Edible Apple

It’s the little things, really.

It’s not uncommon to hear, when people describe what they like about Apple products, that devices like the iPhone just seem more elegant than the competition. Typically, these conversations center on differences in software design, but the unparalleled attention to detail that Apple pays to its products can also be seen in hardware.

Dustin Curtis recounts a story of how he overslept one morning after having switched from an iPhone 4 to the Samsung Galaxy S II. As it turns out, the Galaxy S II’s speaker is located on the back of the device, effectively muting the alarm in the morning just enough as to not wake Curtis up as scheduled.

As it turns out, any time the Galaxy S II is placed on a flat surface with its screen up, the audio is muddled. If it’s placed on a soft surface — such as a tablecloth or a bed, it is almost entirely muted.

Two weeks later, Curtis was a little bit too well rested if you catch my drift and decided to switch over to the Googl Nexus S. Problem solved? Not so fast.

It turns out that the Nexus S also has its speaker on the back of the device. And that’s just the start of it.

“I did some digging,” Curtis writes, “and discovered that almost all Android phones from Samsung and Motorola put the speaker on the back of the device. This is a glaring flaw in a fundamental feature of nearly every popular Android phone.”

And then you have the iPhone, every iteration of which has the speaker located on the bottom side of the device. So obviously simple yet so easy to overlook.

Yep, it’s the little things.