Android vs iOS vs Windows

[Jakensama]

Netflix going from someone purchasing rights to entertainment to the first steps on trying to become a creator of entertainment - so that is actually a significant change in direction.

[Zirak]

I recently picked up a Samsung Galaxy S3 also - it's a really nice phone. My only quibble with it so far is that it is borderline too big to carry around comfortably.

[Jakensama]

I stick mine in the back pocket and it works pretty well unless i'm wearing super hipster jeans (which I somehow guess you do not).

[Grieve]

Netflix going from someone purchasing rights to entertainment to the first steps on trying to become a creator of entertainment - so that is actually a significant change in direction.

Yes, but I remember the stock tanking the day they announced they were going to do this back in 2011, as all the naysayers came out. And they already put out Lilyhammer and announced new Arrested Development, so it's not like this wasn't already well known when the stock was as its lows.

[OrsunVZ]

I don't want his anal babies... the prevailing thought among apple fans is what I was referring to (same as the gates fans, or the Branson fans etc). I would personally love to skip my iPhone like a rock into the ocean, only to watch it be devoured by hungry shark with tapeworms...

If it weren't for the Shoretel phone system not having a developed app for android at the time the phone system went in, I would never have the stupid thing. Prior to this dumbass phone I had an HTC Evo, and everything from reception to functionality was far superior from my own personal experience. The is no way Apple got to where it is now with the quality of the phone I have in my hands, so something has clearly happened at Apple relatively recently in terms of the quality of the materials/construction of the i4 phones they are producing now. They are a damn joke. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[Jakensama]

Netflix going from someone purchasing rights to entertainment to the first steps on trying to become a creator of entertainment - so that is actually a significant change in direction.

Yes, but I remember the stock tanking the day they announced they were going to do this back in 2011, as all the naysayers came out. And they already put out Lilyhammer and announced new Arrested Development, so it's not like this wasn't already well known when the stock was as its lows.

Didn't the stock start tanking when they proposed separating off the streaming/mail sections?

Whatever, stocks are just gambling and not really indicative of much. But googles a lot closer to 1K than apple which means you should probably start packing up all that stuff in my house.

[Moristans]

In fact, your Android "backup" will come in handy when she messes something up and deletes her music and iTunes wipes out her phone by trying to synch it to an empty folder. :-p I know someone who did that...

This was one of the best features about going over to Android. It didn't matter what handset I have, I can just move all my info over from one to the other pretty easily. I'm not actually sure how that worked with the iPhone because I never had the chance to transfer data to it from another phone, or to another phone from the iPhone, and once I dumped it, I didn't feel the need to revisit anything about it.

[Grieve]

Since this thread is about which platform to choose, thought I'd throw out this story just out. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing it on. But it backs up what I've always said about Apple quality in computer and phones, despite the scorn that gets here. I'm personally happy to pay more for reliability/quality, whether its phones, tablet, cars, clothes, whatever.

IPHONE FOUND TO BE 300% MORE RELIABLE THAN SAMSUNG SMARTPHONES

[Vanraw]

This was one of the best features about going over to Android. It didn't matter what handset I have, I can just move all my info over from one to the other pretty easily. I'm not actually sure how that worked with the iPhone because I never had the chance to transfer data to it from another phone, or to another phone from the iPhone, and once I dumped it, I didn't feel the need to revisit anything about it.

That is the difference between an "Open system" and a proprietary one. With Apple it would work great as long as you buy an Apple. With Android you have choices between half a dozen really good manufactures who all compete on features and price. Move to a different manufacture and just log in with your Gmail / android account and boom. Everything is there, all your apps you bought work, etc...

This is what Apple isn't understanding and it will be its down fall unless they do something. Competition breeds innovation. A closed market along with the bad law suit press (warranted or not) has bred discontent in the apple market. Fan boys on either side (Apple, Google, Microslop) wont change, but there are many who simply don't give a shit/ they just want to coolest thing and/or a phone that works.

[Grieve]

That doesn't make a lot of sense. Okay, so Windows and Android are on phones by multiple manufacturers, and Apple and Blackberry are just on one. What's the big deal? You are still locked to a platform. You can't run Android apps on an iPhone or Windows phone, and vice versa.

