The iPhone 5

[Womp]

Again, no reason to start the debate, but I don't mind a central management station (in the form of iTunes) for all of my iOS devices, which includes an old 60GB iPod Photo, iPhone 3G 16GB, iPhone 4 32GB, iPhone 4 32GB, iPad 2 64GB, and iPad 2 32GB. I plug in to automatically charge, sync and backup as needed and I can manage what and why goes on each device. Not a big deal. It's also not like things like the music are copy protected anymore either, so it's not like I can't play those things elsewhere when the need arises. As for the apps, they work on whatever iOS devices I own that I choose to put them. I don't feel restricted, which combined with the excellent UI and app availability, adds up to a win in my book.

Problem is, many people do not WANT a central management station, nor the syncing feature of iTunes. I already have my music in the same directory structure I have had for the past 13 years and don't need iTunes to do it for me. Quite frankly that is where Google did things right with Android - You simply log into your phone and under the Market you will find all your purchases ready for instant download and backup right on the device; It makes upgrading to a new device wonderful. Meanwhile over on my Touch I cannot even remember what apps I own because outside a purchase history under iTunes (Which is horribly done BTW) I am screwed. Even the App Store won't tell you what you already purchased. This is because I don't want to automatically sync my devices for a half hour every time I want to copy a file through it.

[alexjlopez]

I wish they'd do a simple "my apps" section of the apps store--I have so many apps it's hard to keep track of also, and remembering whether I own the iPad or the iPhone version makes matters even that much more complicated.

Seems Apple would rather you forget and download something new than browse your own apps.

[Womp]

One thing I noticed about the iPad app store is that it will in fact indicate if you own an app when you come across it in the store, something the iPhone nor Touch do. Very odd. In any case the 'My Apps' of the Android Market is just awesome sauce. Little things like that make me wonder how iPhone/Touch users really think it is as amazing and easy to use as it is when something like that would be a godsend in iOS. Oh well, what they don't know can't hurt them I guess....All I know is when I upgrade my Android phone later in the year, once I sign into the phone all my apps and settings (Bookmarks, web history, email, apps, WiFI settings etc) will simply download within 15 min to the new device without the need of a PC. Viva la cloud.

[ChairoNoMe]

Again, no reason to start the debate, but I don't mind a central management station (in the form of iTunes) for all of my iOS devices, which includes an old 60GB iPod Photo, iPhone 3G 16GB, iPhone 4 32GB, iPhone 4 32GB, iPad 2 64GB, and iPad 2 32GB. I plug in to automatically charge, sync and backup as needed and I can manage what and why goes on each device. Not a big deal. It's also not like things like the music are copy protected anymore either, so it's not like I can't play those things elsewhere when the need arises. As for the apps, they work on whatever iOS devices I own that I choose to put them. I don't feel restricted, which combined with the excellent UI and app availability, adds up to a win in my book.

Jeez man, for a non-Apple fanboy, you sure have a lot of Apple stuff. Can't you sell some of those devices and get rid of them? Doesn't that solve your problem?

[WorknMan]

Meanwhile over on my Touch I cannot even remember what apps I own because outside a purchase history under iTunes (Which is horribly done BTW) I am screwed. Even the App Store won't tell you what you already purchased. This is because I don't want to automatically sync my devices for a half hour every time I want to copy a file through it.

When you plug in a device, if you right click on the device icon in the left-hand pane, you can choose what kind of data to sync (apps, books, music, etc), and whether you want to do it automatically or manually. So you can pop it in to sync music (or whatever), and then choose to do apps at a later time.

Actually, why the hell would you even want to sync apps with your PC? I mean, what purpose does it serve? It's not like you're going to be running the apps on the PC? Note: I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for doing so, I just don't know what it is

[Womp]

When you plug in a device, if you right click on the device icon in the left-hand pane, you can choose what kind of data to sync (apps, books, music, etc), and whether you want to do it automatically or manually. So you can pop it in to sync music (or whatever), and then choose to do apps at a later time.

