Lukáš Čambala If you watched this year's the Google I/O conference, one question might have crept into your mind – has Google begun to fall behind Apple in its progress? Even otherwise Google-positive journalists lamented that even though the presentation lasted for hours, Google didn't deliver anything too dazzling as a result. Much of what he showed was already presented by Apple a year or so ago.
Apple's art of negotiating and navigating the world of show business, recording studios and actually the entire area connected with music, films and other similar content was fully demonstrated again this year in March, when the Californian company announced an exclusive collaboration with HBO at first and its new Now service. Google later had no choice but to take inspiration from Apple and catch up with it at its I/O by announcing the same collaboration.
New is old
Google also understood that it is not right if mobile applications have all possible permissions from the beginning, so they started to solve this by asking the user's application every time when it is first started, whether it can access contacts or pictures, for example. Here, too, it is a practice that Apple introduced in its iOS operating system a long time ago.
There's been a pretty constant copy/paste menu in iOS for several versions, which Google also took inspiration from to make it a bit more intuitive when creating theirs in the new Android M. Similar to Apple in previous years, Google engineers have now also focused on various technologies under the hood that will ensure greater battery savings.
Previously, Apple also came up with a payment service and a platform for controlling the home, or various appliances and accessories. Google has now responded by introducing Android Pay, which takes both the name and the way it will work from a competing solution: as an integrated payment system connected to fingerprint authentication.
But since the introduction of Apple Pay last year, other competitors have also appeared on the market, so it will definitely not be easy for Google to establish itself with Android Pay. Another problem is also the small number of phones that have a fingerprint sensor and at the same time no longer use another payment system (e.g. Samsung Pay).
At I/O, Google also presented its own version of the platform for the Internet of Things, which in Apple's view is more or less HomeKit, and so the only truly innovative thing that Google showed in Android is called Now on Tap. Thanks to it, websites will behave more like native applications. Hypertext links will finally be able to open instead of other web pages of a specific application and possibly perform a certain action directly.
In 2015, however, innovation, originality, and timelessness completely disappeared from Google's software innovations. Android M, as the new mobile operating system is called, was primarily just catching up with rival Apple, which seems to be unstoppable in recent months with its iPhone 6 and iOS 8 operating system.
Apple's total control wins
As early as next week, the Californian giant is going to present its own software news, and Google can only hope that it will not overtake it too much again, as has happened in many areas in the last year. It is not excluded that, for example, in a year the situation will turn around again and Google will be at the top, however, it has one major disadvantage against Apple: the very slow adoption of its new systems.
While iOS 8, released last fall, already has over 80% of active users on their phones and tablets, only a minimal fraction of all users will taste the news of the latest Android in the coming months. One example for all is presented by Android 5.0 L, introduced a year ago, which today has only less than 10 percent of active users installed.
Although Google would certainly like to be the most original in new versions of its system, it will always be hindered by the fact that, unlike Apple, it does not have hardware and software under control at the same time. The new Android thus spreads very slowly, while Apple receives valuable feedback from millions of users around the world from the first day it releases a new version of iOS.
This is because even users with devices several generations old can switch to the latest system. In addition, iOS 9, which Apple will show next week, is supposed to focus even more on older models of iPhones and iPads, so that new functions can be enjoyed by as many users as possible without having to invest in new products.
Finally, at I/O, Google indirectly confirmed how, paradoxically, the competing iOS platform is very important to it. Although Apple has tried to get rid of its dependence on Google in recent years (switched to its own map data, stopped offering its own YouTube application), Google itself is doing everything to keep Apple customers. He himself released his own applications specifically for maps, YouTube and has a total of almost two dozen titles in the App Store.
On the one hand, Google still derives more than half of its earnings from mobile advertising from iOS, and it is also now trying to offer its new services not only for its own platform, but also for iOS from day one, in order to secure the largest number of users. An example is Google Photos, which is similar to Apple's service of the same name, but unlike it, Google tries to get them everywhere it can. Apple only needs its own ecosystem.
