commonwealth

but don't they consume battery power and processing capacity?

GarryP

Minuscule amounts, and mainly when the phone is already on. Next to the drain associated with the screen or the 3G, you don't notice it. The updates when the phone is off are mainly of the notification type.

Beoz

I have to admit, As neither a i-phone or Samsung owner I can present my limited usage from a reasonbly unbias point of view. (unfortunately the company provides me with a bberry)

Wife owns an i-phone and I often jump on have a play, download some apps, etc etc. Not bad, especially in comparison to the bberry torch

Last week some friends popped round for lunch and one of them had literally just bought the Samsung on the way over. She had little idea what it could do so I had a little play.

That little play turned into hours of play. I became obsessed. I've gotta get myself one of those.

fish.01

I find Apple's phone a great platform that integrates really well with the rest of the eco-system. Allows you to easily, out of the box, do far more than just standard smart phone stuff.

Such a great tightly integrated system of communication/control between all hardware devices and really good software that integrates beautifully with software on the Mac. I doubt anything else would come close for my needs, but if just buying a standalone smartphone and just cared about specs and standalone phone functionality, with little concern for the functionality of the platform, integrated software or ecosystem then my choice may be different.

Hebe

I saw that after I posted it but couldn't to arsed to correct it - I knew I could rely on someone else to do it!!

Beoz

Fair point but that requires every network enabled device in the house to be a Mac. That's a continual expensive habit to maintain.

Then suddenly you want to do something other than a bit of music playing and net surfing then boom, not so scalable then is it.

GarryP

It's actually part of the walled garden problem.

Providing you want to do what apple wants to allow you to do, in the way apple wants to allow you to do it - you are OK. You'll pay through the nose, but it will work.

Apple create hardware and software that is proprietary, ignoring standards and only integrating/testing THEIR products, ignoring everything else. As well as meaning they can rake in the cash, that makes it extremely simple to make sure it all works together. In contrast, someone using real standards has a wider problem of adhering to standards AND testing with other equipment AND trying to make it user friendly.

Result is you can do everything you can do within the apple walled garden with standards compliant kit (where did you think apple copied it from in the first place) but its not as plug and play as going all proprietary. On the plus side, you can do things apple hasn't copied yet, and you can do things apple would actively attempt to stop you doing.

As an example, want to watch that video you shot on your smartphone on your Samsung TV? If you are trapped inside appleworld you can't - unless you pay for an Apple TV unit. In contrast with Android it works fine, via a variety of different routes, because they use standards compliant DLNA/uPnP. Apple could have used DLNA as well, no reason not to, except their route means more money for apple.

You particularly notice this once you want to do something apple don't want you to do. Want to download a torrent and automatically serve it up to your TV in the lounge? Easy with the right open client, but pretty much impossible with apple. And what about pushing live TV over your home network so it can be viewed on a tablet? Because of standards compliance that's possible - providing you aren't in an apple walled garden.

Apple deliver nice idiot friendly kit, provided you are prepared to pay double, and never do anything interesting that goes outside what they expect and want you to do. Do NOT walk on the grass.

If you want freedom however, the world outside the walled garden is bigger, more varied and interesting - with everything that's in the manicured, walled, garden, just with no groundskeeper to looming over everything and shouting at you if you decide to cut through a different way.

knockoff nige

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Airplay. I think there are more and more devices supporting it now and we will see more video devices supporting it soon. But for audio, it's awesome. Using Spotify on my iPhone and sending the audio wirelessly to my speaker system is truly fantastic. No messing about, just works great.

Amazulu

what the f**k is an eco-system?

fish.01

I find PC's more expensive. They turn into bits of junk so quickly and you can't sell them for peanuts. And their warranties are often crap. I've had decades of buying windows PC's. No more.

I'm a professional windows software developer and I still find Mac better for every home use I have. To top it off it is even a better windows machine if I want to run windows on it

fish.01

I haven't hit one thing it can't do. The apple tv is cheap and works great and lets you do all those things. The major difference is I do FAR more than when I had PC kit due to the simple elegant integration of everything. The difference between the promise of doing things vs the reality.

I used to buy the best spec'ed, non apple devices with all the promises of functionality and openness. When I switched to Mac recently it delivered far more than anything I have owned before. I am finally doing all the things I dreamt of doing on a PC, but never could be arsed fiddling/hacking to make happen.

As a windows software developer of 20+ years I love the software on the Mac. The hardware is just fantastic. I paid not much more for my Mac PC but the longevity and resale value is far higher. I think over their life it will work out cheaper. The out of the box integration is just fantastic and the windows experience just does not compare at all. I have video's (from all sources), photos, documents, contacts, notes, data, passwords, accounts etc flying all over the house, the city and the world in ways I never managed before. Built in Airplay and mirroring is just fantastic for videos, photos, music, iCloud versioning, syncing etc between rich clients, time machine, incredible iMac web surfing using gestures...it is all so nice to use.

Knowing the history of IT the notion that apple just copy is not historically accurate or a fair representation of the incredible innovation they have added to the industry compared to any other company.

I'm fine with everyone else using Andriod/Window or whatever they want but find this constant spamming of every Apple thread I read on the internet with reasons why we should go back to windows etc a bit trying...not a chance in hell I'll go back to windows I've given my whole windows setup to my 7yo and have never touched it again

Amazulu

Samsung allshare is awesome. Media server, PC, mobile, laptop all link together. Videos on your mobile can play on your laptop, videos on your laptop can play on your TV.

It all works very well.

knockoff nige

I couldnt agree more. Apple tend to improve on existing technologies, making them work as opposed to rushing them to market.

But, and I think you touched on it earlier, their support is second to none. It's simply a show and swap most of the time as they don't interrogate you before succumbing to dealing with your problem.

DeadVim

Maybe it is twinned with blogosphere.

Amazulu

Apple maps?