iOS5 and iCloud

[Drew Dowdell]

While listening to the features list for iOS5 and hearing people cheer. I came to start wondering what all the big fuss was about. A lot of what is being announce has been available on Android for a while now.

My Android is an ancient by phone standards, HTC Hero that has been upgraded to version 2.1. This phone came standard with version 1.6. This is basically the 1965 Chevrolet Malibu 6-cylinder of Android phones. It's not flashy, not fast, but it starts up every morning and runs.

This chart is just what I know from my experiences with my old phone. Newer phones with newer versions of Android (which is up to version 2.3 now) will have even more. BTW, my phone as been able to do software updates on itself over the air since launch. I never understood why the iPhone couldn't do this. Androids also have a build in Voice Turn-by-Turn navigation system which isn't available for free on iPhone

This is why I don't get why iOS5 is a big deal.

<table frame="VOID" rules="NONE" border="0" cellspacing="0" cols="5"> <colgroup><col width="179"><col width="199"><col width="274"><col width="157"><col width="332"></colgroup> <tbody> <tr> <td width="179" align="LEFT" height="17">iOS Feature</td> <td width="199" align="LEFT">Available on Android?</td> <td width="274" align="LEFT">Called?</td> <td width="157" align="LEFT">Since when?</td> <td width="332" align="LEFT">Other Notes:</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Notification Center</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Default install</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">At least Summer 2009</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">iMessage</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Part of Google App Suite</td> <td align="LEFT">Features in GoogleVoice and GoogleChat</td> <td align="LEFT">years</td> <td align="LEFT">Can even give you a FREE additional phone number</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">NewsStand</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – App Download</td> <td align="LEFT">Kindle or Nook apps</td> <td align="LEFT">a little over a year</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Reminders</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Default Install</td> <td align="LEFT">Part of Gmail suite of apps</td> <td align="LEFT">Since Launch</td> <td align="LEFT">Syncs with Thunderbird, Outlook, Gmail calendar</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Twitter</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Default Install</td> <td align="LEFT">Peep</td> <td align="LEFT">Since Launch</td> <td align="LEFT">Tweetdeck app is better, but peep is there.</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="32">Camera</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Some phones</td> <td align="LEFT">Some of the newest Androids have dedicated camera buttons</td> <td align="RIGHT">2011</td> <td align="LEFT">Manufacturer dependent </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="47">Photos</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes-- Partially</td> <td align="LEFT">Photos</td> <td align="LEFT">Since Launch</td> <td align="LEFT">iOS5 can do more detailed photo editing, but Android can crop and sync with Flicker, Facebook, or UbuntuOne</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Safari</td> <td align="LEFT">No</td> <td align="LEFT">Firefox, Opera, Dolphin...take your pick</td> <td align="LEFT">Since Launch</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">PC Free</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">Since version 1.6</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">iCloud Feature</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="32">Stream Music Library</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes</td> <td align="LEFT">UbuntuOne or Amazon Cloud Player</td> <td align="LEFT">18 months for U1, 8 months for Amazon</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Sync Docs</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes</td> <td align="LEFT">UbuntuOne, DropBox</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Photos</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes</td> <td align="LEFT">UbuntuOne, DropBox</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Calendar, Contacts, Mail</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes – Default Install</td> <td align="LEFT">Calendar, Contacts, Mail</td> <td align="LEFT">Launch</td> <td align="LEFT">The basic premise of Gmail</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" height="17">Backup</td> <td align="LEFT">Yes</td> <td align="LEFT">UbuntuOne or Dropbox</td> <td align="LEFT">

</td> <td align="LEFT">Keep it in the cloud, no need to backup</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

[Drew Dowdell]

Oh yea, UbuntuOne and Dropbox sync across ALL of my devices, not just iOS, OSX, and Windows. So I can use Linux on my laptop, Windows7Mobile on my phone and sync it with an iPad or even a wifi enabled digital camera.

[Nick]

I read through a bit of the keynote and I was quite underwhelmed. The updates they brought along are much needed and should've been incorporated some time ago into the device, but in true Apple form, they seem to tout it as innovative. This is typical though, and I'm not surprised. I'm not one for the fanboy wars between Android and iOS. The mobile market has come to the point where innovation is plateauing a bit, and now the goal is who can make the best copy. This update isn't as significant as I was expecting, and it would've been nice to see something more substantial. Apple typically does a good job of pushing the competition to outdo them, and now it looks like the tables are turning, except Apple is falling behind.

