An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

http://www.24100.net/2013/01/an-iphone-lovers-confession-i-switched-to-the-nexus-4-completely/

by bering • 14 years ago

364 348 14 years ago

sami36• 14 years ago

& I switched from an iPhone 4S to a Galaxy Nexus & back to an iPhone 5 , couldn't be happier. These posts are pointless. Whatever device works for you. All of these platforms have strengths & weaknesses. You can make equally cogent cases for the upcoming Blackberry 10 or Windows Phone 8. The First iPhone was a significant leap in mobile computing, since then, the way I see it, it's been mostly polish. Google & MSFT caught up to the competition, RIMM retooled. The more competition the merrier.

Google Now is amazing. iOS fluidity still has no equal. Google play automatic app updates are convenient. iOS apps polish is extraordinary. Windows Phone tiles are fantastic. BB contact integration is a thing of beauty...etc.

chunkyslink• 14 years ago

I didnt get the impression that the author was trying to convert me, just that he loved his new phone. I'm sure he would agree with you.

acchow3• 14 years ago

The Galaxy Nexus is garbage. I went from 4S to Galaxy Nexus too and it infuriated me. The screen was unusable in sunlight, microphone and speaker quality were laughable, battery life is half the 4S, not-very-sensitive touchscreen, etc.

Now on an HTC One X, which I like more than the iPhone. It doesn't have any of the quality issues of the GNexus.

StavrosK5• 14 years ago

Odd, I got a Galaxy Nexus and it's the best phone I've ever had. To each his own, I guess.

jedahan2• 14 years ago

I have a One X, and get a lot of questions from people with iPhones. Its just a good phone to me, but everyone else seems impressed with the screen quality, photo quality, speed etc. I thought all phones were more or less in the same ballpark.

Mahn• 14 years ago

> iOS fluidity still has no equal

I've been using the iPhone for a while before switching to a Nexus 4, and honestly there is nothing that feels more fluid on iOS than on a Nexus 4 running jelly bean 4.2.1.

FireBeyond3• 14 years ago

And though some may view it as heresy, as someone who has always had a penchant for "high end" phones, has owned and used the 4S, S3, fluidity seems to be a "solved" problem - even on my latest phone, a Lumia 920 running Windows 8 (now my favorite device, despite the lacking ecosystem - the store is my least favorite aspect).

DigitalJack• 14 years ago

They are not pointless. I found it informative. I may pick up an android at some point in the future, and since I'm currently an iphone user, I found this point of view relevant.

gonehome5• 14 years ago

Interesting - I switched from android to the iPhone 5 recently (after having the N1, NS and Galaxy Nexus). I thought this was the first iPhone that finally had the necessary hardware (LTE being required after the galaxy).

The main things I miss are better google voice integration on the nexus phones (the ability to use the web interface for texting is something I can't give up). I also used to not pay for texting this way and could actually afford to have a smart phone because of it since Tmobile has a $30 no contract 100min/unlimited data plan for unsubsidized phones.

I also needed some sort of google talk app which I finally found with the $5 version of the verbs app. A bunch of people I communicate with are on android and use google chat instead of facebook chat or imessage.

The current iPhone does some things much better. The biggest thing is battery life which is at least twice as good as any nexus phone I've used (probably even more). The difference in battery is really incredible. The new native Facebook iOS app is also great to use. The iPhone hardware is also subjectively much nicer, it both looks and feels a lot better to me - makes me wish Google had partnered with Nokia.

Really though they're both pretty equivalent at the point.

Edit: Almost forgot, the critical feature of android was turn by turn navigation which apple finally came out with in iOS6. Now that google's released their maps app as well the core differences that mattered are gone.

blinkingled3• 14 years ago

Battery life in Android land is a matter of choosing the right handset. I don't believe the iPhone holds a candle to my Note 2 or the RAZR Maxx if you actually use the phone heavily. Plus replaceable/extended batteries are another option.

djt• 14 years ago

Comparing the iPhone to a Note 2 is probably unfair as those things are HUGE!

driverdan2• 14 years ago

The Note 2 is a tablet that also happens to make calls. Compare it to the iPad Mini. The Nexus 4's battery is not removable.

gonehome5• 14 years ago

I'm sure it is variable by handset, but I had no interest in any android phone apart from the Nexus line.

thefreeman• 14 years ago

Curious, do you actively use the power control widget? Turning off wi-fi and GPS when you aren't using them can help a lot with battery life.

Also, if you are using CyanogenMod (or many other custom builds) you can change the performance settings on your cpu governer, etc., to improve it further.

beznogim2• 14 years ago

Chances are, there is a ketnel wakelock held by a device driver and preventing the phone from sleeping. This is a common issue with poorly written drivers (even Nexus 7 3g suffers from it). Properly functioning Android phone should be managing its radios automatically.

warfangle• 14 years ago

My cheapo android phone from Virgin had an app installed by default (ICS) that lets you automate power control. My phone goes from 100% to 60% about twice as fast as 60% to 0%, because once it hits 60% it automatically dims the screen (unless you force it bright). And if you ever watch power consumption, by and far it's the screen that uses the most.

bjustin2• 14 years ago

That's silly. I don't have to manually turn off wi-fi or GPS for my iPhone to last about two days, why should I have to on an Android phone? Automatic management would be fine, but having to think about it is not. Even using cell-towers-only coarse location to set them when I'm at home or work could be OK.

greenmountin• 14 years ago

I bought the Nexus 4 and couldn't believe how little runtime I was getting. Even paid $5 for juice defender to turn off wifi / automatic downloading. It's the screen. Went back to my iPhone 4. Sites should really do a better job of reporting battery life, although I guess I should have guessed from the Anandtech table [1]. Gave it to my brother to jailbreak and underclock, to see if it could be saved.

[1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/6425/google-nexus-4-and-nexus-...

gonehome5• 14 years ago

While I definitely believe that would help - on the iPhone I don't have to turn anything off (and I typically don't want to).

gallamine• 14 years ago

Do you find you have problems with MMS and Google Voice? Last I checked, it was unsupported and text messages with pictures or video just went to /dev/null without any notifications to either party. That was a no-go for me.

dannyr2• 14 years ago

My main # now is Google Voice. For the past 4 years, there was just 2 instances that I needed MMS.

What's frustrating though is the inability of Google Voice to receive SMS from short codes. Craigslist and Paypal also don't verify accounts with a Google Voice number.

gonehome5• 14 years ago

MMS isn't supported and still silently fails (which is annoying). I just tell people to 'text my email addresss' which works, or to use something else (like facebook/snapchat).

drivebyacct27• 14 years ago

I'm glad that my Google Voice number doesn't accept MMS. What a silly invention. If you must use MMS, my email address works more than fine.

mattquiros2• 14 years ago

Been an Android user for a year (Galaxy Tab 8.9) and was going to get an iPhone 5 last Christmas just to try out a different device. I changed my mind and am getting a Nexus 4 instead. I was able to use one of our test iPhones at work for a primary phone and here are just 3 things I don't like about iOS:

1. Toggling settings can be difficult. In Android, you have a pull-up/pull-down menu right from the home screen where you can just turn things on/off, like Bluetooth, sounds, WiFi, etc. In iOS, you go to the Settings app and scroll through the text labels and go through one or two more screens before achieving the same thing. And this, despite Apple's marketed UI simplicity.

