09-18-2013, 09:12 AM
The iPhone can never be "the best smartphone available" when it doesn't have any widgets.
Things I can see/do on my Android screen without opening any apps:
* Play from my selected playlist (prev, play/pause, next buttons)
* See a variety of information via "Google Cards" (weather, stocks, news headlines, package delivery times from email, traffic conditions, etc)
* Calender listing upcoming events (including birthdays imported from Facebook)
* A notepad of whatever I typed in there (this is actually one of the cooler ones -- rather than some notepad app I will type things into and promptly forget about, this widget puts my notes right on the screen so I won't forget. "Buy tickets for concert!")
* Current temperature from the phone's sensor
* Flashlight
* Pandora
* Big calender with weather forecast
* All of my alarms
I don't know how iPhone users can stand having such a useless screen that shows you nothing but icons for apps you have to open to see anything. I'm not sure long time iPhone users really appreciate the usefulness of live desktop data displays (much like they didn't understand the usefulness of 4G data until they finally got it).
And no, Notification Center is not nearly the same thing. Dashboard X is closer but you have to hack your phone to get even that much. Apple has dictated that thou shalt not operate thy Pandora or Amazon MP3 player without opening up an app and all must obey.
Things I can see/do on my Android screen without opening any apps:
* Play from my selected playlist (prev, play/pause, next buttons)
* See a variety of information via "Google Cards" (weather, stocks, news headlines, package delivery times from email, traffic conditions, etc)
* Calender listing upcoming events (including birthdays imported from Facebook)
* A notepad of whatever I typed in there (this is actually one of the cooler ones -- rather than some notepad app I will type things into and promptly forget about, this widget puts my notes right on the screen so I won't forget. "Buy tickets for concert!")
* Current temperature from the phone's sensor
* Flashlight
* Pandora
* Big calender with weather forecast
* All of my alarms
I don't know how iPhone users can stand having such a useless screen that shows you nothing but icons for apps you have to open to see anything. I'm not sure long time iPhone users really appreciate the usefulness of live desktop data displays (much like they didn't understand the usefulness of 4G data until they finally got it).
And no, Notification Center is not nearly the same thing. Dashboard X is closer but you have to hack your phone to get even that much. Apple has dictated that thou shalt not operate thy Pandora or Amazon MP3 player without opening up an app and all must obey.