (since a few versions back), you can have a global content blocker (I use 1Blocker, which works great). Sure, all browsers embed the same WebKit engine, but that’s not the same as all browsers being literally Safari. Firefox works fine and I sync most of my stuff there.

- If you’re a dev, side loading is equally easy on both platforms, but being a dev on iOS requires a Mac. (And money; IIRC apps sideloaded from free dev accounts only work for 7 days before requiring a reinstall?)

- Get an iPhone if you want something to use for a long time; iPhone 6 (2014) is still perfectly viable for most things and runs the latest iOS 12. (Custom ROMs exist for old Androids too but those can be iffy sometimes)

- For customizability, I run Pythonista on iOS, a paid (but worthwhile!) app that puts a full Python interpreter on your phone. You can install a shell environment (I use Stash) and interact with all the iOS APIs. You can sideload whatever custom code you want and run it. Heck, it even supports CoreML and NumPy, so I even used it to train and test ML models right on the phone recently.

- The hackability of Android is nice; some of my work involves replacing kernels to get at low-level hardware, and that’s absolutely impossible on iOS.

1. Real multi-user, with fully separate profiles

2. Apps on SD card

3. Side loading

4. Connect to monitors on Samsung phones

5. Use USB-C card readers

6. Run torrents, run in the background

Edit : my desktop os is Windows and now my browser on the phone and on the pc is not in sync which creates a big annoying mess

[0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204283

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/icloud-bookmarks/f...

1. Don't send location or app install data anywhere.

2. Route phone calls and SMSes through encrypted communication services automatically.

3. Develop and run applications without telling anybody.

4. Ublock Origin in the browser and adblocking across all apps (not just browsers).

Most people care about usefulness instead of privacy, and Android beats iOS there as well:

1. Install apps from the Play Store using your desktop web browser.

2. Start Android Auto on your phone when connecting to the car's Bluetooth automatically and use it directly on the phone without buying a separate headend for the car.

3. Upload photos automatically to photo services in the background.

4. Route outgoing calls automatically through Google Voice, so when people call back, you get transcripted voicemails for free.

5. Multiple user accounts, so you can set up a restricted kids account on your phone and hand it to them for entertainment in a pinch.

6. Install apps from other app stores, like Amazon's, that also run deals for free apps.

7. Game console and calculator emulators.

8. Browsers that aren't years behind in standards support, so you get installable PWAs for Twitter, WebRTC, etc.; and you don't have to put up with bugs for years until the sole renderer vendor fixes them (e.g., iFrame scrolling on iOS).

You can't switch owners of shared family purchases on an iPhone. You need to rebuy the apps under a new family owner after dissolving the previously family which is not easy or seamless.

Plex picture uploads don't work in the background on Apple so you constantly have to take the screen to keep it active.

Basically if you like having someone else make all your design decisions for you Apple is actually a great way to go. Defaults are generally sane, but if you run into something that they haven't sorted out yet, it's going to be painful and you won't be able to fix it. My wife and daughter love their iPhones. Apple generally curates their software well and there's a good chunk of great software only available on Apple. I was constantly fighting with mine to get it the way I wanted and in the end I have up and bought a Samsung Galaxy phone. I could do what I wanted almost immediately and have had no issues. I can't remember if Apple has the ability to add a swipe keyboard either. My wife is always jealous of mine.

Grayscale mode came in iOS 8, Night Shift in iOS 9. iOS 10 added a red screen filter. iOS 11 added Smart Invert.

Android didn't get Dark Mode until last year. To imply Apple has been behind in this area is very misleading.

Inverted mode is not dark mode I tried it. Even at the lowest possible brightness with nightshift on iOS was still too bright for my eyes at night. Either way my switch happened before dark mode was implemented and I admitted as such. It's also a preference so I'm not sure what exactly you're defending here.

Sorry to hear about the family purchase stuff. How does family purchasing work on Google? Is it easy to switch owners there?

