24 ms·

My Very Own Protocol Droid

183 points by mh_ 14y ago

petercooper 14y ago
For what it's worth, issue 1 has proven to be the opposite for me. I had an iPhone 5 and it worked perfectly playing whatever app I had previously been using and not reverting to the standard iTunes library as it seems to for this guy. Indeed, I switched to an Android phone (S III) and found the Bluetooth experience so poor (quiet, poor quality audio) that I bought an iPod Touch merely for listening to Spotify and podcasts in the car..
jnazario 14y ago
probably one of the better lists of concrete "here is where android is innovating better than apple" examples i have seen yet. well put together.
yuvadam 14y ago
Makes you wonder if the iPhone 5 isn't the last device Apple ships under that name.
- trumbitta2 14y ago
  That part of the article is somewhat flawed. He should compare "Android" to "iOS" and - say - "Nexus" to "iPhone".
- cleverjake 14y ago
  How so? The iPod touch is the iPhone without the phone. I think the branding would be a nightmare if they changed it now.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  Unlikely for a whole bunch of reasons but primarily that the brand value of "iPhone" is still massive and it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm right now. Instead I think what's happening is far more powerful and more interesting than that: smartphones (be they iPhone, Android or whatever else) are changing our expectation of what a phone is and what it does. Saying it's a phone doesn't limit it because people's thoughts on what you can do with a phone are no longer defined by an old landline handset.
- snowwrestler 14y ago
  Apple is literally selling them as fast as they can make them. The iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4s were the #1 and #2 selling smartphones last quarter. So, I kind of doubt they are on the verge of shuttering the brand.
  - at-fates-hands 14y ago
    Blackberry also did this and continued to sell the same technology through slightly modified hardware. Look how long it took them to come out the nose dive they were in. Apple could very easily go down this path and never realize it until its too late.
    - snowwrestler 14y ago
      I think they would start to realize it if sales fell. The fall in Blackberry sales was clear. iPhone sales are still rising.
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    Chasing revenue quarter to quarter is the surest way there is to find yourself out of quarterly revenue pretty fast.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
Ok, (s)he lists four reasons why Android beats iPhone, my reactions to the four were: 1. Meh 2. Meh 3. Holy shit, they are going to take over! Hail our new overlords. 4. Meh The Android is aware of it's environment and consequently can take personalised action, and is allowed to by product makers. I swear undying loyalty oh masters
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  1 and 2 are in the realm of bug fix / minor enhancement. 4 very much depends on where you are in terms of both how much deals cost and how they're structured and what that money means to you but in any case it's not killer. 3 is definitely the most interesting one though it still doesn't feel enough like magic to sway me just yet. Basically it's worked out that he wants to go home and at that point has behaved the way a decent Sat Nav does. The Sat Nav bit is neither here nor there, that's established technology. The interesting bit is how it worked out that he wanted to go home - get that sort of thing beyond lucky (slightly educated) guess and that is a big deal but without knowing how often it's making incorrect guesses it's hard to know.
  - lifeisstillgood 14y ago
    It's the idea that a computer has a comprehensive view of an environment - location, personal owner, last purchase made, next appointment. At what point will it remind me to take my pills, call the doctor, ring the lead I met who just twittered something relevant. Agent technology is going to be huge - as long as it can be standard interface agreeed somehow
wangweij 14y ago
Just reading the title I thought the guy created his own C3PO.
- RexRollman 14y ago
  Me too. I feel disappointed.
parfe 14y ago
>Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device. Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka Walled Garden) and OS X is moving in that direction. Use Cyanogenmod. Be Free. Google Now is amazing by the way. Unfortunately I had to turn my google search history back on, but it was worth it.
- octo_t 14y ago
  Is there a better C++ IDE than XCode? Serious question, works well with cmake and all the other tooling people use with amazing autocompletion (given how hard parsing C++ is)
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  Can you give examples of good stuff you've seen from Google Now that have been a real help to you? Stuff that's genuinely useful rather than just "look at that" cool. EDIT: So far I'm seeing a lot of reasons why Apple wanted to get into maps. A lot of the value add here seems to be navigation related.
  - qwerty69 14y ago
    Google Now will remind you when to leave in order to arrive to an appointment on time (as long as you are using Google Calendar) taking into account the local traffic situation. This one helped me already a few times not to miss a meeting.
    - jwoah12 14y ago
      I actually had an OpenTable confirmation in my gmail that wasn't added to my calendar, and Google Now still alerted me when it was time to leave. That one creeped me out until I realized it had scanned my email (still kinda creeps me out).
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deleted 14y ago
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- e1ven 14y ago
  Forgive me if I'm missing something, but doesn't iTunes match have a very similar limit? http://www.macworld.com/article/1163599/dealing_with_itunes_matchs_25_000_track_limit.html http://www.macworld.com/article/1163599/dealing_with_itunes_...
  - fusiongyro 14y ago
    I stand corrected. Thanks!
