Posted by Maria Dimitrova

Read this if: You want to make a well-informed decision on which operating system will suit you more – Apple or Android and be prepared for the nuisances you might expect from each choice.

Cost: The average price of iPhone 4 without a service contract is $599 for a 16GB iPhone 4  and $699 for a 32GB iPhone 4 (Black or White). For more details: http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/. The price of a Samsung Galaxy S 4G without a contract is $650. For prices of other Android phones: http://phandroid.com/phones/

Competition between Apple and Google is fierce. They are constantly striving to offer better features for their products and to develop new applications that will increase users’ productivity and knowledge and to provide users with infinite opportunities for fun and variety. For those of you who are wondering which one is best, let’s compare them:

Niggles of the iPhone
● Software inflexibility: There is very little customization allowed by the iOS. You have to do it Apple’s way or else it’s probably not an option. These limitations allow iOS products to function very well within the protected space created by Apple. However, if you have the need or desire to do something that is not within the boundaries Apple has set for the iOS (and didn’t create an app to handle it), then you’ll be disappointed. For people that like to customize every single nuance of their electronic experience, Android is the way to go.
● Fewer hardware choices: Some people prefer really big screens while other people like ultra-small and portable devices. Some want a high-resolution camera lens and all the multimedia bells and whistles in their mobile device, while others don’t need any of that stuff (and don’t want to pay for it) but want a really nice hardware keyboard so that they can do longer data entry more comfortably. With Apple products, you have very few choices. In fact, with both iPhone and iPad there are really only two choices to make when buying the product: storage and connectivity. You get to pick how much storage you want and you get to pick the wireless carrier on the iPhone or the Wi-Fi only model vs. the mobile broadband model on the iPad.
● Productivity limitations: Both the iPhone and iPad are far better devices for consuming information than creating it. Part of the problem is with the on-screen keyboard, which works magnificently for short bursts of data entry but is not something you want to use for writing an email or document of greater length. The operating system itself is not especially tailored for multi-tasking or work-focused tasks such as building presentations, editing files, and juggling several bits of information at once.
● Lack of text wrapping: Having to scroll horizontally to read text is a big nuisance. It’s much more comfortable to only have to scroll downwards on a mobile device. With iOS you have to constantly rotate your iPod Touch into landscape mode in order to comfortably read text without having to scroll horizontally.

Apple iPhone 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S 4G:

● A weak point in the search apps aspect: You can’t just overwrite the previous search. You have to manually remove it.
● Inconvenient App installation process: Every time you install an app you get an animation which pulls you out of the app store and takes to your very last homescreen where an icon for the app you’ve just installed is placed. Then you have to manually navigate back to the app store to continue browsing.
● App Store navigation: The app store only shows lists of apps 25 at a time. When you reach the bottom of a list you have to select the more button to load the next 25 apps. The real annoyance occurs when you actually start selecting apps to get more detail. For example, you’ve reached the 70th app in a list by selecting the more option twice. You click on the app to get more information about it but decide not to install it. Then you click on the back button which takes you back to the very top of the list you’ve just worked your way down.
● Obtrusive notifications: They take over the screen and cover up whatever it is you’re doing at the time a notification received. There’s no way to ignore them, they either have to be dismissed or opened. If dismissed they can’t be recovered later leaving you the choice of either disrupting your present task or having to remember to action the notification later without any prompt.
● Less options for sharing: If you want to share an interesting article you’ve come upon online, your only option is email. No Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Bluetooth or Whatsapp.

Apple vs Android regarding site-loading speed:

Niggles of Android
● Battery life: Android has more problems with battery life when heavily multitasking. Users complain that it typically has 40 percent life remaining at the end of a day of light use. After moderate to heavy use, you need to recharge every day or you are left without a phone.
● Responsiveness: Some users say they often have to swipe more than once to make home screens move, and if they turned it sideways, all of the objects on their home screen would vanish for about five seconds.
● Selecting text: In Android apps, you often have to navigate to a submenu item, and even then, it’s extremely difficult to be accurate on the first attempt at sliding your finger across a tiny line of text. Apple got text selection right with the “drag dots” approach.
● Media: Having all your music and photos in one place is amazing. Getting photos and music onto an Android phone is certainly possible, but not automatic. With the iPhone, you plug it into iTunes, and it just happens.
● Manual management of antennas: You can leave the iPhone’s Wi-Fi turned on, and you don’t have to worry about it draining the battery. If an iPhone app needs GPS, it flips it on, then quits it when done. On a Droid, you have to actively manage these things or your battery is gone.
● Ecosystem chaos: The Android operating system is open source and so hardware makers can take it and do almost anything they want with it. The only control that Google has is whether to allow the hardware makers the ability to include the Android Market for applications on their devices. Google has not used this as effectively as it should to keep vendors from doing things like launching with long-outdated versions of Android like the Dell Streak did.
● Inconsistency regarding Android devices’ menu buttons and software updates: Nearly all of the hardware vendors put the Android menu buttons in a different order at the bottom of the screen, and many of them even use different types of button icons, further confusing users. Also, Google releases major updates to the Android OS at least twice a year. However, in 2010, the only device that got those updates right away was Google’s Nexus One, which runs the stock Android OS.
● Security issue: Symantec analyzed the behavior of Apple and Google regarding malware attacks and the conclusion was:  iOS is safer than Android. Against malware, protection of IOS is complete, while Android is considered too shallow. The greatest strength of Apple, which is also the greatest weakness of Android, is actually in the App Store. With its control over the applications available, Apple avoids the possibility of assisting the spread of a dangerous malware in advance.

Currently, these are the differences between Apple and Android phones but bear in mind that the new generation of Droids and iPhones may change the picture radically. The expected launch in September 2011 of Apple’s next generation iPhone handset – the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5 means that Apple users will get the benefit of iOS 5 whose huge improvements in daily-use items like notifications were announced at the Worldwide Developers’ Conference. Only a month later – in November 2011, Google has scheduled the launch of its next flagship Android handset – the Nexus 4G. It will most likely ship with Android 4.0 – codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich”. This will be Google’s first version of Android that combines the phone operating system with the tablet version, so it’s expected that it will be a strong offering. So keep yourself up-to-date if you don’t want to miss the outcome of the next round of the battle between Apple and Google and the newest benefits this competition brings to the customers.

More details about the next generation Apple and Google phones and plenty of users’ opinions regarding iPhones and Android phones, check: http://iphone5release.org/how-will-the-iphone-5-compare-to-the-nexus-4g/.

Further reading:

Smart Alternatives to Expensive Productivity Software

Free Internet on Roaming? The Smarter Way to Read on the Go

Google+ vs Facebook. Time to Switch?

Wal-Mart – smart Alternative to Netflix

Speed up Your PC

Hard Disk Crashes – Prevention and Cure