In Defense of Android (Part the 2nd)

Previously, on Geek in the Heart of Texas... My EVO crashed and I had decided to try out a custom mod. Around this same time I was given a tablet to test drive...

So I had been researching custom Android mods for a while and had come to the conclusion that CyanogenMod was the way to go. I read up on how to flash the rom and was ready. Using Revolutionary, I rooted my phone and flashed CyanogenMod 7 (CM7). It was like I had a brand new phone. I was amazed at how much better CM7 was than the stock HTC Sense UI. I found no issues with apps or anything. It made me love Android that much more. I have played around with jail breaking and iPhone and was not really impressed. This is so much better.

Around this same time I was given a Viewsonic GTab to play around with as a potential gift for my grandfather. The stock rom and UI is TERRIBLE. Five minutes after using it I went searching for a new mod. I decided to go with CM7 as well. Now it is a bit buggy being a tablet and a custom mod, but it works beautifully. I have used my iPad less and less since getting this tablet. If I can figure out how to load my eboks on it, I may not have much more use for my iPad. I would love to get my hands on a proper Android tablet, but this one it pretty slick.

Overall, my experience has been wonderful. My biggest obstacle was how to get out of Android what I was getting out of iOS. Below is a list of things I needed my Android to do that my iPhone/iPad did and how it solved it. Many times the solution works better on Android...

Sync Contacts, Calendars, Email, etc.: I use Gmail and Google Calendar. With my iPhone it was hard to keep my Gmail contacts clean because my Amy (my iMac) always wanted seemed to duplicate entries. I used iCal and had the same results. Android syncs to the cloud seamlessly and I have no problems with duplicate entries.

Sync Music: iTunes does not sync with Android well, and OSX even less. I use Amazon Cloud and Google Music. Prefer Google Music.

Apps: on this, they are about even. Although I do like that I can buy and app from Amazon from anywhere and download it later. Such as at work where I do not have wifi or a good signal. I can buy an app on Amazon and download it when I get home. I no longer have to wait until I have a signal or get back to Amy to buy apps. I can buy it right then and don't have to worry about forgetting.

eBooks: I still use my iPad for iBooks. I have a really good reader on my GTab, but I am still struggling with adding content. iOS wins that round.

Storage: I CAN UPGRADE MY STORAGE! I recently bought a 32GB card for my phone. With iPhone you must decide at that moment what storage space you want and hope its enough. Also, I can take the card out and load it as an external drive to manage files if I need to.

Podcasts: Recently, as in this week, I have found a podcast aggrigator that will download my podcasts directly to my phone so I do not have to carry around a separate device for my podcasts. This can be done in iOS as I understand it, but this keeps me from having to carry more than one device.

In closing, I love iOS. I loved my iPhone. I love my iPad. Android serves my purposes better. Hopefully if you are on the fence about whether to go iOS or Android, this helped a little. Now that the iPhone is on Sprint, I have been asked several times if I am going to go back to an iPhone when my upgrade comes around. No, I am not. Android works for me and I can't see myself going back to iOS for my phone.

In Defense of Android (Part 1)...

Let me start by saying that I am a Mac guy. I love Macs. I only use Windows at work and when I MUST at home (usually for work-related stuff). I have had many different iPods. Personally the 4th Generation iPod Nano is the best iPod ever. Currently I have a MacBook Pro (Suzie), an iMac (Amy) (best desktop machine I have ever owned), and an old G4 (Suzanne) I just can't bare to part with. I also have (between my wife and I) 2 iPads, 2 iPod Nanos, and an iPod Touch. I think iOS is a great operating system and it does what it does VERY well. There are some amazing apps, I loved my iPhone 3gs dearly, and I think the 4gs is an awesome device. I said all of that to say this...

I LOVE ANDROID! When my wife and I got married in March of 2011 I had to leave AT&T and go to Sprint. This was hard. Not that I was heartbroken to leave AT&T, though I do love having no frakking service. Ever. The hard part was I was giving up my iPhone (Gwen) (yes, all my Apples have names). I was crushed. I was saying goodbye to my beloved Gwen. I had anxiously awaited my upgrade so I could get an iPhone 4, and now I was having to walk away. I had been interested in Android for a bit and knew I wanted to get an Android phone. I did some research and my buddy @ErikH1981 suggested I get an EVO 4G. So I went to Best Buy and got my EVO. It was fun, but I still missed my iPhone. I began to explore the ins and outs of Android and became increasingly impressed with what it could do. Mainly I was impressed with how seamlessly everything integrated. I use just about every Google service available and Android being a Google OS worked out perfectly for me. My Gmail, Calendar, Tasks, and everything were there and worked out of the box. I had several issues getting everything to sync with my iPhone. I still carried Gwen around with me as an iPod Touch because I just could not cut the cord. I noticed I was using it less and less. I realized I had moved on when I went to check on something and I had let the battery run completely down. I was now an Android user.

About six months in to my Android experience, the unthinkable happened... my EVO crashed. I thought I had lost everything because I had never synced my EVO*. So I did a full system restore back to factory and prayed. I had all my data back and was able to re-download my apps from the Market**. I was amazed. The "cloud" sync worked wonderfully (much better than I have since seen with iCloud). Many months later, I had another crash and was not worried since the last crash recovered so well. Since I was going to have to go back to factory and "start over" anyway I took this opportunity to do what I had been considering doing for awhile: install a custom mod.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 will cover my experience with an Android tablet, Cyanogen Mod, and where my Android voyage is headed next. \m/



*what I found to be a downside at first was lack of native sync with Mac for Android, or any phone that does not start with i.

**I greatly prefer to Amazon Apps Store over the Android Market