iPhone or Android?

[Ang]

I went the Galaxy S i9000 after weighing up between that & iPhone. Love my Galaxy, but I want an S2 now (flash camera!).
I haven't used iTunes in a while (I have a Nano), but have heard that prices are getting exxy, so people aren't paying. It'll be interesting to see if they listen & reduce their prices...

[MiniFighter]

I have had the Iphone 4 since it came out, going from an older windows mobile. Love it, cant fault it. Best phone IMO

My wife has a Galaxy and speaking bluntly, its crap. Battery life is shocking and reception even worse.

I also read somewhere (as mentioned above) about the hacking difficulty of apple based apps/products.

[Bennymiata]

Parsonally, I'm a bit anti-Apple.
From the way they work, they want to control every facet of what you do and how you do it, like the i-Tunes store.

I'm very happy with my HTC Desire (even though it is a couple of years old now), but I much prefer to be able to plug it into my PC and download what I want for free, rather than having to pay Apple for my music.
I also like that I can have various memory cards to put into it to store photos and such.
If I want to watch a movie, I'll get a Blue-Ray Disk and watch it on my TV set, as watching from a phone is useless, as far as I'm concerned and I'm the type who only watches a movie once anyway.
I do have Foxtel on my phone though, as it's good to catch up with the news when you're on the toilet at work.

[ricktas]

I went the Galaxy S i9000 after weighing up between that & iPhone. Love my Galaxy, but I want an S2 now (flash camera!).
I haven't used iTunes in a while (I have a Nano), but have heard that prices are getting exxy, so people aren't paying. It'll be interesting to see if they listen & reduce their prices...

Not sure about the i9000, but with the S2, download 'kies' from the samsung site and you can link it to your iTunes library and have access to all your songs, movies on the Samsung.

[ricktas]

My wife has a Galaxy and speaking bluntly, its crap. Battery life is shocking and reception even worse.

Download the App "Juice defender" and set it up, it will extend the battery life amazingly.

[ashbox]

i was with andriod, now with apple...
there are a few things i miss about the android setup, but am still happy with the move...
i dont really buy much in the way of apps so it doesn't bother me.
one thing i do think apple should be wary of is the use of bluetooth etc.....
i like to share my stuff if i can, and only allowing iphone to iphone/pad bluetooth is a bit stupod

[simonw]

Too many people buy apple just because its... Apple. Photographers are pretty guilty of this! You can get a pc with 16gig of ram, solid state drives, much faster processor for the same price as the basic mac desktop. Apple has an amazing ability to lock people in for life. Many people wont even look at the PC (or android) alternative.

I currently have the iphone 4, upgraded from iphone 3 but will be shopping around when it is time to upgrade again, I know a few others in the same boat

[Xenedis]

I've had mobile phones since 1996.

I had only Nokia phones until 2009, when I switched to the Apple iPhone.

I started with the 3GS, and recently upgraded to the 4S.

Since moving to the iPhone, I cannot say I've looked back, nor felt inspired to look at anyone else's offerings.

I like the hardware and the software (even if some of the phone's capability is hidden or locked away), the simplicity of the interface, and interoperability with other devices, including my car's sound system.

I'm running 100% Apple hardware, having moved to a MacBook Pro in 2009 after 17 years of DOS and Windows, and having recently acquired a free iPad 2.

[cupic]

Download the App "Juice defender" and set it up, it will extend the battery life amazingly.

I can vouch for that nearly 4 days on single charge Xperia Arc occasion usage while hard core usage is 2 days
cheers

[seastorm]

I don't have a problem with Apple stuff. The main things for me is the ease of use and the ecosystem. I suppose I'm technologically savvy (working in an IT company helps), but I don't really want to waste my time tweaking hardware and software....

[peterb666]

Download the App "Juice defender" and set it up, it will extend the battery life amazingly.

Agree. My Samsung Galaxy S II now goes overnight about 7 hours using only about 5% battery power. That's about a 50% improvement and it is a fairly improvement across all usage. Just using the free version and I am impressed.

[AmyK]

I've got a HTC Desire S for my phone, after having an iPhone 3 for nearly two years. I really like the Android system for phone, however I have an iPad, because I don't like any of the Android tablets [Moto Xoom etc.], and I didn't want to wait for the Galaxy 10.1 tablet :P

As far as computers go, I have an iMac, and three PC's, so I'm not really 'loyal' to anything.

Am looking at swapping my Desire S for a Galaxy 2 very soon, as I got one for Mark, and I'm very impressed by the phone, and he won't swap :P

There is some brands that I don't like their little tweaks to the Android platform. Not a fan of the Sony Ericsson androids or the Motorola ones. Just personal preference

ETA: What happened to my post count?? I used to have roughly 2000 posts???

[ricktas]

ETA: What happened to my post count?? I used to have roughly 2000 posts???

We did a clean-up and archived a heap of old threads and posts that have not been accessed for years. When we did that, the software recalculated everyone's post count.

[ving]

apple stuff is more like a religion than anything else. users swear by it and only buy apple stuff... its weird. and it nearly always cost more.

anyhow i got myself a HTC incredible S and it does everything i want and then some. I cont complain really. I can get almost a whole day geocaching out of it

[soulman]

From the way [Apple] work, they want to control every facet of what you do and how you do it, like the i-Tunes store...

...I much prefer to be able to plug it into my PC and download what I want for free, rather than having to pay Apple for my music.

