# Android Users: Convince me to switch from iPhone



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm interested in switching to android because i've always used iPhones and am getting sort of bored with them. 

There's a few things that i'm very used to with my IOS device that have kept me using it though, and want to know how Android compares:

- Everything seems seamless with iTunes, all of my music, albums, songs, movies, tv shows are all instantly synced and extremely easy manageable through the iTunes interface. How are things like this synced with Android phones, how does it compare to iTunes and IOS?

-Apps and App store: I've heard rumors that there are apps in the Android Marketplace that aren't approved by Google/Android, and that there are apps that you can download that contain viruses or spyware. Is this true? All apps in the App Store on IOS are approved by apple so I've never worried or thought of getting viruses on my phone. Also, size and selection wise how does the Android app store compared to Apples? There are over 500,000 apps on the apple app store, when I used windows for a short while there were extremely limited apps and even some basic ones were missing.

- Is there a way to make it so all incoming calls are instantly sent to Voice Mail (As if the phone was turned off?)

- Is there Pandora Radio on Android app store? Paypal? Wells Fargo?

Any other things that Android Phones (Specifically the Operating System/Software) have over the iPhone? 

Thanks


----------



## Some Russian Guy (Mar 20, 2009)

A GIRL DIED IN 1993, A MAN BURIED HER IN HER OWN home when she was still alive. The murderer chanted, "Toma sota balcu" as he buried her. Now that you have read the chant, you will meet this little girl. In the middle of the night she will stand at the side of your bed starring straight into your eyes. She will suffocate you... like she was suffocated. This story is sadly true. But if you buy Samsung Galaxy S III she will not bother you...


----------



## Nada (Dec 19, 2004)

I'm happy with Android and have it setup the way I like. I have mine rooted which is great for using the rooted call blocker (never hear any rings unlike other app) and wifi tether (to connect laptop to internet via wifi). In my opinion when looking for free apps, Android has the best selection. I started syncing everything recently and been using Google Drive for that. Anyways I download a lot of stuff and never had a problem with it and yes there is Pandora.

Just roam the app store here https://play.google.com/store?hl=en


----------



## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

My phone has an expandable hard drive. That's pretty awesome.


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

- Yes, Google has an app that keeps your purchases and such synced up with your account. You can even add music on your computer, and sync via 3G/4G, so you don't even need to connect to your PC.

- https://developers.google.com/google-apps/marketplace/#policies -> Basically, this says that all applications that are submitted undergo testing before being published, and if they do not pass, they are not refunded the submission fee. However, even with Apple (however much iOS users will argue this, it's been proven before), some apps slip thru, but are usually reported, and removed within 24 hours.

- As of May 2012, the Android Marketplace has over 500,000 apps. (iOS has ~550,000)

- By default, some phones can, some can't. However there are applications out there like Advanced Call Blocker that has a widget you can just toggle on and off that does what you're looking for. You can even set it to only send particular contacts to voicemail, by default.

- The Google Marketplace is located https://play.google.com/store - Bear in mind, that the applications listed are approved for all phones, so applications that have requirements such as TEGRA and such, may not be listed here, however... 
Pandora - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pandora.android
Paypal - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paypal.android.p2pmobile
Wells Fargo - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wf.wellsfargomobile
Also, after purchasing your Android phone, you add your Google account, and when browsing the website from a computer, there will be a section that checks compatibility for your device.

- Full UI customization. Real widgets. 4G capable devices. More free apps/games. Free apps (such as Foxfi) that allow you to make mobile hotspots, instead of paying for the service. Flash support. Widgets. That's it for the most part.

Edit:
Also, with Android Backup, if you get a new device, or have to redue your phone, everything can go back to the setup at time of backup. Contacts and such sync to your account, so if you don't backup, you can still keep your contacts.

Edit #2:
Also forgot to mention that if you use Chrome, alot of your apps on your mobile device are available for use on your PC. Pretty cool feature.


