10 Reasons why Android 4.0 is better Apple?s iOS

[thaunknownartist]

Source​

Introduction

Google has finally figured out the recipe for success with the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest member of Android OS family. Google has faced many criticisms around the responsiveness of the UI in Android. Many tech experts will conclude their reviews of the Android OS with statements like, “Android OS is the best mobile operating system besides iOS but it still suffers from occasional lag or stutter in the user interface”. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is the latest version of the Android platform for phones, tablets, and more. This version of Android unifies everything by combining the Phone and Tablet software in one package. It builds on the things users love most about Android including easy multitasking, rich notifications, resizable widgets, customizable home screens, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing. We have outlined 10 reasons why Android 4.0 is just better than iOS. Many first time buyers overlook the features offered by Android and just focus on the fact that iPhone is produced by Apple. The following 10 reasons will shed some light on some of the key differentiating features that make Android a better mobile operating system

1. Better User Interface

Unlike the iPhone OS, Android user interface has been constantly refining and evolving over the years. With Android 4.0, Google has made the user interface much more polished and modern. The main feature of the OS is navigation buttons, these make it easier for the user to navigate around the phone. Unlike the iPhone with only one navigation button (Home Button), Android phones have back, menu, and multitasking buttons, which allow the user to very easily perform these actions whith out having to look for the virtual buttons in an application. Android utilizes the entire screen with screenshots of the running applicaitons compared to iOS, where multitasking is only done using the dock at the bottom. iOS wastes the entire screen space when it comes to multitasking. On the iPhone there is only one thing you see, a page full of applications and nothing more. This makes the user interface very boring and dull as the space on your home screen not being used efficiently to provide rich experience for the user. iOS might be easier to use but it is time to move on from an operating system designed for technologically challenged individuals. The Android user interface separates your home screens from the applications list and provides a space that you can customize the way you want. This is the main reason why every single Android phone looks different and unique unlike the iPhone.

2. Resizable Widgets

This feature is exclusive to Android when comparing to the iOS. The home screens in Android 4.0 are designed to be content-rich and customizable allowing the user to embed live application content directly through interactive widgets. Widgets let you check email, flip through a calendar, play music, check social streams, and more — right from the home screen, without having to launch apps. Widgets are resizable, so you can expand them to show more content or shrink them to save space. The retina display on the iPhone is a waste if you use it to display just a grid of icons page after page.

3. Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs

Android 4.0 makes managing notifications, recent apps, and browser tabs even easier. You can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs with a simple swipe of a finger. This provides a unified experience to the user with quick and easy way to manage the content on your phone.

4. Quick responses for incoming calls

When an incoming call arrives, you can now quickly respond by a text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, you simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. You can add your own responses and manage the list from the Settings app. On iOS you can only answer or decline the incoming call, there is no additional functionality that provides the user with more ways to respond.

5. Improved text input and spell-checking

The soft keyboard in Android 4.0 makes text input even faster and more accurate. To fix misspelled words more easily, Android 4.0 adds a spell-checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words. With one tap, you can choose from multiple spelling suggestions, delete a word, or add it to the dictionary. You can even tap to see replacement suggestions for words that are spelled correctly. For specialized features or additional languages, you can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services.

6. Powerful voice input engine

Android 4.0 introduces a powerful new voice input engine that offers a continuous “open microphone” experience and streaming voice recognition. This lets you dictate the text you want, for as long as you want, using the language you want. The voice recognition is done in real time allowing you to look at the interpreted text as you speak. You no longer have to finish your speech and wait to see the transcribed text. Siri on iOS provides options to search the web directly but it is used more for entertainment purposes as it is still in beta form. Text-to-speech options on Android are more governed towards productivity allowing you to finish the task easily and effectively.

7. Control over network data

In the Settings app, colorful charts show the total data usage on each network type (mobile or Wi-Fi), as well as amount of data used by each running application. Based on your data plan, you can optionally set warning levels or hard limits on data usage or disable mobile data altogether. You can also manage the background data used by individual applications as needed.

