iOS 6 vs. Android Jelly Bean

If you're looking to buy a smartphone or tablet in the next few months, we've got great news: you can choose an iPad or a Nexus 7, an iPhone or an Android phone, and it'll be amazing. These are all miracle-devices, capable of stuff that even ten years ago we could hardly imagine a phone or portable computer doing. With huge app stores to fill in any gaps your device might have out of the box, you (almost) can't go wrong.

But there's also bad news: no matter which device you buy, and no matter how much you like it, a whole lot of folks will think you're wrong just for owning it. if you haven't seen (for instance) Samsung's latest "attack ad," be apprised that there's a ton of people whose love for one mobile OS is rivaled only by their utter disgust for its rival.

Sure, we could be all diplomatic and laugh it off; but we recognize valid arguments coming from both sides, and in situations like this there's only proper course: a fair-minded, well-reasoned comparison CAGE MATCH.

Games and Apps

Image: TechGadget

Games

There's plenty of grown-up reasons to get a top-quality smartphone or tablet. Still, whenever we see one, part of us has the same thought as when we got our first graphing calculators in high school: What games can I play on it? Maybe you don't care about gaming on your phone; that's cool. (Well, it's not that cool, but I mean, you can skip this section I guess.)

We said it last year and it's still true: iOS has a bigger and better library of available games than Android. The fact is, most developers - not all, but most - prefer to develop for iOS first and Android second, if at all. Reasons for this vary, but there are two big ones.

First: Hardware fragmentation means more choices for consumers, but it's a huge turn-off for developers. Consider what Imangi's Natalia Luckyanova had to say following Temple Run's introduction on Android earlier this year: "99.9% of support emails are complaining their device isn't supported. We currently support 707 devices. Mindblowing."

Second: iOS users have historically been overwhelmingly more likely to pay for apps. Six month ago, a survey found that two thirds of Android users had never spent a cent on apps. More recent data suggests that trend could be shifting, and we're optimistic that the debut of game-specific Android hardware like the Wikipad and Ouya could spur development.

For now though, Android definitely has some catching up to do.

App Store vs. Google Play

What about the rest of the apps? Well, there are a lot of these, on both platforms - like well into the hundreds of thousands. Apple will probably beat Google to a million apps, but not by much. And that number doesn't really mean anything anyway, because so many of these apps - again, on both platforms - are straight-up garbage. (Tablet-specific Android apps are an exception that we'd like to just see way more of.)

Still, a thousand (or even a hundred) apps for Android or iOS that are cool or useful or fun - that's pretty awesome!

Don't think there's an app for everything though: despite what its astronomical app-count may suggest, Apple is famous among developers for vetting apps according to stringent criteria. Sometimes it appears arbitrary; other times it makes sense (e.g. don't expect to see the µTorrent Beta on a non-jailbroken iPhone). Google isn't quite as strict, so while iOS may have more quality apps, Android apps tend to have broader boundaries for how they can interact with your phone. Android isn't exactly an un-regulated platform either though: just look at the version history for Grooveshark's app.

How about the app marketplaces themselves? Content suggestion is nothing to write home about in either app store (that's what IGN Wireless is for!), but both the App Store and Google Play have adequate search functions. The App Store actually got a major overhaul for iOS 6, and while this makes it easier than before to find useful apps, it's awfully slow on older devices.

Maps vs. … Maps

We won't draw this out: Google Maps beats Apple Maps. Is Apple's satellite 3D view cool? Sure (when it works), but we'd still take Street View any day.

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Google Maps beats Apple Maps

Google's turn-by-turn navigation is better (even though Jelly Bean pushes it to a separate app), and with caching for offline map viewing it'll still work on the Nexus 7 after it's out of WiFi range. And there's walking directions, and public transportation, and Google's patently superior data-set - the product of a Maps workforce of more than 7000 employees.

Facetime vs. Hangouts

Both Jelly Bean and iOS 6 have excellent video-chat clients baked in. Of course, they're both proprietary, so if you're chatting across platforms you'll probably just want to use Skype.

Interface

Notifications, Social Integration

This one's almost too close to call: Jelly Bean's expanded email notifications are nice, but so is having notifications pushed to the lock screen. Yes, we know Apple borrowed the notification-drawer from Android, but iOS 6's Facebook- and Twitter-sharing fields are an excellent finishing touch.