----------



## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

You can also get porn apps on your android phone without needing the internet browser lawl.


----------



## BoBooBoo (May 15, 2012)

Oricul said:


> - Edit:
> Also, with Android Backup, if you get a new device, or have to redue your phone, everything can go back to the setup at time of backup.


Is this an app, or is it just with your google account? I broke the screen on my Droid 3 and had to get a new phone (opted for the Bionic this time around) and I obviously lost everything in the process. Unfortunately I was using Verizon's back up assistant. Long story short, most of my contacts didn't get transferred to my phone. The guy at the store supposedly transferred everything over. He wasn't even close. I had a blackberry before and I greatly miss the desktop software.



> Edit #2:
> Also forgot to mention that if you use Chrome, alot of your apps on your mobile device are available for use on your PC. Pretty cool feature.


Wow, I did not know that. I'll have to go play and see what comes up.


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

BoBooBoo said:


> Is this an app, or is it just with your google account? I broke the screen on my Droid 3 and had to get a new phone (opted for the Bionic this time around) and I obviously lost everything in the process. Unfortunately I was using Verizon's back up assistant. Long story short, most of my contacts didn't get transferred to my phone. The guy at the store supposedly transferred everything over. He wasn't even close. I had a blackberry before and I greatly miss the desktop software.


Thats unfortunate. Backup is part of my google account, however.

Edit; 
Cool thing about google contacts though is it syncs with your account. Make sure your contacts type is set to google and not phone.



BoBooBoo said:


> Wow, I did not know that. I'll have to go play and see what comes up.


Yeah its pretty cool.


----------



## huh (Mar 19, 2007)

Because iPhones make baby Jesus cry.


----------



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

Thanks for the responses. I'm looking at HTC One X's right now, but I really want a Galaxy S3.. But they're not even released for At&t yet and will probably cost alot out of contract... What do you guys suggest I look into for android phones? Keep in mind i'm buying it out of contract so i'm paying a significant amount more


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

I'd trade your iDevices at GameStop (atleast price them, they're giving alot right now). For myself, I am using a Verizon Motorola Droid X2. 

If I had to get ahold of a new Android device from AT&T, I'd choose one with a keyboard (preference) so I'd get a Captivate or Galaxy S series. Without a keyboard, then... I'd probably get my hands on a Galaxy Note. If you're up to swapping carriers, or buying out of your contract, Verizon deals better with the Android devices.


----------



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

Oricul said:


> I'd trade your iDevices at GameStop (atleast price them, they're giving alot right now). For myself, I am using a Verizon Motorola Droid X2.
> 
> If I had to get ahold of a new Android device from AT&T, I'd choose one with a keyboard (preference) so I'd get a Captivate or Galaxy S series. Without a keyboard, then... I'd probably get my hands on a Galaxy Note. If you're up to swapping carriers, or buying out of your contract, Verizon deals better with the Android devices.


I'm stuck with att until next year - and I prefer non keyboard


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

Well, with AT&T then, I'd take a look at the two phones you mentioned. If need be, buy it from eBay with a clean EIN, and use your sim.


----------



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

Oricul said:


> Well, with AT&T then, I'd take a look at the two phones you mentioned. If need be, buy it from eBay with a clean EIN, and use your sim.


Yea i'm more than likely going to get it on eBay and sell my iPhone on it as well. The thing I like about the S3 is the Android OS seems to be really smooth and non laggy, but i've seen some videos with a Galaxy note and it lags a little


----------



## Classified (Dec 7, 2004)

Tethering is the only improvement. The Droid phones I've used weren't that impressive. My geeky friends downloaded new OS's and the maps app crashed, Shazam's layout is different, and their music isn't organized.


----------



## ImaDinosaur (Feb 6, 2012)

The thing about iphones in general is that just like mac, itunes, and pretty much every other apple product, they are much too proprietary. To use nearly ANY kind of customization you need to jailbreak your phone, which is against apple's ToS and makes your phone extremely slow/buggy.

