7 ms·

Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

69 points by woobar 15y ago

EtienneJohnred 15y ago
51 points in just 2 hours, but it’s currently off the first page. The Android-lovin’ douches are really feeling threatened by this one and doing everything they can to try and bury it via downvotes. But you can’t downvote reality. (Although you can downvote individual comments... you know the routine... goin’ dowwwwnnn!)
salmanapk 15y ago
Troll much? Thisismynext.com works flawlessly even on the Huwaei Ideos (World's cheapest android phone) :-)
llgrrl_ 15y ago
When I read "It's all about the feel," I imediatelly realized why he didn't get why people like Android. If he likes the feel, then nothing beats Apple. But I do use it for different purposes. I need a physical keyboard. I need to ssh to my server when I need to. I need google talk. That's why I use Android.
- mikeash 15y ago
  A physical keyboard is certainly a great reason to use Android, but I'm curious, what about ssh or gtalk requires it?
  - jwcacces 15y ago
    They're all separate needs. The point is on Android you have those options.
    - mikeash 15y ago
      Sure. My point is that two out of the three don't appear to have anything to do with Android.
  - llgrrl_ 15y ago
    The way Gtalk client deals with unreliable connections is perfect. I don't have a 3G plan so I often walk around my campus roaming from one hotspot to another. It doesn't use the regular jabber of you notice. Also SSH without a physical keyboard is gonna be a pain in the back.
    - jshen 15y ago
      i do SSH from my ipad all the time without much pain. I have an android phone and hate the ssh apps mainly because the text is tiny. What ssh app do you use on android?
      - there 15y ago
        i use connectbot.
        jshen 15y ago
        that's what i'm using, but I much prefer the IOS apps. connectbot won't go into landscape and the keyboard covers up the screen so i have to type while the prompt is covered up by the keyboard.
- woobar 15y ago
  The point about physical keyboard is valid. But do you believe that there are no ssh or GT clients for iOS?
stupandaus 15y ago
Your question of who the Android is meant for has a very simple answer. It's designed for people who want a smartphone, but aren't willing or capable of spending enough for an iPhone. Also Apple haters as noted.
- morsch 15y ago
  I guess the parent is a flamebait, but I was going to make a similar point: I got a used entry-level Android smartphone (ZTE Blade) for 100 EUR. Installing a custom Android 2.3.5 ROM on it was easy. A used iPhone 3GS fetches 2 to 3 times the price over here, despite the much inferior screen. I could spend more, but I would constantly worry about losing or breaking it or having it stolen. And when I relax my spending criteria a bit, chances are for 200 to 300 EUR an Android phone would still be a much better value than a used/outdated iPhone.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    I can vouch for ZTE Blade. It is a a very nice, cheap phone. Does everything I need, despite being ARMv6. It was 100 GBP for me (got the OLED one) and I'm not afraid that I will lose or damage it. Btw., Nexus S is around 260 EUR today (retail, unlocked, no contract).
- llgrrl_ 15y ago
  Linux is designed to people who want a computer, but aren't willing or capable or spending enough for Windows or Mac. Also Microsoft and Apple haters as noted. Your level of ignorant is amazing.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  You do realize people pay just as much for high-end Android phones as others do for iPhones, don't you?
  - babebridou 15y ago
    I paid 0.20€ for my Motorola Atrix, one month ago. It comes with the same data plan as the iPhone. It was high-end last january.
ajross 15y ago
FTA: Fans of Android, let’s not tiptoe around this: Android exists because it is a rip off of iOS. Sure, it has grown into its own in a lot of ways, but its roots are decidedly placed at the introduction of iOS in 2007 While true, I continue to find it infuriating the extent to which people credit Apple with inventing things it didn't. The iPhone was not the first touch-only buttonless interface out there (depending on how liberal you want to be, you can credit the art directors of Star Trek TNG in 1987 with that). Nor was it the first app store. It did these things better, and is certainly worth immitating. But to "date" the start of Android to 2007 like that is writing out a huge chunk of history. Edit: To clarify, because people clearly don't understand why I see hypocrisy here: The moral context to this quote is that Apple did something first and Google copied it, and that this kind of copying is bad. But obviously Apple copied just as much from other sources when they "invented" the iPhone (including things like a full-size capacitative touch screen and app store). You can't simulataneously argue that it's OK for Apple to copy and not Google; I posited that this was ignorance on the part of the author and not stupidity, and noted that I found it infuriating.
- jessedhillon 15y ago
  There is a link in the very next sentence that illustrates what he's talking about[1]. Yes Android was a product before 2007, but as he says (and as the photos suggest), Android post-2007 was a much different beast. There's also this question on Quora[2]. IMO, it was much closer to the BlackBerry. [1] http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-like-before-and-after-the-launch-of-iphone/ http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-l... [2] http://www.quora.com/Android-OS/What-did-Android-look-like-before-the-iPhone-was-unveiled http://www.quora.com/Android-OS/What-did-Android-look-like-b...
  - tomkarlo 15y ago
    Basing that entirely on the UI seems like a really superficial view of what goes into both Android and iOS. If it was just a matter of ripping off the UI, Microsoft, RIM and Palm would still be in the game.
dendory 15y ago
My first "real" smartphone after using a Nokia E51 was an Android, a Nexus One to be exact, last year. I hated the experience. The market place was horrible, there was no apps worth using, the whole concept of having both a menu screen and home screens seemed weird to me, home screen widgets, while nice, killed my battery life. I then got an iPad and found the world of iOS so much better, I then got an iPhone 3GS and never looked back.
jwcacces 15y ago
You want to be taken seriously, and the first thing you say is that "Android exists because it is a rip off of iOS"? Even if it was true, you've set the tone for your whole article as non-objective and fanboyish. Creating a product, like creating artwork, is a process that interacts with the whole industry. You see what others did, and you try to do better. Others see what you do and they try to do better. Lets not even talk about all the things that Apple has "created" based on other products. This give and take is part of a vibrant tech atmosphere and great competition couldn't exist without it.
- fleitz 15y ago
  You really make a great point, it's quite frankly an insult to the people who made iOS to say that Android ripped it off. Someone more objective might say they ripped KDE 2.0 off which comes across as much more believable.
- darrylb42 15y ago
  When the first iPhone came out, I thought marginal improvement over the Motorola Minq that I had for 2 years already. A Linux based phone before its time.
- lemieux 15y ago
  I totally agree with you. You can't say this is a rip off... an OS is an OS. Google, or anybody else, would not have much choices when comes to build a new one. Window, apps, app store, etc. are fundamental to a mobile OS. Maybe Apple made the first one to be massively adopted and recognized, but they are not really inovators, they always took something that alreay existed (excepted first computer) and made it a more appealing product for the mass market. Take iPod, iPhone and the iPad for instance. Mp3 player existed before the iPod. They took the concept, built an appealing product from it and sold it to the mass market. Same thing for the iPhone, took the concept of a mobile phone, put it in their iPod OS. Again, same thing for the iPad. Tablets were there. They were unpopular due to a lot of reasons. Apple took the concept, improved it and sold a better product. Give them credit for make awesome product out of existing ones, but quit saying they invented everything and everything else is a rip off.
wccrawford 15y ago
I went Android because there's no need to jailbreak the phone to install third-party, and I'm a programmer. I don't have to pay $99/yr to program for it, or own a computer that runs one particular operating system. I'll admit that for a long time, the iPhone experience was way better than Android. And the browser and media functionality are still horrible. And the games... -sigh- But in general, I love the Android experience. On the newer phones (much newer than Nexus S) the lag is gone. The only lag left is the same as the iPhone: Launching apps. Apps generally behave in ways that I like. (Notifications, interoperability, etc.)
- freemarketteddy 15y ago
  man trust me...the art of jailbreaking and playing with Saurik's mobile substrate to plug in code into apps is some serious fun!
- barrkel 15y ago