Android's democratic APIs make sharing easy no matter what obscure app you're using; app-makers can (and do) build their sharing features to fit the OS. iOS 6 still handles Facebook and Twitter really well across the board, but its APIs are certainly more more restricted.

Cloud integration

Forget plugging your phone in to sync it: Jelly Bean and iOS 6 will both back up your data and sync it across the cloud for you. Android users had this option first, but iCloud brought most of the same functions (and a few new ones) to Apple devices. Either way, syncing or backing up your entire phone is a cinch.

There's a catch though. (Are you detecting a pattern here?) They'll only sync with their own services.

Well, that's not 100% true: they just don't quite handle each other's cloud services properly. Sure, iCal syncs with Google Calendar; but gmail users prefer Sparrow to Mail for a reason.

Siri vs. Google Now Voice Search

Again, almost a toss-up. Android's voice control is obviously better suited for searching Google. But Siri will launch certain apps and post to Facebook and Twitter.

Customization

Our two cents: both iOS 6 and Jelly Bean have a great default interface. But maybe you want to change the default keyboard or mail-app or launcher. Or maybe you hate clicking on the calendar app and you'd rather just have a home-screen widget. Or maybe video wallpapers just make you swoon.

Well, iOS won't let you do any of those things (without jailbreaking your device). Here, Android has a clear advantage - one of the best parts of Android is its deep-rooted customization options.

But maybe all that talk just makes your head spin: in that case, you may not mind.

Bloatware

Bloatware apps are like garden weeds. If you don't want it and you can't get rid of it, it's a weed. Maybe you use Stocks or Newsstand or Game Center. But a lot of folks never have. Now, as these apps are totally inessential to basic device functions, iOS should let you uninstall them, right? Guess again. We were glad to see Apple make the YouTube app optional, even if that meant we had to download it manually. It's just better to have the choice. And Apple has always refused to let wireless carriers put bloatware on the iPhone.

On the other hand, we've basically never reviewed an Android phone that didn't have carrier-installed bloatware on it. In fairness, it really isn't out of control on Jelly Bean yet: if you've got the 4.1 update (and you're not in Poland or reading this from the future) that means you're on a Nexus class device. Those have less carrier bloatware (i.e. only two lousy Verizon apps) than other Android phones. But Samsung's other phones (like the Galaxy S3) along with HTC's and even Motorola's probably won't come out as clean.

Learning curve

If you've ever rooted or jailbroken a phone, just keep on scrolling to the next section. But if you're a total smartphone n00b or you're recommending a tablet to your technophobic uncle, you'll want to ask how many of its features will actually get used.

We're not saying either UI sucks. Jelly bean and iOS 6 are both really intuitive once you know your way around. But if you're not comfortable going through the Settings pane, you'll probably have a simpler and more complete experience with iOS.

Jelly Bean lets power-users do a lot, but think about how many people will never set up their device to share photos over WiFi just because you have to dig through some settings to enable it. iOS is our "dumbed-down" mobile OS pick.

Hardware and Support

Hardware Diversity and Fragmentation

We won't beat this to death, but it's important to understand that the sword of hardware fragmentation cuts both ways.

Image: OpenSignalMaps

On the one hand, app developers hate it, and even as a user it's often possible to tell when a particular app hasn't been optimized for your device.

On the other hand, diversity means choice. Android users have dozens of budget to high-end hardware options. If none of them is quite as impressive as the latest iPhone, three new ones will close the gap within a few months. You can buy an Android phone with or without NFC, with as much or as little storage space as you need, with a big screen or a huge screen. Want to run iOS 6 on a bigger screen than the iPhone 5's? Well, there's the iPad.

Camera

There's a handful of Android phones with really awesome 8MP cameras, and decent camera apps. iOS 6's integrated Panorama feature is cool, but it's not exactly a killer app. So what makes the iPhone 5's camera better (which it is)?

Apple wrote the app and the camera's firmware specifically to play nice with this one piece of hardware. Google just doesn't exercise the same amount of control over its hardware partners, and if you use their cameras critically the difference begins to show.

Image: Pay4Bugs

Software Fragmentation

You may have seen sweet, clean Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus, but it won't look the same on the Galaxy S3: Samsung skins the OS with its TouchWiz UI (and HTC installs Sense, and Motorola installs MOTOBLUR). Even if you like the added features, there's no denying they complicate the OS.

iOS 6 may be Apple's most fragmented mobile OS yet (with features like Siri left off older devices). But the iOS 6 user experience is still largely the same for each of them.

