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proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
I found Siri performs quite well for me. Not perfect by any means, but I use it regularly and rarely have issues. A lot of my use is in the car with the A/C on so that's a fairly noisy environment. I use it with the built-in mic, not a BT or wired one.

The main difference I see is that the article seemed to focus on searching. While I occasionally use Siri to search, I mostly use it for things like:

- Read an incoming text message to me while I'm driving and reply to it.
- Take a note (in the car or anywhere else). I even add-on to the note using voice.
- Check my calendar.
- Set up appointments in my calendar.
- Initiate calls
- Set up reminders (I'm especially fond of location-based reminders)

As others posted, accent and diction probably make a significant difference so YMMV.

I wish there was a setting for Siri to ignore Bluetooth connectivity. I still want phone calls and music to work with my car's BT, but I'd like to be able to hold the phone up and talk directly to Siri because the internal mic is so much better than the one in my car's BT. I pretty much don't use Siri at all in the car because it sucks so bad with the BT, but I want to use the phone/music function.
 

Mr_Ed

macrumors 6502a
Mar 10, 2004
717
700
North and east of Mickeyland
I wish there was a setting for Siri to ignore Bluetooth connectivity. I still want phone calls and music to work with my car's BT, but I'd like to be able to hold the phone up and talk directly to Siri because the internal mic is so much better than the one in my car's BT. I pretty much don't use Siri at all in the car because it sucks so bad with the BT, but I want to use the phone/music function.

Thinking about it, that's a pretty good idea. Maybe you should give Apple the feedback. Who knows. It may show up at some point.
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
Who cares about all this Siri nonsense. Just give turn-by-turn voice directions already. It should have been there on Siri's release.

Was driving with a colleague yesterday. His $79 android put my 4S to shame. :(

Who cares about turn by turn on a phone? Every once in a while, maybe - but for everyday use a dedicated unit is so much better. My $79 Garmin on mute would easily school any phone including my iPhone when it gets it. Half the time road names and such are wrong due to mapping (so doesn't matter what GPS brand since it's recorded in the raw map data). It tells you to turn onto Highway 41. The road you are coming up on says Main Street. Technically the same road but easy to miss due to differences in naming. Much easier to see on a display that this turn is about to happen NOW. Lane assistance is just icing on the cake, it was fantastic when we were in Orlando a month ago.

Volume is an issue on phones too. A few weeks ago we were using some new Android that one of my employees just got . We could barely hear the thing saying anything over the car's AC noise, and we had it up in the center of the dash. We ended up pulling over and getting the Garmin out of my suitcase.

YMMV, but I travel for work week after week and this is my experience.
 

FreeState

macrumors 68000
Jun 24, 2004
1,738
115
San Diego, CA
Siri is getting better for me. There are still times it does not understand me at all, however its fewer and fewer. I also noticed the amount of information Siri can give keeps growing (I asked her when the Olympics were today and she had the dates, location and where the next winter Olympics are as well - all as feedback, not a google search.).
 

funkybudda

macrumors member
Jun 5, 2012
35
0
haha

as usual, the Apple fanboys and fangirls come out in droves to defend how great and awesome Siri is, lol.
 

buxtone17

macrumors regular
Jan 16, 2009
137
0
Google is just a dumb engine with no possible applications other than being a directory of the internet. They have never developed beyond coder style searches for specifics and their engineer backgrounds suggest they never will.

Says the guy who has clearly never used an Android phone...
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
Just been watching the Jelly Bean demo on Jon4Lakers Youtube channel. he pits Siri against the Android and boy does Android wipe the floor with Siri. the voice is more natural. the speed is 2 maybe 3x as fast as Siri. In fact that little nexus 7 tablet and the JellyBean software looks incredibly polished. More polished than iOS, as much as it kills me to say it. Google are certainly on the up and I only hope Apple are taking note of the competition. :apple:

Maybe because no one is using the Google Now servers yet? Apple has pretty much admitted Siri is getting slammed. Let's see how fast Google is with 20 million people using it. If it's 2x as fast now, that means it will probably be 4x slower with traffic.

The Android stuff always looks so great in marketing then when you pick one up it's like awwww. So clunky, even my non-tech inclined mother can tell. Fanboy or not, I don't see anything Android even close to as polished as iOS is overall. One to two features, who cares - it's just to get articles published about how Android is beating iOS - hardly the case.

