The iPhone Challenge - Part 0 (Introduction)

As anyone who knows me knows, I am squarely an Android fan. I have been since I first heard about its open-source architecture, and even more so after I started using the OS. I've never been a fan of Apple's entire product-concept since I feel they usually take ideas that already exist and try to pretend like they invented them.

All that being said, a few months ago I sent out a challenge. I posted on my Facebook wall that if anyone were to give or lend me a modern-ish iPhone, I would use it as my primary phone for six months with an open mind. I would delve as completely into their ecosystem as I'm now invested in Google's, and at the end of the six months I would make an honest decision which I felt was better, and why. It wasn't meant to be serious, just a statement that I wasn't a "sheep," but would be willing to test both out equally.

Well, it looks like I (or more importantly, you) will be getting that chance. Someone has lent me an iPhone, however the circumstances aren't exactly perfect for a full six-month test. Here are the specs:

• iPhone 4S, white
• Running iOS 7.1.2
• Broken power button (phone is put to sleep via the AssistaveTouch accessibility feature)
• Slight crack on glass (underlying display is unaffected)

I feel like it would be really annoying to not have a power button for too long, and the 4S's age might not be fully compatible with modern-day apps. For that reason I've decided to make this a two month test- it should give me enough time to make a decision without driving me nuts.

So here's the deal:

• I will post my thoughts as much as I can. I haven't decided whether or not I'll do it Twitter-style (i.e. posting as I find things) or daily/weekly posts. I'll probably do a combination of the above as I see fit at the time.
• My current phone is an HTC Droid Incredible 4G (July '12) so I haven't had experience with the newer Android OS's and apps. The 4S is from October '11 but runs the latest iOS version (something I'll bring up in my first post) so some features may be on the 4S that isn't on my Droid, but is available on newer Droids.
• While I will be using iCloud, I'll still be using Google for my contacts and calendar, simply because that's where they already are, and it would be too much of a pain to try to set up an entirely new interface without creating duplicates. It seems easy enough to sync my Google account with the iPhone, but if there's anything different about the iCloud versions than I won't be seeing them.

I look forward to this challenge, and we'll see how the next two months go! Comments on anything I've missed (on either side of the debate) would be appreciated, but let's please not devolve into the usual flame war. I want this to be as open-minded as possible.

So let's begin!

Intro

I don't blog, nor do I intend to begin. That being said, sometimes blogging is good for some things, so this will be where I do it! I call it "Techie Talks" only because I assume most of my sporadic posts will be tech-related, so if they're not, I apologize now.