Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► Previously on the world's greatest podcast, your intrepid heroes were faced with new and daring possibilities.

00:00:07 ◼   ► Myke was left wondering about the true nature of video calling.

00:00:12 ◼   ► Because I know what you're thinking of right? We just say like interesting times, we'll call it.

00:00:17 ◼   ► Steven decides to return to the more primitive times of the iMac G3.

00:00:22 ◼   ► I'm not super convinced that I want robots in my chat to go do things for me.

00:00:27 ◼   ► And Federico dropped a bombshell of epic proportions.

00:00:31 ◼   ► I bought an android phone.

00:00:33 ◼   ► What will your terrific trio of transatlantic technologists do next?

00:00:38 ◼   ► There's only one way to find out.

00:00:40 ◼   ► From Real AFM, this is Connected episode number 92.

00:00:53 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you very kindly by the lovely folk over at Casper,

00:00:57 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Mr Federico Vittucci.

00:01:01 ◼   ► Hello Federico.

00:01:02 ◼   ► Hello Myke.

00:01:03 ◼   ► How are you sir?

00:01:04 ◼   ► I'm doing good Myke. I'm doing good. It's just the two of us today.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Yes correct. As the intro was pointed out,

00:01:12 ◼   ► Steven has delved into a world of just old computers now.

00:01:17 ◼   ► I think he's somewhere in Memphis trying to get a LAN party going with about 13 iMacs,

00:01:22 ◼   ► something like that.

00:01:23 ◼   ► It doesn't have Skype anymore.

00:01:25 ◼   ► No it doesn't have Skype.

00:01:27 ◼   ► because I don't think it runs on whatever, I don't even know what those things run on.

00:01:31 ◼   ► I think they used to run OS X so maybe there is some kind of weird odd version of Skype

00:01:35 ◼   ► that you can get.

00:01:37 ◼   ► But yeah, Steven is away this week.

00:01:39 ◼   ► He's probably looking after his family of IMAX.

00:01:42 ◼   ► So it's just me and you.

00:01:44 ◼   ► We have a huge topic to talk about this week.

00:01:45 ◼   ► We're actually going to devote the entire show to it, I think, because you have many

00:01:50 ◼   ► thoughts.

00:01:51 ◼   ► We left last week's episode on a huge cliffhanger so it's only fair that we jump right into

00:01:57 ◼   ► to talking about Android.

00:01:59 ◼   ► Okay.

00:02:00 ◼   ► I feel like some people are going to get a little bit upset, right?

00:02:05 ◼   ► Because here we are on our Apple show talking about Android.

00:02:08 ◼   ► So I do want to talk about this for just one second if you will permit me.

00:02:14 ◼   ► We are in the end of May, beginning of June right now, three weeks away from WWDC.

00:02:21 ◼   ► There is little Apple news going on right now.

00:02:26 ◼   ► some rumor stuff. There was a MacBook Pro rumor today, which we might talk about next

00:02:30 ◼   ► time. But we are in a time, I think, where it is, I think, quite useful to take a look

00:02:35 ◼   ► at what is going on in the world outside of Apple, because it will allow us to, as we

00:02:41 ◼   ► ramp up to the most important announcements of the year, right, at WWDC, it will allow

00:02:46 ◼   ► us to kind of evaluate those with a more clearer mind, I think. And so I think it's important

00:02:53 ◼   ► to take a look at this stuff.

00:02:54 ◼   ► Yeah, and I think for me it's an even bigger effort maybe, in that I've always tried to

00:03:04 ◼   ► fight against preconceptions. I don't like having ideas and not trying to fight against

00:03:12 ◼   ► those ideas and trying to see, you know, the world outside of my point of view. And I try

00:03:17 ◼   ► to do that in my personal life. That's the reason why I'm terrible at discussing politics

00:03:24 ◼   ► with my family and my friends, just because I'm always challenging what I think. And I

00:03:29 ◼   ► try to do that in my professional life. But I feel like in the past few years I have,

00:03:37 ◼   ► you know, I haven't tried my best to follow the principle of not, you know, being victim

00:03:44 ◼   ► of my own preconceptions and my own opinions based on nothing effectively. So I talk about

00:03:51 ◼   ► Apple, I've read about Apple, but I think what I actually do is I write about technology

00:03:57 ◼   ► that I use, and so much of that technology is actually not just from Apple, but from

00:04:02 ◼   ► different companies. And so I was practicing the principle that I don't like preconceptions,

00:04:09 ◼   ► but I wasn't really following that idea, because I never tried the other major platform that

00:04:15 ◼   ► billions of other people use, which is Android. I use Google services, and I use Google apps,

00:04:19 ◼   ► and I've gone back and forth. I mean, if you used to listen to The Prompt, which is the

00:04:24 ◼   ► show before this one, and to the beginning of Connected, you have seen my opinion on

00:04:29 ◼   ► Google services and Google as a company change over time. And I think that's good, you know,

00:04:33 ◼   ► it's good to change, it's good to have opinions, and it's good to have strong opinions, but

00:04:38 ◼   ► it's also good to have them loosely held, you know? To be able to challenge your ideas,

00:04:44 ◼   ► to challenge your preconceptions, and to, and the most important thing for me, to actually

00:04:49 ◼   ► know what you're talking about. And I feel like I myself, I was not following that idea.

00:04:55 ◼   ► So I was saying to myself, yeah, I like to challenge preconceptions, but I wasn't really

00:05:00 ◼   ► doing that. So I was thinking about this way, way before Google I/O, trying Google services,

00:05:06 ◼   ► comparing what Google is doing to what Apple is doing with Siri and other features in iOS.

00:05:11 ◼   ► And of course, every year I take a look at iOS and I come up with this idea of wishes

00:05:16 ◼   ► and features that I would like to see on iOS next year, or in the next version. But I wasn't

00:05:22 ◼   ► really paying attention to what was going on outside of Apple, and I don't think that's

00:05:29 ◼   ► good for me. And so I was thinking about this, and then Google I/O came up, and then I went

00:05:35 ◼   ► on Amazon, and I saw a Nexus 5X, which is made by LG. There was a pretty good discount,

00:05:43 ◼   ► a couple of hundred euros and it was just a spur of the moment thing in that, you know.

00:05:50 ◼   ► You were asking me, weren't you, if I thought that you should buy it and I strongly encouraged

00:05:55 ◼   ► you to buy it because I think that my opinions on these types of things can be more level

00:06:03 ◼   ► than many others because I take time to play around with Android, seriously, to see what

00:06:11 ◼   ► it's about, see what's going on there, and try and get a better feel for the other side.

00:06:17 ◼   ► And I genuinely think that my views can be a little bit fairer because of that fact,

00:06:24 ◼   ► that I treat it seriously and respect Android.

00:06:28 ◼   ► I really don't like when I see people who write about Apple, podcast about Apple, who

00:06:36 ◼   ► take some things about Android for granted and they talk because they have heard things

00:06:40 ◼   ► or they've seen videos a few years ago and they've never bothered to try Android.

00:06:46 ◼   ► And I was one of those people, and I didn't want to be one of those people anymore.

00:06:50 ◼   ► And I thought the best way for me to form an opinion, to actually know what I'm talking about,

00:06:55 ◼   ► and to see what is going on outside of iOS, I think it would be good for me to actually try

00:07:01 ◼   ► Android and to buy an Android device and see what's going on there. And, you know, I agree with you,

00:07:08 ◼   ► And for a long time I struggled to sort of accept this, to have a better opinion of Apple

00:07:16 ◼   ► and iOS and what they're doing.

00:07:19 ◼   ► It can be healthy to explore other things, to be curious and to be knowledgeable about

00:07:25 ◼   ► other stuff, you know?

00:07:27 ◼   ► And when I revealed on Connected last week that I switched to Android, by switched I

00:07:33 ◼   ► I mean, I just bought an Android phone and I'm playing around with things.

00:07:37 ◼   ► I got so many people on Twitter saying, "Oh my God, Federico is switching to Android.

00:07:42 ◼   ► Are you gonna stop using iOS?

00:07:45 ◼   ► I follow you because of iOS.

00:07:46 ◼   ► I read Mac stories because you read about Apple."

00:07:49 ◼   ► And I just want to say upfront that I'm not gonna switch to Android.

00:07:56 ◼   ► It was just -- and this can be tricky to accept -- it was just a way to know more and to know

00:08:02 ◼   ► better and to have a first-hand experience with another platform, because let's be

00:08:07 ◼   ► fair, at this point every year Google and Apple borrow things from each other. Apple

00:08:13 ◼   ► does some things, Google does the same things later, Google does a few things, and Apple

00:08:18 ◼   ► gets inspired maybe by Android and does the same features. We're now at the point in

00:08:24 ◼   ► the mobile OS ecosystem where there's two major players and there's only so many ideas

00:08:31 ◼   ► you can come up with. So of course there's going to be some contamination, if you will,

00:08:36 ◼   ► of ideas between the two companies. And I feel like it's been a few days that I've been

00:08:42 ◼   ► using this Android phone, and I think it's been eye-opening for me to kind of look at

00:08:51 ◼   ► a smartphone with a different perspective, with a fresh set of eyes, you know, with a

00:08:58 ◼   ► different point of view. I think it's been a good experiment so far.

00:09:02 ◼   ► Alright, so let's talk about the hardware a little bit, right?

00:09:05 ◼   ► I took a few notes.

00:09:07 ◼   ► I'm sure that you did, and I can see lots of these notes in front of me. So you mentioned

00:09:12 ◼   ► you got the 5X. What do you think of the overall phone hardware, and especially, what do you

00:09:18 ◼   ► think about the placement of the fingerprint sensor on the back?

00:09:21 ◼   ► So the phone is very light because it's made of plastic. I think it feels kind of cheap,

00:09:28 ◼   ► honestly.

00:09:29 ◼   ► Yeah, it is the budget one though. There is a nice one, there is like a fancy one, which

00:09:34 ◼   ► I have, which is the 6P, which is fantastic to look at and feel and it's made from great

00:09:39 ◼   ► materials, etc. etc.

00:09:41 ◼   ► I got the cheap one, so I'm not surprised that it feels kind of cheap, you know. When

00:09:45 ◼   ► you plug in the headphone jack, you kind of have to jam it in because you have to hear

00:09:50 ◼   ► a click and it doesn't really feel premium, but I'm not surprised because I didn't get

00:09:55 ◼   ► the premium option, so I got what I paid for. The fingerprint sensor. Now, I understand

00:10:02 ◼   ► why for a lot of people that's preferable to the front-facing button with the sensor.

00:10:09 ◼   ► I really don't like it for myself, and not just because of habit, because initially I

00:10:14 ◼   ► thought "okay, I'm just not used to this", but I think it's a problem with the size of

00:10:18 ◼   ► of my hands, the way that I wrap around the phone with my index finger, basically my hands

00:10:26 ◼   ► are too big and so I kind of have to make a weird motion with my hand to reach the fingerprint

00:10:32 ◼   ► sensor and it's not as accurate as the one on the Touch ID on the 6S.

00:10:36 ◼   ► Yeah, accuracy is not really, you know, like I mean whatever, but I was more interested

00:10:40 ◼   ► in what you thought about the placement. I understand what you mean because I also have

00:10:44 ◼   ► big hands. But I have to say though, I do really, really prefer the placement because

00:10:49 ◼   ► for me, more often than not, with the way that I hold my phone, it's easier for me to

00:10:53 ◼   ► get my finger to the back than my thumb to the front.

00:10:56 ◼   ► Mm, I see. Yeah, and I'm like the opposite.

00:11:00 ◼   ► Okay.

00:11:01 ◼   ► And not just from a physical standpoint, but also from a, if you will, visual point of

00:11:07 ◼   ► I think having the Touch ID at the bottom helps me understand what's top and what's bottom on the iPhone.

00:11:16 ◼   ► With this Android phone, the top side and the bottom side, they look similar,

00:11:22 ◼   ► so too many times I've picked up the phone in the wrong orientation,

00:11:26 ◼   ► because there's no area which tells me "ok, this is the bottom".

00:11:30 ◼   ► Same with the Siri remote for me, same issue, I pick it up in the wrong orientation all the time,

00:11:35 ◼   ► and I've noticed that I'm doing the same with the 5x, because there's no anchor point to

00:11:40 ◼   ► tell me "ok, this is the bottom, pick it up this way".