At the end of the day, Apple knows exactly what the competition is doing and they really don't care. Look at market cap, Apple almost three times bigger than Google, and Google is trying to make money all over the place with their hand in everything including having to license Android out. It's obvious who is actually winning and laughing about it all the way to the bank.
 

pmz

macrumors 68000
Nov 18, 2009
1,949
0
NJ
Intersting how this article/research couldn't possibly matter less.

They both understand voice very well. Too bad Siri can't connect to the internet any more reliably than my old mac mini that has no airport card.
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
as usual, the Apple fanboys and fangirls come out in droves to defend how great and awesome Siri is, lol.

And all the Android fanboys and fangirls are right there claiming how crappy it is.

Fact is, it's probably right in the middle for now. It's not crap, but it's not great either. Time will tell how it end up being after some tweaks, and how the competition stacks up once they get millions of people using it.
 

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
So you know what servers are being used by Google Now and whether they share resources?

As someone who uses both iPhone (and iOS) and a Skyrocket (on Android) I would say you're completely wrong. Both have their pluses and minuses. Neither one is without it's clunky behavior. People see what they want to see. "Fanboy or not."

Even funnier is your comment about how one or two features are just to get articles published. Same could be said about Apple. And often they are the same features or variants.

But there's always going to be posters like you who come on and say "oh.. even my mom..." just like there will always be posters like me who say I speak from actual experience, a passion (agnostic at that) for technology.

Finally - I think both Google and Apple are enjoying their riches. You can talk marketcap, etc all day. But I don't think Google is crying poor. It's all relative. Both companies are very successful. And push each other to excel. That's good business. And good for the consumer.

Maybe because no one is using the Google Now servers yet? Apple has pretty much admitted Siri is getting slammed. Let's see how fast Google is with 20 million people using it. If it's 2x as fast now, that means it will probably be 4x slower with traffic.

The Android stuff always looks so great in marketing then when you pick one up it's like awwww. So clunky, even my non-tech inclined mother can tell. Fanboy or not, I don't see anything Android even close to as polished as iOS is overall. One to two features, who cares - it's just to get articles published about how Android is beating iOS - hardly the case.

At the end of the day, Apple knows exactly what the competition is doing and they really don't care. Look at market cap, Apple almost three times bigger than Google, and Google is trying to make money all over the place with their hand in everything including having to license Android out. It's obvious who is actually winning and laughing about it all the way to the bank.
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
So you know what servers are being used by Google Now and whether they share resources?

As someone who uses both iPhone (and iOS) and a Skyrocket (on Android) I would say you're completely wrong. Both have their pluses and minuses. Neither one is without it's clunky behavior. People see what they want to see. "Fanboy or not."

Even funnier is your comment about how one or two features are just to get articles published. Same could be said about Apple. And often they are the same features or variants.

But there's always going to be posters like you who come on and say "oh.. even my mom..." just like there will always be posters like me who say I speak from actual experience, a passion (agnostic at that) for technology.

Finally - I think both Google and Apple are enjoying their riches. You can talk marketcap, etc all day. But I don't think Google is crying poor. It's all relative. Both companies are very successful. And push each other to excel. That's good business. And good for the consumer.

I have no idea what servers they use, but you probably don't either. I was just plain speculating. Like I said, we'll have to see what it's really like with millions of people using it. Just doesn't seem like a fair comparison for now with very few people using the service.

It's pretty obvious to me seeing the average Joe's experience with Android vs. iOS, whether it's my mother or a stranger. Just sit in the Verizon store for an hour and listen to complaints and watch people play with each one. Unfortunately for Android, my observation is that many people are still buying Android because it's cheaper. That point can be driven home with the Nexus 7 - it's not a $499 iPad competitor but rather a smaller, cheaper version. Everyone I know or met that had/has a Kindle Fire made the comment "well, it's cheaper than getting in iPad". Many of the Android phones are <$100, many down to the $free.99 level. The cheaper iPhone option has certainly been successful, but I do think many people are more inclined to get the brand new $99 Android because they feel the $99 iPhone 4 is old - which it is. The mostly $200+ iPhone is still outselling all the Android models, with many of them being <$100. I'd like to see a current survey of random Android owners - would you swap to an iPhone right now if there was zero cost involved?

