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Android 5.0 'Lollipop' vs. iOS 8: More Similar Than Ever
Nerval's Lobster writes With the debut of Android 5.0 (also known as Lollipop, in keeping with Google's habit of naming each major OS upgrade after a dessert), it's worth taking a moment to break down how the latest version of Google's mobile operating system matches up against Apple's iOS 8. After years of battle, the two are remarkably similar. So while nobody would ever confuse Android and iOS, both Google and Apple seem determined to go "flatter" (and more brightly colored) than ever. Whether or not you agree with their choices, they're the cutting edge of mobile UX design. The perpetual tit-for-tat over features has reached a climax of sorts with Lollipop and iOS 8: both offer their own version of an NFC-powered e-wallet (Apple Pay vs. Google Wallet), a health app (Apple's Health app vs. Google Fit), car-dashboard control (Android Auto vs. CarPlay), and home automation. That's not to say that the operating systems are mirror images of one another, but in terms of aesthetics and functionality, they'll be at near-parity for most users, albeit not for those users who enjoy customizing Android and hate Apple's "walled garden." (Related: Lots of reviews are popping up for Google's new Nexus 6, one of the first phones to come with the newest Android; TechCrunch's is typical, in that reviewer Greg Kumparak has high praise for the Lollipop UI, but found himself nearly dropping the device because of its size and texture.)
When will I be able to get and install the OTA update for my Nexus 5?
No, I'm not interested in downloading and installing the new image manually. I just want to do a quick update through the normal update mechanism.
People are always going to hate Apple - it is the only thing that drives the Android market (Android certainly cannot win on technical merit, stability, or user experience).
It's all about hate when it comes to this "showdown." There are those who enjoy having an Apple product that just works, and those who are envious and whose only reaction is to grow hatred.
Why must the civilized world continue to put up with all of this crap from the Android universe? Can't we just ignore it and move on with our day?
android is Dead. GNU Phone is the freedom of the future, in communism. Workers to power!!!!!!
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Who has a Kit-Kat or Lollipop for dessert, seriously?
Anyways customization is cool, but realistically average Joe could care less about it........The hardcore geeks do mess with it, but pretty much the VAST majority does not mess with what is already there.
Apple's walled garden reassures average users and the consistent experience going from different iPhones is less traumatic.
For North America it basically comes down to this: Avg user who has money to burn, buys into Apple, those a little more price conscious or who want full control of their device will opt for Android.
And this is how it will remain for the foreseeable future.....
Dessert?
That's not to say that the operating systems are mirror images of one another, but in terms of aesthetics and functionality, they'll be at near-parity for most users, albeit not for those users who enjoy customizing Android and hate Apple's "walled garden."
What's with the pointless troll of Apple users? If they want to compare that's fine but why be a dick about it? If you like Android then use it. If you like IOS use that. Picking one or the other doesn't make one a better person but flinging monkey poo at someone who made a different technology choice doesn't speak highly of one's character. (yeah go ahead - insert "you must be new here" comment here)
Want to talk parity? Android is a walled garden too - just with different types of walls. There are countless Android devices that are locked by the manufacturer to older versions of Android, loaded with crapware which cannot be removed and otherwise effectively turned into a walled garden. Google does little to prevent this from happening and in fact largely facilitates this abuse of users via indifference. There are some great Android devices but there is a huge amount of complete shit too. Say whatever negative you like about Apple but the IOS devices they sell are almost always pretty good or better. (they should be given the price) Can't say the same about a lot of Android devices particularly many of the cheaper ones.
How long did it take Apple to allow custom keyboards?
Widgets, does Apple (finally) support them?
What about widgets on the lock screen?
Did Apple stop using rectangular icons with rounded corners?
And well, it sure goes both ways:
When will Android ask me about an App trying to access my contact list?
Did Google start always asking for a password when buying/installing things like Apple does?
I have an iPhone, but I also have an Asus Android tablet. I find advantages and flaws in both, and I use each device to its own strengths.
