Installed apps ≠ Active appsThat could have been a legitimate argument but it crumbles apart instantly due to the fact that iOS does not support multitasking.
Installed apps ≠ Active appsThat could have been a legitimate argument but it crumbles apart instantly due to the fact that iOS does not support multitasking.
Oh, the full display of apps? Yeah I only pop into that to launch stuff I use very rarely, and yeah it being a grid is meh on usability...the app drawer? You know, that thing with the apps in? You get to it by pressing the little circle with like 6 dots in it. Anyone? Just me?
Why does Windows have a desktop when you have a start menu with a program list, and explorer windows to view and manage files?Yes, but if you use the desktop for that, why is there an app drawer? The home screens/desktop only work to solve a problem that shouldn't exist.
I was letting you know it's not an Android design choice.I was not commenting on iOS. I actually specifically said I have never used it.
Ues, but OP and you seemed concerned about some design choices, which is why I'm pointing that out.But OP is talking about phones. Yes?
Me personally no, I use it for a quick weather check when laying in bed or something. Just pointing out that the time isn't always visible, especially if you're using alternate launchers (like somebody showed).So having that widget is helping you in those situations?
Something companies need to hold back on in the first place.Yet another problem with Android.
people pick android just because it's cheaper, and it just do whatever other device do, minus the exclusive though (like BBM for blackberry, or anything that exclusive for iPhone).
if both could reach a point where the price is similar... then, the result may change.
Although, doesn't matter what devices they release, android phone/table is pretty much crap anyway (of course this is my personal opinion, no flame intended)
$10 cheaper for generally much newer tech and faster performance? You see what I'm saying.
I understand, but that's not the point I was trying to make.Again, I completely agree, but if you're torn between an iPhone and an Android device, price is no longer an advantage for Android.
I just can't believe the OP said that he preferred playing around with a Blackberry more than he did Android
If you take into mind what the BB OS5/6 was made for its quite good at it. Its not a gaming phone its a communications device and hell typing on that keyboard is rather nice too. It's also fairly customisable with custom roms my Bold 9700 runs Berrylious OS6 with a few extra customization of my own trimming some more fat from the OS
Not to mention the battery life is great on em and there rather solid devices, Only thing that bugs me is some parts of it relys on there own Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) but that lightened off anyway and there was a work around for that.
Maybe it was due to it being an underdog OS that I took to it more, or the device as a whole but for communications its great, not so much on the game front however so I spose that knocked off its mass market appeal.
But do remember this is just my opinion coming from someone who has messed with all the mobile OS's from Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm all the way up to today and maybe as such my views might be out dated or I just know what I like
I agree with you on the keyboard point as I can type so quickly with a BB and to communicate it's quite good but they are so buggy, mine and every other BB that people I know have had has locked up/frozen/ and they take so long to do anything ( The little black timer thing haunts me to this day ), I think it's just because moving down from my HTC to a blackberry made me realise how outdated they are ( Not tried the new OS so I can't comment on that )
If Android had iOS's interface, I'd be happier with it.Who would really want to reskin android into iOS anyway?
It's like taking a step backward.
blackberry is probably going to go belly up soon if things dont change
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1533632-blackberry-10-fail-now-what
people have been saying for them to ditch the whole bbos and just make android based business phones, its what hurt nokia when they decided to keep releasing symbian phones
I'd like to post a few screenshots straight from my phone to completely invalidate every claim you just made against Android.
Here, look at my folders in my app drawer!
Here, look at my column, not grid, app drawer!
Here, look at my status bar not having a clock while no app is open, where a clock widget would come in handy!
Now, the first two are accomplished solely with Nova Launcher, a free launcher replacement (granted, I'm using the paid version (which is about $2), these features may or may not be available for free). Hey, that's something you can't do on iOS. The third is, I admit, due to a setting I can change in my custom rom, but I still feel it invalidates your argument because the possibility to make that clock disappear is completely there.
maybe YOUR eyes go all cross eyed when you have more than 6 apps in an app drawer.
