why are apple apps better than android apps?

[mrochester]

What is this new controlled OS platform you speak of? Anything new now is not going to get a place at the table. It will hit the Windows Mobile app Catch 22.

That's exactly the problem. And we've got Google to thank for destroying that market with Android . We're now doomed to a two horse race because of that. Thanks Google, you'll never be forgiven for what you did to the smartphone market.

 

[Zaap]

I wish more manufacturers would start operating the same way as Apple so that we can have more choices...

Wait.. what???!

Not sure if serious.

 

[Zaap]

That's exactly the problem. And we've got Google to thank for destroying that market with Android . We're now doomed to a two horse race because of that. Thanks Google, you'll never be forgiven for what you did to the smartphone market.

Parody, right?

 

[Zaap]

But it results in iOS having much better apps that almost always get updated much more often...

And yet everytime I go to do something practical on my wife's iPhone vs. my Note I come away scratching my head.

WordPress for iOS: blows. Android version far superior. I'm always having to correct the crap her iPhone spews all over the sites she has. Problems crop up and go unaddresed by the devs for months... or never. (Just check the forums).

Dropbox- blows in iOS vs android thanks to the silly 'there's not really a file system' nonsense. (At least last I used it).

I hate having to do anything like transfer a file I'm working on and manipilate it on an iOS device vs. Android thanks again to the make-believe no file system BS.

I find time and time again my android devices can function as real world productivity tools with no limitations when iOS often fails due to purposeful limitations.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And yet everytime I go to do something practical on my wife's iPhone vs. my Note I come away scratching my head.

WordPress for iOS: blows. Android version far superior. I'm always having to correct the crap her iPhone spews all over the sites she has. Problems crop up and go unaddresed by the devs for months... or never. (Just check the forums).

Dropbox- blows in iOS vs android thanks to the silly 'there's not really a file system' nonsense. (At least last I used it).

I hate having to do anything like transfer a file I'm working on and manipilate it on an iOS device vs. Android thanks again to the make-believe no file system BS.

I find time and time again my android devices can function as real world productivity tools with no limitations when iOS often fails due to purposeful limitations.

Yeah.

 

[mrochester]

Wait.. what???!

Not sure if serious.

Of course I'm serious. Right now we only have one viable choice on the market for a decent smartphone, Apple. Android and Windows Phone are just a mess and aren't suitable for those of us who want a good device. If we had more manufacturers operating the way Apple does, there'd be more devices of the calibre of the iPhone and therefore more choices available to us.

 

[Zaap]

LOL, okay.

You have a funny way of looking at things, I'll say that.

So basically, choice is bad, really bad, and shame on Google (and to a very minor extent Microsoft) for providing choices- so if only we had more companies that operate almost as a monopoly putting out ONE basic model of phone every other blue-moon, walling things in and locking it down... in order to have more "choices". Hehheh. Okay.

 

[mrochester]

LOL, okay.

You have a funny way of looking at things, I'll say that.

So basically, choice is bad, really bad, and shame on Google (and to a very minor extent Microsoft) for providing choices- so if only we had more companies that operate almost as a monopoly putting out ONE basic model of phone every other blue-moon, walling things in and locking it down... in order to have more "choices". Hehheh. Okay.

In my scenario you'd have loads of high quality choices instead of what we've got now where we have one high quality and then a load of dreck.

 

[Zaap]

LOL! In your scenario you'd still be staring at a 3" screen with a 2009 era processor, 1GB of RAM (maybe) probably 8GB of storage for $800+... telling everyone how thankful you are for Apple bestowing upon you the pinnacle of technology!

 

[mrochester]

LOL! In your scenario you'd still be staring at a 3" screen with a 2009 era processor, 1GB of RAM (maybe) probably 8GB of storage for $800+... telling everyone how thankful you are for Apple bestowing upon you the pinnacle of technology!

No we wouldn't, we'd just have more competitive options unlike we have at the minute. imagine a world where products from Samsung, Sony and LG were as good as the iPhone? That'd be wonderful instead of only the iPhone being any good! There's no helping you if you'd rather stick with the poor quality we have now.

 

[dawheat]

Honestly this seems overblown, less true than in the past, and increasingly less true in the future.

Practically, I find very little different in all popular apps between my wife's iPhone 6 and my Note 4. There are differences sure, but I'd hesitate generally to call it better/worse.

For example - we use seamless maybe 10 times a month in NYC. I like how the iPhone app shows the full menu by default for a restaurant, but hate how checking into menu options always requires an extra, inconvenient step vs. the Android app.

Sure, a minority of apps will be better on one platform or the other, and may even be a bit skewed toward iOS, but IMO it's just not a big deal anymore.

 

[poofyhairguy]

imagine a world where products from Samsung, Sony and LG were as good as the iPhone?

