Phones What can an iPhone do that a android phone can't? [EDIT: and vice-versa]

[Cod3rror]

Android cannot do 3 things iOS can. And those 3 things are the ones that keep me from going to Android.

1. Android has no background audio API - Yes, a developer can code it into their app, but it is not an OS API, so the dev has to spend a lot of time on it, hence most devs don't bother with it, on iOS almost all apps that play either video or audio support background audio, including the browser.

Why is this good?

Well, sites like YouTube for example can be used not only for viewing videos but to listening to music, online lectures, etc... lots of stuff that does not really require "watching".

Here's what I do: I open Safari, find an interesting documentary, music, etc... background Safari, then go to the centralized audio controls, hit "Play" the audio from that backgrounded Safari starts playing. Then I open Chrome and browse for stuff... multitasking!

In the evening, before sleep, you can find ambient sounds on YouTube, start playing them in Safari and read a book or again, browse... if it's a rainy evening, I like to play "Bladerunner blues" soundtrack from Bladerunner and browse the web.

I'm sure there are specialized ambient sound, etc... apps that play in the background on Android, but I don't like to download anything extra that can be done in the browser just fine on iOS... and besides, those still won't have the support for centralized controls, cause Android does not have that.

P.S. I also know about TouchWiz's pop-out video, but that's only for the video player(not universal/API) and I don't need the pop-out window, just from the video audio.


2. Centralized Audio Controls - The first point brings us to the second point, centralized audio controls, VERY handy. Wherever you are, you can quickly bring up the task switcher and pause the audio of ANY app that current playing. Don't worry about forgetting which app is playing the audio, you don't have to into the multitasking search to find the app... just go to the centralized audio controls and hit "pause" conveniently the currently playing app's icon is on the right, so you can go to the app directly if you wish.

3. Rubberbanding/Edge bounce-back effect - I love this thing, Android has that edge glow, but it just does not compare. This little effect makes the UI feel much more responsive and alive. This is especially important with touch UI, since there is physical tactile feedback, when you swipe and the UI does nothing it creates a feeling that the phone froze, on iOS, if you swipe at the edge, you get a response - bounce back. Interestingly, this patent has been invalidated, so I hope Android gets this integrated everywhere.



Android has MUCH more functionality than iOS, but it still does not have the above three, if it had, I'd probably jump to Android.

 

[matttye]

You dont need a virus scanner on Android anymore than you would on an iPhone. What im debating is those who are saying it is a neccessity and it isnt.
You need to be smart with your iPhone too so that was just a general statement. Much like you have to be smart when using eBay. The Google play store has reviews of every App for instance. Just do a little reading. Maybe saying you need to be smart is not th right word. Common sense is more like it.






Maybe they did a simple virus scan of it. How long do you think that would take? A couple minutes at most? Maybe it is an automatic thing after submital? I really dont know but it could be. I do know they have caught some apps that were bad and have shut down those for rooting phones.



They arent "needed" on a Android phone and i know no one that has had a virus on their phone or tablet. Id say they arent needed anymore than the iPhone or iPad is. There have been reports of malware in the App store.

No, they are definitely more necessary on Android. On Android apps can do whatever they want (within the confines of their sandbox) in the background. In iOS there's only a limited number of background APIs that apps can make use of, so there's less chance of them doing any harm in the background.

You can't scan new code for malware because it's new! Antivirus software usually works by looking at existing malware/viruses/etc and compiling a database of "signatures" or "definitions." This is why Antivirus software is constantly updated. Trying to detect viruses in new code would result in too many false positives being declined.

I've seen hundreds of people with airpush adverts spamming their notification bar. That's adware, but antiviruses should pick it up.

Once an app is installed on Android and you've accepted its' permissions (which many people don't bother to read), that app can do whatever it requested permission to do without further prompting. On iOS there are no permissions to accept at installation time; you have to accept at the time the app is actually trying to access your data.

Finally, the very fact that apps on iOS go through an approval process means they are LESS likely to contain harmful code.

 

[sentinelsx]

Android cannot do 3 things iOS can. And those 3 things are the ones that keep me from going to Android.

