yikes.. the iOS experience

[slackerinabox]

I've been pro-droid for quite a while and respect my droid.. it's awesome for a constant tweaker like myself - i love swapping roms and features like wifi tethering. .. I even like my work blackberry - the thing does what it's supposed to, efficiently. I bought my wife a new iPod touch today and I'm fairly blown away and consider myself mildly converted already.. The obvious thing is the speed - android feels like a desktop while the ipod feels like an appliance... there's no thought, stutter, app slow downs, or crashes. I had an iPhone 1g and it had it's sluggish moments, but iOS4 springs to life. Android's an odd beast - sometimes it's zippy sometimes it's crash happy - a task killer is a must use tool. Then there's the polish of the OS. It feels like apple's windows 7 to android's windows 2000.. But I like the cold efficiency of windows 2000, so I'm conflicted! Then there's gaming - my wife's sucked into a game of oregon trail .. i've never seen her play an android game, even during the "new toy let me download everything!" phase of her droid ownership.


Then there's facetime that's awesome and works, while the few times I got fring to work on my android seemed like a buggy laggy mess... Slide shows on WiFI- yay! I'm not trying to flame and droid X seems like a sexy big phone, but I'm beginning to be one of those people who look forward to a 4G iphone on verizon.

Edit: I have no doubt that Gingerbread will rock, and eagerly look forward to devices based on it.

 

[MrX8503]

The obvious thing is the speed - android feels like a desktop while the ipod feels like an appliance... there's no thought, stutter, app slow downs, or crashes.

Huh? I'm not sure I follow that statement. Desktops are fast.

Anyway, the iPhone is faster and has better games than Android. Speed should be addressed in Gingerbread and the gaming sector on Android is getting better.

I've own both devices and I'm currently using an iPhone4. I'm downloading games on it probably several times a week. Utility apps maybe once a week.

When I had my EVO, I downloaded maybe 1 game/utility app a week.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Huh? I'm not sure I follow that statement. Desktops are fast.

Being an Android user, I agree with his statement. Apple has done a good job at making iOS (and OSX to some extent as well) feel very fluid and snappy, even on hardware that isn't as impressive. It's like walking up to a microwave - you would be pissed if every time you pressed a button there was a ~0.5 to 1 second delay before the microwave actually responded. Desktops, and Android for that matter, aren't usually like that, but they certainly can be.

Of course, that snappiness comes at the cost of much more limited hardware and software support and far less customization.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Wanna get really screwed up and conflicted?

Go to an Apple store & play Plants VS Zombies on an iPad....

<--I have a BB, iPhone 3G, Droid Incredible, iPad.

Fanboy loyalty is pretty goddamn retarded, it pretty well means you're a nitwit that follows whatever corporate BS the company of the month is spewing.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Ive always said the iPhone 4 is not a bad phone except for the reception problem and the carrier. The only other thing i dont like is being locked down to itunes but other than that I'd probably consider it when buying a phone

 

[Pliablemoose]

Ive always said the iPhone 4 is not a bad phone except for the reception problem and the carrier. The only other thing i dont like is being locked down to itunes but other than that I'd probably consider it when buying a phone

There are several options outside of iTunes that work fine, I just installed share pod, free & it works great.

http://www.getsharepod.com/

 

[QueBert]

Wanna get really screwed up and conflicted?

Go to an Apple store & play Plants VS Zombies on an iPad....

<--I have a BB, iPhone 3G, Droid Incredible, iPad.

Fanboy loyalty is pretty goddamn retarded, it pretty well means you're a nitwit that follows whatever corporate BS the company of the month is spewing.

I agree, I love my iPod Touch, I'll get an iPhone if they come to Verizon. But at the same time I really am getting into my Moto Droid. Neither is clearly better to me and both have things I couldn't live without. I guess because I like my iPod Touch that automatically makes me an Apple fan boy, even if I was to own every Android phone on the market

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

If I were forced onto the real AT&T data plan instead of $15 medianet, I would have an iPhone now.

But I gambled when they killed unlimited data and said I'll keep my $15 medianet for my Android phone and continue using in secrecy.

This means I can never get an AT&T branded smartphone and my future phones must be import phones or I just gotta bite the bullet and take the 2gb plan. Yuck.

There's something about iOS games that makes it fun. They're designed to be very casual, simple, yet entertaining.

Look at Angry Birds, Flight Control, Plants vs Zombies. Even the older crap like the TowerBloxx or Real Racing were just sheer amazing. We have yet to see anything like this on Android.

I think it's just the app developers. Think of it this way. Group of hot girls available. Obviously they pick the good looking guys. Now a second group of hot girls arrives and picks from the leftovers. Kinda like developers and iOS vs Android. Many of them ran to the first big thing. The other gets leftovers. Now some want to cross back over or get a bit of both. However they're still more loyal to iOS than anything else. We'll hopefully see the market balance out as the marketshare of Android picks up. But until we get some quality Android ports, I really think the Android Market blows. Come on Tweetdeck.