8. Cloud-connected experience

Android has always been cloud-connected, letting you browse the web and sync photos, apps, games, email, and contacts — wherever you are and across all of your devices. Android has always provided superior cloud experience way before Apple introduced their cloud based services. Android users have always enjoyed this feature as you never have to worry about losing your personal information with your phone.

9. Google Experience

If you are a gmail user then Android OS is made just for you and with all of your needs in mind. Android provides the best google experience including GMail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Voice, Google Search, YouTube, Google Goggles, Google Talk, Google Translate, Google Earth, Blogger, and Chrome to Phone. This list provides more than enough reasons for gmail users to own an Android device. Google has also introduced Google Chrome browser which allows you to sync your bookmarks and view tabs you have open on your computer. You can send pages from desktop Chrome to your smartphone or tablet with one click and read them on the go, even if you’re offline. Neither the iPhone nor any other phone on the market will provide immersive and rich google experience the way Android does.

10. Google Maps and FREE voice-guided Navigation

If you use your phone for navigation or destination searches then Google Maps Navigation provides you the best experience on Android 4.0. Google has built in a free voice guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation. The application also provides driving, public transit, biking, and walking directions as well. This is exclusive only to Android as the iOS version of Google Maps provides just the core functionality.

In Addition

Google has also included Android Beam for NFC-based sharing and Face Unlock in Android 4.0. Android Beam is an innovative, convenient feature for sharing across two NFC-enabled devices, It lets people instantly exchange favorite apps, contacts, music, videos — almost anything.Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets you unlock your device with your face. It takes advantage of the device front-facing camera and state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face during setup and then to recognize it again when unlocking the device.

In Conclusion

Many iOS users will argue that some of the features mentioned in this post can be added by jailbreaking or installing third party applications but these features are included in Android by default. Android currently has around 450,000 applications available in Play Store and with its current growth rate it is expected to surpass the App Store in the coming months. Apple’s iOS gets the fluidity and responsiveness at an expense of some key features that are essential for any smartphone. Anyone can achieve fast and responsive UI with a locked down user interface like iOS. The applications, mentioned in this post, are all present on both platforms but Android is the only OS that provides additional functionality that proves to be very essential for its users. Given the aforementioned reasons, Android 4.0 Ice cream sandwich is clearly the superior mobile operating system. With 50.1% of smartphone market in the United States, Android will continue to gain more market share as more and more people discover the amazing features that make Android better than iOS.

What You Guys Think!

Great read, only two I had a real problem with. 1. The interface is a matter of preference, some people prefer a clean and simple homescreen. I can't count the number of Android phones I've handled with just a iOS-like sea of icons. 8. Cloud connected experience, just because Google had it first doesn't necessarily make it better. The iCloud and airplay and other Apple features are work really smoothly and almost hassle free. I haven't always had the same experience syncing my Google Account.

An important thing not mentioned in this is updates. Itunes does NOT automatically update apps, in fact, last i heard, it can't. Which is why in a recent study, they found IOS was more stable, but as a whole, Iphones crashed more often than Android phones. Considering the limited architecture and user customization, I find that simply appalling that they crash more, but even more, I find it amazing that they built in no easy way to automatically update the apps. Personally, I am not that impressed with ICS's interface. Not only do I find it bland, there are times where I find myself trying to find the actual button, like in contacts. Granted, I go back and forth a lot on roms (Froyo, GB, Sense, MIUI, ICS), so that probably isn't helping. On the other hand, I think too many people over estimate the Iphone. I've done enough work on it to find trouble areas as well. The last time I messed with one, I was trying to do some things with contact syncing to Gmail and after a couple hours, the owner had to have Apple help, which took 2+ hours on the phone with them to make it work. Oh, and seriously, companies need to get off this whole "Cloud" B.S. They need to face the fact that we have limited bandwidth and relatively cheap storage, IF they bother to include an SDcard port. Also, you don't always have internet. Not to mention I am so dang tired of hearing that stupid buzzword, it's an f'ing server.

 

[bdfull3r]

Great read, only two I had a real problem with.
1. The interface is a matter of preference, some people prefer a clean and simple homescreen. I can't count the number of Android phones I've handled with just a iOS-like sea of icons.

