Company PR spin aside (something Sammy lays on rather thick as well, and spends a hell of a lot more money on than Apple), users who know their tech know the difference in innovation and fluff. Smart Stay is fluff.

Just for the record, I heard the entire Verge staff label Smart Stay as such, rather than real innovation while discussing upcoming Samsung releases and their notorious software glut. I also heard similar from Phil Nickenson from Android Central on Mobile Nations, as well. So it seems I share the same opinion as several verified Android experts.

Unless, of course, Apple had thought of it. Then it would be an “amazing feature” and “truly innovative”.

Can anything help Apple right now? No. Why? Because Apple taught companies how to survive in the emerging “next gen” tech world through brilliant marketing with adequate system integration. Sammy is doing better now that ever due to upgrading its marketing budget and seriously looking at their products from a consumer’s point of view. Like apple did years ago.

3 years from now Apple will announce their hybrid iOSX in an attempt to do what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8. A single OS. They will stop MacPro production and make their overpriced laptops touch-enabled. I think their plan will be a little more eloquent than what Microsoft has tried to do, however, microsoft has a lead now on the whole one OS thing. Google will do the same with Chrome and Android, as they gave the world a sneak peak at with their overpriced (mac pricing) Chrome Pixel. It will be an interesting time.

poor toolbag apple fan

That’s cool. Looks like you and I just had different experiences altogether.

I’ll never say that I won’t make the switch back, I just think that it’s going to take something revolutionary again like the iPhone was when it first hit the market.

Until then….. Cheers brother.

I see your point. You go with what works for you. Open mind on technology is great.
You touch on the subject of android and it’s reliability, it isn’t misleading at all. It is one of the reasons I switched to iOS. I had android smartphones for 4 years. 1 each year and all 4 gave me major operational problems. I would’ve stayed and gotten a Nexus 4 but it was hard to get, and the phone I had was malfunctioning so badly that I just left altogether.
Another example is a friend of mine updated his global Galaxy S3 to jellybean and he had to find a way to change it back to ice cream sandwich because the update had a battery killing bug. There was no update announced to fix it. There are many more issues like this.

I was an avid iOS user up until about a year ago. I didn’t switch immediately and owned several iOS devices when I bought my first Android based device. For about 4-5 months, I experimented with both. In the end, I ended up making the switch. I wouldn’t say that one was particularly better than the other, but the Android device just seemed to fit “me” better. I have many devices on my cellular plan, and limiting the number of “authorized” devices was a real speed bump for because of my large family. Other features such as microSD slots, user customizable interface, and other small items were what finally pushed me to switch.

To say that Android is unreliable, I think is misleading. I have have very few issues with any of my devices. I agree, some of the carriers are a little slow to approve the latest firmwares for the devices that they carry, but this isn’t the fault of the manufacturer of a particular device either. The manufacturers, for the most part, are quick to keep their newer devices updated. It is the carriers that prolong the wait in approving the updates.

Finally, I got a little irritated at AT&T and Apple pairing up to force owners into changing their plans. Limiting certain features of device based solely because a customer does not want to get rid of their unlimited data plan and move to a shared data plan is just plain wrong. There is no other way of looking at it.

These are just my experiences, and I do not “hate” Apple or the iOS, but it just stopped being the better option for me recently.

As Renkman mentioned – please take a look at the content of the site. Many of us (myself included) own Android based devices, in fact my daily driver is a Note 2.

So please… don’t be an A-Troll.

I think a lot of Android users sell iOS short when it comes to power. Just because the power of a device or OS doesn’t reside right up front in user facing settings and widgets, doesn’t meant that it doesn’t exist. I can’t tell you the last time I had a current gen iOS device lag doing anything. I guess it may have been the original iPad. That’s a LONG TIME, and there are plenty of powerful and demanding 3rd party apps out there in the iOS ecosystem. That’s “application use,” as I would term it.

As for Android, while it has come light years in terms of lag, it can still be found. There were plenty of occasions where I noticed my Nexus 7 getting a bit behind, even with the positive effects of “Project Butter.” Not horrible, but it was still noticeable.

