How's the time come to ditch my iPhone in favour of android?

[skippybangkok]

Yep that about sums it up. The first words on dictation was "has" not "hell" ( no Siri - how )

Siri dictation is really bad now, I feel it's actually worse than a few years ago. Google seems to be a lot better.

Only problem is I have the whole Apple ecosystem

Are there any Google dictation apps you can use on my phone? ( iPhone Siri -you can't even get your own product right )

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[bubba]

Your experience is interesting, as I find Siri to be very accurate in accurate transliteration of dictation for me. Are you sure you have the correct language and region set? Also, I know Siri does not play well with certain accents. For example: my friend with an Edinburgh accent. 

 

Let Siri have a go at this one:

 

 

[BKKdreaming]

can you use Google chome on an iPhone ?  then you could try Google Translate or OK google

yeah I know normally they do not play nice with each other :)

[recycler]

Haven't we all been told not to take free candies from strangers when we were young?

 

Why does almost everybody take these free services from companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. These services are free for a reason, you pay with your information and it's not used in your interest.

 

No Android for me and I'm not talking to my phone either unless there is someone on the other end listening.

[HooHaa]

wait for google pixel

 

[Jeffrey346]

I'm an Admin on a Droid forum and will only recommend a device sold by Google. Google gives you timely updates on no carrier/manufacturer garbage installed. 

If you want a phone now, try to get pixel or you can wait for the new phone that is made by Huawei. 

Personally, I just picked up an iPhone Plus 128. But I do have quite a few Android phones...

[jackh]

I bailed on Apple 3 years ago for a droid and never looked back. It runs circles around IOS. I am heavily vested in Apple products, but as I said, droid is so much better it is not worth compareing. 

[bark]

5 hours ago, bubba said:

Your experience is interesting, as I find Siri to be very accurate in accurate transliteration of dictation for me. Are you sure you have the correct language and region set? Also, I know Siri does not play well with certain accents. For example: my friend with an Edinburgh accent. 

 

Let Siri have a go at this one:

 

 

Even other Scot's cannot understand each other.

[skippybangkok]

Lol..... I can see the same exact words in Siri, and it doesn't get it, and the same words in android and it does.


Thinking about getting a pixel

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[Henricus]

Your already 10 years to late for that

 

[Winkburn]

Breaking the familiarity with Apple is a little difficult but the transition to Android will be the best decision you make as you are not locked in to the overpriced apple system,

Smartphones at half the price of apple with many more features are freely available today. Remember when Sony dominated the market a few years ago and it was necessary to buy everything Sony to use the product. Eventually people realised that other products preformed equally well and we watched Sony lose it's market dominance

Having been an apple user for many years I am very happy I made the move

[lvr181]

You really owned an iPhone?  

[JB300]

You could run (MS) Cortana on your IPhone but by all accounts it's not as good as Siri (though maybe it will work better for you personally).

As for IPhone Vs Android, I'm yet to find an Android that feels as good to hold/use as the iPhone (just bought the S7 edge for my gf, lovely looking phone but doesn't feel as nice to hold/use as my IPhone 6) so I'll stick with it until I do (no way I'm upgrading to IPhone 7, not enough differences to warrant it).

Am waiting to get my hands on the Samsung flip phone, saw a Chinese guy with the one they released over there a while back & it looked pretty cool...
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-s-new-flip-phone-looks-sleek-as-hell-in-these-spy-shots (should add I live in Singapore so pretty hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one even if it's only released in China)

[skippybangkok]

Will try cortana


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[skippybangkok]

It seems Cortana is only available in US App Store


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[JB300]

Sorry, it's been available on IPhone for about 1 year now so I'd assumed it would be available in the UK (one thing I really hate about Apple is being tied to a specific country's app store).

There are (or at least used to be) ways you can register yourselves a new account (I have 1 for UK & 1 for Singapore but have credit cards registered to addresses in both countries), I'll dig out my old 5S at the wknd & see if I can remember how to do it (without having a US credit card).

[Ireland32]

Oh Hell, No

[hawker9000]

I agree that iPhones are pricey, and as a non-apple ecosystem owner, there are interoperability issues with my PC that do bug me.  But for me Siri does an amazing job and I definitely disagree that it's worse than earlier versions.  I'm often surprised by some of what it gets right.  Am also a former Android user, and wasn't impressed.  Device service life tended to be too short-lived, and there were too many tradeoffs involved in selecting a particular device.  But if you're into rooting & jailbreaking, installing custom ROMs, etc., then an android might be preferable.

[JB300]

Sorry, it's been available on IPhone for about 1 year now so I'd assumed it would be available in the UK (one thing I really hate about Apple is being tied to a specific country's app store).