I also need to say that I was recently in an Apple store and found the iPad mini's screen to be very nice, much sharper than my Asus, but then again, the Asus was very cheap.
For casual browsing and making snide comments on facebook, it's perfectly fine. With a blutooth keyboard, it's even a nice SSH terminal. I don't do high-end computing on my tablet, and my phone is pretty much relegated to text messages, phone calls, photos, and the occasional need to access an app in an emergency. I'm not glued to my screen like most other people I know.
Android and iOS are both 'ok' -- neither is perfect, but frankly, the religious wars about operating system on your phone reminds me of the chatter between Atari users and Commodore users on Bulletin Board systems (showing my age here!).
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I'll stick with my windows phone.
"...albeit not for those users who enjoy customizing Android and hate Apple's "walled garden."" ...albeit not for those users who enjoy Apple's security and hate Android's extensive malware. I can write biased news summaries, as well.
When anything become a commodity with little room for innovation like we have now between iOS and Android, something invariably pops up.
Hurry up Firefox OS
network crapware? True you can't uninstall some of it, but you're still free to install whatever you want
Which means non-Nexus devices will have fewer GB of available internal storage than advertised. Some carriers have been caught shipping a multi-hundred-megabyte game in the unmodifiable partition.
If you want a tattoo (synonyms "tat" or "ink"), use the Google. I can't guarantee that a tat will help you see tits though.
Today its more about the ecosystem then what OS is better. I have used everything from Android, Windows mobile, IOS and even some RIM devices. All of which work well but of course some lack apps or services that people need. When I bought my iPhone I had already chosen not to succumb to being locked into another ecosystem. I came from Android and yet much of my applications, backup, and services were very much separate from the OS. They were also platforms neutral and when I switched to the iPhone they all worked just as they did on the Android phone. I learned long ago to not buy into a walled garden and Android is not as bad as Apple is with regards to being locked in. But you still can't transfer apps or games from one to another. This is why I don't like app stores much. You buy something and you cannot transfer it even though its the same app on IOS as it is on Android.
Every review I'm reading for devices capable of running Android 5.0 complain about the devices themselves. The new Nexus 9 tablet? Flimsy plastic feel to it ... nowhere near as solid with the sense of quality of construction you'd get with a new iPad. The Nexus 6 phone? Much more expensive than previous versions and again, that cheap feel to it that makes you wonder if it's worth the price.
I think it's great we have options that both compete to ensure they're not leaving out good features. But right now, I'm glad I went with an iPhone 6 and an iPad Air as my tablet, vs. the Android options. It sounds like the better-constructed hardware that will come along shortly running Android 5 still runs the risk of having the Sense UI bolted on top of everything, hurting performance and the simplicity of the original UI.
> With the debut of Android 5.0 (also known as Lollipop, in keeping with Google's habit of naming each major OS upgrade after a dessert
"Lollipop".
Has anyone else noticed how flamingly homosexual Google has gotten lately?
True you can't uninstall some of it, but you're still free to install whatever you want, and from non-Google stores with absolutely no effort what-so-ever...
If you don't have root access available to you straight out of the box and supported by the manufacturer then it is a walled garden pretty much by definition. The only question is how high the walls are. Saying the walls are lower than the one's Apple has is pretty much the definition of damning with faint praise.
True you can't uninstall some of it, but you're still free to install whatever you want, and from non-Google stores with absolutely no effort what-so-ever...
Those devices invariably come with some phone vendor version of a walled garden that is even less attractive than Google's version. See Amazon Fire for a great example.
And complaining that people have a choice in what level phone they want?
Who complained about that? I've no objection to having the option to buy a cheaper phone. That is objectively a good thing. I do object to said cheaper phone being a hot smelly barely functional mess. Cheap does not have to equate to bad quality. Fewer bells and whistles sure but there is not excuse for a cheap phone being a shitty phone.
Android and iOS are both 'ok' -- neither is perfect, but frankly, the religious wars about operating system on your phone reminds me of the chatter between Atari users and Commodore users on Bulletin Board systems (showing my age here!).
