5 ms·

Android is solid, WebOS is solid, and Blackberry’s new OS/UI looks great too. Nothing I’ve played with is better than Apple’s iOS, but a lot of the alternatives

by kloncks 16y ago

Android is solid, WebOS is solid, and Blackberry’s new OS/UI looks great too. Nothing I’ve played with is better than Apple’s iOS, but a lot of the alternatives are approaching “plenty damn good” status. That's Apple's edge. No one in their right mind can call the technology that RIM, Palm, or Google come out with as anything but outstanding...yet Apple still has that edge and their products are always "great" while the others will always be "plenty damn good". Perhaps it's because they control all the process (sans manufacturing). Maybe it's a different philosophy. But it really seems that no one cares about every minute tiny detail like Apple does. Apple has always cared about the small things. That's why I don't see their perceived reputation going anywhere. As long as they keep doing that, they'll still be different.

bad_user 16y ago
The beauty in Android is that it doesn't have to be the best ... it just has to be good enough + shipped on cheaper phones ... just like Windows did. Also, I've got an iPhone 3GS, and I see lots of area for improvement ... the biggest annoyance for me being that all these apps I have (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, yahoo messenger) ... are not using the iPhone's contacts list for storing people profiles ... so even Apple screws things up in the details department.
- msbarnett 16y ago
  > the biggest annoyance for me being that all these apps I have (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, yahoo messenger) ... are not using the iPhone's contacts list for storing people profiles ... so even Apple screws things up in the details department. I'm not sure that's a screw-up so much as a philosophical view of the contact list as being for actual contacts and not random twitter user names with no associated addresses, phone-numbers, etc. I'd be pretty irritated if yahoo messenger were able to clutter up my contact list, personally. On another note entirely, overuse...of ellipses...is a terrible...habit.
  - Timothee 16y ago
    It's almost off-topic by now, but I think Yahoo! Messenger (or any other app) would be plenty able to clutter up your contact list if it wanted to. As far as I know, the SDK allows read/write access to the Address Book, without user authorization even. ...which I've always found very surprising from a privacy standpoint. Apps need to ask access to your location but your full address book is fine? Odd.
  - adambyrtek 16y ago
    When it comes to Android you can choose to synchronize only those Twitter/Facebook profiles that have an existing address book entry. Thanks to that the list is not littered with useless contacts and you have all kinds of information, like the recent status update or profile photo, integrated under a single address book. Very handy.
  - megablast 16y ago
    This is up to the app, the app has complete read/write access to iPhone contacts. Nothing to do with Apple for that problem, although I am going to be pretty pissed if apps start doing this without asking.
- ergo98 16y ago
  "The beauty in Android is that it doesn't have to be the best ... it just has to be good enough + shipped on cheaper phones ... just like Windows did." The "cheaper phones" bit has never been Android's advantage, though it always gets brought up as if Android is the poor man's iPhones. It isn't. The Droid isn't less expensive than the iPhone was. Neither was even the miserable G1. The Galaxy S isn't a cheap phone. The Evo 4G isn't a cheap phone. My Nexus One cost me $550. How much did your iPhone cost you? Kids with part-time McJobs have iPhones that they paid for with their own income. Android's advantage is that there are a lot of vendors aligning and running in the same direction, and the innovation is reaching an extraordinary pace: Android has gone from a bit of a joke that some of us held onto purely for philosophical reasons a mere 12 months ago, to now undoubtedly being the #1 hardware platform, and is becoming a strong contender for the #1 software platform. No, it really is. The improvements to the quality of software across the board is incredible. Which, I suppose, is exactly how Windows succeeded: Microsoft set up a system where a lot of very capable, very energetic companies were motivated to help Microsoft succeed, and it worked dramatically, from storage system vendors to graphics card companies. Compare that to Apple whose only real partners are media outlets who think it'll save old media (though that provides tremendous free advertising), along with lots of 1-man software shops who, at least for a time, were singing the Apple song on sites like HN.
  - simonsarris 16y ago
    > The Droid isn't less expensive than the iPhone was. Neither was even the miserable G1. The Galaxy S isn't a cheap phone. Nonsense. > My Nexus One cost me $550. How much did your iPhone cost you? The iPhone is $599 or $699, depending on model. In the UK it is £499 to £599, equates to $780 or $950. In the UK the Nexus One was just under $550, though VAT could take another bite out of the wallet. Right now in Europe the Galaxy S is €500 ($615), less than either iPhone.
    - ergo98 16y ago
      >Nonsense Obnoxious. >The iPhone is $599 or $699, depending on model. Ignoring the laughable notion that $549 compared to $599 makes one "cheap" relative to the other, my delivery price of the Nexus One was greater than walking into the telco and buying an iPhone 3GS (the option at the time) for full retail. Regardless, the number of iPhone owners who paid full retail approaches zero. It wasn't even possible until very recently, and is under very little demand. Instead most consumers can only stomach the illusion of spending $49 to $199 on a phone, even the faux-rich iPhone illuminati. Which is a price point that is shared by virtually all smartphones. Add in that with any smartphone you're looking at a comparable monthly servicing fee.

