Can you spot me?

Have you ever missed a turn on a road or almost got in a car accident because your phones GPS wasn't functioning properly? My family and myself included know this feeling all too well. This week I will be testing how accurate the location services are on each phone, and how quickly and smoothly the app updates your location while driving in a car.

I will be testing at two locations for this test. The first location will be at my house, and the second will be on campus. At my house I will test the location of all the phones in both the front and backyard. While i'm in the front yard I will be roughly 25 feet away from the Wi-fi router, and while i'm in the backyard roughly 50 feet away. I will use campus to test the driving scenario since there are long straight aways that will always allow me to be connected to the schools internet. All tests will be using Google Maps.

Here are the results of the first tests at my house. Pictured are the three phones locations of where it thought I was standing, followed by a photo of my actual location. Unfortunately, however, the quality of the photos being taken from the iPhone of both the Android and Windows phone are too bad (the map photo quality on both phones is too low to get a clear representation of where it thinks I am) so I will be labeling them on a map of my own after I see the location on each phone.

    Windows phone:                                     Actual location:
 

    iPhone:                                                   Android:

    

Windows phone:                                  Actual location:

 

iPhone:                                                 Android phone:

 


As we can see in the photos above, none of the GPS locations from the phone were able to get the exact spot I was standing in. For the backyard the iPhone was the closest, coming within one or two feet, followed by the Windows phone in a close second then the Android phone. For the front yard however, the Android phone was the most accurate followed by the iPhone and then the Windows phone. Since there are discrepancies with these results I cannot conclude what one was more accurate overall.

For the driving test I will not be able to show you visually the results like I did for the ones when I was standing still at my house. This is because it won't show how smoothly the phone updates the location.

For the test we drove along the road that is inside of my schools campus. We maintained a speed of roughly 20 MPH. As I looked at all the phones while the maps were open I could noticeably see a difference in how smooth the map moved across the screen between the three of them. The iPhone updated the location very fast and the map moved smoothly across the screen without it jumping. The next best one was the Android phone. This phone updated only slightly slower than the iPhone, but it had not as smooth of a feeling to it, since the map kept jumping across the screen. The Windows phone was most defiantly the laggiest and updated very slow compared to the other two, and the screen maps jumped a lot as it was moving.

Overall the winner would most likely have to be the iPhone. Although for the standing still test it was not a lot more accurate than the others, it did have the smoothest viewing while moving in a car, which is necessary if you are always using a GPS.

How many clicks does it take?

One thing that many people look for in a phone is how efficient they can be with it. Businessmen as well as other busy individuals want to be able to do whatever the task may be with the fewest amount of clicks. Most likely these individuals will be using other apps off the respective app store the majority of their time, but when it comes to pre-installed tasks (such as connecting to a wifi network or changing your passcode), they would still like to be as efficient as possible.

Connecting to wireless internet can be a frustrating task sometimes, either the phone just doesn't want to connect or some other miscellaneous error occurs. For this test I will be timing how long it takes for me to get from home screen of the phone to the proper location (such as the wifi access screen), and then time how long the phone takes to connect to JCU's guest wifi (network was forgotten prior to each trial on each phone).

Here are the results of the test (each test was preformed 3 times then averaged):

Home screen -> wifi screen (time and number of clicks) :
Apple phone: Time: ~1.2 seconds      Clicks: 2
Android phone: Time: ~2.3 seconds      Clicks: 4
Windows phone: Time: ~2.6 seconds      Clicks: 4

Wifi screen -> actually connected to the wifi:
Apple phone: ~4.1 seconds
Android phone: ~4.7 seconds
Windows phone :  ~ 4.9 seconds

An interesting thing I noticed while conducting these tests is that on each of the three phones under the setting tab, Wireless networks were within the top two options of the given list.

 



This goes to show the the developers did a good job in placing the settings where they are within the phone, by having the most used features on the top of the list and the least used closer to the bottom, it allows for people to become more efficient.

Based on the results above we can see that all the times were too close to call for a clear winner, since the times were so small they could of a large degree of error due to human error(not being quick enough to stop the timer). However, the iPhone offers the fewest amount of clicks so be default it should be the winner.

I will run a few more test right now too so that we can see how long it takes to do other tasks on the phone.

Home screen -> system updates (phone updates screen) (time and number of clicks) :
Apple phone: Time: ~2.3 seconds      Clicks: 3
Android phone: Time: ~2.7 seconds      Clicks: 4
Windows phone: Time: ~2.7 seconds      Clicks: 3

For this test we can see it was a close race again.

