rui-no-onna
Android Enthusiast
Funny you should say this. I'm getting an iPhone 5 for my mom and dad (mid-50's) and will be giving my iPad 2 to my grandmother (late 80's) overseas when the next iPad comes out.
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iPhone 5 versus Android
- Thread starter alnaintl
- Start date
Funny you should say this. I'm getting an iPhone 5 for my mom and dad (mid-50's) and will be giving my iPad 2 to my grandmother (late 80's) overseas when the next iPad comes out.
jefboyardee
Extreme Android User
OfTheDamned
The Friendly Undead
WhoKnowsWhat
Lurker
Have to admit I like the feel of the unibody metal versus plastic. Like a Rolex versus a Timex.
And you got to feel one at the release?
Counting megapixels and megahertzs is not the be all and end all.
I like 2 things about Apple.
1. Quality. The materials, construction and design are first class. You always pay a bit more. However you do seem to be getting a Porsche as opposed to a Volkswagen for your money. You may want to quibble with the way it works, but the nice thing is that they are engineered to work very well.
2. Support. I just read that iOS 6 will roll out for the last 3 gens of iphones later this month. That means my wife's 3GS which came out almost 5 years ago will be updated. Compare that with most Androids which OS usually becomes outdated on average within 6 months of purchase and owners are left waiting for updates. And in my own experience, after a long frustrating wait, the Android updates are often buggy.
Those two things make for a very good experience with Apple products which one can expect to enjoy for a long time.
I like 2 things about Apple.
1. Quality. The materials, construction and design are first class. You always pay a bit more. However you do seem to be getting a Porsche as opposed to a Volkswagen for your money. You may want to quibble with the way it works, but the nice thing is that they are engineered to work very well.
2. Support. I just read that iOS 6 will roll out for the last 3 gens of iphones later this month. That means my wife's 3GS which came out almost 5 years ago will be updated. Compare that with most Androids which OS usually becomes outdated on average within 6 months of purchase and owners are left waiting for updates. And in my own experience, after a long frustrating wait, the Android updates are often buggy.
Those two things make for a very good experience with Apple products which one can expect to enjoy for a long time.
OfTheDamned
The Friendly Undead
Timex > Rolex at keeping time.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
Agree with item #1, disagree with item #2.
Take Siri - fully capable on iPhone 4, but never offered officially. Why? So doesn't matter if 3GS gets the latest update, there will always be features missing that don't need to be.
I am actually considering dropping Android and switching to iOS, for one and only one reason:
Apps.
Ultimately, it does not matter if Android is a better operating system or has better phone. What matters is iOS has a lot, a lot more apps. There are so many apps -- especially games -- that I want, but they are available for iOS but not for Android, and their developers have pretty much said they would not make anything for Android.
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Some quick examples:
TellTale Games -- they are the king of adventure games right now, they make the new Monkey Island, Back to the Future, Walking Dead, King's Quest reboot -- are available for iOS, but not Android. And they have repeatedly said they're not making games for Android.
Mika Mobile. Made the best action RPG (Battleheart) for Android. Well, they announced they had given up on Android back in March 2012. No more Android games from them. They are currently working on Battleheart 2. Won't be on Android.
Epic Games. Make Infinity Blade for iOS. Already publicly stated numerous times they had no intention of making anything for Android.
2K Games. Make Sid Meier's Pirates and a few other major titles on iOS. Nothing for Android.
Myst and Riven. Has been available for iOS for the longest time. Still not on Android. Likely never will be.
EA-BioWare is rebooting Ultima. Ultima: Forever (Ultima 4) and Ultima: Beyond (Ultima 5), will be available for iOS (and the PC). No Android version is planned.
King of Dragon Pass. The new version is on iOS. No Android version. The developer pretty much said they won't make the game for iOS.
Superbrothers: Swords & Shields EP. Voted by multiple websites and magazines as the best mobile game of 2011. Available on iOS, the PC, Mac and just about every platform in existence. Yet the developer said they're not planning to make it for Android.
Darkrider -- now that's a major title -- is on iOS as well. No Android version. Again.
Double Fine -- they made Psychonauts for goodness sake -- has unveiled their first iOS exclusive: Middle Manager of Justice. No Android version. Again.
Spiderweb Games. They had one game for Android (Avadon), which was ported by a third-party developer. But Spiderweb themselves do not make anything for Android, and their other titles are not available for Android and are not being ported. .