2. The thing can't even send files over Bluetooth. How is that not possible in 2013?

3. Boring old homescreen from way back 2007, which displays an amalgamation of all the apps installed on my phone, not the apps I use the most.

Of course, whichever phone you end up buying is nothing more than a personal preference. However, I just think that saying Android is better than iOS has become more of a fact than an opinion these days.

rimantas• 14 years ago

  > The thing can't even send files over Bluetooth.
  > How is that not possible in 2013?

The thing will also not accept your 1.44MB floppy. Shocking, I know. Ok, ok, I get what you say, but frankly, this is some pretty obscure use case for most. Not for you, obviously.

blub• 14 years ago

Obscure? This is one of the stupidest misfeatures of iOS. The hardware is there and there are workaround apps that can help you do it from iDevice to iDevice.

Many times I wanted to send a picture, contact or a document to someone standing right next to me and couldn't do it because they had an iPhone (or Windows Phone). This is especially pleasant when you're roaming and it's a bigger file.

StavrosK5• 14 years ago

Maybe you and everyone you know has unlimited data, but not everyone does. Bluetooth file sending works on every single phone apart from the iPhone, and it's frustrating when people can't send you photos because your stupid phone doesn't support the most ubiquitous file sharing method since 1995.

vacri11• 14 years ago

I know that the iPhone comes with a bluetooth transceiver, but I was unware that it also shipped with a 3.5" floppy drive that was similarly crippled.

desas2• 14 years ago

1. Is Samsung specific I think. On my Nexus S pulling the notification drawer down has a button that launches the Settings app but doesn't have the settings right there. My wifes Samsung S3 does however.

Xymak1y2• 14 years ago

If you pull down with two fingers (a bit counterintuitive, I'll admit), it'll open the settings app directly. You can also toggle the default notification drawer and the settings app by tapping the icon in the top right corner.

I chose to install Widgetsoid - it places a couple of toggles directly into the notification drawer. I never got Airplane Mode to work, though.

WickyNilliams3• 14 years ago

My Nexus 4 has this feature by default, perhaps it was a Jelly Bean addition? Very much like having it there since getting my N4, I used to use a 3rd party widget for this purpose (powerstrip if anyone is interested), but it's largely been superseded by this (even though powerstrip is still great)

eunice3• 14 years ago

Bluetooth is for your xbox controller, not sending files

joenathan• 14 years ago

>Bluetooth is for your xbox controller, not sending files

I used Bluetooth for sending files for years with many of my older phones, and I find that ability still comes in handy from time to time.

Also, the Xbox 360 controller doesn't use Bluetooth, although the PS3 and the Wiimote controllers both use Bluetooth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_Controller

mattquiros2• 14 years ago

Are you kidding me. My MacBook has Bluetooth. What is the iPhone's excuse?

w0utert4• 14 years ago

I agree with what the article says about sharing data between applications, this really is one of the biggest pain points of iOS right now. Fortunately, it looks like Apple will finally address this in the future, iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events. Right now seems to be only used privately, for example to launch the mail application from other applications, but my guess is that iOS 7 will add public API's for other applications to do the same. Whether this means you can change default applications like Maps etc. I don't know, but the way Apple handled the (lack of) public-transit directions in Apple Maps suggests they are starting to be more flexible about default application handlers.

That said, I wasn't really impressed by any of the other points the article makes. It starts out by saying 'Android on the Nexus 4 is better in almost every aspect', but besides the sharing thing it doesn't make a case for anything else. Some half-hearted observation that 'sometimes it even appears like rendering is smoother on the Nexus 4' and 'not all Android applications look like crap anymore' and that's about it. Oh and of course you can 'customize everything' and here you have 4 examples of the most ugly homescreens I have ever seen on a mobile phone.

Hardly a clear-cut case of 'better in almost every aspect'. Looks like it's more a matter of preference than an objective evaluation on which of the 2 platforms is 'better'.

jvzr3• 14 years ago

I was going to say the same things.

Hopefully, there has been some serious work done on iOS 7 and it'll probably address most of the OP's concerns.

However, I do hope they introduce none of these customization shenanigans. I don't care for widgets (nor do I want another icon or thing I cannot remove from my homescreen). If the base OS is sufficiently good UI-wise, there is no reason ever to need to customize its looks besides the wallpaper (e.g. OS X).

knightni3• 14 years ago

I disagree - widgets are enormously important to me, and were the deciding factor in my choosing an android phone. I'm quite forgetful, and I have a tendency to focus on one thing to the exclusion of others. Widgets allow me to display important information on my home screen that will be shown to me every time I look at the phone.

This means that I can have a list of (for example) upcoming birthdays on my phone that I see over and over again, enough that I will eventually see the reminder at a point when I am in a position to do something about it. Alarms are useless by comparison, because I will inevitably be busy with something else when they go off. Calendars/todo apps are equally useless to me, because they require me to remember to open up an app all the time.

I realise my use case is relatively niche, but I imagine there's a lot of different niche users out there that benefit from customisability.

vacri11• 14 years ago

If the base OS is sufficiently good UI-wise, there is no reason ever to need to customize its looks besides the wallpaper

I take it you share Jobs' opinion on clothes? Same jeans, sneakers, turtleneck every day. Hey, it's perfectly functional, why would anyone want to vary things or look different? I mean, everyone has the same use-case, right?

Tyrannosaurs• 14 years ago

I agree, though I think some of the "not all Android applications look like crap" type stuff is just pointing out that some of the things people have used to beat Android with in the past are no longer true which is fair enough.

buster4• 14 years ago

Well, there are quite beautiful homescreens and widgets for android. You don't have to use them but i would say that iPhone users are just missing out on something. Sure, you are used to just take what Apple gives you and praise that but i couldn't.. I want high customizability and i love to change the entire phone setup when i get bored by the current setup.. or try out a new home screen once in a while. It's painless and fun for me to do :)

But surely, what really is missing on iOS is the whole intent/sharing system. It's just painful to try to interact between several apps on my iPad.

Btw. One of the more beautiful homescreens is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tsf.shell

Or widgets: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.levelup.be...

Those are things that i simply can't get on iOS and i'm used to it. I want that on my mobile.

taligent10• 14 years ago

And both of those are quintessentially Android features. I doubt you will ever see them implemented like that on iOS without jailbreaking.

I personally don't want anything like that. I would rather Apple just allow widgets in the notifications section and have live icons.

pithon• 14 years ago

Also: http://www.reddit.com/r/androidthemes/

mannkind• 14 years ago

Those two examples... wow.

A cluttered, unusable homescreen (is a ridiculous 3D cylinder of icons really an option?) and a weather widget where most of the text is unreadable.

greggman4• 14 years ago

I haven't read the article but I was an iPhone3 for a year, nexus 1 for a year, nexus s for a year and now iPhone 4S for a year.