If I could do a survey of each person looking to buy a new phone before they went into the store, I probably could pick 95% of the outcome based on this conversation. I find for the most part, there are two schools. Those who like to fool around with their technology and those that wish not to fool around with it and for it just to work. You can guess which is which. I'm not saying it's bad to wish for customization, but personally I could care less - I don't have time to fool with the massive bugs that comes with. Other are exactly the opposite. That's fine, we can all get along.

Apple's one or two things tend to be new features, but yes - many are to gain the public's eye. My comment should have been worded more to indicate that Google's one or two things seem to be features already available, but "improved" to trump iOS somehow.
 

buxtone17

macrumors regular
Jan 16, 2009
137
0
Who cares about turn by turn on a phone? ... Half the time road names and such are wrong due to mapping (so doesn't matter what GPS brand since it's recorded in the raw map data). It tells you to turn onto Highway 41. The road you are coming up on says Main Street.

People who don't want to pay another $80 for a Garmin after spending $200 on a phone with built in GPS.

I'm a landscaper and I use Navigation on my Android phone every day to get to new jobs. My phone has never given me an incorrect street name and I've never had an issue with volume, even with the A/C on full blast.

Oh, and I use voice actions to navigate all the time (ie:"Navigate to [address]) and 99 times out of 100, my phone understands the address perfectly. If I asked Siri to "Navigate to" an address, what would it say? "Sorry, you have to download a third party app that probably requires a subscription to effectively use the GPS in your phone."?

Final note: The iPhone is better than Android phones at some things and Android phones are better than the iPhone at other things. And if you truly believe that one or the other is the absolute best and the other is absolute garbage, and if you truly believe that one or the other steals features and the other doesn't, well... Apple/Google thanks you for being such a loyal customer, and they'll be happy to accept another $200 from you when you fork it over without even considering the competition.
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
People who don't want to pay another $80 for a Garmin after spending $200 on a phone with built in GPS.

I'm a landscaper and I use Navigation on my Android phone every day to get to new jobs. My phone has never given me an incorrect street name and I've never had an issue with volume, even with the A/C on full blast.

Oh, and I use voice actions to navigate all the time (ie:"Navigate to [address]) and 99 times out of 100, my phone understands the address perfectly. If I asked Siri to "Navigate to" an address, what would it say? "Sorry, you have to download a third party app that probably requires a subscription to effectively use the GPS in your phone."?

Final note: The iPhone is better than Android phones at some things and Android phones are better than the iPhone at other things. And if you truly believe that one or the other is the absolute best and the other is absolute garbage, and if you truly believe that one or the other steals features and the other doesn't, well... Apple/Google thanks you for being such a loyal customer, and they'll be happy to accept another $200 from you when you fork it over without even considering the competition.

I didn't spend $200 on a phone with GPS. I knew it didn't have it to begin with. And the $80 is well worth it, IMO.

And I suppose some areas are worse than others, but I've had the wrong road name thing happen many times. I probably travel around to more cities than the average person, so perhaps it's not a big issue to most people. It's not so much a "wrong" name per se, but rather a "different" name. State roads that happen to run through small towns have this issue LOTS. Ya, it's been Main Street here for several years, but it's also part of Highway 41. Problem is, mapping does not have all the local names. The only way I know to turn at the right time is by seeing the distance on the display. Another issue I've had lately is NO street signs. Apparently they are going out of style now with cities no longer marking roads? Again, I know to turn because it says to turn. If I only went by "Turn left on Main Street", I would be screwed (and have been) because there is no street sign.

As far as I know, phones still don't have the same level GPS chips as in extrernal devices, making accuracy tricks to be able to have lane assist a no go. This is certainly an issue with older iPhones, with third party companies really wanting you to use a backpack for the phone with a better GPS chip. The 4S supposedly has a better quality chip, probably why it's the only one listed to work with the new navigation. Once you've used lane assist, it's hard to go without it when driving in a BIG city with 6+ lanes that you've never seen before in your life. Doubtful it would be much use on a smaller screened device (although some Android phones are near external GPS sizes) as it's something you need to see, not hear.

There are just some things however that are better suited to other devices. That's up to each person I guess, but for me I could care less about navigation in a phone.
 

Geckotek

macrumors G3
Jul 22, 2008
8,768
308
NYC
People who don't want to pay another $80 for a Garmin after spending $200 on a phone with built in GPS.