1. Android has no background audio API - Yes, a developer can code it into their app, but it is not an OS API, so the dev has to spend a lot of time on it, hence most devs don't bother with it, on iOS almost all apps that play either video or audio support background audio, including the browser.

Why is this good?

Well, sites like YouTube for example can be used not only for viewing videos but to listening to music, online lectures, etc... lots of stuff that does not really require "watching".

Here's what I do: I open Safari, find an interesting documentary, music, etc... background Safari, then go to the centralized audio controls, hit "Play" the audio from that backgrounded Safari starts playing. Then I open Chrome and browse for stuff... multitasking!

In the evening, before sleep, you can find ambient sounds on YouTube, start playing them in Safari and read a book or again, browse... if it's a rainy evening, I like to play "Bladerunner blues" soundtrack from Bladerunner and browse the web.

I'm sure there are specialized ambient sound, etc... apps that play in the background on Android, but I don't like to download anything extra that can be done in the browser just fine on iOS... and besides, those still won't have the support for centralized controls, cause Android does not have that.

P.S. I also know about TouchWiz's pop-out video, but that's only for the video player(not universal/API) and I don't need the pop-out window, just from the video audio.


2. Centralized Audio Controls - The first point brings us to the second point, centralized audio controls, VERY handy. Wherever you are, you can quickly bring up the task switcher and pause the audio of ANY app that current playing. Don't worry about forgetting which app is playing the audio, you don't have to into the multitasking search to find the app... just go to the centralized audio controls and hit "pause" conveniently the currently playing app's icon is on the right, so you can go to the app directly if you wish.

3. Rubberbanding/Edge bounce-back effect - I love this thing, Android has that edge glow, but it just does not compare. This little effect makes the UI feel much more responsive and alive. This is especially important with touch UI, since there is physical tactile feedback, when you swipe and the UI does nothing it creates a feeling that the phone froze, on iOS, if you swipe at the edge, you get a response - bounce back. Interestingly, this patent has been invalidated, so I hope Android gets this integrated everywhere.



Android has MUCH more functionality than iOS, but it still does not have the above three, if it had, I'd probably jump to Android.

If you use McTube Pro on iOS, it doesn't even stop audio if you minimize it/lock device. That's why I use it over jasmine and the official YouTube app on my iPhone. Just play the video, quit app and no need to access controls because the sound will not stop. Pretty cool feature.

 

[Vegastouch]

Android cannot do 3 things iOS can. And those 3 things are the ones that keep me from going to Android.

1. Android has no background audio API - Yes, a developer can code it into their app, but it is not an OS API, so the dev has to spend a lot of time on it, hence most devs don't bother with it, on iOS almost all apps that play either video or audio support background audio, including the browser.

Why is this good?

Well, sites like YouTube for example can be used not only for viewing videos but to listening to music, online lectures, etc... lots of stuff that does not really require "watching".

Here's what I do: I open Safari, find an interesting documentary, music, etc... background Safari, then go to the centralized audio controls, hit "Play" the audio from that backgrounded Safari starts playing. Then I open Chrome and browse for stuff... multitasking!

In the evening, before sleep, you can find ambient sounds on YouTube, start playing them in Safari and read a book or again, browse... if it's a rainy evening, I like to play "Bladerunner blues" soundtrack from Bladerunner and browse the web.

I'm sure there are specialized ambient sound, etc... apps that play in the background on Android, but I don't like to download anything extra that can be done in the browser just fine on iOS... and besides, those still won't have the support for centralized controls, cause Android does not have that.

P.S. I also know about TouchWiz's pop-out video, but that's only for the video player(not universal/API) and I don't need the pop-out window, just from the video audio.


2. Centralized Audio Controls - The first point brings us to the second point, centralized audio controls, VERY handy. Wherever you are, you can quickly bring up the task switcher and pause the audio of ANY app that current playing. Don't worry about forgetting which app is playing the audio, you don't have to into the multitasking search to find the app... just go to the centralized audio controls and hit "pause" conveniently the currently playing app's icon is on the right, so you can go to the app directly if you wish.