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Those games only make up an incomplete listing. There are more where those come from. Seriously Android is getting ****ed over.
iOS has so many apps and games that are unavailable on Android, and it's really disheartening. Ultimately, I'd have to go where all the apps/games are.
It is the same reason for the longest time, people use Windows but not Mac. Some people keep crying that Mac has better OS or better machines, but none of those mattered. What mattered was Windows had more apps, more software. People do not buy computers to just for the OS itself. People buy computers to use apps.
Apps.
Ultimately, it does not matter if Android is a better operating system or has better phone. What matters is iOS has a lot, a lot more apps. There are so many apps -- especially games -- that I want, but they are available for iOS but not for Android, and their developers have pretty much said they would not make anything for Android.
- - - - -
Some quick examples:
TellTale Games -- they are the king of adventure games right now, they make the new Monkey Island, Back to the Future, Walking Dead, King's Quest reboot -- are available for iOS, but not Android. And they have repeatedly said they're not making games for Android.
Mika Mobile. Made the best action RPG (Battleheart) for Android. Well, they announced they had given up on Android back in March 2012. No more Android games from them. They are currently working on Battleheart 2. Won't be on Android.
Epic Games. Make Infinity Blade for iOS. Already publicly stated numerous times they had no intention of making anything for Android.
2K Games. Make Sid Meier's Pirates and a few other major titles on iOS. Nothing for Android.
Myst and Riven. Has been available for iOS for the longest time. Still not on Android. Likely never will be.
EA-BioWare is rebooting Ultima. Ultima: Forever (Ultima 4) and Ultima: Beyond (Ultima 5), will be available for iOS (and the PC). No Android version is planned.
King of Dragon Pass. The new version is on iOS. No Android version. The developer pretty much said they won't make the game for iOS.
Superbrothers: Swords & Shields EP. Voted by multiple websites and magazines as the best mobile game of 2011. Available on iOS, the PC, Mac and just about every platform in existence. Yet the developer said they're not planning to make it for Android.
Darkrider -- now that's a major title -- is on iOS as well. No Android version. Again.
Double Fine -- they made Psychonauts for goodness sake -- has unveiled their first iOS exclusive: Middle Manager of Justice. No Android version. Again.
Spiderweb Games. They had one game for Android (Avadon), which was ported by a third-party developer. But Spiderweb themselves do not make anything for Android, and their other titles are not available for Android and are not being ported. .
- - - - -
Those games only make up an incomplete listing. There are more where those come from. Seriously Android is getting ****ed over.
iOS has so many apps and games that are unavailable on Android, and it's really disheartening. Ultimately, I'd have to go where all the apps/games are.
It is the same reason for the longest time, people use Windows but not Mac. Some people keep crying that Mac has better OS or better machines, but none of those mattered. What mattered was Windows had more apps, more software. People do not buy computers to just for the OS itself. People buy computers to use apps.
Updating OS software will not update hardware. The 3GS does not have the second camera to operate Facetime. Ditto for retina display. Not every new OS feature will be available for an older model phone eg Siri. However, the commitment to update a 5 year phone on a timely basis in order to extend its life and utility is something that the various Android manufacturers should emulate. Unfortunately, based current experience, that has not been the case.
rui-no-onna
Android Enthusiast
The 3GS doesn't have a front-facing camera...
However, I don't see any reason why Siri isn't available on older models when the speech to text shouldn't really require much processing power as it's done on Apple's servers.
I question this author's authenticity. Has he even laid his hands upon said device? Was that for more than 5 minutes? To proclaim that it's the greatest device to exist without actually handling it seems rather over the top.
Also, if it's the greatest device in the world, it would not bore you.
I actually tried to read that article. I stopped when he got obsessed over the fact that the iMac came in blue.
rui-no-onna
Android Enthusiast
Google's actually doing this with the Nexus line. I have a single-core Nexus S which has already received the Jelly Bean update (really makes the phone more responsive) while there are some newer dual-core phones still waiting on ICS (or will not even receive the update altogether). This is the reason why despite better specs from other manufacturers, I'm still wary when it comes to buying a non-Nexus phone.
I'd like to point out that updates for 5-year-old devices isn't the norm for Apple, either. The original iPhone never got updated to iOS 4 while the iPhone 3G with the same CPU and RAM received the update. Granted, iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G's hardware was a slow, crash-prone POS and there are plenty of iPhone 3G owners who opted to downgrade to iOS 3.
Tim K
Android Expert
I've never owned an Apple product, but what I understand is that, while the 3Gs might be able to upgrade to iOS6, that's not actually a good thing. My friends (who all have apple products) tell me that while the newer OS will run on the older devices, it always seems to slow down the device and as others have mentioned, not support all the features.
