Android

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Brad Harris

Sophomore
Mar 1, 2011
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I'm getting nearly daily emails from my electronics supliers about cheap android tablets. Coming from an iOs background, (Touch, iPhone, iPad) what can android offer me that hasn't been done for iOs?

Is there 'jailbreaking'? What Apps are relevant in this industry? Office/database apps? Paperwork/flow apps? Console/controller apps? Atari/<4bit retro apps?

Fill me in on what I'm missing aside from customizing what I see on my 'launchpad' and how it 'feels'

BRad
 
Re: Android

IMHO.
Android offers more options and no jailbreaking. No Itunes and Apple company policy looking down your neck, but the user experience is different. iOs gives you a integrated network of devices that play together and feels similar. Android devices can do that, but they can be very different, because you have the option to customize everything.

Choose your flavor. I understand why people go with iOs, everything works/plays together, but there are limitations to what you can do. Android gives you more options, but you have to put in some more effort yourself.
 
Re: Android

+1. I agree with pretty much everything the Doc said. And I don't know if this is what you mean by "choose you flavor," but how I interpreted it and would advise this is to stick with one manufacturer. With many many companies making android devices now, it would make more sense that if you pick a good manufacturer and stick with them, chances are better of all of your devices "playing well" with each other. I'm a Motorola guy, but I would also use Samsung products. Those two seem to put out the best Android devices IMO.
 
Re: Android

Brad,

There's a ton of Android stuff out there. I'd be impossible to give a summary in a short post. If you business backend is integrated with Google Apps, then Android's integration with Gmail, Contacts, Apps, Drive, and Voice are very useful. For a task completion app, let me recommend Trello. Its free forever and simple to use, and has interfaces on almost all platforms (trello.com). If/when you outgrow it the parent company Fog Creek Software, has other cool products.

Behind the scenes Android is VERY different than iOS. One of the biggest concepts in Android is the idea of "intents." Intents are like handle the developer can grab to perform a functionality. Need to send an email, read a barcode, take a picture, etc. from inside your app? Call the intent and android will pass the desired goal on to the apps that can handle that intent. You can pick a default responder, or choose a different one based on the desired goal of a specific instance (e.g. use instagram for a photo, rather than the built in camera software). A common use of intents is sharing a file or url with someone. When you choose to share, Android presents a list of options that can manage the share intent, making it quick and easy to use Bluetooth, email, mms, Dropbox, etc. as the means of sharing.

Also, when on Android, when hitting the back arrow, it scrolls back through the recent intents history, making it easy to jump between recently used screens in apps, or confusing the user (depending on how you think). :D~:-D~:grin:

If you like the cleanness of iOS, and the a -> b -> c nature of one app to home to another app, Android will drive you nuts! My wife still prefers iOS after a year on Android, I bought her a Touch.

If you're like me, and don't mind the extra button presses, Android opens up a more powerful world of using multiple apps. One of my most commonly used features in Android is pressing and holding on the home button to see a grid of last eight apps I used. And if I click on any of those links, it doesn't dump me into the "Home" screen for the app, but rather the last intents page, which is usually close to the function I want to use.

I'm in no way suggesting this is enough to switch, or that anyone should if they like what they're using, but hopefully it helps explain some differences.
 
Re: Android

Phil Graham said:
A common use of intents is sharing a file or url with someone. When you choose to share, Android presents a list of options that can manage the share intent, making it quick and easy to use Bluetooth, email, mms, Dropbox, etc. as the means of sharing.
Click to expand...

Phil, I think you'll find this same behavior on an iPhone.

One of my most commonly used features in Android is pressing and holding on the home button to see a grid of last eight apps I used. And if I click on any of those links, it doesn't dump me into the "Home" screen for the app, but rather the last intents page, which is usually close to the function I want to use.
Click to expand...

Is this really so different from double clicking the home button to take you to the last apps used in iOS? When you select the app you want you are retuned to the last point you were at in that app, not the home screen.

Mac
 
Re: Android

Phil Graham said:
Mac,

If you say this is true, then I'm sure it is. I'm not an iPhone user. However the backend approaches are very different. Most iOS developers I know say that intents are the best thing in Android.
Click to expand...

To clarify, I meant the same behavior at the user level, not the programming level. I'm sure the internal method is different, but when I want to send a file or a photo I am presented with a variety of ways to do it, including the usual social media suspects as well as mms and email.

Mac
 
Re: Android

As a heavy android user (and supporter!) I honestly can't recommend it for professional audio work because the manufacturer support is not there. If you are looking for devices that will work for the growing list of professional audio applications the decision could not be more clear (in the short term).

