google
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584118/google-quietly-invests-over-100-million-in-zynga-readying-google-games
Whoa. TechCrunch reports that Google has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, the social gaming behemoth behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and others, in preparation for the launch of Google Games later this year.
TechCrunch’s “multiple sources” say that Google itself, not its venture capital division Google Ventures, has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, a huge power play presumably with the aim of eroding Facebook’s social media dominance.
It seems that Google sees Zynga as the best way to hit the ground running with Google Games, a social gaming service from the search company that’s set to launch later this year. TechCrunch points to this job opening for “Product Management Leader, Games” at their Mountain View campus as proof that we’ll be seeing a lot more about Google’s move into gaming in the near future.
With Google Me, the company’s purported Facebook killer, continuing to take shape, this major investment in Zynga is just further proof that Google is making a very serious effort to hit Facebook where it hurt, namely, the farms. [TechCrunch]
Tags: 100 million, AIM, behemoth, campus, capital, company, division, dominance, effort, Facebook, Farmville, future, gaming, gaming service, google, ground, investment, job, job opening, killer, launch, leader, leader games, lot, Mafia, mafia wars, management, management leader, media dominance, mountain, mountain view, move, opening, play, power, power play, preparation, Product, product management, proof, search, search company, service, shape, social gaming, Source, TechCrunch, venture, venture capital, view, way, Whoa, year, Zynga
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5581997/social-gaming-network-openfeint-coming-to-android
Good news for Android users who are miserable due to the limited game selection on their devices: Social gaming network OpenFeint is coming to Android and it’ll hopefully encourage development of more games for the mobile operating system.
OpenFeint To Bring World’s Largest Mobile Gaming Developer Community To Google’s Android Platform
Mobile Social Games Network’s Expansion to Android will Accompany Titles from Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, And Hudson Entertainment.
Burlingame, CA – July 8, 2010 – OpenFeint, the leading mobile social gaming ecosystem for iOS devices, today announced that its 9,200 member game developer community with thousands of published games will soon have a complete solution to thrive in the Android apps economy. Launching later this summer, the company’s complete solution will include its de facto standard SDK, a game discovery store and mobile payment options. It will also include high quality content from leading publishers Astraware, Digital Chocolate, Glu Mobile, Hudson Soft and independent studios like Distinct Dev (Moron Test), ustwo (Dot Dot Dot), Pik Pok (Flick Kick Football) and RocketCat Games (Hook Champ).
With a strong set of partners at launch, OpenFeint’s ecosystem provides Android users the most compelling way to discover and buy high quality online games. In addition to incorporating Google Checkout and leading community features into its developer SDK, OpenFeint will extend its wildly successful Game Spotlight discovery app to Android. Interested parties can register at www.openfeint.com/developers/android for details as they emerge.
At the same time, OpenFeint continues to invest in and expand its efforts on Apple’s iOS devices and maintains the largest mobile social gaming ecosystem on that platform with over 28 million users and a presence in over 2,200 live games.
“Android is an evolving gaming platform that will greatly benefit from OpenFeint’s industry leading online gaming and community technologies,” said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of Glu Mobile. “OpenFeint is leading the charge for game developers on Android, helping simplify and improve the game discovery and purchase process for players on the platform.”
OpenFeint also announced that its expansion to Android is backed by a recent strategic investment by leading Chinese online gaming company, The9. This marks the path for a significant expansion for the company as it rolls out its cross platform strategy. As always, OpenFeint will remain open source and free for both developers and players.
“OpenFeint continues to demonstrate leadership and innovation in building community technologies which drive considerable discovery and monetization for publishers,” said Jason Loia, COO of Digital Chocolate, one of the industry’s most highly-rated publishers of mobile and social games. “We are excited about their entry into the Android ecosystem and we look forward to partnering with them to bring the best gaming experience to the Android platform.”
With over 160,000 Android powered devices shipping daily, Google’s mobile platform is growing rapidly and leading game developers recognize the tremendous opportunity to bring quality content to the platform.
“This is a big step for OpenFeint and an even bigger step for Android as it becomes a serious mobile gaming platform,” said Jonathan Goldberg, Analyst at Deutsche Bank Equity Research. “OpenFeint ushered in mobile online gaming for iOS devices and we think they’ll lead the revolution on Android.”
