Top Ten Apps, iOS and Android: What its mean?

[dpodblood]

People love to customize. Android gives you a great many customization options right out of the box without needing to root your device. You have to jailbreak your iPhone before you can do any customizing.

I've owned and used devices from both sides and they are both good. You fanboys need to get a life.

This is true. They have more in common than they do different.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Apple users (like me) will readily admit to the many things we want improved on iOS.

Actually many iOS developers are working hard to customize the experience to their liking. They are willing to do more than sit on their hands until the almighty Apple decides that they will change things, hence the jailbreak markets.

If iOS was as perfect as you claim, then why is there so many custom keyboards/themes/etc. in the jailbreak markets?

Fact is that there is a demand for people to customize their phones like they customize their computers. Apple tries to ignore this fact and sweep it under the rug, Android embraces it.

 

[bonkers325]

setcpu, a file explorer for root users, clock/weather widgets, and keyboard replacements are free and all over the place on developer forums.

if you cruise XDA's android app forum, you'll regularly find free versions (or replacements) of paid market apps, made by XDA members.

 

[zerocool84]

So you're saying there is no selling point to an Android phone since average consumers simply buy them because carriers give them away for free.

Ding ding ding. (The other portion of the Android buyers are the nerd ragers, as seen in this thread).

Well seeing as the top selling android phones are neither free nor cheap, your point as usual makes no sense.

 

[Ns1]

as an iOS user I have no use for the top 10 android apps.

...I don't really have use for the top 10 iOS apps either.

 

[QueBert]

Isn't the significance that the top iOS paid apps and games are mostly free with advertisements on Android and thus not appearing on this list of top paid Android software? Either developers don't make as many free options for iOS or iOS users are less willing to tolerate advertising on their platform.

Of that top 10 list, only 3 are free on Android, and Words With Friends is so buggy it's hard for me to play. The rest are either not even even on Android, or cost $$$. And the free ones definitely don't feel as polished, I know on my iPhone Angry Birds ran much smoother. I'd pay for a no ad version of Angry Birds on my EVO that ran @ 60fps, but I don't even have that option.

 

[mammador]

All of these lists are relative, of course. I personally don't care what the personal opinions/attitudes of the magazine writer that compiled the list are.lol..

 

[DirkGently1]

All that list shows is that iphone users have no ability to customise whereas Android users do. If i were using a locked in platform i'd probably spend all my time playing games too.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

All that list shows is that iphone users have no ability to customise whereas Android users do. If i were using a locked in platform i'd probably spend all my time playing games too.

It could also be showing that Android needs to be customized before being used while iOS you can already start playing games once you get it.

 

[UNCjigga]

Mac people are iPhone people. PC people (especially those of you who mod, overclock and write scripts) are Android people. Nobody's a Windows Phone or BlackBerry person any longer!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You know, as much fun as modding is, and overclocking sure as hell is, at the end of the day its all about usability.

I spend a solid 3-4 weeks testing my initial system, overclocking, finding the limits, filling pages in my lab notebook with RAM timings, clock speed settings, temperatures, voltages, etc. I fill up XtremeSystem forum posts with screenshots, benches, etc.

At the end of this all I know my system is optimized to the max. I've hit the ceiling, and I've also found a setpoint for my awesomesauce i7 to run 24/7. Great. I run great for 3 months. Check BIOS and save it. I never think about these settings again and all I care about now is if I can game, do my photo editing, write the papers I need to write, download what I download, my daily crap. It's not about modding anymore.

Yeah sure I modded the hell out of my computer, but after that initial state does it MATTER? I no longer know which driver version gives me the best 3D Mark score, or what each version did. I no longer know why I need to update my BIOS because when I was tweaking a certain revision worked better with my RAM chips. All these things blow over you now and you no longer care if you no longer stay up to date.

6 months later I notice one day that when I go into BIOS it tells me that the clockspeed was reset to 2.8ghz due to instability. I'm not sure when it reset me, but obviously sometime after 3 months into my system usage, my system probably crashed due to instability (whoops I failed at stability testing), and I was reverted back to stock timings and stock clocks.

I didn't even notice 4ghz vs 2.8ghz obviously. It ran great for 3 months, but sometime later it changed and I didn't even catch it. WHY? Because booting up in 15 seconds vs 18 seconds doesn't really matter. Boosting my SuperPI time doesn't matter. What mattered more to me was being able to do the things that I do daily.

Yeah, it's great installing custom ROMs and kernels give you a 40% boost in Quadrant. But when the novelty of flashing a new ROM every 3 days wears off, then what? After you settle with a ROM, are you going to care about these small details like overclocking that extra 1mhz out of your phone? At a certain point all you care about is your day to day operations.

That's what the iPhone is focused on. Sure it's not a mod friendly phone, but you can do shit. That's what matters. The apps written for it are made so it can do MORE. It's a media consumption and production device, and it does its job 10x better with 3rd party apps. On the other hand, Android just absolutely fails at media consumption/production.

