It is not about the OS, but the hardware. Some iOS products have really good 3D hardware (iPad2 for example) and some have really crappy 3D hardware (iPhone3). It would depend on what devices you are comparing.
That's brilliant, call nearly three year old phone hardware crappy when you are comparing it to brand new hardware. Gee! You're brilliant for redefining the meaning of level comparison.
Options are a great thing, you have a multitude of them in the Android world to chose from. I choose the phone and OS I don't need to fiddle with. I fiddle with code in my day job, I don't need to have fiddling forced on me at home too.
I have done both. My nephew's iPod's are both jailbroken.
First of all, I was frankly surprised at how easy it is to jailbreak. It was not as big a deal as I thought it would be. How very uncharacteristic of Apple!
However the benefits were also a lot less of a big deal than I expected. The stuff you can do with a Jailbreak is not that great IMO. You can approximate an Android experience, but its not even remotely the same. Widgets and live wallpapers suck compared to Android counterparts. As do things like lock screens.
From what they have told me, battery life is worse, and it is less stable. If I was forced to use an Apple product though, I would definitely jailbreak. Jailbreaking will of course void your warranty if Apple catches you.
Rooting on Android depends on the device. On many it is literally a click-and-forget process. On others it is very involved and risky. Motorola has used encrypted bootloaders on some of their devices in an attempt to stop rooting (it didnt work).
The main advantage of rooting is just to get superuser access to your phone, so you are not restricted in what you can change. And of course custom ROMs, which allow you to further customize your phone and even install newer versions of the OS that you might not otherwise be able to install (I am running Gingerbread on my Droid right now, and it is working great).
There is no real disadvantage to rooting alone. It does not affect battery life or create additional bugs. And it will not void your warranty (though installing a custom ROM will). Your vendor may still refuse to support a rooted device, but that is largely up to them. It is possible to unroot if it becomes a problem (or even re-install stock ROMs if you have gone to a custom ROM).
I think the kicker is that once you jailbreak an iPhone you can't update. Sounds like a pain in the ass. I might not even have to root my Android. It tethers without rooting. I just downloaded a tethering app and in literally 30 seconds was online with my MBP. And apparently you can "sudo" root temporarily.
Flash is not going away, I'll bet for at least a few years at minimum. Blocking Flash equates to blocking a lot of important websites. Like mapping sites. Flash is very good, except on the Mac, until recently. It's decent now at least. However if I recall right, Apple wouldn't let Adobe access hardware acceleration API until the 10.6.3 update.
I mostly love the real keyboard on this phone. I am going to get a "game gripper" so I can play NES/SNES/Mario on it. It fits over it and pushes the buttons under it, essentially making it a SNES controller. What I really can't wait for is to figure out video out to make it a portable game system, with wiimote (use Wii controller via bluetooth on it, hook it up to TV).
The iPhone has more polish and maybe some things are more intuitive. But when I played around with iPhone 4, strictly as a phone, it took longer to do things. Also no buttons. So for me Droid was a better fit. It seems like Android is more customizable and open. iPhone is closed but more polished. In some areas. Does this seem fair?
So Jeff how are you syncing your Droid, Mac, (and PC Outlook?) In terms of email, music, etc.
If you own an apple product they are. On Android that is not true.
The App Store and Android Market are not the only two stores in existence.
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Give me an example of service or content that is forbidden by Google on Android devices.
Malicious apps that gained system-level access to your handset when downloaded and would intercept and covertly transmit private data to 3rd party servers.
It would be if every other "store" did it. Android does not forbid iBoobie apps. Or an Apple Magazine app. It does not censor based on content.
Android isn't every other store. Can you not think of any other store that does not sell porn?
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When I actually used the app that option was not available. Regardless of what the site is claiming.
You saying that Drop Box doesn't know what their own app can do simply because you could not use it in that way? Could it be possible that you just didn't know what you were doing?
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I dont need to install anything on Android. I plug it in, and it works. I navigate it like a hard drive.
You've lost me, this makes no sense. A hard drive is just a storage device it doesn't do anything if you don't install anything on it.
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I transferred movies onto my Nephew's iTouches with iTunes and it was definitely a hassle. It isnt as intuitive as it could be IMO, especially considering Apple's reputation for stuff like that.
You simply check the box next to the movie that you want to sync. What's confusing about that?
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Mostly because it isnt needed, since you can just copy the entire directory.
How do you copy the directory? What software are you using to copy it? Where do you store the copy?
