Goodbye iPhone, hello Android

After much deliberation and a woefully disappointing new product from Apple in the form of the iPhone 5, I have made the move.

I was awaiting the arrival of Windows Phone 8, and was fully intending purchasing a Nokia. Until they priced it out of my prepared-to-pay range by a long way.

Then the Nexus 4 was announced with Jellybean the 2nd, or Jellybean as it is to be known. AKA Android 4.2. A groovy phone indeed, but with flaws. One giant flaw in fact: a glass back. Having dropped an glass backed iPhone 4 every day I've owned it, I will never own a glass backed phone again.

And so I find myself with a Sony Xperia T. It's rather nice, and is held for perhaps as many as three seconds by James Bond in Skyfall. But movie stardom aside, I likes, and it's costing me £20 a month. Half an iphone. Despite being sold on Jellybean the return, I'm not getting Jellybean until March (or so Sony say). But I do have the ludicrously named Ice Cream Sandwich, or 4.04, which tbh makes any version of iOS look positively quaint.

I don't miss very much about the iPhone. 'Touch to scroll to top' is about it. I have replicated all my apps, with the exception of Tesco Finder and Mood Pad, and the TV catch up ones. The latter I rarely used anyway, and are replaceable on proper screens.

I've got all my games :-)

How does the phone compare to the iPhone 5? Bigger, faster, better camera. And yes, it's got panorama. Yawn, although obvs as a previous iPhone user this is new to me.

I can dictate everything. Although as my diction is appalling this isn't all that successful.

This is me demonstrating speech element my phone.

Ok, that wasn't bad. It missed out "the" and "of" but otherwise, not bad. It fails to get my name, repeatedly. I may in fact change my name to Mark as it is determined that is what I am saying.

So. Better than Siri? I don't know because Apple liked to pretend it couldn't run on the iPhone 4.

The walkman music player is excellent. And if I get fed up, I can change it. I can add any song as a ringtone, which is exciting after 4 years as an iMuppet.

What else? I have obviously had to re-add my music, which was easy and my iTunes purchases were seamlessly copied. I had to somewhat time consumingly redo my playlists and decide which songs I wanted on my new phone. Having last decided this 4 years ago, this was exciting. Although I do seem to have done it with a nostalgic slant. Which may reflect more on my music buying habits of then (lots) and now (next to none).

Battery life is superb, but to be fair, it was cack on the iPhone 4 after iOS 6 broke it, no sorry, after 2 years use.

Do I miss my iPhone? No.

I regret not making the move two years ago instead of taking the iPhone 4 when the 3G became unusable. And I feel something akin to pity when I see an iPhone user. They haven't seen the light. 

Home button blues

Argh. The joys of being an iPhone user. I'm not sure why exactly I am on my second iPhone, I seem to genuinely believe I would be less happy with another phone and so I had to replace my useless 3G with an iPhone 4. Excellent phone, very happy, love my apps and all is good.

When it works.

I have a deep distrust of Apple and their updates. The 3G was unusable slow once iOS 4 came out. See all these lovely features! They will break your phone! The time came to upgrade and I said "no, I don't like the fact that I have to commit to two years with a phone that will undoubtably be unusable before the two years are up" and meant to buy a Sony Ericsson. And then I got an iPhone 4 and threw myself at the mercy of Apple periodically breaking devices so you upgrade.

We were happy together until yesterday. My unresponsive home button does seem to be a software issue because a number of tricks can restore it temporarily. If it is a hardware issue, which is a possibility, then there are a couple of issues which could certainly contribute to the button developing a fault. Apple have this obsession with minimalism and definitely place style over function in some respects. One sole button is a lunatic choice. Apple previously showed this genius with their one-buttoned mouse.

The home button does everything and so it is used constantly. Also, there is no cover over the power inlet, so it is unprotected and open to fluff, damp and little bits of damaging debris. A little cover, as featured on most non-Apple devices, would protect it, but it would make the device less sleek and would interrupt the smooth lines. So, no cover.

Some googlage revealed the following tricks to restore the functionality to the home button:

1) open a native application, hold down the power button until "slide to power off appears". Release the power button and gently press the home button until the home screen returns.

2) close all apps. Some apps seem to cause this. In my case it seems to be Safari.

3) run the camera app in the background at all times.

4) admit defeat and turn on the on screen home button. Settings>general>accessibility options>accessibility button on.

1) works for me, but the problem comes back.

2) and 3) don't work for me

4) makes me despair. It does work but is annoying onscreen, and raises the question of why Apple saw the need to provide such an option rather than fixing the actual problem. I fail to see how it aids accessibility so should be listed under "Usability options for things that break".

I think I need to defect to Android finally. In 9 months when I can...