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- Pattyo13, on 07/17/2009, -1/+461 page
http://www.maximumpc.com/print/7046 - Pattyo13, on 07/17/2009, -2/+36summary of their "conclusions"
BlackBerry
When we added up all the qualities we prefer in a smartphone OS, such as multi-tasking support, a good selection of bundled and PIM apps, fast operation, and messaging prowess, we realized that BlackBerry OS is a hair more powerful than iPhone 3.0 OS. Overall, apps loaded faster than they did on the iPhone 3GS. For those who want a rich selection of apps and better media and sync support, the iPhone is a better choice, but we really need multi-tasking in our OS.
iPhone
More apps than any other OS, powerful media support, and an easy-to-use interface make iPhone 3.0 is the major contender in the smartphone war. Yet, the OS falls behind by not supporting true multi-tasking and offering so-so PIM tools, both of which are offered on Palm Pre and BlackBerry OS.
Google Android
While Android shows promise, the commercially available apps are slim, and the OS ran slow on the T-Mobile G1 – at times, unbearably slow. We prefer the PIM apps and keyboard shortcut for BlackBerry OS as well. Android is not the best platform for movies, and desktop sync is AWOL.
Symbian OS
We were hesitant to put Symbian OS near the bottom of the list. After all, it is a powerful OS with a long history, and millions use it. The main problem we had, other than not finding too many apps in the Ovi store, is that the OS just doesn't do anything better than the top pick, in just about any category. Apple's iPhone OS has more apps, BlackBerry OS runs faster, and Palm's webOS is easier to use.
Windows Mobile 6
Why is Windows Mobile last on our list behind Symbian OS and Android OS? It is a solid and reliable platform, one that has proven its merit in business time and again. The problem is that the OS has not kept pace with the times. Touch support is just not that adequate compared to an OS such as Palm Pre's webOS, Android, and iPhone OS that were built for touch control. The OS was primarily designed for a stylus, and the mobile market has moved on to touch apps. The OS is also not particularly fast, and while there is an incredible selection of apps, none of them are really jaw-dropping or innovative – they seem to be all stamped with “vintage 2002”. The OS has an outdated look and feel, is not Web-centric enough, and works differently depending on the phone you use. - uberbeast1054, on 07/17/2009, -1/+24I am not sure this is a comparison of the OS as much as it is a comparison of phones. Until you can install all of the OSs on similar platforms, you have too many variables to determine which is the best OS just the best Hardware/OS bundle.
- inactive, on 07/17/2009, -6/+20If they are saying the BB OS is the best of the bunch, then this guy really has no idea what the hell he is talking about. The BB OS is old and on the verge of being the Garnet of 2010. The BB is basically a one trick pony, email, and even with that you need to be on BES to truly get the full experience. Everything else about the device fails when placed against Android and the iphone.
- gwaggy12, on 07/17/2009, -1/+14Their review of Android is completely lacking its most important feature: integration with Google Apps. The ability to create a calendar item and share it with anyone in my email/phone contact list, to read and (with an app) write G Docs, and to completely remove the division between online contacts and phone contacts is incredibly powerful.
- CSheikh, on 07/17/2009, -1/+14Hmmm... you have two different phones with two different plans. I am sure you are a reliable source on this.
- peestandingup, on 07/17/2009, -0/+11I hate broad comparisons like this with one "winner" at the end.
Different people need different phones for different reasons. - ZimbuTheMonkey, on 07/17/2009, -3/+13Sadly that's how a ton of people think, primarily iPhone fanboys. As if competition is a bad thing. When did multiple viable options become a bad thing?
- uppedbyhiggins, on 07/17/2009, -0/+9Turns out maximum pc is a pretty ***** tech news site. This is all I gathered from the article.
- bdbr, on 07/17/2009, -0/+9Yep - especially considering how much the evaluations focused on speed.
- protogenxl, on 07/17/2009, -0/+9There is no real summary page.
- inactive, on 07/17/2009, -3/+12BB has been around a lot longer and is offered on all carriers. And just like Windows is entrenched in many businesses, BB is also entrenched. And just because something is popular, doesn't mean its better. Windows and IE are examples of that.
- gweedo767, on 07/17/2009, -3/+12Anyone that has a Windows Mobile phone w/o TouchFLO just doesn't know what a Windows Mobile phone is meant to feel like.
- PDAIsAOk, on 07/17/2009, -0/+9This was terribly written. He says the iPhone has 10,000 apps available then a couple paragraphs later says there are 50,000. Then he says there is no way to receive messages like IMs once a program is closed completely negating the whole existence of Push for apps.
