Filip Novotny Many of us use the iPhone as our only phone on a daily basis, and it would be hard to imagine replacing it with a competing device. For some, such an idea is even almost incomprehensible. Those "from the other side" certainly feel the same way, and thus verbal fights arise between supporters of Android and iOS, or other platforms.
From this point of view, it is therefore a more than interesting three-parter article, which recently came out on the server Macworld. Columnist Andy Ihnatko writes about how he traded his iPhone 4S for a Samsung Galaxy S III. “There is no way I want to explain to anyone why they should throw away its iPhone and switch to a flagship Android phone," explains Ihnatko. Comparison of the main two platforms without fanaticism and with a clear argument? Yes, I'm with it.
A mobile phone is no longer just a tool for making calls. We use our smartphones to write e-mails, chat on Facebook, tweet, some of us even type an entire article on our mobile in weaker moments. That's why we use the built-in software keyboard far more than the phone application. And this is exactly where, according to Ihnatek, Apple is a little behind.
In addition to the obvious advantage of a larger display, the Galaxy S3 boasts the ability to set the keyboard exactly to your liking. One is not only dependent on classic clicking, but also on modern conveniences such as Swype or SwiftKey. The first of this pair works in such a way that instead of tapping on individual letters, you run your finger criss-cross across the entire screen and the phone itself recognizes what words and whole sentences you have in mind. According to its creators, it is possible to write over 50 words per minute with Swyp, which after all proves the Guinness record of 58 words (370 characters) per minute.
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Even SwiftKey hides quite advanced technology. This keyboard can predict in advance what you are trying to type based on your typing style. It will offer you three words to choose from, or you can simply continue writing letter by letter.
The question is how these input methods will work in Czech, which is full of colloquial and slang expressions. On the other hand, sometimes even the iPhone can't handle them properly. But another thing is important: Android gives the user a choice in this regard, while iOS strictly sticks to the basic keyboard. “Apple is wary of adding new features at the expense of simplicity and clarity. But sometimes their product crosses the line of simplicity and is unnecessarily truncated. And the iPhone's keyboard is hacked," says Ihnatko.
It is quite possible that the basic keyboard just suits you and you don't need any overcombined conveniences. But even though Samsung products in particular offer a lot of unnecessary software and a long discussion could be had on the clarity of the Korean system, in this case the possibility of user settings is definitely in place. After all, as we said, a person comes into contact with the keyboard ten times, maybe even a hundred times a day.
The second of the four functions that Ihnatko cites as the reason for his "switch" probably evokes the greatest emotions. It is the size of the display. “After only a few weeks with the Galaxy S3, the iPhone 4S screen feels too small. Everything is easier to read on the Samsung display, the buttons are easier to press."
Compared to the nearly five-inch S3, he says, even the iPhone 5 cannot stand up. “When I read a book on the S3, I see more content. I don't have to zoom or pan around on the map as much. I see more of the email message, more of the article in the reader. The movie or video is so big that I feel like I'm watching it in full HD detail.”
We certainly cannot call the size of the display an objective advantage, but Ihnatko himself admits that. We're not determining which phone is worse or better, the point is to understand what drives some users to Android instead of iOS.
The third reason for the switch lies in better collaboration between applications. The iPhone is known for the fact that individual applications run in a so-called sandbox, which means that they cannot interfere too much with the operation of the system or other applications. While this is a great security advantage, it also has its downside. It's not that simple to send information or files between multiple applications.
Ihnatko gives a simple example: you can find the address you need to go to among your contacts. iPhone users would be used to remembering the address or copying it to the clipboard, switching to the given application through multitasking, and manually entering the address there. But it seems to be much easier on Android. Just select the Share button and we will immediately see a menu of applications that can deal with the given information. Therefore, we can send the address directly from the contacts to, for example, Google Maps, Waze or other navigation.
