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Phones Switching to Nexus 4 - My Experience

slu said:
2. As was stated previously in the thread, the email experience is far superior on iOS. Having to pan and scan as many emails as I have had to thus far is frankly unacceptable. The fact that there is no image scaling is unaccpetable. There must be a third party alternative, but I have yet to find one.
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The stock email app is crap, go and download Kaiten and thank me after :)

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slu said:
5. Chrome is not great. Tap to zoom doesn't work as well as on iOS and new pages sometimes seem to load already zoomed in. I want the full page to load and I'll decide what to zoom in on. It takes one too many clicks to get to bookmarks, but this is a problem with Chrome on iOS as well. I will be looking into 3rd party browsers. Any suggestions?
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I use Xscope personally but Dolphin browser is also good.

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slu said:
7. I have only downloaded a few apps thus far and while I was able to get Andriod versions of all my major apps so far, app quality is worse than iOS. Graphics on some apps can be "fuzzy", UIs are inconsistent, some apps just have issues (i.e. the Speetest.net app always thinks I am Indiana for some reason), but to be honest I expected this. While this has been annoying, I wouldn't call it a major issue yet.
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That's weird, all the apps ive downloaded that i have on both iOS and Android and very similar in quality. For example the F1 live timing app is actually nicer on Android, same with Tune in Radio.

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slu said:
13. Still dislike the stock messaging app.
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Me and all my mates use Whatsapp, i haven't used a native messaging app on iPhone or Android for a few years now. What is the issue with the stock app as i have not really used it?

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slu said:
13. Notifcations are different, but I wouldn't say worse. I do wish I could control notifcation settings for apps in a central place like I can in iOS though.
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I agree about having a central place to setup notifications but i use lightflow which does that anyway, it is a third party app. On a side note download "notifications widget" if you want your notifications on the lockscreen or one of your homescreens.


I guess the general theme is there is always a third party app that can solve your issues on Android, its just finding out which ones are the best. iOS is great at giving you most functions out of the box without any extra apps but beyond that Android is superior imo.
 
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bmac4 said:
You have to jailbreak to do that.
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Jailbreak, or root?

If it's jailbreak, then yes, but I can't use an iPhone if it's not jailbroken. And in a way, an Androids needs to be rooted to really get maximum usage out of it, like Tasker.
 
Paradoxally said:
Jailbreak, or root?
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What you suggested was jailbreaking. We are trying to help slu without rooting. The toggles can just being downloaded from the play store for his nexus 4. IPhone you need to jailbreak

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Paradoxally said:
If it's jailbreak, then yes, but I can't use an iPhone if it's not jailbroken. And in a way, an Androids needs to be rooted to really get maximum usage out of it, like Tasker.
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That is not true at all. I use my nexus 4 just fine without rooting. I have never rooting any of my android devices.
 
bmac4 said:
What you suggested was jailbreaking. We are trying to help slu without rooting. The toggles can just being downloaded from the play store for his nexus 4. IPhone you need to jailbreak
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True, but for example, if you want to do amazing things with an Android you need to root it (or should anyway, it's easy).

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bmac4 said:
What you suggested was jailbreaking. We are trying to help slu without rooting. The toggles can just being downloaded from the play store for his nexus 4. IPhone you need to jailbreak

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That is not true at all. I use my nexus 4 just fine without rooting. I have never rooting any of my android devices.
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So you don't run a custom ROM or kernel? I hated stock Android, even on a Nexus. Battery life is atrocious and the screen calibration sucked.
 
Paradoxally said:
True, but for example, if you want to do amazing things with an Android you need to root it (or should anyway, it's easy).

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So you don't run a custom ROM or kernel? I hated stock Android, even on a Nexus. Battery life is atrocious and the screen calibration sucked.
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OK but I am not sure slu is wanting to get into that right now.
 
slu said:
1. I like the little vibration it does when you turn it on.

