Gadgetory

hi I'm Amy and this is the Android Authority channel Android and iOS are two greatly different worlds each one having a thick population of users the experience in each environment is such that by grading from one to another often causes culture shock but then again once settled in the newcomer realizes that even though Android and iOS seemed to be completely worlds apart they actually do have certain similarities in this episode let's talk about the latest version of Android Android 4.2.1 jelly bean and apple's latest software iOS 6.1 how are they alike how do they differ watch this review and find out first let's talk about one of the most important aspects of any mobile operating system please your interface right after booting up your phone or tablet you'll see its lockscreen what does jelly beans lockscreen allows you to do besides unlocking the device a lot actually for one it shows you a digital clock with the day and day this wants the icon for unlocking the phone just drag it to the outer ring to unlock you can also launch androids default search app Google now like this or launch the camera by pulling the right edge to the middle or even view lock screen widgets for Gmail text messages calendar events and more you can also access your notifications right on the lock screen just pull down the notification shape to see what new notices are waiting for you or change some device settings quickly by pulling down the quick settings menu in jelly bean on tablets you'll also see user icon part of the new multi user feature which lets you set up more than want to use your profile on a tablet what about on iOS 6 not nearly as fancy as Android but the lockscreen here pretty much does a lot of what Android can for instance the time day and date are also displayed here although without the year this slider as a guest is for unlocking the phone slide it this way to launch the camera it's a little bit different on the iPad 4 there's no shortcut to the camera but there's one for the photo frame feature Apple's virtual voice assistant Siri can also be summoned from the lockscreen just tap and hold the home button the Notification Center however is not accessible from the lockscreen unlike an Android instead the notifications themselves are shown on the lock screen and you can act on them right from the lock screen in both jellybean and iOS 6 the home screen is the starting point of all that you want to accomplish on your phone or tablet it basically functions like the desktop on a computer in jelly bean the main home screen looks like this you get a status bar which usually just shows the time network signal strength and battery level here's a clock widget which you can remove if you want down here is the favorites tray for holding your most used app shortcuts and below the favorites tray is the navigation bar in iOS you get pretty much the same elements and functionality although they look a bit different this is the status bar here you don't get a clock widget in iOS because it doesn't allow visits on the home screen but you do get all of your apps on the home screen this down here is the app dock or favorites tray and below it is the navigation bar with only the home button in jellybean you'll have five home screens to use and that's a fixed number you can't remove home screens or add more you can play stuff here such as widgets which are useful mini windows to your apps this is something that I OS doesn't support you can change the home screens background you can even change it to a moving background known as live wallpaper which is another feature not available in iOS you can place app sort cuts like these ones here you can even organize the shortcuts into folders like this one if you don't like the arrangement move things around or remove them except the Google search bar which always wants to stay on this spot on all home screens iOS on the other hand creates home screens as needed when one home screen is filled up a new one is created to accommodate the new shortcuts like an Android you can also group these icons into folders or rearrange the icons according to your preference the search function is on its own page to the left of the main home screen the favorites tray in jelly bean and the app dock in iOS 6 are nothing more but containers are holders for your favorite app shortcuts unlike shortcuts on the home screen these favorite shortcuts don't move with the home screen they stay in place on this bar on all home screens within quick and easy reach on bones you can place up to four shortcuts or folder on the favorites bar and more on tablets in jelly bean however the app drawer shortcut is not removable iOS doesn't have an app drawer for navigation Android 4.2 relies heavily on dynamic virtual buttons such as these ones for back home in recent apps you will see these buttons a nearly every page and screen but at times they hide or completely disappear from view to give more viewing space iOS 6 uses a different navigation logic instead of using virtual navigation it relies mostly on just one physical button the home button which is a check of many traits including waking the device returning to the main home screen opening the search page on the home screen launching Siri showing music playback control bar on lock screen and opening the app switcher to switch between tasks tap the recent apps button in jellybean or double tap the home button in iOS to open the app switcher in Android you'll see a scrollable wall of thumbnails of apps that you recently opened easily remove apps from the wall just by flicking to either left or right in the app switcher in iOS you'll see only the app icons to remove them first long tap on an icon until it Wiggles then tap on the remove badge on each icon it's a simple app switcher but there's more scroll to the left of the app switcher to access buttons for locking screen orientation playback control and the music app scroll further to the left to find the volume slider notifications in both jellybean and iOS alert you to items that need action or your attention the two operating systems however differ in the way notifications are displayed or handled in jellybean you get notifications through the notification shade or the notifications menu just pull down the status bar to open it you can expand or collapse long notifications dismiss notifications one at a time by flicking it to the left or right or dismiss all in one go with the help of this button certain types of notifications are also actionable notification of a