I'm perfectly used to it (hey, it's just like looking at a desktop on a Windows computer and I'm sure you get along fine with that).
It takes much longer to scroll down a list of 100 apps than it does to scroll down a 7x5 grid of apps,
and if you memorize where your more frequently used apps are in relation to others, you can do it more or less autonomously.
I'll take a few icons and desktop pages as opposed to having 4 or 5 pastel rectangles on my screen that provide semi-relevant information.
Also, time is by default shown in the top right, not top left, in every Android version I've seen.
You said yourself, these are not features that are available in Android by default. The fact that there are (many, many, many) individual developers working to "fix" the OS and add features with third-party apps that should be there by default definitely says something about the openness of the platform, but also seems to indicate the features it comes with by default are not adequate. I would hazard that it is the extreme minority of user who could spend the hours and hours it takes to learn how to flash a phone, experiment with apps, and customize things so that the phone is usable for them. Not everyone has that much time - especially adults.
I don't use desktop icons. They are inefficient when I can just start typing the program name to launch it. I'm confused as to why anyone would use them anymore. They existed to solve the problem of having to dig through start menu hierarchies in legacy versions of Windows without a search function. Most PC power-users avoid using the mouse whenever possible because it makes you take your hands away from the keyboard. Linux gurus will agree with me here.
That is well and truly debatable.
Why should I have to do this? This makes no sense. "Remembering where your apps are is part of the game!"
So why put any programs on the phone then? If the phone is just being fixed, as you claim, by third party devs, then why install anything?
My Android OS is as much a piece of shit as your iOS or Windows Phone platform then because it doesn't have every game conceivable to man, every variant of multimedia players, native apps for social media platforms that don't and won't exist for another 30 years...
oh, hey, Microsoft, good job fixing Windows AND Mac OS by providing an office productivity suite that is much, much more powerful than Notepad/Wordpad/whatever Mac has.
In fact, by that same light, Windows is a piece of shit, Mac is a piece of shit, and any *nix distro is a piece of shit. They're all incomplete platforms.
A strong majority of smartphones lack a physical keyboard. You can't just start typing to pull up an app, and having your keyboard or IME of choice appear on screen after tapping a text box is usually not instant; you're usually waiting a second or two.
Then again, on my phone, I know where my frequently used icons are both in my app drawer or my home screen. On my desktop computer, I again know where the icons to my frequently used programs are on my desktop.
I couldn't think of anything better to illustrate the size of 100 apps in a list as opposed to a 5 column grid, so I pulled up excel (because Windows is incomplete).
Logic denotes it would take much longer to scroll through THIS (column of 100, so big I had to zoom out on a 1080p monitor to fit it all) than it would THIS (5 column grid). It takes a light swipe to navigate from the top to the bottom of my 62 item app drawer on a 4 column grid. List mode, it makes it about half way.
Let me rephrase that, I meant for the primary UI of a phone. The Play Store not being a primary UI (and I just search the app I need, seldom use the main screen of it) and the Xbox One isn't a phone. As far as the HTC phone, I still think it's stupid (it looks like a glorified picture browser from what they show, what else does it actually accomplish for me?), and it also contains the clock widget you hate so much.
Edit - installing a custom launcher, something you download off of the play store, which does not require root privileges except in certain cases, hardly equates to installing a custom rom.
If Android had iOS's interface, I'd be happier with it.
You said yourself, these are not features that are available in Android by default. The fact that there are (many, many, many) individual developers working to "fix" the OS and add features with third-party apps that should be there by default definitely says something about the openness of the platform, but also seems to indicate the features it comes with by default are not adequate. I would hazard that it is the extreme minority of user who could spend the hours and hours it takes to learn how to flash a phone, experiment with apps, and customize things so that the phone is usable for them. Not everyone has that much time - especially adults.
As the be all and end all here - Android is an amazing platform if you use your phone as a TOY. You can play with and customize it for hours and hours without ever getting bored. However, if you want to use your phone as a TOOL, then you may be better off with a different platform.