# IOS V Android



## TheDispossessed (Sep 27, 2015)

Ok Everyone,
You should know me by now. I'm the guy who cooked for like, a little while professionally and occasionally chimes in with useless advice but mostly derails thread with my ADD and starts new ones that die within 2 pages.
So, why not start a flame war, completely and wholly unrelated to the world of quality kitchen cutlery.
IOS v Android, Apple vs All the other dudes....
No seriously, I've been all Apple all the time for like, I don't know, at least a decade but as my beloved iPhone 4S gets almost geriatric I find I'm just not thrilled with what their churning out these days, and tempted to jump ship. 
I also like run on sentences.
So just curious, who prefers what here? The internet and the world at large has suggested these three things basically.
Apple has better build quality
Android offers greater customization
Apple has a smoother overall user experience (kinda vague there i guess...)
Ok people, get nasty!


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## knyfeknerd (Sep 27, 2015)

I HATE APPLE. 
Android is pretty freaking sweet. Been on it for a while now. I will never buy anything Apple ever again. 
To each his own though, some people are just Apple people. I don't hold it against them, but it does suck if I try to share a piece of say.....media with them. Apple HATES anything that isn't from iTunes.......
Apple sucks.


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## brainsausage (Sep 27, 2015)

I prefer the look and feel of IOS. It feels smoother and less gimmicky than androids stuff. Apple makes phones for adults. And Chris just has terrible taste in everything but knives and hip-hop, so don't listen to anything he says&#128536;


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## Zwiefel (Sep 27, 2015)

Never been a fan of Apple software, but always loved their hardware...with the exception of the their mobile devices, which I love whole-heartedly. A great deal more reliable than the Android devices....according to surveys of Android users


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## Nick_Hall (Sep 27, 2015)

+1 Android. I changed the battery on my Samsung Galaxy this morning in 20 seconds, with a $15 OEM battery. It was no more difficult than changing the batteries in a tv remote. 

With an iPhone that cost $100 and you have to drive to an Apple store and wait for an hour or more for a Genius Bar employee to do it. That's reason enough for me to stick to android.


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## turbochef422 (Sep 27, 2015)

I loved the android I had years ago but switched to apple because at the time they were killing it. Now I'm not so enthused with my apple products specifically my iPhone 5s but everyone around who has switched complains just as much. Maybe we are all spoiled


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## daveb (Sep 27, 2015)

The Droid here. Chris has this one but his music taste is for chit.:cool2:


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## ecchef (Sep 27, 2015)

I like android. Still working ok on my 5 year old Galaxy S.


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## chinacats (Sep 27, 2015)

Droid...more options...and more buttons.


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## marc4pt0 (Sep 27, 2015)

Memory card slot and interchangeable battery alone will always trump IOS. 
My wife is all apple. Why? Because it's easy. And trendy. I prefer the more customizable options the android offers. I like being able to fully tailor this piece of equipment that is for the most part on my person every minute of the day (save for sleep time).
Fun fact: the Samsung Uproar came out in 2000. It was billed as the first phone with built in mp3 player. It bombed because the market had no interest in it. I loved that little Zoolander-ish tiny phone.


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## marc4pt0 (Sep 27, 2015)

Sorry, I meant to say trendy amongst her friends and coworkers.
And sadly the new Samsung s6 doesn't offer the memory card slot or interchangeable battery. I fear Samsung is leaning towards the "can't beat em, join em" side of money making. What a shame. Think I'll be sticking with the S5 for quite some time. ..


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## Talim (Sep 27, 2015)

Win10 beats either one.


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## panda (Sep 28, 2015)

Windows phone, it's retard proof. Been Nokia user for years now.


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## TheDispossessed (Sep 28, 2015)

you guys are so nice to each other compared to the angry masses on the tech forums and blogs


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## ecchef (Sep 28, 2015)

Maybe because there's no room for wabi-sabi in that world. And the technology doesn't become obsolete after 5 minutes.


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## Dardeau (Sep 28, 2015)

I use an iPhone because everyone I work with also uses an iPhone. This makes sharing contacts much easier. Most of the files go to google drive anyway. 

After a few years of not having a computer I'm starting to think about buying a used or budget or both laptop. My last computer was a MacBook Pro that I had for about five years, but all my files were removed and put on an external hard drive in Windows format. 

So I take the question further to OSX v. Windows. The lady has a chromebook that would suit me perfectly if a couple of things were supported without having to run Linux. I am not about to nerd out that hard.


