iOS (3) vs Android (2.3) - My Views!

Hi Guys,

It has been two days since I started using my new phone – HTC Explorer.

It has paved way for me to use Android – Gingerbread (V2.3) in particular.

After having used my iPod Touch 2G for quite a long time, let me give you a little amateurish view of iOS vs Android.

Before starting, let me be clear. My iPod was not updatable beyond iOS 3. Also I have been using Android for 2 days (not even have I tested lot of parameters). So, if you people want a very professional review, I request you to read another review from a tech geek.

The first and foremost thing was I felt Android to be much user friendly than iOS. In my iPod, I had to use iTunes for everything. Copying songs, installing games, applications everything needed iTunes. Without iTunes the instrument was just useless (particularly when there was no Wi-Fi).

Android offered me a large space to get applications. I can use internet in lot of ways. It allows Internet to access from the system directly which offers more scope for people who don’t have Wi-Fi. I can easily install Apps and delete them at will. In iOS for deleting apps, you need iTunes. If something is installed in iPod then nothing can be done.

As far as Applications are concerned, I think most of the commonly used applications are developed for both the OS. I’m able to see most of the Apps in both the Playstore and iStore. So, can’t classify more on Applications.

Transferring of data is much easy in Android. It allows data to be transferred from phone to memory card easily. In iPod transferring of data can be one hell of a job, particularly I have faced big headaches with photo sharing and eventually I didn’t even have photos.

On the basis of Ease of Use, I would vote for iPod, though in Android a lot depends on the phone manufacturer. The look and feel in iPod in itself would make us comfortable. Everything was obvious with little options in iPod, whereas here I need to search for things and learning can be a bit difficult.

The look, feel and touch of iPod were great. But it more of a closed environment where you needed iTunes for everything, particularly without Wi-Fi things was terrible. Though, with Wi-Fi, things would have been different. I still remember the awkward moment when I updated from iOS 2 to iOS 3 and everything was wiped clean. I was so happy that the iPod didn’t support iOS 4. Though the advantage is that everything is uniform since all the products are manufactured by Apple and user interface is same everywhere.

Android is more comfortable. It is more user-friendly and it allows us to explore easily. Access to internet through a PC is one good feature. The way it allows to move through Apps and easy installation and removal of Apps makes it a great gadget. To install many Apps you need internal memory and it depends on phone and much of the interface and features will depend on the phone manufacturer. So, it is better to analyze the phone well before buying.

Happy Reading!!!

The Story of 3 Apples! Part-2

Hi Guys,

I said I would write about the third apple yesterday. But sadly, there was no power for about 3 hours and hence I was not able to write anything.

Already, the history of Steve Jobs has been there in the net at various places and I don’t want to repeat that. I just want to share about the story behind Apple Logo.

In 1976, Steve Jobs wanted to name his company and the first thought that came into his mind was Apple, because he had worked in an Apple farm. They thought of some other terms such as Matrix, but Apple Computers seemed more perfect.

Apple's first logo- Newton sitting below Apple Tree

Their first logo was a big one. It depicted Newton sitting beneath the Tree of Knowledge. But Steve didn’t want a complicated logo and wanted a simple one. So, Rob Janoff, the logo designer of Apple came out with the Rainbow Apple. It was apple with the colors of a Rainbow and a bite taken of the right side. There are two stories behind this. One story says that the logo was designed to tribute Newton for his discovery on gravity and separation of light rays into various colors. It was also depicting transfer of knowledge from Tree of Knowledge. Another story says that the logo was an advertisement to Apple II computers depicting its wide range of color capabilities.

Apple's later logos - From Rainbow Apple to Blue Apple to Metallic Apple

The modern logo is a little varied one. It has monotonous color and apart from that the design remains the same. The most used color is either white or silver which looks perfect. The literal meaning of the logo is ‘Bite/Byte into the Apple’. It denotes Apple as the Tree of Knowledge (yet again).

I also got an interesting piece of information that Macintosh, Apple’s computer series is the name of a variety of Apple.

Happy Reading!!!

The story of 3 Apples!

Hi Guys, 

The whole technical community is shocked by the death of Steve Jobs. Just yesterday I was scanning through the website of Apple to see the technical features of iPhone 4S and other new products. I was wondering about the innovations that Apple creates. Today morning I woke up and saw that the brain behind the innovations was no more.

Social Networking sites were full of RIP messages. Just now saw this message in Facebook.

Three apples have changed the world. One seduced Eve, second awakened Newton, the third one was in the hands of Steve Jobs. 

I was interested and surfed the web to find information about the three apples.

First Apple 

The first Apple is a biblical reference about how humans came to Earth. When God created Earth, he created Adam at last. In order to get him a companion he created Eve. He advised Adam not to eat fruit from a particular tree, which was called the Tree of Knowledge. It was the Apple Tree. A serpent convinced Eve to eat the Apple, saying she will get supernatural powers. Later Eve made Adam to eat the apple. After they ate, God appeared and asked why they ate the fruit. He punished Adam by making men to work hard for food and punished Eve by making Women to undergo pain in the process of Child Birth.

So, here Apple is the Tree of Knowledge. Really, apple might be the Tree of Knowledge.


Second Apple 

Descendant of Newton's Apple tree at Trinity College

This apple is associated with Sir Issac Newton. Till today I thought Apple fell on Newton’s head and he found gravity. But that is completely false (most importantly Apple never fell on his head) Newton already had the idea of Gravity. But he had lot of confusions toward the concept and Apple tree made him understand the concept better. He arrived at the solution that gravitational force is directly proportional to height. If the tree is twice higher than the current tree, the gravitational force will be much higher. So, why is not moon coming down? He again found out a theory and associated with the gravitational force of Earth. He found out what we call Newton’s second law.

