Phones iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S3

[DodgeV83]

Most messaging apps have auto-signin features, so having to remember passwords is not necessary. The only difference between using Skype and Facetime is really clicking on Skype instead of Facetime. It's no more or less complicated to use one than the other.

You act like Apple's solution is oh so much more user friendly than the alternatives, when it's not really that much more so - only that it integrates with your Apple ID.

I have a small group of about 6 people I use FaceTime with. There was 0 setup required, we push one button and we're in a video call.

In order for me to have the same with Skype, we would have to:

1. Create 6 usernames and passwords.

2. Make sure we are constantly logged in, which has proved to be unreliable for at least two of us (Google search and see all the people complaining about this).

3. Share the 6 usernames with everyone else, and have each person add the other 5 usernames to their "buddy list". That's 30 requests to send out in total.

4. Have each person accept the friend request to add to their "buddy list". Another 30 confirmations in total.

5. If we're currently on a call and would like to start a video chat, we must exit out of the phone app, find Skype, open Skype, remember the username of the person we're talking to, select that username, then hit Video Chat and hope they haven't inadvertently been logged off.

6. And after all that, we're stuck with less quality and more laggy video

 

[matttye]

I have a small group of about 6 people I use FaceTime with. There was 0 setup required, we push one button and we're in a video call.

In order for me to have the same with Skype, we would have to:

1. Create 6 usernames and passwords.

2. Make sure we are constantly logged in, which has proved to be unreliable for at least two of us (Google search and see all the people complaining about this).

3. Share the 6 usernames with everyone else, and have each person add the other 5 usernames to their "buddy list". That's 30 requests to send out in total.

4. Have each person accept the friend request to add to their "buddy list". Another 30 confirmations in total.

5. If we're currently on a call and would like to start a video chat, we must exit out of the phone app, find Skype, open Skype, remember the username of the person we're talking to, select that username, then hit Video Chat and hope they haven't inadvertently been logged off.

6. And after all that, we're stuck with less quality and more laggy video

Fair enough. I video chat to only one person, so I use Skype so that I have a larger choice of what I want to use.

You present a shining scenario until one of your six friends sells their iDevice and buys something else. You're not going to be able to use Facetime then, that's the only problem

Whilst I do think a lot of Apple's apps and services work really well, I avoid them because of the lack of portability. iBooks for example is my favourite books app, but if I sell my iPad and get something else I'm basically SOL if I want to read the books I've purchased. Amazon Kindle will work on more platforms.

 

[Vegastouch]

I have a small group of about 6 people I use FaceTime with. There was 0 setup required, we push one button and we're in a video call.

In order for me to have the same with Skype, we would have to:

1. Create 6 usernames and passwords.

2. Make sure we are constantly logged in, which has proved to be unreliable for at least two of us (Google search and see all the people complaining about this).

3. Share the 6 usernames with everyone else, and have each person add the other 5 usernames to their "buddy list". That's 30 requests to send out in total.

4. Have each person accept the friend request to add to their "buddy list". Another 30 confirmations in total.

5. If we're currently on a call and would like to start a video chat, we must exit out of the phone app, find Skype, open Skype, remember the username of the person we're talking to, select that username, then hit Video Chat and hope they haven't inadvertently been logged off.

6. And after all that, we're stuck with less quality and more laggy video

Yep facetime is better. I've never had a phone that can do that til now and even if I had a iPhone for that, I'm not sure how much I would use it. It is something that seems to not get used much . But, like other apps android has, it would be nice to have the better platform.

 

[DodgeV83]

Hmm my phone doesn't seem to blow out the sky as shown in many S3 pics. Maybe different firmware or maybe just because it wasn't as bright a day?

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Hey, nice shots! Yea, either your phone is different, or the brightness difference wasn't large enough to blow out the sky.

 

[Zaft]

I have a small group of about 6 people I use FaceTime with. There was 0 setup required, we push one button and we're in a video call.

In order for me to have the same with Skype, we would have to:

1. Create 6 usernames and passwords.

2. Make sure we are constantly logged in, which has proved to be unreliable for at least two of us (Google search and see all the people complaining about this).

3. Share the 6 usernames with everyone else, and have each person add the other 5 usernames to their "buddy list". That's 30 requests to send out in total.

