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Comment by jbellis | Hacker News Reader

Apple finally admitted that bigger phones are better. Looks like Google is finally admitting that 4:3 is the right tablet aspect ratio.

I'm kind of curious what the secret sauce is that makes Google think they are ready to sell a premium-priced tablet. Lollipop may be better than iOS 8 but is that enough to overcome the app gap?

(Anecdata: my wife had her ipad mini stolen last week. We have 5 Android devices in the house, but as long as Civilization is only available on iOS this isn't a serious contender for a replacement.)

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I'm not quite sure the 'app gap' exists still, does it? Recently switched from iPhone 5S > HTC One M8, and nothing reallllly I miss.

That's on phones. The tablet app gap still exists.

It's a big problem for music apps. Android has not delivered low-latency MIDI/audio up to now, allowing Apple to own that market (much like it did with Mac v windows for a long time).

What kind of music apps are you referring to, and how big is the audience?

To clarify, you are talking about music production apps? Android L introduced new APIs to improve that, so hopefully it will improve soon.

Yes. I was glad to see it has finally been addressed but realistically it will take several years to close the gap, since people who have gotten used to various iPad apps have little incentive to switch platform.

And what exactly would that "app gap" be? I'm genuinely curious.

In my experience, it's not the amount of software, but the amount of quality software. For instance, I wasn't able to find a decent RSS reader that doesn't stutter on the Nexus 7 (2013). Not to mention the ridiculous amount of rights some of the readers want. On my iphone, it's hard to decide which reader I'll use because they are really good (I've tried quite a few).

Music apps are still pretty much dominated by iOS. Also some quality games are only available on iOS or are released much later on Android.

While I do think that the "app gap" does indeed exist, I believe only dedicated geeks/musicians/gamers will notice it.

Feedly works great. Press too.

I've always, always had a hard time finding:

* A good Twitter app for Android (like iOS' Tweetbot or Twitteriffic) * A decent RSS app (like Reeder - slick, w/ Instapaper + Evernote hooks) * A reasonable SSH client (like Prompt, although I haven't looked too hard here)

I'd also miss Office - using Word + Excel out in the field for work (i.e. RF spreadsheets during field surveys) are a huge bonus. Not sure how good Google Sheets is on tablets/Android.

Otherwise, the Nexus 9 + keyboard would be great for travelling and I'm tempted to sell my iPad Mini Retina for one, if not just to experience Android L.

Press is a brilliant RSS reader.

For a Twitter client, Fenix (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.mvilla.andr...) is beautiful and fast, and doesn't make me miss Tweetbot when I'm not using my computer.

Twidere works quite well for Twitter.

My recommendation for phones (not sure about Tablet versions) - SSH: JuiceSSH (simply the best i have used so far) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju... - Twitter: Falcon Pro (works on tablets) - RSS: Press or why not Google Newstand or Flipboard ? - Office: QuickOffice, MSOffice or Google Docs

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