Switching from iOS to Android: Help or hindrance?

Here are my thoughts. Just be aware that you may get somebiased comments from others since this is an Apple website. I'll hopefully try not to be biased and make this as neutral as possible.

If you want an open ecosystem where you can choose your own text to speech engine, keyboard, home screen, web browser, etc, then go with Android. If you want to use removable storage, don't get the S6. I personally think both operating systems have perks and drawbacks. I would say that TalkBack is pretty close to the level that VoiceOver is at right now. The other thing you should keep in mind is that there are a lot of different Android devices out there. If you want better accessibility than the stock Android experience, get a Samsung device like the S6. However, keep in mind that Samsung no longer offers expandable storage via SD cards. If this is an issue for you, get something else. I prefer stock Android myself because it is mostly accessible.

This might sound odd, but keep your iPhone. If you get an unlocked Android phone or a phone that is locked to the same carrier as your iPhone, just swap the sim card to use the same service plan with both systems. Justm ake sure your carrier has GSM and not CDMA. AT&T and Team Mobile are GSM while Verizon and Sprint are CDMA.

I hope this helps you out. I honestly think having both iOS and Android at your fingertips gives you the best of both worlds, just like having Windows and OS X does.

Chriss is absolutely right. Both systems have ups and downs, so it's good to have both systems. I for one have a nexus5 as well as my ipod5 whcih I don't use much because it's getting old, is slower on the ios8 and above, and is overall just not up to standards anymore. Selling it and then getting an ipod6 is a nice idea, but honestly at this point in time who in this world would take an ipod5 when we have the ipod6 out? But, just like running windows on my mac, I run both ios and android. With both systems having ups and downs, the best thing to do is to have both systems.

Hi.

Galaxy TalkBack is a custom version of TalkBack created by Samsung. From what I've read, it has more gestures than the standard Google Talkback including gestures to read battery life and play/pause media. I don't know too much about it since I don't have a Samsung device. Direct Access is exactly like the accessibility shortcut. When you select an accessibility feature like TalkBack, pressing the home key three times turns the feature on or off.

Now, let me talk about Google Talkback as I am far more familiar with it. TalkBack doesn't include some of the features and extra gestures that Galaxy Talkback has. The basic gestures for both screen readers are the same as iOS. Flicking left and right takes you to the previous and next item. Double tapping activates the item. You can drag your finger around the screen to move around. TalkBack allows you to scroll by moving 2 fingers up and down on the screen. I wouldn't recommend using the l-shaped gestures. You can customize what all the gestures do in TalkBack settings. I would also recommend that you set the context menus to list instead of the circle thing. The differenece between the global and local context menus is that the gobal menu shows you options like tts settings and TalkBack settings which are always available. The local context menu changes to reflect where you are. If you really want to use the l gestures, try to move your finger in a single continuous motion. For example, place your finger on the screen and move it down then right in 1 smooth motion to open the global context menu. Again, you can change what these gestures do in TB settings.

If you have a bluetooth keyboard, you can also use it to control TalkBack. There is a section in the settings that lets you customize keyboard commands. The basic keyboard commands are alt shift left and right arrow to move to the previous and next item, alt shift space to activate an item, alt shift r to activate the recent apps screen, alt shift n to activate notifications, and I believe alt shift h to go to the home screen. I may be missing a couple commands. Hope this helps. Someone more familiar with Galaxy TalkBack should describe it better than I can.

Hi.

Installing apps from the play Store is much easier than installing APK files. In order to install APK files, you need to go into settings under security and check allow unknown sources for installing apps. I can't help you with Stemstumper as I never really liked that game.

I'm a little surprised and disappointed that the discussion is allowed to continue as this is an apple website. There is an android site like this one I believe that he could visit to ask these questions.

Just to clarify, this area of the forum is for Apple-related discussion which does not fall within the scope of the other areas of the forum. It is not intended for discussion of anything which does not fall within the general scope of AppleVis.

So, in relation to this specific thread, discussion of the relative merits of iOS and Android is completely on-topic. Seeking tips and suggestions for actually using an Android phone is not.

Hi andre,
I think theres a link on the main page for adding content. you can select to add a forum topic or whatever you need to add from there.
HTH