Why do some techy people think Android is a better OS than iOS?

[ControlD]

And that is?

I think a lot of the issues have been documented here already, and there are certainly threads about this topic, but my main issues with iTunes are:

(1) One directional "syncing". I'm not sure how you can even define what iTunes does as syncing because it is one direction: PC to device. Almost everywhere else the term "sync" is used involves being able to get two libraries equal by moving files either direction.

(2) Tying an iDevice to one library. I should be able to put music on my phone from my laptop or my desktop. Not sure why I cannot do this with iTunes even when I have everything set to manual but it seems to be beyond Apple to allow this.

(3) No way to switch between syncing and manually managed media without wiping the device.

(4) No way to browse media other than as a flat list. I would like to be able to browse by storage location and even more so by date added. Why can't I easily see what I have added to my library in the last couple of weeks? I know there is a "recently added" playlist but that is controlled by iTunes. I want to be able to see what I added in a particular time period.

(5) No automatic updating of the library when new files are added. Almost every other major media manager allows you to simply copy files into your default storage location and have the library auto update. With iTunes you have to manually add all of your media unless you want to store your files in one particular "auto add" folder. I want to store my files in the hierarchy that I have been using for years, I don't want everything under the auto add folder.

Those are just a few that bother me, but really the first couple are the most frustrating to me. If you ever use any other major media manager there are so many little convenience features that iTunes is missing. If all you use is iTunes then you are never the wiser and probably don't think about it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I think a lot of the issues have been documented here already, and there are certainly threads about this topic, but my main issues with iTunes are:

(1) One directional "syncing". I'm not sure how you can even define what iTunes does as syncing because it is one direction: PC to device. Almost everywhere else the term "sync" is used involves being able to get two libraries equal by moving files either direction.

(2) Tying an iDevice to one library. I should be able to put music on my phone from my laptop or my desktop. Not sure why I cannot do this with iTunes even when I have everything set to manual but it seems to be beyond Apple to allow this.

Blame the labels.

Although Match "fixes" the laptop/desktop/iPod thing with the no-longer-separate libraries.

(3) No way to switch between syncing and manually managed media without wiping the device.

Not 100% sure on this. (I use iTunes Match now, so everything is there, no syncing per se.) But that's not true for movies.

(4) No way to browse media other than as a flat list. I would like to be able to browse by storage location and even more so by date added. Why can't I easily see what I have added to my library in the last couple of weeks? I know there is a "recently added" playlist but that is controlled by iTunes. I want to be able to see what I added in a particular time period.

Right click column header, add "Date Added" column, click column header to sort by Date Added.

(5) No automatic updating of the library when new files are added. Almost every other major media manager allows you to simply copy files into your default storage location and have the library auto update. With iTunes you have to manually add all of your media unless you want to store your files in one particular "auto add" folder. I want to store my files in the hierarchy that I have been using for years, I don't want everything under the auto add folder.

Granted.

Although, related to 4, since iTunes is assuming you're going to be a good little boy/girl and use the Library folder, it's not really a surprise that it doesn't let you sort by file location.

Those are just a few that bother me, but really the first couple are the most frustrating to me. If you ever use any other major media manager there are so many little convenience features that iTunes is missing. If all you use is iTunes then you are never the wiser and probably don't think about it.

 

[ControlD]

Thanks dave! I never noticed the "date added" column before. That helps a bunch.

I am tempted to try the match service, but I have more than 25,000 songs in my library and I'm not sure exactly what happens in that case.

In regards to the one device thing, I understand the issues involved with the labels. What I don't understand is why I can do exactly what I described (add from more than one library) with my $200 iPod Touch but not with my $799 iPhone.

 

[cheez]

My Droid X is long in the tooth, so I've been eagerly awaiting today's announcement. I'm jealous of my friend's iphone and will likely get the iphone 5, but today I noticed that the overwhelming theme of the messages from normal people on tech sites is that they consider Android to be the superior OS, while iOS has stagnated. My version of Android is old, and I liked it for awhile, but it has definitely slowed down over time.

I know this is the Apple forum, but why do some people consider Android to be superior? I have no experience with it and don't understant what would make one OS better than another.

