My non-techie, frazzled mom, all-girl thoughts on Android, iOS, and stuff

[aimeeinohio]

OK, so I decided to switch to Android, because my iphone 4 needed replaced (got it a few days after launch and the home button was dying). I was due for my Verizon upgrade, and wasn't really thrilled with the iPhone 5...and I was bored.

Uhm, yeah, that was a mistake.

I got the Samsung Galaxy s3 (and so did my hubby, he followed me LOL). The first two days I had it, I wanted to chuck the thing out the window, shoot myself in the eye, or drop it into a pot of boiling water. I actually put it down for a day and didn't touch it, look at it, or otherwise interact with it.

When I picked the s3 back up after it's day of being grounded, I started to play around with it a little more and began to like it...a lot. That huge screen, the buttons on the bottom to either side of the 'home' button, the thing is LIGHTENING fast, super loud speakers, the pull down menu at the top that has a lot of the settings (blue tooth, GPS, etc)....Did I mention the huge screen?

But, after a few days, my like became dislike again...the darn thing was annoying in so many ways. My stuff moved around- for example, in my 'web' folder, I have everything lined up just how I want it. BUT sometimes, when I would open the folder stuff would be moved. Facebook should be the 3rd from the left, top row, but it wasn't always where I left it. LOL
MANY of the apps I used all the time either were not available, of they sucked in comparison to their iOS counterparts. The phone didn't fit into the places that I wanted it to fit into (my little wristlet, etc)...A big deal, no, but an annoyance all the same. The camera kept freezing.
On day 5, the phone froze. I went to Verizon, they did the battery pull (duh, I didn't think of that). They assured me this was a rare thing to have to do, and that I would grow to love the phone
They were wrong.
I had to pull the battery AT LEAST twice a week....and when you OTTERBOX the damn thing, well, that's just not acceptable.
Typing on the thing SUCKED BUTT!!! And, one-handed useage? uh, no.

The little apps thing in the bottom right corner....Really, I want my apps in the folder/on the screen I put them on, not ALSO somewhere else that I have to see them (and you cannot move or change this). It drove me nuts knowing everything was there as well as the folders I had set up!!

Can;t share a google account like we can with iTunes.
S-Beam? It's a joke
Kies? EVEN WORSE

Well, before I knew it, I was past the return window, and I was stuck with it. Little did I know, the hubs wasn't in love with his, either. I wish he'd told me before, because we could've gotten NEW 4s's. Dang him!

So, I went onto Criags list and found someone to trade a 4s (purchased in September) for his s3 (purchased in November). Found someone to trade mine witha s well (same time frame). We are now happy campers.

There are a few things I wish Apple would do, that I REALLY liked about the phone....I don't know enough about Android to know if these things are device/or os specific, but here they are:
1. The two buttons at the bottom beside the home button...Dear sweet baby Jesus, I loved that back button!!! I find myself looking for it on my iPhone.
2. The pull down menu at the top where you can simply and quickly turn on/off stuff like GPS, bluetooth, wifi, etc.
3. The LED notification light!!!
4. You could put as many things into one folder as you want.
5. Although I didn't use it, the SD card slot.

I'm really hoping the rumors of colored iPhones are true....I'd love a pink one , especially if I could get one the same size as the 4/4s....the size of the 5 dosen't do anything for me.

iOS might be 'boring', but it WORKS!!

[wonderspark]

That's reasonable and fair.

I have both an iPhone and an Android, and me being a boy (LOL) and kinda nerdy, I prefer the Android at this time. It's not even an S3, but all my closest friends have the S3, and just love it.

I will say that it took me a long time for my preference to move from iPhone to Android, though. I think the reason for this is the learning curve. I believe the iPhone is a bit more intuitive, but it's hard to say that definitively for myself, since I had an iPhone for SO long, and I do recall being pretty overwhelmed when I first got it, coming from a dumb-phone. The learning curve on Android was therefore MUCH faster after being accustomed to smartphone concepts, but my brain still tells me Android is more complex. The good thing about that complexity is that I now have my screens, widgets, folders and such all precisely arranged exactly how I like.

If I want to turn on/off WiFi, it's a swipe to the left and push the icon... done.
If I want to check mail, push icon... done. Check CNN headlines, two swipes right, and my widget shows me the last several stories... done. I love the fact that it's all right there, so fast, so easy.

I find it interesting that you had your things move around on you. Never saw that on mine. Battery pulls, I've had to perform twice ever, and that's easy with my minimalist case. I'm anti-anything on my touch glass, so never an issue with touch response.

The important thing is that you now have a phone you like. That's what it's all about! Enjoy!