- jmduke 14y ago
  iTunes Match has a limit of 25,000 songs: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3492422?start=0&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3492422?start=0&tst...
timrichard 14y ago
I've been true to the Droid since the G1, and recently offloaded certain duties from my Galaxy Nexus to an iPod Touch 5 (needed for Facetime, popular with the family). When using iOS, I really miss the Intent subsystem. It seems like every app seems to offer different and restricted sharing choices (implicitly asking why I possibly wouldn't be using Instapaper...) [1] I wouldn't be surprised if this is the next Android feature to make it over to iOS, after multitasking and a sane notification system. On the other hand, it would be churlish to not mention that Android took a boatload of inspiration from iOS. :-) IMHO, Android got the OS basics right with the much maligned early models, and are now adding polish. iOS obsessed over a slick UI, and are now revisiting some of the basics. [1] Apologies if there's something I'm missing here. I'm fairly new to iOS.
- myko 14y ago
  Any chance to convince your family to move to Google+ Hangouts? They work great on iOS devices and having multiple people in the chat is great.
  - timrichard 14y ago
    Thanks, will try out the iOS client..... We tried chatting with the Google+ Hangouts browser plugin, but at the time the performance didn't quite match Facetime on one-to-one chats when bandwidth was scarce.
    - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
      My experience of hangouts is video is slightly jerkier (though in a controlled way if that makes sense - it felt like a deliberately lower frame rate rather than just breaking up), audio is more solid. On a poor connection I'd go with hangouts over the alternatives at the moment. It's not perfect but I prefer the trade offs.
- cytzol 14y ago
  > It seems like every app seems to offer different and restricted sharing choices... Apologies if there's something I'm missing here. I'm fairly new to iOS. Sadly, you really aren't. The current, not-even-officially-recommended way to share data in between apps is to have one register a URI handler, such as omnifocus://, and another be able to detect that such a handler is there and provide a "Send to OmniFocus" button if there is. It's not great, is it? It's up to app developers to tell each other what their URIs are. The new "Send To" screen on iOS seems to have been designed for extensibility, even if it doesn't actually offer any. Fingers crossed.
whichdan 14y ago
"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk" Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though). I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPhone, but $550/yr is nothing to laugh at. Edit: For comparison, T-Mobile http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans $30/mo: 100 minutes, Unlimited text/web (first 5gb at 4g) $70/mo: Unlimited everything Verizon http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-everything.html http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-ever... $100/mo: Unlimited minutes/text, 2gb data ($10/mo per 2gb data extra) AT&T http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q87kr http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q... $70/mo: 450 minutes, 1000 texts (plan not listed), 300mb $90/mo: 450 minutes, unlimited texts, 3gb data
- dragontamer 14y ago
  I use Ting, and hit ~$23 / month with my Android. I rarely go over 100 minutes / 100 texts / 100MB however, which is why I pay so little. They serve LTE phones now, and my area is serviced. Realistically, since Ting doesn't do weekends / nights, you'll probably fall into the 1000 minutes / 1000 texts / 500 MB bucket, which is still only $42/month. If you ever do a month with less minutes through, Ting will refund your money for the month you didn't use all of it. (IMO, better than "rollover". Its like if rollover minutes gave you money instead of minutes...) My friend uses a Nexus 4 on T-Mobile. He's doing fine on the $30/month plan as far as I can tell, with exception of the lack of LTE on the Nexus 4. He still gets HPSA+ however, and the first 5GB are not throttled. The 100 minutes / month is a problem for me however... their next plan is $50/month for unlimited minutes, but only 100MB of unthrottled data. After that is $60 / month for unlimited minutes / texts / 2GB throttled. I strongly recommend both Ting and T-Mobile. They're good services.
- southpolesteve 14y ago
  I have been on that t-mobile plan for the last year with an unlocked Galaxy Nexus. It has been awesome. Speed is actually better than it was on AT&T.
mberning 14y ago
They are still in the honeymoon phase. I've been through it twice before with Android phones. Also, in regards to point #1, I never have this problem with my car. Sounds like more of an integration issue with the headunit in the car rather than the phone.
- a2tech 14y ago
  Yup-I rented one of the newish Toyota Camrys the other day and my bluetooth streaming worked perfectly. None of this random app resetting he describes.
- maxerickson 14y ago
  Still, having good integration with a wider variety of vehicles/head units seems like the sort of thing that could reasonably be described as an advantage.
  - adestefan 14y ago
    Some units work better with iOS and some with Android. It's really hit or miss.
    - mberning 14y ago
      I agree. To me it really seems to depend on the age of the head unit vs the age of the phone. If they are significantly different then the chances of issues seems to be higher.
Irregardless 14y ago
