Why would you buy an Apple tablet over an Android tablet?

[Oyeve]

I'll bite, what?

I'm not trolling so relax.

 

[slackerinabox]

For me -beyond the fact that I hate iTunes for several reasons- it's part of the attitude from Apple I hate that pretends there's no need to access a mobile device's file system directly.

I've outlined before how this silly attitude makes things like Dropbox practically useless on iOS, whereas it's a great file transfer tool on Android.

I do a much better job of managing my own music files (which is easy, and actually faster than using iTunes) so why would I want to be forced to use something I consider subpar?

Every bit as much as you view iTunes to be geek kryptonite, I view it to be fanboi pablum.

To be fair, us tech forum folks are a special breed - we like renaming mp3s, editing tags on a 3rd party app, and get erections looking at file systems. The question to me is, why can't us geeks understand and empathize with the common folk - the person who wants to drag and drop, right click and edit tags, and sync using one app while never having to look at disk1-01-the-fragile-nin-awesome_song.mp3? Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from but is it hard to appreciate that end users don't have any problem with Apple's slavery, not because they are sheep but because this perceived lack of freedom might actually make it easier? The iPod was #1 before apple had this perceived cult, and it used iTunes back then too. It obliterated all the mp3 players back then, partially because people always would pester me about how to get music onto their damn Creative labs mp3 player while, with itunes, once you learn that you're set. Try to explain music management to a normal using explorer/drag and drop + tag editors and see if they don't ask "where'd my music go?"

 

[Red Storm]

I'll bite, what?

Stocks and Newsstand for example. Obviously I get why most of the pre-installed Apple apps are there, but if they made the others (like those I mentioned and Game Center and a few others) like iBooks where you can go get it from the app store if you want, that would be great.

 

[Oyeve]

:sneaky:

 

[Zaap]

To be fair, us tech forum folks are a special breed - we like renaming mp3s, editing tags on a 3rd party app, and get erections looking at file systems. The question to me is, why can't us geeks understand and empathize with the common folk - the person who wants to drag and drop, right click and edit tags, and sync using one app while never having to look at disk1-01-the-fragile-nin-awesome_song.mp3? Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from but is it hard to appreciate that end users don't have any problem with Apple's slavery, not because they are sheep but because this perceived lack of freedom might actually make it easier? The iPod was #1 before apple had this perceived cult, and it used iTunes back then too. It obliterated all the mp3 players back then, partially because people always would pester me about how to get music onto their damn Creative labs mp3 player while, with itunes, once you learn that you're set. Try to explain music management to a normal using explorer/drag and drop + tag editors and see if they don't ask "where'd my music go?"

First off, I'm the first to recognize and state all the time that Apple knows how to package things and make things into what consumers want and crave better than just about anyone. I completely understand the appeal of Apple to consumers.

Here's the thing- this discussion is mainly about why choice is better and not a bad thing. Great- iTunes supposedly is designed to be dumb enough that Aunt Millie can use it. GREAT. FINE. What's so wrong with Aunt Millie deciding she likes and wants to use iTunes, and me deciding I would rather use my own management and drag and drop? (And luckily on the Mac, it does work that way).

Aunt Millie loses NOTHING by the choice being there. She can take it or leave it. But I gain everything because I now have the choice. To me, that's the superior system.

Something like file system access may sound all nerdy Buck Rogers, but average people DO understand when lack of it affects them in the real world. I've outlined the story here where a presentation my wife did was ruined because her iPhone's stupid limitations let her down so bad. I dropboxed her a file she needed, and though it would be simple to merely transfer that file from her iPhone to a friend's (non-internet connected) laptop where it was needed for the presentation. The file was on her iPhone, but because dropbox is limited by Apple's stupid pretense, there was no way to transfer it to the laptop. Any Android phone and the file would be easily available to drag/drop the file straight from device to laptop. Sorry, but ordinary non-techy people DO understand this level of computer usefulness- most ONLY use computers and devices because they are useful to them in their daily lives, not because they're playing team sports for some brand.

I also disagree with you about average users not understanding a simple concept like drag and drop. My 10 year old niece has no problem dragging and dropping music files to any device you hand her- most of her teenage friends are the same way. They seem to understand this digital music stuff like it's second nature because they grew up with it.

