Journal #2

Daniel Lewis
English 1000
Hayden
7 Oct. 2014

Journal #2

     Android and Apple have constantly fought for the title of leading OS provider. The companies have battled closely in increasing market share. Since more people are using mobile operating systems the companies have had to put out more products each year. Apple announced iOS 8 earlier this month and not all eyes are on Google's I/O update to see what Android 4.5 Lollipop has too offer. Apple's first approach to Mac was creating a device that could handle all your needs. Apple is trying to get back to that with iOS 8. Steve Job's vision was to focus on iCloud the company now seems to have shifted their focus to mobile OS. There are significantly more smartphones than tablets or computers which means more opportunity. People can expect iOS 8 to incorporate calling and texting from their Mac computers. Apple will also be incorporating a new Health app to enhance Apple's whole ecosystem. Another improvement is the opening of third-party developers to access TouchID for security. On the Android side of things, Google will be announcing its new update addressing fragmentation issues. It also plans to combine search methods like Search, Chrome, and Android. The project also aims to create a similar voice search assistant to Siri. Google will call theirs OK Google.
     
     Both articles agree that Apple is doing various things to improve their OS. "Features people can expect from the iOS 8 emphasizing Apple's interest in focusing its ecosystem over the interface (Google Android 4.5 Lollipop vs Apple iOS 8: Apple and Google Fight for Better User Experience, 8 Jun 2014)" and "Apple made it apparent that it has been exerting great effort in turning the iOS into a more open mobile operating system (Apple iOS 8 vs Android 4.5//5.0 Lollipop: Android Should Come Up with Better Tricks, 15 Jun 2014)."
     

     The article I read has done several things to my thinking process. I have decided that the two companies are not focused as much on competing hardware as the software that goes into them. I think I'm going to research their hardware next because that is a huge deciding factor in deciding which phone is better. From the article I can tell that Apple is still concerned with what Android is doing because they are continuing to add features that Android has had. It makes me question if Apple can really be the leading company when they are just playing catch up at this point. I understand their implementation of synthesizing texting and calling on Apple devices seamless,but other than that feature I don't know if you could call what Apple is doing innovative. Android on the other hand seems to be polishing what they already have and making their OS more easy to use. The only thing Android seems to be behind on at this point is voice assistant searching. They have voice searching but it does not act like an assistant like Siri does. One thing the article did not mention is that on Android you can choose to download third-party voice assistants.

     Some questions I have are how does hardware come into play when trying to decide which is better. I will search Mu Library for these answers but I'm not sure there will be many scholarly sources. I am considering each authors view points in each article and trying to differentiate biases versus facts. My next step is including research about the hardware into these phones because I can come to concrete answers as opposed to software that can be completely opinionated by users.