OpenFeint also re-affirmed its continued commitment to the Apple iOS device community where thousands of games are in development and several games are approved in the App Store daily with OpenFeint enablement.
Tags: Accompany, android, app, Apple iOS, Astraware, Bring, Burlingame, burlingame ca, chocolate, community, company, content, Developer, developer community, developer sdk, development, digital, discovery, discovery store, Distinct, Dot, dot dot dot, due, economy, Ecosystem, expansion, Flick Kick, game, game developer, game discovery, game selection, game spotlight, games network, gaming, gaming network, Glu, google, Hudson Entertainment, Hudson Soft, independent studios, industry, Jason Loia, Jonathan Goldberg, July, Largest, Launching, leading publishers, live games, member, Mobile, mobile payment, moron test, network, news, Niccolo de Masi, online, OpenFeint, operating, payment, Platform, quality, quality online games, SDK, selection, Social, social games, social gaming, solution, Source, step, store, summer, system, Titles, today, World
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-apps-iphone-ipod-android-2010-6
Apple iPhone owners are downloading almost twice as many paid applications as Google Android users, according to data from Google‘s mobile ad company AdMob. AdMob included this chart in its monthly mobile stats report.
AdMob doesn’t provide any explanation for this phenomenon, so here are our guesses:
- iTunes has a smooth purchasing/payment process. Google’s marketplace might not be as good.
- iTunes does a good job of highlighting popular paid apps. Android isn’t as good at that.
- There are probably more paid apps on a relative basis for iPhone than Android.
- The iPhone is positioned as a premium phone. Verizon offers some Android phones for free, same with T-Mobile. If you get your phone for free, you might be less willing to spend for applications. (Or be the type of users who buys paid apps.)

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Tags: AdMob, adobe, android, Apple iPhone, basis, chart, chartofthedayJoin, com, company, conversation, day, explanation, Facebook, FlashCHART, Good, good job, google, IAC, iPhone, iPod, itunes, job, marketplace, payment, phenomenon, phone, premium, process, purchasing, relative basis, revenue, search, Source, stats report, story, T-Mobile, Than Half, twitter, type, use, Verizon, video, video views, Web, web ads, www
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/05/ios-has-a-bigger-dev-army-than-android-but-will-cross-platform/

We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.
iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: android, apple, Apple App, apps, AppStore HQ, army, article, BNET, coders, Consumption, content, Dance, day, dev, dev directory, developers, development, directory, EDGE, EDT, email, Engadget, environment, Gapple, google, idea, iOS, Jul, knowledge, list, listing, market, mobile os, Mon, movement, nbsp, norm, outfits, Permalink, piles, Platform, platform development, Port, programmers, raw numbers, Read, software, Source, store, today, use, VentureBeat, void, way, Work
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/02/google-acquires-ita-for-700m-dives-headfirst-into-airline-tick/

Look out, Kayak / Bing Travel — you both are about to have your respective worlds rocked. While Google has managed to stay on top (or close to the top) when it comes to almost everything search related, the company has curiously allowed smaller niche brands to handle the travel side. Even amongst the hardcore Googlers, avid flyers typically head to a place like Kayak to weigh their options, while vacation planners either do likewise or turn to Bing Travel. In a few months time, we suspect some of that traffic will be diverted back to El Goog. The company has just announced plans to acquire Cambridge-based ITA Software for a cool $700 million, which will put one of the world’s most sophisticated QPX software tools for organizing flight information into the hands of the planet’s most dangerous search ally. According to Google, the pickup will allow consumers to search and buy airline tickets with less hassle and frustration, though it’s quick to point out that it has “no plans to sell airline tickets [directly] to consumers.” For the travel junkies in attendance, there’s a high probability that you won’t find any better news coming your way today than this.
[Thanks, Matthew]
Continue reading Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search
Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: airline, airline ticket, airline tickets, ally, attendance, Bing Travel, blog, Cambridge, Cambridge-based, company, Continue, cool, dives, EDT, Engadget, everything, flight, flight information, flyers, Fri, frustration, Gadling, Goog, google, Googlers, hardcore, hassle, headfirst, information, ITA, ita software, Jul, Kayak, Matthew, nbsp, news, niche, official, Permalink, pickup, place, planet, probability, QPX, reading, search, searchGoogle, side, software, software tools, Source, tick, ticket, ticket search, time, today, traffic, travel, travel junkies, use, vacation, vacation planners, way, World
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5576453/youtube-gets-it-will-allow-ad-skipping
There’s nothing worse than watching a 30-second ad to watch some 30-second clip of something the world inevitably finds funnier than you do. Google/YouTube are acknowledging this phenomenon of the consumer psyche and will introduce an ad-skip button this year.
