Used to have android phones but iphone just works better for me and I do like the ecosystem. Yes its a walled garden but it works pretty damn well and reliably.
I actually switched from Android to iPhone maybe a year and a half ago, after I got an iPad to take notes on for university and really enjoyed using it.
- I hate Google
- I mostly like how iOS works
- I mostly don’t like how Android works, it has a lot of rough edges and jank (imo, partially resulting from stock apps sucking or just not being there at all but there not being enough low level access for third party apps to provide a well integrated replacement)
- Shortcuts/Automation is amazing
- Builtin Calendar/Contacts/Reminders apps are amazing and especially lets me connect to my DAV server without any hassle
- Nobody has built anything that comes close to Apple’s cross-device interactions (but I guess that’s also Apple’s and Google’s fault for locking the systems down)
- A consistent look and feel across the system is very important to me and iOS apps seem to care more about that. Even Google’s own apps used different visual styles sometimes last I used it
- The hardware and OS looks nice without being overly flashy, it just hits that sweet spot of “pleasant design”
- If I want to develop apps I really don’t want to touch anything related to Java
I originally switched because there was still a small flagship iPhone. However I stayed because it works just fine and iMessage worked better than SMS for whatever that time period was before people moved to other messaging apps.
Now I use an Android phone for work and don’t really see enough advantage for me to switch.
I don’t really care about phones and my parents give me their old iPhones for free.
I think there is a core reason for everyone. Strong reliable basics.
I want to FOSS everything and I moved to a Samsung phone as a start but even basic things such as weather app are not good. There is a weather widget for Samsung but no stand alone app for some reason.
Other things like apple notes, I don’t even know which cloud based note taking app can replace that, Obsidian is a hassle to sync, OneDrive is slow as hell, Google keep is pretty much the only viable alternative.
Then I have to look for a to-do list app again same problems, I don’t want a subscription and Microsoft To-do is literally the only option with online sync that I could find.
Now there are things like Apple’s Journal app, like… there is pretty much nothing that is both free and reliable. I am even open to one time purchase options but I feel everything is a free tier with subscription options.
Apple literally does one thing, strong reliable basics. Their notes app is simple as hell, but it works reliably and I know it is not randomly going to disappear/get dropped in 2 years.
My Samsung phone shipped with Samsung Notes on it, which works perfectly as a basic notes app and while not FOSS, so far as I can tell if you haven’t logged into a Samsung account the contents stay local. You can also just deny internet permissions to the app if you’re paranoid about it. But if you want a cloud sync it supports that with a Samsung account, can’t speak on that feature very much as I don’t use it.
Accuweather has both an app and a widget I’ve been using with zero problems for almost a decade.
I use Keep Notes for cloud sync notes and to-do lists shared in real time with my partner and family.
I don’t use a Journal app, but from some brief searching Obsidian seems to do most of what you’ll want out of it, and could also serve as a generic notes app.
I either already had all of these installed or, in the case of Obsidian, found it within about 2 minutes of brief searching. (Looked up what the Journal app does -> “hmm, this sounds like Onenote” -> there is no Libre office Onenote alternative -> didn’t Evernote used to be good? -> Evernote has enshittified, Obsidian is the best rated replacement).
At the risk of maybe sounding like an asshole, I really don’t understand your complaints here. All of these suggestions either came baked into my OS or were very easy to find on the app store. Keep Notes was the only one I had to be introduced to and only that because I had no use for a multi-user-sync list or notes app beforehand.
