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by blinkingled 5148 days ago
While Google & co were still sorting out the Honeycomb mess I got an iPad and here are my day to day gripes about iOS, most of which apply to both iPhone and iPad :

1) Turn by Turn Navigation - can't really think of living without it or paying for it. I've used it on Android quite extensively and it really is a solid product. For mere 29Mb and even with spotty rural data connectivity I got through 750 miles of navigation recently. Priceless thing to have on phone and even the iPad for people like me who hang it in their minivans.

2) Better multitasking - Android 4.0 multitasking is another neat thing - the clearly labeled / visible thumbnails of apps and easy ability to get rid of them comes in very handy. The way iOS does it is complicated.

3) Widgets - enough said!

4) Bigger phone screen - 4" seems like the minimum, all soft buttons will afford more screen real estate.

5) Better memory management - My background apps aren't killed as many times on Android whereas even with the upgraded RAM iPad 3 reloads Safari pages at least couple times a day.

6) App to app communication ability - Intents/Contracts style.

7) Better iPad notifications - eliminate alerts altogether and make the notification window span greater horizontal area on the iPad.

8) Bundle more useful apps with the OS - no alarm clock shipped with the OS, no podcast app for the iPad. Wtf?

9) iTunes sync is still very flakey - wired or wireless. I don't remember when it worked on its own the last time.

10) Swype - license Swype stuff, pretty please :)

11) Constant nagging for passwords for App updates - this bugs me a whole lot especially since I have a stronger password. Once I've setup a screen lock - this is fairly unnecessary.

I guess it would just be easier to stick with Android - by many accounts ICS is very usable on newer tabs, so may be I will try the Transformer TF300 out instead of waiting on iOS 8.

2 comments

I totally agree with most of this list but I just wanted to let you know that the iPhone does indeed include an alarm clock, and many other time-related utilities, as part of the Clock app. I don't have my iPad here with me, but if I recall correctly this and a couple of other useful apps are inexplicably absent on the iPad.
The iPad does not have Clock, Weather, Stocks, Calculator, Voice Memos or Compass.

However, the iPhone does not have Photo Booth.

Not having used an iPhone recently I missed that Clock app was there - but yeah weird that it is missing on the iPad along with calculator!
The first thing I do when my iPhone alarm goes off is reach over, pick it up and start mashing for the snooze button. Can't do that with an iPad.
I fail to understand why people ask for these simple utilities to be included. I find it interesting that on one side you see people complaining about apps they cannot remove and on the other saying that they are sorely missing.

(to be clear: the two sides are not iOS and Android, just different people)

A lot of people cook with recipes displayed on their iPads; a timer is super useful there.

I guess the clock app is out because it demands another background process? Who knows with Apple.

there is plenty of clock apps with timers in the store.
+1million on Swype. I have an Android phone, DroidX, and can't even think about typing without Swype now. On my iPad on the other hand, I constantly groan when I have to type one letter at a time.