Sometimes The Grass Really Is Greener On The Other Side - Six Major Things I Think iO

MrCrispy said:
For me the main difference is that Google's platform and services are invaluable. MS is 2nd and Apple's offerings are a distant 3rd. Apple doesn't even compete in major areas, e.g. email, search, and there is no guarantee they will be around as the revenue is from the hw profit margins, not software or services.

This is why everyone uses Google services when they can, there's no platform lock in and they are simply better (except for the voice/sms integration thing). So I'd rather use a phone designed for them, and it does make a difference.
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Don't they get a fair bit of their revenue from the App Store?
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Don't they get a fair bit of their revenue from the App Store?
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He's an Apple hater so facts usually don't make an appearance in any argument.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I really haven't noticed how googles services are any better than Apple's. I guess the issue is if you aren't in the actual ecosystem and are trying to mix and match different devices. My iPhone worked fine with my MBPr. The problem with Google's services is that they are all over the place especially when it comes to the different platforms. For some reason iOS google apps sometimes get updates before Android apps.
 
-Strelok- said:
For some reason iOS google apps sometimes get updates before Android apps.
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I've noticed that, too. My wife's still on an iPhone and she often gets updates to stuff like Maps and Hangouts days (sometimes weeks) before I do. I think it's because Google is so splintered. While they own and push Android, I think many of their teams are platform agnostic.

In terms of services, I definitely DO think Google is the gold standard. That said, there is still a lot of disconnect between most of them and most work just fine on iOS and on Windows, too. Android relies on them more, and Google Now is pretty amazing...but the rest are multi-platform web apps.
 
-Strelok- said:
He's an Apple hater so facts usually don't make an appearance in any argument.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I really haven't noticed how googles services are any better than Apple's. I guess the issue is if you aren't in the actual ecosystem and are trying to mix and match different devices. My iPhone worked fine with my MBPr. The problem with Google's services is that they are all over the place especially when it comes to the different platforms. For some reason iOS google apps sometimes get updates before Android apps.
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There is also itunes...

:)
 
Some Google services are unquestionably better than Apple's. Maps, of course, but I'd also point to email and cloud storage. Google Photos is a great example of how to handle images -- it's automatic, explicit (you know which pictures are in the cloud) and free even for certain kinds of heavy users.

Apple's main advantage: media. As good as Google Play Music/Movies/Books are, the combination of Apple Music and iTunes is generally better in terms of stocking content and presenting it.
 
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iTunes is the #1 reason I left iOS. I don't want to have to use that horrible program to transfer files. I love the drag and drop functionality of Android.
Had iOS had something similar (even those kludgy iTunes replacement programs still suck), I might be still rocking an iPhone.
 
Google is a weird company, it seems there are multiple teams working on the same thing intentionally with no interaction. That's why there's 2 of a lot - like Hangouts/Messenger, Gmail/Inbox, and the iOS team works on a different schedule and feature plan.

IIRC iOS got phone calling from Hangouts at least 6mo before Android, there are many things iOS gets first, its probably not a calculated decision, just based on how the teams operate.

I don't care if someone labels me an Apple hater - I praise the things they do well (in this very thread in fact, e.g the voice/sms integration) but no one can seriously claim that Apple services are better than Google. The App Store isn't a service, its a marketplace. GNow, Drive, Docs, Gmail, Search, Photos, Translate... the list goes on, Apple simply doesn't even compete in many of these areas, MS does and I rate them #2.
 
You don't need iTunes for any apple product anymore, I have 5 Apple devices and I don't have it installed. The only thing you need it for is manual backup.
 
Best thing about iTunes is full system backup and restore, trivial and easy to do. Android has nothing close to it after a decade, you need root + all sorts of hacks like backup in recovery, TB etc and still doesn't work.
 
MrCrispy said:
Best thing about iTunes is full system backup and restore, trivial and easy to do. Android has nothing close to it after a decade, you need root + all sorts of hacks like backup in recovery, TB etc and still doesn't work.
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That's something people forget. You don't need iTunes unless you're syncing a lot of local media, but it's extremely handy in the event you're upgrading or restoring devices. You get an honest-to-goodness recreation of your device as it was, not just a rough approximation of it, and the backup process is both quick and largely hands-off.

Google does get you most of the way there with Android, and that's often good enough. Still, it's true that there's no direct equivalent to an iTunes backup, even if you cobble things together.
 
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