missed call for example will display callback and message buttons so you can respond right away from the notification shade jelly beans notification shade also lets you reach for your most frequently accessed settings and toggles through this new button which opens the quick settings menu this menu can also be accessed by pulling down the status bar with two fingers or on tablets by pulling downwards from the right half of the status bar in iOS 6 the Notification Center can be open just like an Android but unlike an Android you can't flick a notification to dismiss it you can remove notification groups only one at a time it can get tedious if you get a lot of notifications but this also ensures that you do see all notifications after all in iOS just like an Android you can set which apps to allow to push notifications to the Notification Center iOS however lets you choose how to display notifications while the home screen in iOS does not allow widgets' its Notification Center does although just a select view on the iPhone 5 for instance the weather in the stock exchange widgets are present in a Notification Center by default or you can deactivate them if you if you log into your Facebook and Twitter accounts widgets for them will also appear in the Notification Center and you can post updates and tweets right from the Notification Center both Android 4.2 and iOS 6 provides simple stock keyboards with multi-language support voice detects input word prediction spelling suggestions auto correction and more I like the jellybean keyboard for four reasons first the keyboard keys display in uppercase or lowercase when using the shift key in the iOS keyboard the keys are always in uppercase second it has voice-to-text functionality just like the iOS keyboard but jellybean lets me use it even without an internet connection boy stur texting iOS always wants an internet connection third next word selection guesses and suggests what word am I type next it saves me time iOS doesn't have this feature and fourth if I don't feel like tap typing I can slide type through jelly beans gesture typing feature this works like swipe and is not available in iOS asks for the iOS keyboard I like it for two reasons first it has a bigger collection of emoji icons which puts the Android keyboards text emoticons to shame and second the iOS keyboard for tablets can be split to make thumb typing easier the stock Android keyboard doesn't have this ability jellybean and iOS have features that make them usable and accessible to as many people as possible including those with disabilities Android 4.2 accessibility features include voice feedback navigation by swiping display magnification larger text auto rotating screen speaking out passwords text-to-speech accessibility shortcut and web accessibility scripts I like iOS sixes accessibility features better they are grouped according to disability such as vision hearing learning and physical and motor disability the options include such features as voice feedback zooming in large text inverting colors text to speech output hearing aid mode camera flash alerts monel audio guided access assistive touch and adjusting click speed for the home button on a regular desktop computer screen savers activate to prevent screen burn and to lessen power consumption Android 4.2 has a similar feature called daydream it automatically kicks in when your device is charging or docked you can used to show a photo frame a photo table trends from Google Currents a dynamic colored wallpaper or a clock a screensaver let's now take a look at the communication features in Android 4.2 in iOS 6 for managing contacts he have the people app in Android 4.2 and the contacts app in iOS 6 both apps perform exactly the same role to organize your contents you can't store contact information locally import contacts from the storage or sim or sync existing contacts from your Google account in the case of jellybean or from iCloud in the case of iOS the contacts list in iOS looks like a virtual phonebook nothing more just a list of names even a contacts info page looks very plain and simple small thumbnail photo here contact name and contact number and email to call tap the phone number to send email tap on the address there are also quick buttons down here for composing a text message sharing the contact card calling through FaceTime or adding the contact of favorites I find Android 4.2 s people app more colorful and more interesting it gets three different ways to view your contacts through the group's tab through the contacts list and through your favorites all your contacts are sorted alphabetically on the list with a mini profile picture beside each name each contacts page shows a bigger profile photo contact info in recent status updates from google plus calling contacts can be done with just a tap on a context number in iOS the phone app has tabs for favorites recent contacts keypad and voicemail tap the label to switch to the tab in Android you get only three dialer call logs and people switching between tabs is easy just swipe left or right the iOS phone dialer is simple it's just a tile of number keys with the call backspace and add new contact buttons at the bottom the Android dialer is the same but I think it looks better androids call logs tab and iOS this recent tab show your call history iOS lets you view all calls or only missed calls missed calls are shown in red so you can easily spot them Android lets you see more of your call history you can view all calls or filter the list to show missed calls only outgoing calls only are incoming calls only iOS splits favorites and contacts into two separate tabs start contacts are on the favorites tab and the rest are on the Contacts tab Android merges these two tabs into just one the people tab where your start contacts are displayed in a magazine style layout at the top of the list followed by your most frequently called contacts and finally the rest of your contacts who have phone numbers for incoming calls both platforms display the contact information and profile picture on the screen iOS makes it extremely easy to take a call just swipe the slider like this to decline a call you'll need to take an extra step drag this tab upwards to show additional buttons to reject the call reply with a message or to decline the call and remind you about it in one hour the extra step is a feature for preventing accidentally rejecting calls in the case of Android every action that you might possibly need to do for an incoming call is right there on