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The whole leapfrogging thing implies (to me) that you are not only doing more things than someone, but also doing them better. Yes, FroYo has added a ton of gre

by zackola 16y ago

The whole leapfrogging thing implies (to me) that you are not only doing more things than someone, but also doing them better. Yes, FroYo has added a ton of great features to android, however I still feel that Apple has not yet been leapfrogged in the most basic parts of design for core parts today's mobile experience. The most obvious of these to me is text entry via touch screen. There can be no claims of leapfrogging until I can use an android device's touch screen to SMS someone without pulling (what little is left of) my hair out. Next is the whole activity response/switching thing. Yes, blah blah, tradeoffs for multitasking, whatever. Why not have a way to turn off non-system multi-tasking in favor of super lightning quick responsiveness on android? It's enough to almost throw the phone across the room when you are trying to answer the phone and key presses don't register. In terms of industrial design, there have been no great leaps by any of Google's hardware partners - Every single android handset I've used has felt like a cheap, disposable piece of junk (G1, Hero, N1) or a giant tank (Droid) compared to the first generation iPhone. I haven't played with the incredible yet, so I still have hope, but not much. Google and Apple have taken two different approaches to mobile. Google is trying to throw as many different features into android in as short a time as possible, and Apple is set on perfecting each detail before incorporating more. This is fine, it's two different philosophies. After my prolonged experiences with the G1 and the original iPhone, I'd much rather live day to day with software and hardware that has been developed to Apple's design and usability standards. (I'm talking about the system software here, not 3rd party apps) I hope in the coming year Google has a chance to go back and spend time polishing what they've accomplished so far instead of continually heaping feature upon feature onto android. If Google can get back to user interaction basics and stop mucking around with some of their other tangents, they could make android great, not just passable. Or maybe I was just too abused by my time with the G1 to judge this argument fairly anymore, definitely possible.

moultano 16y ago
>There can be no claims of leapfrogging until I can use an android device's touch screen to SMS someone without pulling (what little is left of) my hair out. This is almost certainly what you are used to. I haven't had any difficulty with my nexus one. The iphone drove me to insanity everytime I tried to type on it. >Every single android handset I've used has felt like a cheap, disposable piece of junk (G1, Hero, N1) Everyone I know who has seen the nexus one in person found it much more attractive than the iphone. (sampling bias, yadda yadda) >Or maybe I was just too abused by my time with the G1 to judge this argument fairly anymore, definitely possible. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with for your post. (I feel your pain on that one. ;)
- zackola 16y ago
  It's kind of funny - people seem to be fairly split down the middle between our posts, even with all the up and down voting. What I was used to before I got the G1 was a Samsung Trace, which could not be considered any sort of "smart phone". No Qwerty keyboard, tiny screen, etc. I did not actually use the original iPhone until about a year ago when a friend gave me an unlocked 2G when she got a 3GS. I don't know much about the subject of text input, but there are two distinctly different implementations between android and iPhone. Android tends to be more predictive, but less enthusiastic about what it thinks you mean, and hence less corrective. I find the more decisive autocorrect on iPhone OS to work out much better for me. It's less about picking out words from a suggestion list and more about just banging away on the keyboard and trusting the software knows what I mean.
  - lftl 16y ago
    The biggest advantage Android has in this area is that Google doesn't have to get it "right" for everyone. On Android phones you can just switch to one of the other keyboard implementations if you don't like the default.
    - zackola 16y ago
      recommendations? and not swype please.
      - OrangeGuutan 16y ago
        Smart Keyboard Pro: text expansion, custom dictionaries, custom skins, and more. I'm not the developer even if I sound like a walking advertisement, I just love the app that much.
      - lftl 16y ago
        Shapewriter seems to be recommended alot, but I've only played with different keyboards a bit on my wife's Hero.
warfangle 16y ago
How is typing better on the iPhone than on the N1? I find the predictive measures work better; the keyboard is more responsive (texting on the iPhone was an exercise in frustration: oftentimes the keyboard would lock up, preventing input). My only complaint is that its a little too easy to accidentally hit the home key. And really... I've got three apps running in the background and no sluggishness. In fact, I have never seen this phone lag (even when playing super Nintendo on the train). Only complaint with typing in web forms is that it doesn't follow the cursor quite right. Written from mobile :-)
buro9 16y ago
> Every single android handset I've used has felt like a cheap, disposable piece of junk (G1, Hero, N1) or a giant tank (Droid) I own an iPhone 3GS as well as a Nexus One. I prefer the N1 and a lot of it comes down to the fact that the iPhone feels like a bar of soap in my hand just waiting to take a flying jump towards the ground. It's a slippery thing. That single thing was enough for me to use the N1 more, and now I find the iPhone hard to use (in the same way that once I stopped using Nokia years ago I couldn't go back to it).

