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i sickness

I guess the debate between Apple and Android will continue to exist forever. Nothing wrong with competition,makes everyone better. What Android provides that the iphone probably never will is choice,options, selections and the preference for an individual to choose what he or she likes that fit their needs. Let's be honest, with Apple the choice is pretty much set and some folks are ok with that.
 
Bob Maxey said:
It depends. When you Jailbreak iOS, the advantages largely disappear. And you must root your Android device to take advantage of some features people seem to like, so complete access--regardless of the platform--requires making changes. Both operating systems are locked to some extent. People root to remove the bloatware, so being forced to accept the carrier's desires is a measure of control Apple also imposes on their users.

Customization is one thing Android offers that Apple does not allow. I have yet to see any theme for Android devices that looks as nice as the complete themes for a Jailbroken iOS device. All I do is root my Triumph and I really do not care about the look, so corrections are welcome. It makes and received calls and that is why I carry a cell phone.

Until you JB your iDevice, you are stuck with the stock Springboard. And, to make things worse, Steve Jobs said in a very public statement that the reason Springboard customization apps were removed from the App Store is because it ruins the user experience. Ditto widgets.

I like the huge variety of largely high-quality apps iOS users can DL, so there is that. My device is better than any Android device I have seen to date. But the word "better" is tricky because I cannot define it for you, just for me.

I spent a week running Dreamboard and a theme called "Honeypad." It does what the name suggests; it makes my iPad look like an Android OS. Not running Android, mind you. So I get the "advantages" of Android on my iPad. An app is an app and running Android apps is really no different than running iOS apps, and the fact that I am not running Android means nothing worth mentioning.

iOS is really safe. The Apple Sandbox prevents many issues and problems. The locked down nature of the device/iOS prevents problems. Unless you JB, an iOS device user does not need to worry about virus issues. And again, both devices are locked down and you must take a few extra steps to get to the features you need.

I no longer need to deal with the App Store. I have access to Cydia and app repositories. Thousands of apps, themes, tweaks, tools, add-ons, and other stuff is available sans Apple. So I can DL anything from anywhere. That said, some of the most amazing looking apps I have ever seen come from Apple.

iOS devices are more or less costly than Android devices and Android devices are more or less costly than Apple devices. So the cost is not an issue. Some say Android is better because it is cheaper when in fact, it is not necessarily cheaper.

All things considered, there is no real difference between an Android tablet and an iPad. I know you are probably talking about phones, but I refuse to purchase an iPhone.

My Triumph once looked like an iPhone and my old Zio was running the Apple Lock-screen and a home screen replacement, so it's look was a mix. You can make your iPhone look like Android and your Android look like an iPhone. Or an iPhone running a different lock screen or an Android phone running a mix of operating systems.

I have tried the iPhone and it works lust like my themed Triumph that looks like an iPhone right down to screen changes and app icons.

There are only a few iPhones on the market and perhaps 200 or more Android devices. Some are good phones and some are bad. If Apple licensed iOS to others, you would see hundreds of phones running iOS and fewer Android phones. And if Google charged for their OS, you might see fewer Android phones.

Some people buy a crappy Android phone, become dissatisfied and go iPhone. Some iPhone users are worried about glass breaking or antenna-gate and they go Android. In many cases, they will say their first choice sucked and they are pleased with their second choice.

No offence to anyone, but in my opinion, many people like one over the other for no good reason. They do not have the technical chops to determine if one is truly better than the other. They are swayed by forum members that might also not really know.

I'll be clear here: for most users, either platform will do a great job and only a small percentage of users are likely worrying much about their choices. They are swayed by an errant TV commercial and they replace their "crappy device" with a "better" device because the man if the box told them to do so. I do not see many differences so I am not sure which one is better and a top 10 list is difficult to compile because what I want and need is not what you want and need.



