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Phones Convert to android and loving it?
- Thread starter Delighted
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EDIT: 4.04 update indeed does address most of these issues.
For all my praises about the Galaxy Nexus and ICS, I have to confess I'm dismayed I still see hangups here and there, and lag sometimes when I return to the home screen.
This is especially true after browsing the web. When hitting the home button to get back to the home screen, sometimes they have to reload the icons or reload the launcher (I'm 100% stock 4.02). This is disappointing to see.
Likewise, the App Switcher button can sometimes take anywhere from 3-6 seconds to load. For all Android's "true" multitasking abilities versus iOS, I stll have to say I can switch apps faster on the iPhone.
Same with the on-screen home key. I actually like the idea of getting rid of front hardware buttons, but it's got to work 100% of the time, and more importantly, it's got to be absolutely responsive. As it is now, there are a few times I have to hit the home button two, sometimes even three times before it'll finally issue the command back to the home screen.
ICS does a lot of things right and a lot of things better than iOS (the keyboard, Chrome, mail, etc.) but some of the basics of ICS, like navigating back to the home screen, or fast app switching are still a major step below iOS. iOS isn't always perfect with these things either, but hiccups certainly occur less often. I think someone else said it best, iOS just "hides lag" better.
I'm still convinced the better overall experience is on ICS for the things it does get right/better, but I always tout intellectual honesty when talking about either platform, so I thought it worth pointing these issues out to anyone considering ICS/Galaxy Nexus. These are the trade offs.
For all my praises about the Galaxy Nexus and ICS, I have to confess I'm dismayed I still see hangups here and there, and lag sometimes when I return to the home screen.
This is especially true after browsing the web. When hitting the home button to get back to the home screen, sometimes they have to reload the icons or reload the launcher (I'm 100% stock 4.02). This is disappointing to see.
Likewise, the App Switcher button can sometimes take anywhere from 3-6 seconds to load. For all Android's "true" multitasking abilities versus iOS, I stll have to say I can switch apps faster on the iPhone.
Same with the on-screen home key. I actually like the idea of getting rid of front hardware buttons, but it's got to work 100% of the time, and more importantly, it's got to be absolutely responsive. As it is now, there are a few times I have to hit the home button two, sometimes even three times before it'll finally issue the command back to the home screen.
ICS does a lot of things right and a lot of things better than iOS (the keyboard, Chrome, mail, etc.) but some of the basics of ICS, like navigating back to the home screen, or fast app switching are still a major step below iOS. iOS isn't always perfect with these things either, but hiccups certainly occur less often. I think someone else said it best, iOS just "hides lag" better.
I'm still convinced the better overall experience is on ICS for the things it does get right/better, but I always tout intellectual honesty when talking about either platform, so I thought it worth pointing these issues out to anyone considering ICS/Galaxy Nexus. These are the trade offs.
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See I actually started with the HTC Dream/G1 and at first loved it (first smart phone device) but it was slow, buggy and flimsy. After 7 months I couldn't take it anymore and broke contract without ETF's and left T-Mobile. Used a myriad of crappy handsets (Envy Touch with Verizon, broke contract due to crappy device and service.
I was a long time AT&T customer before and switched back after leaving Verizon. Haven't had an Android device since my G1 spurt and been Apple with several iPod Touch devices and the iPhone 4. But its practically the only phone I've had and kept for nearly a full 2 year agreement (I got my 18 month upgrade available now with AT&T). Phone has been great, wife loves hers and again only phone to have kept us content for full term.
Now that I have the early bird upgrade I was looking at Android devices while I am waiting on the iPhone 5 and so far only 1 has caught my attention. The Note is pretty nifty, but every demo I've messed with is slow, slow, SLOW! Clarifying the scrolling and accessing of the device namely from sleep to active and opening some apps felt slow or sluggish. It would be a great mix of use for me for tablet and phone use but couldn't get passed the jittery interface.
I even got to talk to a Samsung sales rep at Willowbrook Mall around January/February as they were demoing the device outside an AT&T store. Their device was exhibiting the same problem and they asked me if I was interesting in getting the device, I replied maybe and gave my opinion on it and that I am waiting to see what the next iDevice is going to be. She actually asked me how it compares to the next device...told her it hasn't been announced yet.. lol.
