I can write software for it on a Linux machine
Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
131–140 of 233 posts
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#132This may be posted already, but I love that wherever I put my finger in a wall of text, the cursor goes there. I don’t have to press and hold, the cursor doesn’t jump to the start or end of the word, the word isn’t selected... the cursor just goes where I pressed. The middle of the word, the letter after the first, the letter before the last. Awesome. I hate typing on my iPhone or iPad and have to edit, the stupid battle trying to get the cursor to go where I want it is soooooo troublesome. But on my asus tablet, my pixel, easy peasy.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#133This may be posted already, but I love that wherever I put my finger in a wall of text, the cursor goes there. I don’t have to press and hold, the cursor doesn’t jump to the start or end of the word, the word isn’t selected... the cursor just goes where I pressed. The middle of the word, the letter after the first, the letter before the last. Awesome. I hate typing on my iPhone or iPad and have to edit, the stupid ba…
Agree. But. Pressing anywhere on the iphone keyboard to drag and aim the cursor is awesome. So I can’t really decide which of the two is better in this dimension, now that “aiming” comes instinctively.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#134After many years with Android and windows phone i got my first iPhone a couple of weeks ago. The biggest ( and almost only) complain is that you cannot configure a different browser to be your default. You are stuck with safari which lags an incredible amount of features. Safari is so bad that my next phone will not be an iPhone Edit : my desktop os is Windows and now my browser on the phone and on the pc is not in s…
You can have chrome be in sync if you login. (Chrome on iOS is basically Safari, but you can sync all the stuff in your profile like bookmarks.)
True, but you will still end up in safari constantly. If you save a URL to the home screen, open a link from your email, it opens in safari.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#1351) Notifications are much better. Taking direct action to read and archive/delete emails directly from the notification is great. Not sure if iOS has this yet, but last time I checked iOS Notifications were primitive by comparison. 2) Direct sharing to/from ANY app. iOS is frustratingly limited. On a similar note, being able to assign default apps for specific types of content.
I always found the iOS notifications to be a bit odd. I never owned an iPhone but my wife is now at her 4th. She always forgets she received a notification because she has a lot on her mind (she's a doctor and we have two kids) and all the notifications get "half dismissed" whenever she opens her phone (text, call, browse, whatever...). Somehow, it's assumed that when you open your phone you automatically have time or want to read all the notifications. They will not be shown again until you explicitly go into the submenu (pull from the top, I believe). I think that's not realistic. I like that on my Android phone the notifications stay there until I specifically clear them or interact with then (tap to go to app). They won't automatically disappear just because I want to see the cat meme my friend sent me...
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#136I have a bookmarking website.
I share an interesting site to the app, tag it appropriately and press submit.
I love it
Otherwhise, a decent browser, Google apps and flexibility ( widgets, Tasker, ... )
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#137>Price >Less 'idiot-focused' UX >Better company running it >Better apps/less locked down 'app store' >More freedom/choice in phone companies and customisation >About the same locked-down OS There's really no other choice
price, yes.
UX, no. Android, well material design is just a horror to use. especially if you have any visual impairment.
Company, its a matter of taste.
App store is a double edged sword. There is more malware on google apps store, but more freedom.
More competition is normally good.
I'm in two minds on this. I loved the nokia n900, it was full linux, but with decent support and GUI. That obviously fied a death, mostly due to android.
I amd frustrated that I have to learn swift if I want to write stuff for IOS. I really can't be arsed. On the flip side, iOS being locked down so much means that apps are less able to steal my stuff.
I think its much more nuanced than that, really.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#138Real Firefox and Real Chrome. The iOS versions is just a wrapper around the painfully bad mobile Safari.
I thought Safari had the best power to battery consumption ratio of all the browsers. I certainly notice it on desktop where I switched to Safari last year, but that's pretty massive on mobile. Safari seems to take this seriously instead of the race to the bottom on performance and resource consumption. I also like features like how Safari extensions are now 1st class apps and its declarative content blocker (1Blocke…
>What makes Safari so bad in your eyes?
The rendering engine is poor. It's probably the browser I have the most trouble with when doing frontend work. iframe scrolling is broken, it's historically suffered from some frustrating flexbox bugs (see https://github.com/philipwalton/flexbugs#flexbug-11), its Can I use... score lags behind Firefox and Chrome. For a while, it didn't support service workers properly.
I could go on.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#139- 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…
[quote]- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.[/quote]
I don't think this is a standard, not every iphone button will be broken in 5 years; or no phone (with android os) has hardware guarantee for 5 years.
Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought my son a Moto G last year because that was suppose to be a good mid range phone. It was an awful experience - far from snappy. The performance was sluggish. He happily “upgraded” to my old iPhone 6s that was 3 years older and it was a lot faster.
Of course, the iPhone 6S is faster in the same way as a 3 year old 3500$ SSD and top-of-the-line i7 equiped MBP is better than a new 600$ Acer laptop with a magnetic HDD. What's your point though? If iPhone 6s for its 3-4x the MSRP price wouldn't be better than the low-end Moto G, it would be pretty sad.
The 6s in 2018 was still being sold for maybe $449. Not too much more expensive than the Moto G. A discontinued new 6s can still be found now for around the price of a Moto G and in real world usage is still faster.