6 ms·

I tried Android, but couldn't switch. Did you know you can't undo text edits?

28 points by benguild 13y ago

nitrogen 13y ago
Has anyone tried pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and pressing Ctrl-Z? I seem to recall this working in the emulator.
- benguild 13y ago
  I believe this does work.
benguild 13y ago
I feel like #1-4 are really small fixes. Can't wait to try Android again!
- NickPollard 13y ago
  #1-4 seem like reasonable issues, and I hope they get fixed. None are things that are a problem for me, but I can see how they would be for some. #5 - I might be misunderstanding this, but it reads like: Apple-specific hardware does not work on Android, and this is the fault of Android. I would say the fault lies with Apple, who force proprietary interfaces and not open standards. Then again, for headphone interfaces (which I myself don't use - I have a decent pair of Sony headphones which just have a standard audio jack for audio only), I suspect that other manufacturers are dropping the ball too.
  - benguild 13y ago
    I agree with your thoughts on #5. The main reason I mentioned it was not at the fault of Android, but more just at the fault of manufacturers. I'm glad we've agreed on USB, but I don't understand the need for proprietary 3.5mm remote protocols at this point.
neals 13y ago
I've been an iPhone user for the past 4 years. I know about the undo feature but have honestly never ever used it.
revelation 13y ago
Huh? You can manually refocus the camera, just tap on the image somewhere. I'd do a video, but.. (Nexus 4 w/ 4.4)
- nicholassmith 13y ago
  I think his complaint is it's auto focus only in videos, rather than selective focus.
- eonil 13y ago
  Is this feature universally available over all the devices if they have recent OS?
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    I'm unaware of a phone camera that doesn't have some kind of focus capability, and the tap-to-focus feature is part of the AOSP camera in, at least, anything north of 4.0, so...
    - jordanthoms 13y ago
      His complaint is that you can't tap to focus _while shooting video_.
lowmagnet 13y ago
I've been on the fence about switching away from iPhone. I hardly use Apple software and only the non-straightforward backup really bothers me.
- trimtab 13y ago
  TitaniumBackup with back up to a cloud service or your own server solves that problem. Alas, you do have to "root" your phone. I agree such functionality should be included with any Smartphone at this point, but it appears that only a small percentage of Smartphone consumers seem to care.
- Nerdfest 13y ago
  Try this; no root required, and free: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdut...
headShrinker 13y ago
These are not deal killers for me, so much as they are selling points for Apple. Android has plenty of deal killers; slow scrolling response, too many crap apps in store, bloatware, cheap hardware designs, music players that lack complex playlist algorithms, lacking mac integration, limited upgradability, dumb OS features (samsung, ei: eye tracking?!), OS updates delayed up to one year after release, short battery life, etc.
- maxk42 13y ago
  Most of those complaints are device-specific. And that's the primary pitfall of Android: It's an ecosystem rather than a single, polished experience for everyone. The best experience you can have of Android, IMO, is to get a Nexus device. Anything else is asking for disappointment.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Nemisis7654 13y ago
  Like maxk42 said, most of these are device specific. I will address some of these more specifically, though. slow scrolling response While Android as a whole may not be as smooth as iOS is (due to the Dalvik VM if I'm not mistaken), this is pretty much a non-issue on most newer phones from what I've seen. Also, the addition of the Android Runtime, I've noticed zero lag on my Nexus 5. Too many crap apps in store This is an issue on both platforms. Most of the most popular apps on the App Store are on the Play Store as well. Cheap hardware designs Not really an Android issue. Blame this on the OEMs. Though, there are some very well built, comfortable phones. HTC One, Moto X, both Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. This is more of a personal preference. I could say the same about iPhones as I personally don't like the design of the phone. Music players that lack complex playlist algorithms Perhaps not as complex as iTunes, Google Play Music is quite a service. Check it out if you haven't. Lacking mac integration Any specific examples here? I have used a Mac for the past year and have had no issues with integration. Limited upgradability Not sure what you mean if not OS upgradability (see below). Dumb OS features Again device specific. Also, something you might see as dumb may not be to someone else. Personally, I think the fingerprint scanner is dumb. Thought it was when Motorola did it years ago, think it still is today. OS updates delayed Again, device specific. Nexus phones do not have this problem. Moto X is another phone that is getting quick updates. Short battery life No response here. This is my biggest gripe with Android.
Khao 13y ago
In other words : An Apple fanboy is being a total compainypants about Android because he doesn't want to accept that it's actually a pretty good phone.
- ebiester 13y ago
