iPhone Vs Android/Droid

[wabbit]

The App creator must house and run their own push service to send to Apples notification system. That costs them money, so most/all? apps have a timeout limit (ie: a IM app is configurable to 20min, 30min, 1hr, 4hr, 12hr) at some point the App will kick you off the persistent list. Which Montey is totally correct, dripping data.

As for safe, yeah I'm on a 700mb and can't use that. Unless i tether which of course is a different story.

Montey, I think they had a point in that vid. The end user on a mobile phone shouldn't have to know the weirdly named processes in a task manager. Secondly on a touch screen only phone, if an App locked up how would one switch to the task manager? I think use of the Home button, which would be a tripple click now. (single, double tap & press and hold are already used). It could like OS X Force Quit window if they were to "change their mind". Showing only user started apps, not a complete list of system service and what not like a normal task manger.

[DexterPunk]

by the way... The phone they showed in that vid is my old blackjack haha when I saw it, I shuddered. The menu systems and user interface is a nightmare. Not sure if samsung or windows mobile is to blame for that one.

[flagger]

I'm hanging out for the Motorola droid/milestone to be released here or in Asia. There is 2 (with proper hsdpa support for our market) for sale from a seller in Germany on ebay for $868, but thats probably asking for trouble. Android version 2.0, full hardware keyboard, high res screen, gps, multitasking make it my nearly ideal phone. Apparently the camera focus issues are a software bug in Android 2.0 (something to do with comparing date/time values which cycles good focusing to bad focusing every 24 days) and will be fixed in an update.

http://www.motorola.com/consumers/US-EN ... 06b00aRCRD
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/moto ... -hands-on/

[Montey]

So I just bought 6 iPhone 3Gs for my team... any idea how to get the damned thing to attach using Bluetooth to WIndows 7?

[wabbit]

it doesn't :P Doesn't have a full Bluetooth stack from my limited understanding.

[markus]

So I just bought 6 iPhone 3Gs for my team... any idea how to get the damned thing to attach using Bluetooth to WIndows 7?

Perhaps this might help ? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756

[w00dsy]

looks like the Android is getting a proper Google phone to run on.

[r8response]

Supposed plan..



If any telco in aus provided a plan like that, they'd have people banging at the door

[wabbit]

I've been loosely following this, I still wonder why the big change of direction from Google.

[AstrO]

Anyone know what phones here in Oz come with Android 2.0? I'm looking at going to a HTC Magic (3), but I can't tell if it's still running 1.6 or 2.0.

[norbs]

Got to play with a dev version of the Google phone today. Holy crap, very very nice. Smooth is the best way to describe it. Very smooth.

[Exar Kun]

Got to play with a dev version of the Google phone today. Holy crap, very very nice. Smooth is the best way to describe it. Very smooth.

How big is it compared to the iPhone?

[wabbit]

Got to play with a dev version of the Google phone today. Holy crap, very very nice. Smooth is the best way to describe it. Very smooth.

What do you make of these comments? linky I feel they might be a bit to biased.

[norbs]

Got to play with a dev version of the Google phone today. Holy crap, very very nice. Smooth is the best way to describe it. Very smooth.

What do you make of these comments? linky I feel they might be a bit to biased.

The stuff in red I agree with. Green I don't agree with. Blue I didnt think to try.


Hardware

* The form factor is very nice. It is indeed thinner than the iPhone, but only by a millimeter or two. It feels thinner, though. The battery cover has soft rubber on it which makes it feel grippable, although it’s probably only a matter of time until that cover gets loose.
* The screen is gorgeous. Bright, much denser (ppi-speaking) than the iPhone. Very lovely.
* There’s no slient/loud ringer switch. What year is this? You have to go through menus to silence the phone. Silly. (Update: You can hold down the sleep/wake switch to get a shortcut to the software-based silence functionality. While this is better than digging through the menus, I would still prefer a hardware switch because it’s easier to toggle quickly and also to see if a phone is already silenced.)
* The sleep/wake button is on the upper left, not the right. This is the opposite of the iPhone but the same as the iPod Touch. I’m already pissed that Apple has their two products using different sides, and I wish as a people we’d just decide on one and stick with it.
* The scrollball is almost completely pointless. It lights up when a download starts in the Market, and it allows you to select some items on the interface, but so far I have only used it in one case where an app I downloaded wouldn’t let me hide the keyboard even though it had UI elements below it. The ball allowed me to scroll to those elements. Other than that, it’s useless extra hardware. (Update: Turns out you use the scrollball for text selection. And for good reason: The non-scrollball method is TERRIBLE. It’s inaccurate and a mess. Adding to that, the scrollball moves too slowly, so even using it for text selection is poor at best. But at least I know what it’s for now.)