00:11:44 ◼   ► And it's interesting for me to think about if Apple ever ditches the home button with

00:11:48 ◼   ► the sensor, and if maybe Touch ID becomes part of the entire screen, and there's no

00:11:52 ◼   ► top and bottom bezel anymore, clearly distinct as they are on the iPhone 6s, what's gonna

00:11:58 ◼   ► happen to my visual, you know?

00:12:00 ◼   ► But my hope would be that if they removed all kind of buttons or whatever, that they

00:12:07 ◼   ► might just do what they do with the iPad, which it doesn't matter which orientation

00:12:10 ◼   ► you pick it up in.

00:12:11 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess, I guess.

00:12:12 ◼   ► I mean I'm sure that the sleep/wake button will still exist, which might help you, but

00:12:16 ◼   ► I hope that they, you know, if they go that route and they go like the route that John

00:12:21 ◼   ► Gruber spoke about on the talk show a couple of weeks ago, right, which is just a hundred

00:12:24 ◼   ► percent screen, like in a couple of years, I hope that they do the kind of any orientation.

00:12:29 ◼   ► because at that point why do you need it to be one way or the other?

00:12:32 ◼   ► So, we'll see. That would be kind of cool.

00:12:34 ◼   ► Yeah, that could explain the rumor of the iPhone 7 getting four speakers

00:12:38 ◼   ► because it doesn't matter the orientation. You know, I don't know.

00:12:40 ◼   ► We'll see. That's just a rumor at this point.

00:12:42 ◼   ► Alright, so let's talk about the Android stuff and some of the setup.

00:12:46 ◼   ► So how did that go for you?

00:12:48 ◼   ► So I set it up. The first thing you see is this cute animation

00:12:51 ◼   ► of colored dots moving around and morphing into the Google logo,

00:12:56 ◼   ► which is super, extremely cute.

00:12:58 ◼   ► Yeah, that was part of the new logo.

00:12:58 ◼   ► cute. It's in the Google Home thing right like they have the four colored LEDs like that is the

00:13:04 ◼   ► new kind of when they when they announced the new logo one of the things that came with it was this

00:13:09 ◼   ► like animation this like dot animation it's in Google now like it's it's all over the place now

00:13:14 ◼   ► and you know you mentioned the cuteness here this is you know we may disagree on this fundamentally

00:13:20 ◼   ► but I think that this this type of cuteness and this playfulness is throughout material design

00:13:27 ◼   ► not necessarily throughout all of Android because not every Android app kind of goes

00:13:32 ◼   ► with material design yet, but this is part of the whimsy that I think that material design

00:13:37 ◼   ► has that Apple's current state of design doesn't have anymore.

00:13:42 ◼   ► That is, yeah, I've mentioned this on the show before, that is a feeling that I have.

00:13:47 ◼   ► Do you agree or disagree with the whimsy?

00:13:50 ◼   ► In places, I would say in places I do see the whimsy, like especially in apps that have

00:13:55 ◼   ► updated with the material design.

00:13:57 ◼   ► It really is core to material design. If an app doesn't have material design built into

00:14:02 ◼   ► it then it doesn't have that.

00:14:03 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:14:04 ◼   ► And yeah, I agree, it's mostly ugly.

00:14:08 ◼   ► And so the first thing I see is the skewer animation. There's the Google logo, the dots,

00:14:11 ◼   ► very nice. And then what I noticed also is the Android robot, the little, what's the

00:14:18 ◼   ► name? Andy? I think.

00:14:20 ◼   ► I don't know if it has a name, but if it does it's probably Andy.

00:14:24 ◼   ► Yeah, it's funny, you know, I don't know if he's a he or a she or a they, but the robot

00:14:29 ◼   ► is very cute and funny and it brought me a smile, so that was cute.

00:14:34 ◼   ► You know, especially the little antennas, they flap around and they move.

00:14:38 ◼   ► It reminds me of a puppy, which is cool.

00:14:41 ◼   ► What I noticed in the setup screen, Myke, is that it looked to me easier than the iOS

00:14:47 ◼   ► setup.

00:14:49 ◼   ► fewer steps, and two things I noticed. It supports landscape, so you can turn your phone

00:14:56 ◼   ► sideways when you're doing the setup, which is a minor thing, but I noticed that, because

00:15:00 ◼   ► iOS doesn't have landscape support when doing the setup.

00:15:03 ◼   ► Even my iPad.

00:15:05 ◼   ► Even the iPad, which is just a travesty. You can add multiple fingerprints during the setup.

00:15:11 ◼   ► I'm pretty sure you cannot add multiple fingerprints on Touch ID when you're doing the setup.

00:15:14 ◼   ► No, you have to go into settings and add them.

00:15:17 ◼   ► Yeah, so that was clever.

00:15:19 ◼   ► Yeah, Android setup is very simple compared to iOS.

00:15:22 ◼   ► Very simple, yeah. You just need to put in your Google account,

00:15:26 ◼   ► and even doing the restore from a backup, it was all very easy, very simple.

00:15:32 ◼   ► And I think Apple should look at this and to kind of streamline the iOS setup process,

00:15:36 ◼   ► which has kind of grown a little too much over the past few years.

00:15:40 ◼   ► Doing the setup on Android, definitely easier. At least that's my first impression.

00:15:45 ◼   ► As soon as I log into the Android device, the home screen, there's no...

00:15:50 ◼   ► I think there was no widgets.

00:15:52 ◼   ► First thing I do, I log into Google Play and I download Dropbox and 1Password.

00:15:58 ◼   ► Because of course I need to download a bunch of apps, I need my passwords and I need my files.

00:16:03 ◼   ► So I set up Dropbox, set up 1Password, I'm still not looking at all of the widgets and home screen and Android stuff.

00:16:11 ◼   ► and I download other apps, so Twitter, email, my calendar, I actually didn't download the calendar because I eventually realized I could just use a widget

00:16:22 ◼   ► what I notice is, and this is like first five minutes, Android doesn't have a share sheet metaphor like on iOS

00:16:32 ◼   ► There's no action and share extensions.

00:16:35 ◼   ► And I noticed this because I was trying to log into apps with 1Password.

00:16:41 ◼   ► And 1Password tells me, you can enable the custom 1Password keyboard, and you can enable auto-fill.

00:16:47 ◼   ► And I was like, is there an extension I can use? I really don't want to use the keyboard.

00:16:51 ◼   ► And then I did some research, and I texted you, Myke, and you told me there's no share sheet on Android.

00:16:58 ◼   ► So there's no share sheet in the sense that there is a share sheet, you can send stuff to apps,

00:17:04 ◼   ► but there's no idea of extensions working on top of what you're doing and interacting with an app in the background.

00:17:13 ◼   ► So on iOS, for example, you need to log into an app. There's a 1Password icon in the text field of a login screen.

00:17:20 ◼   ► You tap that, 1Password comes up, you do what you have to do, then you dismiss the extension and you have your login information filled in.

00:17:28 ◼   ► on Android you have to use the 1Password keyboard

00:17:32 ◼   ► you have to tap and hold an icon and then 1Password comes up

00:17:36 ◼   ► and then it auto-fills but only sometimes and it was kinda confusing to me

00:17:40 ◼   ► I didn't know what I was doing

00:17:42 ◼   ► and you told me it's actually better for me so this is one of the points that I want to discuss

00:17:47 ◼   ► How does it work Myke?

00:17:48 ◼   ► One of the things that I like about the 1Password keyboard is once you've kind of authenticated

00:17:53 ◼   ► right so you press to keep the thing and then you have to go out

00:17:56 ◼   ► to the one password app which is all seamlessly done right and you authenticate.

00:18:01 ◼   ► What you get which I really like is you get two buttons that appear above the keyboard.

00:18:05 ◼   ► One says fill username and one says fill password.

00:18:08 ◼   ► So because there are times where autofilling doesn't work on websites and I see this quite

00:18:14 ◼   ► a lot on iOS especially being a Chrome user.

00:18:18 ◼   ► Like Chrome on iOS very frequently will not autofill when I'm using the one password extension.

00:18:25 ◼   ► But what I like about the way that it works on Android is you literally just press a button.

00:18:30 ◼   ► So you're in a field, so you're in a text field for username, you just press the username

00:18:35 ◼   ► button and it just fills the username in for the login that you've selected.

00:18:39 ◼   ► I like that because it brings a little bit more manual to the process for websites that

00:18:44 ◼   ► refuse to do things the way that I want them to.

00:18:48 ◼   ► It's different, it's different.

00:18:49 ◼   ► And also something that me and you were talking about was, you know, you mentioned like the

00:18:54 ◼   ► share sheet metaphor. There are many things about Android which are different and they're

00:19:01 ◼   ► different because they've been doing things at a different pace to iOS. So one of the

00:19:05 ◼   ► things that we'll talk about in a moment is document pickers and also the shared storage

00:19:13 ◼   ► stuff. That's been around in Android for a long time. So it's different to iOS because

00:19:22 ◼   ► it's older. Does that make sense?

00:19:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess. I guess, yeah. They've been doing this for a long time and they don't feel the need to kind of reinvent what they're doing.

00:19:31 ◼   ► Instead, Apple had a chance to come up with a new solution and they did things in a similar way, but also differently from a user experience standpoint.

00:19:39 ◼   ► And I think, I mean, of course I'm more used to the way things are on iOS.

00:19:43 ◼   ► I just feel like it's strange to not have the ability to bring up some portion of an

00:19:52 ◼   ► app on top of what you're doing.

00:19:54 ◼   ► The idea on iOS being you can have an interface from a different app on top of the current

00:20:00 ◼   ► app, so you can have like a Pythonista interface on top of Tweetbot.

00:20:05 ◼   ► That's how things work on iOS.

00:20:06 ◼   ► And on Android, it's all based on you're in this app, and then you tap the share sheet,

00:20:12 ◼   ► you're in a different app and then you can go back. You know, it's similar but also different

00:20:17 ◼   ► and something that I noticed. I think my problems with the 1Password keyboard is that it didn't

00:20:24 ◼   ► work consistently in all of my apps, whereas on iOS you see the 1Password icon, you can

00:20:29 ◼   ► rest assured it's going to work.

00:20:31 ◼   ► Well see, I don't agree with that because it doesn't work in Chrome.

00:20:36 ◼   ► I think the problem is Chrome, not 1Password.

00:20:38 ◼   ► Yeah, no, I agree, but the conceit that "it just works" isn't true for all instances.

00:20:45 ◼   ► Because it doesn't for me.

00:20:47 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess Chrome is the exception, I don't know.

00:20:50 ◼   ► So what I did after setting up 1Password and Dropbox and a bunch of other apps is I thought

00:20:55 ◼   ► I could just move to Android and the beta because it was pretty stable, you know?

00:21:02 ◼   ► And so I installed, I enrolled my Android device in the beta program, it was very easy,

00:21:06 ◼   ► just need to click and roll and then you go to the settings, you download the beta and

00:21:11 ◼   ► you can see how Apple borrowed from this process with the over the air beta installation with

00:21:17 ◼   ► iOS 9. You download the beta, you reboot, you're on the Android M beta. It didn't last

00:21:23 ◼   ► very long because of some issues with a bunch of apps that were not working, the one password

00:21:29 ◼   ► integration got worse when I was on the beta, widgets were not refreshing properly, so I

00:21:34 ◼   ► I stood on the beta for about like half a day, but I noticed two points that I want to mention Myke

00:21:39 ◼   ► split screen for phone apps is crazy like

00:21:44 ◼   ► Crazy. Yes

00:21:46 ◼   ► But useful when you need it, right?

00:21:49 ◼   ► So like I don't think anyone should run their phones like this on a day-to-day basis

00:21:53 ◼   ► But in the times where you need to do something and you just have your phone with you

00:21:59 ◼   ► It can be useful right like I don't think anyone should have to do this all the time

00:22:03 ◼   ► but there are times where I'm on my iPhone where I wished I could just look at two things at once for one for some reason or another.

00:22:09 ◼   ► It can be useful, but nobody should run their phones like this.

00:22:12 ◼   ► Yeah, I tried it with YouTube. I could see the benefit of having, you know, like a video and like my Twitter client on the other side.

