5 reasons not to buy the iPhone 4

Mellor

It's ridiculous using the mega-pixels for comparing phones.

5 and 8 MEGA-pixels wow

Shame that neither of them mention that both screens (the highest res ever) have less than 1 megapixel displays.
Even most computer screens are below 5 Mps,

Biggins

Wednesday June 09 2010

Prior to the launch of iPhone 4, I wrote a piece speculating on 10 reasons not to buy it. It questioned the ubiquity of the iPhone, the technological advancement, the cost and the distorting effect of one handset capturing all the headlines and development time.

The storm the piece provoked was unexpectedly intense, and I concede readily that Apple’s announcement has addressed a number of my concerns.

So now we know what Steve Jobs really had in mind, what do those 10 reasons look like?

On battery life and design, Apple has knocked my objections out of the park.

On my points about innovation, price, multitasking and accessories, there’s real, admittedly pre-announced, progress.

I’m tentatively giving myself 6 out of 10 when comparing my concerns to Apple’s announcement.

That’s five more than respected Apple blogger John Gruber gave me, and probably six more than I’ll get from many who engaged with the previous, provocative piece.

In summary, I’d agree with my colleague Claudine Beaumont's Apple iPhone 4 - first look – this new iPhone is clearly evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but it makes a lot of much-needed improvements.

Yet video calling is not new – ask Fring – and if a phone does HD video, I’d like to see easy ways of playing it back on a big screen (compare the Motorola XT720 with its HDMI out), for instance.

Nonetheless, the new iPhone is clearly a lovely device, and it may well prove to surpass its competitors’ achievements.

Anyway here goes. I summarise each point, grade myself and then offer a little explanation.

For the full run down you can look back at the original piece at 10 reasons not to buy Apple's new iPhone 4G .

1. It’s expensive: Buy the top-of-the-range Blackberry or Android handset and you will still pay a lot less than the extortionate prices Apple charge. Half-marks

Apple continue to make premium products, and charging premium prices. I don’t mind - if you want a budget phone, buy something else.

And this new model is not as expensive, comparatively, as its predecessors. HTC’s Desire or the Nexus One, for instance, remain cheaper, however, because a number of operators offer them for free on contracts. Quite a few people objected to my use of the word “extortionate”, while others accurately identified it as hyperbolic.

2. It’s anti-technology: When the iPhone launched it was cutting edge – now as other manufacturers announce, for instance, that you can use their phones as shareable wifi hot spots, Apple says no. Half-marks

Apple revolutionised mobile phones with the original iPhone. Other people have caught up, and in some specific instances overtaken.

This iPhone’s display and antenna, however, are innovations and deserve significant credit. The implementation of video calling may prove a breakthrough, too.

3. No Flash: The iPhone, the phone that promised to put the web into everybody’s pockets, can’t even show you most of it, because it can’t handle Flash graphics. Pass

There isn’t any Flash, and we knew there wouldn’t be. Does this matter? 85 per cent of the top 100 websites use Flash Player (according to Alexa), three-quarters of all video on the web is viewed via Flash Player, and Forrester says that 98pc of enterprises rely on Flash Player. And yes, Adobe quote those figures too, but they come from independent sources.

4. No multitasking: Tried instant messaging on an iPhone? Oh yes, you have to open the app to see if you’ve got a message. Genius. If Apple announces multitasking next it will be an improvement – but there’ll be no apology for the way it’s treated customers in the past, and no guarantee it won’t behave similarly shoddily in the future. Half marks

This is probably the point that upset people most, and I concede that the crux of it comes at the end of the paragraph and not at the beginning.

Apple made a big deal of its belated announcement to include multitasking for all customers. I maintain that where other manufacturers had solved this problem, Apple was reprehensibly tardy.

5. Its battery life is terrible. Fail

I think, in light of the A4 processor and other improvements, I should simply concede that Apple is addressing this serious issue.

