I was a teenage switcher to Android
- Thread starter fade
- Start date
It's slightly easier to find a charger for most android devices these days, since they're USB. Oh, and I think there's a 5gr difference in weight.
As an android-to-iphone switcher, I can say that there are subtle differences in UI theory.
But they're small potatoes.
The reason I switched to iphone: Every pic I've ever taken on an android phone has sucked balls, but the pics I take on the iphone are pretty awesome (at least as can be for a non pro). So, I'm happy.
About the one thing iPhone still has on Android is that the software updates go back 3-4 years on devices without wondering if your carrier is going to update your specific model of android.
Helps developers and end users.
Besides that, for most people they both load facebook and view kitten pictures just fine.
Helps developers and end users.
Besides that, for most people they both load facebook and view kitten pictures just fine.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cookie-clickers/id703439482?mt=8
That's as close as you're going to get. The guy who made the original Cookie Clicker (Oteil) hasn't released a version for either platform.
Last edited:
Yep, I know. I looked before posting.
I saw that in August he said he was working on an Android version, but I honestly don't know if he has released an "official" one yet.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
They mostly are now, yeah. Wasn't so much, back in the day.
Can't you reskin your Android to look like iOS if you want?
Ah, not so much a skin, as a combination of things to do so.
--Patrick
I don't miss Apple at all since I switched from the 5 last year is after 3 broken lightning cables and 6 other useless because Apple decided to fuck over their client and make their cables proprietary.
One thing I know is that my S6 charges fucking wirelessly and I can use my bluetooth ear buds which makes the whole process CORDLESS and under $45 Canadian.
Suck it apple.
Oh and the phone works better in almost every conceivable way.
One thing I know is that my S6 charges fucking wirelessly and I can use my bluetooth ear buds which makes the whole process CORDLESS and under $45 Canadian.
Suck it apple.
Oh and the phone works better in almost every conceivable way.
fade
Staff member
Okay serious report after about 4 days of usage:
Things I like
1. I like the bigger screen. I thought I would hate a big phone, but I don't.
2. I like google's ecosystem, primarily for its portability. I liked Apple's, too, but I use windows and linux at work, and google works on those as well.
3. The fact that it has a bigger screen than the iPhone 7 Plus, and cost $200 less.
4. The camera is nice. I hear the 7+'s camera is better, and I believe it, but this one is far superior to my 5's.
Things I am ambivalent about
1. The edge screen. Whoopdeedoo. It's a gimmick.
2. The heart rate sensor. same
Things I dislike
1. I miss scrolling on the iphone. In particular, I miss the physics-based scrolling (e.g., with momentum), and I miss touching the top bar to scroll immediately to the top.
2. I miss Siri. S Voice is okay, but it's no Siri. I used Siri quite a bit to control the phone while driving.
3. I do miss the silly features of iMessage, because my wife used it a lot. But that's minor.
4. Heat. This phone makes a lot. That's not a problem I ever had with any iphone.
5. Simplicity. This is polarizing, I know. But the Android system's greatest feature is also its biggest weakness in my opinion. There's too much to tweak. Too many settings. But fade, you say, you can ignore them. Well not when you're looking for 10 minutes for how to silence one annoying notification.
6. This is the big one: Battery life. It sucks on this phone, even compared to the 4 year old phone I had used everyday.
Everything else is pretty much the same, so I have no changed opinion on that.
Things I like
1. I like the bigger screen. I thought I would hate a big phone, but I don't.
2. I like google's ecosystem, primarily for its portability. I liked Apple's, too, but I use windows and linux at work, and google works on those as well.
3. The fact that it has a bigger screen than the iPhone 7 Plus, and cost $200 less.
4. The camera is nice. I hear the 7+'s camera is better, and I believe it, but this one is far superior to my 5's.
Things I am ambivalent about
1. The edge screen. Whoopdeedoo. It's a gimmick.
2. The heart rate sensor. same
Things I dislike
1. I miss scrolling on the iphone. In particular, I miss the physics-based scrolling (e.g., with momentum), and I miss touching the top bar to scroll immediately to the top.
2. I miss Siri. S Voice is okay, but it's no Siri. I used Siri quite a bit to control the phone while driving.
3. I do miss the silly features of iMessage, because my wife used it a lot. But that's minor.
4. Heat. This phone makes a lot. That's not a problem I ever had with any iphone.
5. Simplicity. This is polarizing, I know. But the Android system's greatest feature is also its biggest weakness in my opinion. There's too much to tweak. Too many settings. But fade, you say, you can ignore them. Well not when you're looking for 10 minutes for how to silence one annoying notification.
6. This is the big one: Battery life. It sucks on this phone, even compared to the 4 year old phone I had used everyday.
Everything else is pretty much the same, so I have no changed opinion on that.
fade
Staff member
I discovered App Launchers and Lock Screens. I did not know you could change those. Some research shows me that Action Launcher 3 and Nova Launcher are the most popular, but I couldn't get into them. My favorite so far is Microsoft's Arrow. Especially when paired with their Next lock screen. I never thought the day would come when I found myself a fan of a Microsoft product, but this one is really useful. It's the only one that's different, too. The others offer varying degrees of customization (which seems like a time sink to me), whereas Arrow gives you some useful additional screens, like Recents and People.
I really like Nova, but I switched so long ago that I probably couldn't get used to a new thing now
GasBandit
Staff member
You might look into the stuff Tasker can do, seems like something suited to you.