00:22:21 ◼   ► The implementation is kind of, again, it's kind of crazy. You can move the separator around.

00:22:28 ◼   ► it's very different, but I did like how Android dims slightly the app that you're not currently focusing on

00:22:37 ◼   ► so that was a nice touch. And the second point that I want to bring up is

00:22:41 ◼   ► I love, I really really like the double tap on the... what's the name of the button Myke?

00:22:48 ◼   ► multitasking?

00:22:50 ◼   ► yeah let's call it multitasking, the multitasking button is a little square

00:22:54 ◼   ► and we spoke about this last time, that you can just double tap and it will just take you to the previous app

00:22:58 ◼   ► my god that's so useful. It was...

00:23:02 ◼   ► it's like command tab on a phone and it takes you back

00:23:06 ◼   ► like a fraction of a second to the last app you were using. So you need to jump

00:23:10 ◼   ► back and forth between, I don't know, Slack and Twitter, it's super easy, just double tap

00:23:14 ◼   ► and you go back.

00:23:15 ◼   ► That was a highlight of Android and in those few hours I spent on the beta.

00:23:19 ◼   ► Then I, you know, again another benefit of Android

00:23:22 ◼   ► was super easy to go back to the stable version. I didn't need to do a

00:23:26 ◼   ► restore,

00:23:27 ◼   ► I didn't need to plug into iTunes, of course.

00:23:29 ◼   ► I just said, "Okay, I don't want to be enrolled in the beta anymore.

00:23:34 ◼   ► Take me back to the stable release."

00:23:36 ◼   ► Another software update, another reboot, I was back on the stable track.

00:23:39 ◼   ► That's pretty cool, man.

00:23:41 ◼   ► Because if you want to go back on iOS, you may as well say a prayer.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Like, it's so difficult to do.

00:23:49 ◼   ► It was super nice on the restore.

00:23:53 ◼   ► I did the setup process again, but a lot of all of my settings, all of my apps and data

00:23:59 ◼   ► came back from the Google backup, so that was super easy, very fast, thumbs up for the

00:24:04 ◼   ► Android setup and backup and restore and beta process.

00:24:08 ◼   ► Good job.

00:24:09 ◼   ► All right, so at this point in your note-taking, in your experience, you're back on stable

00:24:14 ◼   ► release, so I guess you probably then spent more time digging around Android.

00:24:18 ◼   ► So we should find out exactly what you think of the overall Android experience, but before

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00:26:31 ◼   ► Mr. Fattici.

00:26:32 ◼   ► Mm-hmm. Mr. Hurley, what's up?

00:26:34 ◼   ► Tell me, tell me about Android.

00:26:39 ◼   ► Where do I start, Myke? So, first thing that comes up is the status bar and notifications.

00:26:48 ◼   ► So I install a bunch of apps from the Google Play Store, I log into my apps with one password,

00:26:53 ◼   ► again, I'm back on the stable release, so everything's better than the beta. And my

00:26:59 ◼   ► God, Myke, everything puts an icon in the status bar on Android. You get a notification,

00:27:05 ◼   ► You don't just get the notification, you get the notification and the icon in the status

00:27:10 ◼   ► bar.

00:27:11 ◼   ► And developers can...

00:27:12 ◼   ► Yeah, the icons indicate that a notification is there for you.

00:27:16 ◼   ► So as you can imagine, you've known me for a few years, Myke, you know my relationship

00:27:22 ◼   ► with the status bar.

00:27:23 ◼   ► Can you imagine my reaction to a status bar filled with icons?

00:27:28 ◼   ► It is a very different way of doing things, right?

00:27:34 ◼   ► And I can understand totally from somebody who is used to not seeing that, seeing that

00:27:40 ◼   ► is peculiar because this is one of those things that when I talk about age and maturity of

00:27:45 ◼   ► the OS, this has been around in Android for a long time. I think possibly since it was

00:27:51 ◼   ► in September, like you can see, right, since it first began. And one of the things that

00:27:57 ◼   ► came with that was over time, Android developed a far superior notification handling system

00:28:04 ◼   ► than Apple and this is one of those things that has come with it and is maybe I think

00:28:08 ◼   ► a little bit legacy but now it is just part of the system that people expect it to be

00:28:13 ◼   ► there. But I agree with you, I don't like that.

00:28:16 ◼   ► I mean, I'm used to iOS as having a status bar with system stuff so when I see an icon

00:28:24 ◼   ► in the status bar it's either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or rotation lock, you know that kind of stuff,

00:28:29 ◼   ► not icons from apps.

00:28:31 ◼   ► I mean that stuff is still always there though, right?

00:28:34 ◼   ► It's always there, yeah, yeah, sure.

00:28:36 ◼   ► But it's also, you know, it's like my personal nightmare having all of these icons.

00:28:41 ◼   ► And I wish there was an option to disable this, and I'm pretty sure there's some kind of tweak

00:28:46 ◼   ► on the Google Play Store that I can install. I'll get to these a bit later.

00:28:50 ◼   ► But, you know, by default you get a notification, you get the notification itself, you know, the banner,

00:28:57 ◼   ► but you also get the indicator, which is different.

00:29:00 ◼   ► can be useful sometimes.

00:29:03 ◼   ► And it's part of the few things that I prefer of Android

00:29:09 ◼   ► compared to iOS, which is you don't just

00:29:12 ◼   ► get notifications for, let me say, content or activity

00:29:17 ◼   ► in apps.

00:29:18 ◼   ► You also get status messages or in-progress dialogs.

00:29:24 ◼   ► So one example, when you share a screenshot on Slack,

00:29:28 ◼   ► you get the progress indicator in the status bar.

00:29:32 ◼   ► And when you can close the app, and when the upload is finished,

00:29:35 ◼   ► you get a message.

00:29:36 ◼   ► So you get this upload icon that's filling up.

00:29:38 ◼   ► And when it's done, you get the message

00:29:40 ◼   ► your screenshot has been shared.

00:29:42 ◼   ► And that's very nice, to have the kind of confirmation

00:29:45 ◼   ► that something was going on, something is in progress,

00:29:49 ◼   ► and something is done.

00:29:50 ◼   ► That was very useful.

00:29:51 ◼   ► And I've seen this with other apps.

00:29:53 ◼   ► I don't have concrete examples.

00:29:55 ◼   ► But it can also be annoying, you know, on the other hand,

00:29:59 ◼   ► like when I take a screenshot on Android,

00:30:03 ◼   ► and by the way, taking a screenshot on the 5X,

00:30:06 ◼   ► super uncomfortable, you need to hold down the power

00:30:09 ◼   ► and the volume down buttons, which I don't really like

00:30:12 ◼   ► because they're not as clicky as I like them to be,

00:30:14 ◼   ► and I kinda, again, I have to kinda wrap my hands

00:30:17 ◼   ► in a weird position around the phone.

00:30:19 ◼   ► - Taking screenshots on Android

00:30:20 ◼   ► has always been a weird endeavor.

00:30:22 ◼   ► - When you take a screenshot, you get identification.

00:30:25 ◼   ► I really don't want the notification for a screenshot.

00:30:27 ◼   ► Again, there might be an option to disable this.

00:30:30 ◼   ► - No, I couldn't disagree with you more.

00:30:32 ◼   ► - Really?

00:30:33 ◼   ► - Right, when you take a screenshot,

00:30:34 ◼   ► do you just take them so they stay

00:30:36 ◼   ► in your camera roll forever?

00:30:37 ◼   ► - Yeah. - I mean, but why though?

00:30:40 ◼   ► Like, oh, I'll just save this screenshot for the future.

00:30:44 ◼   ► Most people don't do that.

00:30:45 ◼   ► I mean, maybe you're a little bit different

00:30:46 ◼   ► 'cause you take screenshots for work,

00:30:48 ◼   ► but usually when you take a screenshot,

00:30:50 ◼   ► you wanna do something with that screenshot.

00:30:52 ◼   ► You wanna send it somewhere.

00:30:53 ◼   ► You wanna send it to someone.

00:30:54 ◼   ► and you want to tweet with it. So putting it in the notifications, you just can tap on it

00:30:58 ◼   ► and it will open it right up and you can get it off. I mean, I love that feature.

00:31:01 ◼   ► Why would I want a notification for something I've just done manually?

00:31:05 ◼   ► Because then it gives you a quick way to share it with someone, which is typically what you're looking to do.

00:31:10 ◼   ► Ehh...

00:31:11 ◼   ► That's why it's there, right? But I like it for that, you just don't like it for that.

00:31:15 ◼   ► And I want to share with someone, I just open the app and I share the image.

00:31:19 ◼   ► You know? Like I don't want...

00:31:21 ◼   ► This is more convenient than having to open the app.

00:31:24 ◼   ► It's just a different way of doing things. You clearly don't like it.

00:31:26 ◼   ► But it fills my notification center with crap.

00:31:29 ◼   ► It's like a bunch of messages about screenshots. I don't want those.

00:31:34 ◼   ► Right. But you need to understand that you're taking screenshots in a different way to most people.

00:31:38 ◼   ► I guess.

00:31:39 ◼   ► You're taking multiple screenshots for research purposes. People don't do that.

00:31:43 ◼   ► So they're not filling their notification bar with screenshot after screenshot.

00:31:47 ◼   ► It was a nightmare for me. Probably fine for everyone else.

00:31:52 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what I assume. Remember Federico, you're a weirdo for this type of stuff, right?

00:32:00 ◼   ► Well, thank you.

00:32:01 ◼   ► So am I though, right? But like, we do things, we're doing things differently to the way

00:32:05 ◼   ► that normal people will do them, right?

00:32:07 ◼   ► I think our interaction model inside of our two brains is different, because when I think

00:32:14 ◼   ► of sharing, I think of, here's my media, I need to go to this app, I need to take the

00:32:20 ◼   ► the media manually and share it. Because you are conditioned to the iOS way of doing things.

00:32:26 ◼   ► Yes. Whereas you know Android, you've known Android for longer and you like the fact that

00:32:32 ◼   ► you can tap on this notification and perform an action right there. Yeah. Yeah, I think

00:32:39 ◼   ► it's a different model that we have in our brain at this point. Yeah, I believe so too.

00:32:44 ◼   ► One thing that I like, and I'm gonna sound like a Blackberry person at this point, you

00:32:49 ◼   ► enable a notification light. There's a light indicator. You can have a light, like a beeping

00:32:57 ◼   ► light going on on the phone when there's a notification.

00:33:01 ◼   ► I can't stand that, but like, a lot of people love that it can do that.

00:33:05 ◼   ► Makes me feel very business-y, you know, to have my notification light.

00:33:09 ◼   ► I guess that's business right there, huh?

00:33:12 ◼   ► Yeah, it's really serious business when you get this light, it's like, look, there's stuff

00:33:17 ◼   ► for you, yeah, you know, I'm busy, I get notifications and stuff, I'm a busy man, you know, it's very

00:33:21 ◼   ► nice. So everything, this is a major difference, everything on Android sends you a notification

00:33:28 ◼   ► by default. On iOS, when you open an app and it wants to send notifications, you're given

00:33:35 ◼   ► the permission dialogue upfront, so you can say allow or don't allow notifications. On

00:33:39 ◼   ► Android, the default is to allow all kinds of notifications, and later you have to go

00:33:45 ◼   ► back and deny those notifications and block them. And there's more settings than iOS,

00:33:51 ◼   ► which I like. You can enable privacy mode for notifications, so you can say "I want

00:33:57 ◼   ► notifications, I just don't want them this way on the home screen", and it's a consistent

00:34:00 ◼   ► system setting, so it's not depending from app to app, which I like. You can block all

00:34:06 ◼   ► notifications, but it struck me as a very strange, maybe not strange, just a difference,

00:34:13 ◼   ► on Android all notifications are on, on iOS all notifications are off until you say so.

00:34:18 ◼   ► So you know it's very very different behavior from the two OS's. I mentioned that you can

00:34:25 ◼   ► manage notifications, this is nice. The whole notif... what is it called the notification?

