This is not to start an Android vs iOS war, but I can sync music OTA with iTunes to my Droid Incredible, I can sync my contacts and calendar, and I can make purchases in the Android Market an have i sent to m phone, all without plugging my phone in. That currently is a big advantage of Android I would love Ro see Apple take on. I don't like having to plug in my iPad 2 to do this stuff.
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Do you foresee a big UI update with iOS 5?
- Thread starter Kadin
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This is not to start an Android vs iOS war, but I can sync music OTA with iTunes to my Droid Incredible, I can sync my contacts and calendar, and I can make purchases in the Android Market an have i sent to m phone, all without plugging my phone in. That currently is a big advantage of Android I would love Ro see Apple take on. I don't like having to plug in my iPad 2 to do this stuff.
good points to make,
although all of this can be done on the ipad too. (considering you can buy music, edit playlists, sync contacts, etc) but it'd be nice if it reflected changes made on the pc without syncing. Does your incredible do that specifically? like if you add a song to a playlist that's on it and your computer, does your computer send it to your phone?
on a side note:
unfortunately, even if it did, there's just too much about android I don't like verses iOS, not to mention I'll never understand how people could really switch from one os to the other without it being huge deal. Once you start buying apps you're really stuck in that ecosystem unless you wanna buy stuff all over again or only ever get free apps.
Yes it can. I add the music to a playlist, and when the Droid Incredible picks up the WiFi signal it compares what is on the phone vs what is on the playlist. If there is something in the playlist not on the phone it copies it over. No muss, no fuss. You can also force it to sync if you so choose.
This is totally a non-issue. Packet sniffing would be one of the harder ways of stealing data from a non-secure network. It's much easier to just break into the computer over the network and steal things directly from the disk. Even then, why bother when the majority of content can be downloaded from file sharing sites?
And Apple already streams content wirelessly between devices using AirPlay and Home Sharing. Wireless syncing isn't much of a step up from that in terms of piracy.
That's a good point. If only record labels/movie production companies worked on logic.
I am heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, yet just recently switched to an Android phone from my 3Gs. I switched partially for the novelty, having used iPhones since the initial release, and to see what all the hubbub was about with Android. I mainly use my phone for calls, email, calendar, and web. With some fiddling, Android does all of those as well or better than the iPhone since it supports widgets and has a better notification system. Further, the phone I have has a 4.3" screen, which is also a major reason I switched.
However, the Android Marketplace is a complete mess compared to the App Store (poor search, lots of cheap knockoffs, malware, poor 1st tier apps). If I wanted high-quality apps and media consumption, iOS is the way to go, which is why I still have an iPod Touch and iPad. Also, there's some kind of weird psychological effect that prevents me from buying Android apps. Apple already has all your purchasing info due to iTunes, so buying is easy. With Android, it just seems like a chore. I guess this is why iOS users buy many more apps than Android users.
I would like to see widgets and better notifications in iOS 5. I'm eagerly awaiting the iPhone 5.
That's just a different sort of band-aid. I think that Apple's ultimate aim is that the user should never need to know whether an App is running or not. Adding a gesture for quiting an App just moves them further from that goal.
It's rather ironic with wireless keyboards & other peripherals that one must plug in the iPhone.
You can use multiple iTunes libraries to organize this better - just hold the Alt key when loading iTunes (or shift on a PC) to switch libraries. There are also several apps that make it easier to switch.
It's not as great as having something built in, but better than nothing.
that's true. I never really liked the concept of having to manually quit apps, but I don't like the concept of them staying open either. If their state is saved to normal memory that's one thing, but an app that i'm not using (or haven't used in the last couple minutes) shouldn't be using any ram. the app i'm using should have 100% of what it needs when it needs it. so i guess they still have some work to do.
That's true - but from what I've seen they seem care less about how the content gets on your device, and more about whether or not it should be on the device in the first place. I would be very surprised if they had a problem with it (although I should know better
).I agree. I've never been able to duplicate these "slowdown" problems that people claim to have and always seem to attribute towards multitasking. I work as a developer for a company that produces several iOS apps - we have upwards of 300 various iOS devices for testing. So far we've never seen a good reason for having to close an app from the multitasking bar (really more of a history bar) other than when the app is crashing or locking up.
From what I've seen, Apple has done a better job with their multitasking implementation than any other mainstream OS developer. Anyone who thinks they need to religiously close down all of the apps needs to get over the "Windows" cleanup mentality.
