iOS5 Vs ICS

[DanteMann]

For those who have had a chance to see Google's live presentation, what's your early take based on what you saw today? I must say, I'm quite amazed it was that good and feature packed. Just when you thought notifications couldn't get any better, ICS proves you wrong. Love Android BEAM!!! And so many here say, who needs NFC. That's one really COOL and PRACTICAL reason right there.
Disclaimer: Not looking to hear about how any OS (regardless of which one) sucks.

 

[shadrap]

Android Beam looks interesting. I liked some of it, but not enough to switch at the moment.

 

[Reaper0bot0]

I was pretty much blown-away. I'm happy I didn't order a 4S, and very, very much looking forward to buying a Galaxy Nexus!

I'm on a grandfathered unlimited LTE data plan on Verizon and I pay for the unlimited mobile hotspot. This is gonna rock! I've still got my IP4 as a workphone, but I already barely use it because I really, really dig LTE on my Thunderbolt.

I don't get the rabid fanboyism that abounds here. ICS looked staggeringly good, it actually makes the UI more intuitive and useful and really compelling to look at. These are good things. I honestly don't understand why so many people (in the other, similar threads around now) are trying to hard to fault it, especially those that didn't watch the video.

I appreciate WebOS for what it does well. Ditto iOS, ditto Android. We as consumers all win when we have compelling and interesting options. Unless you work for one of these companies there is vanishingly little reason to self-identify with them so strongly. Be comfortable with your choices, but if you really make them such a part of your identity, you are little more than the sum of what you consume.

 

[nfl46]

It's nice. It depends on a person preference.

 

[mysterioustko]

Facial recognition for screen unlocking is VERY NICE. 720p display is even nicer. NFC is very useful as I already use my phone to pay for things now. With google plus being able to do group video chats that will be useful when I want to show off my son (there's been times I wanted to have son video chat with both his grandmas at the same time). The camera looks to be a beast, that video that was shot with the phone was ultra crisp, even the low light one.

 

[TM WAZZA]

First off, I hate fanboys.

Second, ICS and Galaxy Nexus look nice.

It's all about personal preference. And what I prefer is having both instead of arguing on the internet all day about which is better LOL

 

[IcyStorm]

Face recognition seems useless (especially if it can be fooled by a photo), but otherwise the OS looks really solid. I love the multitasking tray (swipe to close an app is great) and the notification dropdown (swipe to remove!), as well as the multitude of other great built-in features like the ability to save web pages to the phone, the breadth of options and tools in the photo gallery app, and Android Beam.

Matias Duarte is the best thing that happened to Android. He's really overhauled Android into something that looks nice and seems to have a unified design in both looks and functionality.

 

[ethana]

I'm sorry, but Android Beam and Face Recognition looks like the most useless feature ever. It will hardly ever be used. I'm sure the iPhone will have it someday as well, but it's hardly anything to get excited about. It's similar to Bump on the App Store.

Come on people. ICS is a decent OS, but it wasn't a "blow me away" event.

How many of your Google lovers are just employees on here just to convert the iOS folks over to Android anyway? Don't be fooled when you see crap like "I'm glad I didn't buy the iPhone 4S... Android here i come!" on a Mac forum. Why did you even come here to register?

Decent phone, decent OS, if you are a power user who likes to geek out on specs and tweak settings. If you are a normal person, it isn't any easier than the iPhone. Plain and simple.

 

[mysterioustko]

I'm sorry, but Android Beam and Face Recognition looks like the most useless feature ever. It will hardly ever be used. I'm sure the iPhone will have it someday as well, but it's hardly anything to get excited about. It's similar to Bump on the App Store.

Come on people. ICS is a decent OS, but it wasn't a "blow me away" event.

How many of your Google lovers are just employees on here just to convert the iOS folks over to Android anyway? Don't be fooled when you see crap like "I'm glad I didn't buy the iPhone 4S... Android here i come!" on a Mac forum. Why did you even come here to register?

