I was until last week - i bought a 4s (upgraded from the 4, heck, it was a free upgrade so why not?) and my gf's droid version of 'Siri' called 'Jeannie' is much, much better - ie, Siri can't turn on/off any services on the phone (apple's api doesnt allow this actually) but you can tell Jeannie "Turn on Bluetooth" and it will... also as far as AI, Siri depends on access to apple before sending a reply, and 33% of the time, Siri had trouble connecting to the network... also funny stuff with Jeannie, but we asked it 'sing me a song' and it replied 'la la laa la lala laaaa' vs Siri had no idea what to do with this command. Asked Droid's Jeannie to 'read me a poem' and it picked something random off the 'net and read us a poem... Siri's already got catching up to do imho.

i like having an iphone/ipad combo for them to work in conjucntion only because I also sync to a mac (the perfect 'apple' trifecta as far as apple is concerned) it's not neccesary to have them work this way though; the ipad is just a bigger screen for my iphone really; if i didnt have an iphone, i'd use the ipad a lot more. but now, i resort to the iphone until the screen real estate isnt enouh. I also pickedup a touchpad this weekend - going to put CM7 (android) on it today and see how I like it. at the end of the day, the transformer is still my favorite... and their new verson upcoming seems like the best tab/comp replacement in a while...

qft, keep xda news in mind - although i'll touch on more below:

I used to be where you're at, then got really intrested, hacked, modded and then got too busy to keep up with the forums, all of a sudden, i was so far behind that I was afraid to brick a device even updating or trying to restore... I've been running my devices unmodded for a while and you'd be surprised at how resourceful you'll become in finding 'another way' to do something (i'll touch on drag/drop below, which is a major crux in droid vs apple)

QFT again - since i'm at a work computer all day, i rarely feel the need to boot up a computer at home just for web browsing - but when i need a place for all my digital photos; im straigt to the laptop. I dont edit much, but cropping photos and removing red eye seem to be easier on a tablet (.02 cents).

at the end of the day, i still use a computer for organizing photo albums, sending large files or 'complex' emails with mixed attachments, managing my dropbox/pogoplug accounts and web design, managing music & editing and video editing (no tablet can really do that properly)

qf 1/2 t. lol. drag and drop is relegated to 'mounting your device' as an external drive and then dropping file on it - you know what really happens when this is 'allowed'? its like windows 95 all over again; techies will agree with me here on one bit - if you let the 'average' user mess with files and file structures, chaos ensues. this is why apple has such a locked down system - you can't fk it up because you simply (as an average user) can't even get to the structures behind the scenes to mess things up! it's a two sided blade however - you also dont have the flexibility that you're used to. note that i said 'used to' only because there's always a way to drag and drop - even without jailbreaking or rooting your device, it just takes some initial digging. still, a tablet in the current market on any platform is no replacement for a proper computer.

alot of good reading there ^

I can't say iOS is severely limited, but it certainly is in document editing - ie quickoffice for excel doc editing can read files but can't read complex equattions and formulas, rendering that file unusable on the tablet; you can create documents with limited formatting but it's no real word processor. surprisingly keynote/powerpoint are actually pretty good but it's because they're more graphical to begin with (the high point of a tablet anyhow)

but again, yes, a tablet's current niche is 'media consumption' not editing, and much less creating...

very good point about gov. websites and shopping etc - many sites are formatting for the 'all powerful' apple brand but online forms are what they are and ios among others cannot handle forms, carts, secure cookies etc as well as a proper computer.

ios is certainly limited but admittedly very polished for what is available for it, you'll find less 'crapware' for it but then you wont get 'homegrown' apps that are genuinely good that the average joe can just make available in the android market.

so to touch on this real quick, if only as a tip to ios users - the app 'goodreader' is awesome for this. it accepts many media types, and you can 'mount' the ipad as a hdd via that app over your network (ethernet speeds of transfer) you can create folders etc, edit/delete/email and basically anything to a document or file with that app. i got it when it was 99cents and it was simply the best buy so far. you can also 'drag drop' between dropbox, google docs etc natively as well, and manage those accounts too. ios still can't be usb connected to 'drag drop' but honestly i find that more cumbersome than mounting it as a drive over the network... /thatsprobablyjustme

as for the cloud, icloud gives you 5gb free, which is nice; but for ~$50 on a good web search and you can get a pogoplug pro and hookup your 2tb external to it for unlimited streaming of anything to your device (basically creating your own personal cloud) so no matter what device you decide on, it's a pretty good thing to have... not to mention the seagate (and other options, check kickstarter) that have wireless, self batt powered hdd's that you can pack along to create a 'local cloud' of files - id do that just for the speed & security)

 

The difference between iOS and Android that I'm trying to highlight is that Apple actively wants to suppress any efforts to make the iPad as useful as a macbook.. Apple has said that directly - and it would be damaging to business. For Apple - it's a product between a phone and a computer..

Google allows the Android OS to follow whatever organic path it takes more or less.. So direct file level access, networking, document editing are not limited.. Currently they are still not much of a replacement for a computer.. But eventually maybe..

(And I'm not biased towards Android.. I have about a dozen iPads I support and have owned every single iOS product since the original iphone)

Microsoft's new idea with 8 is that the tablet WILL be the computer.. Hardware will catch up - and you will dock your tablet at home and work and will continue using it on the go.. No need to port any software anywhere..

 

Oh okay my mistake I thought you were saying it doesn't work cross-platform. :embarrassed:

To some extent I see what you're saying about people messing with a file structure. I mean for drag and drop to something like file sharing on windows between devices.

You have a 'play area' of 'shared folders' you can use, that is what I meant not a total device mount.
But making this fast and easy like
:windows - oh **** there's a droid lets get ready to exchange info!
Instead of
:windows - installing drivers, , , , installing software,,,, sorry this application has encountered a problem and must shut down.

hah, just make it seamless and easy as apposed to jumping through hoops or using your data cable to transfer files.

 

That took some time to read everything lol

 

.. So -- this already exists.. You will have to install some kind of SMB file manager on the Android - but they are free.. After than you can just browse the network and connect to computers and their shares via netbios names.. YOu can copy / paste - or drag and drop to your heart's content.. This type of file sharing has been common since the dawn of Windows networking..

The only way to make it "easier" would be to install some kind of bogus application that would make everything REALLY easy..

But as it stands.. You can simply browse to your computers on your network and access shares the same way you would from ANY computer. It can't get easier without adding some kinda awful application to manage it..

 

^ My point was for android based systems to be able to do that with pc's\mac's but you're saying it is already on the market.

I'll look for an app for that tonight .

 

so what platforms are windows 8 gonna be on? as far as mobile do you think it will be hows its now? with specific phones.... and same thing for tabs? it'd be ideal if you could choose between android os and windows with whatever you buy

 

Have you seen Iris (siri backwards)? It took 8 hours of developing and it works ok... It's still in Alpha stage right now but it is pretty funny for the most part.

Me: "How can I make my wife happy?"
Iris: "You Can't" ( forever alone)
Me: "How can I make my girl friend happy?"
Iris: "Break up with her"

Downloading Jeannie now because it sounds AMAZING!

I recently switched from my 3gs to the HTC Vivid. I'm am very happy so far. Probably will root it to unlock a little more potential and take off the required programs.

 

Most of the popular Android file browsers have SMB built in..

Astro File manager
ES File explorer

and of course Samba is available for Android as well...