6. Developing apps for it is costing you money: The special version of the BBC iPlayer, of Natwest Phone Banking, of Eon’s meter reader – developing all of these came out of money that could have been channelled away from a self-important minority and towards more generally useful ideas. Pass

This is clearly true, although there’s much debate as to whether it matters a single jot. Truth be told, I’m glad there are iPhone apps for lots of useful things, of course.

But companies should surely be more aware of alienating non-iPhone users, and potentially inhibiting competition that would benefit everybody. So in summary I'd like to see more apps, for more platforms - this is not an argument for fewer, under any circumstances.

7. It comes with offensively bad headphones. Pass

Few people deny this. Does it matter? It’s up to you. I have bought several iPods myself, so I should add it’s not a dealbreaker.

8. It’s not very well designed. Fail

The new iPhone is the best looking phone “now” on the market. I’m sure it will be lovely to use, too.

9. It charges for satnav. Pass

It does. And Google Maps is no substitute.

10. Those iPod docks are holding back better technologies. Half-marks

With this very strong product, Apple will go on defending its position. I’d like to see more competition.

Others argue that the dominance of good technologies is legitimate and reasonable. Eitherway, I can’t argue that this superb product shouldn’t be well catered for in the accessories market.

- Matt Warman

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/apple-iphone-4-an-update-on-those-reasons-not-to-buy-one-2213214.html

Original write-up: http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/10-reasons-not-to-buy-apples-new-iphone-4g-2208178.html

There are much better phones about to be released.
Using the Android system, they will also allow open source apps to be used on it alone (as well as built in features on the phones that will make the iPhone4 outdated in a matter of months).
This will allow far, far greater use than the very strict range of apps that Apple uses alone - sometimes for completely daft reasons altogether - see: http://apprejections.com

Long story short, A lot of phone specialists are advising people to wait a short while for the new Android based phones and see whats coming in the next few months. The word is they will be better served in many, many ways.

FOR EXAMPLE: http://www.geeksugar.com/HTC-EVO-4G-Lands-Sprint-Networks-June-4-8401152

or

Nokia N8
http://www.geeksugar.com/New-Nokia-N8-Phone-HD-Video-12MP-Camera-8254124


* As for the Droid - see: http://www.geeksugar.com/Droid-X-vs-Droid-Incredible-8892870

---

On a lighter note: Apple has banned the use of the word "Android" in its stores. LOL
See: http://www.geeksugar.com/Apple-Wont-Allow-Word-Android-App-Store-7293635

Narcissus

Inquitus wrote: »

About as good as retina looks on a 3.x" screen lol, talk about pointless overkill...........

And if I had 2 phones, one with which to video, I'd show you how good the highlights of the world cup on rteplayer look on my android phone....

what android phone do you have?

john-joe

I was thinkg of buying an I-phone shortly, what is the difference between the i-phone 3 and the i-phone 4?

Do they have wi-fi?

How much is the I-phone 4 going to cost here in Ireland?

Thanks in advance,

JJ

Inquitus

Apapaia wrote: »

what android phone do you have?

A HTC Desire, sample of the current game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGGMVSsaTLY

and RTE player in all its glory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkoMXtK8OsI

dougs09

john-joe wrote: »

I was thinkg of buying an I-phone shortly, what is the difference between the i-phone 3 and the i-phone 4?

Do they have wi-fi?

How much is the I-phone 4 going to cost here in Ireland?