Actually, why the hell would you even want to sync apps with your PC? I mean, what purpose does it serve? It's not like you're going to be running the apps on the PC? Note: I'm sure there is a perfectly valid reason for doing so, I just don't know what it is

Exactly. IMO it is because unlike Google they have no cloud based system in place yet, which makes no sense anyway because you STILL have to log in on your device any time you want to make a purchase....So that info IS going somewhere. Why can't they allow you to view and simply download from that list? Backing up every single app to the PC makes no sense since something like an iPhone is meant to be mobile. What good is that backup on a PC that you don't have with you? It should be all be available in a mobile format for the mobile device.

It's so damn silly. I have never used iTunes to restore my crap, it is faster just to log into the app store and reinstall it from there - Meandering around looking for everything individually.

Oh and I know about the whole syncing options, but still...WTF would I want to sync music I had copied from my PC in the first place? WHY AM I SYNCING AT ALL? I used to get messages from iTunes where it was going to DELETE crap from my device simply because I had not synced it prior. Are you serious? Why would I want to deal with this type of BS?

[WorknMan]

It's so damn silly. I have never used iTunes to restore my crap, it is faster just to log into the app store and reinstall it from there - Meandering around looking for everything individually.

Ok, so then you can do it on the phone, you just have to do each app individually? I don't see that as being a deal breaker for me personally, since you're not blowing away the OS and reinstalling every other day like some people do on Android. If you only have to do it ever year or two, I can live with that. Granted, it's a pain in the ass and shouldn't be necessary, but we put up with the same shit on Windows as well, even though Linux has had a 'one click' solution since, like .... 1996. If nothing else, you can do a sync right before you get a new device, and if your phone happens to suffer an accidental death by toilet or something, you could always do it the hard way.

Anyway, since you can sync music and movies without iTunes, and you apparently don't need to sync apps either, I'm not sure what all the bitching is about iOS devices requiring iTunes. Sure, there's OS updates, but it's not like you're having to plug in several times a week for that. It seems like an ideological argument rather than a practical one, kind of like bitching about Apple's walled garden, when a jailbreak solves that problem in about 5 minutes.

[Shane R. Monroe]

You know, the custom rom thing is a slightly valid point - but 350,000 new Android users a day are not using custom roms and they are getting by just fine.

[Womp]

Ok, so then you can do it on the phone, you just have to do each app individually? I don't see that as being a deal breaker for me personally, since you're not blowing away the OS and reinstalling every other day like some people do on Android. If you only have to do it ever year or two, I can live with that. Granted, it's a pain in the ass and shouldn't be necessary, but we put up with the same shit on Windows as well, even though Linux has had a 'one click' solution since, like .... 1996. If nothing else, you can do a sync right before you get a new device, and if your phone happens to suffer an accidental death by toilet or something, you could always do it the hard way.

Anyway, since you can sync music and movies without iTunes, and you apparently don't need to sync apps either, I'm not sure what all the bitching is about iOS devices requiring iTunes. Sure, there's OS updates, but it's not like you're having to plug in several times a week for that. It seems like an ideological argument rather than a practical one, kind of like bitching about Apple's walled garden, when a jailbreak solves that problem in about 5 minutes.

If you don't sync apps or media purchased or just downloaded and installed on and through an iDevice with iTunes on your PC, it will totally confuse iTunes to the point of removing the app from your iDevice thinking you don't own it. All because you didn't sync it. It will then stop you from doing further syncing.

I just don't get all the syncing BS. Probably because I find it unnecessary.

[WorknMan]

You know, the custom rom thing is a slightly valid point - but 350,000 new Android users a day are not using custom roms and they are getting by just fine.

Sure, I mean... if you like the defaults, then it's fine. If you don't, then you don't have much of a choice. You either root and go custom, or just put up with the bloatware, since vendors are not keen on giving you a choice. Yeah, that's freedom, baby![/quote]