[do action=”quote”]iPhone is designed to be good for everyone. But I want something that will be excellent for me.[/to]
There are many similar examples. It is saving the currently viewed pages to applications such as Instapaper, Pocket or Evernote notes. Again, just tap on the Share option in the browser and that's it. If we wanted to achieve similar interactions between applications on the iPhone, it would be necessary to use a special URL or to build both applications beforehand for this purpose. Although the copy and paste function is beautifully designed on the iPhone, perhaps it really shouldn't be necessary to use it that often.
The last of the four reasons kind of follows from the very first one. They are customization options. Ihnatko jokingly comments: "When I don't like something on the iPhone, I look on the Internet." There I find a perfectly rational explanation of why Apple thinks it should work this way and why they won't let me change it. When I don't like something on Android and I look on the Internet, I can usually find a solution there."
Now it is probably appropriate to argue that a designer makes a living by designing a system and should understand it perfectly. He certainly understands the operation of the operating system much better than the end user, and he should not have a say in it. But Ihnatko disagrees: "The iPhone is designed to be good, or even just acceptable, for a wide range of customers. But I want something that will be excellent for me. "
Again, it is difficult to objectively search where the truth lies. On the one hand, there is a fully customizable system, but it is quite easy to break it with low-quality software. On the other hand, a well-tuned system, but you can't customize it much, so you may miss some gadgets.
So those were (according to Macworld) the advantages of Android. But what about the disadvantages that have become a certain dogma among opponents? Ihnatko claims that in some cases it is not as dramatic as we often see it. A shining example of this is said to be the much talked about fragmentation. Although this is problematic with new system updates, we only often encounter problems with the applications themselves. "Even games are one-size-fits-all," claims the American journalist.
The same is said to be the case with malicious software. “Malware is definitely a risk, but after a year of careful research, I think it's a manageable risk.” In other words, while there are plenty of viruses and other malicious software out there, most of the time it's only getting into your phone with pirated apps . To the objection that once in a while malware also appears in the official Google Play store, Ihnatko replies that it is sufficient to be elementary cautious and at least briefly read the description of the application and reviews from users.
You can agree with this opinion, I personally have a similar experience with a PC that I use as a gaming station at home. After a year of using Windows 7, I installed antivirus software for the first time out of curiosity, and three files were everywhere infected. Two of them got into the system by my own doing (read together with not quite legal software). Therefore, I have no problem believing that the problem with malware is not so noticeable even with Android.
After all, there is one problem that is no stranger to Windows users (that is, at least to those who did not assemble the computer themselves). Bloatware and crapware. That is, pre-installed applications that mostly have advertising purposes. On most Windows laptops, these are trial versions of various anti-virus programs, on Android it can be directly advertising. The culprit in that case can be both the manufacturer and the mobile operator. In that case, the safest thing to do is to choose the Google Nexus series of all Android phones, which contains really clean Android without bloatware and stickers, as we know them from Samsung.
Ihnatek is said to lack one thing on Android anyway – a high-quality camera. "The iPhone is still the only phone that can be considered a real camera," he compares with the competition, which is still known to be only a camera from a smartphone. And anyone who has ever used an iPhone 5 or 4S could see for themselves. Whether we look at Flickr or Instagram, test the performance in the light or the monsters, Apple phones always come out the best in the comparison. And this despite the fact that manufacturers such as HTC or Nokia often try to market the photographic quality of their phones. "Only Apple can confirm such claims in practice," adds Ihnatko.
Despite several disadvantages, the American journalist finally decided to "switch" to Android, which he considers to be a better operating system at the moment. But only subjectively. His article does not advise anyone to choose one platform or another. He does not dismiss one or the other company or send it to ruin. He does not believe that Apple is passé in terms of design, nor does he rely on the cliché that it will not work without Steve Jobs. It just shows the thinking of a certain kind of smartphone user who is comfortable with a more open system.
Now it is up to us to think for ourselves if we are not to some extent influenced by marketing and dogmas that are not quite valid these days. On the other hand, it is understandable that for a certain part of Apple's customers, it will forever be unforgivable that Samsung and others looked to the iPhone for inspiration as much as Windows did to the Mac OS in the past. However, it is hardly beneficial in the discussion, and frankly, the market is not really interested in this aspect. Customers make decisions based on what they consider to be good quality and value for money.
