Trying to make the switch...

[Zou]

My first phone was an iPhone 3G and I've upgraded to an iPhone 4 in the summer. I've always been interested in all these new phones and their operating systems. I'm tempting to switch to an Android phone, but this is still a big choice and I will need to know many things about the OS before I/if I switch to it. All tips/comments/info is welcome, as I currently do not know some of the more advanced things you can do with the OS.

Some questions:
How is the music player? Is it easily syncable to iTunes? Difference of the music players between pure Android, MotoBlur, and Sense?

How easy is it to get rid of those junk applications? I mean, seriously, I don't want random amazon.com apps and NFL game demos, etc... Do I really get full freedom when compared to iOS?

Can you get Swype on every Android phone with a virtual keyboard?

How does the battery life of something like the Droid X compare to the iPhone 4?

Can you rename the apps that are on the home page? (e.g. change dialer to phone, people to contacts)

How much home screen customization is allowed? (e.g. I saw a person with a Galaxy S that had the HTC clock on it, which is something I would want.)

Sorry for all the questions, I will probably have more lol. Again, any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[LoyalServant]

I will do my best...
There are ways to sync iTunes to Android, but that's beyond me because I won't corrupt my computer with iTunes
And I am not big into music myself.. NPR works for me.

To get rid of 'junk' apps or bloatware as we like to call them... root.
Similar to jailbreaking.

I think you can get Swype to work on all at least Android 2.1+ phones (?)

Home screens can be customized into oblivion... there is a wide range of launchers and widgets available - but renaming things like dialer, I believe it is possible.

And... my Droid X has WAY MORE battery life compared to an iPhone 4
With one disclaimer... AT&T has crappy coverage, and with crappy coverage you will consume more power just maintaining the radio.
I get upwards of 2 days on my X with light/medium usage and well over a day with heavy usage.
Yes... I have compared them in my area, which has crappy AT&T coverage... this place is drop call city.
It beats an iPhone 3 without a sweat.

Don't know if this has helped but I personally think a Droid X is a great device - even with a locked bootloader.
If you want to read up on the X head over to the Droid X forum and look at some of the threads where people have posted screenshots of their desktops. Some amazing stuff there.

 

[Zou]

Is it easy to get bricked when trying to keep up with your phone being rooted? It also voids the warranty, right?

 

[LoyalServant]

Is it easy to get bricked when trying to keep up with your phone being rooted? It also voids the warranty, right?

Some are easier to brick than others.
rooting cant brick your phone per se, unless you do something like delete half the system... and even then it won't result in a brick necessarily.
You can restore the stock image or your backup in this case.. but why do it?

Bricks generally happen when flashing new roms incorrectly or the wrong roms/radio images for a device.

And yes, technically it does void your warranty.
If you rooted your phone then unrooted it they generally can't tell that it was rooted in the first place.
Unlocking of bootloaders on some devices is a different story...

I don't know that I fully answered your question, but like anything else rooting or flashing custom roms can brick a device if done incorrectly.

 

[macprv]

-about the bloatware... just dont use them.. i mean its just an icon in the apps drawer

-stock music player sucks, but you can always download a music player from the market (oh the beauty of android) poweramp is awesome by the way

-customization and icons labels... down load a home screen replacement.. many of them let you change the name of the apps (labels), icons, or hid the notification bar.. others go further.

-battery life.. that depends on many thing, but just like my buddy said it before me ^... signal is a big player here.. at work my signal sucks, some days its just great some days its crappy.. so some day i guess home with 60% of my battery left, some with 20% lol

good luck!

 

[Zou]

"flashing new roms incorrectly or the wrong roms/radio images"
"bootloading"

Could you give me a brief lesson on what those are?

 

[ami2510]

My first phone was an iPhone 3G and I've upgraded to an iPhone 4 in the summer. I've always been interested in all these new phones and their operating systems. I'm tempting to switch to an Android phone, but this is still a big choice and I will need to know many things about the OS before I/if I switch to it. All tips/comments/info is welcome, as I currently do not know some of the more advanced things you can do with the OS.

Some questions:
How is the music player? Is it easily syncable to iTunes? Difference of the music players between pure Android, MotoBlur, and Sense?

you can put aPod in there, its exactly like the ipod layout, you can drag and drop the files on the SD card, and there apps to sync to itunes.

How easy is it to get rid of those junk applications? I mean, seriously, I don't want random amazon.com apps and NFL game demos, etc... Do I really get full freedom when compared to iOS?

