OS X Mavericks Tips 10.9, OS X Mavericks, OS X Mavericks Tips, Tips

Finder

The gesture to show the Desktop by holding down your thumb and spreading with three fingers has been reworked to allow for a gradual activation. Try this by holding down four fingers and slowly spreading to show the Desktop.

In Mavericks, there is a new character popover to access emoji and other special characters.

To activate it, hit ⌃⌘Space and the popover will appear under your cursor. You can view recently used emoji and swipe down in the popover to show a search field that lets you find a specific emoji by name.
You can also access the old-style Special Characters window by clicking the icon next to the search field.

 

Clicking the triangle next to a document’s name in the title bar now shows a new popover to rename a file, assign tags to it, change its location, and lock it.
Tags are auto-completed from existing tags on your Mac.
The old version browser is still available under File > Revert To > Browse All Versions….
For Tags, Finder has received a new panel in the Preferences to add new tags, manage them, and configure Favorite Tags (the ones that show up in the Finder’s sidebar and other quick menus).
You arrange items by tag from View > Arrange By > Tags (⌃⌘7).

Tags are shown at the top of a document’s Get Info panel (⌘I).
From that field, you can add tags and remove them; Spotlight comments have been moved further down the panel.
You can open a new tab in Finder with ⌘T; you can also merge all windows into a single window with tabs, and move a tab to a separate window from the Window menu. You can move between open tabs with ⌃⇧⇥ and ⌃⇥.

 

Like Calendar in Mountain Lion, Reminders dragged to the Finder now get a thumbnail preview that shows the todo’s name and other information.
You can even Quick Look these items to see their status (such as “Needs Action” for uncompleted reminders).
If you want to prevent an app from using App Nap, you can hit ⌘I on an .app file in your /Applications folder and then check “Prevent App Nap” under general in the Get Info panel.
You can hold ⌘ and double-click a folder to quickly open it in a new Finder tab. In the Trash, you can now sort deleted items by Date Added in List view.
The Finder’s List view has new, larger column headers, and there is a new animation when you delete a file in List view.

  Finder selections have rounded corners in List and Column view.

If your Home directory, you can now open the View Options (⌘J) and check Show Library Folder to always show your ~/Library in the Finder. No more Terminal hacks!

Contacts

Clicking the + button in the new Contacts app now lets you choose between adding a new contact, a group, or a field to a selected contact. The app has a new design with three panels; ⌘1 is now Hide/Show Groups under the View menu (it was Groups in Mountain Lion).

 Hovering over an address makes a “Show Map” link appear on the right side of the screen; click it, and the address will open in the new Maps app.
You can now export cards to PDF from File > Export as PDF… (a new menu that has also been added to other Apple apps).  Google Accounts now allow for native contact sync in System Preferences > Internet Accounts (what used to be called Mail, Contacts & Calendars).

iBooks

Using File > Move Books from iTunes…, you can import books you have in iTunes into the new iBooks app.

  You can right-click on a book in your Library to show a contextual menu with various options like Show in iBooks Store or New Collection From Selection. You can set ePub line break and hyphenation settings in Preferences > General.

You can right-click a word to show a contextual menu with options for annotations and research in your default browser.

Notification Center

Lock screen notifications can be disabled for individual apps in System Preferences > Notifications.

Notification Center has gained a new battery notification for low power (it replaces the old modal dialog). Banner notifications now show contact photos for Messages; you can put your cursor over a message notification to quickly reply to it without opening the Messages app.

There is a new Messages button to quickly send a message from the top of Notification Center.
Clicking it will open a small compose box similar to the Tweet and Facebook widgets.
There is a new notification for disks that haven’t been ejected properly. Upon logging into Mavericks for the first time, you’ll get a notification telling you to check out what’s new in Mavericks at this link.
https://help.apple.com/osx-mavericks/whats-new

Reminders

There is a new Today view that shows items due on the current day.

 

You can now right-click a list in Reminders to quickly Complete All Reminders. Calendars and Reminders are two separate sync options in System Preferences > iCloud.

