46 replies to this topic

[john]

Has anyone done any homework on the advantages of Google Droid vs iPhone?

[Fowler]

I have an Iphone and my sister has a Droid. I think the Iphone is more user friendly. I had it figured out within a few minutes after purchasing it. My sisters Droid... maybe its me, but I was playing with it for a while and it still didn't make sense to me. Oh, and her biggest complaint about the Droid, the fact that the apps stay open and drain the battery. That's funny since that's what they advertise as being the pro over the Iphone!

[M.E.G.]

I have the Droid, since the day it was available. Fowler your sister needs to get the App Killer. It will shut down open apps when you tell it to. I very rarely have a drained battery.

I am a Verizon person, so would never consider Iphone on AT&T. I have heard rumors that Iphone will be on Verizon soon.

John, I would be more than happy for you to take a look at my Droid and see what you think of it. Just let me know.

M.E.G.

[JLS]

The droid is a device. iPhone is a lifestyle.

Apps are about a bagillion to 1.

New iPhone and it's OS is killer and will incorporate multi-tasking but done right.

Droid has a cool commercial although fails to intrigue me on the actual phone. So although it's fun to watch, I'm a human not a droid and watching normal fingers gliding on a multi-touch phone communicates more to me.

[SacKen]

Contrary to what the fanboys on the interwebs say, both phones are excellent and you'll be happy with either one. Pay more attention to which one has specific features that you care about. I consider the Droid to be an iPhone for geeks. It does similar stuff, but is more "open" and allows you to tinker. The system is more "exposed" and customizable.

I have a Droid and love it. I've played around with the iPhone (friends and family that have them) and didn't really care for it. Not to mention the typical crap with Apple products, like not being able to replace your own battery, overpaying for similar capabilities, having to hack the OS to get similar features as droid, etc.

There are some misbehaving apps, but for the most part I haven't had background apps sucking battery life for no reason. The ones that are running are usually things you want to run, like IM clients, weather apps, news, facebook, etc. Things that you want updates from that will periodically refresh their data. The good ones are well written and don't eat that much of my battery. The good thing with Droid is that it will tell you exactly how much battery life each thing is eating and you can decide to stop using bad apps.

The app count argument is nonsense. 30k vs 100k doesn't matter as long as what you want is there. Most "must have" apps on iPhone have already come out or plan to be released soon for the android market. So unless there is a specific fart app on iPhone you need, I'm sure you'll find plenty of other fart apps in the android market.

Droid has multi-touch, pinch zooming (which I hate and think is pretty stupid compared to the default zoom option for Droid, but iPhone refugees got it anyway), etc.

Android market doesn't block apps like the iPhone market. We even have Skype, the Opera browser, and a couple significant apps that the iPhone market won't allow (last time I checked).

Adobe Flash will be available for android OS very soon (beta just released). Not so much with the iPhone (last I heard). Not a big deal unless you visit websites that use Flash to play video.

Apple is pissing of app developers with their tactics and many are transitioning to being android-centric because of the ability to write apps that can be ported/ran on several platforms without much trouble.

If you want a thinner, lighter phone like the iPhone, don't need a physical keyboard, and still want the Android OS, and want Verizon instead of AT&T wait until the end of April and get the HTC Incredible. It's essentially the Nexus One with the HTC Sense UI that many people like that sits on top of the android OS (more user friendly and not as "raw" as the default android interface).

[JLS]

Ha ha ha. Your hilarious! It's a thread asking for peoples views on the 2 phones. Those that like the iphone and give their opinions towards it you call "fanboys" (a gradeschooler comment). Then you follow with hating on the iPhone and stating your reasons for liking droid in just the same fashion (fanboyism?)....

[JLS]

having to hack the OS to get similar features as droid

For one thing Apple leaves out certain features until it makes since for Battery life, design, etc. They try and nail a feature before shoving it into the consumers hands just to be able to claim a feature on a specs chart.

Also, at least you can hack an iphone to get it to act like a Droid. The things Droid users want that iPhone user's have there is typically no hack. Like more apps for instance...

The app count argument is nonsense. 30k vs 100k doesn't matter as long as what you want is there. Most "must have" apps on iPhone have already come out or plan to be released soon for the android market. So unless there is a specific fart app on iPhone you need, I'm sure you'll find plenty of other fart apps in the android market.