  See, I far prefer the browser on Android because of one thing - the single most important thing in a phone browser, IMO - text reflow on zoom.
  - baddox 15y ago
    That surprises me. I find the Android browser to be completely unusable, primarily due to performance but secondarily due to that annoying text reflow.
    - barrkel 15y ago
      What bad performance? IME, my Nexus One browser is slightly less smooth to scroll, but faster at redraw than the browsers on my (admittedly, slightly old at this point) iOS devices. It's a toss-up, really. Question: do you have Flash installed? I had to uninstall it completely, because even the "on demand" option for browser plugins didn't disable it reliably. (Biggest problem I have with my iOS devices (an iPod Touch and 1st gen iPad) is that they run out of charge on standby, from lack of use...)
nextparadigms 15y ago
So his logic is that if Android started as a rip-off of iOS, then you shouldn't use it even if it becomes better than the original? There are a lot of improvements coming in Android 4.0, too. I think they will make the improvements in iOS 5 look marginal in comparison.
cdmckay 15y ago
I'm not sure what he's talking about regarding the Android web browser. In my experience, it's been essentially the same as the Mobile Safari in terms of experience.
- woobar 15y ago
  He posted a link [1] to video comparing browsers on Nexus S and iPhone 3GS. The difference is even more striking if you consider that Nexus S is 1.5 years newer. [1] http://vimeo.com/30050423 http://vimeo.com/30050423
  - barrkel 15y ago
    I've never had an experience as bad as that shown in the video on my Nexus One, a phone older than the Nexus S. It looks like he might have Flash installed - that's a mistake, as the Android browser's "on demand" option for plugins doesn't disable Flash reliably. Apart from that, it's clear that Android does not render to a GPU texture and scroll around, and this makes the iOS browser feel a lot slicker, but the difference between it and my N1 is small - and the iOS approach frequently leaves large grey blocks when scrolling quickly that need to get redrawn, because GPU texture size is limited. Here's a different video, to demonstrate (Nexus One without Flash vs iPhone 4 running iOS 4): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gZiSG3TmdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gZiSG3TmdY
- jlembeck 15y ago
  As a web developer, the Android web browser is now a constant nemesis for me. It's painfully slow and it doesn't adhere to HTML5 standards worth a damn. iOS5's mobile safari works just like regular Safari, Android's browser, I don't know what it works like, but it certainly is the first thing I'd replace when I got an Android phone.
freemarketteddy 15y ago
I played with ListActivity for about two days....The experience was so bad when compared to UITableView that I instantly quit android dev and am back to iOS. Afterall as developers what we really want is to give all our users a really awesome experience....I am sorry to say this but in terms of the ability to make something awesome (as an individual developer) that users will love to play with, Android does not hold a candle to iOS.
- roflharrison 15y ago
  What was the problem?
brackin 15y ago
I did the same thing, I had an iPhone 4. I borrowed a Nexus S for a few months and now have a 4S. I like Android, my view has changed after using it. Downloads and other elements are great, after you use them to think "Why is this so easy". The Nexus S is a fast device with far better colour the iPhone but the retina display makes up for it and more. The back button is a great idea and It's sorely missed on my 4S, it made sense to remove the on screen button in apps and now i've switched back I find myself thinking more when trying to go back in iOS apps. Android apps are fine, you can do everything you'd want too. One issue is there's a lack of style. I spent a lot of time finding the most beautiful app as many were poorly designed. I think the one thing you'll find is there are less 'brand apps'. You can't use Instagram you'll have to find the Android equivalent which is sometimes a less popular iPhone app. The apps do let it down in some ways but overall Android is just different and there are pros and cons to both.
RobAtticus 15y ago
I have actually gone the other way. After almost a year and a half of using the Motorola Backflip (the first AT&T Android device, if I recall correctly), I am now using my sister's old iPhone 3G. My main reasons being that my Backflip was slow as hell and the battery barely lasted a day. I like using Android more, I like developing for Android more, and when I can finally upgrade my phone I will be getting an Android phone. My 3G is pretty nifty, I love that it can go a few days between charges and its at least more responsive. But I also have a N1 I use for research and it is just as responsive and good with battery life, so my main complaints with my Android phone have little to do with the OS and more to do with I bought a crappy phone. In particular, I like Android's notification system way more than what I have on the 3G. Having Google Talk work so well with the phone is an amazing convenience that I find I miss now that I haven't bothered to set it up on my 3G. I'll be really glad when I can upgrade to a phone running ICS, but until then, this 3G isn't bad either.
unconed 15y ago
Two things keep me on Android: - Great Gtalk IM - Swype keyboard If I cared about using lots of apps, it would be iOS all the way.
blinkingled 15y ago
I recently went the other way around. After exchanging my Galaxy Tab 2 times for random hangs and unexplained slowness I thought I will check out the iPad. I still have an Android phone that I am perfectly happy with so throughout the day I go back and forth with iOS and Android. The experience on the iPad is undeniably superior after iOS5. The UI is way smoother than Honeycombs, I haven't found any beta behavior yet. BUT, usability wise I find iPad to be incredibly annoying and limited. I keep looking for the back button and I am yet to find the level of consistency that people claim is hallmark of iOS. Few examples - 1) Music Player UI is inconsistent with other apps - no navigation button at top left, it doesnt cover the 'desktop' fully for reasons I don't understand. Search field is at bottom right - considering it is commonly used it should be easy to locate and access. 2) Notifications - while they are lot better with 5.0, it is still inconsistent. I still see the old modal notifications from built in apps like email - twice now I saw old interrupting notifications from exchange mail - one was on Sunday evening for a meeting request on Wednesday! Oh and the notification bar doesn't cover the full screen when pulled down on the iPad unlike iPhone. 3) Always having to hit the physical home button for app switching is annoying compared to Android 4) You cannot subscribe to a podcast using the iPad on its own! I spent 30 minutes trying to do just that. It's not PC free, yet! 5) Background apps and notifications are flaky - Vtok for example was inexplicably killed some times. And when it wasn't it did not notify me using the new notification system. 6) Google integration is poor but this part I was fully expecting. 7) Finally I found that I was still confronted with iPhone only apps that looked horrible when run on iPad. This sort of thing works way better in Google land. But I am forced to keep it until Google and co get their act together on the tablet side. Right now the user experience on the best Android tablet is way shoddy compared to the iPad but if Google could get that fixed I am fairly certain there will be compelling reasons to switch back.
- woobar 15y ago
  2) this is configurable, i.e. you can choose what apps should use modal alert, banners on top or nothing. 3) you can try 'four-fingers' gestures as a replacement. They are useless on an iPhone, bu on iPad they make Home button obsolete.
  - 15y ago
yason 15y ago
He's wondering why people might choose Android over iPhone but he also answers himself. To quote, bolded: "It’s all about the feel." Maybe lots of people feel that Android is more "theirs" than an iPhone.
lusis 15y ago
You don't need to "understand" why someone would use Android anymore than I need to understand why someone uses iOS. But if it helps you sleep at night, I simply dislike iOS. I dislike the UI. I dislike the keyboard. I dislike the interface (non-UI stuff). I enjoy using android much more.
cbs 15y ago
I heavily approached using Android as I did using an iPhone. I received a lot of shit for this, though. I was told I was “using Android wrong.” Well, duh. They're different, of course they're going to behave differently. I learned this the hard way myself, I tried approaching the iOS like it was an andriod and was similarly disappointed and frustrated. Many "why the fuck doesn't this thing X?" were yelled. Then I realized that they were different, did things differently and had to allow myself to adapt new mental models. Once I did and accepted the way it worked, using it was a completely different experience.
- tomkarlo 15y ago
  It's like complaining that OSX doesn't work like Windows. Different doesn't mean either is wrong, but it does mean you can't use them the same.
  - cbs 15y ago