Safari

You can now tell the browser to avoid preloading the Top Hit in the background under Preferences > Privacy > Smart Search Field.
  Safari’s AutoFill settings have a new option for adding and managing credit card information. You can add new credit cards, and Safari will automatically add an icon (Visa, MasterCard, etc) after you enter the card’s number.

A new option in Preferences > Advanced lets Safari stop Internet plugins to save power.

In Mountain Lion’s Safari 6, when you opened a Google search, clicked on a result, and then tried to find that result again in Safari’s History, you used to get a Google redirect URL instead of the result’s direct link.

In Safari 7, results opened from Google show up in History with their real URL, and not the Google redirect one.

There are three new shortcuts for the Sidebar under the View menu:

Show Bookmarks Sidebar (⌃⌘1),

Show Reading List Sidebar (⌃⌘2), 

Show Shared Links Sidebar (⌃⌘3).

Right-clicking a bookmark in the Favorites Bar to Edit Address no longer takes you to the bookmarks manager.

There is a new popover to edit a bookmark’s URL without leaving the webpage you’re viewing.

You can right-click a shared link in the Sidebar to show a contextual menu to open a link in a new tab or new window, update shared links, and, for Twitter links, retweet a tweet and show the original tweet and author on the Twitter website.

System Preferences

There is a new option to use Enhanced Dictation for offline usage and live feedback in System Preferences > Dictation & Speech.
The Language & Text panel is now Language & Region and it has been completely redesigned.
The segmented controls at the top are gone and you can now use dropdown menus and the Advanced button to access various settings.

 The Input Sources tab in the Keyboard preferences panel has been redesigned to show a preview of a keyboard layout.
A preview is also shown when adding a new input source.
Displays can have separate Spaces in Mavericks.
To configure the option, you need to check a box in System Preferences > Mission Control. 

You can now sync text shortcuts with iOS using iCloud.
Shortcuts are available in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text; hitting the space bar accepts a correction, while Esc dismisses the suggestion and inserts the shortcut’s text as it is.
In Mavericks, you can create a keyboard shortcut to quickly compress any Finder item with just a hotkey.
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts and create a new shortcut for “Compress” (without quotes).
Now, in the Finder, you’ll be able to compress any item just by hitting your shortcut.
In Mountain Lion, the menu used to be called “Application Shortcuts”, and adding a custom shortcut for “Compress” wouldn’t work in the Finder.
You can disable iCloud storage on an app-by-app basis in Mavericks.
Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Documents & Data, click Options, and check off apps you don’t want to store documents in iCloud.
This will also disable the iCloud Document Library that apps show when launched without open documents. 

Do Not Disturb has received its own dedicated section in System Preferences > Notifications to allow for scheduling and other option that mirror what is available on iOS.
Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details to allow approving with a security code for iCloud Keychain.
In this screen, you can also click Change Security Code… to enter a new four-digit numeric security code and click Advanced to create a random or complex security code.

Apple now refers to spaces as “Spaces” (uppercase) in System Preferences > Mission Control.

The Software Update preference panel is gone.
You can now check for updates in System Preferences > App Store. Mavericks can install app updates automatically like iOS 7.
You can disable the option in System Preferences > App Store.

Miscellaneous

The Dashboard has a new background in Mavericks. Both Launchpad and Dashboard folders are transparent (linen-free) in Mavericks.

  The Launchpad has new sparkling indicators for new apps. When displayed on the sides of the screen, Mavericks’ dock has a new look.
New dictionaries have been added to the Dictionary app (Dutch, Italian, Simplified Chinese-English, and more). The new emoji popover replaces Edit > Insert Smiley in Messages.
Photo Booth has a new Plastic Camera effect and other effects have been tweaked for this update (such as moon becoming hologram).
The “Find” command now works for finding text inside a specific note in the Notes app.

 In Mavericks, every Mission Control item can be dragged & dropped to be rearranged.
You can put a full-screen app next to the Dashboard and even move the Dashboard from the left and all the way to the right or in between Spaces.
In the Maps app, you can use the View menu to tweak many visual settings such as labels in local languages, large labels, as well as a useful scale.

You can click the battery icon in the menubar to show apps that are using significant energy and ⌥-click it to view your battery’s condition.