I'm curious how you did thisAlso, as I discovered the hard way, it's much easier to brick an Android than iOS.
Ah, that's not exactly bricking, but can obviously make it near impossible to use. Did you try a factory reset? You can boot into a restore mode and issue a factory reset without using the touchscreen, Google your model phone to find out how, it usually involves holding the power and volume buttons
Update: I have discovered a little glitch when it comes to Android machines. When the Nextbook is connected via USB to a power source or computer, the "screen taps" suddenly become erratic and make using the tablet impossible.
What I discovered from doing a search was that this appears common, mostly because of how most Android machines are laid out. Electromagnetic pulses apparently trigger random "screen taps" along the edges, mostly in the middle part of the tablet (where you'd hold it in your hand). When you have the developer "show screen taps" option checked, it becomes obvious that the taps are coming from the sides of the screen.
The sad thing is, from the forum I perused that pretty much described the issue to a T, Google has done nothing to try to fix this issue.
What I discovered from doing a search was that this appears common, mostly because of how most Android machines are laid out. Electromagnetic pulses apparently trigger random "screen taps" along the edges, mostly in the middle part of the tablet (where you'd hold it in your hand). When you have the developer "show screen taps" option checked, it becomes obvious that the taps are coming from the sides of the screen.
The sad thing is, from the forum I perused that pretty much described the issue to a T, Google has done nothing to try to fix this issue.
That sounds like a hardware flaw, not the software. So it would need to be fixed by whoever the manufacturer of the nextbook is.
So, I looked up who Nextbook is, because I'd never heard of them before. It looks like it's a chinese company that specializes in cheap tablets. There are a lot of cheap chinese tablet manufacturers, and quality is almost always spurious among them, but those are the concessions to take for something with that low of a price point. This unfortunately means that there's probably no way to solve the charging problem, as they're likely using cheap components, and from the sounds of it they're not shielded very well.
The comment "Google has done nothing to fix it" reminded me that most people don't understand what android is. This isn't like Apple, where a single company is manufacturing the hardware as well as the software. Google is only creating the software. Android is open to anyone that wants to use it, and is why it is so prolific in both high end and low end devices. Google has nothing to do with the manufacturing of the Nextbook.
This is also why many phones and tablets take so long to get the newest versions of android. Because Google updates the software, but it's up to the manufacturer to push it to their hardware. If you want a pure google experience, look into the nexus line of phones and tablets, as these are produced directly for Google, and in the case of the newest versions (as well as the new Pixel phones) produced by the now Google owned Motorola.
The comment "Google has done nothing to fix it" reminded me that most people don't understand what android is. This isn't like Apple, where a single company is manufacturing the hardware as well as the software. Google is only creating the software. Android is open to anyone that wants to use it, and is why it is so prolific in both high end and low end devices. Google has nothing to do with the manufacturing of the Nextbook.
This is also why many phones and tablets take so long to get the newest versions of android. Because Google updates the software, but it's up to the manufacturer to push it to their hardware. If you want a pure google experience, look into the nexus line of phones and tablets, as these are produced directly for Google, and in the case of the newest versions (as well as the new Pixel phones) produced by the now Google owned Motorola.
I thought Google sold Motorola.
I could very well be behind. Looking up the Pixel, it looks like HTC is manufacturing it, so they could have sold Motorola and gone back to having HTC as their manufacturing partner.
Google bought the phone part of Motorola in 2011 stating openly it just wanted the patents so it could more easily defend android from competitors. After three years it sold everything but some 2000 patents and a few other things to Lenovo and a few pieces to others in 2014.
So if you see a Motorola branded phone it was made by Lenovo.
So if you see a Motorola branded phone it was made by Lenovo.
fade
Staff member
One of the things an iPhone user grows tired of hearing is "LOL iOS doesn't even have widgets". Well, allow me as a switcher to say whoop-de-doo. Haven't found one yet that wasn't redundant, distracting, ugly, or gives info that couldn't be found with a whopping 1 additional click.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, widgets are kind of overblown, but I do have 3 I use -
1) the "ok google" widget, though that is now deprecated - used to have to have the widget on your screen to be able to say "ok google" and give voice commands. Now you can just set an option in settings to have that on all the time without the widget... but I un-updated my phone because verizon screwed up the update and it killed performance, so I have to keep using the widget
2) my phone's music control widget. Faster and more convenient than going into the app/pulling down the status bar to control music playback
3) Smooth Calendar widget. I like to see the next 3 things on my calendar on my home screen. I use my calendar for tracking a lot of work stuff.
I also use (not really a widget but worth mentioning as I don't think iOS lets you do this either) AnimGif Live Wallpaper 2, which lets me use animated gifs for wallpaper backgrounds, and Lightflow LED Control which lets you further customize notifications to make your LED do different patterns/colors for different notifications as well as custom vibration patterns and custom sounds.
Oh, and if you haven't gotten it already, I recommend ES File Explorer, as it has pretty good samba support. So if you've got any windows shares on your network, this is the best way I've found to access them.
fade
Staff member
Smooth calendar is nice. I was using Month as one of the few widgetseconds I did use. This one looks interesting.
GasBandit
Staff member
Back in the early days on my original Droid 1, I used to use K-9 mail, but I don't know if it sucks now after all these years.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsck.k9&hl=en
I use the actual Outlook app from Microsoft, and I find that I really like it.