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Um...it is true. If you want to call me a liar, fine. But I am saying this has been my own actual experience. it is not conjecture.
I said you're description isn't true because all websites can detect a phones browser and the far majority of websites are not going to send a phone browser to a Flash heavy site.
You still refuse to give any example of websites where you've encountered this problem.
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I dont if my mobile browser displays whatever my desktop can display anyway.
Most of the time you aren't even given the option. You are automatically directed to the mobile site.
A website created to be displayed on a desktop does not look or function very well on a 3 inch touch screen phone. That is the primary reason most everyone has a version optimized for touch screen phones.
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So the end-user is penalized because of an ideological stance by Apple. Got it.
That is one way to look at it. Another way to look at is that the end user has the benefit of not having to deal with Flash on their mobile phones.
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Not with Apple I dont. If I own an iOS device, Apple has made that decision for me.
You have a choice to not use an iOS device.
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"Choice is bad". Thats the message I get from Apple people.
You can CHOOSE to come to this third grade conclusion if you CHOOSE to.
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Why would you not want both options? Why would you not want the option of expanding later if you wanted to?
Because I don't want to carry and change storage cards. I'm fine with having the storage built into the phone and never need to change anything. Why is that difficult to understand?
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You have told me that you dont care about the option. You have not told me why you think having the option is bad.
Bad or Good is subjective. Its an option that is not important for me. Apparently not very important for 200+ million other people around the world.
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Most iOS products cannot run the newest Apple OS either. I have three friends who own iPhones. Two of them will not be able to upgrade. They are iOS users (they actually use the product) but they cannot upgrade to the latest OS. Sounds like fragmentation to me.
That's not true. Apple has sold more iPhone 4's than it has sold of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G combined. Most of the iOS devices out in the world right now are either iPhone 4, 3GS, or iPad.
The end user does get to have say. If the end users preferred to have Active X control the internet over HTML. The majority of end users would have used Internet Explorer over Firefox or Safari.
If the end users prefer to have Flash over HTML. They can choose to use devices that support Flash over devices that only support HTML.
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You seems to be agreeing with me that Apple is playing nanny, but that you simply dont have a problem with them playing nanny.
I don't feel that Apple's defiance of Flash is taking away my freedom of choice. I agree with their philosophy and their stance. I feel that HTML is a better technology than Flash.
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I disagree that this decision should be up to Apple. No one elected them boss of the internet.
Uhhhh....yeah, Apple is trying to be the boss of the entire internet. The reason they are pushing for open source technology over proprietary technology.
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You will have to ask Apple. They are the ones forbidding it on their platform, not me.
Apple doesn't prevent iBoobie web apps. They only prevent iBoobie native apps. Anyone is free to develop any web app they want. The whole reason Apple is pushing the development of HTML.
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Everyone who likes having expandable hardware. Everyone who likes the idea of being able to upgrade without buying a whole new phone.
Seeing as most people upgrade their phones every two years. Exactly who wants to expand or upgrade the hardware on their phone?
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Then explain to me why Apple adds new features to its products at all. Is Apple wrong to do that?
You are way too stuck on feature lists to understand that Apple has a design philosophy. Gruber explains it in a very succinct way.
"Apple takes something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity. At an anticipated media event, Apple reveals this core product as its Next Big Thing, and explains—no, wait, it simply shows—how painstakingly thoughtful and well designed this core product is. The company releases the product for sale."
"Then everyone goes back to Cupertino and rolls. As in, they start with a few tightly packed snowballs and then roll them in more snow to pick up mass until they’ve got a snowman. That’s how Apple builds its platforms. It’s a slow and steady process of continuous iterative improvement—so slow, in fact, that the process is easy to overlook if you’re observing it in real time. Only in hindsight is it obvious just how remarkable Apple’s platform development process is."
Well seeing that the iPhone 3G is nearly three years old. Exactly what devices are you comparing?
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Originally Posted by JeffDenver
It is not about the OS, but the hardware. Some iOS products have really good 3D hardware (iPad2 for example) and some have really crappy 3D hardware (iPhone3). It would depend on what devices you are comparing.
Last week I was interested in people's thoughts here on iPhone 4 vs. Android (and root vs jailbreak) because I wasn't sure if I would keep it. I'm going to keep it now. Now I'm interested in how other Android and Mac users are syncing the two platforms. I am thinking now either Missing Sync or Doubletwist look the best but I wish there was a free way to get it done. I mean contacts, email, media, the whole nine yards. So far, email is working fine on it. I haven't tried mucking with calendar->iCal etc. but from what i've read you can sync iCal to Google cal. Also you can drag media onto Droids as a mounted drive. Basically I wouldn't have a problem if stupid Motorola MediaLink would work. In fact I think I'm going to contact their support or check their forums out now..