  It isn't just him. I do miss undo still. I also still hate the soft buttons - I've hit "back" with my palm and lost what I was doing too many times. I like a lot of things about android, but small things really matter.
  - Breakthrough 13y ago
    Hey, who doesn't? That's a very valid point. Too bad it's muddled in with other fan-boyish comments that greatly detract from the post's legitimacy. Is this a blog post about adding undo to Android, or nit-picking about things that aren't even issues? And I quote from the article: > Here's the thing: Typing a password to unlock your phone every time you want to use it is annoying. The root theme of this blogpost is smartphones ideally not wasting one's time, but by typing a password every single time you want to access your phone you're sure wasting a lot of it! That's why Android phones let you customize a time-out before you have to type the password in to unlock the phone (e.g. when you type your password in, you can set it so you don't have to enter it again for the next X minutes automatically)... So I'm going to agree with the original comment and conclude that this is another case of misrepresenting 'facts'. Also, regarding point #5 and the inability for him to use his Apple earphones with his Android phone, he clearly hasn't heard of standard TRRS connectors. At minimum, I find the author's titling of this section "External Hardware Incompatibility" - in an article comparing Apple products to others, no less - to be quite humorous. Or maybe this was intended as satire...?
    - benguild 13y ago
      Yeah, that's a common feature. iPhone has it as well. I'd like to point out that in my next to last paragraph, I state that I want to use Android. I'm not some Apple "fanboy". I believe that setting the disk encryption password separately from the device's is a valid request and the fact that an App has existed for it since Android v3.0 validates that. If you want more of a reason to do so, read this: http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-encryption.html http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-...
canistr 13y ago
As an everyday carrier of both an iOS and Android device, it's rather refreshing when people point out flaws and points of improvements on both platforms. I certainly hope Google fixes these problems ASAP.
- Tloewald 13y ago
  The competition between Android and iOS will probably go down as one of the great technical "great leaps forward" in history. While I often wish they could all just get along, the fact that two incredibly capable companies (and heck, Microsoft as well now) are fighting it out hammer and tongs in a pretty flat playing field is ridiculously awesome. Imagine if the same level of competition had existed between Apple and Microsoft between 1985 and 2000. Consider that we're getting smaller, faster, lower powered, and often cheaper devices with more features every year. We got this level of progress in PC hardware for a while (1990-2003 or so) but software progressed far more slowly. Right now, literally everything is up for grabs, and everyone is benefiting.
girvo 13y ago
Man... I swear you can undo in nearly any text box on Android (unless it's a custom class used by the third party dev)... You long press on the text box and click undo on the popup. Am I remember wrong? It's been 12 months since I last used my Xperia, so I probably am.
- aetherson 13y ago
  I just tried on my Razr M, and no, no undo option based on a long press. Just cut, copy, and select-all. Same on my Nexus 7. I'd never heard of a shake-undo feature on iOS, but it does sound awesome.
  - girvo 13y ago
    It's actually annoying sometimes! But useful when you need it.
    - maxk42 13y ago
      Yeah, I don't have the steadiest hands. I can imagine the undo popup coming 'round every friggin' time I try to type something... Then again, I'd take Swiftkeys over undo any day.
      - clarky07 13y ago
        I've had an iPhone for over 4 years and didn't know this feature existed. Unsteady hands will not set it off.
- andybak 13y ago
  Nexus 5 here. I can't see a way to do it.
  - girvo 13y ago
    Damn. Maybe it was a CyanogenMod thing... I'll be honest. I love Android, but little annoyances added up. I now have an iPhone... And am running into little Annoyances all over again. Like how that "a" is capitalised by accident, but is a pain to replace. Or how "Undo" on Archive for email doesn't work properly. I miss my Nokia N9 :(
eonil 13y ago
People easily forget what's precious while they're having it. And then, realize after they lost it.
- andybak 13y ago
  Deep. Unfortunately I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to elaborate?
  - bugschivers 13y ago
    The grass is always greener on the other side?
  - eonil 13y ago
    I meant, they are happy with iOS because there's something important, but they easily forget because it's hard to be described in words. Not impossible, anyway a lot harder than simple numbers and graphs. Or it looks too natural to be lacked. And people realize that other products are lacking that after they drop iOS.
hiddensanctum 13y ago
Android and iOS are very different OSes. iOS I feel is more out of the box everything you need but you must use our stuff (itunes, imessage...etc). Stock Android is more here is a barebone kit and we got all these third party stuff. Pick and choose what you like. The Nexus 5 is for people who don't want all this complications. Its a very barebone phone designed for devs. But if you get an Android with a third part skin like the HTC One, most of these issues are solved (off the top of my head I know it has #2 and #3).
