> PS I don't know what "Android "is apart from in sci-fi movies. Im not
> being silly, I genuinely don't understand the differences.
Fair enough. There's now to summarize a big subject like this one without
skipping something important or saying things that while approximately true
aren't complete. Even still, I can offer you a sketch that might help.
Android and iOS are the two dominant operating systems out there for smart
phones and tablets. For an end user, they're more the same than different.
Which one is better? Yes ;-) They have fans and detractors on both sides,
such is how it goes. Both are geared towards small screens, conservation of
battery life, and nearly instantaneous startup. If you know how to use one,
you could easily figure out the other. Apps on Android and iOS often look
and behave very nearly identically. They are both very different from
desktop computers of whatever sort you might be using now. Instead of a
mouse and keyboard and apps in different windows, you generally use one app
at a time on a small screen using your fingers.
Android is developed by Google and then more-or-less given away to phone
makers to include on their handsets. The dominant Android smartphone maker
is Samsung...but there are dozens of others.
iOS is developed by Apple and used exclusively on their hardware: iPhone,
iPod Touch (iPhone without a phone), and iPad.
Apple and Samsung have been in a court battle for years that you may have
seen in the headlines. It's pretty much about Apple suing Google by proxy
for cloning the iPhone. None of that matters much to us as users.
You can buy a cheap Android phone at Woolies or Coles for $40-80 on sale
but it probably won't have the memory to run the Pizzey app...or most any
serious birding app. Apple doesn't make low-end devices but, in many
markets, completely owns the high-end. (High end laptops? They own it. High
end phones? They share it.) If you're in the price range of Apple's
products, their kit is competitively priced with comparable gear. If you
want something cheaper, they just don't do that. I've got a couple of
Android phones (love them), an old iPod Touch (works great, even years
later), and the new iPad Mini. I have to say, the Mini is the greatest
gadget in the history of gadgets, so far as I can tell. With a sturdy case,
it can go in my bag and I've got thousands of pages of birding info, sounds
and pictures from around the world. Magic. Oh, none of these devices are
easy to read in bright light. So, books and pads of paper still have their
place, to be sure. (I prefer paper guides for areas I don't know as I flip
through the pages a lot.)
To buy apps for either platform, you go through a store. In the case of
iOS, it's Apple's iTunes App Store. For Android, you've got choices. The
biggest and most trusted is Google's Play store. Many apps are free. When
you buy an app, it's usually licensed for one account on multiple devices.
So, if you have a tablet and a phone you can often buy one copy of the app
and legally use it on your two devices. With Apple, the license is always
for 5 devices, so far as I know. For Android, it depends a bit. If you buy
an Android version you don't get a license for iOS or the other way around.
Just like buying Office for Windows doesn't let you run Office for Mac.
Different OS, different license. And, yes, Microsoft does make a phone
operating system and just finished buying Nokia something like yesterday.
Windows Phone isn't Windows, is getting increasingly positive reviews...and
has a trivial market share for now. So, you don't see so many apps for that.
Colin R asked: "why is it cheaper for androids?"
Probably because Android users are, as a market, far, far, far less
inclined to spend money on apps. I assume that Guy Gibbons is attempting to
get the best price he can for his efforts, and fair enough. Also, if the
Android version is licensed for two devices and the iOS one for five...some
people will find it cheaper on iOS. Birding apps as a category are some of
the more expensive apps I've seen on either platform.
_______________________________________________
Birding-Aus mailing list
To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
|