8. Cloud connected experience, just because Google had it first doesn't necessarily make it better. The iCloud and airplay and other Apple features are work really smoothly and almost hassle free. I haven't always had the same experience syncing my Google Account.

 

[demoport]

Now I can't wait for ICS to come to the OV! I'm sure tdm "The developer in charge of the ICS transitioning to the OV" keep up the good work!

 

[asadullah]

I agree 100% about android and ios but when it comes down to it, it's all that individuals flavor. I've shown people things and asked them what they think is so hard about android and really it's nothing they want an iphone. But I did get challenged the other day to use an iphone for a month and comment on it after that. Probably won't happen but made me think.

 

[kcls]

In my opinion, its all about the name. Apple makes the iPhone. You see someone walk into a room with an iPhone 4S with Siri, whip it out and do a voice action, and everyone fawns and says "Oh, wow, is that the new iPhone?? Incredible!" If the same person walked in with a Galaxy Nexus and did a voice actions, everyone would either do nothing or ask how they got their iPhone to look like that. Its all about the name and the amount of marketing they do.

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[LeslieAnn]

An important thing not mentioned in this is updates.
Itunes does NOT automatically update apps, in fact, last i heard, it can't. Which is why in a recent study, they found IOS was more stable, but as a whole, Iphones crashed more often than Android phones. Considering the limited architecture and user customization, I find that simply appalling that they crash more, but even more, I find it amazing that they built in no easy way to automatically update the apps.



Personally, I am not that impressed with ICS's interface. Not only do I find it bland, there are times where I find myself trying to find the actual button, like in contacts. Granted, I go back and forth a lot on roms (Froyo, GB, Sense, MIUI, ICS), so that probably isn't helping.

On the other hand, I think too many people over estimate the Iphone. I've done enough work on it to find trouble areas as well. The last time I messed with one, I was trying to do some things with contact syncing to Gmail and after a couple hours, the owner had to have Apple help, which took 2+ hours on the phone with them to make it work.

Oh, and seriously, companies need to get off this whole "Cloud" B.S.
They need to face the fact that we have limited bandwidth and relatively cheap storage, IF they bother to include an SDcard port. Also, you don't always have internet. Not to mention I am so dang tired of hearing that stupid buzzword, it's an f'ing server.

 

[samson lamadine]

Android is way better and like if you want Ios just get a damn ipod touch while having your android phone lol

 

[anthonycr]

I personally love the ics interface, and I actually do think you have trouble with it, Leslie, because you switch so much. I spent about a month on it with tdms alpha 7, and I had trouble at first with it, and was rather frustrated with the UI, but the more I used it, the more comfortable I got. The buttons are in different places and do different things, and are complicated because they aren't labeled in ics (unlike iphone), but the more I used it, the more I realized that there was more of a consistency with button location and function. I feel like android users having trouble with it have it in their mind that its a prettied up gingerbread or froyo interface, whereas its actually completely reworked and everything is in a different place and in a different order. Once you learn the land of ics, it really is amazing how it all integrates seemlessly... its all about unlearning froyo and gibgerbread and relearning the interface. I hated it at first because it was different, but I came to appreciate the real effort made to give everything a polished look. I especially like how all the GApps integrate the ui, so that as you move from app to app, you don't lose the ics feel.

As for iphones... I love watching people argue about apple vs. Android, because there are no arguments for an iphone except "duh, its an iphone, of course ypu should get it." My cousin recently upgraded to a smartphone and posted a facebook status asking what he should get, an iphone or a droid. Inevitabley, most of the people posted saying he should get an iphone, but gave no reasons to do so. I and friend (both with androids) convinced him to get a droid x2 instead of an iphone because we presented valid reasons to get one. Personally I really really like the integration of my gmail account with everything, since it makes it a heck of a lot easier to repopulate everything when I wipe all the data.

Now with cloud storage, I really think its just stupid. Like you said leslie, we have limited bandwidth, and with the amount of music I have (30 GB), there's no way I could possibly find any carrier willing to let me stream that much. I probably listen to 10 GB worth of music every month (Imma hipsterlol), so I don't see the reason for using cloud storage. It seems like just asking to be throttled. I didn't stream a single byte of music or video this month and I hit 2.5 GB, so id probably get kicked off the network if I started (I listen to music in the car mostly).