00:34:31 ◼   ► Shade is the name? That was what it was called, I don't know if it's still called that but

00:34:35 ◼   ► yeah I think the shade. So it looks better to me, it looks more fun, more colorful you

00:34:42 ◼   ► know, it's not like a full-on translucent sort of window on top of everything

00:34:50 ◼   ► you're doing, it looks like a bunch of widgets, like a bunch of interfaces

00:34:55 ◼   ► sliding from the top of the display, so from a design perspective it looks

00:34:59 ◼   ► very nice to me, and you can tap and hold on a notification to bring up the

00:35:04 ◼   ► settings for that individual app, which is very nice, saves me a lot of time

00:35:10 ◼   ► compared to iOS from going into the settings, then notifications, and then

00:35:15 ◼   ► controlling the notifications for individual apps. On Android you can just

00:35:19 ◼   ► tap and hold on the message from any app and say "I want to modify the

00:35:24 ◼   ► settings, the notification settings for this app" and it's very well done. Again, it

00:35:29 ◼   ► was just sort of strange to have the difference of notifications on by

00:35:33 ◼   ► default and I've seen some inconsistencies with the behavior of

00:35:39 ◼   ► that gesture because sometimes I tap and hold and I don't see the settings icon

00:35:45 ◼   ► other times I tap and hold and I get the settings and then you can also kind of

00:35:51 ◼   ► swipe down on a notification to see the quick action menu, sort of like on iOS so

00:35:58 ◼   ► for example in the Gmail and Inbox apps you can swipe down and you get the reply

00:36:02 ◼   ► archive icons which is convenient. It's very similar to iOS which is not a

00:36:06 ◼   ► surprise because there's many similarities between the two. Overall I

00:36:11 ◼   ► would say I like how notifications look, I don't get the screenshot stuff, I don't

00:36:19 ◼   ► like the status bar, I dig the controls and the settings and the consistency of

00:36:24 ◼   ► the settings when they are consistent. So when they are consistent it's pretty

00:36:29 ◼   ► good. When they're not, it drives me crazy. The status bar, get rid of it. The screenshot

00:36:34 ◼   ► stuff, make it an option because Myke you're crazy.

00:36:36 ◼   ► I'm crazy.

00:36:37 ◼   ► I'm crazy, whatever. So I would say, I love you Myke. I would say it's very different

00:36:48 ◼   ► but there's some stuff that Android gets right. Would you agree with that?

00:36:53 ◼   ► Yeah I would, I would. Fundamentally I think this is going to be a theme for the rest of

00:36:57 ◼   ► episode. Things are different, some things that Android get right.

00:37:00 ◼   ► So next up Myke, I think this is a big one. Performance and the interface. So the first

00:37:06 ◼   ► thing I notice when I'm actually using Android and Android apps is there's no tapping the

00:37:12 ◼   ► status bar to go back to the top of a list. Oh, it drives me crazy.

00:37:16 ◼   ► It drives me crazy. I don't know why they don't have this. So

00:37:20 ◼   ► in iOS you're scrolling a web page and go to the top of the web page, hit the status

00:37:23 ◼   ► bar and you go all the way up, but on Android this just doesn't seem to be implemented.

00:37:29 ◼   ► It drives me mad.

00:37:31 ◼   ► And it's very annoying, you know, to not have the kind of shortcut, but what's even worse

00:37:36 ◼   ► in the, is that on Android, at least a lot of the apps that I've tried, there's no tab

00:37:42 ◼   ► bar UI metaphor. So on iOS, Apple apps and a lot of third party apps use tabs at the

00:37:51 ◼   ► the bottom to let you switch between different sections of an app. And over the years we've

00:37:56 ◼   ► seen the rise and maybe the fall of the so-called side menu, you know, the hamburger menu, where

00:38:04 ◼   ► to switch between sections there's a list, like a drawer, coming up from the left side

00:38:08 ◼   ► of the screen. And in recent years a lot of developers have gone back to using tabs at

00:38:13 ◼   ► the bottom, for example Spotify, and still, the majority of Apple apps all use the top

00:38:21 ◼   ► bar at the bottom. Apple UI designers and evangelists, they tell you as a developer

00:38:26 ◼   ► to use tabs at the bottom to switch between sections because it's easier and it's faster,

00:38:30 ◼   ► and there's no tabs in Android apps. Like at least the ones that I've tried, they all

00:38:36 ◼   ► use a side menu, so it takes far too many tabs to switch between sections. And I've

00:38:42 ◼   ► seen this in Twitter clients for example. I installed Talon and Phoenix, I prefer Phoenix

00:38:48 ◼   ► which is a little faster and smoother, but there's no tabs, so I'm so used to Tweetbot,

00:38:53 ◼   ► and even the Twitter app lets you move from the timeline to the favorites, to the mentions

00:39:00 ◼   ► and the direct messages, and it always takes one tap, you know, you just need to hit the

00:39:05 ◼   ► tab at the bottom. On Android it's either multiple swipes, because a lot of these apps

00:39:10 ◼   ► swipes in the middle of the screen to move between pages, or you need to bring up the

00:39:15 ◼   ► side menu to switch between sections. And I really, really think that tabs are better,

00:39:20 ◼   ► and I prefer the way that the UI is structured by default on iOS.

00:39:25 ◼   ► Well guess what exists in the material design guidelines?

00:39:29 ◼   ► Tabs? Recommendation to use tabs instead of hamburger menus.

00:39:33 ◼   ► But why are material apps not using tabs yet? That is an implementation thing.

00:39:39 ◼   ► Okay, okay, so there is a thing that seems to exist in Android the Android development world

00:39:45 ◼   ► Which I would love to be corrected on but there seems to be that the majority of developers don't embrace

00:39:52 ◼   ► Google's recommendations as quickly as Apple developers do

00:39:57 ◼   ► So you will get some developers that do and they they will go for it quickly and they will implement things

00:40:04 ◼   ► faster than others. But what that leads to is even in the most popular applications,

00:40:10 ◼   ► some of them don't look as nice as they could.

00:40:14 ◼   ► Hmm. That's interesting.

00:40:16 ◼   ► But there seems to be, at least from my experience of this stuff, because there was always, because

00:40:22 ◼   ► originally the design tools and the design guidelines were basically non-existent, that

00:40:30 ◼   ► I think bred an idea of caring less maybe than, maybe like caring less than Apple developers

00:40:43 ◼   ► did because Apple have always put more emphasis on design.

00:40:46 ◼   ► One of the other things in material design is the top tab menu instead of the way that

00:40:52 ◼   ► Apple does it.

00:40:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:40:54 ◼   ► Right?

00:40:55 ◼   ► So that's another thing, like less hamburger and like the swiping left and right and the

00:40:57 ◼   ► tabs menu as well as bottom navigation.

00:41:00 ◼   ► So they are making some changes to try and bring out that like selection UI.

00:41:05 ◼   ► Yeah, but see, even top tabs with pagination, it's not as good as bottom tabs, because especially

00:41:12 ◼   ► on big phones, it's just easier to switch within tabs at the bottom.

00:41:15 ◼   ► Yeah, well I think one of the ways that pagination is meant to work is that you swipe the UI

00:41:20 ◼   ► pages.

00:41:21 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:41:22 ◼   ► Exactly, and that I don't like, because on iOS, tabs are easier to reach the bottom,

00:41:27 ◼   ► So you're free to use swipes to interact with content.

00:41:31 ◼   ► So for example in Tweetbot you can use swipes on individual items of content on tweets,

00:41:37 ◼   ► you know, you can use swipe gestures.

00:41:39 ◼   ► On Android there's just a single swipe to move between pages, which are either associated

00:41:45 ◼   ► with the side menu or with the pagination at the top.

00:41:48 ◼   ► And you know, from a UI point of view I really prefer the way things are on iOS.

00:41:54 ◼   ► But that's not even my major complaint.

00:41:56 ◼   ► My major complaint is that, now I don't know if this is an Android thing or a problem with

00:42:00 ◼   ► the 5X, I'm just talking with my own experience with the 5X and the stable Android release,

00:42:06 ◼   ► there's no contest, iOS is way, way smoother than Android.

00:42:11 ◼   ► Like performance difference is not even funny.

00:42:14 ◼   ► Scrolling in Android apps is janky, it's stuttery, and there's no comparison with iOS.

00:42:21 ◼   ► So again, this is another thing that they are really trying to improve with N. I feel

00:42:28 ◼   ► like the last two releases of Android have been trying to bring it to that 60 frames

00:42:33 ◼   ► a second. Android really struggled with this and Google rewrote a lot of the base code

00:42:39 ◼   ► to allow for better performance. So again, it's coming but it relies on people doing

00:42:45 ◼   ► a lot of work to make it happen. But I do agree with you, the overall performance of

00:42:49 ◼   ► scrolling and just general app animation and stuff like that is not as polished and it

00:42:54 ◼   ► never has been, but Google is doing a lot to try and make it better.

00:42:58 ◼   ► Yeah, and iOS apps really basically smoke their Android counterparts in terms of performance.

00:43:04 ◼   ► But if you look at a really, really well-designed Android app, something like Phoenix, which

00:43:08 ◼   ► is a great Twitter client that you mentioned, when you scroll that list, it's as smooth

00:43:13 ◼   ► as you would want it to be, right? Like it doesn't stutter, it's perfectly fine.

00:43:17 ◼   ► Because again, it's a well designed...

00:43:18 ◼   ► Well, you know, okay, I'm looking at it now and I'm scoring from my timeline and it's

00:43:22 ◼   ► zipping around, right?

00:43:24 ◼   ► It's nice.

00:43:26 ◼   ► Maybe it's one of the things that I noticed, because I obsess over this stuff on iOS.

00:43:30 ◼   ► Here's the thing that, ah, I just thought of something that I need to maybe point out.

00:43:34 ◼   ► The 5X has performance issues.

00:43:36 ◼   ► Okay.

00:43:37 ◼   ► Yeah, again, as I mentioned, it could be.

00:43:39 ◼   ► But I've noticed slowdowns, like the frame rate dropping.

00:43:44 ◼   ► This might be more of a your device problem than an OS problem.

00:43:50 ◼   ► And I also want to mention the design from a static perspective.

00:43:56 ◼   ► So set aside when things are in motion.

00:44:02 ◼   ► The font.

00:44:03 ◼   ► So, what's the name of the Android system?

00:44:07 ◼   ► Roboto?

00:44:08 ◼   ► Roboto.

00:44:09 ◼   ► Okay.

00:44:10 ◼   ► I like it, but I don't like it as much as I like San Francisco on iOS.

00:44:16 ◼   ► I think Roboto is either too compact or too light, and it doesn't have the same balance

00:44:22 ◼   ► between...

00:44:23 ◼   ► You know, especially when it changes from small size to larger sizes.

00:44:28 ◼   ► I think Apple has done a terrific job with San Francisco, the text and UI display weights

00:44:33 ◼   ► of San Francisco, I think it's better than Roboto, it looks better to my eyes. That said,

00:44:41 ◼   ► Roboto is not terrible, and having seen screenshots of old versions of Android, I think it's better

00:44:47 ◼   ► today than it used to be. But my problem is when apps don't use material design and material

00:44:55 ◼   ► design guidelines, they look just terrible. Like terrible PC apps. If you go to the Google

00:45:02 ◼   ► Play Store, most utilities or tweaks or stuff that you install to modify the behavior of

00:45:09 ◼   ► Android system stuff or other apps, those tools, they look horrible.

00:45:16 ◼   ► They look like the sort of stuff I would install on my PC in the mid 2000s.

00:45:21 ◼   ► It looks terrible.

00:45:23 ◼   ► There's some really well designed apps like Pocket Casts or Todoist or Phoenix, but other

00:45:32 ◼   ► apps, man, they're just awful. So this is the thing, I think when you get a really great,

00:45:39 ◼   ► really well designed Android app, I think in places they rival, if not beat, design

00:45:46 ◼   ► on iOS. I think there are apps that look absolutely fantastic and it's like you put them next

00:45:51 ◼   ► to iOS apps and it can be difficult, there are things that are better about one or the

00:45:55 ◼   ► other. But the main difference that I've found is that even in good applications, not just

00:46:01 ◼   ► like the crap that you will find hidden away in the back of the store but like

00:46:04 ◼   ► good applications that are used by many people the difference in design is

00:46:10 ◼   ► shocking compared to on iOS. Shocking? Yeah like there are apps that are widely

00:46:18 ◼   ► used that look atrocious which I don't think happens as much on iOS but we are

00:46:25 ◼   ► in a kind of bubble here right like we are in the indie app development bubble

00:46:30 ◼   ► where people take more care of this and I expect that there is also a bubble on

00:46:35 ◼   ► Android which can kind of make you think differently about it but I do agree with

00:46:40 ◼   ► you that in least in my playing around and testing that there are some great

00:46:44 ◼   ► apps but there are some truly atrocious ones as well.