So ruling out pro audio apps, what else is there?

In terms of productivity, all of my favorite apps have iOS versions.
In terms of weird extremely situational utilities (wifi scanners etc) a lot of the great ones are android, but are hard to find.

The other thing you need to watch out for is companies like verizon/att whatever killing the performance of the phone/device with crap applications which generally aren't removable.

Sure you can root your device, but the mods available are generally only plentiful and useful for the most popular devices and even then support typically dies off after a year or so.
 
Thanks for all the replies, it has made me slightly more curious about the platform.

I currently am using an iPad and trying to make it a streamlined process to take care of paperwork and details for events. I'm slowly putting together a FM database to use on it that hopefully will put everything in one spot, but if it can already be done .......

Currently my workflow is as follows:
-Documents to go, which I can dump office/pdf files across from my PC to the iPad in a logical manner
-Neu Annotate, when I need to add elements to pdfs, create new pdf, etc
-Paper, to create handwritten documents
-pdf printer, to create pdf from existing documents, websites

And a bunch of other programs on occasision to put information into a folder in Documents to Go.

I'm wondering if Android would be a better platform (I know Filemaker won't put out an app for thier databases for android), to utilize these (or similar) apps better? Can you call up any related program to 'send' a document to? Or subject to popularity and developer insight to allow it?

The iOs versions are hit and miss for 'Open In'/'Send To' for manipulating documents between programs.

Or does anyone know if the new Filemaker Go 12 can handle 'launching' pdfs from container fields at the minimum, or a way to launch an editor for office files and have it all linked?

I'm sold on the iOs style platform as far as ease, speed and access is, but maybe I'm looking for more of a traditional platform program with the bulkier, slower hardware (I prefer carrying around a non PC tablet vs a PC - tablet or otherwise)

I'm not looking at this as far as console control or otherwise, just maybe a better way at trying to keep track of paperwork and data for shows.

BRad
 
Re: Android

Brad Harris said:
Thanks for all the replies, it has made me slightly more curious about the platform.

I currently am using an iPad and trying to make it a streamlined process to take care of paperwork and details for events. I'm slowly putting together a FM database to use on it that hopefully will put everything in one spot, but if it can already be done .......

Currently my workflow is as follows:
-Documents to go, which I can dump office/pdf files across from my PC to the iPad in a logical manner
-Neu Annotate, when I need to add elements to pdfs, create new pdf, etc
-Paper, to create handwritten documents
-pdf printer, to create pdf from existing documents, websites

And a bunch of other programs on occasision to put information into a folder in Documents to Go.

I'm wondering if Android would be a better platform (I know Filemaker won't put out an app for thier databases for android), to utilize these (or similar) apps better? Can you call up any related program to 'send' a document to? Or subject to popularity and developer insight to allow it?

The iOs versions are hit and miss for 'Open In'/'Send To' for manipulating documents between programs.

Or does anyone know if the new Filemaker Go 12 can handle 'launching' pdfs from container fields at the minimum, or a way to launch an editor for office files and have it all linked?

I'm sold on the iOs style platform as far as ease, speed and access is, but maybe I'm looking for more of a traditional platform program with the bulkier, slower hardware (I prefer carrying around a non PC tablet vs a PC - tablet or otherwise)

I'm not looking at this as far as console control or otherwise, just maybe a better way at trying to keep track of paperwork and data for shows.

BRad
Click to expand...

I carry around both an iPad and more recently an IBM ThinkPad Tablet, they both excel at certain tasks. YMMV
 
Re: Android

Helge Dr. Bentsen said:
IMHO.
Android offers more options and no jailbreaking. No Itunes and Apple company policy looking down your neck, but the user experience is different. iOs gives you a integrated network of devices that play together and feels similar. Android devices can do that, but they can be very different, because you have the option to customize everything.

Choose your flavor. I understand why people go with iOs, everything works/plays together, but there are limitations to what you can do. Android gives you more options, but you have to put in some more effort yourself.
Click to expand...

I disagree with some of this. There are more hardware choices available with Androids, to be sure, but are the options really different enough to justify the differences? Manufacturers do put their own OS flavor on their devices, and it is locked down. Yes, you can 'root' an Android devices, which is essentially the same thing as jailbreaking an iPhone.

From a programming aspect, (which doesn't matter for end users) Android does offer some neat features, but overall, the MacOS programming environment has been embraced by developers as the superior platform. The quantity and quality of apps available on iOS walks all over that which is available on Android. Chances are, the iPad is going to be supported for your needs sooner than the Android would be.
 
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