Apple v Android

[adam1991]

Moderator note: Topic split from: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 934#p88934

OK, off-topic: I understand your desire for stuff that "just works," but how is an iPhone any better than a solid Android phone in that regard?

Yes, you CAN get cheapo Android gear. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the Samsung, LG, Motorola, Google Nexus stuff.

[LuckyDay]

OK, off-topic: I understand your desire for stuff that "just works," but how is an iPhone any better than a solid Android phone in that regard?

Yes, you CAN get cheapo Android gear. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the Samsung, LG, Motorola, Google Nexus stuff.

I use a Google Nexus 7 as a tablet, have a Nook, used to have a Samsung Galaxy (and two Androids before that), and have had the previous two generations of iPhones so I think I have a decent perspective on that.

I keep an Android tablet, and an Apple phone partly for the reason of convenience in use from iOS for the phone. I do love my Nexus but there are some things that, to me, Android has yet to get perfectly right (for a phone).

Two examples that come to mind are Google Play being full of thousands of garbage adware apps, and iTunes still being superior from a music/videos/app management perspective over Google's option.

I use my phone for some information apps (sports, news, weather), texting/calls, and to listen to music. Anything else I need I would rather do on a tablet which I prefer Android for.

[adam1991]

^ I think woodchuck means with Apple, it's mostly all taken care of for you.

Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Exactly how is it "all taken care of you" better than with a solid--maybe pure--Android implementation?

Seriously. I absolutely LOVED my old Blackberry back in the day. I use my phone for business, and BB7 excelled at that far beyond anything the consumer-oriented phones have ever shown themselves to be able to do. Over the last couple of years I've used Android, then Windows 8.1, then a brief foray into the new Blackberry 10 (which disappointed me), and back to Windows again. I've not used iOS, and am trying to figure out--without buying one--why iOS might be better than Android.

Frankly, I am half interested in buying one just so I can evaluate for myself. But I don't *think* it would be worth the effort in the end.

I guess I don't get the "it just works" and "it's all taken care of for you" comments. I guess yes, should I want/need tech support I can wander into an Apple store; that does have value. But the only time I've wanted/needed tech support was when Samsung/T-Mobile updated my phone right into the ground without any mechanism for putting it back to the older software. And I know for a stone cold fact that Apple has done the same thing, and that Apple also refuses to downgrade phones. So in THAT regard they're no different, right?

Look, I get the Apple thing overall. I'm a Mac user since 1988, and the only Windows in my life (outside my Windows phone) is the WMC machine under my TV. I do understand how Apple adds value by just taking care of things for you. But I'm not seeing a major difference there on the phone side.

(btw, I evaluate things at their own level. Many people wouldn't like Windows 8.1 Phone, because the ecosystem isn't as rich as Android or iOS. On the other hand, for the minimal work I do and for the under $100 price tag, the Lumia 635 is an absolutely fine piece. On top of that, I get the Win8 tiled interface--because it was designed for portables. I don't get why they thought it would be a good idea for a desktop. But on a portable, I think live tiles beats app icons plus separate notifications every time.)

[woodchuck]

Well, on the Apple discussion, I have never been a fan in the past. I steadfastly stuck to my Galaxy S Phones, rooted Nooks, and Tab 2. The Android devices have been great for tweaking things and maybe even extending the life of old hardware by loading AOSP roms. Some of what drove me away is Google & Samsung's efforts to prevent rooting or at least detect it, so they could prevent various apps/features from working. I understand why they'd want to do this, but, once they implemented it, my efforts to make the devices better by streamlining and removing bloat were compromised. From there, having a few kids now, it all went downhill. Now, having had the iPhone for 5 months, I must begrudgingly admit that it has been the best phone that I've ever owned.

On the X1 thing, time will tell. I think maybe the OS has stabilized over the past months, but we will see. So far, so good...

[adam1991]

Well, on the Apple discussion, I have never been a fan in the past. I steadfastly stuck to my Galaxy S Phones, rooted Nooks, and Tab 2. The Android devices have been great for tweaking things and maybe even extending the life of old hardware by loading AOSP roms. Some of what drove me away is Google & Samsung's efforts to prevent rooting or at least detect it, so they could prevent various apps/features from working. I understand why they'd want to do this, but, once they implemented it, my efforts to make the devices better by streamlining and removing bloat were compromised. From there, having a few kids now, it all went downhill. Now, having had the iPhone for 5 months, I must begrudgingly admit that it has been the best phone that I've ever owned.

Huh. You didn't like Google/Samsung's efforts to prevent rooting, but you're happy with a phone that's so controlled it makes Samsung stuff look like Chinese "freeware"?