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## aboynamedsuita (Sep 28, 2015)

I have an iPhone because it's what we all use at work so it's easier for comparability. We all used to be blackberry but corporate IT made 99% of staff switch unless exempted by departmental director.

I really liked my blackberry because I was able to manage my files similar to a PC. I don't have experience with android but I HATE iOS for this. Having to do everything with iTunes and a PITA to do anything manually; I keep my fingers crossed every time I hit "sync" because once it f'ed up. We're supposed to be doing a pilot project with Microsoft Surface and it may be interesting to see what becomes of it


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## ThEoRy (Sep 28, 2015)

I use Android Nexus devices exclusively for a pure stock experience. Buttery smooth OS, no jank, no gimmicks, just pure unadulterated Android. Being a nexus device you also get access to system updates prior to anyone else so I'll be seeing 6.0 Marshmallow very soon. VS IOS isn't even a contest. Customization is beyond compare. 

I like how every time there's an IOS update they add something "new" that I've been doing for 2-3 years already on Android. Pull down notification bar, widgets, mobile payments, large screens. Welcome to 2011 Apple users.


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## TheDispossessed (Sep 28, 2015)

ThEoRy said:


> I use Android Nexus devices exclusively for a pure stock experience. Buttery smooth OS, no jank, no gimmicks, just pure unadulterated Android. Being a nexus device you also get access to system updates prior to anyone else so I'll be seeing 6.0 Marshmallow very soon. VS IOS isn't even a contest. Customization is beyond compare.
> 
> I like how every time there's an IOS update they add something "new" that I've been doing for 2-3 years already on Android. Pull down notification bar, widgets, mobile payments, large screens. Welcome to 2011 Apple users.



I'm waiting to see how the new nexus 5 they're unveiling soon will be. Heard a lot of positive things thus far.


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## CoqaVin (Sep 28, 2015)

yea I have the nexus 6, the new nexus 5x and 6p sound intriguing


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## marc4pt0 (Sep 28, 2015)

I remember Steve Jobs saying the iphone will _never_ have a large (in today's standards) screen. He said that was what tablets were for. Once Steve passed away, the very next iphone that came out had a larger (taller) screen. And now they've gotten even larger. I think the 6plus is just too big. It's like the Samsung note, or better yet, a 2x4. Just obnoxious in my opinion. However, I think the metal body of the iphone is pretty choice. Overall the iphone takes it in the look/feel department. Very nice build, save for the initial reports of the phone bending in one's pocket. 
Iphone also gets a few programs others don't. Like the recently released Adobe Lightroom program. It doesn't do a whole lot actually, but it's a big step in a great direction. One that leaves me with a little iphone envy.
But, I feel like everyone I know w/ an iphone has a cracked or chipped screen.


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## Matus (Sep 28, 2015)

I love my unibody 13" macbook (the first version from 2008, also the first 64bit macbook - still going strong and upgraded to to 8GB RAM), but I just do not see the value in a phone that cost 2/3 of a macbook (if you want some reasonable amount of memory). On top of that since the hardware does not change all that much in last 2-3 years, the makes force you to get a new phone via stopping the OS updates. On iPhone you have no alternative, on Android, you can just get CyanogenMod and keep the phone compatible with updates of your favorite apps. Actually - I have just got (from my mom, now that feels a bit odd  ) a used Galaxy S4 mini that I am about to put the CM on (just ordered 64GB mcroSD - look at how much apple charges for that!).

Do not get me wrong - once my MacBook gives up I will get a new one, no doubt. But iPhone cost about twice as much as the value I personally see in a phone. And yeah, that stuff with iTunes sucks. I try to use iTunes on my mac and hate it to bits. Incredibly annoying interface imo. Makes me wonder whether Apple outsourced that development to Microsoft


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## LeperoftheFaith (Sep 28, 2015)

If i wasnt already heavily invested in iOS apps I would have switched to android. However, if you jailbreak your iphone you can customize just like an android device. Been jailbreaking the last 4 years and find iOS infuriating without it.


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## Bill13 (Sep 28, 2015)

panda said:


> Windows phone, it's retard proof. Been Nokia user for years now.



Windows phone user too. Of course I was a big Betamax proponent too so take it with a grin of salt! Love the OS of WP think it smokes Apple, but damn they need more sales so they can have more apps. Love my live tiles.


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## panda (Sep 28, 2015)

do you have a current one? the headphone jack on my lumia 925 is no longer working and the battery life is dwindling quite a bit so it's time for an upgrade and thinking about getting a lumia 930 once microsoft releases a new one so the prices drop considerably for nokia stuff.


