What can the One do that iPhone can't?

[Son Nguyen]

I just go the One on Friday and have been a long time iPhone user. I'm still learning everything I can about Android and this forum has been a great help! I was initially a bit frustrated with some things I could do on my iPhone that I couldn't figure out how to do with Android/One. I've been able to discover apps through recommendations from this forum that fills those needs. I wish I could activate Google Voice Commands with a hardware button. I used to use Siri to listen and to reply to text messages in the car. I also used it to quickly add tasks and shopping list items into iOS's Reminders app. Before I got my One, I kept reading about how Android can do so many things that iOS can't do. I'm still getting familiar with Android but I ask what are those features? If I'm showing off the One to all my friends and colleagues, who all have iPhones, what do I show off? For the One in particular, a talking point could be the beautiful 4.7" 1080p screen which is one of the biggest reasons I left Apple. But what about Android itself? There are widgets which I'm still determining how useful they are. I like the live wallpaper. I like how I can easily drag and drop videos into the One and not have to worry about converting to a different file format. I like the different options of sorting the apps. Google Voice dictation appears to be much more accurate than Siri. I haven't played around too much with the camera features but I really like Best Shot and Highlights so far. What else can I show iPhone users?

 

[DavidsTech]

For widgets I get a lot of use out of the calendar widget, and music widgets. With the music widget you can control the music app all without even opening the app and then playing the music.
You can even get a widget with quick toggles.


Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[jaymars]

Honestly, you have to show them that you can do the same things they can do on their iPhone, mainly as far as apps. Also, show them that it's an easy phone to use and doesn't require a lot of reading. After that, you can show them floating apps and SMS quick reply apps, things like that. They won't be impressed with advanced features because they won't understand why they're useful.

 

[commasplice]

Google Now always seems to impress the people I show.


Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[mcpricex]

On the face of it, the biggest difference between Android and iOS is the use of widgets, many of which allow you access to apps from your home screen without having to go into the app itself. I would show them things like sms, Twitter, facebook and email etc, all of which can be interacted with from the same screen at the same time, lets see an iPhone do that.

Going deeper, Android wins out over iOS with it's ability to be a stand alone system, iOS requires the use of iTunes (either via the store itself or via a pc/mac) to add content to the device. In Android it's just drag and drop or download from your chosen source and it's there, no conversion, no 3rd party, much simpler and infinitely more flexible. As you say you have already seen the benefits of this with video, but it works with everything else as well, multiple audio formats, images and even documents, pretty much any kind of file.

 

[Son Nguyen]

I would show them things like sms, Twitter, facebook and email etc, all of which can be interacted with from the same screen at the same time, lets see an iPhone do that.

Can you expand on this a bit? Are you referring to just having having all these different widgets on the same screen? Is there an sms widget you recommend?

 

[jgreeson25]

I usually like to highlight the fact that you can clean up your home screens. I love my iPad, but I hate the clutter of apps, even in folders. Just peruse the website mycolorscreen and see all of the ways you can customize your device. I think it makes your phone look a little more professional and tailored. The abundance of app logos leaves the home screens looking more like a toy. This is just my personal preference - I like a more orderly layout.

 

[adriandb]

There's a lot of misinformation about iOS in here. If you go making some of these points you'll get laughed at by people who actually know iOS.

 

[Blaalad12]

As someone that used various iphones until switching to the galaxy s2, s3 and now the htc one, I personally found these the main differences (and why i will most likely never use/buy an iphone again) Sorry if iam somewhat off topic maybe but these are just my personal reasons for prefering android devices! First off, while i know the iphone 5 has improved its screen size, Generally android phones have bigger screens which just makes viewing wallpapers etc on the device much more enjoyable, Secondly is the customizability that allows you to change the look and feel of the phone (i found the iphone incredibly boring) I also actually use the google play store more then i ever used the apple app store , i just prefer it for some reason!! and the the main difference is price, I feel you can get a superior phone (depending on which phone you buy of course) with a bigger display, more customizabilty options and less restrictions (bluetooth for example was virtually useless on the iphone and wouldnt allow me to transfer files to another device nor recieve them, ringtones couldnt be selected from mp3s, No delivery reports and so on) All these little things matter to me and its a collection of these small things that make the phone much more desireable and best of all, they are cheaper, I love apple products, especially theyre computers but no body can deny they over charge way too much!!

 

[mcpricex]

Can you expand on this a bit? Are you referring to just having having all these different widgets on the same screen? Is there an sms widget you recommend?

Try Android Pro Widgets, the free version has everything you need including various sms, twitter and Facebook widgets.

There's a lot of misinformation about iOS in here. If you go making some of these points you'll get laughed at by people who actually know iOS.

I used to have an Iphone and my wife currently has a 4s and an Ipad Mini, can you show me how you can display live interactive feeds from various apps at the same time in ios? Can you show me how I can import multiple mp3 and flac albums directly to one of those devices from a networked hard drive?