So in the meantime I am going to keep looking at Android devices and hopefully when the iPhone 5 comes out I can make a choice. I have no qualms with iOS atm.
I was a long time AT&T customer before and switched back after leaving Verizon. Haven't had an Android device since my G1 spurt and been Apple with several iPod Touch devices and the iPhone 4. But its practically the only phone I've had and kept for nearly a full 2 year agreement (I got my 18 month upgrade available now with AT&T). Phone has been great, wife loves hers and again only phone to have kept us content for full term.
Now that I have the early bird upgrade I was looking at Android devices while I am waiting on the iPhone 5 and so far only 1 has caught my attention. The Note is pretty nifty, but every demo I've messed with is slow, slow, SLOW! Clarifying the scrolling and accessing of the device namely from sleep to active and opening some apps felt slow or sluggish. It would be a great mix of use for me for tablet and phone use but couldn't get passed the jittery interface.
I even got to talk to a Samsung sales rep at Willowbrook Mall around January/February as they were demoing the device outside an AT&T store. Their device was exhibiting the same problem and they asked me if I was interesting in getting the device, I replied maybe and gave my opinion on it and that I am waiting to see what the next iDevice is going to be. She actually asked me how it compares to the next device...told her it hasn't been announced yet.. lol.
So in the meantime I am going to keep looking at Android devices and hopefully when the iPhone 5 comes out I can make a choice. I have no qualms with iOS atm.
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I forgot to add that I did mess around with ICS 4.0.4 on my HP Touchpad and found it to be a lot better than previous iterations but it was still lacking a few things. It would definitely be a good update for the Note and if it fixed the jitters on it I would almost be game for it. I didn't experience any of those issues when using it on my Touchpad.
Now the killer for me would be if either (iOS or Android) had the WebOS card/multitasking without rooting/jbing the devices.
Now the killer for me would be if either (iOS or Android) had the WebOS card/multitasking without rooting/jbing the devices.
When I was on 4.0.2 there was a bit of a lag sometimes but no where near 3-6 seconds. Maybe 1.5-2 seconds max. Now on 4.0.4 it's instant. My 4s has had a lag when doubling pressing the home button at times as well. I haven't experienced the home button issues either. But like you I do prefer the on screen buttons because after 6 months my iPhone 4 home button started giving me issues.
I had an android phone last year. It was the Samsung Captivate. I also had the Asus Transformer tablet. I never thought I would want an iphone since it feels so "closed" but I switched and will never look back. Android is a very good operating system but it has some major flaws in which made me want to switch.
1. Virus's. Not everybody gets them or has had one but Google doesn't monitor their app store very well. Tons of apps on there that log your calls. I had an app send these ghost texts from me to some company and I got charged 10$ per text....
2. Laggy OS. Not sure if 4.0 is less laggy.
3. Not all phones work with all apps. This is really annoying. I want to download a game...oh no my phone isn't supported.
4. Battery Life. Horrible. Are the newer phones any better? I can go 2 days without charging my iphone after light use. I couldn't even get 8 hours with my Captivate.
1. Virus's. Not everybody gets them or has had one but Google doesn't monitor their app store very well. Tons of apps on there that log your calls. I had an app send these ghost texts from me to some company and I got charged 10$ per text....
2. Laggy OS. Not sure if 4.0 is less laggy.
3. Not all phones work with all apps. This is really annoying. I want to download a game...oh no my phone isn't supported.
4. Battery Life. Horrible. Are the newer phones any better? I can go 2 days without charging my iphone after light use. I couldn't even get 8 hours with my Captivate.
Its really not fair to blame Android because you chose a sub par device and didn't research the apps you downloaded ahead of time. Thats like blaming Windows because you bought a sub par PC and you also downloaded things that give it a virus. As for battery life, I have a Razr Maxx and it still has 40-50% battery life by the time my 4s needs a charge. Thats with it having a larger display and running on LTE too.
I'm rooted and have a different rom now. But earlier this week I had stock 4.0.4. Not all Galaxy Nexus builds are updated by Google. Some are updated by Samsung which takes longer.