the incoming call screen answer the call reject the call or decline the call and send a canned message to avoid accidentally answering or rejecting you'll need to drag this button to the outer ring tax-base communication in jellybean is handled by the messaging Gmail and stock email apps in iOS it's the messages and mail apps the app for SMS and MMS messages in both operating systems have similar functions conversations are displayed as text bubbles in a conversation thread I find androids conversation threads more pleasant because thumbnail photos of the sender and receiver are displayed along with the messages iOS has a plain and simple conversation thread the text bubbles in iOS are color-coded grey for messages received green for messages sent via your phone carrier and blue for messages sent via iMessage long tapping on a message in iOS lets you copy the message in Android you can copy forward lock delete or view details of the message iOS also allows you to select multiple messages in a thread to either forward or delete in Android you have to either delete individually or all messages at once you can access messages from the lock screen and home screen on either iOS or jellybean in iOS a message notification alert appears on the lock screen and in the notification center Android allows more access by letting you use the messages widgets on both lock screen and home screen jellybean uses Gmail as a default email client but for those who don't have or don't want Gmail there's the stock email app for Android it supports the pop3 IMAP and exchange protocols in iOS you only have the mail app there's an official Gmail app for iOS but it is not installed by default you can set up an iCloud exchange Gmail Yahoo AOL or hotmail account in the mail app you can also manually set up a pop3 or IMAP account both Android and iOS are app driven platforms everything you do on your device you do through an app in Android the Google Play Store is the main and preferred source of apps but definitely not the only one in iOS it's the Apple App Store these repositories practically have the same functions although they look and are laid out differently to install an app from these official sources just tap on the install button on the apps page when you install apps in iOS the system will prompt you for your password this is a security feature Android 4.2 however doesn't prompt you for your password every time you install an app but you can restrict app purchases by setting a pin also in Android you will see a list of permissions that you need to grant to the app before it will be installed this list of permissions lets you decide whether or not to proceed with installation because it tells you what parts of the device the app will have access to Android also allows installation of apps from third-party sources as a security measure this is not enabled by default but it's available if you need it to uninstall an app in iOS just tap and hold an app icon on the home screen until the icons start wiggling then tap the uninstalled badge or you can go to Settings General usage tap the apps name and tap the delete button in Android 4.2 you can uninstall apps from the app drawer itself long tap on an app in the drawer then drag and drop the icon to the uninstall button you can also uninstall apps from the apps page in the settings menu for browsing the web Android 4.2 has Chrome and iOS has Safari both of these browsers provide simple controls for web browsing both are capable of tabbed browsing and private browsing they also let you add bookmarks sync browser data to are from a cloud account and more in chrome I particularly like that it can open unlimited tabs browse in incognito mode or view a pages mobile view or desktop view Safari on the other hand can display a page in a reader friendly way save a page for offline reading and on supported devices show sites in full-screen landscape view for search jellybean uses the google now app which in google's own words gets you just the right information at just the right time it can show you info such as news weather traffic events in appointments bookings package deliveries and more of course it can also search your devices content such as apps contacts music and bookmarks as well as search the web using google search services the Google now app also integrates Google Voice search functionality which means you can just tell the app what you're looking for it can even act as a voice-activated assistant so you can instruct it to launch apps for you compose and send messages compose and send emails create calendar events look for maps find directions and more Google now is accessible in at least three ways from the lock screen by tapping the google search bar on any home screen or by swiping the home button upwards in iOS searching is done through the search home screen which you can swipe from the left of the main home screen you can also invoke the search page by tapping the home button once on the main home screen the app can search through your device's contents such as your messages emails and contacts as well as through the web or on Wikipedia or you can dictate your search terms to Siri the voice-activated assistant and iOS and Siri will do the lookup for you Siri of course does more than just help you with search you can also run commands using your voice what I find endearing about series that it interacts is me even responds to me both iOS and jellybean stock camera apps are simple easy to use very fast and responsive I rarely noticed shutter lag in either the iOS or jellybean camera both provide all the basic features that a casual shutterbug like me needs including auto focus and face detection you can use pinching gestures on the viewfinder to zoom in or out of your subject to both are likewise capable of HDR mode and panoramic shooting from the viewfinder you can quickly view your previously captured photos just by swiping between the two camera apps however the jellybean camera app brings more goodies Android 4.2 on the Nexus 4 for example has the photosphere feature which lets you photograph your surrounding in 360 degrees you can choose whitebalance modes exposure levels and scene modes the video recorder in iOS is also a very simple app the jelly bean camcorder in contrast provides extra frills such as time-lapse recording video quality setting geo-tagging and white balance presets despite its being a very simple and minimalist camera I like the iOS camera app chiefly because of its simplicity I also like the shutter effect when