3. Rubberbanding/Edge bounce-back effect - I love this thing, Android has that edge glow, but it just does not compare. This little effect makes the UI feel much more responsive and alive. This is especially important with touch UI, since there is physical tactile feedback, when you swipe and the UI does nothing it creates a feeling that the phone froze, on iOS, if you swipe at the edge, you get a response - bounce back. Interestingly, this patent has been invalidated, so I hope Android gets this integrated everywhere.



Android has MUCH more functionality than iOS, but it still does not have the above three, if it had, I'd probably jump to Android.

I get the first two above but the last one i bolded, you lost me. Is it some sort of light effect? I cant picture how that would be a good/useful feature but rather something to look at.

----------

No, they are definitely more necessary on Android. On Android apps can do whatever they want (within the confines of their sandbox) in the background. In iOS there's only a limited number of background APIs that apps can make use of, so there's less chance of them doing any harm in the background.

You can't scan new code for malware because it's new! Antivirus software usually works by looking at existing malware/viruses/etc and compiling a database of "signatures" or "definitions." This is why Antivirus software is constantly updated. Trying to detect viruses in new code would result in too many false positives being declined.

I've seen hundreds of people with airpush adverts spamming their notification bar. That's adware, but antiviruses should pick it up.

Once an app is installed on Android and you've accepted its' permissions (which many people don't bother to read), that app can do whatever it requested permission to do without further prompting. On iOS there are no permissions to accept at installation time; you have to accept at the time the app is actually trying to access your data.

Finally, the very fact that apps on iOS go through an approval process means they are LESS likely to contain harmful code.

Sorry i just dont agree. They arent "necessary". You can use one if you want but those who say you "need" a virus scanner or app are just misinformed. You can go into app management of turn things off in the background or the app itself and turn it off. Again, common sense comes into play.

How many do you know that got a virus on Android? I know none.

 

[matttye]

Sorry i just dont agree. They arent "necessary". You can use one if you want but those who say you "need" a virus scanner or app are just misinformed. You can go into app management of turn things off in the background or the app itself and turn it off. Again, common sense comes into play.

How many do you know that got a virus on Android? I know none.

Right and as I've already said a lot of people don't have "common sense" when it comes to technology. That's why there are so many antivirus companies out there; because they make money off of people who don't know what they're doing. It seems like the most simple solution for somebody who doesn't have time to learn about computers. Don't forget that most people aren't like us; they don't come on message boards to discuss geeky stuff. A lot of people know the bare minimum they need to get by about computers.

I don't know anybody personally, but I've read about them before. I know a lot of people who have had problems with airpush.

 

[Cod3rror]

I get the first two above but the last one i bolded, you lost me. Is it some sort of light effect? I cant picture how that would be a good/useful feature but rather something to look at.

It's not a light effect, it's a UI animation effect, it's a tiny thing but it definitely has a positive effect on usability of the whole UI.

At first it was purely an aesthetic feature, but now it morphed into an actual feature. Many apps have started to use it "Pull down to refresh" for example.

iOS' stock email app started using it too, when you pull down and let go, it refreshes your mailboxes.

Here's the vid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnXpOd44Wc

In Android, if you swiped down like that, there would be no visual response, which would make you feel that the phone is stuck, or there would be a glow light effect, which IMO, is not as effective and pleasant.

 

[matttye]

It's not a light effect, it's a UI animation effect, it's a tiny thing but it definitely has a positive effect on usability of the whole UI.

At first it was purely an aesthetic feature, but now it morphed into an actual feature. Many apps have started to use it "Pull down to refresh" for example.

iOS' stock email app started using it too, when you pull down and let go, it refreshes your mailboxes.

Here's the vid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnXpOd44Wc

In Android, if you swiped down like that, there would be no visual response, which would make you feel that the phone is stuck, or there would be a glow light effect, which IMO, is not as effective and pleasant.

Agreed, pull down to refresh is becoming a standard in a lot of apps.

 

[Vegastouch]

It's not a light effect, it's a UI animation effect, it's a tiny thing but it definitely has a positive effect on usability of the whole UI.