 

[curtis1973]

Iphone and bluetooth to almost any other mobile phone is an adventure in and of itself. Just sending a ringtone or wallpaper to someone becomes a lesson in futility. And the apple store IMO cant compete with play store on variety and not to mention FREE. Just finding a DECENT task killer turns into a barrage of crap apps that accomplish nothing unless you buy them. Granted I know it is a STORE but come on. And atleast on the iphone i worked with,the battery life was really bad. Im happy right where I am on android. ICS or not.

 

[droidmyme]

In my opinion, its all about the name. Apple makes the iPhone. You see someone walk into a room with an iPhone 4S with Siri, whip it out and do a voice action, and everyone fawns and says "Oh, wow, is that the new iPhone?? Incredible!" If the same person walked in with a Galaxy Nexus and did a voice actions, everyone would either do nothing or ask how they got their iPhone to look like that. Its all about the name and the amount of marketing they do.

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Android is not as ubitiquitous and status symbol, like iPhone. But in my mind Android is a much better OS, not only for it's customization, but also it's features. I mean iOS can't even update apps automatically. Fact is, iPhones will remain the darling of the rich and social, and Android will be the darling of smart people.

I'm excited for the future of Android. I mean with AOSP and the community, there's so much promise ahead.

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[notown]

4.0 ICS wins simply because i can run it on a cheap V.



and iphone is over priced lol

 

[LeslieAnn]

I actually do think you have trouble with it, Leslie, because you switch so much. I spent about a month on it with tdms alpha 7, and I had trouble at first with it, and was rather frustrated with the UI, but the more I used it, the more comfortable I got. The buttons are in different places and do different things, and are complicated because they aren't labeled in ics (unlike iphone), but the more I used it, the more I realized that there was more of a consistency with button location and function.

I agree.
It's still a bit bland though.

Android is not as ubitiquitous and status symbol, like iPhone. But in my mind Android is a much better OS, not only for it's customization, but also it's features. I mean iOS can't even update apps automatically. Fact is, iPhones will remain the darling of the rich and social, and Android will be the darling of smart people.

Exactly.
Iphones aren't that great really, especially when it comes to durability.

I've said it before, Iphone users want to show off the phone, Android users are more concerned with what they have running or stored on the phone.

 

[rukin5197]

Guys, it's simple enough.
Android is open source. It wins. lol.
Why I like Android = the customizability. Unless you jailbreak an iPhone, the wallpaper is the only thing you're changing about an iPhone. No widgets, No different UI colors, no NOTHING! When you jailbreak an iPhone, you've just freed it from jail. Although sometimes it goes out and gets in a little more trouble and gets a lot slower, to the point where you need to restore.. lol.
I like Android because there's no limit on what you can/can't do. You can install apps through a file manager with unknown sources. You can HAVE a file manager. You can get a different lockscreen. You can get a different launcher. You can run ROMs! You can change the icons. You can get a different sms app. You can swipe in on a launcher and change the homescreens.

Android>Apple.

 

[droidmyme]

Guys, it's simple enough.
Android is open source. It wins. lol.

This.

Why I like Android = the customizability. Unless you jailbreak an iPhone, the wallpaper is the only thing you're changing about an iPhone. No widgets, No different UI colors, no NOTHING!

And this.

I like Android because there's no limit on what you can/can't do. You can install apps through a file manager with unknown sources. You can HAVE a file manager. You can get a different lockscreen. You can get a different launcher. You can run ROMs! You can change the icons. You can get a different sms app. You can swipe in on a launcher and change the homescreens.

Android>Apple.

Annnnd this.


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[sellers86]

Guys, it's simple enough.
Android is open source. It wins. lol.
Why I like Android = the customizability. Unless you jailbreak an iPhone, the wallpaper is the only thing you're changing about an iPhone. No widgets, No different UI colors, no NOTHING! When you jailbreak an iPhone, you've just freed it from jail. Although sometimes it goes out and gets in a little more trouble and gets a lot slower, to the point where you need to restore.. lol.
I like Android because there's no limit on what you can/can't do. You can install apps through a file manager with unknown sources. You can HAVE a file manager. You can get a different lockscreen. You can get a different launcher. You can run ROMs! You can change the icons. You can get a different sms app. You can swipe in on a launcher and change the homescreens.