Things I still miss:

I still miss that android apps can download in the background so for example when I wake up I the morning any new podcasts I'm subscribed to are already on the phone. Contrast to iOS6 where I have to remember to manually run the app. Which generally means I only run it just as I'm about to get in the car. I then sit in my entry way for 2-6 minutes waiting for my podcast app to download

I miss that apps can register for more events and act on them. For example any app can register to get an event when a new photo is saved. It can then upload, in the background, that photo. That means I can install one Flickr app, one g+ app and one fb app and the photos get uploaded to all 3 services no matter which app I use to take the photo. Contrast to ios6 where either every photo app has to have built in uploading options for every service I could possibly want. Or, I have to manually run the specific app for each service.

I miss auto app updating. I don't have as many apps as most of my friends on my iPhone but it seems like every day or every other day there's a number on the app store bugging me to update stuff. having to manually update is a distraction, chore, and annoyance I don't need.

Of course I miss being able to choose various default apps. I want Camera+ to be my default camera. I want Google maps to be my default maps. I want gmail to be my default mail app. I want a different apps to be my default music player and video player. I want chrome to be my default browser.

I miss being able to customize my desktop and lock screen. Not just adding widgets but changing it to use other apps. See http://slidescreenhome.com as one example.

I miss geeky things like being able to run an ssh tunnel in one app and use that tunnel in another app.

That said I'm still on iPhone. There's still plenty of things I like about iPhone over Android. I don't see myself switching back for at least a few more generations.

lanelio• 14 years ago

"I haven't read the article but..."

So it's come to this on HN...

bstar77• 14 years ago

For podcasts, I use Instacast and that definitely downloads in the background, but I believe the app just can't be in suspend state. As long as a bunch of apps have not been opened after instacast, it should download everything fone.

The trade-off is to have background downloading on all the time, which is something I hated about android in the 4 years I used it. Background processes were always killing my battery and it was never obvious what was running.

I think the sane compromise that I wish apple would make is to allow for more permanent background tasks to run, but only when externally powered.

ricw• 14 years ago

The downside of auto-downloading is that your tablet/phone will run out of battery much faster than on iOS. iOS has stand by times of weeks (31 days?), which is wonderful. My nexus 7 runs dry after days, arguably because of the apps I use, or because the OS allows them. I'm unsure which I prefer, though I'd like to be able to configure a trade-off between the two myself..

leephillips• 14 years ago

You sure make a good case for Android being vastly more capable. After that litany, I'm really curious what are the "plenty of things I like about iPhone over Android". Why are you sticking with the iPhone despite your compelling list of Android advantages? I ask as someone who has used iPhone but not Android, is keenly aware of iOS limitations, but likes the hardware.

jmreid3• 14 years ago

You can do this kind-of on the iPhone. Some apps support the geo fence wake-up thing that lets them update subscriptions.

For example, you can set your home address in Downcast or Instapaper so that when you leave or arrive, those apps will fetch new content without you having to open the app. Downcast will even download the podcasts in the background.

Now, this requires you to move outside the fence, so it's not time based. But I had a decent system where I had my work and home address in Downcast and I set it to fetch whenever I leave or arrive. My regular commute meant that I was always triggering the geo fence.

mikec3k• 14 years ago

Android still feels too clunky for me and I dislike the flat UI without gradients, drop shadows, or rounded corners.

vacri11• 14 years ago

Oh and of course you can 'customize everything' and here you have 4 examples of the most ugly homescreens I have ever seen on a mobile phone.

Good grief, you speak of personlisation like it's a bug and not a feature. I personally hate the iOS window-dressing. You have this sleek-looking bit of hardware, but the OS looks plastic and Fisher-Price, with safe and chunky buttons to give to your kid with no sharp edges. The way you speak, it sounds like you would deny me my preference for something different because you think it's ugly. What about those who don't think the default skins look good? Why isn't it a good feature that we can customise the way things look?

I really don't understand the Apple-spawned fanboy cult that considers personalisation to be a bad thing - especially since they once had a successful marketing campaign based around personalising your hardware with the coloured macs.

Ntrails• 14 years ago

I am happy with the apple default. I would not be happy with the default android layout, and I have tried to be.

I don't spend my time changing my desktop items. I don't customise my chrome borders, fiddle with rainmeter, etc. I don't even change my desktop background from the first one I got years and years ago. This may not be a very "hacker" attitude, but for me I just want function by default.

Personalisation is never a bad thing, but having a worse default is. Not wanting to faff with your display to get something acceptable is entirely within reason. In each case it is a choice, and the ability to personalise your screen is very much a subjective benefit.

w0utert4• 14 years ago

Chill out and take a deep breath, because you're missing the point entirely. I was talking about the arguments the article gives that supposedly show 'Android is better in almost every aspect', not about the merits of customization itself. No one is denying you anything, like I said: it seems to be more like personal preference than objective superiority. Sure enough Android wins on customizability, but that doesn't automatically mean everyone cares for this particular aspect of the OS.

I always find it amusing how fans of customizability seem to over-estimate the importance of dicking around with something the vast majority of people primarily use as a tool, a useful utility. If the defaults work well (which seems to be the case for iOS, even toddlers appear to be able to use it), that's already much, much better than something that sucks by default but can be customized to suck less.

That said, if you really care about customizability, you can always jailbreak your iPhone and do whatever you like, lots of customizations possible on jailbroken iPhones. Or just buy an Android phone if customizability is high on your list of priority features. Again, this is more about personal preference than anything else.

On a side note: Years ago when I was just starting to use Linux, I spent weeks customizing every aspect of the look & feel of the user interface. After a while I always got bored with what I had and started to get irritated by the various usability issues my customizations had introduced, so I started over. I went from FVWM to fluxbox, to Gnome, to KDE, back to Gnome, to XFCE and then back to Gnome again. The last time I switched to Gnome I stopped caring about customizations and simply stuck with the defaults, I had more interesting and important things going on in my life to spend time on, instead of wasting my time trying to be smarter than the people who designed the user interfaces I was using. I bought my first Mac running OS X and just used it the way Apple designed it, and never looked back. Since then I lost intereset in customizing my computers and phones altogether, realizing it's more like a hobby than actually making anything 'better', because 9 out of 10 times, you're only making things worse.

ebiester• 14 years ago

I Just changed to Android yesterday. The first thing I missed was the polish of the iOS.

I looked up how to switch applications and all I got was "10 best task switcher apps." I don't have time to evaluate three, much less ten task switcher apps! All I've been able to find is if you hold down the main button and then scroll to task manager, you can get to one.

I like customization, but Apple's defaults were better for me, at least. You say Fisher-Price, I say well conceived and 1960's Braun.

bpatrianakos2• 14 years ago

The moment you say "fanboy" and/or "cult" in reply to a comment you lose a lot of credibility.

" the Apple-spawned fanboy cult"

This is a completely meaningless phrase. It's easy to accuse people of this and impossible to prove. Furthermore when you say something along the lines of "you're just a fanboy of company X" the other guy can just come back and say "well you're a fanboy of company Y" and then everyone sounds ridiculous.

