I do think there is a lot to be said about having access to any and all apps that are available, not just the ones Apple approves. For, people with an understanding of how apps work, permissions, what kind of access they are gaining, etc. I am not sure that would be a problem. But for people like my brother or my employee who just download and install any app that looks like something they would like, there may be problems. They have no idea what these apps do, or what kind of access they are allowing. You would think that people's reviews would raise warning signs or alerts. But, evidentially they didn't and they still got hacked.

Aside from how I plan to use MY phone and just from an enthusiast standpoint, I would prefer open source and open market, even with its risks. But, again, that's just based on what I would LIKE. Now, based on how I would use it for my business, I really don't even want access to anything that hasn't been thoroughly screened. I can't speak about the apps that were pulled for no reason, but I am referring to anything that poses a risk to the OS.

One issue in particular is when Android users do have to restore after being hacked, or even after a major crash. My understanding, and I am not sure if this is true, is that the Android OS is a more fluid and flexible OS and varies from one phone to the next. So, if say my Droid crashes and I want to just restore everything, contacts, apps and all to my new Samsung Galaxy S, I may run into issues with field mapping, and I may even have to go back to the app store and download the apps again. I used to have to do that on my BB, and it drove me crazy. I got to the point where I didn't even bother downloading them again and just learned to live without them.

But, on the iPhone (I have never owned one, so I am not 100% sure of this), I am told you can plug the new phone in, restore from the last backup and you are up and running like the old phone, apps and all. That alone would be a H U G E factor for me, specially coming from BB where I had to reload all of my apps after major crashes. I really don't want to have to go back to the app store and re-download or re-load anything. I just want to restore and go, especially if I am in the field. I usually carry my laptop with me so restoring from a current backup even on the road would be pretty easy. Provided my phone would be back up just like it was before, that alone would almost make the iPhone worth its price to me.

It almost seems as though the Android OS is more of an enthusiast's platform and the iPhone IOS is more of a user's platform. Maybe like having a classic Mustang or Camaro where you can get under the hood and do some part swapping, and tweaking without having to deal with the on board computer monitoring system. I actually prefer Honda though.

I think that is true. My 17-year-old boy, who has rooted his Android phone from hell to breakfast and is always downloading some new OS tweak that is technically still in beta and not really ready for prime time, is a much more appropriate Android customer than me -- who just wants the thing to work and stop freezing or rebooting itself four times a day.

The Android (as I said upthread) is much more reflective of compu-geek culture, where high tolerance prevails for failures and crashes, because workarounds are part of the "fun." This same mindset hampered PC growth 15 years ago or so, because new users who were used to TV set-class reliability couldn't believe how screwed up Windows PCs were, right out of the box -- both hardware and software -- and how casually their maddening flaws were accepted in geek culture. Macs were the antidote to that.

In Phoneworld today's Android OS seems culturally similar to Windows 3.11. It sort of works, a lot of the time, but you have to forgive a lot also.

In a sense the Android-versus-Apple app debate is a variation on Windows-versus-Mac OS. Windows: more open, more apps, more vulnerabilities and hack risk, ongoing usability and stability issues, constant security worries, more trouble. Apple: less open, more of a walled-garden environment, fewer apps, fewer vulnerabilities, much better platform stability and user-friendly experience, fewer security worries and less trouble.

This is true. When I upgraded from the original iPhone to 3GS, everything carried over. Apps, app state, recent calls, text messages, the digits that were on-screen on the calculator, and even the stopwatch I started as an experiment kept going from where it was.

And with iCloud and iOS 5 from earlier today, I fully expect that my iPhone 4S upgrade won't even require plugging in to sync, since it backs up and restores online instead of to my computer.

In contrast, I was trying to fix a problem on my Nexus One (Android), and I was halfway through the (incredibly difficult) process of restoring it to factory condition before I realized I didn't have backups. All my mail and contacts are synced, but I lost all the text messages, apps (I have no idea what I had installed, and Google only remembers the paid ones), and app data.

Sorry to snip, but what? It's 4 steps. They may not make much intuitive sense, but they're hardly difficult.

If RIM release BBM for Android, I think I'd jump that way. (Currently tempted by the Nokia E6 instead.)

However, is there any Android device with a) a decent QWERTY keyboard (not soft - no matter how much I like swype) and b) no compatibility issues with Android marketplace apps due to screen shape/resolution?

Believe the Droid 2 has both the soft key (if you want to play with Swype) and the physical keyboard, though it's a slide-out. I'm not aware of any compatibility issues, as the screen should be within the guidelines of 'standard' in the android world.

Fantastic! That's exactly what I was hoping for. I can't count the number of times that I lost all of my apps because I got tired of re-installing them after every major BB crash.

My iPhone is set to arrive tomorrow and I expect to spend a good part of the weekend learning the ins and outs, getting my apps in order and transferring all of my passwords over to the new phone. But, I am hoping it will be the last time I have to worry about all of that.

I am not sure about the exact sequence of steps, but I have been told it is not all that easy to get to pre-crash state. Both my brother and my employee also said that it was difficult to get their Android back up to where it was before the they were hacked and my employee in particular is pretty tech savvy.

I am not an anti-Android guy by any means, I actually like the open nature of the OS and some of the hardware specs of many of their devices. Granted this is just two people, but I think that for a lot of people out there what may seem simple for many may not be simple for them. And if it is, going through the steps to get all of their apps back may take more time than they are willing to spend.