- FeloniusMonkey, on 07/17/2009, -0/+8Not a bad article, until the end. Author really needs to put a bit more into that conclusion/summary.
- twoboxen, on 07/17/2009, -0/+6Seriously? Are you all breeding now?
- ssj4vegita2002, on 07/17/2009, -0/+6Not only that, throw Cyanogen's modded Android on the G1 and tell me it isn't snappy. This is another plus side to Android - customization and tweaks. There are tons of modded versions of the OS, all with added features, speed tweaks, and GUI changes. Put one on your phone and it's like a brand new device.
- twoboxen, on 07/17/2009, -0/+6don't leave me hanging! WHAT IS A GREAT GADGET? I simply MUST know!
- ryansmith18, on 07/17/2009, -2/+8You obviously haven't owned a blackberry in the last few years if you think it's a "one trick pony" used only for e-mail. Now I agree that the iPhone OS is superior to it, but wow, you severely underestimate the functionality of the BB.
- 13373h4X0r, on 07/17/2009, -2/+7FIGHT !!!
[After a protracted battle, with exploding lithium-ion batteries, broken touch screens, activated water damage indicators, and lots and lots of piracy:] APPLE WINS!
[Then, in bloody, dripping letters:] FRUITALITY!!!
Although I've been developing iPhone apps with a friend as my sole source of income for the past 9 months, I still think a platform with no app restrictions whatsoever could become a smash hit -- but only if (like the iPhone and game consoles) there were only a single, very capable device for developers to target. The possibly-fatal flaw of Android -- like J2ME that came before it -- is that it isn't associated with a single, extremely capable device. It's the "write once, run anywhere" myth all over again. Sure, there are many ways to abstract away the differences between diverse physical devices, but you can't emulate a GPU, a video camera, or a touch screen, etc, when a device doesn't actually have those things! Even differing screen dimensions or color depths, or differing keyboard layouts, etc, can make developing a "single" app seem more like developing (and testing) dozens of different apps.
Anyhow, having a very limited set of target devices is a big reason why the iPhone was a brilliant success. Also, the iPhone hardware has many features, and is very fast and capable. Other devices compromise on RAM, CPU speed, or GPU performance, or flash memory, or integrated devices (video camera, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, touch screen, USB port, speakers, ear proximity sensor, etc), and thus doom themselves to mediocrity.
Developing for the iPhone is a dream because of the fast and capable hardware. I think the ease of porting something like Quake to the iPhone makes it clear that both the iPhone software and hardware are awesome.
Android is awesome *for specific devices*, but only an impossible effort to limit Android to a very short list of devices, and also to require a single store with a single payment arrangement with developers, could possibly compete with the whole system that Apple has with the iPhone. - yocouchdigga, on 07/17/2009, -1/+6saying his Android review was "flawed" would be a massive understatement. How about being able to root, overclock, tether, put new roms on? Free firmware updates, the last of which turned the phones camera into a camcorder with youtube uploading, added a virtual keyboard, better webkit?
even if he was testing rc33, this review is still garbage.
checkout the new hero rom (which works on g1s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTDSfbcbBU&fea ... - ImTheDuke, on 07/17/2009, -0/+5I love my G1. Great phone. Just wish it supported Flash
- inactive, on 07/17/2009, -0/+5Flash is coming around October. It has been confirmed.
- Asrrin29, on 07/17/2009, -1/+5exactly, I can't believe they'd base a comparison on one of the lamest phones for WinMo.
- Asrrin29, on 07/17/2009, -6/+10They chose a ***** phone to test WinMo on, of course the default non-HTC OS sucks. but try it out on a newer Fuze, Tilt, Diamond, etc, and see that it is up there with the best in terms of touch UI and ease of use. HTC's touchflo technology, the Cube, Manilla, TouchFlo3D all make this OS far superior then anything put on a treo. Plus you can change the UI to anything you want because the SDK is fully open to developers. bury as inaccurate because of this.
- Charlotte_Web, on 07/17/2009, -0/+4Microsoft is NOTORIOUS for pre-announcing products and upgrades, and then missing deadlines, by months or even YEARS.
Often when Microsoft pre-announces something, it's because they are trying to steal the thunder of a competitor releasing an actual shipping product. - AquaOSX, on 07/17/2009, -0/+4No overall article conclusion?