RAM is made to be used. If your current app doesn't need it, then there's no reason not to let a different app use it. And if your current app does need it, then the OS automatically shuts down the app in the background and frees it to be used.
Out of interest, what app do you use to do this? I have doubletwist airsync on my Desire, but it doesn't work like the app you described.
Integration/Sharing is coming a long way pretty quickly with Airplay. I think you will see a big improvement in this type of functionality. I also think that you will see them start to dip their toe into airplay like functionality for purposes beyond media consumption. For example, documents in my phone or ipad could be opened on my desktop that is sharing with me, be edited and saved right on my ios device. Look for the role of your ios device as a hub to be improved and what it is a hub of to increase.
One thing I really hope we will see is drastically improved input methods. Until that nut is cracked you won's be able to really produce on an ios device. so handwriting recognition would be great. Even better would be voice recognition. Imagine if a student could go to class and have class notes automatically taken by the lecture while they also followed along the textbook also in the device? Or being able to dictate documents?
One thing I really hope we will see is drastically improved input methods. Until that nut is cracked you won's be able to really produce on an ios device. so handwriting recognition would be great. Even better would be voice recognition. Imagine if a student could go to class and have class notes automatically taken by the lecture while they also followed along the textbook also in the device? Or being able to dictate documents?
If you are syncing with iTunes you have to be using some type of third part appp don't you? Don't see any way Apple would let you sync with iTunes "out of the box".
and if you are using a 3rd party utility to do it, how is that any different then using the jailbroken app for iOS that does the same thing?
A lot of us oldtime smartphone users were far, FAR more heavily invested in Windows Mobile apps, which easily cost $10-30 each. Yet we had no problem also investing in iOS and Android apps. The cost is tiny in comparison
No doubt. Yet once registered, buying Android apps is just as easy as buying iOS apps. Perhaps even easier, since it doesn't seem to trap me in a weird iTunes update-credit-card verification thing every year or so.
Even better, I don't get asked for my password for free Android apps. Or for updates.
I previously linked to the app I'm using. And yes... it is third party.
The difference is I don't have to jailbreak my phone before installing the app. One step vs two.
I think we will certainly have a dedicated doc folder etc
If you read the bottom of the Lion preview text on Apples website it confirms that we will be able to wirelessly sync files to our Macs / networks etc to and from the iPad
We wont have a proper open file system but it looks like we will certainly have folders and get away from iTunes syncing for docs
I hope there will be more integration between OS X and iOS, not just app syncing but essentially making the workflow between OS X and iOS appear seemless - a good example is how Google has implemented data push between Chrome - Chrome to Phone - Android.
Yes there are apps which emulate this on iOS like Pastefire / Site to Phone / etc, but it really can't match Chrome To Phone and that is because Google developed them in house. There is only so much a third party developer can do with a limited set of APIs. Since Apple is being strict with so many things, I hope they develop more iOS apps and Safari extensions and Mac apps which interoperate seamlessly.
That is what I hope they achieve in the near future otherwise it is truly a shame they don't utilize the resources they have at the moment. It would also make less of a reason to stay exclusive with Apple products except for brand loyalty and aesthetics.
I also hope Android 3.0 will be ported successfully to Phones soon.
It looks like this year - Google IO and Apple WWDC will set all of these things straight or not - we shall observe and evaluate.
Yes there are apps which emulate this on iOS like Pastefire / Site to Phone / etc, but it really can't match Chrome To Phone and that is because Google developed them in house. There is only so much a third party developer can do with a limited set of APIs. Since Apple is being strict with so many things, I hope they develop more iOS apps and Safari extensions and Mac apps which interoperate seamlessly.
That is what I hope they achieve in the near future otherwise it is truly a shame they don't utilize the resources they have at the moment. It would also make less of a reason to stay exclusive with Apple products except for brand loyalty and aesthetics.
I also hope Android 3.0 will be ported successfully to Phones soon.
It looks like this year - Google IO and Apple WWDC will set all of these things straight or not - we shall observe and evaluate.
This is an issue only with music right - I have my mail, contacts and calendar synched with Google, Yahoo and office e-mail accounts and it works very well. You can re-download apps anytime you want - Apple allows this and can buy/download podcast off of itunes.
Seems you need the PC/Mac only for the initial sync/updates and for managing music. I guess the music issue is more historical with the evolution of iTunes.