This is what is said about Newton’s association with Apple


‘when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the Earth's centre? Assuredly the reason is, that the Earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter. And the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the Earth must be in the Earth's centre, not in any side of the Earth. Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly or towards the centre? If matter thus draws matter; it must be proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the Earth, as well as the Earth draws the apple’

So, now Apple helped Sir Issac Newton to gain knowledge and proved itself as the Tree of Knowledge.

Third Apple will be continued tomorrow...

Happy Reading!!! 

A review of my Apple iPod Touch 2G!

Hi Guys,

I got a new Apple iPod touch from my brother. Actually he had got it for me when he was in US. Since his stay in Uruguay extended much longer than he anticipated, he made it reach me through one of his colleagues in Uruguay, who came back to India a few days ago. After a little fumbles I was able to contact his colleague and got the iPod a fortnight ago. So, first a big thanks to my brother for this wonderful and expensive gift, ‘Thank you dear brother’.

It is an Apple iPod Touch 2G with 16 GB capacity. I’ve been using it mainly to hear music. For people saying, ‘what else can u do with an iPod?’ Read further. I’ll be writing review to the iPod as likes and dislikes.

Likes

Appearance

The first thing I liked about the iPod was its appearance. It is slim and beautiful and resembles an iPhone in its model. Its metallic grey color is impressive. The buttons and spaces for earphone and USB cable for invisible. It has just two buttons (sleep and volume control) and a center wheel for home.

Display

The next thing I like is the display clarity. IPod touch has 3.5” LCD screen. The clarity is great. It’s great for watching movies and photos. The sensitivity is good. When you turn the iPod the screen also turns accordingly.

Battery Capacity

IPod’s battery is so good. It allows 36 hours of audio playback (3G iPod Touch provides 30 hours only) and 6 hours video playback. This means you can hear songs for one and half days or watch 3 movies continuously. The battery gets charged in 4 hours (80% charge in 2 hours).Though, there is no separate charger. You need to charge it via computer only.

Music

Of all the good things, this is the most wonderful thing. What else is an iPod designed for? Music effects are great. There is lot of equalizer options and you can choose any of them (though I read in a forum that equalizers drain the battery).

Earphones

I said music is great. But don’t you need a perfect earphone to hear them. Apple provides a perfect earphone for the iPod. I’ve been hearing songs using the earphone and it’s a great experience. It has changed some of my views on certain songs. It provides you the complete dynamics of the song and music. It mesmerized me most of the times. In online forums, I read that the earphones provided by apple are very poor. But my earphone is rocking or maybe people are expecting more.

These are all the likes. Interested in iPod touch? Wait; there are equal numbers of dislikes too.

Dislikes

Problems without Wi-Fi connection

There are lots of inbuilt applications in iPod such as Mails, YouTube, Safari, Maps, Weather, etc. But you need Wi-Fi connection to use them. Where the hell can you get Wi-Fi connection in India? So you can’t use all these things. IPod’s front screen will be blazing with these apps, but you will never be able to touch them. But I hope this will be over soon as Wireless Broadband Spectrum auction is taking place.

Everything through Apple iTunes

Want to copy songs, photos or videos to your iPod? You can do it only through Apple iTunes. The software is free of cost, but its working is not so great. It doesn’t detect some of the songs in my computer. Syncing photos to iPod is also a problem. It’s not very comfortable using iTunes. I read a saying written by an anonymous person in an online forum, ‘If you buy an Apple iPod, Apple will make you their permanent customer. Whatever you need to do, you need to do it through Apple’. It’s quite true. You can’t even add an application that is outside Apple Store. In India, we like a lot of freedom in using things. Though, we can break our iPod, I’m not interested. I’m more happy hearing songs than use apps.

Very low speaker volume

In likes, I said earphones are great. But the speaker is pretty bad. The sound generated is very low. I understand that the less efficient speaker is due to thin nature of iPod, but still it could have been better.

Frequent Crashes

I’ve been using the iPod for a fortnight, but I’ve had two crashes in this span. The first time the applications (such as music, videos and photos) were not opening. It worked properly after restarting the iPod. The second time, the iPod crashed and nothing except a white screen was present. It was not getting switched off too. I was afraid and checked in online forums. Quickly I understood there are lots of crashes in iPod touch worldwide. I got a solution (had to press sleep and navigation button simultaneously) there.

Great Online Forums and Communities

Apple doesn’t provide a user manual with the iPod. But you need not worry, since there are lots of iPod touch forums online. The communities in Orkut are also good. When I checked online, I was amazed to see that Apple iPod touch is more popular than iPhone or any other iPods despite its cost and problems. Whatever the problem maybe you can get solutions in the forums. You can get it by just searching in google.

My Suggestion

If you are of the idea of buying an iPod touch my suggestion is to go ahead with it. Today 3G iPod touch is being sold (8GB, 32 GB and 64 GB are available). 4G is going to be out soon. It will provide you a great music experience.

If you are in India, I would advise you to look for Apple iPod Nano, which is quite low cost. It’s more suitable for Indian conditions (doesn’t have lot of apps). IPod Nano has FM radio and video recording in addition and is available in lively colors. A few of my friends have iPod Nano. The problem is it is very thin and short (at least iPod Touch is relatively long). If you carry it outside you need to be very careful, as you can lose an iPod Nano very easily (even if it falls when you take your hand kerchief, you can’t sense it). IPod Nano is already in its fifth generation.

Happy Reading!!!

P.S: G refers to Generation in iPod. It doesn’t have to do anything with G in mobile phone technology. There will be no great difference in iPod generations. 3G iPod touch is an improved version of 2G iPod touch (mostly software alone differs). Software updates are done freely by apple.