Why on earth would someone do that when there is a perfectly good GPS app w/ voice recognition in the app store for free??????
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
Why on earth would someone do that when there is a perfectly good GPS app w/ voice recognition in the app store for free??????

Because there isn't. I love my iPhone, and I tried several. They (apps) and it (iPhone) sucks at GPS. But it (iPhone) is not the only one...

I am quite fond of Google Maps in general however, I find it to be very accurate. I was hoping Google would come out with a stand alone GPS using their data somehow. Instead they went this route, yuck.
 

bozzykid

macrumors 68020
Aug 11, 2009
2,431
493
Who cares about turn by turn on a phone? Every once in a while, maybe - but for everyday use a dedicated unit is so much better.

You mean a dedicated unit that has an old map and a lousy list of outdated POIs? No thanks. I'll take Google Maps w/ Navigation or Apples Maps any day of the week. As for the GPS in phones, they have gotten much better in the last year or two. Plus using triangulation of towers, phones can actually work better in cities where GPS units can't get a signal.
 

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030
Dec 21, 2011
2,985
3
Who cares about turn by turn on a phone? Every once in a while, maybe - but for everyday use a dedicated unit is so much better.

Dedicated GPS units will soon be relics. Just like car radar and Citizen Band radios. Not saying Smart Phones are better... that's just the way it's going to be.

Volume is an issue on phones too.
Bluetooth speaker synch in cars is pretty common these days. I've had mine for years.

Just drove 2600 miles, 27 cities with my passenger's HTC phone. Other than the occasional road with the wrong name, it was like driving on auto pilot. Suffice it to say my iPhone stayed in my pocket. :(
 

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
I find for the most part, there are two schools. Those who like to fool around with their technology and those that wish not to fool around with it and for it just to work. You can guess which is which. I'm not saying it's bad to wish for customization, but personally I could care less - I don't have time to fool with the massive bugs that comes with. Other are exactly the opposite. That's fine, we can all get along.

Apple's one or two things tend to be new features, but yes - many are to gain the public's eye. My comment should have been worded more to indicate that Google's one or two things seem to be features already available, but "improved" to trump iOS somehow.

Apple copies other features as well.

And I would argue about massive bugs. I've had the same or less issues with my Skyrocket as I do with my iPhone 4.

And the whole "just works" is a misnomer. Just about any piece of tech requires a learning curve. We can argue all day which OS takes more - but that's subjective. Obviously since many people are choosing the cheaper/inferior phones (your implication) they must be able to learn how to use the phone or they wouldn't be keeping it regardless of the price. Note my sarcasm. Like I said - both OSes have their strengths and weaknesses. And both have and have issues.
 

proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
Dedicated GPS units will soon be relics. Just like car radar and Citizen Band radios. Not saying Smart Phones are better... that's just the way it's going to be.

Bluetooth speaker synch in cars is pretty common these days. I've had mine for years.

Just drove 2600 miles, 27 cities with my passenger's HTC phone. Other than the occasional road with the wrong name, it was like driving on auto pilot. Suffice it to say my iPhone stayed in my pocket. :(

I drove 2300 miles last week alone, so perhaps still different. And it all depends what you do in each city. Working in the film industry, we often have several different points to hit each day, often in a different part of town or a different town altogether.

And yes, BlueTooth helps. But while my personal car has it, none of the 8 vehicles my company owns does. And of the 17 rental car's I've had so far, only one had BT.

This certainly seems like a YMMV kinda thing.

Lastly, you'll have to pry my Valentine One out of my cold, dead hands. It's certainly still VERY relevant. You can keep the CBs...

----------

You mean a dedicated unit that has an old map and a lousy list of outdated POIs? No thanks. I'll take Google Maps w/ Navigation or Apples Maps any day of the week. As for the GPS in phones, they have gotten much better in the last year or two. Plus using triangulation of towers, phones can actually work better in cities where GPS units can't get a signal.

Yes, that was certainly the case prior to the smart phone. However, all current GPS units come with lifetime map updates, they had two or risk being extinct even sooner. I'm not that worried about the location of the Taco Bell that moved down the street a month ago. Once a year seems fine, but you could update it as often as you like. The new ones don't even need to be hooked to your computer to update anymore.

GPS technology itself has come a long way too, my newest Garmin works like a charm right through a tunnel - where the first one I ever bought would click off from a passing tree branch. I haven't had any trouble with the new ones working in tall buildings.
 

nickn

macrumors 6502
Jun 17, 2011
386
0
Just sit in the Verizon store for an hour and listen to complaints and watch people play with each one.