 

Available updates in the Mac App Store have a new contextual menu to install now or schedule for later.
The App Store will show updates scheduled to be installed in a separate section.
The Mac App Store can now show updates installed in the last 30 days. Location pins “jump” when you hover over them in Maps suggested results (in the sidebar on the right).
The Calendar inspector has been redesigned to have sections that you can click to show/hide. Automator 2.4 can store documents in iCloud for sync across multiple Macs.
Network Utility has moved from Applications/Utilities to System/Library/Core Services/Applications. You can also open System Information and click Window > Network Utility to open the app. There is a new Holidays calendar in the Calendar’s General Preferences.

When right-clicking a Calendar search result, the contextual menu now shows new options to email or message all invitees. In Messages, smilies are now automatically corrected to the corresponding emoji.

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iPhone 4s Secrets That Will Blow Your Mind Away

Mobile phone users who are not adept in using Apple gadgets often find the iPhone 4s intimidating to use at first. While this device is packed with amazing features and loads of supporting applications, navigation is very challenging and appears as a step back from old conveniences. Here are some iPhone 4s secrets and tips that will give you a better appreciation of the gadget:

1. Reminders Based on Location

Wouldn’t it be cool to receive reminders based on where you are and not based on what time it is? You may, for example, need to drop by a bakeshop to purchase a birthday cake prior to going to a birthday party. With the iPhone 4s, all you need to do is to tap on the Reminders application, add an entry, hit the “Remind Me” tab, and turn the “At a Location” feature on. This will give you an option to select your current location and to choose between “When I Leave” and “When I Arrive.” Choosing “When I Leave” will activate the reminder as soon as you leave your location.

2. Voice to Text

In certain situations, tapping messages on the iPhone is an impossible or inconvenient task. You should never try manually composing text messages while driving as it may lead to disastrous results. While Siri can certainly help in this department, another option would be to use the tiny microphone icon found on your keyboard. Activating this button will allow you to directly speak on the phone, which will in turn convert it into text.

3. Screen Shots

You have probably wondered how your friend posted a screen shot of his SMS message thread or his funny Siri discussions on Facebook, and possibly concluded that it involved an application that needs to be downloaded from the App Store. The screen shot feature is actually built in on your iPhone 4s. All you need to do is to simultaneously press the sleep and home buttons. This action will produce a camera shutter sound, which is an indication that a screen shot image has been conveniently saved in your camera roll.

4. Go Back to the Top

When browsing through your emails or checking your Twitter timeline, scrolling down a long list of unread messages takes several takes forever to go back to the top of the screen and can be very frustrating. A faster way of doing this would be to simply tap on the status bar at the top of the screen (where the time is located). This action will automatically bring you back to the top of the screen and will save you time and effort.

5. Siri and Your Relations

Siri can easily remember people who are related to you, and you can give out commands such as “call my brother” or “send a message to my mother.” Simply tell Siri that “John Doe is my brother” or “Jane Doe is my mother” and she will take care of the rest. Alternatively, you can go to Contacts and edit your personal entry. Tap on Add Field, scroll to “Related People,” and add your relations. It has a list of default relations, but you also have a choice to add your own personal custom labels.

6. Personal Hotspot

Some iPhone 4s users are surprised when they are told that their phones can also serve as a personal Wi-Fi zone. It extends the internet connection provided by the data service and provides connectivity to devices in the near vicinity. To activate, simply go to Settings and tap on the “Personal Hotspot” tab to turn it on. It will give you an option to change your Wi-Fi password for better protection and security. Other users may connect to the internet thru Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or by connecting using USB. Be warned that this may eat up your data plan and may result to extra charges from your carrier.

The iPhone 4s brings the mobile phone experience to the next level but you need to explore its functionalities in order to maximize the benefits. There are dozens of other secrets that are waiting to be discovered and all it will take is research and hands on usage.

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A Few Tricks All The New iOS 7 Users Should Know

iOS 7 is a strange new land, especially on day one. Out with the gradients, in with the trippy fluorescents. Your favorite app? It probably looks completely different now.

