iOS or Android?

My 2 home screens

I’ve always used Android devices since the smart phone craze set in. If you call iPhone users Apple-heads, I would best be described as a Samsung-head.

The initial reason for this choice was rooted in the open source mindset and to some extent the dismissal of Apple users as shallow and conformist. I know. A childish reason.

But even if I’ve tried out different Apple products, I’ve never used them continually and so I have never been able to make any real comparison between them, other than on the basis of specifications and often biased reviews.

But now I’ve used the Apple iPhone 4S with iOS 5.1.1 for two weeks and I feel that I’m now actually able to compare it to the Samsung Galaxy Note with Android 4.0.3.

I’ll try to keep the hardware differences out of it where possible.

First let me kill the suspense by saying that there is no showstopper in any of the systems. I could use any of them, the question is more what parts would annoy me.


Battery life
The iPhone beats the Galaxy Note in battery longevity. It has about twice the up-time of the Note and that is really important if the difference is if the alarm wakes you up in the morning even if you forgot to charge it before you went to bed.
It is hard to say what parts of this is in the OS but at least one reason for this is that Apples use of semi-multitasking gives it better control of battery time.


Keyboard
I’m sure that you will get used to the iOS keyboard if it is the only virtual keyboard that you have used. I must say that it is really bad and ineffective to use compared to many of the different keyboards I’ve used on Android. My current favourite is “Scandinavian Keyboard”.


Hot spot
When it works it works fine for both systems, but I’ve found that even if the feature is active: in iOS I need to unlock the phone for it to work. This may be by design, maybe some security reason, but I just find it is just irritating.


Personalizing
iOS just does not have it(besides changing background and ring tones). Same as with the keyboard I think that I would not be as frustrated if there was no other options. But having used Android I know that I can change the appearance and functionality of my phone to something that really suits my needs. Heck, I can even modify it to look and feel like an iPhone if I want to.
This is probably a very conscious decision by Apple that makes people in general more comfortable with their product, but it does not suit me.


One-glance overview
Something I was not aware of when i used Android was how often I used the home screen as a way to get a quick overview. Stuff like time, date, calendar appointments, TODO lists, time reporting and general phone state(like if Skype or any other program was active).
This is probably the thing I miss the most in iOS and I was not even aware of it until now.
In the iOS home screen I can see time and battery status, anything else I have to start a specific program.


Developer OS access
Another thing that I noticed is that a program like “Vem Ringde?” (Who Called) is severely handicapped on iOS, probably due to the tougher restrictions on developers access to the OS. On Android it queries the interwebs for information on any current incoming call that is not in your phone book, but on iOS it attempts to mimic this by adding the 400 worst spam-callers to my phone book. It kind of solves the spam issue but it gives me no help distinguishing an unknown spammer from a friend that just got a new number.
I’m guessing here, but I suspect that this is because iOS does not allow either plugging into the call process or does not allow programs to run as background services.


The single button paradigm
I miss the back button. I miss the menu button. But mostly the back button. The in-program navigation with the arrow buttons at the top annoys me for several reasons:

• They change meaning based on context and have text that has to be read. This makes navigation a process that needs more thinking an analysing than strictly necessary.
• They are generally at the top of the screen, forcing me to have my fingers up there as opposed to the button that is at the absolute bottom. I think this on-screen button paradigm would work a lot smoother if all the navigation was made in a single area. Preferably at the bottom of the screen.
• They are not always there.
• If I click a URL in the mail client and it opens up the browser, I would like to be able to go back to the mail program again. To do this in iOS you double click the super-button to get the running programs, find the mail program and click it. I miss the back button.

The app store
Entering the app store password every time when downloading app, even a free app. Also: you must enter it yet again to update a program... Sure, when I’m paying for a program I can see the point of this, but for free programs and updates? That is just annoying.

Conclusion

If you read the above I guess you already know that I’m not very impressed. The strange thing is that I really thought it would be a pretty awesome OS, just different from Android.
I was expecting it to “Just work” and be very intuitive and smooth and glossy. Sure, smooth and glossy it is, but that can only hide the user-un-friendliness for so long.
It is quite possible that you don’t have the same requirements on a phone OS as I have. Perhaps you are just using as a... phone? But if you are selling me a “Smart-phone”, then I expect it to be something closer to a computer OS than what the iOS is.
I see iOS as a telephone with support for apps.
I see Android as a computer that supports phone calls.

Flash mob psychology

Edit: This post is a rather old, I just found it in my post list and noticed I had forgotten to publish it.

Just "witnessed" a flashmob at Stockholm Central. And by "witnessed" I mean it failed mierably. The wierd thing is that I knew it would fail and I was only there because I was on the way to work anyway. So why did it fail?

Well... several reasons... lets just go over the basics of this flashmob in particular, here is the instructions(translated from Swedish):

"Stomp Flash Mob

Create confusion and joy in the morning stress! Wednesday December the 3:d, Morgonpasset arranges their very own flash mob in central stations all over the country. At exactly 08:10 we will start clapping or stomping the rhythm in the morning rush. Let us make this morning into an unforgettable experience!"

OK, what was the problem?