That's why it's nice to avoid unnecessarily heated discussions and have fun in the scheme of "iOS and Android", not "iOS versus Android", as Ihnatko himself suggests. So let's be happy that the smartphone market is such a competitive environment that it continues to drive the innovation of all manufacturers forward - in the end, it will be for the good of us all. Calling for the collapse of any of them, be it Google, Samsung, Apple or BlackBerry, is completely pointless and ultimately counterproductive.
Thanks for the interesting article :)
I just wonder if the journalist had bought applications for 10, if he would buy them again for Android just because it seems better for him to have a display over his whole head for about 2 months. :-)
poor guy, they should lock him up in the constitution... he's gone crazy :D
At the end of the day let everyone do what they want to ... however android is dead
However, the size of the display is a subjective opinion and relatively meaningless. I can also say that I can read everything more comfortably on the iPad, that's probably logical. But it also depends on what the device is intended for and whether a separate cable needs to be pulled for it.
Then there is the question of adapting the system. As the owner of an Android mobile phone, I probably found out after the fact that it is best to leave it as it is and not mess with it too much. After all, it is not so good and functional. I prefer not to mention Swipe. Also an individual thing, but even though I was looking forward to it, I don't use it at all.
Copy and paste is really such a stupid thing, but maybe better times are coming, viz. the new Garageband where it works differently.
Mychal Szydlowski: didn't buy because there aren't many better apps for Android and that's why I bought something with iOS
"The iPhone is still the only phone that can be considered a real camera"
LUMIA 920 (high brightness, optical stabilization) or 808 PUREVIEW (lossless zoom) probably mean nothing to him
Maybe the journalist would need a third of the money for those applications :-) Otherwise, I have an iPhone 5 just in case.
he'll be back...;-)
I have the feeling that the author is trying to convince himself rather than others why he switches to Android;) I don't want to have a mega-plate in my pocket instead of a mobile phone, the iPhone 5 is already on the edge for me. Njn, copying is always easier than inventing something, and playing catch-up with screen size and spewing out different mobiles, like Nokia, doesn't seem the best to me, rather the opposite.
the last paragraph has something in it, before that is subjective for anyone and all you have to do is agree to disagree. the iphone has been around for six years. android I guess a year less. we are now only at the beginning of what it will be able to do. in 10-20 years, the platforms will be able to do the same as the others, so if you don't want to switch every year, it pays to stay with yours :)
It's the same as when MS highlights the advantages of Windows 8, and as a long-time iOS user, I can imagine a function that iOS has had for some time under almost every one of those advantages.
Android was the inspiration for Jailbreak. Jailbreak is the inspiration (in many ways) for Apple. Let's not say that white is black. Just let Google, Microsoft, Apple and others and others try each other - after all, we pay for it, so let's have the best we can have! Whether it's Android or iOS...
For me personally, he didn't mention one of the biggest benefits of iOS and that is syncing between devices. When I only had an Android phone and a PC, it annoyed me, but it was bearable. When I bought an Android tablet, I almost went crazy with the eternal manual synchronization, sold the tablet, passed the phone on in the family and bought an iPhone, which I didn't have before and it was the only platform I didn't try (WM, WP , Android). Since then I have not dealt with this and I am satisfied. And I quite agree with JK that in the end it was best to leave it as it was basically. I went through a period of changing the ROM 2-3 times a day, and also a period of just using the phone.
Gee, that's a poor guy….
When you don't buy apps, you can easily convert to another operating system. I bought GTA 3 at full price and maybe one more game on my Android tablet a year ago. I will never use it again. Now I have an iPad and I have bought three cookbooks by Roman Vaňek (approx. CZK 600) in iBooks and I will definitely not go back to the Android tablet. Unfortunately, my phone runs on Android. It was cheap, won't break when dropped, and can tether. It's not for games, but smart apps run just like on the iPhone….