by zackola 16y ago

moultano 16y ago

>There can be no claims of leapfrogging until I can use an android device's touch screen to SMS someone without pulling (what little is left of) my hair out. This is almost certainly what you are used to. I haven't had any difficulty with my nexus one. The iphone drove me to insanity everytime I tried to type on it. >Every single android handset I've used has felt like a cheap, disposable piece of junk (G1, Hero, N1) Everyone I know who has seen the nexus one in person found it much more attractive than the iphone. (sampling bias, yadda yadda) >Or maybe I was just too abused by my time with the G1 to judge this argument fairly anymore, definitely possible. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with for your post. (I feel your pain on that one. ;)

zackola 16y ago
It's kind of funny - people seem to be fairly split down the middle between our posts, even with all the up and down voting. What I was used to before I got the G1 was a Samsung Trace, which could not be considered any sort of "smart phone". No Qwerty keyboard, tiny screen, etc. I did not actually use the original iPhone until about a year ago when a friend gave me an unlocked 2G when she got a 3GS. I don't know much about the subject of text input, but there are two distinctly different implementations between android and iPhone. Android tends to be more predictive, but less enthusiastic about what it thinks you mean, and hence less corrective. I find the more decisive autocorrect on iPhone OS to work out much better for me. It's less about picking out words from a suggestion list and more about just banging away on the keyboard and trusting the software knows what I mean.
- lftl 16y ago
  The biggest advantage Android has in this area is that Google doesn't have to get it "right" for everyone. On Android phones you can just switch to one of the other keyboard implementations if you don't like the default.
  - zackola 16y ago
    recommendations? and not swype please.
    - OrangeGuutan 16y ago
      Smart Keyboard Pro: text expansion, custom dictionaries, custom skins, and more. I'm not the developer even if I sound like a walking advertisement, I just love the app that much.
    - lftl 16y ago
      Shapewriter seems to be recommended alot, but I've only played with different keyboards a bit on my wife's Hero.

warfangle 16y ago

How is typing better on the iPhone than on the N1? I find the predictive measures work better; the keyboard is more responsive (texting on the iPhone was an exercise in frustration: oftentimes the keyboard would lock up, preventing input). My only complaint is that its a little too easy to accidentally hit the home key. And really... I've got three apps running in the background and no sluggishness. In fact, I have never seen this phone lag (even when playing super Nintendo on the train). Only complaint with typing in web forms is that it doesn't follow the cursor quite right. Written from mobile :-)

buro9 16y ago

> Every single android handset I've used has felt like a cheap, disposable piece of junk (G1, Hero, N1) or a giant tank (Droid) I own an iPhone 3GS as well as a Nexus One. I prefer the N1 and a lot of it comes down to the fact that the iPhone feels like a bar of soap in my hand just waiting to take a flying jump towards the ground. It's a slippery thing. That single thing was enough for me to use the N1 more, and now I find the iPhone hard to use (in the same way that once I stopped using Nokia years ago I couldn't go back to it).