Actually it's 185,000 vs 40,000. It's actually kind of funny that PC users used to taunt that as a reason to use Windows over Macs. Now that an Apple product has more they turn the table...LOL.

I don't think your on the right path by acting like Apple has a lot of none-sense apps etc. Here is what PC Mag says about that topic:

The Droid has about 10,000 apps. That seems pretty good—until you see what's missing. Where are the 3D games, for instance? Way too many of the apps in the Android Market seem to be quickie jobs done by individual programmers rather than polished, professional work.
The iPhone's 100,000 apps fill all desires and demands. Whether it's fart apps, hobbyist apps, enterprise apps, or high-quality 3D games, the iPhone has it all. The Droid puts on a good show—and maybe this story will be different next year—but the iPhone's relentless pummeling brings the Droid down.

[JLS]

Android market doesn't block apps like the iPhone market. We even have Skype, the Opera browser, and a couple significant apps that the iPhone market won't allow (last time I checked).

Apple forces to make developers make better products so it doesn't affect other features. Quality control plus license issues with ATT. Verizon wishes they had the iphone and they publicly say it so lets be easy on the topic...
Got Skype, just on wifi not 3G due to ATT. Got Opera browser.. and alot of significant apps that developers don't bother and write for Droid.

Adobe Flash will be available for android OS very soon (beta just released). Not so much with the iPhone (last I heard). Not a big deal unless you visit websites that use Flash to play video.

Thank goodness Apple is leading the world away from the use of Flash. They are probably the only ones capable of such a thing due to them not allowing flash on the iphone, ipad, or ipod and now they are helping the big dogs by advertising the major websites that are making HTML 5 compatible sites instead:

http://www.apple.com...ready-for-ipad/

Apple is pissing of app developers with their tactics and many are transitioning to being android-centric because of the ability to write apps that can be ported/ran on several platforms without much trouble.

This is mainly referencing Apples newest block to programs created in flash then transitioned for the iphone. Apple made their logic behind that but all the way around there is very few developers that are idiotic enough to actually stop developing for the iPhone. Most developers will lose millions of dollars a month if they remove their programs from the most popular app store on the planet. Most of what you read is just bloggers whining but nothing being made of it. The app store is growing faster and faster especially with the heightened amount of users, capabilities of iphone 4.0 os, ipad, etc. It's certainly not shrinking...LOL.

Another comparison point to the iphone vs droid is that the iphone kills when it comes to syncing with your computer etc. You can download apps for the droid but overall it's shallow in comparison.

I'm sure both phones you will enjoy plenty so more power to you with whichever you chose. If you go with the iphone then hold off till June and wait for the newest one since it's already mid April. Here is a list of new features:

http://www.apple.com...view-iphone-os/

[Dave Burrell]

heh, you're both rabid fans of your own devices.... it's all good, enjoy what you've got.

sorry JLS, while I love my iphone, I think apple is very stupid to not allow use of flash technology with their devices... we're missing out on half the content on the interwebs...

I would have bought an ipad if it could use flash to run hulu

[eVader]

Both Droid and iPhone have alot going for them as noted above.

The thing concerning me about Android phones is will the OEM release the latest OS. It could be similar to WinMo where OS updates don't always get released until the next model or hardware spin. This is one area iPhone has executed well as a 1st generation iPhone and latest 3 GS both run 3.13 firmware. Of course there are a few feature limitations between the two but it is hardware related (EDGE vs. HSDPA radio, camera) vs. lack of OEM not releasing new code. In comparison to WinMo, if you had bought a Samsung Blackjack you would have had upgrades from 5.0 to 6.0 but not to 6.1...for that you have buy a new model whereas an early iPhone is still rocking. Android OS is 1.6 to 2.1 depending on make and model.

Concern about iPhone is Apple's arrogance and attitude towards power users who want to use their devices as THEY see fit vs. what Apple allows you to run on it. For example if I want to have a ringtone from MY non iTunes library I need to use 3rd party hacker apps to make it happen. If I want to watch TV over 3G (Slingplayer, Hulu etc) I had to jailbreak it to enable both. Fortunately there is a jailbreak within 24 hrs to a few days after a firmware update. Will note I wish the iPhone supported Flash because until you convince the webslingers out there to abandon it, it is the default for so many sites especially those supporting video like Hulu, Break, etc. Shut up Steve and allow Flash onboard... oh and stop the stupid and often times conflicting approval process.