You have a great modding device, but web traffic shows that iOS crushes Android. So you have a smartphone that you don't surf on? Same with Flickr and Facebook and tweets. So much of it is done by iPhone users. So what do Android users do? Just mod their phone all day long? Since when was the main point of a smartphone to just mod?

Don't get me wrong I love flashing ROMs on my Android phone, but at the end of the day, when I'm out and about I'm curious about surfing to look info up Wikipedia, or to share a photo on Facebook, or to add a place to Foursquare, or to send some info I looked up via SMS, it just seems easier via iOS. They got the basics down. And while you're spending your time finding that CM rom that lets you display your call log in exact time instead of "6 days ago" in Stock Android, I could be using my phone as a smartphone. Not just trying to set it up.

 

[ponyo]

I don't give a crap about web traffic or social sites like Facebook or Twitter. Android, iOS, WM7 are all capable content consumption devices. You're arguing like iOS is better at it than Android and that's BS.

I don't flash new rom or kernel daily. I actually prefer stock or close to it as I find most hacks are superficial at best and has its own set of problem but it's fun seeing all the crazy and new things creative people come up with.

 

[yh125d]

Of that top 10 list, only 3 are free on Android, and Words With Friends is so buggy it's hard for me to play. The rest are either not even even on Android, or cost $$$. And the free ones definitely don't feel as polished, I know on my iPhone Angry Birds ran much smoother. I'd pay for a no ad version of Angry Birds on my EVO that ran @ 60fps, but I don't even have that option.

FWIW, words with friends got fixed. I agree, it was TERRIBLE the first couple months, but the most recent update almost entirely fixed it, I've only had one force close the last few weeks

 

[BoberFett]

Maybe it means Android phones need a guy coding in his mom's basement to make the phones work....

Or maybe it means most iOS users are easily amused by flashing lights and jingling car keys.

 

[Red Storm]

A long post

Some of us "mod" our phones (and by mod I mean use widgets/homescreens) for the sole purpose of increasing productivity. I don't give a crap about overclocking my Android phone, I just like that I can utilize widgets/homescreen launchers/shortcuts so that my phone is easier and quicker to use than anything else out there.

I'm able to toggle wifi/bluetooth/gps/active-sync/brightness/flashlight/vibrate/screen orientation from my single home screen. I'm able to set alarms, make notes, check the weather, view and accept/reject appointments from that same single home screen. I can launch 30 apps/shortcuts/functions from that same single homescreen. All this and I only have 4 actual app icons on the screen. Was I able to do this with my iPhone? No. It was slower for me, because there was more scrolling & tapping to get to the things I needed.

Not everyone cares about overclocking their phone for awesome Quadrent scores (I've never even run it before), so please stop acting like that's the only reason why people like to customize and tinker with Android setups. It can also be used to greatly increase productivity and usability, far beyond what the iPhone can do.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yeah, it's great installing custom ROMs and kernels give you a 40% boost in Quadrant. But when the novelty of flashing a new ROM every 3 days wears off, then what? After you settle with a ROM, are you going to care about these small details like overclocking that extra 1mhz out of your phone? At a certain point all you care about is your day to day operations.

That is where I feel you are 100% wrong- comparing computers to phones is a terrible analogy. Most quad core computers (especially with a modern SSD) are fast enough for most people that the only benefit of overclocking is found in gaming.

With our phone and tablet devices, often a little overclock can go a long way because the devices are so weak to begin with. A Tegra 2 overclocked is still about a third as powerful as a Atom CPU without hyperthreading. That is very weak on a computer scale.

I know on my Nook Color that its 50% overclock is the difference between frustrating and smooth. Maybe one day soon once we have 2GHZ quad core phones there no longer will be a need to overclock, but until then sometimes the extra power is needed for usability, especially on an OS that uses the CPU for almost everything GUI related.

That's what the iPhone is focused on. Sure it's not a mod friendly phone, but you can do shit. That's what matters. The apps written for it are made so it can do MORE. It's a media consumption and production device, and it does its job 10x better with 3rd party apps. On the other hand, Android just absolutely fails at media consumption/production.

I don't get where you are going with this. Except for a few iOS exclusive apps (and Apple made apps) Android is just as capable as iOS when it comes to consuming media. Heck, I would say if your media is video Android can be better for consumption due to larger screens and flexibly.

If anything, the limitations on my media consumption is why I want to move away from iOS. iOS won't let me easily torrent a divx of a show I am following when I am on vacation, it won't let me download that file on my laptop and transmit it to the iPhone via bluetooth, it won't give me a file manager to sort my divx files without jailbreaking, and it won't play that divx file over HDMI (outside of the kinda crappy iPad 2 mirroring). Unless you consume media on Apple's terms you end up jumping through hoop after hoop to consume what you want- which is the exact fault you direct at Android.

