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Comment by w0utert | Hacker News Reader

>> And I agree with the original article: Apple's software has been playing catchup for multiple versions, isn't introducing novel features and is barely keeping up with the competition

Playing catchup with what? Please enlighten me, what innovative great features have other platforms introduced since -let's say- iOS 4, that Apple has been forced to 'catch up' with in iOS 5 and 6?

The only thing I can think of is Apple Maps, which desperately needs to catch up with Google Maps. But considering you can still use Google Maps on iOS I don't really think we can write off iOS because Apple Maps is weak.

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Actually, the entire ios interface is dated in comparison to both Microsoft's platform and Android. Slapping a bunch of icons that can be paged back and forth isn't cutting it anymore as an interface.

Define 'Android' and 'Microsoft's platform'?

Microsoft's platform is most likely Windows 8 but what's about 'Android'? There are many different GUIs for Android devices after all …

Inter-app communication.

But this article was shit. If you like a stylus fine. But that is not innovation. I have 50 Treo styluses to sell you.

It IS innovation. 1024 levels of pressure on a 5.5" 720p screen that lasts 18 hours. That's fantastic and I've not seen that in any device.

Stop calling things "not innovation" just because it doesn't impress you. No one put out a stylus like this, in a device like this, with software like this. The old Palm's don't compare.

It's not innovation. It's incremental at best.

Notification Center.

I don't know the specifics of iOS 4, or why you chose that. But will simply respond regarding what Apple has, shall we say, emulated.

How about setting up the device without having to tether it to a "real" computer? Android came out, day one, as a self-contained, empowered computer. iOS came out as a device that was expected to have an umbilical to a computer.

How about multitasking? Apple's flavor of multitasking (the freeze-drying of processes, etc) was a virtual mirror of Android's.

I would say notification center, but the notification center in iOS is absolutely atrocious (it is almost entirely a spam vehicle for games to post solicitations). It is years behind Android there.

The widely heralded iCloud offers functionality (device backup, etc) in Android years earlier. Voice commands...in Android years earlier. Apple is brilliant at marketing every difference, but they most certainly were behind.

My iPad (3rd generation) is a glorious web appliance (Safari on iOS remains by far the best mobile browser), however iOS itself feels incredibly stale in comparison to my GS III or my wife's Nexus 4.

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