Technologies

How I Feel One Year After Ditching My Android for an iPhone

There are some iPhone features I now can’t live without, and some Galaxy features I still miss.

It’s been a year since I abandoned my decade-long relationship with the Samsung Galaxy and switched to the iPhone 14 Pro, and I’m happy to report I don’t regret a thing.

I loved my Galaxy devices and was always a proud Android user, but a series of factors — namely, my eagerness to try Apple’s hardware and software, as well as a desire to no longer be bullied for green texts (which is Apple’s fault) — enticed me to switch teams. It’s been smooth sailing since then, and I’ll be bold enough to say I don’t see myself ever going back.

One of the main reasons is my love for iMessage. It’s been surprisingly seamless to stay in touch with friends (due in no small part to the fact that they actually want to include me in group texts now without giving me crap about it), and the messaging experience is just more enjoyable with reactions and hi-res images and videos.

I had and loved RCS messaging on my Galaxy, which, like iMessage, shows typing indicators and read receipts, supports sending high-quality media and lets you react to messages. But few of my friends had phones that supported RCS messaging, or if they did, they just never cared to enable it. And until very recently, Apple resisted pressure to adopt RCS on iPhones, but shockingly reversed course in mid-November. That means that while I had an Android, I could hardly reap the benefits of RCS, while I apparently made my (dramatic) iPhone-using friends’ lives more difficult.

I’ve also become a sucker for AirDrop. Because I shoot a lot of videos on my phone for work as well as my personal social media accounts, it’s been a game changer to be able to instantly share videos between my iPhone and MacBook.

Sharing pictures and videos after a hangout is painless, too. Yes, third-party apps like WhatsApp and Google Drive exist, but WhatsApp still reduces video quality, and using Google Drive is relatively slow and feels like actual work. So, AirDrop is the clear winner here.

Speaking of videos, the quality on my iPhone is unmatched; regular shots as well as Cinematic mode videos are crisp and clear, and better supported by apps like TikTok. While I’ve always admired how vibrant images on the Galaxy look, and admittedly think some iPhone photos look too dark and shadow-y, that video quality has me hooked.

An iPhone feature that took me by surprise when it won me over is MagSafe. I initially didn’t understand the appeal of this: Why charge using MagSafe if it takes two seconds to plug in a cable? But little did I know that it was less about the charging, and more about the accessories. I’ve become reliant on my MagSafe portable charger, which is much easier to carry around than my massive power brick, as well as my MagSafe wallet. Safe to say (see what I did there?), I get it now.

There is one feature I admittedly still miss, even one year into ditching my Android: Object Eraser. This is a Galaxy feature that lets you remove any person or object from your photos by drawing a line around what you want to get rid of, then tapping a button to make them disappear. This was great for when I had an almost perfect image, but someone was photobombing or there was something distracting in the way.

The Google Pixel lineup has a similar feature called Magic Eraser, as well as a next-level tool called Magic Editor, which, in addition to removing anything from your photo, lets you move people and objects around and change the background. It’s cool and creepy all at once.

Sadly, Apple still doesn’t have a similar AI-based editing feature built into Photos. If I wanted to remove anything from an image, I’d need to go into Photoshop, and Lord knows I’m not doing that. So I’d love for that capability to be added in a future software update.

Check out the video above for more iPhone features I can’t live without (and to see whether I now condone bullying people for having green texts).

Technologies

AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says

More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.

Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.

In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.

Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.

Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.

The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.

Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.

Disconnect between AI adoption and perception

While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.

21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»

These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.

It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.

Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Wow!

Green group hint: Plug it in.

Blue group hint: Cinderella team.

Purple group hint: Drink up.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Look at with awe.

Green group: Basic electricity terms.

Blue group: Unexpected winner.

Purple group: Starting with soda brands.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is look at with awe. The four answers are goggle, marvel, stare and wonder.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basic electricity terms. The four answers are AC, DC, power and voltage.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is unexpected winner. The four answers are dark horse, long shot, sleeper and underdog.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with soda brands. The four answers are crushworthy, Fantagraphics, frescade and pepsinogen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 18, #572

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 18, No. 572.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Hockey fans, today’s Connections: Sports Edition is for you. All four categories are hockey-related. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fire it into the net!

Green group hint: Lord Stanley’s hardware.

Blue group hint: Where hockey teams play.

Purple group hint: Put the biscuit in the basket.