Yes well Apple has now come clean on their latest offering of iOS with iOS 6, which they say brings 200 new features to the iPhone and Apple iPad, and naturally those features are going to be compared to Apple’s rival operating system Android, and especially Android latest OS Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
As such the guys over at Gizmodo have come up with a ten category comparison between iOS 6 and Android Ice Cream Sandwich to see how they stack up against each other, so we thought we’d pass these along to our readership.
The guys kick things off with an apps reminder where Apple has 650,000 apps, 225,000 for the Apple iPad, whilst Android has 450,000 apps, but although most work on tablets, tablet specific Android apps pale in comparison with Apple’s offering.
Apple has come out with their own Maps app, which is powered by TomTom, and I’m fairly sure you know what the Maps app offers, although it lacks such stuff as walking directions, bike directions, transit directions and Street View, which of course Google Maps on Android does offer, but the biggy with iOS 6 Maps has to be that turn-by-turn navigation, which will bring iOS in line with Android.
Again deep Facebook integration comes with iOS 6 allowing the iOS faithful to do the usual with Facebook as they have done with Twitter in iOS 5, but again Android has offered the same deep Facebook integration for a donkey’s age and is also deeply integrated into Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
There is the new browser sync in iOS 6 which allows the syncing of tabs between devices so that when you open a tab in Safari on your desktop it will be easier to open on your iPhone or Apple iPad: however the guys reiterate like others have said, nobody uses Safari, and Chrome of ICS does the same thing.
Mobile payments come with iOS 6 with the Passbook feature, which has GPS deeply integrated so information pops up when you need it, and Passbook aggregates all your passes, tickets, and some payment cards along with live updates, and the guys say they have a feeling NFC payments will be integrated later on. Whilst for Android there is Google Wallet, but some US carriers are keeping Google Wallet off their network, and Passbook according to the guys looks way better than Google Wallet.
When it comes to voice commands, with iOS 6 Siri has been improved with new capabilities on restaurant information, sports scores, movies, and will also come to Apple’s iOS slates, whilst Android voice Actions has been around longer than Siri, in the majority of the guy’s tests Voice Actions has out-gunned Siri, and Voice Actions is available on ICS tablets.
When it comes to chatting on your smartphone, FaceTime will now be used over a mobile data network and not just WiFi; however if you are on Android there is Gmail, which allows the user to chat with anyone on whatever browser, smartphone and tablet, and over a mobile data network practically from the outset.
IOS 6 brings a quick reply by text feature, along with a ‘do not disturb’ mode that spots you iPhone from ringing or lighting up, and the user can set it so they only receive calls from certain people. When it comes to Android Ice Cream Sandwich, quick replies are built in and you can pre-write several common responses and simply hit one to shoot it off, although Android doesn’t have that do not disturb mode.
With messaging iMessages seems to be having the bugs worked out and will have a unified ID so you texts will sync through your Mac, iPad and iPhone along with seamlessly integrating with iChat, whilst on Android there is Google Voice for replying to texts from your browser in the US, but most people text from their own phone number and as such iMessage wins out, but when it comes to IM then Google Chat means you can simply keep up with more people.
Lastly the guys take a look at smarter icons, allowing them to change to deliver info, much live Windows Phone and its live tiles, but sadly Apple looks to be stuck in the past with smarter icons, whilst widgets have been a part of the Android platform for ages delivering the ability to adjust settings on the fly without leaving the home screen and displaying info in real time.
So there you have it, a comparison between Android Ice Cream Sandwich and iOS 6, and really it does look like when it comes to iOS, Apple is still very much playing the catch up game with Android, although I am sure the iOS faithful will continue saying… Apple makes them better.