iPad

[Hoss]

I'm a CyanogenMod fan myself. HTC ONE now but came from Samsung S4. Also have Nexus 10, lots of iPads (mostly kids toys now), and a bunch of various Motorola tablets and phones that I was sent for testing (the Motorola Max is nice, wife uses it).  The older ones I have rooted to through Cyanogen but most of the newer stuff has moved right up to Kit Kat, so I keep it stock.

The carriers are getting away from the bloatware, in leu of devices that use the native Google launcher, or at least offer the option to choose (like my HTC).

I like Samsung's launcher and interface on the S5, but I also like having the ability to choose.  Apple doesn't provide that, unless you jailbreak it, which is far more time consuming than rooting an Android phone.

The one downside about the Nexus line is the soft navigation keys (back/home/tasks).  But even that has an upside to it (when rotated to landscape the keys rotate with it).

I'm waiting for the Nexus 6/X/whatever they're going to call it.  Signs point to Motorola producing it (the Nexus 5 was an LG product) as a next-generation Moto X with a 5.7 inch screen, but rumors abound.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Funny, I work for a software company and nearly every single developer, DBA and engineer we have carries an iPhone. The people in customer care seem to all have huge Samsungs, but not the real technical people. Almost all the web developers and graphic designers work on Macs as well. There are lots of iPads here too but outside of the QA devices I have never seen an Android tablet in use in the office.

We have an even split amongst the geeks....about half of us are religious fanatics (iPhone) and the rest are Androids.  Company provides either - personal choice - for tech services types and they seem to be slightly more Android....maybe 60/40.  IT guys like the iPhone, but they don't do any "real" work....   (ducking now...!!)

I share an iPad with another engineer for light occasional development and casual web surfing.

None of the phone users of either type has any kind of real performance advantage over the other for making phone calls.  The network has much bigger impact!  And both sides send/receive data, take pictures, etc just as well as the other.  No one has ever had a situation where they tried to send a file and lamented "If only I had a ....<fill in the other kind of phone>...

The biggest single item that is a universal complaint from both sides is that the screens are not viewable (in a reasonable way) outdoors on a job site with either type device.  The work we do, ya gotta use it outdoors and pretty much gotta put it in a shadow box to make it viewable.  Laptops - same problem....

[Conan71]

I tell people the iPhones are the "Smart Phone for Dummies".   

Fits me to a "T"!

[cynical]

iPhone 6 and iPad 2 here. Being the latest hardware, I expected the iPhone to handle the new OS, which it does. The problematic 8.0.1 update didn't affect my phone because I didn't manage to get time to install it until after the warnings came out. It's now running 8.0.2 without any issues at all that I have discovered.

The iPad 2 was the acid test. It is old and was already slow, but was still useful. Against my better judgment I upgraded to iOS 8.0 and had so many issues I reinstalled it as new and re-installed my apps from the App Store. After that I experienced only some minor speed issues with Safari that I resolved by disabling some of the automatic stuff under "advanced options" that I didn't really use anyway. Since then the iPad has been just fine. Facebook needs to be updated, but everything else just works. It is certainly not useless.

What happens sometimes is that the new OS is busy reindexing everything on the device for Spotlight Search and other things. The older devices don't have the horsepower to do that and operate normally, so they get really slow until the indexing is complete. The two cardinal rules for upgrading are:

1. Reboot the device (even after it has already restarted during the upgrade) and
2. Be patient and give the new OS a chance to get its bearings.

[Hoss]

iPhone 6 and iPad 2 here. Being the latest hardware, I expected the iPhone to handle the new OS, which it does. The problematic 8.0.1 update didn't affect my phone because I didn't manage to get time to install it until after the warnings came out. It's now running 8.0.2 without any issues at all that I have discovered.

The iPad 2 was the acid test. It is old and was already slow, but was still useful. Against my better judgment I upgraded to iOS 8.0 and had so many issues I reinstalled it as new and re-installed my apps from the App Store. After that I experienced only some minor speed issues with Safari that I resolved by disabling some of the automatic stuff under "advanced options" that I didn't really use anyway. Since then the iPad has been just fine. Facebook needs to be updated, but everything else just works. It is certainly not useless.

