A trip to the Dark Side... they DO have cookies! - My iPhone 4S
I am a hardcore Android user. I have been using Android since Eclair (and even had Cupcake running on an old unit at one point). I am also a Windows guy (I am an MS Admin) through and through and I do all my Android development work in Linux, pretty much from start to finish. Years and years and years of this. I have never really spent much time on any Apple product and personally have never owned one. I have played with plenty of them and always walked away impressed by the physical design and eye-candy smooth interface. Until I got ICS on a Dual-Core android tablet I was feeling a bit left out lol. When Android hit ICS and then later on the smoother and more full featured Jelly Bean OS I felt like I had at last arrived. However I still had never spent much time on an i-device so my understanding of the OS was indeed a bit limited.
Then my work gave me an iPhone 4s... as stated before I have never personally owned an Apple device. It is actually quite nice aside from all the hand holding and complete lack of customization. Which is honestly just fine for me on my phone. I view my phone as an appliance and not as a computing device. Up until this phone, many might be surprised to know that I had an old Samsung T340g no-contract "dumb" phone. Anyhow, I actually really like it... I feel like I have gone to the dark side and they DO have cookies...
I could never see using this OS on a tablet though :(, I think I would get extremely bored very quickly and having come from a heavy Android / Windows background I love the ability to customize everything to my liking. Don't like Android's launcher? Try Chameleon or a host of other innovative launchers. Don't like Apple's interface? Tough luck. Oh, and yes, I do REALLY miss having desktop widgets. I kind of feel like I am stuck in the eternal "app drawer" and anytime I can't remove apps from the screen or device I have no intention of ever really using do get irked. I am not going to use "stocks" and as my entire collection is on Google Music for free I am not going to use "music". Why can't I at least hide these things? At least they have folders, you can stick them all in a folder and on another screen so they aren't taking up space all the time at least. Then there is the App Market. I am a security guy but c'mon... WHY oh WHY do I have to enter my iTunes password EVERY TIME I want to download an app? If you have a pin-lock on your screen this should be turned off automatically. So that's my gripe session... lets talk cookies...
The screen is fantastic, the UI is ridiculously fluid and while Jelly Bean on a fast device definitely comes very very close, I would say Apple still has the edge for "quickness". The camera is absolutely phenomenal... In the world of China tabs, not a single device has what I would consider a "usable" camera for anything beyond Skype and the very basic shot here or there. I would actually consider replacing my point-n-shoot with the camera on my iPhone 4s as it also has the uber convenience factor. Then we have the external speakers which are excellent, the industrial design is phenomenal, and the plethora of apps in the app store that all just "work" is indeed a bit refreshing. GPS is very quick to get a lock making maps extremely usable. The keyboard is also surprisingly easy to type on considering the minuscule (by today's standards) screen on this thing.
The interface was at first very foreign considering my background. Now that I am starting to get used to it, I do like it just fine... for my phone. I have really come to like the little device and I can see why Apple has its ardent fans. All that being said, I still don't get it when it comes to the tablet space. The hardware and design, sure... but the OS... not so much. Is that fair considering I don't own an iPad? I still do think it is as they use the same OS and I have actually spent a good amount of time on the iPad 2 in particular.
Anyhow, that is just my-2-cents and hope this is of interest to some of you :)
--Roman