iOS vs Android vs Blackberry 6.0 vs WM7 fight!

[Cuda1447]

Alright, so I think we should have an in depth discussion about the limitations and advantages of each OS. I think at the beginning of each post every one of us has to admit which OS they are a fanboy of, so that their words can be taken with a grain of salt. I also think that everyone has to remain troll-free, for if they do troll the rest of the forum has the right to beat their ass.

Now let's set some groundrules.


1. Let's assume that we are using the best possible phone on for that OS.
2. Let's assume everythings works as it should. Phantom problems that most people don't have and issues that only you experience personally should be ignored. If it is a well known issue than you can bring it up, but there shouldn't be many of these.
3. Let's look at actual limitations and features of the OS. Ignore the UI and personal preferences. We all know everyone likes different things for different reasons. What I want this thread to be about is the technical superiority of an OS, which does not equate to the best OS.
4. Who cares about the company producing it. Their profits mean shit to this discussion. Market share means shit. How much stock you own means shit. This is simply about from a technical standpoint, which is best.


The think we have a lot of very intelligent people when it comes to smartphones here and I think this thread could really teach us all a lot about the different OSes.


First of all, I'm an Android fanboy and a hater of most Apple products.


Here are a few things I'm interested in hearing about. Feel free to add your own.


Quick access to information. Widgets, Live Tiles, Popups... whatever means necessary. I'm looking for which OS makes it easiest for developers to give you quick access to information.



Battery life. From a technical standpoint, which OS is most efficient in terms of battery life.



Operating System performance and optimizations.



App friendly development.





*crosses fingers in hopes of the conversation staying good*

 

[shortylickens]

You cant ASK for a troll, newb!

You have to be subtle and let the trolls come naturally.

 

[Cuda1447]

Nonono... I don't want trolls. I want informed people. People that can tell me the difference between how Android handles Widgets and how WP7 handles Live tiles and why one would be superior due to better battery life. Things of that nature are valuable... trolls not so much.

 

[gsaldivar]

Let's assume everythings works as it should.

Conclusion: Every phone wins.

 

[tokie]

BlackBerry 6 hands down wins for ease of multitasking. Simply hold the menu button for half a second and you're at the alt-tab like menu for switching apps. The Blackberry menu also provides the quickest access to the most relevant information for whatever app you are in.

I feel like things would greatly speed up if they could move away from Java apps, but then again that is where the security comes from so it is a trade off.

 

[gsaldivar]

BlackBerry 6 hands down wins for ease of multitasking. Simply hold the menu button for half a second and you're at the alt-tab like menu for switching apps.

My ancient Palm Treo did that.

Android does it also...

 

[Dulanic]

BlackBerry 6 hands down wins for ease of multitasking. Simply hold the menu button for half a second and you're at the alt-tab like menu for switching apps. The Blackberry menu also provides the quickest access to the most relevant information for whatever app you are in.

I feel like things would greatly speed up if they could move away from Java apps, but then again that is where the security comes from so it is a trade off.

That all depends.... for android I don't see the need to do that. The apps stay open but in a background mode. If it is something you really need to keep up most can stay on the notification bar. If I want to "alt-tab" per say you can use an app for it, but I dont see the need to do so.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

WM7 and iOS keyboard are awesome. No multitouch and shitty prediction/correction for Android keyboard is ridiculous. I expect better for out of box systems.

On the other hand iOS cursor selection is nice with the magnifying glass. However I don't like how it doesn't let me tap where I want my cursor to land. I'm forced to glide my fingers to slide the cursor. At least it's easy unlike Android where I keep tapping until I land in between letters I want especially w/ small text

 

[akugami]

Argument about whether Apple has "true multitasking" or not aside, how is the BB 6's way of doing things better/easier than Apple or Android? On an iPhone, you simply double tap the "home" button and then you can scroll through your apps. You can tap the home button again to close it or tap one of the app icons to switch to that app.

On a separate note, I think multitasking is way overblown on phone sized devices. There certainly are benefits to multitasking and there are definitely some tasks you want to finish in the background while you do other things but for the most part, such a small sized screen is not conducive to multitasking IMHO. On a tablet device, that's a different story and I think multitasking becomes much more important.

Android has the better notification and info display system and this is an area where Apple's iOS needs to beef up a quite a bit. Not only that, but the use widgets and ease of displaying various information is better on WP7 and Android.

While it doesn't bother me greatly to have to take another few seconds to open up an app and get the weather report or my sports scores, it would certainly please me a lot if I could easily set the games I want to see or the weather or some other info like stock values in an easy to see screen. It makes things so much easier to have a real notification/widget screen like on Android.

I haven't used Gingerbread but prior versions of Android does not seem to have as smooth of a UI as iOS. It's the little things that add polish to a system and gives it that smooth feel. This is not talking about the superiority of one OS vs another in terms of power, just a general feel of surface polish.

