5 areas where Android still beats iOS 4

i like the popup notifications because i can just take my phone out and see the popup, how can i get this on android? i only have it for sms but i want it for all messenger apps i.e. nimbuzz.

Good article . Being the hardcore fan of jobs i went behind iphone. Rocking piece from apple inc every one will love this device, which changed the smart phone world. when it comes to "OS" jobs closed the door too much we need to listen what he says. jail-breaking can give some solution but not much. Its really a good gaming device and apps are too costly. On the other side google is shaping their android nicely, recently bought xperia x10 mini very good device packed with android OS 1.6. multitasking was gr8 without any sluggishness, notification bar real advantage, few apps are available but most of them are free, no more syncing with itunes, open source & open market there comes reall advantage . waiting for froyo update which makes the "OS" more faster with more features. " Every iphone user, if you start using android you will come to know, how our hands are tied with IOS "

Overall, it's a pretty good article. I LOVE my iPhone, so I'm obviously biased that way, but this was interesting. 1) Notifications - I do agree that the current iOS notification system needs some work, but I think it's a little complicated. I'm not sure how Android handles TONS of notifications, say an app sent you 50 notifications. How does Android handle that? You really don't want to see all of those notifications. 2) physical buttons - I think this one is very subjective. Personally I prefer the touchscreen to the buttons. 3) Widgets - Maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of widgets. My desktop/laptop computers have supported them for years, but I just turn them off now because I find them distracting. 4) It would be nice to use my iPhone as a flash drive. At the same time, the simplicity of iTunes synching is incredible. That's one thing no other phone has right now. A complete software solution to synch all your media with your devices (music, movies, tv shows, photos, books, etc). 5) LED notification light - I did not know some Android phones have this features. It is pretty cool. I would definitely find that feature useful on my iPhone.

nice article. But I still believe iOS is still way ahead of Android. And quite liked the fact that you mentioned ignore the phone specs. Most of the time its iPhone vs Droid or Legend or Evo 4g. C'mon.. its like SRK vs Aamir Khan/Amitabh Bachan/Tom Cruise and blah. coming to the OS, i really love iOS. Believe me, its so damn easy to use. You touch the phone and your like "oh, this is familiar." iOS is more elegant too and even without customization, I feel it looks better than android. The best thing about iOS? JAILBREAK! :P

Great article. Some of these improvements are ones I would definitely like to see come to iOS. The notification system on the iPhone was designed for SMS and to have it expanded across all apps was a bit of a design flaw I believe. I think the iTunes syncing is much preferable to Androids drag and drop, the ability to have an organised library to simply just having files is much better. Of course, I suspect that this will soon move to the cloud, and that iTunes and iPhones will all sync to this, rather than iTunes being the main hub. Widgets I would love to see, but I believe that this would require a fundamental rethinking of the home screen. Folders are a welcome addition, but the home screen will need an overhaul. It'll last to iOS 5, but I think by 6 we'll see a rethinking.

you should see that even afteer having these negatives it still sells more than android. 1. iphone is very costly as compared to android phones, u can find one for Rs.12000/- 2. Android fones are made my more thn one comp. eg samsung, lg. etc etc. still iphone beats android phones. and your 2 nd last point were simply useless for me, havnt u used any phone which didnt give u notification lites? and 2ndly y do u need buttons at all in a touch screen phone.? thank you

itunes is one of the most frustrating thing comes with ipod. you have to sync it with ipod. now if somehow u format ur pc and reinstall itunes, it say to sync device. then u lost all ur tracks on ipod. some of the function in iphone are very frustrating, like its bluetooth.

Nice article Techtree, really Apple fanbois have to read this and should realise Oh! are these things on phones? they believe everything Mr.Jobs says ex: Iphone has the best 5Mp camera and best ever display ever put on a phone LOL. Apple are really losing some basic things which a smartphone should possess, Bluetooth OBEX is a good example of it.

excellent info

You Can Use the App Easy Phone Tunes for the Android to sync Your Itunes library to the phone.

Being an iPhone user from the start (I am still using my first gen iPhone), I agree with most of your points, especially having a notification LED on the outside of the phone. Without this, Apple forces the user to have to power up the screen to see if there is a message. This is ridiculous and I am surprised this has STILL not been acknowledged or added. WTF, Apple?? I wonder if someone will make an app that will make the camera flash on the iPhone 4 light up when there is a message? As for syncing, Im not sure what the problem with using iTunes to manage your music. I find it tedious and time consuming to sync my phone with iTunes also, but I found that I can check the "Manually manage music" button and then just manually drag songs onto the phone without having to sync the entire phone. This even works when you drag directly from a file or your desktop.

Nice article, very informative. @Sajjad, Just having physical buttons is useless if OS does not support interaction with them, so it IS a feature of OS too. it applies vice versa, if the hardware does not have those buttons, it cannot make use of such a facility. Android wins on this point. I am very much convinced that Usabilitywise, Android wins. The only area where Iphone wins is the hardware - the sensitivity if the screen to touch. however HTC has come very close from HTC Desire onwards. I hated the restrictions and lack of compatibility of Apple products - like they are not detected as a simple folder on windows. You need Itunes or any software to sync. Simply unacceptable. I would definitely choose android and a good hardware instead of Iphone and IOS.

This article doesn't make much sense - we are talking about an operating system. So how does lack of physical button and LED notification light come in to affect? Those are physical features, based on difference handset manufacturers. As a recent software engineering graduate, I find it damn well annoying to see comparisons that are not software related at any level.

Those each of these has their own unique perks, i still and always will be a BlackBerry fan. I still do not believe that these two have handled the security aspect like RIM has.

Two words. Helicopter. View. Thank you

Please hire an editor. Sentence fragments. Avoid them.

Switched to Android (on Motorola Milestone) and have to say I would never go back... your article is absolutely correct... and the more you use Android the more you realize how much easier everyday things are done with the system. Apple, beware.

Sajjad Haideral is correct. Not every android phone even has an notification light. The LG Eve doesn't have one at all.

Who cares??