

Leaving the iPhone - epi0Bauqu
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/switch-iphone-to-android/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mattcutts%2FuJBW+%28Matt+Cutts%3A+Gadgets%2C+Google%2C+and+SEO%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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aaronbrethorst
Google employee praises new Google product. Film at 11.

Jeff LaMarche, a prominent iPhone developer and author of a couple iPhone
programming books, wrote about this from the opposite side: switching from an
iPhone to the Nexus One. I think his take is far more interesting:
[http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/02/nexus-one-
from...](http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/02/nexus-one-from-iphone-
developer.html)

~~~
there
i'm having a hard time getting through this guy's review since there is so
much bias and incorrect information.

 _One real issue I have with all of the Android phones is the four hardware
buttons they all have: back, menu, home, and search. Three of the four
shouldn't be there. Coming from Google, I can understand the emphasis on
search, but it simply doesn't belong in a hardware button. I don't need to
search while I'm playing a game, for example. Likewise, the menu button isn't
applicable in all situations, nor is the back button. Of the four, only the
home button really needs to be a hardware button, and it's not a coincidence
that Apple made that exact design choice._

most android software is designed with these 4 buttons in mind, and i use all
4 of them very frequently. the search button is not restricted to searching
the web or anything, and many applications have some implementation of
searching within them. the back and menu buttons are required in almost every
application since there are no on-screen buttons like most iphone applications
have (which look different from app to app).

 _When you hit the home button, the previous application keeps running, which
means it keeps eating memory, keeps using processor cycles, and keeps eating
battery._

oh, you mean just like every mac os application that, when closed by clicking
the "x" button, stays running unless you go through its menu and quit?

 _To truly quit most applications requires a multi-step navigation that is
neither intuitive nor well-documented._

many have a quit function in their menu, or just hitting the back button at
its main screen usually quits it. i can't speak for every 3rd party
application.

 _The ability to have more than one GUI application at a time on a device with
such a small screen isn't as important as some make it out to be, since you
can't actually interact with more than one a time._

on my mac i usually have to command+tab to work with more than one application
at a time. it's no different on android. holding down the home button brings
up a list of running applications that looks just like command+tab on a mac,
and allows you to quickly jump between two applications. on the iphone, doing
that (which would require going to the home screen between each jump) would
restart each app every time, losing your context.

 _In the early days, I was a big proponent of having Apple add the ability to
run multiple apps to the iPhone OS, but I've come to change my mind on that. I
think most people don't need it and Android's implementation only confirms
it._

ok, then most won't use it. that's no reason not to implement it. what
percentage of iphone owners use copy-and-paste of text, or holding down home
and power to take a screenshot?

even if users don't want to keep switching between apps, allowing background
functionality is essential for using things like pandora to play music, or a
location-tracking application to keep updating your status in the background.
even if you just have to switch into an app to look at a phone number, or look
at a map, not having to quit those other apps is very useful.

 _The day of my flight home from the U.K., I set alarms on both devices (I'm
paranoid bout missing flights). It took me quite literally three to four times
as long to configure and enable the alarms on the Nexus One as it did on the
iPhone. Add that extra time by the number of tasks you do on your phone in a
given day, and it can add up to a considerable amount of time._

and this is surprising why? you're used to how it works on an iphone and
aren't used to how it works on android. it would be no different if you were
used to windows and switched to a mac. once you get used to the new method,
you'll do it quicker than the previous one.

~~~
theBobMcCormick
_When you hit the home button, the previous application keeps running, which
means it keeps eating memory, keeps using processor cycles, and keeps eating
battery.....To truly quit most applications requires a multi-step navigation
that is neither intuitive nor well-documented._

That one is one of the most pernicious bits of misinformation about the
Android platform. Applications that are no longer visible to the user are NOT
"background" applications like they are on a desktop OS. Applications that are
no longer visible to the user are __stopped __. They no longer consume CPU
resources, but the OS _does_ hold them in memory in case the user returns to
the app. Stopped applications may be killed by the OS, thereby freeing up the
memory used by them, at any time by the OS when it determines it needs
resources. Think of it like caching. The app state is cached in memory so that
if you switch momentarily to another app (to answer a call for example) you
can return immediately to the previous app with minimal delay and minimal
resource cost (ie, the app doesn't need to be re-loaded, etc). The Android
developer docs have more information:
[http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#...](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#proclife)

The only things that truly run in the background on Android are service
process. These are somewhat like worker threads that are created specifically
to handle long running background tasks (like playing music, or downloading
data over the network, etc).

