(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
My entire life I’ve been reading news that only iPhones are cool, yet my social circles don’t care and have never said anything like this. I feel like this is a ‘Hello fellow kids’ type of investigative journalism, that is a secret apple ad.
Who the fuck calls Android devices “'Droids” unironically? This couldn’t have been real teenagers. Not ones from the past decade at the very least.
What you are referring to as droids is in fact Android/Linux, or as I’ve recently started calling it, Android+Linux.
…Good one! :)
No one gives a shit which phone you have.
Also, no one uses the term “droid”.
This article reads like “fellow kids” nonsense.
I got roasted by a room full of interns for having an android phone last week.
Idk what people use. I had two coworkers from another country ask why I don’t have an iPhone?
Yeah I could not care less. Seems beyond weird to me. Reminds me of the old video game console arguments in elementary school.
No one gives a shit which phone you have.
In high school, they absolutely do.
Like, the epitome of the high school experience is social peer pressure about dumb shit.
And this can have a huge effect on the market in 5 years time.
this must be a us thing, I’d say over half the people have in Ireland have iPhones but nobody cares really, if anything my custom rommed Poco f3 has gotten a bit of interest from a few friends
Same. I mean I haven’t been to highschool in a little over ten years, so I can’t say what kids are using these days. But here in Australia, none of us really cares about what phone you have. Though I think most of us were Samsung users.
There should probably be a sticky post on every article about anything US related. Something like,
“DEAR NON-AMERICANS (ESPECIALLY EUROPEANS). THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT AN AMERICAN PHENOMENON. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COME INTO THIS THREAD AND TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND IT. YOU MAY SIMPLY MOVE ON. CHEERS.”
Seriously, it’s a good 1/4 of the posts.
Holy fuck, kids are cringe. I hate this blue bubble elitism so much. Glad it’s not a really a thing in Europe.
To be fair I am not a “kid”, but I have friends from highschool I still meet from time to time. And everybody used to have an android phone, now I am the only one left. A lot of them are company phones, but tbf I barely know anybody who doesn’t use an iPhone. And ykw, I get it. I get my phones second hand for the price of 10 kebabs, and fix them when needed, run linageOS, fuck around with magisk when needed and so on. But actually if you don’t want to do that, android phones are a fucking awful deal. They are no cheaper than an iphone, they are no more expandable, no easier to repair, come with no more accessories, and these days with safetynet and hardware based trusted boot no more open and moddable. on the other hand get way worse software support, get way shorter support, the servicing is usually way less streamlined, even the best are built worse, and they have little support for apple accessories, which are best in class especially the airpods pro being the biggest dealbreaker of the lot. Honestly a new android phone, would be a hard fucking sell for me as well.
I think that is mostly a US thing, as I see way more Androids in Europe than iPhones. But I could be wrong
“This unbiased and purely informative piece of journalism sponsored by Apple.”
That’s a gringo problem.
Teenagers do not have fully developed brains, literally, not an insult, their brains are not finished developing. Their brains are inferior to fully formed adult brains, certain individuals may be brighter than others but still inferior to their adult selves. Their opinions should mean nothing to you.
Teenagers are well known to do everything differently in a way of rebellion to the majority. So, the majority has Android phone. Right!
You’re telling me in 2023, kids are using “Droid” again to refer to Android?
I hadn’t heard that since they literally first came out.
Also, this isn’t surprising. It was assumed that younger generations, those growing up with PCs, Tablets, Smartphones, etc, would become inherently skilled with their use. Turns out that was entirely false because it also turns out people don’t want to learn what they aren’t interested in. So if you don’t care about anything more than TikTok, Insta, and Snapchat, then you don’t learn anything more than what is necessary to operate them. And Apple makes this very easy in terms of not needing to relearn even an iota between their models. Android cannot say the same.
Isnt “Droid” a Motorola trademark or something?
Not an American and couldn’t care less about the scene there lmao the rest of the world uses Android
Welp, I am the only one in class using Android, so I get some laughs. If I am going to drop Android, it will be for full fledged GNU+Linux phone. Postmarket OS already officially supports Android apps via Waydroid.
I don’t see how I’d use something as restrictive as iOS. Not even being able to sideload apps without jailbreak, so Apple decides what you install.
There’s so much stuff I’d miss, I’d feel like using a modern day feature phone.
How is that cool?While I agree with the sentiment, what are some examples of the “so much stuff”? The big one for me is the red tape around browsers.
