Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration) • Hacker News Board

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#101

Post by anigbrowl » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 9:51 PM UTC

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #86

unoti wrote: post #44

I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus…

I got a Nexus S for the same reason the author did. To address your points. 1. Good luck using those features with rubbish GPS hardware. I've tried testing my Nexus S navigation on public transport and mostly it looks for GPS signals. My iPhone 4 picks up a signal fine. I agree they would be awesome features. But Android has just added 'research GPS hardware' to the list of things you need to do to get an Android han…

1. Is the problem with the phone or Android? I'm still using a Nexus One and rely heavily on the navigation features because I hate asking people for directions. I usually get a fix within 1-2 seconds of turning the phone on.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#102

Post by akanster » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 10:05 PM UTC

IsaacL wrote: post #98

unoti wrote: post #44

I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus…

"Google Mail. Google's gmail app UI is awesome." Sigh, I can't use the default GMail app and instead have to use Samsung's inferior "Email" app. Why? Google for some reason will not let me add mutliple GMail accounts, and so I'm stuck with the one I initially registered - my silly-named account from my teenage years, which I no longer use to receive email. Apparently lots of people have the same problem, with no sign…

What device are you using?

I have 3 Google Mail accounts (a regular gmail and 2 Google Apps for your Domain email) on my Samsung Galaxy S. Using the Gmail App, I have access to conversations, labels, everything and it keeps each inbox separate. It's truly a godsend.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#103

Post by anigbrowl » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 10:11 PM UTC

baddox wrote: post #56

barrkel wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I far prefer the browser on Android because of one thing - the single most important thing in a phone browser, IMO - text reflow on zoom.

That surprises me. I find the Android browser to be completely unusable, primarily due to performance but secondarily due to that annoying text reflow.

I don't like the phone browser. It's particularly annoying to read news with, because any site with Disqus (IIRC) causes the address bar to flash every time it receives another packet. I've gotten into the habit of hitting the stop button as soon as the text displays in order to kill whatever else is running. I could just turn off javascript, but then *.google.com doesn't work nearly as well.

The browser in Honeycomb is a lot friendlier and resembles Chrome, and word is that come Wednesday, the browser in Android 4.0 will be Chrome - what this means in practice I'm not sure, but so far my upgrade experiences have been positive.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#104

Post by Stratoscope » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 10:28 PM UTC

IsaacL wrote: post #98

unoti wrote: post #44

I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus…

"Google Mail. Google's gmail app UI is awesome." Sigh, I can't use the default GMail app and instead have to use Samsung's inferior "Email" app. Why? Google for some reason will not let me add mutliple GMail accounts, and so I'm stuck with the one I initially registered - my silly-named account from my teenage years, which I no longer use to receive email. Apparently lots of people have the same problem, with no sign…

Try updating your Gmail app from the Market? The Gmail app has supported multiple accounts for some time.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#105

Post by samstokes » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:31 PM UTC

joebadmo wrote: post #60

Hm. Seems the author at least attempted even-handedness, but largely failed. In a recent discussion on HN, I asked saurik, the developer of Cydia, why he's stuck with iOS over Android and he gave me this epically amazing answer: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 My house is a divided one. My wife is all Apple, while I'm a Windows/Android user. I did use an iPod Touch extensively before I got a smartphone, a…

live interactive calendar/agenda widget as well as a live todo list

Which widgets do you use? I've tried CalWidget but I've seen it crash quite a lot and I think it actually slows down my home screen.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#106

Post by da_dude4242 » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:36 PM UTC

unoti wrote: post #44

I develop apps for both iPhone and Android. I stopped carrying my iPhone for personal use, and use my Droid Bionic full time. Here are the 3 reasons why. 1. Google Maps, and navigation. If you're actually driving places, google maps is an amazing godsend. If you're taking mass transit, it blows the doors off what's on the iPhone. Ever get on a bus with your iphone, and have it vibrate in your pants when the next bus…

"3. Notification bar. I can always look at the top bar of my droid and know what, if anything, needs my attention. Or at the very least, why my phone made a noise in the last few minutes."

