Can Android owners please answer these questions?

[vinay427]

Hey,

I have a few questions for Android owners. I sort of want to switch, depending on these responses. My contract ends next November, so there will probably be good hardware then. So please keep it limited to the software itself.

1. Do you think the Android Market has potential and could become big?
2. Does it really feel open source, unlike *some* other devices?
3. Why did you, if you did, switch to the iPhone, other than because of the App Store.
4. Any other things that would be useful to potential iPhone to Android switchers?
5. Courtesy of iShater: Can you sync with iCal/Apple Mail/Address Book easily?

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Not to be snarky, but you may want to visit an Android forum if you want any unbiased opinions on the matter...

Of course if you're a fanboy, then you're going to get exactly what you want which is a bunch of people telling you how awesome the iPhone is and how nothing will ever touch it.

I just got done looking at that HTC Hero and from what I've seen so far, I probably wouldn't have too much trouble trading my iPhone for it... That's just from seeing the UI. That opinion may change after getting hands-on time with it.

 

[paulcdb]

1. Do you think the Android Market has potential and could become big?

as an owner of a g1, i'm not at all impressed with the current offerings tbh. Yes it 'could' be big, but it's all down to getting people to program for it and as it stands developers are going to want a return which i don't think the android market can offer yet.

2. Does it really feel open source, unlike *some* other devices?

I guess it depends how you look at it. I'm in the uk and we still (last time i checked) didn't have things like latitude and no way to enable it until T-Mobile decide to. Google also removed the ability to easily get root without downgrading, etc.

3. Why did you, if you did, switch to the iPhone, other than because of the App Store.

iPhone came before G1, but given the iPhone has tons of apps (yes, that includes tons of crap too) it's just a better all rounder given programmers are more interested in getting stuff built for it.

4. Any other things that would be useful to potential iPhone to Android switchers?

Not sure of any reason to get an android phone over iPhone unless you want background processing, or a physical keyboard since thats the only plus the g1 has.

 

[rdowns]

Not to be snarky, but you may want to visit an Android forum if you want any unbiased opinions on the matter...
.

Just like you get unbiased opinions on Macs and iPhone at MacRumors.

 

[vinay427]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Not to be snarky, but you may want to visit an Android forum if you want any unbiased opinions on the matter...
.

Just like you get unbiased opinions on Macs and iPhone at MacRumors.

Haha! True. Thank's guys so far!

 

[JBaker122586]

Hey,

2. Does it really feel open source, unlike *some* other devices?

There's a reason the iPhone doesn't feel open source.

Because it's not.

Neither is Windows, or OS X.

 

[vinay427]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Hey,

2. Does it really feel open source, unlike *some* other devices?

There's a reason the iPhone doesn't feel open source.

Because it's not.

Neither is Windows, or OS X.

Oh, I never knew that!

I said that the iPhone doesn't feel open source because it isn't and wanted to know how much more open source Android feels.

 

[iShater]

May I add a question?

Have Android users been able to sync with iCal/Apple Mail/Address book easily?

 

[MotionxxUSxx]

well i just purchases an unlocked rogers magic, which will work on att 3g. I'm a phone addict but have lived with the first gen iphone for a year and the 3g for a year. I was getting a bit bored with the 3g so I'm going to try the android phone. Loved the iphone for almost everything except for a few pain in the but things. I hated the fact that most core services are closed off to 3rd party apps. The fact that I can't download an attachment and open it up in one of the officed editing apps always pissed me off. I had to buy readdledocs, forward the mail to their servers, than download it to readdledocs on the iphone and edit the doc.

 

[aristobrat]

May I add a question?

Have Android users been able to sync with iCal/Apple Mail/Address book easily?

I'm not an Android user, but I do use Google for the services you mentioned above.

Apple Mail syncs great with gmail (using IMAP)
iCal can subscribe to gmail's calendar
and Address Book had built-in support (in Leopard, anyway) for syncing with gmail's contacts

The only thing I don't like is that virtually anyone you reply to via the gmail web interface gets added to your gmail contacts, which then sync back down to your Mac. So I have to go thru and clean that up every now and then...

 

[vinay427]

The only thing I don't like is that virtually anyone you reply to via the gmail web interface gets added to your gmail contacts, which then sync back down to your Mac. So I have to go thru and clean that up every now and then...

Yeah, that is annoying sometimes even when using the Gmail web interface. However, with Google Sync which allows Exchange sync for gContacts and gCal it only syncs your "Most Contacted" group to your iPhone. I'm not sure if that's possible with the Mac. I guess you could try using Exchange that is meant for the iPhone with gSync for your Mac.

May I add a question?

Have Android users been able to sync with iCal/Apple Mail/Address book easily?

No problem!

I added it to the OP so more people will notice it.

 

[vinay427]

The only thing I don't like is that virtually anyone you reply to via the gmail web interface gets added to your gmail contacts, which then sync back down to your Mac. So I have to go thru and clean that up every now and then...

See if this helps you. I was trying to add gSync to my phone again and came across it. I'm not sure if that's what you're already using.

 

[aristobrat]

Yeah, the method they mention for syncing with Address Book is exactly how I'm doing it.

Their Contact Sync Help page nails it:
http://www.google.com/support/contactsync/

Prevent Gmail from creating new contacts

Each time you send an email, Gmail automatically adds the recipient of that email to your contact list. There is currently no way to prevent Gmail from adding these contacts. You are able to delete unwanted contacts, however. To permanently delete a contact, follow these steps:

1. Select the contact in the Contacts list.
2. Click Delete Contact at the top of the page.
3. Click OK.

It's definitely not a show-stopper for me, ... just a little bit of an irritant.

