A good tip for new Android users now that I feel obligated to evangelize Android a bit:
Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get:
Android 4.2.2/3 and
the swipable lockscreen widgets,
the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles,
the new 360/panorama camera,
and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagically updates it in 2 minutes with the push of one button-- no need to manually update the zip file.
Another great thing is Android ADB [2] and how quickly it is to get up and running on a new Android device / Android ROM. iOS' Cloud sync is slow when syncing contacts. I remember I was testing between Paranoid Android [3] and it's expandable notifications [4]/ hybrid mode [5], Omega[6] with it's standard TouchWiz two apps at once feature (multiview) [7] and all the other TouchWiz features (gestures and popup browser--which I didn't really use), and Super Nexus [8] with it's pure vanilla Android experience on my I9300 (Samsung Galaxy S3) before sticking to CM and Android will sync my Google Contacts and Gmail first and fast.
Google Now is great by being proactive like the author said but he forgot to mention sports tracking for those who like sports.
Other than pushing apps from the market to the phone while you're at your PC, the chrome to phone extension [9], and the share feature [10] he nailed this list.
EDIT: Forgot about setting apps to default. On paper Android seems better but it's still a matter of polished skuemorphism and flat UI / extra MB added from HTC Sense, BLUR or TouchWiz. The low file footprint on iOS compared to these added slow layers make up the difference so I understand if you don't want to switch.
where is there a good overview of the jailbreak landscape for androids. I don't know if I want a rom, root access or what. I find the forums that many of the mods are described on to be scary, I don't want to get a drive by virus or malware.
If you're just starting out, you don't need to run any scripts, battery tweaks, or do any overclocking. A ROM is just another OS for your phone. In order to overclock, do mods, or run scripts you need SuperUser, in Linux that means Administrator. In order to get SuperUser you need to root your phone. So if you want Cyanogenmod the process goes like this:
Root phone->Check if SuperUser works->Check if you have a Custom Recovery->Download a ROM->Go to Custom Recovery and Wipe Data and Cache then Flash It (Install It)->New OS on your phone.
Get cyanogenmod [0] and cyandelta [1]. First off your get:
Android 4.2.2/3 and
the swipable lockscreen widgets,
the alternative top right swipe to access the notification toggles,
the new 360/panorama camera,
and updating is simple since cyandelta runs a scrip where it downloads a delta file of the next cyanogenmod and automagically updates it in 2 minutes with the push of one button-- no need to manually update the zip file.
Another great thing is Android ADB [2] and how quickly it is to get up and running on a new Android device / Android ROM. iOS' Cloud sync is slow when syncing contacts. I remember I was testing between Paranoid Android [3] and it's expandable notifications [4]/ hybrid mode [5], Omega[6] with it's standard TouchWiz two apps at once feature (multiview) [7] and all the other TouchWiz features (gestures and popup browser--which I didn't really use), and Super Nexus [8] with it's pure vanilla Android experience on my I9300 (Samsung Galaxy S3) before sticking to CM and Android will sync my Google Contacts and Gmail first and fast.
Google Now is great by being proactive like the author said but he forgot to mention sports tracking for those who like sports.
Other than pushing apps from the market to the phone while you're at your PC, the chrome to phone extension [9], and the share feature [10] he nailed this list.
EDIT: Forgot about setting apps to default. On paper Android seems better but it's still a matter of polished skuemorphism and flat UI / extra MB added from HTC Sense, BLUR or TouchWiz. The low file footprint on iOS compared to these added slow layers make up the difference so I understand if you don't want to switch.
[0] http://get.cm [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cyandelta&... [2] http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html [3] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=bbf7229560d... [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V... [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [6] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1663656 [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... [8] http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076672 [9] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p... & https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... [10] http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/21699/android-killer-...