 

[ponyo]

There are several options outside of iTunes that work fine, I just installed share pod, free & it works great.

http://www.getsharepod.com/

Does this work with ipad as well?

 

[charrison]

If I were forced onto the real AT&T data plan instead of $15 medianet, I would have an iPhone now.

But I gambled when they killed unlimited data and said I'll keep my $15 medianet for my Android phone and continue using in secrecy.

This means I can never get an AT&T branded smartphone and my future phones must be import phones or I just gotta bite the bullet and take the 2gb plan. Yuck.

There's something about iOS games that makes it fun. They're designed to be very casual, simple, yet entertaining.

Look at Angry Birds, Flight Control, Plants vs Zombies. Even the older crap like the TowerBloxx or Real Racing were just sheer amazing. We have yet to see anything like this on Android.

I think it's just the app developers. Think of it this way. Group of hot girls available. Obviously they pick the good looking guys. Now a second group of hot girls arrives and picks from the leftovers. Kinda like developers and iOS vs Android. Many of them ran to the first big thing. The other gets leftovers. Now some want to cross back over or get a bit of both. However they're still more loyal to iOS than anything else. We'll hopefully see the market balance out as the marketshare of Android picks up. But until we get some quality Android ports, I really think the Android Market blows. Come on Tweetdeck.

Angry birds is now on android. The differences between the app stores is shrinking daily.

 

[Phobic9]

There's something about iOS games that makes it fun. They're designed to be very casual, simple, yet entertaining.

Look at Angry Birds, Flight Control, Plants vs Zombies. Even the older crap like the TowerBloxx or Real Racing were just sheer amazing. We have yet to see anything like this on Android.

Gaming on the iPhone is better, no doubt in part due to several reasons but more game developers are coming to Android.

OpenFeint came to Android yesterday, bringing cross-platform unity between iOS and Android and a lot of popular games.

http://phandroid.com/2010/09/15/ope...roid-fruit-ninja-now-available-in-the-market/

Angry Birds is in beta and available in the marketplace now. Full release is in a couple of weeks.

EA Mobile is going to be porting some of their big games soon as well.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/ea-mobile-to-take-advantage-of-android-trend/

Despite fragmentation and multiple hardware configs, these companies can't overlook the fact that Android adoption is growing pretty fast and there's a lot (more) of money to be made.

 

[zsdersw]

WP7 is supposedly as fluid and fast as iOS, too. The key similarity is the degree to which things are locked down.

 

[rudeguy]

Once again...as an avid Android fanboy...this is the one thing that iDevices kill Android in.

 

[zerogear]

Wanna get really screwed up and conflicted?

Go to an Apple store & play Plants VS Zombies on an iPad....

<--I have a BB, iPhone 3G, Droid Incredible, iPad.

Fanboy loyalty is pretty goddamn retarded, it pretty well means you're a nitwit that follows whatever corporate BS the company of the month is spewing.

I'm a fanboy of capability vs price on any device :]

 

[Fear No Evil]

Anything would seem smooth on that postage stamp sized screen.

 

[zerogear]

Well, use the device with JailBreak and utilize it how you'd use a Android device, or for that matter, a WM6.x device, and see if it's still "smooth as butter".

 

[MJinZ]

I've been pro-droid for quite a while and respect my droid.. it's awesome for a constant tweaker like myself - i love swapping roms and features like wifi tethering. .. I even like my work blackberry - the thing does what it's supposed to, efficiently. I bought my wife a new iPod touch today and I'm fairly blown away and consider myself mildly converted already.. The obvious thing is the speed - android feels like a desktop while the ipod feels like an appliance... there's no thought, stutter, app slow downs, or crashes. I had an iPhone 1g and it had it's sluggish moments, but iOS4 springs to life. Android's an odd beast - sometimes it's zippy sometimes it's crash happy - a task killer is a must use tool. Then there's the polish of the OS. It feels like apple's windows 7 to android's windows 2000.. But I like the cold efficiency of windows 2000, so I'm conflicted! Then there's gaming - my wife's sucked into a game of oregon trail .. i've never seen her play an android game, even during the "new toy let me download everything!" phase of her droid ownership.


Then there's facetime that's awesome and works, while the few times I got fring to work on my android seemed like a buggy laggy mess... Slide shows on WiFI- yay! I'm not trying to flame and droid X seems like a sexy big phone, but I'm beginning to be one of those people who look forward to a 4G iphone on verizon.

Edit: I have no doubt that Gingerbread will rock, and eagerly look forward to devices based on it.

Android is still in its infancy. As a matter of implementation and maturity, it's a total complete POS. I laugh at my Droid every day as it struggles to do anything really in any semblance of speed.

Apple's iOS is not that impressive. Smooth? Those are display animations. I played with the ITouch4 a few days ago and it exhibits the same iOS behavior:

1) Touch icon
2) 1 second delay
3) Smooth animation that takes 2 seconds
4) Program takes another second

Damn, 5 seconds wasted.

I am not that gullible, however you may be to think that iOS is actually "smooth".

 

[Spoooon]

Android is still in its infancy. As a matter of implementation and maturity, it's a total complete POS. I laugh at my Droid every day as it struggles to do anything really in any semblance of speed.

