Phones Convert to android and loving it?

[DodgeV83]

Didn't think my little post would gain so much interest

I'll make a new thread, probably tomorrow sometime. I'm expecting people to try and shut me down on most of my points, which I'm actually looking forward to. I think I've done my research pretty well, but if Android is a viable option for me, I'd like to know

 

[fullygruntled]

Didn't think my little post would gain so much interest

I'll make a new thread, probably tomorrow sometime. I'm expecting people to try and shut me down on most of my points, which I'm actually looking forward to. I think I've done my research pretty well, but if Android is a viable option for me, I'd like to know

One question. Have you or do you own an Android phone?

 

[0m3ga]

Infinity Blade is a game. So its irrelevant. And I will definitely check out Pandora and splashtop for you later. I don't use either so I dont know.

For pandora though you have plenty of other alternatives like spotify and especially google music. Google Music is superior to anything out there. But I will confirm it.

Angry Birds was referenced in the video, but you thought it was revelent then? You're being hypocritical!

And what I was referencing in my last post were just examples that I could use to create a video to show a bias towards iOS. Not something I believe to be true.

I like Android and I enjoy my Skyrocket. I'm not against Google or Android, just against biased reviews.

 

[cynics]

Every single day I do things on my phone that are either impossible on Android, or dramatically better on the iPhone. It has become part of what I expect from a phone. It's much more a quality of life issue than a feature-bullet-list issue to be honest.

At this point, I couldn't switch to Android if I wanted to...

I could list it all here and "fill a book" as a previous poster mentioned, but what's the point? If you like Android better, great! There are pros and cons to each platform.

I'm curious of a couple things you can't do on android but can on iOS. There was a thread about this before and the only thing that anyone came up with was "have more accessories to pick from" and "a larger app store".

I have and use both and really haven't noticed too much iOS can do that android can't?

As far as benchmarks go are we allowed to compared overclocked android devices? If that's the case even the old tegra 2 will beat out the 4S in a lot of benchmarks when overclocked to 1.5 - 1.7ghz.

 

[fertilized-egg]

...There was a thread about this before and the only thing that anyone came up with was "have more accessories to pick from" and "a larger app store".

Actually the larger app store is critical in functionality. For instance, GoodReader is so much drastically better as a general reader&document manager than anything I've yet to find on my Android and WP7 phones. And that's before mentioning other 3rd party apps and all the Apple-made apps that have no peers on other mobile platforms.

As far as benchmarks go are we allowed to compared overclocked android devices? If that's the case even the old tegra 2 will beat out the 4S in a lot of benchmarks when overclocked to 1.5 - 1.7ghz.

Then we could also say iOS has everything by including Cydia and jailbroken stuff. Overcloking is fun and I used to try all the different kernels with different OC values on my Android but I don't think those type of tasks is a strong general argument for the platform itself after all we had on Symbian and windows Mobile earlier.

 

[blairh]

I haven't 'converted' to Android but I did play with two different Galaxy Nexus's at my local Verizon store today. I turned the brightness all the way up and disabled auto-brightness on both units. Both Nexus's produced whites with a very yellow tint. I whipped out my iPhone 4 and while visiting the same sites the difference was startling. The iPhone 4 produced bright whites (with a slightly bluish hue) while the Nexus was clearly (as I could describe it best) "yellowish". The two sites I checked out were Google's search page and several stories on Wired.

Also got the impression that the physical screen on the Nexus wasn't as 'quality' as the iP4. I could be dead wrong on that one but touching it a bit gave off that impression.

Stock ICS looks great but it means nothing if I have to deal with a yellow tinted screen. I'll be trying out the One X when my local AT&T has it on the floor (checked today, they didn't) and go from there. If the One X doesn't wow me then I'll probably just wait for the next iPhone.

 

[mrbutters]

Every single day I do things on my phone that are either impossible on Android, or dramatically better on the iPhone

Such as?

You want to try a few simple tasks on your iPhone that can be done on any Android device?

1) Go into an email where someone has sent you a phone number, click on it and try to text that number or add it as a contact.

2) Open your keyboard and try to switch between 3 different ones with one button press.