There is absolutely __no __need to go through any "multistep navigation" to
quit apps, nor do non-visible apps continue "using processor cycles and eating
battery" (with the exception of course of apps that are __supposed __to be
using processor cycles, ie, music players, etc. running in a background
service process).

~~~
Dobbs
Thanks I was hoping someone would say this. There is a general lack of
knowledge about how android handles processes. I've seen it all over the place
and commonly from android users who try and get "auto-kill" apps to save
power.

------
ashishbharthi
I am leaving iPhone. Reason: I can write code in Java and load it on my phone
without paying money to anybody. I can not afford to pay $100 to Apple every
year just to load apps on my phone written by me.

~~~
FreeRadical
It's $100 plus the cost of a mac to write iPhone apps.

~~~
notauser
In my mind there's a big difference between costs caused by things that would
be hard for you to do (build _and support_ a reliable cross-compiling Obj-C
development environment on Windows) and costs caused by things that are easy
for you to not do (SDK charges).

The former I'll overlook even if they are two and a half times as much as the
latter. ($500 second hand mac mini every two years vs $100/yr.)

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afterburner
Little mention of gaming; how's the Android app market on that front? The
iPhone is getting popular DS ports. And they're even significantly cheaper
than the originals. I'm not the type that cares to bother with more than one
portable device, so the iPhone being a gaming device that is popular with big
developers is quite the plus.

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nickpp
Pretty much like a Nokia employee raving about the N900. Can you say biased?

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rimantas

      and the iPhone is simpler for a non-tech-savvy person to understand.
    

These remarks are starting to get me. This is like saying that one foot high
hurdle is easier for non athlete to jump over than three-feet high. And it is
backwards. One foot hurdle is easier _for the most_ to jump over when three-
feet high one may have more demanding requirements on your fitness level.

~~~
wmeredith
It's a backhanded compliment, or spin. The real meaning of that phrase is,
"and the iPhone is simpler to understand." But he doesn't want to say it like
that, so he marginalizes the statements potential backers by implying that
they're non-tech savvy if the find the iPhone easier to use.

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jsz0
_"I should be allowed to run the programs I want on my own computer."_

Except wifi tethering? Contrary to popular memes Google imposes a number of
restrictions on the Android Market:

<http://www.android.com/us/developer-content-policy.html>

~~~
theBobMcCormick
I don't know about wifi tethering, but USB and Bluetooth tethering are both
supported by PDANet (<http://www.junefabrics.com/android/index.php>). The
iPhone version of PdaNet requires a jailbroken iPhone. The Android version is
__in the Android Market __and works directly on any stock, unmodified Android
phone.

BTW.. Another difference between the iPhone and Android platforms. If an app
is __not __in the iPhone apps store, there is literally no way for a user to
install it on a non-jailbroken iPhone. With Android, it only requires checking
one checkbox in the Android settings to allow you to install non-market apps
on an Android phone. No rooting, jail-breaking, etc. required.

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wedesoft
_I won’t be able to get to 0% sugar ..., but I’m trying to stop eating sugar,
..._

I guess we have to be worried if we don't hear from him any more.

------
trezor
I see other people here have raised the issue of what source this is coming
from. Let me raise another one.

 _Ultimately though, what matters the most to me is control. I have a simple
rule of thumb, which is that I don’t put data somewhere that I can’t get it
back. That’s the reason that I didn’t buy songs in iTunes, purchase ebooks for
the Amazon Kindle, or really log into Facebook at all. It’s also the reason
that I recently switched my computer from Microsoft Windows to Ubuntu Linux._

Not to make this into an OS flamewar, but is he implying that just because
Windows is closed source you do not have control over your data on the Windows
platform? That Microsoft prevents you or apps from doing things or prevents
you from removing things once you are done?

That seems like a long shot.

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msacks
I hear that the Nexus One has a lack of Python support. You would think it
would. Anyone know why this is?

~~~
Tichy
Don't know about it, but not sure why there would be lack of Python support. I
suppose for standard apps they would have to run on a Java VM, so only Jython
would be possible. Don't know about the state of Jython...

I assume if you root the phone, you can also run native apps, so why shouldn't
Python work?

~~~
ajross
It works fine. Python (outside of the admittedly limited scripting SDK) is not
a first-class API for Android. But it was running on the G1 within weeks of
release (as was most of debian, FWIW) and there are certainly no barriers to
using it.

But the supported API is Java-based, and that legitimately annoys some people
even if it pleases others. Google isn't banning python, certainly, but neither
are they pushing it. No different than any other phone, I guess.