• Vagueness 1 - "Exactly 08:10" sounds pretty exact, but it is not. Everyone has their own watch (or cell phone or sun dial or whatever). Had they said "Exactly 08:10 according to the central station clock" there would be no doubt. And most of all: there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that everyone else knew the correct time to start.
• Vagueness 2 - "start clapping or stomping the rhythm". Stomp or clap? And to what rhythm? As it was called a Stomp Flash Mob I'd suggest skipping the clapping. And as for the rhythm, either make sure a clear rhythm is present or state that the goal is a single stomp.
• Time - The mob was announced (I base this on the Facebook wall post dates) just 9 or 10 days before it was supposed to occurr. Too little time for it to obtain a large following.
• "Shyness" - All the unceritanty in the flash mob definition above creates an unceirtanty in the potential participants. "Will I be the only one?". This will make people wait just a second extra in fear of looking like a fool. The "Will I be the only one?" question is one of the features of a flash mob that makes it exiting and interesting, but if the doubt is too large, it will just fail miserably.

Facebook is...

Recently there has been an uproar in the news (and in a funny way if you appreciate irony: on Facebook) about the Facebook terms of use.
First of all: you did check the "Yes, I read the terms of use" box, did you not? Should we not have a headline that reads "Millions of users lies to Facebook"? Sure: I did not read it. I did not read it after the news got upset either. And I will probably never read it. And while I'm at it: I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I will never read ANY terms of use-text for any product or service. Ever. For one simple reason: I'm pretty certain they all say the same thing: "You are screwed, we will screw you even more, and by checking that box, you just pulled down your pants and bent over".
But I'm fine with that. As long as they provide a service that makes up for it.

But here is the real problem. That people think that they can control information that they place on the Internet.

I go all The Scream-faced when I realize people are actually surprised that they have lost control over their data when they upload data to Facebook (or any other place on the Internet). Grow up and pause to think for 5 seconds before you upload that funny picture of your friend passed out drunk, smeared in ketchup with his wiener hanging out, freshly painted with a permanent marker. Often you will realize that it may be funny, but not "ha ha"-funny

And if you think "I can just remove it and it will be gone": Say hello to the Wayback Machine.

This is the Internet

For some reason I get asked a lot why I write in English when it is not my native tongue. It is because of a lot of reasons actually:

• I get frustrated when I browse for something and end up in pages that are in languages like French, Italian, German, Spanish and Swahili. The only time I can can see the reason in the use of French is if the sites intended audience is French children. So I don't want to frustrate people by encrypting my words in some language that hardly anyone knows.
  
• I have a beef with countries that dub their movies. These countries seem to be the same who's citizens are bad at English and produce Internet content in their own Language.
• One of the main reasons you blog is that you actually want to be read. By writing in English I expand the possible audience by quite a few people.
• I like English and I speak it every work day because some of the people I work with are Chinese, Australian and English. So by using it I hope to improve my quality in both speech and writing.
• I think English should be the official language on the Internet. Yes that goes for the Asian parts as well. Not because it is a better language in any way, but because it is the language that most people all over the world can understand at least a little. You could argue that Mandarin is a larger language, but I would tell you that you are totally missing the point and need to be quiet now.
  
• This is not Sweden, this is the Internet.
  

The results of TV deprivation

As I wrote in an earlier blog entry: I've now been without TV for a week. It was not hard at all, and I'm in no real hurry turning it back on any time soon. I've actually gotten a lot out of not staring at that stupid box:

• I've been on two dates and cancelled one because I met this awesome woman. No Idea where this will end up, but just meeting her was wonderful. I'm kind of waiting for someone from The Hidden Camera to pop out and tell me she is just a joke and I've been had.
  
• I watched the entire "League Of Gentlemen" TV series, on DVD (on my laptop). It is awesome in every way. A strange mix between twisted comedy and horror. Also a few episodes of "Dexter" and "Flight Of The Conchords"
• Been to an excellent festival and discovered the exquisite music of "Wildbirds And Peacedrums", a band that is based on just a girl with a beautiful voice and a percussionist.
• I've been so totally drunk that I'm amazed I woke up at all the day after.
• Fixed up a corner of my balcony with plants and general coziness. The furniture is still awful, but its about a gazillion percent more cozy now. I've actually started using it, something I hardly ever did before.
  
• Read a great deal more of The Man Who Killed His Brother, and its pretty good. I think I'll have to read the entire series.

So if I gained all this: what did I loose?

Well... If you don't consider missing an episode of MacGyver at 02:00 each night a loss(I don't): then NOTHING!

TV eats my braaaainsss...

It really does. I have this button that invokes "next channel" on my remote. This is kind of OK. The problem is that upon reaching the last channel: it activates the first one. Result: Pressing a single button can keep me locked in my couch for any amount of hours... watching complete and utter crap.
I wold not mind if... say, 10% of the crap was not actually... crap, but it's not. This is in a serious way making me doubt my own intelligence, and making me not like my own actions. I hate not liking my own actions. So let it be known:

I will not start my TV for a week from this post.

What I think I will get out of this experiment is:

- More reading.
- More browsing (yes: preferable to TV)
- Maby an extra visit to a friend
- A date perhaps
- Not feeling like a moron

(But starting it and setting it to channel FRONT is OK; that is the channel the sound from my laptop ends up, and as it gets no visual input: the screen is just really really blue. I needs my music.)