When upgrades seem like downgrades

I've been a big fan of of the Silvio Rizzi's Reeder for iPhone, iPad & Mac for what feels like ages now. It's one of my core and most often used apps for catching up with tech and sports news on a daily basis. I'll admint, I'm an RSS guy and I'm proud. Don't get me wrong, I love curated feed apps such as Flipboard and Zite which add tremendous value to the reading experience.  But when it comes to really scanning all your news items, it's got to be an RSS reader. Reeder's interface and experience reveals a clean, functional and Mac simple-like experience in reading and sharing news feeds. It achieves a uniform experience this across the entire iOS and Mac range which is a rare feat. It's an app I wish existed on Android (although gReader Pro is very good in its own right).

The iPhone version is what I use most while on the move. Up to version 2.x it offered a quick way to read news but to share with Instapaper and most importantly Twitter followers, using my custom URL which is I set up on bit.ly.  Real nice bit of flexibility.

I've had version 3.x running for probably for 2 weeks, and while this post is not there to overly criticize the developer (who does a great job and is clearly thinking of evolving the product), the new version has left me somewhat disgruntled in terms of the overall balance of gains in new functionality versus ones which have been changed or upgraded for that matter. My main grips fall into 2 areas affecting functionality and user experience.

The functionality gripe is simple. The bit.ly support for custom URL sharing in Twitter is gone (at least for now). And the custom Twitter messaging has been replaced by the generic iOS Twitter integration dialogue:

Reeder v3.0 for iPhone - sharing to Twitter.
No visible shortened link
and no way to do it

The other odd grip relates to the design led animation to move from one article to another. It essentially mimicks moving from one piece of paper to another as if they were joined together. It's an interesting touch, but not to my liking. Again, the sort of thing which for some of us, takes away from the overall experience and enables us to moan that v3 feels like a backward step in places. You only need to look at some of the review on the Apps Store to see that I'm not alone.  

Anyway, if you are new to Reeder and have always wondered if its worth the 3 bucks (separately for iOS devices and Mac), there are other posts which provided a more rounded introduction than my moans.  I mean, I still use it daily, so that's saying something about the competition.

Galaxy Nexus — Android Reloaded

Galaxy Nexus home screen

Up to recently, my only foray into owning an Android based smartphone had been the 2010 launched HTC Desire HD. This phone competed with both the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S2. Beyond the original must tinker and personalise the device exactly as I want it mode, I found Android experience a relatively poor one. The screen was LCD and did not have the AMOLED sharpness and colour saturation so that video streams looked poor.  The battery was poor out of the box and required lots of notifications and tasks turned off just to get it through the day. It had 3 firmware update for Gingerbread, which made is progressively faster and more stable. This was important since HTCs add their UI in the form of HTC Sense, which is okay, but not great. Since 2010, it seems telling that from going from a large scale manufacturer of Android and Windows mobile devices, HTC are on a downward spiral.

Overall, with very few apps I really liked and could sync data easily with the Macs, performance which got slower over time (especially as I upgraded from iPhone 4 to 4S), I felt I had made the wrong call with Android. To that end, when the pure Ice Cream Sandwich Galaxy Nexus from Google came out in late 2011, I got interested in taking another look. This post is talking about what's broadly happened since I got it.

Light phone, good screen
The phone is surprisingly light and retains a good feel at 135g.  Build quality is affected by use of plastic for the outer case, but nothing that a thin, lightweight and grippable case cannot enhance. The screen is bigger at 4.65 inches diagonal, and resolution is at 1280 x 720 pixels with a PPI of  316. So not Retina, but not too far off either. The AMOLED screen type shows up warmer and more deeper colours and for me, more preferable images than the iPhone 4S (I did a side by side comparison using apps such as Fancy and Instagram). The iPhone 4S are whiter and in terms of contrast, but the overal image of the Nexus seems deeper and more natural. The battery has greater capacity than my previous HTC, and lasts through the day on a single charge while tinkering with it a lot throughout the day (this is not the same as playing videos, games or making lots of calls). And that's without changing anything out of the box. Lastly, with no actual hardware buttons this seems a shrewd move by Google as the back, home and task switcher buttons are now touch operated and change also with the screen orientation. Usability wise, I liked this, nice touch.