And each OEM has their own walled garden of apps in their own OS separate from the others? It would be a nightmare.

I wonder- do you think Macbooks are the only " good" option for laptops? Why not hate on Windows for removing "good" options from the desktop/laptop market like Android has done?

 

[Zodiark1593]

No we wouldn't, we'd just have more competitive options unlike we have at the minute. imagine a world where products from Samsung, Sony and LG were as good as the iPhone? That'd be wonderful instead of only the iPhone being any good! There's no helping you if you'd rather stick with the poor quality we have now.

Hmm, can't tell if serious.

Btw, I prefer keeping away from a walled garden. Least I don't need Apple's blessing (a Mac + Dev License) to fiddle around with the device I paid for.

 

[Red Storm]

No we wouldn't, we'd just have more competitive options unlike we have at the minute. imagine a world where products from Samsung, Sony and LG were as good as the iPhone? That'd be wonderful instead of only the iPhone being any good! There's no helping you if you'd rather stick with the poor quality we have now.

The troll is strong with this one.

 

[mrochester]

Hmm, can't tell if serious.

Btw, I prefer keeping away from a walled garden. Least I don't need Apple's blessing (a Mac + Dev License) to fiddle around with the device I paid for.

You don't even need to 'fiddle' with your device. It's a tool, not a toy

 

[Commodus]

The issue isn't so much that everyone 'needs' a tightly integrated platform like Apple's, it's that many vendors don't think holistically about their hardware and software design. They frequently customize Android solely for the sake of "differentiation" (i.e. so it doesn't look like the stock interface), which usually ends up making things worse.

Motorola is a good example of how to do it properly. The company not only adds features that are actually useful, but ties them directly to its choice of hardware -- Active Display works because of AMOLED screens, and always-on voice commands are possible because of chips that listen for keywords in the background. It's Android with the manufacturer's strong points brought to the forefront.

Apple does have its integration advantages, but at the same time, having nothing but custom operating systems for each vendor would recreate the "bad old days" of computers circa the '80s, when a developer had to think about supporting DOS, Apple II, Mac, C64, Spectrum and umpteen others. It was theoretically great for diversity, but it typically meant that people settled on one or two vendors and ignored the rest.

 

[poofyhairguy]

You don't even need to 'fiddle' with your device. It's a tool, not a toy

I can play that game too:

A tool is my non-rooted Android phone that can download an ethernet driver from a motherboard maker's website and use a file manager to copy it to a flash drive via USB so I can get a new desktop up and running. A toy is an operating system that doesn't let me even SEE my files in a file manager, because it assumes I am too dumb to deal with that level of complication.

Its all about personal preference, I wish we could just settle on that. Same thing with OP's question, which apps are better depends on personal preference. Honestly iOS apps with the high-left back button (away from my thumb) drive me nuts. I prefer Android apps that expect a back button (even though stupid Material Design breaks that some). Personal preference.

The only area in 2015 where iOS is clearly better in apps (beyond preference) is when you are talking about tablet apps. There are many more apps that can take advantage of a 9-10 inch screen on iOS.

 

[openwheel]

It's a typical "know fact" in the World that Apple iPhone is the best and everything else is just another "Droid". These people are deeply mis-informed.

 

[mrochester]

I can play that game too:

A tool is my non-rooted Android phone that can download an ethernet driver from a motherboard maker's website and use a file manager to copy it to a flash drive via USB so I can get a new desktop up and running. A toy is an operating system that doesn't let me even SEE my files in a file manager, because it assumes I am too dumb to deal with that level of complication.

Its all about personal preference, I wish we could just settle on that. Same thing with OP's question, which apps are better depends on personal preference. Honestly iOS apps with the high-left back button (away from my thumb) drive me nuts. I prefer Android apps that expect a back button (even though stupid Material Design breaks that some). Personal preference.

The only area in 2015 where iOS is clearly better in apps (beyond preference) is when you are talking about tablet apps. There are many more apps that can take advantage of a 9-10 inch screen on iOS.

Aren't you just using the wrong tool for the job?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Aren't you just using the wrong tool for the job?

Depends. Might be the only tool I have with internet access at that moment (because its an Ethernet driver) and so its the only tool for the job.

Needs vary by person.

 

[mrochester]

Depends. Might be the only tool I have with internet access at that moment (because its an Ethernet driver) and so its the only tool for the job.

Needs vary by person.

And I can't even begin to imagine how you'd end up in a situation where you need a wifi driver, you have no optical drive for the included CD driver, and your phone is the only internet connected device you have on you and for some reason you can't tether over USB from your phone. Talk about your 'clutching at straws' sort of scenario.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And I can't even begin to imagine how you'd end up in a situation where you need a wifi driver, you have no optical drive for the included CD driver, and your phone is the only internet connected device you have on you and for some reason you can't tether over USB from your phone. Talk about your 'clutching at straws' sort of scenario.