crazygringo 13y ago
I've had an iPhone for two years, and never even heard about undo before. I almost couldn't believe it when I tried shaking, and it actually worked. Talk about hidden features... But typing is so much slower with an on-screen keyboard anyways, and I so rarely select text for anything but copy/paste, it has never once happened that I wished there was an undo.
- aroch 13y ago
  Shake-to-undo was introduced at WWDC back in 2009 with iPhone OS 3.0 (along with copy&paste).
- lejoko 13y ago
  Undo is not only for text! Delete an email message by mistake, or move it to wrong folder. Shake iPhone/iPad. The message is back... It's a killer feature for my 67 years old mother.
- Geee 13y ago
  Hah, maybe Samdung didn't copy the feature because they didn't notice it either. And thus, they don't have undo at all. Hilarious.
  - code_duck 13y ago
    This feature's presence or absence is more about Android and Google than a vendor such as 'Samdung'.
chrisrhoden 13y ago
The complaint about backups is inaccurate. Preferences like sound or vibration on type and (infamously) wifi are backed up automatically and restored on boot. Many apps choose to save user preferences on their own servers in lieu of using the Shared Preference manager, but many others do not - those preferences will also be restored.
- projct 13y ago
  Inaccurate? He turned on backup, and most of the settings didn't come back. Apps don't opt-in to the backup feature in iOS - they opt out. This is a design decision that results in a UX failure, and not an inaccurate complaint at all.
andybak 13y ago
Backup is big one and as a long-term Android user I find it unforgivable that this isn't implemented in a system-wide way. Text undo - now you mention it, that would be nice to have. I can't say I've ever cursed it's absence though. He's just wrong on the camera focus. Just tried it. I don't use disk encryption although what he says seems to make sense. I wouldn't call it a deal-breaker though. Finally - regarding hardware compatibility? - sounds like a gap in the market for an enterprising chap!
- benguild 13y ago
  Video camera focus, not the photo camera. :)
mortenjorck 13y ago
I have to admit, my jaw dropped when I found out I couldn't undo a text edit on my Nexus 7. This was last year; I assumed it had to be something that would make it into 4.3 (no) or 4.4 (still no). iOS's shake-to-undo still feels a bit gimmicky to me (I prefer the keyboard undo button on iPads), but it's something that should have come immediately after clipboard support on Android.
Artemis2 13y ago
"While nearly all of our consumer audio devices share the 3.5mm headphone jack (and have since before I was born), my Apple “earpods” don't function properly with Android phones!" Welcome to Apple world, where everything interesting is patented so it works only with your iPhone. "Even my Mac computer can accept remote commands from and utilize the microphone of these (for audio/video calls)." Guess who makes Macs? Apple.
tomp 13y ago
After a year of using Samsung Galaxy S 2, I realized that the most common reason that my phone shuts down (i.e. crashes) and restarts is copying to clipboard. After 20 clipboard uses, it just crashes, and Samsung, the biggest and richest Android vendor has refused to fix this issue for almost 2 years!
tbob22 13y ago
You can undo in Android, just not with the stock keyboard. Try out A.I.type Keyboard. It may not be the best solution as it should be built in, but it does work. http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7762/zm0t.png http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7762/zm0t.png
thinkmassive 13y ago
Concerning the SIM card, that sounds more like an issue with using a Verizon phone overseas than any issue with Android. I believe any non-LTE Verizon phone (including pre-LTE iPhones) would have the same issue.
goggles99 13y ago
Article points out missing features or presumed flaws in Android, but not The inverse (IOS flaws and missing features). How does this add value for anyone thinking of switching? or wanting to debate which phone is better for whom and why. As such, it's nothing but another uninformed rant. It's likely that most people who own an iPhone don't even know about this feature. He owned an android phone for a week and did not even see half the features that Android has and IOS lacks. How can you adjust to a totally different UI (and begin to appreciate many of the features and differences) in such a short period of time. This post was not worth reading.
Nemisis7654 13y ago
Wow, I did not know about that undo feature. That would be a great addition to Android. One way they could do this pretty easily in my opinion (if they wouldn't do the shake feature) is to have it included in the contextual action bar when you highlight text.
clarky07 13y ago
Interesting, I just tried Android for the last week as well. None of his complaints bothered me though. I actually almost switched, but ended up going back to iPhone as well. I will miss some things (widgets) but in the end the iPhone is better at being a phone IMO. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6777363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6777363