3) Try to download an MP3 file or ringtone to your phone by pressing one button without ever connecting to a computer.

4) Try to open a link someone has sent you via email or text message in a browser other than Safari.

5) Try to have an icon that allows you quick access to turn on/off your GPS, Bluetooth and WIFI.

6) Pull up a location on your map and try to tap on the address to get voice guided directions via GPS.

7) Try to use your web browser while on a voice call.

8) Try to download or upload things at 4G speeds.

I could go on for an hour but these are just 8 simple and pretty common things. Let me know how those work out for you

 

[cynics]

Actually the larger app store is critical in functionality. For instance, GoodReader is so much drastically better as a general reader&document manager than anything I've yet to find on my Android and WP7 phones. And that's before mentioning other 3rd party apps and all the Apple-made apps that have no peers on other mobile platforms.




Then we could also say iOS has everything by including Cydia and jailbroken stuff. Overcloking is fun and I used to try all the different kernels with different OC values on my Android but I don't think those type of tasks is a strong general argument for the platform itself after all we had on Symbian and windows Mobile earlier.

I use ezpdf on both devices so I can't really comment on goodreader but you are right in saying android doesn't have it. There are better apps on either or, even app quality. Like I much prefer tapatalk, and facebook on Android then iOS. There are also apps I prefer on iOS over android. Regardless what I was asking him is what can't he do on iOS that he can't do on android....obviously both can read edit whatever to pdf's.

The oc comment wasn't me saying iOS can't do it. It was me asking the poster if we are allowed to compare the fastest android devices (overclocked) to iOS in benchmarks. Him and I debate benchmarking quite a bit. Lol

----------

I haven't 'converted' to Android but I did play with two different Galaxy Nexus's at my local Verizon store today. I turned the brightness all the way up and disabled auto-brightness on both units. Both Nexus's produced whites with a very yellow tint. I whipped out my iPhone 4 and while visiting the same sites the difference was startling. The iPhone 4 produced bright whites (with a slightly bluish hue) while the Nexus was clearly (as I could describe it best) "yellowish". The two sites I checked out were Google's search page and several stories on Wired.

Also got the impression that the physical screen on the Nexus wasn't as 'quality' as the iP4. I could be dead wrong on that one but touching it a bit gave off that impression.

Stock ICS looks great but it means nothing if I have to deal with a yellow tinted screen. I'll be trying out the One X when my local AT&T has it on the floor (checked today, they didn't) and go from there. If the One X doesn't wow me then I'll probably just wait for the next iPhone.

IPhones come in blue neutral or yellow though.

 

[BiggAW]

Not true at all. Most of the time a dialog box pops up and says the app has forced closed and you click ok. Very rarely do you have to reboot the phone because of a crashed app.

Yeah, after it hangs for a few minutes, and you have to bring up task manager, and it's a mess. iPhone is instant death for bad apps.

iPhone has free tethering too. I have MiWi on 5.0.1 with Absynthe/Greenpois0n.

That being said, the iPhone only makes sense for iPeople on AT&T. I recommend DROIDs to friends regularly. My default recommendation now for Verizon is the RAZR MAXX.

I had a lot of fun loading ROMs on my Cappy, but I'll be honest, reloading all my stuff every time I wanted a new ROM or a new version of Android came out got REALLY old, and the goal was always to see how close I could get to AOSP, which always seemed kind of stupid, since I was having to run from Samsuck's trash software.

For people who are satisfied with stock Android on a phone, it's a pretty good system. For the hackers who really want to hack, it's far and away the best. For people like me who want all the features of hacking, but don't want to put much effort into it, a JB'ed iPhone is the way to go.

 

[SurferMan]

Yeah, after it hangs for a few minutes, and you have to bring up task manager, and it's a mess. iPhone is instant death for bad apps.

I've only had Facebook force close before and all it did was give me the message and clicked and that was it. Clicked FB again and it opened right up, no hanging?

