I don't see other tabs increasing significantly. The whole market is in a decline but yet the iPad still sells more than others. Again this thread is a fraction of a fraction of consumers. And not everyone is dissatisfied anyway.
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iPad Air just got old, SplitView only available on the iPad Air 2
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I don't see other tabs increasing significantly. The whole market is in a decline but yet the iPad still sells more than others. Again this thread is a fraction of a fraction of consumers. And not everyone is dissatisfied anyway.
Then why are so few Android users on lollipop? Seems strange that all those cool features are just sitting there with no one using them. Oh yeah, maybe it's because they don't push it out to all products. I have an Asus Memo Pad 7 and it still runs 4.4.2. Meanwhile, my iPhone 4s (which I bought years earlier) gets a message when an update is available , I accept it, and Apple does the rest. I have read that Android updates are more of a headache, but haven't had the opportunity to find that out yet. Also, many service providers hold back updates, which they don't do on iOS.
Personally, I don't want the headache involved in waiting for updates that may never come or waiting months for apps to make their way to Android while they come to iOS the day they hit mobile (ie Lightroom, Pixelmator, etc..). Also, I like the cross pollination of apps, AirPlay, the ecosystem, iMessage & FaceTime that family members and friends use.
The reason iPad sells are down is because firmware roll outs are still coming to the iPad 2. The people worried about iPad sales #s should be thrilled that they are locking older iPads out of this feature. It should help sales of the iPad Air 2 & 3 (& Pro?) in the coming months.
Deployment takes longer when you have more them 3 products to update and a much larger client base. android is 81% of the global market, running on a hundred different devices. That is the downside of that succes and having so many options.
Updates can be hit or miss on some devices. It's true. The biggest problem is the carriers like Verizon holding things up. Moto, Samsung and the rest need to be like Apple and tell them to piss off and do their own updates...
Google has a handful of Nexus devices and rollouts are still staggered. It's as if we, the users, have to test it out.
I tend to agree with him in my experience. The above pictured Xoom tablet was shipped with Honeycomb, got Ice Cream Sandwich then finally Jelly Bean with project butter in there somewhere.
Each update seemed to run at least as well as the previous if not better and project butter was an improvement to some devices. I feel a lot of that was due to poor optimization in the first place though. I feel that saying each update was less worse then the previous is more accurate then saying it was better.
Moot point in my opinion though because iOS 9 beta 1 (important that beta 1 is noted) seems to be running as well if not better then iOS 8 anyway.
I think its also important to note that even older devices are getting A LOT of the features of iOS 9. Looks like the main difference is going to be the Air 2 with some of its multitasking.
I disagree. Android just doesn't support some devices for as long as others, if ever.
what cool features?
i dont know what androids your are talking about but all my android devices work on the same way as my ios devices: i hit "accept" too and the rest is done by the update. you do realize that you dont need to get the latest android os to get the latest core apps updated? Gapps are updated throught playstore, not with major os updates. if you want to get os updates, buy nexus line. with rest of the android devices, you have to understand that you just buy the device with the current os, and you dont buy an option to get upgrades. if you want to get the latest os (but why?), then android is not for you.
android or manufacturers, or maybe carriers devices?
and the other poster was right, your carriers in usa are main reason delaying updates there because they want to add "something special" to the devices they sell, and some devices will never get updates because of that.
16:9 vs 4:3 will come down to the owners usage. Slide in to look at messages or view a calandar will be skinnier on 4:3 but not enough to distract from its merits.
I've used Android tablets since the Xoom (first Android tablet) and its aspect ratio is what eventually led me to the iPad (kicking and screaming I might add).
I said it's based on the owners usage because of the video standard 16:9 however that is the only thing 16:9 benefits. Everything you do 4:3 typically shines. Just look at the windows opened on any given computer desktop, very high chances the user has closer to a 4:3 aspect.
Even basic things like web browsing, it's just what works. Take a look at this image I took. Notice the white bars on the sides? See how small the text is? If I zoomed in a lose a ton of content off the bottom of the screen. Rotate it into portrait and its just as bad, text turns to fine print because it's so skinny. At work I use electrical schematics usually in PDF format and it was terrible. In landscape I was constantly scrolling up and down losing the circuit I was tracing, in portrait it was too small.
