The iPhone and iOS both are in desperate need of an upgrade

[BiggAW]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome...

To iPhone vs. Android pissing match LXXXVII. Tonight's contestants are iOS 5.1 vs. Android 4.0.4.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome...

To iPhone vs. Android pissing match LXXXVII. Tonight's contestants are iOS 5.1 vs. Android 4.0.4.

Never mind for a moment the "debate" between Android and iOS. Just the notion that people adamantly refuse to admit that iOS needs improvement is really the collective downfall of Apple fans. They don't realize that such intellectual dishonesty actually does disservice to Apple and fellow fans.

Many who are asking, requesting, and hoping that Apple make advancements and improvements to an operating system they prefer to stay with are met with objection and claims that iOS doesn't need improvement, or that it's already perfect, or that it "just works." This is an objection that is baffling, and reeks of intellectual dishonesty. Apple fans are on the same team, and to call out its shortcomings is a good thing to do. Otherwise, there's no reason for Apple to improve and everyone loses out.

 

[sracer]

iPhone's multitasking system is by far the greatest. When people compare the iPhone to Android phones they forget to realize that android phones usually have a battery anywhere from 200mAh-1000mAh+ bigger than the iPhone's in size....plus their processor is running at faster speeds to achieve what iPhone gets done at 800MHz-Dual Core(compared to 1GHz+), 512MB Ram (Compared to 768MB+) and with a 14xxmAh Battery....

I agree. Having owned multiple Android smartphones starting with the original G1, and just switching to a prepaid iPhone 4, I can say that I prefer iOS' multitasking capabilities over Android's.

Doing comparable tasks, I can go 2-3 days on the iPhone before charging. I can go just about a day on my Android handset. If I manually manage communication options like 3G, Bluetooth, and WiFi then I can extend the Android's battery life to be comparable to the iPhone.

 

[BiggAW]

Never mind for a moment the "debate" between Android and iOS. Just the notion that people adamantly refuse to admit that iOS needs improvement is really the collective downfall of Apple fans. They don't realize that such intellectual dishonesty actually does disservice to Apple and fellow fans.

Many who are asking, requesting, and hoping that Apple make advancements and improvements to an operating system they prefer to stay with are met with objection and claims that iOS doesn't need improvement, or that it's already perfect, or that it "just works." This is an objection that is baffling, and reeks of intellectual dishonesty. Apple fans are on the same team, and to call out its shortcomings is a good thing to do. Otherwise, there's no reason for Apple to improve and everyone loses out.

There's a new pissing match on these forums like every two days. People are ridiculous fanboys. Now that we have basic smartphone functionality like notifications and multitasking in iOS 5 and 4, respectively, iOS 5 is a good competitor to Android. No need for pissing matches. I personally own an iPhone, I'm an ex-Android user, but I have strongly recommended the RAZR series to several friends who are not Apple fanatics and use Verizon. I'm also going to learn how to develop for Android and buy a GNex for that soon.

It's about functionality, and both of them now have similar functionality. I trashed the iPhone up until iOS 5 for lacking very basic things like a notification system (WM 6.1 had one), but once Apple fixed everything that I was trashing it for, I bought one!

 

[Daveoc64]

The impact on memory is minimal, the most recent 3 apps are held open and only a handful of apps are allowed to be be truly multitasked.

This isn't entirely accurate.

There's no arbitrarily set limit on Apps being "held open".

An App is either active (it's on the screen), running in the background (limited selection of tasks or any task for up to 10 minutes) or suspended.

Apps in the suspended or background states will be terminated by iOS ONLY when there isn't enough memory for active tasks. Active tasks can be terminated if there's a shortage of memory (yes, that means that the App you're using might close if there's not enough memory for it to continue).

You could have a dozen smaller Apps suspended in RAM, or just a single big app.

 

[sk1wbw]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome...

To iPhone vs. Android pissing match LXXXVII. Tonight's contestants are iOS 5.1 vs. Android 4.0.4.

So that would be about 500 people using 4.0.4?

 

[El3ctronics]

I agree. Having owned multiple Android smartphones starting with the original G1, and just switching to a prepaid iPhone 4, I can say that I prefer iOS' multitasking capabilities over Android's.

Doing comparable tasks, I can go 2-3 days on the iPhone before charging. I can go just about a day on my Android handset. If I manually manage communication options like 3G, Bluetooth, and WiFi then I can extend the Android's battery life to be comparable to the iPhone.