The new iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 really brings iOS forward into the future, with downloads available in safari, native USB file management and more. You can even save video files now. I’d predict a rather blurry line between Macs and iOS within 5-10 years...

I really want to like Apple. I'd love to simplify my life. My wife refuses to get a MacBook because there's no touchscreen and I really can't justify the expense of an iPad with the cost for value.

As someone who hasn't used iOS in years I couldn't immediately tell if you were being sincere or 'damning with faint praise,' ironically pointing out how crippled iOS has been.

- direct file access is useful to transfer things in and out of my Android devices, compared to the dreaded iTunes blackbox.

- there are midrange Android that are way cheaper than iPhones and run anything I need without issue

- side-loading means I can use F-Droid instead of the OS store whenever an app exists there. It also limit planned obsolescence, since I can side-load an older version of an app when the newest version is no longer compatible with a device (I did use that capability recently for a 5+ years old Android tablet, while I'm out of luck for functionning older iPads).

- you can replace the Launcher, and generally customize the UI much more

- recently found out how to block ads at the DNS level.

There are definitely drawbacks, and if not for SMS, I might have stayed on an iPhone.

Fradow specifically mentions the requirement of sending sms via windows desktop.

In the end, I only keep airdroid for sharing files and contacts.

For example, see this Ted talk that describes how this security gap is a civil rights issue. Basically, Android phones are cheaper. But, they are much easier for the police to hack into. People with more money buy Apple, and it's much harder to hack them.

https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_your_smartpho...

As another data point: in the last few years there have been a few high-profile news cycles about the FBI trying to hack into an iPhone of a suspected terrorist, and not being able to. They were pressuring Apple to get access, and Apple was pushing back. But the bottom line here is that the FBI couldn't get in to an iPhone.

I haven't ever seen a similar news report for Android...

Of course they managed to hack in before a ruling came down. If iPhone does become unhackable in the future, we'll get a ruling, and if it's in the government's favor it won't matter how secure your phone is.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clownface....

- map the sides of your phone to actions like slide volume and brightness.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.synapse.al...

- batch your notifications to specific times of the day.

All in all I find android apps just offer more functionality for the power user.

- Write apps for the iOS platform in Linux/Windows/etc.

- Extend storage with SD Cards

- Live download/upload speed meter on the status bar

- Use phone as a wireless hot-spot without installing a SIM card or enabling data (2G/3G/4G)

I missed these when moving from Android to an iPhone.

Browser plugins - as you pointed out, browsers on iPhone are not allowed to run plugins, so no ad blockers in the traditional sense - you can install a system-wide ad-block engine.

That's pretty much the only thing that I am sad to miss using an iPhone. It's not enough to make me switch though.

That said, many torrent servers support a web-based interface which you should be able to control easily with Safari. If you need something more custom, there's plenty of good SSH clients on the App Store and most will support fancy screen/tmux/TUI interfaces so you can control your command-line torrent client.

And, well, there's always the option of slapping something together with Python, using the Pythonista app; if the protocol is popular odds are someone's written a Python package to interact with it, at which point you just have to decide how much of a GUI (or TUI) you want to put on it.

Yeah the deluge webui is what I use on the desktop. Doesn't play nicely with ios safari at all though.

>If you need something more custom, there's plenty of good SSH clients on the App Store and most will support fancy screen/tmux/TUI interfaces so you can control your command-line torrent client.

I ended up just installing an ftp client. 90% of what I wanted to do was add torrents and I can do that just by uploading to a watch folder.

Although your mention of ssh reminds me that I first tried to set up a shortcut that ssh'd the torrent over instead, which would be a preferable set up if it worked. It creates the file on my server but the file size stays at 0 bytes and the shortcut never finishes running. Any idea what I did wrong?

https://i.imgur.com/dbjZtEH.jpg

If so, at least with Vuze, you can do that by going to remote.vuze.com and pairing it with your computer running the vuze client.

Yep!