There's no doubt Apple is playing catch-up with Android these days. Siri was their only real innovation in the last 3 iPhones, and Google leapfrogged it within months. Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to implement a decent notification system, their auto-correct is garbage, there's no file manager, you can't set a default browser (or default anything, for that matter), there are no widgets, no app shortcuts, no custom keyboards, managing settings is a nightmare, and you can't side-load apps without jailbreaking. That last one is especially bad thanks to their cryptic app approval rules and the fact that their app store is the least intuitive to navigate -- if what you want isn't in the top 10 and you don't know the exact name, forget about it. But hey, at least you get the privilege of spending a fortune on chargers and adapters. And other people with iPhones will think you're cool for owning one, right?
- jrajav 14y ago
  > there's no file manager Is there one on Android?
  - dagw 14y ago
    I don't know if phones ship with one by default or not, but there are several in the app store. Personally I really like ES File Explorer, since it also lets me browse smb shares.
  - thejetset 14y ago
    Generally not by default, but that can vary by manufacturer. You can just download one of the many available from the Play Store.
    - Spoom 14y ago
      Anecdotally my Droid Razr came with one.
  - hdra 14y ago
    Depend on your phone model. Mine came with free version of a file browser with some functions (batch files operation, etc) disabled, with IAP to unlock those functions.
Kylekramer 14y ago
A common thing I have noticed in these recent Android switcher posts (and despite the disclaimer this is a fairly typical one): a shift in perceptive of who the phone should serve. Apple tends to make opinionated choose that works amazingly for the vast majority. Switcher tend to stop arguing for the norm and realizing that some people are different. When I used iOS and ran into a problem, I usually found that I just wasn't the typical user in that edge case. Which is fine to a point, but not when I rarely run into similar problems on Android.
neya 14y ago
At first I thought this guy really built his own protocol or something. But upon reading, it seems like it's just a rant about his experience with Android. Disclosure: I'm an Android fanboy (4 HTC phones! 1 iPhone) The sad part is, this is a heavily opinionated article fully about his own experience and it doesn't actually explain why Android is better than iOS yet. For example, he talks about integration issues with his car as an argument over his iPhone, which is just his own opinion. It would have been really great if he had pitched as to why Android is REALLY better than the iPhone. He doesn't talk about the actual reasons why Android is superior - 1) Choice of various Filemanagers 2) Better Bluetooth connectivity between other phones 3) No need for the memory hogging iTunes garbage 4) Better navigation and integrated Maps support 5) Choices between browsers and functionality (Some browsers even enable Flash even if your handset doesnt support it!) 6) Excellent Notifications menu and ease of access to important stuff 7) Better App. management (Move to memory card, etc) and true multi-tasking, install Apps outside of Market 8) Freedom to do whatever you want with the phone - Install any ROM you like, Root it, connect it to other electronic peripherals, etc. This is just a short list, and I'm not sure if some of the features are now available on iDevices, but the last time I checked, they weren't..
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  This is a real personal thing though. He's listed what made a difference to him. For me most of what you list doesn't bother me one way or another and there are things on there (for instance better inter app communications) that I do really miss on iOS.
- _Simon 14y ago
  Apologies for the following rant, but these topics annoy the absolute hell out of me. That list isn't a list "...as to why Android is REALLY better than the iPhone." at all. It's a list of why you think it is better. I have iPhone and a Nexus S. I despise Android device. It's a Nexus S running Jelly Bean, and I find it to be clunky as hell. I found it to be clunky as hell with Gingerbread too. Why the hell should I have to simply to have a satisfactorily functioning device? Reading into it, there is no guarantee that installing Cyanogenmod will improve things for me either. Of course, these are my opinions and they are worth little to anyone other than me, much like your list of 'facts'. What happened to live and let live? What happened to use the tool that works for you? Why do we have to endure the endless and meaningless pissing contests?
jjsz 14y ago
A good tip for new Android users now that I feel obligated to evangelize Android a bit: Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get: Android 4.2.2/3 and the swipable lockscreen widgets, the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles, the new 360/panorama camera, and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagically updates it in 2 minutes with the push of one button-- no need to manually update the zip file. Another great thing is Android ADB [2] and how quickly it is to get up and running on a new Android device / Android ROM. iOS' Cloud sync is slow when syncing contacts. I remember I was testing between Paranoid Android [3] and it's expandable notifications [4]/ hybrid mode [5], Omega[6] with it's standard TouchWiz two apps at once feature (multiview) [7] and all the other TouchWiz features (gestures and popup browser--which I didn't really use), and Super Nexus [8] with it's pure vanilla Android experience on my I9300 (Samsung Galaxy S3) before sticking to CM and Android will sync my Google Contacts and Gmail first and fast. Google Now is great by being proactive like the author said but he forgot to mention sports tracking for those who like sports. Other than pushing apps from the market to the phone while you're at your PC, the chrome to phone extension [9], and the share feature [10] he nailed this list. EDIT: Forgot about setting apps to default. On paper Android seems better but it's still a matter of polished skuemorphism and flat UI / extra MB added from HTC Sense, BLUR or TouchWiz. The low file footprint on iOS compared to these added slow layers make up the difference so I understand if you don't want to switch. [0] http://get.cm http://get.cm [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&... [2] http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html [3] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560df80c96b397380489d04ba&t=2172474 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560d... [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VnC1Wc2UHos#at=10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V... [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iytFrPmbmeY#t=197s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [6] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656 [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mjI1fDspHgU#t=19s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [8] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672 [9] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-phone-ex/oadboiipflhobonjjffjbfekfjcgkhco?