There are (or at least used to be) ways you can register yourselves a new account (I have 1 for UK & 1 for Singapore but have credit cards registered to addresses in both countries), I'll dig out my old 5S at the wknd & see if I can remember how to do it (without having a US credit card).

Turns out it's really easy...

- create yourself a new email address (any will do)

- pick a US address from one of the examples here http://bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats/united_states/

- get yourself a fake phone number from http://www.fakephonenumber.net/US_phone_number/Arizona_phone_number (I randomly picked an address in Phoenix so used a phone number from there)

- settings, iTunes & App Store, click on your account & sign out

- go to app store, select any free app, select get

- when prompted select create account

- complete the details & select None as the payment type (you can use ITune vouchers if you plan on buying apps)

& Voila you have a US app store account

Alternatively, if you have a mate who already has a US account, get them to sign in on your phone while you dowload Cortana then sign back in yourself, App Store automatically switches between countries based on the Apple ID logged in.

Good Luck :)

[oldcarguy]

I am amazed how good OK google works on Android , if I am not sure of how to spell something I ask "OK google" and so far it has always worked :)

 

OK , I have standard USA West coast accent so Google gets it right more often than it would from an Indian call center !

 

But is there a way to put Siri on an Android to compare ?

 

[JB300]

Not Siri but you can try MS Cortana (should have less of a problem getting it than us non-US Iphone users)

[AlexRRR]

Ahhhh that debate again......i have the iPhone ipad iPod and Mac....i also have a Samsung tablet and a windows laptop,  Steve Jobs idea of creating the hardware and software in house and keeping it there proves the point that Apple products are superior to anything else, i switched to apple after years of issues with crap software running on my several windows laptop....ive never looked back since I've done the switch.

 

A lot of guys in here have problems paying for dinner for a date so forking out to buy an iPhone when they could get a cheap Chinese smart phone for a third of the price is seen as a smart move...well to you it might me i just want it to work and I'm prepared to pay more to get something thats not going to let me down.

 

In my case the samsung tablet is uncomfortable to use compared to the iPad, the mac kills the laptop and my windows laptop is a higher spec one as well...

 

And the iPhone? never had a phone that lasted longer than 18 months until i got an iPhone....

 

Im getting tired of seeing this debate buy what you dame like with out rubbishing the opposition at least i can make a comparison as i own both...

[JB300]

It has nothing to do with affordability, I use an IPhone purely because I like the way it feels when holding it, I hate plastic phones so rejected many Androids after running through most of the high end offerings (though bought the gf an S7 Edge for Christmas because she liked it), & the Nokia / Blackberrys because the OS was dead.

My Sony IPod equivalent cost me much more than the IPod but got binned in favour of a Nano + Touch after upgrading to a new Sony device & finding I needed to rebuild my PC (ok, so I just hacked the registry) due to their DRM software thinking I was bootleging because there was already a version on there.

My last Windows laptop (Alienware) also cost more than my Macbook Pro & this is the one piece of Apple equipment I own that I will be binning as soon as I have an excuse to... Again, awesome bit of kit & the product "feels" amazing, but the keyboard is aimed at people who spend more time clicking than typing & I like to use shortcuts keys & not lift my fingers from the keyboard, so it's painful when I don't have the external keyboard connected... And if that's the case, it's not really a laptop.

Oh... & what is it with right clicking using the touch pad in Excel!!!

[before commenting I should be using OSX, I have to remote into my corporate VM so even using OSX/Safari, the VM is still Windows based & so is MS Office]

Edit: Almost forgot, the Apple TV got binned for a Minix X8 (& you would be a mug not to), but the Apple watch is safe... For now... Just hope it lasts until the IPhone 8 comes out though as mentioned previously, I am keen to get my hands on 1 of the new Samsung flip phones which might mean new watch time.

[SooKee]

Just interested in why others would be a mug not change the ATV for a Minix Neo 8? One of my main uses for the ATV is watching Netflix. AFAIK the ATV is capable of HD display for Netflix whereas the Neo 8 isn't. So in my case I'd be a mug TO switch to the Neo 8.


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[JB300]

Just interested in why others would be a mug not change the ATV for a Minix Neo 8? One of my main uses for the ATV is watching Netflix. AFAIK the ATV is capable of HD display for Netflix whereas the Neo 8 isn't. So in my case I'd be a mug TO switch to the Neo 8.

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"Mug" was a bit strong (few too many glasses of vino I think) but the Minix X8 can display ultra HD content (http://minix.com.hk/en/products/neo-x8-h-plus) & using Kodi this is free Vs ATV which you either have to pay for a subscription or pay on demand.

So up to you if you want less choice & pay for the privilege but if I just wanted to watch Netflix, i wouldn't use a box at all, I'd just use the app that's already on my Smart TV (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23877) or directly from my SingTel set-top box.

