There's no doubt Apple is playing catch-up with Android these days. Siri was their only real innovation in the last 3 iPhones, and Google leapfrogged it within months.<p>Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to implement a decent notification system, their auto-correct is garbage, there's no file manager, you can't set a default browser (or default anything, for that matter), there are no widgets, no app shortcuts, no custom keyboards, managing settings is a nightmare, and you can't side-load apps without jailbreaking. That last one is especially bad thanks to their cryptic app approval rules and the fact that their app store is the least intuitive to navigate -- if what you want isn't in the top 10 and you don't know the exact name, forget about it.<p>But hey, at least you get the privilege of spending a fortune on chargers and adapters. And other people with iPhones will think you're cool for owning one, right?
><i>Twenty years of using Macs conditioned me to think, “well, that’s the Apple way.” It’s such a small price to pay for such a user-friendly device.</i><p>Another Stockholm-syndrome patient cured! I recently took over a prototype project targeting the Mac. XCode is garbage. OS X itself actively works against improving your workflow. It's Apple's way or, well Apple's way. iOS is built to keep the user in a padded cell (aka Walled Garden) and OS X is moving in that direction.<p>Use Cyanogenmod. Be Free. Google Now is amazing by the way. Unfortunately I had to turn my google search history back on, but it was worth it.
"With Android (and T-Mobile) I killed my contract. Now I pay just $30/month. For $30/month I have unlimited texts, unlimited data, free tethering, and 100 minutes of talk"<p>Anyone else have experience doing this? My monthly bill for an iPhone with AT&T is $76.40 which includes 300MB of data, 1000 messages, and a whopping 450 minutes (I do have ~2700 rollover minutes though).<p>I don't feel strongly about Android vs iPhone, but $550/yr is nothing to laugh at.<p>Edit: For comparison,<p>T-Mobile
<a href="http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans" rel="nofollow">http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans</a><p>$30/mo: 100 minutes, Unlimited text/web (first 5gb at 4g)<p>$70/mo: Unlimited everything<p>Verizon
<a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-everything.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/share-ever...</a><p>$100/mo: Unlimited minutes/text, 2gb data ($10/mo per 2gb data extra)<p>AT&T
<a href="http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q87kr" rel="nofollow">http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans-new.html#fbid=hfBE29q...</a><p>$70/mo: 450 minutes, 1000 texts (plan not listed), 300mb<p>$90/mo: 450 minutes, unlimited texts, 3gb data
I've been true to the Droid since the G1, and recently offloaded certain duties from my Galaxy Nexus to an iPod Touch 5 (needed for Facetime, popular with the family).<p>When using iOS, I really miss the Intent subsystem. It seems like every app seems to offer different and restricted sharing choices (implicitly asking why I possibly wouldn't be using Instapaper...) [1]<p>I wouldn't be surprised if this is the next Android feature to make it over to iOS, after multitasking and a sane notification system.
On the other hand, it would be churlish to not mention that Android took a boatload of inspiration from iOS. :-)<p>IMHO, Android got the OS basics right with the much maligned early models, and are now adding polish. iOS obsessed over a slick UI, and are now revisiting some of the basics.<p>[1] Apologies if there's something I'm missing here. I'm fairly new to iOS.
They are still in the honeymoon phase. I've been through it twice before with Android phones.<p>Also, in regards to point #1, I never have this problem with my car. Sounds like more of an integration issue with the headunit in the car rather than the phone.
Once you get past the disparity in app ecosystem, the top of the line Android phones (4.1+) definitely have the features to make switching easy.<p>For me, the killer feature is typing. I cannot get past how goddamn primitive the iPhone autocorrection is compared to even the default setup of Droid phones. The state of text input is just absolutely abysmal on iOS.
the "Evangelist" bit about this post irks me. So you've found the light, stop trying "Evangelize" saying things like "I’d like you to switch too".<p>I've used the ipod since the beginning, but i've also used windows until it made more sense to me to start using OSX. today i still use the ipod touch and an android, and windows. each has it's upsides (love the battery life on the touch) and downsides (there is a ton on Android). I'm not in any "camp" or going around telling people why they should switch to my phone. definitely hate the "apple way" even though i love my macbook pro.
A common thing I have noticed in these recent Android switcher posts (and despite the disclaimer this is a fairly typical one): a shift in perceptive of who the phone should serve. Apple tends to make opinionated choose that works amazingly for the vast majority. Switcher tend to stop arguing for the norm and realizing that some people are different. When I used iOS and ran into a problem, I usually found that I just wasn't the typical user in that edge case. Which is fine to a point, but not when I rarely run into similar problems on Android.
I guess android works pretty slick if all you do is stream from the cloud. But, if you want to sync music with the phone it's a disaster. The Google-supported way is for me to put MP3s in a folder? Really? And some of the android phones (like the flagship nexus 4) don't support transfer via USB? Really? I have to do it via slow-ass WiFi and a third-party program like doubletwist? Total disaster.
What's interesting to me here is that I don't see anything but the "Android" brand being mentioned. Several people on this thread mention having several Android phones, but not several "Samsung" phones, for example. This, despite the fact that Samsung seems like the only manufacturer "killing it" with the Android OS.<p><a href="http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-tale-of-two-disruptions/" rel="nofollow">http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-...</a><p>This seems like a Google win and a Samsung loss.