You may say you want to pick from many phones. Well okay, that's your choice, and for that you have to deal with fragmentation, supportability/upgradability issues, and on.

I prefer the phone and OS coming from the same company, with the benefits and optimizations that provides. Does that mean I have less variety in the hardware? Maybe, but that's never been an issue for me. Frankly I don't have time to comparison shop between 100 different phones.

Moving from on iPhone to another is zero effort - couldn't be easier. Done it many times for both me and wife (plus iPads, iPods, etc).

As for different Android manufacturers competing on price and features, don't you think Apple and Microsoft and Nokia and Blackberry are all competing with Android and each other on price and features as well?

Sorry, I just don't see this big differentiation that you do.

[Jakensama]

As for different Android manufacturers competing on price and features, don't you think Apple and Microsoft and Nokia and Blackberry are all competing with Android and each other on price and features as well?

Apple isn't really competing on features. "I want a big screen" "You can have a tiny screen or a slightly larger screen." Price? "I'd like a small tablet" "Well, I guess we'll put one out, but it will have shittier resolution and be far more expensive than the competitor's superior products - but fuck you, you'll buy it because we're apple"

[OrsunVZ]

Since this thread is about which platform to choose, thought I'd throw out this story just out. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing it on. But it backs up what I've always said about Apple quality in computer and phones, despite the scorn that gets here. I'm personally happy to pay more for reliability/quality, whether its phones, tablet, cars, clothes, whatever.

IPHONE FOUND TO BE 300% MORE RELIABLE THAN SAMSUNG SMARTPHONES

I won't shoot you, but someone should shoot the study's author. Firstly, FixYA CEO talks about "nobody has looked at the trends" implying that somehow this absolute pile of garbage "reliability" study has some form of analysis of the trends of reliability in it, despite the fact that every factor/talking point used (or at least every one mentioned in the article) is not actually pertinent to either a trend (which measures a change in a particular factor over a particular period of time), or reliability (which measures the ability of a thing to perform consistently well).

They also chose to break-down their so-called 'study' into very broad lines which bathes all models from a particular manufacturer in the same light - well I know for a fact that there are big differences between certain batches of older iPhones that were HUGELY problematic. Additionally, pinning the reliability of a brand new product against that of something that has been in the market for 10 years is not a "fair" comparison.

There is a reason nobody has made the comparisons that have been made in this article before, Mr. Fixya CEO. It's because it can't accurately or fairly be measured. This is such juvenile analysis its ridiculous.

Probably the biggest reason why this is completely invalid, is because the degree to which the problems reported actually affect usability, is not measured at all. If you look at the Samsung phone, 40% of the problems are related to the microphone - but what does that actually mean? Is it a delay before the microphone picks up your voice? Or does it never pick up voice at all? There's a huge difference there.

But hey, let's lump apple's brand new phones into the same category as the work horse which has been patched a billion times and artificially reduce the occurrences of problems/percentage of market share.

This CEO and his entire company are exactly the anal-baby-wanting-dick-heads that hurt us as consumers by polluting the internet with utter garbage.

this is an article that is heavily biased towards apple, but as I've said there is just as much garbage out there from every other manufacturer. I have to deal with this kind of misinformation even in my own little industry. The biggest problem is that we as a people are just dumb enough to buy into this crap.

[Vanraw]

Apple and Blackberry are just on one. What's the big deal? You are still locked to a platform.

This may be one of the most valid comparisons of the iPhone you have defined. Blackberry owned the business market. Hell 10 years ago there is no way in hell I would have thought that BB would have lost its market share. But it got its ass handed to it. Apple will too if it doesn't do something.

I prefer the phone and OS coming from the same company, with the benefits and optimizations that provides. Does that mean I have less variety in the hardware? Maybe, but that's never been an issue for me. Frankly I don't have time to comparison shop between 100 different phones.

I understand your obsession . I mean there are still BB user, and their will be to the very end.