It can be confusing, but we’re here to help. iOS 7 has all sorts of nifty little tricks tucked away in places that are in no way immediately obvious, especially if you haven’t followed Tim Cook’s every word along the way.

If you’ve been using iOS 7 for a while, you might know some of these. Hell, you might know most of these. But we tried to cover the bases to make sure that most people learn a thing or two. (Know all of these? You’re way cool, high five. Share another trick down in the comments!)

Swipe Down For Search:

Gone are the days of having to swipe or tap your way to iOS’ dedicated search page. You can now
access Spotlight search from anywhere on the homescreen. Just swipe down in the middle of the screen.

You can use Spotlight to quickly search across your device’s apps, emails, and contacts — but curiously, it seems that Apple has removed Spotlight’s ability to search the web. I’m pretty sure I never actually used that, but this is the Internet so I’m supposed to complain now that it’s gone.

Swipe Up For Toggles:

Toggles! At last!

Fixing what is perhaps one of iOS’ most glaring, long-lasting omissions, iOS 7 puts one-click access to
things like Airplane mode and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggles just one swipe away, instead of hiding them in settings.

To get to the new Control Panel, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen anywhere you might be. You’ll get buttons for Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Orientation lock, and sliders for brightness and media control. Oh, and there’s a flashlight in there. So if you were thinking about building a dedicated flashlight app, now is probably not a good time.

(Pro tip: The control panel is available from the lockscreen. Also: if the control panel is sliding out and interrupting your Candy Crushin’ time, you can block it from sliding out while in an app in your settings.)

Reveal iMessage and SMS Timestamps:

iOS has always been kind of weird about telling you when a message was sent or received. It’ll tell you some messages came through — but only if it’s the first one that’s come through in a while in a given thread. If you sent a bunch of messages around 12:45, for example, you’d normally only get that first 12:45 timestamp.
when 

With iOS 7, you can reveal the timestamp for each and every message. Just grab one of the speech bubbles in a thread and swipe to the left. Tada! Timestamps! Never argue about exactlywhen a message was sent again! (Because, yeah, I’ve had those arguments. Seriously. Sigh.)

Built-In Level:

Building a house boat? Hanging a picture? Just want to show off one of the stranger new tricks that your
iPhone has picked up?

iOS 7 has a built-in bubble level, of all things. I thought it was a pretty strange addition at first… but then I found myself using it one day. Then again the next.

To get to the level, open the compass app. Though not immediately obvious, there’s a second page to the app; swipe to the left, and you’ll be at Apple’s level.

(Pro tip: Double-tapping the screen resets the level to consider whatever angle the phone is currently at to be 0°. That design choice, expressed through a series of colored flashes, isn’t super intuitive.)

Swipe To Close Safari Tabs:

Safari has a new, scrolling 3D tab interface that allows for just about as many tabs as you want.

Alas, these tabs also have new, tiny “X” buttons that make closing them quickly a bit of a pain.

Forget the X button — it’s for chumps. Swipe the tabs away to the left, instead. It’s a whole lot faster, and requires less precision when you’re trying to dump a bunch of tabs on the go.

Call/SMS/Facetime Blocking:

“Surely, there’s got to be a way to block phone numbers,” said every iPhone user ever.

Really, just type “How to b” into Google and let it autocomplete. First result? “How to block a number.” Second result? “How to block a number on iPhone.” Third result? “How to be happy.” This feature is in greater demand than happiness! Happiness!

Yet, until now, there hasn’t really been an easy way.

With iOS 7, it’s finally a pretty straightforward process to block people from calling, messaging, or FaceTime-ing (FaceTiming? Facing? Agh.) you. You can find the block list at either Settings > Phone > Blocked; Settings > Messages > Blocked; or Settings > FaceTime > Blocked. Note, however, that the block list is universal — block them in the phone settings, and they’re blocked on FaceTime, too.

App-By-App Cell Data Usage/Blockage:

Want to see which app is using up all of your cell plan’s precious megabytes? Want to keep Pandora
from streaming unless it’s on Wi-Fi?