    Exactly. A few years ago, project constraints had me working primarily on a mac for the first time. I loathed the dock for a good six months. Now I can't even remember what my objection to it was. I believe our dislike is mostly predicated on unfamiliarity. I use various flavors of android, ios, windows, osx, and kde all on a weekly if not daily basis. I know the ins and outs and have preferences, but I'd never write a blog post like this, or even make a device recommendation on my preferences alone.
unoti 15y ago
I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus stop is the one you need to take? Google navigate shows you your mass transit trip in a schematic view that shows you where all the stops are in list form, and animates the little bullet point in the list as you move between stops. It's breathtaking. It'll be hard to beat Google Maps on an iphone, and I missed this sorely. For me the maps are so superior that during the brief time that I used iPhone, I used it as a wireless hotspot and kept my old android phone around just for the maps and navigation. I'm new to my city (San Francisco) and my whole experience of moving here was greatly enriched by the awesomeness of Google Maps. Many people probably already know where they're going or are already familiar with their mass transit options, so using a second class citizen for navigation (such as the iPhone) is probably fine for them. 2. Google Mail. Google's gmail app UI is awesome. I didn't know how much I loved it until I had to use iOS for a while. Bundling things by conversation is great. And I often receive 20-30 emails that are all divided into a total of about 3 conversations. Google lets me read and archive or delete those in 4 clicks (3 checkboxes for the 3 conversations, then one click of Archive or Delete). The iOS mail app makes me do that in around 60-80 clicks: either a swipe on the index page followed by a delete, or else a click on each email, followed by a delete. 3. Notification bar. I can always look at the top bar of my droid and know what, if anything, needs my attention. Or at the very least, why my phone made a noise in the last few minutes. It was hard for me to see at a glance what things just caused my phone to beep. If I received a meeting reminder, and a text, and something else, it was always clear on my droid which things need my attention, because of the status bar. There wasn't something like this on the iPhone. A few days ago they implemented a status bar on the iPhone, but it still feels like a cheap immitation of what Android does, in much the same way that the author here talks about how Android is a cheap clone of iOS. But to be clear, the "feel" of the iPhone is superior in pretty much every way. But to me, it's not all about feel.
- Geee 15y ago
  That's why I'm getting the N9. Better 'feel' and UX than iOS, more open than Android. Best navigation and integrated messaging with GTalk, Skype etc. Real-time event view to everything wins widgets hands-down. No need to jump loops to do simple things, no need to open apps to check updates etc. Personally I can live with fewer apps if everyday tasks are handled so well.
bendauphinee 15y ago
The most important thing to me about having an Android phone is that unlike Apple, Android-based phones can have an actual physical keyboard. You can feel awesome tapping stuff out on iOS, I like having keys I can push.
cgranade 15y ago
From my view, this quote summed up so much of what's wrong with the article: "If it’s for those who still want to make some sort of argument predicated on shouting the word “OPEN!”, that’s sad, because Android’s “openness” is a meaningless bullet point to average users and a facade championed by its most devoted." "Open" is not just a keyword, and it's not something that "average" users should feel so complacent about ignoring. While issues exist with Android's Honeycomb branch and openness, the bottom line remains that Android is far more open than iOS, and that average users benefit. For one thing, that openness makes censorship much more difficult, and so users get access to a wide array of content that is unavailable or difficult to access on iOS. The other side is that Android's openness means that app developers are free to make their apps more useful, such as remapping volume keys to page turn buttons in a reader or allowing users to set phone features based on triggers (Locale, Tasker and to a lesser degree Shush). Even if users are not by and large aware of the effect that openness has on their experience, it does have a very positive effect for them. The recent example of Instapaper being crippled by Apple's design decisions in iOS 5 is a good example of that: had Apple been more open in their approach to iOS's design, then Instapaper would be able to store data somewhere else and thus to deliver a better UX. I remain unimpressed with articles that simply assert that "openness" doesn't matter to users, without exploring what effects the open-vs-closed dichotomy has on their experiences.
bgentry 15y ago
How can you do a comparison of iOS / Android and not even mention Google Maps & Navigation? I used the original iPhone for 2.5 years, spent nearly 2 with a Nexus One, and now switched back to iPhone 4S. As the reviewer mentioned, Gmail integration is still very poor on the iPhone. Hopefully Sparrow for iOS will fix this. But iOS Maps is still stuck in 2007. The Android maps app has improved tremendously even just over the past year. Features that make it far better than the iOS maps app: 1) Excellent turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation 2) Vector-based maps. You'd be surprised how much this improves the experience. Maps load and render much faster due to the smaller binary sizes of vector maps. 3) Ability to cache the maps for multiple 10x10 mile areas. This is a feature that is possible because of (2). When I visit a foreign city, I can cache a 10x10 square around my current location. From that point forward I can view detailed maps for that area without any connection. 4) See detailed information for locations. I can tap on a place in maps, see reviews and ratings for it, get a link to its website 5) Street view. 6) 3D maps with building shapes. While this may not seem useful, I've found it helpful on several occasions since it helps me orient based on the shapes/sizes of surrounding buildings. Most importantly, the Google Maps app on Android has a major release about once a month and each one generally improves the quality.
- Anechoic 15y ago
  >How can you do a comparison of iOS / Android and not even mention Google Maps & Navigation? It's funny that I just bought a touchscreen phone with an UX that most will consider to be unquestionably worse than both iOS and Android - namely the Nokia E6 with Symbian Anna - for the same reason that a lot of folks here are touting Android: Ovi Maps and navigation. Or more specifically, Ovi Maps and navigation with offers downloadable maps which is extremely important to me since my business travels often take me to places where there is no cell phone coverage. It's interesting how we let our specific needs color our decisions. In my case, I would much rather have an iOS or Android device, but the downloadable mapping options on either platform (that I've been able to find) are inferior or far more expensive that what I get with Nokia, so I'm willing to live with the Symbian failings. That said, I am one of those folks that also carries an iPod touch along with my phone.
  - 15y ago
joebadmo 15y ago
Hm. Seems the author at least attempted even-handedness, but largely failed. In a recent discussion on HN, I asked saurik, the developer of Cydia, why he's stuck with iOS over Android and he gave me this epically amazing answer: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 My house is a divided one. My wife is all Apple, while I'm a Windows/Android user. I did use an iPod Touch extensively before I got a smartphone, and agonized over the iPhone/Android decision, but eventually went with Android. Four handsets later, I haven't looked back. Here are some of the reasons why: * I'm a Google fanboy. It was tough when Apple and Google started to fight. It was like mom and dad were getting a divorce. * Relatedly, I'm heavily invested in Google services. Gmail, GTalk, GCal, GReader, G+, GMaps/Nav all work better on Android. Period. And I use them all heavily. * Widgets are not just radio toggles. I use a live interactive calendar/agenda widget as well as a live todo list. It's great. * Configurability. I can change my launcher. I can change app icons. I can put them wherever I want. It used to drive me nuts that I couldn't arbitrarily place icons on my iPod, or get rid of the Stocks app. And that it was always sunny and 73 degrees. I can install different keyboards. Swype! * In fact, this deserves its own bullet: Swype! * Apps have deeper integration with the OS. The intents architecture is what enables the share menu that TFA mentions. It also lets apps link to each other in cool ways, like Tweetdeck can send me to the browser, and I can use the hardware back button to go straight back to Tweetdeck instead of via the home screen. * Apps are often ugly but enable amazing functionality. Titanium backup lets me backup all my apps and system data and sync it to