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android v. iphone

I thought a lot about switching to the iPhone - Apple's support is absolutely fantastic, I prefer the size of the device - but I use Gmail a lot, and that's infinitely better on Android than on iPhone. The same goes for Google Calendar integration, though I have Macs, so that would have been fine with iCloud.

I also prefer the more discrete notifications; almost every Twitter app in Android will notify me on a schedule how many tweets have hit my tweetstream, and there is not a single iOS twitter app that does the same.
 
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I work in mobile software development, so i have access to both. I am often asked this question and ill try to detail my answer here.

The iphone does (lets say) 10 things. It plays music, has apps, has a map, etc etc .. it does these 10 things flawlessly, and gorgeously!

The android does those same 10 things, but maybe not as polished. However the android does countless additional things! Most of which just aren't possible (or allowed by Apple) on the iPhone!

I dont like my dialer
on iphone, im SOL
on android, i download any number of new dialers to try

I dont like the keyboard!
on iphone, im SOL
on android, i download any number of keyboards to try

I dont like the music player!
on iphone, im SOL
on android, i download any number of music players to try

I dont want to open an app to see the weather, i want it on my homescreen!
on iphone, im SOL
on android, i create a widget in less than 5 seconds

etc
etc
etc

That list can literally go for an hour.

Bottom line .. iPhone does what it does, pretty amazingly! They definitely set the bar for user-experience, and created this industry we are all wrapped up in!

BUT in the long run i am much happier with Android because it has limitless possibilities. I change what i want, including the entire OS if i want to. And im not lacking anything that iPhone users have.
 
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i vote for iphone...





because.. no one else is. I like to back the underdog...

Well firstly, the question is asked on an Android forum lol.

I'll never bash the iPhone! Apple did what the Govt cannot do .. create jobs! When they released their first SDK to developers, it spawned a trillion dollar industry. Created literally hundreds of thousands of new jobs! Developers, entrepreneurs, project managers, quality-assurance, marketing, advertising, etc.

If ever a man has left a mark on the human history to date, Steve Jobs is amongst the list.

BUT my arguments from my above post still stand. For the 10 things it does, it does them amazingly and nobody can do them better. But what if you want to do more?

:)
 
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i use both daily and apart from the top-end 3d games on the iphone, theres nothing about it I like better.

with the Iphone 4 I had :
-Worse battery life
-sync issues
-smaller screen
-no free true GPS app
-lack of notifications
-laggier
-worse camera
-slower
-more expensive
-more fragile
-very little customisations
-Always seemed to be a software version behind because jailbreaks werent readily available with SW releases.
-Lack of widgets
-No on the fly processor tool
-interface was too boring and not well laid out for me
-itunes(although I use other programs for music instead I still need itunes on my pc for updates and other stuff)


Sure iPhone4s addressed a lot of these issues but theres even better droid coming out too, so ill have a new list of issues once I get my Nexus!
 
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i like that iphone is very organized, had it's own system, simple, ready to go, and has cool stuff of its own. But android has so much more capacity because it can be customized, although a little more complicated than the iphone. still, anyone who really wants a better phone will go through the trouble to make it their own.
I like both. they both have their pros. it's just a matter of preference.
 
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Today I was talking to a coworker that has a 4S and we're talking about ringtones. He said he just bought one for a dollar. The other guy at the table that had an Android and I said: "Why did you buy it? It's probably free somewhere else?" (of course meaning somewhere legit). And he responded that he didn't have to go through iTunes to install this ringtone.

So, on iPhones, you can download free ringtones, but your system won't recognize it until you transfer it to your PC/Mac and sync it to your iPhone...unless you're willing to pay $1.

Because I downloaded all of the stock iPhone ringtones, extracted the zipfile, and had all of the ringtones instantly available on my phone. I did this just to prove the point to another coworker that I could.

There's no way I could give up that freedom. I'd constantly feel shackled to iTunes.
 
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Today I was talking to a coworker that has a 4S and we're talking about ringtones. He said he just bought one for a dollar. The other guy at the table that had an Android and I said: "Why did you buy it? It's probably free somewhere else?" (of course meaning somewhere legit). And he responded that he didn't have to go through iTunes to install this ringtone.

So, on iPhones, you can download free ringtones, but your system won't recognize it until you transfer it to your PC/Mac and sync it to your iPhone...unless you're willing to pay $1.

Because I downloaded all of the stock iPhone ringtones, extracted the zipfile, and had all of the ringtones instantly available on my phone. I did this just to prove the point to another coworker that I could.

There's no way I could give up that freedom. I'd constantly feel shackled to iTunes.

I think people are willing to pay because they don't know how to do things without paying. On Android, you can use any sound file as your ring tone. You just have to know how to convert it. There's an app for that. If you already own the sound file, you can use an app to select which section of the sound file you want to use as your ring tone.

When I used a Nokia before, I didn't have any digitized sound files I could use as a ring tone, so I bought one. Then after I got an Android, I figured out how to get that sound file and transferred it from my Nokia and then set it as my ring tone.

Not only can you do that with ring tones. You can do it for any notification as well. I customised all of my notifications on my Android phone.
 
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Hello GTraymond.

Good luck trying to convince a person who has their mind made up already. ;)

Having said that, some of the things that make Android devices preferable to many people over iPhones are:

- removable/replaceable batteies

- stock configuration options (launchers, icons, etc)

- a wide range of phone and tablet styles to choose from

- a wide range of prices of devices

..and so on. Others will chime in. :)
 
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Well, because Android favors the imagination and creativity and individualism. Lets talk about stock interfaces here, ok, no jailbreaks and no roots.

No matter what you do, your iOS device will look and function just like any other iOS device of the same category out there, except for the wallpaper. Android can make your device your own, and with an interface which you yourself designed, without even having the need to root. You just need photoshop and a little ingenuity, and you can have your own icons and what not.

There isnt really anything definitive that one can say makes each OS better. Some converts from iPhone fall in love with the freedom Android gives over their devices, while some converts from Android to iPhone just felt the relief of simplicity and having Apple decide for them what they can do with their devices.
 
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Frisco is right. It would be easier to convert the Pope to Scientology than to get some fanboy zealots to even consider that their OS of choice isn't as far above the competition as warp drive is to a donkey.

It might be time again for this ...

ev17d3-510x721.jpg

As for actual reasons, the biggies for me are, in no specific order ...

- Widgets
- Notifications
- Alternate Launchers
- Bigger screens
- Sd card expansion
- Free Navigation
- No iTunes
- NO iTunes
- NO iTunes ;)
 
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