Nexus 4 from iPhone Questions

[macguybaltimore]

Considering switching to a Nexus 4 from iPhone. I have some questions about android, and some gripes about apple.

Gripes:
1) As a tech-savvy person who feels the need to tweak their phone constantly, I was very annoyed by the dumbed-down interface of iOS, and felt like it was intended for people who had no clue how to use a computer.

2) Being unable to set my default apps is very annoying. I use Chrome as my browser (even though it's significantly slower than Safari, apple's purposeful doing), gmail for mail, and now google maps instead of apple's atrocious half-baked effort.

3) I didn't like the one-size fits all idea, I like my options in phones; I did't want to be forced into a tiny 3.5 inch screen, when I could easily operate my friend's 4.8 inch Galaxy SIII

4) There was a total lack of innovation from the "Think Differently" Company. iOS 5 was a complete ripoff from Android, and iOS 6 was a step backwards with maps.

5) Apple was behind with the tech, with a minuscule screen, no LTE, and a vastly outdated CPU.


Questions:
1) I love the Google Apps on iOS; Apple's stock apps don't even compare to what Google offers. However, I've heard that Google apps on iOS are actually better designed and more functional than on their own platform. Is this actually true, or do their apps across platforms compare well?

2) How do Google's Stock Apps work compared to Apple's overall? Apple's Phone, Messages, etc. apps all feel very well organized and usable; do Android's compare well?

3) Albeit my complaints with iOS, I really enjoy my MacBook. I've heard Android is horrible syncing with Macs, though I assume everything will sync and be chained to my Gmail account.

4) I've heard that Android is asesthetically unappealing, but after playing with a Gnex and a Nexus 7, it doesn't unappealing at all. What's the genreal consensus on Android's visual appear these days?

5) Viruses. Are they as big a deal as mobile security companies and Apple Fanboys claim they are?

Thank you so much for the help, thanks in advance!

 

[dkersten]

I'll answer the last two questions.

I find Android very appealing aesthetically. But it doesn't matter because you can change it in a nearly limitless way. Custom ROMs, launchers, etc., you can change the appearance of pretty much everything, even keyboards.

As for viruses, no it shouldn't be a big deal. Its just like a PC. Don't download shady things and stick to names (apps and developers) you recognize. You won't have any problems if you stick to this method

 

[Dr McKay]

I think you'd love a Nexus 4, however for the love of God to not plug for the 8GB Model. Nexuses have a little flaw where they run dog slow when they run under 1GB of usable space, the latest 4.2.1 update is not guaranteed to fix this.

Googles default apps are pretty solid, most of them are identical to the iOS counterparts (Google Maps is supposed to be designed better in iOS though). Ive also heard Gmail is better on Android than it is iOS, but I don't use Gmail so I can't confirm.

As for viruses, look at reviews are ratings on an app before you buy, I did this on iPhone anyway.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

1) I love the Google Apps on iOS; Apple's stock apps don't even compare to what Google offers. However, I've heard that Google apps on iOS are actually better designed and more functional than on their own platform. Is this actually true, or do their apps across platforms compare well?

2) How do Google's Stock Apps work compared to Apple's overall? Apple's Phone, Messages, etc. apps all feel very well organized and usable; do Android's compare well?

My answers to these two kind of overlap, so I'll answer them together. The default apps work very well in my experience, but if you find they're lacking features you want/need, you can download replacements from the Play Store. That's one of the great things about Android - you can make any app the default for a particular function/behavior.

The only thing I was missing from iOS was visual voicemail (stock Android phone app doesn't have this). Fortunately, there is a visual voicemail app for AT&T on the Play Store. Now, whenever I get a voicemail, it pops up in the visual vm app.

3) Albeit my complaints with iOS, I really enjoy my MacBook. I've heard Android is horrible syncing with Macs, though I assume everything will sync and be chained to my Gmail account.

Nah, it's not a problem at all. It's not as seamless as Windows and Linux (natively browse, drag, and drop files), but it's still not a big deal. You'll have to download the Android File Transfer app, which then allows you to browse your phone's file system and drag/drop files.

 

[paolo-]

1) I love the Google Apps on iOS; Apple's stock apps don't even compare to what Google offers. However, I've heard that Google apps on iOS are actually better designed and more functional than on their own platform. Is this actually true, or do their apps across platforms compare well?