dropbox. Locale lets me set up contingencies. So when I leave the house, it turns off wifi and ringer, and turns them back on when I get home automatically. It turns sounds on when I put in headphones and adjusts volumes of everything. It sets my GTalk status to "Work" when I'm at work. Tasker is uglier but provides even more functionality. It's pretty amazing. * Openness matters. At least to me. I like that I can install apps without Google's permission. I like that Google doesn't pre-approve apps. I don't like that as actively censorial a company as Apple has that much power. I've said it before: I like Disneyland, and enjoy visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there. Say what you want, but Android is a lot more open than iOS. To dismiss its openness because it's not completely and absolutely open is silly, especially when you express preference for an unequivocally more closed platform. I agree that iOS is more polished. I wish Android were more polished. It's true that the UI isn't as responsive as I'd like. And I agree that iOS is better for most people. I regularly advise people to get iPhones. I've even told several people who own and like Android devices (in two cases even people who chose Android because they don't like Apple) that I think they'd be happer with iPhones. But to spend four months and end up "mostly answerless" as to why someone would want an Android device is either willfully ignorant or pandering.
SkyMarshal 15y ago
"I’ve found home-screen widgets — save for the quick access to turn radios on and off — to be useless, ugly, space-and-battery-life hogs." Is there any data for that? When I check my Nexus S battery usage meter, homescreen widgets are nowhere to be seen in the list of things that used up the battery.
jsz0 15y ago
I mostly agree with his conclusions. Android is a very manic experience. Half a dozen icons I don't understand in the notification bar, beeps and bloops that make no sense to me, settings hidden under layers of menus, totally inconsistent UIs between apps including Google's first party apps, micro-management required for some of the most basic things (like getting acceptable battery life) and probably worst of all ads everywhere and you often have no choice of a premium ad-free version of the app. That may work for some people but it drives me a little insane. I'm hoping ICS will be the release that cleans up some of this mess. (if my phone ever gets the update, probably not)
- coin 15y ago
  I couldn't agree more with this. On my Droid X battery life is horrible if the GPS receiver is enabled. The GPS receiver is supposed to turn on/off only when an app requests the phone's location. This works 95% of the time. The other 5% the GPS never shuts off and drains the battery completely. I asked other Android users how they deal with this, turns out they shut the GPS receiver off completely. They then manually turn it on before opening Google Maps. Also, there is no easy way disable all sounds. I thought I disabled sounds using the master volume. But it still says "Droid!" on power-up and beeps on power-off. After trolling the forums, the "Droid!" sound is controlled the by the "SD card read" settings. What's up with that? When browsing, clicking on a PDF link downloads the PDF. I then have to go to the download notification and manually open it. I just want to view it. I could go on and on. The whole Android experience is full of frustrations.
Pynkrabbit 15y ago
I feel like you would need to wait and compare iOS 5 to ice cream sandwich for it to be an accurate comparison.
- wuster 15y ago
  Exactly. ICS is going to be a major "polish" release for Android. I'm looking forward to next week's announcement.
w33ble 15y ago
More often than not, when I read people saying they prefer one over the other, they almost always prefer the one they used first. I think it's a combination of people being naturally averse to change and how different the two feel in use. Me, I started with iOS because when I was finally ready to jump the Symbian ship nobody I knew had an Android phone so I wasn't able to play with one at any length. They did have iPhones though, and iOS blew me away. After tinkering with my friend's 3GS for an hour or so, I was sold. I later had a chance to play with a 1.5 Android device and I couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to use something so slow, laggy and, to me at least, ugly. I've since played with more recent Android phones and while the performance is exponentially better, the OS still just doesn't "feel" right. Ignoring all the apps, browsers, Google integration and everything else, Android just doesn't have the feel that iOS has. And I think that might be why a lot of people prefer the first one they use. The 2 look pretty similar, but they feel very different. If you've gotten used to Android, iOS feels wrong, and vice versa. The author spends time comparing intricate details here, but he opens with a comment about how the two feel, which I think is spot on. I'm surprised people here are so offended and so quick to jump all over everything else from the article while completely glossing over what I think is the most important part.
voidr 15y ago
To my best knowledge you can't customize iOS the way you can Android, some might say you don't have to, but for me that's still a plus. I have a Nexus S and the best thing about it is that I had the ability to install a keyboard a broswer and a home screen I preferred. The browser part I agree with, I still can't wrap my head around that, it's disappointing seeing how awesome Google Chrome is, and how lame the Android browser is.
estel 15y ago
It's frustrating how a huge part of the difference between the "feel" of iOS and Android can be attributed to the explicit choice of the platform developers to not render the 2D GUI widgets with hardware acceleration.
egypturnash 15y ago
A pretty thoughtful look. Me, I basically got my Nexus One because I have no credit, and did not want to pay AT&T's special iPhone rates PLUS give them a $500 deposit for a few years. I think the dude was using the wrong widgets. I've got my calendar and the phase of the moon on my Android's home screen, I've got quick access to basic music controls as well. Stuff I miss from Android when I'm using my iPad: - zooming the web page does not reflow, I am annoyed by this every time I have to choose between squinting at tiny text, or scrolling a tiny window around readably-large text. - Share menu. It feels so primitive for me to be limited to whatever options a program's written; if I want e-mail sharing that should be provided by the e-mail client for everyone, once, instead of by a random handful of developers who think "share this via email" is a good idea. - I really hate that iTunes insists on backing up all my apps to my computer, what a waste of space. They're on my device and Apple's servers. - Oh yeah and the whole "plug your device into your computer to sync" thing is so 1994. Apple is just starting to get there.
youngtaff 15y ago
I've you an Android phone and an iPad and as much as I love the iPad it's really primitive in some obvious ways... 1. They keyboard is awful + no real differentiation between caps on or off. Accessing the numbers and punctuation is horrible. Hold down . or , and you get something completely different to what's on the key face. 2. A complete lack of integration between apps which becomes most painful when you want to share between apps e.g. tweet a webpage, save something to readitlater etc. 3. Lack of back and menu buttons leading to the ridiculous UI convention of have buttons in the title bars. A few changes could make iOS much better. Oh a version of Chrome instead of Safari would be nice too.
2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
I am trying to do the same thing as this guy. I have and iPhone 4 and got a Nexus S (on the cheap!) to try out Android. Some Good things: - Widgets are better than I thought. - The standard key board with the spelling suggests is better than the iOS keyboard. - Pending notifications show up in the notification bar. - Having the standard set of buttons is a good idea. - The scrolling background as you swipe between screens is a nice touch. - Better integration with Google services. - More useful navigation & location software out of the box. Maps, Navigation, Places. But I find that it is really quite hard to be really objective. All the features they get right are poisoned by their poor UI. - Icons and widgets don't rearrange themselves when you move them. - Inconsistent use of the standard 4 buttons. Google themselves don't use them consistently. Their functionality is duplicated all over with software buttons. - The stock camera app is really kinda ugly. There was no after thought at all. - All the animations just suck and there is lag everywhere. - On the Nexus S, they squished up the 4 standard buttons for some reason. The Home icons looks more like an up arrow than a house. They seriously did not think to redo the buttons? - Outdoors the 4 standard buttons are quite dim. You can hardly see them. Why is this not connected to the light sensor? iOS really spoils you. It is missing features I would like, but what is there is quite polished. I find that this really colours my view. [Edited for formatting]