Come on, you do not know what will happen with Mr. Jobs gone. Until you are deep inside the company, and privy to the high level product development and planing meetings, you simply do not know. Just guessing.
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Look at apple before Jobs came to them. Then look at what he did after he took over. Its simple to say apple relied on him heavily. Jobs was a rare breed he was an innovator and a great PR guy. He could probably sell snow to Eskimos. REally who can fill his shoes well for him the black turtle neck sweater.
 
Hey Bob, you make some extremely valid points. But I have one question for you, do you smoke a cigar while browsing AF? Every time I read one of your posts, I imagine an older gentleman holding a cigar. :p
 
My biggest gripe about iOS is that it abstracts away the filesystem. I understand the rationale; having to deal with a filesystem can be user-unfriendly for non-techies, but that's a HUGE, HUGE limitation for anyone who understands files and folder structures just fine.

And no, jailbreaking does not solve this issue. Yes, you get access to the underlying unix filesystem, but iOS itself is still closed off in its own world.

iFile comes close to bridging the gap, but because your media files are handled by iTunes, there's no way to get your manually copied music and video to just show up where all the rest of the media resides.

And if you take a look at the filesystem to see how iTunes is organizing things, you'll see that it intentionally obfuscates where your media is. All folders and filenames are renamed to cryptic numbers and letters. Metadata is separated from the media completely. All of this is evidence that Apple intentionally designed iOS and iTunes so an end-user cannot circumvent the abstraction of the filesystem in iOS, even with full access to the command-line.

That's just a big pain in the ass. Android works so much better. You can save files anywhere on the filesystem (internal space or SD card space), and the OS can access those locations. This means that you can also share the same file between multiple apps with ease. You can transfer files between apps with ease. Things just work. Oh wait, I thought that was Apple's line.


Here's a real world example that happened 2 nights ago. A friend of my wife sent her via gmail an attachment. The attachment was a file that was specific to an iOS app. From the iPad, the attachment was clearly present in the gmail app, but when you tapped it, it wasn't launching the target app. There was no option to save the file somewhere and have the target app look for it. There was no way to export the file to the target app.

So the solution was to go to a desktop PC, save the attachment to the local hard drive, move the file to dropbox. Then use dropbox for iOS to export it to the target app. Pain in the ass. All because Apple thinks the concept of files and folders is just too much for the average user.
 
B2L said:
Hey Bob, you make some extremely valid points. But I have one question for you, do you smoke a cigar while browsing AF? Every time I read one of your posts, I imagine an older gentleman holding a cigar. :p
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NO! I do not smoke in my office. I collect books and stamps and other things that absorb smoke. The wallpaper and curtains do as well.

I do smoke cigars, this is true. But not in my office.
 
novox77 said:
My biggest gripe about iOS is that it abstracts away the filesystem. I understand the rationale; having to deal with a filesystem can be user-unfriendly for non-techies, but that's a HUGE, HUGE limitation for anyone who understands files and folder structures just fine.

And no, jailbreaking does not solve this issue. Yes, you get access to the underlying unix filesystem, but iOS itself is still closed off in its own world.

iFile comes close to bridging the gap, but because your media files are handled by iTunes, there's no way to get your manually copied music and video to just show up where all the rest of the media resides.

And if you take a look at the filesystem to see how iTunes is organizing things, you'll see that it intentionally obfuscates where your media is. All folders and filenames are renamed to cryptic numbers and letters. Metadata is separated from the media completely. All of this is evidence that Apple intentionally designed iOS and iTunes so an end-user cannot circumvent the abstraction of the filesystem in iOS, even with full access to the command-line.

That's just a big pain in the ass. Android works so much better. You can save files anywhere on the filesystem (internal space or SD card space), and the OS can access those locations. This means that you can also share the same file between multiple apps with ease. You can transfer files between apps with ease. Things just work. Oh wait, I thought that was Apple's line.

Here's a real world example that happened 2 nights ago. A friend of my wife sent her via gmail an attachment. The attachment was a file that was specific to an iOS app. From the iPad, the attachment was clearly present in the gmail app, but when you tapped it, it wasn't launching the target app. There was no option to save the file somewhere and have the target app look for it. There was no way to export the file to the target app.