But to your point, I personally like the Apple design and I think that too much customization really can make a beautifully designed piece of hardware look like crap. That said, I also understand that other people either really love customizing their phones and/or have awful taste and that's fine and for them, iOS isn't the best choice. Whatevs. It happens. The thing is, you can't please all the people all the time so I'd say it's a great thing that Apple limits what you can do to personalize the phone. That's one thing that attracts people like me to it. Luckily they're not the only game in town so for the others you have choices.

You're really taking this as a direct insult it seems. I wish you wouldn't have made that fanboy crack because you did have a decent point in there under all the anger.

mmahemoff5• 14 years ago

Yes, inter-app communication is a major difference for developers. On iOS, apps will say "Supports Twitter and Facebook" and the developers have hand-written the integrations; on Android, the app integrates with whatever the user has installed and the developer does no work at all to integrate with any specific service or app. So it's a win for developers as well as users.

reidmain3• 14 years ago

Twitter and Facebook is integrated at a OS level with iOS. A few lines of code gets me access to the user's accounts (with their permission of course).

Cor2• 14 years ago

"Oh and of course you can 'customize everything' and here you have 4 examples of the most ugly homescreens I have ever seen on a mobile phone."

Agreed. I really don't like the look of most Android customisations. I think default Android is pretty gorgeous, though.

My homescreen currently looks like this - http://i1.minus.com/iidfIgCTZsXEX.png

The only thing I've added is the widget: everything else is stock. I'm very happy with the way it looks.

MichaelJW2• 14 years ago

What is that widget? It looks great!

cicero• 14 years ago

Very nice screen. I have an iPhone 4S, but I'm thinking of switching to a Nexus 4. I'm glad to see that it doesn't have to be ugly.

sigkill• 14 years ago

>Android on the Nexus 4 is better in almost every aspect et al

I assume he made that kind of statements because previously his opinion of android was the buggy and extreme unresponsive early builds.

masklinn3• 14 years ago

> iOS 6 already has infrastructure in place to allow for remote view controllers that (in theory) should allow any application to register itself to handle certain data and events.

For those who want more information on that, http://oleb.net/blog/2012/10/remote-view-controllers-in-ios-... (note: it's a 3-part series).

As far as I understand, it doesn't provide for an application "register[ing] itself to handler certain data and events", which would probably be an extension to UIActivityView and UIActivity[0]. Remove View Controllers provide two features of interest, one of which could work with UIActivity for sharing:

* An application or framework providing views to an other one (said view could be invoked by a UIActivity of some sort, so that the Facebook application would provide a "Share on Facebook" remote view and the corresponding activity, a sharing application would invoke the activity view, then display the correct remote view upon selection by the user)

* Isolated cross-process communication between the embedding application and the embedded view, which allows different security settings (and thus things like JIT-ed UIWebView, or more simply a twitter remote viewcontroller being able to use the data the Twitter app has access to without leaking it to third parties)

[0] http://oleb.net/blog/2012/09/the-state-of-sharing-in-ios-6/

nicholassmith5• 14 years ago

Interestingly it seems like Apple is doing something with remote view controllers with their 12 Days of Christmas app, which could imply they're trying to test it as much as possible in a live context.

6thSigma• 14 years ago

> Fortunately, it looks like Apple will finally address this in the future

Ha, sorry, reminds me of that Samsung commercial. We're going to get that in the next one.. right?

redial• 14 years ago

Yes, because android has always been buttery smooth. And the battery life has always been excellent. The density of the screen was impressive from day one.

Things change.

pi18n2• 14 years ago

Launching other apps can be done by any app right now, but the app package needs some info saying the app is able to handle a certain data type or open a certain URL protocol.

I am an Objective-C developer and I love the SDKs on the iPhone, but I am just so tired of Apple's bullshit regarding using our devices the way we want to. I'm tired of waiting for them to enable basic features like phone number black/whitelists.

My next device will be a Nexus. Then I can run apps in the background other than music, share data between apps, sideload apps from third parties, run a mobile terminal, run mobile scripting languages, and basically be free to use my hardware as I'd like.

nicholassmith5• 14 years ago

"I'm tired of waiting for them to enable basic features like phone number black/whitelists."

Keep in mind that's a basic feature for you, not necessarily for all. I wouldn't use it, so I'd prefer Apple to work on X/Y/Z feature instead. Feature priority is hard to work out at the best of times, because no matter what gets picked someone will be disappointed.

so898• 14 years ago

Tried so hard to get a Nexus 4. However.... I am using iPhone 5 now. LOL

apierre• 14 years ago

Exactly! The Nexus4 is still sold out as we speak and even if you manage to order one, you will get a 8 weeks window for delivery but Google will make you pay £10 for "express" delivery. What a joke.

r4vik• 14 years ago

and express is 2 fucking days in the UK, I'd call that a cultural faux pas, as 2 day shipping here is the crappy option. I've had amazon get things to my door in less than 14 hours given the right conditions.

edward322• 14 years ago

Bad News Installous iOS Crack Store Has Been Shutdown

http://itechbook.net/why-installous-is-showing-terminated-er...

pagliara• 14 years ago

Interesting. I too am an iPhone lover who recently picked up a Nexus 4 to get into Android development. This is my first experience with Android, so I didn't realize that the Nexus 4 Android experience might be different than your typical Android smartphone.

I was very impressed with the overall experience. If I wasn't so used to iOS, I could easily see myself using Android on a Nexus 4. But in the end, I walked away with the opposite impression; I saw no compelling reason to switch to Android and have decided iOS is still the mobile OS for me. Unlike the author, I do not really consider myself a power user. The customizability of Android is really enticing, but at the end of the day I find myself preferring the design/philosophy of iOS. But it really just comes down to personal preference.

After using an iPhone for so long, I became annoyed at the small design/interface differences present in the Nexus 4 (e.g. no physical home button). At times I found it difficult to use the Nexus 4 because of it's greater width. The iPhone width is optimal for my hand size and pocket size. Also, in my opinion as an app developer, the iOS app ecosystem still seems a lot stronger than Android. Browsing the Play Store was a little boring to me. Yes, most popular apps have both iOS and Android versions, but many developers still target iOS first and Android second. Until there's a reason for that to change I think iOS still has the edge in "killer" apps.

That being said, I agree that there are a lot of nice things in Android that I would love to see implemented in iOS.

beznogim2• 14 years ago

I would love to see the undo function implemented in Android. Text editing is very fiddly here, and you aren't even allowed to make mistakes.

w1ntermute6• 14 years ago

Are you kidding me? The iPhone has the optimal width? You sound just like Marco, Gruber, and all those other Apple sycophants who were claiming that the iPhone size was perfect for the hand, until the iPhone 5 came out, of course.

Just like they got their thumbs surgically altered when the 5 came out, no doubt you will be getting all your pockets resized if Apple increases the iPhone width.

robmcm11• 14 years ago

I still think the iPhone 4 &< had the best screen size for ergonomics. I don't think you can contest that.