Personally, I don't want everything designed for everyone's tech-clueless Aunt Millie. If we extrapolated that out to every device, none of our A/V gadgets could have a clock because Aumt Millie's is stuck flashing 12:00 and instead of smartphones we'd all just be forced to use a Jitterbug.

Choice isn't the enemy. Let Aunt Millie choose to do things the dumbed-down way (she can turn the damned flashing clock off) let my niece and me choose to do things the better way. (We have no problem setting ours). Win/Win.

 

[Ns1]

Choice isn't the enemy. Let Aunt Millie choose to do things the dumbed-down way (she can turn the damned flashing clock off) let my niece and me choose to do things the better way. (We have no problem setting ours). Win/Win.

When Aunt Millie can't figure out how to do the dumbed-down way and calls me, it becomes my problem.

Stocks and Newsstand for example. Obviously I get why most of the pre-installed Apple apps are there, but if they made the others (like those I mentioned and Game Center and a few others) like iBooks where you can go get it from the app store if you want, that would be great.

Fair enough, I'd love to uninstall that goddamn stocks app.

 

[slackerinabox]

First off, I'm the first to recognize and state all the time that Apple knows how to package things and make things into what consumers want and crave better than just about anyone. I completely understand the appeal of Apple to consumers.

Here's the thing- this discussion is mainly about why choice is better and not a bad thing. Great- iTunes supposedly is designed to be dumb enough that Aunt Millie can use it. GREAT. FINE. What's so wrong with Aunt Millie deciding she likes and wants to use iTunes, and me deciding I would rather use my own management and drag and drop? (And luckily on the Mac, it does work that way).

Aunt Millie loses NOTHING by the choice being there. She can take it or leave it. But I gain everything because I now have the choice. To me, that's the superior system.

Something like file system access may sound all nerdy Buck Rogers, but average people DO understand when lack of it affects them in the real world. I've outlined the story here where a presentation my wife did was ruined because her iPhone's stupid limitations let her down so bad. I dropboxed her a file she needed, and though it would be simple to merely transfer that file from her iPhone to a friend's (non-internet connected) laptop where it was needed for the presentation. The file was on her iPhone, but because dropbox is limited by Apple's stupid pretense, there was no way to transfer it to the laptop. Any Android phone and the file would be easily available to drag/drop the file straight from device to laptop. Sorry, but ordinary non-techy people DO understand this level of computer usefulness- most ONLY use computers and devices because they are useful to them in their daily lives, not because they're playing team sports for some brand.

I also disagree with you about average users not understanding a simple concept like drag and drop. My 10 year old niece has no problem dragging and dropping music files to any device you hand her- most of her teenage friends are the same way. They seem to understand this digital music stuff like it's second nature because they grew up with it.

Personally, I don't want everything designed for everyone's tech-clueless Aunt Millie. If we extrapolated that out to every device, none of our A/V gadgets could have a clock because Aumt Millie's is stuck flashing 12:00 and instead of smartphones we'd all just be forced to use a Jitterbug.

Choice isn't the enemy. Let Aunt Millie choose to do things the dumbed-down way (she can turn the damned flashing clock off) let my niece and me choose to do things the better way. (We have no problem setting ours). Win/Win.

We do have choice, no one is forcing anyone to buy an iPhone. I understand how the locked down approach is frustrating (my winphone is worse - I had a very similar situation to your wife's and the solution was emailing myself the attachment vs what I view as much easier), but I understand apple's approach as well. Locked down = a consistent user experience, and I just don't hear many regular people bitching about iTunes. Or wishing they could use another appstore. Or losing sleep over lack of file system access. Or many of the other complaints about iOS we have here. In fact, iOS users tend to love the experience and seem to be far more loyal to the brand than most (and this "sheep" bullshit is too childish for me to bother with, people flocked to apple because they like it, how hard is it to accept that?). What I like about iOS is that I can think of my wife's iphone, my ipod, and her iPad as appliances that rarely need troubleshooting or futzing with. I mean, really, were we annoyed by our motorola razr's lack of file system access? I'm abridging my argument because, oddly, phone os' has turned into a politics like discussion these days - you can't change someone's mind, as if android/ios are religions. I don't quite get that, I like toys and have as many different types as I can afford without having an emotional response of love or hate towards any (and I may even get a playbook too!). Though, ok, I do love my macbook air. It's so pretty!