Aside from the fact that I haven't found a single Android with a good design (besides the iPhone, I only like a few Nokia mobiles - mainly the older N8). I used Android until about half a year ago (Nexus S) and after the iPhone 5 experience, I would NEVER want to go back to it, for several reasons... For example: 1) Switching between applications in multitasking - Android is terribly tedious. So tedious that I almost didn't use multitasking - I just exited the app and turned it on from the desktop. 2) Battery life – No other smartphone has lasted me as long as the iPhone. Android just squeezes the batteries terribly. 3) Google Play is such a terribly slow thing that I almost stopped installing anything afterwards. 4) Environment design - tacky, overpriced, fragmented. It was hell to watch him every day. 5) Dedicated memory for applications - to have many gigabytes of space in your phone, but have full memory dedicated to applications and thus not be able to install anything, that's really disgusting :-/
And I could go on like this all day… iOS is a fantasy after Android…
PS: Oh, and I don't miss widgets at all... They usually took up almost the entire screen and you had to move between individual screens with several movements. Instead of these movements, I can press the application icon on the iOS desktop and I'm at the given content just as quickly ;-)
Android never more :-)
Cool story Ihnatka. I'm not going to switch to Android, so it's a poorly disguised attempt to unobtrusively impose Android. I recently had an SGS3 in my hands and after going through the system I was once again a slightly more satisfied user of Apple products.
Sorry, but the customizability and the possibility of customization only means that people have problems with phones, especially BFU, and then wonder what's going on. What about swipes. I've been turning off all these automata and fuzzy logic ever since T9, and I find that I don't miss anything. iOS has all its bugs, but because of the ones mentioned in the article, I ran away from Windows and Android. It would take better reasons.
what is the article about? the opinion of the author?.. copy, translate and I am the author.. LoL
I agree with the author on one thing: the keyboard. Instead of emoticons, I would like to see a keyboard or at least a selection of keyboards that are already in iOS. The keyboard should change when typing the url address or e-mail address. Setting at least one of them as default would help.
It's interesting that when the author leaves a certain field of repurposing the source, he spouts nonsense: "The question is how these input methods will work in Czech, which is full of colloquial and slang expressions." Oh, so English is not full of colloquial and slang expressions... Oh My fuckin' Gosh, fuck it up. :))
It's absolute crap what you wrote... ANdroid can never be as good as iOS ;)
You're a bitch ;-)
Very nice, rational, beneficial article! He hadn't been like this for a long time.
I've been using Android for about a year and a half, I've had an iPhone for about 2 weeks. I'll tell you, apart from the necessary things on Android (telephone, sms and a few applications compared to the iPhone), I didn't use the phone at all. It was completely replaced by the iPhone…
Android died for me. Main reasons: Lagging (really everywhere), terrible Google Play that has to update applications every X hours (and I have about 15 of them in total - you can't imagine how this has managed to screw me up in the last few days, I connect to wifi in the morning and in the evening when I arrive home and I get 10 notifications about updating some stupid application), unreliability - the application crashes, in the last month even spontaneous restarts, the camera does not work, etc., the system is slow - I click on the application and wait and wait and wait and after 5 seconds it crashes turned on.
I always heard that there are better applications on the iPhone, but I didn't believe it. I already believe :) Downloaded the same app - more and more settings in ios, nicer environment, just android sadness.
—- And I remind you, I don't have shit for 50 euros. The phone was bought in 11/2011 and was the manufacturer's flagship until about 03/2012, when it introduced a new flagship.
Thanks for the good article. I acknowledge the effort to compare a part from both platforms without the eternal "contra"...! I myself have an iPad, as a father of three children I cannot financially afford an iPhone - after all, a tablet is more of a family affair than a mobile phone. My phone is Android - SE. Both platforms have something in common, neither of them is "the only right one". It's good that we can choose.