But did Atari or Commodore actively attempt to prevent people from creating and running programs on their computers? If I recall correctly, both Commodore and Atari shipped with BASIC interpreters that could CALL native code. Apple's code signing policy resembles that used by Atari for its 7800, Lynx, and Jaguar consoles, not that used for its 400, 800, and ST computers. Just as unsigned carts for the 7800 ran in 2600 mode, unsigned apps for iOS run in Safari.
Android devices have walled gardens, and it is up to the customer to choose how high the walls are, and if they get a key to the gate.
Really? I'm not aware of a single Android device that gives you root access straight from the manufacturer. If you don't have root then you don't have complete choice regarding the height of the walls. If a jailbreak of the phone is ever required to do something then that is pretty much de-facto evidence that a walled garden exists.
One has to do a little bit of research buying a device. GPE (Google Play Experience) devices tend to be unlockable, and run with minimal crapware.
Minimal barriers != No barriers. You might have some extra choices available to you but let's not pretend Android is FOSS.
> Whether or not you agree with their choices, they're the cutting edge of mobile UX design.
As an UX expert, this "flat design" is NOT cutting edge. It is retro gaudy.
i.e.
Windows 1.0 vs Windows 8
It is like these idiot UI/UX designers tossed _everything_ we have learnt about WIMP for the past 20 years right out the window.
There is _nothing_ wrong with skeuomorphism when it is used in balance.
This flat design so that users no longer have visual clues as what is a (dynamic) button and (static) text is idiotic and retarded. The primary job of a UI is NOT to help, not hinder.
The gaudy colors are just the icing on the rotten cake.
You mean of course other than the fact that Android is still a fully functional operating system where you can actually view and edit files and ....do....things, unlike iOS 8.
I think Lollipop was influenced much, much more by WebOS than it was by iOS. Makes it glaringly obvious why they made that patent agreement with LG a few weeks ago.
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Great. Now both operating systems are putting irritating and distracting fluff ahead of function.
I want to preface this with: I'm an Android user/developer of 5 years, and have no interest in Apple devices. I don't mean to offend anyone, and I apologize for the long-winded post.
Sadly, I find Android is heading in a very bad direction.
Google has captured most of the top of the market, leaving little opportunity for growth, so it appears they've started "simplifying" the UI to capture those with little/no interest in mobile computers, those with less mental acuity or those unable/unwilling to spend a few hours learning the fundamental operating principles of a machine, young children, etc. Same direction Gnome headed in a few years back.
Can't blame them; they are a publicly held corporation, and they must grow. But, unfortunately, simplifying a user interface almost invariably makes it less useful to those who are willing to put in the time to synchronize with the machine.
Just a few more egregious examples of this in the latest Android versions:
Menu button removed
Contextual menus are a extremely powerful. On most modern OSes, right-clicking a control brings up a menu of actions related to that control. Since touchscreens lack a practical way to right-click, the menu button used to implement the equivalent functionality. Some UI designers claim it's inconsistent because you never know if the menu button is going to do anything, and that is a valid complaint. However, removing contextual menus entirely is silly. Many apps run full-screen where an overflow button is inappropriate, and when appropriate, overflow buttons needlessly take up room on the screen and enforce a display layout that isn't always appropriate for every app.
Bafflingly unusable new task switcher
If you haven't seen the new task switcher layout for 5.0, check it out. No longer can you see screen captures of your most recent 5-6 apps, but rather a confusing, battery wasting, user-interaction-required morphing list.
Google Maps feature regressions
Although not directly related to Android, it is symptomatic of Google's general new approach to mobile development. Gone are incredibly useful features like distance measure, zoom controls, sortable place search, place search compass arrows, and many other features that made the old Android maps app so great.
Where are chrome extensions? Native multiwindow support? GNU tools (instead of their godawful "toolbox")? Correctly functioning alt-tab? DNS overrides? Native image backups? Out-of-the-box viper4android? How about forcing manufacturers to add a "delete crapware" button if they want membership to the play store? Where are the extended privacy controls?