To answer Johns question - need more info from you John as to what you want to do with the phone. Are you using it with corporate Exchange mail vs. only personal email? If using corp, is it allowed? Is carrier important (i.e gotta be VZW or gotta be ATT or T-Mo or don't care)?

[JLS]

heh, you're both rabid fans of your own devices.... it's all good, enjoy what you've got.

I'm actually in no-way very against the droid. I have friends that have it and love the thing. I've played around with one and had no complaints as well. I just get flustered when somebody throws silly grammar school name-calling (fanboys) around followed by their own fanboyism that's just as one sided so I go on the defense...

sorry JLS, while I love my iphone, I think apple is very stupid to not allow use of flash technology with their devices... we're missing out on half the content on the interwebs...

Yes, I agree that we are missing out on some content that would be nice to see.

Yes, I don't think it would do as much trouble to the iphone battery life etc as claimed.

Yes, I think it's really about the aged Apple/Adobe war that has been going on since Adobe wouldn't work with Apple on creative apps back before Apple purchased Final Cut Pro in 2001 or so. They have been bickering for years and finally Apple has a solid spot to screw them so they are going to getting the consumer caught in the middle like a little raft stuck between 2 pirate ships at canon war!

BUT, Apple doing this is 100% going to be WAY, WAY better for the consumer. I spent over a year of my life learning advanced Actionscripting and Flash. It is truly a garbage way of doing things, unpredictable, buggy, crap. I abandoned that in a hurry in favor of other techniques. For Apple to use it's positioning to kill flash like this will be way better for the consumer and with SO MUCH browsing coming from iPhones and iPads the majority of any web developers won't be able to pick up a job unless they are creating the sites iPhone and iPad compatible. So, although this is a painful transition... it's going quicker and quicker now that the big dogs are redoing their sites to optimize for the ipad. This will make things faster, better for the device in terms of battery life and crashing, less separate updating, etc.

I would be willing to bet just about anything that at this very moment hulu is redoing everything in HTML5 and H.264 to be iPad compatible as rumored or to release a chargeable app. Hulu for iPad... coming soon!

To answer Johns question - need more info from you John as to what you want to do with the phone. Are you using it with corporate Exchange mail vs. only personal email? If using corp, is it allowed? Is carrier important (i.e gotta be VZW or gotta be ATT or T-Mo or don't care)?

About the most relevant post/question in the thread! John?

[SacKen]

Bwaaaahahaha... JLS, you care waaaaay too much. I wasn't "hating on" the iPhone or trying to be one-sided for any specific reason. I was simply stating facts that I considered when I was making the decision between the two phones and highlighting the features that I have come to appreciate and the ones that even my iPhone owning friends and family complain about. Having never actually owned an iPhone myself, I can't really ramble on about its positives. I figured I would leave that up to a sane iPhone owner that would know more than me.

As I said before, they are both great phones and you will enjoy either one as long as it has the specific features that you care about.

I could easily argue the majority of the filth that spewed from your fingertips, but I really don't care. Enjoy your vehement zealotry.

[JLS]

I could easily argue the majority of the filth that spewed from your fingertips, but I really don't care. Enjoy your vehement zealotry.

Filth that spewed from my fingertips? And I care too much?

[Dave Burrell]

The fight is on!







In all seriousness though for John - here's a link to a good comparison between the two devices
Iphone and Droid Compared

[eVader]

BTW the tech forums and hot deals sites often use the term "fanboy" which is:

1) a person considered to belong to one or more fandoms to a point of obsession
2) one who always has to have the latest "x" product upon release just because company "x" made it ignoring or arguing against legitimate faults raised by others.
3) one who through rose colored glasses can only praise a product or company and will never consider the abilities of competing products, companies or devices as being as good or superior than their brand.

Not certain it applies to JLS because while a fan of Apple products hasnt been obessed and has posted faults.

Even though I have used many PalmOS and WinMo devices years ago, I find it interesting and humorous that no one has proposed them.