I personally have a Macbook Air, an iPad 2 and I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as a phone. I personally like it very much - huge and high-quality display, amazingly fast, swiftkey and pen are a wonderful combination, it doesn't lag and it's relatively stable (iPad is a little better, not much). It's true that there aren't that many and that many quality apps on Android, but so far I've found everything I wanted. Widgets, which practically do not exist on iOS, are a huge advantage. I find it much easier to record music, download movies. I don't have a problem with synchronization either, I solved everything via google account and dropbox. For me, the Note 2 is a better device than the iPhone, as I like to read on it and I generally like the large display. I practically don't carry a macbook or an ipad with me anymore, as the note 90 is enough for 2% of my needs.
+1
I agree, I also have a Note 2
well Samsung Note2 …. it's not a phone anymore, it's a shovel :( I sold it... it kept telling me who made it... a Korean... when I had 3-4 applications in the "background" and started the internal web browser, the phone restarted and thankfully I have a vital message oh you have a Samsung Galaxy NOTE II :)))))) newer more ….
So for the second time (please don't delete it again): Whenever the author leaves the safe ground of rewriting the original article, he begins to bubble: "The question is how these input methods will work in Czech, which is full of colloquial and slang expressions. " Ah, isn't that English full of colloquial and slang expressions? What about the thousands of phrasal verbs built on f**k? Here, someone in Czech in the 1st year of secondary school, when languages and their categorization are discussed, was not paying attention.
Try to write there: "That apple pen is completely out of my mind and I'm probably going to get hit with it." I also recommend that you stop for a while, take a deep breath and find a hobby other than stirring up pointless conflicts on the Internet. You can read your first comment a few lines below, as far as I know no one has deleted it. I personally don't even have the rights to it. And above all, it would seem extremely pathetic to me, I really don't experience it...
So the author is not actually talking about Android as such, but about GSIII. There are many Android phones on the market with displays even smaller than the 3,5″ of the iPhone, i.e. the 4″ of the iPhone 5.
Fortunately, I'm not an iOvce and I approach things soberly and practically.
Personally, I was forced to upgrade to an older Android Samsung GSI. With the original version of Android (I think FroYo or something like that) it was unbearable. Even my old iPhone 3G was not so slow. So I decided to customize my phone and after 2 days of googling and studying tutorials, I decided on Cyanogenmod 10 (Jelly Bean). Then I spent several hours flashing a custom ROM onto the phone. The phone sped up after that, and I appreciate the work of the CM programmers, but it voided the phone's warranty (yes, I can flash FroYo back into it afterwards, but what if it doesn't work?) By installing a custom ROM, I actually opened up the phone as far as hackability is concerned. So I only use it for calls, sms, viber, sometimes taking photos (therefore, the image output is not for cheering).
I have an iPad for surfing, reading, and even work (combined with the Adonit Jot Pro, it's a killer note-taking and drawing device).
So overall I'm happy with it as a phone, not a smartphone. Multitasking is slow. Loading applications is similar. The flashlight is a disaster.
And the worst are probably the "back" and "more options" sensor buttons, I've messed with them so many times and it's turned me off so many times that I'm already looking forward to switching back to iPhone.
The user experience for me is far better with the iPhone than the Samsung GSI, so I'm going back as soon as I can. All I wish is that iOS7 really marks a change and gets rid of some old elements and adds new ones that will deepen the positive user experience.
So why should I switch?