Unfortunately for Android, my observation is that many people are still buying Android because it's cheaper.

would you swap to an iPhone right now if there was zero cost involved?

I find for the most part, there are two schools. Those who like to fool around with their technology and those that wish not to fool around with it and for it just to work. You can guess which is which.

1. Go go a genius bar and stand around for an hour and listen to all of the complaints/problems.....
2. Far more people buy the Honda Civic over the Ferrari Calfornia. Is the Civic thus a bad car?
3. You would literally have to pay me to get me to switch from my evo 3D to any iPhone. Why would I switch when my HTC is spec wise better in almost every single way to even the 4S? Honestly, every iPhone besides the first is just a collection of last gen parts...
4. I have two Android phones, one from LG, and the other from HTC, and neither have had any issues at all. Perhaps battery life could be better, but that is a manufacturer issue. My iPad 1 on the other hand crashes around every 10-15 minutes, is now stuck on ****** firmware that can't be upgraded or downgraded, and has a significant screen burn in problem. Additionally, software that I previously used for networking side jobs, such as WiFiFoFum, has been banned, and network printing I used very often was removed, meaning the tablet became far less useful as time went on. You know what is really annoying? When an "update" actually removes features, and I then have to "fool around" by shopping around for a new printer to replace something that I already have... I went to the Apple store and they just said that was all normal though, as iOS 5 is slow on the iPad 1, and that I could buy a new faster iPad 3, and HP at the store to print, even though my Canon worked fine in iOS4... The screen was also ok, as apparently that can happen after long use, which is apparently 20 minutes in my case... I called HTC simply to ask about my new phones warranty, and they said that basically any problem I report in the 1 year warranty period would cause me a whole new phone to be mailed out, free of charge... Who is the better company.........
 
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proaudio22

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2012
18
0
1. Go go a genius bar and stand around for an hour and listen to all of the complaints/problems.....
2. Far more people buy the Honda Civic over the Ferrari Calfornia. Is the Civic thus a bad car?
3. You would literally have to pay me to get me to switch from my evo 3D to any iPhone. Why would I switch when my HTC is spec wise better in almost every single way to even the 4S? Honestly, every iPhone besides the first is just a collection of last gen parts...
4. I have had two android phones, one from LG, and the other from HTC, and neither have had any issues at all. Perhaps battery life could be better, but that is a manufacturer issue. My iPad on the other hand crashes around every 10-15 minutes, is now stuck on ****** firmware that can't be upgraded or downgraded, and has a significant screen burn in problem. Additionally, software that I previously used for networking side jobs, such as WiFiFoFum have been banned, and network printing I used very often was removed, meaning the tabled became far less useful as time went on. I went to the Apple store and they just said that was all normal though, as iOS 5 is slow on the iPad 1, and that I could buy a new HP to print, even though my canon worked fine in iOS4... The screen was also ok, as apparantly that can happen... I called HTC simply to ask about the warranty, and they said that for basically any problem I report I the 1 year wants time would allow me to get whole new phone mailed to me... Who is the better company.........

Of course the Civic is not a BAD car, but that wasn't the point there. It's still the same situation - the Ferrari certainly is a better car, but everyone cannot afford to buy the Ferrari so they go for the Civic. Nothing wrong with that on those counts. Now, let's go ask some Civic owners if the would like to have a Ferrari - of course. Ok, so price is a concern, fair enough. What if we gave you the Ferrari - of course.

Better specs on what? The iPhone hardware is so much better optimized that it does better with less processing, the 4S easily tops these silly dual core 1.2s. Camera? iPhone. Screen. iPhone. You are leading in to my next comment...

I know from your comments exactly what category you would fit in to per my previous comment. You want more control than iOS gives you. Fine. I don't, also fine. iOS is not for you.

If HTC will give you a new phone for any issue you report, they are idiots and will be out of business soon. Now, I don't know anything about your iPad situation and I won't guess about it. Perhaps Apple did drop the ball here.
 

nickn

macrumors 6502
Jun 17, 2011
386
0
What if we gave you the Ferrari - of course.

Better specs on what? The iPhone hardware is so much better optimized that it does better with less processing, the 4S easily tops these silly dual core 1.2s. Camera? iPhone. Screen. iPhone. You are leading in to my next comment...

iOS is not for you.