The thing I love about my Droid 2 is that it's basically a little linux-box (note that both phones run on a linux based OS); I can even get root access if I call tech support. The phone is VERY customizable, imho it feels faster, and it's got this neat little physical keyboard that also has neat little shortcuts just like a computer (In the browser I can press square+f to find, square+e to begin highlighting text). It's got neat things that make me able to do exactly what I want to do much faster and more efficiently.

Not to bash the iphone, but I've had both and I don't like it very much.

EDIT: More boasting about AndroidOS: there are great apps to re-organize your music, better file browsers, etc. I can easily access shared files from my PC and watch a movie I torrented from bed, and from my PC I can access files from my droid, etc.


----------



## BoBooBoo (May 15, 2012)

Oricul said:


> Thats unfortunate. Backup is part of my google account, however.
> 
> Edit;
> Cool thing about google contacts though is it syncs with your account. Make sure your contacts type is set to google and not phone.


I changed it all to google. For some reason I had some contacts to the phone (VZW's back-up assistant), some google. Now everything is synced with google. Including the calendar. That's what I missed most when I got the new phone. All my appointments and birthdays were in it and the guy didn't transfer it. I felt like an idiot calling for the dates and times of all the appointments that I lost.


----------



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

Just bought a white htc one x. Hopefully it's good . the last/only android phone I had was a LG thrill which gave me a horrible first impression I think.


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

Looks like the average USER review of the HTX ONE X is 4/5.


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

Seems like you just have had bad luck, OldSchoolSkater. Most reviews of the HTC MyTouch is that it's one of the best touch phones out there. Having said that, I haven't heard good things about MyTouch personally. Of course your bad luck may stem from your choice of mobile provider, more then the phone itself. Bad provider updates can cause phones to act up.


----------



## Hurricane582 (Jun 4, 2012)

You can change the rom on your phone to make it more battery efficient and also change the theme to your liking.


----------



## successful (Mar 21, 2009)

Lol dont downgrade to android brah, wait for iPhone 5.


----------



## Oricul (Apr 25, 2012)

iPhone 5, now with 20% small body for ease of grasp and now, siri greets you whenever you wake it from sleep mode! Also, it costs 500$ more.


----------



## werdiscv (Nov 1, 2011)

iPhones are boring because they are all exactly the same. With android you can at least customize / hack / flash roms. Jailbreaking makes iPhones somewhat more useful but still nothing like a high-end android device. I switched from an iPhone 3G to android in 2010 and have never looked back.


----------



## Classified (Dec 7, 2004)

I wonder if anyone keeps their Android phone for more than 1 year? Are they disposable? They will have the same problems Linux has in a few years since there are no standards and there are so many different devices, OS's, resolutions and combinations of equipment.


----------



## lonelyjew (Jan 20, 2010)

If you're ok with a generic system that works very well, iOS and iphones are very nice. Everything functions extremely smoothly, which is something I heard isn't always the case with android systems and apps. With that said, I can't wait until I get to exchange my iPhone 4 for a Galaxy s3 .

Also, lord knows what the iPhone 5 will have over the 4s, because processing power seems mostly wasted on the apps iOS. I've heard it might have a larger screen and I'm sure a better camera (with apparently removable lenses, which is completely idiotic imo), neither of which really increase functionality all that much imo. The next big, serious upgrade I see coming to phone screens is 3D, but that's probably not something the iPhone 5 will have.


----------



## Nada (Dec 19, 2004)

I'll admit when I first got my Droid X almost 2 years ago I had nothing but problem. I think I went through 3-4 replacements under warranty before getting one that works. However when they work, they work beautifully. Anyways to be honest I would probably be happy with either Android or Iphone as long as they work and I'm able to jailbreak/root them so I can use or not have to pay for certain apps/features.


----------



## phoenixwright (Jun 22, 2011)

I have went through three Android phones and currently using the iPhone 4s. 