The idea is as simple as this: If an advertiser’s commercial isn’t captivating enough to watch in its own right, it’ll be skipped by viewers. If viewers don’t watch the ad, Google doesn’t charge the advertiser.
Now I know what you’re thinking: Why would anyone watch an ad voluntarily? See exhibit A, the lead video in which the god of the infomercial, Ron Popeil, does his thing. The only way that 9-minute clip could be more captivating is to put ANOTHER 9-minute Ron Popeil clip in front of it.
This skippable ad model will inevitably lead to better ads—at least in terms of catering the online attention span—and, for those of us* with the libidinal fortitude to turn a blind eye on GoDaddy-esque BOOBIES BOOBIES BOOBIES teasers, a lot more free time. [WSJ via Fast Company]
* OK, maybe I don’t skip every such commercial. But I only** watch them to be educated enough to write about them on Giz.
** This is a flat-out fabrication***.
*** What sort of monster have I become?
Tags: advertiser, ANOTHER, Anyone, attention, attention span, blind eye, BOOBIES, button, Clip, commercial, company, consumer, esque, exhibit, eye, fabrication, Fast, fortitude, free time, front, funnier, Giz, God, GoDaddy-esque, google, idea, infomercial, libidinal, lot, mdash, minute, model, monster, nothing, online, phenomenon, psyche, right, Ron Popeil, something, sort, Source, span, thing, time, video, Watch, way, World, WSJ, year, YouTube
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5573953/rumor-google-rolling-out-google-me-their-facebook-killer-very-soon
Well this is kinda wacky. Citing a “very credible source,” Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted that Google is readying “Google Me,” a social service intended to go toe-to-toe (face-to-face?) with Facebook. It’s like Google stalking, but official, and thus marginally less creepy!
Google Buzz, their most recent foray into social networking, was not a resounding success (read: total privacy shitshow) and I imagine there’s some lingering skepticism about Google’s ability to actually keep all of its users information on lockdown.
Then again, they already know just about everything there is to know about you, so maybe it’d be easier to forget Facebook altogether and just click a button in Gmail that says, “Yes! Cull your extensive records to make a “Google Me” profile in my best image, selectively including the photographs and personal interests likeliest to get me laid.” Kidding, kidding, I promise that’s not what I’m all about. Seriously! Google me! [Kevin Rose via Runnin Scared and SF Weekly]
Tags: ability, button, buzz, click, credible source, creepy, Cull, Digg, everything, Facebook, foray, founder, Gmail, google, Image, information, Kevin Rose, Kidding, kinda, likeliest, lockdown, networking, official, personal interests, photographs, privacy, profile, resounding success, Runnin, Scared, Seriously, service, shitshow, skepticism, social networking, Source, success, Weekly
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5573995/microsoft-would-like-to-remind-you-that-theyre-still-quite-ginormous
Sure, Microsoft may have given away its lead and legacy in mobile and probably jumped into too many hyper-competitive sectors, but they still have the widest reach in technology. And they’re still pretty damn successful.
In recent years, Microsoft may be a step or two behind, but they’re relevant in nearly every sector. And with Office 2010, a new Xbox 360, Kinect, and perhaps most importantly, Windows Phone 7, all receiving substantial upgrades this year, 2010 is shaping up to be absolutely huge for them. And that’s coming off a 2009 where Windows 7, Bing and the Zune HD were introduced. We’re just so used to Microsoft being around that we sort of take them for granted for all the good that they do.