Decent phone, decent OS, if you are a power user who likes to geek out on specs and tweak settings. If you are a normal person, it isn't any easier than the iPhone. Plain and simple.

Facial recognition useless? You'd use it each time you unlock your phone...I'd say that's pretty darn useful. Come on now at least be objective here. If that were a feature announced in the Apple event, there'd be a multitude of people on here saying "take that android". It's a useful feature no need to minimize it just to serve an agenda.

 

[juswest]

Why compare? Just use the one you prefer, and let others do as they please. There's no better, there's just opinion.

----------

I'm sorry, but Android Beam and Face Recognition looks like the most useless feature ever. It will hardly ever be used. I'm sure the iPhone will have it someday as well, but it's hardly anything to get excited about. It's similar to Bump on the App Store.

Come on people. ICS is a decent OS, but it wasn't a "blow me away" event.

How many of your Google lovers are just employees on here just to convert the iOS folks over to Android anyway? Don't be fooled when you see crap like "I'm glad I didn't buy the iPhone 4S... Android here i come!" on a Mac forum. Why did you even come here to register?

Decent phone, decent OS, if you are a power user who likes to geek out on specs and tweak settings. If you are a normal person, it isn't any easier than the iPhone. Plain and simple.

I'm no power user, and I haven't found android difficult to use coming from iOS. So no it's not plain and simple.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I can't imagine anyone not finding iOS a bit tame after seeing ICS.

 

[Jay42]

I thought face unlock was the only truly innovative feature....and it failed. Also seemed like it might take longer than the pattern/combo unlock, which would defeat the whole purpose. Even if it works 9/10 times, it won't be useful.

Camera seemed nice, but I doubt it'll be better than the iP4S. It looked fast, though.

Android Beam is meh.

Widgets are nice, but still make the home screens look cluttered to my eye.

Folders are exactly from iOS (but Apple took the notification center so I guess they're even).

Dialing shortcuts are nice.

Keyboard/dictation look better, but only time will tell.

Mixing voicemails in with recent calls doesn't make any sense to me. I much prefer iOS.

Browser syncs bookmarks just like iOS. Can save pages for offline, just like iOS, but it doesn't appear to sync like reading list.

Can take screen grabs just like iOS.

Photos now by places and people, just like iOS

No SD card slot on the Galaxy Nexus. Its hard to beat Apple's audio/video playback and the option for 64gb.

Android is still the best as far as social integration is concerned.

Bigger screen is nice, but I'm not sure about the ergonomics. I use my iPhone one handed at least 50% of the time.

LTE is great, but I'm getting really fast speeds on AT&T on the 4S (plus the browser is so snappy). Wonder how the battery life will stack up.

At the end of the day, I didn't see anything really new here. They did a great job addressing the cold look and feel of Android; its definitely more compelling. However, Apple knocked it out of the park with Siri, camera performance, iCloud sync, and the raw speed of Safari on the iPhone 4S. ICS does make Android more appealing, but its still far enticing me to switch. Can't wait to see how the browsermark scores stack up.

 

[JCCL]

Well I though ICS looks really nice, apart from the new features, I think it brings Android closer to the level of polish of iOS. Now I am on the fence, thinking about the following 3 options:
1. Buy Galaxy Nexus, also keep iPhone 4 for my iOS fix.
2. Sell iPhone 4 and buy iPhone 4S
3. Keep iPhone 4(really, there is not anything the others will provide me that I can't really do with iPhone 4).

I think being the iPhone lover I am, I will go with number 2, however, this new Galaxy phones are really the first ones to make me think of switching since 2007.

 

[TM WAZZA]

Well I though ICS looks really nice, apart from the new features, I think it brings Android closer to the level of polish of iOS. Now I am on the fence, thinking about the following 3 options:
1. Buy Galaxy Nexus, also keep iPhone 4 for my iOS fix.
2. Sell iPhone 4 and buy iPhone 4S
3. Keep iPhone 4(really, there is not anything the others will provide me that I can't really do with iPhone 4).