I used DoubleTwist with the MyTouch3G Slide. It sort of did the job but was crash-prone and often had issues when trying to keep up with playlists and iTunes. If I added or subtracted items, it would often end up duplicating the playlist, leaving the original and hanging up.
Contacts can be done via Google. Most of your email services are cloud based. SMS has been a sore spot among my Android friends. Many of them have found solutions that save to the MicroSD ram card. For a lot of Android hacking types, it seems the MicroSD card basically becomes the place to store backups from the phone and thus almost every Android phone I have seen seldom deals with much media.
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Originally Posted by JeffDenver
Everyone I have shown them to is fascinated by them, because they are kinda neat. But I do use mine daily. Being able to get access to content at a glance without having to open an app for it is a definite luxury.
I understand that they look neat. Some aspects like power controls, I can appreciate but would really just endorse better battery life which is what Apple endorses as well. But again, seeing what the last person updated on Facebook or the last two tweets or whatever just does nothing for me. Many of the widgets relate to helping manage hacks aka how far am I overclocked, or do I have my GPS so some multitasking app that forgets to turn it off doesn't kill my battery in three hours.
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People (especially Apple people) keep making this argument as if it is relevant.
Yes, I agree it SHOULD be obsolete. But the reality is that it is not. Lots of websites still use it, and developers (for whatever reason) still want to use it. So I, as an end user, would like the option of being able to view those sites in the meantime.
If the owner of a website doesn't care to make enough effort to make their website accessible to 100 million iOS devices, then really who work to make sure those devices can access their crappy and archaic website? Additionally you have most mobile devices which do not support it. We are talking about many android devices, many blackberry devices, etc. It's sort of like a sliding continuum. By the time the devices have gotten powerful enough to support flash largely problem free, the website owners should have had enough time to adopt HTML5 and thus not need it. If they want to remain in the past, I'm sure the business opportunities and viewership will leave them behind for better and more modern websites.
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Since my Droid supports HTML5 as well, I can view the new HTML5 sites as well. To me, that is the best solution because it is the solution that inconveniences me (the end user) the least.
There are always trade offs. Perhaps you are viewing it that way because unlike, iOS, there isn't a app built that brings the web content to you in an ever better way ala the NY Times web app. Perhaps you would prefer to go to the same old sites with the old crappy code rather than seek out a better solution. I played with an iPad 2 just last night and viewed the iPad optimized version of ABCNews through it. It was amazingly well done. It is the type of website that definitely shows the decision is a good one.
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...which is an ideological choice. Most end users do not care about techie ideology. They just want to be able to view the site.
Right and most sites direct you to an iPhone app or an iOS optimized version of the site. The dinosaurs don't need to be catered to, they need to go extinct.
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I agree with many of the Anti-flash arguments. But I dont think it should be up to Apple to push those decisions on me. I'd still like to choose for myself.
Sometimes it is hard to accept this from Apple but over time it has always worked out better. Apple killed the floppy, serial ports, Appletalk, OS9, etc. Creative destruction has benefits.
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And if HTML5 is really better (and I agree that it is), then it is inevitable that it will supplant Flash anyway. Apple's pushy nanny mentality is unnecessary.
You know sometimes a little push doesn't hurt. There is a time when you spend so much time looking backwards that you forget to look forward. Apple is a forward looking company and if that means a couple dinosaur sites get left behind because they won't update, they can have my views if I'm near a desktop.
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So I should not have access to iBoobies so that Grandma can rest easy? Why cant Apple just institute parental controls? Why is that alternative not acceptable?
The do have parent controls. If you want porn then HTML5 is an endorsed path. Apple doesn't want 30% of porn revenue. They don't want to be associated with it, attempt to traffic in it, control it or anything else.
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I tried it about 3 weeks ago. When I did it on my nephew's iPod touch (3rd Gen), it would only stream. There were no controls that allowed it to download.
When I asked my nephews about it, they were shocked that Android allowed you to actually download stuff to the device like that. They said it was normal for iOS to disallow downloading for all Apps in general.
I download kindle books to my iPhone and also download audible.com books as well. The Dropbox website explicitly notes it downloads.
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I dont know a single person who is not able manage their memory. Even non-geeks get it.