The waiting game

If it's important to you to get updates in a timely manner, there's just no contest.

It's been 11 weeks since Jelly Bean was released on July 9th this year, and its user-base is still under 2% of Android users. That's because it was only available to Nexus-class devices (and not even to all of them). That's a huge disappointment for such an awesome OS. We just weren't pessimistic enough to believe Google's promise at its I/O event - to ensure new devices get timely updates for 18 months after launch - was bogus. The maxim that when you buy an Android device, you're buying it "as is" still rings true.

The first roll-out of Jelly Bean to Samsung's non-Nexus devices comes better late than never, but at the risk of saying Apple would never do that!, well, Apple never has.

When a new version of iOS comes out, every device that will ever get the update gets it on day one. In this case, that gave it an adoption rate more than 100 times greater than Jelly Bean's. What that proves is that people want these yearly updates. Over 100 million devices upgraded in the first week it was available - just because it was available.

And the winner is...

Really? After all that you thought we were going to crown one definitive winner for everyone? It might make shopping simpler, but whatever we decided we'd ruffle a lot of your feathers - and with good reason.

Jelly Bean and iOS 6 are both great mobile operating systems. And they're both improvable. Frankly, we'd like to see them hug it out. No? Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Hey! What about Windows Phone?

Good question! We decided not to bring Windows Phone 7 into the ring (like we did last year) because it's just no longer competitive with the latest from Apple and Google. We're stoked about Windows 8 though, so keep it locked to IGN Tech for a full run-down of its best features and how it stacks up against the competition when it drops next month.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. He would like you to know that this does not mean he has an iPhone (not that not-having-an-iPhone makes him cool either; he just doesn't). You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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iPhone 5 launch draws Apple fans worldwide

PLANET EARTH –  In a now familiar global ritual, Apple fans jammed shops from Sydney to Paris to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone.

Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Asia, Europe and North America to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone.

In London, some shoppers had camped out for a week in a queue that snaked around the block. In Hong Kong, the first customers were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting "iPhone 5! iPhone 5!" and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.

The smartphone will be on sale in the U.S. and Canada hours after its launch in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, France and Germany. It will launch in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster "fourth generation" mobile networks.

The handset has become a hot seller despite initial lukewarm reviews and new map software that is glitch prone. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.

'I love Apple. It's only the iPhone for me.'

- 25-year-old fan Hidetoshi Nakamura

In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News reported.

Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.

Some fans went to extremes to be among the first buyers by arriving at Apple's flagship stores day ahead of the release.

In downtown Sydney, Todd Foot, 24, showed up three days early to nab the coveted first spot. He spent about 18 hours a day in a folding chair, catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk.

Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot reviews it.

"I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our website," he said while slumped in his chair.

In Paris, the phone launch was accompanied by a workers' protest -- a couple dozen former and current Apple employees demonstrated peacefully to demand better work benefits. Some decried what they called Apple's transformation from an offbeat company into a multinational powerhouse.

But the protesters -- urged by a small labor union to demonstrate at Apple stores around France -- were far outnumbered by lines of would-be buyers on the sidewalk outside the store near the city's gilded opera house.

Not everyone lining up at the various Apple stores was an enthusiast, though. In Hong Kong, university student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for 5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one "for the cash." He planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers catering to mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's fastest growing markets but a release date for the iPhone 5 there has not yet been set.

Wong was required to give his local identity card number when he signed up for his iPhone on Apple's website. The requirement prevents purchases by tourists including mainland Chinese, who have a reputation for scooping up high-end goods on trips to Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the strength of China's currency. Even so, the mainlanders will probably buy it from the resellers "at a higher price -- a way higher price," said Wong, who hoped to make a profit of $129.

Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district not only had a long line in front of the Apple store, but another across the main intersection at Softbank, the first carrier in Japan to offer iPhones.

Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because it's an innovator.

"I love Apple," he said, standing near the end of a two-block-long line, reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.

"It's only the iPhone for me."

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Apple unveils the iPhone 5

SAN FRANCISCO –  After weeks of speculation, anticipation and a hearty dose of hype, Apple unveiled the next generation iPhone at a special event in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and vice president of marketing Phil Schiller took the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where Apple has held many past product launches, to release the newest, largest, fastest iPhone ever.

"It's an absolute jewel," Schiller told the crowd of fans.

Made entirely of glass and aluminum, Schiller said the new version of Apple's flagship device is 18 percent thinner than before and 20 percent lighter than the 4S. It sports a larger, 4-inch screen, meaning the company could fit in an extra row of icons.

