MY OPINION: Apple or Android?

A lot of people ask me this question, so I figured I’d write a blog entry about it because I can never answer it in 140 characters or less:

“You used to be so into Android! What made you make the switch from Android to iPhone?”

As you all remember, or if not, I was an avid Android fan (as many of my entries used to scream in the titles). I still am. I love the Android OS and it’s only getting better and better. They’re getting better every other week – well, that’s how it feels at least. (Actually, that is something I don’t enjoy about Android. You can buy the best phone on the market and as soon as you receive it approximately 5 other phones have come out that are WAY better than the one you ordered and you’re limited (in small but annoying ways) again.)

I had an exceptional experience with Android as a mobile OS. A completely different story when it comes to hardware – I did not have good experiences. My main beef with the phones I had were how often (and I mean many times throughout the day) I’d want to throw the damn thing across the room because it wasn’t working properly. My phones were so glitchy it drove me nuts and the battery drained so fast (before I’d finish my work day) despite my efforts to make sure not a whole lot was going on in the background (or trying not to use it at all). All of this frustration is what made me make the switch to BlackBerry. It had nothing to do with the OS. Android is a very pretty operating system, but it just wasn’t doing my patience any good. The reason I made the switch to BlackBerry first before iPhone was the price and the fact that I had an excellent experience with a loaner BlackBerry while I was out-of-town for business earlier in 2011.

My BlackBerry experience was AWESOME… for about 3 weeks. Then RIM fell apart and my BlackBerry experience did, too. As did everyone else’s. Watching my Twitter feed around this time showed me that everyone I knew who were BlackBerry advocates (and I mean these people would tell me I was missing out using Android instead of BlackBerry any chance they could – including my boyfriend) were switching to the iPhone 4. My boyfriend had made the choice between Android and iPhone while we were in Vancouver over the 2011 summer. I started playing with his, then brand new, iPod Touch. I was slowly becoming addicted to the beauty of the iPod OS and seeing the advantages of the iPhone, FaceTime, iMessage and all the other options that were available to me. Then we lost Steve Jobs and the 4S was announced. This was when I eagerly jumped on board (my BlackBerry service was going out every other two seconds – I had no choice but it wasn’t a hard decision to make seeing as I was excited about it). A lot of people made the switch that day and I was super surprised that I was able to get my hands on my white iPhone 4S. I switched to iPhone just to try it out and, wow, I do not regret my decision (at least not yet and I don’t foresee it being regrettable in the near future).

First, here is the list of my Android complaints:

1. Having to pick your hardware and be happy with it for a few years is almost near impossible. The phones are so glitchy (in my experience) that I just can’t handle it. If I had made the switch to a Nexus, I probably wouldn’t have complained so much – but even those go out of “style” within a year or so.
2. Having to be careful about what I was downloading – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to factory restart my Androids because of shitty applications being made by shitty developers. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DOWNLOAD, FOLKS. Read the reviews first. I learned the hard way.
3. The fact that they made me so angry I wanted to throw them across the room.
4. They weren’t fast enough for me and my battery life was awful.
5. When it’s too cold, too windy or too snowy Rogers loses 3G connectivity OFTEN. Nothing to do with Android.

My “Pro” for Android is the simple fact that it’s all very well-integrated with Google. Google is awesome. Another would be the fact that it’s all open-source for developers, but as I mentioned above – there are some really huge cons to that.

Second, I’ll give you the list of my Apple complaints:

1. When it’s too cold, too windy or too snowy Rogers loses 3G connectivity OFTEN. Again, this has nothing to do with the phone. So, not Apple’s fault.
2. Once my phone just powered itself off and wouldn’t turn on. I have not figured out the reason for this but it hasn’t happened since and there’s an easy fix. What was explained to me by a Rogers employee was that sometimes the 4S’s, he had noticed, just overloaded themselves and would shut down in order to force a proper restart. Hold down your Menu Button and your Power Button at the same time until your screen starts again. Your phone is happy again because it’s sorted itself out. I’m sure there will be other tiny things like this that might happen but ONCE in the few months that I have had my iPhone out of what would have been hundreds of times with the BlackBerry or Android? I’ll take that over the other insanity.

Other than that, I literally have zero complaints about the Apple products I/we own. Since my boyfriend and I went iPhone, our apartment has almost become strictly Apple run. We have Apple devices everywhere, it’s enough to make any person sick.