FWIW, John Carmack's criticisms of the Android market seems to be the same as some of whats said by "fanboys" arguing against Android. Whether people want to hear it or not, hardware fragmentation is an issue for Carmack and he sees it as a support nightmare. The streamlined distribution via iTunes is actually seen as a plus by Carmack in an Ars Technica interview and the fewer hardware that needs support is a plus to him as well. In Carmack's own words, "half of the reason for us ditching the old feature phones [I assume he means dumb phones] was that it was so much more pleasant to develop for iOS. And I fear that we would be slipping back into some of that quagmire on the Android side of things." Some of Carmack's comments seem akin to the console vs PC argument on the fragmentation and support front.

I don't think this is an issue for less power hungry apps, which admittedly make up the majority of apps, but if someone is trying to do something power hungry similar to RAGE for Android they might run into the same issues Carmack did. Again, the majority of apps won't be power hungry enough to run into the fragmentation issues. Just like how most iPhone apps will still run fine on a 2G iPhone.

 

[MrX8503]

WM7 and iOS keyboard are awesome. No multitouch and shitty prediction/correction for Android keyboard is ridiculous. I expect better for out of box systems.

On the other hand iOS cursor selection is nice with the magnifying glass. However I don't like how it doesn't let me tap where I want my cursor to land. I'm forced to glide my fingers to slide the cursor. At least it's easy unlike Android where I keep tapping until I land in between letters I want especially w/ small text

I think you can tap where you want the cursor on iOS, unless I'm mistaken.

 

[thescreensavers]

WM7 and iOS keyboard are awesome. No multitouch and shitty prediction/correction for Android keyboard is ridiculous. I expect better for out of box systems.

DroidX here, I have mutlitouch keyboard.

 

[zerocool84]

DroidX here, I have mutlitouch keyboard.

Yes but in all honesty, the iPhone still has the best software keyboard because of how good the predictive text is on it.

 

[Cuda1447]

Yes but in all honesty, the iPhone still has the best software keyboard because of how good the predictive text is on it.

I'll agree with you on that, but I will say the WP7 keyboard is very nice overall. Honestly though, after using Swype for awhile I can't go back to a normal tap keyboard, it just seems much slower for me.



As for switching apps quickly, this is how I look at it.

iOS - You have to go back to your home screen and then navigate to the page your app is on and then select it.

Android - hold down the home key and select one of 6 recent apps.

BB6 - ? I guess it has something similar to Android in that you pull up a task manager and pick the app you want to go to?


WM7 - As best I can tell its like iOS in that you have to go back to your main screen and then find the App. to open.


IMO, Android and BB6 win in this regard, as its much faster if you are really utilizing it. Often times I will use Wordfeud ( a game ) Grooveshark and an RSS reader all at the same time. I use the homekey to switch back and forth quickly between these three things. On WP7 or iOS I could see this taking a few seconds longer and not being anywhere near as convenient.

That said, a lot of people probably don't use that functionality like I do.


On a related note, it seems to me that WP7 and iOS are much more similar than Android is to the two of them. I don't think it would be that big of a stretch to say the WP7 will probably take more marketshare from iOS than it will Android, assuming it is successful.

 

[Xenon]

Ease of multitasking? None of those can compete with WebOS. Hopefully we see something more substantial than the Pre2 in 2011 so WebOS can finally make its move.

 

[EightySix Four]

I'll agree with you on that, but I will say the WP7 keyboard is very nice overall. Honestly though, after using Swype for awhile I can't go back to a normal tap keyboard, it just seems much slower for me.



As for switching apps quickly, this is how I look at it.

iOS - You have to go back to your home screen and then navigate to the page your app is on and then select it.

Only if you haven't previously opened it. The new multitasking lets you tap the front button twice and pull up opened programs.

On a related note, it seems to me that WP7 and iOS are much more similar than Android is to the two of them. I don't think it would be that big of a stretch to say the WP7 will probably take more marketshare from iOS than it will Android, assuming it is successful.

I actually don't feel like my WP7 phone is nearly as closely related to Android or iOS as they are to each other (having owned at least one of all of them). I'm looking forward to the next few months of it, the first 2-3 updates should let us know where the platform will go in the future.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Yes but in all honesty, the iPhone still has the best software keyboard because of how good the predictive text is on it.

But it's amazing we have things like Swiftkey and Smart Keyboard Pro and the HTC_IME.

Why can't we combine them all? Argh.

I think you can tap where you want the cursor on iOS, unless I'm mistaken.

I believe it lets you tap between words, but not in between the letters of a word. Tapping inbetween word I think selects it for copy/paste. I suppose this is a tradeoff for C/P implementation versus cursor selection. It's not a huge gripe I have, but coming from Android, I have to deal with that. I guess the fact that iOS users can get a magnifying glass is definitely a plus though.

 

[Fritzo]

I'll sum up this thread in one post:

"WHATEVER PHONE I HAVE IS THE BEST BECAUSE I'M SMARTER THAN ANY OF YOU AND AM THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN SEE THE BENEFITS OF MY PURCHASE."

Thank you.

 

[Monster_Munch]

I'll sum up this thread in one post:

"WHATEVER PHONE I HAVE IS THE BEST BECAUSE I'M SMARTER THAN ANY OF YOU AND AM THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN SEE THE BENEFITS OF MY PURCHASE."

Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-purchase_rationalization

AKA fanboyism

 

[DivideBYZero]

I own an iOS device, an Android device and a BlackBerry device.

BlackBerry is my preference, but I'm not being drawn into this discussion.

 

[vshah]

this isn't going to end well

i own a nexus one, previously had a g1. before that i was on sony ericsson feature phones (which kicked ass)

that said, I like apple for the hardware design and battery life. i dislike the market policing, the OS workflow, and things like the outdated notification system.

i like android for quick access to information and unrestricted multitasking, and diversity of handsets. releasing only 1 handset a year is a big detriment to iOS imho. there's a new "latest and greatest" every few months on android. i wish google could find a balance between being open and setting some ground rules for all android implementations, but one side or the other will always be upset with them.


i haven't ever used a wm6, wm7, blackberry, or palm phone, so no comment on those.

 

[akugami]

I'll agree with you on that, but I will say the WP7 keyboard is very nice overall. Honestly though, after using Swype for awhile I can't go back to a normal tap keyboard, it just seems much slower for me.



As for switching apps quickly, this is how I look at it.

iOS - You have to go back to your home screen and then navigate to the page your app is on and then select it.

Android - hold down the home key and select one of 6 recent apps.

Assuming you have iOS 4.0 and up, the iPhone or iPad selects recent apps almost exactly the same way. Double tap the home screen, your screen will "slide" up and list the four most recent apps on along the bottom much like how you see the docked icons. Tap on any app to open/switch to it. You can swipe to list the next four most recent apps. I swiped five times which is 20 of the most recently used apps. It's different but I wouldn't say it's superior or inferior to how Android or the new Blackberry OS does it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Assuming you have iOS 4.0 and up, the iPhone or iPad selects recent apps almost exactly the same way. Double tap the home screen, your screen will "slide" up and list the four most recent apps on along the bottom much like how you see the docked icons. Tap on any app to open/switch to it. You can swipe to list the next four most recent apps. I swiped five times which is 20 of the most recently used apps. It's different but I wouldn't say it's superior or inferior to how Android or the new Blackberry OS does it.

Well I'd say the OS' memory management is a little more efficient. The fact that it'll save my Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Real Racing states is more than enough. 256mb on my iPod Touch and Milestone are like night and day. One can barely keep apps open while the other seems to be able to hold it in.

 

[vshah]

Well I'd say the OS' memory management is a little more efficient. The fact that it'll save my Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Real Racing states is more than enough. 256mb on my iPod Touch and Milestone are like night and day. One can barely keep apps open while the other seems to be able to hold it in.

which is which?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

which is which?

Well I had my iPod touch plugged in all day (no use), but I just checked.

- Angry Birds Seasons is in the middle of 12-2, paused
- ConvertBot is still in its state when me and my GF were using it for baking. It did NOT have to reload. I've seen it have to reload sometimes which indicates the app was closed and only the data was saved. It sprang right back
- Installous was still in session on the download page that I didn't end up downloading
- HarborMaster was on the "Start Game" page after I selected a level but never started.
- Safari reloaded with a Yahoo answers page. It did not have to load the page again indicating Safari was still in memory.
- Echofon seems to ahve left off where I was at. But then again this could just be a saved state. I wrote a new unfinished tweet.

- Went to play my Harbor MAster game.
- Came back and checked the usual. Echofon left at my unifinished tweet.
- Angry Birds season still paused from my level.
- Safari still has my webpage loaded
- Convertbot still has the last result there without a reload of the app.
- Installous loads up and throws me to the main page. AHA! The iPod ran out of memory! It closed Installous!

Mean while, I will go play with my Milestone.

- Opened a gmail
- Opened a browser at Google.com
- Wrote 1 word tweet in Touiteur. Did not press send.
- Now opening Angry Birds
- Ah what the hell, this level sucks. "Home key."
- FML Launcher Pro Homescreen Redraw
- Open Angry Birds again. Does not save state. App exited apparently.
- Open Touiteur. App closed too. It does not have my 1 word tweet.

To me, it seems multitasking of Android is only beneficial with the fact that things can go in the notification bar to stay on. Other than that, most (99&#37 apps behave in the same manner. Saved states. And usually Android consumes more memory and those apps get killed off very easily. But yes. Blame me for having an old 256mb Android device. After all my iPod Touch is also neutered compared to the iPhone 4 with half the RAM. Maybe 512mb would make me much happier on Android

 

[vshah]

just out of curiosity, i left an angry birds game with the bird mid flight. i've done this several times while quickly switching back and forth, and it's always picked up right where I exited, but i've never tried it for an extended period of time.

I'm going to try it all night and see what happens. left a couple other apps in a particular state as well (pulse on a story, calendar event open, imdb app on a particular page, remote desktop app connected to my desktop)

i'll check it out in the morning. this is on a nexus one.

update: all the apps except angry birds resumed their state. i guess even 512mb ram is not enough for android to not kill memory intensive apps like games