iThink (from Android to Apple)

My brother called me a hypocrite – I got an iPhone. Apparently I once said, “I will NEVER get an iPhone.” That sounds exactly like something I probably once said. Upon sending my first iMessage (please, kill me now), a friend asked me what on earth had happened to Paul “fucking Apple” Foster. I’ll tell you what happened – he got an iPhone. Talking at work about how I had finally come to the end of my two-year contract, one of my bosses suggested that I get a new phone through the company and keep my number. I was pretty sure that there were some Samsung Galaxy Note IIs upstairs, exactly the phone I wanted next – brilliant.

So, I’ve been using this iPhone for a few weeks now, and I’d be lying if I said I hated it. It would also be dishonest to say I’m loving it. Some of my favourite colleagues spend most of their working day banging on about how great Apple is, and assured me that it would bring me as much joy as if it were a newborn child. They were right – I had a lot of fun playing with it for a while until it threw a tantrum and then I wanted to give it back.

Here are the positives:

One of the first things I noticed was how much better all the apps are, even the ones that are also on Android. I can’t really think of a valid reason why this is. I understand why certain apps are iOS only – the Android market is more diverse, etc. but if you’re willing to create your app twice, a touchscreen is a touchscreen, isn’t it? But for whatever reason, apps like Twitter and BBC iPlayer have more (or differing) features and it’s nice to experience the best versions.

Secondly, Google made the transition to the iPhone really easy. Since all my contacts, calendar, email and Drive were tied to my Google account, you just ask for help and they give you step-by-step instructions on how to sync this all. I had no problems whatsoever, and everything is keeping up-to-date in the background so that when I inevitably go back to Android none of my information is lost.

The camera is really good.

Ridiculous Fishing (above right). If you have an iPhone and don’t own this game, your opinion doesn’t count. Seriously though, the iOS-exclusive games and apps that I previously coveted are all really good. I have been excited to finally own apps like GarageBand, 6 Numbers and the Christ and Pop Culture Magazine.

The negatives are all to do with iTunes. It is the absolute worst bit of software I have ever had to wrestle with. I stopped using my new iPod about five years ago because I was fed up with babysitting iTunes. Songs deleted themselves randomly from computer or iPod when set to automatically sync, the program was painfully slow doing anything, you couldn’t easily put your own files on your device, its fussiness about file formats was infuriating, and every update to iTunes changed where your collection was stored. When it came to transferring my catalogue to another hard drive, I discovered that there were THREE identical copies of all my stuff – back then, that was a huge proportion of my storage. And iTunes appears to have got even worse in the interim. Android gives you seemingly endless ways to download and remove apps, files, settings and even whole operating systems at your whim. If they weren’t enough, they also give you the opportunity of buying a large SD card to increase your space as required.

Fortunately, I am in the extremely lucky position where I now own a functional iPhone which is great for calls, mobile browsing and has a stable OS with a great selection of apps you can’t get anywhere else. But I have kept my beloved Samsung Galaxy S2 as a wi-fi only media device – all my podcasts, music, videos and the rest of my games live on this, and I love it. It is the iPod I always wanted. If you’re an Apple lover, there’s nothing I can say to you (and I’m impressed you’ve read this far), but if you’re just a normal person with an iPhone, I wholeheartedly recommend picking up a cheap Android as a second device. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

Tags: Android, Apple, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Ridiculous Fishing