Apple iOS 4.3 vs Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Apple iOS 4.3 and Android 3.0 Honeycomb are tablet operating systems by Apple and Google Android respectively. Android 3.0 was released in January 2011 and Apple iOS 4.3 was released in March 2011 with iPad 2 for 3G Network. The real competition between iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, LG Optimus Pad , Motorola Xoom depends on the performance and the features of Apple iOS 4.3 against Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
Apple iOS 4.3
Apple iOS 4.3 is released with Apple iPad 2 in March 2011. Apple iOS 4.3 has more features and functionality comparing to Apple iOS 4.2. Apple iOS 4.3 supports additional multifinger multitouch gestures and swipes. iTunes Home sharing is another feature added in Apple iOS 4.3. Improved video streaming and AirPlay support is also introduced in iOS 4.3. And there is performance improvement in Safari with new nitro JavaScript engine. Airplay features include additional support for photo slide shows and support for video, audio editing from third party applications and share content in social network.
| Apple iOS 4.3 |
| New Features
1. Improvements to Safari Performance with Nitro JavaSript Engine 2. iTunes home sharing – get all iTunes content from anywhere in the house to iPhone, iPad and iPod over shared Wi-Fi. You can play it direct without download or sync 3. AirPlay features improved – stream videos from photo apps direct to HDTV via Apple TV, Auto search Apple TV, Built in slideshow options for photo 4. Support Video, Audio editing Apps in Apps Store such as iMovie 5. Preference for iPad Switch to mute or rotation lock 6. Personal hotspot (iPhone 4 only feature) – you can connect up to 5 devices over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB; up to 3 of those connections over Wi-Fi. Auto switch off to save power when personal hotspot no longer in use. 7. Supports additional multifinger multitouch gestures and swipes. . |
| Features from previous releases:
1. Multitasking 2. Organize apps in to folders with drag and drop feature 3. AirPrint – send to print directly from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch 4. AirPlay – stream ITunes library to AppleTV and AirPlay without download or sync 5. Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch – locate your missing device on map, remotely set passcode lock 6. Game Centre – play social games, play with friends, track achievement and compare with friend’s 7. Email features – unified mail box, organize message by threads, open attachments in 3rd party apps |
Two applications are introduced with iOS 4.3. One is the new version of the iMovie, Apple boasts it as a precision editor and with iMovie you can send HD video around with one tap (you don’t have to go through iTunes). With one tap you can share it with your social network, YouTube, FaceBook, Vimeo and many other. Its priced at $4.99. With the new iMovie you get over 50 sound effects and additional themes such as Neon. Music automatically switches with themes. It supports multitrack audio recording, Airplay to Apple TV and it is an universal application.
GarageBand app is the other, you can plug in touch instruments (Grand Piano, Organ, Guitars, Drums, Bass), get 8tracks recording and effects, 250+ loops, email AAC file of your song and it is compatible with Mac version. This also priced at $4.99.
Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
Honeycomb is entirely designed for devices with large screens such as tablets and it is the first version of the platform designed to run on either single or multicore processor architectures. Going by the Android 3.o features, the new UI looks wonderful. The web browsing is amazing, gives a full web browsing experience. As customary it has incorporated all Google apps such as Gmail, Google Calender, Google talk, Google Search, Google maps and of course a redesigned YouTube, in additon it has integrated ebooks. It has redesigned the widgets and added wallpapers. Android 3.0 offers 3 home screens that can be customized.
Google proudly boasts that it has millions of books to go with Google ebooks, currently having 3 million ebooks; and going by the demonstration, it’s going to be fantsatic for book lovers to enjoy the reading on a bigger screen while on the move.You can chat face to face with millions of Google talk users, bewildered with 3D effect in Google Map 5.0. Send and receive mails on the go with Tablet optimized Gmail.