OS Features

* Android OS allows you to create a custom swipe-to-unlock pattern, which is a very neat idea. There are dots on the screen and you choose a pattern to connect them. The only problem with this, as Brian pointed out to me on his G1 last week, is that if you tilt the phone a bit and catch the light on the screen, you can the pattern in oily smudges. So, most likely, you’ll be able to guess someone’s pattern. That said, the Nexus One’s screen is nearly as easy to clean as the iPhone 3GS (is the NO also oleophobic?) so at least if you wipe it before setting it down you’d minimize the risk of someone unlocking it.
* Unfortunately, because of the custom swipe pattern, Andriod OS doesn’t allow you to use a passcode to lock the phone. And, given the security issue mentioned above, this is a bad thing. I keep my iPhone passcoded when I’m out because I don’t want people to get my information in case they steal the phone or I lose it. With this device, it’s much more likely they’d be able to get to my data.
* I really like the weather/news widget. It works really well and it’s nice to have it on the home screen rather than having to launch two different apps to get this information.
* The “Live” wallpapers (animated wallpapers, some of which respond to touch) are ridiculous and completely useless. Not to mention distracting. However, Andriod does this neat thing with non-live wallpapers where it uses a five-screens-wide wallpaper and when you scroll horizontally from screen to screen, the wallpaper moves a little. Very simple and nice effect.
* The status bar is too cluttered. People have been joking about it, and it’s true. They need to hide some of this stuff. A great example: When the phone is sending/receiving data from the internet, it shows a huge satellite icon with flashing green bars next to it. It’s distracting and huge, especially compared to the iPhone’s simple spinner. (Update: This icon is actually indicating the phone trying to find your location, which is still unnecessary but less frequent. That being said, there is no system-wide data spinner icon on the Android.)
* The phone doesn’t seem to be able to get your location from wifi only. I haven’t put my SIM card in the phone yet, and am just connected to my home network. I’ve yet to get it to even guess at my general location.

Big Issues

* Some animations are very smooth, some are janky as hell. The Nexus One has a faster processor than the iPhone 3GS and has twice the RAM, and yet it still cannot have as fluid a UI as the iPhone OS. This is great proof that your software is key—throwing raw power at things won’t necessarily make them better.
* The Android Market is a terrible mess. Nearly every app I looked at had nothing but spam comments. Literally things like, “Follow me on twitter at @blah” and “Ladies, hit me up on AIM at blah” which is embarrassing and sad. Makes the entire thing feel like cheap garbage. When you add the fact that nearly all the apps are free, and most are a UI mess, it doesn’t come off too well.
* Sometimes the hardware buttons (Back, Menu, Home, Search) don’t respond right away, for whatever reason (software hang, working, etc) and since there’s no way to know if your touch simply wasn’t registered (which is also an issue I’m having from time to time) you end up pushing the button over and over. Then suddenly it will just work. To combat this, I turned on the vibration feedback option for those buttons, but that only partially helped—the phone still won’t vibrate after you push a button if it’s stuck doing something, so I end up pushing it over and over until I feel the vibration. This isn’t an issue on the iPhone because the only hardware button (the home button) is an actual button that clicks in when you push it. So you always know you’ve done so, and if nothing happens you know it’s a software issue.
* No multi-touch. Or I should say, none “yet.” Android OS supports multi-touch and so does the hardware, but it has to be built into each app individually. The most obvious and annoying-that-it’s-not-there case is Maps. Zoom in and out buttons on a modern device like this just seems amateur.


The animations seemed excellent to me tbh. Really smooth. And this is a dev phone too.

[wabbit]

Thanking you. I'm yet to even hold one let alone get some time learning it.

[norbs]

Thanking you. I'm yet to even hold one let alone get some time learning it.

Well I didn't exactly get a huge amount of time, and to be honest, probably shouldn't even be talking about it on a public forum. But it does look snazzy.

[wabbit]

Found a little site regarding touchscreen stress tests. I'd personally never thought of doing such a test yet it seems so simple.

