Android Thread

[Ktrek]

Love the photoshop Rico! Nice work!!

Tim - I really like the Samsung Galaxy S3. It's a really nice phone. Last summer I bought the HTC One X and really like it, especially now that it has Jellybean on it, but if the S3 had been available at the time I would have bought it instead (even though I am still a little miffed with Samsung about the lack of support for my Blu-Ray player that they would take months to release any firmware updates).

Kevin

[Jobydrone]

I've never played with an Android device. I've been flirting with the thought of the Galaxy Note or the new thing that's coming out (I forget what it's called) combining my iPad and iPhone into one device...but I think I'd miss the bigger screen of my iPad and the pure pocket portability of the iPhone.

[Dangelus]

Love the photoshop Rico! Nice work!!

Tim - I really like the Samsung Galaxy S3. It's a really nice phone. Last summer I bought the HTC One X and really like it, especially now that it has Jellybean on it, but if the S3 had been available at the time I would have bought it instead (even though I am still a little miffed with Samsung about the lack of support for my Blu-Ray player that they would take months to release any firmware updates).

Kevin

Nice!  That makes 3 of us that are proud owners of grown up phones!  ;) We may be a minority over here but I'm sure we can conjure up a few good posts.

[Ktrek]

Personally I prefer any android device over anything Apple. Apple is way overpriced in my opinion and I think the Android OS offers more flexibility. Not that Apple doesn't make a decent product but I think the latest generation of Android devices outperforms what they offer. At work we sell the new Samsung 10.1 note and it is really really nice. Smooth operation, lightweight and sleeker design than the Ipad. If I didn't already own a Nook HD+ with a Jellybean card installed on it I might have purchased one. But since I haven't had ny Nook HD+ all that long I doubt my wife would let me sink $500 into another device that does basically what I already have on the Nook for a lot less.

Kevin

[moyer777]

we have androids and apple.... and I didn't have the greatest experience with android.. but now I use my Apple stuff like crazy!  and LOVE it.

[Bryancd]

I think that's where the rubber meets the road with these things. I have always said for a lot of consumers, ease of use is the most important consideration followed by how well a device integrates to the things we place value on from a tech standpoint. That's where Apple excels. Android devices offer a tremendous amount of flexibility, assuming you are willing to commit the time to learn how to take advantage of that. What Android/Samsung devices have over Apple globally is that they are, in general, less expensive. That's it, this isn't a war over quality or functionality, it's $. That's the main reason they are more numerous globally. Price. There is no doubt you can make an Android device do what an iOS device can do, but you have to be willing to do that. Not me, brother, I have a job, I just want crap to be easy and work and I will gladly pay for that. It's not a fight of right or wrong, better or worse, it's just each use case.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I think that's where the rubber meets the road with these things. I have always said for a lot of consumers, ease of use is the most important consideration followed by how well a device integrates to the things we place value on from a tech standpoint. That's where Apple excels. Android devices offer a tremendous amount of flexibility, assuming you are willing to commit the time to learn how to take advantage of that. What Android/Samsung devices have over Apple globally is that they are, in general, less expensive. That's it, this isn't a war over quality or functionality, it's $. That's the main reason they are more numerous globally. Price. There is no doubt you can make an Android device do what an iOS device can do, but you have to be willing to do that. Not me, brother, I have a job, I just want crap to be easy and work and I will gladly pay for that. It's not a fight of right or wrong, better or worse, it's just each use case.

And if anything breaks in the software, you're fubared. I quit trusting Apple when iTunes Match decided that it had to change my music data or, better yet, it would also completely delete songs altogether. Yeah, that was fun when I found that out. Disabled Match soon after. Not happy that I wasted that money. Later, iCloud sync quit working and I never got it to reliably work again. I did plenty of research and attempts to fix it but eventually just gave up (because the general sentiment from Apple techs was that there was no fix for my issues) and moved everything over to Dropbox or other competitors.

Does iOS "just work"? I really debate that sentiment these days. It's certainly simplistic, once you get to know it but that takes time, as someone who knows from experience teaching new iOS users. I will grant that there are plenty of people who don't have issues with iOS such as Rick. But for me, between the service issues and Apple's overzealous control of the App Store, I decided I didn't want to deal with that anymore.

[Bryancd]

You are not understanding but are also somehow making my point. :)

[KingIsaacLinksr]

You are not understanding but are also somehow making my point. :)

I don't see how. On either points.

[Dangelus]

Bryan, from the perspective of the average consumer I have no doubt that price is the major factor in Android adoption over iOS. Even then quality products from Samsung like the S3 and some of the Galaxy Tabs and the Note are not too far off Apple prices. 

For the technically minded it is definitely functionality and flexibility. You can just simply do a lot more with a good Android device these days in comparison with iOS.

Another fallacy is that Android is hard to use. Perhaps in the early days but not anymore. Granted you may need to invest slightly more time to discover all the features but that's because there are so many user customisable functions!

If you are a general user then yes iOS offers a simple and reliable experience with more than enough apps to do most things you would want to do. As long as you can live with the restrictions the app store imposes. Also if you are somebody like Rick and you use your device for music creation then the iPad is the best device for you. Android cannot compete in the audio content creation sector at the moment, this is a problem at the kernel level, not just lack of software.


Personally I'm so glad that there is genuine competition for both systems to innovate.

[Bryancd]

I am always curious about these Ap store restrictions you guys talk about. I have never, not once, had any problem or difficulty using an Ap the way I want. The shit just works on my phone, on my iPad, what the hell else am I supposed to be doing with this stuff that I am restricted from.  :blink

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I am always curious about these Ap store restrictions you guys talk about. I have never, not once, had any problem or difficulty using an Ap the way I want. The shit just works on my phone, on my iPad, what the hell else am I supposed to be doing with this stuff that I am restricted from.  :blink

I was referring to Apple barring apps such as these from the app store: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130322/07553322417/apple-disapproves-another-game-taking-serious-subject.shtml. Apple has been barring apps that they don't feel "comfortable" with a lot lately. Heck, they barred a calendar app for years without saying why.