28 points by benguild 13y ago

nitrogen 13y ago

Has anyone tried pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and pressing Ctrl-Z? I seem to recall this working in the emulator.

benguild 13y ago
I believe this does work.

benguild 13y ago

I feel like #1-4 are really small fixes. Can't wait to try Android again!

NickPollard 13y ago
#1-4 seem like reasonable issues, and I hope they get fixed. None are things that are a problem for me, but I can see how they would be for some. #5 - I might be misunderstanding this, but it reads like: Apple-specific hardware does not work on Android, and this is the fault of Android. I would say the fault lies with Apple, who force proprietary interfaces and not open standards. Then again, for headphone interfaces (which I myself don't use - I have a decent pair of Sony headphones which just have a standard audio jack for audio only), I suspect that other manufacturers are dropping the ball too.
- benguild 13y ago
  I agree with your thoughts on #5. The main reason I mentioned it was not at the fault of Android, but more just at the fault of manufacturers. I'm glad we've agreed on USB, but I don't understand the need for proprietary 3.5mm remote protocols at this point.

neals 13y ago

I've been an iPhone user for the past 4 years. I know about the undo feature but have honestly never ever used it.

revelation 13y ago

Huh? You can manually refocus the camera, just tap on the image somewhere. I'd do a video, but.. (Nexus 4 w/ 4.4)

nicholassmith 13y ago
I think his complaint is it's auto focus only in videos, rather than selective focus.
eonil 13y ago
Is this feature universally available over all the devices if they have recent OS?
- Karunamon 13y ago
  I'm unaware of a phone camera that doesn't have some kind of focus capability, and the tap-to-focus feature is part of the AOSP camera in, at least, anything north of 4.0, so...
  - jordanthoms 13y ago
    His complaint is that you can't tap to focus _while shooting video_.