However, the big difference between platforms for me is STILL in apps. The power of iOS is still the thorn in Google’s side. While there are fewer apps out there today that are iOS only (but still several that I use often), many cross-platform efforts on Android pale in comparison with their iOS counterparts.

For example, I use WebIS’ Pocket Informant and DataViz’s DocsToGo daily on both my iPhone and iPad Mini. I have TRIED to use them both on Android, but they are so bad. SO BAD. Missing features, broken features, crashes. Ugh They just don’t work. I know the fault lies with the developers here, but the result to the user is still the same- a great experience on iOS and an inferior one in Android. And these are just two examples. I can think of more, especially in gaming (Real Racing 2. Don’t even get me started), but it just makes me irritated since I paid good money for the three listed above on Android (one of which I can’t even use on my current Nexus 10- getting madder), so I’ll stop there.

This isn’t Google or Samsung’s fault, but it is still an issue for Android, especially when it relates to power iOS users who are interested in migrating or being cross-platform users. THIS is an area that could use some innovation, because it is a real weakness. Whether it is better tools or incentives, why don’t one of these companies actually DO something about this?

Anyway, while many may dismiss 3rd party apps and great, cheap dev tools in favor of built-in, up front, spec sheet features, there is still real power in apps. And that power still resides with iOS at the present time. Numbers of apps, espeically free apps, are absolutely meaningless. Look at the profits and usage stats. They are STILL dominated by iOS at a rate that is completely disproportionate to Android’s marketshare. Until Google or an OEM steps to the plate like Apple did with something as good as iWork, iMovie, or Garage Band, something that actually shows off the platform in a way that can be duplicated by a 3rd party app, this isn’t going to change. S Note is all fine and good, but Samsung is going to have to do better than that to really spur developers to look at Android first.

I would disagree to a certain extent. There are truly useful features that fill a glaring need, and there is stuffing the spec sheet to make an update look more impressive. The S Pen is a notable feature. NFC and touching phones- meh. S Voice and the like- nothing but “me too” spec sheet filler

I would put the camera feature that you mention somewhere between NFC and S Voice. It isn’t a complete rip off of something else that is total crap, however, it has limited real-world usefulness to many users. Case in point, the last time I had to manually adjust the brightness in one of my iOS devices was when I ran the iOS 6 beta a little less than a year ago. And that was just because of a bug that lasted through a few beta versions. I wasn’t having any trouble with auto screen dimming or shutoff before that in iOS 5, either. It just isn’t an issue for most iOS user that I’ve heard from. I have never seen where there is an outcry for this feature.

So, in a sense, Samsung solved a problem that didn’t really exist to prove a point and check a box. For a bigger phone with a bigger battery, sure, no big deal. That’s great. It isn’t going to negatively impact things, so why not. However, I have absolutely no desire to see this in an Apple product like the iPhone, which is smaller and therefore has a smaller battery (and I do personally prefer smaller devices with smaller screens). If given the choice between a feature that I have absolutely no use for whatsoever, and the battery life lost by turning on the camera module at certain intervals to check what I am doing, I will take the battery life every day and twice on Sunday.

Maybe that’s just me, but because of my opinion, I see this feature of Samsung’s as the equivalent of the nice stereo speakers on the front of HTC’s newly announced One phone. I’m sure they are great for phone speakers, but at then end of the day, they are PHONE SPEAKERS. Anyone in their right mind who cares about listening to music is going to buy a nice set of headphones, connect to a stereo system, or at least get a descent Bluetooth speaker like a Jambox. It’s a stat sheet stuffer to me. Nothing more. This seems to be very important in the Android world, but to an iOS user like me, it’s just noise, not true innovation.

as a former android user, i can say that there are some cool about it that makes it worth having. like the true multitasking feature, and customizing the screens. everything else seems similar to iOS. but what kills the experience of android is reliability and the inability to get the latest version of the OS without rooting.

i do like the new feature where the camera checks to see if there is a face reading the screen so it won’t shut off the screen. but everything else doesn’t grab me. what i would love to be innovated is for android and all these OEM’s is to kill the fragmentation and the bugs that come with it. the latter is why i gave up on android and gave away my Galaxy SII.