Then you know some interesting folks because most people can't understand multiple volumes on their computers let alone on their phones.
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This is another argument that I hear from Apple people a lot: "Well Feature A is not something I personally want, therefore it is a good thing that Apple forbids me the option of using Feature A".
That really makes no sense to me at all. Fewer options is not good, even if you are able to tolerate fewer options.
Oh the irony, heh heh
There are trade-offs in most design decisions. Live wallpaper gives a person lower battery life for no real positive usability gain. Most people I have seen take a live paper, install it for five minutes to show off the phone, then switch back to something that doesn't make it hard to find icons and doesn't drain their battery dry. I'd rather have a nice usable feature like say a unified mailbox instead of having my gmail and yahoo mail in two different programs or perhaps a much more unified copy and paste than Android currently has.
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Apple implementing gestures for multitasking is a step in the right direction. But the Android notification bar is something I use constantly
Android does do notifications better for now.
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Then I think it is disingenuous for people to count "all" Android devices in these fragmentation figures, when most of the ones using an older OS are not in production.
If you go to any verizon store, or T-Mobile store or whatever...the Android phones they have for sale are likely either running 2.2 or are upgradable to 2.2.
Verizon is selling the Citris which runs 2.1 as does the Ally. Last I checked 2.2 had not officially been released on any Samsung phone on Verizon including the Fascinate. That's four phones right there.
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Originally Posted by JeffDenver
If you own an apple product they are. On Android that is not true.
Give me an example of service or content that is forbidden by Google on Android devices.
It would be if every other "store" did it. Android does not forbid iBoobie apps. Or an Apple Magazine app. It does not censor based on content.
Give me an example of how many phones are a pure Google experience versus having layers of cruft, add-ons and carrier crapware installed on them or pushed out onto them with updates.
Allowing everything, yeah that goes both ways buddy. They allow you to find your little porn. They allow Verizon to push VZNavigator onto your phone as well. Crap in, crap out.
When I actually used the app that option was not available. Regardless of what the site is claiming. [/QUOTE]
There's also a 800+ reviews and I haven't seen them mentioning this omission either.
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...and you have to trust that iTunes is doing it correctly. And you have to install iTunes for it to do that.
It seems to get the job done for 200 million people or so.
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I dont need to install anything on Android. I plug it in, and it works. I navigate it like a hard drive.
I transferred movies onto my Nephew's iTouches with iTunes and it was definitely a hassle. It isnt as intuitive as it could be IMO, especially considering Apple's reputation for stuff like that.
What would make it more intuitive? You click a checkbox.
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Originally Posted by Aquatic
I think the kicker is that once you jailbreak an iPhone you can't update. Sounds like a pain in the ass. I might not even have to root my Android. It tethers without rooting. I just downloaded a tethering app and in literally 30 seconds was online with my MBP. And apparently you can "sudo" root temporarily.
Why can't you update? Your update might not be jailbroken but you can certainly update. Anyone who can go through the trouble of jailbreaking can enable tethering. I know I did and it doesn't even require an app. It's just a feature that I can use via bluetooth or USB. TetherMe is used for Wifi as far as I know. I definitely prefer bluetooth tethering to preserve battery.
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Flash is not going away, I'll bet for at least a few years at minimum. Blocking Flash equates to blocking a lot of important websites. Like mapping sites. Flash is very good, except on the Mac, until recently. It's decent now at least. However if I recall right, Apple wouldn't let Adobe access hardware acceleration API until the 10.6.3 update.
Mapping sites? What sites don't already have an app? I use Runtracker, MapmyRide, Mapquest for Mobile, etc.
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I mostly love the real keyboard on this phone. I am going to get a "game gripper" so I can play NES/SNES/Mario on it. It fits over it and pushes the buttons under it, essentially making it a SNES controller. What I really can't wait for is to figure out video out to make it a portable game system, with wiimote (use Wii controller via bluetooth on it, hook it up to TV).
Meanwhile the 9 and 11 year olds in my family can find plenty of platforms that are not bound to geek nostalgia. They play them just fine and facetime in between on their iPods. They can use Airplay and not even have to hook it up to the TV. the compass and gyro in their iPods are more accurate than a Wiimote.
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The iPhone has more polish and maybe some things are more intuitive. But when I played around with iPhone 4, strictly as a phone, it took longer to do things. Also no buttons. So for me Droid was a better fit. It seems like Android is more customizable and open. iPhone is closed but more polished. In some areas. Does this seem fair?
