How much advantage is there really to retaining a consistent ecosys?

[coldjeanzzz]

I have a MBA running the latest version of Mountain Lion

I plan to change up my phone soon but I can't decide between the iPhone 5 and the HTC One

Both have their own advantages, however one thing that I have heard people talk about is how staying true to one ecosystem just makes more sense. What advantages do I gain by using iOS in conjunction with my MBA? Would using the HTC One with my MBA pose any convenience problems?

 

[torana355]

I have a MBA running the latest version of Mountain Lion

I plan to change up my phone soon but I can't decide between the iPhone 5 and the HTC One

Both have their own advantages, however one thing that I have heard people talk about is how staying true to one ecosystem just makes more sense. What advantages do I gain by using iOS in conjunction with my MBA? Would using the HTC One with my MBA pose any convenience problems?

I use an Android Phone and Tablet with all my Mac computers with no issue, if anything its easier with Android as i can just copy the files i want over.

 

[maxosx]

The advantage is Apple's since they get all the money we spend.

Conversely simply speaking for myself their is no advantage.

There's nothing in the iTunes Store that compels me to use them especially since after many years of forcing us to use a wire between the computer and iDevice to sync/backup/restore, Apple has finally gone wireless allowing OTA updates &such. The iTunes Store has lost it's relevance for my purposes.

My various new Android phones like my Galaxy S4 plays as well with my MBPr as my iPhone 5 does

Better in fact since for my purposes the S4 has far more functionality & granular control than my iPhone.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Depends on what you want to do with your devices. If you're just using the device for music and games, then no, if you're using it more as a PDA, then yes.

For example, I stopped doing the whole bank app thing. QuickPay was a nice advantage for me in the Chase app, but otherwise none of the banking apps are any good. The same thing with Mint.com - and I especially hated all the weekly reminders and just the fact that it was so inaccurate. The final straw was when it told me I had like no money available and it freaked me out . Also got rid of Lemon recently, it was only good for knowing what exactly you were buying, but you don't really need that, and when you do, it's easy enough to note it in the app I'm now using.

So now I use Money by Jumsoft. I have the Mac app and then the iPad one (which I think is actually universal). It's not iCloud syncing, but the fact is that I can add/edit it on my machine, and then push it onto my device for easy reference.

There's Expense Manager for Android, and it's nice. However this is the type of thing you sit in front of your computer to do. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any Android apps that can sync to a desktop/web client that aren't Mint.

I also use Firetask. It's way more complex than the other todos you can find on the Play Store. I use Any.DO at the moment, and tried Wunderlist, but they're both not really good for REALLY planning out stuff. I always end up using MobisleApps for the better UI in that case. I use Timetable for classes, but it's no good other than for quiz/homework reminders and listing what the next class will be focused on.

I prefer Evernote on iOS too. But that's mostly because it takes like 30 minutes to do an initial sync since I have various file formats stored. Android has a lot of issues with PDFs too.

The extra money in Apple's pockets is worth it in my case because it's specific apps that are catered to me as a Mac user with the Mac software.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I have a MBA running the latest version of Mountain Lion

I plan to change up my phone soon but I can't decide between the iPhone 5 and the HTC One

Both have their own advantages, however one thing that I have heard people talk about is how staying true to one ecosystem just makes more sense. What advantages do I gain by using iOS in conjunction with my MBA? Would using the HTC One with my MBA pose any convenience problems?

I'm an Android using Mac person. I have absolutely no problems at all.

I think the biggest problem people have is that they choose their services backwards - i.e based on what is on their Mac - iCloud, iTunes Music, Face Time, iMessage, iBooks etc and then complain when these are not supported by their phone. They aren't supported by their Android phone because Apple chooses not to.

You'll have an infinitely better experience if you totally embrace Google's services and pretty much every Google service is supported in one way or another on the Mac.

Google Calendar, Messages, Notes, Contacts and GMail have native support right in OS X (and work very well). You can then get applications for things such as Google Drive, Android File Transfer, Google Music (G-Ear Player, or just use the website), Google Music Uploader and Google Chrome for full web sync.

I've been in this subforum quite a while and a lot of the complaints of people who switch to Android from iOS stem from them not doing the above things.

 

[tbayrgs]

I'm an Android using Mac person. I have absolutely no problems at all.

I think the biggest problem people have is that they choose their services backwards - i.e based on what is on their Mac - iCloud, iTunes Music, Face Time, iMessage, iBooks etc and then complain when these are not supported by their phone. They aren't supported by their Android phone because Apple chooses not to.

You'll have an infinitely better experience if you totally embrace Google's services and pretty much every Google service is supported in one way or another on the Mac.

Google Calendar, Messages, Notes, Contacts and GMail have native support right in OS X (and work very well). You can then get applications for things such as Google Drive, Android File Transfer, Google Music (G-Ear Player, or just use the website), Google Music Uploader and Google Chrome for full web sync.

I've been in this subforum quite a while and a lot of the complaints of people who switch to Android from iOS stem from them not doing the above things.

Well put. The only advantage to staying with an ecosystem, specifically Apple in the OP's case, is if you absolutely must have/use the Apple proprietary elements (iMessage, iTunes Video, iBooks, AirPlay, FaceTime, etc). Apple locks down these services hoping to tie you to their ecosystem. If you ever want to use alternative devices, the best solution is to move to alternatives that are not controlled by Apple and work across multiple platforms.

