

Galaxy S4: This Really Says It All - shawndumas
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/04/24/stern-s4

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sdoering
Having a mother, who recently got an iPad, I really doubt the claim, that the
apple-product has an easy-mode.

Sorry, but she is not very computer-literate, but i have never, ever been that
much of a help-center-agent via phone (we live some distance apart), then
after she got her iPad.

No, for a normal person, there is no such thing as an iDevice-easy mode. After
she got the hang of it, after she understood the logic behind doing things the
apple-iDevice way, she did not need my support that often. But till then, it
was very eye-opening to see a normal person use a device like this.

~~~
r00fus
Anecdotal response - my mother-in-law could use her gifted iPad more fluidly
than I could after just a few hours with the device (and me to assist). She's
a seamstress, and could never quite grok her PC (or her Mac), but she flows
between apps using gestures, and cut/pastes and uses Facetime, iMessage and
Photostream quite frequently (mostly to check in on her grand-daughters).

Perhaps iOS is easiest for those who never really cared about or understood
desktop/WiMP paradigm in the first place?

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kamjam
Seriously? The article look very much like a little kiddie troll post.

I recently considered "upgrading" to an iPhone and it's inability to be
customized really confused me. I was so used to having shortcuts on my
"desktop" screens, a separate apps list, a task manager, back button/home
button, power buttons in the pull down menu that I found the iPhone incredibly
difficult to use.

But each to their own, people who want the "simplicity" of an iPhone should
not buy the S4. Simple right.

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ZeroGravitas
I remember my first mac having an easy mode, back in the pre-OS X days. And
didn't they add one to Mac OS X too?

I guess that "really says it all" if you've got some pre-concieved notions
about something that you desperately need re-inforced.

edit: Googled it. Both were called "Simple Finder".

~~~
cjensen
iOS also has a "lock down for child" mode.

There is however a difference between a simple mode designed for children and
a simple mode added simply because the original UI design is poor.

I'd point out that this is a lesson for anyone creating a new idea, but that
lesson is taken for granted in our industry. Not really sure why anyone is
bothering to defend Samsung's poor UI.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
In Mac OS 8, the simple finder was not a kids mode. It was, as I recall, and
Wikipedia confirms:

"Simple Finder, an option which reduces Finder menus to basic operations, in
order to avoid overwhelming new users."

I don't know about Mac OS X, a Mac OS X Tiger guide suggests that "The Simple
Finder would be fine for most kindergartners, if it allowed them to delete the
files they created. In its current state, it is almost worthless. It should
not be confused with the far more valuable Simple Finder UI that was
introduced in Mac OS 8."

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themstheones
I've not used the Galaxy S4, but I've found android's learning curve to be
really gentle. It is easy to use the phone out of the box, and pretty easy to
discover the more advanced features (or google them if necessary).

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da_n
Having owned an iPhone 4 and an iPad:

1\. No easy way I could open a document in iCloud on my main computer, in an
application not made by Apple. iCloud is completely opaque, which I think
makes it harder to use. 2\. No way to attach a file to an email you're already
begun composing on iOS (which is not a picture or video). Do I need to do 3
emails to send 3 documents? 3\. No easy way to share from one app to another
without having to use the unofficial iOS filesystem (Dropbox). 4\. No way to
change the default email or web app to something else. 5\. No way to find out
what is using up all my iCloud storage in the 'other' category, so I don't
need to purchase expensive iCloud storage. 6\. No way to allow an app to run
in background, for example so it can periodically sync and doesn't have to
waste my time doing that when I launch it (Pocket is much better on Android
for this very reason).

There was more but these were the things which stuck out in my mind. Also, my
family who pretty much all use iPhones and iPads would disagree that it is
easy. My mum doesn't use the notifications pane, she hates the email because
of the attachment issue, she hates the text selection and copying. I can't
find any fault with her issues.

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jnevill
Article: For real smartphone beginners, Samsung has added an Easy Mode

Gruber: ..The iPhone has an easy mode too. It’s called “Using the iPhone”﻿

Gruber admits the iPhone is for beginners. Nuff said.

~~~
r00fus
Yes, it's a tool. I really don't want my phone to be some
customization/hacking project - I do enough of that on my desktop and servers.

Perhaps this is a philosophy issue. Do you want a project you can sink lots of
time and effort into, or a tool that gets out of your way for the most part?

~~~
da_n
Black and white argument, the fact is Android has the option to
hack/customise, it is not a requirement.

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lambersley
If you've used an Android smartphone, you will find the iPhone very dumb.

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nsfyn55
I mean theoretically the old candy bar phones are much simpler than the
iPhone. 10 numbers, #, *, call, hangup.

There is simple and then there is too simple.

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sp332
Yes, and that's why people don't like iPhones.

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Gormo
In other words, the Samsung phone has both an easy mode _and_ an advanced
mode, while the iPhone has _only_ an easy mode that you're stuck with, no
matter what you want to do or how much complexity you're willing to handle (or
even prefer to putative 'simplicity').

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lampe3
the problem is the iphone has ONLY a easy mode...

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kevingadd
Anyone who says everything about an iPhone is easy or obvious hasn't ever
tried to do sophisticated things on an iPhone without prior knowledge. I
remember when I got my first-gen iPhone there were multiple things that were
unclear to me, whether it was 'swipe to reveal the delete button' or 'long-
press this random thing to reveal more options'.

Apple fans can ramble all they want about how everything is simple and easy in
Apple products, but eventually products get complicated. That's why Macs grew
those awful hidden bits of complexity called Context Menus and you find them
all over in OS X apps now, and that's why features like multitasking on iOS
are hidden behind increasingly arcane and obscure actions. Double-tap the home
button? Shake to undo? Yeah, defend that stuff all you want: Sometimes good UX
design still involves compromises.

~~~
cjensen
You assert "Apple fans can ramble all they want about how everything is simple
and easy" without evidence.

This is incorrect. For example, many pro-Apple commenters have discussed how
the "home" button on iOS devices is a horror show of modality which performs
about at least five different actions.

You also dismiss arcane and obscure actions too easily. There is nothing wrong
with providing an obscure action as a "keyboard accelerator" so long as there
is also an obvious way to perform the same action too. You're examples of
"double-tap the home button" and "shake to undo" are good examples where this
principle is not obeyed: there is no simple alternative and is, as you say, a
UI compromise.

~~~
kevingadd
I'm responding to the original article. This should have been clear to you by
the fact that my comment was at the root?

I don't disagree with your thoughts on the difference between scenarios where
a bad verb is chosen as a shortcut and scenarios where a bad verb is the only
way to do something. However, that still isn't relevant to my core point,
which is that the iPhone has been and continues to be a place where important
actions can only be performed with poorly chosen, confusing, undiscoverable
verbs.

This is hardly unique to Apple, to be sure, but again, I was responding to the
original article's smug assertion.

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tthomas48
I like to call the iPhone's "Easy Mode" - "You can't do that".

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oftenwrong
This could be taken as both criticism and praise.

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olgeni
> The iPhone has an easy mode too. It’s called “Using the iPhone”.

My iPhone also has a "sitting in the drawer while the Geniuses work on IMAP
IDLE" mode.

~~~
badkangaroo
My iPhone just has "testing games" mode... i use my android for Unity
development, then only when I need to do i find some ios thing to check it's
doing what it's supposed to. sigh...

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joshka
iTroll

