DJSTEVEZ
DJ Emeritus
Avram Piltch, Laptop
[FONT=&]MSNBC
Apple may have mollified the masses by adding significantly betterspecs to its smartphone offering, but when it comes to innovation, the iPhone 5 justcan’t compete with the latest Android handsets. Sure a larger screen, 4G LTEsupport and a faster CPU are welcome additions to the world’s number one phone,but Apple is a year late and $199 short, because Android has provided all thesefeatures and more for some time now. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]In fact,even after Apple’s johnny-come-lately improvements, Android phones have anumber of key advantages over the iPhone 5.
Screens larger than 4inches
Apple may be patting itself on the back over its move from a 3.5-inch to a4-inch display, but in the smartphone size race, the iPhone 5 trails the fieldby a wide margin. In the Android world, the 4.3-inch Droid RAZR M is considereda "compact" phone, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III is mainstream and the5.5-inch Galaxy Note II is large.
Why would you want a phone with a larger screen? A larger display makes videosmore exciting, text easier to read, and keys on the keyboard easier to targetwith your finger. And if for some reason that doesn't appeal to you, theAndroid ecosystem also has smaller phones.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
NFCsupport[/FONT][FONT=&]
If you own an iPhone 5, you can just forget about using mobile payment systemsthat let you touch your device to a reader in order to conduct a transaction.Instead of MasterCard's Tap and Pay, you'll be using tap and pray as yourap your fingers on a table and hope that Apple provides NFC support on theiPhone 6 in 2013.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]WithNFC support, the latest Android phones can not only send out payments, but alsoshare photos, contacts, videos and more, just by tapping their backs together.Since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the OS has built-in NFC sharing softwarecalled Android Beam that any third party application can use for seamlesssharing. Task management appAny.Do even lets you beam assignments to friends andfamily. I'm sure Apple will add this functionality just in time for iOS 8.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Customwidgets on your home screen[/FONT][FONT=&]
Congratulations iPhone 5 users! You now get an extra row of icons that youdidn't have with the iPhone 4 and 4S. That means you can see your TweetDeckicon and tap on it without scrolling over. The Times Square billboard writesitself: "iPhone 5: Now with More Icons!"[/FONT]
[FONT=&]However,if you use any Android phone, you get more than just a static set ofapplication icons on your 5 to 7 home screens. You have a working desktop youcan fill with interactive widgets that show everything from the weather to yourlatest social media updates. I particularly dig the circles widget that Motorola includes on its Androidphones, which shows you battery life, time, text alerts and local weather.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Amicro USB port rather than a proprietary connector[/FONT][FONT=&]
If you're like me, you have a drawer full of USB cables and, if you can't findone, you can always buy another on any street corner. When you upgrade from anold phone to a new one, you can still use the same old wires and chargingplugs, because micro USB is a standard. In fact, the European Union requiresphone manufacturers to use micro USB for charging, because it reduces waste asusers hold on to their old cables rather than tossing them in a landfill.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Unfortunately,the iPhone 5 uses a proprietary connector it calls "Lightning"instead of standard micro USB, but gets around the EU regulation by offering anadapter.Why not just use micro USB like every other company? Then you couldn'tmake a mint selling proprietary wires and making every iPhone 4S owner thatupgrades buy new accessories, because older iPhones had an even largerproprietary dock connector.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Third-partysoftware keyboards[/FONT][FONT=&]
With the iPhone 5, you can have any keyboard you want as long as its the stockiOS 6 keyboard. If you're using Android and you don't love Google's defaultlayout, you're free to install a third-party keyboard that suits your needs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Someof the best Android keyboards include Swype, which lets you create words bytracing between letters on the keyboard, and SwiftKey, which predicts the nextword in your sentence to save you keystrokes. Heck, you can even buy an Androidslider like the Motorola Droid 4, which has a real physical keyboard.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Attach any files you want to your email[/FONT][FONT=&]
Apple doesn't gamble on immature technologies so perhaps its understandablethat the company has yet to include this new-fangled thing called "emailattachments" on its iPhone 5. While previous versions of iOS Mail didn'teven present you with any attachment options in its message composer, the newiOS 6 mail on the iPhone 5 gives you the option to attach images or video only.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]What if you need to send yourboss a PowerPoint presentation, a Word doc or some other type of file? You willneed to have an app that opens that kind of file, go to that app and send thefile from there. In other words, there's no way to simply attach the file(s) ofyour choice when composing email in iOS mail. There are workarounds andthird-party apps that address this problem, but Apple's approach here could notbe lamer.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Just like Windows or Mac OS,Android allows you to attach any files you want to any email message. Whetheryou're using the Gmail app, its stock email app or any of a dozen third partyemail clients, there's always a prominent attachment option on the compositionscreen and, when you hit it , you're able to browse your gallery, your filesystem or any other apps you've installed that organize files (Dropbox,Quickoffice, etc).[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Share using any service you want[/FONT][FONT=&]