The phone app will open to whatever option you last had it at. I leave my on favorites. I push phone, I push the favorite, it is dialed. I really don't see what is hard about that.
Comments
It is not about the OS, but the hardware. Some iOS products have really good 3D hardware (iPad2 for example) and some have really crappy 3D hardware (iPhone3). It would depend on what devices you are comparing.
That's brilliant, call nearly three year old phone hardware crappy when you are comparing it to brand new hardware. Gee! You're brilliant for redefining the meaning of level comparison.
Options are a great thing, you have a multitude of them in the Android world to chose from. I choose the phone and OS I don't need to fiddle with. I fiddle with code in my day job, I don't need to have fiddling forced on me at home too.
I have done both. My nephew's iPod's are both jailbroken.
First of all, I was frankly surprised at how easy it is to jailbreak. It was not as big a deal as I thought it would be. How very uncharacteristic of Apple!
However the benefits were also a lot less of a big deal than I expected. The stuff you can do with a Jailbreak is not that great IMO. You can approximate an Android experience, but its not even remotely the same. Widgets and live wallpapers suck compared to Android counterparts. As do things like lock screens.
From what they have told me, battery life is worse, and it is less stable. If I was forced to use an Apple product though, I would definitely jailbreak. Jailbreaking will of course void your warranty if Apple catches you.
Rooting on Android depends on the device. On many it is literally a click-and-forget process. On others it is very involved and risky. Motorola has used encrypted bootloaders on some of their devices in an attempt to stop rooting (it didnt work).
The main advantage of rooting is just to get superuser access to your phone, so you are not restricted in what you can change. And of course custom ROMs, which allow you to further customize your phone and even install newer versions of the OS that you might not otherwise be able to install (I am running Gingerbread on my Droid right now, and it is working great).
There is no real disadvantage to rooting alone. It does not affect battery life or create additional bugs. And it will not void your warranty (though installing a custom ROM will). Your vendor may still refuse to support a rooted device, but that is largely up to them. It is possible to unroot if it becomes a problem (or even re-install stock ROMs if you have gone to a custom ROM).
I think the kicker is that once you jailbreak an iPhone you can't update. Sounds like a pain in the ass. I might not even have to root my Android. It tethers without rooting. I just downloaded a tethering app and in literally 30 seconds was online with my MBP. And apparently you can "sudo" root temporarily.
Flash is not going away, I'll bet for at least a few years at minimum. Blocking Flash equates to blocking a lot of important websites. Like mapping sites. Flash is very good, except on the Mac, until recently. It's decent now at least. However if I recall right, Apple wouldn't let Adobe access hardware acceleration API until the 10.6.3 update.
I mostly love the real keyboard on this phone. I am going to get a "game gripper" so I can play NES/SNES/Mario on it. It fits over it and pushes the buttons under it, essentially making it a SNES controller. What I really can't wait for is to figure out video out to make it a portable game system, with wiimote (use Wii controller via bluetooth on it, hook it up to TV).
The iPhone has more polish and maybe some things are more intuitive. But when I played around with iPhone 4, strictly as a phone, it took longer to do things. Also no buttons. So for me Droid was a better fit. It seems like Android is more customizable and open. iPhone is closed but more polished. In some areas. Does this seem fair?
So Jeff how are you syncing your Droid, Mac, (and PC Outlook?) In terms of email, music, etc.
If you own an apple product they are. On Android that is not true.
The App Store and Android Market are not the only two stores in existence.
Give me an example of service or content that is forbidden by Google on Android devices.
Malicious apps that gained system-level access to your handset when downloaded and would intercept and covertly transmit private data to 3rd party servers.
Android Kill Switch
It would be if every other "store" did it. Android does not forbid iBoobie apps. Or an Apple Magazine app. It does not censor based on content.
Android isn't every other store. Can you not think of any other store that does not sell porn?
When I actually used the app that option was not available. Regardless of what the site is claiming.
You saying that Drop Box doesn't know what their own app can do simply because you could not use it in that way? Could it be possible that you just didn't know what you were doing?
I dont need to install anything on Android. I plug it in, and it works. I navigate it like a hard drive.
You've lost me, this makes no sense. A hard drive is just a storage device it doesn't do anything if you don't install anything on it.
I transferred movies onto my Nephew's iTouches with iTunes and it was definitely a hassle. It isnt as intuitive as it could be IMO, especially considering Apple's reputation for stuff like that.
You simply check the box next to the movie that you want to sync. What's confusing about that?