Messaging applications -> typing a sentence (time and number of clicks) :
For this test I will be navigating to the texting apps and typing a small 25 word paragraph. This is to test how smoothly the keyboard works and how quickly the phones react to my touches.
Apple phone: Time: ~20 seconds    
Android phone: Time: ~23 seconds    
Windows phone: Time: ~28 seconds  

Windows:                                 Android:                               Apple:

 


Clearly we can see a noticeable difference in the time it took to type the same paragraph. For each trial I went as fast as I could. As we can see from above all the keyboards are the relatively the same layout, which allowed myself to type effectively on each one. The main problem for me was the size of each keyboard however. Since the Windows phone and Android phone have smaller displays, it also causes the keyboard to be smaller by default too. The smallness of the keyboards are what really slowed me down compared to the Apple phone. So if you are one who is constantly always typing then the iPhone may be better for you.

Security

Phone security is one of the first things a person should look into before deciding whether or not to buy the phone. On almost a weekly basis I am hearing in some news story or headline about a company whose servers where hacked and thousands of peoples personal information such as social security numbers and credit card numbers were stolen. The same concept goes for your cell phone, hackers have the ability to steal information off of it, monitor your calls, as well as much more.

Since all three phones I have been examining run on different operating systems, they therefore all must have different types of security measures behind them. For this blog I will be looking at what operating system on each of the phones provides the user with the most security. However, since both the Windows phone and Android phone that I am using run old versions of their operating systems and the Apple phone uses the newest version of its operating system, I will just be comparing the newest versions of all of them, to provide a better comparison (I would upgrade the Windows and Android devices to the latest systems but I can't risk compromising any data on them, since they are my fathers work phones). The three systems are iOS9, 8.1 for Windows, and KitKat for Android (although KitKat is not the latest version it is used by the largest percentage of Android users according to Wikipedia, so I have decided to compare it to that).

To start, I will be looking at each systems ability to download applications. In this regard the iOS and Windows are most similar. This is because they only allow the users to download applications that come through their respective application stores. This allows the companies to monitor what kinds of apps are going onto their devices, which in turn provides more security to the user since it is harder for hackers to get their malicious applications into those stores. The KitKat however allows users to download applications from anywhere, whether it be through their application store or a third party. This is not good because many of the apps found on the internet contain malicious data that could harm your phone, or even yourself, depending on what the hackers intents are. (Citation - Softonic)

Next, we will be comparing how secure your phone would be if it ever got into the wrong hands, such as by either losing it or theft. All three systems allow for a user to locate their device and erase all data from a remote location. This is good to do incase you have very important or private information on it that you do not want anyone to access once you no longer have your phone. However, only Windows allows a user to send the phone commands from a remote location using SMS, Wifi, and cellular data. This is more beneficial because on the other two devices the lost phone must be on a Wifi or cellular data network to work. Lastly, only the iOS system allows all the data to be fully encrypted on the phone, making it much harder for a hacker to retrieve the information. (Citation - Softonic)

Finally, we will compare the different ways a user can unlock each of the phones. To start, the iOS phone uses fingerprint technology to read the owners fingerprint and then unlock the screen. It also offers the use of a 4-digit PIN, or a normal password to unlock the screen. The Windows phone offers the least amount of options in this regard because it only has a PIN or password. The KitKat offers the most because it has an option for a PIN, password, pattern, and facial recognition through the use of the cameras front facing lens. (Citation - Softonic)

Overall each phone offers many similar security features as well as some unique ones that make each device different. Normally I would pick which one I thought had the best security overall but in this case I think i'm going to leave it as a tie since there are many ups and downs to each one.

Customization - What phone can you change the most?

This week I will be investigating what types of customizations you can do to each of the three phones, that is, what physical hardware components of the phone can be changed as well as its screen layouts and functionality. Each company that created the three phones that I have been testing allow for users to change their phones in a variety of different ways.

To begin, we will start with analyzing storage space. Of the three phones the iPhone offers the least amount of customization to take place in this category. Firstly, you have no way to change the amount of storage space on the iPhone. This is because Apple does not allow for removable SD cards to be implemented into the phone. What this means is that whatever iPhone you decide to buy, the amount of storage that is comes with will be all that you can ever have in it. However, the Samsung phone and Windows phone offer customers the ability to put any storage-sized microSD card into the phone, granting them the ability to upgrade to more space if they are running low. This is something I defiantly look for before purchasing a phone, because nothing is worse than running out of storage space long before your next phone upgrade.