If HTC will give you a new phone for any issue you report, they are idiots and will be out of business soon.

1. Hypothetical situation. I have a typical family of four. How do I transport them? I have an average income, how do I afford the $500 dollar oil change, extremely high insurance, and gas for my extremely low MPG cruiser? It would come down to either having a Ferrari that I could park and look at in my garage, or, a Civic I could afford and thus drive... I would take the far more practical Civic over the Ferrari....
2. I have a HTC EVO 3D. It has a 1.2Ghz dual core CPU, 1GB RAM, an Adreno 220 GPU, a 4.3 in 960x540 3D display, a WiMax 4G radio, an FM tuner, a microSD slot, an HDMI port, and, a user replaceable 1730mah battery. Later, the iPhone 4S arrived with a 1Ghz dual core CPU, 512MB RAM, an SGX543MP2 GPU, a 3.5 in 960x640 regular display, a 3G only modem, and a smaller 1420Mah battery... To recap, my HTC has a faster CPU, double the RAM, a slightly faster GPU, a larger and better display, faster 4G service, expandability with an SD card slot, and a better battery... It beats the iPhone 4S in almost every category, and it cost less than half, at $300 off contract. Perhaps the iPhone really only wins in the camera department. Software wise I am on ICS 4.0.3, which is the latest major Android release fyi, though I won't touch on that as the iOS vs Android debate is really subjective. Of course I like Android 4 way more than any iOS though, and I have extensively used iOS 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, unlike many people here who bash Android without ever using it...
3. I didn't write enough there. Basically, HTC will give you a new unit if they can't help you over the phone, though they likely will try a billion troubleshooting methods before they end up sending one off. That is better than Apple though, who refuses to even admit any of their products have a problem.


EDIT* I screwed up and thought my phone was released in 2010, while it was actually released in 2011. Any quoted text will thus be a bit different from the edited text above.
 
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samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
Of course the Civic is not a BAD car, but that wasn't the point there. It's still the same situation - the Ferrari certainly is a better car, but everyone cannot afford to buy the Ferrari so they go for the Civic. Nothing wrong with that on those counts. Now, let's go ask some Civic owners if the would like to have a Ferrari - of course. Ok, so price is a concern, fair enough. What if we gave you the Ferrari - of course.

Big assumption there. Because I know plenty of people - while they might like driving a ferrari a bit - ultimately would prefer (day to day) to have the civic. "Better" is subjective once again. Why do you say the ferrari is better. Because it cost more? Is it better built? Do they last longer? Which handles a really bad potholed road? Which one gets better gas mileage and has a lower total cost of ownership? Which car can you go to costco with?

I would say they retain their value longer. But that doesn't necc. mean they are better cars. Both cars have their strengths and weaknesses. Sound familiar.

Try and remember that your use case isn't everyone in the world's use case.

----------

Shhhh Specs ONLY matter when it's the iPhone who has better ones. Don't forget where you are ;)

1. I have 2010 HTC EVO 3D. It has a 1.2Ghz dual core CPU, 1GB RAM, an Adreno 220 GPU, a 4.3 in 960x540 3D display, a WiMax 4G radio, an FM tuner, a microSD slot, an HDMI port, and, a user replaceable 1730mah battery. One year later the iPhone 4S arrived with a 1Ghz dual core CPU, 512MB RAM, an SGX543MP2 GPU, a 3.5 in 960x640 regular display, a 3G only modem, and a smaller 1420Mah battery... To recap, my HTC has a faster CPU, double the RAM, a slightly faster GPU, a larger and better display, faster 4G service, expandability with an SD card slot, and a better battery, yet my phone is a whole year older... It still beats the iPhone 4S in almost every category, and it cost less than half, at $300 off contract Perhaps the iPhone really wins in the camera department. Software wise I am on ICS 4.0.3, which is the latest major Android release fyi, though I won't touch on that as the iOS vs Android debate is really subjective. Of course I like Android 4 way more than any iOS though, and I have extensively used iOS 1, 2, 3, 4,and 5, unlike many people here who bash Android without ever using it...
2. I didn't write enough there. Basically, HTC will give you a new unit if they can't help you over the phone, though they likely will try a billion troubleshooting methods before they end up sending one off. That is better than Apple though, who refuses to even admit any of their products have a problem.
 
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