Android - The grass is NOT greener

[jrswizzle]

[/B]

All what you wrote is fair enough. It's not for you but widgets are certainly not overrated. They are great to have on your home screen. great for quick info/news when on the go. makes life far easier.

gaming for one is very good but that doesn't mean much to me..not much of a gamer.

Really? FAR easier?

My life's gone along pretty much the same since I switched to a Nexus 5. The widgets I use give me weather info and a quick way to sound search but other than that, widgets are much of the time overrated. Unless you take up a whole page the widget can't really show a ton of information. My sports widget for instance shows one score at a time. So I have to sit there and scroll via a tiny little arrow button.

Perhaps its just the widgets I use, but I like the Sportscenter app so I use the widget. Much easier to tap once and have all the scores I care about visible at a glance.

Or better yet, just ask Siri - "Hey, how are the Cowboys doing"....

To which she'll undoubtedly reply - "The Cowboys are headed for mediocrity yet again."

 

[Dontazemebro]

The majority of games are on both formats, plus both sides have exclusive games like Bioshock on iOS, and the Tegra devices getting Half Life 2 and Portal and Trine 2 etc.

Games performance is the same on both from what I've seen, I have both. For me though out the box the new Sony Z3 range win with gaming as they will wirelessly connect to a Dual Shock controller and now Remote Play PS4 games. And then with the Nvidia Shield you can remote play your PC games.

Yes the majority are but they always come to iOS first and iOS even gets exclusives that Android never gets. Sometimes the Android version is never up to par or has compatibility issues between a multitude of devices. For instance, when GTA 3 San Andreas released, it released first on iOS (played like a charm). Weeks later it arrived on Android and out the gate it was quite buggy. Lots of people were complaining that they couldn't get it to work on their device and quite a few were high end devices.

As for Tegra devices, I'll probably never buy another one. I had the HTC one X+ and purchased quite a few Tegra games that became completely obsolete once I moved on to another Android device.

 

[The Game 161]

Really? FAR easier?

My life's gone along pretty much the same since I switched to a Nexus 5. The widgets I use give me weather info and a quick way to sound search but other than that, widgets are much of the time overrated. Unless you take up a whole page the widget can't really show a ton of information. My sports widget for instance shows one score at a time. So I have to sit there and scroll via a tiny little arrow button.

Perhaps its just the widgets I use, but I like the Sportscenter app so I use the widget. Much easier to tap once and have all the scores I care about visible at a glance.

Or better yet, just ask Siri - "Hey, how are the Cowboys doing"....

To which she'll undoubtedly reply - "The Cowboys are headed for mediocrity yet again."

Cbs sports widget is awesome for all scores and articles

 

[jrswizzle]

Cbs sports widget is awesome for all scores and articles

Hmm, but unless I make it take up a large portion of the display, it can only show one or two scores at a time.

That's my point. For something like weather, having a 5 day forecast on my home screen is nice. But I don't think they are some hugely productive tool.

iOS 8 will allow for the addition of widgets in the "Today" view of the NC. That'll work just as well as placing them on home screens for me - even better because I'll be able to pull down from the lock screen to view.

 

[The Game 161]

Hmm, but unless I make it take up a large portion of the display, it can only show one or two scores at a time.

That's my point. For something like weather, having a 5 day forecast on my home screen is nice. But I don't think they are some hugely productive tool.

iOS 8 will allow for the addition of widgets in the "Today" view of the NC. That'll work just as well as placing them on home screens for me - even better because I'll be able to pull down from the lock screen to view.

Scores Dont take up much space. Depends if you are happy with a news widget and scores taking up one page. For me I have plenty of pages so I like having one page with cbs nba info on.

 

[apolloa]

Yes the majority are but they always come to iOS first and iOS even gets exclusives that Android never gets. Sometimes the Android version is never up to par or has compatibility issues between a multitude of devices. For instance, when GTA 3 San Andreas released, it released first on iOS (played like a charm). Weeks later it arrived on Android and out the gate it was quite buggy. Lots of people were complaining that they couldn't get it to work on their device and quite a few were high end devices.

As for Tegra devices, I'll probably never buy another one. I had the HTC one X+ and purchased quite a few Tegra games that became completely obsolete once I moved on to another Android device.

True they do make buggy games, that they eventually fix. Never going to argue iOS gets games first as it does. Just think out the box some android device are better IMO.

As for the Tegra, that's why I want the new Sony tablet, because having the 2012 Nexus 7 with it's Tegra 3 chip has taught me it's great for those enhanced games, but not so great when Nvidia seems to drop support when they launch a new chip...

 

[The Game 161]

Hmm, but unless I make it take up a large portion of the display, it can only show one or two scores at a time.

