Upgrading my at&t svc to either iPhone5 or Android

[SteveFury]

Hello.
Thank you for allowing me in your community.

I have been an iPhone user since 2009 when the iPhone 3 was introduced, and I've upgraded to the new versions ever since and currently have an iPhone 4. I am eligible for upgrade again.

The question is whether or not to go with Android.

I am very satisfied with the iPhone hardware and would love to get the latest one, but unfortunately Apple is necessarily linked which is the real problem here.

I've always HATED certain parts of the Apple EUA, different things they've done with their iOS, policies with iTunes and the general way they conduct their business.

Their lates iOS is loaded with bloatware, some simply push Apple products and services which they won't even let you remove from your desktop. I have 5 iPhones and seem to be activated on iCloud or some other backup service, even though I've never signed up for it nor would ever allow it. I find that rather disturbing.

Another reason I'd like to ween myself from iPhone is iTunes because it only works most efficiently in Windows or Mac. I am very interested in running OpenSuse, a linux distribution and although iTunes can be made to work there, it is far less than satisfactory.

So I am here reading around your forum, maybe asking a question or two (or three) and try to come to a logical decision of what will be my next phone.

Thanks
-Steve

 

[9to5cynic]

Hi Steve,
This is a tricky question. First off, this is Android forums, so most users (not all) will be biased towards Android. So I'm going to hopefully try and help you out in a non-biased way...

These are just things to consider, and hopefully help you make up your mind. First off, if you have any accessories for your iphones, that'll be $30 or so for the adapter. If you don't use accessories, that's not a problem. Android is more 'open' and does allow for more software changes.

I'm not sure, but perhaps jailbreaking the new iphone would allow you to remove those services? Now, I'm pretty sure their are ipod libraries for linux distros that allow music to be synced between applications like Banshee and the ipod (and probably the iphone).

And because we're talking linux, as I'm sure you know, Android is linux. Though, some phones (looking at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus) have trouble interacting with Linux without some weird workarounds.

Spoiler

When I had my Gnex, I couldn't get the MTP to sync with debian properly. Eventually I just used a ftp server and a wireless network to sync files back and forth, not optimal but it works.

That being said, there are a lot of great Android devices out right now. I just got the Galaxy S3 and it's quite nice. There is bloat on it, but you can either uninstall it with root applications or hide it from the app drawer (outta sight, outta mind ).

If you have any specific questions for a device, check out our phones section:
Android Phones - Android Forums

Or if you have android questions:
Android Lounge - Android Forums

Or just wanna talk with some of us:
The Lounge - Android Forums
http://androidforums.com/irc.php


Hope that helps!
-9to5