Thanks in advance,

JJ

iPhone 3(GS) are the last 2 current models of iPhone, 3GS being the last model, the third generation. 3G is the second generation.

yep they have wi-fi.
iPhone 4 will cost a fair whack whenever it's released in ireland, as at the moment its retailing for 499 or 599 sterling up north, so add the paddy tax it'll cost a fair whack, otherwise, if you get it on contract it will work out about 300 for the 32 gig, if last years prices are a guideline.

the differences between them, the iPhone 4, has a 5mp camera, a flash built in, longer battery, being able to record 720p video. front facing camera for video calls, although only over wifi at the moment, a higher quality display with higher pixels, the difference on the front screen is quite good. there is problems with the side antenna, dropping signal although this will be "fixed" with a software update.
iPhone 4 needs a micro sim to use, that's a bit of achallenge to get for some people, but work around it by cutting up the sim
iPhone 3GS, has a 3mp camera, standard video callling, no flash.

axer

Inquitus wrote: »

A HTC Desire, sample of the current game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGGMVSsaTLY

and RTE player in all its glory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkoMXtK8OsI

Wooooww, how do you get that to work? When I try that on my desire I get "This type of Flash Content is not supported".

Narcissus

Inquitus wrote: »

A HTC Desire, sample of the current game, snapped by a poor camera on my wifes phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGGMVSsaTLY

looks good, thanks for sharing.

Pittens

I wont have an Android phone because it has crap apps, no iMovie, no Retina display and no FaceTime, and the iPhone 4 has a much better industrial design than the knock offs from the android clones.

Biggens ten points - most of which are not even relevent to the iPhone 4 have easily been dismissed on the internet.

I have to ask why are the Android lovers in this forum. I wouldn't be so childish as to post "Where is the iMovie?" "Ur Stuff Sucks because you Dont have a Retina display" in an Android forum. Or Your Music Player sucks, dude! That is the Android lovers attitude, pick something unique to the Android ( wallpaper for chrissakes) and that becomes the defining point as to why the Android is better. Or widgets. I hate widgets on OS X ( where they have existed long before windows 7, or Android). They are ugly, dont conform with the UI guidelines, and - on a phone - must be batter consuming, a major worry for Apple.

Flash is a typically ideological complaint. It wasnt mentioned when the iPhone was released because no phone ran Flash - even now very few do. There is no effect on the use of the iPhone because there is nothing using Flash that I want which doesn't have an app ( which works better). All the Flash brings to the party is ads, scripts, and movies.

If you browse to Boards.ie with an iPad the embedded youtube vide will play embedded.

The supposed "restrictions" on the AppStore - generally cited by people who use the far more restricted xBox as well as Android - is also an ideological point. If anything I think Apple allows too much. Google has a gatekeeper as well, however they dont use any resouces to run proper testing on the apps, they just wait until something is dangerous and then pull it. 25% of the ( generally useless) Androids applications are information thieves.

Thats actually a major reason for the normal person not to buy an Android phone.

of course pulling an app, including one you have paid for, is quite severe. Notice how little press that act got, although people woke up to find Big Brother Google not just not allowing the applicaiton in the store, but removing it remotely.

Thats great until some popular app gets pulled because it is straining the networks.

Pittens

Secondly the nonsense about Android market share has to stop. I have already demolished the argument in a thead on these forums but the same idiocy continues. Andrdoid phones, in one disputed account, in one quarter, and in one quarter prior to the release of a new Apple phone for which there is (clearly) huge pent-up demand, matched Apples sales in the US ( where Apple have clear carrier restrictions.) because of a 2-1deal by Verizon. Thats not true worldwide where Apple had a blowout quarter - real statistics.

The fact is the iPad - which is iOs - the iPhone, the iPod touch ( where I can see the family increasing in size this year with new models), all together massively out sell android phones, and the market is much much much bigger.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/06/developer_still_favors_ios_over_android_and_windows_phone.html

( By the way is Angry Birds even available for the Android?)

Pittens

Lastly the iOs ia a joy to develop for, and Android sucks. And that matters.

Inquitus

Pittens wrote: »

I wont have an Android phone because it has crap apps, no iMovie and no FaceTime, and the iPhone 4 has a much better industrial design than the knock offs from the android clones.

Video calling on wifi only.......thats a revolution.........and only to other iPhone 4 users who are currently on a wifi connection.....fecking genius!

iMovie, who on earth wants to edit video on a phone? Phones of all favours are a crap way to record video as they have no optical zoom, no stabilisation, are crap in the dark, and are simply a bit of a gimmick. And editing video in any sort of a decent fashion requires a PC or Mac and real software.

