Hacker News Reader

Comment by m3kw9 | Hacker News Reader

Get an iPhone, swallow your pride and just get one.

Anecdotes work both ways. Apple recently locked and forced a reset of Apple ID accounts for no reason.[0] This happened to my elderly mother at an incredibly inconvenient time, making her phone completely unusable, and the phone was set up for her by my elderly father, who had had strokes since then, and couldn't remember the account password, and had lost access to the email address. I spent hours on the phone begging Apple to help, and they could do nothing but direct me toward recovery Web pages that had long, mandatory waiting periods. It took weeks for my mom's phone to no longer be a useless brick, and it very nearly didn't work (they already denied one request without explanation). Even sending them proof of purchase from the mobile carrier, as they demanded, was rejected. All in the name of "protecting" the user.

I provided the link to the Forbes article to multiple representatives, including a senior advisor. None of them admitted to knowing anything about it, even a week later. It was reported on various Apple news sites as well.

So, no, I cannot in good conscience recommend buying an Apple device. Even if you pay for it, it effectively does not belong to you, and Apple may suddenly disable it at any time, for any reason, without warning.

0: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/04/28/apple-id...

Morale of the story: Don't use face/fingerprint unlock. Sooner or later you/they will need to use the password anyway.

Wouldn’t face or fingerprint be more likely to be useable when memory issues strike (like they did for the OP)?

The device in question had no locking enabled of any kind. The associated Apple ID account was locked by Apple without warning, and so the phone itself was locked for any use other than emergency calls.

> All in the name of "protecting" the user.

It’s a bit of a bind though isn’t it? If they loosen their rules, someone will exploit it. Where is the balance?

Complying with the user preferences would be a good one.

My elderly dad doesn't use his iPhone for anything sensitive and it is not even password protected. If that phone gets lost I will replace it. He doesn't need his apple ID to be "protected" by Apple this way.

It seems like they still haven’t said what happened. I was in a restaurant at the time and first I knew was my Apple Pay wouldn’t work. Awkward is an understatement… thankfully I just happened to have my wallet on me that time, I don’t always though!

They now have a new way to recover lost passwords, is called “recovery contacts” and allows that contact to recover your mothers phone

AFAICT, this feature requires the recovery contact to also use an Apple device, which does not help us. It seems like another way to try to lock users into using Apple.

Its interesting to me to think that when Steve Jobs was still around, the iPhone was always on the cutting edge of design and tech features. You constantly heard the tech media saying how far ahead Apple was of its competitors in terms of features and camera specs.

Once Jobs passed and Tim Cook took over, everything changed. Now they're years behind other companies in terms of features and specs. It took them years to have wireless charging, even longer to have simple widgets - stuff Android phones had as standard features for years.

I've stayed away from them for the reasons you pointed out and the fact they just seem so far behind, even on features that have become standard on every other manufacturers handsets. Now its painted as "Apple sees what other companies are doing. They sit and wait and let other companies vet features and tech before integrating them into their handsets - its a very smart approach."

Copy and paste on iPhones, anyone?

Apple was for a looong time known to not honor Norwegian consumer protection laws. They've gotten better, but they've been worst in class here for a decade. Edit: two decades. Found this article from 2006 about how they refused to repair ipods after a year, even shops selling Apple stuff used to have problems because they had to fix things at a loss themselves https://www.vg.no/forbruker/teknologi/i/8300w/apple-og-forbr...

I actually believe that's why Apple adoption was fairly slow compared to the hype I was reading about in other countries. No official Apple stores, and most electronic chains didn't want to touch them.

Top consumerism right here: being proud of a purchase.

I don't know who started this, I only remember that one could be proud of an achievement or of making something. Being proud of purchasing something; it just sounds as impossible as drinking space shuttles.

Nobody was talking about "being proud of purchasing something". What you replied to was an allusion to some people being proud of refusing to buy an Apple product.

The phrase "swallow your pride" is literally a call to abandon pride as a motivating factor.

I never mentioned Apple. Sure, proud of _not_ purchasing is another level of this, and then _accusing_ someone of being proud to (not) purchase rounds the circle I guess.

It's amazing.

I never said that you mentioned Apple.

Pride? It's a just a phone.

Man, the cult-like aspect of Apple is such a turn off...

It’s the opposite :-) the poster said “swallow your pride” … the cult-like aspect of Apple haters is such a turn off

Is English not your first language? "Swallow your pride" means giving up the pride.

> Man, the cult-like aspect of Apple is such a turn off...

It does not sound like this was intentionally ironic, but it works.

> Is English not your first language? "Swallow your pride" means giving up the pride.

To me, it read like GP is criticising as cult-like the very suggestion of pride being the motivation behind buying or not buying a particular phone.

Exactly correct, hence the "it's just a phone". English is my fourth language and I speak/understand it just fine, thanks.

Apple does plenty of anti-consumer stuff too. My last Apple product is my ipod nano. I swore off them after they shipped a firmware update specifically closing the loophole that allowed me to manage the song library without itunes. I have a whole separate rant about itunes. I replaced it with a sandisk player for a third of the price. Surprisingly, it worked much more smoothly, had fewer annoyances, and had an FM radio.

Apple phones are too large. Not sure what I'll do when my 12 mini reaches eol, I guess an SE but feels like a step back.

Yeah with AppleCare+ both of these people would have walked out with a working phone.

How is paying extra a solution to the problem of having to pay to get their phone fixed? Insurances exists for other brands as well (or through the store you buy from).

AppleCare is just seamless and works well though.

In terms of warranty I’ve walked into Apple stores and had stuff just replaced our fixed in store once they look up the SN

You Android users know what I mean

Reply on news.ycombinator.com