Not a troll/flame: Android fans - Now what is missing?

[abaez]

I think up to 25000 songs. No space limit I believe.

 

[Dominato3r]

iTunes Match, except instead of uploading your songs, it just matches the fingerprint to whatever iTunes has. If you have a song iTunes doesn't have it will upload it. And it costs $25/yr.

Doesn't Match download the song instead of streaming it?

 

[basslover1]

I think up to 25000 songs. No space limit I believe.

It's 20k songs. My library is about 20GB and it's only 3k songs. You have tons of space available. Glad they did a song limit and not file size.

 

[TheStu]

Doesn't Match download the song instead of streaming it?

It downloads it into a temporary folder, so it isn't permanently stored on the iDevice in question, but is available for a little while to quickly get back to if you want to listen to it again.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

LOL.

MotionMan

Why are u lol?
If anything android gives the flexibility to do both whereas iOS gives u neither.

I see android as a platform where the question you should be asking is "how do I do this?" As opposed to "can I do this?"

 

[Syran]

How much space do you get for free on google play? I looked into it when it first came out, but the idea of uploading my entire 30gb library (actually, it might be closer to 35-40 nowadays) didn't appeal to me.

Check out Amazon's cloud music system. I don't know if they still do it, but you got a year free buying any mp3 album (got mine for $1), and even then, all music storage doesn't count against the caps. Have about 4000 songs on mine now. Wish we had this before my napster collection went poof a while back, it would have been really large.

 

[QueBert]

Why are u lol?
If anything android gives the flexibility to do both whereas iOS gives u neither.

I see android as a platform where the question you should be asking is "how do I do this?" As opposed to "can I do this?"

There's plenty you can't do on Android too. It goes both ways you know?

 

[zerogear]

Yeah, the new OS made the screen bigger.
MotionMan

Once you go large, you can't go back. 4" is still too small.

 

[psych2]

There's plenty you can't do on Android too. It goes both ways you know?

Why do people keep saying this but don't mention exactly how it goes the other way :hmm:

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Generally known? What exactly is that supposed to mean? If I wasn't tied to a two year contract I would have ditched my iPhone for something else simply because of the shitty keyboard compared to almost every other smart phone I have tried since then.

Which ties into the one thing I wish iOS would add that Android does have: the ability to use third party keyboards. I am guessing that iOS6 still doesn't allow this.

good to hear. I think the keyboard on my ipod touch is crap, and then hear "everyone" says it's better (or even miles better) than any Android keyboard and think those must therefore be unbearable! I've barely tried the android keyboard though, except 2 min in a store so I have nothing else to base it on.

But as long as iOS is locked down and boring, and android is messy, insecure and laggy I'm not spending my money on either. (yeah, yeah I'm sure it's better, but I still read this about both OSes, including ICS)

 

[QueBert]

Why do people keep saying this but don't mention exactly how it goes the other way :hmm:

If you're talking Android people, it's because Android's perfect and does EVERYTHING. If you're asking me what doesn't it do, well I'm running XBMC on my iPod Touch right now, 1 thing Android can't do, and any sort of Android XBMC port is at best years off. Assuming it ever actually happens.

 

[zsdersw]

If you're talking Android people, it's because Android's perfect and does EVERYTHING.

If that's true, it is also true of iOS people.

 

[QueBert]

If that's true, it is also true of iOS people.

Naah iOS people are different, where as Android people will say something like "Android can do EVERYTHING in the world!" iOS people will say something like "I don't need Widgets" lol they're very different. iOS people admit iOS's lacking, but even if they're lying they at least pretend like whatever it's lacking is something they don't care about. Android people never seem to be able to admit Android could possibly be lacking anything. Even Google's developers seem to have that attitude when I've contacted them about things that clearly need to be fixed.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Why are you limiting it to online distribution? I can make copies of my own media in mkv format, just as I can copy a CD to mp3.

I think MP3 is non-withstanding, but there are actually more free tools to convert DVDs and other medias into h.264 MP4 rather than MKV.

I can't think of any possible reason why a person would want to convert his media to MKV when MP4 is more widely supported, and with your media being MP4, you can more easily upload them to the net (Youtube) as well.