2) How do Google's Stock Apps work compared to Apple's overall? Apple's Phone, Messages, etc. apps all feel very well organized and usable; do Android's compare well?

3) Albeit my complaints with iOS, I really enjoy my MacBook. I've heard Android is horrible syncing with Macs, though I assume everything will sync and be chained to my Gmail account.

4) I've heard that Android is asesthetically unappealing, but after playing with a Gnex and a Nexus 7, it doesn't unappealing at all. What's the genreal consensus on Android's visual appear these days?

5) Viruses. Are they as big a deal as mobile security companies and Apple Fanboys claim they are?

Thank you so much for the help, thanks in advance!

I recently went from an iPhone 3gs to a Nexus 4.

1)I'm not sure if they're much better as I didn't use the Google apps much on the iPhone, they couldn't be set as default. But they seem to be well organized and very usable. Really they are some of the best apps on Android.

2)Most of the stock apps are much better than the stock Apple apps. I really enjoy Gmail, maps is great, Drive is also super useful. I really really like the stock photo app, it's very clean and fast while you're shooting and the post shooting tweaking you can do is fantastic. The music player might be a bit under the iPod app but just might be that I'm not used to Play Music yet. Actually sound check is the only feature I really miss, constantly having to change volume sucks. I never really used Genius on my phone anyhow (that's something you could miss). Maybe someone could recommend a player app that has that capability. Lastly, I prefer Google Now to what I've seen of Siri. Now gives you an answer within 2 secs or googles what you said. With Siri, it can take a long time to end up not giving you what you want so it would have been much faster typing it manually instead of staring at your phone like an idiot.

3)I don't have a problem syncing, doubletwist syncs with my iTunes library and it's seamless with the phone. Other than that I don't use much of Apple's services most is through Google so all is good.

4)I would say that on average it's a bit below iOS. iOS generally looks very good. There are some high profile apps that are really well made and look the part like all of the Google apps. However, I think this is part of how much stuff Google gives to it's developers, some 3rd party apps are very dodgy and inconsistant. But I'd say that for the general purpose stuff you can find something that's well made. It becomes a bit hit or miss with niche apps.

5)I'm no authority on the subject but as far as I can tell if you stick to the Google Play store, look at what apps are demanding in terms of access to the phone and don't download super sketchy stuff there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Tunnelrunner]

1) I love the Google Apps on iOS; Apple's stock apps don't even compare to what Google offers. However, I've heard that Google apps on iOS are actually better designed and more functional than on their own platform. Is this actually true, or do their apps across platforms compare well?

2) How do Google's Stock Apps work compared to Apple's overall? Apple's Phone, Messages, etc. apps all feel very well organized and usable; do Android's compare well?

3) Albeit my complaints with iOS, I really enjoy my MacBook. I've heard Android is horrible syncing with Macs, though I assume everything will sync and be chained to my Gmail account.

4) I've heard that Android is asesthetically unappealing, but after playing with a Gnex and a Nexus 7, it doesn't unappealing at all. What's the genreal consensus on Android's visual appear these days?

5) Viruses. Are they as big a deal as mobile security companies and Apple Fanboys claim they are?

Thank you so much for the help, thanks in advance!

Another dual iOS/Android user here. I'll try to answer as best as I can.

1) Very subjective. I'm going to speak to Google Maps specifically since many tech columnists (like Walt Mossberg) all seem to be saying that "it's even better on iOS than Android." The iOS version IS more streamlined and it doesn't have layers upon layers of menus caked on it BUT it's not as robust and as powerful as the Android version, IMO. Both are great apps but obviously, Android's Google Maps has been evolving since 2009 - iOS' Google Maps is only 2 months old. So again, determining whether Google's apps are more functional on iOS vs. Android is completely subjective. I'll say that the apps are comparable and great on both platforms.

2) Stock Android apps and stock iOS apps all do the same basic function, so it's not really an issue - with 1 exception: the stock Android Mail app is terrible, IMHO. This is one area where Android could learn from iOS' simplified, universal mail app (which to me, is the best of any OS). I recommend installing (from Google Play) the Gmail app and (if you use them) Hotmail and Yahoo mail apps. EDIT: Paolo just reminded me of the most obvious stock app in which Android stomps iOS: Maps. I mean Android Google Maps vs. iOS Maps 6.0. No competition. And I also agree that Google Now is overall, better than Siri - however I can't seem to get it to do phone functions (like make calls, or text someone, etc.). I have to use SVoice or Assistant to do those functions.

