Slashdot Mirror
Android Always Beats the iPhone To New Features, Qualcomm Says (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Qualcomm has published a somewhat self-congratulatory blog post that lauds the company and its Android partners for achieving a series of industry firsts that include wireless charging, dual-camera systems, OLED smartphone screens, edge-to-edge displays, and more -- features that the upcoming iPhone is expected to have. Apple and Qualcomm are currently embroiled in what's turning into a vicious, global patent licensing dispute. So the timing of this adulation for Android -- hours before Apple's big September event -- doesn't really strike me as coincidental. It can't be. Qualcomm never mentions Apple by name; the closest the company ever comes is with this line: Inventions from Qualcomm lay the foundation for so many technologies and experiences we value in our smartphones today -- on Android and other platforms.
Am I the only one who is kind of tired of feature creep and the constant upgrade treadmill?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Too bad only the Apple's superior iPhones get updated with these new features so they can actually be used by people.
What good is a new feature when only 3 people can use it at launch?
The original iPhone basically stole ideas from existing phones especially from the myOrigo (the first phone to have accelerometers to switch landscape/portrait horizontal etc). Apple even stole the look and feel of its browser task switcher from Nokia.
Worst of all, the iPhone idea itself was blatantly stolen from me right here on slashdot in 2005. Proof: https://slashdot.org/comments....
Honestly, some of these ballyhooed features are a big yawn. Edge-to-edge display? Why? Your hand will be covering some of it. Wireless charging? Meh. Until it can charge from across the room, it's not that important. Dual cameras? What are you doing with them? The magic is in the software. OLED should have been ubiquitous by now. I saw OLED displays 10+ years ago. Make me one for my MacBook Pro (and make it 17 inches, please).
If you want the latest everything in a Rube Goldberg style go android. If you can wait a year or two for integration and refinement go iOS.
Apple had rounded corners first. Suck that Android scum.
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
Great, because if there one thing that I give many fucks about in my phone, it's k3wl features! Not a long-lasting-but-also-replaceable battery, not the ability to flash it with software that is made for the users instead of preloaded malware made to serve whoever paid the manufacturer to have it loaded, not cheapness, not physical buttons for home and back. No, I need two great cameras (because if there's one thing I'm always doing, it's taking pictures with the user-facing camera!), a charging gimmick, a display that goes all the way to the edge (how the fuck did that become a thing? and then also: how the fuck did that become a positive thing instead of a negative?), a bright displ-- well, ok, actually I really do care about the quality of the display, so the OLED thing sounds nice, as long as I'm not touching the UI whenever I grab it by the ed-- shit, I just clicked something.
Android really is the way to go right now (iOS isn't even a serious option as long as it forces users to use Apple's repository), but the "flagship" phones are garbage and in a race to suck the most. And the mid-range where you ought to find the best stuff, is still kind of disappointing. (Whatever happened to quality, like Samsung's S4 and S5? Does anyone make phones that good anymore? Got a lead?)
It really comes down to this: both of these platforms are trying to suck the most. Neither one is your friend. If you're "loyal" to one then you are a tool, and not in the nerdy way but in the I-hate-myself-so-I-decided-to-be-someone's-bitchslave way.
We need a third OS and better hardware, maybe in standardized form factor to really crank up the competition and maintainability. You have to admit, it worked great for desktops.
It really shouldn't be a surprise that Android phones usually come out with features first, there are many companies making the phones and on aggregate have a much more frequent release cycle than Apple. Apple however usually puts in the time to make sure a feature is useful and well considered before adding it to the phone. So it's late getting an OLED phone, but Apple's probably won't turn yellow after a year or two.
I read the internet for the articles.
Much as I am no huge fanboy of Apple's, when they make something, they generally make it *well*. Or in the few cases where something wasn't made well, they fix it with actual support and followthrough, not leaving customers hanging. (Note this statement only applies to their hardware...)
True, but any new feature is a rushed feature that is chasing an Apple rumor! Samsung is the perfect example! Rumors of touch id, so Samsung rushes it out the door half a$$ed as Apple takes it's time and perfects it before release. Apple Pay is another example and so is face recognition! Just watch the Apple rumors and patents they get and wait for Samsung to rush it's version out of the door first!
This is just a standard corporate pissing contest, which has no actual meaning to anyone else.
OLED suffers from burn-in -- which means a "ghost image" gets permanently imprinted if the same image is displayed for too long. That's because OLED color pixels degrade disproportionately over time. An issue last seen in the 1990s CRT monitors. It's not a good technology if you want your phone to last a few years. Hopefully Micro LED will be along soon if they can work out its mass production issues. I am waiting on that.
Android phones have long had superior hardware specs while Apple stays more conservative with hardware specs. The same has long been true of Windows laptops vs. MacBooks. If you want the best most powerful hardware don't buy Apple - apple's secret sauce is their software and control over the hardware rather than the hardware/features themselves.
...is about to occur, as if millions of fanboy voices* will suddenly cry out in outrage and were silenced by the dull realization that no one on the other side is listening. I fear something terrible has happened**.