If you’ve used the Camera application on the Samsung Galaxy S3, you’ll notice that will do facial recognition and uses this feature to figure out who’s in the picture. Very handy because you can e-mail them directly. So take a picture of a buddy and e-mail them without even having to put the name in. That’s cute, but it’s not what I’m talking about.

Samsung has added facial recognition into lots of areas of their phones. You can unlock your phone just by holding it up to your face. If it recognizes you, the phone unlocks. Works pretty well, but a picture of a person will unlock it so it isn’t the highest security setting.

But here’s where it shines: Y’know when you’re reading something on your iPhone and the backlight dims after a bit? Samsung’s won’t do that! Before turning off the backlight, it turns on the camera to see if there’s a face in front of the screen. If there is, it doesn’t turn off the backlight!

That’s innovative.

This is a little thing that everyone will pooh-pooh, but one of the things you could say for Apple is that they get the little things right. If Apple can’t even get the little things right anymore, what hope do they have for getting the big things?

And yes, I do sell both devices on a daily basis, and some people just need more application use which Samsung delivers, but if you don’t need the extra functions, Apple has the smaller sleek design.

True it’s all about what the person actually needs a device for now a days. Both devices are good to their extent, you do have to admit though that Samsung has built in a lot more capabilities into their devices that make productivity a lot easier then what apple has, while apple has more of that everyday use. Now before you bash me, not everyone needs those productivity features, it’s situational. For example, if you are a manager at some company and doing some walk to see different things you can improve on, it’s a lot easier to write notes with the Galaxy Note 2, then it is to type in notes on a small 4″ screen. Or maybe if you are currently going to school, the Note 10.1 makes taking notes easier in regards to the stylus, because the stylus does actually interface with the screen. What i mean by this is you can actually shut off interaction from you fingers or hands so you can actually rest your hand on the screen without marking the screen up while writing with the stylus. This allows you to take notes for hours without getting carpal tundral syndrome. Or if you are a heavy internet browser, having a larger screen feels more natural to read web pages. The android devices are a lot more universal to just work with multiple devices, as an example you can send pictures to photo kiosks inside say walmart via Bluetooth, while Iphone is closed source and not capable.

Now that said, the Iphone gives you a smaller design so you aren’t carrying around this huge device if you have small pockets or don’t care for internet browsing or anything. There are also many more “fun” apps that you can get on the apple store that the android market doesn’t have, however android does have some. Also, if you are into photography, the camera on the Iphone is absolutely amazing, the picture quality that comes out of it is phenomenal.

Honestly the best way you can compare the two is Samsung is the Lexus to the apple Mercedes, Samsung has the luxuries, while apple has the name and style. So capabilities or look and feel.

While the mobile market has been in an incredible period of growth and change, we are getting close to this point. Innovation is great, but the pace is going to slow. It’s inevitable. That is the nature of technology. When an area of tech matures, the pace slows, and companies look to refine and build on what they have until the next period of “disruption.”

One could argue that Apple has pumped the brakes too early, but it isn’t that they are at a dead stop. They have spent their time and efforts refining what they have in iOS and their very broad range of products and services (a range that even Samsung can’t match in terms of computers, mobile devices, OSs, and ecosystem).

As a parallel to my previously mentioned business, Apple differentiates itself on device build quality and great service. Samsung must agree, since they have copied Apple’s store design, the place you go to get that great hands-on service that no one else can match right now, and copied it right down to the color scheme. That service and device build quality is just as, if not more, important than throwing new features and sizes against the wall to many of us. That’s what I sell customers every day, and it sells VERY, VERY well.

Really? That’s the best you can do to add to the discussion–iSheep? If you read our articles, you would see that even though we have a fondness for Apple products, most of us are open-minded, and very willing to discuss/debate opinions. Going right for the iSheep label is not very original.