News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Android is better by ScottWhigham on Monday August 12, 2013 @01:08PM (#6200312)
Strange. I recently switched to Android after 4-5 years on iOS. I miss iOS' "logicalness" and singularity - there was one place for a setting and it was logically placed. In Android, there seems to be sometimes as many as five places to change the same setting, and often you have cascading settings that are overridden by just one app while it is running.

It's quite frustrating, just to pick one, to figure out where to go when you want to change your wallpaper. Settings -> Display -> Wallpaper. Weird - maybe it's just me but "Display" is not associated with "Wallpaper" in my head. "Display" means things like screen resolution, which device I want the display beamed to, etc. Android is riddled with "not quite wrong but takes a second to remember" things like this.

I told my wife yesterday, "I didn't think it was possible that someone, in 2013, would develop a phone that was worse at event notifications than the iPhone but they've done it with Android!"

For reference, I've only been on Android for about six weeks at this point. I did two weeks with the HTC One, returned that (camera was not to my liking), and went w/ the S4. I like the display size on the S4. I imagine that, if nothing else changes, in two years I will switch back to an iPhone provided that the screen size is the same or bigger.

To me, iOS is better. I miss it.

Re:Android is better by kllrnohj on Monday August 12, 2013 @01:49PM (#6200557)
> I told my wife yesterday, "I didn't think it was possible that someone, in 2013, would develop a phone that was worse at event notifications than the iPhone but they've done it with Android!"

How are Android's notifications worse than the iPhone's? Android's notifications have consistently been regarded as superior. There's a reason Apple straight up copied Android's notifications, Google got this oh so very right.

Re:Android is better by ScottWhigham on Monday August 12, 2013 @02:07PM (#6200664)
Android's event notifications are far worse - there are times when an alarm goes off, I touch the screen, my "unlock" screen shows, and then I'm taken to my home screen. I'm left wondering, "Wait - what just caused the alarm to go off?" There's no notice outside of the alarm. When I look at the notifications page (swipe down from top), there is nothing. The only way I can find what my appointment/event was is to navigate to my calendar. That's way worse!
Re:Android is better by kllrnohj on Monday August 12, 2013 @02:11PM (#6200694)
By "alarm" do you mean calendar notification or alarm clock alarm? Because alarm clocks don't require unlocking to see what they are, it sounds like you may be dismissing them before looking at them.

Calendar notifications are in the notification tray until you dismiss them

I don't know what other "event" notifications you are talking about. Also note that a lot of this is up to whatever app you are using and not Android itself.

Re:Android is better by ScottWhigham on Monday August 12, 2013 @03:05PM (#6201020)
By "alarm" do you mean calendar notification or alarm clock alarm?

Calendar

Calendar notifications are in the notification tray until you dismiss them

I wish. See my post for description of what happens 2-3x per week on my Galaxy S4. I'm using the built-in calendar.

Re:Android is better by kllrnohj on Monday August 12, 2013 @03:43PM (#6201203)
Oh, try using Google Calendar instead: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

(or whatever other calendar program you want - there's really no need to stick with the built-in if you don't like it)

Re:Android is better by eblah on Monday August 12, 2013 @01:30PM (#6200468)
Maybe it's just me, but I think changing wall papers on Android is much more simple than iOS. Actually, all you need to do is just long press a blank area and change the wallpaper.

It's simple, basic shortcuts like this that are the reason I like Android. It does take some getting used to, though, if you're coming from iOS (I made the move back in 2010).

Re:Android is better by MaysonL on Monday August 12, 2013 @02:05PM (#6200654)
And how do you discover a simple basic shortcut like that?
Re:Android is better by ScottWhigham on Monday August 12, 2013 @02:10PM (#6200680)
Yea, I get that there's a whole "Microsoft vs. Linux" thing about iOS vs. Android (I'm dating myself at this point). The difference, for me, is that I don't want to 'learn' my phone. I want to play, surf, chat, and talk - that's it. I'm perhaps different than most here on this site specifically in that regard. I enjoy learning the OS of a computer, but I could care less about spending brain cells learning 500 shortcuts for things that "you need to know" because the OS was so clunky.
Re:Android is better by hillbillyjack on Monday August 12, 2013 @01:19PM (#6200393)
I like the way apps work in android better than iOS they seem to have more freedom to work (things like Tasker being able to work with multiple apps, and Google Play Music able to run in the background and sync without me having to open the app every once in a while) .

As for your settings maybe you just aren't thinking about the android way, for changing the wallpaper you should probably be pressing the menu button on the home screen much like you would right click on the desktop in Windows.