"Android customization" is a joke. And not a funny one at that.

[0p3rati0n]

iOS is a piece of crap compared to android.
That is all, I could spend like an hour writing down points but I really cbf, someone else will.

Android is a piece of crap compared to iOS. The reason why is because iOS fits my needs and preference more than android. The something goes for you too.

 

[Korolev]

I like both - and I have both. I have a iPhone 3GS and a Samsung Galaxy phone. Why do I have two phones? Because I got one as a birthday gift by a nice if out-of-touch relative who didn't know I had one.

Both are alright. I also have an ASUS tablet which uses Android. Android tends to crash more and goes slower doing somethings... but man is it nice to just be able TO PLUG A USB INTO IT AND LOAD ANY FILE I LIKE. Apple tends to work reliably - but it comes at the expense of usability. Unless I jail-broke my iPhone and messed around with it, good luck getting most of my media files or work files onto it. Dropbox is too slow, and hell, most of my stuff doesn't even work on it.

But if you don't have .ogg files or if you don't need to move many files around, then there's nothing wrong with the iOS. It's all down to what files you want, and how you use it. The iOS is more restrictive than Android... but for most people that doesn't matter at all, since they never need the customizability of Android.

Again - depends on what you need and what you do with your electronic item of choice. I always prefer more options by default, but not everyone cares about that.

 

[Bob_Dobb]

... I don't have a mobile phone I really don't want to talk to people I know more than I have to and the two friends I have that I would actually want to spend more time than at school have landlines and stay mostly at home, I also spend most of my time at home.

Fuck mobiles honestly.

 

[Eventidal]

I've had an Android phone for 3 days and it's amazingly better than the iTouch 4 I've had for months. Seriously, the iTouch was my first device of this sort, and while I can't comment on hwo it works with calls and texts, the interface for the non-phone stuff is the same anyway.

Android kicks iOS' ass in all respects when it comes to customization. The built-in software is garbage sometimes but people's apps can do amazing things. iOS doesn't let apps put widgets on your home menu, just their icons and occasionally some little tidbits of info on the icon, but that's it. Icons are always 1x1 square on the grid, and never bigger. I just discovered widgets on my Xperia Play and I'm loving them.
Beyond that, the interface in general. Drag down from the top to bring up your notifications? YES, please! Buttons on the bottom letting you return to the main screen, bring up a context-sensitive settings list, back out of your current page, or even bring up a Google search at the click of a single button? How did I ever live without all that? I mean, hell, the iTouch couldn't even get ONE button right. It managed to count one click as two quite often, and that got really annoying.

Android is a little spread out and a little more DIY than iOS, but it's still incredibly easy if you get some help from Google. Nothing is hard to do but finding out how to do it can be the tough part.

But back to the main topic, customization. iOS doesn't let you change the look of the interface at all. Android lets you screw with it however you feel like. iOS requires all apps to be checked and approved for the one and only app market for the device. Android is completely open and unrestricted, to any number of markets. Apple sticks you to one piece of hardware, complicating it with a bunch of iterations of that hardware. Android is, again, completely open. How you can possibly think iOS is more customizable, ESPECIALLY when you're just talking about the BACKGROUND COLOR of a single built-in app.

 

[Jacco]

Spoiler: Snip

I've had an Android phone for 3 days and it's amazingly better than the iTouch 4 I've had for months. Seriously, the iTouch was my first device of this sort, and while I can't comment on hwo it works with calls and texts, the interface for the non-phone stuff is the same anyway.

Android kicks iOS' ass in all respects when it comes to customization. The built-in software is garbage sometimes but people's apps can do amazing things. iOS doesn't let apps put widgets on your home menu, just their icons and occasionally some little tidbits of info on the icon, but that's it. Icons are always 1x1 square on the grid, and never bigger. I just discovered widgets on my Xperia Play and I'm loving them.
Beyond that, the interface in general. Drag down from the top to bring up your notifications? YES, please! Buttons on the bottom letting you return to the main screen, bring up a context-sensitive settings list, back out of your current page, or even bring up a Google search at the click of a single button? How did I ever live without all that? I mean, hell, the iTouch couldn't even get ONE button right. It managed to count one click as two quite often, and that got really annoying.