Apple's iOS is not that impressive. Smooth? Those are display animations. I played with the ITouch4 a few days ago and it exhibits the same iOS behavior:

1) Touch icon
2) 1 second delay
3) Smooth animation that takes 2 seconds
4) Program takes another second

Damn, 5 seconds wasted.

I am not that gullible, however you may be to think that iOS is actually "smooth".

Hyperbolize much?

 

[trmiv]

I've had both an iPod Touch (3G) and an Android phone (have a droid 1 currently). I prefer my Droid and the Android OS for everything except gaming. Aside from trying out Angry Birds (which I already beat on the Touch before I sold it), I haven't been interested in games on Android. I've tried a few, but they quite honestly suck. Hopefully the gaming part catches up soon, because honestly if the iPhone came to Verizon I'd be tempted to switch right now just because of the gaming situation. I'd rather stick with Android though, but we'll see what happens.

 

[rudeguy]

I've had both an iPod Touch (3G) and an Android phone (have a droid 1 currently). I prefer my Droid and the Android OS for everything except gaming. Aside from trying out Angry Birds (which I already beat on the Touch before I sold it), I haven't been interested in games on Android. I've tried a few, but they quite honestly suck. Hopefully the gaming part catches up soon, because honestly if the iPhone came to Verizon I'd be tempted to switch right now just because of the gaming situation. I'd rather stick with Android though, but we'll see what happens.

You do realize how far gaming has come on NEW Android hardware, right? It doesn't make much sense to critique Android as a whole based on your gaming experience on an old device.

There are quite a few threads on gaming on Android that you might want to check out.

 

[QueBert]

You do realize how far gaming has come on NEW Android hardware, right? It doesn't make much sense to critique Android as a whole based on your gaming experience on an old device.

There are quite a few threads on gaming on Android that you might want to check out.

Android is capable, but has a long way to go, it has a few good games. But iOS has hundreds. Android will get better games as time passes, but that's not gonna be soon. People bringup Angry Birds & Fruit Ninja as proof, when both have been on iOS for a long ass time. Years even maybe. Of my 10 favorite iOS games I have only 1 has been ported to Android, and there's no word on if any of the others will make it over. Android's strength right now is widgets. Even the non gaming apps mostly suck. I've spent the last 3 days looking for a decent contacts replacement app with zero luck. On my iPhone I had 2 really awesome ones, and the App Store had others which got good reviews. While a lot of app makers are porting their apps, a lot aren't.

The apps I'm using outside of Jorte and maybe 1 other all feel very unpolished. The Marketplace is a joke, very few quality apps and every single one seems to have a reviewer telling you to sign up for their site and pay $9.99 to have illegal access all the apps. Google really should take a que from Apple and only let people who bought an app review it. If this is the case, I guess the dude pushing the pirate pay site has bought a crapload of apps lol

If anyone knows of a non crappy Contacts replacement let me know, the default one on my Moto Droid's horrible.

 

[AMDZen]

Welcome to the show. Sounds like you should of just got her an iPhone so she doesn't have to haul two devices around everywhere.

 

[JimmiG]

Android performance is strange. It's very fast in the sense that applications open quickly enough (most nearly instantly). Switching between windows, loading websites etc. is also extremely quick. However some animations and scrolling are choppy for no particular reason. Sometimes when bringing up the virtual keyboard, it appears in the wrong size first, then it's repositioned and re-scaled correctly. This all happens within a fraction of a second, but it's still noticeable. That's just one of many examples of this behavior. For example, why is scrolling between home screens super-smooth, unless I use the track pad? Why is scrolling through SMS-messages choppy, while Email and the Gallery scroll completely fluidly and smoothly? This makes the whole OS feel slower than it really is.

It's kind of like XP vs Vista/Win7. Moving and resizing windows, opening and closing windows etc. is actually faster in XP, but because it's not hardware accelerated or double-buffered, you get lots of visual strangeness like clipping, tearing, partially updated windows, hall of mirrors effects etc.

Android has however almost never crashed for me. Maybe all the constant tweaking, those unofficial experimental ROMs etc. explain your frequent crashes? I'm on the official 2.2 ROM from HTC, with just a few system applications installed. I do have a task killer, but I've only used it a few times to check CPU and memory usage. Never had to use it to actually kill tasks.

 

[vshah]

Look at Angry Birds, Flight Control, Plants vs Zombies. Even the older crap like the TowerBloxx or Real Racing were just sheer amazing. We have yet to see anything like this on Android.

slight corrections:
Angry Birds - Angry Birds
Flight Control - Flight Director
Plants Vs Zombies - Robo Defense or retro defense

TowerBloxx and realRacing i haven't played so i can't comment. the former looks like tons of fun though

 

[MrX8503]

slight corrections:
Angry Birds - Angry Birds
Flight Control - Flight Director
Plants Vs Zombies - Robo Defense or retro defense

TowerBloxx and realRacing i haven't played so i can't comment. the former looks like tons of fun though

Robo Defense is shit