I haven't 'converted' to Android but I did play with two different Galaxy Nexus's at my local Verizon store today. I turned the brightness all the way up and disabled auto-brightness on both units. Both Nexus's produced whites with a very yellow tint. I whipped out my iPhone 4 and while visiting the same sites the difference was startling. The iPhone 4 produced bright whites (with a slightly bluish hue) while the Nexus was clearly (as I could describe it best) "yellowish". The two sites I checked out were Google's search page and several stories on Wired.

Also got the impression that the physical screen on the Nexus wasn't as 'quality' as the iP4. I could be dead wrong on that one but touching it a bit gave off that impression.

Stock ICS looks great but it means nothing if I have to deal with a yellow tinted screen. I'll be trying out the One X when my local AT&T has it on the floor (checked today, they didn't) and go from there. If the One X doesn't wow me then I'll probably just wait for the next iPhone.

Did you miss all the 4S threads and post on badly tinted yellow screens? I know b/c that was one of the main issues I had our 4S replaced with another, the 2nd one is better than the 1st but is still noticeably "yellower" vs my 4.

 

[Kyrra]

I'll start out with: I own a iPhone 3GS and Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the wife has a Moto Atrix.

Why I like android:

• Google integration. The Gmail client on android kicks iPhone's default mail client.
• Maps on android is better than the iphone (voice narrated navigation)
• Having a choice on what apps to use for various tasks is great.
• Just overall more control.

Why I like iOS:

• Simplicity. Not giving the user choice makes it so parts of the OS are able to integrate more smoothly.
• Better games on the platform (though, it has been a while since I've compared).
• Not having to worry about device compatibility. Apps like Netflix and Skype only slowly became compatible with different Android devices over time.
• Support. Apple has great customer service, plus they provide OS updates for their phones for a long time.

iOS vs Android is much like OSX vs Windows. Apple wants to control your experience so you use their products in the way they design. Google and Microsoft give you and developers a platform to create whatever they want on.

 

[fullygruntled]

I had a lot of fun loading ROMs on my Cappy, but I'll be honest, reloading all my stuff every time I wanted a new ROM or a new version of Android came out got REALLY old, and the goal was always to see how close I could get to AOSP, which always seemed kind of stupid, since I was having to run from Samsuck's trash software.

Apparently you never tried CM7 on your cappy. It made the phone a lag free beast. It's about as AOSP as you can get plus you have the choice to let CM7 download all your apps from google automatically over wifi. You have heard of titanium backup? You could switch roms as much as you like and restore all your apps in about 5 minutes. CM7 used none of Samsung's base software.

 

[fertilized-egg]

I use ezpdf on both devices so I can't really comment on goodreader but you are right in saying android doesn't have it. There are better apps on either or, even app quality.

No it's nothing like that. I brought those up because they are the apps that let you "do" things on your device. When it comes to apps that actually "do" things, such as note taking, text editing, document management, photo editing, music creation, etc, on the go, iOS is so much ahead of Android and WP7 that it's not even fair to compare them. The only reason to prefer Android there would be the direct access to the file system.

The general app quality is much better on iOS in general, but that's another story. At least Android is now good enough in many things. WP7 is still terrible.

 

[0m3ga]

Such as?

You want to try a few simple tasks on your iPhone that can be done on any Android device?

1) Go into an email where someone has sent you a phone number, click on it and try to text that number or add it as a contact.

2) Open your keyboard and try to switch between 3 different ones with one button press.

3) Try to download an MP3 file or ringtone to your phone by pressing one button without ever connecting to a computer.

4) Try to open a link someone has sent you via email or text message in a browser other than Safari.

5) Try to have an icon that allows you quick access to turn on/off your GPS, Bluetooth and WIFI.

6) Pull up a location on your map and try to tap on the address to get voice guided directions via GPS.

7) Try to use your web browser while on a voice call.

8) Try to download or upload things at 4G speeds.

I could go on for an hour but these are just 8 simple and pretty common things. Let me know how those work out for you

Not all Android phones have 4G. iPhone can browse web while on a call. At least GSM can. Verizon has the issue regardless of phone used due to CDMA.

If you want to lump all Android devices together, even though many of them cannot do what you listed, then you have to allow for jailbroken iPhones into the equation, in which case, your list means nothing, since a jb iphone can do all of them, except Google Nav.