2. Setup was very quick and easy. Again, reminds me of setting up a new iPhone. Just input my Google Account info, answer a couple of questions, and done!

3. My cell signal doesn't seem as good in the same place. This obviously could change as I move around the house.

4. Not being able to add non-Google accounts to the Gmail app kinda stinks. I will check out some of the suggestions for a third party client.

5. Took me a minute to find the APN Settings. Once I did though, setting up for ST was easy.

Next post will be from the Nexus!
Click to expand...

Use the built in email app for email. I don't have any issues with the built in email.
 
torana355 said:
The stock email app is crap, go and download Kaiten and thank me after :)

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I use Xscope personally but Dolphin browser is also good.

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That's weird, all the apps ive downloaded that i have on both iOS and Android and very similar in quality. For example the F1 live timing app is actually nicer on Android, same with Tune in Radio.

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Me and all my mates use Whatsapp, i haven't used a native messaging app on iPhone or Android for a few years now. What is the issue with the stock app as i have not really used it?

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I agree about having a central place to setup notifications but i use lightflow which does that anyway, it is a third party app. On a side note download "notifications widget" if you want your notifications on the lockscreen or one of your homescreens.


I guess the general theme is there is always a third party app that can solve your issues on Android, its just finding out which ones are the best. iOS is great at giving you most functions out of the box without any extra apps but beyond that Android is superior imo.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this post. Looking into these now. I would like notifications on the lock screen, so going to try that first.

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bmac4 said:
OK but I am not sure slu is wanting to get into that right now.
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Correct. Haven't ruled out rooting down the line, but I want to use stock for a while to find what I am missing first.
 
So I have the photo syncing from the Nexus 4 to iPhoto working fine with dropbox, but anyone use a good method to sync photos from iPhoto TO the Nexus 4? I liked having my last month of pictures stored on my phone so I could share pics of my daughter easily. I suppose I could not delete them from dropbox via my automator script and just use that, but I don't have much space on dropbox and don't really want to pay for 100GB as I will never utilize that much space. I'd like 20-30.
 
torana355 said:
That's weird, all the apps ive downloaded that i have on both iOS and Android and very similar in quality. For example the F1 live timing app is actually nicer on Android, same with Tune in Radio
Click to expand...

Disagree--many of the Android counterparts I've tried are subpar compared to their iOS counterparts and I personally think TuneIn is a perfect example. On the iOS version, it caches the audio so that I can pause/rewind/fast forward a live stream, basically like a DVR, yet this feature is absent in the Android version--it's either play or stop.
 
Perhaps upload your photos to Picasa then you will be able to view your photos in "gallery"

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tbayrgs said:
Disagree--many of the Android counterparts I've tried are subpar compared to their iOS counterparts and I personally think TuneIn is a perfect example. On the iOS version, it caches the audio so that I can pause/rewind/fast forward a live stream, basically like a DVR, yet this feature is absent in the Android version--it's either play or stop.
Click to expand...
No you can pause forward reverse in android too.
 
tbayrgs said:
Disagree--many of the Android counterparts I've tried are subpar compared to their iOS counterparts and I personally think TuneIn is a perfect example. On the iOS version, it caches the audio so that I can pause/rewind/fast forward a live stream, basically like a DVR, yet this feature is absent in the Android version--it's either play or stop.
Click to expand...

Im sorry but you could not be more wrong, Tune in radio on android does buffer and i can do rewind, fastforward and pause just like the iOS version. If you look in the settings you can even adjust the buffer time just like the iOS version. Next.
 
supahsain said:
Perhaps upload your photos to Picasa then you will be able to view your photos in "gallery"

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No you can pause forward reverse in android too.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. I turned on the Google Plus uploads. This is good enough for mobile, I think.

Also are you sure it isn't just the paid version of Tunein with the pause and rewind on Android? I use the free version and I don't have them either. They are in the free iOS version though.
 
slu said:
Also are you sure it isn't just the paid version of Tunein with the pause and rewind on Android? I use the free version and I don't have them either. They are in the free iOS version though.
Click to expand...