Mostly because it isnt needed, since you can just copy the entire directory.
How do you copy the directory? What software are you using to copy it? Where do you store the copy?
Um...it is true. If you want to call me a liar, fine. But I am saying this has been my own actual experience. it is not conjecture.
I said you're description isn't true because all websites can detect a phones browser and the far majority of websites are not going to send a phone browser to a Flash heavy site.
You still refuse to give any example of websites where you've encountered this problem.
I dont if my mobile browser displays whatever my desktop can display anyway.
Most of the time you aren't even given the option. You are automatically directed to the mobile site.
A website created to be displayed on a desktop does not look or function very well on a 3 inch touch screen phone. That is the primary reason most everyone has a version optimized for touch screen phones.
So the end-user is penalized because of an ideological stance by Apple. Got it.
That is one way to look at it. Another way to look at is that the end user has the benefit of not having to deal with Flash on their mobile phones.
Not with Apple I dont. If I own an iOS device, Apple has made that decision for me.
You have a choice to not use an iOS device.
"Choice is bad". Thats the message I get from Apple people.
You can CHOOSE to come to this third grade conclusion if you CHOOSE to.
Why would you not want both options? Why would you not want the option of expanding later if you wanted to?
Because I don't want to carry and change storage cards. I'm fine with having the storage built into the phone and never need to change anything. Why is that difficult to understand?
You have told me that you dont care about the option. You have not told me why you think having the option is bad.
Bad or Good is subjective. Its an option that is not important for me. Apparently not very important for 200+ million other people around the world.
Most iOS products cannot run the newest Apple OS either. I have three friends who own iPhones. Two of them will not be able to upgrade. They are iOS users (they actually use the product) but they cannot upgrade to the latest OS. Sounds like fragmentation to me.
That's not true. Apple has sold more iPhone 4's than it has sold of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G combined. Most of the iOS devices out in the world right now are either iPhone 4, 3GS, or iPad.
Heaven forbid the end users should get a say eh?
The end user does get to have say. If the end users preferred to have Active X control the internet over HTML. The majority of end users would have used Internet Explorer over Firefox or Safari.
If the end users prefer to have Flash over HTML. They can choose to use devices that support Flash over devices that only support HTML.
You seems to be agreeing with me that Apple is playing nanny, but that you simply dont have a problem with them playing nanny.
I don't feel that Apple's defiance of Flash is taking away my freedom of choice. I agree with their philosophy and their stance. I feel that HTML is a better technology than Flash.
I disagree that this decision should be up to Apple. No one elected them boss of the internet.
Uhhhh....yeah, Apple is trying to be the boss of the entire internet. The reason they are pushing for open source technology over proprietary technology.
You will have to ask Apple. They are the ones forbidding it on their platform, not me.
Apple doesn't prevent iBoobie web apps. They only prevent iBoobie native apps. Anyone is free to develop any web app they want. The whole reason Apple is pushing the development of HTML.
Everyone who likes having expandable hardware. Everyone who likes the idea of being able to upgrade without buying a whole new phone.
Seeing as most people upgrade their phones every two years. Exactly who wants to expand or upgrade the hardware on their phone?
Then explain to me why Apple adds new features to its products at all. Is Apple wrong to do that?
You are way too stuck on feature lists to understand that Apple has a design philosophy. Gruber explains it in a very succinct way.
"Apple takes something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity. At an anticipated media event, Apple reveals this core product as its Next Big Thing, and explains—no, wait, it simply shows—how painstakingly thoughtful and well designed this core product is. The company releases the product for sale."
"Then everyone goes back to Cupertino and rolls. As in, they start with a few tightly packed snowballs and then roll them in more snow to pick up mass until they’ve got a snowman. That’s how Apple builds its platforms. It’s a slow and steady process of continuous iterative improvement—so slow, in fact, that the process is easy to overlook if you’re observing it in real time. Only in hindsight is it obvious just how remarkable Apple’s platform development process is."
It is not about the OS, but the hardware. Some iOS products have really good 3D hardware (iPad2 for example) and some have really crappy 3D hardware (iPhone3). It would depend on what devices you are comparing.
Last week I was interested in people's thoughts here on iPhone 4 vs. Android (and root vs jailbreak) because I wasn't sure if I would keep it. I'm going to keep it now. Now I'm interested in how other Android and Mac users are syncing the two platforms. I am thinking now either Missing Sync or Doubletwist look the best but I wish there was a free way to get it done. I mean contacts, email, media, the whole nine yards. So far, email is working fine on it. I haven't tried mucking with calendar->iCal etc. but from what i've read you can sync iCal to Google cal. Also you can drag media onto Droids as a mounted drive. Basically I wouldn't have a problem if stupid Motorola MediaLink would work. In fact I think I'm going to contact their support or check their forums out now..