With Android, every relevant app from the browser to the photo gallery includesa share button. When you tap share, you're given an extensive and universallist of apps you can share with. And that list grows, depending on whatsoftware and services you have installed, from Facebook to your SMS messengerto Bluetooth transfers. So if, for example, you join Pinterest and install itsapp, you can share directly to that from any app with a search button.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Rather than providing you withone share list to rule them all, the iPhone 5 lets each app developer createhis or her own share menu, which has a finite list of services that developerfeels like supporting. The default Safari browser and iOS photo gallery appscan only share to Facebook, Twitter, email and messaging. Google, Flickr,Pinterest, Google Talk and any of 100 other services need not apply.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Visible file system[/FONT][FONT=&]
Try plugging an Android phone into your PC and mounting it as a storage device.You'll have access to all the files and folders, just as you do when you browsethrough your WIndows computer's C drive. So, if you want to copy a raft of MP3sor PowerPoint presentations to your Android handset, you can just drag and dropthem.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Say you record a memo with DroidRecord and want to grab its output files. You can navigate down to its folderand move, copy or share them directly from there. If you run a file browser onthe phone itself, you can also dive into the file system from there.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]So what happens when you plugthe iPhone 5 into your PC? You get access the digital camera (DCIM) folder onlyso all you can do is drag and drop pictures. Yes, you can iTunes to transfermedia files back and forth, but you still can't go directly into file systembecause Apple just doesn't trust you enough to let you see the folders on theiPhone 5 that you bought from them. Whose phone is it anyway?[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Hapticfeedback[/FONT][FONT=&]
Most Android phones offer optional haptic feedback, which allows you to get anice tactile vibration when you type, long press on the screen or tap thenavigation buttons. While some people dislike haptics, the vibrations give youa strong acknowledgement that your touch has registered so you don't have totap twice. Unfortunately, with the iPhone 5, you don't have a choice; just aflat screen that provides no feedback.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Pen support[/FONT][FONT=&]
"If you see a stylus, they blew it," Steve jobs famously said ofpen-enabled computing and, like its predecessors, the iPhone 5 does not supportpen input. Yes, you can get third-party capacitive styluses that will work onthe iPhone 5, but these little sticks do nothing more than give you a thinnerfinger.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Want to scribble down some noteslike you do on paper? On Android, you can. Samsung's Galaxy Note and LG'sIntuition both offer large screens, active styluses and deep pen integrationinto the operating system.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]On the upcoming Galaxy Note II,you can hand write notes on your calendar, on the backs of JPGs and in half adozen other places throughout the OS. You can even get previews of emails,photos and videos by hovering the Galaxy Note II's stylus slightly above thescreen.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]MSNBC
Apple may have mollified the masses by adding significantly betterspecs to its smartphone offering, but when it comes to innovation, the iPhone 5 justcan’t compete with the latest Android handsets. Sure a larger screen, 4G LTEsupport and a faster CPU are welcome additions to the world’s number one phone,but Apple is a year late and $199 short, because Android has provided all thesefeatures and more for some time now. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]In fact,even after Apple’s johnny-come-lately improvements, Android phones have anumber of key advantages over the iPhone 5.
Screens larger than 4inches
Apple may be patting itself on the back over its move from a 3.5-inch to a4-inch display, but in the smartphone size race, the iPhone 5 trails the fieldby a wide margin. In the Android world, the 4.3-inch Droid RAZR M is considereda "compact" phone, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III is mainstream and the5.5-inch Galaxy Note II is large.
Why would you want a phone with a larger screen? A larger display makes videosmore exciting, text easier to read, and keys on the keyboard easier to targetwith your finger. And if for some reason that doesn't appeal to you, theAndroid ecosystem also has smaller phones.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
NFCsupport[/FONT][FONT=&]
If you own an iPhone 5, you can just forget about using mobile payment systemsthat let you touch your device to a reader in order to conduct a transaction.Instead of MasterCard's Tap and Pay, you'll be using tap and pray as yourap your fingers on a table and hope that Apple provides NFC support on theiPhone 6 in 2013.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]WithNFC support, the latest Android phones can not only send out payments, but alsoshare photos, contacts, videos and more, just by tapping their backs together.Since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the OS has built-in NFC sharing softwarecalled Android Beam that any third party application can use for seamlesssharing. Task management appAny.Do even lets you beam assignments to friends andfamily. I'm sure Apple will add this functionality just in time for iOS 8.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Customwidgets on your home screen[/FONT][FONT=&]
Congratulations iPhone 5 users! You now get an extra row of icons that youdidn't have with the iPhone 4 and 4S. That means you can see your TweetDeckicon and tap on it without scrolling over. The Times Square billboard writesitself: "iPhone 5: Now with More Icons!"[/FONT]
[FONT=&]However,if you use any Android phone, you get more than just a static set ofapplication icons on your 5 to 7 home screens. You have a working desktop youcan fill with interactive widgets that show everything from the weather to yourlatest social media updates. I particularly dig the circles widget that Motorola includes on its Androidphones, which shows you battery life, time, text alerts and local weather.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Amicro USB port rather than a proprietary connector[/FONT][FONT=&]