Its difficult to get rid of some of the pre installed things, due to their connectivness to the carrier, for example removing "myFavs" from the MyTouch 4g ( which I tried doing) will **** up your dailer. I was able to remove asphalt and amazon and any apps that are not tied to any screens if you know what i mean. and if you compare it to the stock iOS

Can you get Swype on every Android phone with a virtual keyboard?

Swipe is available at the Android Market (app store)

How does the battery life of something like the Droid X compare to the iPhone 4?

Its supposed to be better, however I see that my iphone 3gs lasts longer (but i dont have 3g because I am with TMobile so that might increase battery life) On my mytouch its horrible, if I have 4g enabled it lasts 8hrs on standby

Can you rename the apps that are on the home page? (e.g. change dialer to phone, people to contacts)

To get themese its not as easy as with a jailbroken iphone thats my impression as of right now, you will have to install different launchers which will then let you choose different themese but when using roms you need to root it (basically jailbreak it so you have super admin rights)

How much home screen customization is allowed? (e.g. I saw a person with a Galaxy S that had the HTC clock on it, which is something I would want.)

Those are widgets, thats the fancy widget for example (thats the only thing i really like) but so far, as far as I know, you cant change the battery symbol, the bars or little stuff like that. but you can apply themes. its not liek the jailbroken iphone

Sorry for all the questions, I will probably have more lol. Again, any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am in the same boat, i moved from a jailbroken 3gs to the mytouch. after installing all kinds of things

Oh and you have bloatware on it, so the crap that TMobile or verizon etc install, its quite annoying, you cant delete that until you root your phone and even then it can **** up your phone.

if you dont want your iphone 4 anymore, please sell it to me

I hope this answers your questions, i am somewhat disappointed but maybe thats because I havent used it for too long

 

[ami2510]

-about the bloatware... just dont use them.. i mean its just an icon in the apps drawer

-stock music player sucks, but you can always download a music player from the market (oh the beauty of android) poweramp is awesome by the way

-customization and icons labels... down load a home screen replacement.. many of them let you change the name of the apps (labels), icons, or hid the notification bar.. others go further.

-battery life.. that depends on many thing, but just like my buddy said it before me ^... signal is a big player here.. at work my signal sucks, some days its just great some days its crappy.. so some day i guess home with 60% of my battery left, some with 20% lol

good luck!

unfortunately the bloatware ties into your phone, for example i get 2 notificaionts when i get 1 text, firt the regular txt message and then the myFavs message - super annoying - and you have to kill the myfavs app every time to get rid of that.

the market is basically cydia, however unlike cydia the apps can actually mess up your phone if coded incorrectly, its not like winterboard where it restarts because it just force closes on you...

 

[dan330]

unfortunately the bloatware ties into your phone, for example i get 2 notificaionts when i get 1 text, firt the regular txt message and then the myFavs message - super annoying - and you have to kill the myfavs app every time to get rid of that.

the market is basically cydia, however unlike cydia the apps can actually mess up your phone if coded incorrectly, its not like winterboard where it restarts because it just force closes on you...

you my friend.. are so lost...

1. 2 text issue... your stock email system .. go into it... in settings... uncheck the received notifications.

2. what??? not sure what you are trying to say...

if you get a bad app... uninstall it.

if you want to stop an app that has background data refreshing (ie.. weather).. it will restart!
my best suggestion for this... stop thinking about apps in the background!!!!! stop thinking about apps in the background! It aint important in android.... research "task killer" if you want to know more. (dont use task killers)

 

[dan330]

you can brick your phone... it is possible...
But in 99% of they time .. you can get back to working ...

dont mess with the radio... and you will be OK..
if you need to mess with the radio.. make sure you do your research and confirm it is the right radio for your phone!!! Dont assume a radio for the Galaxy XXXX is OK for your Galaxy YYYYY...

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Dear Zou - you're overthinking this thing too hard. The best advice I can give you is just dive in. Get an extra line with an Android device and give it a whirl. Or borrow a friend's Android phone, put in your SIM card, and try it out.

As another iOS user (I have a few iPhones and many iPods / Touches), I have never looked back once I moved to Android. Android is way better than iOS. I would have to write a book to describe why, but you really just need to try out Android for yourself.

Another great place for info is using search terms like "moving to Android from iPhone" and you will get tons and tons discussions that have taken place many times before. More than people could ever hope to repeat in this single thread or elsewhere.

 

[ami2510]

you my friend.. are so lost...

1. 2 text issue... your stock email system .. go into it... in settings... uncheck the received notifications.

I dont know where you are from but text and email are not the same. so your solution does nothing because it has nothing to do with receiving a text. furthermore, the favs is bloatware and using auto taks killer I was able to kill the task every 30 mins so it would get rid of the 2nd notification. strike 1

2. what??? not sure what you are trying to say...
if you get a bad app... uninstall it.