Don't get me wrong, I thought my ATV was great when I 1st bought it (so cool being able to throw something on the TV from your Iphone/IPad) & certainly got my monies worth from it, but it's not really moved on (I think I have one of the 1st Gen2 boxes) whereas other options have.

IIRC, I paid a little under s$200 for my Minix X8-H & probably got my monies worth in the 1st couple of weeks watching series like Suits, Billions, Lucifer, Night Of, Gold Rush, Mr Robot, Goliath, Strange Things, Dark Matter, Designated Survivor & countless others all completely free & 90+% of the time in HD/1080

[SooKee]

Well. It's just horses for courses I guess. I chose the ATV from a range of options largely because I have an Apple set up at home and it's just easy. Plex on a Mac Mini server, ATV connected to a soundbar and can play music or video from other devices. The subscription to Netflix is cheap at around 350฿ pm and I can access it on my travels within Thailand and Malaysia, Airplaying it to an ATV 3 I carry around for that purpose (the ATV 4 replaced it). So it does all I need.

Always interested to see how other folks do it though, just not so interested in paying to change to another box that does the same thing (but maybe not ALL of what I specifically want), just differently. Plus I find Apple stuff more readily available here in LOS too and not suffering from much by way of luxury / scarcity price hikes. Useful to have local warranty too, just in case it's DOA or craps out in the first year.

So do you access legit sites to watch these series or are you referring to DL stuff that you watch via the X8. Because if it's DL, the ATV could play it equally well via Plex or Infuse. As Netflix suits me for travel, and is hardly breaking the bank (especially as I binned True Vision's crap at 1,600 pm!!!!), the series you mention that are on Netflix I don't have the hassle of trying to get. Iflix at 1,000 per year often has what Netflix doesn't too.

Anyway. Veered quite a way off the OT, probably needs another thread :)


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[JB300]

Agree about the ease of having everything in the same (Apple) eco-system (all my gear is Apple :)), but the Minix is essentially an Android PC so it's difficult to see how an ATV could do more (especially without jail breaking it).

The "legality" of the content is still being debated, but it's all streamed (no dls) & if I wanted something for my travels I'd do the same with an Amazon Firestick (USB Dongle sized) again running Kodi.

As for getting one in Thailand, there's a couple of posters on here that will sell you one fully loaded (including live TV & sports) & provide ongoing support if you need it.

As you said we've strayed a bit here, be interesting to hear from the OP whether he has / is still considering making the switch and if so, what to.

As an aside if my IPhone 6 died (& I didn't have my IPhone 5s to fall back on) I'd look Long & hard at switching as "upgrading" to an IPhone 7 feels like I'm spending a lot of money (Buy my handsets Sim free) for the same thing.

[SooKee]

Yeah. I'll maybe PM you in the new year after I've done some research. Not saying the X8 can't do more. Just that for me maybe the X8 can't do one essential thing that I DO want it to (e.g. Go in a suitcase and allow me to plug into to a TV and allow me to airplay from an iPad or the phones).

I'm hoping the iPhone 8 (likely 10) will be the next one worth having. Not the 6s for me, or the 7. If not I might look at the Google Pixel. I just really didn't get on with Android though when I tried a Samsung Galaxy S4. Too clunky, too many places to change settings, things like cut and paste that simply didn't work between some apps, and some apps that were def a notch down from the iOS versions. Especially when the phones cost as much as or even more than the iPhone. I know there's loads of Android phones out there in the 7-10k price bracket but pretty much everyone I know that's bought Oppo, Xiomi, Asus and iMobile phones has regretted it.


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[SooKee]

One of the other things I found a pain with the S4 / Android. I needed to download apps to do just about everything that you'd probably expect to be part of the OS.

Want a 'do not disturb feature' - need an app.

Want to manage the flashing notification light and set colours for different apps - need an app (oh and we forgot to mention, the app isn't compatible with the DND app you just paid for)

Battery management - need an app (oh and changing setting will override your DND notification settings).

Overall I found it too much of a PITA, too much trial and error and too much stuff that killed the battery way to quick.

The other thing is the lack of manufacturer commitment to provide Android updates such as Huawei abandoning the Honor 7 just 16 months into product life. Sure some of the Android updates may not add much. But some do. And if I'm paying anywhere near iPhone prices I wouldn't be taking a gamble on OS updates.


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[Anthony5]

1 minute ago, SooKee said:

One of the other things I found a pain with the S4 / Android. I needed to download apps to do just about everything that you'd probably expect to be part of the OS.

 

And then you found out, to your dismay, that in contrast with the Apple store the majority of those apps were free and that in fact you were allowed to install on your phone whatever you want.

 

The shock, the horror.