Android is a little spread out and a little more DIY than iOS, but it's still incredibly easy if you get some help from Google. Nothing is hard to do but finding out how to do it can be the tough part.

But back to the main topic, customization. iOS doesn't let you change the look of the interface at all. Android lets you screw with it however you feel like. iOS requires all apps to be checked and approved for the one and only app market for the device. Android is completely open and unrestricted, to any number of markets. Apple sticks you to one piece of hardware, complicating it with a bunch of iterations of that hardware. Android is, again, completely open. How you can possibly think iOS is more customizable, ESPECIALLY when you're just talking about the BACKGROUND COLOR of a single built-in app.

Because that is the kind of crap that got me fed up with iOS. "You don't like the color of the calendar because you can't read it? Too fucking bad." It seems like being able to change the background of something should be a basic function before "cube" menu page switching, widgets, etc.

 

[Rednog]

It happens occasionally when I listen to the masses of the escapist. OMG Brink is like going to be the greatest thing evar! Yea... complete unrunable shlock...
After a couple of hits like this I've learned to just ignore what the general flavor of the month on the escapist is and just read actual reviews.

 

[Eventidal]

Spoiler: Snip

I've had an Android phone for 3 days and it's amazingly better than the iTouch 4 I've had for months. Seriously, the iTouch was my first device of this sort, and while I can't comment on hwo it works with calls and texts, the interface for the non-phone stuff is the same anyway.

Android kicks iOS' ass in all respects when it comes to customization. The built-in software is garbage sometimes but people's apps can do amazing things. iOS doesn't let apps put widgets on your home menu, just their icons and occasionally some little tidbits of info on the icon, but that's it. Icons are always 1x1 square on the grid, and never bigger. I just discovered widgets on my Xperia Play and I'm loving them.
Beyond that, the interface in general. Drag down from the top to bring up your notifications? YES, please! Buttons on the bottom letting you return to the main screen, bring up a context-sensitive settings list, back out of your current page, or even bring up a Google search at the click of a single button? How did I ever live without all that? I mean, hell, the iTouch couldn't even get ONE button right. It managed to count one click as two quite often, and that got really annoying.

Android is a little spread out and a little more DIY than iOS, but it's still incredibly easy if you get some help from Google. Nothing is hard to do but finding out how to do it can be the tough part.

But back to the main topic, customization. iOS doesn't let you change the look of the interface at all. Android lets you screw with it however you feel like. iOS requires all apps to be checked and approved for the one and only app market for the device. Android is completely open and unrestricted, to any number of markets. Apple sticks you to one piece of hardware, complicating it with a bunch of iterations of that hardware. Android is, again, completely open. How you can possibly think iOS is more customizable, ESPECIALLY when you're just talking about the BACKGROUND COLOR of a single built-in app.

Because that is the kind of crap that got me fed up with iOS. "You don't like the color of the calendar because you can't read it? Too fucking bad." It seems like being able to change the background of something should be a basic function before "cube" menu page switching, widgets, etc.

I've never had a problem with legibility, but to Android's credit I've seen more options in apps in general so far than I did with iOS. Some almost go overboard with options. It's kind of frightening realizing just what I can do with my Android device that iOS really couldn't.

And again, if someone dislikes the built-in apps, chances are there's a better one out there, and it's probably free.

Not to say either OS is bad enough to be not worth it. Smartphones are pretty brilliant all around no matter whose OS you go for. Android and iOS are pretty much king now but Windows 8 may bring Microsoft right into the spotlight. They're always improving which is really nice.

 

[xDarc]

Did no one mention you can load custom ROMs for Android which customize the look/feel of the OS?

I don't do much with mine. I started learning how to root/run roms and I was like- why am I wasting all this time to toy with a cell phone?

 

[drosalion]

After ~ a year with android im just sick of it and will be going to iOS (use my bros a fair bit and like it way more), everyones different though

 

[zombiesinc]

I try my absolute best to avoid "going with the flow". Just because something's hyped or popular certainly doesn't mean I'm going to "jump on the band wagon" to fit in. In fact, I'm generally more pre-cautious if it's popular or overly hyped.

I'm surprised you decided to switch phones based on what others said. Or at least I'm assuming you didn't research the phone you were considering switching to if you're so disappointed with it. Regardless, that's really shit.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Did no one mention you can load custom ROMs for Android which customize the look/feel of the OS?

