Android or iOS

[nickanthony]

I used to have the iPhone 4 then the 5. I hated that I couldn't customize anything and how simple it was. I finally decided to jump on board with all the android users that constantly bashed apple.

I now have a moto x and I love playing with it and changing it to look however I want but I have to say that iPhones are much more reliable. Siri for one is far superior to Google's "OK Google now" I used to set reminders on my iPhone all the time and they never failed me. Just today I used ok Google now to set a reminder for when I got home to pick something up from my storage locker before coming up and I just realized now while writing this that I of course forgot like I knew I would and also that my phone never reminded me.

Also over the last 4 months that I've had this phone its froze up 3 times. My iPhone never did this. Is this behavior that android users are just used to? Or perhaps most have simply never even used an iPhone before so they really have no idea what they're like.

What is so great about android phones other than customizations?

 

[funkylogik]

Its open source. Customisation goes far beyond just changing the homescreen, you can change the OS.
Far better range of devices too.
Everyone i chat to who owns a Moto X adores it tbh.
Siri is just a voice recognition software really. Google Now goes far beyond that imo but i agree it isnt perfect :thumbup:

 

[Rxpert83]

Android is all about choice and freedom.

Make it how you want, do what you like to. Phone doesn't support a certain feature? No problem, an app or the Dev community will have the solution.

 

[nickanthony]

I get it and those are excellent answers but what good are they if they don't work properly? Google now has been nothing but a failure for me so far. Try to text someone and often times it opens up the internet and searches for "send text message to so and so." Reminders have no notification sound. That renders that completely useless.

Sometimes when I am able to get it to open up my messaging app, I'll speak my message when it says to then it asks me again what I want my message to say. Tried this 3 times before finally giving up. Maybe siri couldn't do all that either but at least she could do exactly what she was supposed to do.

 

[Rxpert83]

I get it and those are excellent answers but what good are they if they don't work properly? Google now has been nothing but a failure for me so far. Try to text someone and often times it opens up the internet and searches for "send text message to so and so." Reminders have no notification sound. That renders that completely useless.

Sometimes when I am able to get it to open up my messaging app, I'll speak my message when it says to then it asks me again what I want my message to say. Tried this 3 times before finally giving up. Maybe siri couldn't do all that either but at least she could do exactly what she was supposed to do.

Google now is powerful. Its way more than a speech to text app.

I'll admit it can have difficulties with some dialects though. If you have a particular accent it may have troubles picking up on it. I'll add theres plenty of videos out there with siri messing up as well. Nothings perfect

I'd hardly consider that a deal breaker, but that's not how I use my phone. You may find it more important.

 

[Italo]

I haven't dug too deep into Google Now. So, I don't know about your issue with reminders. I've seen people use Siri, and I've never been impressed. Google Now search results usually display the information I want (not search results), and the cards are pretty good at guessing useful information.

When I've had issues with phones freezing, changing ROMs has always fixed it. So, if you're having problems, it's (probably) specific to your device/ROM/or even apps. I haven't had any stability issues in a couple of years with Android. So no, it's not something I'm used to, or expect to happen.

I've not owned an iPhone. But, my mom and both of my sisters use iPhones, and they've all had issues with freezing or hardware failures at some point. My mom is on her 3rd iPhone 4s at this point. So, it's not just an Android thing.

What I like about Android: I don't have to use iTunes; customization (home screens, widgets, keyboards, etc); ROMs; the UI; Swype; Multiple handsets to choose from; Humble Bundles; Bigger screens; USB charging/data.

What I don't like about Android: a lot of games are iOS exclusive; mediocre cameras.

 

[Rxpert83]

What I don't like about Android [...] mediocre cameras.

To be fair, android is an OS running on thousands of different devices, made by many different companies. They range from high end top-of-the-line hardware to budget phones. You're comparing it to a single top of the line phone. Surely some of them aren't going to stack up, but thats because they aren't supposed to. They're going after totally different markets.


With that said, any of the flagship phones (the HTC one, galaxy s4, G2, nexus 5, ect) have a more than capable camera.

And if you're really concerned about getting amazing shots, you should be carrying around a dedicated camera

 

[Steven58]

It's all about choice. All platforms have strengths and weaknesses. Being an Android Forum, you'll get a lot of pro-Android comments, here. I'll bet if you posted your question on an iPhone forum, you'd get a pro iPhone comment.

Some people are Libertarians, some are Democrats and some are Republicans, politically. Each of them has their strengths. Some people like Windows Phone, some iPhone and some Android. C'est la vie.

Enjoy your X. I hear it's a great phone!

Steven

 

[nickanthony]

@ italo

One thing I really miss about my iPhone is being able to plug it into my cars radio USB and charge while listening to music. My cigarette lighter is broken so charging my android is out of the question on those long trips.

I talked to a guy who worked at a stereo manufacturing company and he told me that because there are so many different devices and components on all the phones, they'd have to come out with to many different models of stereos to keep up with every device that uses android in order for them to work with the USB.

 

[Rxpert83]

I talked to a guy who worked at a stereo manufacturing company and he told me that because there are so many different devices and components on all the phones, they'd have to come out with to many different models of stereos to keep up with every device that uses android in order for them to work with the USB.

I'm not sure I understand that , all an android needs is a USB plug and a micro USB port. Its nearly universal.