It's better in ICS
Using the Nexus from a software standpoint, dare I say it, is pleasant and quite enjoyable. I won't go into all the features in ICS, but of the notable things:

• Design and polish of ICS is markedly better in an Android way
• Animations and user experience is a lot smoother (for example, switching between home screens, task switching). In fact, it makes iOS look cumbersome and it need of an overhaul.
• Much better keyboard, has better spacing for fast typing - feels as good as iPhone
• Creating and editing groups on the home pages is easy, in fact changing them is easier than iOS
• You can integrate your VoIP number into the main phone app, thereby choosing between a mobile call and an internet call - actually useful!
• Chrome is now on Android (download from the Store) - quick and you already know how to use it.  Most importantly, it brings across your Bookmarks from your gmail set up
• You can now easily take screenshots - through an iOS-like 2-button combination

Overall, this is a more mature version of Android. iOS has a real rival if we do without the Sense's or Touchwiz's of this world.

Apps still are my gripe
Of course, combine the hardware and the base software and in this case, you have a very capable smartphone. However, developer ecosystems are what really drive the platform in terms of its range, value and maturity. If you're like me, you've probably invested  considerable time, money and emotion on apps in the OSX and iOS world, some of which are simply not available in Android. Based on my own requirements, apps like Reeder, TweetBot, OmniFocus, Due, Jumsoft Money, MoneyWiz and Due are some of the ones I cannot do without if I was ever considering a switch. There are others which are available and make the thinking of a switch more of a margin call.  They include include Evernote, Instapaper, The Times, The Guardian, Amazon, Ebay.

When I first started writing this section, I was convinced that rather like my HTC and Gingerbread experience, I'd be bemoaning both the range and quality of such key apps. I expected to moan about the design, UI and overall experience.  The problem is, I've been forced to re-evaluate this position. In many cases, running the iOS5 and ICS versions in a side by side comparison, revealed how the quality of Android apps have improved to the point of being consistently comparable to their iOS counterpart.  Take Facebook, Google+, Zite, ZeeBox and Fancy examples.  Sure, in some cases and I'm looking at Amazon and eBay, they appear like cheap cousins of the iOS brethren, but in the main, I was surprised how much Google and Developer effort has improved the overall Android app experience, especially on this handset.  Of course, for those apps which are not on Android, you get to look up and find good alternatives. gReader Pro, TweetCaster as very usable counterparts to Reeder and TweetBot. Not as good, but certainly a solid experience.

Wifi oddities
One thing stood out, which I did need to do some checking on. Connecting to my Billion router access point, was for unexplained reasons, poor. The first sign was Speedtest.net would drop out ('Communication Failures') from time to time, which would happen even if I was beside the router. Given this is a 55mbit fibre line, picking up 6mbit is kinda suspect. You can do some digging around the various forums to find similarly reported experience from other Nexus users. It seems some sort of issue between the Broadcom chip and ICS where the signal dependent on the access point being used, is prone to drop out. Having said that, it seems to perform better on the Airport Extreme access point at 2.4Ghz, registering 25-30mbit download speeds consistently. The 5Ghz access point did not picking up, even through the Broadcom chip should pick up the 5Ghz as a preference.

Other bits
Apps and Wifi  aside, other things I picked up were minor. For example, text height is taller on the Nexus, probably because of the screen size and aspect ratio. Given the growing evidence of a 4 inch iPhone screen in the forthcoming iPhone 5, I hope Apple do not also fall into the trap of the taller text to accommodate screen sizes and aspect ratios, as I like its overall appearance. There are other UI idiosyncrasies with ICS, like the inconsistent appearance of the settings/options panel, but as I said these are minor to be fair, do not detract from the overall positive impression I've had using the Nexus and ICS.

ICS is a real step up
I really like the Nexus and ICS. I've been reaching for it a lot. It's easy to pick up and easy to use if you are familiar with Android. It's fast, and is directly comparable to iPhone 4S snappiness in use. I really like the screen and surprised as I am in saying this, I prefer the colour tones to the 4S. The 4.65inch screen is too large to do everything in one hand, but while it's not perfect, I'm find it useful to have the larger screen estate when using specific apps.

I hope apps continue to improve in UI and overall polish. If they can continue to bridge more popular iOS apps such as Flipboard (which is currently an exclusive for the Galaxy S3, but will be on general release soon), then this brings iOS devotees like me, closer to having a harder choice. And did I say using this phone and software is seriously quick?

I think is that it's important to understand that Google while copying Apple and iOS, seems to be on its own path in terms of design and the Google brand. This is good to see, and I'm looking forward to the next software release. Especially as a pure Google handset, as I'm free of the shackles of telco's, and their add-on interfaces.

Would I recommend this Galaxy Nexus? Absolutely. An iPhone 4S replacement? Not for me, but I like the fact that the gap is closing. We just need to see more support for Android from the major developers on iOS. Of course, the drivers and reasons for this to happen is a whole other discussion.