That's true, as of yet they haven't mentioned Google Voice but I'm pretty sure it'll be included by the time Babel releases.
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iOS to Android adopters, what's involved?
- Thread starter Huliodude
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That's true, as of yet they haven't mentioned Google Voice but I'm pretty sure it'll be included by the time Babel releases.
Thanks so much for all the responses. I see it takes a lot more effort than I thought to switch over. I'm sure that was part of Apple's plan.
I forgot to mention: I use iTunes to sync my contacts, calendar, browser bookmarks, photos, etc, to my mac. When I was using a PC, I used iTunes to sync everything to MS Outlook. I don't like the idea of putting all my personal info in the cloud, I just don't have a use for it. I was really tee'd off when I upgraded to OSX Mountain Lion and found out iTunes would no longer sync notes with the iPhone. You have to use some sort of cloud service, such as iCloud or Gmail.
Is there no software equivalent to sync an android to Outlook, or dare I say it, a Mac? Everyone on Android is syncing to the cloud?
I forgot to mention: I use iTunes to sync my contacts, calendar, browser bookmarks, photos, etc, to my mac. When I was using a PC, I used iTunes to sync everything to MS Outlook. I don't like the idea of putting all my personal info in the cloud, I just don't have a use for it. I was really tee'd off when I upgraded to OSX Mountain Lion and found out iTunes would no longer sync notes with the iPhone. You have to use some sort of cloud service, such as iCloud or Gmail.
Is there no software equivalent to sync an android to Outlook, or dare I say it, a Mac? Everyone on Android is syncing to the cloud?
I'm not sure who "they" is, as Google has not announced anything regarding it.
It will not.
Lol well that depends on who you are. But if you're wondering if it's real, rest assured it is.
So a ton of people have given their answers, now I'll give mine. I recently moved from an iPhone 4S to a Nexus 4 and have no regrets. But Google Customer Service sucks.
1. I use Google Music. It puts my ENTIRE iTunes library in the cloud for easy access. Think iTunes Match but free. And you can access it from any browser. But the Android App for it is great and makes it easy to sync music for offline usage. Essentially if you use this, you never have to sync music to your device again. It will all happen automatically.
2. Like others have said, Skype. There is no real FaceTime equivalent where video chats are built into the phone app. Every Android phone has a front facing camera, why Google has not built this into their OS is something I cannot answer.
3. I use a MacBook Pro and I had all my contacts on Address Book. All I did was select all my contacts, export them as one vCard, and then import that vCard into my Google account through the web.
4. Whoever mentioned Astrid doesn't know what they are talking about. Astrid is slow, bogged down, and will randomly uncheck items you have recently checked. Avoid Astrid at all costs. I used it for a few months, struggled with it, and then finally found "Tasks". It is cheaper and a much more polished app. But it is still a third party app so it won't integrate well into the phone like Reminders and Siri. Just know that going into it.
5. Cerberus is the best. I have used Where's my Droid and Avast and both are inferior. Cerberus is the best. Easy to use and adds way more features than silly Find my iPhone. For example, I can send my phone a message. This message will be in black text with a fully bright white screen. This message (and sound playing at full blast if you want) will not go away until the user taps on the screen. Once the message is tapped, it takes a picture with the front facing camera and sends it to your email. Now you have a picture of the thief. And turning on pictures is as simple as a checkbox in the app settings.
6. As for visual voicemail, there was a way to setup your phones voicemail to use Google Voice, if you have a Google Voice. Then only voicemails will go through that so you will have visual voicemail through the GV app in addition to transcribed voicemails. I got that to work once, haven't been able to get it to work since.
7. I doubt it, but someone correct me if I am wrong.
I would suggest buying your books through Amazon, specifically ones available for Kindle. Then you can read all your eBooks on your phone, tablet, and computer. And the app is free and available on just about every desktop and mobile OS.
8. Yes you can. Like I mentioned with number 1, music will be pain free. But buying albums from Google Play may be cheaper. Same thing with the other things you mentioned. But yes, they are all playable on an Android device.