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p... & https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.chrometophone&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [10] http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-feature http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-...
danso 14y ago
Once you get past the disparity in app ecosystem, the top of the line Android phones (4.1+) definitely have the features to make switching easy. For me, the killer feature is typing. I cannot get past how goddamn primitive the iPhone autocorrection is compared to even the default setup of Droid phones. The state of text input is just absolutely abysmal on iOS.
xauronx 14y ago
"Meh." <- This article and all of the comments in this thread. The Apple vs Android thing is pretty played out.
justinph 14y ago
I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.
- endemic 14y ago
  Agreed, local syncing is indeed unfortunate, but not sure how else it could be better unless Google builds an iTunes-esque desktop client, which is never going to happen. However, once I started using Google Music, I never looked back.
  - Semaphor 14y ago
    Syncing works pretty well with MediaMonkey [1] though I'm not sure what part of it's syncing features are in the free version. [1] http://www.mediamonkey.com/ http://www.mediamonkey.com/
- pkulak 14y ago
  Or just put all your music on Google Music and select the songs/albums/artists that you want to keep on the device instead of stream.
- DonnyV 14y ago
  Actually if your using Google Music, there's an option right next to the album to keep it on the device. I use it all the time, very nice.
- corresation 14y ago
  if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. This was indeed an Achilles heal of Android three years ago. Now it is a complete non-issue for the majority of users, and iTunes is becoming as much an albatross as a benefit.
- Semaphor 14y ago
tristan_juricek 14y ago
What's interesting to me here is that I don't see anything but the "Android" brand being mentioned. Several people on this thread mention having several Android phones, but not several "Samsung" phones, for example. This, despite the fact that Samsung seems like the only manufacturer "killing it" with the Android OS. http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-tale-of-two-disruptions/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-... This seems like a Google win and a Samsung loss.
eloisant 14y ago
Wow, 37signals is pretty lagging. In my company I've seen the ratio iPhone/Android reverse as it reversed in the global market share.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  37signals are primarily North American so North American market share is more significant than global. They're also pretty well paid I'd imagine so you're likely looking at high end market share. High end, North America, Apple is still kicking butt. Also worth noting that for North America over the past 12 months Apple's market share grew faster than Android's and Android's market share dropped in both January and February this year. Installed user base overall still favours Android (about 70m to 50m against iOS) but I'm not sure it's reasonable to say that there has been a "reverse".
SonicSoul 14y ago
the "Evangelist" bit about this post irks me. So you've found the light, stop trying "Evangelize" saying things like "I’d like you to switch too". I've used the ipod since the beginning, but i've also used windows until it made more sense to me to start using OSX. today i still use the ipod touch and an android, and windows. each has it's upsides (love the battery life on the touch) and downsides (there is a ton on Android). I'm not in any "camp" or going around telling people why they should switch to my phone. definitely hate the "apple way" even though i love my macbook pro.
nosecreek 14y ago
I found it surprising that he thought his android was better at audio-on-the-go, as this is the very thing that has been keeping me on iOS. Maybe its because my car doesn't have built in bluetooth, but the ability to buy an FM transmitter, iPod dock, etc. and just know that my iPhone will work with it is a huge plus. In talking with my Android using friends, I've also never run across anyone who thought that they could find a better music player for Android than the built in iOS music player. Has the music experience on Android been significantly updated in the most recent OS versions?
Symmetry 14y ago
Ars Technica did a series recently on things that Android should borrow from iOS and things that iOS should borrow from Android: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-should-steal-from-android/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-shoul...
deleted 14y ago
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lttlrck 14y ago
Nice, but nothing compelling. Match irritates me no end, but I don't need to switch phone platforms to fix that. Showing me the way home is a neat trick, but I know my way home thanks.
dreamdu5t 14y ago
Give me a break. This is so vein. People want to read about how 37signals... gasp uses an Android phone!? Go outside people..

