Steve Wozniak concedes Android advantages over iPhone

So why do you need two threads for this?

This is one man's opinion. The Siri thing is just him, apparently, since everyone else seems to get it spot on. The GPS I agree with. Why Apple STILL doesn't have automatic turn-by-turn, I'll never know and don't plan to speculate on. All I hope is that get their three mapping companies off the ground soon.

I never got Google's Voice input to be even near usable on 2.3 Android - given that it was server-based, I presume it used the same tech as the latest version. Siri on the other hand I found to be pretty accurate. The Ice Cream Sandwich input looks good for dictation though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMbHN...tailpage#t=19s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74itj...tailpage#t=82s

Android types as you talk but iOS waits until you finish. I don't suppose it matters much but at least you'd know to speak more clearly if it was getting it wrong.

Where Siri may fall down is that it is intelligent so it can learn things wrongly. Perhaps Woz has been talking about prime ribs more than prime numbers. Judging by his girth, I'd say that's likely. He can reset it by turning Siri off and on again in the settings.

As for turn by turn GPS, iOS has 3rd party apps for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fad-A...ailpage#t=291s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VydPwaZymd0

The Android version is obviously included so it saves $15-50 on an app but not a deal-breaker.

I personally feel like I have more freedom in Android than I do in iOS - mainly that I feel like I have the freedom to plug a device into my work computer without iTunes trying to erase it. There are some things I don't like about Android's freedom though - every app I install tells me what things it's going to have access to but gives me no assurance if it's a safe app. I don't have this concern with App Store apps.

I'm not entirely sure why Woz is getting in with the Google crowd:

http://gearburn.com/2012/01/steve-wo...ndroid-better/

but he's an honest person and an engineer at heart and he has some valid points. Sometimes Apple's biggest fans can be their harshest critics. I think he'd like Apple to be the best at everything but he has to criticise them where they aren't so they can improve. This was the case with the notification setup, which Android had first.

Probably part of the reason for Woz saying these things is because the Android isn't a locked as the iPhone is. So because it's unlocked, you can of course do more with it.

I think you're right about that.

Some time ago I went to several book presentations at an event, in one of them instead of presenting a book theys showed some exclusive comics for iPad. They were the three with some violence (one about zombies, another about a secret society which organized fights to the death between athletes who have come down, and the last was about as Earthbound troops attacked a world which was the Hell, literally, with demons, rivers of sulfur and all the demonic paraphernalia) In the 3 the authors had to censor their own work to be allowed in the store.

Wos possibly would like a more open system, in addition to being more open than Apple would have more application developers.

I do not think that refers to anything technical.

Not when his position in the technology industry has been largely irrelevant since the early 1980s and his opinions and beliefs carry no more weight than your average "analyst".

There are two sides to these "virtual assistants" tho. There's the front end which does the voice recongnition and transcribing, and then there's the backend, or the databases it plugs the transcribed text to.

While Siri has a definite advantage over android's voice input in the recognition department, I feel, from my experiences, that the services and databases it plugs into (yelp, wolfram alpha, etc) are not as strong as the databases of google's services. So its not inconcievable that you can get more relevant results from android even though Siri has superior recognition.

Woz does a lot of what we geeks do, own more then one phone with different platforms. I currently own a iPhone, a Samsung Galaxy Note and a Nokia Lumia 800. The Note is my work phone, the iPhone is my personal and the Nokia is my goofing off phone. I love all three, each has it's weaknesses and strengths.

The ultimate phone for me I think, would be Apple's apps, build quality and materials, the Nokia's interface (I really like WP7, I'm seriously hooked) in the Lumia 900's body and the Samsung's screen size and resolution and then I would have the ultimate phone. Until then I don't mind using three phones like Woz. I'm always carrying my man purse, you know a messenger bag so I have plenty of room for my gizmos.

Has anyone else tried Windows Mobile 7? After the train reck that was Windows Mobile 6.5 I really thought I would never ever have another Microsoft phone. However I recently renewed my contract with my provider and since I already had the Note from work I really didn't need another phone but they give one to you anyway so I said screw it and decided to get the Nokia N9. That's the phone with Meegos on it, hey I'm a geek the phone is basicly Debian and i had plans to hack it to bits. When I went to the register to get ringed up the sales guy asked me if I seen the new Lumia 800, he said it's the same body but with WM7 on it. He continued by saying it was incredible, I said no it's ok I'll stick with N9 and then he came back with I'll tell you what take it home for a week and if you don't like just bring it back and I'll exchange it for you with Nokia N9. Well how can you say no to that. In the back of mind I kept thinking this must be a Nokia's last desperate move.

The sales guy was right, I friggen love this phone man. I was a kid in a candy store, I kept finding features that made me go wow. I live in Switzerland and I have to deal with many languages, as a standard feature you can take a picture of a document and it will translate it for you in any language you wish. This wasn't a app but a built in feature and the list goes on and on with really cool features. The app store is tiny compared to Apple and Android but the apps they do have are well done. The Spotify app for instance is much better for WP7 then the iPhone or Android. The Office app is genius and puts iCloud to shame when it comes to syncing data to Skydrive. Oh and Skydrive, that's iCloud for MS, they give you 25 GB for free vs. 5 GB Apple gives you.

Now I still love my iPhone 4 and although the Nokia Lumina is a nice phone it still needs some growing up to do, like support for higher resolutions and dual core cpu's but after this next OS update I think WP7 is going to be the best mobile OS out their. Please check it out for your self don't take my word for it. I'm not a troll either just a geek who enjoys my tech toys.

Like Woz I will always have multiple mobile devices in my pocket, I am a fanboy of any company who releases cool products. I will never put all my eggs in one basket. I know most of you are hard core Apple users and wouldn't use another phone because of your blind loyalty but I encourage you like Woz to experiance all that the tech industry has to offer.

Oh by the way here is a list of phones that cost 300 bucks or less that I think are wonderfull, inexspensive, powerfull and not on anyones radar.

1. Nokia 701, great little phone it has a 8 megapixel camera and the new Symbian Belle is the best version of the OS yet. Plus it's very quick, oh and the screen is the brightess in the industry even more then the iPhone.
2. Sony Ray, small and light and also has a 8 megapixel camera that will give any other smart that costs twice as much a run for it's money. The bootloader is also open and you can now install ICS on it. Just go to XDA.
3. Nokia Lumina 710 a great phone for it's price, quick, the battery last for ever and can be had for 300 bucks or free on contact. It's the best phone for those interested in exploring WP7

Check them out, I encourage anyone who is a techno freak to own more them one phone. Always have one that you can play with and customize to your personality. The iPhone is a wonderfull phone but you also need to broden your horizons a little. This is what Woz does. I met him a couple of times even talked to him for more then 45 minutes once, our subject was about how few people play anymore. Meaning most adults gets locked in their set ways and rarely explore outside their comfort zones. I would try ebay, purchase one of those yucky Android phones that you hate but never tried or another type of phone. The Nokia Communicator E7 can be had for under a 100 bucks on ebay. That is a cool phone, update it to the Symbiam Belle and their is nothing you can't do with it.

Would you mind answering a question for me how often do you use voice recognition on your phones? My freinds and I find it to be really cool but we never use it. I don't know why either because it seems to be very usefull tool. Maybe we just forget it's there and we need to start using it more so it get's emedded in or brains.