Android>Apple.

Don't forget the overclock

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[LeslieAnn]

Actually, none of that matters at all.
One word...
Itunes.
That alone should strike fear into the heart of anyone with a large music collection. Try pulling out 20 gigs of songs from a 500 gig collection on Itunes. NIGHTMARE! Or god forbid you have to reload the whole thing again because you updated or accidentally hit CTRL while selecting individual songs.


Apple should be the one word that strikes fear into most people but it surprisingly doesn't. People complain about how monopolistic Gates/Microsoft is, when in reality, you should be thanking him for saving you from how monopolistic Apple/Jobs is/was.

 

[sellers86]

Actually, none of that matters at all.
One word...
Itunes.
That alone should strike fear into the heart of anyone with a large music collection. Try pulling out 20 gigs of songs from a 500 gig collection on Itunes. NIGHTMARE! Or god forbid you have to reload the whole thing again because you updated or accidentally hit CTRL while selecting individual songs.


Apple should be the one word that strikes fear into most people but it surprisingly doesn't. People complain about how monopolistic Gates/Microsoft is, when in reality, you should be thanking him for saving you from how monopolistic Apple/Jobs is/was.

I hate iTunes. It actually bricked my iPod. Twice.

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[anthonycr]

Actually, none of that matters at all.
One word...
Itunes.
That alone should strike fear into the heart of anyone with a large music collection. Try pulling out 20 gigs of songs from a 500 gig collection on Itunes. NIGHTMARE!


Apple should be the one word that strikes fear into most people but it surprisingly doesn't. People complain about how monopolistic Gates/Microsoft is, when in reality, you should be thanking him for saving you from how monopolistic Apple/Jobs is/was.

I have no experience with itunes, since I broke my 60 gig ipod after I took it apart and ripped one of those ribbon wires, but I've heard that it'll randomly delete all your songs (its happened to my friend with 100 GB + of music). I imagine that's frustrating...

One thing I wish that was better about android was the music player. I know you can get other apps, but the stock player should be good enough IMO, and the new google music is just too darn slow compared to the old gb player. The one thing I like better about apple is their ipods. The interface on an ipod is way better than the stock music apps in android I think. The miui music apps are pretty sweet though.

 

[kcls]

Actually, none of that matters at all.
One word...
Itunes.
That alone should strike fear into the heart of anyone with a large music collection. Try pulling out 20 gigs of songs from a 500 gig collection on Itunes. NIGHTMARE! Or god forbid you have to reload the whole thing again because you updated or accidentally hit CTRL while selecting individual songs.


Apple should be the one word that strikes fear into most people but it surprisingly doesn't. People complain about how monopolistic Gates/Microsoft is, when in reality, you should be thanking him for saving you from how monopolistic Apple/Jobs is/was.

I hate iTunes. I hate iTunes so much. But I can't stop using it, because for some reason, everyone insists on buying me iTunes giftcards for my birthday and Christmas. I have 90 dollars of credit to buy songs, and I'm not going to just throw it away. The reason I dislike it so much is because I just got a new laptop, and copied all my 7000 songs from the old one to the new. And now, every single song shows up 4 times in my music library. Why can't they just make it easy? And the fact that I have to download separate programs to sync with my phone? I hate iTunes.

 

[droidmyme]

I hate iTunes. I hate iTunes so much. But I can't stop using it, because for some reason, everyone insists on buying me iTunes giftcards for my birthday and Christmas. I have 90 dollars of credit to buy songs, and I'm not going to just throw it away. The reason I dislike it so much is because I just got a new laptop, and copied all my 7000 songs from the old one to the new. And now, every single song shows up 4 times in my music library. Why can't they just make it easy? And the fact that I have to download separate programs to sync with my phone? I hate iTunes.

Lmfao. Poor you. I think the reason the songs show up 4 times is because of the stupid DRM protections they put on them.

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