[citation][nom]mj4358[/nom]1. Postbox is on Apples App store as well as Mailplane are two right off the bat. As far as Web browers, you have skyfire, Opera, Lighting browser all on the App store.2.the iPad does multitask and i have downloaded apps while web surfing! As far as Facebook....I don't know and never had a reason to care. Moreover its a rather trivial thing you mention.3. You do not have to handle messages right away. you and ignore or view the message. Andriod displaying message notification is hardly an advance feature to speak. At the very least is a convience.4. FaceTime is an OPEN STANDARD!......http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/07/apple_announces_open_standard_facetime_video_chat_for_iphone_4.html. And if you don't like FaceTime then use Skype which is available on the App store.And the last paragraph can best be said that Andriod is no more advanced than iOS base on the trivial points you brought up. Not to mention most of the point you mention is based on conjecture and rumor. Also, who are you say by any measure that android is superior to iOS. Opinion is not fact, your only entitled to opinions.[/citation]
Here are facts :
1. Postbox and Mailplane are for Mac OS-X, not for iOS. I'm talking about the lack of an equivalent Mail client on iOS. Can you install a generic mail client (not the default one) on iOS ? I'm not talking about accessing your mails from the default mail client. I'm talking about whether you can install
another mail client (not a specialized app for GMail, HotMail, Yahoo Mail) ?
In layman terms, is there a
single app (apart from the defaut one) that can access e-mails from my GMail, HotMail, YahooMail, my work's exchange mail and my research center's UNIX mail (not 5 different apps) ?
Apple was about to lose a lawsuit to Opera in EU for blocking browsers apps in the past. Then Apple allows to have these skyfire, Opera etc. That's why you have alternate browsers but not alternate mail client.
2. http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/24/multitasking-on-your-ipad-a-quick-guide/
It is not true multi-tasking in the textbook terms. Not all apps multitask.
Some apps are more equal than others !!! Apple makes the choice, not the app developer. Yes, GPS-receivers etc multi-task because the OS gives them a special priveledge to keep running while in suspended state.
That kind of design decision brings unstable and corrupted heap, race conditions, violation of address space, deadlocks and livelocks and many OS pitfalls. This is why not every apps can multi-task, only a selected ones can. If any app can multi-task, then a bad guy would write an app to corrupt the heap and violate the address space of other apps etc -- leading to privacy violation etc.
If you aware of the news about the hacking (and retrieval of user data) by sending an SMS message to earlier iPhone, that is only possible because the OS is poorly designed. Android, too, has some Trojens but Android Trojens are apps that needs user's permission to install (and do bad things). On the other hand, iOS Trojens can be in any form : SMS, e-mail messages and even PDF or movie files because iOS doesn't have a good security mechanism for running apps. When an app (SMS, e-mail or PDF reader) crushes, the whole system follows and user's privacy is at risk.
And hence, Apple has to proof-read (by humans) the app's code before they allow it on the App Store. This is a slow and error-prone process compared to Android where the Operating System
automatically warns users of an app's actions before installation. For example, Google+ app took 3 weeks to get approval while a cartoonist's app was rejected and later approved again.
When only a selected ones can multitask, that gives a lot of headache to the app developers (the normal good guys). The app developers can't use many established Software Engineering best practices (which assums an app can multi-task) -- and in turn the resulting software (app) is inferior -- not maintainable, not fast enough, not extendable etc.
That's why I say, "iOS is an Inferior OS".
In layman terms, the environment an app runs has a lot of limitations to the app, which are results of poor OS design decisions.
In the first post, I discuss just the results of the poor OS design choice, I hope this post gives you some answers.
3. I used the wrong words. Read this :
http://gear.ign.com/articles/117/1176982p1.html
It is not "message", I mean "notification". That is a third-party article.
4. They plan Facetime to be open. It is not currently open.