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Switch from Apple ecosystem to Android

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androidnewbie2018

Lurker
Hello,

I am currently living in the Apple ecosystem (Iphone SE, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac desktop), but I am looking to escape from it and need some advice on how to do it!

More specifically, I would like to replace the iPhone SE with a OnePlus 6, since I'd like to have a bigger screen but the prices of the iPhones have become too high. This would possibly be the first step towards replacing the other Apple devices as well (e.g. replacing MacBook Pro with a Linux desktop). I am wondering how to do this with the least amount of disruption to my workflow (I use them for work as well).

I have two main issues:

(1) I would like to sync email, notes, calendars and reminders between my new Android phone and my other devices.

Are there (ideally open source) apps/programs that I can use to achieve this?

For example, I am thinking of something like Apple's notes, but available for Android, MacOS and Linux, which would "look the same" in all devices (just the way Apple's notes looks the same on all devices) and syncs over the internet. I would like have apps/programs installed on my devices to do this, rather than having a web browser to do this, or put all my data in the hands of Google. Any suggestions? As I said, I am thinking of apps for email, notes, calendars and reminders.

(2) I like Safari because of its easy access to bookmarks, which I use a lot when browsing the internet. As far as I know, easy access to bookmarks similar to Safari's is missing in both Chrome and Firefox, which seems awkward. Am I missing something? Again, I am looking at browsers that can be used on different devices and offer the possibility of syncing bookmarks.

Thank you all in advance for any help.

Best wishes,
AndroidNewbie2018
 
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I deliberately don't stick with a single "ecosystem", be that Google, Apple, Microsoft or anyone else, because I have an aversion to "lock-ins" from anyone. Apple's ecosystem is particularly narrow because they want to lock you in to buying their hardware, while others want you to use their services and care less about what you use them on, so it is possible to use Google's tools on any platform, and Microsoft are more open than you'd guess (though I imagine Linux is a weak point for them still).

So it's perfectly possible, but probably will involve a mix of services (though I'm sure some will say you can use Google for everyting). Syncing means using some cloud service (unless you go back to the old days of Palm PDAs, which you plugged into a computer to sync with that), so it's mainly a matter of choosing a service that's not tied specifically to a particular OS or hardware platform.

I should add that I've not been using linux desktop for a few years (the serious computing in my work is all Linux, but I carry a macbook and access the linux farms using terminals and remote logins), so I'm not au fait with Linux desktop apps for these things.

Email is trivial: you can access pretty much any email service from any device. I use Thunderbird on my Mac precisely because if at some point I return to Linux I know the same app is available and it will be trivial to transfer my local archive (stuff on the server I don't need to worry about), but there are plenty of options.

Calendars are simple enough, you just have to choose a service. Google you can sync with anything, and I'm able to sync Microsoft calendar apps with Android just fine. I know there are a number of Linux calendar apps, and am sure you can find some that sync with any of the main services.

Notes are doable using a cross-platform service: EverNote is the best-known of these. Google also have something (which I've barely used so can't really say much about).

By "reminders" I guess you mean something like a task or todo list, because you talk about these separately from calendars. That it trickier: Google can do this, but it's limited in the features it supports for syncing. There are other commercial services, but I've never investigated these (I primarily use my phone for this so syncing isn't so important to me). Microsoft accounts can support this, but I don't know about clients for Linux (there are decent solutions for these with Android).

Firefox and Chrome can both sync bookmarks. Or does "easy access" in Safari means something more than sync? I personally don't sync bookmarks through choice: I use phones and laptops differently and don't find this helpful, so am not an expert, but I have declined to sync in both of these apps.
 
Hadron said:
Firefox and Chrome can both sync bookmarks. Or does "easy access" in Safari means something more than sync? I personally don't sync bookmarks through choice: I use phones and laptops differently and don't find this helpful, so am not an expert, but I have declined to sync in both of these apps.
Click to expand...

By "easy access", I simply meant that while in Safari on my phone I need to press only one button to access the bookmarks, in Chrome and Firefox I seem to have to first press the three vertical dots (not easy, given where they are placed) and then one or two other buttons to get to the bookmarks. This is independent of syncing, it is just a feature of Safari that I think I will miss unless there are shortcuts that I do not know about.

Thank you very much for the rest of your answer, which is very, very helpful.
 
The three dot menu is a standard Android UI. For Firefox you can get to bookmarks in two taps (3 dot menu then bookmarks, or if like me your bookmarks are your home page then creating a new tab also does it). Chrome seems similar (I barely use it myself).

Don't offhand know one with a one tap bookmark shortcut, or not one I've used in the last few years. Microsoft's Edge browser has buttons at the bottom (more convenient), but not likely to sync well with Linux.
 
psionandy said:
You can get chrome to save bookmarks directly onto the home screen, if that's what your looking for
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I believe that creating a folder in the home screen and then saving in there all the bookmarks would provide a shortcut. But then this folder would not sync if I modified my bookmarks in the browser, right?

If no shortcut to the "Three dots -> Bookmarks -> Bookmarks Bar" on the top right is available, I am wondering if at least there is a way to make the home page of Chrome or Firefox (not the home page of the phone) display the bookmarks or the Favourite bookmarks. Something like this:

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95314?hl=en&vid=0-209534783510-1527246852875

but ideally allowing also folders. Something like this is possible in Safari, where the home page displays the folders of the Favourites bookmarks.
 
I experimented by turning on bookmark sync with Firefox. I already had the bookmarks set as my default page in the Android Firefox app, so what I saw different was that it acquired a new folder at the top called "desktop bookmarks". I went into that, gave a long press on one of the folders, selected "edit" and moved that to the "mobile bookmarks" folder (which seemed to copy rather than move, perhaps because it wasn't changing anything on the computer). This meant that my default page now had that folder on it. I assume I could do this for as many folders as I like.
 
To sync content from your Google Account with the Apple apps on your device:
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.
  2. Select Mail, Contacts, or Calendars Add Account Google.
  3. Follow the steps to enter your email address and password. ...
  4. Choose the content you'd like to add, then select Save.
 
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