If you haven't used multitasking on ICS then your viewpoint is irrelevant. It's been greatly improved and is now light years ahead of Apple's implementation. As far as battery life, I agree with you that the iPhone 4 is MUCH better than Android devices...my iPhone 4 battery was superb. But the iPhone 4S battery life is truly terrible. I tried replacing the device twice and restoring as new but I can't get through a full day with the 4S.

----------

This isn't entirely accurate.

There's no arbitrarily set limit on Apps being "held open".

An App is either active (it's on the screen), running in the background (limited selection of tasks or any task for up to 10 minutes) or suspended.

Apps in the suspended or background states will be terminated by iOS ONLY when there isn't enough memory for active tasks.

You could have a dozen smaller Apps suspended in RAM, or just a single big app.

This is almost correct. There are no apps (aside from Apple's own apps) that can remain idle (or suspended) in the background. After 10 minutes every single 3rd party app will be closed and shut down. As you said, there are limited API's that will allow 3rd party apps to finish tasks for UP TO 10 minutes and then, they too, are force closed by the operating system.

 

[cynics]

If you haven't used multitasking on ICS then your viewpoint is irrelevant. It's been greatly improved and is now light years ahead of Apple's implementation. As far as battery life, I agree with you that the iPhone 4 is MUCH better than Android devices...my iPhone 4 battery was superb. But the iPhone 4S battery life is truly terrible. I tried replacing the device twice and restoring as new but I can't get through a full day with the 4S.

----------



This is almost correct. There are no apps (aside from Apple's own apps) that can remain idle (or suspended) in the background. After 10 minutes every single 3rd party app will be closed and shut down. As you said, there are limited API's that will allow 3rd party apps to finish tasks for UP TO 10 minutes and then, they too, are force closed by the operating system.

I'm not understanding maybe. But I can have tapatalk in the background for days. When I bring it back up it will be exactly where I left it (suspended).

 

[Daveoc64]

This is almost correct. There are no apps (aside from Apple's own apps) that can remain idle (or suspended) in the background. After 10 minutes every single 3rd party app will be closed and shut down. As you said, there are limited API's that will allow 3rd party apps to finish tasks for UP TO 10 minutes and then, they too, are force closed by the operating system.

I'm using Apple's terminology here:

"Suspended

The app is in the background but is not executing code. The system moves apps to this state automatically and does not notify them before doing so. While suspended, an app remains in memory but does not execute any code.
When a low-memory condition occurs, the system may purge suspended apps without notice to make more space for the foreground app."

iOS Developer Library

 

[El3ctronics]

I'm not understanding maybe. But I can have tapatalk in the background for days. When I bring it back up it will be exactly where I left it (suspended).

Tapatalk is a VoIP app and is allowed to remain in a suspended state unless the system needs the additional resources.

 

[sracer]

If you haven't used multitasking on ICS then your viewpoint is irrelevant. It's been greatly improved and is now light years ahead of Apple's implementation. As far as battery life, I agree with you that the iPhone 4 is MUCH better than Android devices...my iPhone 4 battery was superb. But the iPhone 4S battery life is truly terrible. I tried replacing the device twice and restoring as new but I can't get through a full day with the 4S.

My viewpoint is NOT irrelevant to those deciding between an iPhone 4 and an Android handset. Few if any of the existing Android smartphones will have an ICS upgrade option available so any supposed improvements made by ICS are not applicable.

The ironic thing about Android advocates is that they deny that there are any issues with multitasking on the currently released version of Android. But when a new version is released, they extoll the benefits of it fixing problems with multitasking (that supposedly didn't exist in the first place).

 

[El3ctronics]

My viewpoint is NOT irrelevant to those deciding between an iPhone 4 and an Android handset. Few if any of the existing Android smartphones will have an ICS upgrade option available so any supposed improvements made by ICS are not applicable.

The ironic thing about Android advocates is that they deny that there are any issues with multitasking on the currently released version of Android. But when a new version is released, they extoll the benefits of it fixing problems with multitasking (that supposedly didn't exist in the first place).

ICS is the currently released version of Android. It's on the Galaxy Nexus and will be available on the HTC One X that is being released for AT&T on May 6th.

