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Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#181

Post by nneonneo »

austhrow743 wrote: post #93
nneonneo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple appears to hate torrents and basically any torrent-related app because I guess they enable piracy. They're not wrong - that would be the #1 use of any torrent app - but I do find that restriction repressive. That said, many torrent servers support a web-based interface which you should be able to control easily with Safari. If you need something more custom, there's plenty of good SSH clients on the App Store a…

>That said, many torrent servers support a web-based interface which you should be able to control easily with Safari. Yeah the deluge webui is what I use on the desktop. Doesn't play nicely with ios safari at all though. >If you need something more custom, there's plenty of good SSH clients on the App Store and most will support fancy screen/tmux/TUI interfaces so you can control your command-line torrent client. I…

Yeah, shortcuts aren’t like UNIX pipes, so “cat >” will create the file but cat will hang forever waiting for data to come in over stdin. I’m guessing you’ll need an scp-type command rather than an ssh command since you need to copy a local file over to the remote end.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#182

Post by gargravarr »

sametmax wrote: post #128
obarthelemy wrote: post #91

- Widgets on the actual home screen, no swiping required. Every app has widgets (except Skype !), so you can have whichever info you need most right there - true browser, true addons. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't limit 3rd-party browsers to reskins of the OS' Web engine, but allows desktop-like from-the-ground-up browsers. You can get Firefow and put uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger on it. - sideloading w/o rooting. E…

That's the comment I wanted to write. I'd add: - kde-connect. It's awesome to be able to control my computer for my phone, especially while watching a movie. - alternative stores. Being able to use aptoid and f-droid let me use the full potential of the phone without tying it to an email account. - productivity concepts arrive first on android. We had wifi hot spot. Quick wifi/bt/3G switch first. Etc. With apple, you…

- USB-C charger. I don't want yet another charger/adapter

This for me is a downside as the USB-C landscape is a disaster of poorly-implemented designs. I'm less inclined to trust a USB-C adapter than a dumb USB adapter, and I would never plug a laptop charger into my phone. At least with dumb USB and micro-USB, you know you're getting 5 volts (excluding serious hardware failures).

- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.

I'd argue the opposite, many Android phones are built to be as cheap as possible and their longevity is really hit and miss. If you want build quality, you need to buy flagship phones - my Galaxy S5 is still working after 5 years, sure, but many cheaper phones are just disposable; I'd have smashed several screens by now if I'd bought something cheaper. There's also the issue that most manufacturers give up on Android updates after 18 months; my S5 officially maxxed out at Android 6, but I'm running 9 via LineageOS. This means I get security updates to the OS, at least, but the low-level firmware has been abandoned by Samsung and if there are serious vulnerabilities, they won't be patched.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#183

Post by ce4 »

tonymet wrote: post #179
ce4 wrote: post #174

Besides the already mentioned things (ff+adblock, termux, etc): 1. Aard2 Dictionary Offline Wikipedia for eg. travelling. Other Mediawiki dumps are supported as well. Bonus: if you deactivate image loading you don't leave any trace online. 2. use old saved app versions 3. USB-CDROM-emulator via usb gadget mode and a USB-CDROM drive app that "inserts" .iso files off your sdcard (eg. Win10 install disk, Grml.org live C…

can you elaborate on #4 sdr sniffer--what bands do you look for? sounds interesting

433Mhz, ADS-B, DAB, etc.

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/android/

As with many gadgets it sits in a drawer for some time now.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#184

Post by dredmorbius »

RandomBacon wrote: post #166
dredmorbius wrote: post #50

Termux. https://termux.com I've got an actual userland Linux shell and package ecosystem, with 1,231 available packages (compare against ~6k for Red Hat / CentOS, 70k for Debian), including standard shell tools, editors, and scripting languages, plus several Android-specific tools and APIs. The scripting tools open up broader archives via pip (python), npm (node.js), and cpan (perl). Many of the "Linux" shell and scr…

> unpredictable process termination Settings - Battery - Battery Optimization (dropdown menu upper right, three dots) Change it for the apps you don't want Android to terminate.

Thanks, though no such option.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#186

Post by cabaalis »

neogodless wrote: post #36
cabaalis wrote: post #15

Primarily the custom launchers. But to be honest, the novelty of that is quickly waning with all these "Hey, how'd you like Home Depot?" notifications that I can't turn off without crippling the android experience. NOYB, that's how I liked it. I'm probably going to be in the market for an iPhone next time around.

What app gives you those notifications? What do you have to disable to stop them? (I haven't seen them so I assume I already have whatever turned off, though I'm not sure what experience I'm missing out on!)

Stock google maps. It appears from the comment above they can be disabled. My problem with it is that google maps is not open, I did not ask google maps to send me to home depot. It just detects that I'm there and asks for a review.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#188

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

discaler wrote: post #153
citrusx wrote: post #59

I like to customize my phone to be exactly what I need from it. Things I do that are only possible in Android: 1) I script some behaviors using Tasker. One example is that I have a script that takes it out of vibrate mode and turns on the ringer if I'm home (GPS), the phone is plugged in, and it's between the hours of 9am and midnight. 2) This requires root, so it might not be worth the trouble for you, and it's not…

Apple has shortcuts which is actually better than tasker and has system wide support and new shortcuts can be easily shared and can easily do some of tasks mentioned above. https://www.imore.com/macstories-releases-archive-150-free-s... seriously amount of ignorance that Android fans about ios is breathtaking.

And don’t forget that in iOS 13 shortcuts can run shortcuts automatically based on location, connected WiFi networks, toggling system settings, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#189

Post by lytedev »

gargravarr wrote: post #182
sametmax wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the comment I wanted to write. I'd add: - kde-connect. It's awesome to be able to control my computer for my phone, especially while watching a movie. - alternative stores. Being able to use aptoid and f-droid let me use the full potential of the phone without tying it to an email account. - productivity concepts arrive first on android. We had wifi hot spot. Quick wifi/bt/3G switch first. Etc. With apple, you…

- USB-C charger. I don't want yet another charger/adapter This for me is a downside as the USB-C landscape is a disaster of poorly-implemented designs. I'm less inclined to trust a USB-C adapter than a dumb USB adapter, and I would never plug a laptop charger into my phone. At least with dumb USB and micro-USB, you know you're getting 5 volts (excluding serious hardware failures). - my phone will still work in 5 year…

I use my laptop charger for my phone all the time. May I ask what has you scared to do so, because you have me concerned now.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#190

Post by Tactic »

As a fellow lover of the Windows Phone I went through your pain a few years ago and have lived in both the iPhone and Android ecosystems. I found it was the little things not mentioned here that made me stick with Android.

- My android displays the time and temp when docked. I never found a way to do that on iPhone.

- My android shows that I have texts/mails/etc. waiting without me having to touch it or pick it up to see.

- My android has a back button. It is always there and always in the same place.

- Widgets are nice (and mentioned elsewhere) but I love that my phonetop is not cluttered with icons, just useful info.

Usability wise apple is stuck in their own version of 10 years ago. Android is the better choice of the two. But I still weep for the loss of live tiles and the app menu.

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