183 points by mh_ 14y ago

For what it's worth, issue 1 has proven to be the opposite for me. I had an iPhone 5 and it worked perfectly playing whatever app I had previously been using and not reverting to the standard iTunes library as it seems to for this guy. Indeed, I switched to an Android phone (S III) and found the Bluetooth experience so poor (quiet, poor quality audio) that I bought an iPod Touch merely for listening to Spotify and podcasts in the car..

jnazario 14y ago

probably one of the better lists of concrete "here is where android is innovating better than apple" examples i have seen yet. well put together.

yuvadam 14y ago

Makes you wonder if the iPhone 5 isn't the last device Apple ships under that name.

trumbitta2 14y ago
That part of the article is somewhat flawed. He should compare "Android" to "iOS" and - say - "Nexus" to "iPhone".
cleverjake 14y ago
How so? The iPod touch is the iPhone without the phone. I think the branding would be a nightmare if they changed it now.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
Unlikely for a whole bunch of reasons but primarily that the brand value of "iPhone" is still massive and it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm right now. Instead I think what's happening is far more powerful and more interesting than that: smartphones (be they iPhone, Android or whatever else) are changing our expectation of what a phone is and what it does. Saying it's a phone doesn't limit it because people's thoughts on what you can do with a phone are no longer defined by an old landline handset.
snowwrestler 14y ago
Apple is literally selling them as fast as they can make them. The iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4s were the #1 and #2 selling smartphones last quarter. So, I kind of doubt they are on the verge of shuttering the brand.
- at-fates-hands 14y ago
  Blackberry also did this and continued to sell the same technology through slightly modified hardware. Look how long it took them to come out the nose dive they were in. Apple could very easily go down this path and never realize it until its too late.
  - snowwrestler 14y ago
    I think they would start to realize it if sales fell. The fall in Blackberry sales was clear. iPhone sales are still rising.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  Chasing revenue quarter to quarter is the surest way there is to find yourself out of quarterly revenue pretty fast.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

Ok, (s)he lists four reasons why Android beats iPhone, my reactions to the four were: 1. Meh 2. Meh 3. Holy shit, they are going to take over! Hail our new overlords. 4. Meh The Android is aware of it's environment and consequently can take personalised action, and is allowed to by product makers. I swear undying loyalty oh masters

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
1 and 2 are in the realm of bug fix / minor enhancement. 4 very much depends on where you are in terms of both how much deals cost and how they're structured and what that money means to you but in any case it's not killer. 3 is definitely the most interesting one though it still doesn't feel enough like magic to sway me just yet. Basically it's worked out that he wants to go home and at that point has behaved the way a decent Sat Nav does. The Sat Nav bit is neither here nor there, that's established technology. The interesting bit is how it worked out that he wanted to go home - get that sort of thing beyond lucky (slightly educated) guess and that is a big deal but without knowing how often it's making incorrect guesses it's hard to know.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  It's the idea that a computer has a comprehensive view of an environment - location, personal owner, last purchase made, next appointment. At what point will it remind me to take my pills, call the doctor, ring the lead I met who just twittered something relevant. Agent technology is going to be huge - as long as it can be standard interface agreeed somehow

wangweij 14y ago

Just reading the title I thought the guy created his own C3PO.

RexRollman 14y ago
Me too. I feel disappointed.

parfe 14y ago

>Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device. Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka Walled Garden) and OS X is moving in that direction. Use Cyanogenmod. Be Free. Google Now is amazing by the way. Unfortunately I had to turn my google search history back on, but it was worth it.

octo_t 14y ago
Is there a better C++ IDE than XCode? Serious question, works well with cmake and all the other tooling people use with amazing autocompletion (given how hard parsing C++ is)
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
Can you give examples of good stuff you've seen from Google Now that have been a real help to you? Stuff that's genuinely useful rather than just "look at that" cool. EDIT: So far I'm seeing a lot of reasons why Apple wanted to get into maps. A lot of the value add here seems to be navigation related.
- qwerty69 14y ago
  Google Now will remind you when to leave in order to arrive to an appointment on time (as long as you are using Google Calendar) taking into account the local traffic situation. This one helped me already a few times not to miss a meeting.
  - jwoah12 14y ago
    I actually had an OpenTable confirmation in my gmail that wasn't added to my calendar, and Google Now still alerted me when it was time to leave. That one creeped me out until I realized it had scanned my email (still kinda creeps me out).
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deleted 14y ago