Next, I will be looking at the device home screens and pages in order to see how the operate and flow. Once again the iPhone offers the least amount of customization to take place in this category. Users are only able to choose four apps that will stay at the bottom of every page on the home screen, offering quicker shortcuts to the top four apps you use the most. Above the four apps at the bottom of the screen are the rest of the apps that fluctuate depending on what page you are on. These apps are arranged in a 4x6 grid, and users can only change the location of each app in that grid pattern, allowing the users almost no real customization in home screen appearance. 

Next, the HTC phone displays its home screen in a much different way. The home screen on this one has many of the devices built in apps, such as messaging and calling, arranged side by side at the bottom of the screen extending in both directions, allowing users to scroll between them. As they scroll through the apps, the appearance changes on the rest of the screen to features that pertain to that app. For example if I were to scroll to the calling app the rest of the screen changes to a keypad, allowing the user to start the process of making a phone call. One of the apps in the scroll list however, pertains to the true home screen of the device. Here is where users can install widgets, which are basically live feed apps that take up more than one slot in the "grid" of the screen. Widgets are cool because you can have a variety of different ones that do different things. Currently the widget installed on the home screen is a large clock that shows the weather for the day, complete with graphical representation of the weather too. 

Lastly, the Samsung Charge offers a mix of both. To start, it has the same main layout as the iPhone, offering four main apps that stay the same at the bottom of all the screens, and then a grid of 4x4 above it for the rest of the apps. Unlike the iPhone however, it offers the ability to use widgets, exactly like the ones seen on the HTC. These widgets can be placed on any of the screens home pages, which you can actually pick the number of. The Samsung phone basically just takes the positives of each and combines them into one.

Another interesting thing I noticed will conducting this research is that with both the Samsung and HTC phones not all the apps need to be directly displayed on the home screen, instead many of the are located in another "app" of sorts (I call it an app but its really just a shortcut to view all the apps on the phone). The iPhone forces all the apps to be on one of the many home screens. However, one could argue that the ability to place multiple apps inside a folder on the home screen of the iPhone is the same things as the "app" shortcut of the other two phones.

In my personal opinion all three phones offer pretty similar features but also have some major different ones. Based on the findings of my research I have personally decided that the Samsung Droid Charge offers the user the most amount of ability to customize the phone. If you are one that does not care how the apps look on the screen then any of the choices are good, but if you are one that wants the ability to alter the device's storage space as well as to have the ability to customize more, then the Samsung is your best option.

Speed Tests - Survival of the Quickest

Growing up as a child I still remember always trying to download some game, app, or movie onto my phone via the wifi before leaving to go on a long trip, usually to somewhere down south of where i'm from (Buffalo). But not all the time would whatever I was downloading finish before my parents started to yell at me to get in the car so that we could leave. In the cases when the downloads did not finish, lets just say it was not an enjoyable car ride, for anyone.

Today most cell-phone users have a data plan where if they left a wifi hotspot it would not interrupt their download. But not every cell user wants to be downloading things on their data plan, since it uses a lot of it and costs them money. This is why I will be testing the different download speeds of games and other applications across all three devices. 

Since all the phones don't have any way for myself to access the download time information I will just be using a stopwatch (for all intensive purposes this should still show an accurate representation of its speed) to record the download speeds. After I have gotten the time it took to download the apps of all the things I downloaded, I will move into accessing the speed of the apps once inside them, such as time it takes to load pages and information (since this will be too close to call with a stopwatch, I will just be playing around with each app myself and relaying what one I visually saw work the quickest).

I will be downloading the applications Facebook, since its a very popular social media site, and The Weather Channel. Each phone is also connected to the same wifi service, and that is John Carroll University's closed network, jcuwpa2. According to speedtest.net, as I conduct these test the wifi download speeds reached close to 135mbps and upload speeds close to 140mbps.

Here are the results of the tests:

Facebook: 
Windows phone:   

                               Download time - 20.3 seconds from time of click

Android phone:  

                               Download time - 15.7 seconds from time of click

iOS phone:

                               Download time - 12.3 seconds from time of click

The Weather Channel: 
Windows phone:    

                               Download time - 17.3 seconds from time of click

Android phone: 

                               Download time - 15.4 seconds from time of click

iOS phone:          

                               Download time - 11.1 seconds from time of click

Based on the data above, we can clearly see that the iOS device is the fastest to download applications, followed by Android then Windows. Now that all the applications have been installed on the three devices, it is time for myself to ravage through them and see the speed of the apps once in them, again, since there is no way for me to get actual times I will just be analyzing the speed myself (and don't worry, you can trust me).

What I found out after going through all the apps is that they are all visually different. With Facebook, all the apps had a different feel to them, and I could easily tell they were on different devices. Browsing from page to page on all the devices within Facebook I was able to conclude that the iOS device had the smoothest and quickest transitions when it would load new information. The runner-up however was to close to call. The Android device and Windows device both were extremely similar with its speed in the app. Although the Android device did download faster than the Windows phone, it did not manage to beat it once inside the app. With that being said, I am going to have to call this once a tie.

