Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Andriod Chosen Over iOS, Here is Why

My dad keeps confusing me with this question, "Which is better Galaxy or iPhone?" This post was to clear his question a bit and anyone who might ask.

The opinion I'm residing here is my own. I will list the Good things about iOS (iPhone4) and then the bad things , and I will do the same with Andriod (Samsung Galaxy S2)

If I was the type of user who downloads apps, surfs the web and plays songs, then yes I would get an iPhone. But unfortunately I want more.

The Good about iPhone

Here is what I like about iPhone


  1. Sleek Design: The phone is designed in a way not to let you worry much about whats inside. It is hard-locked. When unimportant stuff is locked to user it is easier to use. For instance most of us never saw an iPhone battery.
  2. Simplicity:  With only one physical button that takes you home whenever you are lost, even kids can use this phone.
  3. Incredible Touch Screen:  I admit that no device has yet been created that closely match the iPhone's touch screen. It is so simple grandma knows how to use it. 

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The bad about iPhone

Here is what I don't like about iPhone
  1. Too Simple:  Here lies the problem, iPhone is too simple. The iOS is designed in a way to "lock" users from the rest of the phone and just enable them to do the frequently most used stuff which works really great for 80% of users. As a developer, I want to know what's going on behind that progress bar when I download an app, or how much RAM an app is consuming, or what is the CPU usage. One would say "so? There are apps for that" Yes of course there are but it's not as good as if it comes Native. Plus most of these apps require a jail-break and we will talk about jail-break in a minute. 
  2. Syncing Rage: Unless you are syncing with one machine all the time your fine. The moment you sync it with other machine things go crazy, for some reason Apple doesn't like that and decide to delete all your stuff.
  3. It is not a handset: Without iTunes you cannot use your IPhone, and to connect to iTunes you should two things 1) USB Cable 2) A laptop. Everything should sync through that, so you should always carry your USB with you. So I won't call the iPhone a "handset" unless Apple loses this hard coupling. With Andriod, thanks to Google Cloud services, you can setup your phone wherever you are without connecting it to a machine. 
  4. No Built-in WIFI Hotspot: I don't know about iPhone4S But IPhone4 doesn't have a WIFI tethering feature.
  5. OS Update Errors: If Apple is trying to make the iPhone simple, it should make it all the way to the OS update, I haven’t met an average user who was able to update his OS Successfully in iPhone without losing his apps and music.
  6. License to Develop: Fine, I understand how beneficial it gets to tab into the developer resources with a developer license, but to prevent me even from testing my app on device is something most developers won't like. So we should wait for weeks to get the license (mine took 2 months) or go on and jail-break in order to install a test app which what most people are doing by the way. So a clean message to apple: please lose the license to test.
  7. No Jailbreak No Joy: There is any way to optimize and customize your iPhone without jail-breaking. Unless of course you jailbreak and void your warranty which consequently prevents you from getting any updates. Without a jail-break you don't know what on earth is going behind the scene.
(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Good about Andriod

Here is what I like about Andriod

  1. Naked OS:  Andriod on the other hand is an open OS which comes out of the box with all what a geek might ask I can see through my OS and apps. I can see my device naked. It can do all what an iOS does, not with the same level of simplicity of course but Andriod is getting there with each release. You can take this OS and modify it the way you like.
  2. Baked in Google Products: One more thing, Andriod, being a google product, and we know how all of us loves google, everything is baked in this OS, search engine, Google Mail, Maps, Documents, Picasa, Calendar and yes Contacts. The moment I entered my Gmail in my Galaxy S2, it starts pulling all my contacts with their numbers, emails, avatars, my Blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts into my contact list. All my calendar dates and anniversaries are automatically set, and most importantly. All Synced and ready to go. 
  3. Setup over WIFI: I have been using my Galaxy s2 for a week now and I NEVER connected it to a machine. I took it, charged it, entered my gmail account and voila! All sexy and ready to go. 
  4. Development Joy:  Development is so easy, just download the Andriod SDK, write your code, install it to the device and enjoy, no licensing is required for testing your app. Just check the option to trust the Unknown apps and you are ready to go. Unlike iPhone where you need to purchase a development license even if you just want to test the app, so again, you need to jailbreak to install your app. 
  5. WIFI Tethering:  Out of the box ready to use, used it so many times and enjoying it. I'm always connecting my BB to the my GS2 hotspot.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Bad about Andriod

Here is what I don't like about Andriod

  1. Bad Market App: I didn't like the Andriod Market at all; I think it needs more work. Apple Store is much more organized.  
  2. Possible Viruses: Since it "can" be unlocked to unknown source apps, you are a potential victim of viruses which can hijack your phone.
  3. Too much Built-in Apps: I would take this bad point to Samsung because they injected so much useless apps just for commercial benefits. At least allow me to delete them.
  4. Auto Rotate: I would animate while rotating because sometimes the flip screen can get really frustrating.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

Conclusion
So I either get an iPhone, jailbreak it, customize it the way I want, and then be extra careful while syncing it not to lose my stuff. This way I can't enjoy any new updates by Apple anymore. Not to mention that to Jailbreak you need to make sure a Jailbreak software is available to the iOS you already have, and until now no good jailbreak is available for iOS5 for iPad2 and iPhone4S. Or get a clean Andriod handset and do whatever I want.

Both iOS and Andriod have their pros and cons, it depends on your needs.

"So no dad I don't know which one is better, you decide."

2 comments:

  1. I think IPhone is still the best market choice. Having an excellent technologic package, I think it is good to have the I-set of devices and mix it with the chrome applications :).

    Interesting blog as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Regarding the bad things about iPhone,

    - Built-in hotspot,
    This feature has been covered in all post iOS 4.3 version, unless it's disabled by the carriers settings files.

    - Online Activation,
    It's now possible to activate an iPhone without iTunes, but you have to connect over a wifi network to do so, which is kind of restrictive.

    With iOS 5 , I can say that iPhone is now a 100% genuine post-pc device, since it doesn't need any PC to get activated, get OTA updates and maintains the backup online on iCloud.

    But as a super user, I really don't like being restricted to the GUI interfaces only, I want to see whats beneath the hood and customize my phone with the way I want and this is a big plus to Android.

    ReplyDelete

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