69 points by woobar 15y ago

51 points in just 2 hours, but it’s currently off the first page. The Android-lovin’ douches are really feeling threatened by this one and doing everything they can to try and bury it via downvotes. But you can’t downvote reality. (Although you can downvote individual comments... you know the routine... goin’ dowwwwnnn!)

salmanapk 15y ago

Troll much? Thisismynext.com works flawlessly even on the Huwaei Ideos (World's cheapest android phone) :-)

llgrrl_ 15y ago

When I read "It's all about the feel," I imediatelly realized why he didn't get why people like Android. If he likes the feel, then nothing beats Apple. But I do use it for different purposes. I need a physical keyboard. I need to ssh to my server when I need to. I need google talk. That's why I use Android.

mikeash 15y ago
A physical keyboard is certainly a great reason to use Android, but I'm curious, what about ssh or gtalk requires it?
- jwcacces 15y ago
  They're all separate needs. The point is on Android you have those options.
  - mikeash 15y ago
    Sure. My point is that two out of the three don't appear to have anything to do with Android.
- llgrrl_ 15y ago
  The way Gtalk client deals with unreliable connections is perfect. I don't have a 3G plan so I often walk around my campus roaming from one hotspot to another. It doesn't use the regular jabber of you notice. Also SSH without a physical keyboard is gonna be a pain in the back.
  - jshen 15y ago
    i do SSH from my ipad all the time without much pain. I have an android phone and hate the ssh apps mainly because the text is tiny. What ssh app do you use on android?
    - there 15y ago
      i use connectbot.
      - jshen 15y ago
        that's what i'm using, but I much prefer the IOS apps. connectbot won't go into landscape and the keyboard covers up the screen so i have to type while the prompt is covered up by the keyboard.
woobar 15y ago
The point about physical keyboard is valid. But do you believe that there are no ssh or GT clients for iOS?

stupandaus 15y ago

Your question of who the Android is meant for has a very simple answer. It's designed for people who want a smartphone, but aren't willing or capable of spending enough for an iPhone. Also Apple haters as noted.

morsch 15y ago
I guess the parent is a flamebait, but I was going to make a similar point: I got a used entry-level Android smartphone (ZTE Blade) for 100 EUR. Installing a custom Android 2.3.5 ROM on it was easy. A used iPhone 3GS fetches 2 to 3 times the price over here, despite the much inferior screen. I could spend more, but I would constantly worry about losing or breaking it or having it stolen. And when I relax my spending criteria a bit, chances are for 200 to 300 EUR an Android phone would still be a much better value than a used/outdated iPhone.
- vetinari 15y ago
  I can vouch for ZTE Blade. It is a a very nice, cheap phone. Does everything I need, despite being ARMv6. It was 100 GBP for me (got the OLED one) and I'm not afraid that I will lose or damage it. Btw., Nexus S is around 260 EUR today (retail, unlocked, no contract).
llgrrl_ 15y ago
Linux is designed to people who want a computer, but aren't willing or capable or spending enough for Windows or Mac. Also Microsoft and Apple haters as noted. Your level of ignorant is amazing.
nextparadigms 15y ago
You do realize people pay just as much for high-end Android phones as others do for iPhones, don't you?
- babebridou 15y ago
  I paid 0.20€ for my Motorola Atrix, one month ago. It comes with the same data plan as the iPhone. It was high-end last january.

ajross 15y ago

FTA: Fans of Android, let’s not tiptoe around this: Android exists because it is a rip off of iOS. Sure, it has grown into its own in a lot of ways, but its roots are decidedly placed at the introduction of iOS in 2007 While true, I continue to find it infuriating the extent to which people credit Apple with inventing things it didn't. The iPhone was not the first touch-only buttonless interface out there (depending on how liberal you want to be, you can credit the art directors of Star Trek TNG in 1987 with that). Nor was it the first app store. It did these things better, and is certainly worth immitating. But to "date" the start of Android to 2007 like that is writing out a huge chunk of history. Edit: To clarify, because people clearly don't understand why I see hypocrisy here: The moral context to this quote is that Apple did something first and Google copied it, and that this kind of copying is bad. But obviously Apple copied just as much from other sources when they "invented" the iPhone (including things like a full-size capacitative touch screen and app store). You can't simulataneously argue that it's OK for Apple to copy and not Google; I posited that this was ignorance on the part of the author and not stupidity, and noted that I found it infuriating.

jessedhillon 15y ago
There is a link in the very next sentence that illustrates what he's talking about[1]. Yes Android was a product before 2007, but as he says (and as the photos suggest), Android post-2007 was a much different beast. There's also this question on Quora[2]. IMO, it was much closer to the BlackBerry. [1] http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-like-before-and-after-the-launch-of-iphone/ http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-l... [2] http://www.quora.com/Android-OS/What-did-Android-look-like-before-the-iPhone-was-unveiled http://www.quora.com/Android-OS/What-did-Android-look-like-b...
- tomkarlo 15y ago
  Basing that entirely on the UI seems like a really superficial view of what goes into both Android and iOS. If it was just a matter of ripping off the UI, Microsoft, RIM and Palm would still be in the game.

dendory 15y ago

My first "real" smartphone after using a Nokia E51 was an Android, a Nexus One to be exact, last year. I hated the experience. The market place was horrible, there was no apps worth using, the whole concept of having both a menu screen and home screens seemed weird to me, home screen widgets, while nice, killed my battery life. I then got an iPad and found the world of iOS so much better, I then got an iPhone 3GS and never looked back.

jwcacces 15y ago

You want to be taken seriously, and the first thing you say is that "Android exists because it is a rip off of iOS"? Even if it was true, you've set the tone for your whole article as non-objective and fanboyish. Creating a product, like creating artwork, is a process that interacts with the whole industry. You see what others did, and you try to do better. Others see what you do and they try to do better. Lets not even talk about all the things that Apple has "created" based on other products. This give and take is part of a vibrant tech atmosphere and great competition couldn't exist without it.

fleitz 15y ago
You really make a great point, it's quite frankly an insult to the people who made iOS to say that Android ripped it off. Someone more objective might say they ripped KDE 2.0 off which comes across as much more believable.
darrylb42 15y ago
When the first iPhone came out, I thought marginal improvement over the Motorola Minq that I had for 2 years already. A Linux based phone before its time.
lemieux 15y ago
I totally agree with you. You can't say this is a rip off... an OS is an OS. Google, or anybody else, would not have much choices when comes to build a new one. Window, apps, app store, etc. are fundamental to a mobile OS. Maybe Apple made the first one to be massively adopted and recognized, but they are not really inovators, they always took something that alreay existed (excepted first computer) and made it a more appealing product for the mass market. Take iPod, iPhone and the iPad for instance. Mp3 player existed before the iPod. They took the concept, built an appealing product from it and sold it to the mass market. Same thing for the iPhone, took the concept of a mobile phone, put it in their iPod OS. Again, same thing for the iPad. Tablets were there. They were unpopular due to a lot of reasons. Apple took the concept, improved it and sold a better product. Give them credit for make awesome product out of existing ones, but quit saying they invented everything and everything else is a rip off.

wccrawford 15y ago

I went Android because there's no need to jailbreak the phone to install third-party, and I'm a programmer. I don't have to pay $99/yr to program for it, or own a computer that runs one particular operating system. I'll admit that for a long time, the iPhone experience was way better than Android. And the browser and media functionality are still horrible. And the games... -sigh- But in general, I love the Android experience. On the newer phones (much newer than Nexus S) the lag is gone. The only lag left is the same as the iPhone: Launching apps. Apps generally behave in ways that I like. (Notifications, interoperability, etc.)

