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An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

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Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#171

Post by robmcm »

kalleboo wrote: post #121
robmcm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still think the iPhone 4 & The iPhone 5 compromises to make the screen bigger, but only by a little. I don't think I could use a 4" device like a Nexus 4 (I have a Nexus S which was a good size), on my commute where I need to hold onto a handle of the train, underground with one hand, smartphone in other.

Some people have larger hands than others. Android gives you the whole range from an Xperia tipo to the Note. On the iPhone, unless you want to compromise performance, you have one phone.

Valid point, well put.

The danger is that changes to screen size aren't always reflected by the software, so you may have a small screen that scales down, or a large screen with wasted real estate. See the host of apps that haven't update for the iPhone 5 screen yet!!!

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#172

Post by nicholassmith »

pi18n wrote: post #151
w0utert wrote: post #6

I agree with what the article says about sharing data between applications, this really is one of the biggest pain points of iOS right now. Fortunately, it looks like Apple will finally address this in the future, iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events. Right now seems to be only…

Launching other apps can be done by any app right now, but the app package needs some info saying the app is able to handle a certain data type or open a certain URL protocol. I am an Objective-C developer and I love the SDKs on the iPhone, but I am just so tired of Apple's bullshit regarding using our devices the way we want to. I'm tired of waiting for them to enable basic features like phone number black/whitelist…

"I'm tired of waiting for them to enable basic features like phone number black/whitelists."

Keep in mind that's a basic feature for you, not necessarily for all. I wouldn't use it, so I'd prefer Apple to work on X/Y/Z feature instead. Feature priority is hard to work out at the best of times, because no matter what gets picked someone will be disappointed.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#173

Post by w1ntermute »

robmcm wrote: post #153
w1ntermute wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We all know that Android would have this if it wasn't for patents. No, we don't. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Now that there is a viable alternative that people are used to, I don't think bouncing would be used if the patent were to be invalidated tomorrow. The only reason to use the bounceback early on was because (a) no alternatives had been developed yet and bounceback was adequate, and (b) it appeased all…

> You completely missed my point. It has nothing to do with scrolling while reading. It only has to do with when I'm at the top or bottom of a page/list. If that is the case, what is the diference between scrolling and nothing moves but you get a flash of color, vs some text moves and you see a bit of the background.

If the text is moving, it's harder to read stuff.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#174

Post by Gmo »

jamesjguthrie wrote: post #157
Gmo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that my 3GS is old because it lags like crazy. I have a hard time believing it would not be the case for you too.

Nope, I don't feel that. Maybe it's because I'm used to using older equipment - I used a HTC Dream up until 12 months ago. Edit: HTC Dream was used for 3 years roughly, from Android 1.1 until 4.0 ROM's started coming out.

Or maybe it's because you started from a clean slate ... (I'm using mine for more than 3 years now)

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#175

Post by nicholassmith »

masklinn wrote: post #94
w0utert wrote: post #6

I agree with what the article says about sharing data between applications, this really is one of the biggest pain points of iOS right now. Fortunately, it looks like Apple will finally address this in the future, iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events. Right now seems to be only…

> iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events. For those who want more information on that, http://oleb.net/blog/2012/10/remote-view-controllers-in-ios-... (note: it's a 3-part series). As far as I understand, it doesn't provide for an application "register[ing] itself to handler certa…

Interestingly it seems like Apple is doing something with remote view controllers with their 12 Days of Christmas app, which could imply they're trying to test it as much as possible in a live context.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#176

Post by revscat »

w1ntermute wrote: post #131
robmcm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still think the iPhone 4 & The iPhone 5 compromises to make the screen bigger, but only by a little. I don't think I could use a 4" device like a Nexus 4 (I have a Nexus S which was a good size), on my commute where I need to hold onto a handle of the train, underground with one hand, smartphone in other.

> I still think the iPhone 4 & Yes, I can. It's complete bullshit. All the arguments for why the iPhone 4 form factor was the best are now being used to claim that the iPhone 5 is the best by a lot of the same people. That just goes to show that you can manipulate that argument to work with whatever screen size you want.

> All the arguments for why the iPhone 4 form factor was the best are now being used to claim that the iPhone 5 is the best by a lot of the same people.

Citation needed.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#177

Post by pook1e »

taligent wrote: post #42
StavrosK wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GN is clearly inferior in build quality to an iPhone It's only inferior in visible quality (I've dropped it a lot and it barely has a scratch on it), but I'm okay with that because it costs half as much as an iPhone, which I think is very significant. You can get a top-of-the-line smartphone for $300. That's amazing.