 

[blairh]

I've only had Facebook force close before and all it did was give me the message and clicked and that was it. Clicked FB again and it opened right up, no hanging?


Did you miss all the 4S threads and post on badly tinted yellow screens? I know b/c that was one of the main issues I had our 4S replaced with another, the 2nd one is better than the 1st but is still noticeably "yellower" vs my 4.

Sorry to learn that. I've had no issues with yellow tinting on my 4.

I have no idea how the yellow tinting of the 4S compares to the Nexus, but it was very evident with the Nexus.

 

[hajime]

Sorry to learn that. I've had no issues with yellow tinting on my 4.

I have no idea how the yellow tinting of the 4S compares to the Nexus, but it was very evident with the Nexus.

The companies should have made a yellow version of their products.

 

[BiggAW]

Apparently you never tried CM7 on your cappy. It made the phone a lag free beast. It's about as AOSP as you can get plus you have the choice to let CM7 download all your apps from google automatically over wifi. You have heard of titanium backup? You could switch roms as much as you like and restore all your apps in about 5 minutes. CM7 used none of Samsung's base software.

The CM7 build they had as of last fall was apparently mega-beta, and didn't have great battery life. Serendipity and another GB ROM I used were completely lag-free.

I tried to figure out TiBu, and it was such a nightmare to use that I quickly gave up. I think it was more a lack of documentation than anything else.

I've seen CM7 running on an Optimus V, and while the data connection and signal on Sprint is a mess, the phone itself was amazing. It was buttery smooth, even as the baby of the Android lineup.

That, and the battery life on that phone. Oh man, it was bad. That thing was just a pile of problems. Oh, and the Infineon baseband was crap. The Qualcomm baseband in the iPhone 4S is superb.

Not all Android phones have 4G. iPhone can browse web while on a call. At least GSM can. Verizon has the issue regardless of phone used due to CDMA.

If you want to lump all Android devices together, even though many of them cannot do what you listed, then you have to allow for jailbroken iPhones into the equation, in which case, your list means nothing, since a jb iphone can do all of them, except Google Nav.

GSM can't, UMTS can. The Tbolt and Rezound have SVDO.

Yeah, some of that can be done with a JB'ed iPhone. I use SBSettings to change stuff quickly all the time.

 

[surjavarman]

Angry Birds was referenced in the video, but you thought it was revelent then? You're being hypocritical!

And what I was referencing in my last post were just examples that I could use to create a video to show a bias towards iOS. Not something I believe to be true.

I like Android and I enjoy my Skyrocket. I'm not against Google or Android, just against biased reviews.

FOR GODS SAKE IT ISN'T ABOUT AB!

Once again he was comparing the ecosystems and he said that the apps on android are better compared to their counterparts on ios. Now you can counter that by saying that iOS just has more apps and games such as infinity blade. That is also a legitimate reason and you should definitely make a video about that.

For me I know that I am not missing a lot when I switched to android. In fact I prefer it even more than ios. On ios there was only one game I used to play and that was Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 and once in a while I complement that game with other games such as infinity blade, superbrothers, swordigo. But on android I got Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 AND Virtua Tennis Challenge in exchange for less "play-it-one-time-type-of-game".

I'd chose option #2 any time.

 

[0m3ga]

FOR GODS SAKE IT ISN'T ABOUT AB!

Once again he was comparing the ecosystems and he said that the apps on android are better compared to their counterparts on ios. Now you can counter that by saying that iOS just has more apps and games such as infinity blade. That is also a legitimate reason and you should definitely make a video about that.

For me I know that I am not missing a lot when I switched to android. In fact I prefer it even more than ios. On ios there was only one game I used to play and that was Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 and once in a while I complement that game with other games such as infinity blade, superbrothers, swordigo. But on android I got Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 AND Virtua Tennis Challenge in exchange for less "play-it-one-time-type-of-game".

I'd chose option #2 any time.

I don't think you saw the same vid as me. The guy in the video had a comment that was along the lines of AB is free and he didn't have to pay for it twice (once for phone and once for tablet), therefore Android is obviously better. I counter that by saying, iOS has better games like I.B., which you can not get on Android, therefore iOS must be better. I also mentioned that Apple can not be blamed for what a developer charges for apps in the appstore, but iHaters don't want to hear that. In their eyes, everything is Apple's fault.