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e1ven 14y ago
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but doesn't iTunes match have a very similar limit? http://www.macworld.com/article/1163599/dealing_with_itunes_matchs_25_000_track_limit.html http://www.macworld.com/article/1163599/dealing_with_itunes_...
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  I stand corrected. Thanks!
jmduke 14y ago
iTunes Match has a limit of 25,000 songs: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3492422?start=0&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3492422?start=0&tst...

timrichard 14y ago

I've been true to the Droid since the G1, and recently offloaded certain duties from my Galaxy Nexus to an iPod Touch 5 (needed for Facetime, popular with the family). When using iOS, I really miss the Intent subsystem. It seems like every app seems to offer different and restricted sharing choices (implicitly asking why I possibly wouldn't be using Instapaper...) [1] I wouldn't be surprised if this is the next Android feature to make it over to iOS, after multitasking and a sane notification system. On the other hand, it would be churlish to not mention that Android took a boatload of inspiration from iOS. :-) IMHO, Android got the OS basics right with the much maligned early models, and are now adding polish. iOS obsessed over a slick UI, and are now revisiting some of the basics. [1] Apologies if there's something I'm missing here. I'm fairly new to iOS.

myko 14y ago
Any chance to convince your family to move to Google+ Hangouts? They work great on iOS devices and having multiple people in the chat is great.
- timrichard 14y ago
  Thanks, will try out the iOS client..... We tried chatting with the Google+ Hangouts browser plugin, but at the time the performance didn't quite match Facetime on one-to-one chats when bandwidth was scarce.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    My experience of hangouts is video is slightly jerkier (though in a controlled way if that makes sense - it felt like a deliberately lower frame rate rather than just breaking up), audio is more solid. On a poor connection I'd go with hangouts over the alternatives at the moment. It's not perfect but I prefer the trade offs.
cytzol 14y ago
> It seems like every app seems to offer different and restricted sharing choices... Apologies if there's something I'm missing here. I'm fairly new to iOS. Sadly, you really aren't. The current, not-even-officially-recommended way to share data in between apps is to have one register a URI handler, such as omnifocus://, and another be able to detect that such a handler is there and provide a "Send to OmniFocus" button if there is. It's not great, is it? It's up to app developers to tell each other what their URIs are. The new "Send To" screen on iOS seems to have been designed for extensibility, even if it doesn't actually offer any. Fingers crossed.

whichdan 14y ago

"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk" Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though). I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPhone, but $550/yr is nothing to laugh at. Edit: For comparison, T-Mobile http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans $30/mo: 100 minutes, Unlimited text/web (first 5gb at 4g) $70/mo: Unlimited everything Verizon http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-everything.html http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-ever... $100/mo: Unlimited minutes/text, 2gb data ($10/mo per 2gb data extra) AT&T http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q87kr http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q... $70/mo: 450 minutes, 1000 texts (plan not listed), 300mb $90/mo: 450 minutes, unlimited texts, 3gb data

dragontamer 14y ago
I use Ting, and hit ~$23 / month with my Android. I rarely go over 100 minutes / 100 texts / 100MB however, which is why I pay so little. They serve LTE phones now, and my area is serviced. Realistically, since Ting doesn't do weekends / nights, you'll probably fall into the 1000 minutes / 1000 texts / 500 MB bucket, which is still only $42/month. If you ever do a month with less minutes through, Ting will refund your money for the month you didn't use all of it. (IMO, better than "rollover". Its like if rollover minutes gave you money instead of minutes...) My friend uses a Nexus 4 on T-Mobile. He's doing fine on the $30/month plan as far as I can tell, with exception of the lack of LTE on the Nexus 4. He still gets HPSA+ however, and the first 5GB are not throttled. The 100 minutes / month is a problem for me however... their next plan is $50/month for unlimited minutes, but only 100MB of unthrottled data. After that is $60 / month for unlimited minutes / texts / 2GB throttled. I strongly recommend both Ting and T-Mobile. They're good services.
southpolesteve 14y ago
I have been on that t-mobile plan for the last year with an unlocked Galaxy Nexus. It has been awesome. Speed is actually better than it was on AT&T.

mberning 14y ago

They are still in the honeymoon phase. I've been through it twice before with Android phones. Also, in regards to point #1, I never have this problem with my car. Sounds like more of an integration issue with the headunit in the car rather than the phone.

a2tech 14y ago
Yup-I rented one of the newish Toyota Camrys the other day and my bluetooth streaming worked perfectly. None of this random app resetting he describes.
maxerickson 14y ago
Still, having good integration with a wider variety of vehicles/head units seems like the sort of thing that could reasonably be described as an advantage.
- adestefan 14y ago
  Some units work better with iOS and some with Android. It's really hit or miss.
  - mberning 14y ago
    I agree. To me it really seems to depend on the age of the head unit vs the age of the phone. If they are significantly different then the chances of issues seems to be higher.