I used DoubleTwist with the MyTouch3G Slide. It sort of did the job but was crash-prone and often had issues when trying to keep up with playlists and iTunes. If I added or subtracted items, it would often end up duplicating the playlist, leaving the original and hanging up.
Contacts can be done via Google. Most of your email services are cloud based. SMS has been a sore spot among my Android friends. Many of them have found solutions that save to the MicroSD ram card. For a lot of Android hacking types, it seems the MicroSD card basically becomes the place to store backups from the phone and thus almost every Android phone I have seen seldom deals with much media.
Everyone I have shown them to is fascinated by them, because they are kinda neat. But I do use mine daily. Being able to get access to content at a glance without having to open an app for it is a definite luxury.
I understand that they look neat. Some aspects like power controls, I can appreciate but would really just endorse better battery life which is what Apple endorses as well. But again, seeing what the last person updated on Facebook or the last two tweets or whatever just does nothing for me. Many of the widgets relate to helping manage hacks aka how far am I overclocked, or do I have my GPS so some multitasking app that forgets to turn it off doesn't kill my battery in three hours.
People (especially Apple people) keep making this argument as if it is relevant.
Yes, I agree it SHOULD be obsolete. But the reality is that it is not. Lots of websites still use it, and developers (for whatever reason) still want to use it. So I, as an end user, would like the option of being able to view those sites in the meantime.
If the owner of a website doesn't care to make enough effort to make their website accessible to 100 million iOS devices, then really who work to make sure those devices can access their crappy and archaic website? Additionally you have most mobile devices which do not support it. We are talking about many android devices, many blackberry devices, etc. It's sort of like a sliding continuum. By the time the devices have gotten powerful enough to support flash largely problem free, the website owners should have had enough time to adopt HTML5 and thus not need it. If they want to remain in the past, I'm sure the business opportunities and viewership will leave them behind for better and more modern websites.
Since my Droid supports HTML5 as well, I can view the new HTML5 sites as well. To me, that is the best solution because it is the solution that inconveniences me (the end user) the least.
There are always trade offs. Perhaps you are viewing it that way because unlike, iOS, there isn't a app built that brings the web content to you in an ever better way ala the NY Times web app. Perhaps you would prefer to go to the same old sites with the old crappy code rather than seek out a better solution. I played with an iPad 2 just last night and viewed the iPad optimized version of ABCNews through it. It was amazingly well done. It is the type of website that definitely shows the decision is a good one.
...which is an ideological choice. Most end users do not care about techie ideology. They just want to be able to view the site.
Right and most sites direct you to an iPhone app or an iOS optimized version of the site. The dinosaurs don't need to be catered to, they need to go extinct.
I agree with many of the Anti-flash arguments. But I dont think it should be up to Apple to push those decisions on me. I'd still like to choose for myself.
Sometimes it is hard to accept this from Apple but over time it has always worked out better. Apple killed the floppy, serial ports, Appletalk, OS9, etc. Creative destruction has benefits.
And if HTML5 is really better (and I agree that it is), then it is inevitable that it will supplant Flash anyway. Apple's pushy nanny mentality is unnecessary.
You know sometimes a little push doesn't hurt. There is a time when you spend so much time looking backwards that you forget to look forward. Apple is a forward looking company and if that means a couple dinosaur sites get left behind because they won't update, they can have my views if I'm near a desktop.
So I should not have access to iBoobies so that Grandma can rest easy? Why cant Apple just institute parental controls? Why is that alternative not acceptable?
The do have parent controls. If you want porn then HTML5 is an endorsed path. Apple doesn't want 30% of porn revenue. They don't want to be associated with it, attempt to traffic in it, control it or anything else.
I tried it about 3 weeks ago. When I did it on my nephew's iPod touch (3rd Gen), it would only stream. There were no controls that allowed it to download.
When I asked my nephews about it, they were shocked that Android allowed you to actually download stuff to the device like that. They said it was normal for iOS to disallow downloading for all Apps in general.
I download kindle books to my iPhone and also download audible.com books as well. The Dropbox website explicitly notes it downloads.
I dont know a single person who is not able manage their memory. Even non-geeks get it.