freemarketteddy 15y ago
man trust me...the art of jailbreaking and playing with Saurik's mobile substrate to plug in code into apps is some serious fun!
barrkel 15y ago
See, I far prefer the browser on Android because of one thing - the single most important thing in a phone browser, IMO - text reflow on zoom.
- baddox 15y ago
  That surprises me. I find the Android browser to be completely unusable, primarily due to performance but secondarily due to that annoying text reflow.
  - barrkel 15y ago
    What bad performance? IME, my Nexus One browser is slightly less smooth to scroll, but faster at redraw than the browsers on my (admittedly, slightly old at this point) iOS devices. It's a toss-up, really. Question: do you have Flash installed? I had to uninstall it completely, because even the "on demand" option for browser plugins didn't disable it reliably. (Biggest problem I have with my iOS devices (an iPod Touch and 1st gen iPad) is that they run out of charge on standby, from lack of use...)

nextparadigms 15y ago

So his logic is that if Android started as a rip-off of iOS, then you shouldn't use it even if it becomes better than the original? There are a lot of improvements coming in Android 4.0, too. I think they will make the improvements in iOS 5 look marginal in comparison.

cdmckay 15y ago

I'm not sure what he's talking about regarding the Android web browser. In my experience, it's been essentially the same as the Mobile Safari in terms of experience.

woobar 15y ago
He posted a link [1] to video comparing browsers on Nexus S and iPhone 3GS. The difference is even more striking if you consider that Nexus S is 1.5 years newer. [1] http://vimeo.com/30050423 http://vimeo.com/30050423
- barrkel 15y ago
  I've never had an experience as bad as that shown in the video on my Nexus One, a phone older than the Nexus S. It looks like he might have Flash installed - that's a mistake, as the Android browser's "on demand" option for plugins doesn't disable Flash reliably. Apart from that, it's clear that Android does not render to a GPU texture and scroll around, and this makes the iOS browser feel a lot slicker, but the difference between it and my N1 is small - and the iOS approach frequently leaves large grey blocks when scrolling quickly that need to get redrawn, because GPU texture size is limited. Here's a different video, to demonstrate (Nexus One without Flash vs iPhone 4 running iOS 4): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gZiSG3TmdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gZiSG3TmdY
jlembeck 15y ago
As a web developer, the Android web browser is now a constant nemesis for me. It's painfully slow and it doesn't adhere to HTML5 standards worth a damn. iOS5's mobile safari works just like regular Safari, Android's browser, I don't know what it works like, but it certainly is the first thing I'd replace when I got an Android phone.

freemarketteddy 15y ago

I played with ListActivity for about two days....The experience was so bad when compared to UITableView that I instantly quit android dev and am back to iOS. Afterall as developers what we really want is to give all our users a really awesome experience....I am sorry to say this but in terms of the ability to make something awesome (as an individual developer) that users will love to play with, Android does not hold a candle to iOS.

roflharrison 15y ago
What was the problem?

brackin 15y ago

I did the same thing, I had an iPhone 4. I borrowed a Nexus S for a few months and now have a 4S. I like Android, my view has changed after using it. Downloads and other elements are great, after you use them to think "Why is this so easy". The Nexus S is a fast device with far better colour the iPhone but the retina display makes up for it and more. The back button is a great idea and It's sorely missed on my 4S, it made sense to remove the on screen button in apps and now i've switched back I find myself thinking more when trying to go back in iOS apps. Android apps are fine, you can do everything you'd want too. One issue is there's a lack of style. I spent a lot of time finding the most beautiful app as many were poorly designed. I think the one thing you'll find is there are less 'brand apps'. You can't use Instagram you'll have to find the Android equivalent which is sometimes a less popular iPhone app. The apps do let it down in some ways but overall Android is just different and there are pros and cons to both.

RobAtticus 15y ago

I have actually gone the other way. After almost a year and a half of using the Motorola Backflip (the first AT&T Android device, if I recall correctly), I am now using my sister's old iPhone 3G. My main reasons being that my Backflip was slow as hell and the battery barely lasted a day. I like using Android more, I like developing for Android more, and when I can finally upgrade my phone I will be getting an Android phone. My 3G is pretty nifty, I love that it can go a few days between charges and its at least more responsive. But I also have a N1 I use for research and it is just as responsive and good with battery life, so my main complaints with my Android phone have little to do with the OS and more to do with I bought a crappy phone. In particular, I like Android's notification system way more than what I have on the 3G. Having Google Talk work so well with the phone is an amazing convenience that I find I miss now that I haven't bothered to set it up on my 3G. I'll be really glad when I can upgrade to a phone running ICS, but until then, this 3G isn't bad either.

unconed 15y ago

Two things keep me on Android: - Great Gtalk IM - Swype keyboard If I cared about using lots of apps, it would be iOS all the way.

blinkingled 15y ago

I recently went the other way around. After exchanging my Galaxy Tab 2 times for random hangs and unexplained slowness I thought I will check out the iPad. I still have an Android phone that I am perfectly happy with so throughout the day I go back and forth with iOS and Android. The experience on the iPad is undeniably superior after iOS5. The UI is way smoother than Honeycombs, I haven't found any beta behavior yet. BUT, usability wise I find iPad to be incredibly annoying and limited. I keep looking for the back button and I am yet to find the level of consistency that people claim is hallmark of iOS. Few examples - 1) Music Player UI is inconsistent with other apps - no navigation button at top left, it doesnt cover the 'desktop' fully for reasons I don't understand. Search field is at bottom right - considering it is commonly used it should be easy to locate and access. 2) Notifications - while they are lot better with 5.0, it is still inconsistent. I still see the old modal notifications from built in apps like email - twice now I saw old interrupting notifications from exchange mail - one was on Sunday evening for a meeting request on Wednesday! Oh and the notification bar doesn't cover the full screen when pulled down on the iPad unlike iPhone. 3) Always having to hit the physical home button for app switching is annoying compared to Android 4) You cannot subscribe to a podcast using the iPad on its own! I spent 30 minutes trying to do just that. It's not PC free, yet! 5) Background apps and notifications are flaky - Vtok for example was inexplicably killed some times. And when it wasn't it did not notify me using the new notification system. 6) Google integration is poor but this part I was fully expecting. 7) Finally I found that I was still confronted with iPhone only apps that looked horrible when run on iPad. This sort of thing works way better in Google land. But I am forced to keep it until Google and co get their act together on the tablet side. Right now the user experience on the best Android tablet is way shoddy compared to the iPad but if Google could get that fixed I am fairly certain there will be compelling reasons to switch back.

woobar 15y ago
2) this is configurable, i.e. you can choose what apps should use modal alert, banners on top or nothing. 3) you can try 'four-fingers' gestures as a replacement. They are useless on an iPhone, bu on iPad they make Home button obsolete.
- 15y ago

yason 15y ago

He's wondering why people might choose Android over iPhone but he also answers himself. To quote, bolded: "It’s all about the feel." Maybe lots of people feel that Android is more "theirs" than an iPhone.

lusis 15y ago

You don't need to "understand" why someone would use Android anymore than I need to understand why someone uses iOS. But if it helps you sleep at night, I simply dislike iOS. I dislike the UI. I dislike the keyboard. I dislike the interface (non-UI stuff). I enjoy using android much more.

cbs 15y ago

I heavily approached using Android as I did using an iPhone. I received a lot of shit for this, though. I was told I was “using Android wrong.” Well, duh. They're different, of course they're going to behave differently. I learned this the hard way myself, I tried approaching the iOS like it was an andriod and was similarly disappointed and frustrated. Many "why the fuck doesn't this thing X?" were yelled. Then I realized that they were different, did things differently and had to allow myself to adapt new mental models. Once I did and accepted the way it worked, using it was a completely different experience.