Irregardless 14y ago

There's no doubt Apple is playing catch-up with Android these days. Siri was their only real innovation in the last 3 iPhones, and Google leapfrogged it within months. Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to implement a decent notification system, their auto-correct is garbage, there's no file manager, you can't set a default browser (or default anything, for that matter), there are no widgets, no app shortcuts, no custom keyboards, managing settings is a nightmare, and you can't side-load apps without jailbreaking. That last one is especially bad thanks to their cryptic app approval rules and the fact that their app store is the least intuitive to navigate -- if what you want isn't in the top 10 and you don't know the exact name, forget about it. But hey, at least you get the privilege of spending a fortune on chargers and adapters. And other people with iPhones will think you're cool for owning one, right?

jrajav 14y ago
> there's no file manager Is there one on Android?
- dagw 14y ago
  I don't know if phones ship with one by default or not, but there are several in the app store. Personally I really like ES File Explorer, since it also lets me browse smb shares.
- thejetset 14y ago
  Generally not by default, but that can vary by manufacturer. You can just download one of the many available from the Play Store.
  - Spoom 14y ago
    Anecdotally my Droid Razr came with one.
- hdra 14y ago
  Depend on your phone model. Mine came with free version of a file browser with some functions (batch files operation, etc) disabled, with IAP to unlock those functions.

Kylekramer 14y ago

A common thing I have noticed in these recent Android switcher posts (and despite the disclaimer this is a fairly typical one): a shift in perceptive of who the phone should serve. Apple tends to make opinionated choose that works amazingly for the vast majority. Switcher tend to stop arguing for the norm and realizing that some people are different. When I used iOS and ran into a problem, I usually found that I just wasn't the typical user in that edge case. Which is fine to a point, but not when I rarely run into similar problems on Android.

neya 14y ago

At first I thought this guy really built his own protocol or something. But upon reading, it seems like it's just a rant about his experience with Android. Disclosure: I'm an Android fanboy (4 HTC phones! 1 iPhone) The sad part is, this is a heavily opinionated article fully about his own experience and it doesn't actually explain why Android is better than iOS yet. For example, he talks about integration issues with his car as an argument over his iPhone, which is just his own opinion. It would have been really great if he had pitched as to why Android is REALLY better than the iPhone. He doesn't talk about the actual reasons why Android is superior - 1) Choice of various Filemanagers 2) Better Bluetooth connectivity between other phones 3) No need for the memory hogging iTunes garbage 4) Better navigation and integrated Maps support 5) Choices between browsers and functionality (Some browsers even enable Flash even if your handset doesnt support it!) 6) Excellent Notifications menu and ease of access to important stuff 7) Better App. management (Move to memory card, etc) and true multi-tasking, install Apps outside of Market 8) Freedom to do whatever you want with the phone - Install any ROM you like, Root it, connect it to other electronic peripherals, etc. This is just a short list, and I'm not sure if some of the features are now available on iDevices, but the last time I checked, they weren't..

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
This is a real personal thing though. He's listed what made a difference to him. For me most of what you list doesn't bother me one way or another and there are things on there (for instance better inter app communications) that I do really miss on iOS.
_Simon 14y ago
Apologies for the following rant, but these topics annoy the absolute hell out of me. That list isn't a list "...as to why Android is REALLY better than the iPhone." at all. It's a list of why you think it is better. I have iPhone and a Nexus S. I despise Android device. It's a Nexus S running Jelly Bean, and I find it to be clunky as hell. I found it to be clunky as hell with Gingerbread too. Why the hell should I have to simply to have a satisfactorily functioning device? Reading into it, there is no guarantee that installing Cyanogenmod will improve things for me either. Of course, these are my opinions and they are worth little to anyone other than me, much like your list of 'facts'. What happened to live and let live? What happened to use the tool that works for you? Why do we have to endure the endless and meaningless pissing contests?