4. Have each person accept the friend request to add to their "buddy list". Another 30 confirmations in total.

5. If we're currently on a call and would like to start a video chat, we must exit out of the phone app, find Skype, open Skype, remember the username of the person we're talking to, select that username, then hit Video Chat and hope they haven't inadvertently been logged off.

6. And after all that, we're stuck with less quality and more laggy video

thats the whole apple approach. make it as easy as possible.

 

[DodgeV83]

Fair enough. I video chat to only one person, so I use Skype so that I have a larger choice of what I want to use.

You present a shining scenario until one of your six friends sells their iDevice and buys something else. You're not going to be able to use Facetime then, that's the only problem

Whilst I do think a lot of Apple's apps and services work really well, I avoid them because of the lack of portability. iBooks for example is my favourite books app, but if I sell my iPad and get something else I'm basically SOL if I want to read the books I've purchased. Amazon Kindle will work on more platforms.

There are ways to transfer iBooks to the Kindle and other devices, a quick Google Search should point you in the right direction

Of course, that probably only applies to plain-text books. I'm not aware of any other book platforms that have the interactivity of iBooks however, so that's probably Apple Exclusive right now anyway.

 

[jeffe]

There are ways to transfer iBooks to the Kindle and other devices, a quick Google Search should point you in the right direction

I searched and it looks like you somehow have to crack Apple's DRM in order to transfer your ibooks on to another device. I'm not really sure how you would do that..it sounds complicated. This is actually the reason why I stopped purchasing digital content from apple a long ago once Amazon started selling DRM free mp3's...at that time it was just simpler and allowed more flexibility.

 

[DodgeV83]

I searched and it looks like you somehow have to crack Apple's DRM in order to transfer your ibooks on to another device. I'm not really sure how you would do that..it sounds complicated. This is actually the reason why I stopped purchasing digital content from apple a long ago once Amazon started selling DRM free mp3's...at that time it was just simpler and allowed more flexibility.

Pretty much yes, you have to crack the DRM. Unfortunately, it seems even the Kindle store has the DRM issue, so they can't be shared either if the Kindle store goes under. Hopefully ebook DRM will soon go the way of music DRM

 

[404 tech junkie]

Pretty much yes, you have to crack the DRM. Unfortunately, it seems even the Kindle store has the DRM issue, so they can't be shared either if the Kindle store goes under. Hopefully ebook DRM will soon go the way of music DRM

I think what he means is, he can use the Kindle app on other platforms and have access to his books.

 

[DodgeV83]

I think what he means is, he can use the Kindle app on other platforms and have access to his books.

Yea I know, and I agree that's an advantage, and if it ever gets to the point where I'm trying to figure out how to remove DRM on my books, it's going to be a pain in the butt. For now, however, iBooks is just too good to pass up for me. The Kindle app isn't on par yet.

 

[jeffe]

I think what he means is, he can use the Kindle app on other platforms and have access to his books.

This is correct...I'm likely to switch platforms and devices as time progresses so flexibility is important to me. The Nexus 7 might be picked up by some IOS users and AFAIK they won't be able to access the IOS cloud from those devices and that is the type of situation I'd like to avoid.

On the flip side, I can pick up an IOS phone/tablet or a even a Windows phone and be sync'd up and use Google/Amazon apps to access to the majority of my content fairly quickly in a nice interface...and probably sooner than later I'll probably be able to have full access to everything regardless of the platform.

Edit: Does the Itunes icloud allow you to stream music from a web browser?

 

[matttye]

Pretty much yes, you have to crack the DRM. Unfortunately, it seems even the Kindle store has the DRM issue, so they can't be shared either if the Kindle store goes under. Hopefully ebook DRM will soon go the way of music DRM

It's mainly just the fact that I can use kindle on just about any platform. I don't want to sell my iPad and can't see myself doing so in the near future, but I want to know that if I did, the content I had bought (with the exception of apps) would still be available to me.

Apple creates so many things that only work for their own platform to try and lock you in. Google on the other hand make their stuff for multiple platforms, not just their own. Google maps (until iOS 6 launches), Google books, Google sync etc, all available and officially supported for iOS even though it's a rival platform. Others like Amazon do the same.