Although, this is true. It is not a problem with the Apple App Store. I don't have to worry and research every app I download. Also it is not a problem with apple with apps working on certain phones. Aside from the original Iphone and the Iphone 3g, The 3gs, 4 and 4s work with every app. The captivate was an awesome phone when I bought it, it was the best android out there aside from the Samsung Nexus. Later on the Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus came out but I already switched to Iphone. I researched the Asus transformer and from the reviews was basically the best Android tablet out(at the time) Most apps only worked on the Samsung Tablet or the XOOM(which was the worst tablet out based on reviews).
I did not know the newer Android devices had good battery life.
not a problem with the app store, eh? Last year, a malware app was placed onto the app store, luckily by a security expert or programmer, showing that it is possible. Not to mention, all the copyright infringing apps that have sneaked into the app store. No OS is perfect at stopping everything.
Interestingly, my Samsung phone is probably more secure than any of my ios devices. Every app I load gets scanned and checked for viruses and malware. Same thing I do for my Macs and PC.
it is not a problem with Android with apps working on certain phones. Aside from the phones the app doesn't work on, the rest of the phones work with every app.
See how ridiculous that sounds? Now look at your contradictory quote again.
You hit the nail on the head. By the way, almost everyone that I have heard praising OSX over Windows have these very complaints. They buy a $500 windows laptop and hate it. They replace it with a $1200 Macbook and love it because "It just works and has no viruses ever!" Apple did a good job grinding that into people's heads with their Mac v PC ads. Every once in a while I run into an informed Mac user, and that is certainly refreshing.
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What (I think) he was trying to say is that all apps on the appstore work on all Apple devices that are still supported, all the way back to the 3GS, which is a 3 year old device. We still have Android devices launching TODAY that cannot handle certain apps.
The biggest thing to note here is that if you don't feel like doing even a second of research when buying your phone, Apple is probably the way to go, because you can't go wrong in terms of compatibility. If you are willing to do some research, you can get the compatibility you want, likely at a better price (flagship phones go on sale from $0-$50 often). The key here is you have to be willing to take the time to educate yourself. There are a lot of people that would rather not (and there is nothing wrong with that, Apple caters to that group better than anyone else).
You dont have to do any research. The ratings are right there when you open the app from the store before you download it. There are comments as well. 3 stars or less you might want to read a handful of the comments and decide if you want to try it.
After owning 3 generations of iPhone's I really started to get tired of the OS. It isn't that it's bad or anything I personally was just getting bored with it. iOS really hasn't changed a whole lot in 4 years.
So when my contract was up for my iPhone 4 I decided to take the plunge and bought a Samsung Galaxy Note. Well I love it, best phone I have ever owned. I can't believe what a difference that screen makes. I actually enjoy surfing on a mobile device. Yes it's huge but as a female with small fingers I don't mind it at all. File-manager, oh my gosh I can't believe something as simple as a file-manager can be so rewarding. I think it's my favorite application and I can't believe I survived this long without one. I have my home and work server mounted as a normal folder where I can open up up all of my files with one click, even streaming movies and music, amazing.
The Note also comes with a pen so I'm now using it as my journal and note pad. The battery lasts all day and the speed is very quick. The OS is different but I think I like it better then iOS now. You can do a lot more with Android, love the widgets. Oh and being able to plug the thing into any computer and having it mounted as a normal drive is well, awesome. Apple please take note, no one want's to use a music player to transfer files back and forth.
Everyone warned me about the lack of apps but I don't see it. I have every app that was on my iPhone now on my Note, every single one. I'm also a heavy user of Google apps so this is defiantly up my alley. Also the codec support is amazing, I hated having to convert my mass collection of DIVX movies to MP4 so my iPhone could play them. The Note pretty much handles everything I throw at it without any special program that only plays some of the movies like with my iPhone.
The camera is also really good, I didn't have a 4S just the 4 but the movie and photo quality wipes the floor with of the original 4.
Because of the size I'm starting to also use the Note more then my iPad. It's big enough where reading my eBooks is very comfortable.
I really don't want to sound like a troll or a Apple hater as I my favorite notebook of all time my Macbook Air 11" will never be replaced but as far as phones are concerned I think Apple has lost their edge and I will stick with the Note series for a while.