Do you understand the point I am making? If not, I apologize. You see, this has nothing to do with Android or iOS, rather it's about crap biased reviews. I was simply giving counter-points to what the video gave. Nothing more. I would never make a video in an attempt to sway people's opinion.

 

[DAVIDUGLY]

I've had every iPhone but went to Android a few times between releases.
The Droid and Droid X were my first two and I felt they were ok, had the Evo 4G and Nexus S, liked both a lot, really enjoyed the Galaxy Nexus and Korean version of the Galaxy S2 and Note very much ( I go to Korea all the time, need one phone for "home", one for "work" so had Galaxy devices to use there....no I didn't use 17 phones at one time ).

anyway now I truly love the HTC ONE X, and I use that instead of iPhone now.
I think I have switched for good.
For now.
For me, it was always the "feeling" that brought me back to iPhone, much like that "feeling" Macs vs PCs have. I don't mean "feeling" like emotions, or funny tummy troubles, but that sense of perfection and snappy it-just-works-ness.
But for me, for now, One X feels best.

Anyway, yes I have converted and am loving it.

 

[cynics]

I don't think you saw the same vid as me. The guy in the video had a comment that was along the lines of AB is free and he didn't have to pay for it twice (once for phone and once for tablet), therefore Android is obviously better. I counter that by saying, iOS has better games like I.B., which you can not get on Android, therefore iOS must be better. I also mentioned that Apple can not be blamed for what a developer charges for apps in the appstore, but iHaters don't want to hear that. In their eyes, everything is Apple's fault.

Do you understand the point I am making? If not, I apologize. You see, this has nothing to do with Android or iOS, rather it's about crap biased reviews. I was simply giving counter-points to what the video gave. Nothing more. I would never make a video in an attempt to sway people's opinion.

Although it doesn't matter to me app store apps are more expensive to help recoup the amount apple charges developers per app sale. Google doesn't charge anything.

Regardless the increase app store prices are directly related to apple fees to the dev.

Plus in the end does it matter? One is more expensive to the consumer then the other one could say they don't care about anything besides that.

For me personally I don't care. If something I want is a dollar or so more expensive (even though yes that might be twice the price) its still only a buck.

 

[surjavarman]

I don't think you saw the same vid as me. The guy in the video had a comment that was along the lines of AB is free and he didn't have to pay for it twice (once for phone and once for tablet), therefore Android is obviously better. I counter that by saying, iOS has better games like I.B., which you can not get on Android, therefore iOS must be better. I also mentioned that Apple can not be blamed for what a developer charges for apps in the appstore, but iHaters don't want to hear that. In their eyes, everything is Apple's fault.

Do you understand the point I am making? If not, I apologize. You see, this has nothing to do with Android or iOS, rather it's about crap biased reviews. I was simply giving counter-points to what the video gave. Nothing more. I would never make a video in an attempt to sway people's opinion.

Yeah and he wasn't only talking about AB. That was just for illustrative purposes. His point was a lot of apps are free on android while you'd have to pay for them on ios. He made another point that you could try out apps on android but you can't on ios. Therefore in his eyes the ecosystem of android is better than of ios.

Apple can be blamed because they take 30% of developers revenues or they could do it like google and offer apps for free. If google can do it why can't apple do it? So ofcourse they can be blamed.


And you don't have a point at all. Can you get Virtua Tennis Challenge on iOS? No you can't. Therefore android is better than ios. That kind of reasoning just doesn't work.

 

[DodgeV83]

Although it doesn't matter to me app store apps are more expensive to help recoup the amount apple charges developers per app sale. Google doesn't charge anything.

Regardless the increase app store prices are directly related to apple fees to the dev.

Plus in the end does it matter? One is more expensive to the consumer then the other one could say they don't care about anything besides that.

For me personally I don't care. If something I want is a dollar or so more expensive (even though yes that might be twice the price) its still only a buck.