Sorry for the late reply, but I was asleep.
- Custom ROMs: A nice way to extend your phone’s lifespan, or just get a cleaner OS
- Mifare Classic tool: I used that to clone my school lunch card for free
- Minimum width settings: Maybe iPhones have this too, I am not sure. By increasing it from default 395dp to 705dp I have basically converted my phone to tablet. Apps consider tablet anything starting with 600dp.
- LibreTorrent: Nice torrent client for Android, although you can’t really seed much with mobile data since you’re not connectable.
- USB storage: I can connect a Flash drive or HDD to my phone. Cool.
- Speaking of that, MLUSB mounter: Unfortunately paid and closed source, but mod APKs exist :) (unsafe). Since Linux kernel on Android is so limited, it brings support to extra file systems like NTFS and even UDF allowing you to use DVD or Blu-ray drive for browsing files on discs.
- Speaking of USB, NokoPrint: Again, sadly closed-source app, but at least you don’t have to unlock features. It allows me to print on my old HP printer directly from phone via USB with all the settings HPLIP provides.
- Robot36: If I happen to hear SSTV transmission, I can use this nice decoder. It is open-source.
- noaa-apt: This one isn’t an app, but it can be compiled for ARM in Termux. It decodes APT transmissions from NOAA-15, 18 and 19 weather satellites they transmit in 137MHz band.
- Termux: What I just mentioned above. And if I learn to configure it, Apache webserver, because why not.
- Simple HTTP server: A slow but simple HTTP server app. Useful from sharing files to a full website on phone.
- Matsuri: A really awesome proxy client
- Android proxy server: Again, this could probably be done in Termux, but there’s an app for it. Useful for sharing a VPN connection with other computers. Or setup TCP relay to Orbot. Or both. Or maybe using your phone’s internet connection on school network with school computers. It allows for basic username password authentication.
- F-Droid: More FOSS apps
- USB Camera: Chinese app with ads that made me start using NextDNS. Allows me to comnect USB Composite capture card to phone and play NES games. Or a HDMI capture card from laptop. Or an actual camera. It can also run a server with the video feed. Easily allows changing between all supported resolutions and formats.
- Screen stream: How about screencasting over HTTP? Sadly it doesn’t support audio.
- Limbo x86 PC emulator: Slow but fun to play with. Why not try Windows 98 on my phone, right? Even Windows 7 somewhat ran on it.
- J2ME Loader: Let’s replay those old Java games I played on my Sony Ericsson.
- SDR++: Remember noaa-apt? How about recording it on your phone? A full on SDR (software defined radio) desktop experience. Although support for devices is limited on Android. Airspy, HackRF, RTL-SDR. I use it with RTL-SDRv3. The cheapest and most common SDR.
- SatDump: A universal satellite decoder to use with your SDR. There’s also Meteor in 137MHz band transmitting digital imagery. And if you get a satellite dish and L-Band helical feed (with correct polarization - remember dish is a mirror, it reverses it) there’s a lot better imagery to get and additional satellites: Metop-B and Metop-C. But RTL-SDR isn’t optimal for these higher bandwidths anymore. Consider something like AirSpy Mini.
- SDRAngel: SDR app that tries to do everything. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have scaling settings, so you’ll have a hard time using it on phone.
- Welle.io: Does your country have DAB/DAB+ radio broadcast, but you don’t have a receiver? Well say no more! It is time to use your RTL-SDR for that. If you got the generic one (like $10) it saves you money that you would otherwise pay for a standalone receiver. The cost returns!
- dump1090: An ADS-B receiver. Have you ever checked FlightAware or ADS-B exchange? How about getting that information yourself, directly from airplanes? Well you can do that with planes that are in sight.
Maybe I could find some more stuff, this is what I’d miss the most.
The people who actually care more about what phone their friends are using enough to peer pressure them into getting a phone of a specific brand or model are about as dense as a black hole and about as smart as a bag of rocks.
Status symbol VS smartphone, a phone isn’t smart if you can’t sideload apps or flash a custom rom.
I am a teen and I love android becuase it give me freedom I can do whatever I want to do by rooting or installing Custom ROM. Also It’s Privacy Focused(degoogled my Tab + Root). Other Teenager don’t know shit about privacy and FLOSS fuck them I don’t care.
I’m amazed it’s 2023 and we’ve still not universally adopted a protocol better than SMS. Thanks Apple
