All iPads For those with any iPad and an Android phone.

[Rm.237]

Felt like dabbling a little in the Android side of mobile devices and got a Galaxy Note 2. After a week of use I am just starting to realize what it feels like outside of the Apple ecosystem, even if it's just with my phone, and was curious to see how some of you who may be in the same position bridge the gap so to speak. I still am using my iPad's and my MacBook Pro and would never consider trading those in for anything in the world. But nonetheless I did feel the need to scratch my Android itch. Hence the purchase. So throw whatever you got my way if you don't mind. Photos, music, calendar, documents, anything and everything. Thanks!

 

[navt]

Same here. I have pretty much most Apple products from iMac, Macbook, couple of iPads and iPod touch (no one's ever accused me of being a fanboy) but I somehow cannot bring myself to get and iPhone. Been on Android for the last couple of years. TBH my life is integrated with Google so it makes sense. Furthermore with Dropbox, the differences seem irrelevant. My wife has an iPhone but more for business reasons than personal.

 

[BenTrovato]

Haha I know how you feel, I've tried them all. I find with the tablets, the iPad is just a bit better (or maybe I just like it better than the androids) but the phones are just different. I really enjoy the androids as a phone - hoping to see the S4 come out with a nicer casing than the cheap feelings S3 has. The iPhone always feels better in my hand than any android product but the android in my opinion is more fun to play around with and tweak if you like that sort of stuff. Ecosystem wise, if you depend on it you will notice the difference. I tend to be on too many devices to depend on them so using dropbox or other services, I don't notice the difference switching between the different platforms.

 

[Luis2004]

I've been an Android user since the OG Droid, and had the Droid Charge, Galaxy Nexus, SGSIII, back to the Galaxy Nexus, my dad's Droid DNA, my sister's Note II, and back to the Nexus.

I finally bought an iPhone.

Not that the Droids are inferior devices. I find that the bigger screens suit my taste more, but after I got an iPad last year, I found myself using my phone less and less. I had used the phone for movie watching on the train to work, reading books, and surfing the web. The iPad quickly replaced those activities, and in a much better way. iBooks is the perfect ereader. Jailbroken, the iPad plays .mkv files flawlessly. Web surfing, well the iPad's bigger screen is going to trounce even the Note II unless I want to be extra private, which I usually don't care about unless it's banking info.

As I used my Android device less and less, I found myself wanting to have my media consumption click together. After all, after my 3rd PC bit the dust, I finally bought a Mac. I guess I just decided to go with the iPhone in order to have everything more streamlined (being able to text using my phone number straight from my Mac, etc.).

I couldn't be happier. Plus, I think I got sick of all the Rom'ing and kerneling and all that. I just want a phone that works great, doesn't go into random reboots, and doesn't ask to have its ROM changed every day.

 

[LaurieAnn]

I use a Motorola Droid X. I rely on Google services for my calendar, contacts, documents, Gmail, & Drive. I have been using Dropbox and Evernote too.

 

[TacticalDesire]

I use google services for calendar, contacts etc. and skydrive and dropbox for files. I wouldn't trade my nexus 4 for an iPhone if you paid me to but the iPad apps are currently much better than androids offerings.

 

[kevroc]

Well for me it would be the other way around. For my phone, it has to be apple. In such a small device I need user friendly, bullet proof apps. In a tablet, android makes more sense because you can multitask easier and use a common file system, so getting stuff done can be easier in a lot of ways.

For a phone it doesn't matter as much, ease of use is paramount because there is a lot of one handed navigation and it always has to be with you. With a tablet you can spend more time syncing files and configuring apps and working your way around the screen so some of the limitations of Android are more easily worked-around than on a phone platform.

The Galaxy Note II is a different beast however to your iPhone, so there may be physical reasons why it is better for you than an iPhone. For me, just the iTunes syncing for music / video is enough of a killer app to justify an iPhone over anything else.

 

[calilove]

Well for me it would be the other way around. For my phone, it has to be apple. In such a small device I need user friendly, bullet proof apps. In a tablet, android makes more sense because you can multitask easier and use a common file system, so getting stuff done can be easier in a lot of ways.

For a phone it doesn't matter as much, ease of use is paramount because there is a lot of one handed navigation and it always has to be with you. With a tablet you can spend more time syncing files and configuring apps and working your way around the screen so some of the limitations of Android are more easily worked-around than on a phone platform.

The Galaxy Note II is a different beast however to your iPhone, so there may be physical reasons why it is better for you than an iPhone. For me, just the iTunes syncing for music / video is enough of a killer app to justify an iPhone over anything else.

Ease of use is a 2009 argument, they are both easy to use, and both have comparable apps, unless you are looking for super obscure apps.

If android is to complicated to use for someone they will not be able to handle ios, considering apple has turned it into android without android homescreens.

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I've been an Android user since the OG Droid, and had the Droid Charge, Galaxy Nexus, SGSIII, back to the Galaxy Nexus, my dad's Droid DNA, my sister's Note II, and back to the Nexus.