>If so, at least with Vuze, you can do that by going to remote.vuze.com and pairing it with your computer running the vuze client.

Yeah I use a webui for Deluge when I'm accessing it by desktop, it's just not optimised for phones at all. Hard/impossible to click some buttons. I might have to give something else like vuze a go and see if its ui is better. Thanks for the recommendation.

IPhones don't let you install add-ons in browsers, so you're stuck with rule-based content blocking, which has caps and can't do some of the things add-ons can do.

I'd love to switch to an iPhone, but this feature is a deal-breaker for me.

They'd have to identify what the bug is, get the source, make the changes, test it, build the OS for their own device, upload the fix to Gerrit for review, go through multiple rounds of code review, get it merged in.

I've probably simplified some of those steps.

You could do it, but would you? Remember, not every power user is a developer.

- My android displays the time and temp when docked. I never found a way to do that on iPhone.

- My android shows that I have texts/mails/etc. waiting without me having to touch it or pick it up to see.

- My android has a back button. It is always there and always in the same place.

- Widgets are nice (and mentioned elsewhere) but I love that my phonetop is not cluttered with icons, just useful info.

Usability wise apple is stuck in their own version of 10 years ago. Android is the better choice of the two. But I still weep for the loss of live tiles and the app menu.

It works especially seamlessly when tethering your Mac because the Mac can signal the iPhone to enabling tethering mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204023

The most frustrating thing about Android is its excruciating scrolling performance. When scrolling webpages you can see the animation isn't synced: the bottom part of the screen struggles to keep up with the top part, and it feels like the text is made up of a bunch of dancing ants, especially if you scroll slowly. iOS's scrolling is flawless. Reading stuff a primary use case of smartphones, why hasn't Google addressed this? Fortunately, Chrome on Android has decent scrolling performance and it's the only reason I haven't thrown this phone in the trash.

What's your point though? If iPhone 6s for its 3-4x the MSRP price wouldn't be better than the low-end Moto G, it would be pretty sad.

Use the phone without getting stupidly angry.

Use my Samsung Level U Pro properly.

MicroSD card (though admittedly my note 9 with 512gb storage doesn't need it.)

PIP with you tube i think doesnt work on iphone.

a bunch of other things.

That was only because Signal prevented (and continues to prevent) data from being backed up. This was a terrible drawback with Signal, for which it brought out a (better?) solution after several years on Android. It hasn't done that on iOS yet. Since Signal has not addressed this for years, one can only presume that Signal is not geared toward people who change devices.

Jailbroken IOS 9.3.3 had Little Brother, and there is a way to do it by modifying system files -- but if you mess up, you're totally screwed. With ro.sf.lcd_density, its as easy as taking the number and breaking it down by 5% increments until you find a sweet spot.

https://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-are...

https://www.imore.com/how-to-use-parental-controls-iphone-ip...

syncthing (or resilio sync either) let's you sync any folder on your phone to other computers. either a two way sync or as a backup with things like photos going from your phone to your computer only. when I come home from talking photos for mapillary/openstreetmap the photos start syncing straight away and it's really fast since it's only syncing over the network and not going to the cloud.

I have another folder that syncs across osmAnd's app folder so all my gps traces are accessible from my laptop

I had an iphone for a few months but sold it because I found it to be too restrictive and wouldnt let you have this kind of a setup

swipepad. let's you swipe in from the side of the screen to launch apps. this means you don't have to go back the the home screen every time you want to open something which is really inefficient way of doing things. you can also launch shortcuts (another android only thing as far as I know) that go straight to a certain part if an app instead of the main screen. like going straight to writing an email or sms, or start sound hound listen straight away. start an audio recording without opening the app. call a certain contact. run a tasker task. there lots of other similar launchers like swiftly switch that can be used at the same time.