DIY Touchscreen Analysis

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/8569827[/vimeo] <-- yeah i can't get the Vimeo vid thingy to work, I've given up

[AstrO]

Going by the following, Android usage has increased... http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/an ... months.php

[pixelboy]

Yeah.. increased hey.. to 4% of "Smartphone" users... not 4% of ALL users.. not 4% of phone users.. 4% of "Smartphone" users!!!

I work on a site that gets 6mil visits a month and Android just isnt on the map.. I'm sure it will increase but not at the rate of iphone users.. iPhone however is our third most popular OS, after Windows and OSX!

[AstrO]

I thought all phones these days were "smart" phones

[DexterPunk]

Yeah.. increased hey.. to 4% of "Smartphone" users... not 4% of ALL users.. not 4% of phone users.. 4% of "Smartphone" users!!!

I work on a site that gets 6mil visits a month and Android just isnt on the map.. I'm sure it will increase but not at the rate of iphone users.. iPhone however is our third most popular OS, after Windows and OSX!

Thats the thing... and something ive mentioned before on this forum.. ipods weren't the best mp3 player on the market, yet they dominated.

Similar will happen with phones.... the competition cant afford to be as good, or even a little better than an iPhone, they will need to be A LOT better. The difference here is that iPods didnt have an app store in the old days. Yes, other phones will have the equiv... but the way i see it, if you were an app developer, or a big company making an app you want to make good money off, who are you going to write it for? the phone that technically may be better? or the phone that every man and his dog has?

Dont get me wrong, i dont want apple to monopolise this sector of the industry, competition is good for everyone! it drives down prices, and accelerates technology for everyone, whether your an apple user or other. But if I were a betting man, i know where id put my money on for the best phone in 3 years time. I still think the iPhone will be better than any other phone, for 2 reasons.. they will have better quality, and more apps... and better and more stable integration between hardware and OS. I strongly welcome any phone that can prove me wrong, because ill get one

[w00dsy]

when i got mine i asked the chick who served me if they are still selling lots of iphones and she said about 90% of phones they sell are iphones.

[pixelboy]

The dominance that apple have achieved in the mobile market is just unprecedented! They have a similar dominance that Microsoft enjoys in the desktop market, but its different this time.. Back when MS got its desktop market (late 90's and early 2000's) there was NO competition.. Apple have done this within a healthy market that just didnt see Apple coming.. And its not over, I predict that apples dominance in mobile market will get even stronger in the next 2-3 years.

Why.. its not the apps.. is the way they made it EASY and expected that you would use the phone like a computer.. always on internet. Its that simple.. EASY email, EASY good browser.. the rest is fun but its not the essential. The experience is just too damm easy, you dont feel dumb when you use it..

MS brought the internet to phones (as did all manufacturers) to some extent but they never did it seriously.. MS never drove a huge push into the mainstream market.. they kept hobbled up in their safety net of business and its desire NOT to evolve.

Any player in the market is welcome (Android et al) but they have a serious job to catch Apple from here..

Dex, I wouldn't even say that Apple has the "best phone" NOW.. they have the easiest to use and most popular (something nokia boasted for years), and as you also point out that counts for a lot. Apple are very good at "leaving things out" of their products in the name of simplicity.. like multi-tasking, you can do it on WinMo for ages but the mechanism to switch apps was clunky.. Im sure apple will include that feature when they can make it "easy"..

Apple have hit on something that I face in my job daily.. "NEVER make people feel dumb".. people don't want software to ask them confusing questions, or they feel confused when they cant work out how to do something.. Windows makes me feel dumb every day, and i've been using it for 15 years..

Anyway, i'm ranting.. as you were

[macca]

I think you have hit the nail on the head there Pix, ease of use really is important, especially to someone like me who is not technically competent shall we say, to put it nicely so whenever I do upgrade a PC / software / mobile I usually have some trepidation about using the gear, I say this because I have recently bought a HTC Hero Android phone & am constantly surprised at how easy it is to use, especially when I try a feature I haven't used before, it just 'works', to coin a phrase although I don't go app crazy like some people.

Android will make a dent, but maybe at the expense of Nokia / Blackberry more so than Apple, also HTC's current marketing of the phone unlocked through HN rather than through the carriers on a plan will probably put off the majority of people, although this may change.