[mib1800]

Originally Posted by aimeeinohio

OK, so I decided to switch to Android, because my iphone 4 needed replaced (got it a few days after launch and the home button was dying). I was due for my Verizon upgrade, and wasn't really thrilled with the iPhone 5...and I was bored.

Uhm, yeah, that was a mistake.

I got the Samsung Galaxy s3 (and so did my hubby, he followed me LOL). The first two days I had it, I wanted to chuck the thing out the window, shoot myself in the eye, or drop it into a pot of boiling water. I actually put it down for a day and didn't touch it, look at it, or otherwise interact with it.

When I picked the s3 back up after it's day of being grounded, I started to play around with it a little more and began to like it...a lot. That huge screen, the buttons on the bottom to either side of the 'home' button, the thing is LIGHTENING fast, super loud speakers, the pull down menu at the top that has a lot of the settings (blue tooth, GPS, etc)....Did I mention the huge screen?

But, after a few days, my like became dislike again...the darn thing was annoying in so many ways. My stuff moved around- for example, in my 'web' folder, I have everything lined up just how I want it. BUT sometimes, when I would open the folder stuff would be moved. Facebook should be the 3rd from the left, top row, but it wasn't always where I left it. LOL
MANY of the apps I used all the time either were not available, of they sucked in comparison to their iOS counterparts.

I find most common apps are better on Android (e.g rss, podcast, IM, voip, social network). Firstly all these Android apps can run in the background. They can refresh/upload data or update status automatically unlike the iOS version which you need to manually launch one by one everytime.

The camera kept freezing.

Never encountered this before.

On day 5, the phone froze. I went to Verizon, they did the battery pull (duh, I didn't think of that). They assured me this was a rare thing to have to do, and that I would grow to love the phone
They were wrong.
I had to pull the battery AT LEAST twice a week....and when you OTTERBOX the damn thing, well, that's just not acceptable.
Typing on the thing SUCKED BUTT!!! And, one-handed useage? uh, no.

My phone is now at 1347 hrs uptime (i.e. more than 50 days) without rebooting/restarting. Maybe there is something wrong with your S3

The little apps thing in the bottom right corner....Really, I want my apps in the folder/on the screen I put them on, not ALSO somewhere else that I have to see them (and you cannot move or change this). It drove me nuts knowing everything was there as well as the folders I had set up!!

I find this much more useful than iOS. ...so you dont have to decide whether to put calculator app in the "office" or "extra" folder. You can have it in both.

Can;t share a google account like we can with iTunes.
S-Beam? It's a joke
Kies? EVEN WORSE

I think you are not familiar with Android. In this case Android is light years ahead of iOS. You can add mulitple google a/c to your phone and all the data (contact, calendar etc) of ALL these accounts are synced to your phone. So each individual can keep their own separate a/c and still share it with others.

In iOS, you can only have ONE and only a/c per phone. If you sync another a/c all your previous a/c data will be wipe off which is a TOTAL PAIN.

[Night Spring]

Originally Posted by mib1800

I think you are not familiar with Android. In this case Android is light years ahead of iOS. You can add mulitple google a/c to your phone and all the data (contact, calendar etc) of ALL these accounts are synced to your phone. So each individual can keep their own separate a/c and still share it with others.

In iOS, you can only have ONE and only a/c per phone. If you sync another a/c all your previous a/c data will be wipe off which is a TOTAL PAIN.

I don't know about syncing multiple google accounts in iOS, but you can sync multiple iCloud/me.com accounts, with calendars, contacts, notes, reminders, emails... Hmmmm, I think I've listed them all, but you get the idea. I have my iCloud account and my partner's iCloud account both on my iPad, and I can see and edit his contacts, calendar, notes, etc. I can easily switch between just seeing my data, his data, or both our data. It's all very easy and convenient once you set it up.

[nuckinfutz]

Basically many of us just want a big iPhone.

Everything else is a stopgap. Including the latest Galaxy piece of crap.

[Dr McKay]

At work around me I see a lot of the younger guys switching over to Android, while the people there in their 30's and 40's have upgraded their dumbphones to iPhone.

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by nuckinfutz

Basically many of us just want a big iPhone.

Everything else is a stopgap. Including the latest Galaxy piece of crap.

I definitely do not want another iPhone, it's UI design and functionality are stagnant and a hassle to use in a lot of cases.

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Got my mom a Note 2 for x-mas and she loves it. She's in her 50s and not tech savvy at all. She didn't want an iPhone based on the fact other phones already have a much larger screen size, plus her eye sight isn't the best. I did have to walk her through some things that I think she would have never gotten the hang of on her own. That was a job in it's self.