So the solution was to go to a desktop PC, save the attachment to the local hard drive, move the file to dropbox. Then use dropbox for iOS to export it to the target app. Pain in the ass. All because Apple thinks the concept of files and folders is just too much for the average user.
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1- I JB just for iFile. I understand the limitations iOS puts in my way. I am not saying it is perfect; in a perfect world, there would be no lock-down. But it is not a perfect world and things are locked, so Jailbreaking came to my rescue. And iFile deals with the issue nicely. And no, file names are not hidden; iFile gives you an option to show real names. I hope you are not confusing iFile with iFiles because some people do. I have spoken with many people that think iFiles sucks and it does not do what we tell him it will do. the issue is they download iFiles from iTunes. The latter comes from the app store so it is not the same as iFile, which gives me unfettered access to every file on my system.

And once I have access, any number of tools can manipulate the files just like you do on a PC or Android Phone.

2- Downloading gmail attachments is easy. Reddie Docs and a few others can save attachments and without a JB. When you JB, you can install other apps with more features and capabilities owing to the fact they are designed for a device with an open OS. You can also install add-ons to existing iOS applications that greatly extend the application's capabilities. You might have a problem with a stock iOS app, but chances are, the problems have been addressed by someone in the JB world.

3- I can completely forget iTunes if I want. Managing music is easy and effortless. Lots of iTunes replacements. And I still have iTunes access if I want it.

I store everything on my MicroSD Cards. When I open a PDF file, music file, Excel file, Word file, Text file or a movie, through iFile, I can opt to save it where I want.

The only thing I really hate about my iDevice is a minor issue: I cannot create legitimate templates for Pages. When you create one in Word, it is a single document. With Pages, a Template is a large group of files. Perhaps 20 or thirty folders with twenty or more additional files in those cryptic folders. Not at all simple.

I also dislike that out of the box, you cannot attach files to email because Apple/iOS does not allow communication between applications. That is to say, the email client cannot access other areas like your picture roll. The Sandbox protects us but it makes it hard, too.

With iFile, I simply select the file and then I can do any number of things with it. Like sending it to Dropbox or email.

With WebDAV, most limitations go away. Like directly uploading or opening files stored in my Dropbox.

What you see as limitations I see as minor issues that disappear when I JB. Very little cannot be done when you do. I will give you that Android is "better" in some respects. But like a boil on my butt, the issue can be done away with when you do a little e-surgery.
 
I most definitely mean iFile. And no, at issue isn't whether I can see all files at the unix level. Obviously with the jailbreak, I can see and do what I want with any file. At issue is whether the jailbreak opens up the filesystem within iOS, and it doesn't at all. I don't want a subset of my music or movies accessible only in iOS, and the other part accessible only with iFile.

Like you, I use iFile almost exclusively to manage my files. It gives me roughly the equivalent flexibility of Android. And for that I'm really grateful for iFile. But it kinda renders iOS useless. If I could get rid of iOS, I would, and just have my command-line access and iFile.

All of this just highlights why Android is by far the superior choice [for me] when it comes to filesystem access. The core OS does everything by default. No root. No need to use some third party file manager like iFile. All apps have access to the filesystem, so they can share files, pass files to each other without helper apps, etc.

And I'm NOT stating that with iOS, any given equivalent functionality cannot be achieved. Where there's a will, there's a way. But I find that for most cases, the effort required to get an iOS device to do something I want is much harder than with Android. That was what I was trying to convey in my last post. Abstracting away the filesystem makes iOS HARDER to use for people who want to control how their files are managed. I know I'm in the minority, but I buy a device because it's good for me; not because it's good for a 'lot of people out there.'
 
BTW, if you know of a way/hack/etc to allow me to plug in my iPad and have it mount as USB Mass storage (without having to install something on the tethered PC), let me know. A while back, I scoured the google, but I didn't find any solution...
 
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