Pittens wrote: »

If you browse to Boards.ie with an iPad the embedded youtube vide will play embedded.

Yes it will, but unlike android phones, iPad doesn't support HD youtube and as such it looks like **** on the iPads admittedly quite beautiful display.

You can't watch the world cup live in Ireland on your ipad or iphone, unless you use TVU Player to steal copyrighted TV, yes Apple do allow apps which are primarily used to steal copyright.

Darksaga87

I use both iphone 3gs and HTC Desire. The iphone is more of my toy, the apps are fun, but the android is much more effective when it comes to many other aspects of the phones i use. The droid is a business phone for me. Its is an amazing peice of kit with many more options than iphone.
Need to state - im not an apple hater, i love my iphone, but i think if I had to choose, droid all the way.

dougs09

its down to personal opinion, you like your android phone, and your entitled to do so.
but for me, who loves the whole fun aspect of the iPhone, along iwth what it can do, ie safari, iPod etc, and i am more then satisfied with the phone aspect of it, then for the likes of me, iPhone is the way to go.

Narcissus

Darksaga87 wrote: »

I use both iphone 3gs and HTC Desire. The iphone is more of my toy, the apps are fun, but the android is much more effective when it comes to many other aspects of the phones i use. The droid is a business phone for me. Its is an amazing peice of kit with many more options than iphone.
Need to state - im not an apple hater, i love my iphone, but i think if I had to choose, droid all the way.

what are some of the many more options?

OI

Apapaia wrote: »

what are some of the many more options?

For a start you can make a phone call whilst holding the phone in either your right OR left hand - ooooooooh

Pittens

iMovie, who on earth wants to edit video on a phone? Phones of all favours are a crap way to record video as they have no optical zoom, no stabilisation, are crap in the dark, and are simply a bit of a gimmick. And editing video in any sort of a decent fashion requires a PC or Mac and real software.

Lol.

I bet if an Android phone had iMovie, and the iPhone had widgets then Apple lovers would be told endlessly that the Android software is much better, and widgets are mere toys.

Thats the logic, if the Android has it it is a necessity, if the iPhone has it it is a toy.

With respects to Tom, these forum - supposedly for users of Apple products to discuss their products have been taken over by idiots.

I doubt that a forum on Nikon products would tolerate much nonsense from people who love Canon products **** over every single thread on any subject of a new Nikon camera.

Were I mod, any mention of the typical "WAAH WAHH WAHH the ANDROID IS BETTER" would get a permanent ban from the forum, and the Android lovers would have to scurry off to the Android forum. It is childish nonsense.

EDIT: and in the context of this forum this whole thread is a troll.

Inquitus

Pittens wrote: »

Lol.

I bet if an Android phone had iMovie, and the iPhone had widgets then Apple lovers would be told endlessly that the Android software is much better, and widgets are mere toys.

Thats the logic, if the Android has it it is a necessity, if the iPhone has it it is a toy.

With respects to Tom, these forum - supposedly for users of Apple products to discuss their products have been taken over by idiots.

I doubt that a forum on Nikon products would tolerate much nonsense from people who love Canon products **** over every single thread on any subject of a new Nikon camera.

Were I mod, any mention of the typical "WAAH WAHH WAHH the ANDROID IS BETTER" would get a permanent ban from the forum, and the Android lovers would have to scurry off to the Android forum. It is childish nonsense.

EDIT: and in the context of this forum this whole thread is a troll.

The only thing I have found childish in this thread is your commentary: it's ill informed, blinkered, and shows little or no technological knowledge.