So Google's situation with Android is much more complicated, but still more was expected of it. Services and technologies introduced by Apple a year ago, such as Apple Pay, HomeKit or Health, are starting to get off the ground, and it can be expected that Tim Cook et al will join them this year as well. they will add a lot more. How far they will push Apple from Google remains to be seen, but the Cupertino firm is now in the perfect position to carve out a significant lead.
Source: Apple Insider
Photos: Maurizio Pesce
when I take their new Photos, it could be said that they do it like apple. They take something that was already there and make it better. aside from the ios app crashing, the idea and function of their photos is much further and it annoys me that I have to think about which path to take in terms of photos. Apple or Google .. for now I'm thinking about both places :-)
I don't see any jams. Probably incorrect update or low space.
From the General Terms and Conditions of Google Photo:
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.
I certainly don't intend to give someone the right to use my photos in exchange for free storage, I'd rather pay extra for iCloud & clear the archive of old photos
Unfortunately, this is not just a Google problem, although not much is known about it... It is also practiced elsewhere.
yes, but not on iCloud
and that's why I try not to use Google.
Google = BIG BROTHER
"…while Apple gets valuable feedback from millions of users around the world from the first day they release a new version of iOS."
I would like them to do something with this feedback. those bug fixes take an incredibly long time.
That's hey. For example, the sound drives me nuts. When I play a video through Safari, the sound seems to be distorted. When I increase the volume (via HW buttons), the sounds become quieter and when I decrease the volume, they increase (but not to the maximum level, as if only to polka), I always have to turn on the music or move the software slider. It's since iOS 7 on all my iToys.
After updating G Drive to iOS, photos from your library will automatically start uploading to Google Photos if you have previously granted G Drive access to the gallery.
Well, in my opinion, Apple is losing the battle for the market, mainly because they are closed. Their SW works (officially/legally) only on their HW.
It's a similar situation as it was with Microsoft decades ago - Microsoft opened Windows and where could anyone use it for their HW - and the result? Look at the operating system market - Windows is indisputably dominating, despite what a terrible piece of shit it is - and believe me, I develop Android, iOS (well, I'm an eternal beginner here) and Windows (desktop) applications in parallel, and I use roughly equal amounts of OSX and W7, W8, …
And Android vs iOS? Where some Chinese copycat will easily put Android in its iron (but it will clearly save significantly on the development of the OS). iOS can't get any of them there. So Android dominates (doesn't that remind you of something?).
And that's a real shame, because Apple's HW is the same as other branded manufacturers (admittedly, I also like Apple better, but that doesn't increase the utility value for me).
But the SW is what sets Apple apart (at least for me :) )…
Just because more Fabia and Octavia are sold than, say, BMW, does that mean Skoda dominates BMW?
That's just not entirely true. I have a Note 3 with KK 4.4.2. Then no hint of upgrading to 5 or 5.1. But why should I want the upgrade at all? Samsung sold me a phone that works well. If the upgrade makes the functionality worse, I'll blame Samsung, not Google. There is a big difference in add-ons for Android. Functions that introduce pure Android L or M may have been incorporated into their superstructures by manufacturers a long time ago. I have TouchWiz. Nothing is far from pure android vic. Clouds program and function. For many, an unpleasant ballast for other useful things. HTC has Sense, LG has something too. Xiaomi has MIUI. Anyone who wants a newer system can upload it. If you want to work and have stability, leave what you have from the manufacturer in your mobile phone. I have upgraded iP4S to iOS 8. Tragedy. Millions of people with iP 5 and 5s complained the same way. But you're wrong here. There is probably no going back for iOS after the upgrade. Everyone likes something different. Personally, I have experience with both iOD and Android, and I don't understand how you can control the phone with just one button and not be pissed off. The ergonomics are hard to come by, but maybe it's another departure from the British school of design, as Ive often emphasizes.