I also didn't see nfc being mentioned anywhere. has iPhone added nfc yet? i have lots of them all over the house that I use to toggle lights, start timers or add things to my shopping list or start music playing. (most of these are programed with tasker as well so they can do a few things at a time instead of just one action)

you also don't need to install itunes just to do some basic things. huge plus :)

(I haven't seen them so I assume I already have whatever turned off, though I'm not sure what experience I'm missing out on!)

https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1

File management is so tricky and app centric on iOS so I dont think this will ever work.

There are VOIP apps for iOS but they generally do not work nearly as well as the integrated VOIP system in the dialler. iOS’ obsession with control and killing background apps makes it almost impossible to write a decent VOIP app.

I opened a SOCKS tunnel to a server, ran the desktop version of Firefox on my phone (that I had installed in a Debian chroot) and set it to use this SOCKS tunnel.

Can you set up Android so that you can press and hold volume up to skip to the next song, press and hold volume down to go to the previous one?

I share an interesting site to the app, tag it appropriately and press submit.

I love it

Otherwhise, a decent browser, Google apps and flexibility ( widgets, Tasker, ... )

* Hacky apps like N64 emulators.

* More raw access to files.

* MicroSD card.

* More native Google experience.

UX, no. Android, well material design is just a horror to use. especially if you have any visual impairment.

Company, its a matter of taste.

App store is a double edged sword. There is more malware on google apps store, but more freedom.

More competition is normally good.

I'm in two minds on this. I loved the nokia n900, it was full linux, but with decent support and GUI. That obviously fied a death, mostly due to android.

I amd frustrated that I have to learn swift if I want to write stuff for IOS. I really can't be arsed. On the flip side, iOS being locked down so much means that apps are less able to steal my stuff.

I think its much more nuanced than that, really.

Nope, I disagree. Google is certainly not a better company than Apple when it comes to data collection, making it confusing (and sometimes impossible) to prevent data collection, and profiling user behavior to target them for ads.

To make the point really obvious, even Google-flavored Android devices are perfectly usable without a Google account (install apps, etc.). iOS is unusable without an Apple ID.

I used to have Tasker to do lots of fun automation things, but getting root for some things was problematic and Tasker was a battery hog.

I used to put custom ROMs and Kernels, but somehow stock versions of the system were always more stable.

I didn't really need a terminal on my phone cause I'd have to squint a lot to type stuff.

I don't really connect my phone to a computer anymore. I have cloud storage that syncs my Desktop and Documents. It's more convenient to just upload a file to my Desktop folder and have it magically show up on my computer.

I don't explicitly download music or backup photos like I used to. Google Photos and Spotify have me covered there.

I don't keep widgets on the launcher. I keep only one home page and I like it to be minimal. I also find it better to access the feature filled app than a dumbed down widget.

I used to keep live wallpapers but they're pretty big battery drains. My wallpaper is just black cause my phone has an OLED screen.

Blocking ads across the OS is pretty good and I really do miss it, but I've often found that the more battery efficient option is to get the premium versions of these apps which are ad free. As for ads while browsing, I don't really have a good answer. Live with it?

Also, if you get an Android, I would recommend not getting one that's not heavily customized - Samsung, LG and the likes. A stock version of Android will allow you to customize with greater degree - especially when it comes to obtaining root.

IMO, I would consider Android not for any of its power features, but for normal features that should be allowed in iOS but aren't.

Examples of those are: * Setting default apps * Some decent home screen customization (hiding apps is useful) * Installing apps from other sources

Android is customizable. I've seen it myself. But with that degree of customization, I found myself tweaking incessantly and never being happy with the end result. There's always more to do and it often didn't look as polished as I would have liked.

Personally speaking, I'm sort of done fighting Apple and Google over customization and privacy concerns. I just want to get things done. If it's slightly inconvenient or the convenience comes at the cost of some data sharing, then so be it. I've read through some of the comments and I see some people that (in my opinion) are very aggressively defending their right to customization or privacy. Having tried a lot of customization on Android and owning a Mac, I don't get that anymore. By the end of the day I just end up using WhatsApp, Chrome and a few other choice apps. Those are available on any OS.