I own among other things, an iPad, an iPhone 3GS and a HTC Desire. I feel that certainly allows me license to comment on the pros and cons of all of those 3 devices.

iMovie is a gimmick at best, much like Numbers, Keynote and Words (iWorks) are a gimmick on the iPad, these devices are simply not made for these kinds of activities, and in a few minutes on a Mac or Windows laptop you could accomplish an hours work using the iPad/iPhone.

Biggins

With the greatest of respect Pittens, if one is to discuss any Apple product (or any product for that matter), the rivals to it are always going to be mentioned in relation to it - as to how it performs, it features, etc so that a fair (or unfair?) comparison and gauged assessment can be made of any item.

To say that one can ONLY discuss Apple items in comparison to no other, is to bias any possibly fair discussion from the outset. Further more it undermines and disadvantages any progressions of present and future apps/features/etc if the Iphone or its rivals, can't be discussed and compared within the same sentence/section/whole forum.

(I have no wish to troll but while discussing various phones or whatever, I will mention the pro's and cons of each.)

Basically, how can one discuss one's item if one can't even compare it (or even be allowed compare it) to another thats different anyway?

Dades

Has anyone commenting on iMovies used it yet?

Sure a laptop or a desktop can do the job 100 times better for many tasks but it can't do it on the bus or in the dentist's waiting room.

I appreciate Apple don't do everything that can currently be done on handhelds - but I can't help but love the way they do what they can do.

Inquitus

Dades wrote: »

Has anyone commenting on iMovies used it yet?

Sure a laptop or a desktop can do the job 100 times better for many tasks but it can't do it on the bus or in the dentist's waiting room.

I appreciate Apple don't do everything that can currently be done on handhelds - but I can't help but love the way they do what they can do.

I have iWorks on my iPad, and whilst you can indeed accomplish most of the tasks you could in MSOffice it will take at least 10x or 20x as long, which renders it almost utterly pointless.

Words is the best of the bunch as you can type well on the keyboard and tidy it up on a proper computer later, the other 2 are utterly useless.

Nor do they do what they can do, as they could play avi and mkv, they could allow flash. Apple only do what they choose to do

vinnycoyne

Guys, less of the "my platform is better than yours" nonsense - it's not welcome here.

Biggins

lackofcolour wrote: »

Guys, less of the "my platform is better than yours" nonsense - it's not welcome here.

Thats totally fair and understandable.

I thinks its fair though also however that items be compared to other items (in this case Apple items) so that comparisons can be made and quality can be judged.
- Done however without having an mischievous air or words to the effect of "my ones better than yours" etc...

wayne040576

I'm currently on an iphone 3G. I had been planning to upgrade to the 4 as a no brainer but over the last week or so I was thinking of maybe gettting the HTC desire instead due to the fact that I hate using itunes on the desktop (both pc and mac). Plus I now have the ipad which leaves me free to try a different phone.

A few things holding me back that I think only people who have both devices could answer:

ootunes. Probably the best app I have bought. I can stream all of my music from my home macbook/pc over the 3G network. They don't have an android version yet.
http://ootunes.com/

How does the media player hold up in comparision to the ipod functionality? Does it make browsing the artist - album info as easy?
and are the controls quick to respond? Does the the headphone cable have a button to pause\play like the iphone? If not, can you quickly stop music playing without having to take a few seconds to unlock the device as it has gone into standby?

It doesn't have a music store which is a bit of a pain. I can currently buy music on my phone and have it in a few minutes if I want. I've read rumours that google have a store on the way but not sure how true they are.

How is the built in support for exchange servers? I read that it is a bit buggy and that you are better off buying a third party app.

Is there a decent app to subscribe to and download podcasts on the device?

I read that the multitasking results in very poor battery life.

Is there a skype app?

Is there a dublin bus app showing timetables?

I currently use mobile me for personal mail and with push, I get the emails as fast as text messages. If the mail service was as good, I could drop mobile me and use my gmail account.

I read it takes a bit of tweaking to sync with Linux. Hilarious considering Android is based on Linux. Not such a big deal. The iphone pushed me away from my linux desktop as I needed to be able to quickly sync with the pc and it just wasn't possible. I was hoping having an android phone would fix that.

