What are something's you can do with Android that you can't with iOS?

[JunBringer]

Does an iPhone still have to turn the screen on every time you get a notification? That's sort of a pet peeve though that might have changed in recent updates.

I have a Pebble so I'm not as concerned with the notification light, but having had both they do have their place in the world and are handy in their own ways.



I'm going to miss using AirDroid to send files onto my device over LTE. There are frequent situations for me where I'd like to get some files (comics and music usually) put onto my device while I'm not at home nor on wifi and I won't be able to do so. Yes I'll survive but it is super handy.

 

[mrex]

There are apps that can do that.

 

[pdqgp]

I started using Nova Prime's swipe action on the apps (under edit when you press and hold an app). This is why I only have ONE page of a homescreen. Too many shortcuts. If I swipe up on the phone/dialer app, it can have my texting app. I no longer have to reach to the far upper left with my right thumb. If I swipe up on default browser, it brings up Opera Mini. If I swipe up on QuickPic, it can bring up Photo Grid. For YouTube, it brings up TubeMate. A shortcut of any app it can relate to.

I can do less digging and searching for apps in the drawer. With iOS, it is swipe left or right or find a certain app in a folder. Too much clutter. You can't hide the ugly icons or change them. You can't even LOCK the desktop in case the apps wiggle wiggle like a Jason Derulo music video. I think Nova Launcher Prime is years and years ahead of iOS in just versatility alone. If you want the quickest way to get bored of a homescreen and navigation, go for iOS. It's simple and smooth and boring, limiting, and the best at restrictions...

^^ ALL of this. I love the gesture/app/action ability of Nova. Not only does it allow for convenience, but it's also private for me. A lower level way of hiding my text messages and email from prying eyes should they get my phone from me while it's unlocked. Sounds silly, but yes, that's happened. Now if my buddy at the bar flicking through pics decides to try and sneak a peak at my text messages, he has no clue where the app is Double tap my screen brings up email, flick up from Phone brings up text messages and more.

It really is a great way of simplifying things. I have my folders of say Health and Fitness open Livestrong with a simply flick. My Navigation Apps folder flick and it opens my cars remote starter app. The list goes on. Basically any folder or app can be configured to do a number of things.

 

[JoeTomasone]

Yes, everyone should buy a smartwatch to get notified you got an email instead of a 1c LED on a phone.

Quite frankly, I'd rather have the watch then the LED; i know WHAT the notification is and if I need to respond immediately or not. All the other features such as music control are just icing on the cake. I get a ton of emails every day, some are unimportant, some are critical and require immediate assistance, most are in between. If I had to check the phone every time an LED indicated that email came in... Forget it.

<troll>

Of course, till the day Apple decides to copy a feature, its useless (big phone, copy paste, notification, control center, widgets, wifi ac, keyboards) then suddenly it becomes 'magical' once they do.

</troll>

What they put into the phones isn't what's magical - it's how it all works.

And you're saying that no one copies Apple? Heck, everyone said that the iPhone ITSELF was useless, would never gain any market share or make an impact in the mobile world, etc, etc, etc.

But hey, you're gonna want a list of things that were copied from the iPhone, so....

iPhone itself (connected music player, phone, and internet)
True web experience versus WAP
App Store
iTunes Store
Pinch-to-zoom/multitouch/Double-tap to zoom, etc.
Visual voicemail
Accelerometer & proximity detector
Seamless Wifi/Cellular integration/handoff
"Flick" based scrolling, with physics-based motion
Portrait/landscape mode


They also copied the design. Leading phones from various manufacturers before and after the original iPhone was introduced:

And let's not forget the words of the founders and initial developers of Android:

Reacting to Jobs' demonstration, former Apple engineering lead and early Android team member Chris DeSalvo stated, "As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought 'We're going to have to start over.'""What we had suddenly looked just so — nineties" - Android developer Chris DeSalvo

Fred Vogelstein, in Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution quoted DeSalvo as observing, "what we had suddenly looked just so — nineties. It's just one of those things that are obvious when you see it'."

