Move to iOS

It has happened - I have an iPhone now :D. USB-C was the deciding factor (or - the lack of USB-C previously had been deterring me from buying an iPhone). So thanks the EU! And of course everybody agrees Apple sticking to the lightning port on iPhones for so long was just stupid.

My initial thoughts are generally good, some very good, and some surprisingly bad (although the bad ones a just minor, but unexpected...).

Probably the worst part was the initial setup. I wanted to move my data over (both from the Android phone and the iOS iPad) and I read about the data transfer bug in factory fresh iPhones, so did as requested and right after unboxing plugged the iPhone to iTunes. That is like time travel. iTunes was never great but now it is exactly the same like it was 20 years ago, so considering the overall progress this is terrible. But the phone was updated and I started setting it up. It recognized the iPad (the "device" nearby) and froze for more than an hour.

During that time I reminded myself the issues I had transferring my Mom's WhatsApp from Android to iPhone several years ago and started learning how to handle the transfer now. All sources were pointing to the "Move to iOS" Android app (made by Apple), which had a requirement to be run when the target iPhone is in factory fresh condition only, so I had to interrupt the (already frozen for an hour) iPad to iPhone transfer process. Then I got confused by the fact Apple does not consider an Android phone "a device". Yes only Apple's phones and tablets are "devices"... What an inclusive attitude!

So after skipping the "look for a DEVICE nearby" screen (I was hoping the Android phone with the Move to iOS app would show up there) I finally was able to transfer the WhatsApp chats. And then the rest of the setup process went uneventfully. Of course I had to reactivate a number of apps like banking, 2 factor authenticators, the digital signature app and so on.  

So far the best experience has been the keyboard. And this is a statement from a die hard physical BlackBerry guy. I'd say the iPhone on-screen keyboard is better compared to my old BlackBerry.

There are three factors here why the iPhone keyboard is so good:

1. It has always had marginally lower latency and marginally better touch precision, compared to Android. Always since the very first iPhones. This contributes to significantly less typing errors.
2. There have been significant keyboard improvements in iOS 17. They are invisible but make the keyboard waaay better. Supposedly some transformer - based AI is in the works under the hood. Which is quite probable.
3. iOS 17 supports simultaneous Polish/English (which I use a lot, with the habit of mixing the languages in a single sentence) without switching the language at all! Like my old BlackBerry (dual language keyboard was not a native Android feature but developed independently for the BlackBerry phones).

The other major improvement for me is the WiFi calling feature. It allows the phone to continue to be a phone even without cell coverage. I live in a place where I have coverage only by a window or outside. At the same time the fiber Internet coupled with the latest WiFi clocks 500Mbps (wireless!). Yes Android supports WiFi calling too, but this is carrier - dependent and my carrier (1Global) offers that on iOS only. And it works very well.

I will surely have follow-ups to this blog in the future, highlighting the minor ups and downs but so far so good - USB-C has won :)