Apple or Android phones?

bubblesmoney

HTC

i would vote for android phones for

• value for money,
• consumer choice ... i mean actual choice of handsets / hardware / colour / memory / features / screens to suit every pocket and budget. by choice i dont mean black or white and 16gb or 32gb!
• customisabilty extending a lot beyond changing wallpapers !
• choice of handsets with variable features suiting different people and look/size suiting your needs rather than having a bog standard look
• usability as determined by the end user.
• other features like .... portable drive, camera, camcorder, media player with loads of formats (DiVX etc), swappable memory, swappable battery especially important if you go camping or travel a lot.
• full multitasking
• wireless tethering via wifi or bluetooth
• wireless hotspot option for use by multiple devices
• different profiles with the clik of a button for work, travel, etc
• web to device features, via browsers like google chrome / firefox.
• sat nav, see this months pcpro magazine which rated it the best across all 5 categories of tests. (it spanks tomtom!)
• google integration,
• enterprise features, like remote wipe
• augmented reality apps,
• pushmail (gmail, yahoo etc) works efficiently
• various messengers .... googletalk, yahoo, windows live messenger, skype, fring and loads of others, and you can download them from anywhere and not just from the android market. there are loads of other markets which have android apps. you can even download skype from the network providers like three (so that it doesnt count for data usage when used on 3g):T
• loads of very useful free apps, apps development increasing exponentially just in May it was 50,000 apps, 2months later in july it is 100,000 apps. Pocket lint had a article saying in the develpers world majority as per surveys think android is a better bet for the future even though the OS is just a few years old after launching on phones. But there are loads more apps available from other websites too which work just as fine.
• google goggles
• google voice
• google translation
• cool social life integration features like friendstream which integrates everything
• YOU DONT HAVE TO BUY AN APP FOR THAT, the free ones work fine!
• flash websites work!
• cloud synching allows synching with any device and not just one computer
• multitasking drop down notifications can be pulled down when needed and cleared when needed rather than being forced to clear restricted pop up notifications.
• toggle switches to control anything easily from home screens, rather than having to muddle through settings menus.
• choice of screens to suit every budget.
• cheaper monthly plans and cheaper phones
• more suppliers and competition will improve quality and decrease prices rather than a monopoly over pricing.

current limitations of android ...

• apps to internal memory ... but being sorted in froyo which newer phones will get but not all old phones unfortunately.
• wifi proxy access, few work arounds but i havent tried them
• lesser number of accessories
• would like to know the other shortfalls so that i can make better decisions come upgrade time!

what is my ideal phone ...
does everything including telling me next weeks winning lotto numbers! but if that isnt achievable then a weather proof smartphone will be a boon. if there cab be weather and drop proof cameras with lcd screens then why cant there be water proof, drop proof, dust proof smartphones?? come upgrade time i do hope a sturdy smart phone exists by then.

bubblesmoney

HTC

jclegs wrote: »

I have used both an iPhone 3G and an HTC Desire and the iPhone is by far the better phone. My main gripes about the Desire are:

the keyboard - the auto correct can be both helpful and annoying.
the SMS system - how when I select someone's name in the to field does it select someone else halfway up the list?
Android Market - there is so much rubbish in it, finding a decent app is like finding a needle in a haystack and why price apps in euro, dollars and sterling in the UK?
Stability - HTC Sense is a fan of restarting and I have to pull the battery out of the phone sometimes to get it to turn off as it just hangs on shut down.

Yes the iPhone does have its issues but I can't wait to sell the Desire and buy an iPhone again.

looks like you have a faulty caliberation on the screen or you have some apps thats are causing faults! i have 2 desire phone and have none of the problems you say. have you done a factory reset to sort the problems or have you manually changed the screen caliberation to see if it works better. the typing is great and so is the prediction, it needs a bit of getting used to. you could always try other keyboards that suit you that can always be installed on android phones like swype etc. you could switch off predictive text if you dont like it or even the spell check etc.

do you have the latest software version? have you done the over the air update?

have you uninstalled any trouble causing apps.

have you contacted tech support of your network or htc about needing to pull out the battery?

for messaging have you tried 'handsent' or the loads of other apps for messaging. see www.htcapps.com for some recommendations for apps. the software update also made the sms feature better. do you have the latest version of software?

looks like your phone is buggy as both my desire phones dont have these problems you seem to be having.

Jomo

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Skype is only available on a handful of Android handsets, i can assure you its not available on the nexus one. Skype is really useful for sending cheap SMS messages overseas, not to mention cheap calls overseas using your 3G internet connection.

As for the amazon app, just searched for it on Android Market on my N1 but still couldn't find it...why is that then?

You can use any kind of handset to use 'Skype to Go' so long as it is registered.

Fifer

HTC

jclegs wrote: »

Stability - HTC Sense is a fan of restarting and I have to pull the battery out of the phone sometimes to get it to turn off as it just hangs on shut down.