The iPhone 4 is also 2 yrs old at this point so I'm not sure how many people on this forum are actually looking at it compared to the latest Android devices. The argument would have been more relevant 12-24 months ago. The point of this thread was to discuss how the current version of iOS (iOS 5.1) should be improved to catch it up with the competition including Android (version 4.0.4). It wasn't discussing how iOS should be improved to match Android 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 which are all outdated at this point as well.

 

[sracer]

ICS is the currently released version of Android. It's on the Galaxy Nexus and will be available on the HTC One X that is being released for AT&T on May 6th.

The iPhone 4 is also 2 yrs old at this point so I'm not sure how many people on this forum are actually looking at it compared to the latest Android devices. The argument would have been more relevant 12-24 months ago. The point of this thread was to discuss how the current version of iOS (iOS 5.1) should be improved to catch it up with the competition including Android (version 4.0.4). It wasn't discussing how iOS should be improved to match Android 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 which are all outdated at this point as well.

I don't disagree with the need for improvements to iOS... but multitasking isn't one of them IMO.

 

[El3ctronics]

I don't disagree with the need for improvements to iOS... but multitasking isn't one of them IMO.

Honestly, I can't blame people for not seeing a need for multitasking to be improved. If I didn't have specific needs such as IMing, Background updating of magazines and RSS feeds, etc. then I would think the multitasking implementation was fine as well. Unfortunately, after experiencing these features with Android, it's annoying and frustrating to use certain apps that are missing basic functionality b/c of it.

 

[Daveoc64]

Honestly, I can't blame people for not seeing a need for multitasking to be improved. If I didn't have specific needs such as IMing, Background updating of magazines and RSS feeds, etc. then I would think the multitasking implementation was fine as well. Unfortunately, after experiencing these features with Android, it's annoying and frustrating to use certain apps that are missing basic functionality b/c of it.

Agreed

 

[cynics]

Tapatalk is a VoIP app and is allowed to remain in a suspended state unless the system needs the additional resources.

Lol tapatalk is not a VoIP app. It's an app for browsing forums.

Other apps do the same thing Amazon, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc etc

 

[El3ctronics]

Lol tapatalk is not a VoIP app. It's an app for browsing forums.

Other apps do the same thing Amazon, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc etc

Woah sorry...when you said Tapatalk I was thinking Talkatone in my head! Not sure about Tapatalk b/c I've never used it. My bad.

 

[SilentLoner]

Honestly, I can't blame people for not seeing a need for multitasking to be improved. If I didn't have specific needs such as IMing, Background updating of magazines and RSS feeds, etc. then I would think the multitasking implementation was fine as well. Unfortunately, after experiencing these features with Android, it's annoying and frustrating to use certain apps that are missing basic functionality b/c of it.

how much time do you save in reality?

 

[El3ctronics]

how much time do you save in reality?

It's not just time. Let me give you an example. Every morning, I take the subway from my apt to my office. With the iPhone, I have to remember (every single morning) to open Reeder (my RSS app) and give it a few minutes to download all my unread articles including their images since there is no service in the subway. When I had the Galaxy Nexus, I never had to remember anything b/c the RSS app would automatically update (in the background) on the schedule I set up for it. I do the same thing (every single morning) for my Twitter stream since that too cannot update in the background

So yes, it does save quite a bit of time for downloading but more importantly, it automates an activity that is very important to me. RSS & Twitter are just two examples but that same example could also apply to magazines, newspapers (that aren't in newsstand), and many other apps that can automate tasks in the background. The beauty of this also is that it's completely user customizable. If you're worried about it messing up your battery life you can simply turn it off. There's no legitimate reason NOT to allow it and that's the point.

 

[BiggAW]

So that would be about 500 people using 4.0.4?

[announcer voice] And, first round, we have an iOS supporter trashing Android for it's fragmentation. Let's see what the Android supports will come up with to rebut!! This should get really interesting! [/announcer voice]

 

[blairh]

The iPhone needs a redesign. A bigger screen and a stronger backing that will allow me to use an iPhone sans case without too many worries. Obviously LTE too. The original iPhone is still the best hardware edition IMO.

iOS I feel is another story. I'm pretty happy with it and as with any software OS, there is going to be room for improvement. We are literally two months away from seeing what iOS 6 will bring to the table.

The good news is that by this fall we will have an update to both the software and hardware. If it will satisfy most of us remains to be seen.