> Android 4.1 is just about acceptable as an alternative to iOS. The user interface is rather less polished
If you're still not satisfied at this point, there's not much that can be done. Looking at any review of Jelly Bean by a major tech blog will tell you they're satisfied with the interface and that it's on par with iOS.
> Just because a major tech blog says something is true does not mean every man and his dog will agree, especially over something like UI polish.
That's exactly what I meant...my point is that a journalist's (supposedly) unbiased assessment is much more reliable than some random guy's opinion on the matter.
> I personally think it's much better compared to a few generations ago, but still has a few more rough spots than iOS.
I would love to know what some of these "rough spots" are. I don't own any Apple products, but happened to use a friend's iPad 3 yesterday, the first time I was using the device. After hearing so much praise on HN about how the interface was "so smooth", I was rather disappointed to find that basic things like text input and scrolling caused significant lag. Now I'm finding it difficult to take praise of iOS at face value.
Everyone is biased, I'd prefer someone like Charlie Stross who's love of Apple products is firmly on his sleeve to say "I've got a Nexus, it's pretty decent but..." because you know a) he's biased towards Apple, so he's comparing it to his base of reference, and b) if he says it's approaching the level of quality it's very good. A lot of tech bloggers hide behind 'we're unbiased!' and troll for clicks by changing their minds on a company/product every 6 months.
Not necessarily, the pace of technology is fast but not as fast as a flip-flop for click bait. I think one of the best examples is when Gizmodo went from being overwhelmingly positive about almost everything Apple produced, to being overwhelmingly negative in the space of about 2 weeks, whilst the rest of the tech press was giving Apple favourable reviews.
There's the pace of technology and then there's the pace of public opinion and there's few things that move faster than that.
That's my problem with these types of reviews. They use iOS and Apple's devices as a point of reference. Apple may have indeed earned that, but at some point they will just say they like "Apple's way" better than Android's way, because they've used it for so long this way, rather than simply making an objective observation of which way is better, or praising the advantages of using it the Android way.
For example many still say that iOS is "more intuitive", and that may still be true overall, or perhaps they just say that because Apple has nothing but icons on the homescreen, but there are also a lot of stuff that Android can do them faster and more in a more intuitive way than iOS, like activating Bluetooth, getting the weather, notifications, and so on.
And there's a lot of stuff on Android that's also unintuitive and fiddly, you can see where this goes. It's all about personal preference. I know people who swear blind that GUIs are terrible compared to the command line for getting anything done, and for them it's right and makes perfect sense. Trying to argue it is like trying to argue which shade of blue is the right shade of blue to be called blue (without referring to a Pantone guide).
I'd never heard of the name before, so I didn't know he was famous. In any case, he might be an accomplished writer, but I don't see how that makes him particularly qualified to comment on mobile devices and software.
He was a tech reviewer for Computer Shopper in the UK, and a Linux programmer. He has an admirable breadth of knowledge, which peeks out in his non-technical writing.
He's an ex-programmer and many of his stories (those set in the current era at least) have gadgets like palm pilots as key plot elements. So there's that.
Bought an iOS device some time ago (coming from Android) and I'm still trying to find anything "superior" to Android's UI. It's just a matter of taste.
I don't mind that the author prefers the iOS user experience, everybody can have his opinion on that. However, saying that Android is about acceptable as an alternative to iOS, it is just trolling.
If you're still not satisfied at this point, there's not much that can be done. Looking at any review of Jelly Bean by a major tech blog will tell you they're satisfied with the interface and that it's on par with iOS.