* From both sides of this incessant debate, just to be clear. ...for the rest of us who aren't participating in this little war but who will nonetheless be subjected to its atrocities.
**
You chose to upgrade.
Only because the alternative to upgrade is remote exploitation when an intruder uses a vulnerability in system software that has reached its end of official support on hardware that has reached its end of official support. Or is Lineage OS recommended?
iOS isn't even a serious option as long as it forces users to use Apple's repository
Technically, you don't absolutely have to use Apple's repository. Instead, you can download an app's source code to your Mac and use Xcode to build it for testing on your iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
The first iPhone was unveiled in January of 2007.
At the time Qualcomm and Android were protyping Blackberry-looking phones.
It wasn't until late 2008 until the first Android smartphone came out, with a slide-out keyboard looking like an old T-Mobile Sidekick. And it was still a few years after that until we got the slick Samsung phones that people now associate as "Android phones".
I know 10 years ago is foggy distant old-timer memory for many of the younger tech industry types, but let's get a bit of perspective here.
Hardware support for encrypted user data that not even Apple can break short of disassembling the chip?
See the first Android phone. it was a BlackBerry killer. Then they see the iPhone, realize they had their copy machine focussed on the wrong thing, and then copied the iPhone.
Apple never has won on checkbox marketing. They won on having features that were actually usable. They weren't the first MP3 player, but there are no other real dedicated MP3 players anymore. The Apple Watch wasn't first, but try to find an Android Watch on anyone in the wild. If Qualcomm says "Apple doesn't have features first" Apple would say "yep. Usually true. But we're the phones most people want".
Not even "many".
I haven't even seen a wireless charging android phone offered yet by my provider.
I own an android... I like it. But it apparently doesn't have a real compass!
So I can't use google sky.
There was no warning that it lacked this basic feature. There was no way to tell until after I bought it.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
What is the point of Qualcomm posting this? If they listed things they themselves "invented" then I can sort of understand, but this is just smells of teenage angst, jealousy, and desperation.
We all know Apple's new chips will spank Qualcomm once again, and this is not how your PR department responds? Sigh.
I don't care who gets it first. I care who gets it right!
Apple would say "yep. Usually true. But we're the phones most people want".
They may say that, but judging by sales figures, they'd be wrong.
You do realize Apple doesn't actually make any of this stuff, right? They buy them from the same suppliers who make it for Android phones. They get their flash memory from Toshiba and Samsung (the Samsung memory is slightly faster). RAM is from SK Hynix. They get their LED screens from LG, and will get their OLED screens from Samsung. Their camera is sourced from Sony. The cellular and wireless chipsets are from Qualcomm. The much-hyped headphone jack-less audio is by Cirrus Logic. Same with virtually every component that goes into the iPhone.
The only things which are Apple's are the CPU (which they designed, although they use third party fabs to manufacture it - Samsung and TSMC), the fingerprint scanner (they bought the company which makes them back around 2012), and the software.
So the Apple fans who tell themselves that "Apple makes it best" are deluding themselves as a way to rationalize paying an exorbitant price for the same components which go into Android phones.
Qualcomm seems to be desperate for someone to notice them? They lost the CDMA market in favour of GSMA based communication, they complain that Apple is limiting the capability of their chips and now they want to put down Apple. Does it matter who gets to market first, especially if the technology is rushed to market? Sometimes waiting and getting the kinks sorted matters more.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Apple beat Qualcomm to 64 bit processors by years. Major black eye for Qualcomm.
it might be comercialy motivated , but they are right , apple might have done the first one but it has lost the feature war by a long run , iphones are hasbeen devices for users ( i.e non-g33ks)
"Android Always Beats the iPhone To New Features"
On 3 models of 54732 available ones, the rest gets it much later or not al all.
Or so that say. Honestly I'd rather have features added to my phone after the technology has matured then while they're only half-baked. For example let's talk about megapixels. Anyone who knows anything about photography that a 32 megapixel camera is pointless unless you're going to be taking giant poster sized images. Even then you end up with significantly muddied colors compared to a similarly featured 16 megapixel camera. So again. I want good features not all features.
apple is still a embarrassment to the tech industry.
Seriously, there's the right way and wrong way to release new tech. The wrong way is go early and half-baked. For open source software it's good to release early and often, but that's a different than end consumer gadgets. But hey, if Qualcomm is so desparate, let them say what ever they want.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple never made a "mp3 player". The original iPods only played Apple's proprietary audio format.
They care about integrating the features very well as opposed to just having the newest shiny stuff that's just thrown into the device. Samsung has gotten better at thinking, but still can't hold a candle to Apple's hardware/software integration.
You are wrong. All iPods ever made played mp3s.
They're wrong on both points. What they referred to as "Apple's proprietary audio format" was in fact, standard MPEG-4 audio.
I truly am curious when it was that Android beat Apple to that one. FUNCTIONAL face recognition.
So ... maybe not ALWAYS.