I’m finally able to get back to my phone. Overall, the iPhone is functional. I can’t say that I consider it much more than that. The basic functions seem far more intuitive to me on Android. Especially since Ice Cream Sandwich.

Here are my issues with the OS, in what I consider most to least important (also least to most technical) –

• To call someone directly from the Messages app, you would have to scroll to the top of the recent messages in the thread, and click “Call”. This list of recent messages can be very long if you text a lot, quite inconvenient. It seems so simple. On the same note, pulling up the contact’s info from the app requires the same action. Otherwise you are required to go to the respective app (Phone or Contacts, in this case).
• Very limited integration overall. This is very evident when you’re trying to share a picture/video from the gallery/camera app. I thought that this was so obvious that I did not even notice it until I tried to post a picture to Facebook over the weekend. 
• The back button that will generally be in the top left, except when its not. For a company that is so big on intuitive UI’s, I’m not sure how this is even possible. At first I thought it was only the third party apps, but the “Back” function is scattered in system apps as well. Messages is the best example. If you press “Edit” you can delete individual messages, or you can press the button where the “Back” normally will be, and delete all messages in that thread. The “Cancel” button, which is the “Back” function, has now jumped to the top right. However, if you are in the SMS list, then the “Edit” is on the top left, as well as the “Done” for when you are finished deleting threads. It’s not even consistent in the same app.
• Over-aggressive auto-correct that you can not turn down. I am not saying that you can turn down the auto-correct in Android, but I would think that it would be possible considering how confident it is in iOS.
• Split Settings screens. This is up to the app developer. The developer can add the app’s settings to the iOS Settings app, or they can have settings in the app, or they can choose to do both. WordPress, for example, uses both; the settings located in the Settings app are different from the settings in the WordPress app itself. It’s up to the user to remember where the settings were located, as there is no link between them. (Note the “Settings”(Back) button in the left side picture vs the “Close”(Back) button in the right side picture, as mentioned above)

• Unified notifications across all accounts. This I feel is mostly relevant to the power users. I have 5 Gmail/GoogleApps linked to my SGS3, as well as the priority inbox set up in my main email account. The Priority Inbox function in Gmail will filter un-important emails (as defined by newsletters, emails to large groups, listservs, etc). On Android phones, you can set notifications for each account, as well as the Priority Inbox of that account, separately. I do not need to be notified for every email I receive for every account, especially for newsletters and the such, but I would like to know when a friend is trying to email me directly. This is not possible to configure in iOS, whether you use the stock Mail app or the Gmail app from the store.

I understand that the last bullet is probably not applicable to most users, but that is part of the appeal for Android. It’ll start out simple, but you can set up as complex of a system as you wish. Sharing options is a great example here, I can choose from Facebook, Dropbox, Gmail, Whatsapp, GroupCast(Samsung), Picasa, Bluetooth, WiFi, G+, Twitter, Foursquare, Skype or Google Drive; which are sorted by how recently you last shared to that app. On the iPhone, as I stated in one of my previous posts, I get to choose from SMS, Email or Twitter; otherwise I need to use the respective app.

Needless to say, I am very glad to be going back to my phone. Although the iPhone is usable, I can’t understand why it would be preferred over all the other choices available.

I use the priority inbox feature of gmail extensively. It filters out all messages that I will look at eventually but don’t want to be alerted about. I can set the notification to only alert me for “important” emails, so I am not bothered to know that buy.com has a special sale while I’m trying to work. I thought that at least the gmail app for this would operate that way but it seems that isn’t true.
I guess in the same vein, it would be nice to have different notifications for each of my email accounts. I have accounts that I treat similar to the “non-important” inbox of my main email. I will check it when I have time or if I’m looking for something but not really something I want to be alerted for. I cannot merge the account with my main account for security reasons. For this, I just did not set up the account at all on my iPhone while I am doing this experiment.

I understand that the Google services will be better integrated for Android, so I guess this is more of a comment on how Android fits me better.

Something else to bring up, it seems that the apps will give me push notifications but will still need to refresh when I launch it. Gmail knows I got an email, you already notified me of it. Why do you need to refresh to actually show me the mail in my inbox when I launch the app? I’ve noticed this behavior in both, the stock mail app as well as the gmail app.

I used to defend iPhone for the simplicity of the single button, but I noticed that it really is a mess. It’s truly frustrating when you have to work to find the “back” button in some apps, especially when there are some situations where they believe you shouldn’t go back and thus the button just disappears. There is no standard placement, although its often in the top left, it is not something you can depend on. I would much rather use the always there, always available capacitive or physical back button found on Android phones.

Next Post – I Know What I Want to Type

One of my original grievances with the OS, having to input my password whenever I download a new app. If its a free app I don’t understand why I would have to keep doing this. I understand for paid apps you might want that extra level of security but it makes no sense for the free apps.

I guess this next one is more of a question for now, since I may just not be used to the UI. When I launch an app from within something else, is the only way to get back to the first app through the home button and relaunching the app? Say I click on a link from Facebook, or follow a prompt to turn on wifi or location services, do I then have to go back to home screen to return to the original app?

Next Post – Mobile Site, Please!