Go the I phone, once you go Mac you'll never go back.

GF - there's a sales rep at the Optus store in Whitford City shopping centre called Sam - young slim bloke with dark hair you might want to talk to... he's there Thursday nights and all day Saturday.

When looking for a smart phone for Mrs GPA he was by FAR the most knowledgable guy I spoke to. He's studying engineering at Uni and I did not ask a question that he couldn't answer in detail...

FYI we purchased a Samsung Galaxy II S (and later another for my daughter after she had a play with her Mum's).

I can get an iPhone from work but waiting to see if the Samsung's go on the corporate plan. I don't like the whole iTune sync BS.

nightmonkey said...

Smartphone - iPhone. Android phones are way to resource hungry.
Tablet - andriods run rings around ipads

Not sure - never had an iPhone - but a mate who's a big phone user swapped his iPhone for the Samsung Galaxy II S and reckoned it was a lot faster... can't comment on battery life - but at least on the Samsung it can be replaced... unlike the iPhone (another thing I don't like after having an iPod battery die before its time).

I got a HD2, a windows mobile phone, but the old good version of windows mobile. All the bells n whistles. I spent weeks/months setting up every little thing, uninstalling telstra crap, installing new apps, tweaking settings. Hanging out on xda-developers, learning how to mod it up.

Now I only use 4 things.
Phone.
Mp3 alarm player (I need a 5 minute song to get thru the fog)
Camera (for on the fly snaps).
Google maps.

The rest is totally wasted.

Sorry, that was a bit off topic. My vote is Android x 1000.

Keep in mind apple suuports all their products where as almost half android phones are not compatible with new OS within 12 to 18 months. There isnt many android phones that can run ICS. Where as IOS 5 even still works on the iPhone 3GS which is over 2 years old.

I read an analogy some time ago that is pretty spot on can't remember the source but it went something like this...

iPhone and the Apple ecosystem is like one of those gated communities - everything looks nice, it's well maintained, there's no nasties but it's quite regulated

Android ecosystem is like the "downtown" region where anything goes, the boundaries are being pushed, it attracts some crazies along with those on the cutting edge but you want to watch out for yourself cause things can on occasion turn nasty



The iPhone is great. There are some great Android phones. All depends which one meets more of your needs.

Simple answer. If you don't want iTunes at all, Go android, you can't run iPhone without iTunes...

For all you guys that dont like iTunes. You dont even need itunes or even a PC/Mac to have an iPhone or iPad now with iOS 5. Just like android. Just turn it on.

Searching for the "best" phone is pointless. The phone by itself is just a paper weight.

You want a phone with a good set of apps and features that do what you want to do.

My "killer" apps are:
- downloading podcasts (Ted, Radiolab, comedy, ABC radio shows)
- Web for accessing weather sites and general browsing for Google, maps, public transport etc
- find my iphone as a backup personal tracker when paragliding (works really well for this)

I am perfectly happy with my iphone 3GS through the Telstra network. It does everything I want to do and integrates into my car for hands-free calls and control of music play back from the steering wheel controls.

We have even used it on a yacht in Bass Strait to get weather details when we missed the regular radio weather broadcast.

Spare batteries and accessories can be had for peanuts from ebay stores.

I have a cable to plug it into a TV or sound system so when we go away we can watch movies or listen to music or podcasts.

I have no problem with itunes. It does what I need it to do.

I have no real plans to upgrade any time soon. I guess a better camera and a flash would be good to have.

nightmonkey said...

Keep in mind apple suuports all their products where as almost half android phones are not compatible with new OS within 12 to 18 months. There isnt many android phones that can run ICS. Where as IOS 5 even still works on the iPhone 3GS which is over 2 years old.

thats bollox . i am running a beta version of ICS on my desire . Google stated gingerbread wouldn't run on any old android handsets but it ran fine .

Wow!

Ta for all the replies folks.

Although Mac make funky-ish product (almost as well as they market it ) I seriously loathe Apple's m.o. of excluding you from anything but Apple. I won't touch i-choons even with someone elsse's barge pole, so therefore it's Android/Windows.


As long as i get some sync and co-habitation between my work Mac lappy and the smart phone - all good.


@Flyguy, I use hotmail and hadn't considered Windows vs Android. Ta for the tip.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I can still access hotmail on an Android phone - just logging in - rather than updating 24/7?

Also, which phones are Windows 7 based?

In Android terms I'd be looking for a cheapo deal on a Glaxay S (not SII) as it should more than fit my basic needs.

Oh - forgot to add GPS/maps (free) is a must have.

FlySurfer said...

getfunky said...

Wow!

Ta for all the replies folks.

Although Mac make funky-ish product (almost as well as they market it ) I seriously loathe Apple's m.o. of excluding you from anything but Apple. I won't touch i-choons even with someone elsse's barge pole, so therefore it's Android/Windows.


As long as i get some sync and co-habitation between my work Mac lappy and the smart phone - all good.


@Flyguy, I use hotmail and hadn't considered Windows vs Android. Ta for the tip.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I can still access hotmail on an Android phone - just logging in - rather than updating 24/7?

Also, which phones are Windows 7 based?

In Android terms I'd be looking for a cheapo deal on a Glaxay S (not SII) as it should more than fit my basic needs.

Win7 has tight integration with skydrive... eg: 25GB cloud storage. Also Xbox live.

Maybe wait for the Nokia Win7 phones N800 or something, they look sweet.

how do the windows 7 phones handle updates ?

What is wrong with iTunes? Are you doing something wrong?

You can sync your iTunes wirelessly aswell & you can get your apps straight on your iPhone Dada. Think theres a lot of people here still very computer illiterate.
No wonder my job pays for all my new boards. Woo hoo

GPA said...

doggie said...

What is wrong with iTunes? Are you doing something wrong?

A cable for a start...

Android syncs with your Google account automatically in the 'cloud'... you can browse the Android Market Place on your PC in the office - d/l an App and there it is on your phone near instantly ta-da!!