Same background, and same preference.
This is absolutely correct. As I pointed out in another thread, an N280 Atom 1.6GHz chip, with only 1GB of RAM can run full Windows 8, with multiple applications live on the screen without a hiccup (HP Mini 110 is from 2009!). That's a full OS, with dozens of protocols, drivers, and services that the streamlined iOS iPad doesn't have to worry about.
This is not a technical limitation, unless the iPad and/or iOS are horribly inefficient at memory use, which I highly doubt. This looks like forced obsolescence, and it ticks me off.
Why bother with OS updates at all if there weren't cool features?
These are the features that Google is touting. I don't have access to them from my 6 month old device, so I can't personally say how "cool" they are:
See more of what Android Lollipop has to offer
Material Design
A bold, colorful, and responsive UI design for consistent, intuitive experiences across all your devices
- Responsive, natural motion, realistic lighting and shadows, and familiar visual elements make it easier to navigate your device
- Vivid new colors, typography, and edge-to-edge imagery help to focus your attention
- Notifications
New ways to control when and how you receive messages - only get interrupted when you want to be
- View and respond to messages directly from your lock screen. Includes the ability to hide sensitive content for these notifications
- For fewer disruptions, turn on Priority mode via your device’s volume button so only certain people and notifications get through. Or schedule recurring downtime like 10pm to 8am when only Priority notifications can get through
- With Lollipop, incoming phone calls won’t interrupt what you’re watching or playing. You can choose to answer the call or just keep doing what you’re doing
- Control the notifications triggered by your apps; hide sensitive content and prioritize or turn off the app’s notifications entirely
- More intelligent ranking of notifications based on who they’re from and the type of communication. See all your notifications in one place by tapping the top of the screen
- Battery
Power for the long haul
- A battery saver feature which extends device use by up to 90 mins
- Estimated time left to fully charge is displayed when your device is plugged in
- Estimated time left on your device before you need to charge again can now be found in battery settings
- Security
Keep your stuff safe and sound
- SELinux enforcing for all applications means even better protection against vulnerabilities and malware
- Use Android Smart Lock to secure your phone or tablet by pairing it with a trusted device like your wearable or even your car
- Device Sharing
More flexible sharing with family and friends
- Multiple users for phones. If you forget your phone, you still can call any of your friends (or access any of your messages, photos etc.) by simply logging into another Android phone running Lollipop. Also perfect for families who want to share a phone, but not their stuff
- Guest user for phones and tablets means you can lend your device and not your info
- Screen pinning: pin your screen so another user can access just that content without messing with your other stuff
- New Quick Settings
Get to the most frequently used settings with just two swipes down from the top of the screen
- New handy controls like flashlight, hotspot, screen rotation and cast screen controls
- Easier on/off toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location
- Manually adjust your brightness for certain conditions. Then, adaptive brightness will kick in based on ambient lighting
- Connectivity
A better internet connection everywhere and more powerful Bluetooth low energy capabilities
- Improved network handoffs resulting in limited interruption in connectivity. For example, continue your video chat or VoIP calls without interruption as you leave the house and switch from your home Wi-Fi back to cellular
- Improved network selection logic so that your device connects only if there is a verified internet connection on Wi-Fi
- Power-efficient scanning for nearby Bluetooth low energy (“BLE”) devices like wearables or beacons
- New BLE peripheral mode
- Runtime and Performance
A faster, smoother and more powerful computing experience
- ART, an entirely new Android runtime, improves application performance and responsiveness
- Up to 4x performance improvements
- Smoother UI for complex, visually rich applications
- Compacting backgrounded apps and services so you can do more at once
- Support for 64 bit devices, like the Nexus 9, brings desktop class CPUs to Android
- Support for 64-bit SoCs using ARM, x86, and MIPS-based cores
- Shipping 64-bit native apps like Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Google Play Music, and more
- Pure Java language apps run as 64-bit apps automatically
- Media
Bolder graphics and improved audio, video, and camera capabilities
- Lower latency audio input ensuring that music and communication applications that have strict delay requirements provide an amazing realtime experience
- Multi-channel audio stream mixing means professional audio applications can now mix up to eight channels including 5.1 and 7.1 channels
- USB Audio support means you can plug USB microphones, speakers, and a myriad of other USB audio devices like amplifiers and mixers into your Android device
