iOS vs Android

[Dooms]

I've had android devices since the HTC Magic (Feb 2009) and I have to admit I was a Android Fanboy.

Roll forward 3 years and many android devices later I ended up with an iPhone 4S because I got it for free & it was the best device I owned at the time (replacing a Xperia Mini Pro I was using as a backup phone).

I don't mind the iPhone but there are plenty of niggles that I've had to jailbreak to save me a lot of headaches...

Default Apps - I use Chrome (cross platform bookmarks, history, passwords and 'whats open on other devices) and Google Maps is just better... It was driving me nuts that iOS demands I use Safari & Apple maps.

Folder Sizes / No app draw / forced icons - These go hand in hand, without an app draw and my hate for icons all over the place I like having a single page (or maybe 2) with folders etc. How annoying is it having a folder called Games and then later down the line having to make a 2nd one called games or have something like "Quick Games" and "RPG Games" etc.

Quick Settings / Widgets - Again, being able to quickly turn on / off wifi, bluetooth, 3g without having to go though multiple menus.

Wifi off when screen off - I now understand why so many iPhone users claim so much more battery life, its because the wifi isn't persistent. Turn the screen off and few seconds later wifi turns off... well that wasn't much use when I didn't have a sim in my iPhone for 4 months in Canada.

So now I can understand why people do like the iPhone, its pretty, fast and sleek with more polished apps however it just doesn't offer the system and UI customisations to please me on a device I spend the majority of my time using.

HTC One inc next month and the iPhone 4S will be wiped, reset and given to my tech illiterate Father who will make the most of it without noticing its flaws.

[Cheshh]

Ive had iphones for over 4 years and I still cannot see the appeal of android, I purchased a nexus tablet to see what all the fuss is about and yes the customisation is all there, much better than Apples devices in that respect but the app optimisation was shockingly bad and after 6 months with it I sold it on.

App optimisation versus customisation(which can be achieved with jailbreaking although not ideal). Ill choose App optimisation all day long

[kopite]

App optimisation in what way?

PArt of the problem with a lot of apps has been that IOS has been the lead platform which leads to the Android version being hampered.
The more developers use android as the main platform or dont try and make the apps identical the better the android apps are getting.

[Cheshh]

I would find apps stretched to fit the screen on my nexus, many were also buggy, crashed more often then ios and werent as smooth(jittery).

I was also missing the variety of apps i enjoyed on ios. Hardware wise some of these android phones are stunning so its a shame, i guess as android continues to grow this may change

[DeludedGuy]

I would find apps stretched to fit the screen on my nexus, many were also buggy, crashed more often then ios and werent as smooth(jittery).

I was also missing the variety of apps i enjoyed on ios. Hardware wise some of these android phones are stunning so its a shame, i guess as android continues to grow this may change

That's funny because I think its the other way around, I get more app crashes on my iPad than on my Android phone.

[Agent]

I would find apps stretched to fit the screen on my nexus, many were also buggy, crashed more often then ios and werent as smooth(jittery).

I was also missing the variety of apps i enjoyed on ios. Hardware wise some of these android phones are stunning so its a shame, i guess as android continues to grow this may change

what do you mean by 'optimisation'. It's a word that means nothing on it's own. Could you give examples?

That's funny because I think its the other way around, I get more app crashes on my iPad than on my Android phone.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomioger...d-a-data-dive/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomioger...-bean-vs-ios6/

Historically apps have crashed more on iOS.

Ive had iphones for over 4 years and I still cannot see the appeal of android, I purchased a nexus tablet to see what all the fuss is about and yes the customisation is all there, much better than Apples devices in that respect but the app optimisation was shockingly bad and after 6 months with it I sold it on.

App optimisation versus customisation(which can be achieved with jailbreaking although not ideal). Ill choose App optimisation all day long

Again, you're not backing up what you're saying with any information on what it relates to. What's more optimised? Which aspects work better?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there is very little in terms of apps between the two OS now. We have both Apple and Android in our house and we hardly ever find an app that isn't on one and not the other.
The thing that quickly becomes clear though is how much more integrated different services are on Android. The 'quality' of the apps have almost zero difference.

Don't get me wrong, you get a lot of tat on the play store, but since the last few versions it's a lot easier to filter that out. By default you'll not have a bad experience with 90% of apps that people come across on there by now.

Does anyone who feels that the apps are more "optimised" or any other term want to elaborate with examples, because I'm a bit lost with it!

[Dooms]

Am I the only one who gets more app crashes on iOS (iPhone 4S and iPAD2) than I do on my android devices (TF101 & Xperia Mini Pro).

The main difference being iOS doesn't tell you the app has crashed, it just disappears and you reopen without thinking about it but the android crash tells you hey I've crashed, heres an error and would you like to send it off? so its much more noticeable .

[capt_cornflake]

Am I the only one experiencing semi-regular (once a week or so) software crashes on my S3? e.g. "Gallery has stopped working".

I don't recall ever having that issue, but I did stick a custom ROM on within weeks of getting the S3.

Does anyone who feels that the apps are more "optimised" or any other term want to elaborate with examples, because I'm a bit lost with it!

There certainly seem to be quite a few apps which are blatantly just ports from iOS, and don't take advantage of androids possibilities. I can't think of specific examples off the top of my head, but I've seen examples of both of the following:

- No support for multitasking. Switch to a different app (e.g. to check incoming email), switch back to original to find that it's lost it's previous state and is starting up again.
- Inconsistent use of back / menu (hard or soft) buttons, or in some cases not recognised at all and insist on using app specific soft buttons instead.

I guess if you are building an app across multiple platforms you need to either need to design to the lowest common denominator, or put in extra effort to make platform specific customizations. It doesn't make it any less irritating from a user point of view though.

To answer the original question though, I have a lot of problems personally with Apple as a company (and some of their products) so am slightly biased, but the one thing I absolutely cannot stand on iOS is the soft keyboard. It's dreadful, and the fact it cannot be replaced makes it even worse.

[AETAaAS]

I completely forgot about Apple's WWDC, during which they took the sheets off iOS 7. If you ask me, its pretty much par for the course for Apple like previous releases; playing catch up with the others.

Image taken from Droid Life comment section from 'Guest'. Facetious but amusing.

[Kovoet]

Think on this for me anyway android comes out on top nearly every time.

[ThermalDroid]

I just like how android reinvents itself with each major release, I get bored of an OS pretty quickly so it's nice to be able to stay in one ecosystem and have it evolve!

[mrochester]

I just like how android reinvents itself with each major release, I get bored of an OS pretty quickly so it's nice to be able to stay in one ecosystem and have it evolve!

Is it possible to be 'bored' with an OS? Isn't it just a tool to get other tasks done?

[Dooms]

I like playing with my expensive toys (toy not tool )

[Number29]

I like playing with my expensive toys (toy not tool )

It's odd that 'power users' appear to want to play with their devices like they were toys rather than tools. It would seem that 'power user' is rather a misnomer!

[Mehta23]

There's only two things I like(d) about Apple - their advertising/marketing and the way that most of their features are well made and their os is fluid.

Nowadays they're playing catchup. I don't know if this is because Android is leading the way or because of something happening at Apple - maybe the loss of Jobs?

[Number29]

I think it's the other way around. Apple have been treating smartphones as consumer appliances ever since they first released the iPhone. Google haven't yet cottoned on that this is the way smartphones should be treated. We need to move away from this idea that smartphones should just be a computer in our pocket (with the associated complexities, file systems etc). I hope one day Google will eventually catch up with Apple in this respect (Microsoft already have).