I know a lot of you will probably flame me as this is a Apple eccentric site but I just wanted to share. My new Samsung Note is a really incredible device, capable of many things that I thought weren't possible on a phone. It's more of a computer actually, oh one more thing. We have a Samsung flatscreen TV with this tech called DLNA, well my Note also has it and I can stream all of my movies in HD directly to the TV. So very cool, so I bought a 64GB miniSD card, another thing that I wish Apple had as I am now using my Note as my multimedia server.
WORTH EVERY PENNY. Oh and if you do get one, white, choose the white it's very pretty.
Thanks for reading, have a sunny, happy day, bye.
So when my contract was up for my iPhone 4 I decided to take the plunge and bought a Samsung Galaxy Note. Well I love it, best phone I have ever owned. I can't believe what a difference that screen makes. I actually enjoy surfing on a mobile device. Yes it's huge but as a female with small fingers I don't mind it at all. File-manager, oh my gosh I can't believe something as simple as a file-manager can be so rewarding. I think it's my favorite application and I can't believe I survived this long without one. I have my home and work server mounted as a normal folder where I can open up up all of my files with one click, even streaming movies and music, amazing.
The Note also comes with a pen so I'm now using it as my journal and note pad. The battery lasts all day and the speed is very quick. The OS is different but I think I like it better then iOS now. You can do a lot more with Android, love the widgets. Oh and being able to plug the thing into any computer and having it mounted as a normal drive is well, awesome. Apple please take note, no one want's to use a music player to transfer files back and forth.
Everyone warned me about the lack of apps but I don't see it. I have every app that was on my iPhone now on my Note, every single one. I'm also a heavy user of Google apps so this is defiantly up my alley. Also the codec support is amazing, I hated having to convert my mass collection of DIVX movies to MP4 so my iPhone could play them. The Note pretty much handles everything I throw at it without any special program that only plays some of the movies like with my iPhone.
The camera is also really good, I didn't have a 4S just the 4 but the movie and photo quality wipes the floor with of the original 4.
Because of the size I'm starting to also use the Note more then my iPad. It's big enough where reading my eBooks is very comfortable.
I really don't want to sound like a troll or a Apple hater as I my favorite notebook of all time my Macbook Air 11" will never be replaced but as far as phones are concerned I think Apple has lost their edge and I will stick with the Note series for a while.
I know a lot of you will probably flame me as this is a Apple eccentric site but I just wanted to share. My new Samsung Note is a really incredible device, capable of many things that I thought weren't possible on a phone. It's more of a computer actually, oh one more thing. We have a Samsung flatscreen TV with this tech called DLNA, well my Note also has it and I can stream all of my movies in HD directly to the TV. So very cool, so I bought a 64GB miniSD card, another thing that I wish Apple had as I am now using my Note as my multimedia server.
WORTH EVERY PENNY. Oh and if you do get one, white, choose the white it's very pretty.
Thanks for reading, have a sunny, happy day, bye.
I have been burned, more than once, going by ratings alone. This includes Google Play (man that name is lame) as well as the AppStore. It is what it is. I have learned to look for the non glowing ratings no matter what I buy or from where. Gives me a much more accurate view of the product.
Least with Android though you get to test the apps first and decide, I can't count all the times I went by "good reviews" on the App Store only to think the app sucked or wasn't what I expected, but then your sol with the $. A few times on Android I wanted a certain program and could try like 5-10 of them for free and buy the one I wanted. I've said it before I even bought an Android device, that Apple needs to implement a testing feature like that to the App store.
Chances of getting malware is almost zilch on Android as long as you know what your downloading, avoid random apk's all around the net which many still download for free especially and then wonder why they were infected, and read reviews on the App's. I'll be honest I've had a lot of Android friends over the years, and not single one as had trouble with malware, viruses etc. As I used to f' with them saying that among many other things against Android LOL, before switching haha.
I still don't get what lag people are talking about, the GSII, at least the i777 version is fast and buttery smooth. Noticed more issues with lag and hiccups on the two 4S we've had. Some people point out the browser, well the stock browser is mehhh you need to download Dolphin Mini or HD or one of the others, But the browsers load differently, Android loads everything from the full site/long scrolling pages/pictures etc at once while iOS renders it in parts so actually Safari can seem more choppier depending on the site but not that big of a deal to me. Chrome beta though flat out kicks ass, so fast and smooth, easily the best mobile browser hands down.
