IOS doesnt have a consistent user interface. Consider how you go back to the last thing you were doing on IOS. Go back to the webpage you were just viewing? button at the top left. Application you were last using (bizarre but press home button twice then press application icon). Go back from a dialogue box? probably press the cancel button. On android its the back button. Its always the back button. Wherever you are you get out of it by pressing the back button.

Where are the settings for your app on IOS? Could be anywhere. Some button in the app itself maybe, somewhere in the Settings application? Perhaps buried in a sub menu there. Maybe even in the app settings part of the General settings application (I always forgot about that one). On Android they are always under the menu button. Even if you dont know if there are any settings, hit the menu button and youll find out :)

Stock Google Android even looks consistent, ugly but consistent. Samsung keep it looking consistent, not quite as ugly but consistent. Fortunately you can download themes to stop it looking ugly and in fact make it look quite beautiful but I do appreciate that many people dont want to do that.

That is one nice feature with the Galaxy S3 actually. I often forget to put it on silent but if I get a call I can just turn it over and it shuts up :)

I was like you. When I got the original iPhone, IOS updates were exciting. There were new shiny things that seemed actually useful. As time wore on each release of IOS had fewer and fewer things of interest until finally IOS 6 which actually had nothing of any use except a do not disturb button. Each time I told myself that the next phone would be Android but I kept getting iPhones because of the ecosystem. That original iPhone was my first Apple product and directly because of it, I ended up with two mac minis, a mac book pro, an iPad, a time capsule and all the other bits and pieces.

The very same day IOS 6 was released, I saw it had nothing I wanted and took away something I did. It was the last straw for me so I went down the shop and bought a galaxy sIII. I have had to buy my apps again but it has been worth it. I had no idea IOS was so far behind.

I still have my Mac Minis and I MAY buy another one at some point (having no DVD drive might put me off though) but I think in general my Apple adventure is over.

Shame, they are beautiful machines and OSX is still less of a pile of crap than Windows though it is trying hard to catch up in that regard.

By the way, the do not disturb feature on the Galaxy S3 turned out to be much, much better than the IOS one.

Actually its quite a good game.

I bought it off an Android promotion and liked it enough to buy it for my iPad as well. It was good enough to encourage me to buy a few more maps off of them and also the earlier version of the game.

Check out Galaxy Nexus ROM.

I dont have Apple TV but I do have a Max mini as a media center for my TV and Android streams to that no problem with a touch of one button. It helps that my Mac run XMBCI guess. The cloud sync for google is way more extensive than for Apple too actually. I find it a bit too "cloud" based for me and I turned most of it off so I am rather surprised at your experience.

The iPhone is nearly six years old which would seem to be a little older than you. Something can feel ten years older than something else even if it was produced at the same time.

Not difficult concepts really as I am sure you will find out one day.

It is a measure of how far ahead it is. I would have said ten years but that would have been silly :)

Regardless of the actual time scales involved, IOS has not really moved since it came out (nearly six years ago by the way). On IOS I have eagerly seen the introduction of cut and paste, folders, the notification bar that doesnt really do much, the ability to swap application by double pressing the home button and wading through all the apps that never closed, and tiny little changes that made minor though sometimes pleasing differences to the way it worked. Then Apple invested all their IOS resources into Siri which is almost useless outside the US (unlike both Googles and Samsungs offerings) and, of course, maps (which they already had). Jumping from IOS to Android on the S3 was like going through a hundred of Apples major updates in one go and I still keep finding little touches that surprise me that Apple hadnt thought of them first, let alone at all.

I have lots of Apple products and I like them in the main, I wont upgrade my iPad to IOS 6.0 as it has nothing I want and takes away something I do but I doubt I will ever go back to one of their phones.

By the way, having a low UID on Slashdot is easy. You just have to be a bit of an old twit.

I dont seem to have that much of a problem but I would agree that as I am constantly using it for stuff, the battery is perhaps a little worse than I am used to. For some reason it loses a few percent while idle. However it hasnt actually run out on me during the day and if it did Id pop in a spare battery. Never did that on the iPhone though .... oh wait!

Well of course you are right in nearly everything you have said :)

However, I would vigorously dispute your last sentence. I have an iPhone sitting here right next to my S3. Putting them side by side, there are only two things that strike me as being "pros" for the iPhone. 1) It looks nice. 2) It syncs better with Itunes on a Mac. Other than that, I really struggle to think of anything that is not considerably better on the S3. I have 3 Macs, I have two iPads and all the iPhones except 5 so Im not exactly an Apple hater but this S3 has rather opened my eyes to what the rest of the world has been doing while Ive been playing with my iPhone all these years,

I have rather a lot of iTunes music and some audio books. Fortunately, they are stored in a format that Android has no problems playing so you either

a) Drag and drop all your music into a folder on your phone (or sd-card) and the music apps will find them. You MAY need to run an app to re-get all your album art back again or

b) If you are on Windows and have an S3, use the supplied to software to sync like you always did on the iPhone.

For some reason, on a Mac, Samsungs Kies software is appalling and in the end I first bought a cheap app called SyncMate that did syncing like I was used to (although it also presented the phone as a hard drive on my mac) and finally realised that the whole syncing thing is nonsense and copying stuff is much more convenient.

Now, of course, I use rsync or scp as its not only faster, its more fun :)

Mine ran a Nexus 4.2 ROM for a while. I didnt really like it as much as the TouchWiz interface for the S3 so went back (almost. I actually run Omega now which is the Stock Samsung with a few tweaks and fancy things)

You have just said that Apple and the S3 are of a similar price and that Apple make a lot more money. It seems to me that would suggest that Apple are giving you much less for the same price.

I think that is true.

You need to actually use a galaxy S3 before calling Samsung a copy cat. The machine they give you is so far ahead of the iPhone its unbelievable! I have had all of the iPhones except the 5 and I can tell you that the actual functionality of the S3 is at least six years ahead. The only thing the iPhone does better than Android on the S3 is sync with iTunes on a Mac. Fortunately I donneed to sync with iTunes any more. Im starting to wish Id bought an Android tablet now even though I still like my iPad.

I do think the iPhone looks nice though,

Ok, in no particular order

When the screen is off, you still get a little flashing LED to tell you if you missed a call or text

Receive a text, lift phone to ear and the phone calls the sender

Looking at a contact? lift phone to ear and the phone calls the sender

In a meeting and a call comes in? Simply turn the phone face down on the desk and it mutes the sound

Screen stays on while you are looking at it even if you are not doing anything

Walk past a train station and the phone gives you a timetable card, photos of the area and recommends places you might like to see nearby but not intrusively

Notification center is actually really rather useful. Not just notifications but things pop up in it like transit control when you play music etc

Pinch Screen and then go straight to the home screen you were looking for. No more flipping franticly from screen to screen looking for the icon you were after

Kill apps but pressing home button and then swiping away the ones you dont want rather than the laughable IOS method

Widgets on the screen that provide useful one touch things like the torch or your alarm or a book marked web page

A load of gesture controls e.g. touch screen and move phone to pan around a zoomed photo (gimicky but cool)

Seamless sharing of media to an enormous number of things including XBMC

A USB PORT!!!! So you can drag and drop things from PC to phone

A zoom on the camera :)

An FM Radio

I can do this all night and I havent even started to consider things that you can do if you root your phone!