ANDROID ,WINDOWS OR IOS
Hardware support
One of the biggest things Apple announced at its September
event was that iOS 7 would be 64-bit. While many have called this a
gimmick, there are obvious advantages, especially for the future.
The 64-bit computing will allow for more RAM, faster video encoding and
decoding, as well as a smoother overall performance. The other big hardware
implementation is iOS in the Car, which is effectively Siri and various iOS
integration with supported car consoles.
With Android 4.4, the software changes which affect hardware
are pretty abundant. Google has drastically improved memory management to help
the software run on older or less beefy hardware. This is aimed towards
entry-level, budget devices with as little as 512MB RAM. It has also added
support for hardware sensor batching, an update which reduces the power
consumed by “ongoing sensor activities.” It adds support for step detector and
step counter composite sensors for action tracking. It brings two new Bluetooth
profiles: Bluetooth HID over GATT and Bluetooth MAP. Finally, it has IR support
and Wi-Fi TDLS support.
More or less, the Windows Phone update is little more than
evidence of Microsoft playing catch-up in the race for bigger, better
specifications. Both Android and iOS have added future-proofing hardware
support in their respective updates, and it’s difficult to say exactly which is
the most impressive or innovative.
Appearance
Windows Phone 8 Update 3 brought screen orientation lock and
additional room for tiles on the home screen of devices with WXGA resolution or
higher and a way to close applications in the task switching menu.
In KitKat, one of the biggest changes is full-screen mode.
From the home screen, the system bar is now transparent – application
developers can apply this transparent bar to their specific applications, as
well. But the best part is that buttons and the system bar can be fully hidden
within applications. That means no more on-screen buttons hogging pixels when
you need them most. The other changes are pretty minor. The stock set of icons
have slightly changed and the blue accents have been swapped with white in the
system bar.
The appearance of iOS dramatically changed. Fundamentally,
it’s the same iOS it’s been all along, only with a much-needed face-lift. The
UI is based upon layers and hierarchy. Pull Notification Center down over the
home screen, and you can still see your home screen icons beneath. No UI
element went untouched. The 3D appearance was traded for a flat design,
everything is noticeably more vibrant and colorful, and, top to bottom,
everything sports a cleaner appearance.
Best features
Again, of the three, Windows Phone 8 Update 3 is arguably the
most feature-light. The ability to close apps in the task switcher was added; a
driving mode, which disables all notifications with the exception of SMS and
calls while driving, is now present; you can now connect to Wi-Fi during the
initial setup process instead of having to insert a SIM card; and you can
attach new file types to emails within the stock Email app.
The more impressive features is the ability to share a data
connection from a Windows 8.1 device via Bluetooth to your smartphone and
easier management of temporary file storage. Microsoft threw in some
accessibility improvements for the visually impaired and extended the
capabilities of ringtones. And that effectively sums up the entire Update 3 for
Windows Phone 8.
Apple’s iOS 7 update is anything but light on features. In
fact, there are countless tiny improvements, so we’re just going to hit the
high spots.
Notification Center was not only given a
face-lift, but also better usability. Status updates for stocks and calendar
entries can be found in one page, and two other tabs cover actual
notifications. The multitasking menu was also enhanced visually and in
usability – you can now flick apps upwards to close them or fling left or right
to see all recent apps. Apple also introduced iTunes Radio, a free Pandora
competitor. More options were brought to the stock camera interface; the Photos
application was given the ability to be sorted by years. collections, and
moments, or intelligently grouped sets of related photos, based on time and
location; and AirDrop capabilities were added, which allow iOS users to quickly
share photos and content with those around them. Finally, Siri was updated with
some new parlor tricks, such as searching Twitter and Wikipedia.
However, the biggest feature update for many iOS users was
the introduction of Control Center, a pull-up drawer which offers all sorts of
quick access toggles – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, torch, Do Not Disturb, music controls,
a camera shortcut, brightness slider, and more.
Finally, KitKat.
Google added a built-in printing framework to 4.4, as well as a framework for
storage access. From a single view, users can access media from several
different storage locations, including cloud services. The Messages application
is gone. Instead, SMS is now integrated with Hangouts with support for animated
GIFs. Google also implemented Chromium WebView, for a better Web browsing
experience, as well as system-wide closed captioning in Accessibility options.
You can also look up businesses and other contacts directly from the phone
dialer. You can speak “Ok, Google” directly from the home screen to trigger a
Google Now search. It added emoji support (that was a long time coming).
And arguably the coolest and most unique feature is the added
ability to natively screen record. You can record at variable bitrates and
resolutions, and share them straight from the device.
Which is the biggest update?
I don’t want to say one update is better than
any other. All three of these brought much-needed and welcomed changes and
improvements. But there’s a way to break it down more … effectively.
By sheer size and number of feature adds, iOS 7 takes the cake. The
change log is unbelievably long, and the operating system looks quite different
from before. It’s a more dramatic change than the other two by a very wide
margin. But taken at face value, iOS 7 is a UI overhaul with only a few truly
new features.
In terms of innovative and envelope-pushing changes, however,
Android 4.4 KitKat has an undeniable advantage. Google has added a ton of
“first” and also very useful features: new NFC capabilities, printing
framework, low-power sensor support, native screen recording, support for RTL
(right-to-left, for international users) layouts, new Bluetooth profiles,
infrared support, and a handful of other features that not only improve the
usability of the platform but also put distance between it and its competitors.
Apple making iOS 7 64-bit can’t go understated, however. So
we’ll conclude that iOS 7 and KitKat are close in terms of innovation. But the
most recent Windows Phone update makes it quite clear that Microsoft is holding
out on us with the major feature changes for the next major point update.