Pop into Settings > Cellular and scroll down to the bottom. You can see which apps have used the most cell data and block any app from using cell data at all. (Note: An app needs to have used cell data at least once for it to show up in the list.)

How To Close Apps:

We’ve had a bunch of requests for this one since this post first went up, so here you go.

Apple changed the App Switching/App Closing mechanism up a bit with iOS 7. It used to be that to close an app, you’d double tap the home button, wait for the app drawer to slide out, then press and hold on an icon until the little “X” appeared.

With iOS 7, the whole thing looks and works a bit more like webOS of yesteryear. Double tap the home button to bring up the fullscreen app switcher, which provides a screenshot of each running application in a sideways-scrolling carousel. To close an application, simply swipe the app’s screenshot up and off the screen.

(Note: You really shouldn’t need to close apps all that often. Unless the app has crashed and refuses to fix itself or it’s doing something that is eating your battery, iOS 7 is designed so that most apps use little to no resources when in the background.)

Bonus Tricks:

• Folders can now be paged, allowing them to hold a huge number of apps.
• Safari still has private-browsing mode, it’s just in the app itself now instead of hidden away in settings. Find the switch in Safari’s tabs screen.
• Airdrop, Apple’s much touted system for wirelessly transferring files to other nearby iPhones, only works with the iPhone 5 and later. (I’ve spotted many a 4S user wasting time trying to figure out how the heck to turn it on, when the option simply isn’t there for them. Don’t worry, I wasted a good 10 minutes myself.)
• Miss the “List” view in the calendar app? It’s still there, just not immediately obvious. Tap the search icon to bring up a scrollable list.
• If you’re into using default ringtones, give Apple’s list another look. They’ve added a bunch of new trancy ringtones and chiptuney text alerts.
• Siri has picked up a bunch of new tricks. You can toggle settings (“Turn On Do Not Disturb”), ask for recent tweets (“What is TechCrunch saying?”), show you pictures (“Show me pictures of cats”) pulled from Bing, provide Wikipedia info inline (“Tell me about TechCrunch”), post to Facebook, play back voicemail, list recently missed calls, and find restaurants on Yelp and make OpenTable reservations.
• iOS 7 keeps tabs on where you hang out most, allowing it to cache relevant nearby data. It’s neat, if a bit spooky. Once you’ve used iOS 7 for a while, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services to view a list of your frequent haunts. You can also turn this feature off at the same location.

Know any other tricks that we should list? (“LOL SWITCH TO ANDROID” doesn’t count.) Drop a comment and we’ll add the best.

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How to Publish your own Podcast on iTunes

The Digital Inspiration podcast is now available on iTunes. You can also subscribe to the podcast in other podcatcher apps using this RSS feed. The podcast packages content that is already available on my YouTube channel but a big advantage with podcasts is that you can now download the videos and watch them offline.

Publish your Podcast on iTunes from WordPress or Blogger

Publishing a podcast on iTunes is surprisingly easy and it took me less than an hour to get the whole thing up and running.

There are several approaches to publishing podcasts though the one shared here is least complicated, requires no plugins and can be used on both WordPress and Blogger platforms. Let’s get started.

Step 1: Host the Podcast Files

You need a place to host your podcast files. You can either sign-up for a web-hosting account, or use Amazon S3 and pay for what you use, or if you are looking for a free option, just upload all your podcasts on to Google Drive.

The audio podcasts should be in MP3 format while video files can be encoded in QuickTime (MOV) or MPEG-4 (MP4) formats for maximum compatibility.

Step 2: Design the Cover Image

Step 2: Create a 1400×1400 pixel image file in either JPG or PNG formats that will be used as the album cover for your podcast show. You may explore the cover images of podcasts listed on the Podcast Gallery for ideas. If you are putting text on the cover art, it should be readable even when the image is scaled down to 50×50 pixels.

Step 3: Decide on a Tag (or Label)

Pick any common tag (or label) and attach it to all your blog posts that are be made available as a podcast. For this example, we will use the “podcast” tag (or label). Thus, the raw RSS feeds for our podcasts would be something like:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/podcast (Blogger)
http://blogname.wordpress.com/tag/podcast/feed/ (WordPress)
http://blogname.com/tag/podcast/feed (Self-hosted WordPress)

[*] Remember to replace "blogname" with your blog's actual name.

