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jimlongley wrote:

MadMonkey wrote:I barely escaped the iStuff cult a few years ago... like many I thought the iPhone would be the end-all phone, so I got a contract with AT&T and a 3G (against my better judgment since my first and only iPod had just died for some reason). After a few months, the 3GS was released, and iO4 was released which pretty much made my phone completely useless (lagged like crazy, took forever to simply make a call or open a browser). Couple that with the fact that after a couple of months, it would randomly reset itself when trying to update or add music (or anything involving being plugged into the computer), the charge connector shocked me (literally) because it fell apart, and I realized that doing any regular file transfer was either near-impossible or a complete PITA... I broke my contract, discovered pre-paid phones, got an Android-based phone and have been thrilled ever since. The iPhone is now my bedside MP3 player

ETA: An unintended benefit is that I can now charge my Bluetooth headset, phone and MP3 player in the car without needing a proprietary charger!

My wife's car charger has never worked, according to Apple the voltage in our carS must be too low. I really love that one.

I ran into that with some aftermarket USB chargers. Turned out the chargers themselves were not rated high enough to charge the phone. Replaced them with higher rated chargers and never had another issue.

jimlongley wrote:

RottenApple wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:iMessages may well have saved people money at one point, but that's beside the point. Apple is losing customers to other phones, especially the Samsung Galaxy and HTC phones. It appears that Apple doesn't care about preventing a problem they know exists, likely because they don't care about former customers.

Apple's system is aware whether an iMessage is delivered or not, so why not 1) take the intended recipient's phone number out of their database when the message doesn't complete; and/or 2) notify the existing iPhone customer sending the text that it could not be delivered? Apple does the latter when a former customer turns off iMessaging, so it's certainly possible. The only logical answer is Apple doesn't care, even about former customers even if it creates problems for existing customers.

A key factor in this problem is the fact that Apple is knowingly hindering communication between citizens. I'm amazed that no cell carrier has sued Apple.

Chas.

I'm sorry, Charles, but you are flat wrong. Apple cares about ALL it's customers, current and former. Former customers very well may become current customers at a later date. AppleCare has been rated #1 for customer service for 13 years in a row by Consumer Reports. There is not a single company on the planet that can approach their level of service. Yes, you do get the occasional advisor who is a jerk or just having a bad day, but those are pretty rare.

As for this issue, I know for a fact that AppleCare Senior Advisors have access to the iCloud backend and can easily disable/enable parts of the system for iCloud accounts. How do I know this? Because I WAS a Senior Advisor and did things like this daily. Sometimes, in particularly odd cases, I'd have to escalate it to engineering. But those were few and far between. And those are always, ALWAYS, followed up within 3 days. Also, if you are getting rid of an iPhone (heck, ANY phone for that matter), it is in your best interest to wipe it first. Regarding this issue, wiping the phone would automatically sever the iCloud connection and, hence, prevent this from being an issue. An in-operable iPhone wouldn't be able to do that of course, but again, a simple call to AppleCare can take care of that.

As for the one lady in that article who got a new phone number that had previously been tied to an iPhone, that is a sticky situation. She didn't have an iPhone. Had never had an iPhone. So Apple does indeed have a liability issue severing someone else's iMessages connection to that number. In that particular case, pretty much all Apple could do is let it wait until it's lack of use fell out of the system.

Oh, BTW, I'd be cautious claiming that Apple is "losing customers to other phones". Especially since iPhone sales account for 50% (approx) of all smart phone sales in the US *AND* worldwide markets. Completely anecdotal, but of my friends who switched to Android phones (including the Galaxy), all but 1 of them dumped the phones within the 14 day return period and went back to iPhone. *shrug*

Sorry, my wife's and stepdaughter's experiences with their Iphones and lack of response on Apple's part, plus the arrogance and rudeness of the customer service people indicate to me that the issue that was escalated to engineering fell somewhere outside the "always" (on the order of weeks without a response). We got very tired of the runaround and just gave up, but at next renewal time you can bet the Iphones are going in the trash where they belong. Applecare didn't care, so neither do we.

Did you call or did you go to the Apple store? I've never had an issue that needed to be resolved but I've also purchased and setup all of my iPhones at the Apple store. Have always received great service.

Good article comparing the 5S and the S4
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/ ... -galaxy-s4
by Andrew Williams 24 October 2013

"Verdict
In terms of pure specs, the iPhone 5S doesn't appear to have a huge upper hand over the Samsung Galaxy S4. However, look very close indeed and you'll see where those extra months of progress have gone. The various tech tweaks and the more efficient CPU make the 5S the most technologically impressive phone."

"The Galaxy S4 sounds more powerful, but it is not. Benchmarks show that the iPhone 5S is a significantly more powerful phone, and it's also the first 64-bit phone produced."

"The Samsung Galaxy S4 has experienced a few problems. Its battery has been the biggest issue. There have been reports of batteries draining down very quickly, and even of them swelling up. Samsung has responded (always a sign that an issue is serious) by offering battery replacements to any owners of Galaxy S4s affected by the problem."

Battery life has always been a major decision factor for me. I have had 3 iPhones over the years and every one of them has out preformed all of the android based phones that my coworkers have purchased. As you can see from the quote above, the battery has been a major concern for the S4. That alone is all I need to pass on this phone. I can use my phone heavily throughout the day without needing to recharge. That ability for me is non-negotiable.

Said all that to say this, do I like the way Apple does everything? No. Do I wish they would add some features available on other phones? Yes. Do they treat ex customers worse than other manufacturers? I have no clue. Is iPhone still the the most technologically impressive phone on the market? Absolutely. Will I be purchasing the 5S tomorrow? More than likely.

BTW, I wholeheartedly regret the day I brought home 2 Macs. I absolutely hate the things and can't wait to move back to the PC world. But I do love my iPad. Go figure.
As far as market share, that doesn't mean much to me. I'm not one to buy a product because it is what everyone else is using. I research and buy based on what best suits my needs.