That's my point. For something like weather, having a 5 day forecast on my home screen is nice. But I don't think they are some hugely productive tool.

iOS 8 will allow for the addition of widgets in the "Today" view of the NC. That'll work just as well as placing them on home screens for me - even better because I'll be able to pull down from the lock screen to view.

what do you mean by this Jrswizzle?

 

[Dontazemebro]

True they do make buggy games, that they eventually fix. Never going to argue iOS gets games first as it does. Just think out the box some android device are better IMO.

As for the Tegra, that's why I want the new Sony tablet, because having the 2012 Nexus 7 with it's Tegra 3 chip has taught me it's great for those enhanced games, but not so great when Nvidia seems to drop support when they launch a new chip...

And therein lies the rub. Nvidia doesn't continue to support their chips once they've moved on to bigger and better. If they had one standard across the board or at least offered more Tegra devices with a continuous flagship following. Gaming would be awesome on Android.

 

[tbayrgs]

[/B]

what do you mean by this Jrswizzle?

As he stated, iOS 8 allows for the addition of widgets to the Notification panel/shade, which is accessible even on the lock screen. While some Android devices allow for the addition of widgets on the lock screen, I believe some devices don't presently have this capability (but don't quote me as I obviously haven't used every Android device ).

 

[apolloa]

And therein lies the rub. Nvidia doesn't continue to support their chips once they've moved on to bigger and better. If they had one standard across the board or at least offered more Tegra devices with a continuous flagship following. Gaming would be awesome on Android.

Only with Nvidia, more and more current devices use Snapdragon SOC's.

 

[The Game 161]

As he stated, iOS 8 allows for the addition of widgets to the Notification panel/shade, which is accessible even on the lock screen. While some Android devices allow for the addition of widgets on the lock screen, I believe some devices don't presently have this capability (but don't quote me as I obviously haven't used every Android device ).

Thanks, didn't realise they do that now.

 

[jrswizzle]

Thanks, didn't realise they do that now.

iOS 8 - it'll be up to the devs of each app to create said widgets. But they'll also make them actionable. WWDC showed off an eBay notification that told the user something he/she bid on was ending and gave an option to increase the bid by a certain amount.

Personally, I just don't like the clutter on my home screens. I also don't like having to scroll through a ton of screens. I don't mind the home screens being an app drawer as that's what I use my phone for - launching apps for certain information/tasks.

For quick info, NC + Siri + Spotlight Search work extremely well and can be available even when the phone is locked. IMO, iOS isn't lacking anything here.

 

[The Game 161]

iOS 8 - it'll be up to the devs of each app to create said widgets. But they'll also make them actionable. WWDC showed off an eBay notification that told the user something he/she bid on was ending and gave an option to increase the bid by a certain amount.

Personally, I just don't like the clutter on my home screens. I also don't like having to scroll through a ton of screens. I don't mind the home screens being an app drawer as that's what I use my phone for - launching apps for certain information/tasks.

For quick info, NC + Siri + Spotlight Search work extremely well and can be available even when the phone is locked. IMO, iOS isn't lacking anything here.

Yeah I suppose it depends how you use it and how happy you are with a certain amount of pages. I have 8 pages and don't mind that. Certainly when I can pinch in and view any page I need quickly.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The nexus 5 is made out of plastic: It feels gorgeous. The S5 imo doesn't. How could you know this beforehand only with the information that their both plastic?
Plastic is a very general term.

Plastic feels like plastic unless they added a texture to it. There's no way you can complain about a plastic device feeling worst than another plastic device. You must be talking about the phone as a whole, cause every plastic that I've felt on a phone feels the same regardless of the difference of the phones as a whole. If you know something about differ plastics being used, please do tell.

 

[tbayrgs]

Thanks, didn't realise they do that now.

Well, technically they don't yet, not until iOS 8 is officially released, likely a few days after the event next week. I've been using the beta but developers aren't able to make widgets available until after the official release.

I love having access to my notification shade from my lock screen (and IIRC this will now be an option in Android L), but not sure I'll use the widgets functionality. I don't use them for more than a quick glance at weather or my calendar when I'm on Android, found I usually want more info than is available on a widget and prefer to just open an app anyways.

 

[jrswizzle]

Scores Dont take up much space. Depends if you are happy with a news widget and scores taking up one page. For me I have plenty of pages so I like having one page with cbs nba info on.

Ya - I just don't like having a ton of pages to swipe through. I have two on my iPhone - one for my most used apps and another for my folders. My Android device has three and one of those is widgets only.

I rarely scroll to that third widget page though....9/10 I just open the Sportcenter app or swipe left to google now (which shows my Rangers scores but hasn't picked up on my Baylor fandom yet).

Most of the time, I'm not just looking for one result. I tend to want to find out a variety of scores from teams I may not be following or have favorited so going into the app is more efficient for me.

iOS does a great job knowing when I tend to look at certain apps and it has everything pre-loaded when I open the app. I almost always check Twitter in the morning and iOS picks up on this. So in the morning, Twitter gets refreshed without me having to do anything before I open it. Pretty intelligent if you ask me.

