In my general experience, the iPhone lineup of smartphones has much better battery life as compared to most Android phones out there as of today. Partially, it’s due to how you use your device, but it’s also the fact that iOS’ battery utilization and resource management is far superior to what Google’s smartphone operating system has on offer. I know I would’ve irked a lot of Android fans here, but hey, I already said that’s my personal assessment. However, as of late, iOS has been struggling with batter woes really severely, and the rapid releases of iOS 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 are testament to that fact. Fast battery drains are frequent, and while the Cupertino company is really making all the efforts to fix these, they’re having a hard time.
JoinedNovember 9, 2012
Articles530
Follow me on Twitter: @aatoo
One of Android’s biggest strengths over competitive smartphone and tablet platforms is the operating system’s allowance for customization. Indeed, when it comes to Google’s offering for smartphones, there’s hardly an area that you cannot change to you liking and will, ranging from something as mundane as a wallpaper, to theming the whole OS with various launchers, customized lock screens, widgets and whatnot. It was also Android that made popular the concept of live (interactive) wallpapers, and the widgets that the OS has on offer are nothing short, either. In such a scenario, any customization app becomes worth a look, especially if it offers something new.
Smartphones, in general, have evolved greatly over the course of past few years, with the recent of them seeing the most significant, defining moments in the mobile device technology. With its Retina display introduced in iPhone 4, Apple started a feud that particularly focused on higher resolution screens with remarkably deep blacks and crazy contrast ratios. The trend didn’t stop there, either, as certain manufacturers continued to raise the bar in the pixel density arena even if the Cupertino giant never took it above a certain level. These days, several high-end Android smartphones are boasting a true HD, 1080p screen packed in just about 5” of diagonal real estate, giving the crispiest displays that we’d ever dreamed of, to date.
I’ve expressed my likelihood for Windows 8 from time to time, and it’s very true that I believe Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system is one of the best that has ever come out of the Redmond software giant. The aesthetics are remarkable, the feature set has been greatly improved, and the overall user experience is fantastic, to say the least. Microsoft has also taken care of most of the stability issues as well, and generally, the idea of making the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 available to public has really paid off well in favor of the world’s largest software maker. However, that doesn’t imply that Windows 8 is without its grievances and qualms, one of them being the inability to prevent the system from automatically restarting after installing an update via Windows Update.
No matter how advanced and multipurpose smartphones become with time, their core function will remain the same; communication and keeping in touch. Then, it also remains no hidden fact that, at least for the foreseeable future, voice calls and SMS messages are not going anywhere, either. On that note, since you’re note always looking at your phone’s screen (hardly anyone ever is), it’s imperative that the device alerts you to the presence of new items that need your attention and addressing, and for that reason, we have notifications – ringer alerts, message tones, LED flashes, vibrations et al – which let us know when our smartphone has new notifications that need to be catered to.
For an advanced Android user, flashing is something they are bound to come across every now and then. Even more so, if you’re a regular visitor of one of the bigger Android modification and customization forums on the web, you’re more likely to have a knack for flashing different ROMs, tweaks, firmware and whatnot more than other users. Then, there are people who have an uncontrollable urge to try out every other ZIP file that they can get their hands on through recovery mode on their Android device, almost like an obsessive need to do so. Another group of Android fanatics that fall in this category are those who rely on nightly builds of any ROM – especially CyanogenMod – since they end up flashing a newer version almost every day.
I cannot say it enough that Android has evolved a lot over the years that it has been out there in the market. Not only has the operating system received a major interface and performance (under the hood) overhaul, but a slew of new features has also been added to the mix, making it all the more useful to any smartphone owner out there. With the improvements in the operating system also came certain new technologies to the block in terms of hardware, and some of them joined hands such that they not only complement each other, but are so dependent that you cannot use one in the absence of other. One such technology remains, NFC.
Root is one of the fundamental concepts for Android, right from the inception of the operating system, to the point where it has today become the leading smartphone platform, evolving far beyond it was when it started. When it was started, gaining root access on Android wasn’t as simple as it has become today, and much credit for that goes to the Superuser apps developed by ChainsDD, and then the SuperSU by Chainfire. Both these apps have made it “super” easy to get Superuser access, but that, too, is dependent on a custom recovery. And when it comes to custom recoveries, nothing could perhaps ever gain as much popularity as Koush’s ClockworkMod.
In its essence, Android is a variant of Linux, built over a shell of the open source operating system that has been a major contender in desktop systems for Microsoft’s Windows and Apple OS X. Since the mobile operating system is running a Linux kernel underneath, it therefore follows the same pattern and rules that apply to its elder sibling. Generally, Linux-based operating systems have a very efficient memory management mechanism, enabling users to make full use of the system’s available RAM. However, one thing that has plagued Android since its inception is the sluggishness that the OS generally presents, which becomes even more pronounced as you continue to use your device.
Facebook has evolved into something much, much more than what it was when the social networking platform entered the arena. The service has today become the most popular, almost viral social network, and no matter what they say or do, and no matter how many controversies they face, Facebook’s user base continues to grow. On their own part, the Palo Alto company continues to improve the feature set that the web app has to offer. That includes their mobile applications for Android and iOS as well, which are a large means to access the platform for a majority of users.
