ever since i got this iphone for my kid brother, it has been a constant source of frustration for me. every single thing i need to do requires a workaround or i’d have to forget about it and do it in my computer instead. i’m convinced iphone is peak mental retardation at this point.

maybe i’m not using it the “right” or the “intended” way. if you know how, please let me know and i’ll change all my opinions to an “I was wrong” with humility. but until then, this stays.

camera #

camera is pretty good.
it’s the only good thing about it, in my opinion.
credit where it’s due.

files #

it got no proper file manager. and files app is a joke. gallery and files app are two completely different things.

sending files to and fro is made unnecessarily difficult. right now i use pairdrop and it works between ios and android. but for some reason, it doesn’t work between ios and linux. don’t know if it’s ios’ fault or linux’s fault. maybe both.

well, at least the USB works.

SIKE! it doesn’t. well, i can copy photos and videos from the iphone to my computer via USB, but not vice versa. why? and i can’t paste anything into the Downloads folder either. everything is so isolated to the point where it makes no sense.

recently, a friend of mine sent an MP4 via telegram. when i click it, it shows the filename, its extension and size, but it won’t play, and it won’t tell me the reason. i accessed the file through my computer and turns out, the MP4 was corrupted. i mean, you don’t have to use mediainfo or file like i did, just open it in VLC or something and it’ll give a meaningful error message. what the heck.

apple app store #

apple app store requires a shit amount of details to create a fricking account. i need to give em a billing address even though I selected none as my billing method. and i need to input the password before installing an app? as if i’m some kid who needs constant supervision?

iSH #

installed iSH because i hoped it would make the phone a bit usable. turns out it doesn’t.

can’t run iSH in the background for more than a few minutes because of apple restrictions. iSH storage is again isolated from files, which means i have to move things into iSH storage all the time.

well, i abandoned it, because ffmpeg doesn’t work. either it segfaults or it says “illegal instruction”.

i hoped iSH would be close to Termux, but it’s nowhere near it. maybe there are better apps? i dunno.

update: tried a-shell, and it has ffmpeg, but no package manager, and this time, a-shell storage just won’t show up in files app. if it did, i could have copied the files manually.

altstore #

the altstore situation is sad. i had to look into altstore classic version because PAL only supports EU phones. but apps sideloaded via altstore expire after 3 days. and only 3 apps can be installed at the same time.

haven’t tried sideloadly or sidestore yet.
and forget jailbreaking.

misc #

i like the malayalam font it uses.
and all the malayalam translations are well done.

how do people even use it?
right now, this phone got no SIM, got no apps.
we solely use it as a camera.