Honeycomb with enriched multi media experience, improved multitasking, full browsing experience, new UI and opened to Android market, is a boost for tablet makers.
| Android 3.0 (Honeycomb
API Level 11 |
| New User Features
1. New UI – holographic UI newly designed for large screen displays with content focused interaction, the UI is backward compatible, applications designed for earlier versions can be used with new UI. 2. Refined multitasking 3. Rich notification, no more popups 4. System bar at the bottom of the screen for system status, notification and it accomodates navigation buttons, as like in Google Chrome. 5. Customizable homescreen (5 homescreens) and dynamic widgets for 3D experience 6. Action bar for application control for all applications 7. Redesigned keyboard for larger screen, keys are reshaped and repositioned and new keys added such as Tab key. button in system bar to switch between text/voice input mode 8. Improvement to text selection, copy and paste; very close to what we do in computer. 9. Buil in support for Media/Picture Transfer Protocol – you can instantly sync media files through USB cable. 10. Connect full keyboard over USB or Bluetooth 11. Improved Wi-Fi connectivity 12. New support for Bluetooth tethering – you can connect more types of devices 13. Improved browser for efficient browsing and better browsing experience using the large screen – some of the new features are: – multiple tabbed browsing instead of windows, – incognito mode for anonymous browsing. – single unified view for Bookmarks and History. – multi-touch support to JavaScript and plugins – improved zoom and viewport model, overflow scrolling, support for fixed positioning 14. Redesigned camera application for larger screen – quick access to exposure, focus, flash, zoom, etc. – built-in support for time- lapse video recording – gallery application for full screen mode viewing and easy access to thumbnails 15. Redesigned contacts applications features for larger screen – new two-pane UI for contacts applications – improved formatting for international phone numbers based on home country – contact information view in card like format for easy reading and editing 16. Redesigned Email appliations – two-pane UI for viewing and organizing mails – sync mail attachments for later viewing – track emails using email widgets in the homescreen |
| .
New Developer Features 1. New UI Framework – to fragment and combine activities in different ways to create richer and more interactive applications 2. Redesigned UI Widgets for larger screen and new holographic UI theme – developers can quickly add new types of content to relevant applications and can interact with users in new ways – new types of widgets included such as 3D stack, search box, date/time picker, number picker, calendar, popup menu 3. Action Bar at the top of the screen can be customized by developers according to application 4. A new builder class to create notifications that include large and small icons, title, a priority flag, and any properties already available in previous versions 5. Developers can use mulitiselect, clipboard and drag and drop features to offer users more enjoyable gaming experience 6. Performance improvement to 2D and 3D graphics – new animation framework – new hardware accelerated OpenGL renderer to improve the performance of 2D graphics based applications – Renderscript 3D graphics engine for accelerated graphics operations and create high performance 3D effects in applications. 7. Support for multicore processor architectures – support symmetric mulitprocessing in multicore environments, even an application designed for single core environment will enjoy the performance boost. 8. HTTP Live streaming – media framwork supports most of the HTTP Live streaming specification. 9. Pluggable DRM framework – for applications to manage protected content, Android 3.0 offers unified API for simplified management of protected contents. 10. Built-in support for MTP/PTP over USB 11. API support for Bluetooth A2DP and HSP profiles For Enterprises Device administration applications can include new types of policies, such as policies for encrypted storage, password expiration, password history, and requirement of complex characters for passwords. |
Difference between Apple iOS 4.3 and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
1. Apple iOS 4.3 is a Proprietary operating system from Apple for allwhereas Andorid 3.0 is an open source operating system.
2. iOS 4.3 is the common platform for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch while Android 3.0 was entirely designe large screen devices
3. Since Android is an open source operating system, different vendors modify it and change the GUI for their devices. On top of this, third party developers also modify Android and release new Android based ROMs.
4. The widgets in Honeycomb are more dynamic and the UI is designed for content focused interaction whereas in iOS 4.3 the homescreen looks clean and elegant but the widgets are more of a static nature and UI is more application centered.
5. Apple iOS does not support direct mass file transfer, whereas Android versions are improving on that with each revision. Android 3.0 also supports MTP/PTP over USB.
6. Media streaming has limitation with iOS 4.3 though there are some improvement introduced with improved AirPlay.
7. Apple iOS 4.3 does not support Adobe Flash Player, while Honeycomb supports the latest Flash Player 10.1.
8. iOS 4.3 supports pop up notifications, which is a nuisance to users, whereas Android 3.0 has a less disruptive system bar at the bottom of the screen for system status and notification.