

Wozniak praising Android over iPhone limitations - larrydag
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/17/woz_praises_android_highlights_iphone_limitations/
Likes Android for its openness to dev, better software.  iPhone is still better UX.
======
pgbovine
I don't see why anyone expects Woz to be a die-hard rabid fanboy of all of
Apple's products ... he hasn't been involved in Apple's product development
for almost 30 years, and he's obviously not someone to blindly evangelize
based on marketing hype. Now if s/Woz/JonyIve/g then this article would be
more noteworthy.

~~~
orenmazor
I came in here to post this. after reading Woz's biography and now Jobs', its
clearer than ever that this type of article is totally pointless.

~~~
drhowarddrfine
Absolutely. Apparently, Wozniak was not one you wanted to get advice from.

~~~
drhowarddrfine
Heh. Obviously some of us read the books and at least four have not.

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thoughtsimple
Woz is a hacker at heart. He is always going to find Apple's limitations on
iOS apps annoying. People read too much into his statements. He is a very
straightforward guy. If he really believed that an Android phone was superior,
he would say that without dissembling.

He complains about being misquoted all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if
that happens again.

------
sjs
The way this article is written and the way they use the word "fanboy"
highlights their bias much more than anyone else's. They have the makings of
an interesting article, but instead of writing an interesting story or adding
any insight they decided to make it a versus thing. Yay, just what the web
needs. :/

~~~
sbuk
That's The Register; the National Enquirer of IT news reporting, which is not
fair on the Enquirer.

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tvon
This seems to be an even shittier re-hashing of the Dan Lyons article (which
is itself pretty trollish):
[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/14/even-woz-
th...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/14/even-woz-thinks-the-
android-bests-the-iphone.html)

I tend to agree with Woz, but his comments are painted with a very childish
brush in these articles.

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antirez
You should be a non native English speaker with a strong accent as I'm to see
the big difference in speech recognition between the two. Android voice
recognition works 99% of times, Siri 50% or less. Maybe with native speakers
the difference is less radical.

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Terretta
If your job is "doing" technology, there's something to be said for things
that let you just "use" it without having to "do" it.

The iPhone or iPad let you just be a user with very little cognitive load.

If you want to tinker with your handset even while you're spending your day or
maybe even weekend tinkering with servers, that's a different story. Android's
definitely the tinker's tartare.

~~~
babarock
The tinker's tartare would at least come with root access. That "thing" I have
running on my Samsung is anything but hacker-friendly. Instead it does a
perfect job of feeding Google's advertisements as well as the crap both the
manufacturer and my data provider independently installed.

If that "thing" wants to be the hacker's tartare, maybe it would give me
access to its bootloader, show open drivers and not call me a "pirate" for
circumventing their laughable restrictions.

It would also allow me to manipulate the Linux it claims to deliver the way I
want it, the way 40 years of Unix culture taught me.

Apple's gadgets may be a hacker's nightmare, but Androids are far from being
the answer.

~~~
juliano_q
I disagree. Samsung is being very sympathetic with hackers tinkering with
their devices. They never locked the bootloader like HTC and Motorola did, and
they are always in touch with relevant members of the android community, like
cyanogen and supercurio. If you are not even willing to root a samsung device,
that is a dead simple thing to do, you are not really into tinkering for the
device. Is unrealistic to expect that anyone will give rooted devices to every
single user, a "regular" non-geek user can destroy the device in minutes
granting root access to the wrong apps or deleting system resources.

~~~
babarock
Let's define what root access means. It's not a fancy "feature" that only
"advanced" users will know how to use. You don't really "own" a device unless
you have root access. The way I see it, "non-root" users are the feature
preventing harm, not the other way around.

How would you feel if Toshiba didn't grant you root access on your
laptop/mac/machine? It is as destructive, isn't it?

~~~
jsight
I see your point, but I think the post that you are responding to is clear
that the Samsung bootloader is unlocked. If the bootloader is unlocked, you
can do anything that you want with the device (including installing the tools
to use root access).

------
purplefruit
The title is a bit misleading. It ends with him saying that he thinks the
Iphone is best for most people. He really just praised Android for a few
features but maintained that the Iphone is a better product in his mind.

~~~
thetrendycyborg
for those "scared of complexity" or "scared of computers altogether."