The iPhone 5 compromises to make the screen bigger, but only by a little.

I don't think I could use a 4" device like a Nexus 4 (I have a Nexus S which was a good size), on my commute where I need to hold onto a handle of the train, underground with one hand, smartphone in other.

micampe2• 14 years ago

It's still true. The larger screen is nice but the 4 was more comfortable to hold and use.

nmcfarl• 14 years ago

On this note - I didn't get surgically altered, and if there is one thing that drives me bats (daily) about the 5 it's the bigger screen. Man do I wish we could go back to the 4's screen size!

megablast• 14 years ago

Wrong or right, the width of the iPhone has not changed with the 5.

rayiner• 14 years ago

The fact that the iPhone 5 made the screen bigger doesn't mean the original rationales for the smaller screen size wasn't justified. It's an engineering problem, and that involves trade-offs. My wife doesn't follow the tech press at all, and complained unprompted about the extra length on the 5. She can't reach the top with her thumb anymore.

enraged_camel4• 14 years ago

Agreed on the size. Nexus 4 is basically a mini-tablet, and looks incredibly retarded when someone holds it up to their ear. Reminds me of people who use their iPad cameras to take photos and videos.

pavel_lishin2• 14 years ago

> looks incredibly retarded when someone holds it up to their ear

I care more about my phone's abilities than I do about what people think of me when I'm holding it up to my ear. (Which only happens maybe once a week for me, anyway.)

lucian19003• 14 years ago

> While Android still doesn’t give you bouncing lists and scroll views

Is that something people like so much? Whenever I've used an iOS device, it annoyed me. I much prefer the highlight in Android.

michael_miller2• 14 years ago

Superficial as it is, absolutely, this is something I love about iOS. It reinforces the "manipulating real objects with touch" metaphor. If I move my finger while pressing down on a piece of paper in real life, I expect the underlying paper to move as well. The highlight on Android just feels weird and clunky with no basis in real world interaction. That's not to say it isn't usable -- it just isn't as much fun without the momentum scrolling physics.

lucian19003• 14 years ago

I don't really think of my phone as obeying any sort of real life physics. There are way too many interactions that don't (on iOS as well) for me to be able to keep up that illusion.

w1ntermute6• 14 years ago

I hate the bouncing scroll - yet another example of Apple's idiotic focus on skeuomorphism. I like to scroll up when I'm at the top of a list, or down when I'm at the bottom, while reading an article or whatever. If that bouncing scroll thing existed in Android, the page would move as a result. That's not a problem with the highlight.

josteink5• 14 years ago

> While Android still doesn’t give you bouncing lists and scroll views

It used to be in Android until Apple made it a 1 billion dollar lawsuit and banned everyone else in the universe from implementing it.

Those bouncing lists. 1 billion dollar. And Apple is not a patent-troll. No siree.

dasil0032• 14 years ago

They might be dicks, but it would still be dilution of the term "patent troll" to call them that. After all, they do actually sell a product with said feature.

lucian19003• 14 years ago

Really? I've never seen it in Android.

taligent10• 14 years ago

I'm confused what part bothers you. That Apple patented it. Or that it is worth a billion dollars.

Because if it's the first then it is just a hypocritical position. And if it's the second then maybe you don't understand the math. Size of lawsuit = Price per patent * Number of infringing devices.

It's because the number of devices sold is so large that it ends up being such a large lawsuit.

eunice3• 14 years ago

are you suggesting there is a mobile os vendor that isn't a patent troll? goog spent 12bn acquiring a failing company just to patent troll

morphyn• 14 years ago

I've been using my Nexus 4 for one week now and I obviously love it. I think the feature that impressed me the most is the 'gesture typing', which compensates for my apparent inability to type correctly on a virtual keyboard. And it works surprisingly well in French too.

bobfunk2• 14 years ago

Love the gesture typing as well, it's really impressive how well it works. I've only been using it in english so far, and feel crippled as soon as I have to write a message in other languages.

Is there any way to quickly toggle between different languages?

josteink5• 14 years ago

If you have multiple languages enabled (as opposed to the default, system-language only), you can just point-hold the space-bar and a language selector will be opened.

You can also enable a language-cycling button which will appear left of the space-bar if you so please.

Both are definitely quick enough for my fancy.

stonekeeper092• 14 years ago

Having owned an iPhone 3, 3GS, 4 and a Galaxy S2, the Nexus 4 is by far the best smartphone I've owned.

michael_miller2• 14 years ago

Can you elaborate on why? Is it for the same reasons as the article?

stonekeeper092• 14 years ago

I wrote a long diatribe about the differences and then realised it was essentially the same as the article so...

tesmar2• 14 years ago

I currently have a 3gs. Will the Nexus4 be a big improvement? How was it to move over your music?

jamesjguthrie3• 14 years ago

I went the other direction recently, from Galaxy S2 with 4.2.1 Jelly Bean to iPhone 3GS with jailbroken iOS 6.0.1.

The iPhone feels great in my hands because it's so small and the battery seems to be lasting for ages. I don't even feel like it's that old because it still has the latest OS and apps.

I'm enjoying the iPhone for now but I think it's mainly due to getting bored with the Galaxy. The Galaxy is due an upgrade in November and I think at that point I'll get a Nexus.

Gmo2• 14 years ago

I feel that my 3GS is old because it lags like crazy. I have a hard time believing it would not be the case for you too.

jamesjguthrie3• 14 years ago

Nope, I don't feel that. Maybe it's because I'm used to using older equipment - I used a HTC Dream up until 12 months ago.

Edit: HTC Dream was used for 3 years roughly, from Android 1.1 until 4.0 ROM's started coming out.

FireBeyond3• 14 years ago

Agreed, especially after any real use. My ex- complained bitterly about iOS 5 on her 3GS being horrific, even after the updates claimed to alleviate performance issues.

laacz• 14 years ago

Backgraound. Happy iPhone user since 2008 (available in our country then). In december they gave me to try out Nexus 4 (unavailable in our country).

As a device Nexus 4 itself is not much better than previous - Galaxy Nexus. Display itself is much worse on Nexus 4 than it was on Galaxy Nexus.

After giving back Nexus 4 I thougth I'd try out living with Galaxy Nexus, which until now was my phone in the drawer. And, actually, though I was an iphonee for 4 years, Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.2.1 is an awesome device.

Back button is something you miss dramatically on iphone after a detour to androidland. Sharing feature, Google Now, tiny things. I do not give a damn about configurability. There is a lot of stuff that I'd welcome into android world from ios, but other than that - I'm satisfied.

Such migration would be unthinkable a year ago. 4.2.x, though not that much different from 4.1.x, is mature.

TeeWEE• 14 years ago

Any mirror? Its down here.

finspin2• 14 years ago

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.241...

obituary_latte2• 14 years ago

What are people's experience dealing with the migration of music from iOS to android? As an iOS user with an itch to checkout android again (had one of the first HTC "google phones"), this is one of my bigger concerns.

josteink5• 14 years ago

Upload to Google Music. Tag the music you want on the device as "available offline", on your phone, when you have internet connectivity.