 

[Geekbabe]

The iPad 3 is way better than any Android tablet I've seen out so far and I dont own any apple products.

I have the iPad 3, the screen is flat out amazing, but aside from that, what makes the device "better than android" isn't the hardware, it's the apps! Every subject I search the app store for yields a multitude of apps for me to choose from. Every app I have installed works, there are is no freezing, no force closes, no random reboots of the tablet.

I love the customization that android makes possible but what I love even more is being able to quickly find apps that do what I need done. Think of the old saying "the journey is half the pleasure of getting to there" Tinkering with android is a pleasurable journey, rooting, installing custom roms, etc but there are many times I just want to get quickly to my destination, iPad gets me there.

 

[slackerinabox]

I have the iPad 3, the screen is flat out amazing, but aside from that, what makes the device "better than android" isn't the hardware, it's the apps! Every subject I search the app store for yields a multitude of apps for me to choose from. Every app I have installed works, there are is no freezing, no force closes, no random reboots of the tablet.

I love the customization that android makes possible but what I love even more is being able to quickly find apps that do what I need done. Think of the old saying "the journey is half the pleasure of getting to there" Tinkering with android is a pleasurable journey, rooting, installing custom roms, etc but there are many times I just want to get quickly to my destination, iPad gets me there.

Android users entertain themselves customizing their phones. iOS users entertain themselves playing top quality, tier 1 games and apps It's very strange to me that customization became such a prerequisite to users here, especially when the loss of stability is often the consequence of playing with roms. It's kinda sissy to me, so many people so into playing dress up with their phones. It's a phone, stop messing with it

The obvious joke in all of this is that, as Samsung is doing with the SG3, differentiation and proprietary software tweaks/services will be the obvious direction android takes as one company struggles to gain it's unique place in the market compared to the sea of android look alikes. We'll hit a ceiling when it comes to hardware so locking the os down and skinning the shit out of it (plus throwing in branded gimmicks) seems like a logical place to go. Maybe not this year or next but, eventually, I feel that vanilla android's days are numbered.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Android users entertain themselves customizing their phones. iOS users entertain themselves playing top quality, tier 1 games and apps It's very strange to me that customization became such a prerequisite to users here, especially when the loss of stability is often the consequence of playing with roms. It's kinda sissy to me, so many people so into playing dress up with their phones. It's a phone, stop messing with it

The obvious joke in all of this is that, as Samsung is doing with the SG3, differentiation and proprietary software tweaks/services will be the obvious direction android takes as one company struggles to gain it's unique place in the market compared to the sea of android look alikes. We'll hit a ceiling when it comes to hardware so locking the os down and skinning the shit out of it (plus throwing in branded gimmicks) seems like a logical place to go. Maybe not this year or next but, eventually, I feel that vanilla android's days are numbered.

Haven't customized anything on my Note. Just plug and play. I've had a few crashes in the couple months I've had it. I had a crash daily with the iPhone. I'm not going to try and convince you of anything. Enjoy your iPhone. They'd have to give me a free iPhone and a wad of money to use it over my Android. To each his own.

 

[Zaap]

Android users entertain themselves customizing their phones. iOS users entertain themselves playing top quality, tier 1 games and apps

Which isn't impressive at all on a postage stamp sized screen. The iPhone to me is backwards. The iPad 3 is a whole different animal. iOS users seem to think they can lump everything into one pile of positives no matter which Apple device they are using. I don't really see it that way, because it's illogical. Yes, Apple makes the best tablet, but your iPod-Plus, er, excuse me iPhone doesn't magically share all the same positives because of it. I see someone playing a great game on an iPad and I'm impressed. On a piddly iPhone it's kind of sad. You've got nothing on a Note user, for example.

 

[Geekbabe]

Android users entertain themselves customizing their phones. iOS users entertain themselves playing top quality, tier 1 games and apps It's very strange to me that customization became such a prerequisite to users here, especially when the loss of stability is often the consequence of playing with roms. It's kinda sissy to me, so many people so into playing dress up with their phones. It's a phone, stop messing with it

The obvious joke in all of this is that, as Samsung is doing with the SG3, differentiation and proprietary software tweaks/services will be the obvious direction android takes as one company struggles to gain it's unique place in the market compared to the sea of android look alikes. We'll hit a ceiling when it comes to hardware so locking the os down and skinning the shit out of it (plus throwing in branded gimmicks) seems like a logical place to go. Maybe not this year or next but, eventually, I feel that vanilla android's days are numbered.

