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Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

blog.newsweek.com

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Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#111

Post by jsz0 »

I love the competition but if I can present an alternative view: Why I'm sticking with the iPhone:

I plug it into iTunes and it automatically syncs everything and backs up the device automatically. All my accessories work with the dock connector including my car. I can still get software updates for my 3 year old iPhone 2G. Music & media players are superior to Android in my opinion along with it simply being easier to sync content. I can play my Audible books on my iPhone. Couldn't live without those. It's easier to buy an iPhone. There's basically just one model or the hold-over model from last year. With Android phones I feel like there's always something better right around the corner. I feel compelled to research CPU speed, RAM/ROM size, and evaluate the differences in software. I don't care for the physical buttons on Android phones. I think it's jarring to switch between the touch-screen and menu/home/search/back buttons which incidentally seem to be arranged differently on most Android handsets. I think the iPhone still has a pretty big app advantage especially for games and multimedia.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#112

Post by masterj »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #72
knieveltech wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For values of "everything just works" that don't include standard developer tools. Getting a new macbook into configuration for (for example) web development is a PITA compared to any distro I've used that came with a decent package installer (apt, yum) out of the box. You have to hack up the damned keyboard settings just to get home and end keys to work.

That is because you are trying to use your Mac like it's a Linux box. Use the OS X keyboard shortcuts (which happen to be the same as Emacs, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-E respectively) and grab MAMP and you are good to go.

Mapping Caps Lock to Control helps. Now I find myself trying to do it on my Windows box at work vs reaching way over to the home and end buttons.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#114

Post by sabat »

raganwald wrote: post #2

This article is actually by Daniel Lyons. It's true that Daniel also writes parody articles as FSJ, but this is not one of them.

The use of FSJ's name in the title was just for convenience, I think. Many here would know who FSJ is, but many fewer would have heard of Daniel Lyons.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#115

Post by studer »

redrobot5050 wrote: post #101
apu wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're wrong about the write-once run-anywhere software ecosystem that Windows had to deal with. There was an incredible proliferation of different hardware -- including drivers etc. -- and it was mostly up to Microsoft to make sure that the OS continued to work flawlessly (or at least at whatever level of semi-stability it managed to attain) across all of these different configurations. This is an enormous r…

>This is an enormous responsibility that Apple has never had to deal with -- there's a difference of at least 3 if not 4-5 orders of magnitude in the number of different types of hardware platforms that each company had to deal with. Apple is supporting two gens of hardware. The iPhone OS will support the iPhone 3GS, the latest iPod Touch, the next-gen iPhone (as of now, unreleased) and the iPad. Android has 19+ phon…

> Also, people hate to hear this, but a jailbroken iPhone provides a much better experience and much more competitive than Androids.

That's your opinion, not a fact. There's no reason to hate you for your opinions, unless you somehow imply that your opinion is somehow more relevant than my opinion (hint: it's not).

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#116

Post by davidw »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #45
edw519 wrote: post #10

1980: CPM on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 1990: DOS on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2000: Windows on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2010: Android on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price.

What higher price? IPhones cost $100 to $300 new with contracts. The Android phones I've seen cost $100 to $300 with contracts. Most of the cost is in the service plans, which are very similarly priced. I suppose there may be a bunch of crappy Android phones, floating around under my personal radar, available for even less than $100. That sounds like false economy to me. If you're gonna get soaked for $2400 in cellul…

> Of course, this is a USA perspective. Things are probably very different outside the USA.

Yes, here in Italy it's pretty common to find phones that are unlocked, and full price. I saw a 3gs at the store for 600 Euro the other day. Android phones are also pretty expensive, but not quite to those levels.

Overall, I like seeing the full price as it helps you to compare phones, not phones + whatever wonky plan they're trying to sell.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#117

Post by not_an_alien »

rimantas wrote: post #100
buster wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you still have it installed, right? strange!

There is a news for you: it comes preinstalled on OS X.

Here's some news: you've chosen to install something that selectively blocks the plugin (thus allowing you to still use it) instead of uninstalling it, something you can do.

That's because you like choice; the freedom to run Flash when you want, something you don't have in the iDevices.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#118

Post by [deleted] »

jonknee wrote: post #31
Ionic_Walrus wrote: post #20

Why do you want to use your phone as a wifi hotspot ? It'll drain the battery. The telco's in the US are the worst of the lot. Android and iPhone are 2 great platforms, Im happy that both are here.

> Why do you want to use your phone as a wifi hotspot? It'll drain the battery. To have internet access on your laptop when no other source is available... 3G isn't the fastest, but it's secure and available pretty much wherever you are. As for the battery just plug it into the laptop or because you're using an Android phone, pop in your spare battery after you've gotten your work done.

[deleted]

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#119

Post by dagw »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #45
edw519 wrote: post #10

1980: CPM on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 1990: DOS on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2000: Windows on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price. 2010: Android on your choice of hardware or lock into Apple hardware & software at a higher price.

What higher price? IPhones cost $100 to $300 new with contracts. The Android phones I've seen cost $100 to $300 with contracts. Most of the cost is in the service plans, which are very similarly priced. I suppose there may be a bunch of crappy Android phones, floating around under my personal radar, available for even less than $100. That sounds like false economy to me. If you're gonna get soaked for $2400 in cellul…

Here an unlocked HTC Desire is a good 30-40% cheaper than and unlocked iPhone 3GS.

Re: Fake Steve Jobs: Why I'm Switching to Android

#120

Post by kscaldef »

earcar wrote: post #109
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because you are trying to use your Mac like it's a Linux box. Use the OS X keyboard shortcuts (which happen to be the same as Emacs, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-E respectively) and grab MAMP and you are good to go.

You don't even have to grab MAMP or Xcode, since Apache, PHP, Ruby, Python, emacs and vim come preinstalled with OS X. So you just have to get the database server. Until you have to compile something.

I don't see the difficulty with compiling. Just get out your install disk, open up the optional installs, install XCode. You now have all the standard Unix developer tools (in addition to the XCode app, which you don't have to use).
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