I love the technology. I love how with so much information at our fingertips and with easy access to it via a plethora of methods, we no longer can say "I don't know" so easily. My mobile phone has everything, and does everything - its a magic wand, summoning my friends, playing all of my music, letting me watch videos, play games, find where I am and where I am going - and does so in the palm of my hand, and fits in my sexy jeans. I love the technology, and while my favorite darling is Google with their Android phones, I want to talk aboot the key players in the mobile device race.. and set my haterade aside.
As much hate on Apple, the simple fact that we would not have the phones we have today if it weren't for Steve Jobs (pray for the man) and his "10-year ahead of our time" thinking cannot be understated. That said, even though multi-touch & only needing one button wowed us in 2007, it took 3 iterations of software to get basic mobile phone functionality from 2005 that I had on my aging BlackBerry Pearl of the time - copy, paste, MMS, background apps, decent camera, GPS, removable battery, etc - see my previous rant from oh so long ago - unacceptable in my eyes, my phone should not be so superficial.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8227206
It is now 2011. The iPhone platform finally produced a (mostly) complete package with the iPhone 4. This is the first time Apple didn't leave out anything obvious like GPS, more than 128MB of ram, flash on a good auto-focusing camera (hello BlackBerry Tour circa 2009), etc, on a hardware level. In fact, with it's qHD screen, gyroscope, video capabilities & blazing processor, I dare say that the iPhone 4 hardware trumped most almost everything then, and continues to be mostly competitive now, even though we live in a world of 4-inch plus screens, real 4G via LTE or WiMax & dual-core SoCs (system on chip). iPhone 4 hardware, despite being all glass (who thought this was a good idea?) & not having access to the battery (form forsaking fashion again), is daggone sexy, even in the face of many a slate. Inside & out, the iPhone 4 package has everything where it counts.
What hasn't evolved is the aging iOS software. Google saw what Apple was doing, and took it to the next level, while Apple seemingly rested on its laurels in the innovation department - but watched the money pile up in the process. I believe Apple excels with its simplistic "it just works" philosophy - enough that I recommend iPhones & Macs to my non-technical friends - but those of us who "do more" with the technology should be given allowances to do so. iOS still presents its screens has a bunch of icons, just like the Palm Pilot did (and for that matter, Apple's own Newton did) back in 1996. No customizable information on the lock screen, no widgets anywhere. I still can't run apps in the background. This isn't an argument I'm just tossing out, I mean things that I do on my current device can't be done on iOS. For example, on my Android phone I can connect via ssh tunneling to my home router & access my desktops, file, media or whatever I choose. I can't do this on iOS, or if I can I'll need to jail break or pay again & again trying to find the right app for that. Apple does now allow some functions to run behind the scenes like music playback, but that still doesn't help things like a real instant messaging client. Don't give me the battery argument either, my Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G lasts through the whole day & then some. iOS could have some really cool apps if Apple would loosen its choke hold on application distribution, but, in the name of keeping it safe & simple, we're just gonna have to wait on either the hackers via jailbreaking or Apple to bring innovation our way.
Google however hasn't stopped at the cost of a bit of polish. The ability to side load apps or use the open Android Market means more developers doing crazy things. I can play OG NES to Nintendo 64 games at full speed on my phone, that control wonderfully with my full keyboard, or on other Android phones I can use Bluetooth & HDMI out to play with a Wii Remote on an HDTV. I said wow. With Swype, I can drag my finger all over the screen to type out words quickly, accurately, and one-handed, alleviating the pain of a touch only keyboard, or I can just slide out the keyboard. DriveSafe.ly reads my messages out loud as they come in. And so on. Google's built-in apps are really the shining stars however. I always know exactly where I am, where things such as bars & restaurants are close to me, their phone numbers, business hours, menus & reviews with Google Maps, and with free turn-by-turn voice activated navigation I don't need a Garmin with I rent cars anymore. My Chinese speaking friends can talk into my phone and Google Translate will speak back to them in English in real-time, and when I'm in Japan I can speak English and Translate will speak Japanese out loud - sugoi! Google Shopper can scan a Blu-Ray I'm contemplating buying, and tell me its cheaper next door & even cheaper on Amazon. With NFC technology, I can use my phone as a credit card with Google Wallet (I'll take $10 please). Google Goggles can translate text, or tell me the artist of a painting, or do a Google search with almost any image. Google Sky shows me where Uranus is. I never worry aboot copying pictures from my phones awesome, 5MP, auto-focusing, flash enabled camera to my computer because Google Plus automatically puts them in the cloud. I don't worry aboot filling up space on my phone with music thanks to Google Music, where gigabytes & gigabytes of ALL of my music is accessible, and plays back quickly or offline if I wish (Amazon Cloud Music player does the same as well). I can tell my phone "Listen to Billie Jean", and it does, whether I own the song or not. I can say a lot more with Google Voice Search such as "Set alarm for 2:50pm", "Set timer for 30 minutes", "call mom @ home", "navigate to McDonalds" (which brings up that free, voice activated, turn-by-turn navigation I mentioned above), "weather in Lexington", "call Best Buy" (which calls the closest one based on my location), "send text message to Fran - I'm running late" (typical), "pictures of Adriana Lima"… the list of voice actions goes on and on. Any input box anywhere I can tap the mic icon & talk to it, across any app, be it Facebook, Talk, or whatever - this is for real hands free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbYVvU0Z5s
Apple promises to match Google with a lot of these things such as music in the cloud with iCloud, more customizations and voice actions via Assistant with iOS 5 (we'll know tomorrow, October 4th) but Google has them NOW. And Google has HAD them for months, if not years (voice search appeared in Android in Summer 2009). iOS shouldn't be playing catch-up, giving developers a bit more wiggle room & moving away from the yearly update model would help these matters. The Android Marketplace is not the Wild West some have made it out to be - nasty apps have slipped into the App Store as well, and Google has pulled apps as quick as 5 minutes from appearing AND remotely nuked them from phones. If you are nefarious & choose to download a paid app for free from a Russian website, & install by bypassing the numerous warnings & hoops Android makes you go through to do so, then you deserve what you get. :) At any rate, competition is good for everyone, and with Google pushing the envelope with software & hardware (the Nexus Prime is rumored to be a beast with a 720p display, *covet*, no way Apple is topping that) I can't wait to see what Google is going to show off with Ice Cream Sandwich later in October after Apple finally catches up & then slightly iterates tomorrow - I'll be watching the live blog, hitting refresh, heh.