I have an iphone, but I don't pay much attention to these ios updates anymore. I have been thoroughly convinced for some time that this phone just isn't for me. In fact, I really can no longer stand it...I've been jonesing for a new device.

I'm not quite set yet with Android, though I know they have some of the best devices out right now, as well as the greatest functionality. In the meantime, I'm holding out for Nokia to release a mango WP7 device. It is by far my favorite interface, and with the mango update it will have features that will put it right at the top of the pack with everyone else. The only thing that has been stopping me so far is all the lackluster hardware. With quality Nokia hardware behind it I will finally have a reason to get one.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm not so much and Android fan boy as much as I don't see the allure of the iPhone verses it's cost. One of the biggest things that sold me on the Android over the iPhone originally (besides not being on AT&T) was the inclusion of not one, but two voice turn-by-turn apps for FREE. I found that one feature to be far more important than flinging birds at pigs or even syncing with my iTunes library. (Which, of course, there is now an App for that).

My phone is due for replacement soon only because it's falling far behind in processor performance and Android OS. Otherwise, it works well and already does all of those new things that iOS5 can do.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's another thing that I've always found odd about the iphone...no decent native navigation apps. It looks like that's not going to change any time soon. The only allure of the iphone is the build, in my opinion. As far as the interface goes, the grid of icons is simple, but boring and dated. There is no allure there for me. The hardware is nice, though. I will give Apple that.

[balthazar]

If your phone is a '65 Malibu, mine is a '29 Model A with a 4-banger.... and i LIKE it that way.

Yet... no one is surprised by that here...

Edited June 7, 2011 by balthazar

[Drew Dowdell]

If your phone is a '65 Malibu, mine is a '29 Model A with a 4-banger.... and i LIKE it that way.

Yet... no one is surprised by that here...

[Cory Wolfe]

Android is okay... but its buggy. Many Android phones have been plagued with issues such as random deletions of all your messages, ringtones, etc. Some seem to have problems with suddenly rebooting as well. All in all, iOS is more stable. It's also works with more fluidity and precision than Android.

With that said, iOS is not nearly as innovative and lacking customization. It's a simplistic platform by all means. Not to mention, itunes is both a blessing and a curse. It's great for accessibility to downloading and syncing, but then your stuck with the prices associated with such. Android offers many apps at a reduced cost or even no cost whatsoever like the aforementioned Nav app. And then there is the whole issue of widgets that iOS completely foregos.

[balthazar]

^ That dude above is on the 1896 Quadracycle of cell phones.... mine isn't THAT bad.

[Robert Hall]

If your phone is a '65 Malibu, mine is a '29 Model A with a 4-banger.... and i LIKE it that way.

Yet... no one is surprised by that here...

Does it have a rotary dial and weigh 5 pounds?

[Robert Hall]

I was a long time Verizon customer when I got my 1st gen Motorola Droid about a year old now...I've been happy with it...one of the details that attracted me to this specific phone was the physical keyboard, though I find I use it very little..I'm comfortable w/ the touch screen now. As far as apps go, I use Gmail, Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, Chase bank, Mint (horrible buggy mess), and a few others..the OS has updated a couple times, I think it's up to 2.3 now.

It's my first smartphone--I was a late adopter to smartphones after about 15 years of flip phones before (though I've had corporate Blackberrys before)...and I find it more than useful enough that I rarely ever take my laptop with me when I go out of town for the weekend or on a vacation. Only negative is the battery life, it seems to barely last through the workday w/ average use. I rarely even use my digital camera anymore (Sony Cybershot)--the phone camera is fine for general use and posts to Facebook pretty simply.

I haven't bothered loading any music on it, I still have my iPod Classic + iTunes for that.

What I'm interested in seeing is how the tablets develop...the iPad seems to be the dominant player, and there a bunch of Android-based ones out there, but how will the market look in a year?

I have a Kindle for books, but have thought about a tablet of some sort...would be lighter than my laptop for living room surfing while watching TV, etc...