I see people say that the reason they won't switch from iOS is because they're too invested in the platform. Well that won't happen to me because I use multi-platform solutions whenever possible, even if they are a little more work to set up. If you and your friends ever left iOS for something else, you'd have to find and set up a completely new way to video chat. I wouldn't. You would have to crack the DRM on your books. I wouldn't.

I would rather keep my options open than go with the simplicity route. For a few extra minutes of initial setup, you'll see yourself a big headache in the future if you ever go elsewhere.

 

[matttye]

This is correct...I'm likely to switch platforms and devices as time progresses so flexibility is important to me. The Nexus 7 might be picked up by some IOS users and AFAIK they won't be able to access the IOS cloud from those devices and that is the type of situation I'd like to avoid.

On the flip side, I can pick up an IOS phone/tablet or a even a Windows phone and be sync'd up and use Google/Amazon apps to access to the majority of my content fairly quickly in a nice interface...and probably sooner than later I'll probably be able to have full access to everything regardless of the platform.

Edit: Does the Itunes icloud allow you to stream music from a web browser?

You can use iCloud on Android with third party apps, but I don't know how official they are and whether or not they'll be blocked at some point. I would think Google themselves would support it if Apple officially supported it on other platforms.

 

[DroidNoMore]

I think it's difficult to compare a phone that is 1 year old to a brand new phone.

 

[daveathall]

I have both a 4S and a S3, I used a upgrade (My wife's) to get the S3, IMHO and for what I use it for it is the better phone out of the two. I still have my upgrade to use on the iPhone 5 if required, but it will need to be significantly better than the iPhone 4S for it to equal or make me change from the S3.

 

[matttye]

I think it's difficult to compare a phone that is 1 year old to a brand new phone.

You have to compare the newest phones at the time. When the iPhone 6 comes out (assuming October), the S3 will be 5 months old

 

[cshama]

I have both a 4S and a S3, I used a upgrade (My wires) to get the S3, IMHO and for what I use it for it is the better phone out of the two. I still have my upgrade to use on the iPhone 5 if required, but it will need to be significantly better than the iPhone 4S for it to make me change from the S3.

I feel exactly the same. I used to be Apple 100% but the S3 works better for me. The screen size is by far the biggest factor but it also turned out to be much more fun.

 

[outz]

I have both a 4S and a S3, I used a upgrade (My wife's) to get the S3, IMHO and for what I use it for it is the better phone out of the two. I still have my upgrade to use on the iPhone 5 if required, but it will need to be significantly better than the iPhone 4S for it to equal or make me change from the S3.

haha, i stole my wifes upgrade and got an s3 too. my 4s has been sitting powered off for over a week now. my line isnt upgradable till next summer... so hopefully the new iphone isnt that good

 

[DodgeV83]

I see people say that the reason they won't switch from iOS is because they're too invested in the platform. Well that won't happen to me because I use multi-platform solutions whenever possible, even if they are a little more work to set up. If you and your friends ever left iOS for something else, you'd have to find and set up a completely new way to video chat. I wouldn't. You would have to crack the DRM on your books. I wouldn't.

I would rather keep my options open than go with the simplicity route. For a few extra minutes of initial setup, you'll see yourself a big headache in the future if you ever go elsewhere.

I don't understand this mindset. If someone leaves the ecosystem, you'll have to deal with the headache no matter what, you're just saying you'd rather deal with it initially instead of down the line when they switch. You aren't removing the "headache factor", you're just putting it all up-front.

Even worse, you're also including them in your headache, as they'd have to deal with the headache of your third-party solution, even though they have a better first-party solution available.

Why not just use whatever is best at the given time, then switch if you need to?

 

[matttye]

I don't understand this mindset. If someone leaves the ecosystem, you'll have to deal with the headache no matter what, you're just saying you'd rather deal with it initially instead of down the line when they switch. You aren't removing the "headache factor", you're just putting it all up-front.

Even worse, you're also including them in your headache, as they'd have to deal with the headache of your third-party solution, even though they have a better first-party solution available.

Why not just use whatever is best at the given time, then switch if you need to?

I could switch ten times and use Skype on every platform. Not so with any first party solution.