Funny article considering the fact that I completed the same switch quite recently. Well, I'll try to guess how it will turn out - in a few months the author will end up with an iP5 like in my case and will be ashamed of what he wrote :)
From my own experience: SwiftKey is really great and can handle Czech without hesitation :)
Finally!!! Bravo Filip - you have written the only article that does not uselessly and pointlessly smear the Android platform. I completely agree and I myself consider iOS as healthy competition that drives others forward and that's how it should be in a healthy market :-)
Unfortunately, it can be seen that the war between iPhoneists and Androidists is simply about people and stupid opinions. I read the whole discussion, and when I read it like that, I think it's good that you're on iOS, because I should probably be ashamed of you. A flagship with a lagging system and non-working apps? Are you even normal? What on earth was your phone? I've gone through several phones myself, and especially the SIII, One X, Note II, etc. are the best on the market. Trouble-free operation, features that the iPhone will never have, etc. But I don't want to start a flame, Filip wrote a perfect article, but readers prefer to be sheepish rather than think for 5 seconds..:-D
well you see... look in the android discussions... it's called spina. How many times have I learned that Android was long before iOS and other things. Something like a thief cry…catch the thief. Forgive yourself for commenting on this discussion and try to apply this knowledge especially in android discussions. You really don't see so much stupidity...
nice article and an even nicer discussion rather suitable for an android forum :)
Just a few observations because I consider Android a form of competition and I always try to give it a chance :)
in the last period of about half a year, I tried SIII, S Galaxy Note and NoteII, Nexus S, HTC One, Sony Xperia GO, Xperia V and now Xperia Z, I don't even feel Chinese nonsense...
Android yes, but certainly not on Samsung, which has to increase its power by adding it to a phone that 90% of people will use for calling and thus wants to change the ringtone as much as possible, the strongest because of the best screens, and then everyone is surprised that it will kill the battery in half bottom when you turn it on full blast :(((
HTC ... the design attempt is cool, they just forgot the gorilla when it comes to the gorilla, and as a result, every fall, even if not directly on the screen, despite the foil, causes the digitizer to crack :((((
Sony? … Well, Sony already promised an iPhone killer three years ago in the plastic X10 :(((( now they released the Xperia Z and it's cool, even waterproof and with a good screen, but the Android version even in version 4.2. has its flaws....
the fact that Android does not have as many applications as iOS is a reality, that the allocation of memory by Android device manufacturers is diametrically different from iOS as well as memory management, and this causes problems for Android just like Linux on a PC if you have few "resources"... While iOS has RAM and FLASH, Android has RAM, Application memory, flash and an SD card... the management of this in the kernel is done very badly, so many applications refuse to leave the application memory, and when you have two or three large games and this memory is 2GB, you have hit the Android limit since you cannot move the installation to Flaska or to the SD card, so to continue working with the phone, you are forced to throw out some application :)))))
Well, about power management without supporting applications, Android is like Windows, everyone claims that it will last a long time, but no one can say how long it is :)))
And this has iOS and MAC OS invented brilliantly.... the latest tests for Windows 8 indicate that the best HW for Win8 is the MacBook Pro 15″ retina :)))) no joke :))))
Beautiful article, I am a long-term user of Apple devices and I am extremely satisfied...even on the iPhone. After much deliberation, I decided on the Galaxy S4, and the reasons are exactly in this article. For me, the size of the display is irrelevant, until now I'm waiting for such a small thing as showing the company next to the name of the caller when it is saved in a contact (Nokia did that 5 years ago), Android can do it with a helper app. Otherwise, of course, the iPhone is the best, and the HTC One is the only competitor.
I've already tried to exchange my iPhone for Android once. I've been using Android for about 2 months and I've come to the conclusion that it's not for me and I like comfort, peace of mind, security, updates on time, digital content in full format, not just Apps.
I noticed an interesting thing, regarding the camera, Samsung prefers not to take pictures of people at a distance of more than 5 meters because it can't focus, it focuses on close objects, that's why in the camera tests we don't find people but only objects.
Also now an advertisement has been released showing the S4 being photographed from the side ala iPhone 5 so that the cheap plastic back is not visible, they really "succeeded" in that, the back for 17 thousand. they are made of plastic. :-)) I'll wait half a year and there will be an S4 for an acceptable 10 thousand, that's already reasonable for plastic and Android. With Android, users primarily go for the price, and it has to be cut somewhere, it shows, for example, in the fact that I wait almost a whole year for updates.
Each system has its advantages. The problem with Android is that basically no one wanted it except Google, and Samsung is happy to get rid of it because it no longer needs it.