I think being the iPhone lover I am, I will go with number 2, however, this new Galaxy phones are really the first ones to make me think of switching since 2007.

Option number 1 dude.

The best of both worlds.

 

[JasonR]

The only thing that would sway me over the iPhone 4/4S is LTE. I'm grandfathered in to an unlimited Verizon data plan..and unlimited 4G/LTE would be great for my Macbook Air.

Of course...not sure how reliable LTE is around here just yet...

 

[HiRez]

Some good improvements to Android, but honestly I'm underwhelmed after the long wait and all the hype. First of all, wasn't this supposed to be the release where they concentrated on tablet-specific UI? Where was it? They just decide to give up on tablets? Facial recognition seems to work poorly or not at all. Then you have the weirdly over-designed data usage app.

I don't know man, Android has some good features, some they came up with on their own, some they blatantly ripped off from iOS. But what offends me is their still piss-poor sense of design, despite the attempt at laying down the golden design guidelines and Roboto font. I mean look at the screenshots, Android is still a patchwork mess. The bizarrely ill-fitting, floating analog clocks, the ugly-ass distracting widgets and animated backgrounds. Ugh. They will never get it. It seems like everything Google does is either overdesigned or underdesinged, and the mix of the two sharing space in the same interface is especially jarring.

Maybe iOS loses out on a feature checkmark here or there, but it just feels cohesive and smooth by comparison.

 

[Jay42]

Some good improvements to Android, but honestly I'm underwhelmed after the long wait and all the hype. First of all, wasn't this supposed to be the release where they concentrated on tablet-specific UI? (Snip)

No

I don't know man, Android has some good features, some they came up with on their own, some they blatantly ripped off from iOS. But what offends me is their still piss-poor sense of design, despite the attempt at laying down the golden design guidelines and Roboto font. I mean look at the screenshots, Android is still a patchwork mess. The bizarrely ill-fitting, floating analog clocks, the ugly-ass distracting widgets and animated backgrounds. Ugh. They will never get it. It seems like everything Google does is either overdesigned or underdesinged, and the mix of the two sharing space in the same interface is especially jarring.

Maybe iOS loses out on a feature checkmark here or there, but it just feels cohesive and smooth by comparison.

I agree with you there. The floating analog clock is ridiculous - reminds me of Windows Vista. The new "magazine" UI seems to come out of nowhere. Sometimes its there, sometimes its not. Then there's the futuristic, minimalist UI in the phone app (I actually like this one best). And the baby blue/teal in the contacts is pretty hideous.

 

[Abyssgh0st]

If I was basing my opinion off of the alleged specs of the Galaxy Nexus, I'd be disappointed- but I didn't think they'd happen anyways.

On the topic of ICS, I guess I'm just missing it. I was a day one G1 adopter, Nexus S owner, and I have Cyanogen Mod 7 on my Touchpad- so I am anything but unaccustomed to Android. I like some things about it, but the things I dislike are very prevalent: 1. The lag (which Topolsky is still apparent on ICS with the GN) and 2. The screens (home screen and additional 'pages') along with the app icon just look plain cheap! They just look really crappy in comparison to iOS or even WebOS (which was a much better OS than Android, IMO).

So maybe I am just not getting it- but from what I've seen of ICS, it isn't fixing any of the things I don't like about Android, nor do I see what has really changed in Android (aside from the faux multitasking, which is
still worse than WebOS!).

EDIT: And with this whole 'the device has a soul' concept, it was almost always in correlation with their new typeface. How the hell can a typeface have any significant effect on the way you feel about your phone? If anything Siri would be a somewhat decent example of a phone's 'soul' because it you really feel connected to your phone when you use it- and I'm sure as Siri evolves it will become a true personal assistant that knows us like actual humans do.