If you are not sure what I wanted to say, then please read through the text again.
There shouldn't be any bad apps if the development is putting enough effort into it. here everyone can make aps, like 12 yr olds, or other malicious people who will try to use a memory leak to crash your phone.

if you want to stop an app that has background data refreshing (ie.. weather).. it will restart! I know i dont want that. it should do what I say it should do.
my best suggestion for this... stop thinking about apps in the background!!!!! stop thinking about apps in the background! It aint important in android.... research "task killer" if you want to know more. (dont use task killers)

Everything in the background is important, data usage when you are on a data plan is important and if 10 apps update weather and newstreams (especially if they are stock bloatware) is pretty important, your argument is invalid. Task and appkillers are the highest selling apps on the Market - ever wondered why?

comprenede

 

[ami2510]

Dear Zou - you're overthinking this thing too hard. The best advice I can give you is just dive in. Get an extra line with an Android device and give it a whirl. Or borrow a friend's Android phone, put in your SIM card, and try it out.

As another iOS user (I have a few iPhones and many iPods / Touches), I have never looked back once I moved to Android. Android is way better than iOS. I would have to write a book to describe why, but you really just need to try out Android for yourself.

Another great place for info is using search terms like "moving to Android from iPhone" and you will get tons and tons discussions that have taken place many times before. More than people could ever hope to repeat in this single thread or elsewhere.

That was a very constructive post, thank you.

As of right now, being iOS and Android user I would wait until i recommend someone to move from one to another device. just like the Iphone 1 it needs some time to evolve (it meaning the android device). If it is better or worst let the user decide, because it depends on their kind of usage. yes its better to break free from a mainstream device, but entering the world of buggy apps, lagging homescreens and adopting a mindset of "if you dont like the buggy app unistall it" then yeah move right now.

 

[ami2510]

Regarding bloatware, I want to offer my observation with owning 3 different brands of Android phones (HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola).

My experience with 4 Android phones over 3 brands is I have not run into any bloatware that was a problem at all - I could turn off anything like syncing and notices in all cases so far. All without rooting (although I did root one of the phones eventually to play with a later version of Android).

One of the great things about Android is I can get the phone to be exactly how I like it, and then when I move to a new phone it takes no time to get the new phone to look and work like the old one, which is itself customized very uniquely from anyone else's Android phone.

On the comment about task killers, I used them for a long time, but like many recent Android discussions have found, they don't make any positive difference for battery or performance unless you're constantly running out of memory (which hasn't happened since my first Android phone). I've done experiments on multiple phones to verify this.

Those are only my data points, but hope they help.

Unfortunately thats not how it is in my case, the tmobile bloatware on my mytouch (myfavs especially) is really annoying. It will give me two notifications when I receive a text message. with auto app killer i am able to kill the task every 30 mins after it reactivates itself. I dont have the luxury of having 3 android phones and my tmobile contract gave me the oportunity to get the mytouch 4G, i am somewhat happy about it but its not wowing me (i was actually really excited about the phone at the very beginning) I was looking at the G2 as well, and it is almost identical just without a keyboard (both running on froyo 2.2).

 

[sremick]

How is the music player?

I like it. Plays far more formats than the iPhone/iPod. And you can get alternatives on the Marketplace.

Is it easily syncable to iTunes?

No. In fact, most Android users are not of the "sync" school and instead are of the "drag'n'drop copying" school... freeing themselves from the fickle nature of apps like iTunes. If you want a "syncing" experience, you're on your own as I can't help you there. There are some apps out there that supposedly do it.

Also note that much/most of peoples' iTunes library will be DRM encrypted. Nothing but iTunes will ever play those files, so you're locked into iTunes for them. This is why DRM is bad. MP3s purchased from Amazon.com are DRM-free. You can get an Amazon MP3 app on Android that even lets you directly purchase from and download to your phone. No PC/iTunes required.

How easy is it to get rid of those junk applications? I mean, seriously, I don't want random amazon.com apps and NFL game demos, etc... Do I really get full freedom when compared to iOS?

Depends on the phone. Usually involves some hacking. On my phone, I rooted and then "froze" (deactivated) them with Titanium Backup. For all intents and purposes, they're gone... but I can restore them if I ever need to.

Can you get Swype on every Android phone with a virtual keyboard?

Not sure. Mine came with Swype. I'm not clear on how you get it if you don't have it already. I know there's a beta going on now... maybe you can get in on that.

How does the battery life of something like the Droid X compare to the iPhone 4?