I read a review from one of the users that the Android in Galaxy tab supports MPEG2-TS UNCOMPRESSED D) file playback. And that it's got hardare acceleration support. That's a huge advantage over the Apple for me.

:awe:

 

[runawayprisoner]

(1) One directional "syncing". I'm not sure how you can even define what iTunes does as syncing because it is one direction: PC to device. Almost everywhere else the term "sync" is used involves being able to get two libraries equal by moving files either direction.

Save for the "get audio and video files out of phone" part, everything else in iTunes syncs in both directions. Even books and PDFs. (except for DRM'ed books)

(2) Tying an iDevice to one library. I should be able to put music on my phone from my laptop or my desktop. Not sure why I cannot do this with iTunes even when I have everything set to manual but it seems to be beyond Apple to allow this.

Copy your laptop's "iTunes" folder under "[username]\Music\" over to your desktop.

Then you can sync all of your devices with different computers without erasing anything. You can do this on up to 5 different computers.

But I would think that if you had such a big library of music, you should have all of it condensed into one main computer that has everything, right? Or do you add music regularly (almost on a daily basis) to both your laptop and desktop to justify having two separate libraries?

(3) No way to switch between syncing and manually managed media without wiping the device.

Not sure what you are trying to do here, but you can switch from syncing "entire music library" to "selected playlists, artists, albums and genres" just fine. iTunes won't ask to erase anything.

(4) No way to browse media other than as a flat list. I would like to be able to browse by storage location and even more so by date added. Why can't I easily see what I have added to my library in the last couple of weeks? I know there is a "recently added" playlist but that is controlled by iTunes. I want to be able to see what I added in a particular time period.

I think someone already answered this, but I'll add that you can also use a network drive to host all of your iTunes media, and then you'll be able to access all of it and sync with all of your computers.

(5) No automatic updating of the library when new files are added. Almost every other major media manager allows you to simply copy files into your default storage location and have the library auto update. With iTunes you have to manually add all of your media unless you want to store your files in one particular "auto add" folder. I want to store my files in the hierarchy that I have been using for years, I don't want everything under the auto add folder.

The main point of a media manager, I think, is to allow you to "manage" medias. By manually rearranging things in a hierarchy of your own, you are not using the "manage" part of the media manager.

Sounds to me like you just want a music player or something something to sync with your iPod rather than a "media manager".

 

[jpeyton]

No need to suffer through iTunes should be reason enough for most.

I can drag-and-drop any file, to any folder, any time I want. Copying a new song or movie to my Android phone takes 2-3 clicks max.

 

[ControlD]

The main point of a media manager, I think, is to allow you to "manage" medias. By manually rearranging things in a hierarchy of your own, you are not using the "manage" part of the media manager.

Sounds to me like you just want a music player or something something to sync with your iPod rather than a "media manager".

Thanks for the suggestions. As far as having my own hierarchy I'm not sure exactly what the problem is though. Do most people just put all of their 10,000s of thousands of songs in one directory with no organization at all? That seems strange to me and I think file management and organization in such a case would be a nightmare.

Just to clarify some of my other points, I don't allow iTunes to sync any of my music, I manually manage it and simply drag and drop files from my library to my phone or iPod. I receive a lot of demo material, many times when I am away from my main computer. In such cases it would be nice to add the music to my phone without having to take it home, import it and then transfer it. In many cases I won't be keeping it in my library anyhow. If I try to set iTunes on my laptop to manually manage (which it is already set to on my main system) I have to erase what is on my phone first and then I can manage music from the laptop. Also, if I ever would decide to change from manually managing to syncing I would also have to erase my phone. Seems like I should be able to switch over to syncing just selected playlists without requiring such a drastic step.

In my case I have found ways around these problems (jailbreaking makes my phone mine). I was only pointing out things I find annoying about iTunes. Obviously they aren't that bad or I wouldn't still be in the iOS ecosystem. Or perhaps I should say with a jailbroken device I find iOS more than sufficient for my needs.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks dave! I never noticed the "date added" column before. That helps a bunch.

I am tempted to try the match service, but I have more than 25,000 songs in my library and I'm not sure exactly what happens in that case.