My research shows the developer receives 70% from Google Play and 70% from the AppStore. Maybe you're referring to the fact that Google doesn't take a percentage, but either way the developer receives the same amount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play

Application developers receive 70% of the application price, with the remaining 30% distributed among carriers and payment processors. Google itself does not take a percentage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS)

30*percent of revenue from the store goes to Apple, and 70*percent go to the producer of the app.

From what I've read, the reason developers lean towards an advertising model on Android, giving their product away for free, is because of two factors:

• People are less likely to pay for apps on Android
• Piracy is a huge issue. If you're revenue is based on advertising, and make the app free, piracy isn't a factor.

Unfortunately, there have been many studies that show ads in apps dramatically reduce your battery life.

Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as*power-efficient

It's a trade off, do you want to pay 99cents, or do you want better battery life? In any case, developers have spoken out on how bad the revenue streams are on their Android apps. One developer recently said:

"Yep, my app sales are so abysmal on the Android Market compared to iOS, I cannot fathom developing another app for that platform. It's about 10:1 favoring iOS. With those odds, developing for Android is simply a waste of time if your goal is to make a real amount of money.

Another said:

Aside from the limited sales, and Google pushing ads vs. real purchases, there’s the support nightmare. Android is a badly-fragmented platform, where devices get rapidly abandoned by their makers and too few users are on the latest OS. That makes development and testing a nightmare. Piracy and app-cloning is way too easy, and you end up spending your time giving tech-support to too many people who never paid you. And you don’t have Apple to field support requests re the purchasing side, either.

One game developer for a small studio had 80% of their resources supporting maintenance, porting, and compatibility checks within the Android eco-system and only got 20% of their gross revenue from Android.

That's 4 times the effort, 1/4th the money. One quote I read was, "At some point, a game studio will simply drop the platform that is costing 16 times more to support."

Finally, one source said:

The top 50 paid Android applications have an average selling price of $3.79, compared to an average selling price of $2.01 on Apple's App Store.

I'm not sure if that is still accurate, as it was from late last year, but I couldn't find anything newer.

Please don't kill the messenger here, I'm simply stating facts from various sources I've found.

 

[mrbutters]

If you want to lump all Android devices together, even though many of them cannot do what you listed, then you have to allow for jailbroken iPhones into the equation, in which case, your list means nothing, since a jb iphone can do all of them, except Google Nav.

every Android phone can do anything on that list but 7 and 8. There are literally hundreds of other things any Android phone can do my iPhone can't and that's stock, no need to root.

 

[cynics]

My research shows the developer receives 70% from Google Play and 70% from the AppStore. Maybe you're referring to the fact that Google doesn't take a percentage, but either way the developer receives the same amount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS)



From what I've read, the reason developers lean towards an advertising model on Android, giving their product away for free, is because of two factors:

• People are less likely to pay for apps on Android
• Piracy is a huge issue. If you're revenue is based on advertising, and make the app free, piracy isn't a factor.

Unfortunately, there have been many studies that show ads in apps dramatically reduce your battery life.

Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as*power-efficient

It's a trade off, do you want to pay 99cents, or do you want better battery life? In any case, developers have spoken out on how bad the revenue streams are on their Android apps. One developer recently said:



Another said:



One game developer for a small studio had 80% of their resources supporting maintenance, porting, and compatibility checks within the Android eco-system and only got 20% of their gross revenue from Android.

That's 4 times the effort, 1/4th the money. One quote I read was, "At some point, a game studio will simply drop the platform that is costing 16 times more to support."

Finally, one source said:



I'm not sure if that is still accurate, as it was from late last year, but I couldn't find anything newer.

Please don't kill the messenger here, I'm simply stating facts from various sources I've found.

I've been doing a bit of research and it appears a lot of that is correct, so I was wrong for the most part.

I have been able to find a few articles stating cause of fees can give android devs more bang per app but the obvious flip side is the volume of iOS app sales is higher.

Apparently the ad based apps is very lucrative with google being they are an ad company vs apple. Battery life? Sure makes sense but the majority of my apps on both devices have ads.

I also came up with year old articles saying android apps are more expensive. But that is definitely not right. The BEST I'm seeing now is the same price but most are cheaper on android.