The thing is, they already have the "power users" market. So there's no reason to improve the Android core. We've all got CM, AOSP, AOKP, etc., anyway, right?
But it's frustrating, and I do hope some competition pops up to re-address the concerns of those who really use their devices.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
On a GNU phone, you can use GNU vi, or you can install any other free implementation of vi.
Those devices invariably come with some phone vendor version of a walled garden that is even less attractive than Google's version. See Amazon Fire for a great example.
The last time I tried a Kindle Fire tablet, it had the same "Allow installation of applications from unknown sources" checkbox that virtually all* Android phones and tablets have. All an app's publisher has to do is make the app available as an APK. Is Fire Phone more restrictive?
* Except for the first few months of AT&T-branded Android phones. And even these tend to have an OTA update to restore the checkbox, a CyanogenMod port, or both.
I had forgotten how featureless the stock launcher is. Gads. I feel crippled. I also really liked CyanogenMod's Privacy Guard feature.
I will not miss the bugs of CyanogenMod, though, that's for sure.
I'll be searching for a replacement launcher ASAP. Any recommendations? I used to use ADW back in my Gingerbread/Froyo days...I'll have to see if it's been updated for Lollipop/ART.
First Microsoft with Windows 8 - flattened UI elements, soft unshaded coloring, squared corners, etc. I dub it the "crayon look" - both because of the dumbed down simple look, and because of MS seemed intent to treat us like kids using crayons, instead of intelligent users who prefer a more polished look. It took years to finally get the sculpted, more-pleasing look of Windows 95 (remember Windows 3.1?..it was 'flat'). Now we're being regressed backwards.
After Windows 8, many apps and websites began updating their own visual schemes to "the crayon look".
Then Apple follows suit (essentially) with a similar style in OS X Yosemite - and iOS8.
Now we're going to have the same thing in Android.
It's like they've all become lemmings, rushing to trample off the edge of the usability cliff!
I kept hoping this was a temporary trend and I could wait out these releases until sanity returned...but it's starting to feel like they've all drunk the same kool-aid and this isn't going away for a while. How long before most major Linux distros start adopting the 'flat' (crayon) look, too?
Holy crap, doesn't any one realize that the high resolution displays don't need shading and dithering to make objects look nicer. That was a necessary evil for low resolution displays to make things look nice and pretty. Tiles and objects on UI's are still the same size, but the resolution has double/tripled/quadrupled in some cases. So we don't need rounded, shaded objects any more. Flat designs look like crap on low resolution displays because we see the jagged edges, so shading was used to soften edges.
The manufacturer of my microwave actively prevents people from creating and running programs on it--that doesn't stop me from eating popcorn.
There are reasonable reasons to want a walled garden device (do a Google image search for a pie chart of the percent of mobile malware out there by platform, iOS doesn't even show up) and there are reasonable reasons to want something you can tinker with. Guess what? the market provides both choices and you get to pick one. Isn't this supposed to be about choice?
From reading the article...
I hate the Playstation buttons. Triangle, Circle, Square do not clearly translate to back, home, open windows/app list. If I were a rabbit a circle might be a decent representation of "home".
I like guest mode, I like fast and smooth, but I don't like "flat". A button should "look" like a button. I don't mean skeuomorphics, but a button UI element should not look like a label or a plain embedded image - it should look like something I can interact with, and that's what shading did.
At 6 inches you're in the phablet space. My phone is 4.7 inches, which was big when it came out, and I think that's just right for a phone.
As far as slipper, I have my phone is a gel sleeve (grabs the back and sides) that makes it grippy. Of course that adds $35 to the price tag, but you do get color options. If I did happen to drop it the sleeve would probably protect it, at least from the scuffs 2 other devices got from even touching the pavement.
On topic: As far as Andorid vs iOS many other posts here have already touched on It's a personal preference, and I'm happy to have the option. I personally prefer Android. My wife was fine with Android but has an iPhone right now. There are lots of things to like, and there are nuisances in both camps.