I finally bought an iPhone.

Not that the Droids are inferior devices. I find that the bigger screens suit my taste more, but after I got an iPad last year, I found myself using my phone less and less. I had used the phone for movie watching on the train to work, reading books, and surfing the web. The iPad quickly replaced those activities, and in a much better way. iBooks is the perfect ereader. Jailbroken, the iPad plays .mkv files flawlessly. Web surfing, well the iPad's bigger screen is going to trounce even the Note II unless I want to be extra private, which I usually don't care about unless it's banking info.

As I used my Android device less and less, I found myself wanting to have my media consumption click together. After all, after my 3rd PC bit the dust, I finally bought a Mac. I guess I just decided to go with the iPhone in order to have everything more streamlined (being able to text using my phone number straight from my Mac, etc.).

I couldn't be happier. Plus, I think I got sick of all the Rom'ing and kerneling and all that. I just want a phone that works great, doesn't go into random reboots, and doesn't ask to have its ROM changed every day.

This sounds like someone who has never used android, at least not in the last three years.

 

[Rhyalus]

Droid Razr Maxx, Ipad 4, Win7 Desktop, Win7 laptop, MBP with Mountain Lion.

I am doing pretty well.

I share files back and forth between all systems (some more easily than others)...

R

 

[Rm.237]

I share files back and forth between all systems (some more easily than others)...

R

Yup, this seems to be the way of it. I have been using Dropbox more than I ever have in my life and that is helping. doubleTwist for my iTunes music. The biggest difference is the App selection. The Google Play store is like Netflix Streaming in the fact that the first few app selections are solid and then by the 8th you're looking at watching Leprechaun in the Hood. But with the Note 2 I have more than I need and am so far very pleased with my decision to get one. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Luis2004]

This sounds like someone who has never used android, at least not in the last three years.

Why, because my opinion isn't the same as yours? Some people love putting in new ROMS, watching it judiciously to see how it's affecting battery life, switching kernels to see if that does the trick, going on to a different ROM, trying over and over different png's that will satisfy his need for perfect navbar buttons, asking on forums if anyone has a good background picture for the pulldown menu, worrying about how to get a good background that will look great with the widgets he's put into place, finally getting sick of ROMming and taking a month-long break, then coming back and trying AOKP nightly builds that for some reason waste 50% battery power overnight and freaking out about it the next day because he forgot his charger, etc.

You know, this might come as a shock to you, but some people don't have the time to obsess so much over their phones and just want something that works and looks great. And if it happens to have a nice glass/aluminum feel rather than a cheap plastic toy feel, all the more so!

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Why, because my opinion isn't the same as yours? Some people love putting in new ROMS, watching it judiciously to see how it's affecting battery life, switching kernels to see if that does the trick, going on to a different ROM, trying over and over different png's that will satisfy his need for perfect navbar buttons, asking on forums if anyone has a good background picture for the pulldown menu, worrying about how to get a good background that will look great with the widgets he's put into place, finally getting sick of ROMming and taking a month-long break, then coming back and trying AOKP nightly builds that for some reason waste 50% battery power overnight and freaking out about it the next day because he forgot his charger, etc.

You know, this might come as a shock to you, but some people don't have the time to obsess so much over their phones and just want something that works and looks great. And if it happens to have a nice glass/aluminum feel rather than a cheap plastic toy feel, all the more so!

The only thing that comes as a shock is your description of the Android phone needed roms every other day, and rebooting. The stability of my older android phone HTC Thunderbolt on Gingerbread (Android 2.3) was rock solid. Your description is just wrong. The majority of Droid users from 2.3 on, and especially those on Ice Cream Sandwich of JellyBean, dont have all these reboots etc. If you did, there were other issues and factors involved, and your characterization/opinion of such fits about .0035% of Android users out there and should be regarded as such. Or as others said, your 3 year old opinions of the state of Android are just irrelevant given the state of the OS today. The simple fact most people understand, is that by 4.0 (ICS), Android caught up, then proceeded to leave iOS behind.

Technologically, your Android phone opinions sound like someone telling you how much they hate the way their 1987 512K Mac worked, after you tell them you bought a new iMac. Yeah, its that bad.

There isnt much of a reason to root a modern Droid phone, unless you just want to for various reasons, in that case, you troubles are/were your own making, and not representative of the current state of the Android O/S. If you dont want to customize a Droid phone, believe it or not, the carrier does not put a gun to your head and make you do so.

For some completely incomprehensible reason Android = Tinker/Root/Modify/Destabilize/Chaos/Alter/Cryptic-To-Use but iPhone=Static/Happiness/Stable/Easy-To-Use in your mind.

_______________

I had an HTC Thunderbolt, decided to upgrade to a Motorola Razr Maxx HD, returned it after realizing the dealer was stiffing me $120 over what it went for on Amazon, then waited around because of newer phones coming out. Getting depressed over lack of HTC phones with micro-SD card slots. Meanwhile I left the HTC on the roof last weekend, lost it when I drove off, using a buddies extra HTC Rezound, and will make a decision soon.