Android came a long way, they reached this point, imagine in the next year or so. Never thought I'd switch that's for sure. But that's not a knock on the iPhones either, wouldn't have them still if that were true.
Right, I'm really, really impressed with Android. The Note is my first Android device but I'm really tempted in getting a tablet as well. If I do I think I'm either getting the new Toshiba Excite or the Xoom 2 3G. I am so impressed with Android's multimedia capabilities as well. Apple does everything in their power to lock you into the iTunes world that they only offer a few built in codec's. It was such a relief the first time I copied over a DIVX file to the Note and saw that it played it flawlessly without any of that time consuming conversion. I bought a 64GB Class 10 MiniSD card and I can't believe how fast and easy it is to copy movies onto it. Blows away the iTunes method, which I always hated with a passion. Why can't you just mount an iOS device as a normal drive like you can with an Android device, such a time saver.
Because everyone syncs wirelessly nowadays. Do you still connect your phone to your computer by usb?!
And btw when it comes to wireless syncing media files such as music and movies, itunes reigns supreme. For all the other stuff google is king.
I do now that I can mount the phone as a normal drive, so very cool. I do it when I'm copying large files like movies. I prefer mounting my NAS server directly with my file-manager in Android. There are smart functions to auto sync data or manual, you can even script what you want to do. It's about 2x faster in transferring files with this method then using iTunes, plus iTunes doesn't support DIVX or Xvid files, all of my movies are in that format. I've never been a fan of using iTunes for anything other then listening to Music.
I used to believe iTunes was the best option but now after my Note it just seems silly to me. Nothing beats a file-manager that can mount multiple servers and computers with different username's and passwords at ounce with scripting support to allow smart syncing.
After seeing what's possible it will be hard to ever go back to using a music player as file manager.
If you get an Android tablet, do not get one with Honeycomb installed. ICS is a must on a tablet! Honeycomb is about the worst OS ever made and I can not wait for Samsung to release ICS for the Galaxy Tab I have. I have a modified Touchpad with ICS on it and I really like that version of the Adroid OS.
However, if you know what you are doing, nothing beats a jailbroken iPad 2 (or 3)!
I do a lot of the time. I still dont pay for music or movies. I use an app from the Market and i can still get it for free so i do do it wirelessly from there but i like to organize it in my folders with my PC by dragging it over to my external Micro card. When i get a handful of them to drag over, ill plug it in and drag then over and it only takes a couple minutes.
This way when i get another phone, all i have to do is put in my micro card in the phone and my music/movie(s) is all there already all organized with album art. No transfering it over from a program.
I dislike iTunes as well.
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Not that I advocate pirating apps, movies, games, but micro sd card ftw! I love the fact that I can simply plug the sd card into another Android type phone and all my apps, music and videos are all ready to go. Not that restoring an iphone from icloud is bad, just friggin takes forever when you have 10+ gigs of Apps and data.
And itunes is good... ON A MAC! On a Windows PC, it could use some work.
It's not good on either. I have an early 2011 macbook pro with a crucial m4 ssd and it's still slow as hell.
Itunes has to be one of the worst designed software of all time and it has been like this for decades. Wether its on OS X or windows, it doesn't matter. Its slow, laggy, resource hog, chaotic and confusing. Everytime I click on an item, I literally have to wait a sec or so before it does something.
I have a 2010 MBP with dual drive one 128gb ssd and one 500gb 7500rpm hdd. Got,rid of the optical drive and made it external. I also have a 27" iMac from 2010. Anyway, I don't have a problem with iTunes on either. Been using it for years on my Macs and I wouldn't describe it in any way like you did. I think it is a pretty simple and straight forward program. That is just my experience with itunes though. I lnow a lot of people hate it, especially pc owners.
Apparently you can send an email and get your money back on the appstore as well, though I have tried thrice with success only once. When you had a refund within 12 hours (or was it 24, I don't remember) that made sense. 15 minutes isn't a whole lot better than nothing at all, unless of course the app is completely unusable immediately (which I am sure does happen). It's pretty tough to judge the quality of an app, especially one designed for productivity, in a piddly 15 minutes. JMO