I refuse to sign
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
A button is no longer a button because it was never a button in the first place.
UI design was mouse-focused for about 25 years, and the UI design of smartphones just used it as a starting point. I'm glad to see it move on.
When I poke at a word I am poking a word on a screen with my finger, not a button. Why should it be dressed up in the clown makeup of a button? Position, context, color, precedent, and the name of the thing itself are all strong indicators, and when I am, I aim for the center of it, and the size of my finger intuitively defines the range of error around the target.
Even your meme-ready screenshot is actually proof of how much things have changed: Everything on the Windows 8 screenshot is a button - and we understand it intuitively as such because we're using a touchscreen - and so, there are no button borders. And, we understand everything is draggable, from any anchor point, so there is no need for title bars along the "windows" to provide that anchor point.
Back in the day, some jerk invented that UI by messing around in a workshop with a mouse and going with what felt right. Why in the world would we cling to it, now that mice are dying out?
I did notice my Android phone's GMail app got astoundingly uglier over the last few days.
Now it looks like a color-blind rhesus got into the color palette during a poo-flinging contest. Someone *really* brought the visual dysfunction this time.
And we *still* can't delete an email from a notification, although you can archive them or go read them from there. Unfortunately, most of my incoming GMail needs to go directly in the trash. Extra steps, all the time, except when you can't have the feature at all (like "reply as" within a filter.) Seems to be one of Google's many dysfunctional mantras. "Don't (get caught) be(ing) Evil", and so on.
But hey! New color scheme! Almost as important as Apple's Quest For Flatter Hardware, no?
In Japan, circle means yes and cross means no.
On Japanese Playstation consoles, circle means yes and cross means close.
Sony fucked this up in the west.
Cross can also mean "Wrong" or "No" in the west.
Yep, yet THEY MADE IT THE CONFORM BUTTON.
Sony fucked this up in the west.
I found funny this comparison between Android and iOS about the flattening of the user interface, when Windows Phone did it before. Maybe Microsoft is finally going into the right direction in the mobile field.
I wish my iPad also ran Android, or that Apple would at least allow me to flash it back to iOS7. I hate lag.
One thing keeps me on android. Access to the filesystem. Take last night for example... I downloaded a video torrent in bed then streamed it to my Xbox one on the TV. Or say I'm bored at work. I can torrent an audio book.
Feature parody, people!
A button should "look" like a button. I don't mean skeuomorphics, but a button UI element should not look like a label or a plain embedded image - it should look like something I can interact with, and that's what shading did.
Those quote marks would be better in another place... A "button" should look like a button. ... because that thing on the screen isn's a button. It's an area you can interact with by touching. But then most things on the screen are. A graphic, a line in a list box, a scroller, a hyperlink, a field, a title, a telephone number... If you draw a box/gradient/shadow around everything you can interact with, then almost everything ends up in a box/gradient/shadow.
On the web, we no longer need explicit "buttons". Even on the classic Slashdot page, which is about as old a design as you see, most clickable/touchable do not have boxes around them; they are not dressed up as buttons.
Buttons have mostly gone the way of purple underlined hyperlinks. We're used to the web now, we don't need the training wheels.
Native app design has simply lagged. It's playing catch up to the web. (At least in terms of UI appearance. Native apps of course are ahead in capability and performance, and always will be.)
That's a false dichotomy. One platform can provide both. Android does that today.
By default Android is a walled garden and locked to Google Play just as iOS is locked to the App Store. You have to flip a well-buried switch in Android to turn that off.
On iOS there is no such choice. OS X does, but not iOS. It's totally arbitrary and unnecessary.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
which have a "well buried switch"--basically 0% of all malware is on iOS. It looks like the iOS strategy works pretty well and it looks like, thus far, you have been proven to be completely wrong that "one platform can provide both".
It's almost as if the company that's worth $600B understands what their customers want better than you do. Weird.
So is a lollipop. Ice Cream Sandwich perhaps was a dessert, key lime pie is, but they are also "sweet" so sweet yes, dessert no.