What's so fantastic about Android ?

TheL8Elvis

Philosopher
TheL8Elvis
Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
8,276
In the realm of smart phones and tablets, the two biggest players right now are Google and Apple, with Android and iOS operating systems respectively.

Since we already have a thread going about why apple is so fantastic, I thought maybe we should have a similar thread about why android is so fantastic, so all the Fandroids :p could have the opportunity to talk up thier OS.

Obviously, android is doing very well in the mobile phone market, in the us and worldwide. Not so much in the tablet market.

So why is android great ? Google to, I suppose, since the parts of android that make it great ( the google apps) aren't open source, I think that's fair to include Google.

And although I am an apple fanboy - I think its worth noting my android experiences:
I just installed the CM9 alpha2 (Ice Cream Sandwich (4.03) on my touchpad, and am impressed with the update (versus CM7).
The changes make the OS much more usable, in my opinion.

I've also owned:
pandigital novel - rooted & running 2.0 (now broken)
nook color - rooted & running 2.2/3 (sold)
huawei ideos phone - rooted & ran numerous custom roms (sold)
Nook simple touch - rooted & running 2.1
 
I work in the cellular industry and have the unique opportunity to use any phone from the current Sprint lineup. I end up changing my phone out once every week or two.

To be perfectly honest, speed and core functionality of the iPhone and the higher end Androids (Epic Touch, HTC Design, HTC EVO 3D, etc) is virtually identical to the layman.
The App Store and the Market Place have almost all the same apps (with a few notable exceptions, like my beloved LogMeIn), so app availability is no longer this issue it was 2 years ago.

I end up preferring the Android phones - specifically the Epic Touch - more and more because of how sync'd they are with Google Products, the hordes of customization options out there with user created ROMs, the easier to use virtual keyboard, the fact that they aren't made out of brittle glass, removable storage, and the HUGE screen on the Epic Touch specifically.

I'm currently using the iPhone 4S to experiment with the recent jailbreaking developments (still waiting on a free wi-fi hotspot app)...will probably switch back to the Epic Touch again until the Galaxy Nexus comes out.

Edit - I'm also using the HTC View Android tablet. The device has gained 0 steam in the marketplace. Not because it's a bad device, but more because it's not an iPad. Regardless, I am enjoying it, and using it a lot more than I expected...despite the fact that I thought I would never find a practical use for a tablet. It's unpopularity unfortunately means that there isn't much custom programming done in the Android community, so I just rooted it to remove the bloatware.
 
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Choice.

If you like iOS but don't want a phone made of shatter prone glass with a small screen, you're **** out of luck.
 
Don't care about operating systems really, but there are a lot more phone options with android, so there's more choice available.
 
TheL8Elvis said:
I don't know. Probably none.

Is the app store the only way to install apps on iOS ?
Click to expand...

The Dark Lord said:
Unless it is jail-broken.
Click to expand...

BZZZZZZZ.

Thanks for playing though.

You are free to compile and install whatever you want on your phone iOS device. If your friend gives you his UDID, you can compile it so he can install it on his phone iOS device too.

And the SDK is free.

And look, a free bittorrent client source code.

So yes, it's perfectly possible and not even terribly difficult to install a bit torrent client on your non-jailbroken iOS device.
 
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So in order to install a bittorent client on your iOS device without jailbraking, you have to compile from source and install using the SDK (which is Mac only). Versus downloading it from the Android Market. Yeah, you really got me there. :rolleyes:
 
The Dark Lord said:
So in order to install a bittorent client on your iOS device without jailbraking, you have to compile from source and install using the SDK (which is Mac only). Versus downloading it from the Android Market. Yeah, you really got me there. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You gave a one word answer of 'no'. And then you said the only way to install non-app store apps is jailbreaking.

I'm sorry. It's not a game of 'gotcha' - it's a game of information.

And you are giving out incorrect information.
 
TheL8Elvis said:
You gave a one word answer of 'no'. And then you said the only way to install non-app store apps is jailbreaking.

I'm sorry. It's not a game of 'gotcha' - it's a game of information.

And you are giving out incorrect information.
Click to expand...

If your goal was giving out information rather than playing some game of gotcha you would have said how to do it in your first reply rather than stringing me along.

Fact of the matter is that compiling from source and installing via SDK sounds more complicated than jailbraking and installing via Cydia for most people and not even possible if you don't have a Mac
 
When I got rid of my Nokia 5800 Music Express phone last year I read that, percentage wise, Android was shooting up in popularity more in the UK than anywhere else and I see it's become the most popular smartphone OS in the UK [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/21/android-smartphones-os-uk-apple].
  1. I've had my Samsung Galaxy tab P1000 for a year and am very happy with Android. The Samsung Kies software is crap though, so I don't use it to transfer music or books, only for upgrades.
  2. With Android I can be more independent in my choice of software, I use MediaMonkey to transfer music and Calibre for books. Friends tell me that with apple you are stuck with iTunes and they can't manage their music/books as freely as I can.
  3. I don't have ice cream sandwich yet and don't know when it will be available from Samsung, but that is not a fault of Android. I have a horrible feeling that they may expect me to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, if so I'll wait as I'm not buying another one any time soon.
  4. With Android I had a huge choice of phones/tabs, cheap/pricey, with/without expansion slots, 3G/not etc etc. Something to meet all tastes and wallets.
  5. Unlike the USA, multiple carriers here service iphones so the complaints about AT&T don't apply and there's no difference with i/Android in that.
  6. As SeanDamnit mentioned, some of the Android apps haven't been tweaked to suit tab screens, so I generally don't buy apps that don't have a free trial I can test first, that can be a pain. In a lot of cases though I can get the same apps as my i-using pals.
  7. Android can multitask and have lots of windows open and working at the same time, whereas I understand from a friend that his iphone isn't good at that.
  8. I wasn't keen on switching from the Nokia Sat nav to the Android google one, but I'm more used to it now although I rarely use it anyway. No idea about iPhone sat nav.
  9. Disappointing that I can't load funny sat nav voices like my nokia (yeah, I'm a big kid :D), but I have an neat app where I can talk to my phone and give it instructions which my pal doesn't have on his iPhone - or maybe he just hasn't found it in the istore.
  10. I can't do a direct comparison on OSs as I've never had, or wanted, an iphone, but I did look at one a year ago and was stunned that you can't replace the battery yourself. When I asked how you change it, I was told you have to send it away and wait maybe 10 days. I'm not paying a fortune for a phone to be without it for a simple battery change :eek: !?!?! Even if I'd liked it I wouldn't have bought it for that reason alone.
  11. Steve Wozniak even reckons some aspects of Android are better than the iphone so I'm sticking to Android! http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/woz-android/
 
TheL8Elvis said:
And the SDK is free.
Click to expand...

But the Apple-Tax to actually be able to compile and upload stuff to the iWhatever is 99 Dollars per year. Only then you can install stuff on a regular iWhatever.

So, just telling that the SDK is free is somewhat misleading.

Does anyone know what happens to the installed, self-written apps after that one year, if you don't pay the Apple-Tax again?

Greetings,

Chris
 
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