Apple Launches Guide for Android Users Switching to iPhone

[lincolntran]

Well, they're major for me.

Apple Maps is cool and all, but I have tons of history in Google Maps. Same with Chrome, all my bookmarks are there because I use Chrome on my workstation.

Also, being able to pick my own sounds for notifications on Android is great. If I want Darth Vader to breathe every time I get a notification for Words with Friends, I can have it!

Google won't let you export those history out?

I'm assuming you can export all your bookmarks from Chrome pretty easy and import it into Safari is even easier. You can even have safari's bookmarks on all of your screens in sync.

I thought Chrome can keep your bookmarks in sync for both desktop and mobile, is it not?

For sound notification, well, I can't help you there. *** I am not your father *** (In darth vader voice)

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...your only allowed to put apps that apple wants you to put on your idevice

This is completely false.

 

[genovelle]

Well, they're major for me.

Apple Maps is cool and all, but I have tons of history in Google Maps. Same with Chrome, all my bookmarks are there because I use Chrome on my workstation.

Also, being able to pick my own sounds for notifications on Android is great. If I want Darth Vader to breathe every time I get a notification for Words with Friends, I can have it!

Odd reason since both are available on iPhone from Google and if your data doesn't cross over only Google is to blame. As far as custom ringtone they have been available since the iPhone 3GS.

 

[SilianRail]

It's never too late to do the right thing.

 

[melendezest]

Switching is easier than ever now that Google has created some pretty nice iOS apps for all of their services. Even if you are embedded deeply into their ecosystem, you should be able to access all of your data fairly quickly if you're making the switch to iPhone (download the apps, login, and go). Then over time you can decide what data, if any, you'd like to move to Apple or 3rd party services.

The same is not true when moving from iOS to any other operating system. Which, of course, is intentional.

Out of all things, that is what keeps me from coming back to iOS. I need control of my device. Forcing iOS 7 on me was the last straw. The walled garden ain't that green.

A shame, really. The hardware is, as always, quite good. I wish Apple would open up a little, instead of getting more and more closed.

 

[cmwade77]

Huh? It takes this much to go from Android to iOS? When I switched from iOS to Android, it took all of about 10 minutes. I simply installed the Samsung software on my computer, plugged in both phones and it copied everything. It even installed all apps that it could match.

 

[heisenberg123]

Google won't let you export those history out?

I'm assuming you can export all your bookmarks from Chrome pretty easy and import it into Safari is even easier. You can even have safari's bookmarks on all of your screens in sync.

I thought Chrome can keep your bookmarks in sync for both desktop and mobile, is it not?

For sound notification, well, I can't help you there. *** I am not your father *** (In darth vader voice)

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This is completely false.

un-jailbroken? I am impressed, I never thought apple would allow it thanks for correcting me

 

[germ war]

This will be my first iPhone since the original - I've happily been on Android since 2009.

Cook is right that the larger screen sizes make it easier to want to get back in the iOS fold, but more importantly, the fact that Apple has finally caught up on a lot of features and the tight integration with OSX is what actually makes the new iPhones worthy of consideration. Those side-by-side comparisons between the iPhone 6 and the Nexus 4 that said "Welcome to 2012?" Although some features were obviously cherry-picked, there were a lot of legitimate reasons to not want to make the switch back to iOS before now.

All that said, I'm pretty excited to get a new piece of hardware. Hopefully it exceeds my fairly minimal expectations.

 

[gnasher729]

you should not need a guide when you plug in an android device to your PC or Mac it becomes an external drive allowing you to look in all the folders to transfer things from the phone to the computer unlike iPhone

So you can look in all the folders. How do you think does that help the average user?

Guides aren't for those that know how to do something. They're for people that don't. Like, I'd need a guide to plant a pomegranate tree.

Excellent idea. Sadly, I don't think it will survive where I live. (Grows well in the mediterranean and southern europe, but probably not in England).

Do I plant it in a shaded area? Should I live in a temperate zone? How often do I have to water it? What insects do I need to prevent it from? How soon do I get the pomegranates? What is the best time of year to plant it?

Great guide, though! Looking forward to Pomegranate 2.0!

I always follow Mtmspa's guide. After that, every tree has to look after itself

 

[melendezest]

I wonder if someone can point me to the iBooks App for Samsung - I'd like to move my 137 books, currently in iBooks, to a Samsung Galaxy - someone, anyone.

Apple (or rather, iOS/iTunes/iBooks) is the equivalent of Hotel California.

You got it a bit backwards, there.

EDIT: Hahaha, someone beat me to it..

 

[Menneisyys2]

iOS 8 is much more open and the phone itself now finally comes in multiple sizes.

No, it's not more open - see today's story on the closed (and, therefore, practically useless) NFC. The API is more wide, of course; but the restricions remained.

Comparing iOS to Android: the latter had 100% working NFC support two years ago (Nexus 7 2012). The iPhone 6 doesn't have even now.

 

[gnasher729]

Huh? It takes this much to go from Android to iOS? When I switched from iOS to Android, it took all of about 10 minutes. I simply installed the Samsung software on my computer, plugged in both phones and it copied everything. It even installed all apps that it could match.

Shows that Samsung is good at copying.

Out of all things, that is what keeps me from coming back to iOS. I need control of my device. Forcing iOS 7 on me was the last straw. The walled garden ain't that green.

A shame, really. The hardware is, as always, quite good. I wish Apple would open up a little, instead of getting more and more closed.

Message to Tim Cook: You won't be selling as many iPhones as you thought. Definitely not 80 million this year. Only 79,999,999.