So Microsoft revealed some numbers to serve as a reminder:
• 150 million Windows 7 licenses sold
• 7.1 million projected iPad sales in 2010
• 58 million projected netbook sales in 2010
• 355 million projected PC sales in 2010
• less than 10% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2008
• 96% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2009
• 16 million subscribers to the largest 25 US daily newspapers
• 14 million Netflix subscribers
• 23 million Xbox live subscribers
• 173 million Gmail users
• 284 million Yahoo Mail users
• 360 million Windows Live Hotmail users
• $5.7 billion Apple net income for fiscal year ending in Sept 2009
• $6.5 billion Google net income for fiscal year ending in Dec 2009
• $14.5 billion Microsoft net income for fiscal year ending in June 2009
Yes, they’re patting themselves on the back a bit but the numbers are just staggering. If you’ve forgotten, now you know: Microsoft will always be a very, very big deal. [Official Microsoft Blog via Bits]
Tags: 1 million, apple, back, bing, bit, Bits, blog, daily newspapers, deal, Dec, fiscal year, Gmail, Good, google, hd, Hotmail, hotmail users, income, iPad, June, Kinect, lead, legacy, Live, mail, mail users, microsoft, million subscribers, net income, netbook, Netflix, new xbox 360, Office, official, phone, reach, reminder, sector, sectors, Sept, sort, Source, step, substantial upgrades, take, technology, US, Windows, windows phone, Xbox, xbox 360, xbox live, Yahoo, year, Zune
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/google-places-camera-exposed-in-the-convenience-store-wilds/
That right there friends, is a real life Google employee and his trusty camera capturing the internals of a fine New York City bodega. It’s all part of a pilot launched back in April to photograph the insides of businesses for Google Places. The idea here is that by seeing the actual facilities, merchandise, layout, and decor Google can help consumers make a better decision about which businesses might best suit their particular needs. First our
WiFi data and now the fetid bowels of our snack shops… oh Google, is there no data left that’s sacred?
Google Places’ camera exposed in the convenience store wilds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: April, bodega, bowels, camera, consumers, convenience, convenience store, decision, décor, EDT, email, employee, Engadget, fetid, google, idea, internals, JankHank, Jun, layout, life, merchandise, nbsp, New York City, part, Permalink, photograph, pilot, right, snack, snack shops, Source, store, Thu, trusty, trusty camera, use, WiFi
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5559357/iphone-vs-android-showdown-which-phone-is-best-for-power-users
The newest iPhone comes out in two weeks; the Android OS continues to deploy on better and better hardware; and both operating systems roll out exciting new features and innovations with each release. So which deserves your hard-earned cash?
A Starting Point
You can evaluate iPhone and Android devices from countless angles,[1] so rather than pretend that we’ve got the One True Comparison, it only seems appropriate to highlight that we’re not necessarily your average user. For more specifics on how we judge these devices, read this footnote.
For our purposes, we’re measuring each phone OS against 20 features we care about most, declaring a winner (or a tie) for each category, and adding it all up. The extent to which our measurements match up with what you most care about may vary, but we suspect that many of you share similar values when it comes to your smartphone.
Note: The table below indicates the device we think “wins” each category. A happy Android means we think Android is better in that category; an Apple means iPhone outperforms Android; categories with both an Android and Apple are ties.
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] iPhone vs. Android Showdown: Which Phone Is Best for Power Users?](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2010/06/500x_iPhone-versus-Android.jpg)
Artwork by Adam Dachis
Below, we’ve broken down the categories above and explained whey we chose the winners as we did.
Ease of Use; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android has come a long way in a short time, but from an ease-of-use perspective, the iPhone wins out. You can pick up any iPhone and quickly, easily understand what’s going on. It’s got one main button on the front of the device, and everything you do consists of tapping app icons from the home screen. Android devices have several buttons on the front of the device that perform a variety of functions, and once you unlock the screen (and depending on which Android device you have), you’re confronted with many different possible home screens and ways of doing things from those home screens.
Openness; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
We really like that the Android operating system open source, but what’s more important to most end users is openness in terms of what you can run on these devices. The operating systems themselves are clearly important, but one thing’s abundantly clear: the applications make the phone. And while Google has yet to get in hot water for rejecting apps based on anti-competitive fear or censorship, Apple’s has. A lot.
Battery Life; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Apple has taken battery life extremely seriously in their careful development of the iPhone, and it’s shown. While Android devices get a kitchen-sink’s worth of features that you may consider to be a fair tradeoff for battery life, there’s little question that the iPhone’s battery life outlasts that of most Android devices. Battery performance definitely varies from Android handset to Android handset (the recently released EVO is taking big hits for its poor battery performance), but the iPhone’s battery performance—particularly the new iPhone’s performance—generally outlasts Android’s.
