Which is better, Android or iPhone? Whatever team you’re on, you’re unlikely to switch. Unless your family is on the other side.

An Android-loving grandfather said he switched after his son-in-law couldn’t send video of his child, born seconds before. “He said the video wasn’t sending and he figured out it was me,” the reader wrote. “When he deleted me from the group, it sent, and every iPhone got it.” 

There would have been no compatibility issue if everyone had been using the free WhatsApp. So I asked Granddad why he didn’t suggest it, since he’d used it to send texts to his friends in Haiti. He said he didn’t want to make everyone else use a different app just because of him. So he accepted the iPhone his nephew gave him. 

“So far, I absolutely hate it,” he said. “It seems to me the Android platform was created by a roomful of adults for adults, while the iPhone was created by a roomful of teenagers intent on designing features specifically to be counter-intuitive to older adults.” A case in point: Granddad’s doctor son-in-law, a lifetime iPhone user, didn’t know about an important feature until Granddad pointed it out to him. 

Granddad has many other reasons for preferring Android. For example, on his Samsung, when he wanted to close all open apps, he just tapped the three lines in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, then tapped “close all.”  “On a stupid iPhone,” he points out, “you have to swipe up to bring up the open windows and then swipe up on each one to close it!”

“I am giving the iPhone six months (maybe),” he concludes. “If my feeling is much the same, we will be divorcing and I will go back to my first love!” 

Apple Tech Support

Though I prefer Google and Microsoft, I’ve got to admit, Apple’s tech support is great. So when my friend had a problem with her HP printer, I suggested she call Apple instead of HP. After all, the last time I called HP about a printer software problem, they suggested I buy a new one.

Apple came through again. First the tech guy remotely connected to my friend’s Macbook, but didn’t see a problem there. So, after connecting to her iPhone remotely, he asked her to point its camera at the printer. That’s how he saw a flashing error code meaning “paper jam.” Sure enough, the paper was stuck deep within. She asked her son to get it out.

So the next time you’re about to go to an Apple store, try calling Apple first, at 800-275-2273. Their support is incredible.

Jeopardy Labs

A reader told me about JeopardyLabs.com, where you can create your own version of the TV show. He casts his game from his computer to his TV so the whole family can play.

It’s easy to create your own version, or you can choose from over five million games created by others. That’s how I found out I don’t know much about biology.

AI A La Mode

After signing up at the Google Labs website for Google’s new “AI Mode,” an alternative to Gemini, I asked a meaty question: “Which city offers better barbecue, Austin Texas or Kansas City, Missouri? Analyze this from the perspective of taste, restaurant atmosphere, price, health, animal rights, environmental sustainability, ease of access, transportation options, and overall fun.”

Google AI Summaries gave me a great answer, neatly organized into seven categories. But I clicked on AI Mode to get specific info about the best vegan sides. It listed them from many restaurants, so I didn’t have to comb through dozens of links.

Go to Labs.Google.com to sign up. From then on, you’ll see a deep dive option after every Google summary.

Update on Self-Driving Cars

Arizona is the leader in self-driving cars. Google’s Waymo alone has logged over 20 million autonomous miles, but there’s also Tesla and Cruise. Lyft and Uber are expected to launch self-driving cars this summer in Atlanta.

Self-driving cars don’t get tired, drunk, or distracted. No wonder that Arizona has had 81 percent fewer airbag-deployment crashes, 78 percent fewer injury-causing crashes, and 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes compared to human drivers, according to a new report by the Goldwater Institute, which praised the state for its innovation. Although all autonomous vehicles must meet federal safety standards, maintain insurance and follow traffic laws, Arizona’s Department of Transportation intervenes only when necessary. 

Health Tech News

The world’s smallest pacemaker, the size of a grain of rice, was recently invented by engineers at Northwestern University. According to Northwestern Now, the tiny pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device mounted to the patient’s chest. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light to activate the pacemaker. These short pulses— which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone and muscles — control the pacing.

There’s a crucial need for pacemakers for children undergoing heart surgeries, says Dr. John A. Rogers, who led the device’s development. About one percent of children are born with congenital heart defects, but they only need a pacemaker during and briefly following their operations. Dr. Rogers’ invention dissolves into the bloodstream about a week after surgery. Read more about it in Engadget, Northwestern.edu or the journal Nature.

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