jjsz 14y ago

A good tip for new Android users now that I feel obligated to evangelize Android a bit: Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get: Android 4.2.2/3 and the swipable lockscreen widgets, the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles, the new 360/panorama camera, and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagically updates it in 2 minutes with the push of one button-- no need to manually update the zip file. Another great thing is Android ADB [2] and how quickly it is to get up and running on a new Android device / Android ROM. iOS' Cloud sync is slow when syncing contacts. I remember I was testing between Paranoid Android [3] and it's expandable notifications [4]/ hybrid mode [5], Omega[6] with it's standard TouchWiz two apps at once feature (multiview) [7] and all the other TouchWiz features (gestures and popup browser--which I didn't really use), and Super Nexus [8] with it's pure vanilla Android experience on my I9300 (Samsung Galaxy S3) before sticking to CM and Android will sync my Google Contacts and Gmail first and fast. Google Now is great by being proactive like the author said but he forgot to mention sports tracking for those who like sports. Other than pushing apps from the market to the phone while you're at your PC, the chrome to phone extension [9], and the share feature [10] he nailed this list. EDIT: Forgot about setting apps to default. On paper Android seems better but it's still a matter of polished skuemorphism and flat UI / extra MB added from HTC Sense, BLUR or TouchWiz. The low file footprint on iOS compared to these added slow layers make up the difference so I understand if you don't want to switch. [0] http://get.cm http://get.cm [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&... [2] http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html [3] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560df80c96b397380489d04ba&t=2172474 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560d... [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VnC1Wc2UHos#at=10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V... [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iytFrPmbmeY#t=197s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [6] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656 [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mjI1fDspHgU#t=19s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [8] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672 [9] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-phone-ex/oadboiipflhobonjjffjbfekfjcgkhco?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p... & https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.chrometophone&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [10] http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-feature http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-...

danso 14y ago

Once you get past the disparity in app ecosystem, the top of the line Android phones (4.1+) definitely have the features to make switching easy. For me, the killer feature is typing. I cannot get past how goddamn primitive the iPhone autocorrection is compared to even the default setup of Droid phones. The state of text input is just absolutely abysmal on iOS.

xauronx 14y ago

"Meh." <- This article and all of the comments in this thread. The Apple vs Android thing is pretty played out.

justinph 14y ago

I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.

endemic 14y ago
Agreed, local syncing is indeed unfortunate, but not sure how else it could be better unless Google builds an iTunes-esque desktop client, which is never going to happen. However, once I started using Google Music, I never looked back.
- Semaphor 14y ago
  Syncing works pretty well with MediaMonkey [1] though I'm not sure what part of it's syncing features are in the free version. [1] http://www.mediamonkey.com/ http://www.mediamonkey.com/
pkulak 14y ago
Or just put all your music on Google Music and select the songs/albums/artists that you want to keep on the device instead of stream.
DonnyV 14y ago
Actually if your using Google Music, there's an option right next to the album to keep it on the device. I use it all the time, very nice.
corresation 14y ago
if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. This was indeed an Achilles heal of Android three years ago. Now it is a complete non-issue for the majority of users, and iTunes is becoming as much an albatross as a benefit.
Semaphor 14y ago

tristan_juricek 14y ago

What's interesting to me here is that I don't see anything but the "Android" brand being mentioned. Several people on this thread mention having several Android phones, but not several "Samsung" phones, for example. This, despite the fact that Samsung seems like the only manufacturer "killing it" with the Android OS. http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-tale-of-two-disruptions/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-... This seems like a Google win and a Samsung loss.

eloisant 14y ago

Wow, 37signals is pretty lagging. In my company I've seen the ratio iPhone/Android reverse as it reversed in the global market share.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
37signals are primarily North American so North American market share is more significant than global. They're also pretty well paid I'd imagine so you're likely looking at high end market share. High end, North America, Apple is still kicking butt. Also worth noting that for North America over the past 12 months Apple's market share grew faster than Android's and Android's market share dropped in both January and February this year. Installed user base overall still favours Android (about 70m to 50m against iOS) but I'm not sure it's reasonable to say that there has been a "reverse".

SonicSoul 14y ago

the "Evangelist" bit about this post irks me. So you've found the light, stop trying "Evangelize" saying things like "I’d like you to switch too". I've used the ipod since the beginning, but i've also used windows until it made more sense to me to start using OSX. today i still use the ipod touch and an android, and windows. each has it's upsides (love the battery life on the touch) and downsides (there is a ton on Android). I'm not in any "camp" or going around telling people why they should switch to my phone. definitely hate the "apple way" even though i love my macbook pro.

nosecreek 14y ago

I found it surprising that he thought his android was better at audio-on-the-go, as this is the very thing that has been keeping me on iOS. Maybe its because my car doesn't have built in bluetooth, but the ability to buy an FM transmitter, iPod dock, etc. and just know that my iPhone will work with it is a huge plus. In talking with my Android using friends, I've also never run across anyone who thought that they could find a better music player for Android than the built in iOS music player. Has the music experience on Android been significantly updated in the most recent OS versions?

Symmetry 14y ago

Ars Technica did a series recently on things that Android should borrow from iOS and things that iOS should borrow from Android: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-should-steal-from-android/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-shoul...

deleted 14y ago

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lttlrck 14y ago

Nice, but nothing compelling. Match irritates me no end, but I don't need to switch phone platforms to fix that. Showing me the way home is a neat trick, but I know my way home thanks.

dreamdu5t 14y ago

Give me a break. This is so vein. People want to read about how 37signals... gasp uses an Android phone!? Go outside people..