As long as iTMS has a "match" for most of them, you're fine. There's a 25GB upload limit of non-Matched songs.

In regards to the one device thing, I understand the issues involved with the labels. What I don't understand is why I can do exactly what I described (add from more than one library) with my $200 iPod Touch but not with my $799 iPhone.

You can? Are... are you sure? I don't think you're supposed to be able to do that. (I've never had an iPod or iOS device that did...)

 

[ControlD]

You can? Are... are you sure? I don't think you're supposed to be able to do that. (I've never had an iPod or iOS device that did...)

I can. I'm not sure why, but the "manually manage this iPod" setting is ticked whether I am connected to my laptop or my main system. I don't know if this has to do with me running such an old firmware on my Touch but I can do it. With my phone, the "manually manage" setting is ticked on my main system but it is unticked on my laptop. In this case if I try to select the manual option I get the message that I will need to erase my phone first.

**Edit**

Come to think of it, I recently wiped my iPod Touch so I could downgrade back to 3.1.3 and I have not tried adding music from my laptop. I will have to try it again and see what happens. Maybe I just got lucky in the past and it no longer works as it did before. I will check and see what happens.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I don't get this. I don't know of any other media managers that are better and more intuitive than iTunes. I love it and don't get the hate.

I hate its media management. I prefer Zune, or WMP. Last I used iTunes to sync my ipod, it was a mess. I ended up with multiple copies of songs, one way sync, crashes, sluggish perf from itunes and so forth. Now that the iPhone has icloud and over the wire updates, I neve install itunes. Thank god for that.

That said, I own a macbook pro now...

Blame the labels.

Zune allows two way syncing with Zune pass.

 

[TheStu]

Thanks for the suggestions. As far as having my own hierarchy I'm not sure exactly what the problem is though. Do most people just put all of their 10,000s of thousands of songs in one directory with no organization at all? That seems strange to me and I think file management and organization in such a case would be a nightmare.

iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Artist/Album/Song.mp3

iTunes organizes it for me.

 

[torpid]

I think Android might be the technically superior OS. Where I think they fail miserably is in allowing the middle man to put custom crap on top of it. Every android device should be a nexus device and it shouldn't ever be up to the phone makers or carriers to release new OS versions. Those people are motivated to do the opposite because they want you to buy a new phone.

Android used to also be more annoying to deal with as a developer because you had to target the least common denominator when it came to features and assumptions about what your user has and can do. iOS is catching up here now, though, with all of the different screen and hardware options supported actively.

My favorite anecdote though is how one of our sales people was handed an iPad to use which wasn't preconfigured for him and when he turned it on and saw the icon indicating he needed to plug it into iTunes and couldn't figure out what to do with it. So for him, even step 1 was an non-intuitive fail.

Isn't the "icon" a picture of a USB cable with an arrow pointing to the itunes logo with the word "itunes" beneath it?

 

[Tegeril]

As long as iTMS has a "match" for most of them, you're fine. There's a 25GB upload limit of non-Matched songs.

When you try to activate match with more than 25k songs in your library, it fails immediately with an error due to the size of the library.

 

[Tegeril]

iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Artist/Album/Song.mp3

iTunes organizes it for me.

Yeah I don't get how people get this messed up. iTunes does it properly.

 

[ControlD]

Yeah I don't get how people get this messed up. iTunes does it properly.

Not everyone uses the option to have iTunes keep the library organized. My media is used by devices other than Apple made ones so I like to have my media organized as I want it, not how iTunes wants it. This is part of why it would be nice have have an option other than iTunes for people that prefer to do the grunt work themselves.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not everyone uses the option to have iTunes keep the library organized. My media is used by devices other than Apple made ones so I like to have my media organized as I want it, not how iTunes wants it. This is part of why it would be nice have have an option other than iTunes for people that prefer to do the grunt work themselves.

You don't have to have iTunes organize it. Most of my MP3s aren't physically in my iTunes folder either.

It just won't auto-scan for new files. Which is the problem (you want it to do both, which is understandable.)

 

[Aikouka]

If you drag and drop files into your iTunes library, it leaves them where they are. How do you think Amazon adds files to my iTunes library but leaves them in the Amazon MP3 Downloader folder?