It's true. I'm running CyanogenMod 7.1 on my Samsung Galaxy S right now, and it feels so much faster than the stock ROM. (The JIT version of the Dalvik engine that's included definitely helps with that.)

 

[Wintermoot]

they meant stuff like allowing you to install/run 3d party apps without jailbreaking the device
and yes I bought COD BLOPS because of the hype and still feel disappointed about it.

 

[SirFlamingLoboOfDoom]

I recently made the switch from iOS to Android because everyone was like "you can do so much with Android that you can't with iOS because it's open source!"

But this is not true. Sure there are some cool things you can do to make it do stuff, but as far as functional customizability goes, its crap. I can't even change the background color of my calendar without downloading an entirely separate app!

So, I ask you, Escapists, have you ever gone with the flow of something because it was all hyped by other people who didn't know wtf they were talking about and found out the hard way that it sucked?

So you can customize it but it isn't easy enough for you(Oh noes downloading an app!)

Not sure if serious.....

 

[Something Amyss]

When I think about customization, I don't think about changing the colours of the interface. I think about making my phone do things like go on vibrate when I leave the house, or the ability to replace the keyboard with something like Swype or SlideIT. I use Android because it allows me to do these things much more easily.

Indeed. And iOS is restrictive and inflexible.

I don't, like, hate iOS, but when I look at how stiff and inflexible it is, I'd prefer to have a Droid. Apple's got standards in place like Betamax. It's fine for people who want their stuff to "just work," but I'm not an idiot and I don't appreciate being treated like one.

 

[Deschamps]

When I think about customization, I don't think about changing the colours of the interface. I think about making my phone do things like go on vibrate when I leave the house, or the ability to replace the keyboard with something like Swype or SlideIT. I use Android because it allows me to do these things much more easily.

How, do uou get it to go on vibrate when you leave the house?

I use Tasker [http://tasker.dinglisch.net/] for this and a wealth of other things. It's the best app I ever paid for. If you're the kind of person who likes to tinker with stuff, you'll probably love it.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Well I looooove my Samsung Galaxy 10.1" Tablet that runs Android 3.1. I use it for everything at school now except writing documents on Microsoft Word/Excel since those are a bit finicky on the Tablet. It has wayyyy wayyyy more customizability than anything iOS can offer. You can make your homepage into whatever you want it to look like, not just boring lists of apps, you don't need to go through the android marketplace to get apps for it, although that's a good place to start. I can get EMULATORS on it, which will never ever happen on an iOS device. No it doesn't have completely unlimited freedom, but it offers a hell of a lot more freedom than an iOS device which basically forces you to conform to their pre-set settings pretty much.

 

[gabe12301]

I tend not even want to be involved with hype. I bought a windows phone because I didn't want to be involved in the android vs iphone (sometimes blackberry shows up) flame wars.

 

[Vrach]

But this is not true. Sure there are some cool things you can do to make it do stuff, but as far as functional customizability goes, its crap. I can't even change the background color of my calendar without downloading an entirely separate app!

So, you're complaining you can't customize stuff because you can customize it? It just requires you to download an application for it, that doesn't make it uncustomizable, it merely makes the base not to your liking. You have the same case with WoW UI, the base is shit, but you can do whatever the hell you want with it. Considering the apps are ridiculously small and applications for things like that don't require you to keep them on all the time, what exactly is your problem with it? That you don't have everything served on a silver platter? That's exactly what open source is about.

I'm not saying Android's better than iOS, but if you went for it because it was open source, you should've known what you were getting into. Same reason why I don't have Linux installed, open source does not usually mean user friendly, it basically comes with a "some assembly required" note.

OT: I suppose my choice of university qualifies >.>
Had a chance to go to a great private one, but thought I'd learn more at a state university (private schools have a bad reputation here as far as learning things goes). Now I'm regretting it cause my uni's shit and the one I could've gone to has pretty much all the best professors from all the best universities working there and it does great for its students.

 

[McNinja]

I really like Blackberry. More or less. my friend had an iPhone, but hated it after several month because it just started to slow down for no reason. He got an HTC phone and likes it a whole lot more. I still have my blackberry Torch, and even though sometimes it just stops for no reason, I still like it more than... anything else. I like having a physical keypad.