 

[TechGod]

un-jailbroken? I am impressed, I never thought apple would allow it thanks for correcting me

They don't. They have allowed third party widgets and thiurd party keyboards but still not apps. Well technically, the Gameboy stimulator worked without being jailbroken...

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No, it's not more open - see today's story on the closed (and, therefore, practically useless) NFC. The API is more wide, of course; but the restricions remained.

Comparing iOS to Android: the latter had 100% working NFC support two years ago (Nexus 7 2012). The iPhone 6 doesn't have even now.

However, just like the Touch ID, the API will be opened up to developers next year.

 

[heisenberg123]

So you can look in all the folders. How do you think does that help the average user?

they will look in the folder that says Music for Music and Photos for photos?

 

[cameronjpu]

It strikes me as very strange that Apple does not develop some sort of process that can be available in Apple stores so that an android user can bring their device into the store and have all the data transferred onto their new iPhone relatively automatically. Surely if the software is out there, Apple should be able to make a deal with the software developer for a good price since they will be giving priceless free advertising to anyone else who wants to use such software in their home to transfer data.

 

[melendezest]

I own and use multiple apple products does that mean I cannot find negativity it the company?

Ignore those guys. Pointless to argue with unreasonable folk. They cannot see that Apple has its flaws, and writhe and wail like vampires in the sun when someone points them out.

 

[lincolntran]

un-jailbroken? I am impressed, I never thought apple would allow it thanks for correcting me

Apple has made it very easy to keep everything in sync. Do some more reading on the side, you'll be impressed. No big reason to jailbreak anymore.

 

[HiVolt]

What's so stupid about it? It's Apple forcing you to use their software sure. However it's pretty good software and does it's job brilliantly. The idea of manually dragging each and every song and photo onto my iPhone like a thumb drive sounds like stone age madness having used iTunes for 4 years.

It's stupid that you need to use it to transfer files into Apps that have nothing to do with Apple.

And if you're away from your iTunes syncing computer how are you supposed to do that?

Here's hoping iCloud Drive actually works somewhat well, and that it's accessible thru the web iCloud interface where you can upload files to the device.

 

[spectrumfox]

Google won't let you export those history out?

I'm assuming you can export all your bookmarks from Chrome pretty easy and import it into Safari is even easier. You can even have safari's bookmarks on all of your screens in sync.

I thought Chrome can keep your bookmarks in sync for both desktop and mobile, is it not?

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Odd reason since both are available on iPhone from Google and if your data doesn't cross over only Google is to blame. As far as custom ringtone they have been available since the iPhone 3GS.

Perhaps I misspoke.

Yes, Chrome is available on iPhone, and yes I can export bookmarks from Chrome, but since Safari is the default browser on iPhone, I want there to be a way for my Safari bookmarks to sync with my Chrome bookmarks, and vice-versa.

That way if I add a bookmark on my Windows workstation, it'll appear as a Safari bookmark on the iPhone. And vice-versa.

If there's a good automatic way to do that, I'm all ears.

And regarding the custom ringtone, yes I know that's been available. But I'm talking about custom notification sounds for my apps, not ringtones. As far as I know, you can only customize notification sounds for certain apps that Apple allows you to, not any app that you want.

 

[rdlink]

used to love iTunes when it was exactly just that... for your tunes. it was a no-nonsense music player. through the years, Apple insisted on cramming too much in it.

Two things for me. First, I don't use iTunes much for music. I have Match, and usually either play my music directly from ATV, or I Airplay. Second, I do use the TV shows, Movies and Audiobooks sections of iTunes a lot, so I guess I'd rather put up with the kludge of iTunes than the kludge of having to go to three or four different apps. Just my $.02.

 

[576316]

They're clearly expecting lots of Android users to be appealed to by larger iPhones. I'm hoping that's gonna be the case.

 

[Mtmspa]

Out of all things, that is what keeps me from coming back to iOS. I need control of my device. Forcing iOS 7 on me was the last straw. The walled garden ain't that green.

A shame, really. The hardware is, as always, quite good. I wish Apple would open up a little, instead of getting more and more closed.

You prefer old outdated OS versions on a device that may never get a newer version? And why do you need "control" of your device?

 

[576316]

It's stupid that you need to use it to transfer files into Apps that have nothing to do with Apple.

And if you're away from your iTunes syncing computer how are you supposed to do that?

Here's hoping iCloud Drive actually works somewhat well, and that it's accessible thru the web iCloud interface where you can upload files to the device.

Is iCloud Drive going to download all of the files within it to all of your devices? I use Dropbox for files and a handful of images that I want to keep but I rarely ever access so I don't want them on any of my devices. I can't really consider migrating those files to iCloud Drive if it's gonna insist I have them all downloaded to my devices. Is this how the new Photos app is gonna work as well? I'd rather the files just 'appear' but aren't downloaded or stored on your device without your choosing.

 

[Trapezoid]

Why do people say iTunes is required?

 

[spectrumfox]

You prefer old outdated OS versions on a device that may never get a newer version? And why do you need "control" of your device?

That's not really a big concern for Android users anymore with the introduction of Google Play Services. That allows Google to update the services on a phone without the need to upgrade the OS itself. It's a great way to get around manufacturers and their slow updates.

And some people want more control over their devices than Apple allows. It's certainly not unheard of. Why do you think people jailbreak?

 

[Mtmspa]

Why do people say iTunes is required?

It is the uneducated Windows/Droids users.

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That's not really a big concern for Android users anymore with the introduction of Google Play Services. That allows Google to update the services on a phone without the need to upgrade the OS itself. It's a great way to get around manufacturers and their slow updates.

And some people want more control over their devices than Apple allows. It's certainly not unheard of. Why do you think people jailbreak?

Are you the android spokesperson here?