The main reason I got the iphone was to have a really good media player integrated into my phone. If the HTC phone (or other droid) could match that, then I would probably change. I had tried a sony ericson and nokia N95 before the iphone and they didn't even come close.

Inquitus

wayne040576 wrote: »

ootunes. Probably the best app I have bought. I can stream all of my music from my home macbook/pc over the 3G network. They don't have an android version yet.
http://ootunes.com/

Homepipe supports both iOS and Android and does what you mention above.

wayne040576 wrote: »

How does the media player hold up in comparision to the ipod functionality? Does it make browsing the artist - album info as easy?
and are the controls quick to respond? Does the the headphone cable have a button to pause\play like the iphone? If not, can you quickly stop music playing without having to take a few seconds to unlock the device as it has gone into standby?

The Music player may not be as polished looking as on the iPhone, but it has all the same functionality - search by album, song, artist, genre, playlist etc.

The headphone cable does come with a pause button, but neither the stock Apple or HTC headphones are that great imo, and I would recommend buying a good pair of Sennheisers or w/e brand you prefer, this would mean you have to unlock the phone to shut it up.

wayne040576 wrote: »

It doesn't have a music store which is a bit of a pain. I can currently buy music on my phone and have it in a few minutes if I want. I've read rumours that google have a store on the way but not sure how true they are.

http://www.mewbox.com/

I haven't used it, I don't buy music, but I just installed it and tried some random artists Hot Chip, Muse, Happy Mondays and The Levellers and all albums were there at similar prices to iTunes.

wayne040576 wrote: »

How is the built in support for exchange servers? I read that it is a bit buggy and that you are better off buying a third party app.

I am running OS version 2.2 which featured a big exchange update which works flawlessly. This will not be released on the HTC Desire for another 4-8 weeks, and 2.1 did have some exchange issues.

wayne040576 wrote: »

Is there a decent app to subscribe to and download podcasts on the device?

Google listen works great for me though there are a number of solutions, and you can even use iTunes, not that I have tried, there's also an app called doubletwist which is dubbed iTunes for Android, again thats not my cup of tea.

Personally I use Google Reader as my RSS reader, Google Listen syncs with google reader and downloads your podcasts automatically for you whenever you are on wireless, or if you have loads of data you can specify 3G too.

wayne040576 wrote: »

I read that the multitasking results in very poor battery life.

The Battery life is much better on my HTC Desire than my iPhone 3GS, though I wouldn't exactly call either spectacular. The new iPhone 4 has supposedly made a big stride to better battery life, I haven't had a play with one myself, so i can't confirm, but from what I read it would have better battery life than Android phones do at the moment.

I would say that the multitasking on Android is much better than on iOS4.

wayne040576 wrote: »

Is there a skype app?

There's plenty of VOIP apps, but Skype is no slated to make its full debut on Android until later this year.

wayne040576 wrote: »

Is there a dublin bus app showing timetables?

No, next dart is on Android but no Bus Timetable App, there is however a Layar plugin, which may or may not be useful.

http://www.apps.ie/app-list/companies/Smallroomstudios.net/apps/Dublin_Bus_on_Layar.html

wayne040576 wrote: »

I currently use mobile me for personal mail and with push, I get the emails as fast as text messages. If the mail service was as good, I could drop mobile me and use my gmail account.

I get emails immediately on the built in gmail app.

wayne040576 wrote: »

I read it takes a bit of tweaking to sync with Linux. Hilarious considering Android is based on Linux. Not such a big deal. The iphone pushed me away from my linux desktop as I needed to be able to quickly sync with the pc and it just wasn't possible. I was hoping having an android phone would fix that.

