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I still think app availability for iOS smartphones is better and significant (in terms of there being things that I'd hate to lose from my iPhone that I don't s

I still think app availability for iOS smartphones is better and significant (in terms of there being things that I'd hate to lose from my iPhone that I don't see on Android) but tablets I don't see what's selling one platform over the other from an app perspective. Yes I think Garageband is amazing but I don't really use it other than to show people and go "isn't this amazing"... I remember reading a piece DHH wrote about the default smartphone apps being where it was at was and thinking he was wrong, but I think from a tablet perspective that's where things are. Curious to know what you like about the S3. I've got a 4S and have played with the S3 and aside from the size (which is a matter of personal preference) I can't say I saw anything on there I was especially impressed by. It's a nice phone (and from a design perspective I prefer it to the S2), just nothing that would make me think about trading up.

cageface 14y ago
The top two things about the S3 are the much bigger screen and Swiftkey. Those two things alone would be enough to tip the scales for me but there are a bunch of other small things I appreciate. 1. The pull down menu to toggle wifi/gps/etc is much more ergonomic than fishing around in the settings menu on iOS. 2. Widgets can actually be a lot more useful than the typical clock/weather header. I have quick toggle widgets for alarms, a player widget for music etc. 3. Intents. I can share a picture directly to a dozen different apps, not only the ones with support manually coded into the parent app. I can choose my own default browser, mail client, photo editor, twitter client etc. 4. The photo gallery and integrated G+ uploading is so much better than iOS's photo app it's not even funny. 5. I can block incoming calls and SMS from people I don't want to hear from. 6. I can carry a spare battery if I'm going to be away from a charger for a long time. 7. I have a real choice of browsers and currently Mozilla Firefox Beta is better than Safari or Chrome (IMO). 8. I can buy books directly from the Kindle app instead of playing hopscotch around Apple's stupid rules. 10. Gmail is much better integrated and more functional than any mail client on iOS. 11. Background updating. I don't really think about app updates anymore. They just happen in the background. I can turn this off on a per-app basis if I really care. 12. The play store is a lot more pleasant to navigate and shows a lot more useful information than the iOS app store. In the last six months a lot of holes have been filled. Pinterest, Path, Flipboard, Instagram etc. I don't really miss any apps from the iPhone.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  Without doing a point by point, intents is certainly the one that most people look at Android and wish iOS had and background updates would be nice. Most of the rest aren't a big deal for me personally but I can see why someone with different usage patterns and preferences would like the things you list.

cageface 14y ago

The top two things about the S3 are the much bigger screen and Swiftkey. Those two things alone would be enough to tip the scales for me but there are a bunch of other small things I appreciate. 1. The pull down menu to toggle wifi/gps/etc is much more ergonomic than fishing around in the settings menu on iOS. 2. Widgets can actually be a lot more useful than the typical clock/weather header. I have quick toggle widgets for alarms, a player widget for music etc. 3. Intents. I can share a picture directly to a dozen different apps, not only the ones with support manually coded into the parent app. I can choose my own default browser, mail client, photo editor, twitter client etc. 4. The photo gallery and integrated G+ uploading is so much better than iOS's photo app it's not even funny. 5. I can block incoming calls and SMS from people I don't want to hear from. 6. I can carry a spare battery if I'm going to be away from a charger for a long time. 7. I have a real choice of browsers and currently Mozilla Firefox Beta is better than Safari or Chrome (IMO). 8. I can buy books directly from the Kindle app instead of playing hopscotch around Apple's stupid rules. 10. Gmail is much better integrated and more functional than any mail client on iOS. 11. Background updating. I don't really think about app updates anymore. They just happen in the background. I can turn this off on a per-app basis if I really care. 12. The play store is a lot more pleasant to navigate and shows a lot more useful information than the iOS app store. In the last six months a lot of holes have been filled. Pinterest, Path, Flipboard, Instagram etc. I don't really miss any apps from the iPhone.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
Without doing a point by point, intents is certainly the one that most people look at Android and wish iOS had and background updates would be nice. Most of the rest aren't a big deal for me personally but I can see why someone with different usage patterns and preferences would like the things you list.