Google Android vs iPhone: Android is better for Google users

I am going to go off topic to discuss the G1 phone that runs Google Android. I figure web enabled phones are of particular interest to the web development crowd :)

I have had both the G1 and iPhone for one week each. At the end of a week with the iPhone, I returned it with much disappointment. With one week of the G1, I am just ecstatic.

To summarize, the difference between the two is primarily what sort of user you are. As a Mac user, the iPhone will be more useful and seamless than for non-Mac users. The same goes for the G1 and Google users: if you are a Google user, the G1 will work great for you.

(Jump to my experience with the G1 Android)

The iPhone experience

I had been contemplating getting the iPhone since it came out. I have various needs for a PDA for accessing email, a calendar and photos, and hadn't yet gotten an MP3 player. The need became more urgent as the date for Drupalcon Boston 2008 was coming up. I needed something small and compact to hold the convention's schedule, store information, allow me access to the internet and keep my boredom at bay with music while I commuted on the train an hour and a half every day for a week.

I sat down with my shiny new toy and awed at its aesthetics for a moment, then got down to work: getting the Drupalcon schedule on the phone. There were 4 events occurring simultaneously 4 times a day, plus an event in the middle of the day, and various birds of a feather. I did not want to decide what I wanted to attend up front so I just wanted some way to have the entire schedule on the phone.

The Lullabots provided a great graphic mapping out all the sessions, so my first attempt was to just put the graphic on the phone and use the photo viewer to zoom in and out on the schedule. Nope. The file transfer for iPhone automatically resizes your files, including shrinking any graphics. I tried a bunch of different ways, but I could do nothing to prevent it from shrinking. What is the purpose of having an advanced multi touch zoom and navigation feature for images if you are forced to use only small resolutions?

So, I was left with manual entry (one of these days we'll get FuseCal's event harvesting much better for these kind of events). I wanted to use the iPhone's calendar, but there was no way I could sync with it and at the time you could not add new events to the calendar directly on the phone (but who would want to go through that painful process for that many events?)

The calendar on the iPhone was not allowed to sync with any calendar application I had available to me. I am not a Mac user, so I do not have iCalendar, and I am not a typical corporate user so I do not have Outlook. Heck, I even tried to see if FuseCal would sync with it, but that was a long shot anyway. Basically, all the calendar syncing options for the iPhone required someone who spent money on it! I use Google calendar, so this wasn't working out so well for me.

I ended up deciding to use Google's mobile web interface for their calendar app to view the schedule. I painfully entered each session, and it actually worked out pretty well! I was able to enter the events on my computer, and see them from the web interface on my phone.

I was mistaken how well this would work for the convention. The Wi-Fi was overloaded, and I had no signal, leaving my connection to the internet spotty at best. I had to leave the calendar up on the browser so I could still have access to it when I didn't have a connection. The most annoying part, though, was whenever I checked to see if I had a connection, it would clear my browser's cache! I was stuck thinking to myself, "Should I try to connect and check my email and risk losing my calendar, or should I just no longer use my phone so I ensure I keep my calendar?" Those are questions you should not have to ask yourself.

The final nail in the coffin that made me return the iPhone was the inability to add or edit events on the phone ^{[Yes, I know this has been updated since I used it]}. Birds of a Feather were ad hoc sessions, and I had to write them down on a piece of paper so I could plan my schedule. Then, what became really annoying was when one of the presenters became sick which changed half the schedule for the day as they rearranged a bunch of sessions to allow him to present later in the day. I looked up at the notice with all the sessions I was interested in rearranged, and back down at the iPhone with a scowl and told it, "You're useless. You're going back to the store."

The other thing that confused me was the MP3 player. Now, I have tried to explain this issue to other iPhone users, and apparently no one has had this problem. Maybe there was some strange way that I was using the user interface. Nevertheless, it annoyed me greatly for every time I stopped the music all my play-back preferences were reset. The default setting for play-back is all songs in alphabetical order, and for some crazy reason it kept resetting to that! I could never just click play and go. No, I had to always go into the play-back preferences and tell it to play all music at random.

That bug became annoying real fast as I was stopping and starting the music frequently during my commute and between sessions at the convention. I began to fear pausing/stopping the music, so I would instead remove and replace the ear buds (occasionally dropping them), each time wishing I could just reach into my pocket and press a pause button. I ended up fearing to check my internet connection, and fearing to pause my music. The UI for hitting 'next' was also difficult; since it was not a button, I had to just try to guess where on the screen the 'next' button was if I was not looking directly at the screen (such as when in my pocket).

Note taking was also a pain because there was not a way to get the notes off! There was no syncing whatsoever. Sure, I could email a note to myself or something, but if I am going to have to plug in my phone to sync data, why can I not also sync my notes? I thought it would be good to draft blog posts over time wherever I happened to be, occasionally on my computer, and occasionally on the iPhone.

I never got around to trying to get email working on the iPhone. My email situation is complicated because I use Gmail and heavily use labels and filters to automatically sort all my email. I have personal stuff along with company stuff and many clients, all of whose emails are meticulously sorted through filters. Most email solutions for the iPhone out there would only allow me to sync my inbox, which for me is only for personal and unsorted emails. I certainly did not want to be bombarded with unsorted emails.

It was too much of a headache for that first week I had the iPhone to figure out an email solution, but whatever the final solution would have been, I'm sure it would be complicated and likely substandard. It was easier to just use the gmail browser interface, however, that didn't allow me to draft emails offline.

