Comment by Irfaan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Irfaan | Hacker News Reader

Most of the author's complaints are completely valid. That said, a jailbroken iPhone can install software to mitigate a number of these issues. Not a sure-fire solution, of course - it's such a pain chasing after jailbreaks, and you never know if-and-when the magic update happens that'll stop jailbreaking forever.

Still, for those curious...

1: Android can Run Multiple Apps at the Same Time

"Backgrounder" will give you basic multitasking. And "ProSwitcher" builds on it to give you wonderful, Pre-like task switching. Caveat - there just isn't enough memory in anything less then the 3GS to comfortably multitask.

2: Android Keeps Information Visible on Your Home Screen

It'll cost a few dollars, but I've been very happy using "LockInfo" to provide a useful lock screen. It's a must-have application for me - it goes a long way to making my iPhone feel like an actual PDA rather then just a toy.

4: Android Gives You Better Notifications

Not nearly as nice as the Android's, but "LockInfo" does a pretty good job of managing my notifications once I told it to suppress pop-ups when my phone's locked. Paired with "Notifier" to continue pestering me if I miss an important update, I'm pretty content.

8: Android Lets You Change Your Settings Faster

"SBSettings" makes changing settings a snap - just slide my finger across the status bar at the top of the screen to access it. Though I'm not a fan of the default appearance - do yourself a favor and install the "Deep HUD" theme for a cleaner interface.

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And while I'm advocated bits and bobs to match up with the Android user experience:

"Simple Background" is a nice bit of eye candy, if you want your iPhone to have the same sort of parallax scrolling wallpaper that Android enjoys.

"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a fantastic addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?

Most of the author's complaints are completely valid. That said, a jailbroken iPhone can install software to mitigate a number of these issues. Not a sure-fire solution, of course - it's such a pain chasing after jailbreaks, and you never know if-and-when the magic update happens that'll stop jailbreaking forever.

You've just pointed out that the general purpose CPU in the iPhone can run other software. This isn't what is at issue, what's at issue is the default/sanctioned install that comes with the iPhone. Of course you can get other android-like features on your iPhone if you replace or supplement the core iPhone software with something else. But then, your jailbroken iPhone isn't really an iPhone anymore, is it?

"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a fantastic addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?

The default Android keyboard, and other keyboards, corrects as you type and/or gives you spelling suggestions and word completions. This has been a much better experience than having to go back and try to correct misspellings after the fact.

You've just pointed out that the general purpose CPU in the iPhone can run other software.

Actually, the gist of my message was to point out specific bits of software to help folks who feel hindered by some of the limitations the article's author mentioned. I know they help me feel more comfortable using the iPhone.

I didn't think I was being particularly subtle, but I guess I was mistaken. <shrug>

But then, your jailbroken iPhone isn't really an iPhone anymore, is it?

That's a... strange claim to make. And the only way it seems even related to my message is if you ignore my explicit caveat about how annoying and fretful jailbreaking is. Which I'm fairly certain you read - why, it's right there, in the bit you quoted.

The default Android keyboard, and other keyboards, corrects as you type and/or gives you spelling suggestions and word completions. This has been a much better experience than having to go back and try to correct misspellings after the fact.

Given the tone of your response, I seem to have really irked you. I'm asking an honest question here - this is a feature I find really useful (enough that I gladly paid for this bit of jailbreak-only software that could vaporize at Apple's whim). I'm not asking for your opinion on how text input should be done (because frankly, I don't agree), nor for platform advocacy. Really, I thought my question was rather straight forward.

The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :). Of course it's annoying to jailbreak. That's why, for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. It's like Δx^2 while you take the first derivative: in the end, jailbreaking doesn't really affect the sales of a product.

Anyway, red squiggly lines are good for checking a mass of text after the fact. But only if your input method does not allow for checking and correcting at time of input. When this type of thing happens at input-type instead of scan-before-hitting-reply-time, you're probably less likely to miss something.

Also, given that you can manually add words to the phone's dictionary is something my iPhone never did have (another win for Android).

The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :)

And that's a completely valid concern... if I were engaged in platform advocacy or arguing these iPhone shortcomings are inconsequential or non-existent.

But I'm not.

For the record: I don't like jailbreaking my phone. I don't like installing jailbreak software. I'm annoyed that Apple will neither provide this functionality that I enjoy nor expose a legitimate mechanism for 3rd parties to create it.

But such is the state of things. And given I have an iPhone, I darn well am going to make the most of it. And that matters. I'm not trying to affect software sales - I'm trying to help people like me. People who (for better or worse) have an iPhone, are hamstrung by some of the more valid critiques the article lists, and are looking for solutions.

As for the red squiggly text editing - let's consider that a red herring. I don't agree with your text editing philosophy, but that's neither here-nor-there. This wasn't meant as a dig on Android. I just assumed Android could do this, and was hoping to find out more.

Warfangle - I don't mean this to sound harsh. While I read your reply as assuming platform advocacy on my part, beyond that it was even handed. But golly, I shouldn't have to defend information. Opinions, yes. Information, no. :(

I was not irked at all. The first part of my response was intended to be snarky, the second part was intended to be informative.

>"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a fantastic addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?

Android supports what are called IMEs -- the OSK is essentially just another application type, which can be replaced by the user. Which is basically to say that if you can dream up a method of inputting text, Android can do it. You can find everything from what are essentially much improved versions of a "standard" OSK[1] to gesture based typing[2] to alternate IMEs for non-latin characters to almost anything else you could come up with.

So the short answer is "probably."

[1] http://www.smartkeyboardpro.com/ (this is what I use on my phone at the suggest of another HN commenter a couple of weeks ago).

[2] http://www.swypeinc.com/

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