I desperately pray for a day when I can look at comments on an Android or iOS story without seeing likely fictitious anecdotes (why does anyone who has ever used an iPhone seems to think they are in some sort of unique, privileged position to pass judgment, as an aside?).
This is a recurring problem that undermines any ability to discuss these platforms without noisy conversations.
Your observations are not meaningful or unique or valuable, nor are your subjective comments (e.g. build quality) interesting. Let everyone who feels some compelling need to inject these useless mini-reviews in every discussion know this.
To address your aside, if they're referring to their personal experience with an Android phone and they've also used an iPhone, they're more qualified in passing judgement over someone who hasn't touched both phones. Stop trying to glaze his comment with a brushstroke of snobbery - that is the most irritating quality I encounter in circles such as these.
they're more qualified in passing judgement over someone who hasn't touched both phones
I would argue that it isn't true at all: People who are accustomed to one thing (whether it is taste in wine or acclimatization to an interface) tend to go into another thing from the basis that the things that are new are unimportant, and the things that are different are wrong. See: Every Facebook interface change. Actually simply see almost any interface change ever.
Coming from an iPhone is not an enlightened position, and it only holds relative merit in discussions with other people perhaps moving from an iPhone. To the general population it is meaningless.
However what I was speaking specifically to is the odd belief among the iPhone community that they have been exposed to what is right, and their subjective opinions are henceforth objective instead of just personal opinion.
Let me give you a perfect example -- the design of the Galaxy S III. It was openly mocked among the iPhone community as being a device designed by lawyers: It is unlike the iPhone, therefore it is a wrong design that must have been compromised to differ as much as possible. I'm not really terribly sensitive to designs of devices, so I had no personal opinion, but I have noticed that I keep hearing everyday normal people calling the Galaxy S III sexy. Isn't that bizarre? It was objectively called an ugly device by the people in the know, or so it seemed, only actual consumers think otherwise.
> I'm not really terribly sensitive to designs of devices, so I had no personal opinion, but I have noticed that I keep hearing everyday normal people calling the Galaxy S III sexy. Isn't that bizarre?
What's bizarre is that your "perfect example" is but another personal anecdote, the very thing you've spent the whole thread raging against.
That would be a good counterpoint if I cast that observation out of nowhere, vindicating the GS III. In reality, however, we are specifically talking about anecdotes and personal opinion, hence anecdotes and personal opinion. The entire point being that it is all noise.
Another problem, besides the ones huggyface is pointing out, is that if everyone decided to share their experience on a story like this, there will be 4000 comments.
I don't think many such anecdotes are fictitious like huggyface does--I think people just enjoy sharing their experiences--but I do think they are intensely irrelevant except en masse, and forums like these are not the place for that.
There are countless very thorough professional reviews of the Galaxy S III available. There are countless very thorough reviews of Android proper. Many of them by people who have actually touched both platforms extensively, and many extensively compare the two. Personal, usually agenda-driven, subjective summaries are not useful as as reply to stories like this. They simply aren't.
Rather, I think huggyface is saying that slandering a product without facts/evidence is not very productive and is better to have off of HN.
It would be nice if more people on HN back up their claims with facts and sources. Instead, people bring up anecdotal evidence and leave it at that.
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Far less intuitive
This is kind of hand-wavy. Can you expand on this and say what you don't like about it?
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Opinions are great, but they leave a lot to be desired, I think, unless you have a feel for the person.
If I know that you are very critical about particular UI elements and that you like iOS for specific features that are missing on Android, then great! I'll trust you with your opinion. But I don't know you, so fleshing out this anecdotal story into something more factual would be much better for me.
"While everyone has the right to have questions and theories, only believable people have the right to have opinions. If you can't successfully ski down a difficult slope, you shouldn't tell others how to do it, though you can ask questions about it and even express your views about possible ways if you make it clear that you are unsure." -- #194 from Principles by Ray Dalio
But compared to the iPhone, it's far less intuitive, it's build quality is crap, and I can't make it though a day on a charge
Ignoring hilariously subjective statements on intuitive interfaces or build quality (that fuzzy measure that has nothing to do with actual suitability to task or hardiness, but instead ends up being a reflection of what people have been told build quality is. If you make a hammer out of glass, is that superb built quality?), I'll focus on something more empirical -- battery life. I happen to have a GS III, and coincidentally I forgot to plug it in last night (it isn't the first time I've done this). I am currently on hour 29 off the charger, with medium to heavy use, with the battery at 33%. So what now? Do we wage a battle of anecdotes? Should we? Is that a productive use of HN?
The single objective measure you referred to is battery life, to which professionals have actual repeatable, regimented tests. You don't. Your statement on it is irrelevant.
This is a recurring problem that undermines any ability to discuss these platforms without noisy conversations.
Your observations are not meaningful or unique or valuable, nor are your subjective comments (e.g. build quality) interesting. Let everyone who feels some compelling need to inject these useless mini-reviews in every discussion know this.