 

[funkylogik]

google now, im scottish with a strong glasgow accent so no voice recognition app understands me but its still useful to me.
Siri would be completely useless.
I have played around with iphones and the firmware is beautifully optimised because it only runs on a few devices but with kitkat, i think android is nearly there which is amazing when you think how many devices there are.
Im not an android apologist though. If you prefer iOs then by all means get an iphone (and give me your moto lol) :beer:

 

[nickanthony]

Thanks Steven. That's why I posted on an android forum. I can still remember when I had my iPhone and couldn't wait to switch. Im just a little confused now and want to know if there's something I'm missing or just be reminded of why I ditched my iPhone to begin with.

 

[nickanthony]

All I know is that it doesn't charge or play music through the USB and that's the answer I got.

 

[mikedt]

What I don't like about Android: a lot of games are iOS exclusive; mediocre cameras.

On budget Android devices the cameras can be mediocre, and some are downright crap. But on mid to high-end devices they're certainly as good as the current iPhones in my experience. But then the iPhone 5s can be a $1,000 here, it should have a very good camera. Think games situation has gotten better, sometimes it's other way round now.

 

[mikedt]

All I know is that it doesn't charge or play music through the USB and that's the answer I got.

How long ago was this and when was the system manufactured? Because from what I've seen recently just about all recent manufacturers car systems have USB, and Android since ICS 4.0 supports music over USB as standard. So you should be able to charge and play your tunes no problem. If you had a Gingerbread 2.3 or older phone it could be a problem. They're iOS compatible as well again by using a USB to iPhone plug. In fact quite a few car systems are running Android now as their embedded OS.

Apparently the iPhone compatible systems that used the 30-pin dock connector had a problem when Apple done away with the 30-pin dock on the iPhone 5. Think BMW had that one.

 

[Muilisx]

Android 100%

 

[funkylogik]

Im not a big gamer and i admit i havent played many iOs games but im really impressed with android games on my (

 

[mikedt]

google now, im scottish with a strong glasgow accent so no voice recognition app understands me but its still useful to me.
Siri would be completely useless.

It's same for me as well as I don't speak standard VOA or BBC English. In fact when I tried Siri, found it worked better in Mandarin than English, even though Mandarin is not exactly my first language LOL.

 

[funkylogik]

Lol :-D
Voice rec' throws up some crazy but funny results when i try it.
Its defo more of a toy than a tool for me.
What accent you got mate?

 

[mikedt]

Lol :-D
Voice rec' throws up some crazy but funny results when i try it.
Its defo more of a toy than a tool for me.
What accent you got mate?

West Country mixed with South London and a bit of Scouse accent it's best way to describe it I think. Was born Cumbria, but spent most of my life in London and Bristol. And both my mum and dad were originally from Liverpool. Most Chinese and Mongolian students have no problem understanding me though. LOL...but both Siri and Google have major problems with it I found. I learned Mandarin from the teachers in the schools I worked at, as well as some online courses. Chinese has many dialects and accents of course, but what they teach should be standard Beijing Mandarin. BTW what you hear in many Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the UK is Cantonese, because I think most of them came from Hong Kong originally. And Google doesn't do spoken Cantonese AFAIK, only Mandarin.

 

[!on]

I would say comparing iOS to android is a bit childish, much like apple's iPhone marketing.

Comparing Siri to google OK (first time I've heard of it, lol) is also silly, I mean android is google software but many of us are trying to escape google!

Some of google apps are essential & part of the functionality of android, but sometimes google take liberties. Luckily there are other apps we could use.

Android is not trying to be iOS*. Android is just trying to be smartphone. I think android is tired of being harassed by the hipster kid movement begging for attention. We really couldn't care less. I think we have everything we need in smartphones now (apart from better hardware), which makes the apple vs android thing even more silly.

*(of course it didn't help when Samsung DID try to copy iPhone, lol, but we have other phones....)

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

I would say comparing iOS to android is a bit childish, much like apple's iPhone marketing.

Bashing is childish. Comparing is necessary to choose. Android and iPhone provide two different experiences.

Some of google apps are essential & part of the functionality of android, but sometimes google take liberties. Luckily there are other apps we could use.

That's not true at all. If Google apps were really essential, you wouldn't have other apps to use. And there are forks of Android that don't use Google apps at all.

 

[funkylogik]

He maybe means the aosp apps essential for the device to function?

 

[mikedt]

Some of google apps are essential & part of the functionality of android,

I beg to differ actually, think must be going on over a billion Android devices in this country, where Google apps and services are NOT essential to the functionality of Android. A place where Google has almost nothing to do with Android at all, apart from the original source code.

 

[nickanthony]

How long ago was this and when was the system manufactured? Because from what I've seen recently just about all recent manufacturers car systems have USB, and Android since ICS 4.0 supports music over USB as standard. So you should be able to charge and play your tunes no problem. If you had a Gingerbread 2.3 or older phone it could be a problem. They're iOS compatible as well again by using a USB to iPhone plug. In fact quite a few car systems are running Android now as their embedded OS.

Apparently the iPhone compatible systems that used the 30-pin dock connector had a problem when Apple done away with the 30-pin dock on the iPhone 5. Think BMW had that one.

That's interesting. The stereo is an after market pioneer that I picked up from best buy. It was brand new when I bought it which was around a year ago. Also I have the moto x with kit Kat. I haven't tried it again since the update but that shouldn't matter since you said android has had this ability since 4.0

I installed the stereo myself with very little car stereo experience. Do you think I could have installed it wrong?