I'm sorry, but I also have to agree that including MKV support just makes it easier to watch pirated contents, and not much more.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I think MP3 is non-withstanding, but there are actually more free tools to convert DVDs and other medias into h.264 MP4 rather than MKV.

I can't think of any possible reason why a person would want to convert his media to MKV when MP4 is more widely supported, and with your media being MP4, you can more easily upload them to the net (Youtube) as well.

I'm sorry, but I also have to agree that including MKV support just makes it easier to watch pirated contents, and not much more.

If MP4 is so much better, why don't the pirates upload MP4s instead?

The only difference between a pirate and a legitimate user is that pirates upload their videos. There's nothing inherently wrong with the format.

 

[runawayprisoner]

If MP4 is so much better, why don't the pirates upload MP4s instead?

The only difference between a pirate and a legitimate user is that pirates upload their video files. There's nothing inherently wrong with the format.

Because if they wanted to upload a copy that's closer to original, then sometimes it's easier (and faster) to use MKV because MP4 restricts a few codecs (no AC3 support, for instance, so AC3 tracks have to be re-encoded to AAC).

So mostly it's just because they don't have to re-encode it (much of it anyways), and they can just take the whole thing and upload right away.

There's nothing wrong with the format, of course. I think MKV and MP4 are equal. But your average consumer has access to far more MP4 conversion tools.

Prime example? Handbrake.

Edit: and I guess my information is a bit outdated. AC3 was recently added to MP4 specs, so now AC3 is supported. But it wasn't before.

But that doesn't matter either way because specs is one thing. Many players still only conform to old MP4 specs, so no AC3 support.

 

[Aikouka]

iOS people will say something like "I don't need Widgets"

Eh, after using ICS for a bit, I still feel that way. I have two widgets on my main page: tasks and battery levels. Tasks is really only necessary because of the "normal" multi-tasking that Android uses, and battery is just depressing, because it shows me how terrible the TF300 is with battery life (with dock). I've left it plugged in for over a day and it was at 97% & 99% last night.

I'm tempted to actually remove all widgets and just make the main page like iOS... a bunch of icons that I actually care about.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Eh, after using ICS for a bit, I still feel that way. I have two widgets on my main page: tasks and battery levels. Tasks is really only necessary because of the "normal" multi-tasking that Android uses, and battery is just depressing, because it shows me how terrible the TF300 is with battery life (with dock). I've left it plugged in for over a day and it was at 97% & 99% last night.

I'm tempted to actually remove all widgets and just make the main page like iOS... a bunch of icons that I actually care about.

Don't be dumb. The battery doesn't charge all the way because its protecting itself from harm.

 

[notposting]

Can a Windows Phone user chime in?

Multiple unified inboxes. On WP I can mix and match mail accounts however I see fit.
So for example I have my Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts in one inbox and my wife's Hotmail and Yahoo accounts in another inbox (I should add her iCloud email too ).

I sync my contacts, calendar, mail, and I sync her mail and calendar. In the People hub however I only have my Hotmail contacts visible though many are automatically linked with the person's other accounts as well (though a search will reveal the Gmail, Facebook and Twitter contacts as well).

I see the latest iTunes is supposed to have fixed the broken iOS5 photo sorting issues.

I would like to see more mobile browsers borrow from IE9 mobile and put the unified search/location bar at the bottom.

Oh yeah, they should allow you to not have things on the home screen like Newsstand and Stocks.

Let the weather icon update. Maybe allow app icons to update. Personally I like the way WP (and Android) allow you to have your Start/Home screen, and then the all inclusive apps list is separate. Rather than the iOS approach of the app drawer IS the home screen(s, or piles of folders).

Too bad my wife's sister bought her a Kindle Fire for graduation this spring (I had bought my wife an iPod Touch). If she hadn't done that I would have bought an iPad by now and probably a MBA. And not sold the 4S I used my upgrade on at Verizon. It does seem to be very nice the more Apple devices you get...

 

[Aikouka]

Don't be dumb. The battery doesn't charge all the way because its protecting itself from harm.

