At what point allowing a better platform with 3rd party defaults (mail, browser) becomes more important than a controlled experience?
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) December 29, 2012
Ticci raises a good point here. In my mind, right now, the native Apple apps on iOS and OSX are passable, but not great. There are better alternatives out there.
I can’t get iCloud to sync my Safari bookmarks, which is a complaint Ticci also mentions. Chrome is reportedly much more reliable at this. Gmail for iOS, despite being webview-based, is a stronger mail client (if you use Gmail and it’s native features, such as labels), than Apple’s own. It’s also much closer to Sparrow1, which was a very well-regarded mail app.
Notes is okay, but not great, when compared to alternatives like Simplenote, which offer tags and sharing and a much better full screen mode (sans skeuomorphic skin). Don’t get me started on the web version of Notes.2 Calendar is alright, but many people prefer alternatives like Fantastical.
I don’t buy Apple’s products for the native software. It certainly isn’t usually geared to the “power user.” I buy Apple’s products because the hardware is great, and they provide a good platform where 3rd party, many independent, developers thrive. I would love to see Apple open up their defaults, on iOS, to let you use alternative apps.