I don't consider it a headache either, it takes less than five minutes to sign up for a Skype account and it's free to video chat with other Skype users.

 

[BaldiMac]

Not completely. If you had an app on one of your latter home screens on iOS, you have to scroll through each page to get there (or use Spotlight), but with Android you can pinch to open up helicopter view and jump to any screen you like, thus making it easier to get to any screen.

Sure. But like I said before, any multi-step process is getting closer to just opening an app.

Android is obviously better in this regard. Widgets are there if you want them, but if you don't you can still have pages full of apps, only you can access each page more quickly.

We will have to agree to disagree over the value of widgets.

Widgets that toggle settings are very popular too, and iOS doesn't have those.

I don't see them on many home screen screenshots. But maybe. I don't think most people toggle settings such as wifi, 3G, and bluetooth often enough that saving one or two taps makes a huge difference. Heck, there was a recent report that 70% of Android users don't use wifi at all!

The iPad doesn't have the Facebook/Twitter widgets in the notification bar.

I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Facebook/Twitter notifications are available in notification center.

Guessing you mean battery life? There's a solution for that - put a bigger battery in the phone! Arbitrarily limiting tasks so that they can only run for ten minutes to conserve battery life is such a cop out. If I went to run my battery into the ground it should be my prerogative. iOS sometimes caters for the technophobes TOO much.

And a bigger battery means more weight. Trade offs. But I was referring to more than that. Performance, security, and stability are all trade offs for unlimited background processes.

It kinda is unimportant. I've had Skype on my iPad for months and I've only ever had to log in once. It's also multi-platform so I can speak to people using a PC, Android phone, Windows Phone, etc. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Except it involves you and your recipient downloading, configuring and logging into Skype (which is also available on iOS for cross-platform use.) Like iMessage, Facetime is simply ready to go for anyone using a recent iPhone. It's the same advantage iMessage has over the Android solutions.

Popular or not, it's there and available, whereas on iOS I don't even have the choice of doing so.

Except popularity was my whole point. Obviously, Android has more options! My claim was that iOS has reasonable alternatives for the most popular uses of widgets.

I don't think I overstated anything. What I showed is how I have the CHOICE of functionality as opposed to no choice at all.

Except I showed that there were choices on iOS to access the same information easily.

As for the calendar, seeing the next 24 hours is not the same as seeing my upcoming week. If someone asks you, "what are you doing wednesday", you won't be able to just glance in the notification center and tell them. I can just unlock my phone and look at the screen to the right and tell them if I'm free or not.

Again, you are overstating the difference here. Per your screenshot, your widget shows the next three appointments, not the next week. I have a full screen view of my calendar with one tap. And my next 24 hours in one swipe.

Recent headlines in the notification panel is a sloppy implementation quite frankly. The way I'm set up, I get whatever particular news I want to by looking at that particular ticker, and scrolling through it. The same functionality cannot be said for the notification center. The functionality is not the same, nor is the trade off like you mentioned.

The functionality is not the same, but the information is! You prefer the widget method. I don't.

My apps are one tap away, whereas all the information I have available on my home screens would require you to go to several different places in your phone to get what I get in mine just by unlocking it.

Again, I have the most popular information within a swipe.

You'd be opening your calendar to see your week, asking Siri for traffic information, looking in the notification panel for the weather, having to sift through unwanted news to get to the topic you're wanting to see (as opposed to only seeing local news when you want local, hence the different tickers). BTW, I didn't even mention my other two screens, one of which is a multimedia screen, I have widgets to control Pandora (including thumbs up and down), googe music, and tune in Radio. I can control all those from my home screen. So if I want to turn on some music, I can just swipe over and hit play on any of those widgets, whereas you'd have to go to those individual apps to do so.
In summary (yes this is a tad redundant), to get the same functionality I have on my home screens, you'd be opening your calendar, asking Siri about traffic, going to the notification panel for weather, sifting through mixed in news topics, opening visual voicemail to check your messages, then going to pandora (or whatever music player you chose to use) to turn on music. That's an awful lot of trouble to go through just to have the same functionality, when it could be right there easily accessible all at once.

Again, it does sound overwhelming when you list all of those things separately. And then you claim your setup is "accessible all at once." When it's not.