Our house was exclusively Apple for quite a few years and while I still generally prefer Apple products, venturing away to alternatives was made much easier after replacing much of the Apple proprietary elements--moved from iCloud to Google services, use Dropbox instead of Photostream, Amazon Kindle vs. iBooks. Going forward, I have much more flexibility should I choose to use an Apple or Android device.

And OP, we have a house full of Apple gear and I have no problem keeping info synced between any number of devices, including my wife's iPhone and iPad, my iPad Mini and HTC One, and a pair of Macs.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Well put. The only advantage to staying with an ecosystem, specifically Apple in the OP's case, is if you absolutely must have/use the Apple proprietary elements (iMessage, iTunes Video, iBooks, AirPlay, FaceTime, etc). Apple locks down these services hoping to tie you to their ecosystem. If you ever want to use alternative devices, the best solution is to move to alternatives that are not controlled by Apple and work across multiple platforms.

Our house was exclusively Apple for quite a few years and while I still generally prefer Apple products, venturing away to alternatives was made much easier after replacing much of the Apple proprietary elements--moved from iCloud to Google services, use Dropbox instead of Photostream, Amazon Kindle vs. iBooks. Going forward, I have much more flexibility should I choose to use an Apple or Android device.

And OP, we have a house full of Apple gear and I have no problem keeping info synced between any number of devices, including my wife's iPhone and iPad, my iPad Mini and HTC One, and a pair of Macs.

Same. Almost to a tee.

In fact, I find it liberating to have a non-iOS smartphone, but am still able to enjoy OSX.

I would add Skype > FaceTime. FaceTime is dreadful to use, to be honest. And this is between two Macs.

 

[tbayrgs]

I would add Skype > FaceTime. FaceTime is dreadful to use, to be honest. And this is between two Macs.

While use of any video messaging application is more dependent upon available bandwidth for both users and thus has the greatest impact on quality, I'll disagree regarding Skype. I find the app UI in both iOS and Android to be clunky at best and very call I've ever made/received has both terrible video and sound quality. FaceTime is certainly much more limited because it's limited to Apple only users but it's far simpler to use and given the same network conditions between users (made same call using Skype first and then FaceTime) I've always had much better call quality via FaceTime

Haven't tried Hangouts yet but optimistic it will proven useful. And too be honest, don't make many video calls so not having FaceTime would be a terrible loss for me.

 

[sentinelsx]

"Ecosystem" is the new money grabbing way of the tech corporations nowadays. Everyone wants you to be locked in. There are some people who claim it helps them a lot and I agree it does, but in the bigger picture it helps because of their "personal social bubble" in which everyone uses the same ecosystem, which breaks down if one person enters it without being in that ecosystem.

I am not locked into any "ecosystem" and frankly I am very happy. Thankfully tons of things work with each other and even if they don't, there are people who will make them work that way (a small but not the only example is default app hacks in jailbroken firmwares of ios). As long as we have these technology "freedom fighters", I am content to be ecosystem free. Infact my primary desire to buy a Mac mini this year is not even because "it will integrate well with my iPhone", but rather because I don't have the patience right now to build a hackintosh which would allow me a good 2-3 years of Xcode development. I can run Visual Studio through a windows virtual run on a Mac, unfortunately I need a machine tailored for OS X to use Xcode.

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Depends on what you want to do with your devices. If you're just using the device for music and games, then no, if you're using it more as a PDA, then yes.

For example, I stopped doing the whole bank app thing. QuickPay was a nice advantage for me in the Chase app, but otherwise none of the banking apps are any good. The same thing with Mint.com - and I especially hated all the weekly reminders and just the fact that it was so inaccurate. The final straw was when it told me I had like no money available and it freaked me out . Also got rid of Lemon recently, it was only good for knowing what exactly you were buying, but you don't really need that, and when you do, it's easy enough to note it in the app I'm now using.

So now I use Money by Jumsoft. I have the Mac app and then the iPad one (which I think is actually universal). It's not iCloud syncing, but the fact is that I can add/edit it on my machine, and then push it onto my device for easy reference.

There's Expense Manager for Android, and it's nice. However this is the type of thing you sit in front of your computer to do. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any Android apps that can sync to a desktop/web client that aren't Mint.

I also use Firetask. It's way more complex than the other todos you can find on the Play Store. I use Any.DO at the moment, and tried Wunderlist, but they're both not really good for REALLY planning out stuff. I always end up using MobisleApps for the better UI in that case. I use Timetable for classes, but it's no good other than for quiz/homework reminders and listing what the next class will be focused on.

I prefer Evernote on iOS too. But that's mostly because it takes like 30 minutes to do an initial sync since I have various file formats stored. Android has a lot of issues with PDFs too.

The extra money in Apple's pockets is worth it in my case because it's specific apps that are catered to me as a Mac user with the Mac software.

So by this logic anyone who doesn't have a Mac and carries an android phone is not using it as a PDA because they don't conform to anecdotal experiences.

 

[ChrisTX]

I have a MBA running the latest version of Mountain Lion

I plan to change up my phone soon but I can't decide between the iPhone 5 and the HTC One

Both have their own advantages, however one thing that I have heard people talk about is how staying true to one ecosystem just makes more sense. What advantages do I gain by using iOS in conjunction with my MBA? Would using the HTC One with my MBA pose any convenience problems?

The advantage is not having to pay to re download some of the same apps all over again.