David Gewirtz is an experienced and well known tech guy who writes about all things technology, Windows, Apple, and the like. He has dark sunglasses and a beard.
Based upon his lengthy and impressive resume he’s exactly the kind of tech professional we lesser humans should approach with awe, but instead we’re shocked at what he doesn’t seem to know how to do. Use an iPhone. Or, understand what it means to switch from something to something else.
Why Switch?
Gewirtz’s most recent missive is a garden variety headline grabber of the ‘I left Android for the iPhone 6s Plus‘ genre, but with the added and mandatory ‘First I hated it. Then I didn’t.‘
I’m more curious to know why he switched from Android, which Android device he used prior to the switch, and those kinds of question, but instead all Gewirtz could come up with is this conclusion.
It’s not that one platform is better than another, it’s just that they’re different. For a few days after buying the phone, I had buyer’s remorse. But over time, as I figured out how to get what I wanted from the phone and discovered some very nice new features, the phone started to grow on me.
So, Android smartphones and iPhones are different, huh? Well, duh. Here are some excerpts that I found most interesting (and obvious).
We used to expect a ton of work when upgrading to a new PC, but a phone is a phone.
A phone maybe, but not a smartphone. Cell phone manufacturers muck with Android so much that each Android phone comes customized and can be customized to become unrecognizable to anyone who picks it up to make a phone call.
Except that this phone is more powerful than many laptops, has more storage than any Chromebook, has the same video resolution as many 60-inch TVs, and runs more applications than any desktop PC user was ever able to dream of.
Sounds like a good reason to switch from cheap and customizable mediocrity to powerful and polished luxury.
Of course it’s going to take some getting used to. Of course a phone move is going to be a bit of a pain — especially for a power user who has tweaked out everything and has lots of specialized needs.
Oh kaaaay! Other than the typical sync issues with Google, it would be nice to know what the pains were. And, likewise, it would be nice to know what was tweaked out on the Android phone that cannot be tweaked on an iPhone, because that’s a common refrain.
Change takes time. That’s the lesson I’ve re-learned here. Don’t hate on your phone just because it’s new or because you don’t understand all it can do or how to do it. Take the time to get used to it, learn about it, make friends with it.
I’d like to think that ZDNet didn’t pay much for Gewirtz’s piece despite the fact that he’s a CBSi Distinguished Lecturer, complete with professorial jacket-sans-tie, sunglasses, and beard, but I might be misunderstanding how today’s tech media works and how tech writers are paid.
It took 1,569 words to get to what was really the point (just insert this at the end of his article).
Changing from this to that can be difficult but not so much that I would bother to write down any of the details for why the change was made, what was better about the old device, or what’s better about the new device.
Today I’m letting my beard grow, I’m shopping for sunglasses, and I’ve pulled an old jacket out of the closet. Then people will pay more attention to me even if it’s a slow news day and I have absolutely nothing to say but need to write 1,569 words anyway.
Amirite?