It is not clutching at straws, it happened to me recently and that is why I brought it up. I went over to a friend's house to help him build his first desktop/gaming PC and I ran into this driver issue. I didn't think to bring a laptop, and so I had to use my phone. The build didn't have an optical drive (it was in a Thermaltake Unveils the Core V1 Mini-ITX Case) so a USB drive was the only way to do it.

Your iPhone USB tethering workaround only works on a Windows desktop if iTunes is installed. No network, no iTunes, no tethering. It was either use my phone, or drive back home to grab a laptop or something. Luckily I use Android and I keep an OTG cable in my car dash always just for reasons like this.

Honestly I have situations come up like this fairly often in my life. One place it happens a lot is at our family's lakehouse where there is no internet because no one lives there full time. Yet family members will still bring their hosed PCs to the lake, and they will expect me to fix them over the weekend while I am there. A hosed PC often will fight you when you try to download some sort of anti-malware tool from that system, as it hijacks your browser as a way to block your access to a solution. Any sort of tethering won't work in these situations, you need another device to download the software.

So because I don't think to bring my laptop (because I didn't expect the task) I use my phone to download the needed software to scrub off the malware. Without Android I just have to tell them tough luck, wait until the next lake trip when I bring a laptop or a flash drive with that software.

Different needs for different folks. You obviously have these multiple tiers of tools- maybe a desktop for high powered stuff, a laptop for tasks like what I am using an Android phone for, a smartphone just for what Apple allows, etc. Me? I could probably get by with just my phone and a desktop. Android killed the laptop form factor for me in most cases and keeps my from dragging an extra device on every trip I take.

One perspective isn't any more "right" than the other, unless you are talking about tablet apps.

 

[openwheel]

I hate it when people ask me to "fix" their computer. Maybe I need to carry an iPhone instead. "Oh sorry, I can't do that I have an iPhone now".

 

[poofyhairguy]

I hate it when people ask me to "fix" their computer. Maybe I need to carry an iPhone instead. "Oh sorry, I can't do that I have an iPhone now".

I tried that for a few years ("I am Apple stuff only"), but then I got pestered to help them "fix" their iPhones/Macs (aka train them how to use it or some app or print on some printer). I much prefer to clean malware off Windows PCs and leave the product training to those poor geniuses at the bar.

 

[mrochester]

It is not clutching at straws, it happened to me recently and that is why I brought it up. I went over to a friend's house to help him build his first desktop/gaming PC and I ran into this driver issue. I didn't think to bring a laptop, and so I had to use my phone. The build didn't have an optical drive (it was in a Thermaltake Unveils the Core V1 Mini-ITX Case) so a USB drive was the only way to do it.

Your iPhone USB tethering workaround only works on a Windows desktop if iTunes is installed. No network, no iTunes, no tethering. It was either use my phone, or drive back home to grab a laptop or something. Luckily I use Android and I keep an OTG cable in my car dash always just for reasons like this.

Honestly I have situations come up like this fairly often in my life. One place it happens a lot is at our family's lakehouse where there is no internet because no one lives there full time. Yet family members will still bring their hosed PCs to the lake, and they will expect me to fix them over the weekend while I am there. A hosed PC often will fight you when you try to download some sort of anti-malware tool from that system, as it hijacks your browser as a way to block your access to a solution. Any sort of tethering won't work in these situations, you need another device to download the software.

So because I don't think to bring my laptop (because I didn't expect the task) I use my phone to download the needed software to scrub off the malware. Without Android I just have to tell them tough luck, wait until the next lake trip when I bring a laptop or a flash drive with that software.

Different needs for different folks. You obviously have these multiple tiers of tools- maybe a desktop for high powered stuff, a laptop for tasks like what I am using an Android phone for, a smartphone just for what Apple allows, etc. Me? I could probably get by with just my phone and a desktop. Android killed the laptop form factor for me in most cases and keeps my from dragging an extra device on every trip I take.

One perspective isn't any more "right" than the other, unless you are talking about tablet apps.

So you're part of the tiny minority for which that is useful. I do exactly the same thing as you (build and support family PCs) and I've never come across the situation you have found yourself in.

What I guess I can't stand are the hipsters who think that buying Android is somehow a big 'screw you' to consumerism and how their purchase somehow makes them an 'individual' because they can waste their time playing with custom ROMs etc. The very same people usually have the nerve to call the iPhone a 'toy', despite the fact they probably spend more time playing around with their Android phone like a toy than actually using it as a tool to do stuff.

I buy technology to get shit done, and the iPhone does communication and mobile internet duties in the most comprehensive, enjoyable and least frustrating way out of all smartphones on the market.