At first it was purely an aesthetic feature, but now it morphed into an actual feature. Many apps have started to use it "Pull down to refresh" for example.

iOS' stock email app started using it too, when you pull down and let go, it refreshes your mailboxes.

Here's the vid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnXpOd44Wc

In Android, if you swiped down like that, there would be no visual response, which would make you feel that the phone is stuck, or there would be a glow light effect, which IMO, is not as effective and pleasant.

Ah, gotcha. Many apps have that on Android. Tweetcaster has that, Facebook, Pulse, Flipboard...to name a few but not my stock email app. But the refresh button is at the top right corner though so no big deal. I guess thats a good feature. Never really thought about much though.

I use Twitter and Pulse a lot and Twitter for one keeps moving often as the day goes so its nice but it updates pretty much instantly anyway.

 

[mib1800]

1. Android has no background audio API - Y

Are you sure?
Then explain how 3rd party music player apps can play music in background?

 

[Cod3rror]

Are you sure?
Then explain how 3rd party music player apps can play music in background?

I already did in the original post.

 

[plymouthbiker]

Some good points on your blog, but I have a bone to pick with some of it

"With Android it gives you a massive list of apps that you can share your pictures with but on the iPhoneit gives you Mail, Facebook, print and copy.... ??? So how does the typical Apple fanboy, base the saying "it just works", on this? It clearly doesn't."

You would be expected to go to the app you want to share with on iOS rather than the gallery as it stands at the moment. Whether to go to the app or the gallery is just a matter of preference.

I would prefer being able to share to everywhere from the gallery and I think Android has a much better sharing system, I'm just saying that it's usually still possible to share to whichever service you want in iOS, as long as you have the app. You just have to go to said app.

Ah, yes I can see what you mean. Then I'm corrected in the sharing point of view. And therefore I find it a little irritating that all the options are not open in all areas on iOS unlike Android. For instance another area I like is the ability to go to the settings menu on Android do uninstall an app or open the app list to do the same, or uninstall via the home page by drag and drop. It's got all areas covered what ever route you take. Obviously with the iphone it doesnt have those options as the operating system is designed differently and it doesn't need it as it doesn't have a menu of apps but pages of apps on the home screen. But my point is that it would be handy if all options were open to users rather than wasting time looking for the app to upload the picture rather than finding the picture you want and forwarding it to the app easily. Thanks for reading the blog by the way.

 

[cynics]

Ah, yes I can see what you mean. Then I'm corrected in the sharing point of view. And therefore I find it a little irritating that all the options are not open in all areas on iOS unlike Android. For instance another area I like is the ability to go to the settings menu on Android do uninstall an app or open the app list to do the same, or uninstall via the home page by drag and drop. It's got all areas covered what ever route you take. Obviously with the iphone it doesnt have those options as the operating system is designed differently and it doesn't need it as it doesn't have a menu of apps but pages of apps on the home screen. But my point is that it would be handy if all options were open to users rather than wasting time looking for the app to upload the picture rather than finding the picture you want and forwarding it to the app easily. Thanks for reading the blog by the way.

In General > Usage in iOS settings you get a list and are able to delete apps from there.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

 

[richardmisfit]

Don't ever compare phones by Apps. That is not even a factor anymore. Almost anything I've ever wanted is in the market.
The customization for me is a big plus. The bigger screen for games and media too.

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum but i gotta say apps are def a good reason to judge a phone. After all a smart phone is mostly smart because of the apps. You can do pro quality multi track recording on an iPhone and plug your guitar into it and have amp simulators that will actually sound like you're plugged into a real amp, or plug your keyboard or a pro Mic. You can actually use it to perform a live show and record the entire thing as you go. Hardware and software are huge reasons for buying a phone. You def can't do any of that with an Android. Trust me i know. I'm a musician and i have a galaxy s4 and it drives me that i can't use it for anything of the things that actually matter. Love the phone and cool to tinker with but for now apple still owns the market. Not too mention all the hardware accessories you can get for Apple. Both have an advantages but apple let's me do important things that actually matter instead of flash and toys. I got an iPad mini so now i have the best of both worlds lol oh and that's just on the musicians side of things. Most non musicians didn't know that about the iPhone. Makes you think what else we don't know about the iPhone and what it can do for everyone that Android can't. My two cents lol

 

[SHNXX]

I don't care about features.
Execution is better on iPhone in most areas.

