So it apparently finally happened, and tomorrow my dad is looking at upgrading me to one. My question is are they as good as all my friends on campus say they are, or would a droid be a better choice(note either one I get will be heavily used for all aspects)?

_________________
“I’m here to play go and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of gum”- misquoted duke nukem

There's a KGS client for Android, and there won't ever be one for the iPhone, if that matters at all.

I prefer Android for philosophical reasons, and you have a wider choice of phones, but there are arguments to be made for the iPhone too.

_________________
KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

I love my iPhone!

There is no kgs but I can still play games on different servers

Go is go where ever u go

Androids and iPhones are the same basically IMO they both do the same stuff i.e. Everything

I have a Droid 2, and I absolutely love it!


If you're on the fence about which to buy, I recommend thinking about how you want to use your phone.

What OS do you use on your computer? If Mac OSX, either would be good, if Windows, either would be good, if something else, better stick with Android.

Also note, unless you want to jailbreak your phone (and thus void your warranty), whenever you want to do any file transfers, etc., you'll have to do EVERYTHING through iTunes. iPhone doesn't have a USB Mass Storage mode.

iPhones don't have physical keyboard, if you would be interested in one.

iPhone doesn't let you swap batteries (although it apparently has pretty good battery life).

iPhone doesn't offer much customizability. Android may offer too much customizability (that is, if you don't want to be blown away by all the options). :O

Those are the main points I can think of anyway. Maybe some iPhone fans can chime in with all the great things iPhones do offer, since my view is obviously rather one-sided.

Anyway, just go into a store and start playing with the display phones. I'm pretty sure you'll quickly decide what phone you want the most.

I had an iPhone until I had a baby and transitioned to a prepaid cell phone that I spend about $10 a month. I loved it. Sort of. This is true for photos and music. Many applications handle their files via Dropbox or some other syncing mechanism. I highly recommend Dropbox regardless of what phone you have. Apps. Both phones allow developers to create apps, but there are many amazing iPhone apps that never appear on Android. When they do appear on Android, it is often much later (Angry birds appeared on Android almost a year after it appeared on iOS). This is especially true of games, and the iPhone is a nice platform for games.

The apps that Android has that iOS doesn't are usually things like task killers. If your gut reaction is "why would I ever want to do task management on a phone?" then get an iPhone. If you say "that sounds kinda cool to have that option", strongly consider Android.

If you have iTunes already, go to the store and look at the top iPhone apps, and compare them to top Android apps--maybe an Android user can provide a better place to look than just googling "top android apps". See what you think.

Good advice. But don't go to the Apple store on a weekend.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

If you know of a specific application that is a deal-breaker and exists on only one device, get that device.

If not: If you would really want to build your own computer from scratch, given the chance, get an droid phone. The sort of power the droid offers is that 'behind the scenes, root access' sort of option. If you want your computer to be delivered to your door and set up for you buy a man with a trendy hat, get an iPhone.

I have an iphone, but I chose it because I could get it cheaper, rather than a loyalty to one side or the other. As other people said, just get which seems cooler to you. They can both do a lot of... things.

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

I have an Android phone, and have had the chance to play around with an iPhone for quite a bit. I've found the Android interface to be more user-friendly: the presence of more hardware buttons, which means apps don't need to clutter the screen with a `back' or `menu' button is certainly nice, as is the way Android spelling correction works (not sure how good the iPhone one is, I don't remember it doing anything useful by default).

The iPhone currently has more apps, but I expect that to change soon -- Google has always been very techie-friendly, and developing for Android is both free and easier. There are also more languages available, as far as I know: while Java dominates by far, there is an NDK for C/C++ development, and I'm quite sure I've heard of a python port.

I wouldn't say the phone is unusable out of the box -- the default software is nice, and it's more of a matter of there being alternatives available if anyone wants them. It's almost always a good idea to use both for a while before you buy either, if you can.

The question itself would be considered trolling in some forums--it is a hotly debated issue . Either will pretty much take you where you want to go.

Most Android users will tell you to get a droid, most iPhone users will tell you to get an iPhone.

In terms of go, the best apps for each (IMO) are KGS, which is on the Android but not iPhone, and SmartGo Pro, which is on the iPhone but not Android. It is unlikely that either will cross over in the near future.

It's true iPhone had a much better app economy a few years ago, but Android has quickly caught up. The last counts I am aware of are 300,000 for iPhone, and 200,000 for Android. These are both several months (maybe a year) old, so it may be even closer now. I can't comment on the game situation, since I don't use my phone for games, however, there are a lot of cool applications for Android, that I don't think are available for iPhone, such as widgets.

A couple of my favorite widgets:
Circle Launcher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ey8bYm0Bw
Widgetsoid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0bpZZucXg (demonstrating placing the widget in the notification tray)

Oh, and since you mentioned task killers... the automated kind are actually discouraged, since the OS already handles it really well (for the most part), and you can "kill" misbehaving apps in the application manager. ...But yeah, if you want an app for it, they are available (I've never used them, so I can't say much beyond what I already have).

If you want to browse the Android market to look for apps, here's the website: https://market.android.com/
Anyone who already has an Android phone, can login to their Google account there, and install apps via the web.