So far everything working perfectly for her. No complaints yet. Besides the screen size, battery life is another reason I got her the Note 2. She's comming from an old BB curve and probably charges once every two days. She's been doing the same with the Note 2 and battery has been lasting.

I still have stuff to teach her, like syncing photos with Dropbox, clearing RAM every once in awhile, and etc.

The iPhone 5 would have no doubt been 10x easier for her to get the hang of, but I'm pretty sure she would still be happier with the Note 2.

[kevinof]

Why? Dropbox will sync automatically if that's how you want it. My 83 year old father has an SG2 and never ever clears ram. Doesn't know how and I'm never going to show him! Just let the phone do its thing.

Originally Posted by LIVEFRMNYC

.... like syncing photos with Dropbox, clearing RAM every once in awhile, and etc.

.

[spinedoc77]

Originally Posted by Night Spring

I don't know about syncing multiple google accounts in iOS, but you can sync multiple iCloud/me.com accounts, with calendars, contacts, notes, reminders, emails... Hmmmm, I think I've listed them all, but you get the idea. I have my iCloud account and my partner's iCloud account both on my iPad, and I can see and edit his contacts, calendar, notes, etc. I can easily switch between just seeing my data, his data, or both our data. It's all very easy and convenient once you set it up.

I have multiple google accounts and they sync just fine on iOS, although syncing between iCloud and google gets funky at times.

I like android, but I just couldn't get used to it. I tried several android phones and even the nexus 7, but in the end I ended up with a ip5, just hope apple does a larger screen next iPhone.

[Internaut]

Nothing there to disagree with. I suspect a lot of none Verizon users must be wondering what the hell Verizon have done to the phone to make it crash like that.

A lot of none technical (especially older) people who simply would never have touched a computing device 10 or so years ago now have an iPhone, an iPad or both. Apple, not Google made this happen and Google really clings to Apple's coat tails in this regard. Android IMHO isn't ready for many of these users.

[thehustleman]

You simply had a defective model, it happens.

And why can't you type one handed? This phone makes it easier.

And if you don't like the keyboard, the camera, anything else all you have to do is change it.

If you didn't think it was better than an iPhone 4s you should have simply made it better lol

Also a LARGE PART of it comes from being used to one platform then changing drastically and not allowing yourself to get used to it.

My wife had an iPhone4 and I got the ebo 4g, she kept on playing with my phone every chance she got until finally she did the opposite and got the droid razr m.

I have the galaxy s 3 and when I show her the cool functional features on here she loved it.

Should have seen when I was washing dishes and she came in to talk about something and I simply said"pause" and the music on my phone paused immediately.

She walked away I said "play" and as the song ended,I wanted to hear the original again so I said "previous" and it went back, she simply said "show off!" Lol

Oh and how is s beam a joke? You can beam almost anything, even a whole MOVIE just by tapping phones

[Sounds Good]

Originally Posted by nuckinfutz

Basically many of us just want a big iPhone.

Myself included. And since Apple won't give us one I'm forced to try a non-Apple solution. I'd prefer to stick with an iPhone, but I want a larger screen.

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Originally Posted by kevinof

Why? Dropbox will sync automatically if that's how you want it. My 83 year old father has an SG2 and never ever clears ram. Doesn't know how and I'm never going to show him! Just let the phone do its thing.

I just have some old school habits that I seem to pass on. Doesn't hurt tho.


Also everyone runs into a minor problem with an app once in awhile, clearing RAM is the simple fix 9 times out of 10. Instead of resetting.

[TPadden]

Originally Posted by spinedoc77

......tried several android phones and even the nexus 7, but in the end I ended up with a ip5, just hope apple does a larger screen next iPhone.

The only thing you can be sure of is your choice in screen size will be whatever Apple says it is .

[spinedoc77]

Originally Posted by TPadden

The only thing you can be sure of is your choice in screen size will be whatever Apple says it is .

Yep, but I can also switch to another ecosystem if I want. I really wanted to switch using the nexus 4, but by the time I can buy one it will be outdated. I wouldn't consider a non google phone as the carrier fragmentation is terrible and holds android back. 10% adoption rate of jelly bean is abysmal and I would hate to be stuck with an old OS when new ones with new features are released around me.

I'm still holding out hope for a nexus 4, at $300 with no contract I can still grab one and swap off with my ip5 whenever I feel like something different.

[TPadden]

Originally Posted by spinedoc77

Yep, but I can also switch to another ecosystem if I want. I really wanted to switch using the nexus 4, but by the time I can buy one it will be outdated. I wouldn't consider a non google phone as the carrier fragmentation is terrible and holds android back. 10% adoption rate of jelly bean is abysmal and I would hate to be stuck with an old OS when new ones with new features are released around me.

