Switching from iPhone to Android!

[miles202]

I have had every iPhone since the 3GS. I loved them. But, the tides are turning. The Galaxy S III is too irresistible and I am making the switch next week; albeit with a fair amount of apprehension, thus the reason I post here. I am hoping you smart folk well-versed in the world of Android OS can sooth my fears, here are a few questions I have:

1. I love the way iTunes syncs all my music to my iPhone. I am religious/meticulous about properly tagged and categorized music with proper artwork and play counts, etc. Is there a way I can do this with Android and have it sync as it did on my iPhone?

2. There are so many customization options that it is almost overwhelming, what are some essentials in switching over? I understand it is all preference but I have heard there are nicer keyboards and such, In your experience what are the best?

3. Lastly, I haven't seen an S III in person but my experience with other Touchwiz based smartphones (S2 I've seen and Infuse 4G) I am not a fan of the green/black/blue color scheme, my friend has the One X and I much prefer the white scheme he has. Is there a way to change the color scheme on the S 3? Maybe to the HTC Sense style like on the One X, or just other colors I can experiment with?

Thank you for your help and support I hope to receive some answers and am looking forward to my future endeavors as I plunge into the world of Android OS.

 

[sntaylor]

You can always download a new launcher and customise it to suit you, the like of go launcher has different themes so you could find the one you like!

As for keyboard, its up to you, go launcher has its own you can try, swiftkey its a popular one, I personally just use stock Swype! Again try a few and see what suits you!

As for the iTunes, sorry but I don't use it,I just copy the music straight to my phone / sdcard...you can sorry it into specific folders etc and the music player will recognise the music

P.s I'm sure someone will tell you the app that slows you to sync iTunes to your gs3! As I'm sure there is one

Welcome to the dark side ;-)

 

[Demache]

On the iTunes thing, you could always give Google Music a shot as I think it is a great service personally. However, the music isn't directly synced to your phone, and goes to Google's servers instead. Granted, your phone stores mp3's that you play on it, but it downloads them as you play them which is a good and bad thing.

Good in the sense that the whole thing never touches your PC. Your entire library is ready on demand "in the cloud". The bad is that if you have tiered data, its not going to last long unless you enable offline mode. And if you have no internet access, your stuck with whatever you've already played/downloaded. However, you can force it to download albums and playlists for offline use over Wifi without playing them.

As for actual USB syncing, I haven't a clue. I just dragged and dropped before I had a phone capable of Google Music.

 

[lunatic59]

Like everything else Android, there are several options for sync'ing You have to find the method you like the best. No one is going to tell you what's best for you.

There are apps like iSyncr that will use your iTunes database to synch to your phone (there are others, too). My experience with these is they are cumbersome to set up properly and very slow.

You can use Samsung Kies, which you would get from their supprt site under downloads. It's okay, but not my cup of tea.

You could try MyPhoneExplorer, a good overall desktop program.

Or as Sntaylor and Demache stated, you can simply copy the files to your phone and Android will put them in your media list

 

[aysiu]

In my personal experience, iSyncr is the best way to sync with iTunes. I haven't found it sluggish at all. (DoubleTwist is another story, though.)

 

[Shinji01]

I'm sorry I have very little to add to the posters before me, but I can reassure you that switching from iphone to android is not as scary as it seems.
Basically it is personal preference and trial and error.

 

[miles202]

In my personal experience, iSyncr is the best way to sync with iTunes. I haven't found it sluggish at all. (DoubleTwist is another story, though.)

Is it as simple as just plugging my phone in and it works like an iPhone? Incremental updates and playlists as I add and subtract from iTunes?

 

[aysiu]

Is it as simple as just plugging my phone in and it works like an iPhone? Incremental updates and playlists as I add and subtract from iTunes?

To set up? No. Once it is set up? Yes. In fact, I don't even plug in my phone. I bought the iSyncr wireless add-on, and it syncs up wireless, including playlists and play counts.

 

[nitroRCs]

You can also put music, videos and pictures, even send SMS's etc from Kies air. It comes pre-installed on some phones but if yours doesn't come on it, you can download it from Google Play. Its really handy, I would try it out.

 

[chanchan05]

For best Keyboard I choose Swype. It comes prebuilt into Samsung phones as a second option (you get the Samsung Keyboard active by default). As for going a different look, simply download a different launcher and get a theme for it. GO Launcher EX (one of the best) has a Sense 4.0 theme which emulates the OneX look.

 

[Omar Days]

just to reiterate what sntaylor said about launchers and customizing, just take a look at what people are doing with their homescreens on these forums. so much depth to play around with, and that's with out rooting.

 

[sergey]

As for the iTunes, sorry but I don't use it,I just copy the music straight to my phone / sdcard...you can sorry it into specific folders etc and the music player will recognise the music

Wait a second. You're telling me that I can download the iTunes AAC, DRM-protected songs and that it will play on Android???

That does not sound like Apple to me, but if the music player on Android can play iTunes songs, then that will help a lot of iPhone users move.

 

[ashykat]

Wait a second. You're telling me that I can download the iTunes AAC, DRM-protected songs and that it will play on Android???

That does not sound like Apple to me, but if the music player on Android can play iTunes songs, then that will help a lot of iPhone users move.

Apple stopped using DRM in early 2009 on their songs. If you have music downloaded from iTunes older than this (a telltale is if it has a bitrate of 128 kbps as they upped the standard bitrate to 256 kbps when they introduced DRM free music) and you didn't pay to upgrade it to "iTunes Plus" than Android won't play it. Everything else will play fine.

 

[chanchan05]

Customization examples:

http://androidforums.com/android-themes/4425-post-your-android-desktop-150.html

http://androidforums.com/android-th...ckscreen-screenshots-widgetlocker-etc-18.html

 

[aysiu]

Using iTunes doesn't mean buying music from iTunes. I've used iTunes for years, and I've never bought anything from iTunes. My songs are either ripped from CDs or bought from Amazon MP3... and then they're automatically in iTunes.