No cables. No sync. No fucking iTunes. No computer required. Just internet. Done.

If you feel old-fashioned, you can also just copy files to your device as a standard MTP or mass-storage device using USB-cables, or copy to SD-cards.

As long as the music files are properly tagged you should have everything auto-discovered on the device.

obituary_latte2• 14 years ago

So is DRM not an issue?

Sounds promising. Thanks for the info.

Xymak1y2• 14 years ago

I love the process, but I've been having trouble with uploading. A lot of songs simply weren't uploaded successfully, and there is no way for me to manually upload anything in order to fix that. I have no idea if the uploader application does this automatically or if I'm just stuck with a bunch of broken songs.

Also I noticed some mistakes with generic album titles, such as "Unknown Album" - selecting an artist, then their album titled "Unknown" would usually play all the titles that don't have an album title, even the ones by entirely different artists.

That being said, it beats iTunes by miles.

shinratdr12• 14 years ago

So exactly like iTunes Match? Oh, except iTunes Match has a real client that allows you to manage your music instead of a crippled uploader that only allowed you to pick folders, 5000 more song storage space and smart playlist ability. Also, it doesn't require that every song be uploaded instead of matching them against songs that already exist on the server. Half of my library didn't need to be uploaded and most of the time when I add an album it matches instantly.

MatthewPhillips• 14 years ago

First things first; stop buying music and movies from a store that is tied to a particular brand device. Never make this mistake again and it won't be an issue in the future. Today Amazon is probably the best choice for cross-platform cloud music, but there are others as well.

sixothree• 14 years ago

I love the nexus with one caveat. I absolutely miss iTunes and how well it integrates with the music player on the iPhone.

I am using iSync on the Nexus 4 to sync to my iTunes. But it's not quite the same. And the nexus doesn't have star ratings, just thumbs up or down.

I use star ratings to delete music from library. 1 star = delete.

drucken2• 14 years ago

iSyncr (http://www.jrtstudio.com/iSyncr)

mmahemoff5• 14 years ago

"Solving the inconsistencies grouped around the back button"

Android's back button used to be incredibly inconsistent and hard to predict, but now there's a fairly well established standard for this, which is supported by the API (http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html).

There was even a full-length Google IO session on it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwGHJJYBs0Q).

It doesn't mean all apps follow the standard, especially those naievely ported from iOS. Even some Google apps don't always meet expectations. But the convention is mostly there now and just needs more adoption.

king_jester• 14 years ago

The main issue with the back button is that devs love to mess around with how it works by default, usually to satisfy some kind of architecture that doesn't make sense in the first place on an Android device. From what I've seen of people's Android code, a lot of folks don't grok the Activity and Fragments APIs at first and end up making huge mistakes or creating excessive architectures to try and 'solve' the problem. Unfortunately, this is a kind of chicken and egg problem, since a lot of Android apps are done by hobbyists who need time and practice to get up to speed or by commercial companies that don't care for or don't have any idea on how their product should work on Android.

chimeracoder3• 14 years ago

> It doesn't mean all apps follow the standard, especially those naievely ported from iOS.

Agreed. Amusingly, the only apps that I ever complain about (whether for the back button or for general styling and functionality) are the ones that are clearly half-baked ports of iOS apps.

No wonder it looks terrible and doesn't seem to work properly - you're following all the best practices for the wrong operating system!

adrinavarro3• 14 years ago

Unlike most people commenting here, I got a sub-200$ Android (Huawei G300). I got it a few days ago through Amazon just to try something new, and it's way better than I expected it to be.

I first had an iPhone when it came out, then moved to a BlackBerry (weird, I know), and now I'm considering staying with Android, at least for daily use. I still have to stick to the BlackBerry as it's the only phone on the market that provides international roaming at affordable prices, very good battery life (+replaceable, I have my own arsenal and can go for weeks travelling without charging the phone) and a very good keyboard, which is good when you spend your time writing awkwardly long emails.

Android, since ICS, seems to be mature enough for most users. It's snappy (its multitasking, background apps and toggles mean you can do things faster than in an iPhone), does good resource managing and has a very good integration across the whole system. And, as some people have said, it's no longer ugly!

kokey• 14 years ago

If a good Android phone comes to market with a keyboard like the Blackberry or Nokia communicators, it will certainly get me to consider switching away from the iPhone.

gman99• 14 years ago

OT: Speaking of the G300, I'd recommend moving to CyanogenMod9 on the G300 -- I think it's much better than the default ICS it ships with (CM10 and above are still quite shaky, although it's fine for my needs).

I understand if you'd prefer to not to mess with your phone and use the default install, but if you feel like getting your hands dirty g300.modaco.com is the place for alternate ROMS.

Best £70 (PAYG, but I guess there is still some operator subsidy in that price) I spent on a phone.

adrinavarro3• 14 years ago

I'm using the CM9 release found at MoDaCo, and still getting used to it while doing small tweaks. It took me less than an hour since I opened the box to wipe the original system (at least Huawei is way better at hardware than they're at software).

As a side note — do you too suffer of touch sensitivity problems? I feel it isn't as snappy as I'd like it to be, and there seems to be no workaround for it. Mostly around the corners, when typing on the keyboard, it might miss some keys and I have to press harder.

But I have stupid fingers, so, go figure.

Egregore• 14 years ago

Excuse me, how the phone can provide roaming?

adrinavarro3• 14 years ago

BlackBerry phones do use BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) as opposed to standard TCP/IP via an APN. This means that a secure link is made between your phone and RIM's servers (or directly to a company's servers — that why many enterprises still use BlackBerry). And it's also compressed — good thing when using slow connections or roaming.

It goes a bit further, because the "network stack" made by RIM is quite comprehensive, including some tweaks to the way they push information to devices, using operator infrastructure (I believe, I might be wrong here) resulting in a very battery-efficient system.

Because of this, RIM is responsible of negotiating with carriers across different countries, and this result, somehow, in the ability to sign up for sub-100$ / month roaming plans (in fact, it's 55$/month on roaming, pro rata, for me in Spain with a major carrier). Of course, it depends on your home carrier, some want you to keep paying an expensive price per megabyte —around 14$/MB when travelling outside the EU— and then some others let you use roaming as long as you're on BIS (so, no tethering), for a variable amount, or even included in the price for large enterprise plans. It varies depending on each operator and country. On the UK for example, MVNO giffgaff includes a small amount of complimentary roaming data, even for PAYG users.

On a side note, that also means you can tether to a BlackBerry PlayBook while roaming, which is fantastic. I have found roaming to be a bit slow-ish (around the speeds of EDGE even under HSPA), but for email and some random browsing, like reading the news while waiting for a flight on some random country, it is definitely worth it.

(And yes, the PlayBook sucks, someone thought it was a brilliant idea to just release and sell a device with a half-finished operating system — but it does the job.)

zaidf2• 14 years ago

Apple is increasingly making me look stupid, something I couldn't imagine happening when the iPhone first came out.