For what it's worth, issue 1 has proven to be the opposite for me. I had an iPhone 5 and it worked perfectly playing whatever app I had previously been using and not reverting to the standard iTunes library as it seems to for this guy.<p>Indeed, I switched to an Android phone (S III) and found the Bluetooth experience so poor (quiet, poor quality audio) that I bought an iPod Touch merely for listening to Spotify and podcasts in the car..
Ars Technica did a series recently on things that Android should borrow from iOS and things that iOS should borrow from Android:<p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-should-steal-from-android/" rel="nofollow">http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/five-features-ios-shoul...</a>
I found it surprising that he thought his android was better at audio-on-the-go, as this is the very thing that has been keeping me on iOS. Maybe its because my car doesn't have built in bluetooth, but the ability to buy an FM transmitter, iPod dock, etc. and just know that my iPhone will work with it is a huge plus. In talking with my Android using friends, I've also never run across anyone who thought that they could find a better music player for Android than the built in iOS music player. Has the music experience on Android been significantly updated in the most recent OS versions?
Nice, but nothing compelling. Match irritates me no end, but I don't need to switch phone platforms to fix that.
Showing me the way home is a neat trick, but I know my way home thanks.
A good tip for new Android users now that I feel obligated to evangelize Android a bit:<p>Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get:<p>Android 4.2.2/3 and<p>the swipable lockscreen widgets,<p>the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles,<p>the new 360/panorama camera,<p>and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagically updates it in 2 minutes with the push of one button-- no need to manually update the zip file.<p>Another great thing is Android ADB [2] and how quickly it is to get up and running on a new Android device / Android ROM. iOS' Cloud sync is slow when syncing contacts. I remember I was testing between Paranoid Android [3] and it's expandable notifications [4]/ hybrid mode [5], Omega[6] with it's standard TouchWiz two apps at once feature (multiview) [7] and all the other TouchWiz features (gestures and popup browser--which I didn't really use), and Super Nexus [8] with it's pure vanilla Android experience on my I9300 (Samsung Galaxy S3) before sticking to CM and Android will sync my Google Contacts and Gmail first and fast.<p>Google Now is great by being proactive like the author said but he forgot to mention sports tracking for those who like sports.<p>Other than pushing apps from the market to the phone while you're at your PC, the chrome to phone extension [9], and the share feature [10] he nailed this list.<p>EDIT: Forgot about setting apps to default. On paper Android seems better but it's still a matter of polished skuemorphism and flat UI / extra MB added from HTC Sense, BLUR or TouchWiz. The low file footprint on iOS compared to these added slow layers make up the difference so I understand if you don't want to switch.<p>[0] <a href="http://get.cm" rel="nofollow">http://get.cm</a>
[1] <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&...</a>
[2] <a href="http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html" rel="nofollow">http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html</a>
[3] <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560df80c96b397380489d04ba&t=2172474" rel="nofollow">http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560d...</a>
[4] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VnC1Wc2UHos#at=10" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V...</a>
[5] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iytFrPmbmeY#t=197s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...</a>
[6] <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656" rel="nofollow">http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656</a>
[7] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mjI1fDspHgU#t=19s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...</a>
[8] <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672" rel="nofollow">http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672</a>
[9] <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-phone-ex/oadboiipflhobonjjffjbfekfjcgkhco?hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p...</a> & <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.chrometophone&hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...</a>
[10] <a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-feature" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-...</a>
Ok, (s)he lists four reasons why Android beats iPhone, my reactions to the four were:<p>1. Meh<p>2. Meh<p>3. Holy shit, they are going to take over! Hail our new overlords.<p>4. Meh<p>The Android is <i>aware of it's environment</i> and consequently can take personalised action, and is allowed to by product makers.<p>I swear undying loyalty oh masters
At first I thought this guy really built his own protocol or something. But upon reading, it seems like it's just a rant about his experience with Android.<p>Disclosure: I'm an Android fanboy (4 HTC phones! 1 iPhone)<p>The sad part is, this is a heavily opinionated article fully about his own experience and it doesn't actually explain why Android is better than iOS yet. For example, he talks about integration issues with his car as an argument over his iPhone, which is just his own opinion. It would have been really great if he had pitched as to why Android is REALLY better than the iPhone. He doesn't talk about the actual reasons why Android is superior -<p>1) Choice of various Filemanagers<p>2) Better Bluetooth connectivity between other phones<p>3) No need for the memory hogging iTunes garbage<p>4) Better navigation and integrated Maps support<p>5) Choices between browsers and functionality (Some browsers even enable Flash even if your handset doesnt support it!)<p>6) Excellent Notifications menu and ease of access to important stuff<p>7) Better App. management (Move to memory card, etc) and true multi-tasking, install Apps outside of Market<p>8) Freedom to do whatever you want with the phone - Install any ROM you like, Root it, connect it to other electronic peripherals, etc.<p>This is just a short list, and I'm not sure if some of the features are now available on iDevices, but the last time I checked, they weren't..