One Smartphone to Rule Them All

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The war between Apple and Google is something we’re all too familiar with. Whether you’re a manufacturer, consumer, hacker, or standard user, you’ve had to choose a smartphone operating system (be it iOS, Android, Windows, etc…), and you’ve had to live with that decision. It wasn’t until I branched out into other operating systems that I found out there was a better alternative to the OS I had preciously been using. Here is why I, @ztlaidlaw, crossed Apple’s walled fence and and dove into the open source of Android. Let’s get started.

The Basics:
Apple is a manufacturing company that makes great hardware. That’s great, but hardware needs a brain. By default, Apple needed to make their own software to control their hardware. Regardless, Apple is a hardware-based institution.

Google is a software company that specializes in creating innovative technologies that can be operated on outsourced hardware. After massive success with Google, the search engine (yeah, they once used to be just that), and after their itch for collecting data proved useful in other services they could offer, a smartphone operating system seemed like home turf to the technological giant.

So what does that all mean?
There’s a reason iOS 6 failed, there’s a reason the overall look of iOS hasn’t changed since conception, and there’s a reason Google’s OS has taken larger leaps in its design and capabilities than Apple has yet to touch. Yes, Apple has some cool products, but they don’t always have the best ideas as to how those products should move.

For Google, it’s the opposite issue. If your Android device is running 4.0+ (prior to this, Android had a lot of growing up to do), and it fails, it’s not because Google provided a crappy software. It’s because the outsourced phone you purchased doesn’t have the hardware to run the the feats Android can accomplish.

Enter Motorola Mobility, purchased two years ago (in 2011) by Google. Google already makes extreme software, and now they own extreme hardware. The implementation of these two powerhouses are only nearing fruition as Google/Motorola’s first cooperative venture, the Motorola X Phone running on the newest iteration of Android (rumored 5.0 Key Lime Pie), prepares for its unveiling, most likely at Google I/O in spring of this year. Like it or not, the smartphone war (even if only for a moment), was just won.

Google’s combined services are powerful, and they’re only growing. As an iPhone user, I relied on Google Search, Maps, Local/Latitude, and occasionally Drive, throughout my daily life. As a converted Android user (Nexus 4, 4.2.2), Google Now and a combined effort from all of their services, which are integrated nicely into the operating system, are nothing short of addictive. I need these services to supplement my daily life. Something about Google Now providing the “right information at the right time” is an incredible stroke of genius! Minus the occasional hiccup, it’s a pretty amazing and unrivaled feature.

It’s true: There are occasionally some things I miss about my iPhone. As a writer, I appreciate the refined construction and operation of Pages, Garagband, and the remaining iWork and iLife series. I also miss the extensive length of my 4S battery. But these advantages come at a cost…

Google Drive, on a smartphone, is a constant work in progress. Anytime I find an issue that I don’t like, Google shortly releases an update that either addresses or begins to address the issue. Since I do most of my work on my smartphone, the lack of function is a tad bothersome. That said, the web version of Drive is the most powerful word processing system I have ever seen successfully implemented online for free. It’s even a powerful competitor against Microsoft’s Office Suite (which you have to pay for, btw). With Google’s constant strides towards bettering their user experience, I’m confident the smartphone version of Google Drive will continue to progress, possibly even to the point of rivaling its online counterpart.

Battery life is critical to any electronic device you carry on a daily basis. Having to be near a charger multiple times a day can become a hassle. But when one considers the amount of activities an Android device is responsible for, one can begin to understand why an Apple device’s battery lasts so much longer. Android is a work-horse that is constantly thinking, doing, and anticipating the next move you are about to make in hopes that it can make that move easier for you to implement. It is necessary for the Android operating system to constantly be running, therefore, consuming greater amounts of battery power. So with Android, it’s not necessarily applicable to save battery life in exchange for reducing the activity of the software. It makes more sense for manufacturers to expand the battery size within their hardware. This issue is also supposed to be addressed in the rumored Motorola X Phone

Bottom line: Google updates their software and applications quicker and with greater success than Apple has been able to do with their own software applications in the past year. If there is any issue with Google’s services or software, and it is in their hands to control, you can be sure that they will make their greatest effort to repair such issues. That is why I firmly believe the new Motorola X Phone, controlled and manufactured by the hands of Google, will be the ultimate and premiere Android device on the planet.

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