Then you know some interesting folks because most people can't understand multiple volumes on their computers let alone on their phones.
This is another argument that I hear from Apple people a lot: "Well Feature A is not something I personally want, therefore it is a good thing that Apple forbids me the option of using Feature A".
That really makes no sense to me at all. Fewer options is not good, even if you are able to tolerate fewer options.
Oh the irony, heh heh
There are trade-offs in most design decisions. Live wallpaper gives a person lower battery life for no real positive usability gain. Most people I have seen take a live paper, install it for five minutes to show off the phone, then switch back to something that doesn't make it hard to find icons and doesn't drain their battery dry. I'd rather have a nice usable feature like say a unified mailbox instead of having my gmail and yahoo mail in two different programs or perhaps a much more unified copy and paste than Android currently has.
Apple implementing gestures for multitasking is a step in the right direction. But the Android notification bar is something I use constantly
Android does do notifications better for now.
Then I think it is disingenuous for people to count "all" Android devices in these fragmentation figures, when most of the ones using an older OS are not in production.
If you go to any verizon store, or T-Mobile store or whatever...the Android phones they have for sale are likely either running 2.2 or are upgradable to 2.2.
Verizon is selling the Citris which runs 2.1 as does the Ally. Last I checked 2.2 had not officially been released on any Samsung phone on Verizon including the Fascinate. That's four phones right there.
If you own an apple product they are. On Android that is not true.
Give me an example of service or content that is forbidden by Google on Android devices.
It would be if every other "store" did it. Android does not forbid iBoobie apps. Or an Apple Magazine app. It does not censor based on content.
Give me an example of how many phones are a pure Google experience versus having layers of cruft, add-ons and carrier crapware installed on them or pushed out onto them with updates.
Allowing everything, yeah that goes both ways buddy. They allow you to find your little porn. They allow Verizon to push VZNavigator onto your phone as well. Crap in, crap out.
When I actually used the app that option was not available. Regardless of what the site is claiming. [/QUOTE]
There's also a 800+ reviews and I haven't seen them mentioning this omission either.
...and you have to trust that iTunes is doing it correctly. And you have to install iTunes for it to do that.
It seems to get the job done for 200 million people or so.
I dont need to install anything on Android. I plug it in, and it works. I navigate it like a hard drive.
I transferred movies onto my Nephew's iTouches with iTunes and it was definitely a hassle. It isnt as intuitive as it could be IMO, especially considering Apple's reputation for stuff like that.
What would make it more intuitive? You click a checkbox.
I think the kicker is that once you jailbreak an iPhone you can't update. Sounds like a pain in the ass. I might not even have to root my Android. It tethers without rooting. I just downloaded a tethering app and in literally 30 seconds was online with my MBP. And apparently you can "sudo" root temporarily.
Why can't you update? Your update might not be jailbroken but you can certainly update. Anyone who can go through the trouble of jailbreaking can enable tethering. I know I did and it doesn't even require an app. It's just a feature that I can use via bluetooth or USB. TetherMe is used for Wifi as far as I know. I definitely prefer bluetooth tethering to preserve battery.
Flash is not going away, I'll bet for at least a few years at minimum. Blocking Flash equates to blocking a lot of important websites. Like mapping sites. Flash is very good, except on the Mac, until recently. It's decent now at least. However if I recall right, Apple wouldn't let Adobe access hardware acceleration API until the 10.6.3 update.
Mapping sites? What sites don't already have an app? I use Runtracker, MapmyRide, Mapquest for Mobile, etc.
I mostly love the real keyboard on this phone. I am going to get a "game gripper" so I can play NES/SNES/Mario on it. It fits over it and pushes the buttons under it, essentially making it a SNES controller. What I really can't wait for is to figure out video out to make it a portable game system, with wiimote (use Wii controller via bluetooth on it, hook it up to TV).
Meanwhile the 9 and 11 year olds in my family can find plenty of platforms that are not bound to geek nostalgia. They play them just fine and facetime in between on their iPods. They can use Airplay and not even have to hook it up to the TV. the compass and gyro in their iPods are more accurate than a Wiimote.
The iPhone has more polish and maybe some things are more intuitive. But when I played around with iPhone 4, strictly as a phone, it took longer to do things. Also no buttons. So for me Droid was a better fit. It seems like Android is more customizable and open. iPhone is closed but more polished. In some areas. Does this seem fair?
The phone app will open to whatever option you last had it at. I leave my on favorites. I push phone, I push the favorite, it is dialed. I really don't see what is hard about that.