There are a couple of features I miss but that's why I also have an android phone.

 

[AppleRobert]

Got one. IPhone does not give one a larger screen to enjoy even more the things you like to do like playing games, watching videos, and surfing for me without going blind.

 

[kamalds]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum but i gotta say apps are def a good reason to judge a phone. After all a smart phone is mostly smart because of the apps. You can do pro quality multi track recording on an iPhone and plug your guitar into it and have amp simulators that will actually sound like you're plugged into a real amp, or plug your keyboard or a pro Mic. You can actually use it to perform a live show and record the entire thing as you go. Hardware and software are huge reasons for buying a phone. You def can't do any of that with an Android. Trust me i know. I'm a musician and i have a galaxy s4 and it drives me that i can't use it for anything of the things that actually matter. Love the phone and cool to tinker with but for now apple still owns the market. Not too mention all the hardware accessories you can get for Apple. Both have an advantages but apple let's me do important things that actually matter instead of flash and toys. I got an iPad mini so now i have the best of both worlds lol oh and that's just on the musicians side of things. Most non musicians didn't know that about the iPhone. Makes you think what else we don't know about the iPhone and what it can do for everyone that Android can't. My two cents lol

Not everyone is a musician. I moved to Android (GS4) because I hated iTunes for data and media transfer. I also wanted to a full fledge file manager and a better email client. Gmail on Android is best. Web browsing on Android's chrome is amazing as well.

Not to mention full HD display and full office productivity thanks to Mobisystem officesuite that lets me edit documents without loosing formatting.

 

[mKTank]

Not everyone is a musician. I moved to Android (GS4) because I hated iTunes for data and media transfer. I also wanted to a full fledge file manager and a better email client. Gmail on Android is best. Web browsing on Android's chrome is amazing as well.

Not to mention full HD display and full office productivity thanks to Mobisystem officesuite that lets me edit documents without loosing formatting.

I agree with you on almost every thing you said except browsers. Android seriously sucks at browsing the web compared to an iPhone. My Note 3 can't keep up with my old iPhone 5, and that phone's twice as old.

 

[khha4113]

You say you don't see why people say you have to run a virus scanner, then later on in the same post you say "if your smart you won't get a virus on any of your electronics." Well lots of people aren't smart when it comes to technology and that's exactly why virus scanners are important on Android.

Smartphones often contain lots of sensitive information that you wouldn't want to get into the wrong hands, so it's important that they're secure.

I developed a test app for Android and submitted it, and when I refreshed the page after submitting it it was available for download. No checking whatsoever. I could've written a horrendous virus and published it immediately.

The logic that because you have never had a virus, virus scanners are not needed, is extremely flawed.

FYI: I didn't use one either, but I understand their importance.

Google has 'Verify App services' installed in Android. It would warn if anything suspicious with downloaded apps.

 

[AppleRobert]

I agree with you on almost every thing you said except browsers. Android seriously sucks at browsing the web compared to an iPhone. My Note 3 can't keep up with my old iPhone 5, and that phone's twice as old.

Not having any problem browsing with N3, multiple tabs etc. I do not have an iphone to compare but I can go to an Apple store and try it out of curiosity but regardless if it is much better which I doubt there still is that small screen.

 

[Dontazemebro]

I agree with you on almost every thing you said except browsers. Android seriously sucks at browsing the web compared to an iPhone. My Note 3 can't keep up with my old iPhone 5, and that phone's twice as old.

Don't know if I would agree with this. Although I don't use the stock browser on the Note 3 so I don't know if your issue is with that. Firefox in the note 3 is a much more enjoyable experience for me than safari or chrome in the 5s. Especially since the tabs reload on safari ever so often.