The reality is that all of that information isn't needed every time I unlock my phone. Most frequently, I need my upcoming appointments, not the ones a few days from now. And accessing the future appointments is a tap away!

You have news widgets that take up a third of your screen for two lines of information! I get the same information through notifications immediately and then through the notification center later with the information displayed much more efficiently. I don't subscribe to types of notifications that I'm not interested in.

Again, my point isn't that the iOS way is universally better. I just think widgets are overrated for most popular use cases. There is a reason that Microsoft stopped submissions to its gadget gallery years ago, despite widgets being supported on Windows 8!

 

[DodgeV83]

I could switch ten times and use Skype on every platform. Not so with any first party solution.

I don't consider it a headache either, it takes less than five minutes to sign up for a Skype account and it's free to video chat with other Skype users.

I only used the word headache because you did

For a few extra minutes of initial setup, you'll see yourself a big headache in the future if you ever go elsewhe

Why is it only a "big headache" if you have to do it later, when someone switches, but if you do it initially it's easy?

 

[ChazUK]

I don't see them on many home screen screenshots. But maybe. I don't think most people toggle settings such as wifi, 3G, and bluetooth often enough that saving one or two taps makes a huge difference. Heck, there was a recent report that 70% of Android users don't use wifi at all!

I'd guess that most Android users do not have the quick settings widgets on the main homescreen. I normally have mine on the left homescreen, my main apps on the first (center) homescreen then a GMail widget on the right homescreen. On some custom software builds there are also quick toggles at the top of the dropdown notification bar.

Also, I believe that 70% figure was relating to public wifi hotspots. I personally never use public wifi myself and prefer to use my data connection.

 

[jeffe]

You can use iCloud on Android with third party apps, but I don't know how official they are and whether or not they'll be blocked at some point. I would think Google themselves would support it if Apple officially supported it on other platforms.

I just looked at the iCloud as a music storage option and my first response was ew. Both google and amazon both support the ability to stream your music stored in the cloud using the web browser..something iCloud apparently won't let you do. It is kind of strange really.

 

[matttye]

Sure. But like I said before, any multi-step process is getting closer to just opening an app.

Closer but not much. It's significantly faster to open an app on pages furthest away to the default on Android than iOS.

Not sure why we're going back and forth over this.. obviously flicking through each page isn't very user friendly. Being able to skip pages is always going to be faster.

We will have to agree to disagree over the value of widgets.

So you're saying that having the OPTION to add widgets is bad? I said Android is ahead because it at least has the option.. even if you don't use them yourself, it can't be a disadvantage

I don't see them on many home screen screenshots. But maybe. I don't think most people toggle settings such as wifi, 3G, and bluetooth often enough that saving one or two taps makes a huge difference. Heck, there was a recent report that 70% of Android users don't use wifi at all!

They're probably not on many home screen screenshots because a lot of Android phones have toggle widgets in the notification bar. It would be duplicating what's already there by adding them again.

Anyone who complains about battery life on Android should use those kinds of widgets extensively. Android isn't as good as iOS at power management when you leave settings on that aren't currently in use.

I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Facebook/Twitter notifications are available in notification center.

I'm talking about the "tap to tweet" / "tap to post to Facebook" buttons in the notification bar, but it may be an iOS 6 feature, I thought it was in iOS 5 for the iPhone.

And a bigger battery means more weight. Trade offs. But I was referring to more than that. Performance, security, and stability are all trade offs for unlimited background processes.

iPhone weighs 7 grams more than the Galaxy S3. Probably because of the lightweight "cheap" build materials.

Performance, security and stability are non-issues in practice.

Except it involves you and your recipient downloading, configuring and logging into Skype (which is also available on iOS for cross-platform use.) Like iMessage, Facetime is simply ready to go for anyone using a recent iPhone. It's the same advantage iMessage has over the Android solutions.

Yeah.. it's good, but you're limited who you can use it with. Half of my family and friends don't have iPhones.

I only used the word headache because you did



Why is it only a "big headache" if you have to do it later, when someone switches, but if you do it initially it's easy?

I was referring more to the books than FaceTime/Skype with that comment. Un-DRM'ing your books WOULD be a big headache.