Edited June 7, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Potluck]

the whole idea of iphone and itunes and imac is that everything is in sync all the time and "just works".... whether that is worth the price or not is up to you.

[SAmadei]

Android is okay... but its buggy. Many Android phones have been plagued with issues such as random deletions of all your messages, ringtones, etc. Some seem to have problems with suddenly rebooting as well. All in all, iOS is more stable. It's also works with more fluidity and precision than Android.

I've yet to find any buggy problems with Androids... assuming we are talking about a pure Android setup. Once Verizon bastardizes it, all bets are off. You want to see buggy... look at what the carriers (esp. Verizon) have done to bring Blackberries to their knees.

Cyanogen is your friend.

[Drew Dowdell]

My problems with android bugs seem to be app specific. Tweetdeck, mint and grindr are all very buggy for me. Others not at all.

[Robert Hall]

Android is okay... but its buggy. Many Android phones have been plagued with issues such as random deletions of all your messages, ringtones, etc. Some seem to have problems with suddenly rebooting as well. All in all, iOS is more stable. It's also works with more fluidity and precision than Android.

I've yet to find any buggy problems with Androids... assuming we are talking about a pure Android setup. Once Verizon bastardizes it, all bets are off. You want to see buggy... look at what the carriers (esp. Verizon) have done to bring Blackberries to their knees.

Cyanogen is your friend.

I haven't bothered w/ rooting mine yet... I've had a few minor issues w/ mine, mostly it locking up and requiring a hard reboot when I open too many apps at once and battery life. All in all, though been happy w/ my Droid. Not sure what my next phone will be...will have to check across the various Droid models Verizon offers in a year or so.

A coworker brought in his new Samsung Droid Charge from Verizon today...looks pretty slick--4G LTE, 1ghz processor, Android 2.2..

Edited June 7, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Robert Hall]

My problems with android bugs seem to be app specific. Tweetdeck, mint and grindr are all very buggy for me. Others not at all.

Mint for android is a steaming pile... it's not synched w/ the website, has no way to delete notifications, etc. I've been frustrated enough w/ Mint (both on the phone and the website) that I'm still sticking w/ MS Money for my serious stuff...(though I've thought about switching to Quicken).

[Nick]

the whole idea of iphone and itunes and imac is that everything is in sync all the time and "just works".... whether that is worth the price or not is up to you.

That idea is lost on me...itunes is the biggest load of garbage on my computer. I rarely ever sync anymore because using itunes is just too poor of an experience. I'm pretty sure my iphone has crashed on me more than anything I've ever owned (especially when I first got it. It got a bit better after some updates, and then got really crappy on 4.0).

[Drew Dowdell]

Ms money has been discontinued.

You dismiss alerts in mint by pressing and holding the alert. Dismiss all is also an option under there. My mint syncs just fine with the website. It's just that the app crashes on me often.

[Robert Hall]

Ms money has been discontinued.

I know..still works fine though..after using for over 15 years, it's hard to give it up...

You dismiss alerts in mint by pressing and holding the alert. Dismiss all is also an option under there.

Thanks. I hadn't figured out how to get rid of them..had 175 of 'em..

My mint syncs just fine with the website. It's just that the app crashes on me often.

It crashes on me, doesn't seem to stay in sync..some accounts seem to be off a day or so on the app...

[Blake Noble]

I like my 3GS. Do I love it? Well, no. That's too extreme of a term.

What attracted me to an iPhone was this: integration. I was an early adopter of the iPod touch, having once owned a first-generation model running the first incarnation of the iOS. I felt comfortable using it, liked the fact it offered quite a lot of content for an iPod, and was at the point where I felt the traditional iPod click wheel was a rather cumbersome thing (that also became weaker and weaker with wear). When it was stolen, I replaced it with a second-gen model. I was lugging around various cell phones at the time and hated having that much stuff on my person since I'm constantly listening to music and having something portable that can play mp3 files is ideal. When it came time to get a new phone and a new iPod, well, the iPhone was the next step. iTunes isn't the best way ever made to manage mp3 files, but I'm comfortable with using it and it's still better than WMP.