I'm not going to disrespect android lovers because I enjoy the experimentation involved in customizing a device just as much as the next geek. What I won't do anymore is sit here in haughty disdain of Apple products. My immersion into the Apple ecosystem has taught me a lot & I totally understand why their devices are popular with so many people.

Will I buy another android tablet? Will I get a Win 8 tablet when they are released? Hell yes! Competition drives innovation, there can never be too many choices!

 

[Zaap]

When Aunt Millie can't figure out how to do the dumbed-down way and calls me, it becomes my problem.

Eh? I thought iTunes was supposedly so simple she'd never have a problem with it?

Now we're spinning in circles here! LOL.

I guess Aunt Millie should just stay away from ALL technology if now even Apple is too complicated for her.

 

[Ns1]

Eh? I thought iTunes was supposedly so simple she'd never have a problem with it?

Now we're spinning in circles here! LOL.

I guess Aunt Millie should just stay away from ALL technology if now even Apple is too complicated for her.

i'm referring to relatives attempting to dumb down an android device to iOS levels

my aunt/uncle gave up.

 

[Munky]

Why? It's their business model, and a very successful one at that. Google's model is advertising, you'd rather throw your arms and embrace an ad company? Does the choice on Android equal better, high quality apps? Nope, not really. So what's the end result? iOS has more of the high quality, cutting edge apps that people want, and I frankly prefer a curated market place.. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just don't get why Apple is the bad guy for a closed ecosystem when that's a major part of their revenue stream. No one shits on Xbox for only playing xbox games. When did this openess become a prerequisite for mobile os? My first phone with a marketplace was a nokia and, lemme tell you, it was just as locked down.

Also, are you implying that Apples dominance in the market means that you're a conformist if you use their product? Why is that an argument either for or against a piece of hardware, unless you're a teenager hell bent of proving your self worth through products that define you as an outsider, rebel.

From my experience, the majority of apps are crap on every ecosystem I've tried. I don't need an app for amazon when I can just go to the actual website. I don't need an app for cheezy camera effects, since I use a real photo editing tool on my desktop PC. And I don't need a game that involves swiping my finger across the screen like a retard, when I can play a 100x better game using a mouse and KB.

That leaves me with evaluating the device based on something other than apps - like how customizable is it, how well it supports industry-standard technologies and formats, and how well it integrates into my current ecosystem. I refuse to support companies which insist I do things their way as opposed to doing it my way.

 

[Zaap]

i'm referring to relatives attempting to dumb down an android device to iOS levels

my aunt/uncle gave up.

Heh. That's kind of funny that Android couldn't quite do dumb as well as Apple.

Anyway, I was referring to it being the better option if, using iOS, Aunt Millie can have her dumbed down way, and others can have the choice of their way. IE: it takes nothing away from the dumbed down approach to also allow more choices. That's what many of us who prefer choice don't understand iOS evangelists not seeming able to grasp. BOTH things, not one or the other over everything just because some big company dictates it.

 

[disappoint]

I have the iPad 3, the screen is flat out amazing, but aside from that, what makes the device "better than android" isn't the hardware, it's the apps! Every subject I search the app store for yields a multitude of apps for me to choose from. Every app I have installed works, there are is no freezing, no force closes, no random reboots of the tablet.

I love the customization that android makes possible but what I love even more is being able to quickly find apps that do what I need done. Think of the old saying "the journey is half the pleasure of getting to there" Tinkering with android is a pleasurable journey, rooting, installing custom roms, etc but there are many times I just want to get quickly to my destination, iPad gets me there.

Does Ipad have Torque? This is a serious question. I tried googling it but I don't see Torque for the Ipad. The closest thing I could find is DashCommand, which isn't quite the same and costs 10 times more.