tomkarlo 15y ago
It's like complaining that OSX doesn't work like Windows. Different doesn't mean either is wrong, but it does mean you can't use them the same.
- cbs 15y ago
  Exactly. A few years ago, project constraints had me working primarily on a mac for the first time. I loathed the dock for a good six months. Now I can't even remember what my objection to it was. I believe our dislike is mostly predicated on unfamiliarity. I use various flavors of android, ios, windows, osx, and kde all on a weekly if not daily basis. I know the ins and outs and have preferences, but I'd never write a blog post like this, or even make a device recommendation on my preferences alone.

unoti 15y ago

I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus stop is the one you need to take? Google navigate shows you your mass transit trip in a schematic view that shows you where all the stops are in list form, and animates the little bullet point in the list as you move between stops. It's breathtaking. It'll be hard to beat Google Maps on an iphone, and I missed this sorely. For me the maps are so superior that during the brief time that I used iPhone, I used it as a wireless hotspot and kept my old android phone around just for the maps and navigation. I'm new to my city (San Francisco) and my whole experience of moving here was greatly enriched by the awesomeness of Google Maps. Many people probably already know where they're going or are already familiar with their mass transit options, so using a second class citizen for navigation (such as the iPhone) is probably fine for them. 2. Google Mail. Google's gmail app UI is awesome. I didn't know how much I loved it until I had to use iOS for a while. Bundling things by conversation is great. And I often receive 20-30 emails that are all divided into a total of about 3 conversations. Google lets me read and archive or delete those in 4 clicks (3 checkboxes for the 3 conversations, then one click of Archive or Delete). The iOS mail app makes me do that in around 60-80 clicks: either a swipe on the index page followed by a delete, or else a click on each email, followed by a delete. 3. Notification bar. I can always look at the top bar of my droid and know what, if anything, needs my attention. Or at the very least, why my phone made a noise in the last few minutes. It was hard for me to see at a glance what things just caused my phone to beep. If I received a meeting reminder, and a text, and something else, it was always clear on my droid which things need my attention, because of the status bar. There wasn't something like this on the iPhone. A few days ago they implemented a status bar on the iPhone, but it still feels like a cheap immitation of what Android does, in much the same way that the author here talks about how Android is a cheap clone of iOS. But to be clear, the "feel" of the iPhone is superior in pretty much every way. But to me, it's not all about feel.

Geee 15y ago
That's why I'm getting the N9. Better 'feel' and UX than iOS, more open than Android. Best navigation and integrated messaging with GTalk, Skype etc. Real-time event view to everything wins widgets hands-down. No need to jump loops to do simple things, no need to open apps to check updates etc. Personally I can live with fewer apps if everyday tasks are handled so well.

bendauphinee 15y ago

The most important thing to me about having an Android phone is that unlike Apple, Android-based phones can have an actual physical keyboard. You can feel awesome tapping stuff out on iOS, I like having keys I can push.

cgranade 15y ago

From my view, this quote summed up so much of what's wrong with the article: "If it’s for those who still want to make some sort of argument predicated on shouting the word “OPEN!”, that’s sad, because Android’s “openness” is a meaningless bullet point to average users and a facade championed by its most devoted." "Open" is not just a keyword, and it's not something that "average" users should feel so complacent about ignoring. While issues exist with Android's Honeycomb branch and openness, the bottom line remains that Android is far more open than iOS, and that average users benefit. For one thing, that openness makes censorship much more difficult, and so users get access to a wide array of content that is unavailable or difficult to access on iOS. The other side is that Android's openness means that app developers are free to make their apps more useful, such as remapping volume keys to page turn buttons in a reader or allowing users to set phone features based on triggers (Locale, Tasker and to a lesser degree Shush). Even if users are not by and large aware of the effect that openness has on their experience, it does have a very positive effect for them. The recent example of Instapaper being crippled by Apple's design decisions in iOS 5 is a good example of that: had Apple been more open in their approach to iOS's design, then Instapaper would be able to store data somewhere else and thus to deliver a better UX. I remain unimpressed with articles that simply assert that "openness" doesn't matter to users, without exploring what effects the open-vs-closed dichotomy has on their experiences.

bgentry 15y ago

How can you do a comparison of iOS / Android and not even mention Google Maps & Navigation? I used the original iPhone for 2.5 years, spent nearly 2 with a Nexus One, and now switched back to iPhone 4S. As the reviewer mentioned, Gmail integration is still very poor on the iPhone. Hopefully Sparrow for iOS will fix this. But iOS Maps is still stuck in 2007. The Android maps app has improved tremendously even just over the past year. Features that make it far better than the iOS maps app: 1) Excellent turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation 2) Vector-based maps. You'd be surprised how much this improves the experience. Maps load and render much faster due to the smaller binary sizes of vector maps. 3) Ability to cache the maps for multiple 10x10 mile areas. This is a feature that is possible because of (2). When I visit a foreign city, I can cache a 10x10 square around my current location. From that point forward I can view detailed maps for that area without any connection. 4) See detailed information for locations. I can tap on a place in maps, see reviews and ratings for it, get a link to its website 5) Street view. 6) 3D maps with building shapes. While this may not seem useful, I've found it helpful on several occasions since it helps me orient based on the shapes/sizes of surrounding buildings. Most importantly, the Google Maps app on Android has a major release about once a month and each one generally improves the quality.

Anechoic 15y ago
>How can you do a comparison of iOS / Android and not even mention Google Maps & Navigation? It's funny that I just bought a touchscreen phone with an UX that most will consider to be unquestionably worse than both iOS and Android - namely the Nokia E6 with Symbian Anna - for the same reason that a lot of folks here are touting Android: Ovi Maps and navigation. Or more specifically, Ovi Maps and navigation with offers downloadable maps which is extremely important to me since my business travels often take me to places where there is no cell phone coverage. It's interesting how we let our specific needs color our decisions. In my case, I would much rather have an iOS or Android device, but the downloadable mapping options on either platform (that I've been able to find) are inferior or far more expensive that what I get with Nokia, so I'm willing to live with the Symbian failings. That said, I am one of those folks that also carries an iPod touch along with my phone.
- 15y ago