I don't know, I only have a virtual linux box on my PC for messing around with, never tried to sync any phone with Linux.

wayne040576 wrote: »

The main reason I got the iphone was to have a really good media player integrated into my phone. If the HTC phone (or other droid) could match that, then I would probably change. I had tried a sony ericson and nokia N95 before the iphone and they didn't even come close.

Android now has an excellent multi-format Video player called rock player. It plays avis flawlessly. If you download media, it will likely come in this format, so being able to play it natively is a huge bonus, converting everything to mp4 to play on my iPhone used to be the bane of my life - it wastes time, effort and requires having media in 2 formats at a time on your harddrive.

Android, now it has divx support, is imo a better option for watching video on the go, it plays video flawlessly, as does iPhone, but without being limited to mp4 only.

For Music, Android does everything iPhone does, but I would certainly say the apple UI in this regard is much more polished looking.

Some people like the flexibility of drag and drop and being able to add stuff to your phone from anywhere, other people take comfort from iTunes even if it has limitations, this comes down to personal choice, so whatever works best for you is probably best. There is a new doubletwist app for android which is dubbed iTunes for android, but I have no interest so i don't know if its any good or crap.

bk

Inquitus wrote: »

The headphone cable does come with a pause button, but neither the stock Apple or HTC headphones are that great imo, and I would recommend buying a good pair of Sennheisers or w/e brand you prefer, this would mean you have to unlock the phone to shut it up.

Many high quality headphones including Sennheisers come with the mic and play/pause/skip buttons that is compatible with iPhone and this is a MAJOR advantage of iPhone over Android, it makes the iPhone much easier in day to day use.

This also shows another big advantage of iOS devices, given their popularity, there is a massive third party accessory industry supporting it, including high end headphones, radio clocks, av amps, etc. and most new cars come with iphone support.

Inquitus wrote: »

I get emails immediately on the built in gmail app.

Yes, gmail emails come in straight away on iPhone also, just FYI for OP

Inquitus wrote: »

Android now has an excellent multi-format Video player called rock player. It plays avis flawlessly. If you download media, it will likely come in this format, so being able to play it natively is a huge bonus, converting everything to mp4 to play on my iPhone used to be the bane of my life - it wastes time, effort and requires having media in 2 formats at a time on your harddrive.

Again the problem will be battery live, if the file you are playing back isn't MPEG4, then it needs to be decoded in software by the CPU, rather then natively by the GPU hardware optimised for MPEG4, which is much more efficient.

You can do this also with a jailbroken iPhone using VLC.

Apple made the decision to only support MPEG4 video so that ordinary users won't complain if non MPEG4 killed their battery life. I think that is a wise decision for the majority of consumers, for us techies you can just jailbreak.

Darksaga87 wrote:

I use both iphone 3gs and HTC Desire. The iphone is more of my toy, the apps are fun, but the android is much more effective when it comes to many other aspects of the phones i use. The droid is a business phone for me. Its is an amazing peice of kit with many more options than iphone.
Need to state - im not an apple hater, i love my iphone, but i think if I had to choose, droid all the way.

I don't understand this at all, the iPhone is an amazing business phone. I use it everyday in a corporate environment.

I access my company email, calendars and contacts on it.
I access my companies IM servers on it.
Using VPN I access my companies network on it.
I can then use SSH to connect to my servers and reconfig/reboot them from anywhere in the world.
I surf the company internal portal on it.
I can even connect to my desktop over VNC
I attend web conferences over Cisco Webex on it.
I submit expense reports when traveling directly on my iphone.
I can view pdf and word documents on it (you can also edit, but lets be honest no phone is going to be good at that).

At least half of these things I can't do on Android, so how exactly is iPhone not a good business device?

wayne040576

Inquitus wrote: »

Homepipe supports both iOS and Android and does what you mention above.



The Music player may not be as polished looking as on the iPhone, but it has all the same functionality - search by album, song, artist, genre, playlist etc.