With The Weather Channel application however, there was a noticeable difference in speed across all the phones. Once again the iOS device finished at the top of the list, having had the quickest load times compared to the other two. This time however, the runner-up corresponds to the order of what apps downloaded the quickest, so in second place is the Android device. For some reason the Windows device was significantly slower than the other two, sometimes as much as five seconds slower to load a simple page within it. I found this interesting to happen within this application and not Facebook, since Facebook needs to load in a lot more information for the user to see.

Overall we can see clearly that the iOS device remains superior to the other two. Although the numbers were close and speeds were similar only one can still take home the gold. 

First Look

When I go shopping for a new phone every two years after my contract with Verizon expires I love being able to walk into the store and see all the new devices they have. Although people say all the time not to judge a book by its cover I tend to still do that when selecting my next phone. Structural design and its visual appeal to me take a large role in the decision making process. If I don't find a phone aesthetically pleasing then odds are right off the bat I will not look any further into finding more out about that device.

iPhone:

 

HTC:

 

Samsung:

 

With regards to the three devices I will be examining, I find all of them to be aesthetically pleasing to me. The iPhone is by far the largest of the three devices, offering a 4.7" screen with a slim design. The Samsung devices follows in a close second to the iPhone with a 4.3" display and a slightly thicker design. And lastly the HTC phone is the largest structurally compared to the other two, but the smallest when looking at only screen size, coming in at only 3.6".

Another feature to be quickly noticed when viewing all the phones side by side is that the Apple phone and the Samsung phone both only offer one method of character input into the phone, and that is by a single touchscreen interface on the one side of the device. The HTC phone however offers two methods of input, a touchscreen much like the ones on the Apple and Samsung phones, and a full-sized slide-out keyboard that is displayed if you slide the devices screen to the side. Personally I do not prefer one method of input over the other, but if you are one who needs a physical keyboard, then the HTC might be more in your favor.

The last noticeable feature of the phones are the buttons that lay on the bottom of the front screens. With the iPhone we only see one button at the bottom, which is commonly referred to has the Home button. It got its name from literally what it does, bringing you to the home screen of the device. This can be a good thing if you like simplicity, but some can say it doesn't properly utilize space having only one button on the front. Unlike the iPhone however, the HTC and Samsung both contain four buttons on the front. The HTC's outermost buttons are multipurpose and can be used to do many different tasks depending on what screen you are on or app you are in. The button on the middle left location bring you to the Start Page of the phone, which contains apps and other setting features. The button on the middle right is a back button, which just brings you to the previous page you were on in your phone. Lastly, the Samsung's left most button brings up a quick menu of shortcuts for things like settings and editing the current page. The middle left button is the home button, which again just bring you to the home page. The middle right button is the back button and the last button is a search button, which allows you to instantly search the web or the app you are in.

Overall the first impressions of all the phones are were good in my opinion. If I had to pick a phone as the overall aesthetic winner I would pick the Samsung device. It contains a modest sized screen, which is good for me because i'm not concerned with having the largest screen, as well as many buttons to allow you to easily access different features of the phone.

Welcome!

Over the next several weeks I will be posting weekly comparing and contrasting the Apple iPhone 6 (iOS), Samsung Charge (Android), and HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows). All three devices offer many of the same capabilities but also have their own distinguishing features that set them apart from the rest.

Some of the features I will be looking at while comparing them include security, software, interface, speed, application stores, as well as much more as I discover it along the way. These features are the key to understanding which operating system is the best overall and/or what one suits yourself the best. Since everyone has different things they are looking for in a phone, being able to see all three side by side can help in the decision process when deciding what phone you like the most. I will attempt to avoid comparing and contrasting the physical differences about the phones and instead focus mainly on the technical aspects of each phone, such as the operating system and what it has to offer.

Personally I have been an iPhone owner for many years already, and don't see myself switching to any other device any time soon. However, I have owned an android device in the past, the Samsung Droid Charge, which I had an overall great experience with. The only device I am still unfamiliar with is the Windows phone. I have heard mixed reviews of what the Windows system has to offer, and I am hoping this blog will help myself, as well as all those reading this right now, learn more about this operating system, as well as the iOS system and Android system, and then be able to make a decision of their own as to what one is the best, as that is what I will be doing too.

People all the time claim that their phone is superior to rest of what's offered, but what phone and its corresponding operating system will prevail? This is the question I hope to answer as I put each one to the test.