 

[mKTank]

Don't know if I would agree with this. Although I don't use the stock browser on the Note 3 so I don't know if your issue is with that. Firefox in the note 3 is a much more enjoyable experience for me than safari or chrome in the 5s. Especially since the tabs reload on safari ever so often.

Yep, I have tried Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Dolphin, and AOSP browser on my Note 3. AOSP was the best but it had some graphical issues (for some reason the phone icon shows up in the search results when you type in the address bar). All of them were still total crap compared to my old iPhone 5 when it came to Javascript, HTML5, and standards compliance in general. That was the deal breaker to me and one of a few major reasons why I went back to iPhone.

Also, the tab reloading thing has been fixed with 7.1. At least to a point where it's not really an issue until you open 10+ heavy tabs.

The big screen is nice, but JIT and the Dalvik runtime in general are crippling the browsers. I predict when the browsers are optimized for ART we may see an improvement. Until then, Safari is just better even with half (or a third in the case of RAM) the hardware.

 

[jeffe]

Android cannot do 3 things iOS can. And those 3 things are the ones that keep me from going to Android.

1. Android has no background audio API - Yes, a developer can code it into their app, but it is not an OS API, so the dev has to spend a lot of time on it, hence most devs don't bother with it, on iOS almost all apps that play either video or audio support background audio, including the browser.

Why would Android need a background audio API? It seems completely redundant and unnecessary to have one to me.

Playing audio in the background on Android is as simple as playing audio in a background service which isn't really a lot of work for a Dev to do.

 

[Sensamic]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum but i gotta say apps are def a good reason to judge a phone. After all a smart phone is mostly smart because of the apps. You can do pro quality multi track recording on an iPhone and plug your guitar into it and have amp simulators that will actually sound like you're plugged into a real amp, or plug your keyboard or a pro Mic. You can actually use it to perform a live show and record the entire thing as you go. Hardware and software are huge reasons for buying a phone. You def can't do any of that with an Android. Trust me i know. I'm a musician and i have a galaxy s4 and it drives me that i can't use it for anything of the things that actually matter. Love the phone and cool to tinker with but for now apple still owns the market. Not too mention all the hardware accessories you can get for Apple. Both have an advantages but apple let's me do important things that actually matter instead of flash and toys. I got an iPad mini so now i have the best of both worlds lol oh and that's just on the musicians side of things. Most non musicians didn't know that about the iPhone. Makes you think what else we don't know about the iPhone and what it can do for everyone that Android can't. My two cents lol

Stop bringing old threads back to life!!!!

My God...

 

[jeffe]

It's not a light effect, it's a UI animation effect, it's a tiny thing but it definitely has a positive effect on usability of the whole UI.

At first it was purely an aesthetic feature, but now it morphed into an actual feature. Many apps have started to use it "Pull down to refresh" for example.

iOS' stock email app started using it too, when you pull down and let go, it refreshes your mailboxes.

Here's the vid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnXpOd44Wc

In Android, if you swiped down like that, there would be no visual response, which would make you feel that the phone is stuck, or there would be a glow light effect, which IMO, is not as effective and pleasant.

Not trying to pick on you but on Android, if you swiped down like that, you would get a visual response. Here is a video of pull to refresh on Gmail and this is how many Android apps are doing pull to refresh now.

https://vine.co/v/b3PUHJeQpFd

Which you prefer or if you even have a preference is subjective.

 

[Lloydbm41]

No, they are definitely more necessary on Android. On Android apps can do whatever they want (within the confines of their sandbox) in the background. In iOS there's only a limited number of background APIs that apps can make use of, so there's less chance of them doing any harm in the background.

This is correct on Android 4.2 and earlier, but not correct on new devices or those running 4.3+. Google Play Services API is the gatekeeper for all rules.

I've seen hundreds of people with airpush adverts spamming their notification bar. That's adware, but antiviruses should pick it up.

Airpush was outlawed by Google as of August last year. Any apk found by the Google searchbots (or reported by a human and reviewed) is immediately killed and the developer banned.

Finally, the very fact that apps on iOS go through an approval process means they are LESS likely to contain harmful code.

Common sense.