I find Android widgets valuable for a similar reason. I have widgets for task list and upcoming calendar events with the "Quick Event" app to quickly enter new ones. I never have to go out of my way for this information and it's there unobtrusively reminding me.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#107

Post by joebadmo » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:51 PM UTC

samstokes wrote: post #105

joebadmo wrote: post #60

Hm. Seems the author at least attempted even-handedness, but largely failed. In a recent discussion on HN, I asked saurik, the developer of Cydia, why he's stuck with iOS over Android and he gave me this epically amazing answer: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3115732 My house is a divided one. My wife is all Apple, while I'm a Windows/Android user. I did use an iPod Touch extensively before I got a smartphone, a…

live interactive calendar/agenda widget as well as a live todo list Which widgets do you use? I've tried CalWidget but I've seen it crash quite a lot and I think it actually slows down my home screen.

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.koxx.pure_calendar

The developer is really responsive, too.

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.dayup.gtask

Not as good as the other, but it works and syncs with Gmail tasks.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#108

Post by zerotype » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 12:01 AM UTC

baconner wrote: post #62

zerotype wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think calling something a ripoff is unfair. Yeah, they didn't invent those devices, but when they come out with their version of it which happens to be the first successful one. Then, after that device comes out every other company decides to be inspired by that it kind of is a ripoff. I'll admit that ripoff is perhaps a bit too strong of language but the sentiment is the same. You can argue that eventually m…

Wait... so your definition of whether something is "a ripoff" is based upon how commercially successful it is? So then android would by definition not be a ripoff. I must be misunderstanding your point.

I think I didn't explain myself as well as I could have. What I was saying (mean, whatever) is that when apple comes out with a device that is the first successful one of its kind they do that by doing something different. After they do that then other companies ripoff the now successful product. Sure, tablets had existed before the ipad, but not like the ipad. After the ipad came out tablets changed and the cries of everyone at first was "it is just a big ipod touch" and things of that nature. Then, the people that just don't want apple devices despite never trying them became excited about android tablets that most likely wouldn't exist with out the ipad. I know that tablets came before the ipad, but they changed that entire market. Even though they didn't make the first tablet I don't think they ripped off previous ones since they were typically bulky, used a stylus, etc...

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#109

Post by Anechoic » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 12:10 AM UTC

dminor wrote: post #80

Anechoic wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you do a comparison of iOS / Android and not even mention Google Maps & Navigation? It's funny that I just bought a touchscreen phone with an UX that most will consider to be unquestionably worse than both iOS and Android - namely the Nokia E6 with Symbian Anna - for the same reason that a lot of folks here are touting Android: Ovi Maps and navigation. Or more specifically, Ovi Maps and navigation with offe…

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/download-map-area-add...

I saw that when when it was announced on HN. However downloading a map "for a 10-mile radius" is not useful when you don't know what 10-mile radius you might need ahead of time. Compare with Nokia maps where I can download a map of New Hampshire and Vermont ahead of time and know that when I'm unexpectedly out of cell coverage, I'll still be able to route (or re-route) with my phone GPS. This is an area where GMaps is still playing catchup.

Re: Four months with Android (An iOS user's exploration)

#110

Post by actf » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 12:46 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #64

baddox wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That surprises me. I find the Android browser to be completely unusable, primarily due to performance but secondarily due to that annoying text reflow.

What bad performance? IME, my Nexus One browser is slightly less smooth to scroll, but faster at redraw than the browsers on my (admittedly, slightly old at this point) iOS devices. It's a toss-up, really. Question: do you have Flash installed? I had to uninstall it completely, because even the "on demand" option for browser plugins didn't disable it reliably. (Biggest problem I have with my iOS devices (an iPod Touc…

> What bad performance?

Did you miss the video in the article? - The one where the iPhone scrolls as smooth as butter, and the other phone scrolls slow enough to make me wonder - is it frozen?

FWIW this has been my experience with Android as well. Obviously not every web page is like this, but even if 5% of the pages out there do this - it's a serious usability problem.

I just don't understand how the scrolling performance on android is still so inferior to that on iOS, especially when comparing devices where the droid has significantly higher hardware specs