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Yeah I suppose it depends how you use it and how happy you are with a certain amount of pages. I have 8 pages and don't mind that. Certainly when I can pinch in and view any page I need quickly.

Is that a Nova gesture? What launcher do you use?

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Well, technically they don't yet, not until iOS 8 is officially released, likely a few days after the event next week. I've been using the beta but developers aren't able to make widgets available until after the official release.

I love having access to my notification shade from my lock screen (and IIRC this will now be an option in Android L), but not sure I'll use the widgets functionality. I don't use them for more than a quick glance at weather or my calendar when I'm on Android, found I usually want more info than is available on a widget and prefer to just open an app anyways.

It will - but the developer preview was incomplete I believe....or at least I hope it was. I'm not a fan of how they are implementing the NC in Android L. It seemed unfinished.

 

[The Game 161]

Ya - I just don't like having a ton of pages to swipe through. I have two on my iPhone - one for my most used apps and another for my folders. My Android device has three and one of those is widgets only.

I rarely scroll to that third widget page though....9/10 I just open the Sportcenter app or swipe left to google now (which shows my Rangers scores but hasn't picked up on my Baylor fandom yet).

Most of the time, I'm not just looking for one result. I tend to want to find out a variety of scores from teams I may not be following or have favorited so going into the app is more efficient for me.

iOS does a great job knowing when I tend to look at certain apps and it has everything pre-loaded when I open the app. I almost always check Twitter in the morning and iOS picks up on this. So in the morning, Twitter gets refreshed without me having to do anything before I open it. Pretty intelligent if you ask me.

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Is that a Nova gesture? What launcher do you use?

Yeah no doubt thats a great feature to have. I do like that. To be honest i have never checked out that feature out enough on youtube.

I use nova launcher but it's a feature on touchwiz I think too.

 

[jrswizzle]

Yeah no doubt thats a great feature to have. I do like that. To be honest i have never checked out that feature out enough on youtube.

I use nova launcher but it's a feature on touchwiz I think too.

Ahh - I used to use Nova but like having Google Now as a swipe from the left. My Nexus 5 is about as stock as it can be so I'm missing out on some of these tweaks and things.

 

[The Game 161]

Ahh - I used to use Nova but like having Google Now as a swipe from the left. My Nexus 5 is about as stock as it can be so I'm missing out on some of these tweaks and things.

the gestures you could create are pretty damn good like touching the screen to pull down the notifications menu for one.

 

[JaySoul]

I agree with this; I use mostly google services [calendar, gmail, drive, g+ for photo backup, hangouts, maps] but on my iPhone and Macbook Air. If I find an Android that's a better fit than my 5C, it's a seamless switch, but I'm not really lessening my experience not using things like Safari and Apple Maps since I think Google's products are better but Apple's hardware is better.

That's exactly what I started to do 2 years ago on my iPhone, then when I finally switched to Android a year ago, it was quite easy (and fun).

If the iPhone 6 and iWatch happens to be amazing, I'd have virtually no issues switching back.

 

[gotluck]

That's exactly what I started to do 2 years ago on my iPhone, then when I finally switched to Android a year ago, it was quite easy (and fun).

If the iPhone 6 and iWatch happens to be amazing, I'd have virtually no issues switching back.

Same here, used mostly google services on iPhone and switched to android last year. Ability to move around is nice.

I won't be locked in!

 

[jrswizzle]

That's exactly what I started to do 2 years ago on my iPhone, then when I finally switched to Android a year ago, it was quite easy (and fun).

If the iPhone 6 and iWatch happens to be amazing, I'd have virtually no issues switching back.

Meh, I use all Apple everything and have little trouble integrating an Android device into my lineup.

I've stated this many other places - the issue isn't necessary MY platform loyalty, its the loyalty of those with whom I communicate and share regularly.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yeah I suppose it depends how you use it and how happy you are with a certain amount of pages. I have 8 pages and don't mind that. Certainly when I can pinch in and view any page I need quickly.

I've got 6 pages. When I first got an android phone I went crazy on widgets, now I've narrowed it down to what I'd call essential widgets.

I've got:

Weather widget
Google search bar
S-view Calendar (full screen)
What's this song?
Music player widget
YouTube widget (shows latest videos from my subscriptions)
S-health pedometer.

 

[ob81]

The iOS and OSX integration is a big one to get over. I have spent so much money on the Apple side if things. I think the only way I can get a clean break away from the ecosystem is if I get a huge pay raise at work. Other than that, I always have remorse when it comes to all of the money I have spent on apps.

 

[jamezr]

Same here, used mostly google services on iPhone and switched to android last year. Ability to move around is nice.

I won't be locked in!

I have all of my needs OS independent! I can switch between and Android or IOS device and not miss anything. Love it this way!