Few days ago I saw a friend of mine unlock her phone using facial recognition. I was amazed. She was surprised at my amazement. I feel lots of iPhone users have similar moments when they see their friends with android use "magical" looking features the iPhone is slow to adopt.

ScottWhigham• 14 years ago

The facial recognition is very cool. Does it take longer than a swipe+pin? I guess it's just a matter of the hardware - how long it takes the camera to focus, how long it takes the chip to process, etc. It's just that I can swipe+pin in probably 1 - 1.5 seconds and I'd be surprised if facial recognition is faster.

zaidf2• 14 years ago

Great question but dont assume speed of unlocking is what everyone based their decision on. I can tell you my mom would rather use facial recognition than entering a pin even if the latter was faster.

She did point out quirks like if her hair isn't brushed it may not work etc. It could well be that the technology isn't polished enough for Apple's standard but I know when I see an Android user use it, I walk away impressed and questioning why my iPhone can't do that.

SeripisChad4• 14 years ago

Takes about the same time to unlock in my experience(EVO 3D).

I'd really prefer for a different unlock method all together. I'd like my phone to be locked in case its lost/stolen, but I'd like it unlock faster. It's be fine wearing a Bluetooth-enabled accessory (ring,tie pin, device secured to the shoes/belt/pants/wallet in some fashion) that would bypass the lock because I'm with-in a given radius to the device.

RivieraKid• 14 years ago

It's usually very fast, around 1 second. In fact, they had to slow it down, because sometimes it recognized the face immediately, making the user wonder whether there's any security check involved. But it's useless at night, which is why I don't use it.

ConstantineXVI3• 14 years ago

Depends on the lighting; can be anywhere between instant and 2s. Trade-off is the camera's useless in the dark, takes maybe 1s for the phone to realize this (or there's an override button) and falls back to pattern/PIN.

hrktb• 14 years ago

If that's what makes you look stupid, I guess it's still pretty good.

Facial recognition doesn't work for everyone nor everywhere. As you put it it's "magical" and when the next guy unlocks your phone with it's face it's also part of the magic.

It reminds me a lot of the same discussion was done for the Bump app, where just bumping two devices together transferred your contact infos. Magic. Except it might not be your contacts but the ones of some random guys bumping roughly at the same time at the next table, or a few kilometers from you. It was part of the magic too. It still worked out 90% of the time, but that's not a feature I'd feel stupid not to have when better, simpler and more reliable ways were available.

Android has really good basic things. I personally don't think shiny magical features are what's to be the most envied.

smackfu• 14 years ago

Another amazing one is someone with the Swype keyboard who is good at it. They can type way faster than I can on the iPhone while looking like they are just scribbling random stuff.

ulyssesgrant2• 14 years ago

my friend was showing me his galaxy nexus with facial unlocking, so I pulled up his Facebook profile picture on my phone and unlocked it ;)

sidcool• 14 years ago

I bought a total of 3 Nexus 4 phones for myself and my friends. All are pleased and so am I.

niklas_a3• 14 years ago

Can only agree with OP. I gave up my iPhone 4 for a Galaxy Nexus this summer and have never looked back.

I think Google can still work on the default look, but I find Android to be very "clean" and quick to work with. Android feels much more like a real operating system. iOS is so restricted and there are many work tasks that I cannot do (e.g. mailing a dropbox file to someone).

Google Now is also amazingly good. And the fact that mail search actually works is a "small" bonus :P

Samsung has also implemented some cool features in the SGS3, like that the screen stays on as long as you look at it. They are just much worse at marketing it. Can you imagine how much Apple would have hyped a similar feature?

robmcm11• 14 years ago

I have always wondered about that feature, and always think.. - What if two people are looking at it. - Does it flick on and off as I look around - Is it using a huge amount of power when ever the screen is on, not only with powering the screen but with powering the camera. - Can I still use my screen as a light, or does is power off when I face it away from me? (I have a flash light app but it's quicker some times to just use the screen). - What if I am holding it sideways and cover the camera with my hand. - What if I am wearing glasses (something that obstructs my eyes) - What if I put glasses on while looking at the phone? - What if it's too dark for the camera

I imagine there are enough facts here that made someone like Apple or Google think it's a bad idea. I expect someone in the Samsung marketing department came up with this idea.

vacri11• 14 years ago

It has a normal screen timeout. When it gets close to the timeout, it looks for 'open eyes looking at me' and if it detects them, stays on. When the screen does turn off, it's like any other timeout - it won't flick back on by newly detecting eyes again.

And no, of course if you're going to use your screen as a flashlight, it's not going to detect your eyes and stay on. If you're not willing to go to the marginal effort of activating a flashlight app, what mechanism do you propose they use to have the phone detect when you're using it as a flashlight-by-screen?

niklas_a3• 14 years ago

1) Just as it is about to lock the screen it checks if someone is looking. Doesn't matter if it's one or two persons. If you're looking away at that instant it locks. A reasonable compromise that ensures it works more than good enough if you're reading an article. 2) It doesn't power off just because you are not looking at it. You can still use the phone as a flashlight. 3) It doesn't work if you're holding it sideways or cover the camera lens. Don't think this is a problem though - again the feature is directed for situations where you are browsing some content or reading an article. 4) It works if you have glasses 5) It doesn't work in low light situations, also a reasonable compromise.

I think the way you have to see it is that you don't really think about the feature. Sometimes you are reading something and notice the screen isn't dimmed. Sometimes when you're reading the screen dims and you have to touch the screen to have it not go into lock mode.

Having used it in practice for a few weeks I can say it's a great feature. I would expect it to show up on iOS and the core Android distribution.

taligent10• 14 years ago

I can email a Dropbox file to someone and search my mail on my iPhone.

Or am I missing something ?

niklas_a3• 14 years ago

I always had to mail a link to the Dropbox file on iOS. And searching for old emails was hit and miss on my iPhone. On Android you're basically using the same search function as on gmail.com.

nasmorn• 14 years ago

I use iPhones exclusively since they came out and I hate the mail search. I basically just give up and wait until I am at a real computer. Incedentially that is very often for me. My wife rarely uses a computer anymore for her this is really troubling. I guess to completely replace a real computer an Android tablet might be the better choice

shinratdr12• 14 years ago

Mailing a Dropbox file directly is only hard on iOS because Dropbox makes it that way. If they offered a "send link" and a "send file" option it would be one step like Android.

Instead I have to kick it to FileExplorer and send it from there. It's not ideal but its also not Apple's fault.

taligent10• 14 years ago

Dropbox offers a Send Link feature.

Have you seriously never used it before ?

finspin2• 14 years ago

The website went down. Here is the cached version of the article: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.241...

SeripisChad4• 14 years ago

GROUP TEXT MESSAGES drive me crazy on android (complete rubbish), iOS has nice user experience for this. If there was one thing I wish google would fix ASAP its this.

TrisMcC• 14 years ago

Group text messages work fine on Android 4.2.

SeripisChad4• 14 years ago

Nice to hear that it's fixed.