00:46:48 ◼   ► And the overall feeling that I got is that and I don't want to sound like like

00:46:55 ◼   ► an Apple fanboy you know if anything I really don't want to be an Apple fanboy

00:46:58 ◼   ► by this is the whole reason behind this experiment. But I do feel like, overall, there's more

00:47:06 ◼   ► care for user experience design and visual design on iOS than Android. And I think things

00:47:13 ◼   ► are getting better on Android, because you told me and I'm looking at these new guidelines,

00:47:18 ◼   ► I think they know they're sort of behind, and I think we're seeing some apps that look

00:47:23 ◼   ► better than iOS versions now, but overall it looks to me like Apple is more tightly

00:47:30 ◼   ► controlling the experience with the benefit of a more consistent design language.

00:47:35 ◼   ► And on Android, everything is a little more flexible, everything is a little more customizable

00:47:40 ◼   ► at the expense of a consistent design.

00:47:43 ◼   ► And sometimes even of good design, I would say.

00:47:46 ◼   ► And you need to kind of choose which is your preference, right?

00:47:52 ◼   ► Do you want strong customization or do you want strong design?

00:47:56 ◼   ► Because depending on which one of those two things matters more to you, I think will push

00:48:00 ◼   ► you towards the right OS.

00:48:02 ◼   ► Yeah, and I see this for example on the Android home screen.

00:48:09 ◼   ► Every icon looks different.

00:48:12 ◼   ► Developers are free to use any shape they want.

00:48:15 ◼   ► So I got like an icon is shaped like a camera, a bunch of icons are circles, other icons

00:48:21 ◼   ► are square, some of them have rounded corners, others don't, and coming from iOS it's just

00:48:27 ◼   ► crazy not to have a consistent shape of icons on the home screen. And I get it, like, on

00:48:32 ◼   ► Android it's different and everything is customizable, therefore there's no need for a consistent

00:48:36 ◼   ► guideline that enforces a shape. I mean, on iOS, developers have to submit a square artwork

00:48:42 ◼   ► to the App Store, and the icon mask is applied at a code level on the home screen. And it's

00:48:51 ◼   ► just different on Android, you get a bunch of different shapes and to my eyes it's all

00:48:57 ◼   ► like "oh my god what is going on" you know that was my reaction.

00:49:01 ◼   ► When the shapes are a consistent size, right, because that can struggle sometimes, some

00:49:08 ◼   ► iPods are just significantly bigger than others, when they are a consistent size I prefer that

00:49:13 ◼   ► they're different shapes because I think it's more interesting. Like looking at my Android

00:49:18 ◼   ► home screen. I'll put a picture of it in the show notes. I think that it is good looking

00:49:24 ◼   ► because we've got all these really interesting looking applications. But on the second screens

00:49:30 ◼   ► and on the app drawers and stuff, they're all different sizes and I don't like that.

00:49:34 ◼   ► But the ones that I have on my home screen, the sizes are pretty consistent and I like

00:49:39 ◼   ► the fact that they look really interesting and the design's kind of cool. But yeah, it

00:49:43 ◼   ► can be a bit of a nightmare at the same time.

00:49:46 ◼   ► I got some other comments from the interface and user experience section of my Notes mic.

00:49:54 ◼   ► I couldn't figure out how to launch the camera.

00:49:57 ◼   ► Now I know, because I found out last night, that I can double click the volume button

00:50:03 ◼   ► to open the camera, but the underlying concern, to me at least, is that there's no control

00:50:11 ◼   ► center version on Android.

00:50:16 ◼   ► There's no panel that should swipe up and have a bunch of shortcuts always there.

00:50:22 ◼   ► And I guess the reason is because everything's kind of grouped together in the notification

00:50:27 ◼   ► center, whatever is the name.

00:50:30 ◼   ► Like you get widgets, but you also get notifications, so you can have music players in there, you

00:50:35 ◼   ► can have widgets and you can have notifications, whereas on iOS it's a clear distinction between

00:50:40 ◼   ► widgets, notifications and controls at the bottom. And to me it was kinda crazy not to

00:50:46 ◼   ► have some kind of interface that I can swipe up or swipe down from anywhere and have system

00:50:53 ◼   ► shortcuts always there. I mean on Android there's shortcuts for radios and brightness

00:50:59 ◼   ► and rotation but no camera really and it was kinda crazy to me. I mean I get it like why

00:51:06 ◼   ► maybe having a physical activation point with a volume button may be better for some people,

00:51:12 ◼   ► but I really don't want to click buttons, I just want to swipe up and tap an icon, and

00:51:16 ◼   ► to me it's kind of crazy not to have the shortcut.

00:51:18 ◼   ► I mean, you can decide whether this argument's valid or not, but I bet that there's an app

00:51:23 ◼   ► or a home screen edition that you can install that will allow it.

00:51:26 ◼   ► Sure.

00:51:27 ◼   ► And that's one of the key things about Android, is like, you don't like something, well, someone's

00:51:31 ◼   ► probably fixed it for you.

00:51:33 ◼   ► And that's not the way it is on iOS, right?

00:51:35 ◼   ► like you don't like something? Well, get used to it buddy.

00:51:38 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. You don't like it, well I don't care. Take it up to Johnny Ive. I guess when

00:51:47 ◼   ► you bring up that argument, the counterpoint would be there's a lot of personalization,

00:51:53 ◼   ► there's a lot of flexibility, which is awesome because I spend hours tweaking stuff, but

00:51:58 ◼   ► there's a lot of overhead, you know? If you want to make the OS look like you want it

00:52:03 ◼   ► to be, there's a lot of time that you need to sink into the Google Play Store and forums

00:52:08 ◼   ► and looking up things online to modify things, to experiment with things and to install,

00:52:13 ◼   ► uninstall, set permissions, you know, that kind of stuff. It's different. You can do

00:52:18 ◼   ► it, but it takes a lot of time.

00:52:19 ◼   ► Yeah, and it's up to you if you think that's a good thing or a bad thing, but like it's

00:52:23 ◼   ► possible to do.

00:52:27 ◼   ► feature that's quite different from iOS. Memory management and battery information. Android

00:52:37 ◼   ► kind of goes crazy here. I do like the camera statistics, like there's a graph showing you

00:52:45 ◼   ► battery decrease and discharge over time. You can have really precise information about

00:52:52 ◼   ► which kind of apps are using your battery, what's going on, how much time you have left,

00:52:57 ◼   ► it's progressing over time. That's super geeky, but also kind of handy for a lot of people

00:53:03 ◼   ► because you know everyone struggles with battery life on their phones.

00:53:08 ◼   ► Memory and RAM management is kind of crazy. I don't want to think about managing RAM.

00:53:15 ◼   ► This is the whole reason for getting a smartphone so I can get away from that PC stuff. I don't

00:53:20 ◼   ► want to think about memory. I don't want to think about RAM. Whereas I've seen apps with

00:53:25 ◼   ► either memory management settings, so you can say "don't use more than x megabytes

00:53:32 ◼   ► of memory" or "I've seen settings with menus to free up RAM manually", that stuff

00:53:41 ◼   ► looks like, again, I keep coming up with the word crazy, because it seems crazy to me to

00:53:47 ◼   ► have memory management on a phone.

00:53:51 ◼   ► I think this is one of those scenarios that this type of thing is like if you give people

00:53:56 ◼   ► an inch they'll take a mile. So you give people some kind of deep tools and then they end

00:54:03 ◼   ► up instead of managing it effectively themselves, they just expose it to the user. And then

00:54:08 ◼   ► when you get the core Android users are used to seeing that, they demand it from developers.

00:54:14 ◼   ► So then you end up in a scenario where applications put this stuff in because otherwise people

00:54:19 ◼   ► get upset. This is what we were talking about last week with Google adding the close all

00:54:25 ◼   ► applications button in the multitasking view. I think they're a little bit more demanding

00:54:33 ◼   ► of seeing these changes made and Google and/or developers are more likely to give them because

00:54:38 ◼   ► it's part of the Android way. So you put these features in that are kind of really low level

00:54:44 ◼   ► but there are a core set of users that want to do it themselves rather than have the app

00:54:48 ◼   ► do it.

00:54:49 ◼   ► Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, I guess.

00:54:51 ◼   ► So different, if it's just a different thing, right, it's just like a fundamentally different

00:54:56 ◼   ► way of approaching this type of thing, and I'm sure that there are times where, as iOS

00:55:01 ◼   ► users, it would be useful if we could have that kind of control, but we're not used to

00:55:05 ◼   ► it, so we don't think about it.

00:55:09 ◼   ► The expression, by the way, is a bit darker in Italian.

00:55:13 ◼   ► We say you give someone a finger, they get an arm.

00:55:16 ◼   ► That's a very Italian way of expressing that sentiment, yes.

00:55:23 ◼   ► Speaking of crazy stuff, Myke, on Android, apps can access all sorts of things.

00:55:31 ◼   ► There's permissions for everything, so they can access the lock screen and they can modify

00:55:37 ◼   ► that.

00:55:38 ◼   ► They can read your phone calls, your messages.

00:55:40 ◼   ► They can modify low-level things.

00:55:44 ◼   ► apps that you install and then you have to go to the Google Play Store to install the

00:55:49 ◼   ► plugin to access the permission of other aspects of DOS. It's impressive, from a technical

00:55:59 ◼   ► point of view, how much you can control your Android experience. So for example, I'm going

00:56:05 ◼   ► to talk about this in a bit, but you can modify the lock screen, you can have a different

00:56:10 ◼   ► lockstream, you can have different app launchers because you can modify that part of the OS.

00:56:15 ◼   ► And coming from iOS, it's all quite shocking really to have that kind of freedom and say,

00:56:21 ◼   ► you know, these apps can read your documents, they can read your SMS history, they can read

00:56:26 ◼   ► your location all the time, they can run in the background all the time, they can have

00:56:30 ◼   ► a persistent notification always shown in the shade. You can do everything. And, you

00:56:37 ◼   ► No, the geek inside me is excited about all of these, but also kind of scary because of

00:56:46 ◼   ► the stuff that apps can do.

00:56:47 ◼   ► Yeah, the permissions stuff has always been a bit wonky, but it's got, again, this is

00:56:52 ◼   ► something that they're improving in N. They're like really making the permissions process

00:56:56 ◼   ► better, and you're able to go in and kind of turn things off and turn things on a lot

00:57:00 ◼   ► easier than you did before.

00:57:02 ◼   ► Previously, it was just like you download an app, and there's still a part of this in

00:57:05 ◼   ► in there as they're transitioning.

00:57:06 ◼   ► And it would just be like, this app's gonna do this,

00:57:08 ◼   ► see you later.

00:57:09 ◼   ► And it was like, okay.

00:57:10 ◼   ► And again, like, yeah, that stuff is scary,

00:57:12 ◼   ► but like it ties into the overall like Google

00:57:15 ◼   ► versus Apple thing, you know, that we talk about,

00:57:18 ◼   ► about like you give people your data,

00:57:20 ◼   ► you kind of like go a little bit of privacy

00:57:22 ◼   ► and what you get is some great stuff back, right?

00:57:26 ◼   ► This is like the argument that we make for Google.

00:57:27 ◼   ► And it's kind of similar here, right?

00:57:29 ◼   ► Yes, you give apps the ability to kind of take over

00:57:32 ◼   ► a lot of the lock screen or the home screen,

00:57:34 ◼   ► what you get is like you can get this like a launcher called Action Launcher where you

00:57:39 ◼   ► can swipe up on a folder and it will set some sort of action off, maybe open a specific

00:57:46 ◼   ► app or you swipe up on the Instagram icon and it opens the camera. It does all this

00:57:50 ◼   ► crazy stuff because you give it the access to do that.

00:57:53 ◼   ► Yeah, that's crazy, I didn't know about that.

00:57:56 ◼   ► Action Launcher is awesome by the way, you should check it out.

00:57:59 ◼   ► So speaking of installing and downloading apps, I have a few thoughts about the Google

00:58:04 ◼   ► Play Store.