Personally I prefer Android over iOS. Unfortunately I wasn't happy with the actual hardware of my previous Android phones though (they were more durable than my iPhone though. my iPhone took a tumble and the bottom right of the front glass got chipped. I've went bareback on the front without a screen protector. But the phone fell on it's back (which had a protector). The shock of the fall must have caused the chip on the front even though it fell on it's back. My Samsung and HTC were in flawless condition. But there were things about the hardware that I did not like about those two particular phones.

The HTC One X is probably worth looking into. It's a flagship phone for HTC. Probably better than the one I had. I will never buy from Samsung again. I've had a bad experience with their Super AMOLED screens.


----------



## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

I wouldn't switch if I were you! Sorry, but I hate android.
I had a droid, bought brand new about a year ago and it had SO many problems. Shut off and turned back on itself...froze up...apps crashed... it even acted possessed sometimes and called random numbers WHEN NO ONE WAS TOUCHING IT! I'm pretty sure some of the apps caused it to be infected with annoying spyware. I've been told that android doesnt check the apps for problems like this, but the app store on iphone checks out everything and makes sure its free of spyware before listing it in the app store, and I believe it because I havent had any issues with any of the apps so far on my iphone. Android system is terrible. I sold mine back to verizon and bought a used iphone 4s...I love it! 
Trust me, stick with iphone!


----------



## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

Reading the OP, I'd point out that the the greatest strength of iDevices is also their greatest flaw. You have indeed experienced a seamless experience with iTunes, but all that comes at the cost of relinquishing control. Personally, I hate the concept of syncing. I like to be able to manually drag & drop any files to a device, instead of keeping a copy of everything on the computer, and keep a folder synced with the device.

Android devices with removable SD cards interface with a computer with the good, old, reliable UMS standard. When you plug in your phone, you are prompted to dismount the SD card from the phone's OS, and mount it as a USB mass storage device on the computer, where it appears just like any other thumbdrive. The slight disadvantage is that you cannot install apps on the SD card unless the developer allows you to (cue comments like "ADD INSTALL TO SD CARD CAPABILITY!!!1!!1" on the feedback section of many Android apps), so a possible scenario is that you end up with a full OS+Apps partition, and a half-empty SD card.

Android devices with no removable SD card (like the Galaxy Nexus) use the less flexible MTP standard, because control of the only partition of the phone cannot be entirely given up to the computer's OS. This means everything is stored in a "big, happy volume", which you can fill up with either files or apps at your leisure.
Windows 7 does its best to emulate the GUI of a normal UMS drive when using an MTP device, but at the end of the day MTP is, honestly, very unnerving. Just off the top of my head, no letter is assigned to MTP devices, so you can't access the phone's internal storage from the computer's applications, you can only access it from within Windows Explorer.

Obviously giving more control to the user has its problems. Mostly in terms of stability. yes, Android phones will at times have less fluid interfaces, like Shauna above notices. Yet I suspect a phone calling numbers when no one is touching it is more a job for a exorcist than for a phone technician.


----------



## successful (Mar 21, 2009)

Had a Mytouch4g (supposedly the best android phone at that time). Kept it for under a week, Returned it back, Broke my contract before 30 days, Signed with ATT, Got an iPhone 4, & been happy ever since.

The freedom of android was really cool though, You can download any game free online without rooting + you have more options + settings then Iphones if that's your thing.. But Nothing can compare to an iPhone. It's overhyped for a damn good reason. iPhone feels like a expensive piece of technology, Android phones feel like a cheap toy that a teenager would buy, The O.S feels really Trashy. I couldn't imagine sticking with an android phone for 2 years when an iPhone on the market.

Rumors saying that the 5 will likely be made Redesigned out of Liquid Metal, Have a 10mp cam, Charge Wirelessly, Retina+ 4inch screen, & be thinner then the 4 so it's a no brainer for me...it would be insane to switch to something else IMO.


