iOS 7 for iPhone on the 18th

[Army Chief]

Good roll-up. I don't see any real reason to hold off, and will probably upgrade pretty quickly. Seems to integrate (as updates often do) many of the jailbreak-driven functions, though obviously this one represents more of a leap than the usual half-hop.

AC

[Belmont31R]

I'm planning to leave my Android and take my virgin leap into Apple with the new 5s.

btw...wall street is beating aapl pretty hard today, down nearly 6%

I've used both and I think if you want a bit simpler of a phone and can get used to the Apple ecosystem you will like the iPhone a lot. iOS is not designed to be open and Apple doesn't really care about going out of their way to support 3rd party apps. But I think you get a smoother experience and less hassle that way. I tried a gs3 and I noticed things like widgets taking forever to load, random app crashes & errors, ect. The Play Store has a ton of junk in it and they have let malicious apps on there. They have come out with some nice features and if you're deep into the Google ecosystem Android is probably the way to go. I've gotten rid of all my Google accounts and don't miss it. I only have one gmail account I have to use for college. One of my biggest pet peeves with the gs3 is picture texts were displayed as a video/slideshow so you couldn't view the picture full screen and it wasn't fixed going from 4.0 to 4.1. I was also amazed there was no built in visual voicemail. The solution I had to use was Google Voice which is lame.

You will also get updates at the same time regardless of carrier, and the device will also get updates much further into its life. A lot of Android phones get only one update and some have gotten none. Up until recently Gingerbread was still the most popular Android os. Carriers have nothing to do with iOS updates which is far better for us.

One feature I forgot to mention is you can now view cellular data usage by app and toggle it on/off per app. That's one place Android got right with data tracking.

[ra2bach]

I have a 4s. I still haven't done the 6.1.3 update as I heard there were problems with it but my phone is running well.

is there a performance reason to do all these upgrades or do they just give added functionality?..

[Belmont31R]

I have a 4s. I still haven't done the 6.1.3 update as I heard there were problems with it but my phone is running well.

is there a performance reason to do all these upgrades or do they just give added functionality?..

They are usually bug and security fixes. Going to iOS 7 would offer you the changes I noted above. There's nothing wrong with staying where you are at but if you have to restore or anything like that you'd have to go to 7 anyways. Apple only signs the current version of iOS that way.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Everything looks good on paper, the new features are nice, but my only complaint is the "refresh" of the look.

To quote something I heard earlier today, "iOS 7 looks like iOS 6's sassy gay cousin".

[Belmont31R]

I thought the same thing until I used it. I don't use like half the stock apps anyways.

[FlyingHunter]

I've used both and I think if you want a bit simpler of a phone and can get used to the Apple ecosystem you will like the iPhone a lot. iOS is not designed to be open and Apple doesn't really care about going out of their way to support 3rd party apps. But I think you get a smoother experience and less hassle that way. I tried a gs3 and I noticed things like widgets taking forever to load, random app crashes & errors, ect. The Play Store has a ton of junk in it and they have let malicious apps on there. They have come out with some nice features and if you're deep into the Google ecosystem Android is probably the way to go. I've gotten rid of all my Google accounts and don't miss it. I only have one gmail account I have to use for college. One of my biggest pet peeves with the gs3 is picture texts were displayed as a video/slideshow so you couldn't view the picture full screen and it wasn't fixed going from 4.0 to 4.1. I was also amazed there was no built in visual voicemail. The solution I had to use was Google Voice which is lame.

You will also get updates at the same time regardless of carrier, and the device will also get updates much further into its life. A lot of Android phones get only one update and some have gotten none. Up until recently Gingerbread was still the most popular Android os. Carriers have nothing to do with iOS updates which is far better for us.

One feature I forgot to mention is you can now view cellular data usage by app and toggle it on/off per app. That's one place Android got right with data tracking.

Great points Belmont!

Now that you mentioned it, I remember of a new update called Ice Cream Sandwich which was scheduled to come to my Android for over a year and it never did materialize. In fact, in 2 years, I had only one unsubstantial update.

Your comment regarding the ecosystem is thought provoking. I believe the future of the devices are heading that direction with cloud services including advanced billing and/or payment capabilities.

[.46caliber]

Carriers have nothing to do with iOS updates which is far better for us.

That's not accurate. Every carrier has their say in every update on every phone sold under their brand. If the phone has a Verizon logo on it, you bet they have a say in its roll out. Same for all the others. The phones operate on their networks, pulling data through their servers and are sold largely on their subsidy. This is particularly true for VZW and Sprint as some of the code that operates the cellular radios for those two is proprietary. ATT and TMo use the GSM standard which is an open standard and used worldwide.

Apple does get updates out faster and more regularly than most Android devices, but not because they aren't reviewed by carriers. The reason iOS phones receive more timely updates is because of the limited hardware variations. One manufacturer releases software for use on just a few hardware variations. Samsung has about 40 variations and they add their own tweaks to the android system because it is open source and they use it to differentiate their devices.

That variation is simultaneously Android's greatest strength and softest weakness compared to iOS.

A Nexus device straight from Google is unlike the experience you would have with a carrier branded phone from HTC or Samsung or LG or Motorola. Nexus run the software all others are based on and they are sold direct outside of carriers.



Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[.46caliber]

All that said, I'm excited to see what the new iOS is like. It's been in desperate need of a refresh for some time.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[Belmont31R]

There are no carrier logos on iPhones aside from the name next to the signal strength meter. This is why the iPhone was an AT&T exclusive for a long time. VZW wanted update control and branding. They didn't get it and finally caved because of the lost sales.

The carriers can push out their own updates to iPhones but only for the part that deals with their networks. AT&T pushed one out that updated iPhones to include government alerts but you can turn those off. The os updates are straight from Apple. They don't have to wait for carrier approval.