You may be right as i always get the paid version of Tune in Radio as its such a great app.

Edit: I just downloaded the free version and there is no jogging controls, its defiantly there in the paid version :)
 
supahsain said:
Perhaps upload your photos to Picasa then you will be able to view your photos in "gallery"

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No you can pause forward reverse in android too.
Click to expand...

torana355 said:
Im sorry but you could not be more wrong, Tune in radio on android does buffer and i can do rewind, fastforward and pause just like the iOS version. If you look in the settings you can even adjust the buffer time just like the iOS version. Next.
Click to expand...

This is what TuneIn looks like streaming on my HTC One (screenshot on the right). The same feed on my iP5 has controls allowing rewind/pause/forward, but none on the Android app.
 

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torana355 said:
You may be right as i always get the paid version of Tune in Radio as its such a great app.

Edit: I just downloaded the free version and there is no jogging controls, its defiantly there in the paid version :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't read all the way down the thread to see you guys has already figured out the difference. But this does illustrate the difference--same app on iOS (free version) is more full featured. Same situation in the app specifically for this sports talk radio feed (ESPN Radio)--iOS version has an hour of buffering that allows rewind/pause/skip while the Android version doesn't have this functionality, and both apps are free.
 
Slu maybe this post could help you out maybe not, but I will give my thoughts. So I think we as smartphone user fight tooth and nail to defend the OS that we choose for many reasons, but we also over look things because we don't want to see negatives. I for one will start by saying I have over looked disadvantages in android many times because I don't see them as disadvantages any more. I have argued for a long time that app quality is about the same on ios and android. Now this is becoming more true over the years, but is still not completely true. Of course there are apps that are completely the same, but other are not and ios has better versions of those apps. I think this is true because ios has only 3 devices and 3 screen sizes to worry about. On android developers have to worry about 100s of sizes, and different versions of android. It just takes more to make an app that works on android. I used ios for a long time, and would always get into arguments with my friend who use android that ios was better. I would always fight that ios was open enough and I could customize my iphone how I wanted it. It was not until I used android that I realize what I was missing in customization. The point I trying to make is we see what we want to see, but both ios and android have negatives is about whether you can still be happy with the OS beyond those things.

So I thought I would go app by app for the ones that I use most, and describe the ios and android versions. I will give you my opinion on which one I like the best. I am going to be as honest as I can.

Facebook- I think we all know that app is just crap on both. The ios version seems to be just a bit better, but that is not saying much at all. Dont really use facebook as much as I did when I was in college, so not really that big of deal to me any more.

Email- Now this is just my experience, but my main email is a gmail email. I find the gmail app to work better for me on android than the stock email app on ios. Now ios email app does a better job of putting all your emails in one place. After finding out about have the emails being able to fit on screen has help so much. Now I have a work email that is an exchange email, and to be honest I do not see the big difference in the two. Now this has come up on this thread several times that the android one is crap, but I just don't use is enough to see it.

Messaging app- I like the stock android app is better than any of the messaging apps on the play store, but I think the ios messaging app wins here. Now maybe after Babel is released it will be a different story, but the imessage and sms being put together is great. This is one of the things I miss about ios.

Music player- ios hands down has a way better music app. This is my number one thing I miss. This was one of the reason I tried the iphone 5. Don't get me wrong the play music app is awesome because you can have all your itunes music in one place without paying anything, but UI wise ios has this one.

Youtube- well seeing as Google owns youtube the android version is way better. Now youtube for ios is updating all the time, so it is getting better still though not as good.

Camera app- well this one is not a hard one ios. Do I need say more?

Tapatalk- this one is my one of most used apps for me. I say they both leave a lot to be desired, but if I had to choose one I would say ios because it has push notifications. Again like facebook I don't find either to be great, and both have a lot of lag.