I think the above is probably the best answer so far, although I haven't used Google customer service I've not heard a good word said for them so would accept this as true. I echo what strausd says about Google music, I find it brilliant, I also use Amazon and Kindle for my book buying. I must admit that when I changed from an iPhone to Android I was really worried, I needn't have been, it is very easy to transfer across. Enjoy your new phone.
You lucked out. Took about 10 emails and over a month to get a refund from them (21 business days from the day they checked the device, not the day they received it back, which ended up being 6 days after they received it)
Exactly what I did. Worked great. (I was using iCloud so disabled that first, keeping my contacts on the mac.)
Another vote for Tasker. I use it for to-do lists, grocery lists, etc.
Better yet Tasker was just updated so that it now integrates with Google Now. If I say "Note to self, dog food" it will add dog food to my grocery list in Tasker.
I also have Tasker set to use Google tasks so I can access my lists anywhere.
I never wanted to make that step with google voice. Fortunately, now that I have a Note 2--and use AT&T as my carrier--I use the AT&T Messages apps for visual voice mail. It gets the job done, but it also wants to handle texts and call log. I just turned off notifications for everything except voice mail.
Also yet another vote for Google Music. With its new song-matching feature it is like iTunes Match--but for free. The player app is nice too--let's you cache for offline use. I find it better than the music player app on iOS in that I can switch from all music to locally stored music right in the app (as opposed to having to jump into the Settings app to do it on iOS).
Michael
Not really. Its just there are many options you were given. It isnt as hard as you think. It would be the same as if you were going from Android to iPhone finding ways to get your info synced and alternatives to doing things.
The Tasks update happened today and I was planning on mentioning it, guess you beat me to the punch
So to the OP, you can now use Google Now to insert tasks and to dos into the Tasks app. Although it still falls short of the Siri and Reminders integration. For example, you can't say "Remind me in 2 hours to do..." Or even "Note to self in one hour, go do..." So in those instances, it will still not live up to reminders.
As for Google Voice and visual voicemail, I was referring to a setting in the default phone app where voicemail and only voicemail is handles by Google Voice. I am on AT&T and everything goes through AT&T. But I am essentially giving my Google Voice account (free) access to my voicemail. But again, I have only gotten this to work once.
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Yes I know about the voicemail settings in the phone app. But I thought that would only work if you already had setup google voice to handle voicemail for your cell number. I was never willing to do that. I don't even know if you can do that anymore as it seems it actually wants to port your number now.
Looks like you have a Nexus 4. I was never able to get the AT&T Messages app to work with my N4. I was able to get it for the N4 when the N4 first came out but it would only crash without opening. A week or so later I deleted it and was going to download it again but by then it was marked incompatible for my device in the play store. Works well on my Note 2 so have not bothered much with the google voice option.
Michael
Thanks again for all your replies. Looks like everyone who's on an Android phone uses cloud services for many different things, such as calendar syncing, notes, music, etc. I'm old school, and like holding and keeping my info off the cloud. iPhone has largely allowed me to do this to this point. In fact, if I downgrade to Snow Leopard, I can be totally offline again.
I'm just wondering when the bubble will break, and companies begin slowly charging for all these wonderful services that you are now heavily relying on.
My motivation to move to Android is the great phones that are available with large screens, and the seemingly limitless things you can do with them. They're more of a handheld computer than just a smartphone. What iPhone is designed to do, it does fantastically well. There's just so much more that you can do with a little elbow room in the manufacturer limitations department.
I also would love a bloody notification light, dammit! I can't understate how much I miss this feature. Everytime I pick up my iPhone, I've got to hit the button to see if I missed any messages. A notification light would tell you with just a quick glance at the phone, even from far away.
I'm just wondering when the bubble will break, and companies begin slowly charging for all these wonderful services that you are now heavily relying on.
My motivation to move to Android is the great phones that are available with large screens, and the seemingly limitless things you can do with them. They're more of a handheld computer than just a smartphone. What iPhone is designed to do, it does fantastically well. There's just so much more that you can do with a little elbow room in the manufacturer limitations department.
I also would love a bloody notification light, dammit! I can't understate how much I miss this feature. Everytime I pick up my iPhone, I've got to hit the button to see if I missed any messages. A notification light would tell you with just a quick glance at the phone, even from far away.