What happens sometimes is that the new OS is busy reindexing everything on the device for Spotlight Search and other things. The older devices don't have the horsepower to do that and operate normally, so they get really slow until the indexing is complete. The two cardinal rules for upgrading are:

1. Reboot the device (even after it has already restarted during the upgrade) and
2. Be patient and give the new OS a chance to get its bearings.

And then...

3.  Ditch the Apple devices and get an Android.

[sgrizzle]

I do tech support on both devices.

#1 complaint: "My android device locked up, I had to wipe it and lost everything"
#2 complaint: "I need help resetting my password"

Not kidding.

We tried to use Android in the enterprise, but the lack of consistent software updates, and the crap the carriers add to Android devices like the key logger I have on my AT&T phone made us drop it and go iOS only. Not to mention the tight exchange integration.

[Red Arrow]

Regardless of the platform:

WHY CAN'T THE PROVIDERS PUT OUT SOMETHING WITHOUT SO MANY BUGS AND THAT DOESN'T NEED CONSTANT UPGRADES?

Caps lock is intentional.

[sgrizzle]

Regardless of the platform:

WHY CAN'T THE PROVIDERS PUT OUT SOMETHING WITHOUT SO MANY BUGS AND THAT DOESN'T NEED CONSTANT UPGRADES?

Caps lock is intentional.

Get a carrier-branded Android phone. They never release any upgrades.

[Red Arrow]

Get a carrier-branded Android phone. They never release any upgrades.

I have a stupid phone with no data plan, by choice.

[saintnicster]

What version of the iPad did he have? 2nd gen?  Probably could have done a factory reset, and it would have been fine.

[Hoss]

I do tech support on both devices.

#1 complaint: "My android device locked up, I had to wipe it and lost everything"
#2 complaint: "I need help resetting my password"

Not kidding.

We tried to use Android in the enterprise, but the lack of consistent software updates, and the crap the carriers add to Android devices like the key logger I have on my AT&T phone made us drop it and go iOS only. Not to mention the tight exchange integration.

Tight Exchange integration?  Every iPhone I ever owned acted like it was a Delorean when it came to retrieving Exchange mail.  I'd sometimes get it right away, I'd sometimes get it 6 hours later.  At least with my Android I get it within about 5 seconds of my PC.

I'm not saying every iPhone does this, I'm saying every iPhone I ever used did it.

[DolfanBob]

What version of the iPad did he have? 2nd gen?  Probably could have done a factory reset, and it would have been fine.

I think it's the 2nd Gen. He downloaded the new update and it's back to it's glorious self. So he's taking back the LG G pad. Sending back the LG G3 and going ahead and getting the iPhone 6. The main thing he likes about the iPhone is the group texting with his family. He was missing some of the group text using an Android. Meh! to each their own on priorities.

[Hoss]

I think it's the 2nd Gen. He downloaded the new update and it's back to it's glorious self. So he's taking back the LG G pad. Sending back the LG G3 and going ahead and getting the iPhone 6. The main thing he likes about the iPhone is the group texting with his family. He was missing some of the group text using an Android. Meh! to each their own on priorities.

If you switch to hangouts for your SMS on Android you can group text all you want.  There are also other text apps on the Play store you can group text with (Handcent comes to mind right away).

[saintnicster]

I think it's the 2nd Gen. He downloaded the new update and it's back to it's glorious self. So he's taking back the LG G pad. Sending back the LG G3 and going ahead and getting the iPhone 6. The main thing he likes about the iPhone is the group texting with his family. He was missing some of the group text using an Android. Meh! to each their own on priorities.

If you switch to hangouts for your SMS on Android you can group text all you want.  There are also other text apps on the Play store you can group text with (Handcent comes to mind right away).

The G Pad is a tablet, presumably without an SMS plan.

With everyone on iPhones, they've all got iMessage built into the devices, so it's integrating the IM aspect that he's getting on the iPad with the SMS/MMS messages everyone else is getting.  He'd have to convince them all to get Hangouts and associate their (assuming they have them) Google accounts with that, then have an additional app to check on their phone.

[Hoss]

The G Pad is a tablet, presumably without an SMS plan.

With everyone on iPhones, they've all got iMessage built into the devices, so it's integrating the IM aspect that he's getting on the iPad with the SMS/MMS messages everyone else is getting.  He'd have to convince them all to get Hangouts and associate their (assuming they have them) Google accounts with that, then have an additional app to check on their phone.

I was referring to the reference of not being able to use their current Android and multiple SMS recipients.