Haven't you learned anything? You never go full troll!

The battery goes to 100%. Chances are that I'm seeing variances while it's plugged in because of the way that the tablet is being charged by the keyboard dock.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Haven't you learned anything? You never go full troll!

The battery goes to 100%. Chances are that I'm seeing variances while it's plugged in because of the way that the tablet is being charged by the keyboard dock.

Or, its just battery management software kicking in. On my Droid X, if I plug in, sometimes the battery will only charge to 97% and stop there. I leave it alone because I know that the battery is probably calibrating itself.

 

[TheStu]

Check out Amazon's cloud music system. I don't know if they still do it, but you got a year free buying any mp3 album (got mine for $1), and even then, all music storage doesn't count against the caps. Have about 4000 songs on mine now. Wish we had this before my napster collection went poof a while back, it would have been really large.

I have the albums that I have bought on Amazon on their cloud, but the advantage (to me) of iTunes Match is that I am already playing in that ecosystem and it connects my library to all of my devices

 

[poofyhairguy]

If you're talking Android people, it's because Android's perfect and does EVERYTHING. If you're asking me what doesn't it do, well I'm running XBMC on my iPod Touch right now, 1 thing Android can't do, and any sort of Android XBMC port is at best years off. Assuming it ever actually happens.

XBMC is only available if you jailbreak. And an Android port might be coming sooner than you think with devices such as this getting popular in the XBMC community:

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/a-74-micro-pc-mk802-runs-android-40-and-linux/259644-11.html

Plus I can take a stock SGS2, install Dice Player on it (no root or anything fancy), and play every file iOS XBMC can play (and more).

 

[Aikouka]

Plus I can take a stock SGS2, install Dice Player on it (no root or anything fancy), and play every file iOS XBMC can play (and more).

Is there a difference between opening a MKV over the network in File Manager HD and selecting DicePlayer and selecting it directly in DicePlayer? I tried the prior method the other night, and it seemed awfully slow. In fact, it never got past the loading animation, and I just closed it.

I'm probably not surprised... networking seemed really slow on the device. I mean... I accidentally downloaded XBMC 11 (May release) and it downloaded at ~3MB/s, which is pretty normal for me. Then I transferred it over my network to my throw-random-crap-here drive, and it was slower transferring it (~1MB/s) than it was downloading it.

Or, its just battery management software kicking in. On my Droid X, if I plug in, sometimes the battery will only charge to 97% and stop there. I leave it alone because I know that the battery is probably calibrating itself.

Ah, I thought you were trying to troll me on "normal" charging vs. trickle charging.

It's possible that it's still performing calibrations since the unit is only about a week old. I certainly would love to see battery life go up since it hasn't been that great so far.

Although, I am curious to know how charging works with the Transformer when docked. The charger plugs into the dock, and both devices have a LED that indicates that they're both charging. Does the dock charge the tablet as I mentioned or does it divide it up (overall slower charge)?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Is there a difference between opening a MKV over the network in File Manager HD and selecting DicePlayer and selecting it directly in DicePlayer? I tried the prior method the other night, and it seemed awfully slow. In fact, it never got past the loading animation, and I just closed it.

It is much better just to select the file in Dice Player. From what I understand when you select it in a file manager it adds overhead. I know for me it is rock solid in Dice Player and completely unusable outside it.

I'm probably not surprised... networking seemed really slow on the device. I mean... I accidentally downloaded XBMC 11 (May release) and it downloaded at ~3MB/s, which is pretty normal for me. Then I transferred it over my network to my throw-random-crap-here drive, and it was slower transferring it (~1MB/s) than it was downloading it.

That is a little surprising for me. Personally I find the SGS2 is second only to the iPad 2 for mobile devices in my home, and with a 5ghz kernel it seems about neck and neck. I can get about 20MB+/s speeds (most often around 30 though) on my 5Ghz network, and at least 15MB/s on my 2.4Ghz one. It constantly benchmarks faster than my Nook Color, and of course it destroys the Prime (except within like 10 feet, where amazingly the Prime is my fastest mobile device).