00:58:06 ◼   ► I want to start with the negative comments first.

00:58:09 ◼   ► I think it's harder to browse than the App Store.

00:58:11 ◼   ► Yes, it is.

00:58:12 ◼   ► The front page has fewer sections, fewer curated sections, and I feel overall the App Store

00:58:20 ◼   ► feels more lively, feels more like there's stuff going on every week.

00:58:24 ◼   ► And you can see there's human editors behind it.

00:58:27 ◼   ► sections, editor's picks, there's a bunch of scrollable carousels on iOS. On Android,

00:58:34 ◼   ► there's some editor's picks and there's some badges for recommended apps and trusted developers,

00:58:42 ◼   ► which is stuff that Apple should take a look at, but overall I feel like it takes too many

00:58:47 ◼   ► taps to read app information, takes too many taps to read a changelog for the latest version

00:58:54 ◼   ► of an app, it takes too many taps to read when an app was last updated, because you

00:58:58 ◼   ► have to enter the description and scroll all the way to the bottom.

00:59:02 ◼   ► So I feel overall from a design and information density point of view, the App Store is better

00:59:07 ◼   ► because it shows you more stuff, it's updated more often, especially now the Field Shielder

00:59:12 ◼   ► is at the helm, and it feels like more of a, more of a, like an open market with a lot

00:59:18 ◼   ► of people, you know, choosing stuff, recommending new stuff.

00:59:22 ◼   ► That said, there's some positive things about the Google Play Store.

00:59:26 ◼   ► There's more intelligent sections, again, not a surprise coming from Google, there's

00:59:30 ◼   ► more sections that recommend you stuff based on what you're browsing, what you're searching,

00:59:35 ◼   ► and what you have installed.

00:59:36 ◼   ► So of course Google being Google, there's more automation going on.

00:59:40 ◼   ► And I like that, because I got a few app recommendations that were really, really on point.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Yeah, based on this app that you downloaded, you might like this one.

00:59:48 ◼   ► I like that too because I have found lots of things that are useful to me because of that.

00:59:53 ◼   ► Yes, same. There's easy refunds. So you buy an app, again the process is similar, you can pay with Touch, not Touch ID, but the fingerprint sensor.

01:00:03 ◼   ► I think it's called Imprint now.

01:00:05 ◼   ► Imprint, okay. That's a familiar name. Anyway, there's a refund option, I think you have like a 15 minute window maybe that you can ask for a refund.

01:00:17 ◼   ► Yeah, it used to be 24 hours, but developers kind of rallied against that because people

01:00:23 ◼   ► would download a game, complete a game and then get a refund on it.

01:00:26 ◼   ► Oh, that sucks.

01:00:28 ◼   ► I think the refund window has changed to 15 minutes, which is good if you've downloaded

01:00:33 ◼   ► an application for a specific purpose, you open it, you find out it can't do that, then

01:00:37 ◼   ► you can delete it and it will refund you.

01:00:39 ◼   ► Kind of cool.

01:00:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I haven't taken advantage of this because of course I always want to support developers,

01:00:46 ◼   ► So refunds, there's a button, very easy to use.

01:00:50 ◼   ► I like that there's the ability for developers to reply to customer reviews.

01:00:54 ◼   ► Seriously Apple, take a look at this.

01:00:56 ◼   ► Because every time you bring up "oh, developers should be able to reply to customer reviews",

01:01:00 ◼   ► you get those Apple people who don't want to look outside of their own box.

01:01:04 ◼   ► And they say "yeah, but it's right this way, imagine if developers could reply to reviews,

01:01:09 ◼   ► imagine the mess that it would be".

01:01:10 ◼   ► Let me tell you people, it's a great option.

01:01:12 ◼   ► Yes, it is.

01:01:13 ◼   ► I'm so happy you're saying this.

01:01:15 ◼   ► It's fantastic, because you can look at a review and you see someone is all upset about

01:01:19 ◼   ► it and then you see a good response to it and it's like, "Oh, okay, that makes me feel

01:01:25 ◼   ► better."

01:01:26 ◼   ► Yeah, and you can see that obviously the developer responding, because there's a different username,

01:01:30 ◼   ► and it just feels more of an open place for discussion.

01:01:34 ◼   ► So if you have a doubt or if you see, "Man, what is this person complaining about?

01:01:37 ◼   ► Are we sure that this person hasn't come across some weird bug that only he is experiencing?"

01:01:44 ◼   ► the developer reply and you can see the reasoning for the developer. And I appreciate that,

01:01:49 ◼   ► and I wish that Apple would take a look at this, because it makes sense, really, to allow

01:01:51 ◼   ► developers to respond to people. A minor feature that I really like, links in the description

01:02:00 ◼   ► box can be tapped and opened in a browser. I mean, seriously, Apple, you're forcing developers

01:02:07 ◼   ► to include links and links cannot be tapped or selected? I mean, come on. It's a minor

01:02:12 ◼   ► but it makes sense. I also do like how permissions that an app is going to

01:02:19 ◼   ► require are explained beforehand. So you can see you want to buy this app, you want to

01:02:24 ◼   ► download this app, remember this app will ask you for permissions to open the

01:02:27 ◼   ► camera or access your SMS history or you know location and stuff and I mean it

01:02:33 ◼   ► makes sense for Android you know because with all these crazy permissions I think

01:02:37 ◼   ► it makes sense to tell people beforehand what they're gonna run

01:02:40 ◼   ► into later I guess. And I didn't know that it's all split in apps and games. I haven't

01:02:48 ◼   ► really taken a look at games.

01:02:49 ◼   ► Yeah, like the charts and stuff like that, Google split them into apps and they split

01:02:54 ◼   ► them into games, which I think is fantastic to split those two things up because they

01:02:59 ◼   ► are different and apps and games kind of, they dominate the stores and I think it's

01:03:05 ◼   ► really great to have different charts and stuff that will split them up. It's just

01:03:09 ◼   ► It's a nice thing to do because it gives everybody a bit more of a fair chance I think.

01:03:14 ◼   ► So Myke now we have reached the section where I want to talk what I call the crazy and the

01:03:21 ◼   ► good stuff.

01:03:26 ◼   ► Just because I feel like I don't want to give the impression that I'm the iOS guy trying

01:03:32 ◼   ► Android and just bashing Android because I mean I have mentioned things that I like,

01:03:37 ◼   ► I'm trying to keep a fair and balanced perspective.

01:03:39 ◼   ► There are some things that are crazy, but that I really like.

01:03:42 ◼   ► Widgets.

01:03:44 ◼   ► So, for many, many years I've heard, followed, seen people on iOS who say that Android and

01:03:55 ◼   ► widgets on the home screen are ugly.

01:03:58 ◼   ► And for many years I also thought, passively, because I was influenced by those people,

01:04:06 ◼   ► that having widgets on the home screen would be ugly.

01:04:09 ◼   ► Let me tell you, Myke, in practice,

01:04:11 ◼   ► I'm actually really liking this.

01:04:12 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:04:13 ◼   ► - I love the ability, just let me say it out right,

01:04:17 ◼   ► I love the ability to have widgets on the home screen.

01:04:20 ◼   ► I love having some widgets, not too many of them,

01:04:24 ◼   ► I'm not going insane with dozens of widgets,

01:04:27 ◼   ► just two, my to-do list and my calendar.

01:04:30 ◼   ► So what I'm doing is I'm splitting up

01:04:33 ◼   ► my Android phone on multiple pages. There's a Work page with a bunch of work apps and

01:04:39 ◼   ► two work widgets, and there's the Music page with a bunch of audio-related apps and some

01:04:44 ◼   ► music widgets. And I get it, it's a compromise of consistency and control. Meaning, on Android,

01:04:56 ◼   ► your home screen is gonna look different, and it's gonna look like there's a bunch of

01:05:00 ◼   ► icons intermixed with widgets, and you can resize widgets, you can move icons up and

01:05:06 ◼   ► down, you can leave blank spots on the home screen, with a trade-off of having more control,

01:05:13 ◼   ► having more personalization. And I really do like not having to enter an app just to

01:05:21 ◼   ► look at a list of things. I do love the ability to quickly glance at my calendar right on

01:05:28 ◼   ► the home screen without having to swipe to open widgets, without having to open an app.

01:05:33 ◼   ► And fundamentally as well, I believe, Android widgets are better looking and more functional

01:05:39 ◼   ► than notification center widgets on iOS.

01:05:41 ◼   ► Yes, and you can see why, you can see why, because Apple is enforcing more limitations,

01:05:46 ◼   ► whether it's design or access to system features or, you know, like access to memory, so, you

01:05:55 ◼   ► from a performance point of view, it's all very different. But I could see how Apple could maybe

01:06:02 ◼   ► freshen up the iOS home screen a little, because I think we all agree at this point that the home screen

01:06:10 ◼   ► on iOS is feeling a little dated. And even the people who say that Android looks ugly, I think that

01:06:16 ◼   ► fundamentally, deep down, in their hearts, because those people have hearts, they do believe that the iOS

01:06:24 ◼   ► home screen needs something other than icons. I think we all agree.

01:06:29 ◼   ► We must do by now, especially on the iPad.

01:06:31 ◼   ► Yeah, especially on the iPad, which is such a big screen. I think we all agree that we

01:06:36 ◼   ► have to move beyond the grid of icons. And I could see how, with more guidelines, with

01:06:45 ◼   ► a little more paranoia, with a little more limitations on performance and layouts, I

01:06:52 ◼   ► could see how Apple could do something similar on iOS. Maybe it's not gonna be, of course

01:06:58 ◼   ► it's not gonna be as customizable as an Android, it's not gonna be as crazy as Android, but

01:07:03 ◼   ► I could see the benefit of having information on my home screen, having quick access to

01:07:09 ◼   ► documents or to my clipboard or to my calendar, you know, not having to, maybe to intend the

01:07:18 ◼   ► mobile experience, the home screen experience, not as a launcher, as a point where you go

01:07:25 ◼   ► and you jump and you jump and you jump and you move from app to app, but more as a cohesive

01:07:30 ◼   ► experience with apps mixed with information. That's what I would like to see on iOS. It's

01:07:37 ◼   ► well done on Android. I can see how it can look ugly. I can see how it can be a little

01:07:44 ◼   ► too much for Apple people, but the underlying idea, it makes sense. And I'm a fan of the

01:07:52 ◼   ► idea. And I wish that Apple would consider something like this, especially on the iPad,

01:07:57 ◼   ► maybe not as crazy, but the very concept of mixing apps and mixing information, I think

01:08:06 ◼   ► it's a winner. And I think we should have something like that on iOS.

01:08:09 ◼   ► Are you happy, Myke?

01:08:12 ◼   ► Yes, very. Because I've been saying this for so long, right? And I know you've maybe kind

01:08:19 ◼   ► of gone along with me here and there, but now you know why I want it.

01:08:23 ◼   ► Now I know. Now I know. But again, I do see how Apple may not take the similar approach

01:08:28 ◼   ► to Google. I mean, you can resize widgets. I really can't see Apple making resize controls.

01:08:35 ◼   ► But maybe, you never know. You never know, Myke. You know what I would love, Myke? I'm

01:08:41 ◼   ► I'm sure there's a tweak for this. But I would love to be able to say, "Show me this widget

01:08:49 ◼   ► if this app is doing X. If this app is not doing this task, show me something else."

01:08:55 ◼   ► Because I don't like that I put in a widget for Spotify, and when Spotify is not playing,

01:09:01 ◼   ► that widget is useless. You know what I mean?

01:09:04 ◼   ► Okay, yeah. I bet there is a way to do that. This is the thing about Adword, the world

01:09:09 ◼   ► of possibility, right? You have an idea and it's not like "oh no, there's no way they

01:09:15 ◼   ► allow that". The first thought is "someone must have done this".

01:09:19 ◼   ► And I mean, you could see how Apple is even moving, maybe towards that direction. Look

01:09:25 ◼   ► at the watchOS, watch face, you know, complications. That's the idea. Instead of having shortcuts

01:09:31 ◼   ► to jump to stuff, you bring information to the user. And that's the idea, right? You

01:09:36 ◼   ► bringing information more easily to the user, so you don't have to swipe down, you just

01:09:41 ◼   ► have it all right there. So, you know, I'm a fan.