 

[mysterioustko]

Some good improvements to Android, but honestly I'm underwhelmed after the long wait and all the hype. First of all, wasn't this supposed to be the release where they concentrated on tablet-specific UI? Where was it?

No it wasn't....that was honeycomb...you're about a year behind.

Then you have the weirdly over-designed data usage app.

If you don't want to use the data usage feature you don't have to...who's making you? Personally, I think it would be useful to be able to alert myself when I use a certain amount of data.

The bizarrely ill-fitting, floating analog clocks, the ugly-ass distracting widgets and animated backgrounds.

If you don't like the analog clocks...THEN DON'T USE THEM....don't like the widgets or backgrounds? ...DON'T USE THEM.....there are plenty of other clocks, and widgets, and backgrounds....who's forcing you to use those?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I can't imagine anyone not finding iOS a bit tame after seeing ICS.

Do you stare at and customize home screens all day? I love the simplicity of iOS, it gets me to where I want to be fast. 95% of the time I'm looking at something within an app or browser, not drooling over a home screen. The only thing I like about Android better than iOS is the robust settings. I will admit the Android 4.0 is a huge visual improvement though. The icons no longer look ugly.

 

[blancoBronco]

people always talk about how bad apple fanboys are, but everybody seems to forget about the android fanboys. "oh you can't rip youtube videos or customize every aspect about your phone? lame!" the kids i know who are android fanboys are way worse than the apple ones

with that being said, ICS didn't seem too impressive after seeing iOS5. facial recognition is terrible. let's say someone you know takes your phone, all they have to do to unlock it is find a picture of you somewhere (ex. Facebook) and the phone is all theirs

 

[thenerdal]

people always talk about how bad apple fanboys are, but everybody seems to forget about the android fanboys. "oh you can't rip youtube videos or customize every aspect about your phone? lame!" the kids i know who are android fanboys are way worse than the apple ones

with that being said, ICS didn't seem too impressive after seeing iOS5. facial recognition is terrible. let's say someone you know takes your phone, all they have to do to unlock it is find a picture of you somewhere (ex. Facebook) and the phone is all theirs

The feature itself is amazing. How could you not be impressed? I'd be impressed with facial recognition as a feature itself. We don't know if Facial Recognition on ICS will detect faces only and not pictures. Don't jump to conclusions please.

 

[mysterioustko]

people always talk about how bad apple fanboys are, but everybody seems to forget about the android fanboys. "oh you can't rip youtube videos or customize every aspect about your phone? lame!" the kids i know who are android fanboys are way worse than the apple ones

with that being said, ICS didn't seem too impressive after seeing iOS5. facial recognition is terrible. let's say someone you know takes your phone, all they have to do to unlock it is find a picture of you somewhere (ex. Facebook) and the phone is all theirs

People who say this are really grasping for straws. You do realize that every phone can be reset without having a password to unlock it.......whether it's locked via pin, pattern, or face....they aren't necessary to be able to use the phone. Not to mention you are ASSUMING you can use a picture to unlock it, you don't even know if that is really the case. If you like your iphone that's great, but why the need to try to minimize another phone's release to make you feel better about your phone?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

If it's anything like the Xbox 360 face recognition then its a failure from the start.

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

Do you stare at and customize home screens all day? I love the simplicity of iOS, it gets me to where I want to be fast. 95% of the time I'm looking at something within an app or browser, not drooling over a home screen. The only thing I like about Android better than iOS is the robust settings. I will admit the Android 4.0 is a huge visual improvement though. The icons no longer look ugly.

Actually the home screens are extremely nice and I very rarely find myself going into the app tray anymore. Most of the apps I use on a regular basis have a widget that give me all the info I need. ESPN, don't have to launch the app, I can scroll through all my favorite teams scores for that day without having to launch an app. AP, Facebook, Weather, Stocks, Twitter, ect. 3 pages that all look the same with 16 apps per page gets old quick (for my taste).