Wish I could get my phone updated without rooting it. My friend's iPhone 4 (released June 2010) is now patched up to worked with group messages fine, but my EVO 3D (released June 2011) that's a year younger won't get any updates. Android fragmentation graphic info: http://cdn2.techanalyzer.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Andr...

SeripisChad4• 14 years ago

according to this it's still not implement in stock Android - only patch on certain phones by the carriers. see: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24468

kolleykibber• 14 years ago

The Samsung S3 / Nexus 4 comparison is interesting. I just sold a Nexus 4 and bought an S3. I do prefer stock android, but no sd card, fragility issues and the unremovable battery were a deal breaker for me.

vacri11• 14 years ago

I do see a lot of iPhones with smashed screens but I've only ever seen two or three Androids with smashed screens (and no blackberries). So this probably means that either the androids don't smash easily; that android users don't drop their phones on hard surfaces (unlikely - these are humans we're talking about); or that the iPhone screen is so good it keeps working when smashed and the Android ones don't.

Sample size: public transport users and eatery-goers...

ConstantineXVI3• 14 years ago

Most Android phones don't have glass running all the way to the edge, I'd imagine that's a factor.

Semi-related: I've dropped a pocketknife blade first on a Nokia E71. There's the tiniest scuff on the screen, that's it. (And it's still in active use. Remains the best phone with a keyboard ever built.)

bertomartin• 14 years ago

I was just making the case for investing in Apple on seeking alpha (an investing site). I've seen few people switched to the iPhone and even I was tempted with the release of the iPhone 5. To be honest, I haven't played with an android phone that matches it hardware wise. The lack of nexus 4 devices in the store really hurts google as there's no way one can just walk in a store and 'test' it out, like one can do with the iPhone. You have to make do with youtube unboxing videos, which are good, but leaves much to be desired. FWIW, I'm now seeing the value of iPhone's especially for people already in the eco-system. I could have never seen this before

asc76• 14 years ago

I'm really curious about Android as I've been an avid Apple iPhone user since iPhone first came out. Part of me wants to switch as I love what Google is doing, but I'm hesitant as I'm so entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.

Cl4rity• 14 years ago

It's my opinion that you can't make the assertion that the Nexus 4 is faster than the iPhone 5 by feel. Some people feel like their cars or motorcycles perform better after an oil change and a car wash, but it's psychological. Otherwise, I guess the rest of the article is interesting because it just proves that these "Why I switched" articles are never going to die for whatever reason.

In 2008: "Why I switched from BlackBerry to iPhone" In 2009: "Why I switched from iPhone to give webOS a shot" In 2010: "Why I switched to Windows Phone from iOS" In 2011: "Why I switched to Android from iPhone" In 2012: "Why I switched from X to X because it doesn't even matter anymore"

I get that it gives perspective on the differences between platforms and devices, but these pieces can only be so narrow because it's only one person's perspective.

stevewilhelm• 14 years ago

I manage my media assets (music, podcasts, video, photos, apps) across several devices (phones, ipods, tables, and laptop) using iTunes.

Can anyone speak to how well switching one iPhone to a Nexus would work in this type of senario?

WickyNilliams3• 14 years ago

I believe that doubleTwist is able to sync with an itunes library (or at least it used to, and it was it's major selling point so i can't imagine that's changed). It has a desktop app and a mobile counterpart.

zemanel• 14 years ago

Have a Macbook Pro for a couple of years.

I had an Iphone 3 once i liked it very much. Now i have a lowly ZTE Aqua with Android 4.0.3 and i'm very satisfied. Tried an Iphone 5 at a store and Ipad's and found the UI, boring.

In my opinion, Apple's "chromed" UI is getting old and would really love something more fresh, either on iOS and OSX.

jolohaga• 14 years ago

This confirms everything I will ever know and believe.

sourc3• 14 years ago

I am getting frustrated with all these mobile os posts. Reminds me of the desktop OS wars people took pride in joining.

Everyone's needs are different; some people love customization and hacking their phone. Others get it to just conform to the majority. Some even get it because it's free.

Platforms evolve with different visions. The beauty of the era we are in is the fact that services like Amazon Cloud Player, Dropbox and Spotify let you be on whatever platform you wish without losing your "services".

Am I the only one who doesn't care what OS they use as long as texting/podcasting/web browsing/music is available?

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

My huge problem with iOS (and Apple in general) is the obsession with constantly making you enter passwords. Sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I am convinced the codebase mainly consists of password entering routines interspersed with small bits of other functionality. iOS's inability to share between apps also means usernames and passwords have to be constantly re-entered there too (eg every app that supports Dropbox requires entering a username and password in each app).

This Apple disease spreads elsewhere. I had to enter my username and password on their developer site, and some web developer at Apple had gone to great lengths to prevent you from pasting your password into the password field. (I don't know that password - it is stored in a password management program.)

I can't for the life of me understand why the Apple faithful put up with this nonsense.

el_cuadrado• 14 years ago

I, for one, would like to have more passwords in iOS. Like password-protecting my email app, file sharing app, and others.

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

Do you mean different passwords for different services (eg a specific password for Apple email versus a different password for iTunes store?) or that you want access to individual apps password protected?

For the latter Android has the concept of multiple users but only on tablets. It isn't that useful as you can't for example create limited access guest accounts, only full blown ones. And software can't be made accessible the new users unless they create a google account in order to access the play store, even if already installed. It also turned off face recognition for me.

The one thing Android did get right (but not perfect) is having a central account manager. Any service can add itself - for example the Github and Dropbox apps do. Any app (with permissions) can request access to accounts that require user interaction to confirm. However the app does not get a password, but instead a token that has to be periodically renewed.

sbuk3• 14 years ago

This is simply not true. Also the language you are using is deliberately incendiary.

pirateking• 14 years ago

Does not compare the security model of the two platforms. This is the number one factor for me (and dare I say, should be for everyone). I don't know much about the Android security model - does it have any advantages over iOS?

drucken2• 14 years ago

Extremely detailed video comparison and review of Google Nexus 4 versus Samsung Galaxy S3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D30vBWCWCnI

rdl• 14 years ago

I still like my iPhone and iPad, but I could see moving to Android in 1-2 generations. Apple's first-party software quality is declining, and not being able to override it is grating and limiting improvements.

The two things which keep me from moving to Android are: 1) My ~$500 or so in purchased applications. Vendors should allow a one-time return of purchased apps on one platform to get them for the other, or just give both iOS and Android licenses for the same price if there's a way to prove the phone belongs to the same human. Admittedly 99% of what I really care about is free or <$100 total (Kindle, 1Password, Facebook, web, email, ssh pretty much cover my use).

2) Lack of hardware platform security features on most Android devices (semi-supported on the S3, apparently, but I'd only ever buy a Nexus device). If Google developed a Nexus 4+, 7+, 10+ with apple or blackberry level hw security, I'd probably switch, particularly if there were a way for an enterprise to essentially replicate the Google Apps management of devices with a simple self-hosted server (i.e. root of trust being enterprise, vs. Google or Apple).

An iPhone lover’s confession: I switched to the Nexus 4

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