Ios is a fine operating system, but it is designed to work the way that apple want it to work and look the way that apple want it to look. That is ok for some people and it provides great continuity across the platform as a whole, I always recommend iphones to people who have ipads and vice versa because they work so well together, in fact that is the one area where apple has Google well and truly beaten. But if you want to transfer a selection of your already existing 80+gb music collection to your iphone then you have no choice but to go through itunes via a separate device, if you want a different lock screen or a certain style of icon well sorry, you just can't, end of.

I would happily put my HTC One up against the current or even the next iphone and while I can think of many things that my One can do that the iphone can't, I am struggling to come up with a similar list of benefits for ios.

Apart from anything else, the main reason I would never have another iphone is simply because everyone else already has one. The iphone is the Nokia 8310 of the modern generation, it is the phone that everyone wanted so it is the phone that everyone got, and that in itself wipes out one of apples greatest strengths, it desirability is directly related to its exclusivity. As the OP said himself, all of his friends and collleagues have iphones and have no idea of the alternatives available.

 

[omniusovermind]

If you REALLY want to highlight differences spend some time learning how deeply different apps and functions on android talk to and share data with each other. Much different than the siloing in iOS and wp8 as well

sent from Tapatalk on my phone that I don't care about the Camera as much as forumites and tech bloggers do.

 

[gtg465x]

What can the One do that the iPhone can't? Run Android and be fun to use.

 

[JRDroid]

One feature on my One has my wife so jealous she is considering trading her iPhone 5 (which she loves) for one. Video Highlights. I made one of our dog at the park yesterday and I made one of our one year old daughter eating dinner and playing around after. She loved them and wanted me to figure out how to use her photos and videos to make them. Its not that there isn't an app that can do those things on iOS, but the combination of Zoes and still pictures and the simplicity of making them wowed her.

 

[adriandb]

I used to have an Iphone and my wife currently has a 4s and an Ipad Mini, can you show me how you can display live interactive feeds from various apps at the same time in ios? Can you show me how I can import multiple mp3 and flac albums directly to one of those devices from a networked hard drive?

I wasn't referencing anything you said. More the comments about needing iTunes, along with some others. To those points though, yeah I could do that on my jailbroken iPhone 4s. Except FLAC support which would have been awesome, but I just reencoded most of my lossless stuff to Apple Lossless.

 

[JRDroid]

I wasn't referencing anything you said. More the comments about needing iTunes, along with some others. To those points though, yeah I could do that on my jailbroken iPhone 4s. Except FLAC support which would have been awesome, but I just reencoded most of my lossless stuff to Apple Lossless.

Ya, but your average user isn't going to jailbreak their iPhone. Just like most users aren't going to root their Android phone. Saying I can do XYZ with jailbreak/root isn't a way to convince someone to move to a platform. People who are going to be doing those things will know enough about a platform to make a choice themselves.

 

[JRDroid]

Also if any of them are big facebook messaging users, showing off Chatheads across all apps instead of being stuck in Facebook only is a pretty neat thing to show off. Even Facebook Home can be a visually impressive demo.

 

[adriandb]

Ya, but your average user isn't going to jailbreak their iPhone.

You would be surprised how many jailbroken iOS devices are out there. The download numbers for the most recent tool to jailbreak were staggering.

Saying I can do XYZ with jailbreak/root isn't a way to convince someone to move to a platform.

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.

 

[JRDroid]

You would be surprised how many jailbroken iOS devices are out there. The download numbers for the most recent tool to jailbreak were staggering.

I didn't say no one does it, just not your average user. Even if 10,000,000 people had jailbroken their iphone, that would be just a couple percent of the total iPhones in use.

 

[Dean Patterson]

I wasn't referencing anything you said. More the comments about needing iTunes, along with some others. To those points though, yeah I could do that on my jailbroken iPhone 4s. Except FLAC support which would have been awesome, but I just reencoded most of my lossless stuff to Apple Lossless.

But to the average user Jailbreaking is daunting and hard to figure out at first. I had a jailbroken iphone and loved the customization I had on it but then it slowly bogged down because it wasent made to handle all that. I switched to the HTC One with android and quickly found out that alot of the "jailbroken" apps and utilites I had are just normal everyday apps on android. In regards to having to use iTunes, it is the center point of anything apple related. Yes you can use other media players to upload music and such but alot of your major functionality still rests with iTunes. The one thing ill give apple is that mostly everybody I know has an iPhone and their security towards harmful apps and such.

 

[adriandb]

I switched to the HTC One with android and quickly found out that alot of the "jailbroken" apps and utilites I had are just normal everyday apps on android.

This is what I'm finding on my One as well. Though my early impression (read very early, as in 24 hours) of Android is that it isn't nearly as customizable as its billing. I'm finding things that were easy on my jailbroken iPhone to be impossible on Android. That isn't to say that there aren't a lot of things that I can do now that I couldn't with iOS, I'm just finding that it isn't the end all be all of mobile OSs. I was hoping to have all my pain-points with iOS solved with Android and, so far, they aren't. I also have a new found appreciation for the simplicity of iOS.

Again, it's way too early for me to pass any judgments, and I won't yet. I'm still very excited about this new device and the chance to learn a new OS.