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

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

24100.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 358 posts

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

#271

Post by enraged_camel »

vacri wrote: post #126
w0utert wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> You seem to think that 'allows customisation' and 'defaults that work well' are mutually exclusive for some reason. Well often they are, especially in a complex piece of software like a phone OS. Customizability requires trade-offs which may affect usability or performance. More often than not, software that allows skinning looks butt-ugly in the default setting and integrates poorly with the rest of the system (t…

I'd say 'simple' is almost the penultimate goal of UI design I've run out of time for big swathes, sorry, but I had to comment on this. 'simple' is not the ideal goal of UI design. 'appropriate' is. You want a UI that is best appropriate for the situation. Sometimes this will indeed be simple. Other times it will not be. As an extreme example, could you imagine a cockpit with a single hardware button and a small grid…

Both of your examples are wrong. It is well-known in aerospace industry that cockpit interfaces need vast improvements, and that is actually an active area of research. Pointing to the complexity of an airplane cockpit and saying "look, not all interfaces need to be pretty" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding and/or lack of knowledge about the subject.

Second of all, the reason desktop environments are still preferred for "serious business work" is because of their features, not their UI. I work for a business-to-business software company that has been around for over 25 years, and our product is on version 9. We recently released an iOS app. It is being adopted slowly, but not because of its interface. The interface on it is actually very, very clean and effective. The problem is that we have not yet had the time to port all the features on the desktop version to the iOS version. Therefore it is not used for "serious" work... yet.

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

#272

Post by clarky07 »

boundlessdreamz wrote: post #221
micampe wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny is that this feature gets often pointed out as one of the cool Android exclusives, but iOS has it too: you just need to turn on Automatic Downloads in the store settings, it works for apps as well as media and books purchased from the store. It's more limited, in that it will download all purchases made on any other device (or iTunes) connected to the same account, but it seems like very few people are a…

Apple does not have a web bases store right? You still have to use itunes and download the app to the computer? Android install can be done via the web store from what I understand

you have to do it from iTunes, but you don't have to download to the computer or do any syncing. It works the same way as Android, just from the iTunes app instead of a web browser.

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

#273

Post by enraged_camel »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #220
enraged_camel wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on the size. Nexus 4 is basically a mini-tablet, and looks incredibly retarded when someone holds it up to their ear. Reminds me of people who use their iPad cameras to take photos and videos.

> looks incredibly retarded when someone holds it up to their ear I care more about my phone's abilities than I do about what people think of me when I'm holding it up to my ear. (Which only happens maybe once a week for me, anyway.)

That's fine. I just hope you don't judge people who use their iPads as a camera. :)

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

#274

Post by clarky07 »

krschultz wrote: post #118
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.

You don't think that's contestable? It's one of the most absurd things to say. It's impossible for a device to be perfectly ergonomic for everyone. I have big hands. I loved the original Xbox controller before they shrank it. I love bigger phones. I find the iPhone 4 and earlier too damn small for me. The Apple commercials with someone hand showing that it is "perfect size" are simply laughable. Lets have someone wit…

Nobody said perfect for everyone. It is however, very likely, better for more people than anything else. There are a few people with large hands that liked the original xbox controller. There are 0 people in the world who think it was the best size for most people. It's just not. The same goes for the Samsung Note (1 and 2). It's objectively not the correct phone size for most people, but there is a large subset (in raw numbers, not percentage) that likes the huge phone.

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

#275

Post by estebank »

robmcm wrote: post #171
kalleboo wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!!!

Keep in mind that the Android SDK has quite a few features that allow you to create liquid layouts that will work fairly well on most device sizes, as precisely because the Android OS comes on a great variety of hardware, this problem had to be addressed early on, while on iOS every time a new screen size/pixel density comes along you have to create an all new view.

I'll acknowledge that many times you have to fiddle a bit to make sure that your Android view works well on a variety of screens, but usually you can target between 3 and 4 layouts and have a usable UI for all devices from 10" tablets all the way down to small feature phones.

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

#276

Post by clarky07 »

pook1e wrote: post #177
taligent wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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

This thread was about Galaxy Nexus, not Nexus 4. Pot, meet kettle.

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

#277

Post by buster »

mannkind wrote: post #234
buster wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there are quite beautiful homescreens and widgets for android. You don't have to use them but i would say that iPhone users are just missing out on something. Sure, you are used to just take what Apple gives you and praise that but i couldn't.. I want high customizability and i love to change the entire phone setup when i get bored by the current setup.. or try out a new home screen once in a while. It's painle…

Those two examples... wow . A cluttered, unusable homescreen (is a ridiculous 3D cylinder of icons really an option?) and a weather widget where most of the text is unreadable.

Mh, no, the 3D cylinder is not even default ( i think ) and it's just one option of many. I have set it to normal scrolling behaviour as we know from other home screens. The 3D cylinder is just one option. This example shows that you can have a very different homescreen (an option you don't even have on the iOS). Another homescreen with a totally different layout was slidescreen. Sadly it was discontinued: http://slidescreenhome.com/ My point is: Customization is a great thing to have. Atleast for me. All the examples i show you are just a tiny fraction of what is possible, i just don't care so much for nice looking as i care for useful and handy.

The Weather widget is hell of a lot of themes and is quite awesome, the animations on opening etc. They did redesign it recently and it looks just nice. I get that "looks nice" is very subjective but i don't see your point. I can read all texts perfectly fine on the phone.

Another point is: I couldn't live without a calendar widget anymore. It's too nice to have the agenda for the next days right on your homescreen.

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

#278

Post by nicolethenerd »

Domenic_S wrote: post #223
ulyssesgrant wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wouldn't this be the same as initiating the download as you prepare to leave the house? you'll still have to wait the 2-6 minutes for the podcast

I'm a very casual podcast listener. I pull up the stock iOS podcast app, hit the podcast I want to listen to, and it streams (plays) while downloading. On non-wifi it takes maybe 4 seconds to start. Is this unusual? Do other apps make you wait for the whole 'cast to download? Is it a per-podcast thing?

This assumes that you're somewhere with wifi (or 3/4G, I suppose). I do a good chunk of my iPhone media consumption during my commute via the subway - there's no internet underground, so everything needs to be pre-downloaded.

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

#279

Post by buster »

pithon wrote: post #77
buster wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there are quite beautiful homescreens and widgets for android. You don't have to use them but i would say that iPhone users are just missing out on something. Sure, you are used to just take what Apple gives you and praise that but i couldn't.. I want high customizability and i love to change the entire phone setup when i get bored by the current setup.. or try out a new home screen once in a while. It's painle…

Also: http://www.reddit.com/r/androidthemes/

That's a good point and demonstrates very well how far you can customize.

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

#280

Post by joenathan »

eunice wrote: post #189
mattquiros wrote: post #5

Been an Android user for a year (Galaxy Tab 8.9) and was going to get an iPhone 5 last Christmas just to try out a different device. I changed my mind and am getting a Nexus 4 instead. I was able to use one of our test iPhones at work for a primary phone and here are just 3 things I don't like about iOS: 1. Toggling settings can be difficult. In Android, you have a pull-up/pull-down menu right from the home screen wh…

Bluetooth is for your xbox controller, not sending files

>Bluetooth is for your xbox controller, not sending files

I used Bluetooth for sending files for years with many of my older phones, and I find that ability still comes in handy from time to time.

Also, the Xbox 360 controller doesn't use Bluetooth, although the PS3 and the Wiimote controllers both use Bluetooth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_Controller

Post reply on HN