As far as media production goes, all mobile devices are not made for that. Even the great iPad sucks for creating media compared to a basic laptop. These devices are made to consume, not make, and for that purpose its hard to say that the OS that takes more media formats, its more open with what programs you can install, and is more flexible is WORSE for consumption.

What you are basically arguing is that the iPhone is the "nicer" option. And if you take things at a purely superficial level you are right- icons on iOS have more gloss, programs seem to have more polish, the defaults are simple, and iOS's app store has the most apps. No way to debate that.

The issue is that with iOS if you want to walk off the beaten path a little (aka anything beyond what a regular non-nerd person would think to do with a smartphone) you are faced with the same hacking as on Android. Just to play my divx file I had to jailbreak to get a torrent program, jailbreak to get a file manager to organize it, jailbreak to get vlc to play it, and even then I couldn't comfortably consume the video like I wanted on my TV. Many Android phones wouldn't even need rooting to do that task for me perfectly.

The problem is there is no middle ground in the phone sector- it is either non-flexible but sane defaults iOS, or insane defaults but make whatever you want of it Android. Maybe one day something like WM7 can split the middle. Till then I recommend iOS for my family, and I want Android for me.

One way is not innately better than the other. It is all about needs and your personal preferences...

 

[Ns1]

One way is not innately better than the other. It is all about needs and your personal preferences...

this, but then there wouldn't be anything left to argue about.



anyway, iCloud + iDevices = synergy

 

[Puddle Jumper]

anyway, iCloud + iDevices = synergy

The same is true for Android+Gmail+Docs+Picassa+Google Music

I haven't used iCloud so I can't compare the two solutions but they are certainly a major plus for iOS and Android compared to the other smartphone platforms.

 

[Ns1]

The same is true for Android+Gmail+Docs+Picassa+Google Music

I haven't used iCloud so I can't compare the two solutions but they are certainly a major plus for iOS and Android compared to the other smartphone platforms.

As a gApps user, the Google app sucks balls. There is no doubt in my mind that Apple's iCloud integration will be better than gApps current state.

There is no synergy in the current state. And I use gmail/docs/cal/picasa daily (and dropbox, which I'm hoping will be eaten up by iCloud)

 

[s44]

The only device on either OS I'd consider for serious production is the Transformer. Need that keyboard.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

As a gApps user, the Google app sucks ball. There is no doubt in my mind that Apple's iCloud integration will be better than gApps current state.

There is no synergy in the current state. And I use gmail/docs/cal/picasa daily.

But you are on iOS right? The Google apps integration on Android is pretty good IMO.

 

[Ns1]

But you are on iOS right? The Google apps integration on Android is pretty good IMO.

Yes. Waiting for this:

iCloud...Photo Stream is, for lack of a better word, magical. Having all of my photos and videos wirelessly, automatically, and effortlessly synced to all devices including computers is fantastic. I also love having my device backed up once a day to iCloud — I don’t have to remember to plug it in, wait for it to sync, and back it up. Additionally, it’s almost a surreal experience to download an app on your iPhone and see it instantly download to your iPad as well, or vice-versa. The same goes for music, iBooks, and more.

I got 3 iDevices and an OSX computer, so it makes sense for me.

 

[zerocool84]

Yes. Waiting for this:



I got 3 iDevices and an OSX computer, so it makes sense for me.

Exactly, if your an Apple user it's great for you, everyone else not so much. Wireless syncing isn't a big deal to me since I've been doing it for a while. Plus I can sync anywhere I'm at, I don't have to be tethered to wifi to sync.

 

[zoiks]

Flexibility? LMAO, when I had a Droid, I had to buy those things because otherwise, I would have thrown the thing out of the window.

Keep wishing on your Google star. It's hilarious when Google fans can't admit to the total shit-ass crap that they put out when Apple users (like me) will readily admit to the many things we want improved on iOS. But it can be nice to have a keyboard to input text when Google lovers have to look high and low for ways to get a useable one.

Actually, I had an iPhone and gave it up because it seems like a childs toy compared to Android. My apologies that you aren't technically inclined to do customizations.

Android's keyboard isn't bad at all for base functionality. It's actually very good and I'm using it currently. I did have swype but and Smart Keyboard among others but the original one works fine for me.

 

[QueBert]

It could also be showing that Android needs to be customized before being used while iOS you can already start playing games once you get it.

qft, I bought 4 apps on the Android top 10 list, and not a single 1 was because I wanted to. Without them my EVO ran like turd and the battery was gone in 1/2 a day with very light usage. Stock my phone was unusable without a 2nd battery, and even then I'd probably have wanted a 3rd one. I've modded the holy hell out of my phone, spending $20 on apps in the process. I honestly which I could have went without buying them though. While I love modding, I don't enjoy doing it for the sake of making my phone work the way it should from the factory. I like to enhance things, not fix stuff HTC seemed incapable of doing themselves.