Windows vs Apple - oh hang on, there's only one window!
So I was pondering the other day, and reached the conclusion that the PC/Mobile setup I used to have at home (which was Microsoft/Nokia, but is now Apple), is similar to one that I still have at work – that is, I use a combination of WinXP and a BlackBerry at work, yet at home I have Apple O/S on both Laptop and Mobile (MacBook Pro & iPhone).
Those of you that have read my posts on the somewhat tortuous transition from MS to Apple will know that life has been much better (and simpler) since the transition to Apple – and also that the thing that caused me to change was one instance too many of Windows just hanging, and me having to wait +10mins for it to sort itself out!Anyhoo, now I have MS/RIM at work, and Apple at home, I was thinking why not compare? And why not pick out three main points:
Email: So at work it’s Outlook/BlackBerry (Bold), and at home it’s Apple Mail/iPhone. On balance, I would say it’s a very even battle – we have the high-efficiency push mail of BlackBerry, versus the best email client (in terms of rendering) on the iPhone. Since swapping to IMAP servers at home, the difference between performance has narrowed somewhat. But, what edges email handling just in favour of the work setup is the fact that the iPhone email client is prone to crashing and hanging from time to time. Having said that, the lack of proper HTML/rich text email handling on the Bold nearly cost it it’s win, but, for now, Outlook+BlackBerry wins the day!
Winner: work setup
Sync management: If we were talking plainly email sync, then (a) the last category would have been redundant, and (b) the BlackBerry would have won again! However, I am thinking here more of calendar, contacts, and other info sync. Now, the Outlook+BlackBerry setup does sync calendar well, contacts in my experience have been just a bit laggy. Email is done well too – but that’s about it.
The iPhone however does all of the above well, and in addition can handle music, movies, and other categories of media very well – plus, there isn’t a better interface on a mobile device to be able to access what you have sync’d. Therefore, iPhone (home setup) wins!
Winner: home setup
Browsing: this is probably the other key task that I wish to perform on both setups. So at work, the browser of choice is Firefox on the Windows Laptop, plus the in-built browser on the BlackBerry. On the home setup, it’s all-Apple, with the iPhone’s cut-down safari browser, and the MBP’s full safari setup.
Now this IS a close one – since I ported over to Firefox from Internet Explorer some time back, I’ve found it to be the quickest and most flexible browser, bar none. Safari, which I’ve come to recently, seemed to have compatibility problems with certain sites – something I’ve barely encountered with Firefox. I even have Firefox installed on the MBP, just to see how it runs.
But, there has to be a winner – and in this case, it’s tipped in the favour of the home setup by the Mobile side of things – Safari on the iPhone is the best browser of ANY mobile device – bar none.
Winner: home setup
So for the moment, the home setup takes the win, 2-1! But it was a close run thing on these categories of assessment. Of course, there’s a good chance you might disagree, and if so, post us a comment with why. Suggest your own categories for assessment – I can think of a couple of others right now ……