Another request for device recommendations

[machoo]

Hello,
I am looking for advice in the ever-continuous quest of determining whether to purchase an Apple or Android device. I apologize ahead of time for the long post.
First, a little background.

I am a fairly old-school IT consultant that is generally disenchanted with the direction things have been going in the technology field. I will try to spare you my old fogey rant (Kids these days!!!) and just summarize with the statement that I prefer to stay off grid as much as possible, and prefer owning my song collection rather than renting it (Yes, I am a mostly CD guy).

I have recently taken on the responsibility of picking out a device to run Pleco for a relative who is very intelligent, but does not have the time to wade through all the technology options. She does not have a smartphone, partly by choice and partly due to expense. I do not want to be personally responsible for setting her down the road of interwebz dependence (yes, I said interwebz). So, a non-phone device is preferred. This pretty much means iPod vs. TBD Android media player.

My first and main question is how does the feature set of the two versions compare? Being a borderline conspiracy theorist means I would prefer Android, but I am also a very pragmatic person. I have noticed from the previous posts on this forum that this program is developed for iOS first, and then "ported" over to Android. So, if there is some substantial difference between the two I will probably swallow my pride and select the iPod.

Another factor in the decision making process is that this is, of course, not being used by myself, and the person using it will be with others using Pleco on iOS. While I don't mind standing out like a red-headed stepchild, I would not want others to suffer from technology envy due to decisions I make. So, is the look, feel, and overall UI comparable, or is the Android interface substantially "clunkier?" I realize this question can be very subjective, but any input would be appreciated.

 

[mikelove]

My first and main question is how does the feature set of the two versions compare? Being a borderline conspiracy theorist means I would prefer Android, but I am also a very pragmatic person. I have noticed from the previous posts on this forum that this program is developed for iOS first, and then "ported" over to Android. So, if there is some substantial difference between the two I will probably swallow my pride and select the iPod.

At the moment the Android version is actually a bit newer and has a few more features, but that's mainly because we've been delayed from pushing those updates to our iOS version due to some Apple policy changes; long-term it's likely that there will be more iOS-exclusive features than Android ones. For example, in the next big update iOS is getting EPUB and PDF reading support; Android may get both eventually but they were vastly easier to implement on iOS which is why it's getting them first.

Another factor in the decision making process is that this is, of course, not being used by myself, and the person using it will be with others using Pleco on iOS. While I don't mind standing out like a red-headed stepchild, I would not want others to suffer from technology envy due to decisions I make. So, is the look, feel, and overall UI comparable, or is the Android interface substantially "clunkier?" I realize this question can be very subjective, but any input would be appreciated.

Well to be honest, the Android iPod equivalents just aren't very good - Samsung's put out a few of them, but since they aren't selling very well they tend to have buggy firmware (which manifests itself in annoying little issues like only being able to use OCR with the device in landscape orientation), and with attention among Android device makers now shifting towards $200 7-inch tablets it's unlikely there'll be any promising newcomers in that area either.

The iPod Touch is supposedly about to be updated along with tomorrow's announcement of the iPhone 5, and when it is it will likely be far and away the best touchscreen "media player" available. Apple simply cares about that market more - the iPod will never again be as central to their business as it was in the mid-2000s, but iPod Touches are still very popular among certain groups (pre-teens, e.g. - very often parents don't want to / can't afford to get them a smartphone but they still want some sort of portable device to play games on / browse Facebook / send text messages / etc), whereas there isn't really a large fanbase for their Android equivalents. All of those users mean better manufacturer support (more firmware updates, fewer bugs) and better developer support (more apps tested / optimized to run well).

 

[machoo]

Thanks Mike,

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me specifically and maintain the forum in general.

Your response regarding feature set is also really encouraging. I think the EPUB/PDF support will not be a deal breaker. I did notice in my further review of your forums that there was at some point a difference in dictionary availability. Maybe that was considered when you answered my question about features, but are the dictionaries currently identical, or are there some availability differences?
Since I am pretty unfamiliar with how it all works I apologize if my question doesn't seem to make sense.

Well to be honest, the Android iPod equivalents just aren't very good - Samsung's put out a few of them, but since they aren't selling very well they tend to have buggy firmware (which manifests itself in annoying little issues like only being able to use OCR with the device in landscape orientation), and with attention among Android device makers now shifting towards $200 7-inch tablets it's unlikely there'll be any promising newcomers in that area either.

Hmm... this is good to know and could sway my decision. You would think these devices would use the same firmware as the phones, but oh well. Perhaps some users out there could chime in with some first-hand experience with the Samsung player or other Android non-phone device? (Anyone... Anyone... Bueller..?)
My relative may go for a 7" tablet, but it just may not be portable enough.

The iPod Touch is supposedly about to be updated along with tomorrow's announcement of the iPhone 5..

This may also play a factor in my decision. I generally do not go for the whole "wait for the update" line of thinking due to the fact that there is alwasy a new update just around the corner (especially with Apple), but this is close enough to have an impact during my purchase period.
So, we will see.

Thanks again,
And I was serious about wanting to hear from some Android users about their recommendations...

 

[machoo]

So, I went ahead and purchased a Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2.
So far things seem to be as I expected.
I will update my experience as we install Pleco and my sister has a chance to try it out.

Thanks for your assistance Mike.

 

[machoo]

Well,

I have had some time to fiddle with it, and so far no real surprises.
I haven't put Pleco on yet, but I will comment on the device in general.
I will update as things progress.

The 4.2in screen size is real nice, I imagine all the new iPod/iPhone owners are liking thier 4in screen as well.
I was also impressed by the 5.0 version, but my wife visited Best Buy to the compare models, and she definitely did not like 5in screen due to the form factor being significantly larger. (too big for her hands) So, I believe this is the optimal size for my sister.

It seems fairly competent with a lot of applications built in, and everything seems to work rather smoothly.
It comes with 4GB of internal storage with micro SD card slot for expansion. So, pretty good on the storage end.
The FM radio was a nice bonus and works pretty well.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, there doesn't seem to be a lot of intrest in the device in general. this brings me to the one thing that I feel is a real negative.
Samsung seems to have no interest in updating the OS.
To add insult to injury, the development community seems to have no interest in it either. In fact, the community only just figured out how to root it last month. So, there is probably not any chance that this will ever get any newer Android OS for it.

While I do not really care if I have the latest of anything, this lack of customization ended up being a bit of a downer for me since I sometimes wear a tinfoil hat :shock: and I was hoping to be able to remove any feature that transmitted data without my expressly telling it to.
Ultimately, I did manage to find Titanium Backup, for which the PRO version is actually available outside the Google Market.
This allowed me to uninstall even seemingly protected apps.

Well, this was a long post, but hopefully it will help someone who is trying to accomplish the same thing.