lowmagnet 13y ago

I've been on the fence about switching away from iPhone. I hardly use Apple software and only the non-straightforward backup really bothers me.

trimtab 13y ago
TitaniumBackup with back up to a cloud service or your own server solves that problem. Alas, you do have to "root" your phone. I agree such functionality should be included with any Smartphone at this point, but it appears that only a small percentage of Smartphone consumers seem to care.
Nerdfest 13y ago
Try this; no root required, and free: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdut...

headShrinker 13y ago

These are not deal killers for me, so much as they are selling points for Apple. Android has plenty of deal killers; slow scrolling response, too many crap apps in store, bloatware, cheap hardware designs, music players that lack complex playlist algorithms, lacking mac integration, limited upgradability, dumb OS features (samsung, ei: eye tracking?!), OS updates delayed up to one year after release, short battery life, etc.

maxk42 13y ago
Most of those complaints are device-specific. And that's the primary pitfall of Android: It's an ecosystem rather than a single, polished experience for everyone. The best experience you can have of Android, IMO, is to get a Nexus device. Anything else is asking for disappointment.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Nemisis7654 13y ago
Like maxk42 said, most of these are device specific. I will address some of these more specifically, though. slow scrolling response While Android as a whole may not be as smooth as iOS is (due to the Dalvik VM if I'm not mistaken), this is pretty much a non-issue on most newer phones from what I've seen. Also, the addition of the Android Runtime, I've noticed zero lag on my Nexus 5. Too many crap apps in store This is an issue on both platforms. Most of the most popular apps on the App Store are on the Play Store as well. Cheap hardware designs Not really an Android issue. Blame this on the OEMs. Though, there are some very well built, comfortable phones. HTC One, Moto X, both Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. This is more of a personal preference. I could say the same about iPhones as I personally don't like the design of the phone. Music players that lack complex playlist algorithms Perhaps not as complex as iTunes, Google Play Music is quite a service. Check it out if you haven't. Lacking mac integration Any specific examples here? I have used a Mac for the past year and have had no issues with integration. Limited upgradability Not sure what you mean if not OS upgradability (see below). Dumb OS features Again device specific. Also, something you might see as dumb may not be to someone else. Personally, I think the fingerprint scanner is dumb. Thought it was when Motorola did it years ago, think it still is today. OS updates delayed Again, device specific. Nexus phones do not have this problem. Moto X is another phone that is getting quick updates. Short battery life No response here. This is my biggest gripe with Android.

Khao 13y ago

In other words : An Apple fanboy is being a total compainypants about Android because he doesn't want to accept that it's actually a pretty good phone.

ebiester 13y ago
It isn't just him. I do miss undo still. I also still hate the soft buttons - I've hit "back" with my palm and lost what I was doing too many times. I like a lot of things about android, but small things really matter.
- Breakthrough 13y ago
  Hey, who doesn't? That's a very valid point. Too bad it's muddled in with other fan-boyish comments that greatly detract from the post's legitimacy. Is this a blog post about adding undo to Android, or nit-picking about things that aren't even issues? And I quote from the article: > Here's the thing: Typing a password to unlock your phone every time you want to use it is annoying. The root theme of this blogpost is smartphones ideally not wasting one's time, but by typing a password every single time you want to access your phone you're sure wasting a lot of it! That's why Android phones let you customize a time-out before you have to type the password in to unlock the phone (e.g. when you type your password in, you can set it so you don't have to enter it again for the next X minutes automatically)... So I'm going to agree with the original comment and conclude that this is another case of misrepresenting 'facts'. Also, regarding point #5 and the inability for him to use his Apple earphones with his Android phone, he clearly hasn't heard of standard TRRS connectors. At minimum, I find the author's titling of this section "External Hardware Incompatibility" - in an article comparing Apple products to others, no less - to be quite humorous. Or maybe this was intended as satire...?
  - benguild 13y ago
    Yeah, that's a common feature. iPhone has it as well. I'd like to point out that in my next to last paragraph, I state that I want to use Android. I'm not some Apple "fanboy". I believe that setting the disk encryption password separately from the device's is a valid request and the fact that an App has existed for it since Android v3.0 validates that. If you want more of a reason to do so, read this: http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-encryption.html http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-...

canistr 13y ago

As an everyday carrier of both an iOS and Android device, it's rather refreshing when people point out flaws and points of improvements on both platforms. I certainly hope Google fixes these problems ASAP.