'We think you're going to love it.'

- Scott Forstall, senior vice president of software

It's also compatible with several new wireless networks, including HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, and LTE -- meaning the iPhone can finally match the wireless speeds of competing products such as the Samsung Galaxy line. The new iPhone 5 is also twice as fast as the 4S, Schiller said, thanks to a smaller, faster processor called the A6.

The new phone sports an 8MP camera, similar to earlier models, but it has better low-light performance and faster image captures. Schiller showed off a photograph captured by the new phone that he said was 28 megapixels.

"Here's pictures from the iPhone 5. These are from the camera... untouched," an apparent reference to Nokia, which was called out last week for faking images from its flagship Lumia 920 phone.

But not everything about the new phone is sure to delight. Schiller confirmed the rumors that had alarmed millions of fans prior to the release of the phone: The old dock connector is going away.

"A lot has changed and it's time for the connector to evolve," he said. The smaller new connector uses fewer pins and is reversible; to use old devices such as speaker docks with the new phone will require an adapter named "Lightning."

The iPhone 5 will run a new version of the software that powers the iLineup, deemed IOS 6. It contains mapping software with turn by turn directions and satellite imagery, a full-screen version of the Safari web browser and an improved version of the Siri voice-control system.

Owners of older iProducts, specificlaly the iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, new iPad, iPad 2 will be able to upgrade for free to iOS 6, he said.

"We think you're going to love it," said Scott Forstall, senior vice president of software for the company.

At the same event, Apple unveiled several new products, including revamped versions of the popular iTunes music store software and new iPod music players. 

"It's an amazing time at Apple," Cook said to begin the show, noting that 83 million visitors popped by their local Apple stores and over 7 million people downloaded the latest operating system update, Mountain Lion. The company sold 17 million iPads last quarter, Cook said.

"[Apple] sold more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line," Cook told the crowd -- 84 million as of June.

The phone will cost the same as the iPhone 4S when it debuted: starting at $199 with a two-year contract in the U.S. Meanwhile, the price for the iPhone 4S will drop to $99 for new contract signers, and the iPhone 4 will be free.

The new iPhone will ship on Sept. 21; IOS will be available Sept. 19.

More at FoxBusiness

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The Apple iPhone 5 Event Liveblog

10:12: Today we have some exciting news about the iPhone.

10:12: 400 million iOS devices sold through June 2012.

10:11: 700 thousand apps in the App Store. 250 thousand apps tailored for iPad. Average customer uses over 100 apps. "It's a revolution."

10:10: Obligatory App Store bragfest.

10:09: "I don't know what the other tablets are doing... must be in warehouses or on store shelves ... maybe someone's bottom drawer."

10:07: Last quarter Apple sold 17 million iPads. 84 million units sold total. Cook's showing some impressive graphs. iPad owns 68% share in tablets worldwide. 91% of web traffic.

10:06: iPad talk. Basically the iPad is the post-PC posterboy. I made that up.

10:05: Macbook Pro Retina brag time. Apple owns 27% of the market, 15% year over year. Bit better than the PCs 2% growth.

10:04: Run through of all the awesome stuff happening on Macs. Mountain Lion release in July. Over 7 Million upgrades already sold.

10:04: Tim's back after a feel-good video about retail stores. Mac time.

10:01AM: Tim Cook is going through the usual Apple retail store success stories. A store in Barcelona that everyone loves, made out of limestone quarry, etc etc. People are waving, lining up, loving their new Barcelona Apple digs.

10:01AM: Tim Cook is out. "It's an amazing time at Apple."

9:57AM: No surprises, but the Apple Store is down. Wonder what they're doing...

It's finally here - the iPhone 5 is set to be unveiled today at 10AM PST. All the rumors and speculation will finally dissipate as Tim Cook takes the stage shortly. Will we see new iPods, a 7" iPad, and a subscription-based music streaming service to go with Apple's new phone? Only time will tell, and we'll be here liveblogging the whole thing.

All the exciting news will be announced here, continuously, during Apple's liveblog which starts shortly. What do you hoping will be announced?

While we wait, take a minute to check out our rumor roundup so you can keep score of what we nailed and what surprises Apple's got up its sleeves.

Get the backstory now:

• HTC and Samsung set to sue Apple over LTE
• Even more iPhone 5 Rumors
• Vacation Blackouts point to possible iPhone 5 release date

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