joebadmo 15y ago

Hm. Seems the author at least attempted even-handedness, but largely failed. In a recent discussion on HN, I asked saurik, the developer of Cydia, why he's stuck with iOS over Android and he gave me this epically amazing answer: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 My house is a divided one. My wife is all Apple, while I'm a Windows/Android user. I did use an iPod Touch extensively before I got a smartphone, and agonized over the iPhone/Android decision, but eventually went with Android. Four handsets later, I haven't looked back. Here are some of the reasons why: * I'm a Google fanboy. It was tough when Apple and Google started to fight. It was like mom and dad were getting a divorce. * Relatedly, I'm heavily invested in Google services. Gmail, GTalk, GCal, GReader, G+, GMaps/Nav all work better on Android. Period. And I use them all heavily. * Widgets are not just radio toggles. I use a live interactive calendar/agenda widget as well as a live todo list. It's great. * Configurability. I can change my launcher. I can change app icons. I can put them wherever I want. It used to drive me nuts that I couldn't arbitrarily place icons on my iPod, or get rid of the Stocks app. And that it was always sunny and 73 degrees. I can install different keyboards. Swype! * In fact, this deserves its own bullet: Swype! * Apps have deeper integration with the OS. The intents architecture is what enables the share menu that TFA mentions. It also lets apps link to each other in cool ways, like Tweetdeck can send me to the browser, and I can use the hardware back button to go straight back to Tweetdeck instead of via the home screen. * Apps are often ugly but enable amazing functionality. Titanium backup lets me backup all my apps and system data and sync it to dropbox. Locale lets me set up contingencies. So when I leave the house, it turns off wifi and ringer, and turns them back on when I get home automatically. It turns sounds on when I put in headphones and adjusts volumes of everything. It sets my GTalk status to "Work" when I'm at work. Tasker is uglier but provides even more functionality. It's pretty amazing. * Openness matters. At least to me. I like that I can install apps without Google's permission. I like that Google doesn't pre-approve apps. I don't like that as actively censorial a company as Apple has that much power. I've said it before: I like Disneyland, and enjoy visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there. Say what you want, but Android is a lot more open than iOS. To dismiss its openness because it's not completely and absolutely open is silly, especially when you express preference for an unequivocally more closed platform. I agree that iOS is more polished. I wish Android were more polished. It's true that the UI isn't as responsive as I'd like. And I agree that iOS is better for most people. I regularly advise people to get iPhones. I've even told several people who own and like Android devices (in two cases even people who chose Android because they don't like Apple) that I think they'd be happer with iPhones. But to spend four months and end up "mostly answerless" as to why someone would want an Android device is either willfully ignorant or pandering.

SkyMarshal 15y ago

"I’ve found home-screen widgets — save for the quick access to turn radios on and off — to be useless, ugly, space-and-battery-life hogs." Is there any data for that? When I check my Nexus S battery usage meter, homescreen widgets are nowhere to be seen in the list of things that used up the battery.

jsz0 15y ago

I mostly agree with his conclusions. Android is a very manic experience. Half a dozen icons I don't understand in the notification bar, beeps and bloops that make no sense to me, settings hidden under layers of menus, totally inconsistent UIs between apps including Google's first party apps, micro-management required for some of the most basic things (like getting acceptable battery life) and probably worst of all ads everywhere and you often have no choice of a premium ad-free version of the app. That may work for some people but it drives me a little insane. I'm hoping ICS will be the release that cleans up some of this mess. (if my phone ever gets the update, probably not)

coin 15y ago
I couldn't agree more with this. On my Droid X battery life is horrible if the GPS receiver is enabled. The GPS receiver is supposed to turn on/off only when an app requests the phone's location. This works 95% of the time. The other 5% the GPS never shuts off and drains the battery completely. I asked other Android users how they deal with this, turns out they shut the GPS receiver off completely. They then manually turn it on before opening Google Maps. Also, there is no easy way disable all sounds. I thought I disabled sounds using the master volume. But it still says "Droid!" on power-up and beeps on power-off. After trolling the forums, the "Droid!" sound is controlled the by the "SD card read" settings. What's up with that? When browsing, clicking on a PDF link downloads the PDF. I then have to go to the download notification and manually open it. I just want to view it. I could go on and on. The whole Android experience is full of frustrations.

Pynkrabbit 15y ago

I feel like you would need to wait and compare iOS 5 to ice cream sandwich for it to be an accurate comparison.

wuster 15y ago
Exactly. ICS is going to be a major "polish" release for Android. I'm looking forward to next week's announcement.

w33ble 15y ago

More often than not, when I read people saying they prefer one over the other, they almost always prefer the one they used first. I think it's a combination of people being naturally averse to change and how different the two feel in use. Me, I started with iOS because when I was finally ready to jump the Symbian ship nobody I knew had an Android phone so I wasn't able to play with one at any length. They did have iPhones though, and iOS blew me away. After tinkering with my friend's 3GS for an hour or so, I was sold. I later had a chance to play with a 1.5 Android device and I couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to use something so slow, laggy and, to me at least, ugly. I've since played with more recent Android phones and while the performance is exponentially better, the OS still just doesn't "feel" right. Ignoring all the apps, browsers, Google integration and everything else, Android just doesn't have the feel that iOS has. And I think that might be why a lot of people prefer the first one they use. The 2 look pretty similar, but they feel very different. If you've gotten used to Android, iOS feels wrong, and vice versa. The author spends time comparing intricate details here, but he opens with a comment about how the two feel, which I think is spot on. I'm surprised people here are so offended and so quick to jump all over everything else from the article while completely glossing over what I think is the most important part.

voidr 15y ago

To my best knowledge you can't customize iOS the way you can Android, some might say you don't have to, but for me that's still a plus. I have a Nexus S and the best thing about it is that I had the ability to install a keyboard a broswer and a home screen I preferred. The browser part I agree with, I still can't wrap my head around that, it's disappointing seeing how awesome Google Chrome is, and how lame the Android browser is.

estel 15y ago

It's frustrating how a huge part of the difference between the "feel" of iOS and Android can be attributed to the explicit choice of the platform developers to not render the 2D GUI widgets with hardware acceleration.

egypturnash 15y ago

A pretty thoughtful look. Me, I basically got my Nexus One because I have no credit, and did not want to pay AT&T's special iPhone rates PLUS give them a $500 deposit for a few years. I think the dude was using the wrong widgets. I've got my calendar and the phase of the moon on my Android's home screen, I've got quick access to basic music controls as well. Stuff I miss from Android when I'm using my iPad: - zooming the web page does not reflow, I am annoyed by this every time I have to choose between squinting at tiny text, or scrolling a tiny window around readably-large text. - Share menu. It feels so primitive for me to be limited to whatever options a program's written; if I want e-mail sharing that should be provided by the e-mail client for everyone, once, instead of by a random handful of developers who think "share this via email" is a good idea. - I really hate that iTunes insists on backing up all my apps to my computer, what a waste of space. They're on my device and Apple's servers. - Oh yeah and the whole "plug your device into your computer to sync" thing is so 1994. Apple is just starting to get there.

youngtaff 15y ago

I've you an Android phone and an iPad and as much as I love the iPad it's really primitive in some obvious ways... 1. They keyboard is awful + no real differentiation between caps on or off. Accessing the numbers and punctuation is horrible. Hold down . or , and you get something completely different to what's on the key face. 2. A complete lack of integration between apps which becomes most painful when you want to share between apps e.g. tweet a webpage, save something to readitlater etc. 3. Lack of back and menu buttons leading to the ridiculous UI convention of have buttons in the title bars. A few changes could make iOS much better. Oh a version of Chrome instead of Safari would be nice too.

2muchcoffeeman 15y ago

I am trying to do the same thing as this guy. I have and iPhone 4 and got a Nexus S (on the cheap!) to try out Android. Some Good things: - Widgets are better than I thought. - The standard key board with the spelling suggests is better than the iOS keyboard. - Pending notifications show up in the notification bar. - Having the standard set of buttons is a good idea. - The scrolling background as you swipe between screens is a nice touch. - Better integration with Google services. - More useful navigation & location software out of the box. Maps, Navigation, Places. But I find that it is really quite hard to be really objective. All the features they get right are poisoned by their poor UI. - Icons and widgets don't rearrange themselves when you move them. - Inconsistent use of the standard 4 buttons. Google themselves don't use them consistently. Their functionality is duplicated all over with software buttons. - The stock camera app is really kinda ugly. There was no after thought at all. - All the animations just suck and there is lag everywhere. - On the Nexus S, they squished up the 4 standard buttons for some reason. The Home icons looks more like an up arrow than a house. They seriously did not think to redo the buttons? - Outdoors the 4 standard buttons are quite dim. You can hardly see them. Why is this not connected to the light sensor? iOS really spoils you. It is missing features I would like, but what is there is quite polished. I find that this really colours my view. [Edited for formatting]