I agree about this. I would love to be able to control how and when an app can access my data network (eg. Cell only, Wifi only, Both, None).

Close.

The first time an app wants to access my contacts a popup comes up and says something to the effect of "App A wants access to your contacts. Allow? Deny?" or "App B wants to access your location. Allow? Deny?"

That choice is remembered but can be changed in the settings:

http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/privacy.jpg (iPad)

http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Privacy-iOS-6.jpg (iPhone).

I can't give you any further cites beyond the fact that that's how my phone and iPad work. I'm sure they're out there if you care enough to look.

I didn't say Android devices aren't secure. I said they don't provide the security I want -- namely fine grained control over application access permissions. Was that too much to grasp?

Or. you know.. maybe I get enough of fiddling with tech 8 hours a day (and more) at work. At home I just want to use what I've got in a way that I want without resorting to backflips.

because (sensibly) by default apps have no such permission. I get asked if I want to allow the action the very first time.

And what about those of us that don't want to bother with such things? I don't build my own computers. I don't jailbreak my iDevices.. I don't tinker with my car.. I don't mod my fridge. If I have to immediately start hacking my device in order to get the security I want then it's not really much good to me.

On iOS I can choose *after* installation to allow or disallow certain activities.

So.. for example.. I can allow an application access to my calendar but not to my contacts or photos.

If a GPS application wants access to my contacts and location I can let it.. but if it asks for access to my photos and bluetooth sharing I can disallow it.

It's quite nice, actually.

Android is a "take it or leave it" system. Which I suppose is great for the app developers.. but not so much for users.

I'm confused. Why would there be scrolling semantics when there is no scrolling? Do you want to see scroll bars when there's no scrolling content too?

She has itunes.. she's already copied music from her computer to her phone so she knows how to do that. Why would you not just tell her to rip the CD in itunes:

insert CD
select tracks
click on "Import CD" button
wait..
Eject CD

It's just about as simple a process as it can get. In fact I think all the modern versions of iTunes just ask you if you want to import the CD as soon as you put one in so the above becomes:

insert CD
click OK
wait...
Eject CD

After that it's just copying the music to her phone which she already knows how to do.

No need to make things any more complicated than they need to be.

I must admit.. *someone* has done a great job brainwashing you into thinking that people who buy Apple products are brainwashed.

Where does it say that? I can't find it:

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html

Apple can't do anything to your purchased music once it's on your hard drive. There's no DRM whatsoever on the music files. Do with them as you please. Movies can be re-encoded (probably lose quality but for me that's not a huge deal) or have their DRM stripped. Books can have their DRM stripped. I'm pretty sure that it's still legal in the US to strip DRM for your personal stuff and it definitely is in Canada (the efforts of our current government to ban it notwithstanding).

I don't see how that can make any difference at all in their relative sales figures. If the American system of phone purchases is as you say it is then it would affect both Apple's and Samsung's sales, no?

Indeed. And relative to the iPhone very few Galaxy phones are sold in the USA (the numbers from the court are only for up to and including the SII but when you combine all of the Galaxy phones together you still don't get even the barest fraction of iPhone sales. I can't imagine that the SIII will have already gotten to such huge sales numbers but you never know.

What's interesting is that in the USA quite the opposite is true. According to the documents released as part of the current lawsuit Samsung has sold 21 million smartphones since 2010. Apple has sold 19 million iPhones in its first and second quarters (ending sometime in April, I think). For the same period Samsung only sold something like 4 or 5 million phones. Again.. this is USA only but it's an interesting look at things. I have no proof of it but my gut feeling is that in markets where people can afford the price of the iPhone.. they choose the iPhone. When they can't afford it they choose a cheaper Android phone.. hence the world sales numbers being so out of whack with the US sales numbers.

I haven't had cable in years. I've got an Apple TV 2 plugged in to my TV and it's fantastic. We watch a ton of stuff on Netflix. I also download full seasons of some of the shows I watch from iTunes. A bunch of other stuff I watch on the various TV stations' apps on my iPad (which I could Airplay to the TV but I don't). It's just about a perfect setup for the type and amount of TV that we watch.