[n8cpdx]

It will be hard, but I’m transitioning out of Apple ecosystem regardless of whether they improve.

Just like Windows 11, I get ads whether I want them or not - just got a push notification for a new financial product (!!!) despite going out of my way to opt out.

iOS 26 made my 16 Pro, practically brand new, feel slow. I upgraded because my 13 mini was slow, and I chose Apple in the first place because they had some of the best performing phones (especially cpu/gpu; they always had less ram but before llm it didn’t matter).

The keyboard is horrible, but I don’t trust Google or Microsoft keyboards either; I think my next phone will be graphene; just waiting to see who their new hardware partner is.

I loved Apple TV because it was fast; under 26 it is slow.

I chose Mac for best in class hardware. That is unfortunately unchanged; really hoping snapdragon X 2 elite has good Linux support.

My Apple Watch, despite doing nothing new it didn’t used to do, has also become slow and annoying, and its battery was never as good as it should have been. When I jump to Android I think garmin is probably the best choice, but maybe there are good wearables now. Unfortunately Android doesn’t have its act together re:built in health data database.

Replacing Athlytic and keeping my history will be one of the biggest challenges in the transition.

Competitors unfortunately still have huge blind spots even if some of the core experiences are better.

[brailsafe]

I've been an Android & Mac & Windows user for the last 15 years, (Windows just for gaming), iOS only on an old iPad, and have no plans to change that, but while I do have frustrations with all 3 systems, iOS is wildly irritating to me. Thankfully I've only been forced to use it on a phone for a short term work requirement, but my god I was happy to not have an iPhone in my life after that. Keyboard and notifications were unavoidably annoying to interact with. I've always loved Apple hardware though, and hope that they can turn things around on the mac software side

[tempestn]

I'm curious why my experience with Windows 11 is so different from what I regularly read. It was some years ago now, so I don't remember exactly what configuration steps I went through, but presumably I turned off ads when I first installed. And so, I don't get ads. I don't recall ever seeing an ad embedded in Windows. Are people talking about Edge (which I don't use) or inside the Microsoft Store (which I very rarely use, but I presume does have sponsored apps or whatever)? Or is this mostly people who don't use Windows, repeating what others have said? Or are these ads targeted at users who aren't me?

[daggersandscars]

There is a setting that turns off many of the notifications that irritate people.

Settings -> System -> Notifications. Scroll to the bottom, expand Additional settings. Uncheck "Suggest ways to get the most out of Windows and finish setting up this device" and "Get tips and suggestions when using Windows".

I get more prompts from macOS about Apple products than I get from Windows about Microsoft products after unchecking those two settings.

[pbmonster]

Your Windows 11 experience strongly, strongly depends on where you are. Are you inside the EU? 90% of the crap people complain about is simply illegal and you don't see any of it.

[seec]

People just like to hate on Windows. The home version has some issues and limitations, but if you are willing to invest in the Pro version, it's mostly fine, really.

There are still many complaints to be had, but the fact is that Windows does what it needs to do on a wide range of hardware without much hassle if you know what you are doing.

[4rt]

I've also never seen an ad in windows 11.

I did uninstall all of the weird apps like "News" "Weather" etc.

[thebruce87m]

> When I jump to Android I think garmin is probably the best choice, but maybe there are good wearables now. Unfortunately Android doesn’t have its act together re:built in health data database.

I have a Garmin Fenix 8 - the latest flagship. I love the look of the watch but it does not feel snappy to use in any way- significant lag after each button press. Not enough to make me immediately go back to an Apple Watch but I do miss the snappiness.

But the Connect app is actually pretty good in terms of a central place to look at the stats.

[dkarbayev]

Garmin Connect app is terrible. It's outdated, it doesn't cash anything at all - you have to have internet connection to see anything. They are pushing for Connect+ subscription. And their watches are getting more expensive without any real innovations in harware (most of new features you get, say, from Forerunner 570 or 970 probably could have been easily enabled on Forerunner 265 or 965 with software updates).

Coros has a nice app. A lot of elite athletes are seemingly switching to Coros wearables (especially the HR bicep band). Alas, it's slightly behind Garmin in terms of accuracy and functionality.

Suunto is similar to Coros - nice app, lower accuracy and less functions.

I've read a lot of complaints about Polar's Flow app - it is also outdated and the data is grouped so counterintuitively, it takes forever to find.

There's also Amazfit (AFAIK it's a subsidiary of Xiaomi?). I used their watch (GTR) a while ago and it was unremarkable, but I also weren't doing any sports back then so I can't judge it from the standpoint of activity tracking. They are Chinese company (as is Coros btw), which makes it slightly uncomfortable for me to share my health data with them.

In other words, if you find an ideal sports watch, please let me know!

[rationalist]

With Android (GrapheneOS), I can customize stuff on the phone that you can't customize with iOS.

It reminds me of Apple's 1984 commercial, except that Apple users are the ones sitting down, all looking identical, drinking the Kool-Aid from Big Brother.

[n8cpdx]

The irony is that things like HealthKit make it easy to build a system out of parts that just work together - my glucose monitor, watch, and scale all feed data into my nutrition tracking app seamlessly, and if I want an AI spin on the data, I use a separate app that reads the same data. Very hard to do that on Android.

My iPhone seamlessly adapts to my working context using focus modes automation - Android still doesn’t do that; maybe they have launchers with equivalent features.

Android makes it easy to customize the things I don’t want to customize, and hard to customize the things I do.

[nathan_douglas]

Which customizations do you find most beneficial?