Android's founder Rubin was similarly quoted as responding, "Holy crap, I guess we're not going to ship that phone," a reference to the BlackBerry-like Android phone prototype Google was gearing up to release. Instead, the company had to return to the drawing board and develop a new device with Windows Mobile hardware developer HTC, which became the HTC Dream, also branded as T-Mobile G1.


If you knew anything about the history of smartphones, you'd know that Android is what it is because the iPhone exists, period. And while vendor X may include a feature that Apple later incorporates as well, it could easily be said that the copying started the other way 'round.

But then, only in smartphones so people get exercised about this.

 

[pdqgp]

Smart watches or smartwearables is the future. I'm not saying everyone needs to buy one, but if you want something better than an led light, a smartwatch is 10x better.

Agree. Whether you like them or not and what they may best be used for, I'm not quite sure as I've not thought about it thoroughly, but I do agree that if you're going to wear something like a standard watch on your wrist, you might as well have one that does more than just a couple basic functions.

I was at Dreamforce for the launch of will.i.am and his wearable. Jury is out on this one, but he and others are going to continue making the watch of yesterday exactly that. I'm confident of that statement.

----------

Very much disagree. They are a fashion accessory and do nothing, its an answer to a problem no one has. The iWatch is being positioned very much as a fashion item too.

couldn't disagree more. that's rolling back the clock to 1995 can mobile phone users calling a smart phone an answer to a problem no one had back then.

----------

not limited to Android, but removable battery and SD card

coming from me as a Note 3 user, I'd say removable batteries are way over rated and not needed. most cell phones today have plenty of power and if they don't it takes like 15 minutes of plugging one into a portable battery source to juice one up. I would never buy a second battery for my Note 3. Way better solutions out there. Especially when it comes price and convenience.

In terms of removable SD....I agree. Love having all that storage on board. It's where I store movies, videos, pictures, music, etc. Keeps my onboard for better things.

also I'm tired of looking at wall of apps everytime I open my iPhone. widgets are a lot more prettier.

iOS8 finally addressed this. It's a slick way of doing exactly what our Android Widgets do. In some ways I like it better.

 

[mrex]

They also copied the design. Leading phones from various manufacturers before and after the original iPhone was introduced:

... Pic from cultofmac ....

Oh well, i bet they will collect pics too from c64 to pc286 and compare them to macbook... before and later... you really should check some other phones too, starting from lg prada... then check other things you mentioned by yourself.

 

[JoeTomasone]

Oh well, i bet they will collect pics too from c64 to pc286 and compare them to macbook... before and later... you really should check some other phones too, starting from lg prada... then check other things you mentioned by yourself.

LG Prada is about the only phone that existed prior to the iPhone announcement, but Apple didn't copy them; the iPhone was in process for a few years before it was announced. Those two are actually coincidences.

We could easily compare the MacBook Air to the clones that Dell et al came out with... Some, you can barely tell the difference if the logo is removed.

(This one even copied the charger design!)



PC Magazine said: "The first round of Ultrabooks bore a distinct resemblance to the MacBook Air, mimicking everything from the low profile keyboard and glass surfaced trackpad to the minimalism of the aluminum Unibody. The ultrabook category may have been laid out by Intel, but it was defined by Apple, with nearly every defining point aping the MacBook Air. The new slim laptops would be razor-thin (under 21mm), light (under 3.1 pounds), and long-lasting (with 5+ hours of battery life). People noticed it too, and manufacturers have realized that "Copy Apple" isn't a viable design strategy anymore."

</offtopic>

 

[lympero]

Xbmc...

 

[Oohara]

for the love of God not the who copied who thing again



not again









please

 

[pdqgp]

for the love of God not the who copied who thing again

not again

please

 

[I7guy]

for the love of God not the who copied who thing again



not again









please

Yeppers. I didn't know how many things android could do that IOS couldn't. Guess I'll have to sell my 5s for an htc..,





Nope.