Moving from on iPhone to another is zero effort - couldn't be easier. Done it many times for both me and wife (plus iPads, iPods, etc).

[/quote]

You have them colored glasses on again.. My wife has a iphone 4 and has many accessories such as media / speaker portals for home and work, as well as docking station for the car. She looked at iphone5, and she was going to have to replace them all, or buy a clumsy adapter.

Grant it, the integration with 3rd party devices to apple is much larger then android, but Android manufactures have chosen open standards like Bluethooth and standard usb connectors that can not only be used on multiple phones but virtually any device out there, be it, PC, Cameras, TV's, Stereos, mics head sets etc etc, where everything apple is proprietary. Even the fucking power cord. The power cord?? seriously?

[Grieve]

This may be one of the most valid comparisons of the iPhone you have defined. Blackberry owned the business market. Hell 10 years ago there is no way in hell I would have thought that BB would have lost its market share. But it got its ass handed to it. Apple will too if it doesn't do something.

Maybe. Or maybe Android will be the one that tanks. Who knows? Saying "it happened to Blackberry so it will happen to Apple" doesn't really hold water.

Apple has been selling it's own "closed" computers for 30 years - based on your comments, how are they still in business? How are they selling more computers now than ever before? In fact when iPads are included (and why shouldn't they be?), they are the largest PC company in the world.

You have them colored glasses on again.. My wife has a iphone 4 and has many accessories such as media / speaker portals for home and work, as well as docking station for the car. She looked at iphone5, and she was going to have to replace them all, or buy a clumsy adapter.

That's a pretty weak argument. That's the first time they have changed the adaptor in 10 years, and it will likely be another 10 years until they change it again. Samsung used to have proprietary connectors as well (which looked ridiculously identical to Apple ones), and a couple of years ago they changed over to microUSB. Strangely there was no controversy back then, because they have a non-existant hardware ecosystem.

We have a bunch of iPod/iPad/iPad hardware and cables, and haven't replaced a thing. You can get a small adaptor for a couple of bucks on Amazon. The whining I hear online about replacing hardware boggles my mind. "Oh man, using a two dollar adaptor is a pain, so I HAVE to spend $1000 completely replacing my hardware instead!".

Plus this is the computer industry, technology evolves. Man, I bet it sucked for all those people with 100s of 5 1/4" floppy disks when 3 1/2" disks arrived. Then those bastards did it again with CD-ROM drives! Hey, and it was Apple who pioneered both of those changes as well...obviously another evil Apple plot.

but Android manufactures have chosen open standards like Bluethooth and standard usb connectors that can not only be used on multiple phones but virtually any device out there, be it, PC, Cameras, TV's, Stereos, mics head sets etc etc, where everything apple is proprietary.

Really everything? Man, I wonder how it is that the bluetooth in my iPhone talks to my car or wireless keyboard then? Especially since you just said they don't support it. Or how my devices get on my wifi network? And I must be mistaken that Safari is based on the open source WebKit...which was started by Apple, and is also what Google Chrome is based on. And I guess Apple never pushed for the open-standard HTML-5 in preference to the completely proprietary Adobe Flash.

Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read online.

[Sebrent]

I've only run across Android twice professionally and in both times it was from talking with coworkers.

When working with Motorola, one of the guys on that team told me over lunch that he was pretty sure Android had accidentally invented a perfect entropy machine ... this was not a compliment; quite the opposite.

One of our VPs in a meeting mentioned another group working with Android products and how it was a pain in the ass.

----------

As far as having one set of hardware, there are several advantages to knowing exactly what hardware your software is going to be running on. You can better optimize it, waste less time dealing with multiple drivers, spend more time making your few drivers better, etc.

[Jakensama]

Apple has been selling it's own "closed" computers for 30 years - based on your comments, how are they still in business?
How are they selling more computers now than ever before?

Probably because when you only have a tiny slice of the market there isn't anywhere to go but up. Windows manages to own the vast majority of the market now, despite "fragmentation".

In fact when iPads are included (and why shouldn't they be?), they are the largest PC company in the world.