capturing photos most of all I find it awesome that I can use the volume buttons as shutter buttons in iOS your pictures and images are stored in the Photos app it's the equivalent of the gallery app in jelly bean captured photos and recorded videos are stored here usually organized into albums or folders in each album the images are shown as thumbnails you can also view individual images and can pan or magnify them iOS displays album photos as thumbnails arranged on a grid however in jelly bean you can switch between grid view and filmstrip view in Phil strip view you can easily delete photos just by flicking up or down Android also lets you group your photos not just according to album but also according to locations times people and tags neither iOS nor jellybean lets you move images from one album to another but iOS lets you copy images from an album to another jellybean won't lets you add new empty albums either but iOS does both platforms provide basic photo editing functions iOS only has four image rotation Auto enhancement red eye removal and cropping Android lets you do more such as apply filters and effects use custom frames transform images and adjust image and color values the two operating systems are capable of running photo slideshows but i find i OS more flexible in this regard in jellybean you can tweak slideshow settings but in iOS you can for example you can choose transition effects and play background music for your slideshow you can even run a slideshow on the lockscreen of iOS tablets videos captured by the camera app are stored in the Photos app in iOS and in the gallery app in Android when playing a video file you'll see scene thumbnails on the progress bar you can also share or delete videos from here as you can see the interface is very simple you can trim your personal videos to copied or downloaded videos are stored in the videos in iOS Android doesn't have a separate app for videos like iOS does instead downloaded videos are stored in the gallery app video playback controls in iOS are simple but unlike its counterpart in Android this video player has previous and next buttons plus quick access to the volume slider but yet can't share videos from this app jelly bean also has a new feature for sharing your device's display wirelessly to another supported display such as a compatible HD TV it's similar in functionality to airplay in iOS 6 though the feature is currently available only on the nexus for iOS stores all your music files in the music app grouped by playlists artists album and etc songs purchase from iTunes are also synced in the app you can use equalizer presets but you'll need to go to the settings menu to be able to pick a preset you can't adjust equalize your levels manually either on the iPhone 5 you can use the shake to shuffle feature there's also a volume level normalizer function called sound check even when navigating away from the music music continues to play but you won't find playback controls anywhere not even in a notification center album art for the currently playing music will be shown on the lockscreen and the tracks title below the time double tap the home button to bring up the playback control buttons the lock screen controls for the music app in iOS 6 are tweaked a bit the previous and next buttons are much farther away from the play and pause button this way you'll be ensured that you won't accidentally press the play or pause button when trying to select the next or previous track the equivalent app in jelly bean is the Play Music app songs are also grouped according to playlists artist album songs genres are recently added songs bought from the Google Play Store also synced to your local device this bar here shows your currently playing song you can use equalizer presets if you want you can even manually set your own equalizer levels and like in iOS when navigating away from the Play Music app screen music continues to play in the background and playback controls appear on the notification shade and on the lockscreen but perhaps the greatest thing that I like the most about playing music in jellybean is that I don't need special software to copy my music files from PC to phone or tablet I only need a USB cable both jellybeans and iOS of course have security measures in place as all mobile security and safety are important in jellybean most of the security features from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich have been carried over including different lockscreen types device encryption displaying owner information on lockscreen SIM card lock on phones and preventing installing apps not from the Google Play Store Android 4.2 adds some new features such as a built-in air verifier that warns you if an app contains malicious content in an improved Android permissions list which I find easier to understand than the bulleted list in previous versions you can also tap a permission like this to expand the description meanwhile in iOS 6 you get security features such as a four-digit or alphanumeric passcode on the lockscreen restricted access to apps and media contents on a device automatic data wipe after entering wrong passcode more than 10 times email confirmation if an Apple account has been used on another device remotely locating locking and wiping data on Apple device with the Find My iPhone app restricted installation of apps not from the App Store privacy settings for showing which apps have access to your personal data and stronger protection against hacking and jailbreaking in some Android 4.2.1 jelly bean and iOS 6.1 represent the best of what the world's latest and hottest mobile operating systems have to offer they do not offer uniform experiences not even alternative experiences both platforms differ but they serve a common goal that of satisfying your mobile needs in iOS you get a well defined and well guarded environment that will have you using your mobile device easily and seamlessly in Android you get a feature-rich environment that lets you enjoy the freedom to make your device truly your own and to make it do your bidding the question really is not about which operating system is the absolute and Universal best it's about which operating system can serve your needs best it's all about you so which OS has the features that fits your needs Android 4.2 jelly bean or iOS 6.1 let us know in the comments for more android news and reviews go to android authority comm also subscribe to our youtube channel thanks for watching I'm Amy may the light side of the Android force be with you