If you're like me, you have a drawer full of USB cables and, if you can't findone, you can always buy another on any street corner. When you upgrade from anold phone to a new one, you can still use the same old wires and chargingplugs, because micro USB is a standard. In fact, the European Union requiresphone manufacturers to use micro USB for charging, because it reduces waste asusers hold on to their old cables rather than tossing them in a landfill.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Unfortunately,the iPhone 5 uses a proprietary connector it calls "Lightning"instead of standard micro USB, but gets around the EU regulation by offering anadapter.Why not just use micro USB like every other company? Then you couldn'tmake a mint selling proprietary wires and making every iPhone 4S owner thatupgrades buy new accessories, because older iPhones had an even largerproprietary dock connector.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Third-partysoftware keyboards[/FONT][FONT=&]
With the iPhone 5, you can have any keyboard you want as long as its the stockiOS 6 keyboard. If you're using Android and you don't love Google's defaultlayout, you're free to install a third-party keyboard that suits your needs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Someof the best Android keyboards include Swype, which lets you create words bytracing between letters on the keyboard, and SwiftKey, which predicts the nextword in your sentence to save you keystrokes. Heck, you can even buy an Androidslider like the Motorola Droid 4, which has a real physical keyboard.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Attach any files you want to your email[/FONT][FONT=&]
Apple doesn't gamble on immature technologies so perhaps its understandablethat the company has yet to include this new-fangled thing called "emailattachments" on its iPhone 5. While previous versions of iOS Mail didn'teven present you with any attachment options in its message composer, the newiOS 6 mail on the iPhone 5 gives you the option to attach images or video only.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]What if you need to send yourboss a PowerPoint presentation, a Word doc or some other type of file? You willneed to have an app that opens that kind of file, go to that app and send thefile from there. In other words, there's no way to simply attach the file(s) ofyour choice when composing email in iOS mail. There are workarounds andthird-party apps that address this problem, but Apple's approach here could notbe lamer.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Just like Windows or Mac OS,Android allows you to attach any files you want to any email message. Whetheryou're using the Gmail app, its stock email app or any of a dozen third partyemail clients, there's always a prominent attachment option on the compositionscreen and, when you hit it , you're able to browse your gallery, your filesystem or any other apps you've installed that organize files (Dropbox,Quickoffice, etc).[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Share using any service you want[/FONT][FONT=&]
With Android, every relevant app from the browser to the photo gallery includesa share button. When you tap share, you're given an extensive and universallist of apps you can share with. And that list grows, depending on whatsoftware and services you have installed, from Facebook to your SMS messengerto Bluetooth transfers. So if, for example, you join Pinterest and install itsapp, you can share directly to that from any app with a search button.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Rather than providing you withone share list to rule them all, the iPhone 5 lets each app developer createhis or her own share menu, which has a finite list of services that developerfeels like supporting. The default Safari browser and iOS photo gallery appscan only share to Facebook, Twitter, email and messaging. Google, Flickr,Pinterest, Google Talk and any of 100 other services need not apply.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Visible file system[/FONT][FONT=&]
Try plugging an Android phone into your PC and mounting it as a storage device.You'll have access to all the files and folders, just as you do when you browsethrough your WIndows computer's C drive. So, if you want to copy a raft of MP3sor PowerPoint presentations to your Android handset, you can just drag and dropthem.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Say you record a memo with DroidRecord and want to grab its output files. You can navigate down to its folderand move, copy or share them directly from there. If you run a file browser onthe phone itself, you can also dive into the file system from there.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]So what happens when you plugthe iPhone 5 into your PC? You get access the digital camera (DCIM) folder onlyso all you can do is drag and drop pictures. Yes, you can iTunes to transfermedia files back and forth, but you still can't go directly into file systembecause Apple just doesn't trust you enough to let you see the folders on theiPhone 5 that you bought from them. Whose phone is it anyway?[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Hapticfeedback[/FONT][FONT=&]
Most Android phones offer optional haptic feedback, which allows you to get anice tactile vibration when you type, long press on the screen or tap thenavigation buttons. While some people dislike haptics, the vibrations give youa strong acknowledgement that your touch has registered so you don't have totap twice. Unfortunately, with the iPhone 5, you don't have a choice; just aflat screen that provides no feedback.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Pen support[/FONT][FONT=&]
"If you see a stylus, they blew it," Steve jobs famously said ofpen-enabled computing and, like its predecessors, the iPhone 5 does not supportpen input. Yes, you can get third-party capacitive styluses that will work onthe iPhone 5, but these little sticks do nothing more than give you a thinnerfinger.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Want to scribble down some noteslike you do on paper? On Android, you can. Samsung's Galaxy Note and LG'sIntuition both offer large screens, active styluses and deep pen integrationinto the operating system.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]On the upcoming Galaxy Note II,you can hand write notes on your calendar, on the backs of JPGs and in half adozen other places throughout the OS. You can even get previews of emails,photos and videos by hovering the Galaxy Note II's stylus slightly above thescreen.[/FONT]
. I had 2 years and 3 phones that were androids and they were terrible. Of course with each update they looked a little better but I could not do the updates. Stupid marketing. I have a feeling though that Apple will not be the leader they once were. With the last 2 product releases the were so many leaks that there we're no surprises. I still think that when Jobs died so did Apple's innovations
