Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 233 posts

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

#201

Post by gargravarr »

lytedev wrote: post #189
gargravarr wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- 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.

USB-C charging relies on negotiation between both sides. A laptop charger can supply 20+V if it determines there's a high-power device on the other end. I'm not particularly trusting that a cheaply-made power supply won't hit the wrong condition on a case statement and supply 20V to my phone.

Implementing USB-C wrong seems to be a passtime of all major manufacturers now. Nintendo got it almost completely wrong with the Switch. The RPi 4 is also wrong, as it bridges two connectors that shouldn't be and identifies itself as an audio device to some adapters. The whole ecosystem is a farce and I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

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

#202

Post by dredmorbius »

lstamour wrote: post #198
dredmorbius wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

End-user audio and video experience for mpv on AWS is generally poor. As is direct interaction with your own device via CLI environment. Sometimes being there is the best way to be there.

Assuming you wouldn’t use a local SSH server hooked up to a TV instead... If you want mpv on a Mac, use https://iina.io/ and for iOS, libmpv is available and someone’s compiled it and wrapped it in a UI at https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/outplayer/id1449923287 or use Plex which is less integrated with the iOS Files app but is multi-platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/9zd9p5/plex_beta_i... You can intera…

Or, you know, a shell environment rather than app one-offs for everything.

The tablet has a display and speakers. Or I can plug in -- yes, it has a jack, iOS fans -- headphones. Why not just use those?

Because that's what I want.

Rather more practicable than lugging around a a TV and generator.

And yes, the tablet's got Bluetooth and can stream to other devices. Or from an DLNA server. It's not as if Termux suddenly breaks that.

You and a few others keep suggesting apps and variations on remote hardware or servers. What such responses fail to acknowledge is that those are specifically the requirements that Termux allows me to avoid. Those are massive disutilities.

Becuse that's what I don't want.

Standard, simple, text-interfaced, local, consistent, and diverse tools, with a single (or small set of) install and update mechanism, and high levels of interoperability. That's the winm that's the goal, and any set of app, hardware, and/or remote-cloud-system solution rapidly destroys the very benefits and characteristics which make Termux so goddamned insanely great.

And that's what I want.

Louis Armstrong's comment fits very well here, I suspect.

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

#203

Post by dredmorbius »

m-p-3 wrote: post #176
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…

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.

You might also appreciate mpv with its '--ytdl' option (enables the youtube-dl library). This enables you to directly stream YouTube (or any other YTDL-supported source) audio or video, rather than downloading.

mps-youtube (mpsyt) is another streaming tool, which gives the option to interactivley request, search (by title, description, genre, or channel) YouTube (only, this time) content, and create, save, and recall local playlists. A great way to explore topics or speakers, or music. No ads :-)

youtube-dl,mpv, and mps-youtube have been transformative.

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

#204

Post by Kuraj »

redhale wrote: post #27

1) 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.

1 is what I really miss, we only got notification grouping like last year lol

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

#205

Post by mstaoru »

Havoc wrote: post #169
mstaoru wrote: 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…

What app do you use for wireguard?

Using this one right now: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.wireguard.android/ - but it could be better. Someday I'll flash a kernel with WG support (how about that, iOS? :) and it will be faster. Seen the difference on another phone.

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

#206

Post by mstaoru »

oceliker wrote: post #180
mstaoru wrote: 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.

Right. In a way, Android in 2019 feels like more forward, experiment-friendly environment. Some Android features get adopted into iOS later. It contradicts Apple's branding, but it is how it is. For Apple it's more about stability and privacy now.

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

#207

Post by maneesh »

RandomBacon wrote: post #165
obarthelemy wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, mu iBrother made the transisiton to Android about a year ago. His major pain points were: - no iMessage. It's not particularly good or different compared to whatsapp, Skype, Messenger... but it's not available on Android and people are used to it. - in case of an issue, the solution is brand+model-specific. For some reasons he wanted a Notifications widgets, you get that differently for a Samsung or…

There are apps that allow you to use iMessage on Android.

know of any apps specifically?

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

#209

Post by sushid »

teniutza wrote: post #135
redhale wrote: post #27

1) 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 o…

There are two options for notifications in the Home screen. One removes the notification when you unlock your phone, the other requires you to manually remove the notification. Have her use the second option.

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

#210

Post by lstamour »

dredmorbius wrote: post #202
lstamour wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you wouldn’t use a local SSH server hooked up to a TV instead... If you want mpv on a Mac, use https://iina.io/ and for iOS, libmpv is available and someone’s compiled it and wrapped it in a UI at https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/outplayer/id1449923287 or use Plex which is less integrated with the iOS Files app but is multi-platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/9zd9p5/plex_beta_i... You can intera…

Or, you know, a shell environment rather than app one-offs for everything. The tablet has a display and speakers. Or I can plug in -- yes, it has a jack, iOS fans -- headphones. Why not just use those? Because that's what I want. Rather more practicable than lugging around a a TV and generator. And yes, the tablet's got Bluetooth and can stream to other devices. Or from an DLNA server. It's not as if Termux suddenly…

My point has not been to dissuade you from what you prefer to use, merely to highlight the alternatives. And with how you're describing Termux it sounds like it doesn't need a package manager (app store), anything more advanced to describe files than ascii/binary pipes (share sheets), doesn't need to natively interact with the cloud (fopen vs Files app APIs), definitely doesn't need a GUI outside of ascii art or whatever random xwindowing GUI is supported...

I will say there's innovation in a platform that's completely untethered and allows processes to run as root. Jailbreaking on iOS early on provided much innovation. Similarly diverse hardware gives you lots of options too.

But let me know how other apps -- native Android ones -- interact with that app. Can Google interact with it? See, that's the difference an OS standard makes. The app you're describing, Termux, builds on top of existing Linux standards, including GNU utilities and distributions building and packaging apps. If you jailbreak on iOS, you can install deb packages too. It's not like the kernel doesn't support these features. All we need, obviously, is a virtual machine or emulator powerful enough, and you've got your Termux on iOS.

I'm absolutely not arguing against it, I'm just saying, "it's an app!" And the platform features on iOS are more widely distributed, adopted and often more innovative, than the equivalent on Android, and that's where the power comes from. Sure, one app, like iSH or Termux, will give you superpowers, and rooting or jailbreaking can give you even more control over your phone. But if the platform's not innovating, 90-95% of users won't benefit. And if you haven't found advantages to touch screens, cellphone form factors, music subscription services, and other forms of interaction beyond terminal, well ... I'm sorry we haven't made much progress technologically since Unix time sharing that you find useful...

Post reply on HN