On a function level, there's a lot apps can't do. You can't set default apps like Chrome or Firefox for opening Internet links. All Browser apps are forced to use Safari's slower browsing engine. (Essentially, Chrome and the rest of the apps are just different skins of the Safari app). Which is why Firefox stated they won't release their browser onto iOS. Another example: if you look at your notification menu, the weather & stock apps have widgets that you can use. However, Apple has barred any other app from being able to create their own widgets for.....unknown reasons. You're also restricted to Twitter and Facebook when you want to share photos from the photos app. That restriction doesn't exist on Android, you can share to G+, Flickr and many other places. I could go on but that's just some of the basic restrictions. And there are things that different apps cannot do. That varies depending on the app though and we could talk about that all day.

[Feathers]

Yeah, I have to say that while I understand what you're saying, life is really too short for me to waste any time worrying about it. I guess that until they ban an app I really care about for some reason then I'm not going to expend any energy being bothered about it.

I could go further but I've just realised this is the Android thread so I'm probably way off topic.

My only Android experience is my wife's Wildfire S and that has been a less than stellar performer. I have no compulsion to switch (but nor am I compelled to upgrade from a 4 to a 5) and, to a degree, think that things have reached the point on both sides of the argument where even old devices are so capable that there are no compelling reasons to change to something new.

I guess I'm getting old since I used to be a site admin on a reasonably popular PDA board and forum over here and spent hours tweaking and discussing all sorts of things.

Of course, if my iPhone breaks... :D

[Bryancd]

I am always curious about these Ap store restrictions you guys talk about. I have never, not once, had any problem or difficulty using an Ap the way I want. The shit just works on my phone, on my iPad, what the hell else am I supposed to be doing with this stuff that I am restricted from.  :blink

I was referring to Apple barring apps such as these from the app store: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130322/07553322417/apple-disapproves-another-game-taking-serious-subject.shtml. Apple has been barring apps that they don't feel "comfortable" with a lot lately. Heck, they barred a calendar app for years without saying why.

On a function level, there's a lot apps can't do. You can't set default apps like Chrome or Firefox for opening Internet links. All Browser apps are forced to use Safari's slower browsing engine. (Essentially, Chrome and the rest of the apps are just different skins of the Safari app). Which is why Firefox stated they won't release their browser onto iOS. Another example: if you look at your notification menu, the weather & stock apps have widgets that you can use. However, Apple has barred any other app from being able to create their own widgets for.....unknown reasons. You're also restricted to Twitter and Facebook when you want to share photos from the photos app. That restriction doesn't exist on Android, you can share to G+, Flickr and many other places. I could go on but that's just some of the basic restrictions. And there are things that different apps cannot do. That varies depending on the app though and we could talk about that all day.

To your first point I say a resounding so what?
To the second I have had zero problems sharing photo's in the manner I want with iOS. The minutiae you are talking about is completely meaningless to me. I don't spend hours of my life dicking around with widgets.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I am always curious about these Ap store restrictions you guys talk about. I have never, not once, had any problem or difficulty using an Ap the way I want. The shit just works on my phone, on my iPad, what the hell else am I supposed to be doing with this stuff that I am restricted from.  :blink

I was referring to Apple barring apps such as these from the app store: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130322/07553322417/apple-disapproves-another-game-taking-serious-subject.shtml. Apple has been barring apps that they don't feel "comfortable" with a lot lately. Heck, they barred a calendar app for years without saying why.

On a function level, there's a lot apps can't do. You can't set default apps like Chrome or Firefox for opening Internet links. All Browser apps are forced to use Safari's slower browsing engine. (Essentially, Chrome and the rest of the apps are just different skins of the Safari app). Which is why Firefox stated they won't release their browser onto iOS. Another example: if you look at your notification menu, the weather & stock apps have widgets that you can use. However, Apple has barred any other app from being able to create their own widgets for.....unknown reasons. You're also restricted to Twitter and Facebook when you want to share photos from the photos app. That restriction doesn't exist on Android, you can share to G+, Flickr and many other places. I could go on but that's just some of the basic restrictions. And there are things that different apps cannot do. That varies depending on the app though and we could talk about that all day.

To your first point I say a resounding so what?
To the second I have had zero problems sharing photo's in the manner I want with iOS. The minutiae you are talking about is completely meaningless to me. I don't spend hours of my life dicking around with widgets.

To the first: if Apple restricting apps based on not being "comfortable" with them doesn't concern you, I frankly don't know what will. I view it as censorship. And I hate censorship. Don't even start telling me about how it happens all the time because that doesn't mean I have to tolerate/like it. This is just one app that got the news to go viral, we have no idea what other apps have been blocked by Apple because they weren't "comfortable" with it.

To the second: if you're fine with the iOS experience then nothing I say is going to sway you otherwise. (Not that I'm really trying anyway) There is plenty more that Android allows that Apple doesn't. That's just the simple fact of the matter. And it isn't tiny minutiae either but here's the basic point: there is a lot of freedom in Android. You get to choose the experience you want and it isn't dictated by Apple. Yeah, the lack of restrictions is a big deal but the amount of how much you'll care varies from person to person. I have no idea how you like using your iOS devices so I can't really express the differences to you in any meaningful way unless you tell me. But, if you don't care and you prefer to have everything guided by Apple's hand, that's fine. It's your choice after all.