My Apps
Handsent SMS
Swiftkey
Evernote
FireFox Beta (like it over Chrome for privacy issues)
Aldiko ereader
AndroXplorer for filesystem
Winamp
GMail


Others
NewEgg
Amazon
F1 News (2012)
BJCP Droid
RateBeer

 

[Luis2004]

The only thing that comes as a shock is your description of the Android phone needed roms every other day, and rebooting. The stability of my older android phone HTC Thunderbolt on Gingerbread (Android 2.3) was rock solid. Your description is just wrong. The majority of Droid users from 2.3 on, and especially those on Ice Cream Sandwich of JellyBean, dont have all these reboots etc. If you did, there were other issues and factors involved, and your characterization/opinion of such fits about .0035% of Android users out there and should be regarded as such. Or as others said, your 3 year old opinions of the state of Android are just irrelevant given the state of the OS today. The simple fact most people understand, is that by 4.0, Android caught up, then proceeded to leave iOS behind.

There isnt much of a reason to root a modern Droid phone, unless you just want to for various reasons, in that case, you troubles are/were your own making, and not representative of the current state of the Android O/S. If you dont want to customize a Droid phone, believe it or not, the carrier does not put a gun to your head and make you do so.

For some completely incomprehensible reason Android = Tinker/Root/Modify/Destabilize/Chaos/Alter/Cryptic-To-Use but iPhone=Static/Happiness/Stable/Easy-To-Use in your mind.

Wow. You should get out more. There are actually people out in the world that might not be in lock-step with everything you think.

A LOT of people buy Android phones specifically because they can customize and ROM all day long if they want. Go take a look at AndroidForums and you will see a million people talking about nothing but which new ROMS are out and why GPS isn't working on their devices. Just because my Android experience was less than stellar doesn't mean that I'm lying about using an Android device recently.

Get a grip.

 

[TacticalDesire]

Wow. You should get out more. There are actually people out in the world that might not be in lock-step with everything you think.

A LOT of people buy Android phones specifically because they can customize and ROM all day long if they want. Go take a look at AndroidForums and you will see a million people talking about nothing but which new ROMS are out and why GPS isn't working on their devices. Just because my Android experience was less than stellar doesn't mean that I'm lying about using an Android device recently.

Get a grip.

Yes. A decent amount of people root and rom. However, that is far from the majority and you made it sound like everyone does it our you have to do it for whatever reason. Which is far from the truth

 

[Rhyalus]

There is no reason to root Android phones anymore...

The latest releases from the major vendors are simply fine. Anyone that does it, does it for kicks or because they wanted the latest version that is not yet rolled out (which is not necessary).

R
(I used to "root" and install ROMs on Blackberry and Android phones years ago - Ice Cream Sandwich and higher are great OS's on Android.)

 

[darngooddesign]

This sounds like someone who has never used android, at least not in the last three years.

Based on his post, he has.

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There is no reason to root Android phones anymore. The latest releases from the major vendors are simply fine...

If Google patches a security hole, but the carrier doesn't roll that out in their update, that's a good reason to root.

 

[sbddude]

I use a galaxy s3 as my phone and have for the last 8 months. Yes, I have it rooted but I do not experience any of the stability issues mentioned. In fact my wife's iPhone has apps crash more often than I do.

To the OP, I find that all of the Google services work well on both iOS and android, especially chrome, gmail, maps, music, and voice. I also like Dropbox, pulse reader, evernote, Pandora and BeyondPod.

 

[daveathall]

I have a Nexus 4 and a iPad mini and MBP, I prefer Google Calendar so use CalenGoo on my iPad Mini, syncs really well. I have a large iTunes holding so pointed Google music at the location it is held on my MBP and let it match and upload my albums for free. Mail I use the stock app on my phone, contacts I use DW contacts in conjunction with DW dialer works great with my Google contacts. I must admit that I was a bit worried at first but that worry, as it turned out was unfounded.

IMHO, Apple gives the best experience when using a tablet by far. When using a phone I think that there is not much to choose between a top end Android phone and the iPhone 5, for my personal preference, I enjoy the Nexus 4 more.

 

[webslinger85]

I use an HTC Raider/Vivid and an iPad 3. Alot of people seem to think there's issues with using separate operating systems, but there's easy ways around it. I can understand the simplicity of of using both an iPhone and an iPad, but to me it seems almost redundant

- For my email i use the gmail apps on both

- Photos and documents i use Dropbox, take a pic with my phone, uploads automatically to Dropbox, it's there on my iPad right away.

- Browser, i use Chrome. I love it because sometimes i'll be at work reading something on my phone, and when i get home i just go into the Chrome app on my iPad, and it's synced right up to my phone do i can continue reading from the iPad, or even my laptop.

- For Twitter i use Plume(Android) and Tweetbot(iPad) set up with Tweetmarker, my timelines sync seamlessly

- Music i just use the stock apps on each device.

 

[Fruit Cake]

GN2 and ipad4 user here, best of both worlds.