> You can get a top-of-the-line smartphone for $300. That's amazing. Not sure why you think this. It is mid range phone by every benchmark (e.g. no LTE, battery life, screen quality) and it gets destroyed by the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 in every performance benchmark.

> no LTE

Fair enough.

> battery life

Benchmarks never demonstrate typical use cases, which is especially true for battery life. Unless all you do is load web pages for hours on end at fixed intervals. Personally, I have better things to do with my time. Based on what I've witnessed with my Nexus 4 and iPhone 5s in my family, battery life is very comparible.

> screen quality

When compared to the iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 has better blacks, better contrast ratio, but poorer whites. Color reproduction could be calibrated better, but hey, this is just a mid range phone, right?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6440/google-nexus-4-review/6

> gets destroyed by the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 in every performance benchmark.

Geekbench measures CPU performance, and the quad core Krait bests both the Galaxy S3 (quad core Exynos) and the iPhone 5 (dual core "Swift").

Galaxy S3: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1488418

iPhone 5: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1488555

Nexus 4: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1488266

In fact, the quad core Krait is arguably the best CPU you can find in a smartphone, performance wise. The only existing (ARM-based) CPU that is better is the Exynos 5250 found in the Nexus 10 (dual core A15).

The GPU is the Adreno 320, which absolutely wrecks the Mali GPU in the Galaxy S3. It still isn't as good as the PowerVR SGX543MP3 found in the iPhone 5, but calling it a mid range GPU is laughable.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6440/google-nexus-4-review/3

Seriously. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#178

Post by jmreid »

bstar77 wrote: post #128
greggman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read the article but I was an iPhone3 for a year, nexus 1 for a year, nexus s for a year and now iPhone 4S for a year. Things I still miss: I still miss that android apps can download in the background so for example when I wake up I the morning any new podcasts I'm subscribed to are already on the phone. Contrast to iOS6 where I have to remember to manually run the app. Which generally means I only run it…

For podcasts, I use Instacast and that definitely downloads in the background, but I believe the app just can't be in suspend state. As long as a bunch of apps have not been opened after instacast, it should download everything fone. The trade-off is to have background downloading on all the time, which is something I hated about android in the 4 years I used it. Background processes were always killing my battery an…

I don't think it's a matter of other apps not running after you suspend Instacast. All apps have a limited amount of time to complete something like a download task while backgrounded.

In Downcast, I have set my home as a geo fence, and tell it to fetch new podcasts whenever I leave or arrive.

Downcast is allowed to subscribe to this geofence and wake itself up to fetch new podcasts, all without me opening the app at all. The only catch is if the downloads take more than 15 minutes, they get paused until I open the app again.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#179

Post by jmreid »

greggman wrote: post #38
w0utert wrote: post #6

I agree with what the article says about sharing data between applications, this really is one of the biggest pain points of iOS right now. Fortunately, it looks like Apple will finally address this in the future, iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events. Right now seems to be only…

I haven't read the article but I was an iPhone3 for a year, nexus 1 for a year, nexus s for a year and now iPhone 4S for a year. Things I still miss: I still miss that android apps can download in the background so for example when I wake up I the morning any new podcasts I'm subscribed to are already on the phone. Contrast to iOS6 where I have to remember to manually run the app. Which generally means I only run it…

You can do this kind-of on the iPhone. Some apps support the geo fence wake-up thing that lets them update subscriptions.

For example, you can set your home address in Downcast or Instapaper so that when you leave or arrive, those apps will fetch new content without you having to open the app. Downcast will even download the podcasts in the background.

Now, this requires you to move outside the fence, so it's not time based. But I had a decent system where I had my work and home address in Downcast and I set it to fetch whenever I leave or arrive. My regular commute meant that I was always triggering the geo fence.

Re: An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

#180

Post by megablast »

w1ntermute wrote: post #70
pagliara wrote: post #10

Interesting. I too am an iPhone lover who recently picked up a Nexus 4 to get into Android development. This is my first experience with Android, so I didn't realize that the Nexus 4 Android experience might be different than your typical Android smartphone. I was very impressed with the overall experience. If I wasn't so used to iOS, I could easily see myself using Android on a Nexus 4. But in the end, I walked away…

Are you kidding me? The iPhone has the optimal width? You sound just like Marco, Gruber, and all those other Apple sycophants who were claiming that the iPhone size was perfect for the hand, until the iPhone 5 came out, of course. Just like they got their thumbs surgically altered when the 5 came out, no doubt you will be getting all your pockets resized if Apple increases the iPhone width.

Wrong or right, the width of the iPhone has not changed with the 5.
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