Multitasking; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
It’s a big deal that the iPhone is finally getting some multitasking support in iOS4, and while it’s still not as true of multitasking as Android users enjoy, the tradeoff in terms off battery life improvements is important enough that, overall, we’d consider multitasking to be a wash.
Software Keyboard; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
If you talk to anyone who’s used both the iPhone and Android with some frequency, the general consensus is that the iPhone’s software keyboard is a good deal better than Android’s default keyboard. That’s unfortunate for Android users, but the consolation is that you can install any custom keyboard as your default keyboard on Android, and we’ve seen some solid keyboard alternatives. Still, the advantage, if only by virtue of being better out of the box, goes to the iPhone.
System-Wide Search; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Apple’s implementation of Spotlight on the iPhone searches contacts, media, email, applications, notes, and calendar. Android searches most of that (but notably not email), but also integrates with auto-suggest web searches; it also lets other applications plug into it, so the more supported apps you install, the more robust the universal search becomes.
Notification system; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
This may seem like a silly thing to care too much about, but the iPhone’s modal notification system is particularly user un-friendly, especially for a device as friendly as the iPhone. You have to act on a notification, and you can only see one notification at a time before the next one dismisses the previous one entirely. Android’s brilliant pull-down window shade notification tray, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing that could make any iPhone owner jealous.
Voice-to-Text; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Nearly every text field on an Android device can be filled with a few words from your mouth, and it works surprisingly well. You can respond to emails by voice, send long text messages by voice while you’re walking around Target, respond to your editor’s IMs while you’re at a graduation ceremony, and so on, as long as you’re comfortable talking to your phone (it is a phone, so you should be). Apart from voice-to-text in third party apps, iOS doesn’t support voice-to-text at all.
Syncing; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
iPhones can be incredible standalone devices, but they’re surprisingly old-fashioned when it comes to syncing, requiring users to plug into their computers and connect to iTunes to do all sorts of syncing and activating that could be more conveniently done wirelessly. Android phones support pretty great over-the-air syncing with your Google account, so much so that if you were to lose your previous Android phone, simply entering your Google account into a new one can get you up and running with a usable phone in a jiffy.
Non-Google Sync; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android’s great at syncing seamlessly with Google’s servers, but it’s not so keen on syncing with other popular sources of data—like, say, Outlook, Address Book, or iTunes. If you’re a heavy user of any of those applications, the iPhone is the easiest option.
Tethering; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
The cost of tethering on Android devices varies depending on the provider, but so far the Android tethering situation is better off than what AT&T is offering on the iPhone. In the States, AT&T will charge you $20/month just for the privilege of tethering your iPhone’s data connection to a computer—despite the fact that you’re already paying for a metered data plan. The situation isn’t necessarily much better across the Android-sphere (Sprint is also planning to charge for tethering on the EVO, for example), but currently most Android carriers are sticking with “unlimited” plans, versus AT&T/iPhone’s 2GB limit. It’s still a close race on this point, but Android edges ahead with the ability to turn your handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot that can deliver wireless to you and seven of your closest friends.
Release and Update Consistency; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
These days, your mobile OS is just as important (if not more) than mobile hardware, and Apple has set the consumer expectation to expect that their device will receive new feature updates even if it isn’t the latest phone. To that end, it’s extremely easy to keep track of what’s going on in the iPhone ecosystem. Apple releases one new phone a year, and one major update each year. When an update rolls out, every phone receives the update at the same time (unless it’s particularly old; the original iPhone won’t upgrade to iOS4, for example). In contrast, Android runs on a lot of different devices, and when Google pushes out a new update, there’s no telling when or if it’s going to make its way to your phone. In the future Google is planning to change to yearly Android updates similar to iPhone OS updates, which will likely help this situation, but in the meantime, it’s a source of frustration for Android users.
Apps; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
A lot of people may disagree on this assessment, given that Apple’s App Store has around four times the number of applications the Android Market does, but there’s also a lot of crap in the App Store, and at this point, most popular, mission-critical applications have been developed for both the iPhone and Android. What’s more, some potentially very popular applications end up locked out of the App Store for, if we’re being generous, arbitrary reasons. At the end of the day, it may be a big deal that your must-have application X is missing from the Android Market/App Store, and those may end up to be dealbreakers for you, but overall we’d call them pretty even.