Their claim was that this was Apple's way of forcing people to upgrade without looking like it. Tell people the newest OS will run on their device.... but then don't include all the features and make it laggy.... and soon they will upgrade to the newest device.
Their claim was that this was Apple's way of forcing people to upgrade without looking like it. Tell people the newest OS will run on their device.... but then don't include all the features and make it laggy.... and soon they will upgrade to the newest device.
The number of apps and games have not been a consideration for me. I am not a big gamer. And so far, I have found the Android apps which meet my needs. Some may be better or worse that the iOS version.
However, what is frustrating is that a particular Android app may not work the same way on two different Android devices. For example, I use Runkeeper on my Galaxy Tab to record all my workouts. On my LG phone, Runkeeper allows me to delete an incorrect workout entry. However, on the Tab, I cannot do this; I have to go to the Runkeeper website to delete and then logout and resync on the Tab to correct the entry. This is probably the result of the fragmentation in the Android ecosystem. A developer is hard pressed to make an app work properly on all the different Android devices by all the different manufacturers. Perhaps, that is why some game developers would rather not try.
AndroidSPCS
Android Expert
Sorry, meant to say Siri... no reason iPhone 4 couldn't have it. iOS fragmentation exists, and will increase with different screen sizes.
OfTheDamned
The Friendly Undead
Typically one app will work across all devices the same. If you are running different versions of the Os then that may be part of the issue. Sometimes a feature is not available on a previous version of the OS. Either way, I'd contact the developer if you haven't done so already.
BTW, what are you doing running with a tablet?
It is becoming the accepted wisdom that if you buy a non-Nexus phone, things may become hit or miss when it comes to updates. I speculate that in the future Google will probably give Nexus-like priority to its own Motorola devices in order to gain a competitive advantage over the Android market. I cannot see Google spending billions in acquiring a hardware company without the aim of making a profit.
I have read that a certain version of IOS 4 was laggy on the 3GS. However, from personal experience with two 3GS in our household, the current IOS 5.1 works beautifully on the 3GS (very smooth, fast and looong battery life). You can google the 3GS/5.1 reviews if you do not want to accept one person's opinion. Of course, we will have to see if IOS 6 update will meet expectations.
Runkeeper is supposed to run on Android 2.0+.
My phone is an LG Shine Plus running 2.3.3.
My Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is running 3.2. ICS has been pushed in some regions. But I am still waiting... and waiting... etc.
EDIT: I just re-read. I do not run with the tablet. I enter the information manually. I run the same route every day. I know the distance, so I just time myself with my watch. Using the gps on my android phone for my run kills about 25% of my battery for the rest of the day. Also, I prefer to use a 5 year old beat up iPod (given to me from son after he got the 3GS) for music on my runs.
T.M.M.L
Android Enthusiast
Lol, trust me OTD, you did yourself a favor by not reading it.
WOW!!!
I'm no apple hater, but this guy had me looking for my waders. His love of Apple is diabetic coma inducing.
rui-no-onna
Android Enthusiast
iOS 4 worked just fine on my 3GS (back when I still had one). The CPU on the 3GS is fairly close to the one on the iPhone 4 and not having to drive 960x640 display probably makes it faster than the iPhone 4 in some respects. I'm betting the iPhone 3GS would run iOS6 much better than the iPod Touch 4th gen.
jova33
Android Expert
Funny you should say this. I'm getting an iPhone 5 for my mom and dad (mid-50's) and will be giving my iPad 2 to my grandmother (late 80's) overseas when the next iPad comes out.
I mean that's the only thing Apple has going for it now. It's easy to use, and its a familiar name. People feel comfortable with it.
D
Deleted User
Guest
Funny you should say this. I'm getting an iPhone 5 for my mom and dad (mid-50's) and will be giving my iPad 2 to my grandmother (late 80's) overseas when the next iPad comes out.
So I"m mid 40, do I need to sell my android and move to crapple?
Wait, have to change my depends.
I'm back. What did i say? Keep forgetting.
Correct me if I'm wrong but, isn't that what the iPhone has always had going for it? I'm not sure Apple has ever been in a race with anyone about having the best features. They designed a product that is pleasing to the eye (though that may be wearing off), is easy to use, and allows people who may never have even thought of purchasing a smart phone to have a product that makes their lives easier and is fun to use.
But, hey, I'm in my 50's so senility is beginning to creap up.