----------



## GunnyHighway (Sep 28, 2010)

I've had Android since version 1.6, starting with the HTC G1 Dream. Gone through a couple different HTC and Samsung phones since then.

Why do I see you people saying *Android *phones feel cheap? That's is an absurd claim, as nothing is directly made by Google. It's not like the iPhone with one manufacturer. There's HTC, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Toshiba, Dell, etc, and the list goes on and on. Using one phone isn't enough to say *all* Android phones feel cheap. I have definitely felt some cheap feeling phones though.

Now with that out of the way, I think ShyGuy's post sums it up pretty well. The openness of Android is what makes me love it, although I think that's because I'd call myself a more than average user. I've run multiple different ROMs on every single one of my Android phones and they let me customize everything to my liking. My G1 wasn't even going to get a 2.1 update, but I had a ROM with Eclair (2.2). My Galaxy S Vibrant isn't supposed to have Ice Cream Sandwich, but guess what's currently running on my phone? There's such a huge community of active developers for Android, and apps are so easy to find. Not once have I looked for an app and beep disappointed. I control Winamp on my work's music computer from my phone. I can talk on Ventrilo through my phone. I use my phone as my morning alarm and that app watches my movements while I sleep, waking me up near my alarm time when I'm not in deep sleep. (And I'm not saying those are Android exclusive, just a few things that came to mind that I use every day)

Best part? Every one of the apps on my phone was free.


----------



## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

GunnyHighway said:


> Best part? Every one of the apps on my phone was free.


And, with a custom ROM and rooted phone, would I be correct in assuming every one of those apps is also _ad_-free?


----------



## GunnyHighway (Sep 28, 2010)

Theoretically yes, you can download plenty of different adblockers. Some ROMs come with them built in. I've never minded the ads so long as they're not intrusive, but for people with limited data plans I can understand. 

Ads exist on both sides of the "OS war" though, and will always exist.

Also, I stopped someone from stealing my phone because I had a security program on it, that I activated a stupid loud siren through their web page and tracked it with GPS. (Dumbass was still in my store, but worked nonetheless)


----------



## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

Update: After owning a HTC One X and a Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket for a brief period I ended up switching back to my iPhone 4s. Don't get me wrong though, I especially liked the HTC One X, but the Android software had a few bugs in it and seemed a bit more laggish compared to the smooth and bug-free feel of iOS. The iPhone also just seems alot more convenient for the stuff I do.. Everything syncs alot easier than my experience with Android and everyday tasks that I was used to with my iPhone seemed to take alot more extra steps and effort with Android. And yea, like some others have said, I did get a "cheapy" feel from Android on the Galaxy SII, however the One X's software seemed to be alot smoother. That's another thing with Androids.. They all run different software.. Which seems weird. I may come back and give Android another chance in the future if the iPhone 5 doesn't impress.


----------



## kavin60 (Sep 22, 2012)

*Re: Convince me to switch from iPhone*

If you Want want 4G speeds, You'll need an Android phone. There are also Android phones with physical keyboards, phones with 3D displays, phones designed for gaming and phones with a stylus........so i think android is much better to iphone.
thanks..
fusion techware


----------



## Zeppelin (Jan 23, 2012)

kavin60 said:


> If you Want want 4G speeds, You'll need an Android phone. There are also Android phones with physical keyboards, phones with 3D displays, phones designed for gaming and phones with a stylus........so i think android is much better to iphone.
> thanks..
> fusion techware


My iphone 5 has 4G lite, it runs a lot more smooth than my old droid.


----------



## nullptr (Sep 21, 2012)

I have a droid it works great and the chargers for previous iphones dont work for iphone 5. Just another example of apple screwing u over. Then again maybe i dont like apple because i cant afford any apple product.


----------



## visualkeirockstar (Aug 5, 2012)

I have an android i never had an iPhone so i cant really compare. I like android fine.


----------