Apple doesn't stop you stealing music if that's what you're into mate and the money mainly goes to the record companies anyway. I have only ever bought one song from iTunes but my iPod is full of stuff I've ripped from my own CDs and which could easily have been downloaded from the internet.

Download the App "Juice defender" and set it up, it will extend the battery life amazingly.

This sums up one of the big differences between iOS and Android devices for me. I would rather buy something that has had whatever "Juice Defender" does applied to it already. I have more than enough technical skill to use something like this, but I don't like having to tweak my phone to get it to work well. I want a phone that has been optimised by the (hopefully smart) people who designed it so that I don't have to worry about it.

I know there are other manufacturers, but I have had enough Samsung gear to know I never want any more of it. They put out stuff that is just not well sorted and I find that really frustrating. I have a Samsung TV & BD player and you would think that they would be well integrated but they are so bad it's laughable. Really third rate stuff and what I have was not cheap. The TV crashes, the BD player has to be rebooted every now and then because it just won't output sound sometimes and the way they work together is shockingly amateurish. I'm sure they'll improve once Apple releases TVs though.

I've never noticed apps being more expensive on iTunes and have no idea how widespread it is, but if that's what it costs to have a phone that's designed by the people at the top of their game then I don't really mind paying it. From what I hear, iOS is the platform that developers make money on - iOS users actually buy stuff, whereas Android users tend to want everything free so it's harder to make a quid there. I don't think Apple are about to sink into the ocean just yet.

I also much prefer the walled garden approach taken by Apple. Much less likely to get malware this way and it hopefully means less dross to search through. I guess some people would be happy to take the time to look through a gallery that anyone can submit art to, but I'd much rather a well curated show and that seems to be the whole idea of the App Store. I also like having a 2 year old phone that gets software updates that don't depend on my carrier or anyone else. It was a good phone when I bought it, but it's even better now and that's pretty cool. Not a that many Android phones get updates & those that do seem to have to wait for ages. Apple's tight control policy has all sorts of upsides for users.

[ricktas]

Not a that many Android phones get updates & those that do seem to have to wait for ages. Apple's tight control policy has all sorts of upsides for users.

Not sure about others, but mine has had 2 OS updates since I have had it, and Samsung have announced that by around the end of January, it will get the new Android OS (V4), via downloadable update.

I do get why people like Apple, but I certainly am amazed at how many just get the latest Apple gear without considering other options.

[dbax]

apple stuff is more like a religion than anything else. users swear by it and only buy apple stuff... its weird. and it nearly always cost more.

anyhow i got myself a HTC incredible S and it does everything i want and then some. I cont complain really. I can get almost a whole day geocaching out of it

Yep HTC Incredible S for me as well, love it !!

[junqbox]

I'll stick with the iPhone thanks.

Apple has always been a 'minor' player in these realms, including PC's (they regualrly only held about 5-10% of the worlds PC ownership). But it's also notable that during those days, it was roughly estimated that 90% of the worlds websites were produced on a Mac and viewed with a Windoze machine.
It's also notable, plenty of others tried to take them on against the iPod (Zune anyone?) what most of them failed to appreciate, the iPod was spun out of the rest of the Apple OS, including iTunes. Ie- it was the tool which enabled Apple users to take the brand into their pocket.

I don't suspect Apple is focusing all of their efforts on how to make a slightly better phone, but rather how can they continue to develop new products that continue to broaden the overall experience through multi-devices, thereby strengthening their 'integrated' systems, opposed to multi-platform/OS solutions- Windoze computer, Android phone, etc., etc.

[soulman]

Not sure about others, but mine has had 2 OS updates since I have had it, and Samsung have announced that by around the end of January, it will get the new Android OS (V4), via downloadable update.

I do get why people like Apple, but I certainly am amazed at how many just get the latest Apple gear without considering other options.

I'm still on my first iPhone & I'm not sure what I'll do when it's time to replace it. The 4S doesn't really excite me, but I can't see myself buying anything else from Samsung and don't really want to waste hours researching all the Android phones I could choose from when I have no complaints about Apple's product.

What will probably push me toward another iPhone is the fact that nobody seemed to be able to make a useable smartphone before Apple and it seems only fair to support the people who put the hard work into it in the first place. I know some people say that Android has leapfrogged iOS, but I haven't seen anything that makes me think there's any real innovation going on there. Windows Mobile looks interesting and at least it's original, but not quite exciting enough to make me switch. The other thing I don't like about Android is the fact that when I buy an iPhone I am Apple's customer, whereas when I buy an Android phone I am Google's product. Google aren't giving Android away because they're a bunch of cool guys who support anything warm & fuzzy like openness, they're giving it away because it gives them better access to you, which gives their customers - advertisers - more value. Google are actually pretty creepy I reckon.

Good that the SII is getting an OS update, but it looks like Galaxy S owners won't be so lucky.

[LJG]

I have an LG Android. After I got thoroughly pinged off with it I had my old Nokia 6500 slide put in and repaired. The LG then sat in a drawer gathering dust! My Nokia has again failed and I have resurrected the LG again. I've had a out a week and already going to see if my old Nokia can be fixed again. Talk about hard to use. The stupid screen does not respond half the time, then when it does it opens up anything but the thing you want. I have used my sons iPhone 4 and it is streets ahead of the LG for user ease. I have had it in and had the latest updatewear put in but no luck, still as awkward as ever.