this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023

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Android

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Google's increasingly prickly Android perception problem (www.computerworld.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm genuinely curious, what can iOS do that Android can't?

[–] a_fancy_kiwi 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ignoring low hanging fruit answers like “iOS can use Apple apps” or “iOS gets more than 4 years of updates”; These are hardware specific but they work out of the box:

I don’t know if this is still true and even if it is, it’s not true for much longer; satellite SOS
LiDAR on the pro phones and faceID. Both can be used for 3D scanning
this also may not be true anymore but I had a bitch of a time getting my WireGuard VPN to automatically turn on when I left the house on android. I remember a pixel OS upgrade breaking my tasker script. Works fine on iOS.

Edit: I know android can unlock with your face. That’s not what I’m talking about. The 3D scanning aspect is what’s cool

Edit 2: I know there are things android can do that iOS can’t. Just answering OP’s question

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So some iOS devices can do things that all Android devices can't?

I mean I can cherry pick stuff some Android devices can do, too.

None of my four iOS devices can do any of what you've listed. (2 phones, 2 ipads)

[–] a_fancy_kiwi 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So some iOS devices can do things that all Android devices can't?

Yes. Op didn’t stipulate that the differences needed to be true for all of iOS

I mean I can cherry pick stuff some Android devices can do, too.

That’s not what Op asked

None of my four iOS devices can do any of what you've listed. (2 phones, 2 ipads)

I stated some features were hardware specific and if your devices don’t support Wireguard (my third point) then they are really old and likely not supported anymore or maybe work devices that are locked down. Regardless, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true and I stated caveats where necessary; I answered OP’s question.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YOU made that comparison. Which makes your argument, as Click and Clack would say, booooooooogus

[–] a_fancy_kiwi 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YOU made that comparison

Yes. Because that’s what OP asked for:

I'm genuinely curious, what can iOS do that Android can't?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YOU made the cherry-picked comparison of specific iOS features to specific Android devices, not Android itself.

Sheesh, how disingenuous can you be? Just finish Sophistry 101?

[–] a_fancy_kiwi 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Points 1 & 2 are true for all of Android as far as I’m aware. Point 3 is also probably true for all of Android past a certain version but I have no way of testing so I disclosed it affects pixels. I don’t know what you latched onto that made you so upset.

If you can’t buy an Android device with those features, for all intents and purposes, Android isn’t capable of those features. If you think OP is building an Android device with the hardware for features 1 & 2 but stopped by Lemmy to figure out if the Android OS was capable of using the hardware, you are delusional. Context is important.

Edit: I know you don’t actually think that, just making a point ^

Send links to prove me wrong 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Technically, no new Android phone I know of right now capable of securely unlock the phone with your face. But then all iPhone user I know prefer fingerprint to face unlock and hope Apple would implement underscreen scanner

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Let's be real, if you're security conscious then you're not going to use this method.

Security conscious folks in the states don't even use fingerprint readers because law enforcement can force you to unlock them with your fingers, face, etc. due to the fact that information isn't considered proprietary.

[+] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Just off the top of my head, Android allows multiple browser engines to work on it, allowing firefox to use extensions. Android can torrent, while you can't on stock iOS without hacks. Firefox with extensions on Android is god send if you're a power user.

For someone who claims to be a power user, it's really showing… And don't forget open source ecosystem is much much much bigger on Android.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] nappingkat 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Meaning, we dont have extension in firefox. We get it.

launchers; icon packs, system ui changes
custom roms
android kitchen to make your own android
those root level apps
adb (wireless as well.)
linux windows interoperability
set your cpu and gpu governor
kde connect and other stuff which wants to work in backend can keep working
others.. i dunno i am bored cannot think of more
ability to pirate apks
third party stores
easier to develop for

But yeah mostly for nerds🤓

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is a great list! Allow me to help expand it:

Multiple user accounts (great for kids)
Multi tasking split screen with different apps
Direct plug-and-play access to files on a computer with a usb cord

And since it's impossible to ignore the fact Android allows for hardware choice, there's hardware benefits like...

Faster charging
Brighter, more advanced screens
High frame rate (Apple is still stuck on 60fps)
Foldable
Better cameras
Charge other devices with your device
External storage Alright, there's a LOT more, but I realized I don't want to do the legwork haha. These are huge features, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Safari is extremely limited, and web developers are starting to hate it. For example, the latest wepm video type that's been out for years doesn't work on Safari. It's the only viable format for making videos small enough to not impact performance.

As such, iPhone and Mac users often don't have the same web experience as literally every other Browser. Not many people know this, but now you do!

Source: I'm a web developer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Are you for real?

Downloading third party apps is the single biggest advantage I'd argue android has over iOS. This is highly practical - for example, I get zero ads on YouTube, and it even skips the sponsored content. This is free to everyone on Android. You have to pay Google's troll toll if you want half of that on iOS (you cannot pay to skip the sponsored stuff.)

You can also easily, and safely install Roms on Android. This extends support for old hardware out, and gives full control over just about every single aspect of your phone.

Additionally, unless something changed recently, Firefox doesn't have extensions on iOS still. This means you can't use vital plugins looks ublock origin to block ads like you do on your computer.

Next we have one of my favorite features - swapping the entire launcher. You can't do that on iOS, but on Android you can easily switch between really creative and interesting layouts in seconds.

There's a lot of other things Android can do that IOS can't (multiple user accounts, simultaneously running multiple instances of the same app, multi tasking apps in split screen, advanced keyboards that have gifs and such built in, direct and full access to the storage via usb, changing the default system apps, etc.), but the above are the practical ones I use daily.