Not in my experience. I've had mine since April and it's never done that.

bubblesmoney

HTC

jimbms wrote: »

Everyone who wants it I imagine and touch owners as well. But if you dont mind your phone constantly rebooting, buggy operating system having to bu a spare battery or 2 because the original wont last and having to fork out for expensive memory then buy an android.

your tag line says you are an engineer, unfortunately science doesnt seem to be one of your strong points going by what you say!

constant rebooting??? buggy operating system? battery life poor?? expensive memory??? ..... are you serious!

both my android phones dont reboot forget constant rebooting. know loads of others who dont have probs either.

buggy operating system ... guess only for people who dont know what they are doing. ie i mean operating a user friendly 'smart phone'

battery life depends on many things, most important being signal strength and usage pattern. even with using gps, wifi, live wall papers, net, phone i can get more than 40hours on the phone with 23% battery left in areas of good signal, but a lot less time in areas of poor signal. it is not any worse than most other 'multitasking' smartphones.

the cake goes to 'expensive memory' comment of yours. for 16gb on a iphone you would pay 100£ extra atleast, where as 16gb cards are available for about 30£ for microsdhc cards and even cheaper with voucher codes. on what planet is 30£ more expensive than 100£. even 32gb micro sdhc cards are available for 74£ onwards on deals.

also someone (jclegs) on this thread has mentioned about needing to pull out the battery to shut down the desire. looks like they dont know what they are doing and adding to the problems they seem to be having. if apps are force closing and the desire is hanging, then best to uninstall any apps which might be causing probs. or use a task killer to shut down that app. or go to settings and unmount the sd card and then shut down, after unmounting the card via settings, the shut down process is faster. task killers might eb causing problems too if they are inappropriately used and system tasks are shut down making the system unstable. so use task killers with much caution and only if absolutely no other way to solve the problem.

there are apps available on the market for faster reboot.

there are apps available on the market for silent reboot, which mutes the loud 'quietly brilliant' announcement on htc phones etc. i use this app always as i dont want the phone start up sound waking up my sleeping child anytime.

even if everything is frozen, there is still NO NEED EVER TO PULL THE BATTERY. you can do effectively fast shut down just by pressing some buttons and will do everything that a battery pull will acheive, by simultaeneously pressing the trackpad and volume down key and power off button. this initiates an instant shutdown. but if possible always better to dismount the sd card via settings to prevent data corruption of open files. this process is similar to pressing the off button on a computer to do an instant power off instead of shutdown. you should still be ok even if data is corrupted, because you can recover it if you regularly use htc synch to back up the phone data on your computer.

restarting can be done as usual or if problem recurs then phone can also be started in safe mode by pressing simultaeneously the menu button and power on button. this starts only factory installed software, so that problem can be identified and problem apps etc deleted and can be restarted as normal later.

you dont seem to know what you are doing with the htc desire and are blaming the phone instead ! almost every device will have some ways of opening in safe mode etc best to find out how.

ps: i blame my htc desire too ... it never tells me next weeks winning lotto numbers . guess i too should buy another phone then!

baby_frogmella

iPhone

Jomo wrote: »

You can use any kind of handset to use 'Skype to Go' so long as it is registered.

Really? Can you please tell me how to install Skype on my nexus one? Each time i go to m.skype.com i get this message:

baby_frogmella

iPhone

And why is there no free app on Android such as this which simply backs up all your contacts on your device? (which does NOT require you to have a google/yahoo/hotmail email address)

I'm sure Android market will overtake Apple store one day (especially now that HTC release a new phone every 4 mins) but IMHO as things stand, the Apple store is far, far superior in terms of quality content....yes, i have both devices and have spent hours searching for apps in Android Market.

b33r

HTC

baby_frogmella wrote: »

And why is there no free app on Android such as this which simply backs up all your contacts on your device? (which does NOT require you to have a google/yahoo/hotmail email address)

To be honest, to have an android phone and not create a google account is crazy if you ask me, buzz, latitude, gmail, google calender, contacts, maps, the market place all need one so why on earth would someone have an android phone and not create one? As soon as you've got one, bamm, there's your contact sync right there to google's servers. But if you insist here's a free one and My backup pro (which isn't free but well worth the cost) will also back up your contacts and everything else for that matter to either online or your SD. I know there also some that will sync via wifi to back the phone up to a PC on your network, I have no need for this so haven't looked at it much though.

baby_frogmella wrote: »

I'm sure Android market will overtake Apple store one day (especially now that HTC release a new phone every 4 mins) but IMHO as things stand, the Apple store is far, far superior in terms of quality content....yes, i have both devices and have spent hours searching for apps in Android Market.

What has the speed which HTC release phones got to do with the android market place? You can find pretty much most things you need by ordering by popularity and there are a metric f*cktonne of articles on the web that recommend applications.

baby_frogmella

iPhone

b33r wrote: »

To be honest, to have an android phone and not create a google account is crazy if you ask me, buzz, latitude, gmail, google calender, contacts, maps, the market place all need one so why on earth would someone have an android phone and not create one? As soon as you've got one, bamm, there's your contact sync right there to google's servers. But if you insist here's a free one and My backup pro (which isn't free but well worth the cost) will also back up your contacts and everything else for that matter to either online or your SD. I know there also some that will sync via wifi to back the phone up to a PC on your network, I have no need for this so haven't looked at it much though.



What has the speed which HTC release phones got to do with the android market place? You can find pretty much most things you need by ordering by popularity and there are a metric f*cktonne of articles on the web that recommend applications.

Ok please tell me how I can install Skype on my nexus one considering that its a popular app? If not, tell me of any other voip app on android which is guaranteed to work through 3G for both voice calls and SMS.

b33r

HTC

baby_frogmella wrote: »

Ok please tell me how I can install Skype on my nexus one considering that its a popular app? If not, tell me of any other voip app on android which is guaranteed to work through 3G for both voice calls and SMS.

lol, totally dismissed all the things I said then.

I don't use skype so not the person to ask but have you heard of search engines? magical things. Click here

To summarise the 30 seconds I spent looking there is a skype lite application that delivers the core functionality and there is a full skype mobile application coming soon which will do video too.