01:09:45 ◼   ► Here's one feature that I don't think I have a complaint on Android. Document pickers.

01:09:52 ◼   ► Really well done on Android, it's a simple unified interface, I don't know what's going

01:09:57 ◼   ► on behind the scenes with the API. But basically, apps can install, let's say a location, and

01:10:05 ◼   ► have a single screen where you can switch between Dropbox or Google Drive or OneDrive

01:10:11 ◼   ► or Photos, whatever, and you can just pick your file. It doesn't require too many taps,

01:10:20 ◼   ► it's not like document pickers on iOS where it's always riddled with bugs and some weird

01:10:25 ◼   ► problems. All document pickers are first-class citizens on Android, and I feel like it really

01:10:31 ◼   ► simplifies the way that you work with documents.

01:10:37 ◼   ► This is what I was saying earlier about it being completely baked into Android. It's

01:10:41 ◼   ► been there for so long, and it's just a super simple and easy way to just send any file

01:10:47 ◼   ► to any app, basically. And it's just by far and away one of the best things about the

01:10:54 ◼   ► Android experience. You can just take a file and very easily choose where you want it to

01:10:59 ◼   ► go.

01:11:00 ◼   ► interesting to me that apps can populate this list of accounts. So I have this screen which

01:11:09 ◼   ► has my Dropbox account, my Evernote account, my Twitter account, and the idea is that other

01:11:15 ◼   ► apps can access these accounts easily, so it's like what you have on iOS for Twitter

01:11:19 ◼   ► and Facebook and, I don't know, Flickr? Maybe? I don't remember. But taken to the extreme

01:11:27 ◼   ► and you can have this list of accounts from apps.

01:11:30 ◼   ► And I feel like that's very convenient,

01:11:32 ◼   ► and it would cut a lot of the custom login screens on iOS

01:11:37 ◼   ► to have a unified account API, and for apps to be able to--

01:11:41 ◼   ► let's call it Account Kit--

01:11:43 ◼   ► and for apps to be able to ask you,

01:11:45 ◼   ► can I access your Evernote account

01:11:48 ◼   ► so I can provide you with these Evernote features

01:11:51 ◼   ► so you don't have to log into with a web browser?

01:11:54 ◼   ► That seems to be convenient.

01:11:56 ◼   ► Now Myke, we have reached the gem, I would say, of Android, which is Google Now.

01:12:04 ◼   ► So, I was not expecting Google to be a page on the home screen.

01:12:10 ◼   ► You didn't tell me, Myke, that it was a page.

01:12:12 ◼   ► You can swipe right, and on the left side of the home screen, there's Google Now.

01:12:17 ◼   ► Why didn't you tell me?

01:12:19 ◼   ► I didn't know I needed to.

01:12:21 ◼   ► You should have told me. You should have told me. You should have told me. You should have

01:12:25 ◼   ► said, "Look, when you swipe right, there's going to be Google." Anyway, there's two parts

01:12:31 ◼   ► to Google Now, which is the Google interface and Google Now on tap. So Google Now on tap

01:12:38 ◼   ► sounds like a gimmick, right, that you can tap and hold on the home icon in the virtual

01:12:43 ◼   ► button interface at the bottom, and you get like a lay—there's like an interface going

01:12:50 ◼   ► on. It's like Google doing OCR on the screen. It looks at what's on the screen and it suggests

01:12:56 ◼   ► you related information. And that's awesome. Let me give you an example. So I'm reading

01:13:04 ◼   ► this article on Pocket and it's about time capsules. And there's this interesting fact

01:13:12 ◼   ► about a university in Georgia, in the United States. They built a time capsule. It's a

01:13:18 ◼   ► whole room last century. And I bring up Google Now on tap and it scans the article, sees

01:13:26 ◼   ► what I'm reading, and it gives me articles and a Wikipedia link for that particular university

01:13:35 ◼   ► and the time capsule room. And it was amazing. I just needed to bring up Google Now, it saw

01:13:41 ◼   ► what I was doing, it knew what I was looking for, and it gave me a shortcut to open that

01:13:48 ◼   ► Wikipedia page easily in the browser, which is awesome.

01:13:51 ◼   ► It's cool, right?

01:13:53 ◼   ► It's very cool, it's very cool.

01:13:55 ◼   ► And I feel like I haven't scratched the full potential of Google Now on Tap yet, but I

01:14:01 ◼   ► can see how it can be useful.

01:14:02 ◼   ► And another example, I was in Spotify streaming music, I bring up Google Now on Tap, sees

01:14:09 ◼   ► that I'm listening to Justin Timberlake, and it shows me shortcuts to open Justin Timberlake's

01:14:14 ◼   ► profile on Instagram and Twitter.

01:14:16 ◼   ► super convenient. I really think it's a good idea to have the contextual information handed

01:14:22 ◼   ► off to the assistant anytime you want.

01:14:25 ◼   ► The other part of Google Now is the actual Google interface. And this is similar to the

01:14:31 ◼   ► Google app on iOS. It shows you driving times, calendar appointments, related articles from

01:14:38 ◼   ► the web based on stuff that you read, and it's all very similar to iOS. There's a major

01:14:43 ◼   ► difference on Android. You can assign apps to tasks, so for example you can say open

01:14:51 ◼   ► Oasis in Spotify, and it opens the Oasis screen in Spotify, so you can start listening. Or

01:14:58 ◼   ► you can say create a note in Todoist. The first time you say that, it lets you confirm

01:15:05 ◼   ► that you want to associate the Todoist app with the createNote command, and later you

01:15:11 ◼   ► you can just say "create a note", you say whatever you have to say, and you basically

01:15:16 ◼   ► create a reminder in Todoist, which is a third-party app. And using this stuff, custom third-party

01:15:23 ◼   ► apps with Google Now made me want a Siri API even more. Like, it took me two minutes, I

01:15:29 ◼   ► was like "yep, yep, I got it right, I really do want a Siri API". And I feel like you don't

01:15:35 ◼   ► the potential of a voice-activated assistant with app integration, with any app you want,

01:15:43 ◼   ► until you try something like this. It's really, really awesome. And I can only imagine in

01:15:49 ◼   ► the future we'll have a Siri API, you can bring up Siri anytime, you can create content

01:15:54 ◼   ► in other apps without being taken into that app that's going to be epic. And if Apple

01:16:00 ◼   ► is not doing this with iOS 10, man, I'm going to be disappointed.

01:16:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I feel like of all the things that we're talking about with Siri, like the things that

01:16:08 ◼   ► it needs to do, the things that it should do, having third parties being able to reach

01:16:12 ◼   ► in and do things with Siri and/or, you know, like you say, like having the ability to set

01:16:20 ◼   ► certain tasks for specific applications, this just feels like a no-brainer now, right? Like

01:16:26 ◼   ► this has to exist in the next version of Siri.

01:16:29 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I really think the obvious road for Siri is to talk to third parties, because

01:16:40 ◼   ► there's only so many integrations Apple can do on their own, you know? And I feel like

01:16:46 ◼   ► Google Now and Google Now on Tap, they play to Google's strengths in the way that Google

01:16:51 ◼   ► can look at a lot of information about you. I don't see Apple doing, at least in the near

01:16:57 ◼   ► future doing something similar to Google Now on tap, reading anything that's on screen,

01:17:04 ◼   ► but you know, talking to apps and simplifying the process of performing tasks via voice

01:17:10 ◼   ► or via text, because you can also text with the Google page on Android and create content

01:17:16 ◼   ► in other apps, that's really awesome.

01:17:19 ◼   ► Yep.

01:17:20 ◼   ► Now, this is perhaps my top three favorite features of Android.

01:17:29 ◼   ► Apps can open popups, and of this feature, one implementation stands out, which is "Music

01:17:37 ◼   ► match lyrics over apps".

01:17:40 ◼   ► Now being the music fan that I am, you can only imagine, Myke, how giddy I am with a

01:17:46 ◼   ► a widget that shows me lyrics for any song in any app, no matter what I do on my phone.

01:17:53 ◼   ► What do you mean by pop-ups?

01:17:55 ◼   ► There's different apps that I've seen. So some of them use a... remember Facebook chat heads?

01:18:02 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:18:03 ◼   ► So a few apps use that sort of feature, I guess, to place like a circle on the screen, and you can drag it around,

01:18:14 ◼   ► and when you tap it, it opens a mini window. Music Smash uses this for lyrics, Brave, which

01:18:22 ◼   ► is the browser that I'm using, uses this for browser tabs. But I've also seen apps

01:18:30 ◼   ► running as popups, like Talon, the Twitter client. It can be opened as a popup on top

01:18:37 ◼   ► of what you're doing. So you can scroll the timeline, let's say you're in Google

01:18:41 ◼   ► Chrome, and you can bring up the Talon popup and scroll the timeline and then go back to

01:18:46 ◼   ► Google Chrome. It's kinda crazy, I don't know what the name of the API is, but you

01:18:50 ◼   ► can do this popup stuff, and my two highlights are Music Smash, which you start listening

01:18:57 ◼   ► to in Spotify or Google Play Music, whatever, and it scans the title of the song and the

01:19:04 ◼   ► artist in the Now Playing menu, shows you the lyrics, the lyrics are in real time, so

01:19:10 ◼   ► so they follow the song, and it's just fantastic, because I'm browsing Twitter, I can keep my

01:19:17 ◼   ► lyrics on the screen, I can take a look at the lyrics, I'm not sure what a song is saying

01:19:22 ◼   ► at any particular point, I can just tap on the Music Smash chat head kind of thing, and

01:19:27 ◼   ► it opens the lyrics, which is awesome.

01:19:30 ◼   ► The Brave web browser.

01:19:32 ◼   ► I think it's the browser from the Mozilla guy, I'm not sure.

01:19:35 ◼   ► basically like a browser with the privacy and ad blocker built in, but that's not the

01:19:40 ◼   ► most interesting feature. It's that once you set it as your default browser, and by the

01:19:46 ◼   ► way yes you can set default apps on Android, and it's not as terrible as I thought it would

01:19:50 ◼   ► be, because you can always go back to the default later, you can customize everything.

01:19:56 ◼   ► Yeah, you just go to Settings and change them.

01:19:58 ◼   ► Once you set Brave as the default browser, any time you tap a link in the timeline or

01:20:05 ◼   ► in a Google search results page or in an RSS client, the link doesn't open in Chrome or

01:20:12 ◼   ► in a web view. It goes straight into the Brave bubble and then it loads in the background

01:20:21 ◼   ► in the Brave bubble. Then when you want, you can tap the bubble and it shows you the web

01:20:26 ◼   ► page on top of what you're doing. Then you can tap and hold on the bubble and you can

01:20:32 ◼   ► drag it around, you can throw it to the bottom to close it, or you can assign custom sharing

01:20:39 ◼   ► actions to the left and right sides of the screen. So if you want to share a web page

01:20:45 ◼   ► to Pocket, you just need to tap and hold on the bubble and throw it to the left side and

01:20:50 ◼   ► it goes into Pocket. Or you want to save it as a task, you throw it to the right side

01:20:54 ◼   ► and it goes into the Todoist. It kind of exemplifies the kind of control and kind of crazy stuff

01:21:03 ◼   ► that you can do on Android. But I really do like the idea. Again, I don't see Apple doing

01:21:09 ◼   ► pop-ups, I don't see Apple doing chat heads anytime soon, but it's nice. And maybe my

01:21:16 ◼   ► problem with lyrics will be solved, I don't know, with Apple Music gaining direct lyrics

01:21:23 ◼   ► integration, we'll see. The other, now these are not necessarily good things or more like

01:21:31 ◼   ► on the crazy end of the spectrum, custom lock screens, Myke. I've tried a bunch, I've tried

01:21:39 ◼   ► two of them. On Android you can modify the lock screen and it can look completely different

01:21:44 ◼   ► to the stock one. I have tried two of them, there's the Microsoft Next lock screen and

01:21:52 ◼   ► another one, I don't remember the name, but the idea was similar. And many developers

01:21:57 ◼   ► are doing this smart lock screens. The idea is they look at your behavior, they look at

01:22:04 ◼   ► your app usage so they can understand which apps you use the most. And then they can give

01:22:10 ◼   ► you shortcuts for relevant apps, depending on context, depending on location. And it's

01:22:17 ◼   ► all kind of insane that you can modify the lock screen of a phone, especially coming

01:22:22 ◼   ► from an iPhone where everything is, you know, you cannot touch anything there. And I can

01:22:27 ◼   ► see why a lot of users like them, it's just it broke my brain. Because aside from the

01:22:35 ◼   ► fact that I cannot fathom the idea of modifying such an integral, a core part of the experience

01:22:43 ◼   ► as the lock screen, too many times the integration was kind of glitchy and buggy. So for example

01:22:49 ◼   ► I wake the phone and for a second I see the stock lock screen and then it refreshes to

01:22:55 ◼   ► the custom one and for my eye, for my sort of brain, that's just not gonna work.