Totally depends on how you use the phone. Android multitasks, iPhone doesn't... this affects battery and is the price you pay for a real multitasking OS. Also depends on the apps you use, how you use them, etc... impossible to really compare. Too many variables.

Can you rename the apps that are on the home page? (e.g. change dialer to phone, people to contacts)

Yes, but depends on the launcher. Luckily you can easily install alternative launchers and pick one to your liking. I use LauncherPro and it allows this.

How much home screen customization is allowed? (e.g. I saw a person with a Galaxy S that had the HTC clock on it, which is something I would want.)

Tons. See previous answer. Much of that comes from "widgets" which last I knew the iPhone didn't have.

 

[dan55]

hi guys,

ive recently moved from iphone 3g to htc desire - must admitt, the first month or so seemed hard work as had been brain washed by ios format

......but now i think ive got my phone setup really well. not rooted, just stock apps

i am using 5 calendar app/widgets for different views etc, but hey - seems to work ok

to sum up - i definitely wouldnt go back to ios - android is much better - but then ive used wm and symbian before, so was looking for this sort of customisible phone

i would go for it!

cheers
dan

 

[dan330]

hi Dan...

glad you finally worked it all out....

I was afraid you might jump ship with all your issues at the beginning...
Which was mostly ... how you are used to IOS... and YOU needed to be reprogrammed...

Android brainwash complete!

 

[dan55]

hi Dan

thanks - yes it was a bit tough at the beginning

was actually quite shocking that i had sunk to the ios level of doing things in such a short space of time imo!

i think with ios, because you cant do anything with it - you just forget what is possible with a smartphone

just yesterday, i installed 4 new apps/widgets that have improved my phone some more

just got audio profile manager - very nice

cheers
dan

ps: still not built myself up to rooting and rom'ing - but there is still time

 

[lunameow]

The only thing I can really add to what others have already said is that, right out of the box, I thought Android was amazing. There was so much I could do to customize my phone, and I spent at least a week constantly messing around, changing stuff, just to see what could be changed.

And then I came here and found out which apps were popular and why, ways to make the phone run faster and have better battery life, and now... wow. It makes that first week feel like I was using an old Nokia or something.

In other words, the more I learned about Android and what it was capable of, the more my experience improved. As AndroidSPCS said, the best way to know is to test it yourself, but be sure to give it enough time to really test it.

 

[lifeonmtv]

I personally don't ever recommend Android to anyone who asks me to list pros & cons

Just go with an iphone I say.

edit: It's kinda like when you're taking acid for the first time - if you're wondering whether you should or you shouldn't then you probably shouldn't... but those who choose to do it often see the world in a brand new light

 

[sandeep108]

Coming from Symbian, I feel that Android, even OOB was much simpler to get going with (as long as you are into Google) and hugely innovative with ease of use, and much 'smarter' in general.

Yes, possibly one needs to adapt a bit to a different way of doing stuff (being in the Symbian hellhole for several years), but it is really easy to get going with Android.

The customisations are awesome and that takes time, especially the complicated ones, but at least it is possible, unlike any other OS - iOS, Symbian, BB or Palm.

 

[mac_to_android]

Hi,
I have been an iphone user since the first units come out and have followed the upgrade path to the iphone 4. The two main reasons my iphone4 has been retired is the number of dropped calls I had, I know all about covers and tried everything to get it to work better, I have even had a replacement phone, I think as a phone it sucks. It also kept dropping the wifi connection.
I can't speak for all Android devices but I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S and I haven't looked back. I am based in the uk and with my Galaxy I can watch BBC iplayer and it never misses a beat, if I put the two phones side by side the difference in browser speed and streaming is huge. I even bought a cable on ebay for

 

[sandeep108]

Agree, Apple really dropped the ball with iPhone 4. Like symbian, I feel that they have plateaued somewhat, while Android (both OS, market and hardware) is improving almost every month. The iPhone's screen is really really good though, but if the phone does not work at calls, what is the point?

In Asia, including India and China, Nokia had a stranglehold as they had unlocked (locked phones are mostly unheard of, at least in India and even in Singapore and Hong Kong, Apple sells unlocked iPhones) symbian 'smart' phone devices for as little as $175. However constant crashes and problems with its N series / symbian phones quite killed Nokia and now they are reduced to selling phones at $50-100 price points.

iPhone with its huge cost ($600 or so) can never gain mass market status in developing economies of Asia, Africa, etc. Android devices are now coming into the void between $200-450 price points in these exploding markets (India is adding 10 million connections every month and with 3G around the corner), LG, Samsung, HTC and Motorola see huge potential.

Add to that the Android market pricing being very reasonable, and now available to Asia (not sure about Africa) I also see huge scope for app developers for Asia/Africa centric apps.