Tablets are not PCs.. PCs are actually useful. If you consider tablets PCs than smartphones have to be PCs too since a tablet is simply a larger less functional smartphone. Or you can just catagorize completely different things as completely different things.

[Volktar]

Interesting that someone has a android emulator for windows 8. Basiclly allowing access to 750k apps. I wonder if these guys will port it to windows 8 phone or Rt.

Hmmm. I wonder if that's the emulator that comes with the development kit or a different one.

The Google development kit you use to make Android apps has an emulator that runs in Windows but it's so awful that nobody uses it unless they have to (like to emulate an Android version you don't have). The place I work at does all development on actual phones. I hear the Google people do too, which is why the emulator sucks.

It works, it's just obnoxiously slow, and that's on an Intel I7. I doubt it would be usable on a phone.

I can comment on this..
For the last 4 years or so, Ive used the HTC HD2 (Windows).
I loved it for about 2 weeks. The limitations in the app market is insane. Most apps these days come out for iP/Andriod/Blackberry, with no windows version. Its a pain.

Long story short, I ported my phone to Android.
Its not something that is availible for every phone. It takes the phone nerds time to "hack" that specific phone to make it possible. I know the HD2 took over 2 years before they could get android stable. The beautiful thing about it is, I can change the OS on my phone whenever I want. New features come out that your phone didnt have (wifi calling, etc)? No problem. Find a new andriod version (Gingerbread, Honeycomb, etc) and load it up. Its easy once you get the hang of it.

THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE ON THE iPHONE

XDA Developers is your go-to source for andriod development.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.ph...94e4368142

[Skelas]

Just as an aside, A friend was going on a trip and they wanted to watch a movie on their Ipad on the plane. I have a shit ton of movies on my comp. so I offered to throw a couple on there. Simple thing you would think, copy it onto a usb drive, plug it in and drag and drop.

How can they possibly make those things without a USB port?

HOW?!?!?!

What the fuck man!

I know this isn't groundbreaking news, or even new news, I was just surprised at what a pain in the ass it was to transfer a fricken .avi to the damn thing. So stupid.

[strife]

How can they possibly make those things without a USB port?

HOW?!?!?!

What the fuck man!

I know this isn't groundbreaking news, or even new news, I was just surprised at what a pain in the ass it was to transfer a fricken .avi to the damn thing. So stupid.

Yep, been one of my leading negatives on the ipad since it's initial release. USB should be the standard which all [non-video/internet] devices should connect through.

[Volktar]

Why would they do that? Apple would rather you have to buy a cord/adapter from them!

[Vanraw]

How can they possibly make those things without a USB port?

HOW?!?!?!

What the fuck man!

I know this isn't groundbreaking news, or even new news, I was just surprised at what a pain in the ass it was to transfer a fricken .avi to the damn thing. So stupid.

Yep, been one of my leading negatives on the ipad since it's initial release. USB should be the standard which all [non-video/internet] devices should connect through.

Yea I was surprised as well on my Samsung tab 10.1, that it didn't have USB either. You can buy an adapter, but WTF. The next models had it, but was pretty silly./

[Grieve]

I know you won't agree, but it's part of the deliberate minimalism Steve Jobs started with the Apple II. Woz had the geek point of view - put every single port anyone could ever possibly need on there. See PCs and laptops - they've only just stopped putting serial and parallel ports on those things. For Jobs simplicity and "the look" was more important, and of course he forced his viewpoint over Woz. That's why they are always the first to drop technologies as well (floppy disks, CD-ROMs, even network interfaces for the latest MacBook Airs). And that's why PCs/Androids/whatever are generally better for geeks.

For Apple devices, you can get just able to anything you need with an adaptor. You can say it's a cynical cash grab from Apple, but that definitely wasn't Jobs rational, and I don't believe it is Cook's either. 99% of people buy adaptors from 3rd parties, not Apple.

These days you can do just about everything you need over wifi or 3G/LTE anyway, so my adaptors are all gathering dust.

[Jakensama]

For Apple devices, you can get just able to anything you need with an adaptor.

Yes, and with non garbage devices you can get just about everything you need with a usb cable and no adapter, that was kind of the point of the original post.