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## Smurfmacaw (Sep 28, 2015)

iPhone 6+......best phone ever. I used to get .75 days of battery life. 6+ gets 2+ days easily with the same amount of usage. Worth every penny. Still fits in my pocket so beats the heck out of the phablets.


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## TurboScooter (Sep 29, 2015)

I'm not a "fan" really. I'll go with whatever offers me what I feel best suits my needs. Despite what zealots say, one way or another, everything has its own set of stupid and annoying issues.

I only got a smartphone in April of 2014; I'd been using the same phone for the previous 7 years. My battery was bad, so I tried to impulse upgrade to a iPhone 4 or 4s once during that time, but the store was out of stock. I ended up buying a battery on eBay for $5 or whatever and used it for another few years. Battery was dying again so I was looking at getting a new phone again, and my mother managed to break her flip phone completely in half. If I got her a smartphone I knew I'd be doing tech support for it, so I wanted identical/similar phones.

Probably the biggest single factor that swayed me in favor of the iPhone was each OEM for Android puts their own UI on it, so you get a fragmented user base with different UIs. With the iPhone, for better or worse, there's only one UI (well, there are different versions of iOS out at the same time, but you know what I mean).

One thing I did discover helping someone with their Samsung Note is that when you install an app on Android it pretty much just says I am going to access these features/parts of your phone (contacts, photos, camera, etc). On an iPhone those access permissions are granular. For example, I can give an app access to my photos, but not my contact list. I prefer the granular permissions, even though it's more complex in a sense.

Apple's build quality is always touted versus the competition, but it hasn't played out that way in reality for me. My iPhone has been replaced twice - the original had a volume up button that died, and the replacement developed a problem with the display in about a month. My MacBook Pro Retina had a swollen battery and a failing hard drive; when it was fixed it came back with a defective trackpad, so it went right back in again. The trackpad is part of the top case, which was replaced, along with almost everything but the display, with a new one when it went in for the battery and hard drive. OTOH my Lenovo W540 is probably a bigger POS in almost every way, so...


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Sep 29, 2015)

TurboScooter said:


> One thing I did discover helping someone with their Samsung Note is that when you install an app on Android it pretty much just says I am going to access these features/parts of your phone (contacts, photos, camera, etc). On an iPhone those access permissions are granular. For example, I can give an app access to my photos, but not my contact list. I prefer the granular permissions, even though it's more complex in a sense.


I like you comment in general, but the quoted part is not really true. Android DOES offers granular access permission mechanism. It's a big question why most vendors ignore it (even google's own nexus devices had it turned off). But the API is there and I've seen a number of devices that does use it. So their access permission mechanism works very similar to iOS. My xiaomi mi4 gives me full control over all permissions for every app. 

Being a professional android developer for 2 years I've seen a lot of crap inside of Android system: poorly written code, crappy API, bugs here and there. And crazy vendors that keep on crippling android with their own stuff so you code might behave differently on every device. That makes android development much more harder compared to iOS. But iOS has it's own pitfalls and after using iPhone for several years and different Android device for several years I don't have any strong preferences. They both are able to do their work.

Right now I use Android (and for the first time I think that custom UI makes it better than stock android), but I'd get an iphone if their prices were similar. With 2-3x prices difference I don't see reasons to switch (In Russia we don't have contracts and you just need to pay full retail price for any device, and my xiaomi mi4 is comparable to iphone6 in features, but 2.5x less expensive). And I still remember the crappy experience with iTunes, so that's also a minor thing that keeps me from returning to iOS.

Apple has been borrowing ideas from Android and vice versa. Right now I don't think you can easily count who have borrowed more. And both systems seems to benefit from that borrowing. I don't really care if Android had notification shade long before iOS. Or if iPhone users had finger sensors long before they became common in android. And It doesn't really important who was the first one, as good ideas seems to be copied by everyone pretty quickly.

Both systems are good with their own pros and cons, but there's no silver bullet. Just choose what suits you best.


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## Bill13 (Sep 29, 2015)

panda said:


> do you have a current one? the headphone jack on my lumia 925 is no longer working and the battery life is dwindling quite a bit so it's time for an upgrade and thinking about getting a lumia 930 once microsoft releases a new one so the prices drop considerably for nokia stuff.



I will upgrade to the 950 when my 929 or Icon dies (I'm on Verizon). It has been leaked to have a 20MP main camera, a 3,000 mAH removable battery , hurray!, iris scanner, wireless charging, and a micro SD slot.