The headphone cable does come with a pause button, but neither the stock Apple or HTC headphones are that great imo, and I would recommend buying a good pair of Sennheisers or w/e brand you prefer, this would mean you have to unlock the phone to shut it up.



http://www.mewbox.com/

I haven't used it, I don't buy music, but I just installed it and tried some random artists Hot Chip, Muse, Happy Mondays and The Levellers and all albums were there at similar prices to iTunes.



I am running OS version 2.2 which featured a big exchange update which works flawlessly. This will not be released on the HTC Desire for another 4-8 weeks, and 2.1 did have some exchange issues.



Google listen works great for me though there are a number of solutions, and you can even use iTunes, not that I have tried, there's also an app called doubletwist which is dubbed iTunes for Android, again thats not my cup of tea.

Personally I use Google Reader as my RSS reader, Google Listen syncs with google reader and downloads your podcasts automatically for you whenever you are on wireless, or if you have loads of data you can specify 3G too.



The Battery life is much better on my HTC Desire than my iPhone 3GS, though I wouldn't exactly call either spectacular. The new iPhone 4 has supposedly made a big stride to better battery life, I haven't had a play with one myself, so i can't confirm, but from what I read it would have better battery life than Android phones do at the moment.

I would say that the multitasking on Android is much better than on iOS4.



There's plenty of VOIP apps, but Skype is no slated to make its full debut on Android until later this year.



No, next dart is on Android but no Bus Timetable App, there is however a Layar plugin, which may or may not be useful.

http://www.apps.ie/app-list/companies/Smallroomstudios.net/apps/Dublin_Bus_on_Layar.html



I get emails immediately on the built in gmail app.



I don't know, I only have a virtual linux box on my PC for messing around with, never tried to sync any phone with Linux.



Android now has an excellent multi-format Video player called rock player. It plays avis flawlessly. If you download media, it will likely come in this format, so being able to play it natively is a huge bonus, converting everything to mp4 to play on my iPhone used to be the bane of my life - it wastes time, effort and requires having media in 2 formats at a time on your harddrive.

Android, now it has divx support, is imo a better option for watching video on the go, it plays video flawlessly, as does iPhone, but without being limited to mp4 only.

For Music, Android does everything iPhone does, but I would certainly say the apple UI in this regard is much more polished looking.

Some people like the flexibility of drag and drop and being able to add stuff to your phone from anywhere, other people take comfort from iTunes even if it has limitations, this comes down to personal choice, so whatever works best for you is probably best. There is a new doubletwist app for android which is dubbed iTunes for android, but I have no interest so i don't know if its any good or crap.

Thanks.
On the headphone cables, I actually have a pair of Sennheisers with the pause button and mic. These usually have just an extra ring on the jack for the added functionality. Unless the companies implement this differently I would assume the cable would work across devices.

You said you have 2.2 is this on another device or did you get an early release?

wayne040576

bk wrote: »

Yes, gmail emails come in straight away on iPhone also, just FYI for OP
.

I access my company email, calendars and contacts on it.
I access my companies IM servers on it.
Using VPN I access my companies network on it.
I can then use SSH to connect to my servers and reconfig/reboot them from anywhere in the world.
I surf the company internal portal on it.
I can even connect to my desktop over VNC
I attend web conferences over Cisco Webex on it.
I submit expense reports when traveling directly on my iphone.
I can view pdf and word documents on it (you can also edit, but lets be honest no phone is going to be good at that).

At least half of these things I can't do on Android, so how exactly is iPhone not a good business device?

Which ones can you not do on Android?

The last time I tried the Gmail active sync on the iphone it didn't work very well.

Zascar

That droid looks really nice, can you get it in Ireland on a contract though, or do you have to buy sim free from the US etc?

wayne040576

Zascar wrote: »

That droid looks really nice, can you get it in Ireland on a contract though, or do you have to buy sim free from the US etc?

If you mean the droid x by motorola, it's not out here and I don't think it would work on our networks as it uses cdma. The closest you can get here is the milestone which has mixed user reviews on Amazon.