 

[vinay427]

Yeah, the method they mention for syncing with Address Book is exactly how I'm doing it.

Their Contact Sync Help page nails it:
http://www.google.com/support/contactsync/



It's definitely not a show-stopper for me, ... just a little bit of an irritant.

Ouch. That sucks.

So, any other Android owners willing to help?

 

[iShater]

Thanks guys. Althought I just got a 3G iPhone, I have hit some limitations and I am interested in giving the G1 or the new G1 Touch a try.

 

[vinay427]

Thanks guys. Althought I just got a 3G iPhone, I have hit some limitations and I am interested in giving the G1 or the new G1 Touch a try.

Wow! I never heard of the G1 Touch until this and I Googled it. It sounds cool. Finally HTC put a 3.5 mm headphone jack instead of their stupid proprietary USB adapter.

 

[ruinfx]

Yeah, that is annoying sometimes even when using the Gmail web interface. However, with Google Sync which allows Exchange sync for gContacts and gCal it only syncs your "Most Contacted" group to your iPhone. I'm not sure if that's possible with the Mac. I guess you could try using Exchange that is meant for the iPhone with gSync for your Mac.

you can actually control whether or not it syncs "all contacts" or only "my contacts". if you sync only "my contacts", the suggested or most contacted contacts that get added to "all contacts" wont be synced. thats a benefit vs google sync for other platforms.

 

[vinay427]

you can actually control whether or not it syncs "all contacts" or only "my contacts". if you sync only "my contacts", the suggested or most contacted contacts that get added to "all contacts" wont be synced. thats a benefit vs google sync for other platforms.

Oops, that's what I meant. Thanks!

 

[ruinfx]

Oops, that's what I meant. Thanks!

for your #2 question, android is definitely less restrictive. obviously you can run apps in the background. developers can also create apps that access areas of the phone and features that iphone developers have no access to. for example, you can have apps that provide easy access to toggle settings like 3G, wifi, gps and bluetooth.

another benefit ive noticed is that with the iphone, you have to wait until apple releases an OS update for apple apps (like maps) to be updated. with android, the google provided apps can be updated individually without an OS update. a few weeks ago google maps got 2 updates through the market.

 

[vinay427]

for your #2 question, android is definitely less restrictive. obviously you can run apps in the background. developers can also create apps that access areas of the phone and features that iphone developers have no access to. for example, you can have apps that provide easy access to toggle settings like 3G, wifi, gps and bluetooth.

another benefit ive noticed is that with the iphone, you have to wait until apple releases an OS update for apple apps (like maps) to be updated. with android, the google provided apps can be updated individually without an OS update. a few weeks ago google maps got 2 updates through the market.

Wow, that seems pretty useful. All I need to wait for now is good hardware, like the G1 Touch, and a good carrier, which I haven't decided on yet.

 

[cenetti]

I am waiting for HTC HERO. The new "rosie" UI is amazing. And actually I kind liked the new hero phone with that chin and everything.

 

[vinay427]

I am waiting for HTC HERO. The new "rosie" UI is amazing. And actually I kind liked the new hero phone with that chin and everything.

Yeah, it is. Good for you! I hope you enjoy your first (?) Android phone!

 

[aneftp]

I own both the G1 and have owned all three versions of the iphone (2007,2008,2009).

Android is a very stable phone OS. It has loads of "potential". However, the HTC G1 is the main holdup. The hardware available (right now, Android is only offered by HTC G1) and the hardware leaves a lot to be desired.

That being said, I find the Android OS (G1) to be superior in terms of speed, multitasking to the iphone 2007 and iphone 3g (2008) (even with iphone OS 3.0). Even your life resolves around Google services, than you would love the Android OS (it autosync mail/contacts over the air and you don't need to subscribe to mobile me). The android os runs very smoothly on HTC G1. The web browser (webkit is used in both iphone/g1) is much faster on the G1 than the iphone 3g (even iphone os 3.0).

BUT with the iphone 3G S combined with the OS 3.0, Apple iPhone becomes superior to Google Android 1.5 OS.

Maybe a company will make better hardware to go along with Android 2.0?

Only time will tell.

 

[iShater]

I was reading about the current G1 from Tmo, and the USB head phone thing boggles the mind. WTH!

 

[vinay427]

I own both the G1 and have owned all three versions of the iphone (2007,2008,2009).

Android is a very stable phone OS. It has loads of "potential". However, the HTC G1 is the main holdup. The hardware available (right now, Android is only offered by HTC G1) and the hardware leaves a lot to be desired.

That being said, I find the Android OS (G1) to be superior in terms of speed, multitasking to the iphone 2007 and iphone 3g (2008) (even with iphone OS 3.0). Even your life resolves around Google services, than you would love the Android OS (it autosync mail/contacts over the air and you don't need to subscribe to mobile me). The android os runs very smoothly on HTC G1. The web browser (webkit is used in both iphone/g1) is much faster on the G1 than the iphone 3g (even iphone os 3.0).

BUT with the iphone 3G S combined with the OS 3.0, Apple iPhone becomes superior to Google Android 1.5 OS.

Maybe a company will make better hardware to go along with Android 2.0?

Only time will tell.

Thanks a lot for the great write up!

I was reading about the current G1 from Tmo, and the USB head phone thing boggles the mind. WTH!

Yeah, same. At least with the HTC Hero they have a normal 3.5 mm.