Tech - iPhone to Android?

[Irulan]

Hey all. As I'm about due for an upgrade, I am seriously thinking about switching phone OS. The iphone was a gift - I never got to choose. My main beef with it is that I absolutely detest Itunes especially for managing my music.

My son has a Samsung, and some of the things he's pointed out to me is the ability to add a micro SD card for additional memory, the ability to play any kind of music file including FLAC and to use other music managers, and file drag-n-drop similar to windows.

One big question is how easily do non iOS phones sync with Outlook? I haven't been able to find anything concrete via Google.

I'm not interested in OS wars, just want to know if anyone has made the switch or used both systems and what they have to say.

[thekarens]

I've used both, but don't use Outlook, so I'm not much use for this question. I currently use a Galaxy S3.

Hopefully someone else can answer it.

[Irulan]

having used both, what kind of comments do you have to make on system differences?

[OakLeaf]

I'm not much help either, but I know that DH tears his hair out trying to sync his iPhone with Outlook, and he is having to look for a replacement because apparently Microsoft is doing away with the software that allows the link?

One of the reasons I didn't get an iPhone was that before I got a smartphone, I was using an iPod Touch as my PDA, and tearing my hair out trying to sync it with Entourage (the old Mac equivalent of Outlook). Every time it would sync, it would duplicate recurring events.

I eventually had to abandon Entourage altogether and do everything in iCal, which is pretty bare bones, but it works, and that's the most important thing. I still miss ACT!...

[Irulan]

I have no problems synching outlook with my iphone with itunes; I don't use a MS product to do that, it's set up in iTunes. *That* is not my problem with iTunes.

[OakLeaf]

This might have been what I was thinking of:

Outlook uses Sync Services, a central database on your computer.

Note With OS X Mountain Lion, Apple no longer maintains active support for Sync Services. You might experience issues, if you are using Sync Services to sync your Outlook data - calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes - with local applications and smart phones, like iPhone, iCal and RIM.

So maybe it's only an issue with MacOS ... but I really thought DH still had his calendar in Windows (via Parallels). I know he does quite a bit on that side. Have to ask him when he gets home...


Just in terms of ease of use, I have an iPad, have had one since the first generation, but I find it extremely counterintuitive, it's really hard to find the settings for any particular application (where's the menu button??!) and if DH asks me to do something on his iPhone while he's driving, I can't even begin to figure it out. Don't know why it's so different from the iPad.

By contrast, Android phones ship with skins installed by the various manufacturers, and so while I find my HTC Android phone very intuitive and easy to use, my neighbor's Motorola Android phone is pretty counterintuitive, maybe even more so than the iPhone.

[thekarens]

having used both, what kind of comments do you have to make on system differences?

In general I find ios to be more "dummy" proof, meaning it's easier to figure out how to get things done and it's generally very straight forward. Having said that, I prefer Android because with Android there are a lot more options on changing things up to suit you, but you have to be willing to research or tinker at times. One of my favorite websites for that is www.xda-developers.com. Android has come a long way and doesn't require half the tinkering that it used to, but the option is still there if something doesn't work the way you want it to.

The other issue is it's easy to get invested in one echo system or the other. I have a boat load of money/time invested in google systems and apps, so it would be hard for me to switch to ios full time at this point. I hated iTunes as well, so I never invested my time/money there preferring to buy my music from Amazon.

[Norse]

Don't know that I'll be much help either but... I have a Droid and use Windows Media Player to sync my music. Easy peasy. These days though, I mostly find myself listening to all the wonderful free internet radio stations available. FWIW, two friends of mine both had droids, switched to the iphone and hated it.

[thekarens]

It's actually an app, not a skin, which is neither here nor there. BlackBerry is famous for that type of ability.