What I Love About My iMac Computer:

I have wanted an Apple computer (laptop or desktop) for years now. I just love them. Other than when we first upgraded our system, we have not run into any problems with our computer. I despise Microsoft and alway have, I can’t stand Windows or any version of it. I have to use it every day and it chugs away slowly and drives me insane. Have I ever had this problem with my iMac? No. Never. When it comes to photography and music editing our options are endless because Apple strives to make things EASY. I like easy. The latest OS (OS X Lion) blows my mind. I’m still learning all the neat tricks.

What I Love About our iPod Touch:

I have to admit, other than when I first started using it, I don’t use this very often anymore. The only reason for that is I am no longer in the habit of having headphones glued to my ears constantly. I don’t use the Touch often. However, because my boyfriend has a lot more storage room on his phone – he no longer uses the Touch. My iPhone does not have a huge amount of storage so I use the Touch for my music. I love that all I have to do is hook it up to the computer and sync – 5 minutes later I’m ready to listen to my updated music library whenever and wherever I want. The battery life on these beauties is tremendous.

What I Love About My iPhone 4S:

Where do I start?! This thing has fully integrated itself into my life full-time! iMessage is wonderful, iCloud blows my mind (still) and the battery life is better than anticipated (the 4S’ battery isn’t well-known for holding its charge for very long). I use my phone for everything. The saying “there’s an app for that” is over used for a reason. There’s an app for everything. A few cases in point: (1) Using the slow-cooker yesterday – putting the recipe together, my brain can’t convert measurements so I downloaded a free app FOR THAT; (2) it’s my alarm clock; (3) I can respond to e-mail, text messages, Facebook messages, tweets, the list goes on and on… my little online life is easily managed (just like most smart phones). It’s sleek, it’s sexy and it’s got a little person inside of it called Siri and she tells me about the weather or anything else I ask her – she even tells me off if I’m rude. Loving the front cameras on all of these devices as well. Another case in point would be when we were at a family gathering for my Uncle before he passed away, my father was out of the country but he was passed around on Skype and was able to say hi and chat with everyone like he was there. My Dad and I have been using Skype a lot recently – if he had an Apple device, we’d be using FaceTime. I have used FaceTime only a handful of times, but from what I’ve experienced, the quality is better than Skype. Similar, but better. I love my stupid phone so much it’s pathetic.

What I Love About My iPad 2:

OH. MAN. Being able to start a document on my iPad and then edit it again and again via my iPhone on the go is pretty damn cool. I love that the iPad 2 has all the same features as my iPhone and they work seamlessly together with the computer. iCloud truly is amazing. I don’t game much on my phone, but I do play games on my iPad. Playing UNO, Scrabble, The Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit and all of those other EA games I purchased for $0.99 during the holiday sale are just a pure blast. EPOCH and Asteroids are also big favourites of mine. I have a wireless keyboard for it so I do a tonne of my writing on there. I really don’t have a need to buy journal notebooks anymore (although I still do, I like to handwrite and I like to keep my hands familiar with the motion of using a pen).

What I Love About Apple TV:

This is new to us and we’re still all ga-ga eyed over the features of the second generation of Apple TV. Last night was the first time we were able to use it and we watched an NHL game via our friend’s iPad projected onto the television – visual and audio. So very cool. Quality is decent, not horrible at all. AirPlay is the other feature I can’t get over on it. How cool is that?

Yeah, we totally drank the Apple Kool-aid and it didn’t kill us, so we’re diggin’ it. Really diggin’ it! You have to be technology fantatics to get into this kind of stuff the way we do. I don’t remember the last time I wasn’t depending on a device to organize my life. Now I only have to update one device and the change is made already on the rest. No more double or triple notifications. I don’t have to delete the same email twice in different locations. It’s wonderful.

Sure, eventually, the iPhone 5 will come out and the other devices we have will slowly become outdated BUT we can at least hang on to them for those “few years” and be satisfied with our choice as the devices themselves are built to handle the updates until they’re obsolete (which takes a long while).

I also get these questions a lot:

“I’m thinking of making the switch to a smart phone, which one should I get?” or
“I’m so done with this *insert device here*, Apple or Android?”

My answer: Do your research. Find out what you want to use your phone for, figure out how often you’ll be using it and why. My suggestion is Apple OR Android. You have to figure out which one you love more yourself. My bet is you know someone, or multiple people, who own either device (or many). Talk to them about their experiences with it, let them show you what they use it for. Make an informed decision, that’s all I ask. I’m not a pro. I can’t tell you one’s better than the other and why. I can tell you what I like and, after trying them all, I choose Apple.

There, now I have a link to point people to the next time someone asks me these questions. Ha!