 

[Oohara]

lol spot on

 

[Lloydbm41]

LG Prada is about the only phone that existed prior to the iPhone announcement, but Apple didn't copy them; the iPhone was in process for a few years before it was announced. Those two are actually coincidences.

Really? From Samsung Feb 9, 2007. Original iPhone came out in June 2007. Oops.

Samsung today announced a new addition to its Ultra portfolio with the introduction of Ultra Smart F700. This revolutionary mobile phone will be showcased at 3GSM World Congress.

Features :

1) Full Touch Screen
2) MPEG4/H.263/H.264/Real MP3/AAC(+)/eAAC+/Real
3) QWERTY Keypad
4) MMS / E-mail / JAVA / WAP 2.0
5) Bluetooth® / USB
6) Flash UI / Document Viewer
7) Full HTML Browsing
8) Offline Mode, BGM

 

[JunBringer]

There are apps that can do that.

oh good! What're they called?

 

[mrex]

there are several.. check google: remote apps / remote desktop / remote access.

 

[sk1wbw]

Having just come from Android for the past few years to an iPhone 6 here are some things which I would like to see but DON'T necessarily miss on an iPhone:

*Notification light for missed events, calls, messages etc.
*Memory card - so convenient to slip in extra memory at a low cost although negated with my 64gb iPhone
*Widgets - although can be a battery drain, was nice to see the weather and news on the main screen without having to open an app
*Drag & drop - one of the main, if not main things I miss. Plugging in your phone and having the file folder open up and move anything onto the phone without having to do it through iTunes

Even with the above items, I still think IOS is slicker and I've experienced no crashes on my iPhone so far. Everything is smooth and fast - so far very happy with my choice.

Notification lights and SD cards are NOT Android. Android is an operating system. Those are hardware features.

 

[mercuryjones]

There are plenty of things that Android can do that iOS can't, and vice versa. However, I prefer the overall usability and integration of iOS and OS X, plus the apps. Now with iOS8, it just got even better.
At some point, I may switch back to Android to try it out, but that day is not today.

 

[beosound3200]

Really? From Samsung Feb 9, 2007. Original iPhone came out in June 2007. Oops.

weird how this didnt become the world best selling smartphone defining a couple of industries along the way, considering its the same thing

o yeah, probably because of apples marketing and cult behavior of its costumers

ask yourself, how does one reach cult status?

 

[flameproof]

We could easily compare the MacBook Air to the clones that Dell et al came out with... Some, you can barely tell the difference if the logo is removed.

All notebooks looks the same to me. Same as all flat TVs look the same. You really need a close look.

The trend that notebooks got thinner was certainly not invented by Apple. They where getting thinner long before that.

Boy, we are getting really off topic now.....

 

[JoeTomasone]

Really? From Samsung Feb 9, 2007. Original iPhone came out in June 2007. Oops.

...But was announced on January 9th, 2007. Back at'cha.

 

[flameproof]

There are plenty of things that Android can do that iOS can't, and vice versa.

So what is a iOS function that Android can't do?

 

[I7guy]

The #1 usability and security item favorite is touch id. I can unlock my phone while taking it out of my pocket. I have a lot of confidential stuff on my phone and it is always locked; touch id makes it very easy and very quick to unlock the phone.

 

[pdqgp]

So what is a iOS function that Android can't do?

Show all notifications AND Widgets with a simple pull down. Android requires widgets to be displayed on the screens. They do offer notifications on Android, but full widgets from any app from a simple pull down from the top....not that I'm aware of, but I reserve the right to be wrong so I can install that feature.

 

[mercuryjones]

So what is a iOS function that Android can't do?

Update to the new version the day of release?

 

[khha4113]

Update to the new version the day of release?

And brick it???
Sarcasm aside. Google implements different approach than Apple's. All core apps have been updated promptly via Google Play store than waiting for manufacturers and carriers approvals.