iPhone and Android Tablet: Can they live in peace?

[cpiekarski]

I've been an Android guy since I quit the Crackberry for my DINC 1. I figured I'd stay on the Android train forever-ish, but my employer has decided to supply people (read: me) with a corporate phone (iPhone 5), and I'm not inclined to opt out because saving $∞ on my data plan isn't awful.

I have an ASUS TF201. I'm a bit disappointed in it (it's a bit buggy, but that's for a different forum) but it's what I'm doing until the eventual day when my employer foists an iPad my way.

So I'll be living in an iOS(phone)/Android(tablet)/PC(er...pc) environment and am wondering if other people have done it and how it works for them. Not a lot on the infoweb (that I've been able to dig up) to help a guy trying to keep himself afloat on several seas at once.

 

[EvilMonkey]

Too bad you have to get an iPhone But a free phone is a free phone....I'd be inclined to switch as well (but really, I'd probably stick with Android).

Anyways, I am sortof in the same boat as you, except I'm the opposite: I have a company-bought iPad2 and an Android phone. Been doing it since the iPad2 was released. It's really not too bad, but I'll detail my experiences.

Your biggest problem is going to be apps...more importantly having to double-purchase things that aren't free. But really, other than the money issue (which may or may not be a lot to you), it's easy enough to get around, so here are my recommendations and how I live my life between the iPad/Android/PC world.

1. I do not buy ANYTHING from the Apple ecosystem other than apps. No iBooks or anything from iTunes or anything like that. While you can use iTunes music on other devices, things like iBooks only work on iDevices, along with many of their other services, so I just stay the hell away from buying from the Apple stores.
2. Music: I've uploaded my collection to Google Music and I can listen to that on all my devices. You can download the music (for local/non-connected playing) and use it on the iDevice. So any music purchases come from there too (admittedly, I stream most of my music with Pandora or Slacker, so I'm not buying a lot of music these days)
3. Books: I buy them from Kindle. It syncs to all my devices and works flawlessly.
4. Movies: Honestly, I just use Netflix....I have no recommendation on where to buy them from. Netflix works on everything though, if you use it. If not, maybe someone else has a recommendation
5. Calendar: Google Calendar for personal stuff and syncs to everything...even the default calendar app on my iPad. I also use my work's Exchange (which also syncs to my calendar on everything).
6. Photos: Picasa (which will probably be merging with Google+). Photos on my phone sync automatically to it once connected to Wireless, and my iPad syncs as well (although typically I'm only viewing photos on myiPad...not taking them).
7. Browser: Chrome on everything. Syncs my bookmarks across all the devices, as well as my tabs.
8. I stick with apps that will sync across all my devices. Just some of those include TripIt (for my travel stuff), Evernote for any notes I take, most of the Google products (Music, Picasa, Gmail, Calendar, etc), Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

In fact, I even have an "Apple Crap" folder on the last screen of my iPad that I've moved the Apple-only apps into that I'll never use. Those include: iBooks, Reminders, Game Center, Safari, iTunes, Music, FaceTime (if someone wants to video chat, they can use Skype like everyone else, or I'm slowly convincing contacts to start using Google+), Videos, and Notes. Like I said, I have replacements for all of those (that work and sync to all my devices, not just to iDevices), and even though some (like Safari) will always open as the default program, I'll never actually open it up manually to use it, so it gets thrown into the "Apple crap" folder, never to be seen again.....well, unless I need to help someone like you out and I need to rattle off all the stuff that in it

In short, it's not horrible living in a multi-ecosystem environment....but again, my Android phone is my primary daily driver that gets 90% of the use, leaving my IPad kindof relegated to when I'm home relaxing on the couch and want to read a book on it or the tech blogs and stuff and just want a bigger screen than my Galaxy Siii. You'll be the opposite with the iPhone as your daily driver that you'll be using all the time, so your needs might be different.

Hope that helps.

 

[cpiekarski]

Good insight, great reply. Thanks! . The apps thing bums me out. I've known this was coming for about 6 months so I've been limiting myself to apps on sale.

Video: I'm starting to look more at vudu. I know it works w/ iPad and flixster movies for Android, as well as my PS3 at home. Check it out...

---------- Post Merged at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:49 PM ----------

Thing that's bugging me the most, in the back of my mind, is that I'm afraid Apple's going to phase out Google to the point that crossing over gets really difficult. Frankly, it's what I'd do if I were them...

 

[EvilMonkey]

Glad I could help. Yep on Vudu....I use it on my PS3 quite a bit, but I don't really buy movies on it, and it's kindof expensive for me rent movies regularly on it. Of course, if I was renting it on my iPad or phone, I wouldn't be getting the $5.99 HDX version and would just get the cheaper SD version (possibly HD). Still, expensive compared to Netflix though, where my average cost of a rental is like 70 cents. But I do like it when I use it, and take frequent advantage of their 99 cent daily special.

I would not worry too much about Apple getting rid of Google stuff. The only thing they booted was maps, which sucked on iOS anyways and the licensing ran out and they invested in their own company. The YouTube app is also gone in iOS6, but not permanently. But most people don't realize that it isn't a "real" YouTube app...it's something Apple developed and it sucked and had limited functionality (shocking), so they're removing it from the OS and Google is releasing (finally) a real YouTube app for iOS (the iPhone version came out about 4 days ago and the iPad version is on the way).

I really think they'd be hard pressed to convince even the most rabid Apple fanboy that kicking out other Google products is good for them. But who knows...maybe they'll make their own proprietary email that only works on iDevices and then boot out Exchange and Yahoo and Hotmail/Outlook and Gmail . I joke, but I'd probably be only about 75% surprised if they did.