Step 4: Include Podcasts in your Blog Posts

WordPress has built-in support for podcasts while in the case of Blogger, you need to toggle a particular setting for adding enclosure support to Blogger XML feeds. Here’s how:

For WordPress users

Create a new blog post in your WordPress dashoboard and attach the tag “podcast” to that post. Now create a regular hyperlink inside this WordPress post and point to any audio or video podcast file. Publish the post.

For Blogger users

Go to your Blogger dashboard and under Settings, choose Other. Select Yes for the setting that says “Enable Title Links and Enclosure Links.” Save the changes.

Now create a new blog post in Blogger (or modify an existing one) and expand the Links section under Post Settings. Paste the URL of your podcast file under Enclosure Links. Also expand the Labels section and add the label “podcast” to your post. Publish.

Step 5: Make an iTunes Feed

Once you have added all the podcasts to your blog and associated them with the “podcast” label, your RSS feed is nearly ready though we need to add some extra iTunes-specific information to this feed like your podcast category, location of cover image, and so on.

This can be easily done with the help of FeedBurner. Go to feedburner.com and paste the URL of your podcast RSS feed that is listed in Step 3. Also enable the check box “I am a podcaster” and click Next.

Choose any name for your RSS feed, click Next and then choose “Skip directly to feed management.” Choose SmartCast under the Optimize Tab and enable “Include iTunes podcasting elements.” Complete the iTunes form and save your changes.

Step 6: Submit to Apple for Approval

Now that your podcast is ready, let’s submit it to the iTunes Store. Install the iTunes software on your computer, create an Apple ID (if you don’t have one already) and then use this special link to submit the podcast.

Apple will send an email if your podcast is approved for listing in the iTunes directory.

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Get Any Video Files on iTunes

Alright, so I know some of you have that problem out their were you want to add a video to iTunes so you can watch it on your iPod/iPhone/iPad, and when you do File>Add file to library… then choose your video and nothing shows up. (Or if it does, and it wont go on your iPod) The reason this is, is because the file you are adding is not a .MP4 format. Video files need to be in an .mp4 format to play on iPods. So how do you get that video in a .mp4 format? Easy, you just need one piece of software, and thats it!

1. First, you need to go and download the program Any Video Converter. It works great and picks up almost every type of video format you input it to convert.
Download Any Video Converter from cnet

2. Once installed start the program, now first I suggest to set your output folder. What the output folder is, is where the program saves your finished video that you chose to convert. I noramally set it to the Desktop to easily find it and move it later, or set it as Videos folder under the Users home. To change your output folder go to File>Set Output folder…

3. Now, you can choose the video file (not currently in the .MP4 format to convert.  To do so, just click the big old ADD VIDEO button in the upper left hand side of the application. Now browse for it, and select it. For this demo, im going to use a video i have in the .AVI format.

4. Next, you need to set what file format you want your video to be. And if you want it for your iPod/iPhone/iPad (and even PSPs) you need .MP4 From the file menu in the upper right hand side of the app, where it says Profile: choose Customized MP4 Movie.

5. Now you can click the nice large CONVERT button just to the right of the ADD VIDEO button, and let it convert. The larger/longer the movie the longer it will take to convert the file, but it shouldn’t be to bad. Alot of the speed depends on how fast and good your CPU is.

6.Once the converting process is done, your video will be in a MP4 folder of where you set your output folder to. Such as if you set your output folder to your desktop, their will now be a MP4 folder on your desktop which contains your converted video.

7.Then do the old, File>Add File to Library… thing in iTunes, and have a nice Hank Hill styled chuckle and enjoy your video showing up on iTunes and your iPod!

If you have any issues or questions please leave a comment.

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Android OS Vs iPhone OS Which One is the Best for Personal Use

If you are choosing between the Android operating system and the iPhone OS (iOS), then you should first decide which features and functions are most important to you. The information below should help you decide, although if you do not know what is important to you then you might have a problem.