I'm still holding out hope for a nexus 4, at $300 with no contract I can still grab one and swap off with my ip5 whenever I feel like something different.

I absolutely love my Motorola Razr Maxx HD (Verizon branded) ...... I know there is no guarantee Verizon will continue updating it but I feel it can't hurt that Google now owns Motorola Mobile. It was one of the first to get the Jelly Bean update ....

[nuckinfutz]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

I definitely do not want another iPhone, it's UI design and functionality are stagnant and a hassle to use in a lot of cases.

You're likely in the minority.

Android fans generally come down to two groups.

1. I like large phones
2. I am a Hacker type that want to customize heavily.

If Apple came out with a 5" iPhone a large swath of group #1 would be on it in a heartbeat. Group #2 would likely stay Android but keep in mind Group #2 is a really small group even compared to Group #1.

[hyteckit]

Originally Posted by aimeeinohio

There are a few things I wish Apple would do, that I REALLY liked about the phone....I don't know enough about Android to know if these things are device/or os specific, but here they are:
1. The two buttons at the bottom beside the home button...Dear sweet baby Jesus, I loved that back button!!! I find myself looking for it on my iPhone.
2. The pull down menu at the top where you can simply and quickly turn on/off stuff like GPS, bluetooth, wifi, etc.
3. The LED notification light!!!
4. You could put as many things into one folder as you want.
5. Although I didn't use it, the SD card slot.

I went from the Note 2 back to my iPhone 4S.

I pretty much agree with you on those list of 5.

[F123D]

Originally Posted by hyteckit

I went from the Note 2 back to my iPhone 4S.

I pretty much agree with you on those list of 5.

I'd agree with this. I've been wanting items 2 - 5 for the past two years. Just the led light and toggles would've probably kept me happy but we got nothing.

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by nuckinfutz

Android fans generally come down to two groups.

1. I like large phones
2. I am a Hacker type that want to customize heavily.

Add an emerging new category:

3. I want a capable unlocked phone at an affordable price, and affordable no contract options to go with it (such as T-mo's $30 5Gig).

[nuckinfutz]

Originally Posted by knucklehead

Add an emerging new category:

3. I want a capable unlocked phone at an affordable price, and affordable no contract options to go with it (such as T-mo's $30 5Gig).

Still very small.

Those from Asia, Europe and other places abroad are the biggest consumers of unlocked phones. American families though still haven't grasped the concept of unlocked phones and I believe are unlikely to as they've got no desire to switch carriers (many have been with their cellular provider for years).

I still remain doubtful of the efficacy of unlocked phones for Americans that do not travel abroad.

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by nuckinfutz

Still very small.

Those from Asia, Europe and other places abroad are the biggest consumers of unlocked phones. American families though still haven't grasped the concept of unlocked phones and I believe are unlikely to as they've got no desire to switch carriers (many have been with their cellular provider for years).

I still remain doubtful of the efficacy of unlocked phones for Americans that do not travel abroad.

Extremely small! (N4 sales figures)

It will certainly grow about as fast as desirable options are made available in this category.

[nickchallis92]

Originally Posted by aimeeinohio

The camera kept freezing.
On day 5, the phone froze. I went to Verizon, they did the battery pull (duh, I didn't think of that). They assured me this was a rare thing to have to do, and that I would grow to love the phone
They were wrong.
I had to pull the battery AT LEAST twice a week....and when you OTTERBOX

Total lie. The S3 doesn't freeze and you've just taken a false android stereotype. I think people on this forum have become accustomed to people making up stuff like that so I doubt you'll get far convincing people

[aimeeinohio]

Originally Posted by thehustleman

You simply had a defective model, it happens.

And why can't you type one handed? This phone makes it easier.

And if you don't like the keyboard, the camera, anything else all you have to do is change it.

If you didn't think it was better than an iPhone 4s you should have simply made it better lol

Also a LARGE PART of it comes from being used to one platform then changing drastically and not allowing yourself to get used to it.

My wife had an iPhone4 and I got the ebo 4g, she kept on playing with my phone every chance she got until finally she did the opposite and got the droid razr m.


Oh and how is s beam a joke? You can beam almost anything, even a whole MOVIE just by tapping phones

We couldn't get it to work

----------

Originally Posted by nickchallis92

Total lie. The S3 doesn't freeze and you've just taken a false android stereotype. I think people on this forum have become accustomed to people making up stuff like that so I doubt you'll get far convincing people

Why in the WORLD would you call me a liar? I had to pull the battery at least twice a week, that's a fact. Period. And that is frustrating!!!

Maybe I simply had a dud phone, I don't know. I was simply sharing MY EXPERIENCE, why are you being nasty?