- OpenGL ES 3.1 and Android extension pack brings Android to the forefront of mobile graphics putting it on par with desktop and console class performance
- A range of new professional photography features for Android Lollipop that let you
- Capture full resolution frames around 30 fps
- Support raw formats like YUV and Bayer RAW
- Control capture settings for the sensor, lens, and flash per individual frame
- Capture metadata like noise models and optical information
- State of the art video technology with support for HEVC to allow for UHD 4K video playback, tunneled video for high quality video playback on Android TV and improved HLS support for streaming
- OK Google
Easy access to information and performing tasks
- Even if your screen is off, you can say "OK Google" on devices with digital signal processing support such as Nexus 6 and Nexus 9
- Talk to Google on the go to get quick answers, send a text, get directions and more
- Android TV
Support for living room devices
- User interface adapted for the living room
- Less browsing, more watching with personalized recommendations for content like movies and TV shows
- Voice search for Google Play, YouTube and supported apps so you can just say what you want to see
- Console-style Android gaming on your TV with a gamepad
- Cast your favorite entertainment apps to your big screen with Google Cast support for Android TV devices
- Accessibility
Enhanced low vision and color blind capabilities
- Boost text contrast or invert colors to improve legibility
- Adjust display to improve color differentiation
- Now in 68+ languages
15 new additions
- Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Galician, Icelandic, Kannada, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu
- Device set up
Get up and running in no-time
- Tap & go: instant set up of your new Android phone or tablet by simply tapping it to your old one (requires NFC)
- Whenever you get a new Android phone or tablet, you can bring over your apps from Google Play automatically from any of your old Android devices
- And a whole lot more
- Tap & pay: easily manage multiple payment apps by quickly switching between them
- Print preview and page range support
- Revamped display for battery, Bluetooth, data usage, and Wi-Fi settings and new search functionality in settings
- New device level feedback for Nexus devices in Settings > about phone > send feedback
- Easier sharing with
- Improved ranking of your options within the share menu
- Android Beam: lets you share a file with someone nearby by gently tapping the two devices together
- Where supported by the hardware, your device will wake up as soon as you pick it up or tap the screen twice
- Improved hardware keyboard accessory support including support for multilingual, emoji input, search key, and improved app and system key chords
FYI I am fine with my one Android device since it was cheap and I bought it for one specific app, but I haven't seen anything about it that would make me want to leave the Apple ecosystem.
to me that looks more like a marketing list rather than cool features... but yes, you usually get some new features too with os updates if the hardware supports it. some listed feature was already there or possible with other apps.
there will be always people complaining. it is a simple fact they need to understand, android isnt "apple". it is much more than a simple one line device. there thousends of android devices and google doesnt build updates for them. they only have "their" nexus line, which is kept updated for 18 months.
android and android devices get a new tech fast. they evolve fast and companies are willing to adapt the new tech. and when core apps are updated regularly via play store, you dont need to get newest os updates, not for core apps or other apps.
if we are thinking about companies like samsung, they have several differend kind of devices. there is no point to provide os upgrades for all of them, it would be too expensive. and there is no reason for that either, apps are still working and updated right from play store.
it is your personal choice which platform you prefer. atleast you were able to buy that cheap android device for the one app you wanted to have. but dont expect to get the same level of support that you get from apple after paying premium price.
Uofmtiger said:
there will be always people complaining. it is a simple fact they need to understand, android isnt "apple". it is much more than a simple one line device. there thousends of android devices and google doesnt build updates for them. they only have "their" nexus line, which is kept updated for 18 months.
android and android devices get a new tech fast. they evolve fast and companies are willing to adapt the new tech. and when core apps are updated regularly via play store, you dont need to get newest os updates, not for core apps or other apps.
if we are thinking about companies like samsung, they have several differend kind of devices. there is no point to provide os upgrades for all of them, it would be too expensive. and there is no reason for that either, apps are still working and updated right from play store.
it is your personal choice which platform you prefer. atleast you were able to buy that cheap android device for the one app you wanted to have. but dont expect to get the same level of support that you get from apple after paying premium price.