EDIT:

Also, you can have iTunes create MP4 versions of any file that exists as well. So I could convert those Amazon MP3 files into M4A files right through iTunes.

 

[sm625]

Well it cant get much worse than ioS. I should post a video of my iCrap crashing over and over and over like clockwork from just trying to open a website. And I cant even do anything about it because it is ioS. I'm not sure android is any better, but on windows I can at least control what processes run, and can find out what they are, and really get under the hood and try and figure out what the bleepin hell is going wrong.

On the crApple device, all I can do is.... listen to all these morons tell me how great it is. Sorry. Dont see it. Cause I'm not a frickin braindead zombie.

 

[ControlD]

If you drag and drop files into your iTunes library, it leaves them where they are. How do you think Amazon adds files to my iTunes library but leaves them in the Amazon MP3 Downloader folder?

EDIT:

Also, you can have iTunes create MP4 versions of any file that exists as well. So I could convert those Amazon MP3 files into M4A files right through iTunes.

That's exactly how I do it now. I store my files on my server and then add them to the library. What would be nice is if I could tell iTunes to automatically look for changes in the \Music directory on my server and have them auto added to iTunes. This is a fairly standard feature for many of the third party media managers out there but every time Apple updates iTunes/iOS they seem to break compatibility with everything but iTunes.

I'm not sure why I would ever want m4a versions of anything, is there some benefit to that format over mp3?

 

[TuxDave]

Well it cant get much worse than ioS. I should post a video of my iCrap crashing over and over and over like clockwork from just trying to open a website. And I cant even do anything about it because it is ioS. I'm not sure android is any better, but on windows I can at least control what processes run, and can find out what they are, and really get under the hood and try and figure out what the bleepin hell is going wrong.

On the crApple device, all I can do is.... listen to all these morons tell me how great it is. Sorry. Dont see it. Cause I'm not a frickin braindead zombie.

I would hate iOS as much as you if I had that same experience. Unfortunately you must've received some special-made borked version because I never heard of anyone else having an iPhone that crashed like clockwork.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Well it cant get much worse than ioS. I should post a video of my iCrap crashing over and over and over like clockwork from just trying to open a website. And I cant even do anything about it because it is ioS. I'm not sure android is any better, but on windows I can at least control what processes run, and can find out what they are, and really get under the hood and try and figure out what the bleepin hell is going wrong.

On the crApple device, all I can do is.... listen to all these morons tell me how great it is. Sorry. Dont see it. Cause I'm not a frickin braindead zombie.

Have you ever taken it to an Apple/AT&T/Verizon/etc. store to have it looked at? If you can show the person that it crashes regularly, and demonstrate that another iPhone would not crash under the same conditions, that's probably sufficient cause for them to fix/replace it for you, especially if it's under warranty (or maybe give you a deal on an upgrade if it's not under warranty).

 

[JackBurton]

Well it cant get much worse than ioS. I should post a video of my iCrap crashing over and over and over like clockwork from just trying to open a website. And I cant even do anything about it because it is ioS. I'm not sure android is any better, but on windows I can at least control what processes run, and can find out what they are, and really get under the hood and try and figure out what the bleepin hell is going wrong.

On the crApple device, all I can do is.... listen to all these morons tell me how great it is. Sorry. Dont see it. Cause I'm not a frickin braindead zombie.

Nick Burns: "Oh, it's the phone that's stupid and not you right?"

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Nick Burns: "Oh, it's the phone that's stupid and not you right?"

This is true regardless of platform. :whiste:

 

[Pia]

The idea of anyone dictating what I may or may not run on my phone / handheld computer is revolting. Apple does so and therefore I use Android. No other credible options.

Unfortunately Apple isn't content with just designing their mobile OS for retards, they want to bring all that stuff to the desktop. I have been happily using OS X for the last decade but iOS influence is fucking it up. I can see myself buying another Mac in a year or so, but after that I'm not so sure.

Then there's the matter of Apple's "thermonuclear" lawsuit mode. I get that the core problem is that the entire patent system is broken, and corporations are to be expected to act like dicks, but Apple is managing to be more of a dick than most. So I don't want to give them any more money than I absolutely need to.