7 ms·

As someone who owns both an iPad and Nexus 7 - they're both great devices. But, if you're looking for "learning apps and games" - the iOS App Store wins, hands

As someone who owns both an iPad and Nexus 7 - they're both great devices. But, if you're looking for "learning apps and games" - the iOS App Store wins, hands down. The Android store is definitely growing with respect to games... but I've found the quality of "learning" apps to be quite low on Android. I'm not sure why, and I'm sure it will get better. If you're looking for "learning" apps for kids aged 2 - 14, I'd stick with iOS devices (for now).

lukeschlather 14y ago
Depends on the age. For ages 10+ the Android SDK is a pretty awesome "learning" app, and it's free.
- ComputerGuru 14y ago
  He never said "learning to program" app. Just learning apps in general.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  The SDK is for Windows / Mac / Linux. Is he buying them a PC too?
  - padobson 14y ago
    Terminal IDE allows Android development on Android devices: http://www.spartacusrex.com/terminalide.htm http://www.spartacusrex.com/terminalide.htm
  - lukeschlather 14y ago
    If you really want something that only requires the device, the Android Scripting Environment is pretty awesome, and it comes with a dozen examples for things like controlling Android's speech synthesizer which a kid could have a lot of fun playing around with. http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
    - BitMastro 14y ago
      AIDE as well gives you a complete IDE on the device https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui
- taligent 14y ago
  Sorry. You propose teaching your child how to learn using Java and one of the worst SDKs for a long time ?
  - randallu 14y ago
    Hey, some people learned programming with BASIC on Z80...
    - taligent 14y ago
      I am not opposed at all to children learning to program. Just that there are much better choices than Java/Android SDK.
      - BitMastro 14y ago
        It depends on what are your preferences, choose what you like.
jhight 14y ago
Agreed. If you're coming from an iOS background, the lack of good apps on Android will frustrate you.
- GFischer 14y ago
  What are the iOS apps that you feel are lacking in Android? Honest question, not flamebait. Heck, maybe there's a startup opportunity there :)
  - taligent 14y ago
    iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, Paper, music apps e.g. AniMoog, Newspaper apps, Diet Coda. Those are just a few I use. But seriously EVERY tablet app will be better on iOS. Why ? Because Apple/community encourages developers to rethink the tablet experience. Android encourages them to simply scale.
- eropple 14y ago
  I come from an iOS background (my last phone was an iPhone 4, my last tablet was an iPad 2; now a Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7) and am not frustrated in the least by "a lack of good apps." I'm pretty happy with everything on my phone: the Google apps are great, the Kindle app is completely fine, AndChat, Grooveshark, Songbird, a bunch of emulators for games...all works just fine. Some apps don't look great on the tablet, but I use the tablet almost exclusively for Kindle and ePub reading (works fine) and some web browsing (ditto).
  - wzdd 14y ago
    What do you use for mail? I've tried many mail apps for my Android tablet, and none comes close to the mail app for iOS. The one exception is the Gmail app -- but I don't use gmail (ironically, for lock-in reasons).
    - eropple 14y ago
      I use the Gmail app and it is fantastic. Best mail app I've ever used on any device or computer. I dupe all my email from my Google Apps accounts to a local server, so it's not a big deal for me.
hahainternet 14y ago
Without wanting to inject too hyperbolic a representation of Apple. Please don't buy kids iOS devices. There's nothing wrong from an application or usability perspective, it's just that restricting them to an extremely closed platform is likely to have future ramifications.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  Could you substantiate, or even just explain, that in some way? My take would be that children change so much and so quickly that they're very hard to lock into a device or a platform. The things they cared about last week they don't care about next week which means that their old apps are largely irrelevant to them, and their brains are so adaptable the learning curve on a new device is no barrier at all. The kids down the road from me have iPod Touches, the ones with phones have a BlackBerry and an HTC Android phone respectively, they share the family iPad and both have or use Windows 7 PCs. They move between these without a second thought depending on what they're doing, what's nearest, their mood or who the hell knows what other reason. Let children choose what they want to be interested in and encourage it without pushing any prejudices you may have on them. This is technology - how much of what we thought was a big deal 10 years ago remotely matters today? Anyone still fretting about Microsoft's monopolistic attempts to take over the internet?
  - hahainternet 14y ago
    > My take would be that children change so much and so quickly that they're very hard to lock into a device or a platform. The things they cared about last week they don't care about next week which means that their old apps are largely irrelevant to them, and their brains are so adaptable the learning curve on a new device is no barrier at all. I am not arguing from an ideological perspective. I am not concerned that their use will teach them soley the iOS way of working. I am concerned about actual lock in. Apple spends a lot of money on ensuring that their flagship functions (iMessage, AirPlay, Maps etc) are strictly available only on their hardware or through licensed solutions. Having all of your music in iTunes/iCloud, having most of your friends on iMessage, owning physical hardware with only iDevice connectors or software support etc. These are the future ramifications I am concerned about.

lukeschlather 14y ago

Depends on the age. For ages 10+ the Android SDK is a pretty awesome "learning" app, and it's free.

