[shaunfs]

Screw it, I'm psyched! It's a great time to be a mobile developer! I was going to write a whole response regarding iOS vs Android until I realized the debate is like religion or politics. Currently both platforms are great and only getting better with each iteration. I'm developing for both platforms and loving it. Just in the latest iterations look at what we can do.

iOS * AirPlay - My phone will be my gaming console and media center, genius! * iCloud - Good, no more transferring files back and forth. * CoreImage & AVFoundation - 30 lines of code to add video editing and filters to my application, sounds good! * GLKit - High-level 3D libraries for a game developer noob like me. I'm in! * TwitterAuth - I'm still going to integrate FB authentication but this is cool too.

Android * Ice Cream Sandwich - No more fragmentation. Unifies hundreds of devices (not just phones). Brand new UI library. I can't wait! * ADK - My home, car, and toaster will soon be at my mobile command while giving me status updates. This is so awesome! I foresee Android powered cleaning robots in the future. * Face-tracking - So my phone can recognize me and focus in on my face and voice automatically. This sounds like fun. * USB Host - I can plug anything USB into my Android phone. Hot damn!

[bignoggins]

Couldn't agree with you more. I started off doing iphone dev part time just over a year ago. Since then, I've managed to quit my job, become a full time indie developer, and travel the world. The opportunities for independent developers in the mobile space are just incredible right now. I'll have my first android app coming out in a few weeks too. To quote some 90s hip hop, "damn, it feels good to be a gangsta"

[hahainternet]

Here's my question. In this (somewhat ungrounded in Android reality) article the poster makes the claim that on iOS, you 'just get' a few seconds to finish off everything.

This does not seem like a sustainable model. If my app and the next app a user launches are both memory heavy, I expect my app to be killed to make space. How does this process work on iOS?

Also, nobody really seems to understand how amazing Intents are before they use Android :)

[jmelloy]

You get notified when the user switches apps away from yours, so at that point you quicky get your shit together and assume you could be killed at any time.