 

[MrX8503]

From my experience, the majority of apps are crap on every ecosystem I've tried. I don't need an app for amazon when I can just go to the actual website. I don't need an app for cheezy camera effects, since I use a real photo editing tool on my desktop PC. And I don't need a game that involves swiping my finger across the screen like a retard, when I can play a 100x better game using a mouse and KB.

That leaves me with evaluating the device based on something other than apps - like how customizable is it, how well it supports industry-standard technologies and formats, and how well it integrates into my current ecosystem. I refuse to support companies which insist I do things their way as opposed to doing it my way.

Maybe you should evaluate your usage model on a device to device basis. I can't game on a mouse and KB while on my train commute.

 

[QueBert]

love how people are saying how easy it is to drag and drop shit on Android blah blah blah. My neighbor has a Samsung whatever on Sprint, and it requires drivers for phone to show up as a storage device on Windows. But when you plug it in, it doesn't automatically install the drivers. They had zero clue how to copy music to it. No way in hell "Aunt Millie" could figure it out. While this isn't an Android problem, it's a problem that effects only certain devices. There are multiple phones where this is the case. So phone to phone Android devices aren't always as simple to hook up to a PC as people make them out to be.

 

[Zaap]

love how people are saying how easy it is to drag and drop shit on Android blah blah blah. My neighbor has a Samsung whatever on Sprint, and it requires drivers for phone to show up as a storage device on Windows. But when you plug it in, it doesn't automatically install the drivers. They had zero clue how to copy music to it. No way in hell "Aunt Millie" could figure it out. While this isn't an Android problem, it's a problem that effects only certain devices. There are multiple phones where this is the case. So phone to phone Android devices aren't always as simple to hook up to a PC as people make them out to be.

Once again, you missed the point.

No one wants Android to be dumbed down to the point Aunt Millie can use it.

It's the opposite.

We'd like to see the platform that's dumb enough for Aunt Millie to use (iOS/iTunes) also allow people that ARE able to figure out how to do things like drag and drop a file (OMG WHAT A HARDSHIP!!!) have more choices using that platform as well.

I realize for some this is an extremely complex concept they can't quite get their noodle around, but then, that's why dumbed down shit has to exist.

 

[tvdang7]

love how people are saying how easy it is to drag and drop shit on Android blah blah blah. My neighbor has a Samsung whatever on Sprint, and it requires drivers for phone to show up as a storage device on Windows. But when you plug it in, it doesn't automatically install the drivers. They had zero clue how to copy music to it. No way in hell "Aunt Millie" could figure it out. While this isn't an Android problem, it's a problem that effects only certain devices. There are multiple phones where this is the case. So phone to phone Android devices aren't always as simple to hook up to a PC as people make them out to be.

no offense but what are they running windows 95? The driver should be automatically detected and installed by a modern OS.

 

[alent1234]

no offense but what are they running windows 95? The driver should be automatically detected and installed by a modern OS.

i have the same problem on my work issued droid pro and my lenovo win 7 laptop

 

[tvdang7]

i have the same problem on my work issued droid pro and my lenovo win 7 laptop

Well i had an asus transformer and current have a g2 and my win7 laptop picked it up just fine. As long as you change the mode to storage mode on the phone everything works fine. Im not sure what driver there really is to install other then the windows driver that does it on it's own.Very weird.

 

[slackerinabox]

no offense but what are they running windows 95? The driver should be automatically detected and installed by a modern OS.

I've experiences this on many android and non android phones, frankly (all running win 7). Oddly, I had to hunt down drivers and do uninstall reinstall trickery for a damn windows phone, I'd think those drivers would be included in windows.. Ugh.

 

[slackerinabox]

Once again, you missed the point.

No one wants Android to be dumbed down to the point Aunt Millie can use it.

It's the opposite.

We'd like to see the platform that's dumb enough for Aunt Millie to use (iOS/iTunes) also allow people that ARE able to figure out how to do things like drag and drop a file (OMG WHAT A HARDSHIP!!!) have more choices using that platform as well.

I realize for some this is an extremely complex concept they can't quite get their noodle around, but then, that's why dumbed down shit has to exist.

Drag and drop aside, many of the customization nerds love is possible post jailbreak (which is sometimes easier than rooting). I have a foggy memory of using my iphone 3g as removable storage too, though I'm not sure if that's still possible with a jailbroken phone.