Cleanliness is next to Godlyness

One complain I have about the android OS is how cluttered the notification bar can get.    Here is a screenshot from my nexus one after about 3 hours of not being picked up.

The android notification system has had a pull down notification bar for years.   Any email, txt, or app that is running has access to post something in the notification bar.   What happens over time is apps keep notifying you of stuff, (in this case from left to right, app download, gmail, new news, gmail, facebook, and cyanogenmod).  If you dont constantly keep clearing notifications, it gets cluttered, ugly, annoying and useless.

This pictures is a pulldown of notification bar, again too much stuff!  Also note that toggles for bluetooth, wifi, gps, and sound are all in the notification bar.   A simple press of the clear button will remove all the notifications, but it still annoying how easy it is for apps to get access to the notifications bar.

Here we have a screenshot of the iOS home screen.   Note that the bar up top is not really a notification bar, its more of a status bar.   Notifications pop up and interrupt whatever you are doing.   If your browsing the web and get a txt, it will pop up infront of your browser.  This method i feel is much cleaner, but also much more annoying.    Also note that the email app has 39 emails.
It will be interesting to see how iOS 5 handles the above mentioned problem.

Things I like about iOS

I posted a negative post about the iPhone setup yesterday, so here is a positive one with three separate points

Apps - 
  I believe the app store for the iPhone contains some higher quality apps than the android market.   I haven't actually paid for any games (and I don't plan to), but the free games I've downloaded, and some of the paid games I've seen screenshot for look outstanding.   That being said, there are alot of apps I feel are missing from the app store.

  I feel that there are very very few FREE apps in the Apple appstore.   In the Google Marketplace you can find a free app to do almost anything, in the Apple appstore, it seems that only the most basic of apps are free.
  Also missing are apps that I absolutely love for my android phone.  Here are a few that I've noticed in the last 18 hours, just to name a few.

Chrome to phone
Tasker
MightyText
Juice Defender
Data Counter Widget

I'm going to "jump to conclusions" and say that while the Apple appstore contains a greater number of apps, the android marketplace contains a greater variety of useful* apps, ESPECIALLY when it comes to free apps.  Of course there are exceptions and I reserve the right to change my mind as the month continues, netflix for example)

*useful as determined by me.

LCD - 
  The screen that comes with the iPhone 4 is really bright and does not "washout" in sunlight.   It is also significantly higher resolution than industry standard (326 ppi vs about 180 ppi).  
  This however comes down to somebodies individual choice.  I do not feel that a screen that looks good under a microscope is necessary on a mobile phone, I feel like it would have been a better choice to go with a larger screen as opposed to a higher resolution.
  Anybody in the market for a phone needs to checkout Samsungs Super AMOLED+ screens.  The screens are absolutely beautiful and there is no comparison, even to a phone with higher resolution.   However, the downside to the technology is that they get dim when in direct sunlight.  If that bothers you, then choose something else.

Battery - For test purposes I left the phone on over night.   It only dropped 5% of its battery, which is quite impressive.   I did notice instantly yesterday, that when the phone is actually being used, there is nothing special about the battery.   I played with the phone for 3 hours last night and managed to drain the battery from 60% to 20%.   Today, while on wifi, the phone dropped from 70% to 10% over the course of 6 hours(keep in mind I use the crap out of my phones).   This is no different than any android phone I have ever owned, and might even be a little bit worse.
  Iphones are often noted for their excellent battery life.   I have formed the conclusion this only applies to a phone that is not used.

Simple setup?

  In order to be able to better speak from experience and to jump start this blog, I'm going to spend 30 days using an iphone 4.  I will commit to posting one topic per day, detailing at least one pro and one con.  Long term this blog will discuss android and iphone tech, software and all topics related to both platforms.

The setup of my iphone was surprisingly complicated for a phone advertised as "simple".   The AT&T store turned on the phone and did an initial setup for me.   The sales rep said the phones came from the factory "bricked" until they are activated in the AT&T store.  That is fine, it took an extra 10 minutes to setup and I was on my way.