01:23:03 ◼   ► Yeah, that sounds like bad developer work than like kind of core functionality problems.

01:23:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess.

01:23:15 ◼   ► I just think like, I like this stock lock screen of Google.

01:23:22 ◼   ► I don't think I need one of these smart lock screens, especially because they were not

01:23:26 ◼   ► really smart.

01:23:27 ◼   ► So maybe there's another one that I can try.

01:23:31 ◼   ► So we mentioned permissions before, of course you can access all kinds of things, and I

01:23:37 ◼   ► also mentioned our lock screens can access your app, they can monitor the apps that you

01:23:42 ◼   ► use, the apps that you launch, and they can recommend stuff.

01:23:45 ◼   ► It's all kind of crazy, and there's even plugins on the Google Play Store that you can install

01:23:49 ◼   ► to add extra permissions.

01:23:51 ◼   ► It's kind of different coming from iOS.

01:23:54 ◼   ► But the last point that I want to bring up before my closing thoughts, Myke.

01:24:00 ◼   ► Text selection.

01:24:03 ◼   ► You need to help me understand how text selection works on Android, because I really don't get

01:24:06 ◼   ► it.

01:24:07 ◼   ► Yeah, all right.

01:24:08 ◼   ► So we're going to do this live.

01:24:11 ◼   ► So let's say that you have a message or something that you're writing.

01:24:15 ◼   ► So maybe open a message and you want to type in some stuff.

01:24:20 ◼   ► Now one of the big problems on Android is the loop type thing doesn't really exist here.

01:24:28 ◼   ► So what you want to do is press and hold on a word and then you'll get some little anchors

01:24:33 ◼   ► that you can drag around.

01:24:35 ◼   ► So you need to kind of press and hold on it first and then you'll know that it will come.

01:24:39 ◼   ► And there's also that little blue, so once you tap in the text area as well you get this

01:24:44 ◼   ► other little blue anchor that you can then drag around.

01:24:47 ◼   ► It's just learning that it's different, it's kind of fundamentally different to the way

01:24:52 ◼   ► it's done on iOS and I believe that there was something legal around it.

01:24:56 ◼   ► But you kind of have to tap and hold on the word first and then once you let go you'll

01:25:01 ◼   ► be able to get some text selection stuff pop up.

01:25:05 ◼   ► So there's no loop.

01:25:06 ◼   ► There's no loop.

01:25:07 ◼   ► The loop is a patented thing I believe.

01:25:11 ◼   ► So that's my problem. I think my problem is not having the pre-selection stage of moving around before selecting.

01:25:21 ◼   ► Yeah, you don't get that.

01:25:23 ◼   ► I get it, I get how it works. I think this is one of those features you have to use Android a lot before getting used to it.

01:25:31 ◼   ► Yeah, it took me a long time to get used to it, but when it did, when I did it didn't

01:25:36 ◼   ► feel so weird to me anymore.

01:25:38 ◼   ► I think I'm also having issues with the ZwiftKey keyboard, because I'm also trying third-party

01:25:42 ◼   ► keyboards.

01:25:43 ◼   ► They're more customizable on Android, of course.

01:25:46 ◼   ► They can access the microphone, they can access all kinds of things.

01:25:50 ◼   ► The process is actually quite similar to iOS.

01:25:52 ◼   ► You go to the settings, you enable a keyboard, and then there's an icon that you can tap

01:25:56 ◼   ► to bring up a pop-up.

01:25:58 ◼   ► But they feel not exactly as first-class citizens, because I think the Google keyboard is a little

01:26:05 ◼   ► more stable.

01:26:06 ◼   ► I've tried a bunch and the Google keyboard is definitely more stable and faster, and

01:26:09 ◼   ► the animations are better.

01:26:11 ◼   ► But they're better than iOS.

01:26:13 ◼   ► You know, they're way, way better than iOS.

01:26:15 ◼   ► Significantly better.

01:26:16 ◼   ► Yeah, so it's sort of in the middle.

01:26:19 ◼   ► Now what's the takeaway?

01:26:22 ◼   ► I've been thinking about this.

01:26:27 ◼   ► I think I've done a good thing in this experiment, and I think I was right in challenging my

01:26:36 ◼   ► own thoughts. And I think I learned a lesson, Myke. Two lessons. One, I should listen to

01:26:44 ◼   ► you more often. Sometimes you're crazy, but other times you kind of have a point. You're

01:26:50 ◼   ► like my little English friend. Sometimes crazy, but often has a point.

01:26:54 ◼   ► I think that more people in the world should take that advice from you, that I should just

01:27:00 ◼   ► be listened to more often.

01:27:01 ◼   ► No, no, don't take things to the extreme.

01:27:04 ◼   ► I mean, just, I mean, come on.

01:27:07 ◼   ► Sometimes you're crazy.

01:27:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:27:09 ◼   ► I mean, two iPads?

01:27:10 ◼   ► Really?

01:27:11 ◼   ► Well, come on.

01:27:12 ◼   ► Anyway.

01:27:13 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:27:14 ◼   ► Oh, God.

01:27:16 ◼   ► I think the second lesson is, I shouldn't follow other people in their blind preconception

01:27:26 ◼   ► of things without trying those things first hand.

01:27:33 ◼   ► Especially with technologies changing at such a fast pace.

01:27:40 ◼   ► believes just by word of mouth isn't something that I wanna do in the future or ever again.

01:27:50 ◼   ► The next time, I need to keep myself in check here, because the next time that I form an

01:27:55 ◼   ► opinion or a thought and I want to share that, but I don't actually have my own personal,

01:28:02 ◼   ► tangible experience, I should just shut up, you know? And I feel like, I mean everyone

01:28:09 ◼   ► is entitled to their opinion, you're entitled to thinking that Android is ugly, that Apple

01:28:14 ◼   ► is God, and that Google is evil. I'm not here to debate that. It's just the way that you

01:28:23 ◼   ► practice your opinions, that I want to improve myself, you know, in this aspect. I want to

01:28:32 ◼   ► know what I'm talking about. That's really the point. And I feel like trying Android

01:28:37 ◼   ► kind of opened my eyes to the strengths of iOS, the strengths of Android, the weaknesses

01:28:43 ◼   ► of iOS, and the things that I really don't like in Android. And I feel like I took many,

01:28:51 ◼   ► many things for granted on iOS after having tried Android. I miss stuff like 3D touch,

01:28:57 ◼   ► I miss stuff like proactive shortcuts when you plug in the headphones, and yes, I can

01:29:02 ◼   ► replicate that with Tasker and automation, but that's not the point. I do miss some of

01:29:07 ◼   ► the default features on iOS. 3D Touch, Safari View Controller, Proactive, even, you know,

01:29:14 ◼   ► Control Center, I would say. But I do appreciate the things that are on Android are different

01:29:19 ◼   ► or better. Document Pickers, Widgets. And I feel like there's some people who think

01:29:25 ◼   ► doing Apple a favor, by being custom yes-men, and by thinking that Apple can do no wrong,

01:29:34 ◼   ► by thinking that Apple always do right and there's no better way to do things. And I

01:29:39 ◼   ► think the Apple community as a whole could be better served by more valid criticism,

01:29:46 ◼   ► you know, by trying different things and see what's better. And for many years I feel like

01:29:51 ◼   ► I was wrong, and I feel like for many years I was, I'm just gonna say I feel like for

01:29:55 ◼   ► many years personally I was stupid. And I feel sort of liberated in the feeling of having

01:30:04 ◼   ► even slightly more knowledge of what I'm talking about. And it makes me even more...

01:30:13 ◼   ► This is quite the paradox. It makes me even more excited about iOS than ever. Having seen

01:30:18 ◼   ► what's going on on the other side of the fence, it makes me want to go to Apple and say "Look

01:30:25 ◼   ► you should improve these things in this way. Not because I want Apple to copy Android,

01:30:31 ◼   ► but because I'm seeing all the other possibilities. That by looking at things with a blindfold,

01:30:37 ◼   ► looking at things with a set of Apple glasses, most people don't see. You know what I mean?

01:30:45 ◼   ► Does it make sense? Is this monologue too crazy, Myke?

01:30:49 ◼   ► makes perfect sense to me. I am very happy to hear you say all this stuff because it's

01:30:56 ◼   ► the kind of thing that I've been thinking about for a long time, right? Like how beneficial

01:31:02 ◼   ► it can be to your overall experience if you allow yourself to try other things and not

01:31:07 ◼   ► like just blindly kind of push them to the side. And also as was brought up in the chat

01:31:12 ◼   ► room, based on what you were saying about the fact that you should listen to me and

01:31:17 ◼   ► that this has been a good experience for you, would you potentially be open to saying that

01:31:22 ◼   ► Myke was right?

01:31:24 ◼   ► Myke was right about trying an Android phone. There's benefits to Android. I'm gonna say

01:31:31 ◼   ► that.

01:31:32 ◼   ► So we're in the second year now of Myke was right, is what you're saying.

01:31:34 ◼   ► It's taking on a slightly more greenish hue, you know, because of Android. But yes, you

01:31:41 ◼   ► were right about telling me I should try it. Don't, don't do that Myke, don't overdo it.

01:31:49 ◼   ► I mean, okay fine, you were right about having to try this. And I really do believe, to sum

01:31:54 ◼   ► up, I really do believe that people who write about technology, people who podcast about

01:31:59 ◼   ► technology, whatever, sometimes try to go out of your comfort zone and to sort of understand

01:32:09 ◼   ► what other people think and what other people use. No matter what you do, if you're a

01:32:14 ◼   ► blogger, a podcaster, a news reporter, a designer, a developer, I think maybe you can

01:32:19 ◼   ► apply this lesson in life too if you want to, but going out of your comfort zone and

01:32:24 ◼   ► trying different things can inform and improve your primary activity or your primary opinion.

01:32:31 ◼   ► And that's something, not just about "I enjoy them", because maybe Myke, and I swear

01:32:37 ◼   ► I'm really concluding this. Maybe it wasn't really about Android, after all. It wasn't

01:32:44 ◼   ► really about trying a Google phone, but it was more about sort of breaking the cycle,

01:32:51 ◼   ► doing things differently, and sort of seeing what I would be like in a different scenario,

01:32:58 ◼   ► you know? And maybe this is something that I'm doing more often this year. Try to be

01:33:06 ◼   ► different and try to understand what I'm like in situations where typically I wouldn't be

01:33:11 ◼   ► comfortable. So, you know, try an Android, going to WWDC for 10 days almost, you know,

01:33:17 ◼   ► that kind of thing. I'm trying to explore. So yeah, it was a good exploration. Myke,

01:33:25 ◼   ► thank you. Thank you for the push.

01:33:28 ◼   ► And thank you for taking us all on this tour this week of Android. I hope that we've been

01:33:33 ◼   ► able to give a lot of the experience to people that may have not tried it. If you're interested

01:33:39 ◼   ► in maybe asking some more questions to Federico about his experience, he is on Twitter, he

01:33:43 ◼   ► is @Virtici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I, I'm sure he will welcome questions and points about that, and

01:33:48 ◼   ► any follow up you may have. Federico of course writes over at maxlories.net. I am @imike,

01:33:55 ◼   ► I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter. You can find Steven whenever he decides to return. He is @ismh

01:34:02 ◼   ► and he also writes at 512pixels.net.

01:34:04 ◼   ► Thanks again to our sponsor this week, Casper,

01:34:07 ◼   ► for helping support the show.

01:34:08 ◼   ► Thank you, as always, for listening,

01:34:10 ◼   ► and we'll be back next time.

01:34:12 ◼   ► Until then, say goodbye, Federico.