Web browsing; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
The iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser, while not without its faults, is a very nice, very usable mobile browser. Android’s browser, while not as smooth an operator as Safari, supports (or can support) Flash. The extent to which that matters to you may vary, but it’s big enough that we’re considering it a tie.
Gaming; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
We’re frugal productivity nerds at Lifehacker, so we don’t really care all that much about gaming. And while the number of solid gaming options available in the Android Market continue to grow, it’s still not on par with what’s available for the iPhone.
Music Player; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android may do a lot of things well, but one arena where its users regularly voice complaint is with its default media player. Where the iPhone comes with a very solid iPod app, most Android users quickly go looking for alternative players. Google is hyping over-the-internet streaming of all your music from your desktop computer eventually, but until we see something great there, the iPhone still wins out.
Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
After the Google Voice debacle from last year, it’s looking less and less likely that Google will ever develop another new app for the iPhone. Unfortunately, that means that extremely cool applications like Google Maps Navigation, Google’s free turn-by-turn GPS application, will never make it to the iPhone, and so far there isn’t anything as good for the iPhone that’s also free. The iPhone does have its share of solid for-a-price GPS utilities in the App Store (and some decent inexpensive-to-free options), but Maps Navigation is built into Android and outshines the iPhone’s free alternatives.
Integration with Google Apps; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
If you rely on Google tools like Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and the like, Android just does it better. The iPhone’s still no slouch, and can sync over-the-air with Contacts, Calendar, and even does Gmail push for instant new message notifications, but if you’re a serious Google or even just Gmail user, the iPhone doesn’t stack up to Android.
Google Voice; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
It may seem absurd to make this a separate point of comparison from Google Apps, but Voice is a very phone-centric app with potentially huge influence over how you use your phone. Apple had the option to approve a Google Voice app for the iPhone and completely blew it. And since we really love Google Voice, it only makes Android look that much more attractive.
Customizable; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
You may be able to add a wallpaper to your iPhone desktop when iOS4 rolls out, but beyond that, there’s not much you can do to tweak your iPhone to exactly how you like it—without jailbreaking, that is. In comparison, Android devices are Mr. Potato Heads of customizability.
Overall Score: Android: 13; iPhone: 11 ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Clearly our scorecard is extremely subjective, so take this evaluation with a grain of salt, and consider how important the features we listed (and maybe those we didn’t list) are to you and come up with your own assessment. If your priorities are similar to ours, you’re likely looking at an Android for your next purchase. Frankly, it feels a little like a draw overall. (My ideal would be Android running on the iPhone 4, which is actually possible, eventually.)
In fact, in our recent poll on the subject, 66 percent of Lifehacker readers said they prefer Android; 30 percent prefer the iPhone, and 4 percent preferred neither. Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, we’d love to hear more about what’s driving your decision in the comments.
Why just Android and iPhone? The iPhone and Android operating systems are not the only mobile OSes on the block, but they’re what we’re focusing on in this post. It’s cool if you’re really into Windows Mobile/Phone 7 or webOS. For the purpose of this post, we’re focusing on what we consider to be the most popular options among our readers. [
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How we judge: We consider ourselves power users who care about things like openness, user control, and customizability; we also care about ease of use, high quality design, and quality hardware. For better or worse (usually worse), these qualities often end up at odds with one another in the current smartphone market, but they make up the measuring stick against which we’re evaluating these devices.
It’s also probably worth noting that, Android OS and hardware aside, we’re big fans of several of Google’s services, and so some of those play an important role in some of the categories above. It may not seem fair to Apple and the iPhone to do so, but in most instances (like Google Voice), Apple had the opportunity to accept Google-focused applications to the App Store.
Finally, the state of Android devices can be somewhat confusing because they’re released by different carriers and on lots of different hardware. We tried to strike a balance between acknowledging faults on some of the worst incarnations of Android hardware while also keeping in mind the best. To the extent that older iPhones aren’t up to snuff compared to the new iPhone, we’ve done the same thing in discussing the iPhone. [go back up]
Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker; you can read more of his stuff here at Lifehacker and follow him on Twitter.
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