Tloewald 13y ago
The competition between Android and iOS will probably go down as one of the great technical "great leaps forward" in history. While I often wish they could all just get along, the fact that two incredibly capable companies (and heck, Microsoft as well now) are fighting it out hammer and tongs in a pretty flat playing field is ridiculously awesome. Imagine if the same level of competition had existed between Apple and Microsoft between 1985 and 2000. Consider that we're getting smaller, faster, lower powered, and often cheaper devices with more features every year. We got this level of progress in PC hardware for a while (1990-2003 or so) but software progressed far more slowly. Right now, literally everything is up for grabs, and everyone is benefiting.

girvo 13y ago

Man... I swear you can undo in nearly any text box on Android (unless it's a custom class used by the third party dev)... You long press on the text box and click undo on the popup. Am I remember wrong? It's been 12 months since I last used my Xperia, so I probably am.

aetherson 13y ago
I just tried on my Razr M, and no, no undo option based on a long press. Just cut, copy, and select-all. Same on my Nexus 7. I'd never heard of a shake-undo feature on iOS, but it does sound awesome.
- girvo 13y ago
  It's actually annoying sometimes! But useful when you need it.
  - maxk42 13y ago
    Yeah, I don't have the steadiest hands. I can imagine the undo popup coming 'round every friggin' time I try to type something... Then again, I'd take Swiftkeys over undo any day.
    - clarky07 13y ago
      I've had an iPhone for over 4 years and didn't know this feature existed. Unsteady hands will not set it off.
andybak 13y ago
Nexus 5 here. I can't see a way to do it.
- girvo 13y ago
  Damn. Maybe it was a CyanogenMod thing... I'll be honest. I love Android, but little annoyances added up. I now have an iPhone... And am running into little Annoyances all over again. Like how that "a" is capitalised by accident, but is a pain to replace. Or how "Undo" on Archive for email doesn't work properly. I miss my Nokia N9 :(

eonil 13y ago

People easily forget what's precious while they're having it. And then, realize after they lost it.

andybak 13y ago
Deep. Unfortunately I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to elaborate?
- bugschivers 13y ago
  The grass is always greener on the other side?
- eonil 13y ago
  I meant, they are happy with iOS because there's something important, but they easily forget because it's hard to be described in words. Not impossible, anyway a lot harder than simple numbers and graphs. Or it looks too natural to be lacked. And people realize that other products are lacking that after they drop iOS.

hiddensanctum 13y ago

Android and iOS are very different OSes. iOS I feel is more out of the box everything you need but you must use our stuff (itunes, imessage...etc). Stock Android is more here is a barebone kit and we got all these third party stuff. Pick and choose what you like. The Nexus 5 is for people who don't want all this complications. Its a very barebone phone designed for devs. But if you get an Android with a third part skin like the HTC One, most of these issues are solved (off the top of my head I know it has #2 and #3).

crazygringo 13y ago

I've had an iPhone for two years, and never even heard about undo before. I almost couldn't believe it when I tried shaking, and it actually worked. Talk about hidden features... But typing is so much slower with an on-screen keyboard anyways, and I so rarely select text for anything but copy/paste, it has never once happened that I wished there was an undo.