~~~
raganwald
I’m no scared of complexity, I’m scared of yak-shaving. That’s why I
personally use OS X and iOS. YMMV...

~~~
tikhonj
I think implying that Linux leads to "yak-shaving" is disingenuous. I've found
the standard Ubunutu and KDE distros are completely usable as is; there is no
_need_ to change anything. Just because you _can_ fiddle all you want does not
mean you have to.

Moreover, my relatively tech-unsophisticated roommate recently switched to
Ubunutu; he has had no problems running the _completely_ standard setup (I
think he hasn't even changed the background).

On the other hand, on OS X, if something genuinely annoys you (like the menu-
bar at the top) you would find it very difficult to fix.

------
danso
In this Lifehacker interview, Woz says he's not a Linux user:
[http://lifehacker.com/5222989/how-apple-co+founder-steve-
woz...](http://lifehacker.com/5222989/how-apple-co+founder-steve-wozniak-gets-
things-done)

> _I never got into Linux. I swear to God, it's only lack of time. I'm past
> the years of my life where I can really dig into something like running a
> Linux system. I'm very sympathetic to the whole idea; Linux people always
> think the way I want to think._

In another article, I read that he was dismissive of the whole specs
race...this is not necessarily at odds with people who build their own
computers, but a recognizance that simplicity has its own advantages for a
hacker who wants to operate on a different level.

------
saturdaysaint
It's hard to say much when Woz is so vague.

I think it's fair to say that his opinion of Android Voice Commands vs Siri is
far from universal. Nuance's voice recognition is widely regarded as state-of-
the-art, but of course this can vary depending on one's accent. There's a
pretty fair shootout on the "commands" features here, and Siri generally comes
ahead - [http://searchengineland.com/head-to-head-siri-vs-google-
voic...](http://searchengineland.com/head-to-head-siri-vs-google-voice-
actions-96998)

~~~
hack_edu
The article you cite is from October, which I assume means it compares the 4S
to Android 3.x. Judging by the screenshots, its also on a non-Nexus phone, for
what its worth.

The voice command functions and interface were completely overhauled in Ice
Cream Sandwich.

~~~
saturdaysaint
Where do you see that? I saw that Google's speech-to-text now updates the text
inline, definitely a nice feature, but no changes to the voice actions (it
still operates on static, specific commands) or anything in the ballpark of
Siri's interface.

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kruhft
A non-rooted android is pretty useless. I was trying to find a way to disable
the volume buttons on my GF's Nexus S, only to find that _I_ with my rooted
phone, could just edit a configuration file, but was completely unable to do
it on her non-rooted phone. This is just one example, but I've run into many
other hurdles trying to do simple tasks due to the 'security' design they've
put into Android. Not having a root account by default on a device is
handcuffs, whether it's Android or IOS.

~~~
untog
Riiight, but disabling the volume buttons on a phone is an extreme edge case
in the functionality one might expect from their phone. Non-rooted Android
still has 99.9% of the functionality the average user expects.

 _but I've run into many other hurdles trying to do simple tasks due to the
'security' design they've put into Android_

Maybe I'm cynical, but I think that the average user absolutely needs this
security design. They'd probably turn off the volume buttons by mistake then
think their phone is broken.

~~~
kruhft
If you keep treating average users as average users they will always
be...average users.

~~~
VMG
If you start treating them as system administrators and software engineers
they will be frustrated users.

After that they will be users of a competing product.

~~~
kruhft
Giving the ability to do system administration tasks on a device you own is
not treating people like system administrators. It's giving someone the
ability to work on, modify and learn about (and break (and fix)) their device
if they so choose.

~~~
kruhft
Yikes, one would think that a site called Hacker News would be a bit nicer to
someone talking about enabling people through learning about technology. No
wonder I started my own version: <http://kruhft.dyndns.org>

~~~
kruhft
Reply to untog: yes it's a plug for my site, deal with it. With all the meta-
discussion lately about _this_ site and how it's gone downhill, maybe I feel
it's time to try and create a new one that lives a bit more up to the name
Hacker.

No, the average user won't be a sysadmin, but what about their kids? (Oh god,
did I just do a think of the children?)

~~~
kruhft
Watching my karma on this conversation has been interesting. It's gone from
+10 above to -2 below what it was before. Must be a touchy subject.

~~~
Karunamon
It's got nothing to do with your thoughts as much as the fact that you're
blatantly spamming.

~~~
kruhft
Funny that the one post I made that pointed to my site has only gotten 1 down
vote.

~~~
kruhft
So far...