by kloncks 16y ago

bad_user 16y ago

The beauty in Android is that it doesn't have to be the best ... it just has to be good enough + shipped on cheaper phones ... just like Windows did. Also, I've got an iPhone 3GS, and I see lots of area for improvement ... the biggest annoyance for me being that all these apps I have (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, yahoo messenger) ... are not using the iPhone's contacts list for storing people profiles ... so even Apple screws things up in the details department.

msbarnett 16y ago
> the biggest annoyance for me being that all these apps I have (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, yahoo messenger) ... are not using the iPhone's contacts list for storing people profiles ... so even Apple screws things up in the details department. I'm not sure that's a screw-up so much as a philosophical view of the contact list as being for actual contacts and not random twitter user names with no associated addresses, phone-numbers, etc. I'd be pretty irritated if yahoo messenger were able to clutter up my contact list, personally. On another note entirely, overuse...of ellipses...is a terrible...habit.
- Timothee 16y ago
  It's almost off-topic by now, but I think Yahoo! Messenger (or any other app) would be plenty able to clutter up your contact list if it wanted to. As far as I know, the SDK allows read/write access to the Address Book, without user authorization even. ...which I've always found very surprising from a privacy standpoint. Apps need to ask access to your location but your full address book is fine? Odd.
- adambyrtek 16y ago
  When it comes to Android you can choose to synchronize only those Twitter/Facebook profiles that have an existing address book entry. Thanks to that the list is not littered with useless contacts and you have all kinds of information, like the recent status update or profile photo, integrated under a single address book. Very handy.
- megablast 16y ago
  This is up to the app, the app has complete read/write access to iPhone contacts. Nothing to do with Apple for that problem, although I am going to be pretty pissed if apps start doing this without asking.
ergo98 16y ago
"The beauty in Android is that it doesn't have to be the best ... it just has to be good enough + shipped on cheaper phones ... just like Windows did." The "cheaper phones" bit has never been Android's advantage, though it always gets brought up as if Android is the poor man's iPhones. It isn't. The Droid isn't less expensive than the iPhone was. Neither was even the miserable G1. The Galaxy S isn't a cheap phone. The Evo 4G isn't a cheap phone. My Nexus One cost me $550. How much did your iPhone cost you? Kids with part-time McJobs have iPhones that they paid for with their own income. Android's advantage is that there are a lot of vendors aligning and running in the same direction, and the innovation is reaching an extraordinary pace: Android has gone from a bit of a joke that some of us held onto purely for philosophical reasons a mere 12 months ago, to now undoubtedly being the #1 hardware platform, and is becoming a strong contender for the #1 software platform. No, it really is. The improvements to the quality of software across the board is incredible. Which, I suppose, is exactly how Windows succeeded: Microsoft set up a system where a lot of very capable, very energetic companies were motivated to help Microsoft succeed, and it worked dramatically, from storage system vendors to graphics card companies. Compare that to Apple whose only real partners are media outlets who think it'll save old media (though that provides tremendous free advertising), along with lots of 1-man software shops who, at least for a time, were singing the Apple song on sites like HN.
- simonsarris 16y ago
  > The Droid isn't less expensive than the iPhone was. Neither was even the miserable G1. The Galaxy S isn't a cheap phone. Nonsense. > My Nexus One cost me $550. How much did your iPhone cost you? The iPhone is $599 or $699, depending on model. In the UK it is £499 to £599, equates to $780 or $950. In the UK the Nexus One was just under $550, though VAT could take another bite out of the wallet. Right now in Europe the Galaxy S is €500 ($615), less than either iPhone.
  - ergo98 16y ago
    >Nonsense Obnoxious. >The iPhone is $599 or $699, depending on model. Ignoring the laughable notion that $549 compared to $599 makes one "cheap" relative to the other, my delivery price of the Nexus One was greater than walking into the telco and buying an iPhone 3GS (the option at the time) for full retail. Regardless, the number of iPhone owners who paid full retail approaches zero. It wasn't even possible until very recently, and is under very little demand. Instead most consumers can only stomach the illusion of spending $49 to $199 on a phone, even the faux-rich iPhone illuminati. Which is a price point that is shared by virtually all smartphones. Add in that with any smartphone you're looking at a comparable monthly servicing fee.