3) As long as all your important data (Calendar, Contacts, Mail) are housed on Gmail, it'll sync over to Android. EDIT: To sync over your iOS pics and music, that has to be done separately (there are many youtube videos on how to drag/drop files). You can also use iOS Android apps like Photo Transfer, and Google Music (I think that's the app name?; I don't have my Macbook or my Note II with me right now) also ports over your iOS music as long as it's not DRM-protected.

4) Again, subjective. I'll let someone else address this one. I personally find Android to be as visually appealing as iOS.

5) I haven't had any problems with viruses yet. :Knocks on wood. Follow good common sense that you would on any OS (don't download something you're not sure about, no sensitive data on unsecured wifi, etc.). FWIW, I only download apps from Google Play (there are other Android app markets, but I can't vouch for how secure they are).

----
Best of luck. Just don't expect Android to be the exact same experience as iOS (and visa versa) - different OS with different appeal.

 

[daveathall]

Ive had a iPhone 5, got a MBP and have a Nexus 4 so i'm in the same situation as you.

I am not tech savvy and from your post I believe that you are. as for syncing your phone, you won't have any problems, TBH, once I set up my Google account and transferred my contacts and Calendar I don't really plug my phone into my MBP, I don't find any reason. I don't need my contacts on my iPad Mini but have CalenGoo installed and works perfectly.

I am not a gamer and the small amount of cross platform apps I use are just as attractive and seem to work as well as on iOS.

I enjoy my Apple products and prefer the larger items such as my MBP and iPad Mini, having said that, I still lust after a Nexus 7 but could not justify having two mini tablets. For phone use I prefer Android, I find the larger screen more useful and I seem to use it more than when I did when I had my iPhone, on Friday while waiting for my car service I watched the live cricket on my Nexus 4, it would have been nearly impossible on the smaller iP4s or iP5.

Enjoy your new phone.

 

[ChazUK]

On syncing, I'll say that Google contacts, Gmail, calendars are effortless.

The other thing is media. Any photos, videos or albums uploaded to Picasa Web Albums will appear in the gallery.
Music can me made available to you via Google Music with 20,000 tracks available from the cloud. You can have it set to automatically upload any new tracks added to your library. If you're on a limited data plan you can "pin" any songs or albums to your phone which will download and make them available offline.

Lastly Google Drive/Dropbox work really well when it comes to cloud storage. I use Google Drive as I have 100gb free space and use an app called Cloud Vault to auto push any pictures I take to my Google Drive so whenever I turn on my computer, the Google Drive app pulls all of the uploaded pics straight down to my PC.

I have zero reason to plug my Nexus into any computers other than charging now as everything I want on or off of the device is synced wirelessly. I doubt anyone on OS X will have issues syncing via the cloud route.

As for viruses, I've stayed virus free since 2009 by checking what I install.
Permissions, developer reputation, user reviews are a good place to check if you are worried (if a wallpaper app needs access to location and contacts it can piss off). Trying to save some pennies by pirating apps may be the biggest risk here which is another thing that may have kept me safe as I buy all my apps.

One thing I do like about here is that there are a lot of helpful people on this forum who are always willing and able to help looking at the responses above.

 

[Stuntman06]

1) I love the Google Apps on iOS; Apple's stock apps don't even compare to what Google offers. However, I've heard that Google apps on iOS are actually better designed and more functional than on their own platform. Is this actually true, or do their apps across platforms compare well?

I find that the Google apps on Android to be amongst the best apps on my Android phone. I haven't done a side by side comparison across platforms. I know that for Google Maps, Google made some changes that makes the UI a bit different than on Android. For everything else, I think they are pretty much the same.

4) I've heard that Android is asesthetically unappealing, but after playing with a Gnex and a Nexus 7, it doesn't unappealing at all. What's the genreal consensus on Android's visual appear these days?

People who like or use iOS will generally have a more negative opinion of Android than iOS. What matters is what you really think.

5) Viruses. Are they as big a deal as mobile security companies and Apple Fanboys claim they are?

As an active user on the Android Forums, I have not heard of people claiming to experience an outbreak of viruses on Android devices. Security companies will always want users to have a fear of malware. Otherwise, they won't buy their security software. I don't see it as an issue amongst Android users.