The first thing you should be aware of is that Apple keeps a strong hold on its operating system, while Android started life as part of an open alliance of 84 electronics firms, backed by Google, with the objective of developing a consistent operating system between them. Android is adaptable, and even though it was purchased by Google, other developers can use it. For example, Samsung uses it it the firm's Galaxy smartphone, and LG also uses the Android OS.

iPhone is specific to Apple, which puts the iOS in direct competition with all other smartphone manufacturers. This is one reason for Android to be outstripping Apple devices in sales. One of the problems with the iPhone OS is its limited compatibility with non-Apple portable devices.

Here are some differences between the two:

The Interface

If you prefer a simple interface, then the iPhone OS offers a simple and clean menu system that those new to smartphones will appreciate. It is significantly easier to navigate than an Android OS device. However, if you like digging deeply into menus to find the app or feature you are seeking, then the Android OS will make you drool! Often simplicity is not best, however, and too simple a menu system can leave many options behind – such as a QWERTY keypad.

The Android interface is ideal for QWERTY typing, rather than the type of keypad that drives many people mad when they try to be quick with their messages, making errors when hitting a glass or plastic screen. Android facilitates the use of a genuine keypad with real keys where your finger don't slip on the plastic. You can puchase a number of smartphones offering real physical keypads that slide from under the touchscreen, and of a type that the iPhone OS cannot support.

Multitasking

Android wins with multitasking. Apple's OS4 has improved multitasking from previous versions, but Apple restricts the iPhone to its Apps store, and the capability of the iPhone to multitask is dependent on the Apps store classification. This can significantly compromise multitasking speed and efficiency, and Android wins every time here. It's the old Apple fixation with its own stores that restricts the OS from being used to its full capability.

Android, on the other hand, has no such restrictions, and while this is not ideal, it is still preferable to the restrictions imposed by Apple. The Samsung Galaxy 10.1, for example, uses the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS which offers true seamless multitasking between multiple screens.

Use of Folders

The use of folders is new in the iPod Touch, but Android has offered them from the start, thus giving them a head start in this method of organizing your files on portable devices. Many people have no need for folders in their smartphone, but if this is an important feature for you, then Android wins hands down.

Applications (Apps)

Without a doubt, the Android OS beats the iPhone iOS hands down! This is not because of any technical difference between the operating systems, but simply because Android is open source. Even though it is owned by Google, the software is open for developers to use to generate apps. You will find an app for just about anything that is compatible with the Android OS, while iPhone OS apps must be approved by Apple.

Yes, there are many iPhone apps available on the market – from the Apple Store at Apple prices, though to be fair some are free. With the Android OS, however, you can go online and download unlimited apps suitable for the operating system. If you want an app to carry out a specific task, you have a significantly higher chance of finding it for Android than for any Apple device!

Which is Best: The Android OS or the iPhone OS?

Which is best between the two depends on your own personal preference. Apple fans will prefer the iPhone OS because it integrates perfectly with other Apple products such as the Apple Mac computers and laptops, the iPod and the iPad. Not only that but the unified email inbox is neat, and offers something that Android cell phones do not have – unless you find an app out there that offers this feature.

That's something you cannot get with the iPhone operating system, because it is patented and not open source as Android is. Anything else that is email related, however, is also available on Android devices. Each offers great game options, although the open source nature of the Android OS will likely push it into the lead in this respect.

With regard to games, Android lags well behind iPhone- in fact it is next to impossible to find good games for the Android OS. Flash is another problem, though in this case with the iPhone OS. Apple has always been critical of Flash, and if you use Flash or want to access sites or apps that use it, then Apple will not allow you – Android will!

In conclusion, there is very little between the two, although the open source nature of Android offers the opportunity for a more diverse range of apps, if not more in actual number. With the iPhone OS you are restricted to apps and other software that Apple approves, while Android is open to anyone that wants to use the operating system to design an application.

Android OS Vs iPhone OS: fundamentally, the choice is yours and the differences are not sufficient to place one much higher than the other. Apple fans will use nothing else, even if restricted to the current version of the iPhone, while Android users will like the availability of cell phones such as the Motorola Droid and the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Nexus.

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