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Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by FireBeyond on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @05:25PM (#5949197)
To quote you: "Citation"?

What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting?

Let's be clear too, three years ago, iOS was at version 3.1.3.

I would love to be enlightened, as an iPhone 5/iPad 4/rMBP owner.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by Cookingboy on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @07:06PM (#5949709)
60fps scrolling? A semi-decent animation framework for developers? Low audio latency and good power management? Pretty much all the advantages Apple has from their decade of experience of developing OS X frameworks?
Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by myko on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @07:46PM (#5949859)
> 60fps scrolling?

It's pretty easy to make UITableView's chug if you do something stupid when populating cells as well.

> A semi-decent animation framework for developers?

The property animation system introduced in Honeycomb and backported to what, 2.2? works very nicely.

> Low audio latency

Audio has been an issue on Android. I've not delved into it myself but this is certainly something that only seems recently fixed. Not sure this warrants calling the platform far behind though.

> and good power management?

I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by Cookingboy on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @08:16PM (#5949942)
There is a property animation system on Android, but it's woefully lacking when compared to iOS. IIRC it doesn't even support 2.5D transform with a Z axis and variable camera distance (which is useful for perspective transform). On iOS 7 they now have a full rigid-body physics engine built in and comes with a nice high level API for developers to take advantage of.
Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by FireBeyond on Thursday June 27, 2013 @12:15AM (#5950705)
"On iOS 7 they now have a full rigid-body physics engine built in and comes with a nice high level API for developers to take advantage of."

That's great, but the original comment I was discussing was the claim that "Android is just now getting what iOS had three years ago". iOS 7 is three to six months away, still.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by coldtea on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @10:01PM (#5950293)
It's pretty easy to make UITableView's chug if you do something stupid when populating cells as well.

Only the chuginess comes standard with Android.

The property animation system introduced in Honeycomb and backported to what, 2.2? works very nicely.

It's not really close to CA.

>Not sure this warrants calling the platform far behind though.

If you casually dismiss everything else too, of course not.

>I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

Like Android apps allowed to run rampant in the bg, draining the batteries pronto -- a complaint you hear all the time, and of which you can also find some measurements.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by myko on Thursday June 27, 2013 @10:17AM (#5952387)
> Only the chuginess comes standard with Android.

Sounds to me like you're trolling. This is not the case unless one is using a low end device.

> If you casually dismiss everything else too, of course not.

Pot, meet kettle.

> Like Android apps allowed to run rampant in the bg, draining the batteries pronto -- a complaint you hear all the time, and of which you can also find some measurements.

I honestly think you're just making things up at this point? Have you even used an Android device?

Yes, LTE was a big drain when it first came out. Generally Android devices handle power management very nicely.

At this point you just sound like a combative troll.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by coldtea on Thursday June 27, 2013 @09:07PM (#5955658)
This troll word. Do you use it with anything you find too uncomfortable to hear?

It's like discussing with a 10-year old. Either respond to what I write, ask me a question, ask for clarifications, or provide counter-arguments -- or don't and refrain from this subthread. The "you are a troll" accusation gets old quickly, as I approach forty. I could not fucking care less about going to a forum and making "joke comments". What I write is what I believe to be true, based on what I know.

So.

>Sounds to me like you're trolling. This is not the case unless one is using a low end device.

No, it's very much the case, EVEN on high end devices. And there have been posts from Android engineers on the issue, blaming various stuff, from the stop the world GC to the drawing thread scheduling. Here's one:

https://plus.google.com/100838276097451809262/posts/VDkV9XaJ...

It also links to another Google person, saying that "that's not it, it's because of the extra security Android offers, that has an overhead". Which is funny considering:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/05/14/mobile-malware-exp...

>>Like Android apps allowed to run rampant in the bg, draining the batteries pronto -- a complaint you hear all the time, and of which you can also find some measurements.

>I honestly think you're just making things up at this point? Have you even used an Android device?

Yes, I have. A Samsung mid-range one. Also borrowed briefly a high end LG one. Not impressed on both counts.

As for the battery thing, not only it's an issue, but a whole cottage industry has sprung around it -- with battery-saving apps being among the most popular (LOL):

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57581440-251/five-andro...

http://lifehacker.com/5990553/betterbatterystats-tells-you-e...

http://www.topapps.net/android/top-10-battery-saver-apps-for...

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobil...

I could similar list stuff forever...

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by myko on Friday June 28, 2013 @08:34AM (#5957584)
> No, it's very much the case, EVEN on high end devices. And there have been posts from Android engineers on the issue, blaming various stuff, from the stop the world GC to the drawing thread scheduling. Here's one:

You're still just being ignorant. This was a post by a former Software Engineer in Test Android intern who didn't know what he was talking about, hence why he was corrected multiple times all over the internet. In your own link he mentions that he was wrong but leaving the thread up for posterity! It's like you only post things you assume support your pre-determined world view without even reading them. Quote from Andrew on that post:

> BEFORE READING: A LOT OF MY ANALYSIS OF ANDROID PERFORMANCE IS WRONG, HOWEVER I AM LEAVING THIS POST UP BECAUSE OF MY COMMENTARY ON THE ISSUE.

So yes, I think at this point you're just trolling. I have addressed your points - performance is an issue on low end devices, not on high end devices. This is not unexpected. There are lots of battery packs for iPhones, that doesn't mean iPhones have relatively shit battery life, it just means there is a market for extending that battery.

Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can by coldtea on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @07:22PM (#5949772)
>What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting?

The basic feature it didn't have --and I'm not sure it yet getting--, is that it's not about features and feature lists at all, but overall polish, coherence of implementation and ecosystem.

That said, just randomly, some things that it didn't have:

- An actual deployment base for the new versions. Even TODAY (much less 3 years ago) half of the people out there use a 2+ year old Android version. (Google's own mid-2013 data).

- A good security story. Latest study: "Android accounts for 92% of mobile malware, malicious apps increase 614%"

- Tons of top notch apps that are iOS only (or appear on iOS years ahead of Android launch) because devs cannot be bothered with a platform that's too fragmented and with more people using it as a feature phone and not caring about apps. From Instagram, to Paper, to Vine, to Letterpress, Flipboard, and tons besides. (Sure, there are also Android apps that are not on iOS. But the highly celebrated apps, including apps that result in billion dollar businesses like Instagram, are always if not exclusive, then first on the iOS side).

- Low latency audio APIs. It's lack killed the musician's app market that thrives on iOS. Android started getting 1-2 apps this very last month, but it's still DOA on the audio apps market.

- A huge ecosystem of add-on peripherals -- from heart monitors to MIDI keyboards to camera tethering, to glucose meters, to external speaker bases.