I switched from Android to iOS a few years ago. I used to be deep into Android customization - custom ROMs, custom icon packs, etc. But today, I feel that iOS and Android offer pretty all the features that I could ever want. My deciding factors when I switched:

- iOS UI animations are significantly better

- access to iMessage

- Apple got around to adding their version of "always on display"

- I turn the vast majority of notifications off, so Android's better notification management stopped mattering to me

- It felt like Google kept bending Android towards iOS anyway (camera app, moving away from the 3 button navigation)

> iOS UI animations are significantly better

And if you don't like them: tough luck. They're mandatory.

Well, technically...

    Accessibility -> Motion -> Reduce Motion

I also usually turn off transparency, to reduce GPU usage by a negligible amount.

I don't like Reduce Motion as it still forces you to wait through the half second of delay while it slowly fades things. I just want all animations deleted to avoid delaying the action itself. You used to be able to do this on a jailbroken phone by setting the global animation duration to be like zero or something, but of course Apple basically won the war on us "users" having any control on the devices we buy from them, or should I say, 'license the privilege of using'?

Well, try it. It reduces motion, but it does not eliminate all animations.

I turned off all animations on my Android phone, and now each time I have to use iOS (for development) it feels like swimming through molasses.

you can "Reduce Motion" and "Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions" under accessibility. Not sure if that's what is being referred to though.

You can disable them in Accessibility Settings.

One example I can think of is the "immer" package / the "produce" function:

https://immerjs.github.io/immer/

https://immerjs.github.io/immer/api

The API page lists numerous functions, but the bottom of the page says "In most cases, the only thing you need to import from Immer is produce".

My thought is, immer does something novel, but the vast majority of functionality can be covered in one function.

I think another problem with the "left-pad" situation is the lacking "JavaScript standard library", but that situation is improving over time, especially now that IE11 is deprecated so it's a reasonable expectation to develop against Chrome / Firefox / Safari which are actively maintained and continue to implement new JavaScript features.

I love svelte too, but I would argue that the way svelte extends JavaScript by making reactivity a language primitive pushes svelte beyond "the old web, just better".

https://gist.github.com/Rich-Harris/0f910048478c2a6505d1c321...

https://svelte.dev/docs/svelte-components#script-3-$-marks-a...

https://svelte.dev/docs/svelte-components#script-4-prefix-st...

That's where this part kicks in:

    "It takes all the lessons from the last decade and a half and distills them into familiar web development patterns."

That includes reactivity and state management—two concepts that weren't adequately covered by the old web.

I don't think Siri's quality is a good indication of Apple's ability to come out with a successful LLM product in the future.

One thing I think about is how Alexa is apparently considered a failure at Amazon (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-co...). Alexa devices sell well but people only use them for trivial use cases that are hard to monetize.

I speculate that Apple doesn't see a need to invest in Siri because the market has shown that digital assistants don't synergize with "services" that well.

Additionally, I don't think that Apple will need to leverage the "Siri codebase" as a starting point for releasing a compelling LLM codebase - maybe voice recognition, but who knows.

Apple has shown through other product launches that they will take a "wait and see" approach and release something when its ready.

They keep releasing new hardware that could really use a much better Siri (AirPods, HomePod, Watch, and now Vision) so the ongoing lack of a quality voice UI is embarrassing.

I very much think it has to be in their near future.

If that's the case, why do they keep releasing HomePods?

I think this is a fair point. Taking a look at the product page for the $300 HomePod (https://www.apple.com/homepod-2nd-generation/), I would argue that the HomePod is marketed more as a speaker with Siri integration rather than a Siri device with a really good speaker.

The bullet points I see on the above page, in order, are - really good speaker - Siri integration - integrates with Apple ecosystem for playing music - smart home integration - "private and secure" whatever that means

So, it's not clear to me that "a better Siri" would necessarily result in selling X amount more speakers to make Siri a worthy investment while investing in better audio technology does because it's the main selling point for HomePods.

HomePods "synergize" well with Apple Music subscriptions.

I also think they're a protective measure to keep people from getting someone else's smart device, which might lead you into someone else's ecosystem.

They’re a fabulous Bluetooth speaker if nothing else

Homepods are great to pair with Apple TVs for stereo sound.

A major issue with Apple and LLM is that they pledged data privacy. I don’t think they’re training on anything special.

I really enjoyed this article. I would recommend others check out "Advice That Actually Worked For Me" by the same author. This same topic is mentioned in #6. https://nabeelqu.substack.com/p/advice