aroch 13y ago
Shake-to-undo was introduced at WWDC back in 2009 with iPhone OS 3.0 (along with copy&paste).
lejoko 13y ago
Undo is not only for text! Delete an email message by mistake, or move it to wrong folder. Shake iPhone/iPad. The message is back... It's a killer feature for my 67 years old mother.
Geee 13y ago
Hah, maybe Samdung didn't copy the feature because they didn't notice it either. And thus, they don't have undo at all. Hilarious.
- code_duck 13y ago
  This feature's presence or absence is more about Android and Google than a vendor such as 'Samdung'.

chrisrhoden 13y ago

The complaint about backups is inaccurate. Preferences like sound or vibration on type and (infamously) wifi are backed up automatically and restored on boot. Many apps choose to save user preferences on their own servers in lieu of using the Shared Preference manager, but many others do not - those preferences will also be restored.

projct 13y ago
Inaccurate? He turned on backup, and most of the settings didn't come back. Apps don't opt-in to the backup feature in iOS - they opt out. This is a design decision that results in a UX failure, and not an inaccurate complaint at all.

andybak 13y ago

Backup is big one and as a long-term Android user I find it unforgivable that this isn't implemented in a system-wide way. Text undo - now you mention it, that would be nice to have. I can't say I've ever cursed it's absence though. He's just wrong on the camera focus. Just tried it. I don't use disk encryption although what he says seems to make sense. I wouldn't call it a deal-breaker though. Finally - regarding hardware compatibility? - sounds like a gap in the market for an enterprising chap!

benguild 13y ago
Video camera focus, not the photo camera. :)

mortenjorck 13y ago

I have to admit, my jaw dropped when I found out I couldn't undo a text edit on my Nexus 7. This was last year; I assumed it had to be something that would make it into 4.3 (no) or 4.4 (still no). iOS's shake-to-undo still feels a bit gimmicky to me (I prefer the keyboard undo button on iPads), but it's something that should have come immediately after clipboard support on Android.

Artemis2 13y ago

"While nearly all of our consumer audio devices share the 3.5mm headphone jack (and have since before I was born), my Apple “earpods” don't function properly with Android phones!" Welcome to Apple world, where everything interesting is patented so it works only with your iPhone. "Even my Mac computer can accept remote commands from and utilize the microphone of these (for audio/video calls)." Guess who makes Macs? Apple.

tomp 13y ago

After a year of using Samsung Galaxy S 2, I realized that the most common reason that my phone shuts down (i.e. crashes) and restarts is copying to clipboard. After 20 clipboard uses, it just crashes, and Samsung, the biggest and richest Android vendor has refused to fix this issue for almost 2 years!

tbob22 13y ago

You can undo in Android, just not with the stock keyboard. Try out A.I.type Keyboard. It may not be the best solution as it should be built in, but it does work. http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7762/zm0t.png http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7762/zm0t.png

thinkmassive 13y ago

Concerning the SIM card, that sounds more like an issue with using a Verizon phone overseas than any issue with Android. I believe any non-LTE Verizon phone (including pre-LTE iPhones) would have the same issue.

goggles99 13y ago

Article points out missing features or presumed flaws in Android, but not The inverse (IOS flaws and missing features). How does this add value for anyone thinking of switching? or wanting to debate which phone is better for whom and why. As such, it's nothing but another uninformed rant. It's likely that most people who own an iPhone don't even know about this feature. He owned an android phone for a week and did not even see half the features that Android has and IOS lacks. How can you adjust to a totally different UI (and begin to appreciate many of the features and differences) in such a short period of time. This post was not worth reading.

Nemisis7654 13y ago

Wow, I did not know about that undo feature. That would be a great addition to Android. One way they could do this pretty easily in my opinion (if they wouldn't do the shake feature) is to have it included in the contextual action bar when you highlight text.

clarky07 13y ago

Interesting, I just tried Android for the last week as well. None of his complaints bothered me though. I actually almost switched, but ended up going back to iPhone as well. I will miss some things (widgets) but in the end the iPhone is better at being a phone IMO. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6777363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6777363