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Tech News & Commentary
Rita in Miami, Florida listening Online asked: “I have an old fashioned flip phone. It’s beat up. I’m sure my next phone will be some type of an iPhone kind of thing. What’s the difference between an iPhone and an Android? I think I would prefer an Android, but I’m not sure why.”
First is availability! Several styles of Android phones and a ton of options and screen sizes from various manufacturers & carriers are available almost everywhere — carriers, stores, online. Price is another good point because there are so many different devices available. iPhone is whatever price-fixing high price Apple decides. How about the ability to expand your memory with SD cards? Try doing that with any iDevice! Another feature of Android that a lot of people like over iPhones are Widgets.
Unlike iPhone screens that are littered with a gazillion icons, Android phones have multiple desktops with widgets that actually have a purpose, giving you info with the flick of a finger. You don’t have to install any software on a computer in order for an Android phone to work, like iTunes for your iPhone — the only place where you can buy music — with Android, you have a bunch of choices.
Android has an open app market. So 3rd party developers can create whatever they want and get it on the marketplace. This means there are more choices in what your phone can do. Most Android phones also let you swap batteries. There are a bunch of other good reasons to like Android over iPhone — like NFC and others — but one of the latest is … they still have Google Maps!
Android is a great example of what’s good and bad about too many cooks and the soup. Google makes Android available to anyone, they can take the code and do what they want with it. What that means is, unless you get your Android directly from Google on a Nexus phone or tablet, what you’re really getting is the manufacturer’s individual flavor of Android. So you’ll find a fair bit of difference between Android devices in terms of what features they offer and how they work. What great about that is, you can usually find an Android device that looks and acts the way you want it to. What’s bad is that it sometimes takes some looking. Apple’s iPhone only works one way–Apple’s way. If you like it, great, your life just got simpler. If you don’t, you’re in trouble because it’s Apple’s ball and bat and they get to make the rules of the game. Independence vs. uniformity, with all the benefits and drawbacks of each.
The main difference in my opinion comes to the mobile operating system and a little bit on the hardware side — Android vs. iOS — It’s kinda like Windows vs. Mac. It may be affected by personal preference after you try each one. Both are quite simple to use. However, iOS is more unified. There’s only one new phone to design for at a time (for the most part), whereas Android has more handsets and screen sizes to deal with. With the iPhone 5, this is the first time app developers had to update apps to take advantage of more real estate on the iPhone, aside from the bigger screen on the iPad. IOS is also unified by iTunes. You only have one app store to deal with when it comes to downloading apps, movies, music and other entertainment. Android has the Google Play Store, Amazon Store and other limited Android markets.
On the hardware side, some might argue the iPhone is a bit primitive or behind the times. Apple has said many times they are “not always first, but make existing technology better.” For example, the iPhone 5 is the first iPhone to sport a 4-inch screen. Android phones are already at 4.8-inches with the Galaxy S3 and at 5.5-inches with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone/tablet combo. But, not everyone is a fan of a bigger screen. Apple decided to make iPhone 5 taller, but kept the same width so users can still hold and operate with one hand.
If you’re ok with a more unified system, then iPhone is for you. If you want a more open source phone, then Android is the one to go with. You’ll have more handset options. Just be careful. Not all handsets are the same or offer the same features. As we always like to say, try before you buy. Go to an Apple Store or your local phone store to play with different phones before you make your decision.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports
with Mike Gikas
The iPhone 5 reviews have been mostly positive thus far and certainly have been no hindrance to sales of the device – which have reached a staggering 5 million units and counting. But how is it faring in Consumer Reports lab tests? Senior Editor Mike Gikas is here to tell us some of their initial findings.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently.
For iOS:
• Listener Jake recommends: Skyfire Web Browser
“Looking to watch flash on your iPhone. Skyfire Web Browser, will let you do exactly that. This browser is fast and easy to use, and is a great replacement for safari, and for those who wish to view flash content on their iOS device.”
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
Guests in this hour:
Kraig Lane, iolo Labs Director – iolo technologies
What causes your PC to slow down overtime? And what can you do to tune it up? Iolo Technologies has a simple solution for us.
Glenn in Mississippi listens on Supertalk FM and asked: “I travel a great deal. I have depended on Google Cloud/Drive a good bit. I have just discovered that Western Digital had a hard drive that connected on Ethernet can be used as a cloud. Not know anything about them I turn to you. Any word on them? Worth the 200 cost?”
It depends on what you’re using Google Drive for. If you use Google Drive to edit documents then having your own private cloud with Western Digital won’t help you much. If you use it for storage though, it could give you much more storage for less money on the long run.
The cloud enabled hard drive that Western Digital makes is called the My Book Live and it comes in 1, 2 and 3 TB models. Paying for 1TB of storage on Google Drive will cost you $49.99 a month. If you really need access to all of that data all the time, then one of these might work for you.
Then again, do you need access to all of that data at all times? Because a lot of it may not be usable to you over the Internet anyway. You may have access to a high definition movie from anywhere, but can you really sit down and wait for it to download or stream on your home connection? You may be better off just continuing to upload what makes sense to Google Drive and accessing it from there for free.
Now, if for some reason you want to have access to a huge number of files from anywhere, then yes, this hard drive might be of use to you. Just think about whether paying a premium is worth the extra connectivity or not.
You also have the option of using a computer to share a regular hard drive (internal or external) using FTP server software, but the set up will be far more involved than just turning on your new cloud enabled hard drive.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Corrosion Technologies: Several bottles of CorrosionX — A few squirts of CorrosionX clean contacts & connections & keep them protected for months (in salt spray environments) to years.
Ergotron: A Universal Tablet Cradle — This accessory converts a monitor mount to hold a tablet or eReader. Works with most popular tablets and eReaders, including Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle.
iolo Technologies: Copies of System Mechanic 11 – PC Tune-up Software
SMS Audio: “Street By 50” Wired headphones in black or white. We brought ’em back from 50 Cent and our interview in Berlin.