- Rudegar, on 07/17/2009, -1/+5not really don't see blackberry much outside of usa or palm even
- s73v3r, on 07/17/2009, -1/+5According to numbers release by Microsoft themselves, iPhone has more apps than WinMobile.
- DrKnowitall, on 07/17/2009, -1/+5because iPhone != smartphone
- ilmickeyli, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3I like my Pre.. Its far from perfect, but has great potential. I loved my blackberry but hated the browser.
- Charlotte_Web, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3Apple seems to be doing quite fine by pre-announcing NOTHING.
- CSheikh, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3If you know how to program in C, using objective C is not too much of a stretch. The main issue I have with the iPhone is not being able to have Apps running in the background. Other than that I have been quite impressed.
FYI - I haven't tried developing for Android or others, so I am not the best source for a comparison of ease of programming. - kebwi, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3Why did they say Android doesn't play uncompressed WAV? I'm writing an app that does that and it works perfectly. More to the point, I can send those same uncompressed WAVs to the factory-supplied audio app (Google) and it plays perfectly.
What were they referring to? - Rudegar, on 07/17/2009, -1/+4odd I had touchflo on my sonyE x1 and removed it
- boundless316, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3So, how many of you idiots have tried to call Hannah?
http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/mobileos/android ... - th3heretic, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3There will never be a victor in the Phone OS war, they will always compete with each other.
- MorpheousMarty, on 07/17/2009, -1/+4You are right in most cases, but windows mobile is on a ton of phones, and the review they gave would work on just about any phone, same with symbian. WebOS and iPhone are the only two which we can expect the hardware and the hardware to really be one and the same, with palm probably selling a few different flavors of their phone.
- Elizar, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3Android has great potential being open source. i think that given time it could be a much better competitor.
- uberbeast1054, on 07/17/2009, -3/+6I have a G1 and my wife has an IPhone.....with that said, the IPhone is a superior device but I believe the G1 has a TON of potential.....both are better than any Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone that I have owned. (Except the G1 has HORRIBLE battery life)
- arleym, on 07/17/2009, -1/+4Comparing the month old 3GS to the two year old G1 seems fair.
How does the 1989 Centel stack up against it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbJZ9HBw2k - MorpheousMarty, on 07/17/2009, -1/+4I, for one, have an iPhone and hope that the competition starts kicking ass. I love my phone but I fully expected the competion to release killer phones a year ago. So far, IMHO, the palm Pre is the only one that really competes with the iPhone on it´s terms, and at best is a good competitor. I really hope that next year there is a phone that blows my phone away and isn´t just technically better in some narrow use cases. I probably won´t buy a phone for a few years now, but I´m bothered by the fact that the competition isn´t doing their job and creating the competition that will produce the phones of the future instead of catching up to apple, which wasn´t even in this market 2 years ago.
- Pattyo13, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3didn't see a summary, but here's the intro
WebOS
After using a Palm Pre and its webOS since the launch last month, we can tell you this platform is one to keep an eye on. At the same time, it feels a bit like a proof-of-concept because there are only about 30 apps available from third-party developers, and the touch interface might be a bit too “out there” for the average user. (A few Pre newbies we know have not even figured out how to close apps with a quick swipe up on the screen.) For power users, webOS is a leader in the field with, even outshining iPhone 3.0 in terms of the easy-to-use interface and more obvious multi-tasking mechanics. - Catchpen, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3Since I put SPB shell on my Epix I haven't used my stylus since. As far as WM 6.1 being "rock solid in terms of reliability" I have to disagree since my phone or anyone else I talk to that uses WM 6.1 has to pull the battery at least once a week to recover from the damn thing freezing up.
- gweedo767, on 07/17/2009, -3/+6No you didn't. TouchFLO is exclusive to HTC phones unless you were running some custom cooked ROM.
- reboos, on 07/17/2009, -1/+4Thanks, you missed your summary of the WebOS though.
- mrBitch, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2RE: " .. And he also claims that the iPhone has more apps than any other OS."
He's right, and you're wrong : http://bit.ly/iphoneAppStats
" .. the number of iPhone applications has now exceeded what it took Windows Mobile nine years to amass." - stubear, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2Anyone know what that mixing board app is in the screenshots for the iPhone OS?
- mrBitch, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2@ Morpheous, RE: " .. I´m bothered by the fact that the competition isn´t doing their job and creating the competition that will produce the phones of the future instead of catching up to apple, which wasn´t even in this market 2 years ago."
Agreed, and well said. - wassim2k, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2Wow, was really expecting a feature grid with scores for each (kind of like in Car & Driver comparisons)
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