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That's generally true. But a couple of things:
The iPad Air is not a 2 year old device. It was available November 1 2013. It was 1 yr 7 months old when Apple announced that it would not be able to use all of the capabilities of iOS9.
Everyone who buys an iPad is paying a premium price for a premium device. Along with the premium price comes with it the expectation of support and service for that level of product. Not everyone who buys an Android tablet buys a premium model. When one spends $80 for an Android tablet @ Walmart, they know what they're getting.
The equivalency that you are attempting to draw between what Android Lollipop offers (over previous versions) and the difference between iOS9 (and older versions) doesn't quite work. Multiwindow/Splitview is a significant differentiator. But I understand that some will point out some Lollipop-exclusive features and make the same claim.
But it comes back to Apple (and their customers) pointing to the iPad as being a premium device so any responses of, "well Android is just as bad (or worse)!" doesn't really fly.
By the time that iOS9 is actually released, the iPad Air will be roughly two years old. If you want a future proof device, you should look elsewhere. However, the iPad Air will continue to be a premium device that does everything you paid for and more (with iOS 9).
The iPad Air is still what it was before iOS 9. It still gets ios 9 features with the exception of split view. Again, every year some new feature will come out and typically be only on newer devices. A 2 year device doesn't get one feature and for some reason Apple is some evil company now lol.
you were just blaming android manufacturers the same thing which you are now defending apple.
and yes, that android device (with or without os update) does as much as it did when you bought it and paid for.
Yes. People upset about older devices not getting everything the new devices get yet bemoan that they feel like they need to upgrade. Seems like people want everything without having to pay for it.
Exactly, because of Apple's support people seem to think nearly two year old devices should have the exact capabilities of brand new devices. With Android, I guess expectations are lower, so the users are willing to sit and wait or never get updates.
In either case, I think people have their preferences. However, some of the people in this thread think that people ONLY buy Apple products for some sort of "cool" factor or trendiness. It isn't the case. Most of the people I know that have iPhones got in on the 3rd or 4th gen models (including myself) and have been happier with experience than where they came from. Now their families own iPhones, their friends own iPhones, and the ecosystem of Airplay, iMessage, Facetime, apps, etc.. keep them happy where they are now.
That being said, if there was some sort of life changing tech put into Android that Apple couldn't provide, I think more people would switch. I personally just haven't seen that feature come along yet (Note: the one big advantage in the premium phone market was Samsung's larger phones and some people did switch. However, Apple has a larger phone now, so that gap has been filled).
I am not talking about an app update. I was talking about a major update to the system like you get with iOS9 and Lollipop (if Google's claims of its greatness are true). The iPad Air will get everything other than one feature from iOS9. The Asus I have gets nothing from Lollipop. Hope that helps clarify.
Repeating the lie that the iPad Air 1 is 2 years old won't make it true... at least not until Nov 1 2015.
If people are fine paying a premium price for a premium device that has obsolescence that starts to scale up within less than 1.5 years that's fine. We all make choices. But just because someone is "OK" with that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
...as is true with every consumer device out there. Even if the Air couldn't upgrade at all to iOS9, it still does everything it did before iOS9. Keep that bar of expectation on the ground... you'll never be disappointed.
Repeating the lie that the iPad Air 1 is 2 years old won't make it true... at least not until Nov 1 2015.
If people are fine paying a premium price for a premium device that has obsolescence that starts to scale up within less than 1.5 years that's fine. We all make choices. But just because someone is "OK" with that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
...as is true with every consumer device out there. Even if the Air couldn't upgrade at all to iOS9, it still does everything it did before iOS9. Keep that bar of expectation on the ground... you'll never be disappointed.
Lol in the mobile world 1.5 to 2 years is pretty significant. That's the case with most products in this category, besides Apple. That's 2 cycles of a product.