Is Android better? I don't think it really is that much better, although I will concede that I wish my phone could run Firefox (Safari sucks and Opera for iPhone is horrible) and The Weather Channel app for Android is light years ahead of what I have (TWC app for iPhone constantly crashes and the weather information is always 10 minutes out of date versus Android). Nothing there is an absolute deal breaker or anything that makes me tip the scales in favor of one cell phone OS over the other. iOS and Android both have their bugs and both can lag. As BV mentioned earlier, iOS is minimalistic and isn't really forward thinking but it I think it's a touch more stable than Android. Apple, though, still needs to allow for greater third party and individual customization; this is a definite Android strong suit as it's a much more open OS.

Hopefully Apple will make the iPhone 4GS (5G? whatever they're going to call the damn thing) less of a turd than the current 4G model. Anyone remember The Grip of Death? I do and it was an embarrassment. I was quick to steer any relatives I knew of toward the 3GS when they were considering an iPhone.

I'm due for an upgrade in November so fingers crossed that the 4GS will be worthy enough to replace my 3GS.

[Drew Dowdell]

Well it's not so much of a "which is better" discussion, because different people have different needs.

This is more of a discussion about people worshiping at the alter of Steve Jobs, calling these upgrades great innovations, when in fact they've been available on a competing platform for a while.

It's kinda like SMK praising BMW for coming out with heads up display, night vision, and automatic high beams.

[frogger]

I've got a Blackberry for work, HTC Desire Android phone for personal, and an iPad.. I like and loathe them all, for different reasons, all of which have been discussed in this thread already. My Desire reboots randomly about once a day, no pattern to why, and lags pretty good sometimes probably due to it allowing a lot of multitasking and poorly written apps. My Blackberry has few worthwhile apps and too small screen. My iPad uses iTunes, which I really don't like, so I don't bother synching more than once a month or so (I don't put music on it). iOS 5 looks like it has some nice upgrades (wireless synching, notification system), but I really don't have a lot of use for the cloud.

I tried a few honeycomb tablets and was not impressed. Honeycomb has a long way to go. Dual core tablets should not feel slower than one year old single core hardware.

Edited June 10, 2011 by frogger

[Drew Dowdell]

My problems with android bugs seem to be app specific. Tweetdeck, mint and grindr are all very buggy for me. Others not at all.

Mint for android is a steaming pile... it's not synched w/ the website, has no way to delete notifications, etc. I've been frustrated enough w/ Mint (both on the phone and the website) that I'm still sticking w/ MS Money for my serious stuff...(though I've thought about switching to Quicken).

Mint has been releasing a series of updates for their Android app and it has improved dramatically in the last month or two.

[Robert Hall]

My problems with android bugs seem to be app specific. Tweetdeck, mint and grindr are all very buggy for me. Others not at all.

Mint for android is a steaming pile... it's not synched w/ the website, has no way to delete notifications, etc. I've been frustrated enough w/ Mint (both on the phone and the website) that I'm still sticking w/ MS Money for my serious stuff...(though I've thought about switching to Quicken).

Mint has been releasing a series of updates for their Android app and it has improved dramatically in the last month or two.

It's definitely become better..most of the issues I had with it have been resolved..most recent update made the fonts larger I noticed. The really wierd issues I had (duplicate accounts showing, etc) have been resolved. Mint still doesn't support JP Morgan (have a 401k there), and a lot of people have groused about that on Mint's forums...oh well.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Drew Dowdell]

Sometimes it isn't a matter of Mint supporting a specific institution, sometimes those institutions cut Mint off. I have a US Airways credit card... it has synced with Mint for years. In May, Mint sent out an email saying that the US Airways card will no longer be supported by Mint due to a request from the financial provider. So Mint won't update my account there now.

Fast forward to last week, US Airways car released their own app for accessing my account... except it only works on iPhone.

asshats

[Robert Hall]

Sometimes it isn't a matter of Mint supporting a specific institution, sometimes those institutions cut Mint off. I have a US Airways credit card... it has synced with Mint for years. In May, Mint sent out an email saying that the US Airways card will no longer be supported by Mint due to a request from the financial provider. So Mint won't update my account there now.

Fast forward to last week, US Airways car released their own app for accessing my account... except it only works on iPhone.

asshats

With JP Morgan, it's apparently the way they do their authentication isn't supported by Mint (according to a Mint CSR). Though apparently it works with Quicken and some other iPhone/etc app that is a Mint competitor (Page One or something like that).