ComputerGuru 14y ago
He never said "learning to program" app. Just learning apps in general.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
The SDK is for Windows / Mac / Linux. Is he buying them a PC too?
- padobson 14y ago
  Terminal IDE allows Android development on Android devices: http://www.spartacusrex.com/terminalide.htm http://www.spartacusrex.com/terminalide.htm
- lukeschlather 14y ago
  If you really want something that only requires the device, the Android Scripting Environment is pretty awesome, and it comes with a dozen examples for things like controlling Android's speech synthesizer which a kid could have a lot of fun playing around with. http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
  - BitMastro 14y ago
    AIDE as well gives you a complete IDE on the device https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui
taligent 14y ago
Sorry. You propose teaching your child how to learn using Java and one of the worst SDKs for a long time ?
- randallu 14y ago
  Hey, some people learned programming with BASIC on Z80...
  - taligent 14y ago
    I am not opposed at all to children learning to program. Just that there are much better choices than Java/Android SDK.
    - BitMastro 14y ago
      It depends on what are your preferences, choose what you like.

jhight 14y ago

Agreed. If you're coming from an iOS background, the lack of good apps on Android will frustrate you.

GFischer 14y ago
What are the iOS apps that you feel are lacking in Android? Honest question, not flamebait. Heck, maybe there's a startup opportunity there :)
- taligent 14y ago
  iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, Paper, music apps e.g. AniMoog, Newspaper apps, Diet Coda. Those are just a few I use. But seriously EVERY tablet app will be better on iOS. Why ? Because Apple/community encourages developers to rethink the tablet experience. Android encourages them to simply scale.
eropple 14y ago
I come from an iOS background (my last phone was an iPhone 4, my last tablet was an iPad 2; now a Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7) and am not frustrated in the least by "a lack of good apps." I'm pretty happy with everything on my phone: the Google apps are great, the Kindle app is completely fine, AndChat, Grooveshark, Songbird, a bunch of emulators for games...all works just fine. Some apps don't look great on the tablet, but I use the tablet almost exclusively for Kindle and ePub reading (works fine) and some web browsing (ditto).
- wzdd 14y ago
  What do you use for mail? I've tried many mail apps for my Android tablet, and none comes close to the mail app for iOS. The one exception is the Gmail app -- but I don't use gmail (ironically, for lock-in reasons).
  - eropple 14y ago
    I use the Gmail app and it is fantastic. Best mail app I've ever used on any device or computer. I dupe all my email from my Google Apps accounts to a local server, so it's not a big deal for me.

hahainternet 14y ago

Without wanting to inject too hyperbolic a representation of Apple. Please don't buy kids iOS devices. There's nothing wrong from an application or usability perspective, it's just that restricting them to an extremely closed platform is likely to have future ramifications.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
Could you substantiate, or even just explain, that in some way? My take would be that children change so much and so quickly that they're very hard to lock into a device or a platform. The things they cared about last week they don't care about next week which means that their old apps are largely irrelevant to them, and their brains are so adaptable the learning curve on a new device is no barrier at all. The kids down the road from me have iPod Touches, the ones with phones have a BlackBerry and an HTC Android phone respectively, they share the family iPad and both have or use Windows 7 PCs. They move between these without a second thought depending on what they're doing, what's nearest, their mood or who the hell knows what other reason. Let children choose what they want to be interested in and encourage it without pushing any prejudices you may have on them. This is technology - how much of what we thought was a big deal 10 years ago remotely matters today? Anyone still fretting about Microsoft's monopolistic attempts to take over the internet?
- hahainternet 14y ago
  > My take would be that children change so much and so quickly that they're very hard to lock into a device or a platform. The things they cared about last week they don't care about next week which means that their old apps are largely irrelevant to them, and their brains are so adaptable the learning curve on a new device is no barrier at all. I am not arguing from an ideological perspective. I am not concerned that their use will teach them soley the iOS way of working. I am concerned about actual lock in. Apple spends a lot of money on ensuring that their flagship functions (iMessage, AirPlay, Maps etc) are strictly available only on their hardware or through licensed solutions. Having all of your music in iTunes/iCloud, having most of your friends on iMessage, owning physical hardware with only iDevice connectors or software support etc. These are the future ramifications I am concerned about.