At the time, I was also thinking ahead. I was getting a new computer and knew I would be switching to Linux. iTunes doesn't work on Linux, so how was I going to sync my data? Some Linux iPhone users just never sync, actually. That was not really reasonable for me, considering the price I was paying for the phone.

In the end, it ended up being an awkward phone with internet access and a shitty MP3 player. Certainly not worth the money for a user like me.

Why the iPhone sucks for me

The tl;dr summary:

• Photos are scaled down, and there's nothing you can do about it
  • No high-rez photos where you can show people details
  • No graphics (like graphs, charts) where you would want to zoom in for details
• Calendar syncing is only compatible with for-pay calendars
  • No Google calendar
  • No Sunbird
• You can not add events to the calendar (at the time I was using it)
• The browser clears its cache if you check for an internet connection
  • If your connection is spotty, you can't leave info in a browser window, such as Google calendar
• As a Gmail user who uses labels extensively, IMAP wasn't appealing
• The MP3 player kept losing my play-back preferences
• Not compatible with Linux
  • How was I suppose to be able to sync my data?
• No note syncing
  • Sure, you can email it, but what is the point of that?
• The virtual keyboard is really only so-so

The G1 Android experience

After my disappointing experience with the iPhone, I've kept my eyes open for other options while I stuck with my old cell phone (which people think is from the 90's). When I started hearing details of the Android, my interest was definitely piqued.

The primary problem I had with the iPhone was syncing my data, and the G1 solves this flawlessly. All the data I want to sync - email, events and contacts - are instantly synced wirelessly upon your first login. I was able to access all my data on the phone while I was in the store before I completed my checkout.

Wireless syncing with my data on my Google account solves the biggest problem I had with the iPhone. Events on my various calendars are available off-line with the ability to add and edit events and have those changes automatically sync with the version in my Google account.

The other way I tried to get the Drupalcon schedule on my phone is also possible on the G1: files are not downsized on file transfer. I can put full resolution images on the phone and still be able to zoom in and see its details. With the G1, I could have put the Drupalcon schedule chart on the phone and zoom in to see the sessions.

Your email on Gmail is accessible using the off-line app on the phone, with all the features Gmail provides, browsing by labels, adding labels, archiving, etc. And of course, all your changes are wirelessly synced.

All the contacts on Gmail are also added. If you were like me, using Gmail since 2004 before there was a difference between "suggested contacts" and "my contacts" then you have a mess to clean up. But after a bit of pruning, you end up with a very comprehensive list of people you know automatically added to the phone. Adding a phone number to your G1 will also add it to your Gmail contact list (giving you a nicely exportable list, BTW), so you might as well also ask for the person's email address!

Sorting the contacts is nice. You can filter by groups and only by those with phone numbers. You can also have a favorite list to make your best friends easier to call. But wait, it gets easier: there is automatic voice recognition. It looks like the data they've been gathering from GOOG-411 has been put to good use! Just say someone's name and it will bring up a list of people from your contacts it matches. And it is scarily accurate - it actually understood my last name :)

The G1 works flawlessly with Linux. I just plugged it in, and instantly had access to the file storage. No drivers, no special programs, just simple file storage like any external drive. Since all the syncing is wireless, there is no need for extra fluff. And, just like any external drive, you can put any file you want on it. You could choose to buy several storage cards for different needs if you so wished, such as separate cards for MP3s, file storage and high-rez photography.

I really like the phone. Since I realized that I did not like the iPhone within a week, I gave myself a week to try out the G1 before making a commitment. After a week, I am still pleased with it so today I had my phone number transferred and my old cell phone cancelled.

Why Google Android is great for me

The tl;dr summary:

• As a Google user, all my data was synced immediately in the store
  • Data is synced wirelessly and quickly
• Automatic syncing of Gmail
  • Offline access to archives and email drafting
  • Labels work great!
• Automatic syncing of your calendar
  • Access to all your different calendars (personal, work, etc)
  • Event authoring and editing
• Automatic syncing of contacts from Gmail
  • Sort by tags and/or those with phone numbers
  • Favourite contacts
  • Automatic voice recognition for all contacts (works pretty well, too)
• Files are not scaled down when transferred
• Works with Linux
• Can be used for file storage
  • Any files stored can be accessed on the phone as long as you have an app that can read the filetype
• A real keyboard, including a full number row
• I love the trackball
  • Using gestures for too long causes my hand to cramp up

It's simple: iPhone for Mac users, Android for Google users

I don't know what the non-Mac, non-Google users will do, though. Maybe use windows mobile, or Blackberry or something.

Data syncing is an important issue to consider. It is rather obvious that the iPhone will work more seamlessly for those with Mac computers, while a phone driven by Google will work more seamlessly for those who use Google applications. The vast majority of the problems I had with the iPhone and my windows mobile PDA from years ago were caused by difficulties syncing. All the advantages I have with using a Google-powered phone is because I am a Google user; others may not reap such advantages.

However, I do believe that syncing with the Android is still much easier than the iPhone. Wireless automatic syncing surely has its advantages! You can use FuseCal to sync your Outlook calendar or iCalendar (or any other calendar with iCal support) with your Google calendar, which would automatically send its events to your phone. Contacts can be quickly imported into and exported from a gmail account - even if you never use it for email - where they will be pushed to the phone. Plus there is an app for handling POP3 and IMAP email.

With the ease of syncing, I would recommend an Android-powered phone to a non-Mac user.