I can't help but think it was attitude/perception that drove you to this decision. I can't help but think that you saw Android as a Lego set not only to tinker with, but that you were obligated to tinker with. With the iPhone, you knew from the beginning it was hands-off and you set your perception expectations accordingly--and naturally, it delivered on those expectations. By definition.

Me, I don't see these things as something to tinker with. I use it to get work done. I would be comparing pure Google (for example) to iOS, with no tinkering. Adding apps, sure. But no tinkering.

One thing that I distinctly remember from my Android days a year plus ago was that I could get Swiftkey. I loved that keyboard. I still miss it. And I remember, upon a Google search, discovering that Apple didn't allow third party keyboards--at all. That seemed weird to me. They do now, but that represents a stronghold they insist on having over their customers.

Another datum point: my father has an iPhone, and he wanted a ringtone put on it. Of course he gave it to me to handle. I figured, how hard can this be? Worst case send him an email with an attachment, press and hold on the attachment, and "save as ringtone"--because that's how it works, right? OHMIGOD. When I found out not only is that NOT how it works in the iOS world but that the actual mechanism to get a custom ringtone is (unnecessarily) as archaic and complex as anything Len Kleinrock himself built back in 1969, I was absolutely stunned. THIS came from the same Apple Computer that spent huge amounts of time and money back in the day researching human factors and implementing same in their computer interface in order to make things simple for the user??? That just showed me how insane Apple has become.

So anyway, I'm curious about iPhone. It's the only one I've not tried. But I'm trying to get a handle on really how much better it could possibly be than pure Android before I invest any time and money into it.

I like my Windows phone, but I do like flagship items. I'm that kind of guy. The Windows ecosystem is not interested in flagship phones, at least not right now. They're probably waiting for Windows 10 to come out. Anyway, if I want to move to something nicer, it's clearly either a top-shelf Android phone or an iPhone. And after seeing that manufacturers insist on putting their own "touches" onto Android, like Samsung's TouchWiz (plus the inevitable carrier bloatware if sourced from them), I don't know that anything less than pure Google will do.

Or I could just stay put and ignore it all, I guess.

[LuckyDay]

Huh. You didn't like Google/Samsung's efforts to prevent rooting, but you're happy with a phone that's so controlled it makes Samsung stuff look like Chinese "freeware"?

iPhones, once the jailbreak(root) is released for a firmware are extremely easy to root. And the method is the same for every model. Compared to rooting my Nook and older Android phone (can't remember the model) iOS was no problem.

I can see the irony in the thought given how much control Apple tries to keep, but if tweaking is your goal and you have the means/knowledge, it's not really an issue.

I can't help but think it was attitude/perception that drove you to this decision. I can't help but think that you saw Android as a Lego set not only to tinker with, but that you were obligated to tinker with. With the iPhone, you knew from the beginning it was hands-off and you set your perception expectations accordingly--and naturally, it delivered on those expectations. By definition.

Me, I don't see these things as something to tinker with. I use it to get work done. I would be comparing pure Google (for example) to iOS, with no tinkering. Adding apps, sure. But no tinkering.

This is honestly entirely accurate and if you're a no "tinkering" type of person, iOS is extremely user friendly. Android doesn't require you handle every setting of course, but in many cases, they do put it right in front of your face even when you don't want it.

It also depends on what you mean when you say you want to just get stuff done. I use my iPhone as basically an iPod that can occasionally check some news and sports scores, and text. If I were one who wanted to pay with my phone at the register (a feature not available on my iPhone) it would obviously impact my productivity.

Another datum point: my father has an iPhone, and he wanted a ringtone put on it. Of course he gave it to me to handle. I figured, how hard can this be? Worst case send him an email with an attachment, press and hold on the attachment, and "save as ringtone"--because that's how it works, right? OHMIGOD. When I found out not only is that NOT how it works in the iOS world but that the actual mechanism to get a custom ringtone is (unnecessarily) as archaic and complex as anything Len Kleinrock himself built back in 1969, I was absolutely stunned. THIS came from the same Apple Computer that spent huge amounts of time and money back in the day researching human factors and implementing same in their computer interface in order to make things simple for the user??? That just showed me how insane Apple has become.

When you learn how to do it, it takes about 3 mins to make a ringtone, but I will agree that for some reason ringtones are the most obscene process on an iPhone. I would love them to be as easy to customize as they are on Android.

[woodchuck]

I do agree Android was a great tinkering OS. But when you've decided that you don't have time to tinker with your phone anymore, the iPhone has been amazing. Yeah, I could tinker more on Android. And, as all iPhone users say, ios "just works". No more Samsung gimick-ware. A fully working payment platform! (Google, you can thank Apple for an ecosystem that actually accepts NFC payments).