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Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

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Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#21

Post by warfangle »

masklinn wrote: post #16
awolf wrote: post #7

Could someone elaborate on how Android's multitasking is better than iPhone OS 4's? I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical.

> I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical. They're actually very different: with Android you create what's basically a daemon server, no UI but does everything it want, while with OS4 you register against service (there are 7 service types to choose from) and the OS itself runs and manages it, calling your registered service hooks. Android gives far more control, at the cost of mor…

A poorly implemented daemon sure can kill your battery life quickly.

Thank goodness there's a tool that lets us figure out what applications use the most battery! :)

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#23

Post by masklinn »

warfangle wrote: post #21
masklinn wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical. They're actually very different: with Android you create what's basically a daemon server, no UI but does everything it want, while with OS4 you register against service (there are 7 service types to choose from) and the OS itself runs and manages it, calling your registered service hooks. Android gives far more control, at the cost of mor…

A poorly implemented daemon sure can kill your battery life quickly. Thank goodness there's a tool that lets us figure out what applications use the most battery! :)

Yes but that puts the onus of battery-care on the user of the phone. It's fine for geeks (nb: not a put down, I'm in that category myself) which are going to spend half their time between that and the task killer anyway, but that's not the demographic Apple targets, and that's not the kind of tradeoffs they'd find acceptable. Hence their selection of a different solution, which (they believe) gets you 90% of the way with 10% of the costs.

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#24

Post by DrSprout »

jrockway wrote: post #13
usaar333 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"your manhood is not automatically diminished if someone else makes a different consumer choice." In a sense this is true, but my lifestyle is definitely affected by others making a different consumer choice, at least in regards to platforms. For instance, I use Linux primarily as my desktop OS. If an order of magnitude more consumers were using Linux, my experience would be better as there would be more software and…

I disagree with this. Software is mostly a product of API flexibility rather than the number of potential users. One thing that annoys me most about Windows is that I have to use a mouse to manage windows. There are tiling window managers, but none of them can hold a candle to Xmonad. Even though Linux has fewer users, it has better software. Same goes for Android -- fewer users and less monitization opportunities. B…

>I disagree with this. Software is mostly a product of API flexibility rather than the number of potential users.

I'm filling out a job application that is a Word Document that absolutely vomits when read in OpenOffice. If there were fewer people using Word, they wouldn't be able to get away with that. There's a part of me that doesn't want to work in that sort of shop, but I'm only a year out of college, and if I have to do C# to get a developer position, I'll take that, C# isn't a bad language.

That said, I can't get away with using Linux because of the potential users problem. Now I guess you could call the .doc format an API flexibility problem, but no API is sufficiently flexible that it runs anywhere without testing. There has to be enough of a userbase to justify testing.

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#25

Post by DrSprout »

warfangle wrote: post #21
masklinn wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical. They're actually very different: with Android you create what's basically a daemon server, no UI but does everything it want, while with OS4 you register against service (there are 7 service types to choose from) and the OS itself runs and manages it, calling your registered service hooks. Android gives far more control, at the cost of mor…

A poorly implemented daemon sure can kill your battery life quickly. Thank goodness there's a tool that lets us figure out what applications use the most battery! :)

It doesn't work very well. There have been occasions where I've accidentally left the PandoraService running on my Droid overnight (not playing music mind you, but that doesn't stop it from sapping battery) and woke up in the morning to find my battery nearly dead and the battery tool claiming that it was "Android System."

Though I suppose it's possible that was a bug in the service management stuff...

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#26

Post by Irfaan »

warfangle wrote: post #20
Irfaan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've just pointed out that the general purpose CPU in the iPhone can run other software. Actually, the gist of my message was to point out specific bits of software to help folks who feel hindered by some of the limitations the article's author mentioned. I know they help me feel more comfortable using the iPhone. I didn't think I was being particularly subtle, but I guess I was mistaken. But then, your jailbroken…

The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :). Of course it's annoying to jailbreak. That's why, for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. It's like Δx^2 while you take the first derivative: in the end, jailbreaking doesn't really affect the sales of a product. Anyway, red squiggly lines are good for checking a mass of text after the fact. But only if your input met…

The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :)

And that's a completely valid concern... if I were engaged in platform advocacy or arguing these iPhone shortcomings are inconsequential or non-existent.

But I'm not.

For the record: I don't like jailbreaking my phone. I don't like installing jailbreak software. I'm annoyed that Apple will neither provide this functionality that I enjoy nor expose a legitimate mechanism for 3rd parties to create it.

But such is the state of things. And given I have an iPhone, I darn well am going to make the most of it. And that matters. I'm not trying to affect software sales - I'm trying to help people like me. People who (for better or worse) have an iPhone, are hamstrung by some of the more valid critiques the article lists, and are looking for solutions.

As for the red squiggly text editing - let's consider that a red herring. I don't agree with your text editing philosophy, but that's neither here-nor-there. This wasn't meant as a dig on Android. I just assumed Android could do this, and was hoping to find out more.

Warfangle - I don't mean this to sound harsh. While I read your reply as assuming platform advocacy on my part, beyond that it was even handed. But golly, I shouldn't have to defend information. Opinions, yes. Information, no. :(

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#27

Post by loewenskind »

I wrote a medium sized post about why I like iPhone OS4's approach to multithreading, but once again when I submit it I get "this link is expired" and go back to find my text gone.

Seaside used to use continuations for everything but realized that the only place you really need it is wizard-like work flows, so they've removed it everywhere else. This allows them to not need a session unless you're in a workflow and things like "expired link" for pretty static looking pages doesn't happen.

Hint, hint, hint....

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#28

Post by surki »

awolf wrote: post #7

Could someone elaborate on how Android's multitasking is better than iPhone OS 4's? I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical.

This post provides some more information about how iPhone's multitasking compares to Android

http://blog.rlove.org/2010/04/iphone-os-4-and-multitasking.h...

Re: Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS

#29

Post by markkanof »

masklinn wrote: post #23
warfangle wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A poorly implemented daemon sure can kill your battery life quickly. Thank goodness there's a tool that lets us figure out what applications use the most battery! :)

Yes but that puts the onus of battery-care on the user of the phone. It's fine for geeks (nb: not a put down, I'm in that category myself) which are going to spend half their time between that and the task killer anyway, but that's not the demographic Apple targets, and that's not the kind of tradeoffs they'd find acceptable. Hence their selection of a different solution, which (they believe) gets you 90% of the way…

Not necessarily. It could also be the developer of the application that is taking advantage of the battery monitor functionality to see if their application needs improvement.

I agree that no end user should have to be keeping a watch for applications that use too much battery, but it sure is nice to have that information easily accessible for developers.

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