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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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171–180 of 233 posts

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

#171

Using apps for free. I use the app "1 second everyday" quite extensively. My friend tried it out on iPhone and lo and behold, a lot of the free features I take for granted on Android are paid features on iOS. What a strange result of the different perception of willingness to spend on the two platforms. (Or perhaps it's the result of having a more open app platform?)

You're not concerned that they're making up the revenue in a different way?

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

#172

This 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.

You can scroll your thumb along the spacebar to "aim" the cursor on android. I do like the knobs of android better than the zoom-and-select that iPhone does.

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can scroll your thumb along the spacebar to "aim" the cursor on android. I do like the knobs of android better than the zoom-and-select that iPhone does.

I did not refer to that magnifying lens but to this: https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/a-hidden-feature-on-iphone-...

It seems that 3d-touch (hard press) can be emulated qith the spacebar.

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

#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 CD, servicepack disks etc)

4. rtl-sdr radio scanner, handy for eg. checking AirBnB homes for "bugs"

5. 400GB microSD cards for 60$ (e.g. on newegg)

6. the existence of specialty distributions like Kali Nethunter edition for Android phones

[1]: https://aarddict.org https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=itkach.aard2

[3]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwareba...

[4]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mantz_it.r...

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

#176

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…

I use YouTube-DL with it, works like a charm.

It allows me to have mostly the same toolkit on my phone and on my home server, which is nice.

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

#177
I'm late to the party, but I think I have one that hasn't been mentioned. I don't think it's possible on IOS but I like having the ability to edoy my hosts file. I download a popular block list and port it over to my phone, plop it into to the /etc/ folder.

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

#178
Consider the security aspect, as well. Apple is generally considered much more secure than Android phone.

For example, see this Ted talk that describes how this security gap is a civil rights issue. Basically, Android phones are cheaper. But, they are much easier for the police to hack into. People with more money buy Apple, and it's much harder to hack them.

https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_your_smartpho...

As another data point: in the last few years there have been a few high-profile news cycles about the FBI trying to hack into an iPhone of a suspected terrorist, and not being able to. They were pressuring Apple to get access, and Apple was pushing back. But the bottom line here is that the FBI couldn't get in to an iPhone.

I haven't ever seen a similar news report for Android...

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

#179
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

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

#180
post #92

By far the best feature for me is DUAL APPS: separate copy of an app that runs absolutely separated from the parent app. This way you can have e.g. two Slacks or two Facebooks or LinkedIns logged into two profiles without endless switching. Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google Calendar widget on the ma…

You are correct about dual apps and widgets, but iOS had customizable keyboards for a while, and iOS 13 adds a built-in swipe keyboard.
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