Maps- google maps to be is hands down the best. Well I should say google maps on android is better than Apple maps. The ios google maps is not that good. Apple maps for being just introduced is pretty good, and will get better, but Google maps I think is the best navigation experience you can get.

Checkbook app- Some people may never use this, but I use this anytime I buy something. I used an app called iReconcile on ios as a checkbook register. Man was that app great. Miss that a lot. After searching for months and months I found easymoney, and I have to say not to bad, but still not iReconcile.

IMDB- another app I use a ton. I have to say it really is just the same on both. It is a good app that works well on both, and there really is no difference.

Flixster- about the same on both. Can't really see any difference.

Twitter- I use the official Twitter app, so I can't speak for the Twitter clients people speak of. The twitter app seems just as good on both.

Browser- I was never a big fan of Safari, and I am still not sold on Chrome. I really liked the stock browser on the galaxy nexus and thought it took the cake. If I had to choose between Safari and Chrome I would go with Chrome. Safari to me just is not for me. It seems so outdated with have a search bar that is not in the url. What browser on any platform does not offer this? This is not to say Chrome is great it is just better than Safari.

At&t UVerse- this is much better on android, but still At&t what can I say the app is just not that good on either. Android seems to add a lot better UI than ios. Things just seem easier to navigate on the android app.

Weather channel- this use to be a toss up, but after the android one got updated a couple of months ago it went south. They add this very cartoonish UI that is a real turn off. I will take the ios version all day long. The only thing I like better about the android version is that I can put the temperature in the notification bar.

Siri or Google now- well I think this might come down to preference, but I will say Siri seems to do more, and google picks up voices better. Now seems to get things more accurate, but Siri just does more stuff. I will let you see for yourself and decide.

Calendar- I like stock android much better. The ios one just seems to me kind of a mess. I think the stock android one is much cleaner and easier to use. Android when looking at the month view seems to give way more information than ios.

Clock app- really like the design of the android one, but ios has the sleep timer built in that lets you sleep whatever music is playing at the time. I use this every night when I am in bed. I know you can download apps from the playstore that do the same thing, but that does not count in app to app comparison.

Pandora- This use to be a no question ios win, but now I think it is a toss up. They both seem to be just a like. Just from me looking at them right now design and polish goes to ios. Over all functionality goes to android. Seems to add more to the experience.

Speed test app- I use this a lot and find the ios after the new update much better. If they get around to updating the android one it will be a toss up again.

Amazon- I like the UI just a bit more on android. Pretty much the same on both.

I know this was long, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible and give you some insight after being a long time user of both. I choose android even after some of my most used apps are not quite as good. Still I just like the way android works better than ios. If you have any question or there are apps that I left out that you want to know about let me know. There are going to be many I have never used, and I will let you know if that is the case. I hope this helps some.
 
slu said:
Thanks for this post. Looking into these now. I would like notifications on the lock screen, so going to try that first.

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Correct. Haven't ruled out rooting down the line, but I want to use stock for a while to find what I am missing first.
Click to expand...

Have a look at DashClock
 
tbayrgs said:
Sorry, didn't read all the way down the thread to see you guys has already figured out the difference. But this does illustrate the difference--same app on iOS (free version) is more full featured. Same situation in the app specifically for this sports talk radio feed (ESPN Radio)--iOS version has an hour of buffering that allows rewind/pause/skip while the Android version doesn't have this functionality, and both apps are free.
Click to expand...

I believe you're right, I just checked the pro version and it only has stop & pause.
 
I would recommend the Executive Assistant app. Great way to see your email, calendar, text messages, news feed, missed calls, Twitter and Facebook all at one glance.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appventive.ExecAssist

And when you do get to rooting your phone, do consider the PGM Touch Control app. A right to left swipe across the bottom of your screen locks the phone. And a left to right swipe anywhere on the screen unlocks the phone. No more fiddling around with the power button!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.paranoid.touchcontrol
 
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