iPhone 8 Apple 2017

i couldn’t figure out why my series 0 watch was slow to respond after watchos4 but it seemed like it has now defaulted to ‘autoinstall’ watch apps. i wiped and started over with that setting disabled.

Same here. I look at my Plus and the wife’s nonPlus and I think I’ll wait another year. For $999, it’s not worth that sacrifice in size.

The iPhone 8 does look nice. If I wasn’t dead set on never again buying an Apple device (or, more accurately, never again having to manage living in the Apple ecosystem along side of the Google and Microsoft ecosystems I sort of have to live in), it would make the most sense, by far, in terms of a beaucoup expensive phone. The Android equivalents in price don’t seem to measure up in terms of performance and features, which sort of makes dropping eight hundred smackers on a non-Apple phone feel odd.

What parts of the Apple ecosystem are mandatory these days? Honest question, as I too use Gmail for personal and work/exchange account, Google maps, chrome, contacts, photos, keep, and drive. I use Spotify Netflix and Prime video. Does Apple let me change my default apps (e.g. chrome, Google maps) and launcher apps? I don’t mind the apple app store.

I’ll keep going. I use my Google timeline for work, is it reliable on iPhone? Google seems to read my emails and keep track of my travel itinerary, does Apple do that? Thanks

You can change or have multiple email, map, calendar, etc clients.

Not that I’m aware of, but it does read your email and suggest dates, phone numbers, calendar events, and a few other things. I use TripCase for itinerary tracking.

No clue, really, as I’ve never had an iPhone. I just hate the constant ap updates on my MacBooks and iPad, iTunes, etc. I guess, yeah, I could get an iPhone and still use only Google stuff (which is what my work stuff is on) . I just was under the impression that you can’t get full use out of an iPhone if you don’t use all of Apple’s cloud stuff and what not. If that’s not the case, it becomes a much better alternative.

Yeah, the Google stuff works fine. Maps, the Gmail app, etc. I use iCloud for notes and stuff, but you aren’t really locked into it. A lot of people use Google Photos on the iPhone as well.

IOS does not allow you to change default apps, and that is one of the most significant missing features in the entire operating system.

IOS tracks a bunch of stuff, but they keep most of it on your phone and never send telemetry to the mothership. The telemetry they do take is protected via differential privacy so it’s truly anonymous. Assuming they implemented DP properly of course; they don’t tell us exactly how they did it.

I barely use any Apple services on my iPhone.

  • Mail: Microsoft Outlook app
  • Mail accounts: Gmail and Outlook.com
  • Photos: OneDrive automatic backup
  • Contacts: Gmail and Outlook.com contacts
  • Music: Spotify, Pandora, and Microsoft’s Groove Music (for easy access to OneDrive music collection)
  • Maps: Google
  • Messaging: Facebook
  • Payments: Cash / Facebook / Venmo / etc.
  • Searching: Google and Bing
  • News: Feedly and Google
  • Weather: Weather Underground
  • Stocks: StockTracker

The only Apple app I regularly use is Safari and Siri, since Chrome and Cortana/Google/etc. can’t be set as my default browser / voice assistant.

But you can’t make it so that if you click an address in say Safari, it will open in Google Maps, correct?

I also think the default mail app is really good. I am not a heavy user by any means, but it does what I want it to and has been better than any of the email apps I have tried.

You don’t like the software updates? Just set them to auto install and you will rarely see them. It works great on iOS especially. If you don’t like on macOS just don’t use the store (which is essentially pointless anyway.

No, you can’t make Google Maps or Waze the default map app. No unified inbox in the Gmail app. No OK Google always-on voice assistant support, or integrated Google Now. No escaping Apple’s Messaging client for SMS.

Sure, but to be fair, if you like Googles stuff that much, you are better off with an Android phone anyway. I use tons of apps and never have a problem with default apps, and even then they are really easy to work around.

If you really stick to Google’s iOS apps, there are settings that make them cooperate with each other. For example, clicking on map links inside Gmail or Google Calendar can open Google Maps or Waze, just like URLs can open by default in Chrome. It just requires you to go all in on the iOS Google apps. You can’t mix and match.

You can’t make google maps default, but many other apps like Outlook are aware of Google Maps and those apps can choose Google Maps as default.

I would use Chrome for iOS as I prefer its UI, but Apple doesn’t allow content blocking in non-Safari browsers so you must use Safari too.

It’s really the last vestiges of iOS’ immaturity. As Apple is clearly pushing iPad as a primary device now, I have hope they’ll remove all the various restrictions except the ability to install apps outside of the appstore. They’ll never, ever, back off on that.

Outlook on iOS is a surprisingly great product. I use it for work email, with Airmail for private accounts. The only Apple apps I use regularly are Safari, iMessage, and Facetime. And like I said, I would prefer not to use Safari but have no choice in the matter.

Yeah, but if you click an address in a text or on a phone contact…

Too bad you can’t install Android on iPhone hardware. :)

Apple Maps are awesome these days. I prefer them to Google Maps most of the time, though I use both and also use Waze. I wouldn’t make the purchase solely on that being the default.

Apple Maps’ quality is highly location dependent. In Montreal, the results are poor. Every new Maps update I run the same route as a test — from my home to my son’s (and daughter’s former) daycare. I’ve been doing this since Apple released its mapping software. Even after filing over a half-dozen bugged route reports, Apple Maps still has me begin by driving through a fence, intrude on private property that is police patrolled specifically for trespassing (a large rail yard), and then exit by driving through another fence. Google Maps and Waze have no issues at all sending me the correct way.

Apple Maps suuuuuucks. And their inability to do anything with the feedback I send them is even suckier.

Agreed, I have no issues with Apple Maps. Haven’t been steered wrong by it in years. I use it a lot now that I have a CarPlay car stereo. But as @Ephraim said, it does depend on your location.

Are any of them perfect though? I have had Garmin and Google give me bad directions in the past as well.

The thing about google maps in my experience is that they’re much faster to fix mistakes, and respond to feedback, compared to apple maps and others.