Again, their biggest gripes were the steps that were necessary to get their Android phone back up to "pre-crash state" (SMS, missed calls, apps, etc.)

I liked the Droid Pro keyboard, and considered that early on, but since I have never owned one, I am not sure about your second requirement.

While nothing can match the BB keyboard, especially the new Bold 9930, the Droid Pro was the closest I found. The only drawback was that the hardware specs were way behind the current offerings from Samsung, Motorola and HTC.

Sure, and I don't mean to imply that what I think is simple should be the same 'simple' for everyone, but I find there's a tendency to massively overstate how difficult it is to do things on the android platform. For instance, to back-up my phone, I pitched $5 for a 3rd party app that handles it for me. Did it come with it? No, but I don't believe that an app download is that great a hardship. *shrug*

I should mention again that I had an iPhone originally, and liked it, so I'm not trying to bash Apple or suggest that it's a poor product or anything about those who like it. I just think there's a lot of similarity with Android/Windows/Linux, in that they're made out to be far more complicated than they need to be, and as a result, people *believe* they're extremely technical.

Interesting. So, since I will have 14 days to return my iPhone should I not like it, you are saying there is an app that cost $5 that would essentially make backing up and restoring as easy as it is on the iPhone (SMS, Email, missed calls, and apps)? So, if I would have purchased a Droid Bionic, which is what I almost bought before pre-ordering the iPhone, for the cost of a $5 app, I would have the same full and seamless backup and restore capabilities as the iPhone?

Bottom line is that either OS sounds like it is going to be a pleasant change for me, even as much as I like my BB keyboard and e-mail. Coming from a BB, both the iPhone and Android phones are offering features and specs that seem to be light years ahead of what I am used to.

:confused: I have had my Nexus One for over a year and a half, and not once needed to restore for any reason. Major crash? My cheapo SD card got corrupted and I had to get a new one, which involved resyncing my music with iTunes.

Hacked? Hacked how? I suppose if you're silly and download some app that's malicious this could be a problem. But that's why you make sure you know what you're downloading. The same applies for a computer: Mac or PC.

It's more that each manufacturer takes the stock Android from Google and customizes it to varying degrees. Not sure what fields you're talking about...Gmail, Facebook, etc all live in the cloud and app data sits on the SD card.


Funny, my BF updated his iPhone to iOS 5 last night and had to re-download and reinstall all his apps because the update process cleared his phone and didn't back up the apps.

I would beg to differ - I think they're both comparable platforms, but Apple's marketing genius would have people think otherwise.

Me too :)

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Sorry. I have both. I cannot completely back up my Android phone without voiding my warranty from what I can tell. To back up my phone, HTC Droid Incredible 2, from what I can tell I would have to:

1) Spend several days reading how to root the phone
2) buy a clip - whatever that is
3) get hold of a Linux computer
4) Use the clip to allow the phone to be manipulated thus voiding the warranty
5) load software to the Linux machine then from there to the phone to do a backup of the ROM
6) back up ROM
7) load software to Linux machine with new ROM then add to the phone
8) buy backup software
9) back up phone.


With an iPhone I have to:
1) plug into computer
2) surf web while it backs up

Verizon tech support is a contradiction in terms

Here is their manual

Step 1: Remove battery if it's not an iPhone
Step 2. Try removing app (choose anything, take a wild guess)
Step 3: If 1 and 2 didn't work, say the phone was hacked

Or, download readily available back-up software. Some of which even allows you to back up your apps as an APK file to make it easier to transfer them. Further, at least on my X, I can just plug the phone into a USB port and drag and drop files at will (unrooted).

The question in my mind is, why do you need to back up your phone? All your data is stored on Google servers. COntacts, app purchases, etc. I could see backing up the SD card, though Lookout backs up photos from there automatically if you set it to do so. So I'm unclear why anyone would want to back up their phone. You're essentially backing up an image of your Android installation, which as has been noted is only useful for restoring to the exact same model phone.

For example, I did eventually use a custom ROM for my Nexus One - after having had the phone for about a year, I wanted to get rid of Google-installed apps that I couldn't otherwise delete but were taking up space. I also wanted T-Mobile's wifi calling to work. I didn't back anything up. I just unlocked the bootloader and installed the custom ROM. Then I logged back in to my accounts and as if by magic my contacts and apps were repopulated.

In any case, people should use a phone they like most. My perspective is just that Android can be just as user friendly and easy to use as iOS, and that the bulk of the perceived difference is in peoples' minds because of corporate marketing departments.

@CR1970 - please don't inline quote. I can't quote your reply when you do that because the BBS software ignores everything in "QUOTE" tags when replying. In any case, I find it highly unlikely that anyone hacked either phone. As jfe pointed out, it's probably just a catchall excuse that the tech used because he didn't know what the real problem was. It seems like either a badly written app or an app that wasn't well tested on that particular phone model. Yes, this problem wouldn't happen with an iPhone because there are so few iPhone models and Apple rigorously controls code that runs on iOS. Saying that someone hacked a phone or a computer implies that the device was worth the time and effort to hack it. Unless it's Barack Obama's Blackberry or something equivalent, I doubt anyone would bother.

All the above notwithstanding, my next phone may very well be an iPhone. I like Android but want to play with iOS a bit. And my bf is very excited about the possibility of abandoning Whatsapp and communicating via iChat or whatever the new BBM-like thing is called.