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## TurboScooter (Sep 29, 2015)

icanhaschzbrgr said:


> I like you comment in general, but the quoted part is not really true. Android DOES offers granular access permission mechanism. It's a big question why most vendors ignore it (even google's own nexus devices had it turned off). But the API is there and I've seen a number of devices that does use it. So their access permission mechanism works very similar to iOS. My xiaomi mi4 gives me full control over all permissions for every app.
> 
> Being a professional android developer for 2 years I've seen a lot of crap inside of Android system: poorly written code, crappy API, bugs here and there. And crazy vendors that keep on crippling android with their own stuff so you code might behave differently on every device. That makes android development much more harder compared to iOS. But iOS has it's own pitfalls and after using iPhone for several years and different Android device for several years I don't have any strong preferences. They both are able to do their work.
> 
> ...



Can you expand on this a little or maybe throw up some links that explain this in non dev terms?

I probably should have put the caveat "as far as I know" since I don't interact with Android at all except when I have to help someone with their phone, and that's a rare occurence. I only did some quick searching at the time, but I do recall it was something like this - http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...used-for-internal-testing-and-debugging-only/ - the granular control was there, and then was taken away/hidden. Sounds like now it's back again?

So are the granular permissions in Android device dependent? I mean, if the API is there but the end user can't access the feature it's kind of useless, no? To them the feature doesn't exist. This kind of reinforces my feeling about the fragmented experience, and why I went the iPhone route.

As an aside, when I was shopping, I knew at the time I either wanted a Nexus device, or at most a Moto X (if I went Android) since my impression was it was just a light modification of vanilla Android. Then Motorola got offloaded to Lenovo shortly thereafter, and given what they've done to the Thinkpads, I'm glad I didn't.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Sep 29, 2015)

TurboScooter said:


> So are the granular permissions in Android device dependent? I mean, if the API is there but the end user can't access the feature it's kind of useless, no? To them the feature doesn't exist. This kind of reinforces my feeling about the fragmented experience, and why I went the iPhone route.



Well, from my understanding the wide (official) access to granular permissions will arrive with next Android version (which is 6.x or Android M). So if you use Nexus you should be able to benefit from this early on. BUT the API was there since Android 4.3, and potentially vendors could allow end users to get access to granular permissions control. Most vendors followed the default route where granular permissions control is disabled, so their users couldn't access that feature. But some vendors (for example Huawei and Xiaomi) enabled that feature in their firmware. So if your vendor (or the makers of custom firmware) decided to keep granular permissions controls off, then end users couldn't do anything about it. 

Fragmented experience, as you called it, is both the benefit and the downside of having so many different Android devices in the wild.


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## panda (Sep 29, 2015)

How do you like the icon? 930 is the same thing but for non Verizon. I'm on the fence it might be too big with a 5" screen.


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## Bill13 (Sep 30, 2015)

panda said:


> How do you like the icon? 930 is the same thing but for non Verizon. I'm on the fence it might be too big with a 5" screen.



I love it. It's size can make it a bit tough to dial using one hand, but I mostly ask Cortana to dial my contacts. The 20MP camera is killer and the settings menu pretty extensive. I've got KKF pined to my start screen


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## Lizzardborn (Oct 5, 2015)

If you are a tech savy tinkerer - Android.

Benefits: 

1. Easier root and unlocked bootloader

2. Firewall

3. Xposed (that is middle layer between kernel and runtime and allows you to do stuff - simulated contact lists for example.

4. Modded games - being able to bypass some insane monetization schemes ala Candy Crush is nice.

5. Custom kernels with custom governors.

6. Bigger screens.

7. Device design to your liking.

iOS benefits:

Kinda works out of the box. 

Consistent experience.

Unmatched battery life.


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## TheDispossessed (Oct 5, 2015)

Thanks for the input everyone!
I've done a lot of research and basically concluded I'd prefer to stay with iOS, but Apple phones have gotten to be too expensive. 
The fact that they (and many others) offer 16gb phones is kind of a dick move IMO, and Apple in particular hits you hard for more storage. 
So I'm gonna try and rock my 4s to the bitter end and see how far I get. I may try a Nexus 5x or at worst replace it with an iPhone 5s off eBay if she doesn't make it till next fall.


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## sharptools (Oct 5, 2015)

In general I dislike Apple but for the phone definitely iOS. There are a lot of tiny little nagging things about Android that add up to bother me when using the phone. For example scrolling is never done quite right (you would think this would be immaculate given how basic it is.) and when I owned an Android, I waited so long for the vendor to release an update that I just ended up getting a new phone. While this is not true for all apps, quite often, Android feels like an afterthought for app makers.


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