I had to create an app store account to begin to download apps, but Apple wanted all sorts of information from me.  Here is what it asked for

Phone number - I had to enter the phone number into my phone.  Why couldn't it just import my phone number from the phone?
Home address - Why does apple need my home address?  Would a zip code suffice?  Are they going to send me junkmail?
Username - simple enough
password - The password needed to be 8 digits, non-sequential, no words, super complicated.   Come on, this is a phone not a bank!  This is important and I will tell you all within the next couple posts.
Secret question/answer - fine with me!
Spam - it auto signed me up for apple spam, which I was able to decline.  TWICE!  It then tried to get me to sign up for spam again later!
Credit card - The phone give the initial impression that a CC is required.   In order to select "none" you have to click on the drop down menu, scroll to the bottom and select none.   I feel that "none" should be the default.

After you enter all the information above, you have to verify the email on the account(which is understandable, but still complicated).

The final step in creating your app store account is to download itunes to your computer(which took another 10 mintues to download/install) then plug your phone into said computer.

Only after ALL the above is complete, do you have access to the app store.
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Allow me to explain the android process in equivalent detail.

You can buy a phone at the store and walk away without having to get it activated at the store.  Most all stores will open it to make sure it works, however if you ask them not to open it they dont have to.

You can then turn on the phone and either login or create a google account.  If you already have one, you enter your login and password and your good to go.   If you need to create an account, you enter the following:

your first and last name -ok
a unique username - ok
8 letter password - it can be anything, including 12345678 or 11111111
A secondary email - not sure why?
then do a word verification and your good to go.

It does not ask for CC information, no spam, or email verification.  You dont have to download any software for your computer, etc.

With the google account, it automatically gives you the option to start syncing your calendar, gmail, contacts, picasa, etc.  The iphone currently does this via a USB sync to itunes, more on this later.

A brief Introduction

   First off, I'm am starting this blog in an effort to better be able to discuss the differences between android phones and the iphone.   Second, I'm an admitted android fanboy, but I am smart enough try and approach things from a mostly neutral perspective.  I just purchased my wife a MacBook air, if that helps to give me credibility.  If somebody produces a product I believe to be the best, I will buy it regardless of manufacturer.   Third, I am not a writer, nor will I try to be.   By profession, I'm in the dumbest of industries, I'm a general contractor and operate my own home building company.

  My love of technology goes way back to the days when PDA's were becoming main-stream.  In college, I owned a Dell Axim, but didn't ever have a real use for it.   Sure I took notes and played a few games in class, in fact I loved the device, but as far as a REAL bonafide use, not so much.   From the Axim, I moved to a Windows Mobile MDA, which was really a PDA smartphone, before the iphone.   I enjoyed the interface and even got my wife one.   From the MDA I moved to a blackberry 8820, then a 8900, then finally to my Nexus One and I've been in love with android ever since.

  My profession, combined with my love of technology has made me what I call a super-user.   I live on my phone, every morning, night, day and weekend.   My record for minutes used in a single month is somewhere around 2500 (more than 2 hours per workday).   I can drain batteries faster than anybody I know.  Email, games, music, videos, podcasts, navigation, news feeds, remote management, and even autocad.   I often tell a story about my blackberry 8900, which had very good batter life.   When used by a normal user, the batter could easily last three days.   My record for the phone was fully charged to dead before noon.  With todays superphones that is pretty easy, but back in the day it was very difficult.

Here is a list of Android phones I have owned over the past few years.

Nexus one

Evo 4g

Epic 4g

Atrix

Inspire 

Thunderbolt 

Mytouch 4g

Captivate

Vibrant 4g, 

Infuse

My wife has had a cliq and a G2x

I also have experience with the following tablets.

Xoom

Galaxy tab
Galaxy tab .